71 results on '"Stefania Pagliari"'
Search Results
2. Flavonoids-Enriched Vegetal Extract Prevents the Activation of NFκB Downstream Mechanisms in a Bowel Disease In Vitro Model
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Paolo Corbetta, Elena Lonati, Stefania Pagliari, Mario Mauri, Emanuela Cazzaniga, Laura Botto, Luca Campone, Paola Palestini, and Alessandra Bulbarelli
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IBD ,functional food ,vegetal extract ,inflammation ,in vitro model of the intestinal barrier ,NF-κB pathway ,Biology (General) ,QH301-705.5 ,Chemistry ,QD1-999 - Abstract
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) incidence has increased in the last decades due to changes in dietary habits. IBDs are characterized by intestinal epithelial barrier disruption, increased inflammatory mediator production and excessive tissue injury. Since the current treatments are not sufficient to achieve and maintain remission, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) becomes a primary practice as a co-adjuvant for the therapy. Thus, the intake of functional food enriched in vegetal extracts represents a promising nutritional strategy. This study evaluates the anti-inflammatory effects of artichoke, caihua and fenugreek vegetal extract original blend (ACFB) in an in vitro model of gut barrier mimicking the early acute phases of the disease. Caco2 cells cultured on transwell supports were treated with digested ACFB before exposure to pro-inflammatory cytokines. The pre-treatment counteracts the increase in barrier permeability induced by the inflammatory stimulus, as demonstrated by the evaluation of TEER and CLDN-2 parameters. In parallel, ACFB reduces p65NF-κB pro-inflammatory pathway activation that results in the decrement of COX-2 expression as PGE2 and IL-8 secretion. ACFB properties might be due to the synergistic effects of different flavonoids, indicating it as a valid candidate for new formulation in the prevention/mitigation of non-communicable diseases.
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- 2024
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3. Does the Invasive Heracleum mantegazzianum Influence Other Species by Allelopathy?
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Daniela Gruľová, Beata Baranová, Adriana Eliašová, Christelle Brun, Jozef Fejér, Ivan Kron, Luca Campone, Stefania Pagliari, Ľuboš Nastišin, and Vincent Sedlák
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invasive plant ,phytotoxic activity ,antioxidant ,phenolics ,coumarins ,LC-MS furocoumarins ,Botany ,QK1-989 - Abstract
Heracleum mantegazzianum is an invasive species in middle Europe. The mode of action of its invasiveness is still not known. Our study focuses on observation of potential allelopathic influence by the production and release of phytochemicals into its environment. Plant material was collected four times within one season (April, May, June, July 2019) at locality Lekárovce (eastern Slovakia) for comparison of differences in composition and potential allelopathy. Water extracts from collected samples were used for different biological assays. The total phenols and flavonoids were determined spectrophotometrically. The profile and content of phenolic components, including coumarins, were determined by two techniques of liquid chromatography along with in vitro evaluation of the free radical scavenging activity of extracts (DPPH, Hydroxyl, Superoxide, and FRAP). The changes in composition in extracts in different seasonal periods were evident as well as potential phytotoxic activity in some concentrations on specific model plants. The slight antioxidant activity was noted. The invasiveness of the current species could be supported by the excretion of its phytochemicals into its surroundings and by different modes of action influencing living organisms in its environment.
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- 2024
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4. Qualitative Metabolite Profiling of Orchis purpurea Huds. by GC and UHPLC/MS Approaches
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Valeria Cavalloro, Stefania Pagliari, Fabio Gosetti, Luca Campone, Cristina Sottani, Simona Collina, Emanuela Martino, and Francesco Saverio Robustelli della Cuna
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Orchis purpurea ,secondary metabolites ,essential oil ,coumarin ,UHPLC-MS/MS ,Botany ,QK1-989 - Abstract
Orchids are experiencing wide success in ornamental, medicinal, and food fields. The reason for their success is correlated with both their morphology and metabolomics, the latter linked to their taste and biological effects. Despite many orchids having already been the subject of chemotaxonomic works, some of them are still untapped, like the case of Orchis purpurea. O. purpurea is one of the most common species of the genus Orchis, present in hedgerows, verges, and light woodland, where it is one of the few herbaceous plants able to be unpleasant to herbivorous animals. Essential oil from roots, stems, leaves, and flowers were analyzed via GC/MS analyses, revealing the presence of 70 compounds, with a clear prevalence of coumarin. The high concentration of this metabolite may explain the resistance of O. purpurea to herbivores, being associated with appetite-suppressing properties and a bitter taste. Non-volatile fractions were analyzed via UHPLC-MS analysis revealing the presence of hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives, polyphenols, and glycosidic compounds, probably responsible for their color and fragrance. Taken together, the herein presented results shed light on both the defensive strategy and the chemotaxonomy of O. purpurea.
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- 2024
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5. Generation and maturation of human iPSC-derived 3D organotypic cardiac microtissues in long-term culture
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Ece Ergir, Jorge Oliver-De La Cruz, Soraia Fernandes, Marco Cassani, Francesco Niro, Daniel Pereira-Sousa, Jan Vrbský, Vladimír Vinarský, Ana Rubina Perestrelo, Doriana Debellis, Natália Vadovičová, Stjepan Uldrijan, Francesca Cavalieri, Stefania Pagliari, Heinz Redl, Peter Ertl, and Giancarlo Forte
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Medicine ,Science - Abstract
Abstract Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death worldwide; hence there is an increasing focus on developing physiologically relevant in vitro cardiovascular tissue models suitable for studying personalized medicine and pre-clinical tests. Despite recent advances, models that reproduce both tissue complexity and maturation are still limited. We have established a scaffold-free protocol to generate multicellular, beating human cardiac microtissues in vitro from hiPSCs—namely human organotypic cardiac microtissues (hOCMTs)—that show some degree of self-organization and can be cultured for long term. This is achieved by the differentiation of hiPSC in 2D monolayer culture towards cardiovascular lineage, followed by further aggregation on low-attachment culture dishes in 3D. The generated hOCMTs contain multiple cell types that physiologically compose the heart and beat without external stimuli for more than 100 days. We have shown that 3D hOCMTs display improved cardiac specification, survival and metabolic maturation as compared to standard monolayer cardiac differentiation. We also confirmed the functionality of hOCMTs by their response to cardioactive drugs in long-term culture. Furthermore, we demonstrated that they could be used to study chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity. Due to showing a tendency for self-organization, cellular heterogeneity, and functionality in our 3D microtissues over extended culture time, we could also confirm these constructs as human cardiac organoids (hCOs). This study could help to develop more physiologically-relevant cardiac tissue models, and represent a powerful platform for future translational research in cardiovascular biology.
