1,047 research outputs found
Is the Free Tibet movement a lost cause?
China\u27s growing economic influence, internecine rivalries, and over-reliance on the West have hurt the decades-old Tibetan independence movement.tseringgurung.atavist.com/freetibetmovemen
Contening cultures amongst development actors
Lewis et al (2003) establish a cogent argument
which suggests that serious analysis of the
culture of aid organizations, and of the
relationships with other actors, matters,
and that it is a neglected area of analysis.
Their discussion raises important new questions
about the development enterprise from an internal
perspective that heretofore has been neglected or
ignored. Contrasting the article by Lewis et al.
with a book by Harrison and Huntington (2000)
reinforces that conviction. Throughout the Harrison and Huntington book--
whose authors provide an excellent overview of the history of the study of
culture as something that certainly does ‘matter’ in development--we kept saying
to ourselves that ‘All this is fine, but it is focussed (as is much of the ancillary
literature on ‘culture’ in development) on looking
outward, at others undergoing development,
without consideration of the development agency
actors themselves. It mostly addresses questions and
issues concerning the question: Why some political
and national systems succeed and others fail
Gene therapy for inherited metabolic diseases
Over the last two decades, gene therapy has been successfully translated to many rare diseases. The number of
clinical trials is rapidly expanding and some gene therapy products have now received market authorisation in
the western world. Inherited metabolic diseases (IMD) are orphan diseases frequently associated with a severe
debilitating phenotype with limited therapeutic perspective. Gene therapy is progressively becoming a diseasechanging therapeutic option for these patients. In this review, we aim to summarise the development of this
emerging field detailing the main gene therapy strategies, routes of administration, viral and non-viral vectors
and gene editing tools. We discuss the respective advantages and pitfalls of these gene therapy strategies and
review their application in IMD, providing examples of clinical trials with lentiviral or adeno-associated viral gene
therapy vectors in rare diseases. The rapid development of the field and implementation of gene therapy as a
realistic therapeutic option for various IMD in a short term also require a good knowledge and understanding of
these technologies from physicians to counsel the patients at best
The exosome journey: from biogenesis to uptake and intracellular signalling.
The use of exosomes in clinical settings is progressively becoming a reality, as clinical trials testing exosomes for diagnostic and therapeutic applications are generating remarkable interest from the scientific community and investors. Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles secreted by all cell types playing intercellular communication roles in health and disease by transferring cellular cargoes such as functional proteins, metabolites and nucleic acids to recipient cells. An in-depth understanding of exosome biology is therefore essential to ensure clinical development of exosome based investigational therapeutic products. Here we summarise the most up-to-date knowkedge about the complex biological journey of exosomes from biogenesis and secretion, transport and uptake to their intracellular signalling. We delineate the major pathways and molecular players that influence each step of exosome physiology, highlighting the routes of interest, which will be of benefit to exosome manipulation and engineering. We highlight the main controversies in the field of exosome research: their adequate definition, characterisation and biogenesis at plasma membrane. We also delineate the most common identified pitfalls affecting exosome research and development. Unravelling exosome physiology is key to their ultimate progression towards clinical applications. Video Abstract
Optical Studies of Zero-Field Magnetization of CdMnTe Quantum Dots: Influence of Average Size and Composition of Quantum Dots
We show that through the resonant optical excitation of spin-polarized
excitons into CdMnTe magnetic quantum dots, we can induce a macroscopic
magnetization of the Mn impurities. We observe very broad (4 meV linewidth)
emission lines of single dots, which are consistent with the formation of
strongly confined exciton magnetic polarons. Therefore we attribute the
optically induced magnetization of the magnetic dots results to the formation
of spin-polarized exciton magnetic polarons. We find that the photo-induced
magnetization of magnetic polarons is weaker for larger dots which emit at
lower energies within the QD distribution. We also show that the photo-induced
magnetization is stronger for quantum dots with lower Mn concentration, which
we ascribe to weaker Mn-Mn interaction between the nearest neighbors within the
dots. Due to particular stability of the exciton magnetic polarons in QDs,
where the localization of the electrons and holes is comparable to the magnetic
exchange interaction, this optically induced spin alignment persists to
temperatures as high as 160 K.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figs - submitted for publicatio
Characterization of Embyronic Stem Cell-Differentiated Fibroblasts as Mesenchymal Stem Cells With Robust Expansion Capacity and Attenuated Innate Immunity
Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) isolated from adult tissues (Ad-MSCs) have shown great promise for use in regenerative medicine. However, their poor in vitro expansion capacity and tissue scarcity have been major limitations. In this study, we demonstrate that mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) can differentiate into cells with MSC properties.
Methods: Using previously established methods that characterize Ad-MSCs, we analyzed mESC-differentiated fibroblasts (mESC-FBs), including plastic adherence, clonogenic growth, MSC marker expression, tri-lineage differentiation potential, and the capacity to express immunomodulators.
Results: Although previously characterized as mESC-differentiated fibroblasts (mESC-FBs), these cells exhibit major properties of Ad-MSCs. However, mESC-FBs also display unique features inherited from ESCs, including robust expansion capacity, senescence resistance, and attenuated innate immunity. In particular, mESC-FBs are insensitive to bacterial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, LPS) and do not express LPS-induced inflammatory molecules, in contrast to bone marrow (BM)-MSCs. We further demonstrate that mESC-FBs are resistant to the cytotoxicity associated with inflammatory cytokines, bacterial endotoxins (LPS and heat-killed bacteria), and macrophage-mediated inflammation.
Conclusions: While it remains to be determined how the unique properties of mESC-FBs will affect their immunoregulatory activity under an in vivo condition, our findings demonstrate that ESCs could be used as an alternative source to generate a new class of ESC-MSCs with unique features potentially useful in regenerative medicine
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