Intestinal Organoids in Colitis Research: Focusing on Variability and Cryopreservation.

In recent years, stem cell-derived organoids have become a cell culture standard that is widely used for studying various scientific issues that were previously investigated through animal experiments and using common tumor cell lines. After their initial hype, concerns regarding their standardization have been raised. Here, we aim to provide some insights into our experience in standardizing murine colonic epithelial organoids, which we use as a replacement method for research on inflammatory bowel disease.

CD14 and ALPK1 Affect Expression of Tight Junction Components and Proinflammatory Mediators upon Bacterial Stimulation in a Colonic 3D Organoid Model.

and both encode pathogen recognition receptors and are known candidate genes for affecting severity in inflammatory bowel diseases. CD14 acts as a coreceptor for bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), while ALPK1 senses ADP-D-glycero-beta-D-manno-heptose, a metabolic intermediate of LPS biosynthesis. Intestinal barrier integrity can be influenced by CD14, whereas to date, the role of ALPK1 in maintaining barrier function remains unknown.

Lipopolysaccharide-induced injury is more pronounced in fetal transgenic ErbB4-deleted lungs.

Pulmonary ErbB4 deletion leads to a delay in fetal lung development, alveolar simplification, and lung function disturbances in adult mice. We generated a model of intrauterine infection in ErbB4 transgenic mice to study the additive effects of antenatal LPS administration and ErbB4 deletion during fetal lung development. Pregnant mice were treated intra-amniotically with an LPS dose of 4 μg at E17 of gestation.

Neuregulin-1, the fetal endothelium, and brain damage in preterm newborns.

Objective: To assess the potential role for Neuregulin-1 (NRG1) as a systemic endogenous protector in the setting of perinatal inflammatory brain damage.

Methods: We measured NRG1-protein and mRNA levels in human umbilical venous endothelial cells (HUVECs) of different gestational ages at various durations of exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In parallel, we genotyped the donor individuals for SNP8NRG221533, a disease-related single nucleotide polymorphism in the 5' region upstream of the NRG1 sequence.

Staining of Chlamydia trachomatis elementary bodies: a suitable method for identifying infected human monocytes by flow cytometry.

Persistence of Chlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis) in the joint is the most frequent cause of reactive arthritis following urogenital tract infection. The resulting changes of host cell antigen- and cytokine-expression are not precisely understood.

Chlamydia trachomatis-infected macrophages induce apoptosis of activated T cells by secretion of tumor necrosis factor-alpha in vitro.

Chlamydia trachomatis-infected macrophages induce T cell apoptosis. This ability might promote intracellular survival of Chlamydia and perpetuate chronic chlamydial infection. The purpose of this study was to examine the molecular mechanisms by which C.