Publications by authors named "Olivera Evrova"

The first set of data refers to PAR-2 gene expression with the target gene rbF2rl1 assessed in tenocytes harvested from New Zealand White Rabbits' Achilles tendons. These tenocytes were stimulated with 20 ng/mL platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) and compared to the corresponding cell culture without growth factor PDGF-BB. In addition, three inhibitors were tested.

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Article Synopsis
  • The YAP/Hippo pathway regulates organ growth and helps maintain stem cell function, with LATS kinases playing a critical role by inactivating YAP.
  • A new small-molecule inhibitor, NIBR-LTSi, has been developed that selectively targets LATS kinases, activating YAP signaling and promoting tissue regeneration in laboratory settings.
  • While NIBR-LTSi shows promise by enhancing liver regeneration and supporting stem cell characteristics, prolonged use may lead to excessive cell proliferation and dedifferentiation, which could limit its therapeutic benefits.
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The Hippo/YAP pathway controls cell proliferation through sensing physical and spatial organization of cells. How cell-cell contact is sensed by Hippo signaling is poorly understood. Here, we identified the cell adhesion molecule KIRREL1 as an upstream positive regulator of the mammalian Hippo pathway.

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One great challenge in surgical tendon repair is the minimization of peritendinous adhesions. An electrospun tube can serve as a physical barrier around a conventionally sutured tendon. Six New Zealand White rabbits had one Achilles tendon fully transsected and sutured by a 4-strand suture.

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Liver diseases pose a big global health problem and liver failure may result from viral infection, overnutrition or tumors. Studying pathologic liver tissue demands for accurate and specific histological stainings and immunohistochemical labellings, including chromogenic and fluorescent approaches. Moreover, a reliable set of healthy liver stainings and labellings are required, to provide a baseline or reference for the pathological situation.

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Investigation and studies of pulmonary diseases and injuries require pre-clinical animal models. The rabbit lung model is widely used and allows for a diverse set of readouts. Among them, histology and immunohistochemistry are of invaluable merit because qualitative and quantitative information about tissue morphology and composition can be easily obtained.

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Cell-based tendon therapies with tenocytes as a cell source need effective tenocyte in vitro expansion before application for tendinopathies and tendon injuries. Supplementation of tenocyte culture with biomolecules that can boost proliferation and matrix synthesis is one viable option for supporting cell expansion. In this in vitro study, the impacts of ascorbic acid or PDGF-BB supplementation on rabbit Achilles tenocyte culture were studied.

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A major problem after tendon laceration is the low mechanical strength of the repaired tissue. One viable strategy for improving the functional and biomechanical properties of ruptured and repaired tendons is the delivery of growth factors at the injury site. Here, bioactive and reversibly expandable double-layered emulsion and coaxially electrospun tubes made from biodegradable DegraPol® (DP) (polyester urethane), delivering platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB), are explored as implants to improve tendon healing in a rabbit Achilles tendon full laceration model.

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To effectively translate bioactive scaffolds into a preclinical setting, proper sterilization techniques and storage conditions need to be carefully considered, as the chosen sterilization technique and storage condition might affect the structural and mechanical properties of the scaffolds, as well as the bioactivity and release kinetics of the incorporated biomolecules. Since rarely tested or quantified, we show here in a proof-of-concept study how these parameters are affected by UV sterilization and one week storage at different temperatures using bioactive electrospun DegraPol scaffolds that were specifically designed for application in the field of tendon rupture repair. Even though UV sterilization and the different storage conditions did not impact the morphology or the physicochemical properties of the bioactive scaffolds, UV sterilization caused significant attenuation of the growth factor release kinetics, here platelet derived growth factor (PDGF-BB) release (by approx.

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Current methods for tendon rupture repair suffer from two main drawbacks: insufficient strength and adhesion formation, which lead to rerupture and impaired gliding. A novel polymer tube may help to overcome these problems by allowing growth factor delivery to the wound site and adhesion reduction, and by acting as a physical barrier to the surrounding tissue. In this study, we used a bilayered DegraPol tube to deliver PDGF-BB to the wound site in a full-transection rabbit Achilles tendon model.

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While cell therapy has been proposed as next-generation therapy to treat the diseased heart, current strategies display only limited clinical efficacy. Besides the ongoing quest for the ideal cell type, in particular the very low retention rate of single-cell (SC) suspensions after delivery remains a major problem. To improve cellular retention, cellular self-assembly into 3D microtissues (MTs) prior to transplantation has emerged as an encouraging alternative.

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In native tissues, cellular organization is predominantly anisotropic. Yet, it remains a challenge to engineer anisotropic scaffolds that promote anisotropic cellular organization at macroscopic length scales. To overcome this challenge, an innovative, cheap and easy method to align clinically approved non-woven surgical microfibrillar scaffolds is presented.

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Cellular responses are regulated by their microenvironments, and engineered synthetic scaffolds can offer control over different microenvironment properties. This important relationship can be used as a tool to manipulate cell fate and cell responses for different biomedical applications. We show for the first time in this study how blending of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) to poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) fibers to yield hybrid scaffolds changes the physical and mechanical properties of PLGA fibrous scaffolds and in turn affects cellular response.

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Healing of tendon ruptures represents a major challenge in musculoskeletal injuries and combinations of biomaterials with biological factors are suggested as viable option for improved healing. The standard approach of repair by conventional suture leads to incomplete healing or rerupture. Here, a new elastic type of DegraPol® (DP), a polyester urethane, is explored as a delivery device for platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) to promote tendon healing.

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