Stem cells are unique cell populations with the ability to undergo self-renewal and differentiation. These cells have been identified in a wide range of tissues and possess varied differentiation potentials. Tissue-specific stem cells have typically been thought to have limited differentiation capabilities. We show here that fibroblast-like cells isolated from ...

Abstract The aim of our study was to analyse the mitochondrial ultrastructure in primary ductal adenocarcinomas of the pancreas and to compare it with normal pancreatic cells. 52 samples of adenocarcinoma of the pancreas obtained by surgical resection or by endosonographic biopsy were examined. Compared to normal mitochondrial ultrastructure in ...

Tetraploid cells-cells that contain twice the normal amount of DNA-are more prone to neoplastic transformation than their normal, diploid counterparts since they are genomically unstable and frequently undergo asymmetric, multipolar cell divisions. Similar to many other genomic aberrations, tetraploidization is normally avoided by multiple, nonredundant cell-intrinsic mechanisms that are tied ...

Several bacterial species have evolved specialized secretion systems to deliver bacterial effector proteins into eukaryotic cells. These effectors have the capacity to modulate host cell pathways in order to promote bacterial survival and replication. The spatial and temporal context in which the effectors exert their biochemical activities is crucial for ...

To explore the role of glucocorticoid (GC) receptor (GR) in rapamycin's reversion of GC resistance in human GC-resistant T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) CEM-C1 cells. CEM-C1 cells were cultured in vitro and treated with rapamycin at different concentrations with or without 1 μmol/L dexamethasone (Dex). 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) test ...

This paper presents a microfluidic electrical impedance flow cytometer (FC) for identifying the differentiation state of single stem cells. This device is comprised of a novel dual micropore design, which not only enhances the processing throughput, but also allows the associated electrodes to be used as a reference for one ...

We have shown that boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) could be an alternative for the treatment of poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma (PDTC). Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACI) like sodium butyrate (NaB) cause hyperacetylation of histone proteins and show capacity to increase the gamma irradiation effect. The purpose of these studies was ...

T cells are the master regulators of adaptive immune responses and maintenance of their tolerance is critical to prevent autoimmunity. However, in the case of carcinogenesis, the tumor microenvironment aids T-cell tolerance, which contributes to uncontrolled tumor growth. Recently, there has been significant progress in understanding the intrinsic extracellular (positive ...

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) regulates cell growth in response to various intracellular and extracellular signals. It assembles into two multiprotein complexes: the rapamycin-sensitive mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) and the rapamycin-insensitive mTORC2. In this study, we inactivated mTORC1 in mice by deleting the gene encoding raptor in the progenitors ...

Tissue cell polarity plays a major role in plant and animal development. We propose that a fundamental building block for tissue cell polarity is the process of intracellular partitioning, which can establish individual cell polarity in the absence of asymmetric cues. Coordination of polarities may then arise through cell-cell coupling, ...

HIV-1 Env mediates virus attachment to and fusion with target cell membranes. Yet while Env is still situated at the plasma membrane of the producer cell and before its incorporation into newly formed particles, Env already interacts with the viral receptor CD4 on target cells, thus enabling the formation of ...

Since the conception of cell microencapsulation, many scientists bet on this biotechnology as they saw in it a promising alternative to protect transplanted cells from host immunoresponse. Some decades later, this initial enthusiasm is giving rise to a phase of certain conformism and lack of novel advances in the field. ...

Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer in the world and has an extremely dismal prognosis, with a 5-year survival of less than 20%. Current treatment options are limited, and thus identifying new molecular targets and pathways is critical to derive novel therapies. Worldwide, more than 90% of esophageal ...

MicroRNAs are short, 19-24 nucleotide long, RNA molecules capable of regulating the longevity and, to a lesser extent, translation of messenger RNA (mRNA) species. The function of the microRNA network, and indeed, even that of individual microRNA species, can have profoundly different roles in even a single cell type as ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in differentiation of stem cells. However, the precise dynamics of miRNA induction during stem cell differentiation have not been visualized and molecular mechanisms through which miRNAs execute their function remain unclear. Using high-resolution in situ hybridization together with cell lineage and proliferation markers in mouse ...

Mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinoma (MTSCC) of the kidney is a recently described entity in the World Health Organization (WHO) 2004 classification and has a rela-tively indolent behavior. Sarcomatoid differentiation has been well documented in most histologic variants of renal cell carcinoma and its presence is known to have ...

Dedifferentiated thyroid cancer is often incurable because it does not respond to radioiodine. This study aimed to investigate iodide uptake and the expressions of thyroid-specific molecules after the transfection of human thyrotropin receptor (hTSHR) gene in poorly differentiated follicular thyroid cancer cell line (FTC-133). pGC-FU-hTSHR-GFP-lentivirus and pGC-FU-GFP-lentivirus were added into ...