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- 2022
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6. Digested Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum J. Presl) Bark Extract Modulates Claudin-2 Gene Expression and Protein Levels under TNFα/IL-1β Inflammatory Stimulus
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Elena Lonati, Gessica Sala, Paolo Corbetta, Stefania Pagliari, Emanuela Cazzaniga, Laura Botto, Pierangela Rovellini, Ilaria Bruni, Paola Palestini, and Alessandra Bulbarelli
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inflammation ,IBD ,intestinal barrier ,cinnamon extract ,polyphenols ,in vitro digestion ,Biology (General) ,QH301-705.5 ,Chemistry ,QD1-999 - Abstract
Epigenetic changes, host–gut microbiota interactions, and environmental factors contribute to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) onset and progression. A healthy lifestyle may help to slow down the chronic or remitting/relapsing intestinal tract inflammation characteristic of IBD. In this scenario, the employment of a nutritional strategy to prevent the onset or supplement disease therapies included functional food consumption. Its formulation consists of the addition of a phytoextract enriched in bioactive molecules. A good candidate as an ingredient is the Cinnamon verum aqueous extract. Indeed, this extract, subjected to a process of gastrointestinal digestion simulation (INFOGEST), exhibits beneficial antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties in an in vitro model of the inflamed intestinal barrier. Here, we deepen the study of the mechanisms related to the effect of digested cinnamon extract pre-treatment, showing a correlation between transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) decrement and alterations in claudin-2 expression under Tumor necrosis factor-α/Interleukin-1β (TNF-α/IL-1) β cytokine administration. Our results show that pre-treatment with cinnamon extract prevents TEER loss by claudin-2 protein level regulation, influencing both gene transcription and autophagy-mediated degradation. Hence, cinnamon polyphenols and their metabolites probably work as mediators in gene regulation and receptor/pathway activation, leading to an adaptive response against renewed insults.
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- 2023
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7. Optimization of ultrasound-assisted extraction of naturally occurring glucosinolates from by-products of Camelina sativa L. and their effect on human colorectal cancer cell line
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Stefania Pagliari, Chiara Maria Giustra, Chiara Magoni, Rita Celano, Paola Fusi, Matilde Forcella, Grazia Sacco, Davide Panzeri, Luca Campone, and Massimo Labra
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Camelina sativa L. ,ultrasound-assisted extraction (USAE) ,experimental design optimization ,human colorectal cancer cell line ,recovery bioactive compounds ,glucosinolates derivatives ,Nutrition. Foods and food supply ,TX341-641 - Abstract
The food waste generated by small and medium agro-industrial enterprises requires appropriate management and valorization in order to decrease environmental problems and recover high-value products, respectively. In this study, the Camelina sativa seed by-product was used as a source of glucosinolates. To begin, the chemical profile of the extract obtained using an international organization for standardization (ISO) procedure was determined by UPLC-HRMS/MS analysis. In addition, an extraction method based on ultrasound-assisted extraction was developed as an alternative and green method to recover glucosinolates. Main parameters that affect extraction efficiency were optimized using a response surface design. Under optimized conditions, the extract showed an improvement in extraction yield with a reduction in organic solvent amount compared to those obtained using the ISO procedure. Finally, the extract obtained with the ultrasound-assisted method was purified, tested on human colorectal cancer cell lines, and showed promising results.
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- 2022
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8. Chemical Composition and Comprehensive Antimicrobial Activity of an Ethanolic Extract of Propolis from Tunisia
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Nermine Nefzi, Stefania Pagliari, Luca Campone, Wided Megdiche-Ksouri, Filippo Giarratana, Nicola Cicero, Graziella Ziino, and Luca Nalbone
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propolis ,biopreservative ,tolerance ,sustainability ,antimicrobial activity ,antibiofilm activity ,Therapeutics. Pharmacology ,RM1-950 - Abstract
In the present study, the chemical composition and the in vitro antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity of an ethanolic extract of propolis (EEP) from Tunisia against different ATCC and wild bacterial strains were evaluated. In situ antimicrobial activity and sensory influence of different EEP concentrations (0.5% and 1%), also in combination with 1% vinegar, were evaluated in chilled vacuum-packed salmon tartare. Furthermore, a challenge test was performed on salmon tartare experimentally contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes and treated with the different EEP formulations. The in vitro antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity was observed only against Gram-positive bacteria, such as L. monocytogenes and S. aureus, both ATCC and wild. Results of the in situ analyses revealed significant antimicrobial activity against aerobic colonies, lactic acid bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas spp. only when the EEP was used at 1% and in combination with 1% vinegar. The 1% EEP in combination with 1% vinegar was the most effective treatment also against L. monocytogenes, although 0.5% and 1% EEP used alone also showed antilisterial effects. After 7 days of storage, the sensory influence on odor, taste and color of salmon tartare was negligible for all EEP formulations. In this background, results obtained confirmed the antimicrobial efficacy of propolis which could be proposed as a suitable biopreservative to ensure safety and improve the quality of food.
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- 2023
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9. LC-MS and GC-MS Data Fusion Metabolomics Profiling Coupled with Multivariate Analysis for the Discrimination of Different Parts of Faustrime Fruit and Evaluation of Their Antioxidant Activity
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Ciro Cannavacciuolo, Stefania Pagliari, Chiara Maria Giustra, Sonia Carabetta, Werther Guidi Nissim, Mariateresa Russo, Paola Branduardi, Massimo Labra, and Luca Campone
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antioxidants ,Citrus autralasica ,novel foods ,polyphenols ,foodomics ,multivariate data analysis ,Therapeutics. Pharmacology ,RM1-950 - Abstract
The comparative chemical composition of different part of Faustrime fruits (peels, pulp, albedo, and seeds) extracted with different solvents was determined by GC-MS and UHPLC-HRMS QTof. The obtained data were also combined for their in vitro antioxidant activity by multivariate analysis to define a complex fingerprint of the fruit. The principal component analysis model showed the significative occurrence of volatile organic compounds as α-bisabolol and α-trans-bergamotol in the pulp and albedo, hexanoic acid in the seeds, and several coumarins and phenolics in the peels. The higher radical scavenging activity of the pulp was related to the incidence of citric acid in partial least square regression.
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- 2023
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10. Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Effect of Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum J. Presl) Bark Extract after In Vitro Digestion Simulation
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Stefania Pagliari, Matilde Forcella, Elena Lonati, Grazia Sacco, Francesco Romaniello, Pierangela Rovellini, Paola Fusi, Paola Palestini, Luca Campone, Massimo Labra, Alessandra Bulbarelli, and Ilaria Bruni
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cinnamon ,antioxidant ,oxidative stress ,inflammation ,in vitro digestion simulation ,natural product ,Chemical technology ,TP1-1185 - Abstract
Cinnamon bark is widely used for its organoleptic features in the food context and growing evidence supports its beneficial effect on human health. The market offers an increasingly wide range of food products and supplements enriched with cinnamon extracts which are eliciting beneficial and health-promoting properties. Specifically, the extract of Cinnamomum spp. is rich in antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer biomolecules. These include widely reported cinnamic acid and some phenolic compounds, such asproanthocyanidins A and B, and kaempferol. These molecules are sensitive to physical-chemical properties (such as pH and temperature) and biological agents that act during gastric digestion, which could impair molecules’ bioactivity. Therefore, in this study, the cinnamon’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory bioactivity after simulated digestion was evaluated by analyzing the chemical profile of the pure extract and digested one, as well as the cellular effect in vitro models, such as Caco2 and intestinal barrier. The results showed that the digestive process reduces the total content of polyphenols, especially tannins, while preserving other bioactive compounds such as cinnamic acid. At the functional level, the digested extract maintains an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect at the cellular level.
