Barrier materials for prevention of surgical adhesions: systematic review.

Background: Postoperative surgical adhesions constitute a major health burden internationally. A wide range of materials have been evaluated, but despite constructive efforts and the obvious necessity, there remains no specific barrier widely utilized to prevent postoperative adhesion formation. The aim of this study was to highlight and characterize materials used for prevention of postoperative surgical adhesions in both animal and human studies.

CHD4 in the DNA-damage response and cell cycle progression: not so NuRDy now.

The CHD4 (chromodomain-helicase-DNA-binding 4) (or Mi-2β) protein is a founding component of the NuRD (nucleosome remodelling and deacetylation) complex. NuRD has long been known to function in transcriptional regulation, and is conserved throughout the animal and plant kingdoms. In recent years, evidence has steadily accumulated indicating that CHD4 can both function outside of the NuRD complex and also play important roles in cellular processes other than transcriptional regulation.

NuRD suppresses pluripotency gene expression to promote transcriptional heterogeneity and lineage commitment.

Transcriptional heterogeneity within embryonic stem cell (ESC) populations has been suggested as a mechanism by which a seemingly homogeneous cell population can initiate differentiation into an array of different cell types. Chromatin remodeling proteins have been shown to control transcriptional variability in yeast and to be important for mammalian ESC lineage commitment. Here we show that the Nucleosome Remodeling and Deacetylation (NuRD) complex, which is required for ESC lineage commitment, modulates both transcriptional heterogeneity and the dynamic range of a set of pluripotency genes in ESCs.