Galectin-1 as a marker for microglia activation in the aging brain.

Microglia cells, the immune cells residing in the brain, express immune regulatory molecules that have a central role in the manifestation of age-related brain characteristics. Our hypothesis suggests that galectin-1, an anti-inflammatory member of the beta-galactoside-binding lectin family, regulates microglia and neuroinflammation in the aging brain. Through our in-silico analysis, we discovered a subcluster of microglia in the aged mouse brain that exhibited increased expression of galectin-1 mRNA.

α/β-Peptides as Nanomolar Triggers of Lipid Raft-Mediated Endocytosis through GM1 Ganglioside Recognition.

Cell delivery of therapeutic macromolecules and nanoparticles is a critical drug development challenge. Translocation through lipid raft-mediated endocytic mechanisms is being sought, as it can avoid rapid lysosomal degradation. Here, we present a set of short α/β-peptide tags with high affinity to the lipid raft-associated ganglioside GM1.

Stromal Cells Serve Drug Resistance for Multiple Myeloma via Mitochondrial Transfer: A Study on Primary Myeloma and Stromal Cells.

Recently, it has become evident that mitochondrial transfer (MT) plays a crucial role in the acquisition of cancer drug resistance in many hematologic malignancies; however, for multiple myeloma, there is a need to generate novel data to better understand this mechanism. Here, we show that primary myeloma cells (MMs) respond to an increasing concentration of chemotherapeutic drugs with an increase in the acquisition of mitochondria from autologous bone marrow stromal cells (BM-MSCs), whereupon survival and adenosine triphosphate levels of MMs increase, while the mitochondrial superoxide levels decrease in MMs. These changes are proportional to the amount of incorporated BM-MSC-derived mitochondria and to the concentration of the used drug, but seem independent from the type and mechanism of action of chemotherapeutics.

Proteomimetic surface fragments distinguish targets by function.

The fragment-centric design promises a means to develop complex xenobiotic protein surface mimetics, but it is challenging to find locally biomimetic structures. To address this issue, foldameric local surface mimetic (LSM) libraries were constructed. Protein affinity patterns, ligand promiscuity and protein druggability were evaluated using pull-down data for targets with various interaction tendencies and levels of homology.

A Regenerative Approach to Canine Osteoarthritis Using Allogeneic, Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells. Safety Results of a Long-Term Follow-Up.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are emerging as an effective therapeutic tool in treating canine osteoarthritis (OA). In this report, we focused on the questions of whether MSC transplantation has long-term beneficial effects for the improvement in motion and also evaluated the safety of MSC injection. Visceral adipose tissue, a surgical waste obtained during routine ovariectomy served as a source of allogeneic MSCs and used to treat OA.

Routing Nanomolar Protein Cargoes to Lipid Raft-Mediated/Caveolar Endocytosis through a Ganglioside GM1-Specific Recognition Tag.

There is a pressing need to develop ways to deliver therapeutic macromolecules to their intracellular targets. Certain viral and bacterial proteins are readily internalized in functional form through lipid raft-mediated/caveolar endocytosis, but mimicking this process with protein cargoes at therapeutically relevant concentrations is a great challenge. Targeting ganglioside GM1 in the caveolar pits triggers endocytosis.

Altered Cell Surface N-Glycosylation of Resting and Activated T Cells in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Altered cell surface glycosylation in congenital and acquired diseases has been shown to affect cell differentiation and cellular responses to external signals. Hence, it may have an important role in immune regulation; however, T cell surface glycosylation has not been studied in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a prototype of autoimmune diseases. Analysis of the glycosylation of T cells from patients suffering from SLE was performed by lectin-binding assay, flow cytometry, and quantitative real-time PCR.

Characterization and therapeutic application of canine adipose mesenchymal stem cells to treat elbow osteoarthritis.

Visceral adipose tissue (AT) obtained from surgical waste during routine ovariectomies was used as a source for isolating canine mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). As determined by cytofluorimetry, passage 2 cells expressed MSC markers CD44 and CD90 and were negative for lineage-specific markers CD34 and CD45. The cells differentiated toward osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic directions.

Target-specific NMR detection of protein-ligand interactions with antibody-relayed N-group selective STD.

Fragment-based drug design has been successfully applied to challenging targets where the detection of the weak protein-ligand interactions is a key element. H saturation transfer difference (STD) NMR spectroscopy is a powerful technique for this work but it requires pure homogeneous proteins as targets. Monoclonal antibody (mAb)-relayed N-GS STD spectroscopy has been developed to resolve the problem of protein mixtures and impure proteins.

