Characterization of Dental Pulp Stem Cell Responses to Functional Biomaterials Including Mineralized Trioxide Aggregates

Introduction: Many studies in stem cell biology have demonstrated that dental pulp stem cells (DPSC) may be highly proliferative and capable of pluripotent differentiation into many different tissue types. Recent advances in stem cell research have outlined methods for directing in vitro or in vivo growth, viability, and proliferation, as well as differentiation of DPSC-although much remains to be discovered. Based upon this information, the primary objective of this study was to understand the functional biomaterials needed to more effectively direct DPSC viability, growth, and proliferation. Methods: Using an approved protocol, previously collected and isolated samples of DPSC from an existing repository were used. Previously established stem cell biomarkers (Sox-2, Oct-4, NANOG) from each isolate were correlated with their proliferation rates or doubling times to categorize them into rapid, intermediate, or slow-dividing multipotent DPSC. Growth factors and other functional dental biomaterials were subsequently tested to evaluate DPSC responses in proliferation, viability, and morphology. Results: Differential responses were observed among DPSC isolates to growth factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and bone morphogenic protein (BMP-2), and functional biomaterials such as mineralized trioxide aggregates (MTA). The responsiveness of DPSC isolates did not correlate with any single factor but rather with a combination of proliferation rate and biomarker expression. Conclusions: These data strongly suggest that some, but not all, DPSC isolates are capable of a robust and significant in vitro response to differentiation stimuli, although this response is not universal. Although some biomarkers and phenotypes that distinguish and characterize these DPSC isolates may facilitate the ability to predict growth, viability, and differentiation potential, more research is needed to determine the other intrinsic and extrinsic factors that may contribute to and modulate these DPSC responses to these functional biomaterials for biotechnology and bioengineering applications

Ninjurin1 positively regulates osteoclast development by enhancing the survival of prefusion osteoclasts

Osteoclasts (OCs) are bone-resorbing cells that originate from hematopoietic stem cells and develop through the fusion of mononuclear myeloid precursors. Dysregulation of OC development causes bone disorders such as osteopetrosis, osteoporosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Although the molecular mechanisms underlying osteoclastogenesis have been well established, the means by which OCs maintain their survival during OC development remain unknown. We found that Ninjurin1 (Ninj1) expression is dynamically regulated during osteoclastogenesis and that Ninj1(-/-) mice exhibit increased trabecular bone volume owing to impaired OC development. Ninj1 deficiency did not alter OC differentiation, transmigration, fusion, or actin ring formation but increased Caspase-9-dependent intrinsic apoptosis in prefusion OCs (preOCs). Overexpression of Ninj1 enhanced the survival of mouse macrophage/preOC RAW264.7 cells in osteoclastogenic culture, suggesting that Ninj1 is important for the survival of preOCs. Finally, analysis of publicly available microarray data sets revealed a potent correlation between high NINJ1 expression and destructive bone disorders in humans. Our data indicate that Ninj1 plays an important role in bone homeostasis by enhancing the survival of preOCs

Ermin deficiency leads to compromised myelin, inflammatory milieu, and susceptibility to demyelinating insult

Ermin is an actin-binding protein found almost exclusively in the central nervous system (CNS) as a component of myelin sheaths. Although Ermin has been predicted to play a role in the formation and stability of myelin sheaths, this has not been directly examined in vivo. Here, we show that Ermin is essential for myelin sheath integrity and normal saltatory conduction. Loss of Ermin in mice caused de-compacted and fragmented myelin sheaths and led to slower conduction along with progressive neurological deficits. RNA sequencing of the corpus callosum, the largest white matter structure in the CNS, pointed to inflammatory activation in aged Ermin-deficient mice, which was corroborated by increased levels of microgliosis and astrogliosis. The inflammatory milieu and myelin abnormalities were further associated with increased susceptibility to immune-mediated demyelination insult in Ermin knockout mice. Supporting a possible role of Ermin deficiency in inflammatory white matter disorders, a rare inactivating mutation in the ERMN gene was identified in multiple sclerosis patients. Our findings demonstrate a critical role for Ermin in maintaining myelin integrity. Given its near-exclusive expression in myelinating oligodendrocytes, Ermin deficiency represents a compelling “inside-out” model of inflammatory dysmyelination and may offer a new paradigm for the development of myelin stability-targeted therapies

