Fabrication of Functional Cardiac, Skeletal, and Smooth Muscle Pumps In Vitro

Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, and new treatments need to be developed in order to provide novel therapies. Tissue engineering aims to develop biologic substitutes that restore tissue function. The purpose of the current study was to construct cell-based pumps, which can be viewed as biologic left ventricular assist devices. The pumps were fabricated by culturing cardiac, skeletal, and smooth muscle cells within a fibrin gel and then each 3-D tissue construct was wrapped around a decellularized rodent aorta. We described the methodology for pump fabrication along with functional performance metric, determined by the intra-luminal pressure. In addition, histologic evaluation showed a concentric organization of components, with the muscle cells positioned on the outermost surface, followed by the fibrin gel and the decellularized aorta formed the innermost layer. Though early in development, cell-based muscle pumps have tremendous potential to be used for basic and applied research, and with further development, can be used clinically as cell-based left ventricular assist devices.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79060/1/j.1525-1594.2010.01007.x.pd

Functional Evaluation of Isolated Zebrafish Hearts

Abstract Traditional working heart preparations, based on the original Langendorff setup, are widely used experimental models that have tremendously advanced the cardiovascular field. However, these systems can be deceivingly complex, requiring the maintenance of pH with CO2, the delivery of oxygenated perfusate, and the need for extensive laboratory equipment. We have examined the feasibility of using isolated zebrafish (Danio rerio) hearts as an experimental model system, in which experimental procedures can be performed in the absence of the traditional requirements and sophisticated setup equipment. Isolated zebrafish hearts exhibited spontaneous contractile activity, could be electrically paced, and were responsive to pharmacologic stimulation with isoproterenol for 1.5 h after in vivo removal. Isolated zebrafish hearts offer a time- and cost-effective alternative to traditional Langendorff/working heart preparation models, and could be used to investigate cardiac function and repair.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/63209/1/zeb.2008.0550.pd

Machine Translation and Automated Analysis of Cuneiform Languages (MTAAC)

Project Abstract: Ancient Mesopotamia, birthplace of writing, has produced vast numbers of cuneiform tablets that only a handful of highly specialized scholars are able to read. The task of studying them is so labor intensive that the vast majority have not yet been translated, with the result that their contents are not accessible either to historians in other fields or to the wider public. This project will develop and apply new computerised methods to translate and analyse the contents of some 67,000 highly standardised administrative documents from southern Mesopotamia from the 21st century BC. By automating these basic but labor-intensive processes, we will free up scholars’ time. The tools that we will develop, combining machine learning, statistical and neural machine translation technologies, may then be applied to other ancient languages. Similarly, the translations themselves, and the historical, social and economic data extracted from them, will be made publicly available on the web

An asymptotic treatment of the Elenbaas–Heller equation for a radiating wall‐stabilized high‐pressure gas‐discharge arc

An asymptotic analysis of the Elenbaas–Heller equation for a radiating wall-stabilized high-pressure gas-discharge arc is given. This analysis applies when the operating temperatures within the arc are lower than the ionization temperature by an order of magnitude. It is shown that for arcs that are radiating highly efficiently a further asymptotic treatment can be given. It is shown under what conditions, governed by a dimensionless parameter M, this limiting case prevails. Comparison with earlier results put forward by Zollweg [J. Appl. Phys. 49, 1077 (1978)] shows satisfactory agreement

Expression Profiling of a Genetic Animal Model of Depression Reveals Novel Molecular Pathways Underlying Depressive-Like Behaviours

The Flinders model is a validated genetic rat model of depression that exhibits a number of behavioural, neurochemical and pharmacological features consistent with those observed in human depression.In this study we have used genome-wide microarray expression profiling of the hippocampus and prefrontal/frontal cortex of Flinders Depression Sensitive (FSL) and control Flinders Depression Resistant (FRL) lines to understand molecular basis for the differences between the two lines. We profiled two independent cohorts of Flinders animals derived from the same colony six months apart, each cohort statistically powered to allow independent as well as combined analysis. Using this approach, we were able to validate using real-time-PCR a core set of gene expression differences that showed statistical significance in each of the temporally distinct cohorts, representing consistently maintained features of the model. Small but statistically significant increases were confirmed for cholinergic (chrm2, chrna7) and serotonergic receptors (Htr1a, Htr2a) in FSL rats consistent with known neurochemical changes in the model. Much larger gene changes were validated in a number of novel genes as exemplified by TMEM176A, which showed 35-fold enrichment in the cortex and 30-fold enrichment in hippocampus of FRL animals relative to FSL.These data provide significant insights into the molecular differences underlying the Flinders model, and have potential relevance to broader depression research

Heavy and light roles: myosin in the morphogenesis of the heart

Myosin is an essential component of cardiac muscle, from the onset of cardiogenesis through to the adult heart. Although traditionally known for its role in energy transduction and force development, recent studies suggest that both myosin heavy-chain and myosin lightchain proteins are required for a correctly formed heart. Myosins are structural proteins that are not only expressed from early stages of heart development, but when mutated in humans they may give rise to congenital heart defects. This review will discuss the roles of myosin, specifically with regards to the developing heart. The expression of each myosin protein will be described, and the effects that altering expression has on the heart in embryogenesis in different animal models will be discussed. The human molecular genetics of the myosins will also be reviewed

Basics of Bose-Einstein Condensation

The review is devoted to the elucidation of the basic problems arising in the theoretical investigation of systems with Bose-Einstein condensate. Understanding these challenging problems is necessary for the correct description of Bose-condensed systems. The principal problems considered in the review are as follows: (i) What is the relation between Bose-Einstein condensation and global gauge symmetry breaking? (ii) How to resolve the Hohenberg-Martin dilemma of conserving versus gapless theories? (iii) How to describe Bose-condensed systems in strong spatially random potentials? (iv) Whether thermodynamically anomalous fluctuations in Bose systems are admissible? (v) How to create nonground-state condensates? Detailed answers to these questions are given in the review. As examples of nonequilibrium condensates, three cases are described: coherent modes, turbulent superfluids, and heterophase fluids.Comment: Review articl