Publications by authors named "Rana Abou-Khalil"

Over recent years, tremendous advances in immunotherapy approaches have been observed, generating significant clinical progress. Cancer immunotherapy has been shown, in different types of blood cancers, to improve the overall survival of patients. Immunotherapy treatment of hematopoietic malignancies is a newly growing field that has been accelerating over the past years.

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The periosteum covering the outer surface of bone contains skeletal stem/progenitor cells that can efficiently form cartilage and bone during bone repair. Several methods have been described to isolate periosteal cells based on bone scraping and/or enzymatic digestion. Here, we describe an explant culture method to isolate periosteum-derived stem/progenitor cells for subsequent and analyses.

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Renal capsule transplantation is a very helpful method to grow embryonic tissues or tumors in a vascular environment, allowing for long-term engraftment and biological analyses. This chapter describes the surgical procedure for the transplantation of embryonic skeletal elements in the renal capsule of adult mice and points out the manipulations that can be applied for assaying the role of angiogenesis during bone development and repair.

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Bone regeneration relies on the activation of skeletal stem cells (SSCs) that still remain poorly characterized. Here, we show that periosteum contains SSCs with high bone regenerative potential compared to bone marrow stromal cells/skeletal stem cells (BMSCs) in mice. Although periosteal cells (PCs) and BMSCs are derived from a common embryonic mesenchymal lineage, postnatally PCs exhibit greater clonogenicity, growth and differentiation capacity than BMSCs.

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In skeletal muscle, new functions for vessels have recently emerged beyond oxygen and nutrient supply, through the interactions that vascular cells establish with muscle stem cells. Here, we demonstrate in human and mouse that endothelial cells (ECs) and myogenic progenitor cells (MPCs) interacted together to couple myogenesis and angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo during skeletal muscle regeneration. Kinetics of gene expression of ECs and MPCs sorted at different time points of regeneration identified three effectors secreted by both ECs and MPCs.

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To ensure accurate genomic segregation, cells evolved the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC), whose role in adult stem cells remains unknown. Inducible perturbation of a SAC kinase, Mps1, and its downstream effector, Mad2, in skeletal muscle stem cells shows the SAC to be critical for normal muscle growth, repair, and self-renewal of the stem cell pool. SAC-deficient muscle stem cells arrest in G1 phase of the cell cycle with elevated aneuploidy, resisting differentiation even under inductive conditions.

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Although the importance of muscle in skeletal regeneration is well recognized clinically, the mechanisms by which muscle supports bone repair have remained elusive. Muscle flaps are often used to cover the damaged bone after traumatic injury yet their contribution to bone healing is not known. Here, we show that direct bone-muscle interactions are required for periosteum activation and callus formation, and that muscle grafts provide a source of stem cells for skeletal regeneration.

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Although bone repairs through a very efficient regenerative process in 90% of the patients, many factors can cause delayed or impaired healing. To date, there are no reliable biological parameters to predict or diagnose bone repair defects. Orthopedic surgeons mostly base their diagnoses on radiographic analyses.

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Renal capsule transplantation is a very helpful method to grow embryonic tissues or tumors in a vascular environment, allowing long-term engraftment and biological analyses. This chapter describes the surgical procedure for the transplantation of embryonic skeletal elements in the renal capsule of adult mice and points out the manipulations that can be applied for assaying the role of angiogenesis during bone development.

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Study of stem cell phenotype and functions requires their proper isolation. Stem cells isolated from skeletal muscle are a useful tool to explore molecular pathways involved in the regulation of myogenesis. Among progenitor cells, a subset of cells, called reserve cells, has been identified, in vitro, in myogenic cell cultures.

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Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients exhibit skeletal muscle weakness with continuous cycles of muscle fiber degeneration/regeneration, chronic inflammation, low bone mineral density, and increased risks of fracture. Fragility fractures and associated complications are considered as a consequence of the osteoporotic condition in these patients. Here, we aimed to establish the relationship between muscular dystrophy and fracture healing by assessing bone regeneration in mdx mice, a model of DMD with absence of osteoporosis.

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Quiescence is a critical determinant for sustained stem cell function throughout life. Disruption of cellular quiescence leads to loss of the stem cell pool and impaired tissue repair. In adult skeletal muscle, Pax7(+) satellite cells (the muscle stem cells) are capable of self-renewal and differentiation in their endogenous environment during repair.

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In skeletal muscle, satellite cells, that are responsible of muscle repair, are localized close to capillaries. Although angiogenesis is known for a long time to be crucial for muscle repair and satellite cell survival, cellular interplays between vessel cells and satellite/myogenic cells have been poorly explored. We analyzed the interrelationships between myogenic cells, endothelial cells, and periendothelial cells that includes smooth muscle cells and endomysial fibroblasts.

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Mechanisms governing muscle satellite cell withdrawal from cell cycle to enter into quiescence remain poorly understood. We studied the role of angiopoietin 1 (Ang1) and its receptor Tie-2 in the regulation of myogenic precursor cell (mpc) fate. In human and mouse, Tie-2 was preferentially expressed by quiescent satellite cells in vivo and reserve cells (RCs) in vitro.

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Genetically engineered mice (Myf5nLacZ/+, Myf5GFP-P/+) allowing direct muscle satellite cell (SC) visualization indicate that, in addition to being located beneath myofiber basal laminae, SCs are strikingly close to capillaries. After GFP(+) bone marrow transplantation, blood-borne cells occupying SC niches previously depleted by irradiation were similarly detected near vessels, thereby corroborating the anatomical stability of juxtavascular SC niches. Bromodeoxyuridine pulse-chase experiments also localize quiescent and less quiescent SCs near vessels.

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