Stem Cell Based Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine: A Review Focusing on Adult Stem Cells

Tissue engineering has emerged as a field that attempts to harness the bodies\u27 own developmental and repair features to treat diseases and illnesses. Many of these illnesses are caused by necrosis or loss of functionality of complete organs or specific cell types. Early discoveries in embryonic stem cells fueled a wave of research that led to claims about possibly regenerating nonfunctioning organs. Although we are still far away from being able to grow functional organs in a Petri dish, the field continues to progress forward, and new clinical trials have been approved for using both embryonic and adult stem cell based solutions for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Current trends have moved towards adult stem cells for cell based therapies as they offer an autologous source and are less tumorigenic than their embryonic and induced-pluripotent stem cell counter parts. This review will begin with an outline of stem cell classes and then focus on current therapies in myocardial tissue repair, neural tissue repair, diabetes, as well as osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation are also reviewed

An agent-based signal processing in-node environment for real-time human activity monitoring based on wireless body sensor networks

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Progress of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy for Neural and Retinal Diseases

Complex circuitry and limited regenerative power make central nervous system (CNS) disorders the most challenging and difficult for functional repair. With elusive disease mechanisms, traditional surgical and medical interventions merely slow down the progression of the neurodegenerative diseases. However, the number of neurons still diminishes in many patients. Recently, stem cell therapy has been proposed as a viable option. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), a widely-studied human adult stem cell population, have been discovered for more than 20 years. MSCs have been found all over the body and can be conveniently obtained from different accessible tissues: bone marrow, blood, and adipose and dental tissue. MSCs have high proliferative and differentiation abilities, providing an inexhaustible source of neurons and glia for cell replacement therapy. Moreover, MSCs also show neuroprotective effects without any genetic modification or reprogramming. In addition, the extraordinary immunomodulatory properties of MSCs enable autologous and heterologous transplantation. These qualities heighten the clinical applicability of MSCs when dealing with the pathologies of CNS disorders. Here, we summarize the latest progress of MSC experimental research as well as human clinical trials for neural and retinal diseases. This review article will focus on multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, autism, glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration

Pluripotent Adult Stem Cells: A Potential Revolution in Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering

Stem cells have generated a lot of excitement among the researchers, clinicians and the public alike. Various types of stem cells are being evaluated for their regenerative potential. Marginal benefit resulting by transplanting autologus stem cells (deemed to be absolutely safe) in various clinical conditions has been proposed to be a growth factor effect rather than true regeneration. In contrast, various pre-clinical studies have been undertaken, using differentiated cells from embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells have shown promise, functional improvement and no signs of teratoma formation. The scientists are not in a rush to reach the clinic but a handful of clinical studies have shown promise. This book is a collection of studies/reviews, beginning with an introduction to the pluripotent stem cells and covering various aspects like derivation, differentiation, ethics, etc., and hence would provide insight into the recent standing on the pluripotent stem cells biology. The chapters have been categorized into three sections, covering subjects ranging from the generation of pluripotent stem cells and various means of their derivation from embryonic as well as adult tissues, the mechanistic understanding of pluripotency and narrating the potential therapeutic implications of these in vitro generated cells in various diseases, in addition to the associated pros and cons in the same.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cnso_bio_facbooks/1014/thumbnail.jp

Mechanisms involved in the β-cell mass increase induced by chronic sucrose feeding to normal rats

The aim of the present study was to clarify the mechanisms by which a sucrose-rich diet (SRD) produces an increase in the pancreatic β-cell mass in the rat. Normal Wistar rats were fed for 30 weeks either an SRD (SRD rats; 63% wt/wt), or the same diet but with starch instead of sucrose in the same proportion (CD rats). We studied body weight, serum glucose and triacylglycerol levels, endocrine tissue and β-cell mass, β-cell replication rate (proliferating cell nuclear antigen; PCNA), islet neogenesis (cytokeratin immunostaining) and β-cell apoptosis (propidium iodide). Body weight (g) recorded in the SRD rats was significantly (P<0.05) larger than that of the CD group (556.0 ± 8.3 vs 470.0 ± 13.1). Both serum glucose and triacylglycerol levels (mmol/l) were also significantly higher (P<0.05) in SRD than in CD rats (serum glucose, 8.11 ± 0.14 vs 6.62 ± 0.17; triacyglycerol, 1.57 ± 0.18 vs 0.47 ± 0.04). The number of pancreatic islets per unit area increased significantly (P<0.05) in SRD rats (3.29 ± 0.1 vs 2.01 ± 0.2). A significant increment (2.6 times) in the mass of endocrine tissue was detected in SRD animals, mainly due to an increase in the β-cell mass (P=0.0025). The islet cell replication rate, measured as the percentage of PCNA-labelled β cells increased 6.8 times in SRD rats (P<0.03). The number of apoptotic cells in the endocrine pancreas decreased significantly (three times) in the SRD animals (P=0.03). The cytokeratin-positive area did not show significant differences between CD and SRD rats. The increase of β-cell mass induced by SRD was accomplished by an enhanced replication of β cells together with a decrease in the rate of β-cell apoptosis, without any evident participation of islet neogenesis. This pancreatic reaction was unable to maintain serum glucose levels of these rats at the level measured in CD animals.Centro de Endocrinología Experimental y AplicadaFacultad de Ciencias Médica

