Publications by authors named "Christoph Suschek"

Wound healing as a result of a skin injury involves a series of dynamic physiological processes, leading to wound closure, re-epithelialization, and the remodeling of the extracellular matrix (ECM). The primary scar formed by the new ECM never fully regains the original tissue's strength or flexibility. Moreover, in some cases, due to dysregulated fibroblast activity, proliferation, and differentiation, the normal scarring can be replaced by pathological fibrotic tissue, leading to hypertrophic scars or keloids.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Osteoporosis is a progressive metabolic bone disease characterized by decreased bone density and microarchitectural deterioration, leading to an increased risk of fracture, particularly in postmenopausal women and the elderly. Increasing evidence suggests that inflammatory processes play a key role in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis and are strongly associated with the activation of osteoclasts, the cells responsible for bone resorption. In the present study, we investigated, for the first time, the influence of proinflammatory cytokines on the osteogenic differentiation, proliferation, and metabolic activity of primary human osteoblast-like cells (OBs) derived from the femoral heads of elderly patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Plasma applications in biomedicine represent a groundbreaking intersection between physics and life sciences, unveiling novel approaches to disease treatment and tissue regeneration [...

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Non-muscle invasive bladder cancer is frequently treated with gemcitabine when standard therapies fail, with efforts ongoing to minimize side effects by optimizing drug doses.
  • Recent research shows that combining blue light (453 nm) with mitomycin C significantly boosts its effectiveness against bladder cancer cells.
  • The study also finds that using riboflavin alongside blue light enhances gemcitabine's cytotoxicity, likely due to increased oxidative stress, suggesting a promising therapy option that reduces chemical burden while maintaining treatment success.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the cellular mechanisms behind heat-induced cell death in human fibroblasts, focusing on how extreme temperatures affect these cells over time.
  • Researchers found that heating fibroblasts caused about 50% cell death, with a delayed response that peaked around five hours post-exposure, challenging the idea of traditional caspase-mediated apoptosis.
  • Instead, the findings suggest a different death mechanism resembling Parthanatos, characterized by increased PARP1 protein levels and translocation of specific factors into the nucleus, indicating a unique response to heat stress rather than typical apoptotic processes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The micro-scaled Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet (µAPPJ) is operated with low carrier gas flows (0.25-1.4 slm), preventing excessive dehydration and osmotic effects in the exposed area.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hypertrophic scarring in burn wounds is caused by overactive fibroblasts and myofibroblasts. Blue light reveals wavelength- and dose-dependent antibacterial and antiproliferative effects and may serve as a therapeutic option against wound infection and fibrotic conditions. Therefore, we evaluated in this study the effects of single and multiple irradiations with blue light at 420 nm (BL) on the intracellular ATP concentration, and on the viability and proliferation of the human skin fibroblast (HDFs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cold atmospheric plasmas (CAPs) generated by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), particularly those containing higher amounts of nitric oxide (NO) or NO derivates (NOD), are attracting increasing interest in medical fields. In the present study, we, for the first time, evaluated DBD-CAP-induced NOD accumulation and therapeutically relevant NO release in calcified bone tissue. This knowledge is of great importance for the development of new therapies against bacterial-infectious complications during bone healing, such as osteitis or osteomyelitis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Titanium and stainless steel are commonly known as osteosynthesis materials with high strength and good biocompatibility. However, they have the big disadvantage that a second operation for hardware removal is necessary. Although resorbable systems made of polymers or magnesium are increasingly used, they show some severe adverse foreign body reactions or unsatisfying degradation behavior.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Adipose tissue-derived stromal cells (ASCs) play an important role in various therapeutic approaches to bone regeneration. However, such applications become challenging when the obtained cells show a functional disorder, e.g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Human urothelial bladder carcinoma (uBC) is the second most tumor entity of the urogenital tract. As far as possible, therapy for non-muscle invasive uBC takes place as resection of the tumor tissue, followed by intravesical chemotherapy or immunotherapy. Because of the high recurrence rate of uBC, there is a need for improved efficiency in the treatment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The generation of nitric oxide (NO) in the skin plays a critical role in wound healing and the response to several stimuli, such as UV exposure, heat, infection, and inflammation. Furthermore, in the human body, NO is involved in vascular homeostasis and the regulation of blood pressure. Physiologically, a family of enzymes termed nitric oxide synthases (NOS) generates NO.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) play a pivotal role in modern therapeutic approaches of bone defect regeneration. A complication that is steadily increasing due to demographic population developments is an age-related disorder of the osteogenic differentiation potential (ODP) of MSCs. In the present in vitro study we have evaluated the impact of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidants on ODP of "normal healthy" as well as osteogenetically compromised human adipose tissue-derived stromal cells (ASC).