Etiology Of Degeneration Research Articles

Culture Methods and Choice of Cells Makes a Difference in Outcome of Tissue Engineering- a Perspective

This perspective reviews the effects of different tissue engineering techniques, for induced differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into pulmonary lineage specific cells, and validating cell based regenerative therapy to ameliorate pulmonary degeneration. The etiology of degeneration differs from disease to disease. Likewise, strategies to regenerate lost tissues in its heterogeneity, should also cater to the regeneration process. To customize the same, researchers ought to device strategies to repair, replace or regenerate, in the spatio- temporal format, healthy tissues in their heterogeneous multi-functional existence, such that when transplanted in vitro, they may find their niche and integrate seamlessly into the tissue system and manifest full-fledged functional competence in order to reverse the erstwhile effects of degeneration. Cell based lung repair or regeneration is unquestionably the most promising agenda of regenerative medicine. In one of our studies, human embryonic stem cell (hESC) line H7 was successfully differentiated into three non-ciliated alveolar epithelial cells. In another study, BJNhem19 and BJNhem20 stem cell lines were used to induce similar guided endodermal differentiation into pulmonary lineage cells. Both studies were done using similar protocols, where the hESCs were first plated on gamma irradiated mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) feeder cells and undifferentiated hESCs were taken through embroid body formation. They were then subjected to induction into lung specific cells, by defined growth factors in Small Airways Growth Medium (SAGM) and Bronchiolar Endothelial Growth Media (BEGM). The H7 cells were found to express, both intracellularly and on their surfaces, characteristic marker proteins. However, the BJNhem19 and BJNhem20 cells showed poor differential potential, and could not be successfully differentiated into lung- specific cells. This difference in differentiation potential may be due to several intrinsic limitations, like genetic heterogeneity, anomalous morphogen receptivity or dormant/ unresponsive cytoplasmic determinants. These observations indicate that the choice of cells may play an important factor in tissue engineering. This review addresses the different culture methods and conditions needed for guided differentiation of stem cells. This perspective also discusses culture conditions of mesenchymal stem cells from different origins and dendritic stem cells from bone marrow.

State of the art and future of stem cells in spine

Low back pain is a major health problem impacting millions of people, in which the intervertebral disc degeneration is considered as a major cause. In recent years stem cell research has been a great hope for orthopedic regenerative medicine. In vitro experiment, animal research and preclinical studies provided promising results in the treatment of disc regeneration. A few clinical trials also demonstrated the feasibility and efficacy of disc regeneration and structural fusion. The identification of progenitor cells within the intervertebral disc provides another mechanism for the disc degeneration etiology and disc regeneration. This article aims to provide a better understanding of current basic science research and clinical studies focusing on stem cells in disc degeneration and spine fusion.

Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines BJNhem 19 and 20 Fail to Differentiate Into Lung Lineage Specific Cells despite Induction through Guided Endodermal Differentiation

Regenerative Therapy’s first and most critical requisite is the ex vivo synthesis of fully functional desired cells to replenish those lost by the body in a degenerative disease. The etiology of degeneration differs from disease to disease, likewise, strategies to regenerate lost tissue in its heterogeneousness, should also cater to the regeneration process and to customize the same, the researcher ought to devise strategies to repair or replace or regenerate in the appropriate spatio-temporal format. For example, in the inflammation-degeneration-induced pathophysiological situations of the respiratory epithelium, human embryonic stem cells have been used in a tissue engineering format to induce differentiation and amplification into the desired type of cell, in this case, the nonciliated squamous epithelial cells. To this end, we were given two human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines and the main objective of our research work was to get BJNhem19 and BJNhem20 human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines to differentiate into lung epithelial lineage–specific cells (i.e. alveolar epithelial type I and type II cells and clara cells) which are the key cells to degenerate in most degenerative lung ailments. This in order to generate a potentially unlimited supply of cells of the desired phenotype for use in a novel cell based therapy to repair lung injury. The strategy was to use guided endodermal differentiation by direct administration of one or more growth factors known to be involved in lung development in 2D cell cultures and characterize the cells for the desired markers. According to a tried strategy, the undifferentiated hESC were taken through embryoid body formation and then subjected to induction by defined growth factors in small airways growth medium and bronchiolar endothelial growth medium. Cells could not be grown feeder-free. Attempts to aid growth with combinations of extra cellular matrix plus defined medium (GeltrexR) as well as enriched media such as Matrigel and mTeSR1 did not yield satisfactory result. When grown on feeders also cell growth was again not optimum and practically none differentiated appreciably into the desired phenotype and maintained their pluripotent characters. After 5 days in induction media, they displayed fibroblast like features characterized by FACS. If cell lines are thus non-response to specific and guided endodermal induced differentiation, the obtained data is animportant information for cell repositories as numerous research labs screen various cell lines of embryonic origin with the specific aim to induce differentiation into a desired phenotype for functional translation into regenerative therapy. This study therefore fills an existing lacuna in available information regarding behavior of these two hESC available for work to the scientific world in several stem cell banks and shall prevent unnecessary and redundant further screening and save valuable resources.