Mesenchymal stem cells promote macrophage polarization toward M2b-like cells.

Mesenchymal stem or stromal cells (MSCs) act on different components of the immune response including macrophages (MΦs). Therefore this study has been committed to explore how MSCs may modify the effect of MΦ polarization upon an inductive environment using mouse bone marrow (BM)-derived "naïve", unpolarized MΦs. Phagocytosis of various MΦ subtypes was different since M1 and M2b showed poorer, while M2a higher rate of phagocytosis.

Galectin-1 is a local but not systemic immunomodulatory factor in mesenchymal stromal cells.

Background Aims: Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have powerful immunosuppressive activity. This function of MSCs is attributed to plethora of the expressed immunosuppressive factors, such as galectin-1 (Gal-1), a pleiotropic lectin with robust anti-inflammatory effect. Nevertheless, whether Gal-1 renders or contributes to the immunosuppressive effect of MSCs has not been clearly established.

Foldameric probes for membrane interactions by induced β-sheet folding.

Design strategies were devised for α/β-peptide foldameric analogues of the antiangiogenic anginex with the goal of mimicking the diverse structural features from the unordered conformation to a folded β-sheet in response to membrane interactions. Structure-activity relationships were investigated in the light of different β-sheet folding levels.

Licensing by Inflammatory Cytokines Abolishes Heterogeneity of Immunosuppressive Function of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Population.

When mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are used for therapy of immunological pathologies, they get into an inflammatory environment, altering the effectiveness of the treatment. To establish the impact of environmental inflammatory factors on MSCs' immunofunction in the mirror of intrinsic heterogeneity of mouse MSC population, individual MSC clones were generated and characterized. Adipogenic but not osteogenic differentiation and pro-angiogenic activity of five independent MSC cell lines were similar.

Novel role for galectin-1 in T-cells under physiological and pathological conditions.

Secreted, extracellular galectin-1 (exGal-1) but not intracellular Gal-1 (inGal-1) has been described as a strong immunosuppressive protein due to its major activity of inducing apoptosis of activated T-cells. It has previously been reported that T-cells express Gal-1 upon activation, however its participation in T-cell functions has remained largely elusive. To determine function of Gal-1 expressed by activated T-cells we have carried out a series of experiments.

GM1 controlled lateral segregation of tyrosine kinase Lck predispose T-cells to cell-derived galectin-1-induced apoptosis.

One prominent immunoregulatory function of galectin-1 (Gal-1), a β-galactoside binding mammalian lectin, is induction of apoptosis in activated T-cells by a process depending on the activity of Src family tyrosine kinase, Lck. Although the requirement for Lck in Gal-1 induced T-cell death and the ability of Gal-1 to affect the membrane localization of extracellular Gal-1-binding proteins have been well documented, the consequence of the complex and related reorganization of extra- and intracellular signaling components upon Gal-1 treatment of T-cells has not yet been revealed. Therefore, we have analyzed the plasma membrane movement of Lck upon Gal-1 triggered signaling, and the significance of this event in Gal-1 induced T-cell death.

Foldameric α/β-peptide analogs of the β-sheet-forming antiangiogenic anginex: structure and bioactivity.

The principles of β-sheet folding and design for α-peptidic sequences are well established, while those for sheet mimetics containing homologated amino acid building blocks are still under investigation. To reveal the structure-function relations of β-amino-acid-containing foldamers, we followed a top-down approach to study a series of α/β-peptidic analogs of anginex, a β-sheet-forming antiangiogenic peptide. Eight anginex analogs were developed by systematic α → β(3) substitutions and analyzed by using NMR and CD spectroscopy.

Identification of galectin-1 as a critical factor in function of mouse mesenchymal stromal cell-mediated tumor promotion.

Bone marrow derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have recently been implicated as one source of the tumor-associated stroma, which plays essential role in regulating tumor progression. In spite of the intensive research, the individual factors in MSCs controlling tumor progression have not been adequately defined. In the present study we have examined the role of galectin-1 (Gal-1), a protein highly expressed in tumors with poor prognosis, in MSCs in the course of tumor development.

Activated T-cells and pro-inflammatory cytokines differentially regulate prostaglandin E2 secretion by mesenchymal stem cells.