Quality of service optimization in IoT driven intelligent transportation system

High mobility in ITS, especially V2V communication networks, allows increasing coverage and quick assistance to users and neighboring networks, but also degrades the performance of the entire system due to fluctuation in the wireless channel. How to obtain better QoS during multimedia transmission in V2V over future generation networks (i.e., edge computing platforms) is very challenging due to the high mobility of vehicles and heterogeneity of future IoT-based edge computing networks. In this context, this article contributes in three distinct ways: to develop a QoS-aware, green, sustainable, reliable, and available (QGSRA) algorithm to support multimedia transmission in V2V over future IoT-driven edge computing networks; to implement a novel QoS optimization strategy in V2V during multimedia transmission over IoT-based edge computing platforms; to propose QoS metrics such as greenness (i.e., energy efficiency), sustainability (i.e., less battery charge consumption), reliability (i.e., less packet loss ratio), and availability (i.e., more coverage) to analyze the performance of V2V networks. Finally, the proposed QGSRA algorithm has been validated through extensive real-time datasets of vehicles to demonstrate how it outperforms conventional techniques, making it a potential candidate for multimedia transmission in V2V over self-adaptive edge computing platforms

Lower risk of death and cardiovascular events in patients with diabetes initiating glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists or sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors: A real-world study in two Italian cohorts

Aim: To examine the efficacy and safety of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) and sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors compared with other antihyperglycaemic agents (AHAs) in large and unselected populations of the Lombardy and Apulia regions in Italy. Materials and Methods: An observational cohort study of first-time users of GLP-1RAs, SGLT2 inhibitors or other AHAs was conducted from 2010 to 2018. Death and cardiovascular (CV) events were evaluated using conditional Cox models in propensity-score-matched populations. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for each region and in a meta-analysis for pooled risks. Results: After propensity-score matching, the Lombardy cohort included 18 716 and 11 683 patients and the Apulia cohort 9772 and 6046 patients for the GLP-1RA and SGLT2 inhibitor groups, respectively. Use of GLP-1RAs was associated with lower rates of death (HR 0.61, CI 0.56-0.65, Lombardy; HR 0.63, CI 0.55-0.71, Apulia), cerebrovascular disease and ischaemic stroke (HR 0.70, CI 0.63-0.79; HR 0.72, CI 0.60-0.87, Lombardy), peripheral vascular disease (HR 0.72, CI 0.64-0.82, Lombardy; HR 0.80, CI 0.67-0.98, Apulia), and lower limb complications (HR 0.67, CI 0.56-0.81, Lombardy; HR 0.69, CI 0.51-0.93, Apulia). Compared with other AHAs, SGLT2 inhibitor use decreased the risk of death (HR 0.47, CI 0.40-0.54, Lombardy; HR 0.43, CI 0.32-0.57, Apulia), cerebrovascular disease (HR 0.75, CI 0.61-0.91, Lombardy; HR 0.72, CI 0.54-0.96, Apulia), and heart failure (HR 0.56, CI 0.46-0.70, Lombardy; HR 0.57, CI 0.42-0.77, Apulia). In the pooled cohorts, a reduction in heart failure was also observed with GLP-1RAs (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.82-0.97). Serious adverse events were quite low in frequency. Conclusion: Our findings from real-world practice confirm the favourable effect of GLP-1RAs and SGLT2 inhibitors on death and CV outcomes across both regions consistently. Thus, these drug classes should be preferentially considered in a broad type 2 diabetes population beyond those with CV disease

Mechanisms involved in the β-cell mass increase induced by chronic sucrose feeding to normal rats

The aim of the present study was to clarify the mechanisms by which a sucrose-rich diet (SRD) produces an increase in the pancreatic β-cell mass in the rat. Normal Wistar rats were fed for 30 weeks either an SRD (SRD rats; 63% wt/wt), or the same diet but with starch instead of sucrose in the same proportion (CD rats). We studied body weight, serum glucose and triacylglycerol levels, endocrine tissue and β-cell mass, β-cell replication rate (proliferating cell nuclear antigen; PCNA), islet neogenesis (cytokeratin immunostaining) and β-cell apoptosis (propidium iodide). Body weight (g) recorded in the SRD rats was significantly (P<0.05) larger than that of the CD group (556.0 ± 8.3 vs 470.0 ± 13.1). Both serum glucose and triacylglycerol levels (mmol/l) were also significantly higher (P<0.05) in SRD than in CD rats (serum glucose, 8.11 ± 0.14 vs 6.62 ± 0.17; triacyglycerol, 1.57 ± 0.18 vs 0.47 ± 0.04). The number of pancreatic islets per unit area increased significantly (P<0.05) in SRD rats (3.29 ± 0.1 vs 2.01 ± 0.2). A significant increment (2.6 times) in the mass of endocrine tissue was detected in SRD animals, mainly due to an increase in the β-cell mass (P=0.0025). The islet cell replication rate, measured as the percentage of PCNA-labelled β cells increased 6.8 times in SRD rats (P<0.03). The number of apoptotic cells in the endocrine pancreas decreased significantly (three times) in the SRD animals (P=0.03). The cytokeratin-positive area did not show significant differences between CD and SRD rats. The increase of β-cell mass induced by SRD was accomplished by an enhanced replication of β cells together with a decrease in the rate of β-cell apoptosis, without any evident participation of islet neogenesis. This pancreatic reaction was unable to maintain serum glucose levels of these rats at the level measured in CD animals.Centro de Endocrinología Experimental y AplicadaFacultad de Ciencias Médica

Internet of Things for Sustainable Community Development: Introduction and Overview

The two-third of the city-dwelling world population by 2050 poses numerous global challenges in the infrastructure and natural resource management domains (e.g., water and food scarcity, increasing global temperatures, and energy issues). The IoT with integrated sensing and communication capabilities has the strong potential for the robust, sustainable, and informed resource management in the urban and rural communities. In this chapter, the vital concepts of sustainable community development are discussed. The IoT and sustainability interactions are explained with emphasis on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and communication technologies. Moreover, IoT opportunities and challenges are discussed in the context of sustainable community development