ABSTRACT The umbilical cord contains mucinous connective tissue, called Wharton's jelly. It consists of stromal cells, collagen fibers, and amorphous ground substances composed of proteoglycan. Recently, these stromal cells have been redefined as a new cell therapy source, named human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hUCMSCs). However, there are few ...

Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) is a pleiotropic factor with multiple physiological functions in morphogenesis, cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and calcium homeostasis. In the kidney, PTHrP is known to be expressed abundantly and to be upregulated in various experimental nephropathies, showing growth-modulatory and proinflammatory properties. Ardura et al. demonstrate a possible ...

Ascidian Ciona intestinalis tadpole larvae exhibit left-right asymmetry. The photoreceptors are situated on the right side of the sensory vesicle, and the tail curls along the left side of the trunk within the chorion. In tailbud embryos, the Ci-pitx gene is expressed in the left-side epidermis. It was previously reported ...

Orientation of the cell division axis is essential for the correct development and maintenance of tissue morphology, both for symmetric cell divisions and for the asymmetric distribution of fate determinants during, for example, stem cell divisions. Oriented cell division depends on the positioning of the mitotic spindle relative to an ...

Abnormal intracellular aggregation of tau protein is a pathological condition leading to neuronal death in Alzheimer's disease. Fibrillar and nonfibrillar aggregates of tau protein alter the normal functioning of neurons by disturbing important cellular processes and distinct membranous organelles. However, tau-caused alterations in the nuclear compartment are not totally established ...

Cell polarity and cell-cell junctions have pivotal roles in organizing cells into tissues and in mediating cell-cell communication. The transmembrane protein Crumbs has a well-established role in the maintenance of epithelial polarity, and it can also regulate signalling via the Notch and Hippo pathways to influence tissue growth. The functions ...

A model flow cell system was designed to investigate pitting corrosion in pipelines associated with microbial communities. A microbial inoculum producing copious amounts of H2S was enriched from an oil pipeline biofilm sample. Reservoirs containing a nutrient solution and the microbial inoculum were pumped continuously through six flow cells containing ...

Bactris gasipaes (Arecaceae), also known as peach palm, was domesticated by Amazonian Indians and is cultivated for its fruit and heart-of-palm, a vegetable grown in the tree's inner core. Currently, the conservation of this species relies on in situ conditions and field gene banks. Complementary conservation strategies, such as those ...

Summary: RNA interference screening establishes TYK2 dependence in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), leading to identification of TYK2-activating mutations and increased IL-10 receptor signaling in T-ALL cell lines. Cancer Discov; 3(5); 494-6. ©2013 AACR.

Acoustic cavitation offers a unique approach to small interfering RNA (siRNA) delivery compared to current methods. Typically, preformed microbubbles are used as cavitation nuclei to permeabilize cells and facilitate siRNA entry into the cytoplasm. However, microbubbles are restricted to the vasculature space and suffer from stability issues that limit their ...

Ultrasound-mediated drug and gene delivery offers a variety of novel possibilities for improved localized treatment of vascular- and cancer-related diseases. This therapeutic application benefits from the use of acoustic radiation force, which facilitates the exposure for enhanced binding from ligand-receptor interactions. The unique merits of ultrasound are the transient increase ...

Mechanical properties of cells such as compressibility are regarded to be different as cancer cells progress into metastatic state. Traditional methods for measuring mechanical properties of single cells such as AFM and micropipette aspiration require labor-intensive procedures and can cause damage to cells due to direct contact, thus unsuitable for ...

We have previously shown that ultrasound is capable of identifying apoptosis in individual cells and cell pellets due to changes in the ultrasound attenuation, speed of sound, and backscatter. Spheroids can be used to more accurately model non-vascularized tumors due to their three-dimensional growth pattern, cell-cell interaction, disorganized growth, and ...

Through the use of high frequency acoustic microscopy, the acoustic properties of cells through various stages of interphase (G1/G2), mitosis (metaphase, M-phase), and apoptosis were ascertained. The cell thickness, sound velocity, acoustic impedance, density, bulk modulus, and attenuation were determined through a quantitative analysis of the pulse echoes from the ...

The stretching of cells using optical tweezers has been previously demonstrated, enabling the mechanical properties of individual cells to be assessed with potential applications in, for example, identifying cancer cells and parasite infections such as malaria. We demonstrate here a system that uses acoustic radiation forces to compress levitated cells ...

We develop a coarse-grained stochastic model for the influence of signal relay on the collective behavior of migrating Dictyostelium discoideum cells. In the experiment, cells display a range of collective migration patterns, including uncorrelated motion, formation of partially localized streams, and clumping, depending on the type of cell and the ...

