Novel Mechanism for an Old Drug: Phenazopyridine is a Kinase Inhibitor Affecting Autophagy and Cellular Differentiation.

Phenazopyridine is a widely used drug against urinary tract pain. The compound has also been shown to enhance neural differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. However, its mechanism of action is not understood.

Pushing the envelope in tissue engineering: ex vivo production of thick vascularized cardiac extracellular matrix constructs.

Functional vascularization is a prerequisite for cardiac tissue engineering of constructs with physiological thicknesses. We previously reported the successful preservation of main vascular conduits in isolated thick acellular porcine cardiac ventricular ECM (pcECM). We now unveil this scaffold's potential in supporting human cardiomyocytes and promoting new blood vessel development ex vivo, providing long-term cell support in the construct bulk.

Nitric oxide release from polydimethylsiloxane-based polyurethanes.

Localized nitric oxide (NO) release from polymeric materials holds much promise for the prevention of coagulation often associated with implantable and extracorporeal blood-contacting devices. Films of polyurethane (PU) containing incorporated polyethyleneimine were thus exposed to NO gas to form diazeniumdiolates (NONOates) in situ. Donor incorporation and NO gas exposure did not affect the mechanical properties of the films.

A mathematical model for analyzing the elasticity, viscosity, and failure of soft tissue: comparison of native and decellularized porcine cardiac extracellular matrix for tissue engineering.

The clinical success of tissue-engineered constructs commonly requires mechanical properties that closely mimic those of the human tissue. Determining the viscoelastic properties of such biomaterials and the factors governing their failure profiles, however, has proven challenging, although collecting extensive data regarding their tensile behavior is straightforward. The easily calculated Young's modulus remains the most reported mechanical measure, regardless of its limitations, even though single-relaxation-time (SRT) models can provide much more information, which remain scarce due to a lack of manageable tools for implementing these models.

A mathematical model predicting the coculture dynamics of endothelial and mesenchymal stem cells for tissue regeneration.

In most tissue engineering applications, understanding the factors affecting the growth dynamics of coculture systems is crucial for directing the population toward a desirable regenerative process. Yet, no comprehensive analysis method exists to quantify coculture population dynamics, let alone, a unifying model addressing the "environmental" factors influencing cell growth, all together. Here we suggest a modification of the Lotka-Volterra model to analyze the population dynamics of cocultured cells and predict their growth profiles for tissue engineering applications.