Urine Derived Stem Cells for Potential Application in Treatment of Diabetic Erectile Dysfunction

The days were thought to be revolutionary when human ES cells were derived for the first time from the 5-6 day old human embryos called blastocysts

Organ regeneration is the “Holy Grail” of modern regenerative medicine. To realize this dream, regenerative medicine must be underpinned by regenerative biology, which seeks to understand the mechanism of regeneration through investigation of different model systems

The tissue engineering is a multidisciplinary field with the aim to repair the tissue combining the use of stem cells and biomaterials, whose activity can be controlled by the addition of signal molecules, such as growth factors or modulated by physical stimuli. Tissue engineering requires two phases: an in vitro phase to develop the construct in culture and an in vivo phase including the surgical implantation of the construct to repair the tissue defect and the outcome evaluation.

It is known that pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) (1.5 mT, 75Hz) plays several positive effects on cartilage and bone tissues and they are used in orthopedics with benefit for patients.

The rationale for using PEMFs in tissue-engineering techniques for cartilage repair is based on two important findings: [1] the increase in anabolic activity of chondrocytes and cartilage explants exposed to PEMFs and [2] preventing the catabolic effects of inflammation due to surgical trauma at the site lesion itself, thanks to the agonistic activity for the A2A adenosine receptor. More recently, PEMFs have been studied on human Mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and it has been shown that PEMFs can favour chondrogenic differentiation in the presence of an inflammatory microenvironment counteracting the de-differentiating activity of proinflammatory cytokines.

On the basis of these considerations, PEMFs may be useful in promoting the formation of new cartilage in the engineered construct during its preparation in vitro, to protect the construct when surgically implanted in an inflammatory environment and to favor its integration with the surrounding host tissue. However, several gaps have been highlighted from the clinical outcome evaluation and they deserve attention to improve the use of PEMFs as an useful tool for cell-based regeneration of cartilage defects in orthopedics.

Non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the most aggressive malignant tumor diseases accounting for a large group of all lung cancer cases, and patients with NSCLC have very poor prognosis with short survival time and high reccurence rates after therapy. This phenomenon could be illustrated by the existence of cancer stem cells (CSCs) which is well supported by a large number of previous studies. Herein we generalize signaling and mechanisms (mainly including WNT, notch and hedgehog pathways) involved in cancer stemness in NSCLC according to recently-published data with briefly-described CSC identification and evaluation methods. All of above will help lead to new advances in therapy against CSCs and improvements in prognosis of NSCLC patients.

Tissue engineering of articular cartilage is focused on generating the microenvironment, so as to restore its complex biomechanical and biochemical properties. We developed a novel Chitosan-Agarose (CHAG) scaffold resembling the properties of native cartilage extracellular matrix that aids in-vitro cartilage formation. Human Wharton’s Jelly Mesenchymal Stem Cells (HWJ-MSCs) were seeded on CHAG scaffolds, cultured in Chondrogenic medium with supplementation of growth factors (BMP-2, TGF-β3). Dynamic compression loading was applied to mimic the microenvironment of native cartilage. The HWJ-MSCs seeded CHAG scaffolds have good cell attachment, infiltration and chondrogenesis with neo extracellular matrix synthesis. CHAG scaffolds seeded with HWJ-MSCs cultured in Chondrogenic media supplemented with both BMP-2 and TGF-β3 and simultaneous dynamic compression loading produced 15.26±2.48 µg GAG/µg DNA. Our results highlighted the potential strategy of using the combination of dynamic compression loading and CHAG scaffold in creating a functional, tissue engineered construct for articular cartilage.