Sources of Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells Applicable for Musculoskeletal Applications - A Systematic Review of the Literature

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were first discovered by Friedenstein and his colleagues in 1976 from bone marrow. The unique property of these cells was their potential to develop into fibroblastic colony forming cells. Since Friedenstein’s discovery of these cells the interest in adult MSCs has been progressively growing. Nowadays MSCs are defined as undeveloped biological cells capable of proliferation, self renewal and regenerating tissues. All these properties of MSCs have been discovered in the past 35 years. MSCs can play a crucial role in tissue engineering, organogenesis, gene therapy, transplants as well as tissue injuries. These cells were mainly extracted from bone marrow but there have been additional sources for MSCs discovered in the laboratories including: muscle, dermis, trabecular bone, adipose tissue, periosteum, pericyte, blood, synovial membrane and so forth. The discovery of the alternative sources of MSCs helps widen the application of these cells in different areas of medicine. By way of illustration, they can be used in various therapeutic purposes such as tissue regeneration and repair in musculoskeletal diseases including osteonecrosis of femoral head, stimulating growth in children with osteogenesis imperfecta, disc regeneration, osteoarthritis and duchenne muscular dystrophy. In order to fully comprehend the characteristics and potential of MSCs future studies in this field are essential

Sources of Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells Applicable for Musculoskeletal Applications - A Systematic Review of the Literature

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were first discovered by Friedenstein and his colleagues in 1976 from bone marrow. The unique property of these cells was their potential to develop into fibroblastic colony forming cells. Since Friedenstein’s discovery of these cells the interest in adult MSCs has been progressively growing. Nowadays MSCs are defined as undeveloped biological cells capable of proliferation, self renewal and regenerating tissues. All these properties of MSCs have been discovered in the past 35 years. MSCs can play a crucial role in tissue engineering, organogenesis, gene therapy, transplants as well as tissue injuries. These cells were mainly extracted from bone marrow but there have been additional sources for MSCs discovered in the laboratories including: muscle, dermis, trabecular bone, adipose tissue, periosteum, pericyte, blood, synovial membrane and so forth. The discovery of the alternative sources of MSCs helps widen the application of these cells in different areas of medicine. By way of illustration, they can be used in various therapeutic purposes such as tissue regeneration and repair in musculoskeletal diseases including osteonecrosis of femoral head, stimulating growth in children with osteogenesis imperfecta, disc regeneration, osteoarthritis and duchenne muscular dystrophy. In order to fully comprehend the characteristics and potential of MSCs future studies in this field are essential

Contact lens physical properties and lipid deposition in a novel characterized artificial tear solution

Lorentz, H., Heynen, M., Kay, L. M. M., Dominici, C. Y., Khan, W., Ng, W. W. S., & Jones, L. (2011). Contact lens physical properties and lipid deposition in a novel characterized artificial tear solution. Molecular Vision, 17, 3392–3405.Purpose: To characterize various properties of a physiologically-relevant artificial tear solution (ATS) containing a range of tear film components within a complex salt solution, and to measure contact lens parameters and lipid deposition of a variety of contact lens materials after incubation in this ATS.Methods: A complex ATS was developed that contains a range of salts, proteins, lipids, mucin, and other tear film constituents in tear-film relevant concentrations. This ATS was tested to confirm that its pH, osmolality, surface tension, and homogeneity are similar to human tears and remain so throughout the material incubation process, for up to 4 weeks. To confirm that silicone hydrogel and conventional hydrogel contact lens materials do not alter in physical characteristics beyond what is allowed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 18369–2. The diameter, center thickness, and calculated base curve were measured for five different lens materials directly out of the blister pack, after a rinse in saline and then following a two week incubation in the modified ATS. To test the ATS and the effect of its composition on lipid deposition, two lens materials were incubated in the ATS and a modified version for several time points. Both ATS solutions contained trace amounts of carbon-14 cholesterol and phosphatidylcholine, such that deposition of these specific lipids could be quantified using standard methods.Results: This ATS is a complex mixture that remains stable at physiologically relevant pH (7.3–7.6), osmolality (304–306 mmol/kg), surface tension (40–46 dynes/cm) and homogeneity over an incubation period of three weeks or more. The physical parameters of the lenses tested showed no changes beyond that allowed by the ISO guidelines. Incubations with the ATS found that balafilcon A lenses deposit significantly more cholesterol and phosphatidylcholine than omafilcon A lenses (p<0.05) and that removing lactoferrin and immunoglobulin G from the ATS can significantly decrease the mass of lipid deposited.Conclusions: This paper describes a novel complex artificial tear solution specially designed for in-vial incubation of contact lens materials. This solution was stable and did not adversely affect the physical parameters of the soft contact lenses incubated within it and showed that lipid deposition was responsive to changes in ATS composition.This study was sponsored by ALCON Research Ltd. Special thanks to Michelle Senchyna, Peggy Stauffer and Rekha Rangarajan for fruitful discussions. One of the authors (L.J.) has received funding over the past 3 years from the following companies who either are directly involved in products used in this manuscript or are involved in the manufacture of competing products - Alcon, AMO, B&L, CIBA Vision, CooperVision, and Johnson & Johnson

