Identification of Human Breast Adipose Tissue Progenitors Displaying Distinct Differentiation Potentials and Interactions with Cancer Cells.

Breast adipose tissue (AT) participates in the physiological evolution and remodeling of the mammary gland due to its high plasticity. It is also a favorable microenvironment for breast cancer progression. However, information on the properties of human breast adipose progenitor cells (APCs) involved in breast physiology or pathology is scant.

Visceral fat inflammation and fat embolism are associated with lung's lipidic hyaline membranes in subjects with COVID-19.

Background: Preliminary data suggested that fat embolism could explain the importance of visceral obesity as a critical determinant of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).

Methods: We performed a comprehensive histomorphologic analysis of autoptic visceral adipose tissue (VAT), lungs and livers of 19 subjects with COVID-19 (COVID-19+), and 23 people without COVID-19 (controls). Human adipocytes (hMADS) infected with SARS-CoV-2 were also studied.

Comparison Between Transcranial Color-Coded Duplex Doppler and Contrast Enhanced Transcranial Color-Coded Duplex Doppler After Subarachnoid Aneurysmal Hemorrhage.

Background: Transcranial color-coded duplex Doppler (TCCD) is commonly used to detect and monitor vasospasm in subarachnoid aneurysmal hemorrhage (aSAH). However, contrast enhanced TCCD (CE-TCCD) may be more effective. The objective of this study was to compare the accuracy of TCCD and CE-TCCD in the detection of vasospasm.

Distinct Shades of Adipocytes Control the Metabolic Roles of Adipose Tissues: From Their Origins to Their Relevance for Medical Applications.

Adipose tissue resides in specific depots scattered in peripheral or deeper locations all over the body and it enwraps most of the organs. This tissue is always in a dynamic evolution as it must adapt to the metabolic demand and constraints. It exhibits also endocrine functions important to regulate energy homeostasis.

The Primary Cilium of Adipose Progenitors Is Necessary for Their Differentiation into Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts that Promote Migration of Breast Cancer Cells In Vitro.

Cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are central elements of the microenvironment that control tumor development. In breast cancer, CAFs can originate from adipose progenitors (APs). We, and others, have shown that the primary cilium, an antenna-shaped organelle, controls several aspects of APs' biology.

Breast cancer mammospheres secrete Adrenomedullin to induce lipolysis and browning of adjacent adipocytes.

Background: Cancer cells cooperate with cells that compose their environment to promote tumor growth and invasion. Among them, adipocytes provide lipids used as a source of energy by cancer cells and adipokines that contribute to tumor expansion. Mechanisms supporting the dynamic interactions between cancer cells and stromal adipocytes, however, remain unclear.

Resveratrol and HIV-protease inhibitors control UCP1 expression through opposite effects on p38 MAPK phosphorylation in human adipocytes.

Brown and brown-like adipocytes (BBAs) control thermogenesis and are detected in adult humans. They express UCP1, which transforms energy into heat. They appear as promising cells to fight obesity.

Impairment of the activin A autocrine loop by lopinavir reduces self-renewal of distinct human adipose progenitors.

Maintenance of the adipose tissue requires a proper balance between self-renewal and differentiation of adipose progenitors (AP). Any deregulation leads either to fat overexpansion and obesity or fat loss and consequent lipodystrophies. Depending on the fat pad location, APs and adipocytes are heterogeneous.

Brown-like adipose progenitors derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells: Identification of critical pathways governing their adipogenic capacity.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) show great promise for obesity treatment as they represent an unlimited source of brown/brite adipose progenitors (BAPs). However, hiPSC-BAPs display a low adipogenic capacity compared to adult-BAPs when maintained in a traditional adipogenic cocktail. The reasons of this feature are unknown and hamper their use both in cell-based therapy and basic research.

Spontaneous Regression of a Third Ventricle Colloid Cyst.

Background: Colloid cysts represent 0.5%-1% of intracranial tumors and most commonly occur in the third ventricle near the Monro foramen. Although benign, if the lesion obstructs the foramen abruptly, sudden death may ensue.

IER3 Promotes Expansion of Adipose Progenitor Cells in Response to Changes in Distinct Microenvironmental Effectors.

Adipose tissue expansion is well-orchestrated to fulfill the energy demand. It results from adipocyte hypertrophy and hyperplasia due to adipose progenitor cell (APC) expansion and differentiation. Chronic low grade inflammation and hypoxia take place in obese adipose tissue microenvironment.

Imaging of cervical artery dissection.

Cervical artery dissection (CAD) may affect the internal carotid and/or the vertebral arteries. CAD is the leading cause of ischemic stroke in patients younger than 45 years. Specific treatment (aspirin or anticoagulants) can be implemented once the diagnosis of CAD has been confirmed.

Non-invasive diagnosis of intracranial aneurysms.

