To study the effect of skin-derived progenitor cell (SKP) combined with hyaluronic acid( HA) on the wound healing in diabetic rats.

Nonhealing wounds which significantly impair the quality of life for millions of people and impart an enormous burden on society are a challenge to clinical medicine. Therefore, the study of healing chronic wounds is vitally important. In the last two decades, extensive study on stem cells and the potential clinical applications have provided new perspectives in the management of chronic wounds. Increased reports state the notable effectiveness of stem cells transplantation. In this review, we summarize the main mechanisms of the long lasting restoration of the nonhealing wounds and address tremendous increase in the understanding of stem cell transplantation applied in the nonhealing chronic wounds.

To investigate the differentiations of rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into neurocyte-like cells induced by Astragalus mongholicus.

In this study, the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of healthy adult were acquired and inducted by vascular endothelial growth factor, et cetera. The differentiated endothelial cells were observed and identified as EPCs by the double positive staining of fluorescent labeled acetylated-LDL and lectin, seeded on the polyurethane small-diameter artificial vessels, treated by shear stress of 15 dyn/cm2, and observed by scanning electronic microscopy. As a result, the peripheral blood mononuclear cells differentiated into EPCs. They were positively stained by labeled acetylated-LDL and lectin. Under observation of scanning electronic microscope, the unseeded polyurethane small-diameter artificial vessel being suited for the growth and spreading of the cells; the cell lineage on surface of artificial vessels of stationary group being arrayed in chaos, and that of shear stress group being arrayed in direction. Therefore, the peripheral cells can differentiate into EPCs, and EPCs can be used as novel source cells for the accelerated endothelialization of small diameter artificial vessel. Shear stress contributes to the mechanic moulding of cell lineage on the surface of artificial vessel.

To observe the in vivo colonization, migration, and differentiation of in vitro cultured human fetal hepatic stem cells (HSCs) following intrasplenic transplantation for treatment of acute liver injury in mice with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID).

To observe D(2) receptor expression on human neural progenitor cell line hNPC-TERT before and after transplantation into rabbit central nervous system.

Previous studies suggest that hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatment promotes the proliferation of neurocytes in neonatal rats following hypoxic-ischemic brain damage (HIBD). The Wnt signaling pathway is associated with neurogenesis. This study examined whether HBO promoted neural stem cells (NSCs) proliferation after HIBD, and whether that the proliferation correlated with Wnt-3 protein expression.

To screen factors related to spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) proliferation, and to investigate the mechanism of infertility caused by cryptorchidism, ten-day-old Kunming (KM) mice were used and experimental cryptorchidism was conducted. On the 35th day after cryptorchid operation, the left testes were fixed in Bouin's fluid and used for histological analysis. The testes of 45-day-old mice were subjected to the same histological analysis, and it was found that they contained germ cells at every stage of development, from SSCs to sperm, indicating that the animals were fully sexually mature at this age. While in experimental cryptorchid mice, the spermatogenesis was arrested at the stage of spermatocytes, and only spermatogonia and primary spermatocytes were present in cryptorchid testes. The proportion of spermatogonia to other types of germ cells was much higher than that in sexually mature mice. On the other hand, the right testes were used for proteomic analysis. The total protein in testes was extracted on the 35th day after cryptorchid operation. The differentially expressed proteins in cryptorchid mice and sexually mature mice were screened and compared by the proteomic techniques. Through the separation of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE), 20 differential protein spots were found, and 9 of them were digested and identified by the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrum. In cryptorchid mice, 6 out of 9 proteins were down-regulated, and 3 were up-regulated. Among these proteins, 4 proteins were identified, and they were Stathmin, phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein1 (PEBP1), HES-related basic helix-loop-helix protein (HERP), and one unnamed protein (we temporarily named it Px). More Stathmin, PEBP1 and Px were expressed in sexually mature mice than in experimental cryptorchid mice. But HERP1 was the other way round. In the present study, we have screened 4 proteins related to cryptorchidism. It is helpful to study the mechanism of SSC proliferation and infertility caused by cryptorchidism.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are multipotent and widely used in many research fields such as transplantation. Hypoxia not only improves the proliferation of various stem cells in vitro but also plays an important role in the differentiation of stem cells. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of hypoxia on the differentiation of NSCs. NSCs were isolated from the midbrain of embryonic Wistar rats (E13.5d), and cultured in serum-free DMEM/F12 medium (containing 20 ng/mL EGF, 20 ng/mL bFGF, 1% N2 and B27). The neurospheres were passaged every 3-5 d, and the third generation of NSCs was used for the following experiments. NSCs were induced under normoxia (20% O2) and hypoxia (3% O2), respectively, for 3 d, and then differentiated under normoxia for 5-7 d (DMEM/F12 medium containing 1% FBS, N2 and B27). Immunohistochemistry of nestin, NeuN and TH was used for NSC identification and differentiation assay. The number of TH-positive cells was evaluated by flow cytometry. Dopamine (DA) content in the supernatant of culture medium was detected by HPLC. The results showed that NSCs could self-renew and were all nestin-positive. NSCs under hypoxic condition differentiated more neurons than those under normoxic condition. The percentage of TH-positive cells differentiated from NSCs under normoxia and hypoxia was (10.25+/-1.03) % and (19.88+/-1.44) %, respectively. In addition, DA content in the supernatant of culture medium in hypoxia group increased significantly, about twice of that in normoxia group (P<0.05, n=8). The results demonstrate that hypoxia (3% O2) promotes the differentiation of NSCs into neurons, especially dopaminergic neurons. It is suggested that hypoxia may be a potential clinical tool to treat Parkinson's disease.

