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Adipose and cardiac progenitor cells for regenerative medicine
No full textLe malattie cardiovascolari e il loro evoluzione in arresto cardiaco, sono una della principali cause di morte a livello mondiale. Il diabete è spesso associato all'alterazione dei substrati metabolici i quali sono in grado di modificare l'omeostasi dei tessuti ed alterare le popolazioni di precursori cellulari. La maggior parte dei tessuti adulti presenta delle sotto-popolazioni di progenitori mesenchimali che, a causa delle loro proprietà rigenerative, sono un'interessante fonte di cellule per la medicina rigenerativa e la terapia cellulare. Recentemente è stato dimostrato che, in seguito ad un arresto cardiaco, l'iniezione di cellule mesenchimali può migliorare la contrattilità cardiaca in topo e ratto. Lo scopo di questa tesi è stato di isolare, caratterizzare e differenziare cellule mesenchimali di tessuto adiposo (ADMSCs) e cellule derivate da cardiosfere (CDCs) e determinare l'effetto di una dieta ad alto contenuto di grassi su queste due popolazioni cellulari. Da tessuto atriale di topo sono state isolate EDCs (Explant-derived cells) e CDCs, mentre dal tessuto adiposo inguinale, dopo digestione con collagenasi di tipo2, sono state isolate ADMSCs. Quest'ultime, dopo espansione in vitro, contengono un numero maggiore di cellule CD90+ (47% vs 87%) e minore di DDR2+ and CD45 rispetto a cellule appena isolate (rispettivamente 9% e 20% vs 38% e 42%). Alcuni medium sono stati testati per verificare la capacità differenziativa delle ADMSCs, di questi solo il medium con TGFβ è stato in grado di aumentare l espressione di geni cardiaci. L'espansione di ADMSCs in ipossia ha aumentato la velocità di proliferazione e ha modificato il profilo di marker cellulari espresso dalle ADMSCs. E' stato inoltre notato un numero più elevato di cellule positive per DDR2 e minore di CD45+ e CD90+ rispetto a ADMSCs espanse in normali condizioni di ossigeno. L'espansione di fibroblasti cardiaci in vitro e CDCs ha rivelato una similarità tra queste due popolazioni, entrambe aumentano la velocità di proliferazion e la capacità clonogenica con l'aumentare dei passaggi in cultura ed esprimono marker mesenchymali e marker espressi da fibroblasti come CD90 e DDR2. Le CDCs hanno dimostrato di essere in grado di acquisire un fenotipo cardiaco in vitro, aumentando l'espressione di cardiac actin e troponin T, tuttavia non sono state osservate cellule con spontanea attività contrattile. Dopo quattro mesi di dieta ad alto contentuto di grassi (55% grasso, HFD) i topi presentano aumentati livelli plasmatici di glucosio, colesterolo e insulina e diminuiti livelli di lattato. Un numero significativamente maggiore di ADMSCs sono stae isolate da animali HFD e il numero di ADMSCs correla con i livelli pasmatici di glucosio, colesterolo e lattato. I livelli di espressione di CD45, DDR2 e CD105 sono aumentati in ADMSCS da topi con dieta ad alto contenuto di grassi e la loro funzionalità e capacità differenziativa è risultata essere leggermente diminuita. Nelle CDCs non sono state riscontrate differenze nè nell'espressione di marker nè nella loro funzionalità. Per concludere, 4 mesi di dieta HFD sono in grado di indurre un fenotipo diabetico in topi C57 Black 6. La dieta HFD ha aumentato il numero di ADMSCs ma ha modificato le percentuali di sottopopolazioni all interno di questa popolazione, inoltre è stata registrata un diminuzione nella loro capacità differenziativa. Al contrario, le CDCs non sono state influenzate dal fenotipo diabetico.Cardiovascular diseases, and the progression to heart failure, are one of the leading cause of death. Diabetes is often associate with cardiovascular complications because of the disturbed substrate metabolism that can alter the homeostasis of the tissues and modify the progenitor cell populations. Most adult tissues have a mesenchymal progenitor cell subpopulation that represents a proportion of the total cell number and which, because of its regenerative properties, is an attractive source for cell therapy. Recently it has been proved that injection of mesenchymal cells improve