A central issue in developmental biology is to uncover the mechanisms by which stem cells maintain their capacity to regenerate, yet at the same time produce daughter cells that differentiate and attain their ultimate fate as a functional part of a tissue or an organ. In this paper we propose ...

Cryptococcus neoformans is a heterothallic fungal pathogen of humans and animals. Although the fungus grows primarily as a yeast, hyphae are produced during the sexual phase and during a process called monokaryotic fruiting, which is also believed to involve sexual reproduction, but between cells of the same mating type. Here ...

Protocols for evaluating chemical toxicity at the cellular level using fish cell lines are described in this unit. Routine methodologies for growing salmonid cell lines, and using them in aquatic toxicology studies that support the mandate of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to reduce the use of ...

There are two major pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. One is the progressive accumulation of beta-amyloid (Aβ) in the form of senile plaques; the other is hyperphosphorylated tau, causing neuronal apoptosis. Some inhalation anesthetics, such as isofurane and desflurane, have been suggested to induce Aβ accumulation and cause AD-like neuropathogenesis. ...

The mammalian intestinal epithelium is endowed with a high cell turnover sustained by a few stem cells located in the bottoms of millions of crypts. Until recently, it was generally assumed that the extreme sensitivity to DNA damaging agents leading to cell death and the asymmetric mode of chromosome segregation ...

It has long been known that epigenetic changes are inheritable. However, except for DNA methylation, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance. Many types of stem cells undergo asymmetric cell divisions to generate self-renewed stem cells and daughter cells committed for differentiation. Still, whether and how stem ...

During cellular division, centrosomes are tasked with building the bipolar mitotic spindle, which partitions the cellular contents into two daughter cells. While every cell will receive an equal complement of chromosomes, not every organelle is symmetrically passaged to the two progeny in many cell types. In this review, we highlight ...

IMPORTANCE A thorough understanding of why we hold a cell phone to a particular ear may be of importance when studying the impact of cell phone safety. OBJECTIVE To determine if there is an obvious association between sidedness of cell phone use and auditory hemispheric dominance (AHD) or language hemispheric ...

Extrinsic apoptosis is a programmed cell death triggered by external ligands, such as the TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL). Depending on the cell line, the specific molecular mechanisms leading to cell death may significantly differ. Precise characterization of these differences is crucial for understanding and exploiting extrinsic apoptosis. Cells show ...

The apicomplexan parasite Theileria annulata transforms infected host cells, inducing uncontrolled proliferation and clonal expansion of the parasitized cell population. Shortly after sporozoite entry into the target cell, the surrounding host cell membrane is dissolved and an array of host cell microtubules (MTs) surrounds the parasite, which develops into the ...

The rapid translation from bench to bedside that has been seen in the application of regenerative medicine to cardiology has led to exciting new advances in our understanding of some of the fundamental mechanisms related to human biology. The first generation of cells used in phase l-ll trials (mainly bone ...

Timely and accurate assembly of the mitotic spindle is critical for the faithful segregation of chromosomes, and centrosome separation is a key step in this process. The timing of centrosome separation varies dramatically between cell types; however, the mechanisms responsible for these differences and its significance are unclear. Here, we ...

Background:Paclitaxel has recently been reported by this laboratory to potentiate the high-LET radiation therapeutic (212)Pb-TCMC-trastuzumab, which targets HER2. To elucidate mechanisms associated with this therapy, targeted α-particle radiation therapeutic (212)Pb-TCMC-trastuzumab together with paclitaxel was investigated for the treatment of disseminated peritoneal cancers.Methods:Mice bearing human colon cancer LS-174T intraperitoneal xenografts were ...

DNA methyltransferase 3B (DNMT3B) is critical in abnormal DNA methylation patterns in cancer cells. Nearly 40 alternatively spliced variants of DNMT3B have been reported. DNMT3B4 and DNMT3B7 are two kinds of splice variants of DNMT3B lacking the conserved methyltransferase motif. In this study, the effect of inactivation of DNMT3B variants, ...

The development of a mass spectrometric workflow for the sensitive identification and quantitation of the kinetics of changes in metaproteomes, or in particular bacterial pathogens after internalization by host cells, is described. This procedure employs three essential stages: (i) SILAC pulse-chase labeling and infection assay; (ii) isolation of bacteria by ...

Livin is a novel member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family that has been reported to be overexpressed in a variety of human malignancies, including osteosarcoma. However, the potential roles of Livin in tumorigenesis have not been elucidated. In the present study, we employed RNA interference (RNAi) technology ...

Mucin 1 (MUC1) is a large transmembrane glycoprotein that is aberrantly overexpressed in most adenocarcinomas and certain hematological malignancies. MUC1 is known to function as an oncogene with roles in both tumor formation and progression, making it a potential target for immunotherapy. B16-MUC1 cells with human full-length MUC1 are frequently ...