Plasticity of the Muscle Stem Cell Microenvironment

Satellite cells (SCs) are adult muscle stem cells capable of repairing damaged and creating new muscle tissue throughout life. Their functionality is tightly controlled by a microenvironment composed of a wide variety of factors, such as numerous secreted molecules and different cell types, including blood vessels, oxygen, hormones, motor neurons, immune cells, cytokines, fibroblasts, growth factors, myofibers, myofiber metabolism, the extracellular matrix and tissue stiffness. This complex niche controls SC biology-quiescence, activation, proliferation, differentiation or renewal and return to quiescence. In this review, we attempt to give a brief overview of the most important players in the niche and their mutual interaction with SCs. We address the importance of the niche to SC behavior under physiological and pathological conditions, and finally survey the significance of an artificial niche both for basic and translational research purposes

PRODUCTION OF BRANDY FROM CASSAVA STARCH INDUSTRY WASTE

There are few studies with the use of agro-industrial waste in human food, as raw material for the production of products with higher added value. The aim of this work was to produce brandy from cassava peel, through the processes of enzymatic hydrolysis using commercial enzymes (alpha-amylase, amyloglucosidase and xylanase), with the aid of the alcoholic fermentation of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and distillation. The physical-chemical and sensory characteristies of the brandy produced were determined. The use of cassava waste was adequate in all processes involved, reaching an alcohol content of 43 degrees GL, 4.3 pH and titratable acidity of 0.0029g/100ml. These results are within the standards required by the Brazilian legislation for brandy. The scores obtained for appearance and aroma evaluation were 6.2 and 8.18, respectively. The results show that the processes involved in producing brandy from cassava waste were satisfactory for the formulation of a product with higher quality and added value.381180881

Sequence Variations in Mitochondrial Ferritin: Distribution in Healthy Controls and Different Types of Patients

The storage of iron in the cells is mainly accomplished by cytosolic ferritins. The perturbation of ferritin function may result in accumulation of excess iron in cells and tissues and increased oxidative stress, common features of different genetic and acquired disorders. Mutations in L-ferritin have been associated with neuroferritinopathy, a rare and severe movement disorder with abnormal brain iron storage. Recently, a novel form of ferritin has been discovered, which localizes in the mitochondrial matrix and plays an important role in iron homeostasis in these organelles. The possible association of sequence variations in the mitochondrial ferritin (FtMt) gene with disorders with aberrant iron distribution has not been investigated yet. We set up a denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC)-based screening for FtMt and analyzed the genomic DNA of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (# 63) or with Parkinson's disease (# 332) and other movement disorders such as pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (# 7), restless legs syndrome (# 23), and suspected neuroferritinopathy (# 7) and of control subjects (# 342). We detected eight different types of substitution, all at the heterozygous state. Six of them caused amino acid changes, but none of them was predicted to drastically perturb FtMt structure and/or function. The c+134C>A (P45H) variation, which was the most common (# 28), was less represented in the Parkinson's population, although not significantly (p=0.07). The analysis suggests that sequence variations in the coding region of FtMt are not involved in the development of myelodysplastic syndromes and Parkinson's disease

Lanthanide Circularly Polarized Luminescence: Bases and Applications

Lanthanide (III) luminescence is very characteristic: it is characterized by narrow emission bands, large Stokes shift, and a long excited state lifetime. Moreover, chiral lanthanide complexes can emit strongly circularly polarized light in a way that is almost precluded to purely organic molecules. Thanks to the sensitivity and specificity of the Ln circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) signal, CPL-active complexes are therefore employed as bioanalytical tools and other uses can be envisaged in many other fields. Here we present a brief overview of the most recently developed CPL-active lanthanide complexes and a selected few examples of their applications. We briefly discuss the main mechanisms that can rationalize the observed outstanding CPL properties of these systems, and some practical suggestions on how to measure and report data. Chirality 27:1-13, 2015. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc