Differentiation Potential of Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Osteoblast Cell in Early, Middle and Late Passages

Human adipose tissue is a great source of mesenchymal stem cells. Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AD-MSCs) are easily isolated, able to differentiate into multi-lineage cells and have various clinical application. This promising potential will be more valuable for the application of tissue engineering if they can be sequentially subcultured without loss of phenotype and multilineage differentiation ability. Thus, in this study we investigated the ability of human AD-MSCs to differentiate into osteogenic lineage by performing histological staining and studied the osteogenic potential of human AD-MSCs on early (P2, P5), middle (P10) and late passage (P15). Cells were cultured in osteogenic medium for 2 weeks and characterized at 1, 4, 7, 10 and 14 days. During sequential subcultivation, AD- MSCs were able to maintain their osteogenic potential through late passage. AD-MSCs in middle passage exhibited a better osteogenic potential than the early and late passages, while the AD-MSCs from P2 are less differentiated than middle and late passages. The result that was found in this research should be accounted for when developing stem cell-based therapies for clinical application Keywords: Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cell; Mesenchymal stem cell, Differentiation; Osteoblast cel

Optimization of Alginate-Based Encapsulation Utilization For Viability and Stability of The Mesenchymal Stem Cell

In the past few decades, attention and research in the field of stem cell are progressing very rapidly. Hospitals in Indonesia have been using stem cells as an alternative to cure some illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, fractures and joints, dental implants, etc. Currently, adult stem cells can be obtained not only from the spinal cord and peripheral vessels, but also from fat tissues of the human body, where it can be isolated as adherent stem cells (mesenchymal stem cells). Consideration of fat tissue as the source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for autologous tissue engineering is because they are readily available in abundant quantities through minimal invasive procedures, as well as easily cultured and propagated. It is possible to proliferate and differentiate into the desired direction of the network. Stem cell growth requires conditions to grow such as requiring optimum growing conditions such as an environmental temperature of 37°C and a concentration of 5% CO2. Maintenance of MSCs also requires a subculture process, i.e. the process of moving MSCs from a full culture medium to new media; continuous subculture process can cause changes in MSCs. The viability of stem cells may be disrupted by micro-conditions in wounds such as hypoxia, oxidative stress, and inflammation. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate whether alginate-based encapsulation can increase and maintenance stem cell growth at different temperature by using some concentration of alginate and CaCl2 as the formula. Results shown that alginat with low concentration and CaCl2 100mM is suitable for MSCs growth (as in MTT result shown) at 25°C temperature. This can be due to the MSCs encapsulated can adapt and grow within the alginate microcapsule with low concentration. In addition, the media may also easier to get into the microcapsule alginate

Multiple Functionality in Nanotube Transistors

Calculations of quantum transport in a carbon nanotube transistor show that such a device offers unique functionality. It can operate as a ballistic field-effect transistor, with excellent characteristics even when scaled to 10 nm dimensions. At larger gate voltages, channel inversion leads to resonant tunneling through an electrostatically defined nanoscale quantum dot. Thus the transistor becomes a gated resonant tunelling device, with negative differential resistance at a tunable threshold. For the dimensions considered here, the device operates in the Coulomb blockade regime, even at room temperature.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Radius and chirality dependent conformation of polymer molecule at nanotube interface

Temperature dependent conformations of linear polymer molecules adsorbed at carbon nanotube (CNT) interfaces are investigated through molecule dynamics simulations. Model polyethylene (PE) molecules are shown to have selective conformations on CNT surface, controlled by atomic structures of CNT lattice and geometric coiling energy. PE molecules form entropy driven assembly domains, and their preferred wrapping angles around large radius CNT (40, 40) reflect the molecule configurations with energy minimums on a graphite plane. While PE molecules prefer wrapping on small radius armchair CNT (5, 5) predominantly at low temperatures, their configurations are shifted to larger wrapping angle ones on a similar radius zigzag CNT (10, 0). A nematic transformation around 280 K is identified through Landau-deGennes theory, with molecule aligning along tube axis in extended conformationsComment: 19 pages, 7 figure2, submitted to journa