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- 2023
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11. Anticholesterolemic Activity of Three Vegetal Extracts (Artichoke, Caigua, and Fenugreek) and Their Unique Blend
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Jessica Frigerio, Erik Tedesco, Federico Benetti, Violetta Insolia, Giovanna Nicotra, Valerio Mezzasalma, Stefania Pagliari, Massimo Labra, and Luca Campone
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anticholesterolemic activity ,caigua ,fenugreek ,artichoke ,botanicals ,hepatic disease ,Therapeutics. Pharmacology ,RM1-950 - Abstract
Hepatic-related diseases, in particular hyperlipidemia and hypercholesterolemia, are a thorn on the side of the national health institutes around the globe. Indeed, liver lipid and cholesterol dysregulation could lead to atherosclerotic plaque formation and cardiovascular diseases. Currently, statin administration and monacolin K consumption are the main therapies proposed to counter this alarming connection, but relevant side effects are known. To overcome this issue, safe nutraceutical formulations and/or vegetal extracts, endowed with anticholesterolemic activity, could be instrumental in hypercholesterolemia prevention and treatment. In the present work, the anticholesterolemic efficacy of three vegetal extracts used in traditional medicine (artichoke, caigua, and fenugreek), their unique blend (ACFB), and the monacolin K-containing red yeast extract (RYR), was investigated with an in vitro approach based on hepatic cell line HepG2. The impact on cholesterol of the three extracts, their blend, and RYR were investigated by determining hepatocyte total and free cholesterol and bile acids biosynthesis. According to our results, the anticholesterolemic activity of the vegetal extracts was confirmed, and a novel choleretic activity of caigua extract was evidenced. ACFB showed to be safer than RYR while showing a similar effect on total and free cholesterol and bile acids synthesis compared to it. The anticholesterolemic activity of the blend was obtained with lower vegetal extract concentrations compared with the single vegetal extract, potentially indicating an additive effect between the extracts. In conclusion, the vegetal extracts and their blend, ACFB, are safe and are endowed with anticholesterolemic activity, potentially providing complementary therapies to the statin-based ones for hyperlipidemia and hypercholesterolemia-related complications.
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- 2021
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12. Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADESs) Combined with Sustainable Extraction Techniques: A Review of the Green Chemistry Approach in Food Analysis
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Ciro Cannavacciuolo, Stefania Pagliari, Jessica Frigerio, Chiara Maria Giustra, Massimo Labra, and Luca Campone
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natural deep eutectic solvents ,NADES ,green extraction ,food analysis ,Chemical technology ,TP1-1185 - Abstract
Usual extraction processes for analyzing foods, supplements, and nutraceutical products involve massive amounts of organic solvents contributing to a negative impact on the environment and human health. In recent years, a new class of green solvents called natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) have been considered a valid alternative to conventional solvents. Compared with conventional organic solvents, NADES have attracted considerable attention since they are sustainable, biodegradable, and non-toxic but also are easy to prepare, and have low production costs. Here we summarize the major aspects of NADEs such as the classification, preparation method physicochemical properties, and toxicity. Moreover, we provide an overview of novel extraction techniques using NADES as potential extractants of bioactive compounds from foods and food by-products, and application of NADEs in food analysis. This review aims to be useful for the further development of NAES and for broadening the knowledge of these new green solvents in order to increase their use for the extraction of bioactive compounds and in food analysis.
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- 2022
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13. Valorisation, Green Extraction Development, and Metabolomic Analysis of Wild Artichoke By-Product Using Pressurised Liquid Extraction UPLC–HRMS and Multivariate Data Analysis
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Stefania Pagliari, Ciro Cannavacciuolo, Rita Celano, Sonia Carabetta, Mariateresa Russo, Massimo Labra, and Luca Campone
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artichoke leaves by-product ,pressurised liquid extraction ,phytochemical analysis ,antioxidant activities ,multivariate analysis ,Organic chemistry ,QD241-441 - Abstract
Valorisation of food by-products has recently attracted considerable attention due to the opportunities to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of the food production chain. Large quantities of non-edible parts of the artichoke plant (Cynara cardunculus L.) comprising leaves, stems, roots, bracts, and seeds are discarded annually during industrial processing. These by-products contain many phytochemicals such as dietary fibres, phenolic acids, and flavonoids, whereby the most challenging issue concerns about the recovery of high-added value components from these by-products. The aim of this work is to develop a novel valorisation strategy for the sustainable utilisation of artichoke leaves’ waste, combining green pressurised-liquid extraction (PLE), spectrophotometric assays and UPLC–HRMS phytochemical characterization, to obtain bioactive-rich extract with high antioxidant capacity. Multivariate analysis of the major selected metabolites was used to compare different solvent extraction used in PLE.
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- 2022
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14. Characterization of the Biological Activities of a New Polyphenol-Rich Extract from Cinnamon Bark on a Probiotic Consortium and Its Action after Enzymatic and Microbial Fermentation on Colorectal Cell Lines
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Alessandra De Giani, Stefania Pagliari, Jessica Zampolli, Matilde Forcella, Paola Fusi, Ilaria Bruni, Luca Campone, and Patrizia Di Gennaro
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cinnamon ,antimicrobial activity ,in vitro digestion ,probiotics ,functional foods ,nutraceuticals ,Chemical technology ,TP1-1185 - Abstract
Cinnamon polyphenols are known as health-promoting agents. However, their positive impact depends on the extraction method and their bioaccessibility after digestion. In this work, cinnamon bark polyphenols were extracted in hot water and subjected to an in vitro enzymatic digestion. After a preliminary characterization of total polyphenols and flavonoids (respectively 520.05 ± 17.43 µgGAeq/mg and 294.77 ± 19.83 µgCATeq/mg powder extract), the extract antimicrobial activity was evidenced only against Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis displaying a minimum inhibition growth concentration value of 2 and 1.3 mg/mL, respectively, although it was lost after in vitro extract digestion. The prebiotic potential was evaluated on probiotic Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains highlighting a high growth on the in vitro digested cinnamon bark extract (up to 4 × 108 CFU/mL). Thus, the produced SCFAs and other secondary metabolites were extracted from the broth cultures and determined via GC-MSD analyses. The viability of healthy and tumor colorectal cell lines (CCD841 and SW480) was assayed after the exposition at two different concentrations (23 and 46 µgGAeq/mL) of the cinnamon extract, its digested, and the secondary metabolites produced in presence of cinnamon extract or its digested, showing positive protective effects against a tumorigenic condition.
