Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells reverse depression in rats induced by chronic unpredictable mild stress combined with lipopolysaccharide.

Background: Inflammation and oxidative stress are considered crucial to the pathogenesis of depression. Rat models of depression can be created by combined treatments of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Behaviors associated with depression could be improved by treatment with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) owing to immunomodulatory functions of the cells.

Generation of Sheep Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells With Defined DOX-Inducible Transcription Factors Transposition.

Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) have the potential to differentiate to all cell types of an adult individual and are useful for studying mammalian development. Establishing induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) capable of expressing pluripotent genes and differentiating to three germ layers will not only help to explain the mechanisms underlying somatic reprogramming but also lay the foundation for the establishment of sheep embryonic stem cells (ESCs) . In this study, sheep somatic cells were reprogrammed into sheep iPSCs with stable morphology, pluripotent marker expression, and differentiation ability, delivered by transposon system with eight doxycycline (DOX)-inducible exogenous reprogramming factors: bovine OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, cMYC, porcine NANOG, human LIN28, SV40 large T antigen, and human TERT.

The lamellar structure and biomimetic properties of a fish scale matrix.

The chemical composition of scaffolds is similar to the extracellular matrix of the target tissue, but sometimes scaffolds cannot meet the special functional requirements for the initial stage of engineering tissue, such as mechanical and optical properties. Bionic scaffolds require certain levels of supramolecular structure, textile structure and liquid crystal structure. Here, we will focus our attention on animal tissues with a similar high-level structure to that of the target organization and we hope to achieve the desired results through new technical means.

Correlation between ubiquitination and defects of bull spermatozoa and removal of defective spermatozoa using anti-ubiquitin antibody-coated magnetized beads.

Ubiquitination is an important cellular process in spermatogenesis and involves the regulation of spermatid differentiation and spermiogenesis. In the current study, the correlation between bull sperm ubiquitination and sperm defects was analyzed, and the feasibility using anti-ubiquitin specific antibody immobilized magnetic beads to remove the spermatozoa with defects was assessed. A total of nine bulls were examined, and the amount of sperm ubiquitination ranged from 55 to 151.

Contribution of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Chimeras through Injection and Coculture of Embryos.

Blastocyst injection and morula aggregation are commonly used to evaluate stem cell pluripotency based on chimeric contribution of the stem cells. To assess the protocols for generating chimeras from stem cells, 8-cell mouse embryos were either injected or cocultured with mouse embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, respectively. Although a significantly higher chimera rate resulted from blastocyst injection, the highest germline contribution resulted from injection of 8-cell embryos with embryonic stem cells.

Optimisation of an oviposition protocol employing human chorionic and pregnant mare serum gonadotropins in the barred frog Mixophyes fasciolatus (Myobatrachidae).

Background: Protocols for the hormonal induction of ovulation and oviposition are essential tools for managing threatened amphibians with assisted reproduction, but responses vary greatly between species and even broad taxon groups. Consequently, it is necessary to assess effectiveness of such protocols in representative species when new taxa become targets for induction. The threatened genus Mixophyes (family Myobatrachidae) has amongst the highest proportion of endangered species of all the Australian amphibians.

Reprogramming factors involved in hybrids and cybrids of human embryonic stem cells fused with hepatocytes.

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have the potential to reprogram somatic cells into ESC-like cells through cell fusion. In the present study, the potential of human (h)ESC cytoplasts and karyoplasts to reprogram human hepatocytes was evaluated. Green fluorescent protein (GFP) transfected hESCs (ENVY cells) were fused with SNARF-1 (CellTracker)-labeled human hepatocytes using polyethylene glycol (PEG) and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to produce hESC-hepatocyte hybrids.

In vitro development of goat parthenogenetic and somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos derived from different activation protocols.

Oocyte activation is an essential step in animal cloning to allow subsequent development of the reconstructed embryos. A special activation protocol is required for different animal species. The present study investigated low temperature, electrical pulses, ethanol, ionomycin and strontium for goat oocyte activation in order to optimize the protocols.

Cloned goats (Capra hircus) from adult ear cells.

The average number of available oocytes recovered per ovary collected during the breeding season in dairy goats was 5.5 (1815/330). 66.

Interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer and preliminary data for horse-cow/mouse iSCNT.

Nuclear transfer (NT) experiments in mammals have demonstrated that adult cells are genetically equivalent to early embryonic cells and the reversal of the differentiated state of a cell to another that has characteristics of the undifferentiated embryonic state can be defined as nuclear reprogramming. The feasibility of interspecies somatic cell NT (iSCNT) has been demonstrated by blastocyst formation and the production of offspring in a number of studies. Embryo and oocyte availability is a major limiting factor in conducting NT to obtain, blastocysts for both reproductive NT studies in genetically endangered animals and in embryonic stem cell derivation for species such as the horse and human.

[Optimization of parameters of exogene transfection of bovine fetal fibroblasts in vitro mediated by liposome].

pEGFP-C1 eucaryon expression vector was successfully transfected by liposome into bovine fetal fibroblasts. We investigated the effect of parameter such as the dose of DNA and liposome,number of cell transfected and exposure time of the cell to the DNA-liposome complexes. It was indicated that GFP (green fluorescent protein) expression was enhanced as the dose of DNA and liposome increased and on decline as the exposure time was prolonged.

Birth of rats following nuclear exchange at the 2-cell stage.

We report full-term development of nuclear transfer embryos following nuclear exchange at the 2-cell stage. Nuclei from 2-cell rat embryos were transferred into enucleated 2-cell embryos and developed to term after transfer to recipients (NT2). Pronuclear exchange in zygotes was used for comparison (NT1).