The Use of the S-Quattro Dynamic External Fixator for the Treatment of Intra-Articular Phalangeal Fractures: A Review of the Literature

Intra-articular phalangeal fractures are a common injury. If left untreated, these injuries can lead to poor functional outcome with severe dehabilitating consequences, especially in younger patients

Probabilistic adaptive model predictive power pinch analysis (PoPA) energy management approach to uncertainty

This paper proposes a probabilistic power pinch analysis (PoPA) approach based on Monte–Carlo simulation (MCS) for energy management of hybrid energy systems uncertainty. The systems power grand composite curve is formulated with the chance constraint method to consider load stochasticity. In a predictive control horizon, the power grand composite curve is shaped based on the pinch analysis approach. The robust energy management strategy effected in a control horizon is inferred from the likelihood of a bounded predicted power grand composite curve, violating the pinch. Furthermore, the response of the system using the energy management strategies (EMS) of the proposed method is evaluated against the day-ahead (DA) and adaptive power pinch strategy

Optimization and Evaluation of Antiparasitic Benzamidobenzoic Acids as Inhibitors of Kinetoplastid Hexokinase 1

Kinetoplastid-based infections are neglected diseases that represent a significant human health issue. Chemotherapeutic options are limited due to toxicity, parasite susceptibility, and poor patient compliance. In response, we studied a molecular-target-directed approach involving intervention of hexokinase activity—a pivotal enzyme in parasite metabolism. A benzamidobenzoic acid hit with modest biochemical inhibition of Trypanosoma brucei hexokinase 1 (TbHK1, IC50=9.1 μm), low mammalian cytotoxicity (IMR90 cells, EC50&gt;25 μm), and no appreciable activity on whole bloodstream-form (BSF) parasites was optimized to afford a probe with improved TbHK1 potency and, significantly, efficacy against whole BSF parasites (TbHK1, IC50=0.28 μm; BSF, ED50=1.9 μm). Compounds in this series also inhibited the hexokinase enzyme from Leishmania major (LmHK1), albeit with less potency than toward TbHK1, suggesting that inhibition of the glycolytic pathway may be a promising opportunity to target multiple disease-causing trypanosomatid protozoa

Time-integrated luminosity recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e+e- collider

This article is the Preprint version of the final published artcile which can be accessed at the link below.We describe a measurement of the time-integrated luminosity of the data collected by the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider at the ϒ(4S), ϒ(3S), and ϒ(2S) resonances and in a continuum region below each resonance. We measure the time-integrated luminosity by counting e+e-→e+e- and (for the ϒ(4S) only) e+e-→μ+μ- candidate events, allowing additional photons in the final state. We use data-corrected simulation to determine the cross-sections and reconstruction efficiencies for these processes, as well as the major backgrounds. Due to the large cross-sections of e+e-→e+e- and e+e-→μ+μ-, the statistical uncertainties of the measurement are substantially smaller than the systematic uncertainties. The dominant systematic uncertainties are due to observed differences between data and simulation, as well as uncertainties on the cross-sections. For data collected on the ϒ(3S) and ϒ(2S) resonances, an additional uncertainty arises due to ϒ→e+e-X background. For data collected off the ϒ resonances, we estimate an additional uncertainty due to time dependent efficiency variations, which can affect the short off-resonance runs. The relative uncertainties on the luminosities of the on-resonance (off-resonance) samples are 0.43% (0.43%) for the ϒ(4S), 0.58% (0.72%) for the ϒ(3S), and 0.68% (0.88%) for the ϒ(2S).This work is supported by the US Department of Energy and National Science Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada), the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique and Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physiquedes Particules (France), the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany), the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italy), the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (The Netherlands), the Research Council of Norway, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom). Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie IEF program (European Union) and the A.P. Sloan Foundation (USA)

Wholesale pricing in a small open economy

This paper addresses the empirical analysis of wholesale profit margins using data of the Dutch wholesale sector, 1986. At the heart of the analysis is the typical nature of wholesale production: wholesalers do not produce a tangible product, but offer a service capacity. This has an immediate impact on the identification, interprelation and measurement of determinants of profit variations. A model is set up to explain variations in wholesale profit margins, which is inspired by two widely applied approaches to industry pricing: the behavioural mark-up model and the marginalist price-cost model