TRPC6 in simulated microgravity of intervertebral disc cells.

Purpose: Prolonged bed rest and microgravity in space cause intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are not completely understood. Transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) channels are implicated in mechanosensing of several tissues, but are poorly explored in IVDs.

Influence of Mechanical Unloading on Articular Chondrocyte Dedifferentiation.

Due to the limited self-repair capacity of articular cartilage, the surgical restoration of defective cartilage remains a major clinical challenge. The cell-based approach, which is known as autologous chondrocyte transplantation (ACT), has limited success, presumably because the chondrocytes acquire a fibroblast-like phenotype in monolayer culture. This unwanted dedifferentiation process is typically addressed by using three-dimensional scaffolds, pellet culture, and/or the application of exogenous factors.

A sentinel protein assay for simultaneously quantifying cellular processes.

We describe a proteomic screening approach based on the concept of sentinel proteins, biological markers whose change in abundance characterizes the activation state of a given cellular process. Our sentinel assay simultaneously probed 188 biological processes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae exposed to a set of environmental perturbations. The approach can be applied to analyze responses to large sets of uncharacterized perturbations in high throughput.