Cardiomyocyte Reprogramming: A Potential Strategy for Cardiac Regeneration

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Within decades a limited process of cardiac cell regeneration was under observation. Embryonic stem cell (ESC) shows great potential for cell and tissue regeneration. Studies indicate that ESC has the potential to enhance myocardial perfusion and/or contractile performance in ischemic myocardium. However there is still challenge to evaluate the issues of teratoma. Then induced pluripotent stem cell was invented by introducing four transcriptional factors (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, c-Myc). iPSC was created from murine fibroblast and then differentiated into cardiomyocyte. Reprogramming the adult cell could be performed in full, partial or direct reprogramming. Several studies add the significance by reprogramming the cells through more efficient techniques. However several limitations are still remained.Keywords: cardiomyocyte, reprogramming, iPSC, fibroblas

Relationship between sRAGE and hsCRP as Markers of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Diabetic and Non-Diabetic Men with Central Obesity

Background: Interaction between advanced glycation end product (AGE) and receptor for AGE (RAGE) triggers the escalation of inflammatory cytokine expressions. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), an important inflammatory marker, has been reported to be modulated by soluble RAGE (sRAGE). However, the relationship between hsCRP and sRAGE in diabetes was not clearly described. Therefore present study was conducted to determine the relationship between sRAGE with hsCRP in men with central obese diabetic and non-diabetic. Materials and Methods: Adult men aged 25-60 years with central obese diabetes and non-diabetes, were recruited. Patient’s profiles were collected before the physical and blood examination. Physical examinations were conducted by measuring waist/abdomen, blood pressure, height, and weight. The routine blood test was performed to obtain concentrations of fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, hsCRP and sRAGE level.Results: Fifty-seven subjects with central obese and waist size ≥90 cm were selected. It was found that hsCRP values were significantly different (p=0.000) in HbA1c 0.5).Conclusions: In the early stages of diabetes with hsCRP <1 mg/dL, the protective function was demonstrated with greater sRAGE levels. However, in further phase with 3 ≤ hsCRP < 10 mg/dL, the level of sRAGE was low, which is assumed to be associated with complications. Hence, sRAGE could be suggested as a complementary marker for hsCRP to evaluate diabetic men with central obesity.Keywords: sRAGE, hsCRP, diabetes, HbA1c, central obesit

Is Stem Cell a Curer or an Obstruction?

Stem cell research and therapy are progressing these days dramatically. Stem cell therapy holds enormous treatment potential for many diseases which currently have no or limited therapeutic options. Unfortunately, this potential also comes with side-effects. In this review, the positive and negative effects of regulation of stem cells will be explained. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells which able to develop into many different cells of types in the body during early life and growth. There are five types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, somatic stem cells, fetal stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells. Stem cell transplantation is one form of stem cell therapy, it comes with different techniques sourced, and those are autologous and allogeneic transplantation stem cells. In an autologous transplant, a patient's blood-forming stem cells are collected, meanwhile, in an allogeneic transplant, target cells are replaced with new stem cells obtained from a donor or donated umbilical cord blood. Its abilities to maintain the phenotype, self-renewing and differentiate itself into specialized cells, give rise to stem cell as an innovation for the treatment of various diseases. In the clinical setting, stem cells are being explored for different conditions, such as in tissue repair and regeneration and autoimmune diseases therapy. But along with its benefit, stem cell therapy also holds some harm. It is known that the treatment using stem cell for curing and rehabilitation has the risk of tumor formation.Keywords: stem cell, therapy, transplantation, tumorigenic, mesenchymal stem cell, allogenei

Dental Mesenchymal Stem Cell: Its Role in Tooth Development, Types, Surface Antigens and Differentiation Potential

