Pearl extract enhances the migratory ability of fibroblasts in a wound healing model.

Context: For 2000 years, traditional Chinese medicine has been used as a remedy for general health improvement, including the fight against aging. Pearl powder has recently been used as a health food that has antioxidant, antiaging, antiradioactive, and tonic activities for cells; it is also applied to cure aphthous ulcer, gastric ulcer, and duodenal ulcer on clinical therapy. In addition, the mother of pearl, nacre, could enhance the cell adhesion and tissue regeneration of skin fibroblasts.

Change in neuron aggregation and neurite fasciculation on EVAL membranes modified with different diamines.

In this study, we modified poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol) (EVAL) membranes by the covalent bonding of diamines via epoxidation of surface hydroxyl groups of EVAL to analyze the effect of immobilized diamines with different carbon chain length on the cultured cerebellar granule neurons. Morphological studies showed that neurons seeded on the diamine-immobilized EVAL membrane were able to survive and regenerate with formation of an extensive neuritic network. Furthermore, cultured neurons showed that the presence of diamine with different carbon chain length was able to effectively regulate the neuron adhesion, migration, aggregation, and neurite growth pattern, but mediated neuronal activity with equal efficacy.

Gallium nitride induces neuronal differentiation markers in neural stem/precursor cells derived from rat cerebral cortex.

In the present study, gallium nitride (GaN) was used as a substrate to culture neural stem/precursor cells (NSPCs), isolated from embryonic rat cerebral cortex, to examine the effect of GaN on the behavior of NSPCs in the presence of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in serum-free medium. Morphological studies showed that neurospheres maintained their initial shape and formed many long and thick processes with the fasciculate feature on GaN. Immunocytochemical characterization showed that GaN could induce the differentiation of NSPCs into neurons and astrocytes.

The effect of gallium nitride on long-term culture induced aging of neuritic function in cerebellar granule cells.

Gallium nitride (GaN) has been developed for a variety of microelectronic and optical applications due to its unique electric property and chemical stability. In the present study, n-type and p-type GaN were used as substrates to culture cerebellar granule neurons to examine the effect of GaN on cell response for a long-term culture period. It was found that GaN could rapidly induce cultured neurons to exhibit a high phosphorylated Akt level after 20h of incubation.

Assessment of GaN chips for culturing cerebellar granule neurons.

In this work, the behaviors of cerebellar granule neurons prepared from 7-day-old Wistar rats on gallium nitride (GaN) were investigated. We believe that this is the first time that the GaN has been used as a substrate for neuron cultures to examine its effect on cell response in vitro. The GaN surface structure and its relationship with cells were examined by atomic force microscopy (AFM), metallography microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release and Western blot analysis.