Patients need to be examined for intracranial aneurysms if they have had a subarachnoid hemorrhage. The preferred technique in this situation is CT angiography. Screening can be done for familial forms or for elastic tissue disorders, for which the first line investigation is magnetic resonance angiography.

Targeting cancer stem cells expressing an embryonic signature with anti-proteases to decrease their tumor potential.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a specific subset of cancer cells that sustain tumor growth and dissemination. They might represent a significant treatment target to reduce malignant progression and prevent tumor recurrence. In solid tumors, several hierarchically organized CSC clones coexist, even within a single tumor.

Regulators of human adipose-derived stem cell self-renewal.

Adipose tissue is an alternative source of mesenchymal stem cells and human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) display an attractive and substantial therapeutic potential when transplanted in animal models. To this end, an understanding of ASC biology is necessary and the knowledge of mechanisms that maintain ASCs in an undifferentiated state with no loss of differentiation potential during ex vivo expansion represents a crucial step. However, these mechanisms remain to be identified because appropriate human cellular models are scant.

Self-renewal gene tracking to identify tumour-initiating cells associated with metastatic potential.

Tumour-initiating cells (TICs) are rare cancer cells isolated from tumours of different origins including high-grade tumours that sustain neoplasic progression and development of metastatic disease. They harbour deregulated stem cells pathways and exhibit an unchecked ability to self-renew, a property essential for tumour progression. Among the essential factors maintaining embryonic stem (ES) cells properties, OCT-4 (also known as POU5F1) has been detected in tumours of different origins.

Activin a plays a critical role in proliferation and differentiation of human adipose progenitors.

Objective: Growth of white adipose tissue takes place in normal development and in obesity. A pool of adipose progenitors is responsible for the formation of new adipocytes and for the potential of this tissue to expand in response to chronic energy overload. However, factors controlling self-renewal of human adipose progenitors are largely unknown.

Lopinavir co-induces insulin resistance and ER stress in human adipocytes.

HIV-protease inhibitors (PIs) markedly decreased mortality of HIV-infected patients. However, their use has been associated with occurence of metabolic abnormalities the causes of which are not well understood. We report here that lopinavir, one of the most prescribed PI, dose-dependently co-induced insulin resistance and ER stress in human adipocytes obtained from differentiation of precursor cells.

Cloning of hOST-PTP: the only example of a protein-tyrosine-phosphatase the function of which has been lost between rodent and human.

Protein-tyrosine-phosphatases (PTP-ases), in concert with protein tyrosine kinases, control various biological activities such as cell growth and differentiation. In rodents, around 40 PTP-ases have been described. Functional orthologue for each of these PTP-ases have been identified in human, except for OST-PTP.

Absence of a reductase, NCB5OR, causes insulin-deficient diabetes.

NCB5OR is a highly conserved NAD(P)H reductase that contains a cytochrome b5-like domain at the N terminus and a cytochrome b5 reductase-like domain at the C terminus. The enzyme is located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and is widely expressed in organs and tissues. Targeted inactivation of this gene in mice has no impact on embryonic or fetal viability.

NCB5OR is a novel soluble NAD(P)H reductase localized in the endoplasmic reticulum.

The NAD(P)H cytochrome b5 oxidoreductase, Ncb5or (previously named b5+b5R), is widely expressed in human tissues and broadly distributed among the animal kingdom. NCB5OR is the first example of an animal flavohemoprotein containing cytochrome b5 and chrome b5 reductase cytodomains. We initially reported human NCB5OR to be a 487-residue soluble protein that reduces cytochrome c, methemoglobin, ferricyanide, and molecular oxygen in vitro.

Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor-b in human astrocytoma.

Growth of human malignant gliomas is stringently dependent on an angiogenic process that probably involves vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Expressions of mRNA coding for the different forms of VEGF were analyzed in surgical specimens from human astrocytomas. Low levels of placental growth factor (PGF) and VEGFC mRNA were observed in polymerase chain reaction, but not in Northern blot experiments.

Coordinated Up-regulation by hypoxia of adrenomedullin and one of its putative receptors (RDC-1) in cells of the rat blood-brain barrier.

Adrenomedullin (ADM) is a potent hypotensive peptide, which is produced during sepsis and ischemia. We demonstrate here that hypoxia induced a time-dependent increase of both ADM mRNA and protein expressions in cultured astrocytes and endothelial cells from rat brain microvessels. Gene reporter analyses showed a 2-fold increase in ADM gene transcription which was suppressed when the ADM promoter was deleted of its hypoxia responsive element.

Vascular endothelial growth factors and angiogenesis.

VEGF was discovered in 1989. Research -conducted over the past 10 years has -demonstrated that VEGF is a major regulator of angiogenesis and vasculogenesis. This paper reviews the molecular data on the multiple forms of VEGF, their signalling and accessory receptors.