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- 2022
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15. YAP regulates cell mechanics by controlling focal adhesion assembly
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Giorgia Nardone, Jorge Oliver-De La Cruz, Jan Vrbsky, Cecilia Martini, Jan Pribyl, Petr Skládal, Martin Pešl, Guido Caluori, Stefania Pagliari, Fabiana Martino, Zuzana Maceckova, Marian Hajduch, Andres Sanz-Garcia, Nicola Maria Pugno, Gorazd Bernard Stokin, and Giancarlo Forte
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Science - Abstract
The transcriptional co-activator YAP is known to operate downstream of mechanical signals arising from the cell niche. Here the authors demonstrate that YAP controls cell mechanics, force development and adhesion strength by promoting the transcription of genes related to focal adhesions.
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- 2017
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16. Cellular Mechanotransduction: From Tension to Function
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Fabiana Martino, Ana R. Perestrelo, Vladimír Vinarský, Stefania Pagliari, and Giancarlo Forte
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mechanotransduction ,nucleoskeleton ,focal adhesion ,mechanobiology ,mechanosensor ,Physiology ,QP1-981 - Abstract
Living cells are constantly exposed to mechanical stimuli arising from the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) or from neighboring cells. The intracellular molecular processes through which such physical cues are transformed into a biological response are collectively dubbed as mechanotransduction and are of fundamental importance to help the cell timely adapt to the continuous dynamic modifications of the microenvironment. Local changes in ECM composition and mechanics are driven by a feed forward interplay between the cell and the matrix itself, with the first depositing ECM proteins that in turn will impact on the surrounding cells. As such, these changes occur regularly during tissue development and are a hallmark of the pathologies of aging. Only lately, though, the importance of mechanical cues in controlling cell function (e.g., proliferation, differentiation, migration) has been acknowledged. Here we provide a critical review of the recent insights into the molecular basis of cellular mechanotransduction, by analyzing how mechanical stimuli get transformed into a given biological response through the activation of a peculiar genetic program. Specifically, by recapitulating the processes involved in the interpretation of ECM remodeling by Focal Adhesions at cell-matrix interphase, we revise the role of cytoskeleton tension as the second messenger of the mechanotransduction process and the action of mechano-responsive shuttling proteins converging on stage and cell-specific transcription factors. Finally, we give few paradigmatic examples highlighting the emerging role of malfunctions in cell mechanosensing apparatus in the onset and progression of pathologies.
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- 2018
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17. Easy Modular Integrative fuSion-ready Expression (Easy-MISE) Toolkit for Fast Engineering of Heterologous Productions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
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Letizia Maestroni, Pietro Butti, Riccardo Milanesi, Stefania Pagliari, Luca Campone, Immacolata Serra, Paola Branduardi, Maestroni, L, Butti, P, Milanesi, R, Pagliari, S, Campone, L, Serra, I, and Branduardi, P
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synthetic biology toolkit ,Biomedical Engineering ,ready-for-fusion modular cloning ,Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,General Medicine ,pathway engineering ,CRISPR-Cas9 marker-free genome editing ,Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous) - Abstract
Nowadays, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the platform of choice for demonstrating the proof of concept of the production of metabolites with a complex structure. However, introducing heterologous genes and rewiring the endogenous metabolism is still not standardized enough, affecting negatively the readiness-to-market of such metabolites. We developed the Easy Modular Integrative fuSion-ready Expression (Easy-MISE) toolkit, which is a novel combination of synthetic biology tools based on a single Golden Gate multiplasmid assembly meant to further ameliorate the rational predictability and flexibility of the process of yeast engineering. Thanks to an improved cloning screening strategy, double and independent transcription units are easily assembled and subsequently integrated into previously characterized loci. Moreover, the devices can be tagged for localization. This design allows for a higher degree of modularity and increases the flexibility of the engineering strategy. We show with a case study how the developed toolkit accelerates the construction and the analysis of the intermediate and the final engineered yeast strains, leaving space to better characterize the heterologous biosynthetic pathway in the final host and, overall, to improve the fermentation performances. Different S. cerevisiae strains were built harboring different versions of the biochemical pathway toward glucobrassicin (GLB) production, an indolyl-methyl glucosinolate. In the end, we could demonstrate that in the tested conditions the best-producing strain leads to a final concentration of GLB of 9.80 ± 0.267 mg/L, a titer 10-fold higher than the best result previously reported in the literature.
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- 2023
18. Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Effect of Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum J. Presl) Bark Extract after In Vitro Digestion Simulation
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Pagliari, S, Forcella, M, Lonati, E, Sacco, G, Romaniello, F, Rovellini, P, Fusi, P, Palestini, P, Campone, L, Labra, M, Bulbarelli, A, Bruni, I, Stefania Pagliari, Matilde Forcella, Elena Lonati, Grazia Sacco, Francesco Romaniello, Pierangela Rovellini, Paola Fusi, Paola Palestini, Luca Campone, Massimo Labra, Alessandra Bulbarelli, Ilaria Bruni, Pagliari, S, Forcella, M, Lonati, E, Sacco, G, Romaniello, F, Rovellini, P, Fusi, P, Palestini, P, Campone, L, Labra, M, Bulbarelli, A, Bruni, I, Stefania Pagliari, Matilde Forcella, Elena Lonati, Grazia Sacco, Francesco Romaniello, Pierangela Rovellini, Paola Fusi, Paola Palestini, Luca Campone, Massimo Labra, Alessandra Bulbarelli, and Ilaria Bruni
- Abstract
Cinnamon bark is widely used for its organoleptic features in the food context and growing evidence supports its beneficial effect on human health. The market offers an increasingly wide range of food products and supplements enriched with cinnamon extracts which are eliciting beneficial and health-promoting properties. Specifically, the extract of Cinnamomum spp. is rich in antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer biomolecules. These include widely reported cinnamic acid and some phenolic compounds, such asproanthocyanidins A and B, and kaempferol. These molecules are sensitive to physical-chemical properties (such as pH and temperature) and biological agents that act during gastric digestion, which could impair molecules’ bioactivity. Therefore, in this study, the cinnamon’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory bioactivity after simulated digestion was evaluated by analyzing the chemical profile of the pure extract and digested one, as well as the cellular effect in vitro models, such as Caco2 and intestinal barrier. The results showed that the digestive process reduces the total content of polyphenols, especially tannins, while preserving other bioactive compounds such as cinnamic acid. At the functional level, the digested extract maintains an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect at the cellular level.
