Cell Signaling and Differential Protein Expression in Neuronal Differentiation of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells with Hypermethylated Salvador/Warts/Hippo (SWH) Pathway Genes.

Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) modified by targeting DNA hypermethylation of genes in the Salvador/Warts/Hippo pathway were induced to differentiate into neuronal cells in vitro. The differentiated cells secreted a significant level of brain-derived neurotrophy factor (BDNF) and the expression of BDNF receptor tyrosine receptor kinase B (TrkB) correlated well with the secretion of BDNF. In the differentiating cells, CREB was active after the binding of growth factors to induce phosphorylation of ERK in the MAPK/ERK pathway.

Cellular uptake of protein-bound magnetic nanoparticles in pulsed magnetic field.

A method for fast delivery of proteins conjugated to superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) into mammalian cells by applying a strong magnetic field in pulses was proposed. Firstly, SPION were prepared from an alkaline solution of divalent and trivalent iron ions and covalently bound with protein through the activation of N-ethyl-N'-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC). After fluorescently labelling, the protein-nanoparticle conjugate was mixed with mammalian cell line and exposed to a pulsed magnetic field for short durations of few milliseconds.

Chromatographic characterization of molecularly imprinted polymers.

Recent efforts in the investigation of chromatographic characterization of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have focused mainly on the nature of heterogeneous binding sites. More data on the thermodynamics than on the kinetic features of MIP columns have been published. The present article addresses the sources of peak broadening and tailing, which are the main drawbacks often associated with imprinted polymers in chromatography for practical applications.