To investigate the efficacy of MSCs autografting with fibrin sealant could for the closure of cervical anastomotic fistula.

The in vitro cell culture experiment was conducted to study the effect of Danqi Piantan capsule (DPC) and DPC dislodge the antelope horn with artificial bezoar double (DPCBD) on nerve regeneration and blood vessel regeneration and preliminarily investigate the possibility of substituting antelope horn in DPC with artificial bezoar. In this experiment, rats were randomly divided into 5 groups: the blank serum control group, the model group, DPC groups (0.306 g x kg(-1) x d(-1), the same below), DPC remove of antelope horn (DPCRA) groups and DPCBD groups. Brain microvascular endothelial cells cultured in vitro (BMEC), astrocytes and neural stem cells (NSC) were co-cultured to simulate neurovascular unit, label neurons with microtubule associated protein III (β-tubulin III) antibody and lable astrocytes with glial fibrillary acidicprotein (GFAP). ELISA was used for the detection of the content of BMEC lactate dehydrogenase instrument method (LDH), the inverted phase contrastmicroscope was adopted to observe the formation of BMEC tube like structure, the number of leukocytes and leukocytes adherent to BMEC were counted under the microscope, the expression levels of β-tubulin III and the ratio of GFAP positive cells was detected with inimmunofluorescence, and RT-PCR method was used to detect NGF, BDNF, VEGF and VEGFr-2 mRNA. According to the result, compared with the model group, both DPC and DPCBD can reduce LDH leakage, promote the formation of BMEC tube like structure, inhibit leukocytes and their adhesion to BMEC, increase the β-tubulin III positive cell differentiation proportion (P < 0. 01), reduce the proportion of GFAP positive cells (P < 0.01), increase the expressions of co-cultured NGF, VEGF, BDNF and VEGFr-2 mRNA to a certain extent, with the most significant difference on NGF and VEGF mRNA expressions (P < 0.05) and the same efficacy in both groups. DPCRA groups showed less impact on all indexes than that of DPCBD and DPC groups. The same efficacy of DPCBD and DPC on nerve regeneration and angiogenesis suggested that antelope horn in DPC can be substituted by artificial bezoar.

Hydrogel is a creative polymeric biomaterial which can resemble extracellular matrix (ECM) in vitro. Hydrogel is also a material with intrinsic bioinert, but it can offer mechanical support and developmental guide for cell growth and new tissue organization by designing physicochemical and biological properties of hydrogels precisely. This review mainly introduces design of hydrogels, properties and applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, drug delivery, stem cell culture and cell therapy.

To investigate the method of differentiating dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) modified by HIF-1α into blood vessels.

To analyze the effects of PRF and released three growth factors on migration of rat adipose tissue-derived stem cells and to investigate the mechanism of migration.

To investigate the effect and possible mechanism of echinacoside-containing serum on the osteogenic differentiation in rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells were cultivated by the whole bone marrow adherence method. The 3rd generation of cells were divided into 3 groups: the blank control group, the classic osteogenic-induced group and the 10% echinacoside-containing serum group. The expression of alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin were detected by ELISA. The ex- pression of ZHX, protein was detected by Western blot technique. RT-PCR technique was used to detect the expression of ZHX₃mRNA. According to the result, the expressions of the alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin in the classic osteogenic-induced group and the 10% echinacoside-containing serum group were significantly higher than that of the blank control group (P <0. 01). And expressions of the alkaline phosphatase activity and osteocalcin in the 10% echinacoside-containing serum group were significantly higher than that in the classic osteogenic-induced group (P < 0.01). Meanwhile, the classic osteogenic-induced group and the 10% echinacoside-containing serum group showed obviously higher ZHX₃ protain and mRNA expression than that of the black control group, with significant differences (P < 0.01); the 10% echinacoside-containing serum group showed obviously higher ZHX₃ protain and mRNA expression than that of the classic osteogenic-induced group, with a significant difference (P < 0.01). In conclusion, 10% echinacoside-containing serum can promote the differentiation of the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells cultured in vitro. Its mechanism may be correlated with the increase in the ZHX₃expression.

In recent years, modern tissue engineering is becoming emerging and developing rapidly, and the acquisition, cultivation and differentiation of seed cells is the premise and foundation of the construction of tissue engineering, so more and more scholars pay attention to stem cells as seed cells for tissue engineering construction. Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) is a kind of adult stem cells derived from dental pulp, and as a new kind of seed cells of tissue engineering, the study of DPSCs presents important significance in tissue and organ regeneration. In this review, we introduced the progress of studies on dental pulp stem cells and discussed their clinical application prospects.

Changes in the osteogenesis of diabetic rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) by the regulation of Lnk/stem cell factor (SCF)-cKit signaling were investigated.

The effect of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) on the osteogenic differentiation of humanperiodontal ligament stem cells(hPDLSCs) was discussed. Changes in the Wnt signaling pathway during glycation were also determined.

To investigate the effects of small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting YAP on the proliferation and apoptosis of human periodontal ligament stem cells (hPDLSCs).

To review the research advance of differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) into Schwann cells in vitro in recent years.

To investigate the effects of over expression of Mash-1 gene on the differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESC) into neural cells in vitro.

To study the effect of inhibitor of differentiation 1 (Id1) gene transfection on bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) promoting the expressions of collagen type II (COL II) and aggrecan (ACAN) in intervertebral cartilage endplate cells (EPCs).

To investigate the effect of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) combined with chitosan on the immediate retraction rate of rabbit expanded skin.