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- 2023
19. On the Molecular Basis of Cellular Mechanobiology
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Jorge Oliver-De La Cruz, Fabiana Martino, Stefania Pagliari, and Giancarlo Forte
- Abstract
The tight regulation of cell function in vivo requires the integration of biological and mechanical signals, as evoked by the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) or by neighboring cells. In this chapter, we describe the current understanding of the intracellular molecular processes through which physical cues generated at the ECM are turned into a biological response. These processes, which are the subject of intense investigation in the interdisciplinary field of mechanobiology, are needed for cellular timely adaptation to the continuous dynamic modifications of the microenvironment. By starting from the most recent findings in the field, we conceive a centripetal model of mechanotransduction whereby macromolecular complexes sitting at the interphase between ECM and the cell cytoplasm serve as the primary hub for the cell to perceive mechanical stress. Following the prompt rearrangement of the cellular membrane and focal adhesions, the inward transmission of the mechanical signal is ensured by the dynamic fine-tuning of cytoskeleton tension and the linker of nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton (LINC) complex, the latter spanning through the nuclear envelope and thus bridging ECM-generated signals to the nucleus. LINC rearrangement deforms the nucleus, hence making cryptic DNA domains accessible to stage-specific transcription factors, whose activity is instructed by shuttling mechanosensitive cofactors.
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- 2022
20. Evidence for discrete modes of YAP1 signaling via mRNA splice isoforms in development and diseases
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Ana Rubina Perestrelo, Valerio Izzi, Marius Sudol, Fabiana Martino, Jorge Oliver-De La Cruz, Antonio Pompeiano, Stefania Pagliari, Vladimír Rotrekl, Jan Vrbský, Vladimír Vinarský, Giancarlo Forte, and Ota Hlinomaz
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0106 biological sciences ,Gene isoform ,YAP1 isoforms ,Cell Cycle Proteins ,Biology ,01 natural sciences ,03 medical and health sciences ,RNA Isoforms ,Genetics ,Protein Isoforms ,RNA, Messenger ,Gene ,030304 developmental biology ,YAP1 ,0303 health sciences ,Hippo signaling pathway ,Expression vector ,Effector ,Alternative splicing ,YAP-Signaling Proteins ,Cardiac differentiation ,3. Good health ,Cell biology ,RNA splicing ,Tissue-specific expression ,010606 plant biology & botany - Abstract
Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) is a transcriptional co-activator downstream of Hippo pathway. The pathway exerts crucial roles in organogenesis and its dysregulation is associated with the spreading of different cancer types. YAP1 gene encodes for multiple protein isoforms, whose specific functions are not well defined. We demonstrate the splicing of isoform-specific mRNAs is controlled in a stage- and tissue-specific fashion. We designed expression vectors encoding for the most-represented isoforms of YAP1 with either one or two WW domains and studied their specific signaling activities in YAP1 knock-out cell lines. YAP1 isoforms display both common and unique functions and activate distinct transcriptional programs, as the result of their unique protein interactomes. By generating TEAD-based transcriptional reporter cell lines, we demonstrate individual YAP1 isoforms display unique effects on cell proliferation and differentiation. Finally, we illustrate the complexity of the regulation of Hippo-YAP1 effector in physiological and in pathological conditions of the heart.
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- 2021
21. Multiscale Analysis of Extracellular Matrix Remodeling in the Failing Heart
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Ana Rubina Perestrelo, Vladimír Horváth, Diana S. Nascimento, Ana Catarina Silva, Kamila Koci, Alberto Rainer, Giulia Azzato, Petr Skládal, Guido Caluori, Fabiana Martino, Víta Žampachová, Giuseppe De Marco, Jorge Oliver-De La Cruz, Alessio Caravella, Ondřej Polanský, Giancarlo Forte, Perpétua Pinto-do-Ó, Vladimír Vinarský, and Stefania Pagliari
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Cardiomyopathy, Dilated ,Physiology ,Myocardial Infarction ,Failing heart ,030204 cardiovascular system & hematology ,Mechanotransduction, Cellular ,Ventricular Function, Left ,Cardiac cell ,Extracellular matrix ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Cell Movement ,Animals ,Humans ,Elasticity (economics) ,Cells, Cultured ,Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing ,030304 developmental biology ,Heart Failure ,0303 health sciences ,Ventricular Remodeling ,Chemistry ,Myocardium ,YAP-Signaling Proteins ,Fibroblasts ,Extracellular Matrix ,Cell biology ,Mice, Inbred C57BL ,Disease Models, Animal ,Molecular network ,Case-Control Studies ,Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine ,Transcription Factors - Abstract
Rationale: Cardiac ECM (extracellular matrix) comprises a dynamic molecular network providing structural support to heart tissue function. Understanding the impact of ECM remodeling on cardiac cells during heart failure (HF) is essential to prevent adverse ventricular remodeling and restore organ functionality in affected patients. Objectives: We aimed to (1) identify consistent modifications to cardiac ECM structure and mechanics that contribute to HF and (2) determine the underlying molecular mechanisms. Methods and Results: We first performed decellularization of human and murine ECM (decellularized ECM) and then analyzed the pathological changes occurring in decellularized ECM during HF by atomic force microscopy, 2-photon microscopy, high-resolution 3-dimensional image analysis, and computational fluid dynamics simulation. We then performed molecular and functional assays in patient-derived cardiac fibroblasts based on YAP (yes-associated protein)-transcriptional enhanced associate domain (TEAD) mechanosensing activity and collagen contraction assays. The analysis of HF decellularized ECM resulting from ischemic or dilated cardiomyopathy, as well as from mouse infarcted tissue, identified a common pattern of modifications in their 3-dimensional topography. As compared with healthy heart, HF ECM exhibited aligned, flat, and compact fiber bundles, with reduced elasticity and organizational complexity. At the molecular level, RNA sequencing of HF cardiac fibroblasts highlighted the overrepresentation of dysregulated genes involved in ECM organization, or being connected to TGFβ1 (transforming growth factor β1), interleukin-1, TNF-α, and BDNF signaling pathways. Functional tests performed on HF cardiac fibroblasts pointed at mechanosensor YAP as a key player in ECM remodeling in the diseased heart via transcriptional activation of focal adhesion assembly. Finally, in vitro experiments clarified pathological cardiac ECM prevents cell homing, thus providing further hints to identify a possible window of action for cell therapy in cardiac diseases. Conclusions: Our multiparametric approach has highlighted repercussions of ECM remodeling on cell homing, cardiac fibroblast activation, and focal adhesion protein expression via hyperactivated YAP signaling during HF.
