CT-001, a novel fast-clearing factor VIIa, enhanced the hemostatic activity in postpartum samples.

The hemostatic system is upregulated to protect pregnant mothers from hemorrhage during childbirth. Studies of the details just before and after delivery, however, are lacking. Recombinant factor VIIa (rFVIIa) has recently been granted approval by the European Medicines Agency for the treatment of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH).

From Bench to Market: Preparing Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Derived Cardiomyocytes for Various Applications.

Human cardiomyocytes (CMs) cease to proliferate and remain terminally differentiated thereafter, when humans reach the mid-20s. Thus, any damages sustained by myocardium tissue are irreversible, and they require medical interventions to regain functionality. To date, new surgical procedures and drugs have been developed, albeit with limited success, to treat various heart diseases including myocardial infarction.

Metabolome Profiling of Partial and Fully Reprogrammed Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.

Acquisition of proper metabolomic fate is required to convert somatic cells toward fully reprogrammed pluripotent stem cells. The majority of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are partially reprogrammed and have a transcriptome different from that of the pluripotent stem cells. The metabolomic profile and mitochondrial metabolic functions required to achieve full reprogramming of somatic cells to iPSC status have not yet been elucidated.

Perivascular Progenitor Cells Derived From Human Embryonic Stem Cells Exhibit Functional Characteristics of Pericytes and Improve the Retinal Vasculature in a Rodent Model of Diabetic Retinopathy.

Unlabelled: : Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of blindness in working-age people. Pericyte loss is one of the pathologic cellular events in DR, which weakens the retinal microvessels. Damage to the microvascular networks is irreversible and permanent; thus further progression of DR is inevitable.

A porous membrane-mediated isolation of mesenchymal stem cells from human embryonic stem cells.

Pluripotent human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) acquire mesenchymal characteristics during the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process. Here, we report a simple and an efficient isolation method for mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from hESCs undergoing EMT using a commercialized porous membrane transwell culture insert. Suspension culture of hESC colonies results in the formation of embryoid bodies, which adhered on the upper compartment of 8 μm porous membrane in the presence of EMG2-MV media.

Optimizing human embryonic stem cells differentiation efficiency by screening size-tunable homogenous embryoid bodies.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are generally induced to differentiate by forming spherical structures termed embryoid bodies (EBs) in the presence of soluble growth factors. hEBs are generated by suspending small clumps of hESC colonies; however, the resulting hEBs are heterogeneous because this method lacks the ability to control the number of cells in individual EBs. This heterogeneity affects factors that influence differentiation such as cell-cell contact and the diffusion of soluble factors, and consequently, the differentiation capacity of each EB varies.

Nanotopographical control for maintaining undifferentiated human embryonic stem cell colonies in feeder free conditions.

Recently emerging evidence has indicated surface nanotopography as an important physical parameter in the stem cell niche for regulating cell fate and behaviors for various types of stem cells. In this study, a substrate featuring arrays of increasing nanopillar diameter was devised to investigate the effects of varying surface nanotopography on the maintenance of undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESC) colonies in the absence of feeder cells. Single hESCs cultured across gradient nanopattern (G-Np) substrate were generally organized into compact colonies, and expressed higher levels of undifferentiated markers compared to those cultured on the unstructured control substrate.

Development of a xeno-free autologous culture system for endothelial progenitor cells derived from human umbilical cord blood.

Despite promising preclinical outcomes in animal models, a number of challenges remain for human clinical use. In particular, expanding a large number of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in vitro in the absence of animal-derived products is the most critical hurdle remaining to be overcome to ensure the safety and efficiency of human therapy. To develop in vitro culture conditions for EPCs derived from human cord blood (hCB-EPCs), we isolated extracts (UCE) and collagen (UC-collagen) from umbilical cord tissue to replace their animal-derived counterparts.

The use of aggregates of purified cardiomyocytes derived from human ESCs for functional engraftment after myocardial infarction.

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have the capacity to undergo directed differentiation into contracting cardiomyocytes. Therefore, functional cardiomyocytes derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESC-CMs) are potential candidates for cellular cardiomyoplasty to regenerate the myocardium after infarction. However, the directed differentiation of hESCs induces not only contracting cardiomyocytes but also other cell types.

Modification of a purification and expansion method for human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes.

Objective: This study aimed to develop a simple and efficient purification method for human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived cardiomyocytes (CMs) using a low-glucose culture system. In addition, we investigated whether intercellular adhesion between single hESC-CMs plays a critical role in enhancing proliferation of purified hESC-CMs.

Method: hESCs were cultured in suspension to form human embryoid bodies (hEBs) from which ∼15% contracting clusters were derived after 15-20 days in culture.

Hypoxia enhances the generation of retinal progenitor cells from human induced pluripotent and embryonic stem cells.

The efficient differentiation of retinal cells from human pluripotent stem cells remains a major challenge for the development of successful and cost-effective cellular therapies for various forms of blindness. Current differentiation strategies rely on exposing pluripotent stem cells to soluble growth factors that play key roles during early development (such as DKK-1, Noggin, and IGF-1) at 20% oxygen (O(2)). This O(2) tension is, however, considerably higher than O(2) levels during organogenesis and may impair the differentiation process.