Medical Cell Biology Research Articles

The Impact of Primary Literature-Based, Critical Thinking Activities on Competency Enhancement for Pre-Health Students

Thinking and reasoning competencies are crucial for the success of future healthcare professionals and are noted as pre-professional competencies for medical school admissions. At Agnes Scott College, our graduate-level Medical Cell Biology class focuses on cellular structure and function in human disease. In this course, students complete assignments meant to foster critical thinking competencies, wherein they analyze primary articles on the cellular pathogenesis of disease and relevant drug therapies. To assess student perspectives on these assignments, we developed a survey to gauge student attitudes toward the effectiveness of these assignments in supporting their learning and preparing them as applicants to various health professions programs. Attitudinal data shows that these assignments have helped students think critically when evaluating scientific literature and bolstered their understanding of cell biology in the progression and treatment of human pathologies, better preparing them for their future careers in the health professions.

Assessing the Efficacy of Active Learning to Support Student Performance Across Undergraduate Programmes in Biomedical Science.

Introduction: Active learning is a useful tool to enhance student engagement and support learning in diverse educational situations. We aimed to assess the efficacy of an active learning approach within a large interprofessional first year Medical Cell Biology module taken by six healthcare programmes across the School of Biomedical Sciences at Ulster University, United Kingdom. Materials and methods: An active learning approach was developed for weekly formative assessment using Smartwork to design a weekly interactive multiple-choice quiz to reinforce key concepts specifically for each lecture. We tracked and assessed student performance in the module overall and in each element of course work and exam for 2years prior to and following the introduction of an active learning strategy to engage and support learning for students from all academic backgrounds and abilities. Results: Full engagement with active learning was significantly associated with an increased overall module performance as well as a significantly increased performance in each element of class test (No engagement vs. Full engagement, p < 0.001), exam (No Engagement vs. Full engagement, p < 0.05) and coursework (No engagement vs. Full engagement, p < 0.001) within this overall total (No Engagement vs. Full engagement, p < 0.01). Partial engagement with active learning was associated significantly improved class test (No engagement vs. partially engaged, p < 0.001) and coursework (No engagement vs. partially engaged, p < 0.05) performance. While a trend toward increased performance in exam and overall module mark was observed, these were not significant. Discussion: Active learning is a useful tool to support student learning across a range of healthcare programmes taken by students with differing backgrounds and academic abilities in an interprofessional and widening participation setting. Student engagement in active learning was highlighted as a key contributory factor to enhanced student performance in all aspects of assessment.

First Author Spotlight.

First Author Spotlight.

The effectiveness of the problem-based learning in medical cell biology education: A systematic meta-analysis.

Background:Problem-based learning (PBL) was widely adopted in medical cell biology education for Chinese student; however, there was no systematic analysis to prove PBL was much more effective than lecture-based learning (LBL). Our aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of PBL on cell biology curriculum compared with LBL.Method:We systematically searched the publications related to PBL teaching approach in cell biology curriculum for medical education from databases until to February 2021. Pooled standard mean differences (SMDs) and risk ratios with their 95% confidence intervals were used to assess the effectiveness of PBL and the satisfaction of students to PBL compared to LBL in meta-analysis. The heterogeneity of the included studies was assessed by statistical I2 of heterogeneity. Meta-regression and subgroup analysis were performed to analyze the source of heterogeneity. Funnel plots and Egger tests were performed to assess publication bias.Result:After initial searching and selection, 9 studies were included for meta-analysis. All of these 9 studies were in high quality. The SMDs (95% confidence intervals) of total examination scores and comprehensive examination scores between PBL and LBL curriculum in cell biology teaching was calculated to be 0.89 (0.52, 1.26) and 0.53 (0.29, 0.78). Meanwhile, the risk ratios of the satisfaction of PBL vs LBL were calculated to be 1.18 (0.96, 1.46). However, there was a heterogeneity among the pooled SMDs of 10 studies with I2 = 89.7%, P < .001. The factors including the different teachers, the similar or same examination paper and over 100 student numbers among PBL and LBL groups raised the heterogeneity in the pooled SMDs. There is no publication bias in these 10 publications after Egger and Begg test.Conclusion:The result indicated PBL was better than LBL in improvement of examination scores and comprehensive examination scores in cell biology curriculum to some extent. However, the satisfaction of students to PBL and LBL had no difference. The factors, including the different teachers, the similar or same examination papers and over 100 student numbers, affected the effectiveness of PBL and raised the heterogeneity of the pooled SMDs.