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- 2021
22. Generation and Maturation of Human iPSC-derived Cardiac Organoids in Long Term Culture
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Ece Ergir, Jorge Oliver-De La Cruz, Soraia Fernandes, Marco Cassani, Francesco Niro, Daniel Sousa, Jan Vrbský, Vladimír Vinarský, Ana Rubina Perestrelo, Doriana Debellis, Francesca Cavalieri, Stefania Pagliari, Heinz Redl, Peter Ertl, and Giancarlo Forte
- Abstract
Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death worldwide; hence there is an increasing focus on developing physiologically relevant in vitro cardiovascular tissue models suitable for studying personalized medicine and pre-clinical tests. Despite recent advances, models that reproduce both tissue complexity and maturation are still limited.We have established a scaffold-free protocol to generate multicellular, beating and self-organized human cardiac organoids (hCO) in vitro from hiPSCs that can be cultured for long term. This is achieved by differentiation of hiPSC in 2D monolayer culture towards cardiovascular lineage, followed by further aggregation on low-attachment culture dishes in 3D. The generated human cardiac organoids (hCOs) containing multiple cell types that physiologically compose the heart, gradually self-organize and beat without external stimuli for more than 50 days. We have shown that 3D hCOs display improved cardiac specification, survival and maturation as compared to standard monolayer cardiac differentiation. We also confirmed the functionality of hCOs by their response to cardioactive drugs in long term culture. Furthermore, we demonstrated that hCOs can be used to study chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity.This study could help to develop more physiologically-relevant cardiac tissue models, and represent a powerful platform for future translational research in cardiovascular biology.
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- 2022
23. Biomaterial and implant induced ossification: in vitro and in vivo findings
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Willy Serlo, Stina Syrjänen, Terhi J. Heino, Jaakko M. Piitulainen, Giancarlo Forte, Jussi P. Posti, Pekka K. Vallittu, Stefania Pagliari, and Jorma A. Määttä
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0206 medical engineering ,Biomedical Engineering ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,Connective tissue ,Adipose tissue ,02 engineering and technology ,biomaterial‐induced ossification ,Bone morphogenetic protein 2 ,cranial implant ,osteogenesis ,Biomaterials ,Extracellular matrix ,03 medical and health sciences ,In vivo ,medicine ,fiber‐reinforced composite ,030304 developmental biology ,0303 health sciences ,Ossification ,Chemistry ,Mesenchymal stem cell ,bioactive glass ,Clinical Case Studies ,020601 biomedical engineering ,Clinical Case Study ,Cell biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,bioactivity ,Implant ,medicine.symptom - Abstract
Material‐induced ossification is suggested as a suitable approach to heal large bone defects. Fiber‐reinforced composite–bioactive glasses (FRC‐BGs) display properties that could enhance the ossification of calvarial defects. Here, we analyzed the healing processes of a FRC‐BG implant in vivo from the perspective of material‐induced ossification. Histological analysis of the implant, which was removed 5 months after insertion, showed the formation of viable, noninflammatory mesenchymal tissue with newly‐formed mineralized woven bone, as well as nonmineralized connective tissue with capillaries and larger blood vessels. The presence of osteocytes was detected within the newly generated bone matrix. To expand our understanding on the osteogenic properties of FRC‐BG, we cultured human adipose tissue‐derived mesenchymal stromal cells (AD‐MSCs) in the presence of two different BGs (45S5 and S53P4) and Al2O3 control. AD‐MSCs grew and proliferated on all the scaffolds tested, as well as secreted abundant extracellular matrix, when osteogenic differentiation was appropriately stimulated. 45S5 and S53P4 induced enhanced expression of COL2A1, COL10A1, COL5A1 collagen subunits, and pro‐osteogenic genes BMP2 and BMP4. The concomitant downregulation of BMP3 was also detected. Our findings show that FRC‐BG can support the vascularization of the implant and the formation of abundant connective tissue in vivo. Specifically, BG 45S5 and BG S53P4 are suited to evoke the osteogenic potential of host mesenchymal stromal cells. In conclusion, FRC‐BG implant demonstrated material‐induced ossification both in vitro and in vivo.
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- 2020
24. Corrigendum to 'Evidence for discrete modes of YAP1 signaling via mRNA splice isoforms in development and disease' [Genomics 113 (2021) 1349–1365]
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Ana Rubina Perestrelo, Fabiana Martino, Stefania Pagliari, Antonio Pompeiano, Jorge Oliver-De La Cruz, Marius Sudol, Ota Hlinomaz, Vladimír Vinarský, Valerio Izzi, Vladimír Rotrekl, Giancarlo Forte, and Jan Vrbský
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0106 biological sciences ,YAP1 ,0303 health sciences ,Messenger RNA ,Genomics ,Disease ,Computational biology ,Biology ,01 natural sciences ,03 medical and health sciences ,Genetics ,Splice isoforms ,030304 developmental biology ,010606 plant biology & botany - Abstract
Correction to: Vrbský, J., Vinarský, V., Perestrelo, A. R., De La Cruz, J. O., Martino, F., Pompeiano, A., Izzi, V., Hlinomaz, O., Rotrekl, V., Sudol, M., Pagliari, S., & Forte, G. (2021). Evidence for discrete modes of YAP1 signaling via mRNA splice isoforms in development and diseases. Genomics, 113(3), 1349–1365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygeno.2021.03.009 Rinnakkaistallennettu versio / Self-archived version
- Published
- 2022
25. Extraction of methylxanthines by pressurized hot water extraction from cocoa shell by-product as natural source of functional ingredient
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Stefania Pagliari, Rita Celano, Luca Rastrelli, Elena Sacco, Federico Arlati, Massimo Labra, Luca Campone, Pagliari, S, Celano, R, Rastrelli, L, Sacco, E, Arlati, F, Labra, M, and Campone, L
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Catechin (PubChem CID ,Cacao shell by-product ,Epicatechin (PubChem CID ,9064) ,122738) ,Cetuximab ,Procyanidin B2 (PubChem CID ,UPLC-UV-HRMS ,5429) ,Theobromine (PubChem CID ,2519) ,72276) ,Alkaloid ,Flavonoid ,PHWE ,Theobroma cacao ,Caffeine (PubChem CID ,Food Science - Abstract
Cocoa beans are one of the largest cultivated crops all over the world, producing large amount of by-products. For this reason, it is necessary to valorise cocoa by-products to obtain valuable source of bioactive compounds. In this paper, a pressurized hot water extraction process for recovery of theobromine and caffeine from cocoa by-product was developed and optimized. The extraction was carried out on ASE and all parameters affected by extraction efficiency and antioxidant capacity were optimized by a chemometric approach. Theobromine and caffeine were quantified by UPLC-UV (283 nm), whereas antioxidant capacity was evaluated by in vitro assays (ABTS and DPPH). By applying the PHWE under optimized conditions (ethanol 15%, temperature 90 °C, 5 cycles and static time 6 min), the extraction efficiency increased by 156% for theobromine and 160% for caffeine in comparison with the results obtained using ultrasound assisted liquid extraction. The effect of PHWE extract on cell viability of colorectal and breast cancer cell lines was also tested. The application of PHWE to selective recovery of theobromine and caffeine from cocoa shell by-products is a green, automatic, and rapid method, representing a valid alternative to conventional extraction methods to obtain ingredients for food industries.
