Relationships between spatiotemporal and kinematic domains during treadmill gait change across adulthood.

Background: Spatiotemporal and kinematic variables during gait undergo characteristic changes with aging. However, the relationships between these domains, and how these change with aging, have not been extensively investigated.

Research Question: How does age affect relationships between spatiotemporal and joint/segment range-of-motion variables during treadmill gait?

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a motion capture system tracked 60 participants (20-80 years old), walking at self-selected and slow speeds on a treadmill.

Targeting 17β-estradiol biosynthesis in neural stem cells improves stroke outcome.

Dax-1 (dosage-sensitive sex reversal adrenal hypoplasia congenital region on X-chromosome gene 1) blocks 17β-estradiol biosynthesis and its knockdown would be expected to increase 17β-estradiol production. We hypothesized that knockdown of Dax-1 in a conditionally immortalized neural stem cell (NSC) line, MHP36, is a useful approach to increase 17β-estradiol production. Short hairpin (sh) RNA targeted to in NSCs, namely MHP36-Dax1KD cells, resulted in the degradation of RNA and attenuation of Dax-1 protein expression.

Towards clinical translation of 'second-generation' regenerative stroke therapies: hydrogels as game changers?

Stroke is an unmet clinical need with a paucity of treatments, at least in part because chronic stroke pathologies are prohibitive to 'first-generation' stem cell-based therapies. Hydrogels can remodel the hostile stroke microenvironment to aid endogenous and exogenous regenerative repair processes. However, no clinical trials have yet been successfully commissioned for these 'second-generation' hydrogel-based therapies for chronic ischaemic stroke regeneration.

The innate immune response of self-assembling silk fibroin hydrogels.

Silk has a long track record of use in humans, and recent advances in silk fibroin processing have opened up new material formats. However, these new formats and their applications have subsequently created a need to ascertain their biocompatibility. Therefore, the present aim was to quantify the haemocompatibility and inflammatory response of silk fibroin hydrogels.

Silk Hydrogel Substrate Stress Relaxation Primes Mesenchymal Stem Cell Behavior in 2D.

Tissue-mimetic silk hydrogels are being explored for diverse healthcare applications, including stem cell delivery. However, the impact of stress relaxation of silk hydrogels on human mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) biology is poorly defined. The aim of this study was to fabricate silk hydrogels with tuned mechanical properties that allowed the regulation of MSC biology in two dimensions.