Peroxiredoxin 3 deficiency induces cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction by impaired mitochondrial quality control

Mitochondrial quality control (MQC) consists of multiple processes: the prevention of mitochondrial oxidative damage, the elimination of damaged mitochondria via mitophagy and mitochondrial fusion and fission. Several studies proved that MQC impairment causes a plethora of pathological conditions including cardiovascular diseases. However, the precise molecular mechanism by which MQC reverses mitochondrial dysfunction, especially in the heart, is unclear. The mitochondria-specific peroxidase Peroxiredoxin 3 (Prdx3) plays a protective role against mitochondrial dysfunction by removing mitochondrial reactive oxygen species. Therefore, we investigated whether Prdx3-deficiency directly leads to heart failure via mitochondrial dysfunction. Fifty-two-week-old Prdx3-deficient mice exhibited cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction with giant and damaged mitochondria. Mitophagy was markedly suppressed in the hearts of Prdx3-deficient mice compared to the findings in wild-type and Pink1-deficient mice despite the increased mitochondrial damage induced by Prdx3 deficiency. Under conditions inducing mitophagy, we identified that the damaged mitochondrial accumulation of PINK1 was completely inhibited by the ablation of Prdx3. We propose that Prdx3 interacts with the N-terminus of PINK1, thereby protecting PINK1 from proteolytic cleavage in damaged mitochondria undergoing mitophagy. Our results provide evidence of a direct association between MQC dysfunction and cardiac function. The dual function of Prdx3 in mitophagy regulation and mitochondrial oxidative stress elimination further clarifies the mechanism of MQC in vivo and thereby provides new insights into developing a therapeutic strategy for mitochondria-related cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure. © 20221

Money and foucaldo-marxism : labor-value, fetishism, power-relation and subjectivation