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- 2022
26. The mechanical regulation of RNA binding protein hnRNPC in the failing heart
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Stepanka Vanacova, Fabiana Martino, Francesca Cavalieri, Helena Durikova, Vladimír Horváth, Stefania Pagliari, André P. Gerber, Vaclav Hejret, Mary A. O’Connell, Ana Rubina Perestrelo, Waleed S. Albihlal, Frank Caruso, Nandan Mysore Varadarajan, and Giancarlo Forte
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Regulation of gene expression ,0303 health sciences ,Hippo signaling pathway ,Spliceosome ,HNRNPC ,Chemistry ,Alternative splicing ,RNA-binding protein ,Cell biology ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Mechanotransduction ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,030304 developmental biology ,Ribonucleoprotein - Abstract
Cardiac pathologies are characterized by intense remodeling of the extracellular matrix (ECM) that eventually leads to heart failure. Cardiomyocytes respond to the ensuing biomechanical stress by re-expressing fetal contractile proteins via transcriptional and post-transcriptional processes, like alternative splicing (AS). Here, we demonstrate that the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein C (hnRNPC) is upregulated and relocates to the sarcomeric Z-disk upon ECM pathological remodeling. We show that this is an active site of localized translation, where the ribonucleoprotein associates to the translation machinery. Alterations in hnRNPC expression and localization can be mechanically determined and affect the AS of numerous mRNAs involved in mechanotransduction and cardiovascular diseases, like Hippo pathway effector YAP1. We propose that cardiac ECM remodeling serves as a switch in RNA metabolism by impacting an associated regulatory protein of the spliceosome apparatus. These findings offer new insights on the mechanism of mRNAs homeostasis mechanoregulation in pathological conditions.
- Published
- 2021
27. YAP–TEAD1 control of cytoskeleton dynamics and intracellular tension guides human pluripotent stem cell mesoderm specification
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Ana Rubina Perestrelo, Zbyněk Zdráhal, Giancarlo Forte, Maurilio Sampaolesi, Sri Ganji Ranjani, Fabiana Martino, Petr Skládal, Jorge Oliver-De La Cruz, Vladimir Vinarsky, Alberto Rainer, Gabriele Grassi, Antonio Pompeiano, Andrea Zancla, Stefania Pagliari, Guido Caluori, Jan Vrbsky, Pamela Mozetic, Dan Kytyr, Pagliari, S., Vinarsky, V., Martino, F., Perestrelo, A. R., Oliver De La Cruz, J., Caluori, G., Vrbsky, J., Mozetic, P., Pompeiano, A., Zancla, A., Ranjani, S. G., Skladal, P., Kytyr, D., Zdrahal, Z., Grassi, G., Sampaolesi, M., Rainer, A., and Forte, G.
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Mesoderm ,Human Embryonic Stem Cells ,Germ layer ,Article ,Cell Line ,Focal adhesion ,cell-cell interaction ,medicine ,Humans ,focal adhesion ,Induced pluripotent stem cell ,Cytoskeleton ,Molecular Biology ,TEAD1 ,Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing ,Chemistry ,TEA Domain Transcription Factors ,Contact inhibition ,Cell Differentiation ,YAP-Signaling Proteins ,Tead1 ,Extracellular matrix ,Cell Biology ,Cell biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Angiomotins ,YAP, Tead1, cell-cell interaction, focal adhesion ,YAP ,Intracellular ,Protein Binding ,Signal Transduction - Abstract
The tight regulation of cytoskeleton dynamics is required for a number of cellular processes, including migration, division and differentiation. YAP-TEAD respond to cell-cell interaction and to substrate mechanics and, among their downstream effects, prompt focal adhesion (FA) gene transcription, thus contributing to FA-cytoskeleton stability. This activity is key to the definition of adult cell mechanical properties and function. Its regulation and role in pluripotent stem cells are poorly understood. Human PSCs display a sustained basal YAP-driven transcriptional activity despite they grow in very dense colonies, indicating these cells are insensitive to contact inhibition. PSC inability to perceive cell-cell interactions can be restored by tampering with Tankyrase enzyme, thus favouring AMOT inhibition of YAP function. YAP-TEAD complex is promptly inactivated when germ layers are specified, and this event is needed to adjust PSC mechanical properties in response to physiological substrate stiffness. By providing evidence that YAP-TEAD1 complex targets key genes encoding for proteins involved in cytoskeleton dynamics, we suggest that substrate mechanics can direct PSC specification by influencing cytoskeleton arrangement and intracellular tension. We propose an aberrant activation of YAP-TEAD1 axis alters PSC potency by inhibiting cytoskeleton dynamics, thus paralyzing the changes in shape requested for the acquisition of the given phenotype. ispartof: CELL DEATH AND DIFFERENTIATION vol:28 issue:4 pages:1193-1207 ispartof: location:England status: published
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- 2021
28. Tumor in 3D: In Vitro Complex Cellular Models to Improve Nanodrugs Cancer Therapy
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Giancarlo Forte, Francesca Cavalieri, Marco Cassani, Soraia Fernandes, Stefania Pagliari, and Petr Filipensky
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tumor ,Cancer therapy ,Life quality ,Computational biology ,Biochemistry ,03 medical and health sciences ,3D cell culture ,0302 clinical medicine ,Drug Delivery Systems ,Neoplasms ,Drug Discovery ,Tumor Microenvironment ,Medicine ,3D in vitro cell models ,Nanodrugs ,drug delivery ,nanomedicine ,physiological conditions ,Humans ,Nanoparticles ,Nanostructures ,Pharmaceutical Preparations ,Settore BIO/15 - Biologia Farmaceutica ,030304 developmental biology ,Pharmacology ,0303 health sciences ,business.industry ,Organic Chemistry ,3. Good health ,Targeted drug delivery ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Drug delivery ,Molecular Medicine ,Nanomedicine ,business - Abstract
Nanodrugs represent novel solutions to reshuffle repurposed drugs for cancer therapy. They might offer different therapeutic options by combining targeted drug delivery and imaging in unique platforms. Such nanomaterials are deemed to overcome the limitations of currently available treatments, ultimately improving patients’ life quality. However, despite these promises being made for over three decades, the poor clinical translation of nanoparticle- based therapies calls for deeper in vitro and in vivo investigations. Translational issues arise very early during the development of nanodrugs, where complex and more reliable cell models are often replaced by easily accessible and convenient 2D monocultures. This is particularly true in the field of cancer therapy. In fact, 2D monocultures provide poor information about the real impact of the nanodrugs in a complex living organism, especially given the poor mimicry of the solid Tumors Microenvironment (TME). The dense and complex extracellular matrix (ECM) of solid tumors dramatically restricts nanoparticles efficacy, impairing the successful implementation of nanodrugs in medical applications. Herein, we propose a comprehensive guideline of the 3D cell culture models currently available, including their potential and limitations for the evaluation of nanodrugs activity. Advanced culture techniques, more closely resembling the physiological conditions of the TME, might give a better prediction of the reciprocal interactions between cells and nanoparticles and eventually help reconsider the use of old drugs for new applications.