Reciprocal interaction between oral ectodermal epithelial cells and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-derived from the cranial neural crest starts the teeth development. The role of dental MSCs continues throughout life. The dental MSCs do not only play a role in tooth development but also in tooth homeostasis and repair. There are many kinds of dental MSCs, such as dental pulp stem cell (DPSC), stem cell from apical papilla (SCAP), stem cell from exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED), periodontal ligament stem cell (PDLSC) and stem cell from dental follicle (DFSC). Aligned with the proposed criteria by the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT), dental MSCs are adherent cells and like other MSCs, dental tissue MSCs are capable of giving rise to cell lineages such as osteo/odontogenic, adipogenic, and neurogenic. Various surface antigens of dental MSCs were reported, however, mostly typical antigens suggested by ISCT were fulfilled. Surface antigens from each dental MSCs (DPSC, SCAP, SHED, PDLSC and DFSC) are being described in the current report.Keywords: dental stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, tissue regeneration, DPSC, SCAP, SHED, PDLSC, DFS

Human Umbilical Cord Blood Serum Has Higher Potential in Inducing Proliferation of Fibroblast than Fetal Bovine Serum

Background: Cytokines and growth factors were reported to play an important role in stimulating fibroblast proliferation. In vitro culture, fibroblast is mostly culture in medium containing fetal bovine serum (FBS).  Human umbilical cord blood (hUCB) has been reported to have low immunogenic property and potential in wound healing, so therefore hUCB serum (hUCBS) could be potential and were investigated in current study.Materials and Methods: Five hUCBs were collected from healthy volunteers with normal delivering procedure. hUCB was ex utero immediately collected from umbilical vein in vacutainers and processed. NIH3T3 cells were cultured in DMEM with 10% FBS or 5-20% hUCBS for 48 hours. Cells were then quantified using MTT assay. Protein concentration of FBS and hUCBS were quantified using Bradford assay.Results: NIH3T3 cells density grown in DMEM with 10% FBS was the lowest. NIH3T3 cells densities were increased along with the increment of hUCBS concentrations. MTT results showed that average number of NIH3T3 cells grown in DMEM with 10% FBS was 6,185±1,243. Meanwhile average numbers of NIH3T3 cells grown in DMEM with 5%, 10% and 20% hUCBS were 8,126±628, 9,685±313 and 12,200±304, respectively. Average numbers of NIH3T3 cells grown in DMEM with 5% hUCBS were significantly higher than the ones with 10% FBS (p=0.000). Bradford results showed that concentration of hUCBS was significantly higher than the one of FBS (p=0.000).Conclusion: hUCBS could induce higher proliferation rate of NIH3T3 cells than FBS. Hence hUCBS could be suggested as an alternate of FBS in inducing fibroblast.Keywords: NIH3T3, fibroblast, UCB, serum, FBS, proliferatio

α-/β-Glucosidase and α-Amylase Inhibitory Activities of Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) Ethanol Extract

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease, characterized by hyperglycemia due to disturbance in both insulin secretion and function. One of theurapeutic approaches is to reduce blood glucose levels by inhbiting α-/β-glucosidase and α-amylase involved in carbohydrate digestion. Thus, inhibition of these enzymes play important role in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) has been known to have several medicinal properties and potency as an antidiabetics agents. This reseacrh aimed to observe antidiabetic properties of roselle ethanol extract (REE) towards α-glucosidase, β-glucosidase and α-amylase.Materials and Methods: REE was done with maceration technique using diluent of 70% ethanol. Antidiabetic properties were measured by inhibitory activity of α-amylase, α-glucosidase and β-glucosidase.Results: REE was able to inhibit α-/β-glucosidase and α-amylase in the highest concentration with inhibition percentage of 72.68, 47.34 and 73.08% respectively, and were comparable with Acarbose of 81.49, 50.97, 73.08%. The median inhibitory concentration (IC50) of α-/β-glucosidase and α-amylase of REE were 15.81, 41.77, 18.09 μg/mL respectively, and Acarbose were 9.45, 22.57, 3.64 μg/mL respectively.Conclusions: REE inhibits α-/β-glucosidase and α-amylase.Keywords: Roselle, Acarbose, α-glucosidase, β-glucosidase, α-amylase, antidiabeti