Innovative Comprehensive Experiments to Study the Morphological Changes of Apoptotic Cells for Undergraduate Education.

This innovative comprehensive experiment is a compulsory course for third-year undergraduate students in the eight-year training program leading to a Doctor of Medicine degree or Doctor of Philosophy degree at Peking University Health Science Center (PKUHSC). There is a critical educational need to prepare these students for the increasing accessibility of research experience. This experimental curriculum of medical cell biology was developed to fulfill such a requirement, which consists of three experiments, including the MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide tetrazolium) assay and the immunofluorescence and comet assays to observe antitumor drug-induced cell apoptosis. This experiment-based teaching system provides the participating students an opportunity to enhance their understanding of important biological research techniques and the instrumentation involved and to foster a better understanding of the research process within the classroom. Upon completion of the course, students' feedback showed that the curriculum increased their confidence in performing molecular techniques, and they reported positively on doing a research project in class. This course helped students improve their understanding of theoretical knowledge and actual research processes and contributed to their foundation for future research. © 2019 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 47(3):348-354, 2019.

Teaching Practice of Micro Course of Medical Cell Biology Based on MOOC and SPOC

This study discusses the advantage and disadvantage of the online courses applied on the medical cell biology, analyzes the necessity and significance of teaching practice of Micro Course based on MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) and SPOC (Small Private Online Course). Combined the technology of Micro-courses, MOOC and SPOC, the new teaching method can improve the students' learning efficiency and learning interest. For teachers, it is the most important three things that choose the appropriate knowledge, design and make the micro videos and improve the ability of teaching organization.

A Symposium-Based Self-Directed Learning Approach to Teaching Medical Cell Biology to Medical Students

The Commonwealth Medical College has used a variety of self-directed learning pedagogies to promote the student’s performance and knowledge retention since its inception in 2009. Based on this goal, a Cell Biology Symposium was designed to allow students to present medical cell biology concepts to their peers. It was believed that by utilizing a team-based learning strategy, this would enhance the students’ learning. This is a study that describes how well medical students mastered medical cell biology concepts in a classroom lecture-based format versus a peer-teaching format arranged as a Medical Cell Biology Symposium. We analyzed the list of cell biology concepts that medical students were required to understand according to guidelines published by the 2009 US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 Content Description and General Information (2008) and chose eight appropriate subjects and associated diseases that would cover these concepts. The 65 students in the 2009 class were assigned to teams and given faculty selected papers. Their goal was a PowerPoint presentation to their fellow students, designed on updating the class on the changes in medical knowledge since their assigned paper was published, including associated learning objectives and an annotated bibliography. We analyzed a student-derived, take-home test and a multiple-choice test given to the subsequent class of 2010, also composed of 65 students. As expected, scores for the open-book take-home test were much higher than the scores in a closed-book, multiple-choice examination given in the subsequent year. Our data indicate that satisfaction with an activity does not necessarily correlate with knowledge of this subject area in test performance and that this type of self-directed learning activity is an excellent way to deliver cell biology content to medical students. The real value of the Cell Biology Symposium may lie more in improving student skills in communication, problem solving, leadership, and working together as a team. These skills will be at least as important to the future success of our medical students as their mastery of the basic science, in this case cell biology, associated with the practice of medicine.

The practice of learning team construction in medical cell biology curriculum

Medical cell biology is an important basic medical course. Owing to its complex and esoteric knowledge and few lessons, there is a dilemma of teaching and learning. From learning situation analysis, the course team building programs, operation and management of the program, learning evaluation program, the author has conducted exploration and preliminarily proved that the medical cell biology curriculum team learning is conducive to the cultivation of students' innovation ability and the team cooperation spirit as well as improvement of students' learning interest, which is worthy of application and promotion. Key words: Cell biology; Course team; Teaching reform; Basic medicine

Exploration and practice of bilingual teaching in excellent doctor education and training

Excellent doctor education training plan is an important policy applied by the gov-ernment to enhance the quality of medical personnel training in China. One of the important purposes is to improve the medical students’ ability to apply and practice the medical professional English. In order to achieve this purpose, we have applied bilingual teaching for the students of excellent doctor in medical cell biology course. This article mainly introduces some reform measures , which involves training teacher, preparing textbooks and resources, establishing network database, exploring teaching modes, improving teaching methods and means, implementing diversified evaluation methods, and so on. At the same time, we have summarized some problems in the teaching process, and thus put for-ward improvement strategy. Key words: Excellent doctor education training; Bilingual teaching; Medical cell biology

