Publications by authors named "Borutinskaite V"

Acute myeloid leukemia is the second most frequent type of leukemia in adults. Due to a high risk of development of chemoresistance to first-line chemotherapy, the survival rate of patients in a 5-year period is below 30%. One of the reasons is that the AML population is heterogeneous, with cell populations partly composed of very primitive CD34+CD38- hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, which are often resistant to chemotherapy.

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Endometrial-factor induced infertility remains one of the most significant pathology among all fertility disorders. Stem cell-based therapy is considered to be the next-generation approach. However, there are still issues about successfully retrieving human endometrium-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (hEnMSCs).

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Cryopreservation of placenta tissue for long-term storage provides the opportunity in the future to isolate mesenchymal stromal cells that could be used for cell therapy and regenerative medicine. Despite being widely used, the established cryopreservation protocols for freezing and thawing still raise concerns about their impact on molecular characteristics, such as epigenetic regulation. In our study, we compared the characteristics of human placental mesenchymal stromal cells (hPMSCs) isolated from fresh (native) and cryopreserved (cryo) placenta tissue.

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Perinatal tissues, such as placenta and umbilical cord contain a variety of somatic stem cell types, spanning from the largely used hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells to the most recently described broadly multipotent epithelial and stromal cells. As perinatal derivatives (PnD), several of these cell types and related products provide an interesting regenerative potential for a variety of diseases. Within COST SPRINT Action, we continue our review series, revising and summarizing the modalities of action and proposed medical approaches using PnD products: cells, secretome, extracellular vesicles, and decellularized tissues.

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Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease. A significant proportion of AML patients is refractory to clinical treatment or relapses. Our aim is to determine new potential AML clinical treatment prognosis markers.

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Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive, heterogeneous group of malignancies with different clinical behaviors and different responses to therapy. For many types of cancer, finding cancer early makes it easier to treat. Identifying prognostic molecular markers and understanding their biology are the first steps toward developing novel diagnostic tools or therapies for patients with AML.

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When looking for the causes and treatments of infertility, much attention is paid to one of the reproductive tissues-the endometrium. Therefore, endometrial stem cells are an attractive target for infertility studies in women of unexplained origin. Menstrual blood stem cells (MenSCs) are morphologically and functionally similar to cells derived directly from the endometrium; with dual expression of mesenchymal and embryonic cell markers, they proliferate and regenerate better than bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.

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Metabolic landscape and sensitivity to apoptosis induction play a crucial role in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) resistance. Therefore, we investigated the effect of metformin, a medication that also acts as an inhibitor of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), and MCL-1 inhibitor S63845 in AML cell lines NB4, KG1 and chemoresistant KG1A cells. The impact of compounds was evaluated using fluorescence-based metabolic flux analysis, assessment of mitochondrial Δψ and cellular ROS, trypan blue exclusion, Annexin V-PI and XTT tests for cell death and cytotoxicity estimations, also RT-qPCR and Western blot for gene and protein expression.

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Human amniotic fluid stem cells (AFSC) are an exciting and very promising source of stem cells for therapeutic applications. In this study we investigated the effects of short-term treatments of small molecules to improve stem cell properties and differentiation capability. For this purpose, we used epigenetically active compounds, such as histone deacetylase inhibitors Trichostatin A (TSA) and sodium butyrate (NaBut), as well as multifunctional molecules of natural origin, such as retinoic acid (RA) and vitamin C (vitC).

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Progress in the understanding of the biology of perinatal tissues has contributed to the breakthrough revelation of the therapeutic effects of perinatal derivatives (PnD), namely birth-associated tissues, cells, and secreted factors. The significant knowledge acquired in the past two decades, along with the increasing interest in perinatal derivatives, fuels an urgent need for the precise identification of PnD and the establishment of updated consensus criteria policies for their characterization. The aim of this review is not to go into detail on preclinical or clinical trials, but rather we address specific issues that are relevant for the definition/characterization of perinatal cells, starting from an understanding of the development of the human placenta, its structure, and the different cell populations that can be isolated from the different perinatal tissues.

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Human mesenchymal stem cells isolated from amniotic fluid (AF-MSCs) demonstrate the potency for self-renewal and multidifferentiation, and can, therefore, be a potential alternative source of stem cells adapted for therapeutic purposes. The object of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of MSCs from AF when the pregnancy is normal or when the fetus is affected during pregnancy to differentiate into mesodermal lineage tissues and to elucidate epigenetic states responsible for terminal adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation. The morphology of AF-MSCs from two cell sources and the expression of the cell surface-specific (CD44, CD90, and CD105) markers and pluripotency (Oct4, Nanog, Sox2, and Rex1) genes were quite similar and underwent mesodermal lineage differentiation because this is shown by the typical cell morphology and of genes' expression specific for adipogenic (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-ɣ, adiponectin) and osteoblastic (alkaline phosphatase, osteopontin, and osteocalcin) differentiation.

