Application of Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Schwann Cell-like Cells Spared Neuromuscular Junctions and Enhanced Functional Recovery After Peripheral Nerve Injury.

In general, the nerve cells of the peripheral nervous system regenerate normally within a certain period after the physical damage of their axon. However, when peripheral nerves are transected by trauma or tissue extraction for cancer treatment, spontaneous nerve regeneration cannot occur. Therefore, it is necessary to perform microsurgery to connect the transected nerve directly or insert a nerve conduit to connect it.

Graphene-enabled laser lift-off for ultrathin displays.

Laser lift-off (LLO) of ultrathin polyimide (PI) films is important in the manufacturing of ultrathin displays. However, conventional LLO technologies face challenges in separating the ultrathin PI films without causing mechanical and electrical damage to integrated devices. Here, we propose a graphene-enabled laser lift-off (GLLO) method to address the challenges.

Therapeutic Effect of Schwann Cell-Like Cells Differentiated from Human Tonsil-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Diabetic Neuropathy in db/db Mice.

Background: Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is the most common complication of diabetes, and approximately 50% of patients with this disease suffer from peripheral neuropathy. Nerve fiber loss in DN occurs due to myelin defects and is characterized by symptoms of impaired nerve function. Schwann cells (SCs) are the main support cells of the peripheral nervous system and play important roles in several pathways contributing to the pathogenesis and development of DN.

Preclinical Efficacy of Peripheral Nerve Regeneration by Schwann Cell-like Cells Differentiated from Human Tonsil-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in C22 Mice.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is a hereditary disease with heterogeneous phenotypes and genetic causes. CMT type 1A (CMT1A) is a type of disease affecting the peripheral nerves and is caused by the duplication of the peripheral myelin protein 22 () gene. Human tonsil-derived mesenchymal stem cells (TMSCs) are useful for stem cell therapy in various diseases and can be differentiated into Schwann cell-like cells (TMSC-SCs).

Therapeutic Extracellular Vesicles from Tonsil-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells for the Treatment of Retinal Degenerative Disease.

Background: Retinal degenerative disease (RDD), one of the most common causes of blindness, is predominantly caused by the gradual death of retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPEs) and photoreceptors due to various causes. Cell-based therapies, such as stem cell implantation, have been developed for the treatment of RDD, but potential risks, including teratogenicity and immune reactions, have hampered their clinical application. Stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) have recently emerged as a cell-free alternative therapeutic strategy; however, additional invasiveness and low yield of the stem cell extraction process is problematic.

Disparity-selective stereo matching using correlation confidence measure.

Recently, the cost-volume filtering (CVF) methods for local stereo matching have provided fast and accurate results compared to those of the other method. However, CVF still causes incorrect results in the occlusion and texture-free regions. In particular, cost aggregation by pixel units involves complex computation because of its dependence on the image resolution and search range.

Patchmatch-Based Robust Stereo Matching Under Radiometric Changes.

In the real world, the two challenges of stereo vision system include a robust system under various radiometric changes and real-time process. To extract depth information from stereoscopic images, this paper proposes Patchmatch-based robust and fast stereo matching under radiometric changes. For this, a cost function was designed and minimized for estimating an accurate disparity map.

Adoptive immunotherapy of human gastric cancer with ex vivo expanded T cells.

Surgical resection of gastric cancer has made significant progress, but majority of patients with advanced gastric cancer face relapse and die within five years. In this study, the antitumor activity of ex vivo expanded T cells against the human gastric cancer was evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells were cultured with IL-2-containing medium in anti-CD3 antibody-coated flasks for 5 days, followed by incubation in IL-2-containing medium for 9 days.

Synergistic therapeutic effects of cytokine-induced killer cells and temozolomide against glioblastoma.

The presence of active immunity within the brain supports the possibility of effective immunotherapy for glioblastoma (GBM). To provide a clinically-relevant adoptive immunotherapy for GBM using ex vivo expanded cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells, the treatment capability of CIK cells, either alone or in combination with temozolomide (TMZ) were evaluated. Human CIK (hCIK) cells were cultured from PBMC using activating anti-CD3 antibody and IL-2, which were 99% CD3+, 91% CD3+CD8+ and 29% CD3+CD56+.

Antitumor activity of cytokine-induced killer cells in nude mouse xenograft model.

Malignant glioma is the most common primary brain tumor in adults and the median survival for patients is less than a year. Despite aggressive treatments including surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, only modest improvement has been achieved in the survival of patients with glioma. In this study, the antitumor activity of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells against human glioma cancer was evaluated in vitro and in vivo.

Inhibition of human cervical carcinoma growth by cytokine-induced killer cells in nude mouse xenograft model.

Cervical cancer is a major cause of cancer mortality in women worldwide and is an important public health problem for adult women in developing countries. Despite aggressive treatment with surgery and chemoradiation, the outcomes for cervical cancer patients remain poor. In this study, the antitumor activity of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells against human cervical cancer was evaluated in vitro and in vivo.

Antitumor activity of cytokine-induced killer cells against human lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death among men and women in the world. Despite the aggressive treatment with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, the long term survival for lung cancer patients remains low. In this study, the anti-tumor activity of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells against human lung cancer was evaluated in vitro and in vivo.

Identification of residues which regulate activity of the STE20-related kinase hMINK.

Activity of the STE20-related kinase hMINK was investigated. hMINK was expressed widely, though not ubiquitously, in human tissues; highest levels being found in haematopoietic tissues but also in brain, placenta, and lung. Mutagenesis revealed that T(191) and Y(193) in the substrate recognition loop of the catalytic domain were critical for kinase activity against exogenous substrates and autophosphorylation.