In vitro transdifferentiation of corneal epithelial-like cells from human skin-derived precursor cells.

The damage of human corneal cells encounter with the problem of availability of corneal cells for replacement. Limitation of the source of corneal cells has been realized. An attempt of development of corneal epithelial-like cells from the human skin-derived precursor (hSKPs) has been made in this study.

Exploring stemness gene expression and vasculogenic mimicry capacity in well- and poorly-differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines.

Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) is the phenomenon where cancer cells mimic endothelial cells by forming blood vessels. A stem cell-like phenotype has been proposed to be involved in this tumor plasticity. VM seems to correlate with metastasis rate, but there have been no reports on the effects of pro-metastatic and pro-angiogenic factors or hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) on VM formation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells.

Parathyroid hormone enhances osteoblast differentiation from human skin derived precursor cells in vitro.

Parathyroid hormone (PTH), a new effective treatment for osteoporosis patients which promotes the anabolic effect in vivo, can enhance the differentiation of osteoblasts derived from the human skin-derived precursor cells (hSKPs) in vitro culture. This research investigated the effects of PTH by studying the gene expressions and other markers of osteoblast differentiation along with the induction of hSKPs to osteoblast in two experiment groups, i.e.

Juice of eclipta prostrata inhibits cell migration in vitro and exhibits anti-angiogenic activity in vivo.

Background: The invasion of cancer cells is critical for metastasis. The effects of Eclipta prostrata, a Thai medicinal plant, on invasion, migration and adhesion of cancer cells were investigated and the anti-angiogenic activity in vivo was evaluated.

Materials And Methods: In vitro invasion and migration assays were performed in modified Boyden chambers.

Osteoblast differentiation and bone formation gene expression in strontium-inducing bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell.

Osteoblastic differentiation from human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSCs) is an important step of bone formation. We studied the in vitro induction of hMSCs by using strontium ranelate, a natural trace amount in water, food and human skeleton. The mRNA synthesis of various osteoblast specific genes was assessed by means of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

In vitro osteogenesis from human skin-derived precursor cells.

Embryonic tissue and organ development are initiated from three embryonic germ layers: ectoderm (skin and neuron), mesoderm (blood, bone, muscle, cartilage and fat) and endoderm (respiratory and digestive tract). In former times, it was believed that cell types in each germ layer are specific and do not cross from one to another throughout life. A new finding is that one tissue lineage can differentiate across to another tissue lineage, and this is termed transdifferentiation.

Enhanced maturation and proliferation of beta-thalassemia/Hb E erythroid precursor cells in culture.

Upon erythroid cell maturation in vivo, beta-thalassemic erythroid cells accumulate unmatched unstable alpha-globin chains that are believed to be a causal factor in such cell destruction. This study showed that beta-thalassemia/Hb E erythroid precursor cells from peripheral blood had accelerated maturation, and could mature to the terminal erythroid stage. During the early period of cell culture, erythroid precursor cells derived from subjects with the more severe form of beta-thalassemia/Hb E had higher rate of erythroid maturation.

Increased smooth muscle actin expression from bone marrow stromal cells under retinoic acid treatment: an attempt for autologous blood vessel tissue engineering.

Vascular replacement in vital organs is sometimes necessary for human life for example because of atherosclerosis. Blood vessel tissue engineering is applied for autologous transplantations to avoid graft rejections. Stem cells are used for blood vessel tissue engineering because they are the origin of smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells and fibroblasts.