Leukemia-mutated proteins PHF6 and PHIP form a chromatin complex that represses acute myeloid leukemia stemness.

Myeloid leukemias are heterogeneous cancers with diverse mutations, sometimes in genes with unclear roles and unknown functional partners. PHF6 and PHIP are two poorly-understood chromatin-binding proteins recurrently mutated in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). mutations are associated with poorer outcomes, while was recently identified as the most common selective mutation in Black patients in AML.

PHF6 suppresses self-renewal of leukemic stem cells in AML.

Acute myeloid leukemia is characterized by uncontrolled proliferation of self-renewing myeloid progenitors accompanied by a differentiation arrest. PHF6 is a chromatin-binding protein mutated in myeloid leukemias, and its isolated loss increases mouse HSC self-renewal without malignant transformation. We report here that Phf6 knockout increases the aggressiveness of Hoxa9-driven AML over serial transplantation, and increases the frequency of leukemia initiating cells.

In-plane Strain Analysis by Correlating Geometry and Visual Data Through a Gradient-Based Surface Reconstruction.

Abnormalities in tissue can be detected and analyzed by evaluating mechanical properties, such as strain and stiffness. While current sensor systems are effective in measuring longitudinal properties perpendicular to the measurement sensor, identifying in-plane deformation remains a significant challenge. To address this issue, this paper presents a novel method for reconstructing in-plane deformation of observed tissue surfaces using a fringe projection sensor specifically designed for measuring tissue deformations.

An Enhanced Synthetic Cystoscopic Environment for Use in Monocular Depth Estimation.

As technology advances and sensing devices improve, it is becoming more and more pertinent to ensure accurate positioning of these devices, especially within the human body. This task remains particularly difficult during manual, minimally invasive surgeries such as cystoscopies where only a monocular, endoscopic camera image is available and driven by hand. Tracking relies on optical localization methods, however, existing classical options do not function well in such a dynamic, non-rigid environment.

Compensating the Influence of Tremors on Impedance Measurements Through Fourier Analysis.

Electrical mpedance measurements are a promising method for detecting structural changes in tissue and can be used in oncology to differentiate between healthy and tumorous tissue areas. The impedance measurements are so sensitive that they are not only affected by changes in the tissue itself, but also by a fluctuating contact force between sensor and tissue. In this work, the correlation between impedance measurements and movements during the measuring process, such as physiological tremors, are analyzed.

FISH-Flow to quantify nascent and mature ribosomal RNA in mouse and human cells.

FISH-Flow (fluorescence in situ hybridization-flow cytometry) involves hybridizing fluorescent oligos to RNA and quantifying fluorescence at a single-cell level using flow cytometry. Here, we present a FISH-Flow protocol to quantify nascent 47S and mature 18S and 28S rRNAs in mouse and human cells, including rRNA quantification across cell cycle stages using DNA staining. We describe steps for cell preparation, hybridization of fluorescent probes against rRNA, and DNA staining.

Cystoscopic depth estimation using gated adversarial domain adaptation.

Monocular depth estimation from camera images is very important for surrounding scene evaluation in many technical fields from automotive to medicine. However, traditional triangulation methods using stereo cameras or multiple views with the assumption of a rigid environment are not applicable for endoscopic domains. Particularly in cystoscopies it is not possible to produce ground truth depth information to directly train machine learning algorithms for using a monocular image directly for depth prediction.

Control of ribosomal RNA synthesis by hematopoietic transcription factors.

Ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) are the most abundant cellular RNAs, and their synthesis from rDNA repeats by RNA polymerase I accounts for the bulk of all transcription. Despite substantial variation in rRNA transcription rates across cell types, little is known about cell-type-specific factors that bind rDNA and regulate rRNA transcription to meet tissue-specific needs. Using hematopoiesis as a model system, we mapped about 2,200 ChIP-seq datasets for 250 transcription factors (TFs) and chromatin proteins to human and mouse rDNA and identified robust binding of multiple TF families to canonical TF motifs on rDNA.

Geometric Mapping Evaluation for Real-Time Local Sensor Simulation.

Medical augmented reality and simulated test environments struggle in accurately simulating local sensor measurements across large spatial domains while maintaining the proper resolution of information required and real time capability. Here, a simple method for real-time simulation of intraoperative sensors is presented to aid with medical sensor development and professional training. During a surgical intervention, the interaction between medical sensor systems and tissue leads to mechanical deformation of the tissue.

Detection Limits of Tetrapolar Impedance Sensors for Tissue Differentiation.

Cancer recurrence is an important issue in bladder tumor resections, because tissue cannot generously be removed from the thin bladder wall without impacting its functionality. Electrical impedance measurements during an operation aim to support the surgeon in making the decision which tissue areas to preserve, because physiological changes in tissue due to cancerous mutations can be detected by their altered electrical characteristics. This work investigates the detection limits of tetrapolar sensors when the impedance of heterogeneous tissue is measured.

Enhancing Tissue Impedance Measurements Through Modeling of Fluid Flow During Viscoelastic Relaxation.

Objective: Bladder cancer recurrence is an important issue after endoscopic urological surgeries. Additional sensor information such as electrical impedance measurements aim to support surgeons to ensure that the entirety of the tumor is removed. The foundation for differentiating lies in the altered sodium contents and cell structures within tumors that change their conductivity and permittivity.

Technology-enhanced AcceleRation of Germline Evaluation for Therapy (TARGET): A randomized controlled trial of a pretest patient-driven webtool vs. genetic counseling for prostate cancer germline testing.

Background: Germline testing has an increasingly important role in prostate cancer care. However, a relative shortage of genetic counselors necessitates alternate strategies for delivery of pre-test education for germline testing. This study, funded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation, seeks to address the need for novel methods of delivery of pre-test germline education beyond traditional germline counseling to facilitate informed patient decision-making for germline testing.