Practice and reflection on medical cell biology teaching for international students in English

Medical cell biology is a very important course for medical international students. It is a new challenge for medical colleges to carry out the international students curricula in English. In order to successfully accomplish the teaching of cell biology course, the teachers in Teaching and Research Section of Medical Cell Biology and Genetics in Guangzhou Medical University made the following preparation before class： choosing or compiling English teaching material, writing English teaching plan, making English PPT and trial teaching before lass. Meanwhile, they improved the teaching links in theoretical teaching and experimental teaching and emphasized on students＇ feed- back, which provided references for teaching of medical cell biology course. Key words: International students; Medical cell biology; Teaching in English

Problems and strategies for cell biology course teaching for oversea students

To tackle the problems found during cell biology teaching in English for medical oversea students, following teaching principles and management regulations were proposed： strength- ening the basic knowledge, improving the teaching materials, optimizing the teaching contents, clev- erly designing the teaching scheme, rationalizing the teaching schedule, elaborately preparing and giving the lessons, enhancing the class interaction between teachers and students, and timely collect- ing teaching feedback. The above measures provided theoretical foundations for the effective education and training of medical oversea students. Key words: Medical education; Oversea students; Medical cell biology; Problems andcountermeasures

Reflection on teaching of extracellular matrix in current medical cell biology

Extracellular matrix （ECM） is not only one of current hot-points in medical cell biology, but also one tricky part for undergraduates to learn. This article compared chapters of ECM in medical cell biology courses and spotlighted that ECM chapter was often neglected in some domes- tic universities. Then it analyzed the possible causes, such as variable arrangement of ECM section in current textbooks. Lastly, the article recommended several suggestions, including giving a timely re- vision of the old ECM knowledge, designing an appropriate strategy for teaching, enumerating certain representative diseases to improve the ECM education. It appealed our teachers to pay more attention to how to make the module of ECM master well in near future. Key words: Medical cell biology; Extracellular matrix; Educational reform; Medical un- dergraduate

Construction and application of network teaching platform for medical cell biology

Cell biology is one of the life science's four basic disciplines.With the rapid development of knowledge,network teaching breaks through the traditional class teaching's limitations,and is significant to constructing innovative teaching modes.In view of the medical undergraduate teaching characteristics,we have summed up the experience of network teaching platform's establishment and application and found that interactive network teaching is helpful to knowledge updating,conducive for students to play a principal role,and beneficial to enhancing the communication between teachers and students. Key words: Cell biology; Network teaching

Critical review: cellular mechanobiology and amoeboid migration

Cell motility is important for tissue homeostasis and plays a central role in various pathologies, notably inflammation and cancer. Research into the critical processes involved in cell migration has so far mostly focused on cell adhesion and proteolytic degradation of the extracellular matrix. However, pharmacological interference with these processes only partially blocks cell motility in vivo. In this review we summarize the arising evidence that the mechanical properties of the cell body have a major role to play in cell motility--especially in a low-adhesion, amoeboid-like migration mode in three-dimensional tissue structures. We summarize the processes determining cell mechanics and discuss relevant measurement technologies including their applications in medical cell biology.

CFTR and tight junctions in cultured bronchial epithelial cells

a Department of Medical Cell Biology, Uppsala University, Box 571, SE-75123 Uppsala, Sweden b Department of Clinical Pathology and Cytology, Uppsala University Hospital, 75185 Uppsala, Sweden c Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University, 75123 Uppsala, Sweden d Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Family Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology Section, Uppsala University, 75105 Uppsala, Sweden e School of Health and Medical Sciences, Orebro University, University Hospital, 70185 Orebro, Sweden

Websites of note

Websites of note

Ligand-induced Degradation of the Ethylene Receptor ETR2 through a Proteasome-dependent Pathway in Arabidopsis

Protein degradation plays an important role in modulating ethylene signal transduction in plants. Here we show that the ethylene receptor ETR2 is one such target for degradation and that its degradation is dependent upon perception of the signaling ligand ethylene. The ETR2 protein is initially induced by ethylene treatment, consistent with an increase in transcript levels. At ethylene concentrations above 1 mul/liter, however, ETR2 protein levels subsequently decrease in a post-transcriptional fashion. Genetic and chemical approaches indicate that ethylene perception by the receptors initiates the reduction in ETR2 protein levels. The ethylene-induced decrease in ETR2 levels is not affected by cycloheximide, an inhibitor of protein biosynthesis, but is affected by proteasome inhibitors, indicating a role for the proteasome in ETR2 degradation. Ethylene-induced degradation still occurs in seedlings treated with brefeldin A, indicating that degradation of ETR2 does not require exit from its subcellular location at the endoplasmic reticulum. These data support a model in which ETR2 is degraded by a proteasome-dependent pathway in response to ethylene binding. Implications of this model for ethylene signaling are discussed.

ChemInform Abstract: Recent Developments in Transition Metal Ion Detection by Luminescent Chemosensors

Abstract Chemosensors find wide applications in many disciplines such as biochemistry, clinical and medical sciences, cell biology, analytical chemistry and environmental sciences. Aiming to develop new chemosensors for future applications, we have synthesised and studied many different species. We present here the latest luminescent chemosensors for transition metal ions studied in our laboratory. In the various systems active units and receptors are different as are the target ions: Zn 2+ , Ni 2+ , Cd 2+ , Hg 2+ , Co 2+ , Ag + and Cu 2+ . In solution a good selectivity and affinity was observed and the binding is signalled in all cases by pronounced changes in the photophysical properties such as emission wavelength and intensity, and excited state lifetime of the inserted luminophore. The mechanism for signal transduction depends strongly on the chosen receptor and luminophore moieties, and has been investigated in detail by means of steady state and time resolved spectroscopy.

X‐ray microanalysis for biologists: Xray microanalysis for biologists (1997). By Alice Warley. In: Practical methods in electronic microscopy, Vol 16 (Glauert AM, series Ed). London: Portland Press, 280 pp.

BioEssaysVolume 20, Issue 10 p. 871-871 Book review X-ray microanalysis for biologists: X-ray microanalysis for biologists (1997). By Alice Warley. In: Practical methods in electronic microscopy, Vol 16 (Glauert AM, series Ed). London: Portland Press, 280 pp. Godfried M. Roomans, Godfried M. Roomans Department of Medical Cell Biology, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, SwedenSearch for more papers by this author Godfried M. Roomans, Godfried M. Roomans Department of Medical Cell Biology, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, SwedenSearch for more papers by this author First published: 12 December 1998 https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1521-1878(199810)20:10<871::AID-BIES14>3.0.CO;2-IAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume20, Issue10October 1998Pages 871-871 RelatedInformation

Assessment of insulin secretion in vitro from microencapsulated fetal porcine islet-like cell clusters and rat, mouse, and human pancreatic islets.

The possibility of transplanting microencapsulated pancreatic islets into patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, either as allografts or xenografts, has attracted great interest. A critical evaluation of the results obtained reveals that the success has been very limited. The aim of the present study was to compare the in vitro function of microencapsulated islets obtained from adult humans, adult mice, adult rats, and fetal pigs. Human pancreatic islets were isolated at beta-Cell Transplant in Brussels, Belgium, and sent to the Department of Medical Cell Biology, Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden. Rat and mouse pancreatic islets and fetal porcine islet-like cell clusters (ICC) were prepared in Uppsala. All groups of islets were subsequently sent to the Department of Biotechnology, Norwegian Institute of Biotechnology, University of Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway. After 1 day in tissue culture, the islets were microencapsulated in alginate then cultured and sent back to Uppsala the next day. After either overnight culture (day 1) or 6 days of culture (day 6), the microencapsulated islets were examined for their insulin content and insulin release. Nonencapsulated islets from the same isolations were used as controls. The insulin content of rodent and human islets was not affected by microencapsulation, whereas porcine ICC showed a diminished insulin content. Microencapsulated porcine ICC also had a marked reduction in their insulin secretion in response to stimulation with glucose or glucose + theophylline both on days 1 and 6 in tissue culture. Mouse islets showed a reduced insulin response at both time points. Rat islets exhibited an inhibition of insulin secretion on day 1, but this had been restored by day 6. Human islets had well-preserved insulin secretion after both days 1 and 6. Microencapsulated human islets showed a normal morphology 3-4 weeks after intraperitoneal transplantation to nude mice. Pancreatic islets isolated from human, rat, and mouse donors show a glucose-stimulated insulin release in vitro after microencapsulation and repeated transports between laboratories. The insulin secretory capacity of microencapsulated human and rat islets was preserved best, whereas mouse islets and particularly fetal porcine ICC were impaired by microencapsulation.