Stem Cells and Development

The quiescence and activation of adult stem cells are regulated by many kinds of molecular mechanisms, and RNA alternative splicing participates in regulating lots of cellular processes. However, the relationship between stem cell quiescence and activation regulation and gene alternative splicing has yet to be studied. In the present study, we aimed to elucidate the regulation of stem cell quiescence and activation by RNA alternative splicing. The up-regulated genes in activated mouse NSCs (neural stem cells), MuSCs (muscle stem cells) and HSCs (hematopoietic stem cells) were collected for GO (Gene Ontology) and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) analysis...

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Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) hold great potential in regenerative medicine. These cells can be expanded indefinitely in theory and are able to differentiate into different types of cells for cell therapies, drug screening and basic biology studies. The reliable and effective propagation of hESCs and hiPSCs are important for their downstream applications. Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is critical to hESCs and hiPSCs for maintaining their pluripotency...

The histamine H3 receptor, prominently expressed in neurons with a minor presence in glial cells, acts as both an autoreceptor and an alloreceptor, controlling the release of histamine and other neurotransmitters. The receptor impacts various essential physiological processes. Our team's initial investigations had demonstrated that the histamine H3 receptor antagonists could facilitate the nerve regeneration via promoting the histamine H1 receptors on primary neural stem cells in the traumatic brain injury mouse, which suggested the potential of histamine H3 receptor as a promising target for treating neurological disorders and promoting nerve regeneration...

Allogeneic transplant organs are potentially highly immunogeneic. The endothelial cells (EC) located within the vascular system serve as the primary interface between the recipient's immune system and the donor organ, playing a key role in the allo-immune response. In this study, we investigated the potential use of recipient-derived ECs in a vein recellularization model. Here, human iliac veins underwent complete decellularization using a triton X-100 protocol. We demonstrated the feasibility of re-endothelializing acellular blood vessels using either HUVEC or human venous-derived ECs, with this re-endothelization being sustainable for up to 28 days in vitro...

The homeostasis of intestinal epithelium heavily relies on the self-renewal and differentiation of intestinal stem cells. Although the orchestration of these processes by signaling pathways such as the Wnt, BMP, Notch, and MAPK signals have been extensively studied, the dynamics of their regulation remain unclear. Our study explores how the Wnt signaling pathway temporally regulates the differentiation of intestinal stem cells into various cell types in an intestinal organoid system. We report that the duration of Wnt exposure following Notch pathway inactivation significantly influences the differentiation direction of intestinal epithelial cells towards multiple secretory cell types, including goblet cells, enteroendocrine cells, and Paneth cells...

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The health of hair is directly related to people's health and appearance. Hair has key physiological functions, including skin protection and temperature regulation. Hair follicle is a vital mini-organ that directly impacts hair growth. Besides, various signaling pathways and molecules regulate the growth cycle transition of hair follicles. Hair and its regeneration studies have attracted much interest in recent years with the increasing rate of alopecia. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), as pluripotent stem cells, can differentiate into fat, bone, and cartilage and stimulate regeneration and immunological regulation...

As standard therapy for prostate cancer, radical prostatectomy (RP) causes cavernous nerve injury and increases fibrosis and hypoxia-induced penile structural alterations. This study aimed to determine the potential beneficial effects of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) and L-arginine alone or in combination on the penile erection of a rat model of erectile dysfunction (ED) caused by bilateral cavernous nerve (CN) transection. Male rats (n=35) were randomized into five groups: Sham-operated; CN transection (4-wk); CN transection plus ADSCs (1x106 cells by intracavernosal injection); CN transection plus L-arginine (4wk, 10 mg/kg/day, oral); and ADSCs combined with L-arginine in CN transection...

The submandibular gland (SMG) and sublingual gland (SLG) are two of the three major salivary glands in mammals and comprise serous and mucous acinar cells. The two glands share some functional properties, which are largely dependent on the types of acinar cells. In recent years, while ScRNA-seq (single-cell sequencing) with a 10 × platform has been used to explore molecular markers in salivary glands, few studies have examined the acinar heterogeneity and unique molecular markers between SMG and SLG. This study aimed to identify the molecular markers of acinar cells in the SLG and SMG...

Neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) are present in the mammalian brain throughout life and are involved in neurodevelopment and central nervous system repair. Although typical epigenetic signatures, including DNA methylation, histone modifications and microRNAs, play a pivotal role in the regulation of NSPCs, several of the epigenetic regulatory mechanisms of NSPCs remain unclear. Thus, defining a novel epigenetic feature of NSPCs is crucial for developing stem cell therapy to address neurologic disorders caused by injury...

Primitive rat extraembryonic endoderm (pXEN) stem cell lines indefinitely preserve the characteristic features of the early extraembryonic endoderm in vitro, but require unknown serum factors and exhibit a hybrid (mesenchymal-epithelial) phenotype. We report two chemically defined conditions that differ by the addition of the cytokine Lif and the β-catenin-stabilizing drug Chir99021, and enable permanent self-renewal as mesenchymal and epithelial morphotypes, respectively. The morphotypes are interconvertible and equipotent, as shown by the formation of well-differentiated organoids...

Feeder cells play a crucial role in maintaining the pluripotency of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) by secreting various extrinsic regulators, such as extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and growth factors. Although primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) are the most widely used feeder cell type for the culture of ESCs, they have inevitable disadvantages such as batch-to-batch variation and labor-intensive isolation processes. Here, we revealed that the Sandoz inbred Swiss mouse (SIM) thioguanine-resistant ouabain-resistant (STO) cell line, an immortalized cell line established from mouse SIM embryonic fibroblasts, can be used as a feeder layer for in vitro culture of authentic pig ESCs instead of primary MEFs...

The parathyroid gland plays an essential role in mineral and bone metabolism. A cultivation for physiological human parathyroid cells has yet to be established and the method by which parathyroid cells differentiate from pluripotent stem cells remains uncertain. Therefore, it has been hard to clarify the mechanisms underlying the onset of parathyroid disorders, such as hyperparathyroidism. Here, we developed a new method of parathyroid cell differentiation from human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The parathyroid cell differentiation occurred in accordance with embryologic development...

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have shown promising effects in the treatment of immune thrombocytopenia. However, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic effects of human bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (hBMSCs) and analyzed their unique role in regulating the M1/M2 macrophage ratio. We established a passive ITP mouse model and showed that there was a significant M1/M2 imbalance in ITP model mice by assessing the M1/M2 ratios in the liver, spleen, and bone marrow; we observed excessive activation of M1 cells and decreased M2 cell numbers in vivo...

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Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are a promising cell source for cartilage tissue regeneration in animals and humans but with large inter-donor variation in their in vitro chondrogenic differentiation potential. Underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for culture-expanded MSC heterogeneity remains poorly understood. In this study, we sought to identify variations in miRNA signatures associated with cultured equine MSC chondrogenic differentiation potential from different donors. Neocartilage tissue generated from equine cord blood-derived MSCs (CB-MSCs) was categorized as having either high or low chondrogenic potential based on their histological appearance and quantification of glycosaminoglycan deposition...

The mature brain contains an incredible number and diversity of cells that are produced and maintained by heterogeneous pools of neural stem cells. Two distinct types of neural stem cells (NSCs) exist in the developing and adult mouse brain: GFAP (Glial Fibrillary Acid Protein)-negative primitive (p)NSCs and downstream GFAP-positive definitive (d)NSCs. To better understand the embryonic functions of NSCs, we performed clonal lineage tracing within neurospheres grown from either pNSCs or dNSCs to enrich for their most immediate downstream neural progenitor cells (NPCs)...

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