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hard-to-heal wounds represent an increasing health and economic burden on society. At present, therapy options for hard-to-heal wounds are often unsatisfactory, and the development of more effective wound treatments is urgently needed. We have shown that orthosilicic acid-releasing silica fibre fleece (SIFIB), via its pronounced anti-inflammatory properties, exhibited a significantly enhanced effect on wound closure kinetics in a porcine wound model in vivo.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Studies have demonstrated that blue light induces biological effects, such as cell death, and inhibition of proliferation and differentiation. Since blue light at longer wavelength (>440 nm) exerts less injurious effects on cells than at shorter wavelengths, (400-440 nm), we have investigated the impact of non-toxic (LED) blue light at 453 nm wavelength on human skin fibroblasts (hsFBs). We found that besides its decreasing effects on the proliferation rate, repeated blue light irradiations (80 J/cm) also significantly reduced TGF-β1-induced myofibrogenesis as shown by diminished α-SMA and EDA-FN expression accompanied by reduced protein expression and phosphorylation of ERK 1/2, SMAD 2/3, and p38-key players of TGF-β1-induced myofibrogenesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Autologous adipose tissue (AT) transfer has gained widespread acceptance and is used for a broad variety of regenerative clinical indications. It is assumed that the successful outcome of AT transfer essentially depends on the amount of autocrine-generated growth factors (GF). It is supposed that several GF enhance and improve the anatomic and functional integration of the transplanted AT grafts at the site of implantation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • β-Endorphin plays a key role in mood, pain management, immune function, and behavior stability, and is produced in the nervous system and skin, especially in response to UV light.
  • A study investigated the effects of visible blue light on β-endorphin production in human skin cells and found that blue light exposure significantly increased β-endorphin levels both in skin cell cultures and in healthy individuals.
  • The study suggested that the increase in β-endorphin is linked to the non-enzymatic production of nitric oxide, which enhances β-endorphin production in both skin cells and possibly in the brain, highlighting a multi-step process facilitated by nitric oxide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated the effects of whole body exposure to visible blue light on blood pressure and endothelial function in healthy males.
  • Blue light exposure significantly lowered systolic blood pressure and increased heart rate, along with improved forearm blood flow and endothelial function.
  • The findings suggest that visible blue light could enhance cardiovascular health by promoting the release of nitric oxide from the skin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) play a pivotal role in modern therapeutic approaches in bone-healing disorders. Although bone marrow-derived MSCs are most frequently used, the knowledge that many other adult tissues represent promising sources for potent MSCs has gained acceptance. In the present study, the osteogenic differentiation potential of porcine skin fibroblasts (FBs), as well as bone marrow- (BMSCs), adipose tissue- (ASCs) and dental pulp-derived stromal cells (DSCs) were evaluated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The proliferation of fibroblasts and myofibroblast differentiation are crucial in wound healing and wound closure. Impaired wound healing is often correlated with chronic bacterial contamination of the wound area. A new promising approach to overcome wound contamination, particularly infection with antibiotic-resistant pathogens, is the topical treatment with non-thermal "cold" atmospheric plasma (CAP).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) devices create air plasma that delivers active species like nitric oxide (NO) to the skin, which can be beneficial for skin conditions and healing.
  • Safety evaluations showed no damage to human skin after plasma treatment, while experiments demonstrated significant NO absorption and an increase in related compounds in the skin.
  • Plasma application notably improved microcirculation in treated areas, indicating its potential as a treatment for chronic wounds, although further studies are needed to confirm its effectiveness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The inhalation of combustion-derived nanoparticles leads to adverse health effects in the airways. In this context the induction of membrane-coupled signalling is considered as causative for changes in tissue homeostasis and pro-inflammatory reactions. The identification of these molecular cell reactions allowed to seek for strategies which interfere with these adverse effects.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aberrant production of nitric oxide (NO) by inducible NO synthase (iNOS) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of endothelial dysfunction and vascular disease. Mechanisms responsible for the fine-tuning of iNOS activity in inflammation are still not fully understood. Zinc is an important structural element of NOS enzymes and is known to inhibit its catalytical activity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Organotypic full-thickness skin grafts (OTSG) are already an important technology for treating various skin conditions and are well established for skin research and development. These obvious benefits are often impaired by the need of laborious production, their noncomplete autologous composition, and, most importantly, their lack of included vasculature. Therefore, our study focused on combining a prevascularized dermal layer with an epidermis to cultivate full-thickness skin grafts incorporating capillary-like networks.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is the major promoter of phenotypic shift between fibroblasts and myofibroblasts accompanied by the expression and incorporation of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA). This differentiation is crucial during normal wound healing and wound closure; however, myofibroblasts are considered as the main effecter cell type in fibrosis, for example in scleroderma and hypertrophic scarring. As blue light has exerted antiprolific and toxic effects in several cell types, we investigated whether blue light irradiations with a light-emitting diode array (420 nm) were able to affect proliferation and differentiation of human dermal fibroblasts (HDF).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF