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Prion diseases are fatal infectious neurodegenerative disorders and prototypic conformational diseases, caused by the conformational conversion of the normal cellular prion protein (PrP C ) into the pathological PrP Sc isoform. Examples are scrapie in sheep and goat, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, chronic wasting disease (CWD) in cervids, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) in humans. There are no therapies available, and animal prion diseases like BSE and CWD can negatively affect the economy, ecology, animal health, and possibly human health. BSE is a confirmed threat to human health, and mounting evidence supports the zoonotic potential of CWD. CWD is continuously expanding in North America in numbers and distribution and was recently identified in Scandinavian countries. CWD is the only prion disease occurring both in wild and farmed animals, which, together with extensive shedding of infectivity into the environment, impedes containment strategies. There is currently a strong push to develop vaccines against CWD, including ones that can be used in wildlife. The immune system does not develop a bona fide immune response against prion infection, as PrP C and PrP Sc share an identical protein primary structure, and prions seem not to represent a trigger for immune responses. This asks for alternative vaccine strategies, which focus on PrP C -directed self-antibodies or exposure of disease-specific structures and epitopes. Several groups have established a proof-of-concept that such vaccine candidates can induce some levels of protective immunity in cervid and rodent models without inducing unwanted side effects. This review will highlight the most recent developments and discuss progress and challenges remaining., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Recently, the introduction of surface acoustic wave (SAW) technique for microfluidics has drawn a lot of attention. The pattern and mutual communication in cell layers, tissues, and organs play a critical role in tissue homeostasis and regeneration and may contribute to disease occurrence and progression. Tissue engineering aims to repair and regenerate damaged organs, depending on biomimetic scaffolds and advanced fabrication technology. However, traditional bioengineering synthesis approaches are time-consuming, heterogeneous, and unmanageable. It is hard to pattern cells in scaffolds effectively with no impact on cell viability and function. Here, we summarize a biocompatible, easily available, label-free, and non-invasive tool, surface acoustic wave (SAW) technique, which is getting a lot of attention in tissue engineering. SAW technique can realize accurate sorting, manipulation, and cells' pattern and rapid formation of spheroids. By integrating several SAW devices onto lab-on-a-chip platforms, tissue engineering lab-on-a-chip system was proposed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to summarize the application of this novel technique in the field of tissue engineering., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The sense of smell essentially contributes to social communication, guides nutrition behaviour and elicits avoidance towards environmental hazards. Olfactory smell impairment may hence entail severe consequences for affected individuals. Compared with sensory loss in other modalities, reduced olfactory function is often unnoticed by those affected and diagnosed late. Those patients seeking help frequently suffer from long-term impairments resulting in reduced well-being and quality of life. The current review provides an overview of aetiology, prevalence and specifics of diagnostics in acquired and congenital olfactory loss and focusses on short- and long-term consequences. Compensation strategies are elaborated, and treatment options are mentioned. Individual characteristics associated with the development of serious mental health impairment are discussed in order to help practitioners identifying populations at risk.

Physiological functions require coordination of processes between diverse organs, tissues, and cells. This integrative view of science has reemerged complementary to the reductionist philosophy of studying individual cell types. An integrative approach has proven particularly powerful within the field of neuroscience where, intermingled among the most numerous neural cell types of the brain, are immune cells called microglia. Microglia act as a line of defense in the CNS by phagocytizing harmful pathogens and cellular debris and by releasing a variety of factors that mediate immune responses. However, microglia are also appreciated as critical mediators of neurophysiology making them a desired target to rectify neuropathological states. The goal of this review is to discuss microglia ontogenesis, referred to as microgliogenesis, a term that encompasses the events that drive the production, differentiation, migration, and maturation of microglia and opportunities to target microglia for brain repair., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The desert locust Schistocerca gregaria is a major agricultural pest in North Africa and the Middle East. As such, it has been intensely studied, in particular with respect to population dynamics, sensory processing, feeding behavior flight and locomotor control, migratory behavior, and its neuroendocrine system. Being a long-range migratory species, neural mechanisms underlying sky compass orientation have been studied in detail. To further understand neuronal interactions in the brain of the locust, a deeper understanding of brain organization in this insect has become essential. As a follow-up of a previous study illustrating the layout of the locust brain (Kurylas et al. in J Comp Neurol 484:206-223, 2008), we analyze the cerebrum, the central brain minus gnathal ganglia, of the desert locust in more detail and provide a digital three-dimensional atlas of 48 distinguishable brain compartments and 7 major fiber tracts and commissures as a basis for future functional studies. Neuropils were three-dimensionally reconstructed from synapsin-immunostained whole mount brains. Neuropil composition and their internal organization were analyzed and compared to the neuropils of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Most brain areas have counterparts in Drosophila. Some neuropils recognized in the locust, however, have not been identified in the fly while certain areas in the fly could not be distinguished in the locust. This study paves the way for more detailed anatomical descriptions of neuronal connections and neuronal cell types in the locust brain, facilitates interspecies comparisons among insect brains and points out possible evolutionary differences in brain organization between hemi- and holometabolous insects.

Joubert syndrome (JS) is a recessively inherited congenital ataxia characterized by hypotonia, psychomotor delay, abnormal ocular movements, intellectual disability, and a peculiar cerebellar and brainstem malformation, the "molar tooth sign." Over 40 causative genes have been reported, all encoding for proteins implicated in the structure or functioning of the primary cilium, a subcellular organelle widely present in embryonic and adult tissues. In this paper, we developed an in vitro neuronal differentiation model using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), to evaluate possible neurodevelopmental defects in JS. To this end, iPSCs from four JS patients harboring mutations in distinct JS genes (AHI1, CPLANE1, TMEM67, and CC2D2A) were differentiated alongside healthy control cells to obtain mid-hindbrain precursors and cerebellar granule cells. Differentiation was monitored over 31 days through the detection of lineage-specific marker expression by qRT-PCR, immunofluorescence, and transcriptomics analysis. All JS patient-derived iPSCs, regardless of the mutant gene, showed a similar impairment to differentiate into mid-hindbrain and cerebellar granule cells when compared to healthy controls. In addition, analysis of primary cilium count and morphology showed notable ciliary defects in all differentiating JS patient-derived iPSCs compared to controls. These results confirm that patient-derived iPSCs are an accessible and relevant in vitro model to analyze cellular phenotypes connected to the presence of JS gene mutations in a neuronal context., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Nothobranchius furzeri is emerging as an exciting vertebrate organism in the field of biomedicine, developmental biology and ecotoxicology research. Its short generation time, compressed lifespan and accelerated ageing make it a versatile model for longitudinal studies with high traceability. Although in recent years the use of this model has increased enormously, there is still little information on the anatomy, morphology and histology of its main organs. In this paper, we present a description of the digestive system of N. furzeri, with emphasis on the intestine. We note that the general architecture of the intestinal tissue is shared with other vertebrates, and includes a folding mucosa, an outer muscle layer and a myenteric plexus. By immunohistochemical analysis, we reveal that the mucosa harbours the same type of epithelial cells observed in mammals, including enterocytes, goblet cells and enteroendocrine cells, and that the myenteric neurons express neurotransmitters common to other species, such as serotonin, substance P and tyrosine hydroxylase. In addition, we detect the presence of a proliferative compartment at the base of the intestinal folds. The description of the normal intestinal morphology provided here constitutes a baseline information to contrast with tissue alterations in future lines of research assessing pathologies, ageing-related diseases or damage caused by toxic agents., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Recent years have seen the emergence of tissue engineering strategies as a means to overcome some of the limits of conventional medical treatment. A biomaterial with tailored physio-chemical characteristics is used in this sophisticated method to transport stem cells and growth factors/bioactive substances, or to attract local endogenous cells, enabling new tissue formation. Biomaterials might serve as a biomimetic structure inspired by the natural milieu, assisting the cells in establishing their natural relationships. Such a method would benefit from having ready access to an abundant reservoir of stem cells with strong tissue regeneration capacity, in addition to using biological compatible material to promote new tissue creation. Teeth may have a plethora of self-renewing, multipotent mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) populations. Recent advancements and promising directions for cell transplantation and homing techniques using dental MSCs for tissue regeneration are discussed in this review paper. Overall, this research paints a picture of the present landscape of new approaches to using tooth-derived MSCs in conjunction with biomaterials and bioactive substances for tissue regeneration., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Few studies describe the sequence of morphological events that characterize spermiogenesis in birds. In this paper, the clearly observable steps of spermiogenesis are described and illustrated for the first time in a commercially important ratite, the ostrich, based on light microscopy of toluidine blue-stained plastic sections. Findings were supplemented and supported by ultrastructural observations, PNA labeling of acrosome development, and immunocytochemical labeling of isolated spermatogenic cells. Spermiogenesis in the ostrich followed the general pattern described in non-passerine birds. Eight steps were identified based on changes in nuclear shape and contents, positioning of the centriolar complex, and acrosome development. Only two steps could be recognized with certainty during development of the round spermatid which contributed to the fewer steps recorded for the ostrich compared to that described in some other bird species. The only lectin that displayed acrosome reactivity was PNA and only for the first three steps of spermiogenesis. This suggests that organizational and/or compositional changes may occur in the acrosome during development and merits further investigation. Immunological labeling provided additional evidence to support the finding of previous studies that the tip of the nucleus in the ostrich is shaped by the forming acrosome and not by the microtubular manchette. To our knowledge, this is the first complete description of spermiogenesis in ostrich and one of few in any avian species. In addition to comparative reproduction and animal science, this work has implications for evolutionary biology as the reported germ cell features provide a bridge between reptile and ratite-avian spermatogenesis., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Prion diseases, also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, are caused by the accumulation of abnormal isoforms of the prion protein (scrapie isoform of the prion protein, PrPSc) in the central nervous system. Many compounds with anti-prion activities have been found using in silico screening, in vitro models, persistently prion-infected cell models, and prion-infected rodent models. Some of these compounds include several types