Survivin Clinical Features in Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is the primary lethal malignancy for women worldwide, but because it develops over time, it would be one of the most preventable types of cancer. Dysregulation of apoptosis in cells plays a critical role in the malignancy development. Survivin is the smallest inhibitor apoptotic protein (IAP) which has an important part in regulating cell division and inhibitor of apoptosis. This review focused on survivin features in cervical cancer from mechanisms of malignancy relationship to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection through E6 oncogenic protein, role as a biomarker in diagnosis, prognosis, staging and prediction of metastasis, and also as a target for therapy. Regulation of survivin divided into two main groups; cell cycle dependent and cell cycle independent pathway to maintain life and death balance. Survivin expression is upregulated by E6 protein simultaneously repressing p53. Thus cancerous cervical tissue developed. Survivin is also upregulated in hypoxia, a common condition in many tumors and increased angiogenesis. Survivin plays a major role in chemotherapy and radiation resistance in many cases of cervical cancer. As a target of therapy, survivin has a promising performance, suggested very specific and no issue of resistance and also reducing resistance to chemo and radiation therapy. The goal of treatment is to lower survivin expression through transcription inhibition, immunotherapy based on cytotoxic T cell (CTL) activity and gene therapy.  Keywords: cervical cancer, survivin, HPV E6 oncoprotein, therap

Caffeic Acid Induced Apoptosis in MG63 Osteosarcoma Cells Through Activation of Caspases

Background: Caffeic acid has been reported that when it is combined with all-trans retinoic acid, it can inhibit proliferation activity of SaOS-2 or OSA-01 cells. In addition, caffeic acid merely could reduce cell viability of SaOS-2 cells. However, there is not any study in caffeic acid's possible effect to induce apoptosis in osteosarcoma cell.Materials and Methods: MG-63 cells were cultured in Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum. Cells were treated with various concentrations of caffeic acid. Apoptosis were analyzed with Sub-G1 assay and activation of caspase-8, -9, and -3 were analyzed with immunoblotting. Caffeic acid-induced percentage of apoptotic cells and cleaved-8, -9, -3 were then statistically analyzed.Results: Sub-G1 results showed that caffeic acid significantly induced apoptosis in MG-63 osteosarcoma cells in concentration dependent manner. Immunoblotting results showed that caffeic acid induced cleavage of caspase-8, -9 and -3. Cleaved-caspase-8 and -9 were increased at 1-hour treatment of caffeic acid, while cleaved-caspase 3 was increased markedly at 6-hours treatment of caffeic acid.Conclusions: Caffeic acid induces apoptosis significantly in concentration dependent manner through caspase-dependent intrinsic apoptotic pathway.Keywords: caffeic acid, osteosarcoma, MG-63, apoptosis, caspas

Lung Cancer: Biomarkers, Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors and Monoclonal Antibodies

Lung cancer is the most contributor of cancer cause death in the world. Lung cancer is related to cigarette consumption and genetic factor. Nicotine derived nitrosamine ketone is the most important inducer of lung cancer associated with DNA Mutations resulting in the activation of Kirsten rat sarcoma viral (KRAS) oncogenes. DNA Mutation in Lung cancer is mostly presence by epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. There were seven potential biomarkers to detect early lung cancer, whereas carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), neuron specific enolase (NSE), cytokeratin-19 fragments (CYFRA 21-1), alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), cancer antigen 125 (CA-125), CA-199 and ferritin. The use of biomarkers in combination can improve the accuracy in diagnosing lung cancer. Other biomarkers include KRAS mutations, B-type Raf kinase (BRAF) mutation, mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (MET) amplification and Excision repair cross-complementing group 1 (ERCC1) can be used to see whether there are any genetic mutations that lead to lung cancer. Treatment of lung cancer with chemotherapy can be done using tyrosine kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies.Keywords: lung cancer, DNA mutation, EGFR, KRAS, BRAF, MET, tyrosine kinase