Cellular differentiation

Introduction The use of stem cells can advance drug development, knowledge of disease, patience specific disease treatment, and can bypass the limits of mouse-models for research. According to the National Institute of Health (1), stem cells are unique in the following ways: they can divide and renew themselves for long periods, they are unspecialized, and they can give rise to specialized cell types. The uniqueness of these stem cells allows for the testing of new drugs, cell-based therapies and

microgravity (MG) at a cellular level (Wang, et al. 2011). The reason microgravity was used is because it has been recognized as a major environmental factor. Because microgravity can only be achieved by entering space, a 3-D clinostat was used to perform the simulation. Many cells types, from bacteria to mammalian cells have been proven to be sensitive to the MG environment, based on past studies. The effects that were monitored included cell cycle distribution, cell differentiation, cell adhesion, apoptosis

that encodes a novel oncogenic protein. Oncogenes can also be activated by the amplication of proto-oncogenes. Gene amplification is an increase in the cellular copy number of a gene or genomic region relative to the rest of the genome. An amplication in a proto-oncogene would cause an increase in cell division, a decrease in cell differentiation and an inhibition of cell death – the phenotype of a cancer cell. In addition to translocations and gene amplifications, deletions can occur and also

the intricate relationship of organ systems with each other, a dysfunction in one organ might have a domino effect on other tissues and organs within the body and since the human body is far from perfect, mutations, drugs, or pathogens may lead to cellular damage at a microscopic level, which could then lead to the deterioration of organs at a macroscopic level. In the past, organ failure was fatal and very little could be done to reverse the process. However, thanks to the integration of various disciplines

relatively undifferentiated proliferative cells that maintain their population size when they divide, while at the same time producing progeny that enter a dividing transit population within which further rounds of cell division occur, together with differentiation events, resulting in the production of the various differentiated function cells required of the tissue.13 This means that adult stem cells exist in small groups and are mostly undifferentiated, meaning the cells have the capability to change

Stem Cell Research Research on stem cells is advancing knowledge about how an organism develops from a single cell and how healthy cells replace damaged cells in adult organisms. This promising area of science is also leading scientists to investigate the possibility of cell-based therapies to treat disease, which is often referred to as regenerative or reparative medicine. Research on the topic of stem cells is advancing the scientific knowledge about how cells develop. Stem cell research

3D cultures of iPSC-derived neural cells: An alternative form of a ‘brain on a chip’ is achieved through combinations of brain cells combined to produce a simplistic 3D model comprising neurons, glia, and if possible, a blood brain barrier (BBB, discussed in more detail later) [12, 14, 15, 31]. Such models can obviously be formed using animal cells as well as human, but as mentioned above, the development of human iPSC-derived neurons and glia from patients and controls is driving the use of these

that silk microfiber-protein composite matrices mimicked the mechanical features of native bone including matrix stiffness and surface roughness that enhanced human mesenchymal stem cell differentiation. Administering effective growth factors to specific sites in the silk scaffold would ensure osteoblast differentiation and cell growth. Animal models have become the corner stone of research in the hope to illicit its etiology, and thus redefine the state of the art, current concepts and future perspective

Major applications of MSCs are: 1. MSCs are a promising tool for cell therapy. They partly contribute to the repair of injured tissues, but they cannot effectively participate in tissue repairing because of their scarce number (e.g. 1 per 106 cells in bone marrow or 1 per 104 cells in umbilical cord) (6). Therefore, in vitro cultivation and expansion and increasing their number for therapeutic purposes is necessary. However, their characteristics and phenotypes may be affected after cultivation

Topical Review Use of nano-structured neural scaffolds for neural regeneration in case of Parkinson’s Disease ABSTRACT Parkinson’s Disease (PD) affects a large percentage of people all over the world. Currently, an effective strategy for regeneration of neurons that are lost in PD does not exist; however, nanotechnology has offered new avenues in the field of neural tissue regeneration. Nanostructured scaffolds have been shown to have the ability to promote neuronal growth and their excellent biomimetic