of polymers. Although the inhibition or removal of PrPSc production is the main target of therapy, the unique features of prions, namely protein aggregation and assembly accompanied by steric structural transformation, may require different strategies for the development of anti-prion drugs than those for conventional therapeutics targeting enzyme inhibition, agonist ligands, or modulation of signaling. In this paper, we first overview the history of the application of polymers to prion disease research. Next, we describe the characteristics of each type of polymer with anti-prion activity. Finally, we discuss the common features of these polymers. Although drug delivery of these polymers to the brain is a challenge, they are useful not only as leads for therapeutic drugs but also as tools to explore the structure of PrPSc and are indispensable for prion disease research., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Collagen extracted from fishes has been appearing as an alternative for commercial porcine and bovine collagen and it has been considered interesting especially for membrane manufacturing in tissue engineering. Despite the positive in vitro effects of fish collagen membranes, there is still no understanding of all the benefits that this natural biomaterial plays in the wound healing process, due to the lack of compilation of the results obtained in animal studies. In this sense, the purpose of this study was to perform a systematic review of the literature to examine the effects of fish collagen membranes for skin wound healing in experimental models of skin wound. The search was carried out according to the orientations of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA), and the descriptors of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) were defined: "fish," collagen," "skin," and "in vivo". A total of 10 articles were retrieved from the databases PubMed and Scopus. After the elegibility analyses, this review covers the different origins of fish collagen reported in the different papers from the beginning of 2015 through the middle of 2021. The results were based mainly on histological analysis and macroscopic evaluation, and fish skin collagen was responsible for improving the wound healing rate and the process of reepithelization and collagen deposition. In conclusion, fish skin collagen has shown positive results in in vivo studies and may be a potential biomaterial in tissue engineering., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Determining the source of primary cells is conductive to enriching sufficient cells with immortal potential thereby improving the success rate of establishing cell lines. However, most of the existing insect cell lines are established by mixing and fragmentation of explants. At present, the origin of cell lines can only be determined according to the cultured tissues, so it is impossible to determine which cell types they come from. In this study, a new cell line designated IOZCAS-Myse-1 was generated from pupal ovaries of the migratory pest Mythimna separata by explant tissues to derive adherent cultures. This paper mainly shows the further descriptive information on the origin of primary cells in the process of ovarian tissue isolation and culture. Phospho-histone H3 antibody-labeled cells with mitotic activity showed that the rapidly developing somatic cells in vivo gradually stopped proliferation when cultured ex vivo. The primary cells dissociated outside the tissue originated from the lumen cells, rather than the germ cells or the follicular epithelium cells. The results suggest that the newly established cell line IOZCAS-Myse-1 had two possible sources. One is the mutation of lumen cells in the vitellarium, and the other is the stem cells with differentiation potential in the germarium of the ovarioles. Moreover, the newly established cell line is sensitive to the infection of Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus, responds to 20-hydroxyecdysone and has weak encapsulation ability. Therefore, the new cell line can be a useful platform for replication of viral insecticides, screening of hormone-based insecticides and immunology research., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Bardet-Biedl syndrome protein 4 (BBS4) localization has been studied in human embryos/fetuses from Carnegie stage 15 to 37 gestational weeks in neurosensory organs and brain, underlying the major clinical signs of BBS. We observed a correlation between the differentiation of the neurosensory cells (hair cells, photoreceptors, olfactory neurons) and the presence of a punctate BBS4 immunostaining in their apical cytoplasm. In the brain, BBS4 was localized in oligodendrocytes and myelinated tracts. In individual myelinated fibers, BBS4 immunolabelling was discontinuous, predominantly at the periphery of the myelin sheath. BBS4 immunolabelling was confirmed in postnatal developing white matter tracts in mouse as well as in mouse oligodendrocytes cultures. In neuroblasts/neurons, BBS4 was only present in reelin-expressing Cajal-Retzius cells. Our results show that BBS4, a protein of the BBSome, has both basal body/ciliary localization in neurosensory organs but extra-ciliary localization in oligodendrocytes. The presence of BBS4 in developing oligodendrocytes and myelin described in the present paper might attribute a new role to this protein, requiring further investigation in the field of myelin formation., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Endometrial-related disorders including Asherman's syndrome, thin endometrium, pelvic organ prolapse, and cesarean scar pregnancies can be accompanied by different symptoms such as amenorrhea, infertility, abnormal placental implantation and recurrent miscarriage. Different methods have been introduced to overcome these problems such as surgery and hormonal therapy but none of them has shown promising outcomes. On the other hand, the development of novel regenerative therapeutic strategies has opened new avenues for the treatment of endometrial-related deficiencies. In this regard, different types of scaffolds, acellular matrices and also cell therapy with adult or stem cells have been investigated for the treatment of endometrial-related deficiencies. In this paper, we review the current status of cell-based endometrium regeneration using scaffold dependent and scaffold-free methods and future perspectives in this field. Moreover, we discuss the endometrial diseases that can be candidates for cell-based treatments. Also, the cells with the potential for endometrial regeneration are explained.

The authors apologize that in our published paper entitled "Endoplasmic reticulum stress may activate NLRP3 inflammasomes via TXNIP in preeclampsia" Cell and Tissue Research (Published online: 22 October 2019).

Male reproductive organ plays an important role in sperm production, maintenance and entry to the female reproductive tract, as well as generation and secretion of male sex hormones responsible for the health of male reproductive system. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experimental and clinical evidence on the utilization of tissue engineering techniques in treating male infertility. Tissue engineering (TE) and regenerative medicine have developed new approaches to treat patients with reproductive disorders such as iatrogenic injuries, congenital abnormalities, and trauma. In some cases, including congenital defects and undescended testis or hypogonadism, the sperm samples are not retrieved. This makes TE a possible future strategy for restoration of male fertility. Here, we have summarized the recent advances in experimental and clinical application of cell-, tissue-, and organ-based regenerative medicine in male reproductive disorders.

Low back pain (LBP) is a chronic condition that can affect up to 80% of the global population. It is the number one cause of disability worldwide and has enormous socioeconomic consequences. One of the main causes of this condition is intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration. IVD degenerative processes and inflammation associated with it has been the subject of many studies in both tissue and cell level. It is believed that the phenotype of the resident cells within the IVD directly affects homeostasis of the tissue. At the same time, IVDs located between vertebral bodies of spine are under various mechanical loading conditions in vivo. Therefore, investigating how mechanical loading can affect the behaviour of IVD cells has been a subject of many research articles. In this review paper, following a brief explanation of the anatomy of the IVD and its resident cells, we compiled mechanobiological studies of IVD cells (specifically, annulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus cells) and synthesized and discussed the key findings of the field.

There is an error in the Original Publication of this paper. The author names were incorrectly presented.

The authors regret that in our published paper entitled "Co-expression network analysis identified key genes in association with mesenchymal stem cell osteogenic differentiation" Cell Tissue Res (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-019-03071-1; there is a typo in the text.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential beneficial effects of taurine in cochlear neural stem cell (NSC) transplantation and elucidate the underlying molecular mechanism. The NSC cells were isolated from neonatal Balb/c mice and an auditory neuropathy gerbil model was established by microinjection of ouabain. The spiral ganglion neurons (SGN) were characterized with immunofluorescence stained with Tuj1 antibody. Cell proliferation was determined by BrdU incorporation assay and the morphologic index was measured under the light microscope. The relative protein level was determined by immunoblotting. The hearing of the animal model was scored by click- and tone burst-evoked auditory brainstem response (ABR). Here we consolidated our previous finding that taurine stimulated SGN density and the proliferation index, which were completely abolished by Shh inhibitor, cyclopamine. Transplantation of cochlear NSCs combined with taurine significantly improved ouabain-induced auditory neuropathy in gerbils. In addition, cyclopamine antagonized taurine's effect on glutamatergic and GABAergic neuron population via suppression of VGLUT1 and GAT1 expression. Mechanistically, taurine evidently activated the Sonic HedgeHog pathway and upregulated Shh, Ptc-1, Smo and Gli-1 proteins, which were specifically blockaded by cyclopamine. Here, for the first time demonstrated we that co-administration with taurine significantly improved NSC transplantation and the Shh pathway was identified in this beneficial effect.

This paper provides quantitative data on the distributions of enteroendocrine cells (EEC), defined by the hormones they contain, patterns of colocalisation between hormones and EEC relations to nerve fibres in the rat gastric mucosa. The rat stomach has three mucosal types: non-glandular stratified squamous epithelium of the fundus and esophageal groove, a region of oxyntic glands in the corpus, and pyloric glands of the antrum and pylorus. Ghrelin and histamine were both contained in closed cells, not contacting the lumen, and were most numerous in the corpus. Gastrin cells were confined to the antrum, and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and somatostatin cells were more frequent in the antrum than the corpus. Most somatostatin cells had basal processes that in the antrum commonly contacted gastrin cells. Peptide YY (PYY) cells were rare and mainly in the antrum. The only numerous colocalisations were 5-HT and histamine, PYY and gastrin and gastrin and histamine in the antrum, but each of these populations was small. Peptide-containing nerve fibres were found in the mucosa. One of the most common types was vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) fibres. High-resolution analysis showed that ghrelin cells were closely and selectively approached by VIP fibres. In contrast, gastrin cells were not selectively innervated by VIP or CGRP fibres. The study indicates that there are distinct populations of gastric EEC and selective innervation of ghrelin cells. It also shows that, in contrast to EEC of the small intestine, the majority of EEC within the stomach contained only a single hormone.