The Notch signaling pathway has been implicated in the regulation of cell-fate decisions such as differentiation of embryo stem cells and neural stem cells into neurons. We cultured human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) in vitro and induced hMSCs to differentiate into neural cells by beta-mercaptoethanol (beta-ME), DMSO and 3-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyanisole (BHA). Immunocytochemistry was utilized to detect neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and Nissl body, and flow cytometry was used to determine cell growth phases. The expressions of signal molecules involved in the Notch pathway such as Notch1, Jagged 1 (JAG1), presenilin 1 (PS1) and hairy and enhancer of split 1(HES1) were observed by RT-PCR and immunofluorescent techniques. The results were as follows: (1) Before induction, the percentage of hMSCs at G(0)/G(1) was 58.5%, and the percentage at S+G(2)/M was 41.5%. After induction, the percentage of hMSCs at G(0)/G(1) increased to 73.1%, 76.2% and 78.1%, respectively on days 2, 4 and 6, and the percentage at S+G(2)/M decreased to 26.8%, 24.8% and 21.9%, respectively; The percentage of NSE-positive cells reached (77+/-0.35) %; Nisslos staining was positive in cytoplasm. (2) Notch1 and JAG1 were both expressed in hMSCs before and after induction, but the mRNA expressions of both Notch1 and JAG1, detected by RT-PCR, decreased obviously after induction(P<0.05). Notch1 mRNA/beta-actin was 1.157, 0.815, 0.756 and 0.570, and JAG1 mRNA/beta-actin was 0.437, 0.350, 0.314 and 0.362, respectively, on days 0, 2, 4 and 6 after induction. The Notch pathway activation participant PS1 mRNA and Notch pathway target gene HES1 mRNA also decreased apparently after induction (P<0.05), and their mRNA/beta-actin was 0.990, 0.449, 0.441, 0.454 and 0.370, 0.256, 0.266, 0.240 on days 0, 2, 4 and 6, respectively. These observations indicate that the expressions of Notch signal molecules were suppressed when hMSCs were induced to differentiate into neural cells. Based on these findings, we propose that low level of Notch signaling activation may contribute to neural cell differentiation.

To review the research progress of osteoblasts in the hematopoietic microenvironment of bone marrow and regulatory pathways and mechanisms.

To review the advances in repair of spinal cord injury by transplantation of marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).

To introduce the research of mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs) transplantation for treating intervertebral disc degeneration.

To research the protective effects of different allogeneic cells injected into denervated muscles on ventricornual motor neuron.

To investigate the therapeutic effects of transplanting allogeneic marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) via subarachnoid space on spinal cord injury(SCI) and the T cell subpopulation.

To observe the effect of transplantation of embryonic stem cell (ES) on neurological functional recovery of injured spinal cord in adult mouse.

BMP6 is a member of TGF-beta superfamily, represent more effective osteogenic activity. Two recombinant plasmids were constructed to expression rhBMP6 in mammalian cells, one contained the cDNA encoding the signal peptide, propeptide and mature peptide of human BMP6, wich was named pcDNA-BMP6, the other contained the recombinant DNA encoding the signal peptide, propeptide of human BMP2 and the mature peptide of BMP6, which was named pcDNA-BMP2/6. Transient expression in Cos7 cells demonstrated that the pcDNA-BMP2/6 produced more rhBMP6 than pcDNA-BMP6. For stable expression, the CHO-dhfr- cells were transfected with pcDNA-BMP2/6 and pSV2-dhfr, then screened by G418 and treated with MTX for targeting gene amplification. The partially purified rhBMP6 by heparin affinity chromatography was shown to possess bone induction activity tested by the induction of alkaline phosphatase activity in C2C12 cells.

To elucidate gene expressions of phase II enzymes in the mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell-derived hepatocytes.

To evaluate the inductive effects of icaritin (ICT) on the directed differentiation of mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells into neuronal cells in vitro.