Cryopreservation of Human Adipose Tissues and Adipose-Derived Stem Cells with DMSO and/or Trehalose: A Systematic Review.

Adipose tissue senescence is implicated as a major player in obesity- and ageing-related disorders. There is a growing body of research studying relevant mechanisms in age-related diseases, as well as the use of adipose-derived stem cells in regenerative medicine. The cell banking of tissue by utilising cryopreservation would allow for much greater flexibility of use. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is the most commonly used cryopreservative agent but is toxic to cells. Trehalose is a sugar synthesised by lower organisms to withstand extreme cold and drought that has been trialled as a cryopreservative agent. To examine the efficacy of trehalose in the cryopreservation of human adipose tissue, we conducted a systematic review of studies that used trehalose for the cryopreservation of human adipose tissues and adipose-derived stem cells. Thirteen articles, including fourteen studies, were included in the final review. All seven studies that examined DMSO and trehalose showed that they could be combined effectively to cryopreserve adipocytes. Although studies that compared nonpermeable trehalose with DMSO found trehalose to be inferior, studies that devised methods to deliver nonpermeable trehalose into the cell found it comparable to DMSO. Trehalose is only comparable to DMSO when methods are devised to introduce it into the cell. There is some evidence to support using trehalose instead of using no cryopreservative agent

Insights on millennial's purchase intention towards green online travel products in Malaysia: the road to recovery

The reopening of borders and revitalization of the tourism and hospitality industry has transformed the booking behaviours of travelers significantly. The millennial travelers prefer online travel agencies because of its convenience, but they also crave for more sustainable travel products. This study aims to determine the influences of attitude, subjective norm, perceived price, online review trust, perceived risk, and online experience towards the purchase intention of green online travel products(GOTP) in Malaysia. Responses were elicited from 391 millennials. Using structural equation modelling, the findings confirm that all the factors significantly affected attitude and it mediates their intention. This study gave insights on millennial's green travel preferences and highlights the need for online travel agencies to rethink their strategies

A Multichannel DNA SoC for Rapid Point-of-Care Gene Detection

Published versio

Driving the green vehicles shift: an evaluation of Malaysian consumers’ acceptance

With the current drastic changes in global weather, more countries are worried about the sustainability of the ecosystem. Global leaders are more concerned about the drastic climate change, and various initiatives are being taken to prevent further damage to the ecosystem. In Malaysia, the transportation sector, mainly motor vehicles, emitted approximately 97% of carbon monoxide to the environment, causing harmful air pollution. Because of this, green vehicles were introduced to overcome this problem. However, there remain various challenges that may impede or trigger the interest of Malaysian consumers in accepting green vehicles. Thus, this study applies the cognitive-affection model to predict the consumers’ intention to accept green vehicles. Using a purposive sampling among current vehicle drivers, a face-to-face survey was conducted and gathered a total of 606 responses. Data were analysed using statistical measurements such as descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Five latent factors such as consumers’ acceptance, perceived quality, perceived value (environmental concern, acquisition and maintenance cost), and government policies were identified. The results indicated that perceived value (environmental concern), perceived quality, and government policies have a strong positive relationship with consumers’ acceptance. The perceived value showed a negative relationship with consumer acceptance, indicating that consumers would only consider accepting green vehicles if they were cheaper and had a low maintenance cost

The future of social enterprise café in Malaysia: a study on millennials’ perception and intention

Over the past decade, there have been a growing number of social enterprises in Malaysia, especially in the food and beverage industry. However, social enterprise cafes face various challenges in liquidity and lack of public awareness that hindered their progress. In view of this, millennials are the potential target market for social enterprises due to their rapid growth in population and increasing purchasing power. Millennials have high awareness of social issues and support for socially responsible organisations. Based on a survey collected from 424 millennials in Malaysia, data were analysed using the structural equation modelling. Results indicate that millennials are influenced by perceived price and attitude, followed by social norms, while social enterprise knowledge had a significant but weak influence on their intention. In moving forward, the findings suggest that social enterprise cafes could emphasize more on creating value through their pricing strategy and encourage knowledge sharing and attitude towards social enterprises to strengthen purchase intention towards social enterprise cafes. This study not only sheds light on millennials but also assist social enterprises to sustain their business and have a long-term impact on society and environmental causes

Immediate Surgical Repositioning Following Intrusive Luxation: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

This report presents a case of severe intrusive luxation of mature maxillary lateral incisor in a 10-year-old boy. The intruded tooth was immediately repositioned (surgical extrusion) and splinted within 2 h following injury. Tetracycline therapy was initiated at the time of repositioning and maintained for 10 days. Pulp removal and calcium hydroxide treatment of the root canal was carried out after repositioning. Splint was removed 1 month later. Definitive root canal treatment with gutta percha was accomplished at the second month recall. Clinical and radiographic examination 28 months after the surgical extrusion revealed satisfactory apical and periodontal healing

