Publications by authors named "K Konstantopoulos"
Article Synopsis
- Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) react to mechanical stimuli like stiffness and fluid viscosity, which impacts their behavior.
- In environments with high fluid viscosity, hMSCs favor an osteogenic (bone-forming) phenotype over an adipogenic (fat-forming) one by altering their actin structure and enhancing cellular activities.
- This research highlights fluid viscosity as an important factor that not only influences hMSC differentiation but also encourages a more immunosuppressive M2 macrophage phenotype.
PIEZO1 (piezo-type mechanosensitive ion channel component 1) is a mechanosensitive ion channel protein. Gain-of-function variants in the gene are known to cause dehydrated hereditary stomatocytosis (DHS) also termed hereditary xerocytosis. This is a rare autosomal dominant condition characterized by variable-degree anemia with a tendency toward hemolysis, erythrocyte dehydration and iron overload.
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- Mammalian cells adapt to environmental changes by adjusting water and ion fluxes, which affects cell volume, and this process is influenced by actomyosin activity.
- Elevated actomyosin activity leads to an increase in cell volume in normal-like cells through its interaction with the sodium-hydrogen exchanger isoform 1 (NHE1), resulting in a secondary volume increase after an initial decrease during hypotonic stress.
- This process involves mechanical deformation of the nucleus, causing changes in gene expression and growth inhibition, and is often absent in cancer cells or those with less active actomyosin, indicating that actomyosin serves more as a sensor of environmental conditions rather than just a force generator.
The Children's Color Trail Test (CCTT) is considered a culture fair equivalent of the Trail Making Test for the assessment of cognitive flexibility in pediatric populations, while others emphasize its additional validity as a measure of attention, perceptual tracking, processing speed, susceptibility to interference and inhibition. The need for standardized neuropsychological tests in Greece, especially for the pediatric population is significant. In the present study, considering the relatively good psychometric properties of the CCTT and its wide cross-cultural application, we decided that such a tool would be useful to Greek clinicians and researchers, and therefore developed norms for the Greek child and adolescent population.
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- The study explores how cells in a primary tumor break off to form metastases, focusing on the factors influencing whether they dissociate as single cells or small groups.
- Experimental results indicate that while single-cell breakaway is more common, wider channels can lead to larger groups of cells breaking off.
- A simulation model identifies the importance of cell-channel adhesion and chemotaxis in this process, suggesting that stronger adhesion results in fewer, but larger, ruptures, and that unjamming is a necessary factor for cell dissociation, although it alone does not guarantee it.