Cancer, an abnormal cell proliferation resulted from multi-factors,has the highest morbidity and mortality among all the serious diseases. Considerable progress has been made in cancer biology in recent years. Tumor immunology, cancer stem cells (CSCs), autophagy, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) have become hot topics of interests in this area. Detailed dissection of these biological processes will provide novel directions, targets, and strategies for the pharmacological evaluation, mechanism elucidation, and new drug development of traditional Chinese medicine.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are tissue specific stem cells that replenish all mature blood lineages during the lifetime of an individual. Hematopoietic cell clusters in the aorta of vertebrate embryos play a pivotal role in the formation of the adult blood system. Recently, people have learned a lot about the embryonic HSCs on their development and homing. During their differentiation, HSCs are regulated by the transcription factors, such as Runx1 and Notch signaling pathway, etc. MicroRNAs also regulate the self-renewal and differentiation of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells on the post-transcriptional levels. Since the onset of circulation, the formation of HSCs and their differentiation into blood cells, especially red blood cells, are regulated by the hemodynamic forces. It would be of great significance if we could treat hematologic diseases with induced HSCs in vitro on the basis of fully understanding of hemotopoietic stem cell development. This review is focused on the advances in the research of HSCs' development and regulation.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of superparamagnetic chitosan FGF-2 gelatin microspheres (SPCFGM) on the proliferation and differentiation of mouse mesenchymal stem cells. The superparamagnetic iron oxide chitosan nanoparticles (SPIOCNs) were synthesized by means of chemical co-precipitation, combined with FGF-2. Then The SPCFGM and superparamagnetic chitosan gelatin microspheres (SPCGM) were prepared by means of crosslinking-emulsion. The properties of SPCFGM and SPIONs were measured by laser diffraction particle size analyser and transmisson electron microscopy. The SPCFGM were measured for drug loading capacity, encapsulation efficiency and release pharmaceutical properties in vitro. The C3H10 cells were grouped according to the different ingredients being added to the culture medium: SPCFGM group, SPCGM group and DMEM as control group. Cell apoptosis was analyzed by DAPI staining. The protein expression level of FGF-2 was determined by Western blot. The proliferation activity and cell cycle phase of C3H10 were examined by CCK8 and flow cytometry. The results demonstrated that both of the SPIOCNs and SPCFGM were exhibited structure of spherical crystallization with a diameter of (25 ± 9) nm and (140 ± 12) μm, respectively. There were no apoptosis cells in the three group cells. Both the protein expression level of FGF-2 and cell proliferation activity increased significantly in the SPCFGM group cells (P < 0.05). The SPCFGM is successfully constructed and it can controlled-release FGF-2, remained the biological activity of FGF-2, which can promote proliferation activity of C3H10 cells, and are non-toxic to the cell.

In this study, we aimed to investigate the influences of conditioned medium from human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) on cancer stem cell phenotype of human hepatoma cells. HUVEC and human hepatoma cells (MHCC97H) were cultured, respectively, and then the MHCC97H cells were co-cultured with conditioned medium from HUVEC (EC-CM) with Transwell system. Anti-cancer drug sensitivity, colony-formation, migration/invasion ability, expression of cancer stem cell marker and sphere formation were performed to determine the cancer stem cell phenotype in MHCC97H cells. We found that MHCC97H cells co-cultured with EC-CM exhibited significantly higher colony-formation ability and lower sensitivity of anti-cancer drugs 5-FU and Cis. Transwell assay showed that treatment with EC-CM obviously increased migration and invasion of MHCC97H cells. Moreover, increased sphere forming capability and expression of CD133 in MHCC97H cells were observed after co-cultured with EC-CM. These results suggested that EC-CM could promote cancer stem cell phenotype of hepatoma cells.

To monitor the trans-differentiation from adult stem cells to germ cells, we analyzed the vasa expression of goat testicular tissues in different ages and constructed the germ cell specific reporting vector pVASA-EGFP. The expression of vasa was verified by RT-PCR and immunofluorescence. The vector pVASA-EGFP was constructed by molecular technology, then transfected into goat bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) by Lipofectamine 2000. Moreover, we observed the expression of the vector through green fluorescent protein (GFP). Immunofluorescence results show that Vasa was expressed in all groups of goat testicular tissues, RT-PCR results show that the levels of vasa mRNA in 3-month group and 10-month group were significantly higher than that in 10-day group. Sequencing and restriction enzyme results show that the vector was successfully constructed. After transfection and RA treatment, GFP expression was observed, which proved the validity of our reporting system. All the results proved that vasa was expressed in different ages in goat testicular tissues, and the vector pVASA-EGFP is efficient in monitoring the trans-differentiation in vitro, which paves the way for further characterization and screening of the trans-differentiation of goat BMSCs.

Since Yamanaka successfully reprogrammed murine fibroblasts into iPSCs in 2006, iPSCs technology has drawn much attention worldwide. Although iPSCs provides tremendous possibilities for both basic research and regenerative medicine, it has meanwhile potential risks, e.g. tumorigenicity. Scientists, therefore, have made efforts in clarifying the mechanism of the cause for iPSCs tumorigenicity and the way how to reduce the risk. The results of some researches reveal some of tumorigenic factors, e.g. the partial similarity of gene expression profiles between cancer cells and iPSCs, the accumulation of the genetic damages in the course of reprogramming process, and mutation in the cellular culture. As a consequence, numerous methods for reducing iPSCs tumorigenicity have been explored, such as minimized use of the reprogramming factors at the controlled manner, and the selection of the expression vector or parental cells. In this paper, the cause of iPSCs tumorigenicity and the current achievements on preventing iPSCs tumorigenesis are reviewed.