Publications by authors named "Stachelscheid H"

NHD/PLOSL is an orphan disease characterized by progressive presenile dementia associated with recurrent fractures due to polycystic bone lesions. In this study, we generated the human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) line BIHi292-A from a 30-year-old women diagnosed with NHD/PLOSL, carrying two compound heterozygous frameshift mutations [c.313del (p.

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During neuroinflammation, monocytes that infiltrate the central nervous system (CNS) may contribute to regenerative processes depending on their activation status. However, the extent and mechanisms of monocyte-induced CNS repair in patients with neuroinflammatory diseases remain largely unknown, partly due to the lack of a fully human assay platform that can recapitulate monocyte-neural stem cell interactions within the CNS microenvironment. We therefore developed a human model system to assess the impact of monocytic factors on neural stem cells, establishing a high-content compatible assay for screening monocyte-induced neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation.

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Thyroid hormones (TH) play critical roles during nervous system development and patients carrying coding variants of MCT8 (monocarboxylate transporter 8) or THRA (thyroid hormone receptor alpha) present a spectrum of neurological phenotypes resulting from perturbed local TH action during early brain development. Recently, human cerebral organoids (hCOs) emerged as powerful in vitro tools for disease modelling recapitulating key aspects of early human cortex development. To begin exploring prospects of this model for thyroid research, we performed a detailed characterization of the spatiotemporal expression of MCT8 and THRA in developing hCOs.

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Bcl-2-associated X protein (BAX) and Blc-2 homologous antagonist killer 1 (BAK) are two pro-apoptotic members of BCL2 family. Here, two BAX/BAK double knock-out human induced pluripotent stem cell lines (iPSC) we generated using CRISPR-Cas9 to generate apoptosis incompetent cell lines. The resulting cell lines were karyotypically normal, had typical morphology and expressed typical markers for the undifferentiated state.

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THRB is a nuclear receptor, regulating gene expression dependent on thyroid hormone (TH) binding. The same receptor mediates signaling pathway activation in the cytosol. The challenge is to distinguish which of the two mechanisms is responsible for physiological effects of TH.

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The X-linked Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome (AHDS) is characterized by severely impaired psychomotor development and is caused by mutations in the SLC16A2 gene encoding the thyroid hormone transporter MCT8 (monocarboxylate transporter 8). By targeting exon 3 of SLC16A2 using CRISPR/Cas9 with single-stranded oligodeoxynucleotides as homology-directed repair templates, we introduced the AHDS patient missense variant G401R and a novel knock-out deletion variant (F400Sfs*17) into the male healthy donor hiPSC line BIHi001-B. We successfully generated cerebral organoids from these genome-edited lines, demonstrating the utility of the novel lines for modelling the effects of MCT8-deficency on human neurodevelopment.

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NCS1 (Neuronal calcium sensor protein 1) encodes a highly conserved calcium binding protein abundantly expressed in neurons. It modulates intracellular calcium homeostasis, calcium-dependent signaling pathways as well as neuronal transmission and plasticity. Here, we generated a NCS1 knockout human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) line using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing.

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CRISPR-Cas9 technology coupled with human induced pluripotent stem cells allows precise disease modeling in pluripotent cells and subsequently derived specialized cell types. Here, we present an optimized CRISPR-Cas9 pipeline, ASSURED (affordable, successful, specific, user-friendly, rapid, efficient, and deliverable), to produce gene-modified single-cell-derived knockout or single-nucleotide-polymorphism-modified knockin hiPSCs clones. We describe steps for analyzing targeted genomic sequence and designing guide RNAs and homology repair template.

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Article Synopsis
  • Increasing evidence suggests that epigenetic changes, particularly DNA methylation of the POMC gene, can increase the risk of obesity, with a notable 1.4-fold risk linked to specific hypermethylation patterns.
  • A human embryonic stem cell model was used to study how these methylation states are established early in development, showing that reduced DNA methylation is associated with the formation of hypothalamic neurons that express the POMC gene.
  • Treatment with an MC4R agonist in individuals with hypermethylation resulted in an average body weight reduction of about 4.66% over several months, highlighting a potential therapeutic approach for addressing this epigenetic obesity risk variant.
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Stromal cells interact with immune cells during initiation and resolution of immune responses, though the precise underlying mechanisms remain to be resolved. Lessons learned from stromal cell-based therapies indicate that environmental signals instruct their immunomodulatory action contributing to immune response control. Here, to the best of our knowledge, we show a novel function for the guanine-exchange factor DOCK2 in regulating immunosuppressive function in three human stromal cell models and by siRNA-mediated DOCK2 knockdown.

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Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a frequent and potentially irreversible adverse event of cytotoxic chemotherapy. We evaluate whether sensory neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-DSN) can serve as human disease model system for chemotherapy induced neurotoxicity. Sensory neurons differentiated from two established induced pluripotent stem cell lines were used (s.

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Background: Cardiac injury associated with cytokine release frequently occurs in SARS-CoV-2 mediated coronavirus disease (COVID19) and mortality is particularly high in these patients. The mechanistic role of the COVID19 associated cytokine-storm for the concomitant cardiac dysfunction and associated arrhythmias is unclear. Moreover, the role of anti-inflammatory therapy to mitigate cardiac dysfunction remains elusive.

