Generation of human vascular smooth muscle subtypes provides insight into embryological origin-dependent disease susceptibility.

Heterogeneity of embryological origins is a hallmark of vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and may influence the development of vascular disease. Differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into developmental origin-specific SMC subtypes remains elusive. Here we describe a chemically defined protocol in which hPSCs were initially induced to form neuroectoderm, lateral plate mesoderm or paraxial mesoderm. These intermediate populations were further differentiated toward SMCs (>80% MYH11(+) and ACTA2(+)), which displayed contractile ability in response to vasoconstrictors and invested perivascular regions in vivo. Derived SMC subtypes recapitulated the unique proliferative and secretory responses to cytokines previously documented in studies using aortic SMCs of distinct origins. Notably, this system predicted increased extracellular matrix degradation by SMCs derived from lateral plate mesoderm, which was confirmed using rat aortic SMCs from corresponding origins. This differentiation approach will have broad applications in modeling origin-dependent disease susceptibility and in developing bioengineered vascular grafts for regenerative medicine

organic matter in tepetate cultivated with fig tree and grass, amendmented whit manure and fertilizer

Plants and amendments increase quality of the tepetates once these hard layers, abundant in the Mexican Volcanic Belt, have been rototilled. In tepetate, which has a mass structure and lacks organic reserves, the addition of organic matter (OM) has proven to have a significant effect on fertility by supplying N and P, essential for the development of biota, and which promotes a stable structurization. Although it is known that soil quality is related to the nature of the organic compounds, there are few studies referring to the basic compounds of OM, once it has been incorporated into hard layers such as tepetate. The objective of the present study was to quantify the total organic carbon, polysaccharides, humic acids and fulvic acids, supplied to the tepetate by cultivation of fig (Ficus carica L.) and Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana Knuth), with the addition of bovine manure and fertilizer, for two years. The experiment was conducted in the greenhouse with duripan tepetate. The equivalent of 72 Mg ha(-1) of manure was applied per experimental unit and fertilization dose of 80-80-20 for fig and 250-200-00 for grass. The manure doubled the organic carbon content of the tepetate from the first months of application. The fertilizer influenced the production of polysaccharides. The plants, with and without amendments, provided an increase of as much as 100% of organic carbon and polysaccharides. The humic and fulvic acids were not modified by the treatments. The highest content of carbon and polysaccharides was at 12 months