Dans notre thèse, nous élaborons une philosophie politique de la monnaie, dans le cadre théorique du foucaldo-marxisme, qui puisse servir au fondement épistémologique des études contemporaines de la finance et de la dette produites récemment dans diverses disciplines telles que la philosophie, la sociologie, l'anthropologie et la science économique. Dans la Section I (La Monnaie chez Marx : travail abstrait, monnaie et finance), en suivant le travail de reconstruction de la théorie marxienne de la monnaie mené par Suzanne de Brunhoff, en particulier dans La Monnaie chez Marx, son ouvrage majeur, et en le recontextualisant au sein des théorisations du concept de « valeur-travail » des économistes marxistes qui partagent quelques affinités électives avec sa pensée, nous tentons de saisir, de la manière la plus pertinente possible, la conception de la monnaie propre à Marx. Nous établissons le passage de la théorie post-structuraliste de la valeur/survaleur à la théorie du sujet monétaire chez Étienne Balibar, comme conclusion de notre enquête. En prenant cette conclusion comme passerelle, dans la Section II (Théorie marxiste du fétichisme reconstruite par Étienne Balibar : de l'idéologie au fétichisme), au moyen du concept post-structuraliste de Balibar, le « contrat social des marchandises », nous reconstruisons la théorie marxienne du fétichisme de manière balibarienne ou post-structuraliste, et nous réinstaurons cette théorie balibarienne du fétichisme, entièrement renouvelée philosophiquement, comme une réinterprétation transindividuelle ou quasi-transcendantale du « fétichisme » ou de la monnaie. Dans la Section III (Trois éléments de construction du foucaldo-marxisme : nominalisme, dispositif de séquestration et monnaie), dans le but de construire une progression vers la Section IV, nous étudions les concepts de nominalisme, de dispositif de séquestration et de monnaie chez Michel Foucault au prisme du concept de « relation de pouvoir », et établissons cet éclairage comme le présupposé d'une construction du foucaldo-marxisme. Dans la Section IV (Du Foucault de Deleuze au Foucault de Balibar : vitalisme, politique du dehors et parrêsia), nous reconstruisons l'ensemble de la philosophie de Foucault à travers le fil conducteur de la « subjectivation », en nous fondant sur le Gilles Deleuze de Foucault, où il parvient, selon nous, à produire la meilleure réinterprétation philosophique de l'ensemble de la philosophie de Foucault. Cependant, afin de dépasser le point de vue vitaliste que cette reconstruction deleuzienne implique, nous ne dépeignons pas, en dernière instance, le Foucault vitaliste, mais bien le Foucault politique, en passant par la lecture politique de la philosophie foucaldienne que Balibar opère au moyen du concept de politique du dehors. Dans la Section V (Le Foucaldo-marxisme comme théorie des « deux structures » ou de la « méta/structure » : Bidet avec Balibar), nous reconstruisons tout d'abord « l'approche méta/structurelle » de Jacques Bidet à notre propre manière, et étudions ensuite le foucaldo-marxisme qu'il construit dans le cadre théorique de cette approche, en suivant pas à pas le raisonnement minutieux de son ouvrage majeur, Foucault avec Marx. En nous fondant sur cet exposé, nous comparons cette construction socio-scientifique du foucaldo-marxisme de Bidet avec le rapprochement de Marx et Foucault opéré par Balibar, et avançons la thèse selon laquelle la monnaie constitue le noyau dur du foucaldo-marxisme. Dans la Conclusion (À nouveau sur la monnaie), nous soulignons à nouveau la nécessité absolue d’une philosophie politique de la monnaie révolutionnée par l’approche foucaldo-marxiste, en critiquant la théorie post-keynésienne de la monnaie endogène qui, contre d’une part le marxisme et d’autre part la science économique principale, ne conçoit la monnaie qu’à travers la science économique hétérodoxe.In our thesis, we elaborate a political philosophy of money, within a theoretical framework of foucaldo-marxism, which could be used as an epistemological basis for the contemporary studies of finance and of debt which are being produced in various disciplines like philosophy, sociology, anthropology and economics. In the Introduction("Money" as a common foundation between "Debt" and "Finance"), we critique the fact that an indispensable theoretical basis is absent in all these contemporary studies on finance and debt, which is, namely, the politico-philosophical discourse on the concept of money as such. In the first Section(Marx on money: abstract labor, money and finance), by examining Suzanne de Brunhoff's reconstruction of the Marxist monetary theory, with emphasis on her work La Monnaie chez Marx(Marx on money), and simultaneously, by situating this work in the context of the discourses on the concept of "labor-value" given by Marxist economists, who share certain selective affinities with her thought, we try to capture, in the most relevant way, the conception of money proper to Marx. In concluding this Section, we construct a makeshift bridge as a transition from the post-structuralist theory of the value/surplus value to the theory of the monetary subject in the thought of Étienne Balibar. By taking this conclusion as a gateway, in our second Section(Marxist theory of fetishism reconstructed by Étienne Balibar: from ideology to fetishism), by means of his post-structuralist concept, that is, "the social contract among commodities", we reconstruct a Marxian theory of fetishism in a balibarian or post-structuralist way, and reestablish this balibarian theory of fetishism, which is philosophically reframed in its entirety, as a transindividual or quasi-transcendental reinterpretation of the "fetishism", or in other words, an interpretation of the "fetishism" from the standpoint of money. In our third Section(Three elements of the construction of foucaldo-marxism: nominalism, sequestration dispositif and money), for the purpose of building a passage towards the fourth Section, we explore the concepts of nominalism, sequestration dispositif, and money in the thought of Michel Foucault in a coherent manner through the lens of the concept of "power-relation", and confirm this exposition as a presupposition for the construction of foucaldo-marxism. In our fourth Section(From Deleuze's Foucault to Balibar's Foucault: vitalism, politics of the outside and parrêsia), using the concept of "subjectivation" as a guiding thread, we reconstruct the entire philosophy of Foucault as shown in Foucault by Gilles Deleuze, where, in our point of view, he succeeds in producing the best philosophical reinterpretation of Foucault's entire philosophy. However, in order to transcend the vitalist coloring that this deleuzian reconstruction implies, we do not depict, in the last instance, the portrait of the vitalist Foucault, but rather, the political Foucault, by studying the political reading of Foucault's philosophy that Balibar realizes with the Foucaldian concept of politics of the outside. In our fifth Section(The Foucaldo-marxism as a theory of "two structures" or "meta/structure": Bidet with Balibar), first, we reconstruct "the meta/structural approach" of Jacques Bidet in our own way, and then, study foucaldo-marxism that Bidet constructs within the theoretical framework of this approach, by following step by step the sophisticated reasoning in his major work, Foucault avec Marx(Foucault with Marx). On the basis of this investigation, we compare Bidet's socio-scientific construction of the foucaldo-marxism with Balibar's intertwining between Marx and Foucault, and propose our argument that money constitutes the nucleus of foucaldo-marxism

