14 research outputs found
Proteomic Analyses Reveal Common Promiscuous Patterns of Cell Surface Proteins on Human Embryonic Stem Cells and Sperms
BACKGROUND: It has long been proposed that early embryos and reproductive organs exhibit similar gene expression profiles. However, whether this similarity is propagated to the protein level remains largely unknown. We have previously characterised the promiscuous expression pattern of cell surface proteins on mouse embryonic stem (mES) cells. As cell surface proteins also play critical functions in human embryonic stem (hES) cells and germ cells, it is important to reveal whether a promiscuous pattern of cell surface proteins also exists for these cells. METHODS AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Surface proteins of hES cells and human mature sperms (hSperms) were purified by biotin labelling and subjected to proteomic analyses. More than 1000 transmembrane or secreted cell surface proteins were identified on the two cell types, respectively. Proteins from both cell types covered a large variety of functional categories including signal transduction, adhesion and transporting. Moreover, both cell types promiscuously expressed a wide variety of tissue specific surface proteins, and some surface proteins were heterogeneously expressed. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings indicate that the promiscuous expression of functional and tissue specific cell surface proteins may be a common pattern in embryonic stem cells and germ cells. The conservation of gene expression patterns between early embryonic cells and reproductive cells is propagated to the protein level. These results have deep implications for the cell surface signature characterisation of pluripotent stem cells and germ cells and may lead the way to a new area of study, i.e., the functional significance of promiscuous gene expression in pluripotent and germ cells
Real-Space Mesh Techniques in Density Functional Theory
This review discusses progress in efficient solvers which have as their
foundation a representation in real space, either through finite-difference or
finite-element formulations. The relationship of real-space approaches to
linear-scaling electrostatics and electronic structure methods is first
discussed. Then the basic aspects of real-space representations are presented.
Multigrid techniques for solving the discretized problems are covered; these
numerical schemes allow for highly efficient solution of the grid-based
equations. Applications to problems in electrostatics are discussed, in
particular numerical solutions of Poisson and Poisson-Boltzmann equations.
Next, methods for solving self-consistent eigenvalue problems in real space are
presented; these techniques have been extensively applied to solutions of the
Hartree-Fock and Kohn-Sham equations of electronic structure, and to eigenvalue
problems arising in semiconductor and polymer physics. Finally, real-space
methods have found recent application in computations of optical response and
excited states in time-dependent density functional theory, and these
computational developments are summarized. Multiscale solvers are competitive
with the most efficient available plane-wave techniques in terms of the number
of self-consistency steps required to reach the ground state, and they require
less work in each self-consistency update on a uniform grid. Besides excellent
efficiencies, the decided advantages of the real-space multiscale approach are
1) the near-locality of each function update, 2) the ability to handle global
eigenfunction constraints and potential updates on coarse levels, and 3) the
ability to incorporate adaptive local mesh refinements without loss of optimal
multigrid efficiencies.Comment: 70 pages, 11 figures. To be published in Reviews of Modern Physic
Shearography technology and applications: A review
Shearography is a full-field speckle interferometric technique used to determine surface displacement derivatives. For an interferometric technique, shearography is particularly resilient to environmental disturbances and has hence become an invaluable measurement tool outside of the optics laboratory. Furthermore, the inclusion of additional measurement channels has turned shearography from a qualitative inspection tool into a system suitable for quantitative surface strain measurement. In this review article we present a comprehensive overview of the technique, describing the principle of operation, optical configurations, image processing algorithms and applications, with a focus on more recent technological advances.Optical Non-Destructive Testing LaboratoryAerospace Engineerin
Leptin promotes proliferation of neonatal mouse stem/progenitor spermatogonia
PURPOSE: To keep and increase spermatogonial stem cell number (SSC) is the only available option for pediatric cancer survivors to maintain fertility. Leptin is secreted by the epididymal white adipose tissue and has receptors on stem/progenitor spermatogonia. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate dose- and time-dependent proliferative effect of leptin on stem/progenitor spermatogonia cultures from prepubertal mice testes. METHODS: CD90.2 (+) stem/progenitor spermatogonia were isolated from the C57BL/6 mouse testis on postnatal day 6 and placed in culture. The proliferative effect of leptin supplementation was assessed by colony formation (diameter and number), WST proliferation assays, and xCELLigence real-time cell analysis (RTCA) on days 3, 5, and 7 of culture. Expressions of p-ERK1/2, p-STAT3, total STAT3, and p-SHP2 levels were determined by western blot analysis. RESULTS: Leptin supplementation of 100 ng/ml increased the diameter (p = 0.001) and number (p = 0.01) of colonies in stem/progenitor spermatogonial cultures and caused higher proliferation by WST-1 (p = 0.009) compared with the control on day 7. The EC50 was calculated as 114 ng/ml for leptin by RTCA. Proliferative dose of leptin induced increased expression of p-ERK1/2 (p = 0.009) and p-STAT3 (p = 0.023) on stem/progenitor spermatogonia when compared with the untreated group. CONCLUSION: The results indicated that leptin supplementation exhibited a dose- and time-dependent proliferative effect on stem/progenitor spermatogonia that was associated with increased expression of ERK1/2 and STAT3 pathways while maintaining their undifferentiated state. This output presents a new agent that may help to expand the stem/progenitor spermatogonia pool from the neonatal testis in order to autotransplant after cancer treatment