Functional neural differentiation of human adipose tissue-derived stem cells using bFGF and forskolin

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from adipose tissue have the capacity to differentiate into mesenchymal as well as endodermal and ectodermal cell lineage <it>in vitro</it>. We characterized the multipotent ability of human adipose tissue-derived stem cells (hADSCs) as MSCs and investigated the neural differentiation potential of these cells.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Human ADSCs from earlobe fat maintained self-renewing capacity and differentiated into adipocytes, osteoblasts, or chondrocytes under specific culture conditions. Following neural induction with bFGF and forskolin, hADSCs were differentiated into various types of neural cells including neurons and glia <it>in vitro</it>. In neural differentiated-hADSCs (NI-hADSCs), the immunoreactivities for neural stem cell marker (nestin), neuronal markers (Tuj1, MAP2, NFL, NFM, NFH, NSE, and NeuN), astrocyte marker (GFAP), and oligodendrocyte marker (CNPase) were significantly increased than in the primary hADSCs. RT-PCR analysis demonstrated that the mRNA levels encoding for ABCG2, nestin, Tuj1, MAP2, NFL, NFM, NSE, GAP43, SNAP25, GFAP, and CNPase were also highly increased in NI-hADSCs. Moreover, NI-hADSCs acquired neuron-like functions characterized by the display of voltage-dependent tetrodotoxin (TTX)-sensitive sodium currents, outward potassium currents, and prominent negative resting membrane potentials under whole-cell patch clamp recordings. Further examination by RT-PCR showed that NI-hADSCs expressed high level of ionic channel genes for sodium (SCN5A), potassium (MaxiK, Kv4.2, and EAG2), and calcium channels (CACNA1C and CACNA1G), which were expressed constitutively in the primary hADSCs. In addition, we demonstrated that Kv4.3 and Eag1, potassium channel genes, and NE-Na, a TTX-sensitive sodium channel gene, were highly induced following neural differentiation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These combined results indicate that hADSCs have the same self-renewing capacity and multipotency as stem cells, and can be differentiated into functional neurons using bFGF and forskolin.</p

Alternative Treatment of Osteoma Using an Endoscopic Holmium-YAG Laser

Osteoma is one of the most common tumors of the cranial vault and the facial skeleton. For osteoma in the facial region, endoscopic resection is widely used to prevent surgical scarring. Tumors in a total of 14 patients were resected using an endoscopic holmium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Ho:YAG) laser with a long flexible fiber. Aside from having the advantage of not leaving a scar due to the use of endoscopy, this procedure allowed resection at any position, was minimally invasive, and caused less postoperative pain. This method yielded excellent cosmetic results, so the endoscopic Ho:YAG laser is expected to emerge as a good treatment option for osteoma

The effect of various design codes and dynamic magnification on buildings with torsional irregularity

Seismic provisions have utilized design eccentricities to reduce planar irregularities in lateral stiffness of buildings. In calculating a design eccentricity, the torsional amplification factor may be applied either to accidental eccentricity or to both inherent and accidental eccentricities according to design codes. In this paper, different code provisions and their impact on torsional responses of buildings are investigated using example buildings with various aspect ratios and inherent eccentricities. It was found that the design eccentricity in KBC-2009 using torsional amplification factor for only accidental eccentricity reflects the dynamic magnification more accurately than that in KBC-2006 using this factor for both inherent and accidental eccentricity. And dynamic magnification of a torsionally imbalanced building is affected by the size of seismic design force of response spectrum analysis than design eccentricity of equivalent static analysis in KBC-2009. In other words, design eccentricity including torsional amplification factor in KBC-2009 do not reflect the dynamic magnification accurately

GW Calculations on post-transition-metal oxides

In order to establish the reliable GW scheme that can be consistently applied to post-transition-metal oxides (post-TMOs), we carry out comprehensive GW calculations on electronic structures of ZnO, Ga2O3, In2O3, and SnO2, the four representative post-TMOs. Various levels of self-consistency (G0W0, GW0, and QPGW0) and different starting functionals (GGA, GGA + U, and hybrid functional) are tested and their influence on the resulting electronic structure is closely analyzed. It is found that the GW0 scheme with GGA + U as the initial functional turns out to give the best agreement with experiment, implying that describing the position of metal-d level precisely in the ground state plays a critical role for the accurate dielectric property and quasiparticle band gap. Nevertheless, the computation on ZnO still suffers from the shallow Zn-d level and we propose a modified approach (GW0+Ud) that additionally considers an effective Hubbard U term during GW0 iterations and thereby significantly improves the band gap. It is also shown that a GGA + U-based GW0(+Ud) scheme produces an accurate energy gap of crystalline InGaZnO4, implying that this can serve as a standard scheme that can be applied to general structures of post-TMOs. © 2014 American Physical Society.1991sciescopu

