Osteoblast responsiveness to VEGF : potential applications in tissue engineering

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has a multifaceted role in bone remodelling influencing early osteoblastogenesis, promoting angiogenesis to aid bone repair and chemo-attraction of several cell types needed for bone formation. Consequently, VEGF is a good candidate for therapeutic strategies in bone healing and sue engineering. The aim of this study was to characterise osteoblast responsiveness to VEGT during osteogenesis.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variation in Greeks

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences were determined in 54 unrelated Greeks, coming from different regions in Greece, for both segments HVR-I and HVR-II. Fifty-two different mtDNA haplotypes were revealed, one of which was shared by three individuals. A very low heterogeneity was found among Greek regions. No one cluster of lineages was specific to individuals coming from a certain region. The average pairwise difference distribution showed a value of 7.599. The data were compared with that for other European or neighbor populations (British, French, Germans, Tuscans, Bulgarians, and Turks). The genetic trees that were constructed revealed homogeneity between Europeans. Median networks revealed that most of the Greek mtDNA haplotypes are clustered to the five known haplogroups and that a number of haplotypes are shared among Greeks and other European and Near Eastern populations

EURL ECVAM progress report on the development, validation and regulatory acceptance of alternative methods (2010-2013) Prepared in the framework of Directive 76/768/EEC and Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products

Provisions of Regulation No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products require that the European Commission reports on a yearly basis to the European Parliament and Council on the progress made in the development, validation and regulatory acceptance of alternative methods and on the compliance with the deadlines of the animal testing and marketing bans. This EURL ECVAM technical report provides an update since 2010 on the state of play of alternative methods for all the toxicological areas relevant to the Cosmetics Regulation and supplements the 2013 Commission Communication on the animal testing and marketing ban and on the state of play in relation to alternative methods in the field of cosmetics. Overall good progress has been made in the validation and regulatory acceptance in areas such as local toxicity where the underpinning science is more advanced and mature alternative methods are available. For very complex endpoints on the other hand, such as chronic systemic toxicity, carcinogenicity or reproductive toxicity, efforts are predominantly focused on research and development where the emphasis is on the integration of a variety of methods based on mechanistic understanding. The future is bright however, since considerable advances in new in vitro technologies, systems biology, bioinformatics and computational modelling are driving a paradigm shift in toxicological testing and assessment where non-animal methods will ultimately become the tools of choice.JRC.I.5-Systems Toxicolog

Fabrication and characterization of 3D complex hydroxyapatite scaffolds with hierarchical porosity of different features for optimal bioactive performance

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Ceramics International and the definitive published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2016.09.160.To improve the biological performance of hydroxyapatite scaffolds in bone tissue engineering, graphite was used as porogen to create additional micro/nanoporosity to macroporosity, resulting in hierarchical porosity. For maximum imitation of natural bone structures, scaffolds with different porosity features were fabricated using micron/nano-sized graphite. The sintering profile of graphite treated scaffolds was optimised to reduce the influence of shrinkage. To confirm the porosity features, the micro/nanostructures of scaffolds were characterised by scanning electron microscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method. Considering that hydroxyapatite is resistant to biodegradation in vivo, the degradation rate of scaffolds in modified simulated body fluid was examined. Furthermore, biological evaluations based on myoblasts were carried out to investigate the influence of porosity features on the essential performance such as adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. The results indicate that the scaffolds with dominant microporosity and little nanoporosity formed inside had high potential for clinical applications due to improved performance in bioactivity