Publications by authors named "S A Shahini"
Peripheral Nerve Injuries (PNI) affect more than 20 million Americans and severely impact quality of life by causing long-term disability. PNI is characterized by nerve degeneration distal to the site of nerve injury resulting in long periods of skeletal muscle denervation. During this period, muscle fibers atrophy and frequently become incapable of "accepting" innervation because of the slow speed of axon regeneration post injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of cellular senescence, with the loss of mitochondrial function identified as a potential causal factor contributing to senescence-associated decline in cellular functions. Our recent findings revealed that ectopic expression of the pluripotency transcription factor NANOG rejuvenates dysfunctional mitochondria of senescent cells by rewiring metabolic pathways. In this study, we report that NANOG restores the expression of key enzymes, PYCR1 and PYCR2, in the proline biosynthesis pathway.
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- Peripheral Nerve Injuries (PNI) affect over 20 million Americans, leading to long-term disability and muscle atrophy due to slow nerve regeneration.
- Researchers hypothesize that reprogramming muscle to an embryonic-like state using NANOG can enhance its ability to recover after PNI.
- In their study, NANOG expression in a mouse model significantly improved muscle regeneration and motor function compared to normal mice, indicating that this reprogramming approach could be beneficial for treating PNI.
Article Synopsis
- The study explores metabolic changes in aged myoblasts, revealing that they face issues like poor glycolysis and insulin resistance, particularly in both human and mouse models of aging.
- It was found that senescent myoblasts produce excess ammonium through a specific metabolic pathway involving methionine, which can contribute to aging effects.
- By manipulating factors like the NANOG protein or inhibiting a specific enzyme (methionine adenosyltransferase 2A), researchers enhanced muscle regeneration and strength, suggesting that altering methionine metabolism could counteract age-related muscle decline.
New collective optical properties have emerged recently from organized and oriented arrays of closely packed semiconducting and metallic nanoparticles (NPs). However, it is still challenging to obtain NP assemblies which are similar everywhere on a given sample and, most importantly, share a unique common orientation that would guarantee a unique behavior everywhere on the sample. In this context, by combining optical microscopy, fluorescence microscopy and synchrotron-based grazing incidence X-ray scattering (GISAXS) of assemblies of gold nanospheres and of fluorescent nanorods, we study the interactions between NPs and liquid crystal smectic topological defects that can ultimately lead to unique NP orientations.
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