There is a current need for a therapy that can alleviate the social and economic burden that presents itself with debilitating and recurring musculoskeletal soft tissue injuries and disorders. Currently, several therapies are emerging and undergoing trials in animal models; these focus on the manipulation and administration of several growth factors implicated with healing. However, limitations include in vivo instability, reliance on biocompatible and robust carriers and restricted application procedures (local and direct). The aim of this paper is therefore to critically review the current literature surrounding the use of BPC 157, as a feasible therapy for healing and functional restoration of soft tissue damage, with a focus on tendon, ligament and skeletal muscle healing. Currently, all studies investigating BPC 157 have demonstrated consistently positive and prompt healing effects for various injury types, both traumatic and systemic and for a plethora of soft tissues. However, to date, the majority of studies have been performed on small rodent models and the efficacy of BPC 157 is yet to be confirmed in humans. Further, over the past two decades, only a handful of research groups have performed in-depth studies regarding this peptide. Despite this, it is apparent that BPC 157 has huge potential and following further development has promise as a therapy to conservatively treat or aid recovery in hypovascular and hypocellular soft tissues such as tendon and ligaments. Moreover, skeletal muscle injury models have suggested a beneficial effect not only for disturbances that occur as a result of direct trauma but also for systemic insults including hyperkalamia and hypermagnesia. Promisingly, there are few studies reporting any adverse reactions to the administration of BPC 157, although there is still a need to understand the precise healing mechanisms for this therapy to achieve clinical realisation.

Extracellular matrix (ECM) is an essential component of skeletal muscle. It provides a framework structure that holds myofibers and blood capillaries and nerves supplying the muscle. In addition, it has a principal role in force transmission, maintenance and repair of muscle fibers. Excessive accumulation of ECM components, especially collagens, either due to excessive ECM production, alteration in ECM-degrading activities, or a combination of both is defined as fibrosis. Skeletal muscle fibrosis impairs muscle function, negatively affects muscle regeneration after injury and increases muscle susceptibility to re-injury, therefore, it is considered a major cause of muscle weakness. Fibrosis of skeletal muscle is a hallmark of muscular dystrophies, aging and severe muscle injuries. Thus, a better understanding of the mechanisms of muscle fibrosis will help to advance our knowledge of the events that occur in dystrophic muscle diseases and develop innovative anti-fibrotic therapies to reverse fibrosis in such pathologic conditions. This paper explores an overview of the process of muscle fibrosis, as well as different murine models for studying fibrosis in skeletal muscles. In addition, factors regulating fibrosis and strategies to inhibit muscle fibrosis are discussed.

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The degradation of cartilage in the human body is impacted by aging, disease, genetic predisposition and continued insults resulting from daily activity. The burden of cartilage defects (osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, intervertebral disc damage, knee replacement surgeries, etc.) is daunting in light of substantial economic and social stresses. This review strives to broaden the scope of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering approaches used for cartilage repair by comparing and contrasting the anatomical and functional nature of the meniscus, articular cartilage (AC) and nucleus pulposus (NP). Many review papers have provided detailed evaluations of these cartilages and cartilage-like tissues individually but none have comprehensively examined the parallels and inconsistencies in signaling, genetic expression and extracellular matrix composition between tissues. For the first time, this review outlines the importance of understanding these three tissues as unique entities, providing a comparative analysis of anatomy, ultrastructure, biochemistry and function for each tissue. This novel approach highlights the similarities and differences between tissues, progressing research toward an understanding of what defines each tissue as distinctive. The goal of this paper is to provide researchers with the fundamental knowledge to correctly engineer the meniscus, AC and NP without inadvertently developing the wrong tissue function or biochemistry.

