IMPLANTATION OF CARDIAC STEM CELL-LOADED POLY-LACTIC ACID AND FIBRINOIN SCAFFOLDS INTO NUDE MICE TO EVALUATE POTENTIAL FOR CARDIAC MUSCLE TISSUE ENGINEERING

Hematopoietic Peripheral Circulating Blood Stem Cells As an Independent Marker of Good Transfusion Management in Patients with Beta-Thalassemia

Abstract Aim Aim of the current study was to prospectively evaluate the potential role of peripheral circulating CD34+ stem cells as new independent marker of appropriate hemopoietic balance in patients with thalassemia major and intermedia. Materials and methods Peripheral blood samples from patients with thalassemia major (TM) and intermedia (TI) were drawn. Peripheral circulating CD34+ stem cells, CF-GEMM, CFU-GM and BFU-GM were assayed with monoclonal antibodies for CD34 and clonogenic tests, according to standard procedures and ISHAGE method (BD stem cell enumeration kit, Becton Dickinson; H4434, Stem Cell Technology). Demographic and clinical data were recorded from each enrolled subj…

Hematopoietic peripheral circulating blood stem cells as an independent marker of good transfusion management in patients with β-thalassemia: results from a preliminary study

Background Beyond hemoglobin (Hb) levels and performance status, further surrogate markers of appropriate transfusion management should improve the quality of thalassemia care. We investigated the levels of peripheral circulating CD34+ stem cells as an independent marker of appropriate hematopoietic balance in patients with thalassemia. Study design and methods Peripheral circulating CD34+ stem cells, colony-forming unitgranulocyte, erythrocyte, macrophage, magakaryocyte (CF-GEMM), colony-forming unitgranulocyte/macrophage (CFU-GM), and erythroidburst-forming units (BFU-E) were assayed, according to standard procedures. Patients with thalassemia major (TM) and thalassemia intermedia (TI) we…

Silk fibroin scaffolds enhance cell commitment of adult rat cardiac progenitor cells.

The use of three-dimensional (3D) cultures may induce cardiac progenitor cells to synthesize their own extracellular matrix (ECM) and sarcomeric proteins to initiate cardiac differentiation. 3D cultures grown on synthetic scaffolds may favour the implantation and survival of stem cells for cell therapy when pharmacological therapies are not efficient in curing cardiovascular diseases and when organ transplantation remains the only treatment able to rescue the patient’s life. Silk fibroin-based scaffolds may be used to increase cell affinity to biomaterials and may be chemically modified to improve cell adhesion. In the present study, porous, partially orientated and electrospun nanometric n…

Poly-lactic acid and fibrinoin scaffolds as three-dimensional device to differentiate cardiac stem cells: in vitro and in vivo studies

Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embryology, Vol 115, No 1/2 (Supplement) 2010

Embryonic and foetal Islet-1 positive cells in human hearts are also positive to c-Kit.

During embryogenesis, the mammalian heart develops from a primitive heart tube originating from two bilateral primary heart fields located in the lateral plate mesoderm. Cells belongings to the pre-cardiac mesoderm will differentiate into early cardiac progenitors, which express early transcription factors which are also common to the Isl-1 positive cardiac progenitor cells isolated from the developing pharyngeal mesoderm and the foetal and post-natal mice hearts. A second population of cardiac progenitor cells positive to c-Kit has been abundantly isolated from adult hearts. Until now, these two populations have been considered two different sets of progenitor cells present in the heart in…

Synthetic scaffolds may be used for the orientation of cardiac stem cells properties, differentiation and extracellular matrix interactions in cardiac tissue engineering: in vitro and in vivo studies.

MicroRNAs expression in c-Kit+/Sca-1+/MDR-1+ cardiac stem cells in three dimensional cultures

CARDIAC STEM CELLS AND BIOMATERIALS: INDUCTION OF MYOGENIC DIFFERENTIATION AND IMPLANTION OF BIOSYNTHETIC AND NATURAL MATRICES IN THE ADULT HEART

Principal purpose of regenerative medicine for the cardiac tissue is to find the best way to inoculate stem cells in a specific myocardial area damage, improving their homing, integration and survival. To achieve this goal, the field of biomaterials is important to bypass this obstacles, modulating the environment for implanted cells and enhance CSC function in the heart. Biomaterials can mimic or include naturally occurring extracellular matrix and instruct stem cell function in different ways: promoting angiogenesis, enhancing stem cell engraftment and differentiation, and accelerating electromechanical integration of transplanted cells. The aim of this thesis was to assess whether the pr…

Do Fat Supplements Increase Physical Performance?

Fish oil and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) belong to a popular class of food supplements known as "fat supplements", which are claimed to reduce muscle glycogen breakdown, reduce body mass, as well as reduce muscle damage and inflammatory responses. Sport athletes consume fish oil and CLA mainly to increase lean body mass and reduce body fat. Recent evidence indicates that this kind of supplementation may have other side-effects and a new role has been identified in steroidogenensis. Preliminary findings demonstrate that fish oil and CLA may induce a physiological increase in testosterone synthesis. The aim of this review is to describe the effects of fish oil and CLA on physical performan…

MEDIUM-TERM CULTURE OF THE NORMAL ORAL MUCOSA: A NOVEL THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODEL TO STUDY THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DRUGS ADMINISTRATION

Cardiac stem cell-loaded poly-lactic acid and fibrinoin scaffolds as devices for cardiac muscle tissue regeneration