Geometry Factor Determination for Tetrapolar Impedance Sensor Probes.

Even after successful tumor resection, cancer recurrence remains an important issue for bladder tumors. Intra-operative tissue differentiation can help for diagnostic purposes as well as for ensuring that all cancerous cells are completely removed, therefore, decreasing the risk of recurrence. It has been shown that the electrical properties of tumors differ from healthy tissue due to an altered physiology.

Multi-Physical Tissue Modeling of a Human Urinary Bladder.

A multi-physical model of a human urinary bladder is an essential element for the potential application of electrical impedance spectroscopy during transurethral resection surgery, where measurements are taken at different fill levels inside the bladder. This work derives a multi-physical bladder tissue model that incorporates the electrical impedance properties with dependence on mechanical deformation due to filling of the bladder. The volume and ratio of the intracellular to extracellular tissue fluid heavily influence the electrical impedance characteristics and thus provide the connection between the mechanical and electrical domains.

2D to 3D Segmentation: Inclusion of Prior Information using Random Walk Kalman Filters.

Augmented reality is a quickly advancing field that has the potential to provide surgeons with computer generated diagnostic results during surgery. Visual classification of diseased tissue generated during a diagnostic procedure, for example, trans-urethral cystoscopy of the urinary bladder, can aid a surgeon during the following resection to ensure no tissue is inadvertently missed. Work with 2D segmentation of camera images is well developed and frameworks already exist to fuse this data real-time in a 3D reconstruction.

Rapid, continuous projection multi-photon 3D printing enabled by spatiotemporal focusing of femtosecond pulses.

There is demand for scaling up 3D printing throughput, especially for the multi-photon 3D printing process that provides sub-micrometer structuring capabilities required in diverse fields. In this work, high-speed projection multi-photon printing is combined with spatiotemporal focusing for fabrication of 3D structures in a rapid, layer-by-layer, and continuous manner. Spatiotemporal focusing confines printing to thin layers, thereby achieving print thicknesses on the micron and sub-micron scale.

Thermal stress responses of Sodalis glossinidius, an indigenous bacterial symbiont of hematophagous tsetse flies.

Tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae) house a taxonomically diverse microbiota that includes environmentally acquired bacteria, maternally transmitted symbiotic bacteria, and pathogenic African trypanosomes. Sodalis glossinidius, which is a facultative symbiont that resides intra and extracellularly within multiple tsetse tissues, has been implicated as a mediator of trypanosome infection establishment in the fly's gut. Tsetse's gut-associated population of Sodalis are subjected to marked temperature fluctuations each time their ectothermic fly host imbibes vertebrate blood.

Complete Static Repopulation of Decellularized Porcine Tissues for Heart Valve Engineering: An in vitro Study.

To date, a completely in vitro repopulated tissue-engineered heart valve has not been developed. This study focused on sequentially seeding 2 cell populations onto porcine decellularized heart valve leaflets (HVL) and pericardia (PER) to obtain fully repopulated tissues. For repopulation of the interstitium, porcine valvular interstitial cells (VIC) and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSC) or adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSC) were used.

Impact of Detergent-Based Decellularization Methods on Porcine Tissues for Heart Valve Engineering.

To date an optimal decellularization protocol of heart valve leaflets (HVL) and pericardia (PER) with an adequate preservation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) is still lacking. This study compares a 4 day Triton X-100-based protocol with faster SDC-based protocols for the decellularization of cardiac tissues. Decellularized and non-treated HVL and PER were processed for histological, biochemical and mechanical analysis to determine the effect of these agents on the structure, ECM components, and biomechanical properties.

Non-Cytotoxic Crosslinkers for Heart Valve Tissue Engineering.

Background And Aim Of The Study: Currently, no effective crosslinking reagents are available to treat xenogenic decellularized heart valve matrices. The study aim was to evaluate the crosslinking effect of quercetin, catechin, caffeic acid and tannic acid on porcine aortic valve matrices.

Methods: Cytotoxicity of the different crosslinkers was evaluated.

Shear stress and VEGF enhance endothelial differentiation of human adipose-derived stem cells.

Herein we combine chemical and mechanical stimulation to investigate the effects of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and physiological shear stress in promoting the differentiation human adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) into endothelial cells. ADSCs were isolated and characterized; endothelial differentiation was promoted by culturing confluent cells in 50 ng/ml VEGF under physiological shear stress for up to 14 days. Afterwards, endothelial cells were seeded onto collagen or acellular aortic valve matrices and exposed to four culture conditions: shear stress + VEGF; shear stress - VEGF; static + VEGF and static - VEGF.

Role of myocardial hypertrophy on acute and chronic right ventricular performance in relation to chronic volume overload in a porcine model: relevance for the surgical management of tetralogy of Fallot.

Objectives: The age for correction of tetralogy of Fallot has progressively declined to the postnatal period, often despite an increased rate of transannular patch repair. However, the long-term effect of premature exposure to chronic pulmonary insufficiency on the right ventricle remains unknown. On the basis of the relationship between the duration of pressure overload and age, the role of previous pressure load-related hypertrophy on right ventricular (RV) performance after chronic volume overload was investigated in a porcine model.

Evaluation of the behavior of murine and human embryonic stem cells in in vitro migration and invasion assays.

Cell migration and invasion are essential processes in a variety of physiological events in the body, but also in several patho-physiological events. In this paper, the behavior of murine and human embryonic stem cells is examined in in vitro migration and invasion models. mESC and hESC were applied as spheroids, also known as patches, and as single cells, to mimic possible cell therapy application strategies.