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Self-assembly of solid organs from single cells would greatly expand applicability of regenerative medicine. Stem/progenitor cells can self-organize into micro-sized organ units, termed organoids, partially modelling tissue function and regeneration. Here we demonstrated 3D self-assembly of adult and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived fibroblasts, keratinocytes and endothelial progenitors into both, planar human skin in vivo and a novel type of spheroid-shaped skin organoids in vitro, under the aegis of human platelet lysate.

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Background: Mast cells (MCs) are considered the main effectors in allergic reactions and well known for their contribution to the pathogenesis of various inflammatory diseases, urticaria, and mastocytosis. To study their functions in vitro, human primary MCs are isolated directly from several tissues or differentiated from hematopoietic progenitors. However, these techniques bear several disadvantages and challenges including low proliferation capacity, donor-dependent heterogeneity, and the lack of a continuous cell source.

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MIRAGE syndrome is a multisystem disorder caused by mutations in SAMD9 (sterile α motif domain-containing protein 9) with a high mortality in the first decade of life. We generated 2 human induced pluripotent stem cell lines from male children diagnosed with MIRAGE syndrome. The cell lines were generated from fibroblasts by integration-free reprogramming using the Sendai virus.

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Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is a major cause of familial nephrotic syndrome. We generated 20 induced pluripotent stem cell lines from patients diagnosed with FSGS. The iPSC lines include 8 female and 12 male lines and cover a donor age range from 31 to 78.

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Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a frequent, potentially irreversible adverse effect of cytotoxic chemotherapy often leading to a reduction or discontinuation of treatment which negatively impacts patients' prognosis. To date, however, neither predictive biomarkers nor preventive treatments for CIPN are available, which is partially due to a lack of suitable experimental models. We therefore aimed to evaluate whether sensory neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-DSN) can serve as human disease model system for CIPN.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study introduces a simplified three-step method for differentiating human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into functional osteoclasts, starting with embryoid body formation.
  • - Results showed that hiPSC-derived osteoclasts were larger and had more nuclei compared to those from peripheral blood, with differentiated cells exhibiting unique resorption patterns on bone in vitro.
  • - The research also involved hiPSCs from an osteopetrosis patient, revealing that these mutant cells showed abnormal functions and sizes, and importantly, could not effectively resorb bone.
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Summary: Here, we propose Fourier ring correlation-based quality estimation (FRC-QE) as a new metric for automated image quality estimation in 3D fluorescence microscopy acquisitions of cleared organoids that yields comparable measurements across experimental replicates, clearing protocols and works for different microscopy modalities.

Availability And Implementation: FRC-QE is written in ImgLib2/Java and provided as an easy-to-use and macro-scriptable plugin for Fiji. Code, documentation, sample images and further information can be found under https://github.

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Balanced signal transduction is crucial in tissue patterning, particularly in the vasculature. Heterotopic ossification (HO) is tightly linked to vascularization with increased vessel number in hereditary forms of HO, such as Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP). FOP is caused by mutations in the BMP type I receptor ACVR1 leading to aberrant SMAD1/5 signaling in response to ActivinA.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The text discusses three automated devices that streamline the single-cell cloning process for hPSCs, presenting them as more efficient and reliable alternatives to labor-intensive manual methods.
  • * The proposed workflows successfully maintain the pluripotency and genetic stability of sub-clones and can also help identify genetic diversity (karyotypic mosaicism) in hPSC cultures, enhancing high-throughput clonal selection needed for advancing stem cell applications.
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Melanocortin-4-receptor (MC4R) gene codes for a G-protein-coupled receptor that is highly expressed in the hypothalamus and involved in the regulation of appetite. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the MC4R gene region have been associated with obesity, type 2-diabetes (T2D) and with antipsychotic-induced weight gain. Of these, rs17066842 (G>A) in the MC4R promoter region is the top variant associated with obesity and diabetes.

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Article Synopsis
  • Current methods for identifying chemicals that disrupt the thyroid hormone system are inadequate and lack international validation, leaving public health at risk.
  • The ATHENA project aims to create new testing methods that assess how these chemicals affect thyroid hormone transport, especially in relation to developing brains.
  • The project will also promote international collaboration to improve regulations and establish effective testing strategies for identifying thyroid hormone system disruptors.
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  • - The study investigates human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), particularly HERV-K(HML-2), which is linked to neurological disorders but has unclear functions.
  • - It finds that HERV-K(HML-2) RNA activates Toll-like receptors (TLR) 7 and 8 in neurons and microglia, leading to neurodegeneration and increased microglia presence in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease.
  • - Higher levels of HERV-K(HML-2) RNA are associated with Alzheimer's patients, suggesting these retroviral transcripts play a role in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.
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Article Synopsis
  • Mutations in the MCT8 transporter lead to Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome, causing severe neurodevelopmental issues due to thyroid hormone (TH) not reaching critical brain areas.
  • Current treatments for MCT8 deficiency have proven ineffective, highlighting the urgent need for better understanding and new therapeutic strategies.
  • Research using specific antibodies has shown that MCT8 expression is stable in certain brain cells during development but decreases in neurons with age, emphasizing the blood-brain barrier's role in limiting TH uptake.
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