Publications by authors named "Mayssam Moussa"

Microglia, the resident phagocytes of the central nervous system and one of the key modulators of the innate immune system, have been shown to play a major role in brain insults. Upon activation in response to neuroinflammation, microglia promote the release of inflammatory mediators as well as promote phagocytosis. Plasma prekallikrein (PKall) has been recently implicated as a mediator of neuroinflammation; nevertheless, its role in mediating microglial activation has not been investigated yet.

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Article Synopsis
  • Hepatic injury from cell death and inflammation can lead to liver disease, but the exact processes involved are not fully understood.
  • The study investigates the role of the plasma kallikrein-kinin system (PKKS) in liver injury, including its effects on liver cells and related gene expressions in mice and human liver cancer cells (HepG2).
  • Results show that plasma kallikrein is upregulated during acute liver injury and may contribute to cell proliferation and inflammatory responses, suggesting it could be a potential target for treating liver injury.
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Among the primary contributors to cardiovascular diseases are inflammation and oxidative imbalance within the vessel walls as well as the fibrosis of rat aortic smooth muscle cell (RASMC). Bradykinin (BK) and leptin are inflammatory modulators that are linked to vascular injury. In this study, we employed tandem LC-MS/MS to identify protein signatures that encompass protein abundance in RASMC treated with BK or leptin followed by systems biology analyses to gain insight into the biological pathways and processes linked to vascular remodeling.

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Dickkopf-1 (DKK1), an inhibitor of the most frequently impaired signaling pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway, seems to fulfill contradictory functions in the process of tumorigenesis, acting either as an oncogenic promoter of metastasis or as a tumor suppressor. Elevated serum levels of DKK1 have been reported in HCC; however, little is known about its functional significance. In the current study, we treated HepG2/C3A and PLC/PRF/5 with the recombinant protein DKK1.

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Background And Objectives: Oxidative stress (OS) is known to be an important factor of male infertility. Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AD-MSCs) are known to have immune-modulatory and anti-oxidant effects through their secretions, hence raising the idea of their potential benefit to improve sperm parameters. This study aims at investigating the effect of AD-MSCs conditioned medium (CM) on human sperm parameters in the presence and absence of HO-induced OS.

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Aim: To investigate the effect of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) and their conditioned media (CM) on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell tumorigenesis.

Methods: The proliferation rate of HepG2 and PLC-PRF-5 HCC cancer cells was measured using the trypan blue exclusion method and confirmed using the cell-counting kit 8 (commonly known as CCK-8) assay. Apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry using annexin V-FITC.

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Objectives: Autophagy constitutes a defense mechanism to overcome aging and apoptosis in osteoarthritic cartilage. Several cytokines and transcription factors are linked to autophagy and play an important role in the degradative cascade in osteoarthritis (OA). Cell therapy such as platelet rich plasma (PRP) has recently emerged as a promising therapeutic tool for many diseases including OA.

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The use of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC) in regenerative medicine is rising due to their plasticity, capacity of differentiation and paracrine and trophic effects. Despite the large number of cells obtained from adipose tissue, it is usually not enough for therapeutic purposes for many diseases or cosmetic procedures. Thus, there is the need for culturing and expanding cells in-vitro for several weeks remain.

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Introduction: Local inflammation plays a role in the pathophysiology of osteoarthritis (OA) and chemokines exert catabolic effects on articular cartilage either through paracrine and/or autocrine mechanisms. We sought to compare the expression levels of the chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 20 (CCL20) and its chemokine receptor 6 (CCR6) in donor and osteoarthritic (OA) cartilage and to investigate the role of CCL20 in the pathogenesis of OA and chondrocyte phenotype.

Methods: Cartilage/chondrocytes from donor and OA knee joints was analyzed for CCL20 and CCR6 expression by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry.

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