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Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is characterized by translocation, which causes the blockage of promyelocyte differentiation. Conventional treatment with Retinoic acid and chemotherapeutics is quite satisfactory. However, there are still patients who relapse or develop resistance to conventional treatment.

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Treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is still a challenge because of common relapses or resistance to treatment. Therefore, the development of new therapeutic approaches is necessary. Various studies have shown that certain cancers, including some chemoresistant AML subsets, have upregulated oxidative phosphorylation.

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Myeloid leukemia treatment is quite successful nowadays; nevertheless the development of new therapies is still necessary. In the present study, we investigated the potential of epigenetic modulators EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate) and BIX-01294 (N-(1-benzylpiperidin-4-yl)-6,7-dimethoxy-2-(4-methyl-1,4-diazepan-1-yl)quinazolin-4-amine) to alter epigenetic state and cause cellular senescence in acute and chronic myeloid leukemia NB4 and K562 cells. We have shown that after leukemia cell treatment with EGCG and BIX-01294 the proliferation and survival were inhibited of both cell lines; however, only NB4 cells underwent apoptosis.

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Green tea (Camellia sinensis) catechin epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) has been shown to possess diverse anti-cancerous properties. We demonstrated EGCG ability to inhibit acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) cell proliferation and cause apoptosis. In addition, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis revealed elevated expression of genes associated with cell cycle arrest and differentiation (p27, PCAF, C/EBPα, and C/EBPɛ).

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Development of acute myeloid leukemia is usually sustained by deregulated epigenome. Alterations in DNA methylation and histone modifications are common manifestations of the disease. Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is not an exception.

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Today, cancer is understood as an epigenetic as well as genetic disease. The main epigenetic hallmarks of the cancer cell are DNA methylation and histone modifications. Proteins such as histone deacetylases (HDACs) that cause modifications of histones and other proteins can be targets for novel anticancer agents.

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Background: Epigenetic regulation is known to affect gene expression, and recent research shows that aberrant DNA methylation patterning and histone modifications may play a role in leukemogenesis. In order to highlight the co-operation of epigenetic mechanisms acting during the latter process it is important to clarify their potential as biomarkers of granulocytic differentiation.

Results: In this study we investigated epigenetic alterations in human hematopoietic cells at a distinct differentiation stages: primary hematopoietic CD34+ cells, KG1 myeloid leukemic cells, whose development is stopped at early stage of differentiation, and mature neutrophils.

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Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs) represent a new class of targeted anti-cancer agents and different other diseases, like muscular disorders. A number of studies have shown that extracellular signal-activated kinases can target chromatin-modifying complexes directly and regulate their function. The molecular connection between the dystrophin-associated protein complex (DAPC) and chromatin has been described, by showing that NO signaling regulates histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity and influences gene expression in different cell types.

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Epigenetic silencing of cancer-related genes by abnormal methylation and the reversal of this process by DNA methylation inhibitors represents a promising strategy in cancer therapy. As DNA methylation affects gene expression and chromatin structure, we investigated the effects of novel DNMT (DNA methyltransferase) inhibitor, RG108, alone and in its combinations with structurally several HDAC (histone deacetylase) inhibitors [sodium PB (phenyl butyrate) or BML-210 (N-(2-aminophenyl)-N'phenyloctanol diamine), and all-trans RA (retinoic acid)] in the human PML (promyelocytic leukaemia) NB4 cells. RG108 at different doses from 20 to 100 μM caused time-, but not a dose-dependent inhibition of NB4 cell proliferation without cytotoxicity.

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DNMT inhibitors are promising new drugs for cancer therapies. In this study, we have observed the antileukemic action of two diverse DNMT inhibitors, the nucleoside agent zebularine and the non-nucleoside agent RG108, in human promyelocytic leukemia (PML) HL-60 cells. Zebularine but not RG108 caused dose- and time-dependent cell growth inhibition and induction of apoptosis.

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Dystrobrevin is a dystrophin-related component of the dystrophin-associated protein complex (DAPC). Using alpha-dystrobrevin as indicator, we aimed to elucidate the interaction network of the DAPC with other proteins during apoptosis of promyelocytic HL-60 cells. The precise role(s) of DBs are not known, but we and others have shown that they play a role in intracellular signal transduction and cellular organization.

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Unlabelled: Proteins tightly bound to DNA (TBP) comprise a group of proteins that remain bound to DNA even after harsh deproteinization procedures. The amount of these proteins is 20-100 μg for mg of DNA depending on eukaryotic source. This experimental paper examines the possibility to use some TBP for clinical biomarker discovery, e.

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Current cell therapy protocols require considerable numbers of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), which can be obtained only by in vitro expansion. The most important issue is a choice of optimal growth supplements for cell culture. Ideally, these should be of known composition, free of animal components and allow production of large homogenic populations of MSCs in a considerably short period of time.

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