Significato clinico di polimorfismi di geni citochinici (IL-6, TNF-ALPHA) nella cirrosi epatica e nel carcinoma epatocellulare

Effects of antioxidants on CSE-induced cell death in human asthmatic primary bronchial epithelial cells

The link between cigarette smoke (CS) and lung inflammation is quite strong, however relatively little is still known on the effects of CS on human bronchial epithelial cells survival during asthma. In this study we focused our attention on the apoptotic effects of CS on healthy (HC) and asthmatic (AS) primary bronchial epithelial cells (PBEC) and on the role of antioxidants to protect epithelial cells from CSE-induced apoptosis. Twenty subjects (10 HC and 10 AS) were recruited for this study and PBEC were obtained by bronchoscopy. PBEC were treated with oxidants (H2O), anti-oxidants (GSH and AA) and cigarette smoke extracts (CSE). Early apoptosis (EA) and necrosis were measured by flow cyt…

Endurance Exercise and Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) Supplementation Up-Regulate CYP17A1 and Stimulate Testosterone Biosynthesis

A new role for fat supplements, in particular conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), has been delineated in steroidogenesis, although the underlying molecular mechanisms have not yet been elucidated. The aims of the present study were to identify the pathway stimulated by CLA supplementation using a cell culture model and to determine whether this same pathway is also stimulated in vivo by CLA supplementation associated with exercise. In vitro, Leydig tumour rat cells (R2C) supplemented with different concentrations of CLA exhibited increasing testosterone biosynthesis accompanied by increasing levels of CYP17A1 mRNA and protein. In vivo, trained mice showed an increase in free plasma testosterone…

Foreign body response to subcutaneously implanted scaffolds for cardiac tissue engineering.

Silk fibroin scaffolds enhance cell commitment of adult rat cardiac progenitor cells

The use of three-dimensional (3D) cultures may induce cardiac progenitor cells to synthesize their own extracellular matrix (ECM) and sarcomeric proteins to initiate cardiac differentiation. 3D cultures grown on synthetic scaffolds may favour the implantation and survival of stem cells for cell therapy when pharmacological therapies are not efficient in curing cardiovascular diseases and when organ transplantation remains the only treatment able to rescue the patient's life. Silk fibroin-based scaffolds may be used to increase cell affinity to biomaterials and may be chemically modified to improve cell adhesion. In the present study, porous, partially orientated and electrospun nanometric n…

Stem Cell Populations and Regenerative Potential in Chronic Inflammatory Lung Diseases

Several acute and chronic inflammatory pathologies of the lung are accompanied by structural modifications of airway mucosa that vary depending on the severity, duration and type of the disease. These morphological changes, that determine organ dysfunction, are not always reversible. Indeed, the cycle of injury and repair, influencing airway wall re- generation, may sometimes break off and an exacerbation of the pathology may occur. The mechanisms at the base of airway remodelling during inflammation have been widely studied and numerous evidences indicate that the molecular dialogue among the cells of the mucosa has an essential role in orchestrating cell differentiation and tissue repair.…

Silybin enhances mitochondrial function and inhibits NFkB activation in murine nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embryology, Vol 115, No 1/2 (Supplement) 2010

Embryonic and foetal Islet-1 positive cells in human hearts are also positive to c-Kit.

During embryogenesis, the mammalian heart develops from a primitive heart tube originating from two bilateral primary heart fields located in the lateral plate mesoderm. Cells belongings to the pre-cardiac mesoderm will differentiate into early cardiac progenitors, which express early transcription factors which are also common to the Isl-1 positive cardiac progenitor cells isolated from the developing pharyngeal mesoderm and the foetal and post-natal mice hearts. A second population of cardiac progenitor cells positive to c-Kit has been abundantly isolated from adult hearts. Until now, these two populations have been considered two different sets of progenitor cells present in the heart in…

Fibroin and poly-lactic acid scaffolds may be used in cardiac tissue engineering to drive the differentiation of cardiac progenitor cells: in vitro and in vivo studies.

Association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of IL-6, TNF-alpha and VEGF-A genes, and susceptibility to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)

Background: Many studies have demonstrated the association between SNPs and susceptibility to the development of diseases such as autoimmune diseases and neoplasms. These allelic variations may involve regulatory and coding regions of cytokine genes and may influence their transcriptional activity and, as a consequence, their protein levels. Hepatocarcinogenesis is a multi-step and multi-factorial process in which both environmental and genetic factors are involved. Liver cirrhosis (LC) of both HBV or HCV origin is considered the most important risk factors for HCC. Objectives: We evaluated the frequency of genetic polymorphisms of the cytokines IL-6 and TNFalpha and of VEGF-A in a group of…

The role of biomaterials in the direction of cardiac stem cells properties, differentiation and extracellular matrix interactions in cardiac tissue engineering

Introduction: One of the main problems in the rapid translation of preclinical cell‐based therapy to restore damaged myocardium is to find the best delivery route and the best time of cell injection into the myocardium. Intramyocardial injection of stem cells is by far the mostused delivery technique in preclinical studies. Three‐dimensional scaffolds may be used to deliver a limited number of stem cells in their undifferentiated state, but many biomaterials may cause a foreign body reaction on their own. We have recently demonstrated that c‐Kit positive cardiac progenitor cells are able to organize themselves into a tissue‐like cell mass in collagen I three‐dimensional cultures within 72h …