Heterogeneity in Human Embryonic Stem Cells May Prevent Endodermal Guided Differentiation

This study aims at exploring the use and peculiarities of stem cell therapy for pulmonary injury and degeneration. The success of stem cell therapy for clinical use needs the validation of several issues. Regenerative Therapy’s first and most critical requisite is the ex vivo synthesis of desirable cells to replenish those lost by the body in a degenerative disease. The etiology of degeneration differs from disease to disease, likewise, strategies to regenerate lost tissue in its heterogeneousness, should also cater to the regeneration process and to customize the same, the researcher ought to devise strategies to repair or replace or regenerate in the appropriate spatio-temporal format. For example, in the inflammation-degeneration-induced pathophysiological situations of the respiratory epithelium, human embryonic stem cells have been used in a tissue engineering format to induce differentiation and amplification into the desired type of cell, in this case, the non-ciliated squamous epithelial cells. To this end, we were given two human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines and the main objective of our research work was to get BJNhem19 and BJNhem20 human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines to differentiate into lung epithelial lineage–specific cells (i.e. alveolar epithelial type I and type II cells and clara cells) which are the key cells to degenerate in most degenerative lung ailments. This in order to generate a potentially unlimited supply of cells of the desired phenotype for use in a novel cell based therapy to repair lung injury. The strategy was to use guided endodermal differentiation by direct administration of one or more growth factors known to be involved in lung development in 2D cell cultures and characterize the cells for the desired markers. According to a tried strategy, the undifferentiated hESC were taken through embryoid body formation and then subjected to induction by defined growth factors in small airways growth medium and bronchiolar endothelial growth medium. Results were not satisfactory and the cells showed poor growth and practically none differentiated appreciably let alone into the desired phenotype. This non-response to induced differentiation is important information as numerous research labs screen various cell lines of embryonic origin with the specific aim to induce differentiation into one or more desired phenotype for functional translation into regenerative therapy. This study therefore fills an existing lacuna in available information regarding behavior of these two hESC available for work to the scientific world in several stem cell banks and shall prevent unnecessary and redundant further screening and save valuable resources.

Trapeziometacarpal Joint Stability: The Evolving Importance of the Dorsal Ligaments

Trapeziometacarpal (TMC) arthritis of the thumb is a common source of hand pain and disability. TMC ligamentous instability may play a role in TMC degeneration. However, the relative importance of the TMC ligaments in the etiology of degeneration and the use of surgery to treat instability in early-stage arthritis are unclear. In this review, we addressed several questions: (1) What are the primary ligamentous stabilizers of the thumb TMC joint? (2) What is the evidence for ligament reconstruction or ligament imbrication in the treatment of thumb TMC joint osteoarthritis? And (3) what is the evidence for thumb metacarpal osteotomy in the treatment of thumb TMC joint osteoarthritis? We performed a systematic review of the literature using PubMed (MEDLINE(®)) and Scopus(®) (EMBASE(®)) for peer-reviewed articles published until November 2012. Fifty-two studies fit the inclusion criteria. Twenty-four studies were anatomic, biomechanical, or histopathologic studies on TMC joint ligamentous anatomy, 16 studies were clinical studies concerning ligament reconstruction, and 12 studies were clinical studies on thumb metacarpal osteotomy. Over the past two decades, increasing evidence suggests the dorsoradial ligament is the most important stabilizer of the TMC joint. Other ligaments consistently identified are the superficial anterior oblique, deep anterior oblique, intermetacarpal, ulnar collateral, and posterior oblique ligaments. Ligament reconstruction and metacarpal osteotomy relieve pain and improve grip strength based on Level IV studies. The dorsal ligaments are the primary stabilizers of the TMC joint. Ligament reconstruction and metacarpal osteotomy ameliorate ligamentous laxity and relieve pain based on Level IV studies.

Renovating Russia: The Human Sciences and the Fate of Liberal Modernity, 1880-1930 (review)