In recent years it has become clear that mesenchymal stem or stromal cells (MSCs) are capable of modulating inflammatory and immune responses through interaction with a wide variety of cells. Whereas several studies indicated that PGE2 is one of the chief soluble mediators involved in these processes, here we investigated prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production of murine bone marrow- (BM-) and adipose tissue- (Ad-) derived MSCs stimulated with pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IFN-γ, or co-cultured with ConA-induced T-cell blasts. We found that both MSC populations are able to produce high amounts of PGE2 in MSC/activated T-cell co-cultures.

Positional identity of murine mesenchymal stem cells resident in different organs is determined in the postsegmentation mesoderm.

Although mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) of distinct tissue origin have a large number of similarities and differences, it has not been determined so far whether tissue-resident MSCs are the progenies of one ancestor cell lineage or the results of parallel cell developmental events. Here we compared the expression levels of 177 genes in murine MSCs derived from adult and juvenile bone marrow and adult adipose tissue, as well as juvenile spleen, thymus, and aorta wall by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and the results were partially validated at protein level. All MSC lines uniformly expressed a large set of genes including well-known mesenchymal markers, such as α-smooth muscle actin, collagen type I α-chain, GATA6, Mohawk, and vimentin.

How does it act when soluble? Critical evaluation of mechanism of galectin-1 induced T-cell apoptosis.

Galectin-1 (Gal-1), a mammalian lectin induces apoptosis of T lymphocytes. Contradictory data have resulted in confusing knowledge regarding mechanism of Gal-1 induced T-cell apoptosis. In this paper we aimed to resolve this controversy by comparing cell death induced by low (1.

(15)N and (13)C group-selective techniques extend the scope of STD NMR detection of weak host-guest interactions and ligand screening.

Saturation transfer difference (STD) is a valuable tool for studying the binding of small molecules to large biomolecules and for obtaining detailed information on the binding epitopes. Here, we demonstrate that the proposed (15)N/(13)C variants of group-selective, "GS-STD" experiments provide a powerful approach to mapping the binding epitope of a ligand even in the absence of efficient spin diffusion within the target protein. Therefore, these experimental variants broaden the scope of STD studies to smaller and/or more-dynamic targets.

Identical, similar or different? Learning about immunomodulatory function of mesenchymal stem cells isolated from various mouse tissues: bone marrow, spleen, thymus and aorta wall.

Mesenchymal stem or multipotent stromal cells (MSCs) have been implicated in tissue maintenance and repair and regulating immune effector cells through different mechanisms. These functions in mouse were primarily described for bone marrow (BM)-derived MSCs. To learn more about MSCs of different tissue origin, we compared the immunophenotype, differentiation ability to adipocyte and bone and immunomodulatory activity of MSCs isolated from BM, spleen, thymus and aorta wall of 14-day-old C57Bl/6 mice.

Galectin-1-asialofetuin interaction is inhibited by peptides containing the tyr-xxx-tyr motif acting on the glycoprotein.

Galectin-1 (Gal-1), a ubiquitous beta-galactoside-binding protein expressed by various normal and pathological tissues, has been implicated in cancer and autoimmune/inflammatory diseases in consequence of its regulatory role in adhesion, cell viability, proliferation, and angiogenesis. The functions of Gal-1 depend on its affinity for beta-galactoside-containing glycoconjugates; accordingly, the inhibition of sugar binding blocks its functions, hence promising potential therapeutic tools. The Tyr-Xxx-Tyr peptide motifs have been reported to be glycomimetic sequences, mainly on the basis of their inhibitory effect on the Gal-1-asialofetuin (ASF) interaction.

Mechanism of tumor cell-induced T-cell apoptosis mediated by galectin-1.

Galectin-1 (Gal-1) has been implicated in tumor progression partly via the induction of T-cell apoptosis. However the mechanism of Gal-1 induced T-cell death was mostly studied using recombinant, soluble Gal-1 producing controversial results. To explore the true mechanism of Gal-1 and hence tumor cell-induced T-cell death, we applied co-cultures of tumor cells and T-cells thus avoiding artificial circumstances generated using recombinant protein.

Expression of immunoregulatory tumor necrosis factor-like molecule TL1A in chicken chondrocyte differentiation.

The proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha is not encoded in the chicken genome. However, 1 member of the TNF family, TNF-like molecule 1A (TL1A), which is an important immunoregulatory protein, has recently been characterized in chickens. In this study, chicken TL1A (chTL1A) and 1 of its receptors, decoy receptor 3 (DcR3) were found to be expressed in developing bone of 14.