This paper reports a detailed ultrastructural and immunocytochemical investigation of the structure of the milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) in a variety of species. The process follows the same pattern in all mammals so far investigated. The initial (or primary) MFGM immediately on release from the mammary cell is a continuous unit membrane with a thin underlying layer of cytoplasmic origin and a monolayer of phospholipid separating it from the core lipid. This structure changes rapidly as the milk fat globule (MFG) moves into the alveolar lumen. The unit membrane plus the underlying layer of cytoplasm modifies drastically into discontinuous patches and networks. These are superimposed upon a continuous apparently structureless sheet of electron dense material stabilising the MFG and similar to that which bounded the lipid in the cell. The underlying layer of the patches increases in electron density and immunocytochemistry demonstrates localisation of MFGM proteins in this layer. In four species, the dense material shows ordered paracrystalline molecular arrays in section and en face views. All the arrays show the same basic pattern and unit size as determined by optical diffraction. Similar patches, networks and arrays are present on the surface of expressed MFG. Negative staining of lipid-extracted expressed MFGs shows similar patches and networks of membrane. These also occasionally show the crystalline arrays and label with MFGM protein antibodies. Similar networks and strands of plasma membrane on the MFG surface are shown by our CLSM examination of unfixed expressed MFG from mice genetically modified to express a fluorescent molecule as a normal plasma membrane constituent.

The developmental program of the embryo displays a plasticity that can result in long-acting effects that extend into postnatal life. In mammals, adult phenotype can be altered by changes in the maternal environment during the preimplantation period. One characteristic of developmental programming during this time is that the change in adult phenotype is often different for female offspring than for male offspring. In this paper, we propose the hypothesis that sexual dimorphism in preimplantation programming is mediated, at least in part, by sex-specific responses of embryos to maternal regulatory molecules whose secretion is dependent on the maternal environment. The strongest evidence for this idea comes from the study of colony-stimulating factor 2 (CSF2). Expression of CSF2 from the oviduct and endometrium is modified by environmental factors of the mother, in particular seminal plasma and obesity. Additionally, CSF2 alters several properties of the preimplantation embryo and has been shown to alleviate negative consequences of culture of mouse embryos on postnatal phenotype in a sex-dependent manner. In cattle, exposure of preimplantation bovine embryos to CSF2 causes sex-specific changes in gene expression, interferon-τ secretion and DNA methylation later in pregnancy (day 15 of gestation). It is likely that several embryokines can alter postnatal phenotype through actions directed towards the preimplantation embryo. Identification of these molecules and elucidation of the mechanisms by which sexually-disparate programming is established will lead to new insights into the control and manipulation of embryonic development.

Models are valuable tools to assess how deeply we understand complex systems: only if we are able to replicate the output of a system based on the function of its subcomponents can we assume that we have probably grasped its principles of operation. On the other hand, discrepancies between model results and measurements reveal gaps in our current knowledge, which can in turn be targeted by matched experiments. Models of the auditory periphery have improved greatly during the last decades, and account for many phenomena observed in experiments. While the cochlea is only partly accessible in experiments, models can extrapolate its behavior without gap from base to apex and with arbitrary input signals. With models we can for example evaluate speech coding with large speech databases, which is not possible experimentally, and models have been tuned to replicate features of the human hearing organ, for which practically no invasive electrophysiological measurements are available. Auditory models have become instrumental in evaluating models of neuronal sound processing in the auditory brainstem and even at higher levels, where they are used to provide realistic input, and finally, models can be used to illustrate how such a complicated system as the inner ear works by visualizing its responses. The big advantage there is that intermediate steps in various domains (mechanical, electrical, and chemical) are available, such that a consistent picture of the evolvement of its output can be drawn. However, it must be kept in mind that no model is able to replicate all physiological characteristics (yet) and therefore it is critical to choose the most appropriate model-or models-for every research question. To facilitate this task, this paper not only reviews three recent auditory models, it also introduces a framework that allows researchers to easily switch between models. It also provides uniform evaluation and visualization scripts, which allow for direct comparisons between models.