Brazilin Isolated from Caesalpinia sappan Suppresses Nuclear Envelope Reassembly by Inhibiting Barrier-to-Autointegration Factor Phosphorylation

To date, many anticancer drugs have been developed by directly or indirectly targeting microtubules, which are involved in cell division. Although this approach has yielded many anticancer drugs, these drugs produce undesirable side effects. An alternative strategy is needed, and targeting mitotic exit may be one alternative approach. Localization of phosphorylated barrier-to-autointegration factor (BAF) to the chromosomal core region is essential for nuclear envelope compartment relocalization. In this study, we isolated brazilin from Caesalpinia sappan Leguminosae and demonstrated that it inhibited BAF phosphorylation in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, we demonstrated direct binding between brazilin and BAF. The inhibition of BAF phosphorylation induced abnormal nuclear envelope reassembly and cell death, indicating that perturbation of nuclear envelope reassembly could be a novel approach to anticancer therapy. We propose that brazilin isolated from C. sappan may be a new anticancer drug candidate that induces cell death by inhibiting vaccinia-related kinase 1-mediated BAF phosphorylation.X1153Ysciescopu

Valley Polarization Enhancement Induced by a Single Chiral Nanoparticle

Valley polarization is amongst the most critical attributes of atomically thin materials. However, achieving a high contrast from monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) has so far been challenging. In this work, a giant valley polarization contrast up to 45% from a monolayer WS2 has been achieved at room temperature by using a single chiral plasmonic nanoparticle. The increased contrast is attributed to the selective enhancement of both the excitation and the emission rate having one particular handedness of the circular polarization. The experimental results were corroborated by the optical simulation using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Additionally, the single chiral nanoparticle enabled the observation of valley-polarized luminescence with a linear excitation. Our results provide a promising pathway to enhance valley contrast from monolayer TMDs and utilize them for nanophotonic devices

Direct Conversion of Mouse Fibroblasts into Cholangiocyte Progenitor Cells

Disorders of the biliary epithelium, known as cholangiopathies, cause severe and irreversible liver diseases. The limited accessibility of bile duct precludes modeling of several cholangiocyte-mediated diseases. Therefore, novel approaches for obtaining functional cholangiocytes with high purity are needed. Previous work has shown that the combination of Hnf1β and Foxa3 could directly convert mouse fibroblasts into bipotential hepatic stem cell-like cells, termed iHepSCs. However, the efficiency of converting fibroblasts into iHepSCs is low, and these iHepSCs exhibit extremely low differentiation potential into cholangiocytes, thus hindering the translation of iHepSCs to the clinic. Here, we describe that the expression of Hnf1α and Foxa3 dramatically facilitates the robust generation of iHepSCs. Notably, prolonged in vitro culture of Hnf1α- and Foxa3-derived iHepSCs induces a Notch signaling-mediated secondary conversion into cholangiocyte progenitor-like cells that display dramatically enhanced differentiation capacity into mature cholangiocytes. Our study provides a robust two-step approach for obtaining cholangiocyte progenitor-like cells using defined factors

Ezrin interacts with the SARS coronavirus spike protein and restrains infection at the entry stage

© 2012 Millet et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background: Entry of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and its envelope fusion with host cell membrane are controlled by a series of complex molecular mechanisms, largely dependent on the viral envelope glycoprotein Spike (S). There are still many unknowns on the implication of cellular factors that regulate the entry process. Methodology/Principal Findings: We performed a yeast two-hybrid screen using as bait the carboxy-terminal endodomain of S, which faces the cytosol during and after opening of the fusion pore at early stages of the virus life cycle. Here we show that the ezrin membrane-actin linker interacts with S endodomain through the F1 lobe of its FERM domain and that both the eight carboxy-terminal amino-acids and a membrane-proximal cysteine cluster of S endodomain are important for this interaction in vitro. Interestingly, we found that ezrin is present at the site of entry of S-pseudotyped lentiviral particles in Vero E6 cells. Targeting ezrin function by small interfering RNA increased S-mediated entry of pseudotyped particles in epithelial cells. Furthermore, deletion of the eight carboxy-terminal amino acids of S enhanced S-pseudotyped particles infection. Expression of the ezrin dominant negative FERM domain enhanced cell susceptibility to infection by SARS-CoV and S pseudotyped particles and potentiated S-dependent membrane fusion. Conclusions/Significance: Ezrin interacts with SARS-CoV S endodomain and limits virus entry and fusion. Our data present a novel mechanism involving a cellular factor in the regulation of S-dependent early events of infection.This work was supported by the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong (RGC#760208)and the RESPARI project of the International Network of Pasteur Institutes