Long-term effects of human amniotic membrane in a rat model of biliary fibrosis.

Liver fibrosis is the most common outcome of chronic liver diseases, and its progression to cirrhosis can only be effectively treated with liver transplantation. The amniotic membrane (AM) has been studied as an alternative therapy for fibrosis diseases mainly for its favorable properties, including anti-inflammatory, anti-scaring and immunomodulatory properties. It was recently demonstrated that the AM reduces the progression of biliary fibrosis to its advanced stage, cirrhosis, when applied on the liver for 6 weeks after fibrosis induction.

Amniotic membrane as an option for treatment of acute Achilles tendon injury in rats.

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of human amniotic membrane (hAM) fragment on inflammatory response, proliferation of fibroblast and organization of collagen fibers in injured tendon.

Methods: Sixty rats were divided into 3 groups: C - surgical procedures without tendon lesion and with simulation of hAM application; I - surgical procedures, tendon injury and simulation of hAM application; T - surgical procedures, tendon injury and hAM application. These groups were subdivided into four experimental times (3, 7, 14 and 28 days).

Placental Hypoxia Developed During Preeclampsia Induces Telocytes Apoptosis in Chorionic Villi Affecting The Maternal-Fetus Metabolic Exchange.

Telocytes (TC) are a new type of stromal cells initially found and studied in digestive and extra- digestive organs. These cells have a small cell body with 2 to 5 thin and extremely long cytoplasmic prolongations named telopodes. In recent years, TC have also been described in placental chorionic villi, located in a strategical position between the smooth muscle cells from fetal vessels and the myofibroblasts in the stromal villi.

Enhanced transcriptome maps from multiple mouse tissues reveal evolutionary constraint in gene expression.

Mice have been a long-standing model for human biology and disease. Here we characterize, by RNA sequencing, the transcriptional profiles of a large and heterogeneous collection of mouse tissues, augmenting the mouse transcriptome with thousands of novel transcript candidates. Comparison with transcriptome profiles in human cell lines reveals substantial conservation of transcriptional programmes, and uncovers a distinct class of genes with levels of expression that have been constrained early in vertebrate evolution.