Corneodesmosomes are modified desmosomes present in the stratum corneum (SC). They are crucial for SC cohesion and, thus, constitute one of the pivotal elements of the functional protective barrier of human skin. Expression of corneodesmosomes and, notably, the process of their degradation are probably altered during several dermatoses leading to the disruption of the permeability barrier or to abnormal, often compensative, SC accumulation. These different situations are reviewed in the present paper.

Podocytes serve as the final barrier to urinary protein loss through a highly specialized structure called a slit membrane and maintain foot process and glomerular basement membranes. Podocyte injury results in progressive glomerular damage and accelerates sclerotic changes, although the exact mechanism of podocyte injury is still obscure. We focus on the staining gap (podocin gap) defined as the staining difference between podocin and synaptopodin, which are normally located in the foot process. In puromycin aminonucleoside nephrosis rats, the podocin gap is significantly increased (p < 0.05) and podocin is translocated to the cytoplasm on days 7 and 14 but not on day 28. Surprisingly, the gap is also significantly increased (p < 0.05) in human kidney biopsy specimens of poor-prognosis IgA nephropathy patients. This suggests that the podocin gap could be a useful marker for classifying the prognosis of IgA nephropathy and indicating the translocation of podocin to the cytoplasm. Next, we find more evidence of podocin trafficking in podocytes where podocin merges with Rab5 in puromycin aminonucleoside nephrosis rats at day 14. In immunoelectron microscopy, the podocin positive area was significantly translocated from the foot process areas to the cytoplasm (p< 0.05) on days 7 and 14 in puromycin aminonucleoside nephrosis rats. Interestingly, podocin is also translocated to the cytoplasm in poor-prognosis human IgA nephropathy. In this paper, we demonstrate that the translocation of podocin by endocytosis could be a key traffic event of critical podocyte injury and that the podocin gap could indicate the prognosis of IgA nephropathy.

The quantitative investigation of images taken from light microscopy observation is one of the pillars of biological and biomedical investigation. The main objective is the count of objects, usually cells. In addition, the measurement of several morphological parameters, such as the diameter of cells, the length of vessels, etc., can also be important for the quantitative assessment of the features of a tissue. Whereas counting and measuring histological elements may appear easy, especially today with the availability of dedicated software, in fact it is not, since what we can count and measure on light microscopy images are not the true histological elements but actually profiles of them. Obviously, the number and size of profiles of an object do not correspond to the object number and size and thus significant mistakes can be made in the interpretation of the quantitative data obtained from profiles. To cope with this problem, over the last decades, a number of design-based stereological tools have been developed in order to obtain unbiased and reliable quantitative estimates of cell and tissue elements that originate from light microscopy images. This paper reviews the basic principles of the stereological tools from the first disector applications through some of the most recently devised methods.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent stem cells found in many adult tissues, especially bone marrow (BM) and are capable of differentiation into various lineage cells such as osteoblasts, adipocytes, chondrocytes and myocytes. Moreover, MSCs can be mobilized from connective tissue into circulation and from there to damaged sites to contribute to regeneration processes. MSCs commitment and differentiation are controlled by complex activities involving signal transduction through cytokines and catecholamines. There has been an increasing interest in recent years in the neural system, functioning in the support of stem cells like MSCs. Recent efforts have indicated that the catecholamine released from neural and not neural cells could be affected characteristics of MSCs. However, there have not been review studies of most aspects involved in catecholamines-mediated functions of MSCs. Thus, in this review paper, we will try to describe the current state of catecholamines in MSCs destination and discuss strategies being used for catecholamines for migration of these cells to damaged tissues. Then, the role of the nervous system in the induction of osteogenesis, adipogenesis, chondrogenesis and myogenesis from MSCs is discussed. Recent progress in studies of signaling transduction of catecholamines in determination of the final fate of MSCs is highlighted. Hence, the knowledge of interaction between MSCs with the neural system could be applied towards the development of new diagnostic and treatment alternatives for human diseases.