Osteochondral Tissue-On-a-Chip: A Novel Model for Osteoarthritis Research.

The existing in vitro and in vivo models for studying osteoarthritis have significant limitations in replicating the complexity of joint tissues. This research aims to validate a Tissue-On-a-Chip system for osteoarthritis research. Osteochondral tissues obtained from knee replacement surgeries of patients with osteoarthritis were cultured in an Organ-On-a-Chip system.

Dysregulation of Glypicans and Notum in Osteoarthritis: Plasma Levels, Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stromal Cells and Osteoblasts.

In this study of the alterations of Glypicans 1 to 6 (GPCs) and Notum in plasma, bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-MSCs) and osteoblasts in Osteoarthritis (OA), the levels of GPCs and Notum in the plasma of 25 patients and 24 healthy subjects were measured. In addition, BM-MSCs from eight OA patients and eight healthy donors were cultured over a period of 21 days using both a culture medium and an osteogenic medium. Protein and gene expression levels of GPCs and Notum were determined using ELISA and qPCR at 0, 7, 14 and 21 days.

Hypoxia increases the yield of photoreceptors differentiating from mouse embryonic stem cells and improves the modeling of retinogenesis in vitro.

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a genetically heterogeneous group of diseases together with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), are the leading causes of permanent blindness and are characterized by the progressive dysfunction and death of the light sensing photoreceptors of the retina. Due to the limited regeneration capacity of the mammalian retina, the scientific community has invested significantly in trying to obtain retinal progenitor cells from embryonic stem cells (ESC). These represent an unlimited source of retinal cells, but it has not yet been possible to achieve specific populations, such as photoreceptors, efficiently enough to allow them to be used safely in the future as cell therapy of RP or AMD.