Biomaterials and bioactive molecules to drive differentiation in striated muscle tissue engineering
International audience; The generation of engineered tissues and organs has entered into the clinical practice in response to the chronic lack of organ donors. In particular, for the skeletal and cardiac muscles the translational potential of tissue engineering approaches has clearly been shown, even though the construction of these tissues lags behind others given the hierarchical, highly organized architecture of striated muscles. Failure of the cardiac tissue leads to cardiovascular diseases, which are the leading cause of death in the developed world (Di Felice et al., 2014). On the other hand, there are many clinical cases where the loss of skeletal muscle due to a traumatic injury, an…
Novel Lipid and Polymeric Materials as Delivery Systems for Nucleic Acid Based Drugs
Nucleic acid based drugs (NADBs) are short DNA/RNA molecules that include among others, antisense oligonucleotides, aptamers, small interfering RNAs and micro-interfering RNAs. Despite the different mechanisms of actions, NABDs have the ability to combat the effects of pathological gene expression in many experimental systems. Thus, nowadays, NABDs are considered to have a great therapeutic potential, possibly superior to that of available drugs. Unfortunately, however, the lack of effective delivery systems limits the practical use of NABDs. Due to their hydrophilic nature, NABDs cannot efficiently cross cellular membrane; in addition, they are subjected to fast degradation by cellular and…
The combination of PDE4 and PDE5 inhibitors reduces YAP expression in IPF
Background: Pathological fibrosis is associated with repeated episodes of injury to alveolar epithelial cells of largely. Yes-associated protein (YAP) is prominently expressed in fibrotic lung. Roflumilast has demonstrated to exhibit anti-fibrosis effects, while PDE5 inhibitors (sildenafil) combinated with PDE4 inhibitors reduce fibrotic-effects secondary to TGFs1. Apparently, no studies of PDE4 and PDE5 inhibitors on YAP expression there are. Objectives: To study the effects from adding a sildenafil to Roflumilast N- oxide (RNO) on TGF-β/SMAD3/YAP pathway in IPF in vitro models. Methods: A549 cells were pre-incubated with therapeutical concentrations of RNO (2nM) and/or sildenafil (10nM) a…
A Xenogeneic-Free Protocol for Isolation and Expansion of Human Adipose Stem Cells for Clinical Uses
Human adipose stem cells (hASCs) play a crucial role in the fields of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering for different reasons: the abundance of adipose tissue, their easy harvesting, the ability to multipotent differentiation and the fact that they do not trigger allogeneic blood response or secrete cytokines that act as immunosuppressants. The vast majority of protocols use animal origin reagents, with the underlying risk of transmitting infections by non-human pathogens. We have designed a protocol to isolate and maintain the properties of hASCs avoiding xenogeneic reagents. These changes not only preserve hASCs morphology, but also increase cell proliferation and maintain thei…