Reviewed by: Renovating Russia: The Human Sciences and the Fate of Liberal Modernity, 1880-1930 Marina Mogilner Daniel Beer , Renovating Russia: The Human Sciences and the Fate of Liberal Modernity, 1880-1930. ix+229 pp. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008. ISBN-13 978-0801446276. $45.00. This is an important and innovative book that investigates models and terms for social and political analysis offered by turn-of-the-century Russian experts in the "human sciences"—that is, criminology, psychology, and psychiatry. By putting together a broad picture of the circulation of biomedical discourses in the late 19th to early 20th centuries in Russia, the book joins a by now well-established trend aimed at returning studies of Russia/USSR to the framework of European modernity (thus normalizing Russian history and rejecting Sonderweg notions). At the same time, by exploring nuances of the Russian reception of Western concepts of degeneration, born criminality, moral contagion, and the like, the book points to specific features of Russian modernity. According to Daniel Beer, these were formed by the optimistic evolutionism of the era of the Great Reforms and by postreform disappointment; by experiences of revolution and political terror that brought to the fore the theme of the uncontrolled nature of the crowd; and by the "etiological catch" of viewing "degeneration" as the result of the existing sociopolitical order, which, therefore, demanded the radical revolutionary transformation so frightening to liberal professionals. Finally, Russian "liberal modernity" was a project of social modernization in a country that lacked a modern citizen-subject as a basic element of the rationally organized and scientifically regulated society. In the opening chapter, "Morel's Children," Beer begins his ambitious textual analysis with the study Usovershenstvovanie i vyrozhdenie chelovecheskogo roda (The Improvement and Degeneration of the Human Race) by Vasilii Markovich Florinskii. He identifies this text published in 1866 as the earliest example of a systematic treatment of degeneration theory in Russia (39), an early stage of turning the concept of degeneration into a lens through which experts in the human sciences considered the promises and disappointments of the Great Reforms. Developing this line of analysis, Beer turns to the narratives of heredity and types of pathologies derived from the legacy of serfdom, economic backwardness, and a low level of mass education. Another line of Beer's analysis is connected with the classical Foucauldian theme of experts' claims to superior social and political authority in modern [End Page 661] society. Beer complicates this model by stressing that Russian experts in the human sciences were not sure how their knowledge could be employed to correct a pathological social dynamic. They viewed Russian hereditary pathologies and the Russian "environment" of modernity as equally violent, unhealthy, and irrational. As Beer explains, when a society as a whole is pervaded by the abnormal, it is hard to confidently diagnose specific examples of abnormality. The chapter "The Etiology of Degeneration" specifically deals with the factors of modernity that were thought to foster the degeneration of the population. It is in this context that Beer treats biomedical discourses of capitalism, rapid urbanization, crime, and mass political participation. His main focus in this part of the book is the Russian reception of Cesare Lombroso's criminal anthropology. Russian criminologists, according to Beer, rejected the concept of biological atavism in favor of degeneration, as the latter concept recognized biological and psychological differences between deviants and the healthy majority but retained the importance of the "environment" factor. They blamed social forces for the activation of criminal impulses. In the 1910s, this discourse positing social causation of biological mechanisms was supplemented by a language of social responsibility. The application of degeneration theory to the genesis of crime thus held out the possibility of its eventual eradication through changing an unhealthy social environment. As Beer argues, Russian criminal anthropologists called for reforms of socioeconomic conditions along with the isolation of those persons having a criminal predisposition. Both theoretical urges, concludes Beer, "would ... find their apotheosis in the revolutionary project of the Bolsheviks" (130). The chapter "Microbes of the Mind" leads to a similar conclusion. It is the power of the revolutionary crowd and the threat of mass politics that provide a context...

Neurochemical and oedematous changes in 1,3-dinitrobenzene-induced astroglial injury in rat brain from a 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance perspective

1,3-Dinitrobenzene (1,3-DNB), an intermediate used in the chemical industry, has toxic effects in the brain and testes. It produces focal lesions with marked astroglial necrosis in the rat brain upon repeated administration. Astrocytic death occurs in parallel with elevated local blood flow and is followed by damage to the cerebral vasculature and neurones. (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic analysis before the onset of astrocytic damage, showed a global elevation of lactate, whereas choline containing compounds increased in the non-vulnerable cerebral cortex, yet decreased in the vulnerable brainstem. Similarly, glutamate increased in the cerebral cortex, cerebellum and midbrain, but decreased in the susceptible brainstem. In vivo T2-weighted NMR imaging showed high signal intensities in brain nuclei shown to develop astroglial loss by conventional neuropathology at 24 hours after completion of dosing, but not at 6-10 hours. Hence the early neurochemical changes in susceptible areas contribute to the aetiology of degeneration, and those seen elsewhere may represent adaptive responses dependent on the particular phenotype of different cell groups and underlying metabolic relationships.

Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy

Summary: Rotator cuff tendinopathy is a degenerative disease characterized by regressive changes at the insertion of the cuff into bone. Although all three major cuff tendons are equally affected by degeneration, tearing always starts at the insertion of the supraspinatus. This points to the importance of additional pathogenetic factors. The articular half of the cuff tendon is always more affected by degeneration than the bursal half. The etiology of degeneration is still open to debate. Among the diagnostic tests, sonography is the method of choice. If in doubt, magnetic resonance imaging can be performed. When surgical repair of a complete tear is indicated, an anterior acromioplasty should only by performed to ensure unimpeded gliding. The same applies to bursectomy, as the bursa is an important source of cells and vessels for healing after a successful repair. Cutting back of the medial stump to bleeding tissue is not indicated, because the tendon proper contributes little to the healing process.

Collagens, Elastin and Noncollagenous Protein of the Intervertebral Disk

This is a review of the recent developments in collagens, elastin, and noncollagenous protein of the normal and abnormal intervertebral disk. Much progress has been made on the chemistry of the normal disk constituents. However, little work has been done to date on the essential lesion of the early degenerative disk in humans; a major effort in this field is indicated in the next decade. The reasons are obvious, for in the unraveling of the etiology of degeneration of the intervertebral disk lies the hope and expectation of prevention of disk failure.