contractile function in rodents following myocardial infarction. The aim of this study was to isolate, characterize and differentiate adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs), and cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs), and to determine the effect of simply a high fat diet on these two mesenchymal populations. Cardiac explant-derived and cardiosphere-derived cells (EDCs, CDCs) were cultured from atrial tissue and adipose stem cells were cultured from epididymal fat depots after collagenase digestion. Cultured ADMSCs contained more CD90+ cells (47% vs 87%) and fewer DDR2+ and CD45+ cells compared to freshly isolated ADMSCs (respectively 9% and 20% vs 38% and 42%). Various media were tested to validate the differentiation capacity of adipose mesenchymal cells, but only the TGFβ-supplemented medium was able to increase the expression of cardiac specific genes. Hypoxia increased cell proliferation and changed the surface marker profile of ADMSCs; more DDR2+ cells and fewer CD45+ and CD90+ cells were found compared to normoxic ADMSCs. In vitro expansion of neonatal cardiac fibroblasts and cardiosphere-derived cells revealed a similarity between these two cell populations, both increased proliferation and clonogenic capacity with time in culture and expressed mesenchymal/fibroblast markers such as CD90 and DDR2. CDCs were able to acquire a cardiac phenotype in vitro, increasing gene expression of cardiac actin and troponin T, however no beating cells were observed. After 4 months of high-fat diet (55% fat; HFD,) mice had raised fed plasma glucose, cholesterol and insulin levels and decreased plasma lactate. Significantly more ADMSCs were obtained from high fat fed animals and ADMSC numbers correlated with plasma glucose, cholesterol and lactate. Expression of CD45, DDR2 and CD105 were increased in ADMSCs from high fat fed mice and the functional properties and differentiation capacity were slightly decreased. No differences in surface marker expression and functional properties were detected between high fat and chow diet mice CDCs. In conclusion, four months of HFD induced a diabetic phenotype in C57 Black 6 mice. The high fat diet increased ADMSCs yield but modified the balance of ADMSCs populations and decreased their differentiation capacity. In contrast, cardiac progenitor cells were unaffected by induction of the diabetic phenotype
Murine cardiosphere-derived cells are impaired by age but not by cardiac dystrophic dysfunction.
No full textTo be clinically relevant as a therapy for heart failure, endogenous progenitor cells must be isolated and expanded from aged and/or diseased tissue. Here we investigated the effect of age and cardiac impairment resulting from lack of dystrophin on murine cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs). CDCs were isolated and expanded from atrial biopsies from wild type mice aged 1.5, 6, 18 and 24 months and from mdx mice aged 6 and 18 months. Cardiac function was measured in mdx mice and age-matched wild type mice using high resolution cine MRI. CDCs could be isolated and expanded from all mice, however the number of cells obtained, and their regenerative potential, decreased with age, as demonstrated by decreased expression of stem cell markers, c-kit and Sca-1, and decreased cell proliferation, migration, clonogenicity and differentiation. Six month-old mdx mice showed right ventricular (RV) dilation and reduced RV ejection fraction (EF) in comparison to wild-type mice. Older mdx mice displayed significant RV and left ventricular dilation and decreased EF in both ventricles compared with age-matched wild-type mice. Mdx mouse hearts contained significantly more fibrotic tissue than age-matched wild-type mouse hearts. However, CDCs isolated from mice aged 6 and 18 months had the same number and regenerative potential from mdx mice and age-matched wild-type mice. Thus the cardiac progenitor cell population is impaired by age but is not substantially altered by the progressive deterioration in function of the dystrophic heart
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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