Spherically Stratified Point Projection: Feature Image Generation for Object Classification Using 3D LiDAR Data

Three-dimensional point clouds have been utilized and studied for the classification of objects at the environmental level. While most existing studies, such as those in the field of computer vision, have detected object type from the perspective of sensors, this study developed a specialized strategy for object classification using LiDAR data points on the surface of the object. We propose a method for generating a spherically stratified point projection (sP2) feature image that can be applied to existing image-classification networks by performing pointwise classification based on a 3D point cloud using only LiDAR sensors data. The sP2’s main engine performs image generation through spherical stratification, evidence collection, and channel integration. Spherical stratification categorizes neighboring points into three layers according to distance ranges. Evidence collection calculates the occupancy probability based on Bayes’ rule to project 3D points onto a two-dimensional surface corresponding to each stratified layer. Channel integration generates sP2 RGB images with three evidence values representing short, medium, and long distances. Finally, the sP2 images are used as a trainable source for classifying the points into predefined semantic labels. Experimental results indicated the effectiveness of the proposed sP2 in classifying feature images generated using the LeNet architecture

Characterization of Dental Pulp Stem Cell Responses to Functional Biomaterials Including Mineralized Trioxide Aggregates

Introduction: Many studies in stem cell biology have demonstrated that dental pulp stem cells (DPSC) may be highly proliferative and capable of pluripotent differentiation into many different tissue types. Recent advances in stem cell research have outlined methods for directing in vitro or in vivo growth, viability, and proliferation, as well as differentiation of DPSC—although much remains to be discovered. Based upon this information, the primary objective of this study was to understand the functional biomaterials needed to more effectively direct DPSC viability, growth, and proliferation. Methods: Using an approved protocol, previously collected and isolated samples of DPSC from an existing repository were used. Previously established stem cell biomarkers (Sox-2, Oct-4, NANOG) from each isolate were correlated with their proliferation rates or doubling times to categorize them into rapid, intermediate, or slow-dividing multipotent DPSC. Growth factors and other functional dental biomaterials were subsequently tested to evaluate DPSC responses in proliferation, viability, and morphology. Results: Differential responses were observed among DPSC isolates to growth factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and bone morphogenic protein (BMP-2), and functional biomaterials such as mineralized trioxide aggregates (MTA). The responsiveness of DPSC isolates did not correlate with any single factor but rather with a combination of proliferation rate and biomarker expression. Conclusions: These data strongly suggest that some, but not all, DPSC isolates are capable of a robust and significant in vitro response to differentiation stimuli, although this response is not universal. Although some biomarkers and phenotypes that distinguish and characterize these DPSC isolates may facilitate the ability to predict growth, viability, and differentiation potential, more research is needed to determine the other intrinsic and extrinsic factors that may contribute to and modulate these DPSC responses to these functional biomaterials for biotechnology and bioengineering applications

Additional file 2 of Network analysis for estimating standardization trends in genomics using MEDLINE

Supplementary Material

Additional file 1 of Network analysis for estimating standardization trends in genomics using MEDLINE

Supplementary Material