Adipose Tissue is A Better Source of Immature Non-Hematopoietic Cells than Bone Marrow.

Adipose tissue (AT) is an alternative source of the adult stem cells that can also be harvested from bone marrow (BM). Cultured AT-derived stem cells (ASCs) have been well characterized by many groups. However, non-cultured ASCs remain to be characterized.

An 8-year-old boy with vertebral artery dissection with cerebellar ataxia featuring suspected vertebral artery hypoplasia.

We report an 8-year-old boy with left vertebral artery dissection featuring cerebellar ataxia in which congenital vertebral artery hypoplasia was suspected as a predisposing factor in the dissection. The patient suddenly suffered from vertigo and vomiting while swimming, and he was brought to our department. The initial brain Computed Tomography (CT) demonstrated no abnormalities, and his symptoms disappeared the next morning.

Management of a suprasellar arachnoid cyst identified using prenatal sonography.

We present a rare case of suprasellar arachnoid cyst discovered incidentally on routine fetal sonographic examination. Serial sonographic and MRI scanning led to a prenatal diagnosis and appropriate endoscopic treatment at 5 months of age. The patient is currently developing normally at 3 years of age.

Differential expression of GABA(A) receptor subunits in the distinct nuclei of the rat amygdala.

Detailed knowledge of the anatomical distribution of different GABA(A) receptor subunits is crucial for understanding the physiological actions of GABA in individual brain areas and for developing drugs acting through the individual GABA receptor subtypes. Since the amygdala is a key brain structure in the processing of emotional information with distinct functions in each nucleus, GABA(A) receptors in the amygdala are an important target of treatment for emotional disorders. In this study, we analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR the expression levels of all GABA(A) receptor subunits in distinct nuclei of the amygdala, the central (Ce) and the lateral/basolateral (LA/BLA) amygdala.

Neural differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells isolated from GFP transgenic mice.

Taking advantage of homogeneously marked cells from green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgenic mice, we have recently reported that adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs) could differentiate into mesenchymal lineages in vitro. In this study, we performed neural induction using ASCs from GFP transgenic mice and were able to induce these ASCs into neuronal and glial cell lineages. Most of the neurally induced cells showed bipolar or multipolar appearance morphologically and expressed neuronal markers.