Search results for "Induced pluripotent stem cell"
showing 10 items of 81 documents
Cardiac tissue engineering: a reflection after a decade of hurry
2014
The heart is a perfect machine whose mass is mainly composed of cardiomyocytes, but also fibroblasts, endothelial, smooth muscle, nervous, and immune cells are represented. One thousand million cardiomyocytes are estimated to be lost after myocardial infarction, their loss being responsible for the impairment in heart contractile function (Laflamme and Murry, 2005). The potential success of cardiac cell therapy relies almost completely on the ability of the implanted cells to differentiate toward mature cardiomyocytes. These cells must be able to reinforce the pumping activity of the injured heart in the absence of life-threatening arrhythmias due to electrophysiological incompatibility. Th…
Ulipristal acetate. A new emergency contraceptive. Ethical aspects of its use
2010
Nel 2006, Takahashi e Yamanaka hanno dimostrato, per la prima volta, che i fibroblasti di topo possono essere riprogrammati ad uno stato simile a quello di cellule staminali embrionali con l’introduzione di una combinazione di quattro fattori di trascrizione. Queste cellule sono state chiamate “cellule staminali pluripotenti indotte” o “cellule iPS”. A differenza delle cellule staminali embrionali, l’uso di cellule iPS non solleva questioni etiche. In questo articolo, si fa riferimento in particolare a: 1. esperimenti preclinici condotti fino ad oggi utilizzando cellule iPS, 2. la creazione di linee cellulari a partire da cellule iPS ottenute da cellule adulte di pazienti affetti da varie m…
<i>In vitro</i> Modeling of Ryanodine Receptor 2 Dysfunction Using Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
2011
Background/Aims: Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells generated from accessible adult cells of patients with genetic diseases open unprecedented opportunities for exploring the pathophysiology of human diseases in vitro. Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia type 1 (CPVT1) is an inherited cardiac disorder that is caused by mutations in the cardiac ryanodine receptor type 2 gene (RYR2) and is characterized by stress-induced ventricular arrhythmia that can lead to sudden cardiac death in young individuals. The aim of this study was to generate iPS cells from a patient with CPVT1 and determine whether iPS cell-derived cardiomyocytes carrying patient specific RYR2 mutation recap…
Polycomb-like 2 Associates with PRC2 and Regulates Transcriptional Networks during Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Self-Renewal and Differentiation
2010
SummaryPolycomb group (PcG) proteins are conserved epigenetic transcriptional repressors that control numerous developmental gene expression programs and have recently been implicated in modulating embryonic stem cell (ESC) fate. We identified the PcG protein PCL2 (polycomb-like 2) in a genome-wide screen for regulators of self-renewal and pluripotency and predicted that it would play an important role in mouse ESC-fate determination. Using multiple biochemical strategies, we provide evidence that PCL2 is a Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2)-associated protein in mouse ESCs. Knockdown of Pcl2 in ESCs resulted in heightened self-renewal characteristics, defects in differentiation, and alte…
mRNA-based therapeutics — developing a new class of drugs
2014
In vitro transcribed (IVT) mRNA has recently come into focus as a potential new drug class to deliver genetic information. Such synthetic mRNA can be engineered to transiently express proteins by structurally resembling natural mRNA. Advances in addressing the inherent challenges of this drug class, particularly related to controlling the translational efficacy and immunogenicity of the IVTmRNA, provide the basis for a broad range of potential applications. mRNA-based cancer immunotherapies and infectious disease vaccines have entered clinical development. Meanwhile, emerging novel approaches include in vivo delivery of IVT mRNA to replace or supplement proteins, IVT mRNA-based generation o…
TRIC: an automated alignment strategy for reproducible protein quantification in targeted proteomics
2016
Nature Methods, 13 (9)
In Vitro Generation of Pancreatic Endocrine Cells from Human Adult Fibroblast-Like Limbal Stem Cells
2012
Stem cells might provide unlimited supply of transplantable cells for β-cell replacement therapy in diabetes. The human limbus is a highly specialized region hosting a well-recognized population of epithelial stem cells, which sustain the continuous renewal of the cornea, and the recently identified stromal fibroblast-like stem cells (f-LSCs), with apparent broader plasticity. However, the lack of specific molecular markers for the identification of the multipotent limbal subpopulation has so far limited the investigation of their differentiation potential. In this study we show that the human limbus contains uncommitted cells that could be potentially harnessed for the treatment of diabete…
Gata4 Blocks Somatic Cell Reprogramming By Directly Repressing Nanog
2012
Abstract Somatic cells can be reprogrammed to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells by ectopic expression of the four factors Oct4, Klf4, Sox2, and Myc. Here, we investigated the role of Gata4 in the reprogramming process and present evidence for a negative role of this family of transcription factors in the induction of pluripotency. Coexpression of Gata4 with Oct4, Klf4, and Sox2 with or without Myc in mouse embryonic fibroblasts greatly impaired reprogramming and endogenous Nanog expression. The lack of Nanog upregulation was associated with a blockade in the transition from the initiation phase of reprogramming to the full pluripotent state characteristic of iPS cells. Addition of Nanog …
Multiple Pluripotent Stem Cell Markers in Human Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer: The Putative Upstream Role of SOX2
2013
Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is a rare and aggressive endocrine tumor with highly undifferentiated morphology. It has been suggested that cancer stem cells (CSCs) might play a central role in ATC. The objectives of this study were (i) to characterize CSCs from ex vivo ATC specimens by investigating the expression of several pluripotent stem cell markers, and (ii) to evaluate in vitro drug resistance modifications after specific CSC transcription factor switch-off.In ex vivo experiments, eight formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded ATC specimens were analyzed by reverse-transcription and real-time quantitative PCR and immunohistochemistry. In in vitro experiments using ATC SW1736 cells, the…
Reprogrammed induced pluripotent stem cells: how suitable could they be in reproductive medicine?
2008
Human embryonic stem cells have the greatest potential for regenerative and reproductive medicine; unfortunately, their full application is limited by ethical and technical problems. In order to overcome these problems and get patient specific pluripotent cells from somatic cells, the field of reprogramming has moved to the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells by overexpression of four transcription factors after viral infection of the patient's somatic cells. In the present paper we review the limitations and milestones of this technique in both regenerative and reproductive medicine.