Rapid and selective concentration of bacteria, viruses, and proteins using alternating current signal superimposition on two coplanar electrodes

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is usually effective close to the electrode surface. Several techniques have been developed to overcome its drawbacks and to enhance dielectrophoretic particle capture. Here we present a simple technique of superimposing alternating current DEP (high-frequency signals) and electroosmosis (EO; low-frequency signals) between two coplanar electrodes (gap: 25 mu m) using a lab-made voltage adder for rapid and selective concentration of bacteria, viruses, and proteins, where we controlled the voltages and frequencies of DEP and EO separately. This signal superimposition technique enhanced bacterial capture (Escherichia coli K-12 against 1-mu m-diameter polystyrene beads) more selectively (&gt;99%) and rapidly (similar to 30 s) at lower DEP (5 Vpp) and EO (1.2 Vpp) potentials than those used in the conventional DEP capture studies. Nanometer-sized MS2 viruses and troponin I antibody proteins were also concentrated using the superimposed signals, and significantly more MS2 and cTnI-Ab were captured using the superimposed signals than the DEP (10 Vpp) or EO (2 Vpp) signals alone (p &lt; 0.035) between the two coplanar electrodes and at a short exposure time (1 min). This technique has several advantages, such as simplicity and low cost of electrode fabrication, rapid and large collection without electrolysis

The effect of beta1-adrenergic receptor gene polymorphism on prolongation of corrected QT interval during endotracheal intubation under sevoflurane anesthesia

BACKGROUND: The hemodynamic responses to endotracheal intubation are associated with sympathoadrenal activity. Polymorphisms in the beta1-adrenergic receptor (β(1)AR) gene can alter the pathophysiology of specific diseases. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the Ser49Gly and Arg389Gly polymorphism of the β(1)AR gene have different cardiovascular responses during endotracheal intubation under sevoflurane anesthesia. METHODS: Ninety-one healthy patients undergoing general anesthesia were enrolled. Patients underwent slow inhalation induction of anesthesia using sevoflurane in 100% oxygen. Vecuronium 0.15 mg/kg was given for muscle relaxation. Endotracheal intubation was performed by an anesthesiologist. The mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), and the corrected QT (QTc) interval were measured before induction, before laryngoscopy, and immediately after tracheal intubation. Genomic DNA was isolated from the patients' peripheral blood and then evaluated for the β(1)AR-49 and β(1)AR-389 genes using an allele-specific polymerase chain reaction method. RESULTS: No differences were found in the baseline values of MAP, HR, and the QTc interval among β(1)AR-49 and β(1)AR-389, respectively. In the case of β(1)AR-49, the QTc interval change immediately after tracheal intubation was significantly greater in Ser/Ser genotypes than in Ser/Gly genotypes. No differences were observed immediately after tracheal intubation in MAP and HR for β(1)AR-49 and β(1)AR-389. CONCLUSIONS: We found an association between the Ser49 homozygote gene of β(1)AR-49 polymorphism and increased QTc prolongation during endotracheal intubation with sevoflurane anesthesia. Thus, β(1)AR-49 polymorphism may be useful in predicting the risk of arrhythmia during endotracheal intubation in patients with long QT syndrome.ope

Joint Carrier Fequency Synchronization and Channel Estimation for OFDM Systems Via the EM Algorithm

A joint carrier frequency synchronization and channel estimation scheme is proposed for orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) system. In the proposed scheme, carrier frequency synchronization and channel estimation are performed iteratively via the expectation–maximization (EM) algorithm using an OFDM preamble symbol. Moreover, we analytically investigate the effect of frequency offset error on the mean square error (MSE) performance of channel estimator. Simulation results present that the proposed scheme achieves almost ideal performance for both channel and frequency offset estimation.This work was supported by the University IT Research Center Project and the Brain Korea 21 Project