<i>Spitzer</i> microlens measurement of a massive remnant in a well-separated binary

We report the detection and mass measurement of a binary lens OGLE-2015-BLG-1285La,b, with the more massive component having M1 > 1.35 M⊙ (80% probability). A main-sequence star in this mass range is ruled out by limits on blue light, meaning that a primary in this mass range must be a neutron star (NS) or black hole (BH). The system has a projected separation r⊥ = 6.1 ± 0.4 AU and lies in the Galactic bulge. These measurements are based on the "microlens parallax" effect, i.e., comparing the microlensing light curve as seen from Spitzer, which lay at 1.25 AU projected from Earth, to the light curves from four ground-based surveys, three in the optical and one in the near-infrared. Future adaptive optics imaging of the companion by 30 m class telescopes will yield a much more accurate measurement of the primary mass. This discovery both opens the path and defines the challenges to detecting and characterizing BHs and NSs in wide binaries, with either dark or luminous companions. In particular, we discuss lessons that can be applied to future Spitzer and Kepler K2 microlensing parallax observations

Probing dispersion and re-agglomeration phenomena upon melt-mixing of polymer-functionalized graphite nanoplates

A one-step melt-mixing method is proposed to study dispersion and re-agglomeration phenomena of the as-received and functionalized graphite nanoplates in polypropylene melts. Graphite nanoplates were chemically modified via 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of an azomethine ylide and then grafted with polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride. The effect of surface functionalization on the dispersion kinetics, nanoparticle re-agglomeration and interface bonding with the polymer is investigated. Nanocomposites with 2 or 10 wt% of as-received and functionalized graphite nanoplates were prepared in a small-scale prototype mixer coupled to a capillary rheometer. Samples were collected along the flow axis and characterized by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and electrical conductivity measurements. The as-received graphite nanoplates tend to re-agglomerate upon stress relaxation of the polymer melt. The covalent attachment of a polymer to the nanoparticle surface enhances the stability of dispersion, delaying the re-agglomeration. Surface modification also improves interfacial interactions and the resulting composites presented improved electrical conductivity.The authors acknowledge the financial support to Project Matepro Optimizing Materials and Processes, with reference NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000037 by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2) and Portuguese Foundation for the Science and Technology (FCT) for PEst-C/CTM/LA0025/2013. EC acknowledges FCT for a PhD grant SFRH/BD/87214/2012

Modelling urban growth evolution and land-use changes using GIS based cellular automata and SLEUTH models: the case of Sana'a metropolitan city, Yemen.

An effective and efficient planning of an urban growth and land use changes and its impact on the environment requires information about growth trends and patterns amongst other important information. Over the years, many urban growth models have been developed and used in the developed countries for forecasting growth patterns. In the developing countries however, there exist a very few studies showing the application of these models and their performances. In this study two models such as cellular automata (CA) and the SLEUTH models are applied in a geographical information system (GIS) to simulate and predict the urban growth and land use change for the City of Sana’a (Yemen) for the period 2004–2020. GIS based maps were generated for the urban growth pattern of the city which was further analyzed using geo-statistical techniques. During the models calibration process, a total of 35 years of time series dataset such as historical topographical maps, aerial photographs and satellite imageries was used to identify the parameters that influenced the urban growth. The validation result showed an overall accuracy of 99.6 %; with the producer’s accuracy of 83.3 % and the user’s accuracy 83.6 %. The SLEUTH model used the best fit growth rule parameters during the calibration to forecasting future urban growth pattern and generated various probability maps in which the individual grid cells are urbanized assuming unique “urban growth signatures”. The models generated future urban growth pattern and land use changes from the period 2004–2020. Both models proved effective in forecasting growth pattern that will be useful in planning and decision making. In comparison, the CA model growth pattern showed high density development, in which growth edges were filled and clusters were merged together to form a compact built-up area wherein less agricultural lands were included. On the contrary, the SLEUTH model growth pattern showed more urban sprawl and low-density development that included substantial areas of agricultural lands