Social Media Addiction, Self-Compassion, and Psychological Well-Being: A Structural Equation Model.

Objective: Research indicates that social media addiction is associated with several psychological consequences, for example, depression. Distressed individuals tend to devote more time to social media, which leads to impairment of daily life. Interestingly, individuals feeling more compassionate toward them tend to devote less time to social media and feel less psychologically distressed.

A comparative analysis of the adipogenic potential in human mesenchymal stromal cells from cord blood and other sources.

Background Aims: Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) from umbilical cord blood (CB) attract attention by significantly impaired or absent adipogenic differentiation compared with MSCs derived from bone marrow (BM) and adipose tissue (AT). The diverging adipogenic propensity between the developmentally younger CB-MSCs and MSCs of the adult AT and BM resembles the age-dependent process in the BM, where adipose tissue increases with advancing age, accompanied by loss of bone stability. Thus, MSCs appeal as an attractive model to study the adipogenic process with respect to tissue sources and developmental ages.

Validation of an automated procedure to isolate human adipose tissue-derived cells by using the Sepax® technology.

The stromal vascular fraction of adipose tissue has gained popularity as a source of autologous progenitor cells for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. The aim of this study was to validate a newly developed, automated procedure to isolate adipose-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (ASCs) from adult human lipoaspirates in a closed and clinical-grade device, based on the Sepax(®) technology. Using a total of 11 donors, this procedure was compared with the standard operator-based manual separation in terms of isolation yield, clonogenic fraction, phenotype, and differentiation potential of ASCs.

Translating research into clinical scale manufacturing of mesenchymal stromal cells.

It sounds simple to obtain sufficient numbers of cells derived from fetal or adult human tissues, isolate and/or expand the stem cells, and then transplant an appropriate number of these cells into the patient at the correct location. However, translating basic research into routine therapies is a complex multistep process which necessitates product regulation. The challenge relates to managing the expected therapeutic benefits with the potential risks and to balance the fast move to clinical trials with time-consuming cautious risk assessment.