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- 2020
29. Enzymatic Hydrolysate of Cinnamon Waste Material as Feedstock for the Microbial Production of Carotenoids
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Chiara Cantù, Ilaria Bruni, Stefano Bertacchi, Stefania Pagliari, Paola Branduardi, Massimo Labra, Bertacchi, S, Pagliari, S, Cantù, C, Bruni, I, Labra, M, and Branduardi, P
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0106 biological sciences ,Cinnamomum zeylanicum ,Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis ,microbial-based bioprocesses ,Rhodosporidium toruloides ,lcsh:Medicine ,Context (language use) ,Raw material ,01 natural sciences ,Article ,Hydrolysate ,03 medical and health sciences ,010608 biotechnology ,Enzymatic hydrolysis ,Food science ,030304 developmental biology ,Waste Products ,Carotenoid ,0303 health sciences ,biology ,Chemistry ,lcsh:R ,Cinnamomum verum ,carotenoids ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Rhodotorula ,separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) ,Microbial-based bioprocesse ,biology.organism_classification ,Yeast ,Rhodosporidium toruloide ,Fermentation ,cinnamon waste - Abstract
In the context of the global need to move towards circular economies, microbial cell factories can be employed thanks to their ability to use side-stream biomasses from the agro-industrial sector to obtain additional products. The valorization of residues allows for better and complete use of natural resources and, at the same time, for the avoidance of waste management to address our needs. In this work, we focused our attention on the microbial valorization of cinnamon waste material after polyphenol extraction (C-PEW) (Cinnamomum verum J.Presl), generally discarded without any additional processing. The sugars embedded in C-PEW were released by enzymatic hydrolysis, more compatible than acid hydrolysis with the subsequent microbial cultivation. We demonstrated that the yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides was able to grow and produce up to 2.00 (±0.23) mg/L of carotenoids in the resulting hydrolysate as a sole carbon and nitrogen source despite the presence of antimicrobial compounds typical of cinnamon. To further extend the potential of our finding, we tested other fungal cell factories for growth on the same media. Overall, these results are opening the possibility to develop separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) bioprocesses based on C-PEW and microbial biotransformation to obtain high-value molecules.
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- 2021
30. Mesenchymal stem cell adhesion but not plasticity is affected by high substrate stiffness
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Janice Kal Van Tam, Koichiro Uto, Mitsuhiro Ebara, Stefania Pagliari, Giancarlo Forte and Takao Aoyagi
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Materials of engineering and construction. Mechanics of materials ,TA401-492 ,Biotechnology ,TP248.13-248.65 - Abstract
The acknowledged ability of synthetic materials to induce cell-specific responses regardless of biological supplies provides tissue engineers with the opportunity to find the appropriate materials and conditions to prepare tissue-targeted scaffolds. Stem and mature cells have been shown to acquire distinct morphologies in vitro and to modify their phenotype when grown on synthetic materials with tunable mechanical properties. The stiffness of the substrate used for cell culture is likely to provide cells with mechanical cues mimicking given physiological or pathological conditions, thus affecting the biological properties of cells. The sensitivity of cells to substrate composition and mechanical properties resides in multiprotein complexes called focal adhesions, whose dynamic modification leads to cytoskeleton remodeling and changes in gene expression. In this study, the remodeling of focal adhesions in human mesenchymal stem cells in response to substrate stiffness was followed in the first phases of cell–matrix interaction, using poly-ε-caprolactone planar films with similar chemical composition and different elasticity. As compared to mature dermal fibroblasts, mesenchymal stem cells showed a specific response to substrate stiffness, in terms of adhesion, as a result of differential focal adhesion assembly, while their multipotency as a bulk was not significantly affected by matrix compliance. Given the sensitivity of stem cells to matrix mechanics, the mechanobiology of such cells requires further investigations before preparing tissue-specific scaffolds.
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- 2012
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31. YAP regulates cell mechanics by controlling focal adhesion assembly
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Giancarlo Forte, Andres Sanz-Garcia, Stefania Pagliari, Fabiana Martino, Jan Vrbsky, Martin Pešl, Guido Caluori, Gorazd B. Stokin, Cecilia Martini, Zuzana Maceckova, Jorge Oliver-De La Cruz, Jan Pribyl, Marian Hajduch, Petr Skládal, Giorgia Nardone, Nicola M. Pugno, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, and Division of Pharmaceutical Biosciences
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0301 basic medicine ,RHOA ,HIPPO ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Focal adhesion assembly ,PROTEIN ,Cell Cycle Proteins ,Mechanotransduction, Cellular ,Cell membrane ,Extracellular matrix ,PATHWAY ,Cell Movement ,BINDING ,Multidisciplinary ,biology ,MECHANOTRANSDUCTION ,Nuclear Proteins ,Cell Differentiation ,Cell biology ,Extracellular Matrix ,Actin Cytoskeleton ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,317 Pharmacy ,MIGRATION ,Science ,Integrin ,ta3111 ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Article ,Cell Line ,Focal adhesion ,03 medical and health sciences ,RHO ,Cell Line, Tumor ,medicine ,Humans ,YAP/TAZ ,Cell Shape ,Hippo signaling pathway ,Focal Adhesions ,Gene Expression Profiling ,Cell Membrane ,General Chemistry ,Actin cytoskeleton ,RAC ,SELF-RENEWAL ,030104 developmental biology ,HEK293 Cells ,biology.protein ,rhoA GTP-Binding Protein ,Transcription Factors - Abstract
Hippo effectors YAP/TAZ act as on–off mechanosensing switches by sensing modifications in extracellular matrix (ECM) composition and mechanics. The regulation of their activity has been described by a hierarchical model in which elements of Hippo pathway are under the control of focal adhesions (FAs). Here we unveil the molecular mechanism by which cell spreading and RhoA GTPase activity control FA formation through YAP to stabilize the anchorage of the actin cytoskeleton to the cell membrane. This mechanism requires YAP co-transcriptional function and involves the activation of genes encoding for integrins and FA docking proteins. Tuning YAP transcriptional activity leads to the modification of cell mechanics, force development and adhesion strength, and determines cell shape, migration and differentiation. These results provide new insights into the mechanism of YAP mechanosensing activity and qualify this Hippo effector as the key determinant of cell mechanics in response to ECM cues., The transcriptional co-activator YAP is known to operate downstream of mechanical signals arising from the cell niche. Here the authors demonstrate that YAP controls cell mechanics, force development and adhesion strength by promoting the transcription of genes related to focal adhesions.
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- 2017
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32. Poster Presentations
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Alexander Ponomarev, Bart Koopman, Nick Walters, Cristina Bignardi, Alberto L. Audenino, Alexandre Barros, Francesca Pagliari, Stephen Yarwood, Cristiana Carvalho, Célia Henriques, Enrica Verné, Stefania Pagliari, Nuno Oliveira, Sara Oliveira, José Luís Constantino Ferreira, Wojciech Swieszkowski, Ana Rita Ferreira, Serena Danti, Ana Rita Bento, João Paulo Borges, Albert Van den Berg, Julio Suay, Leonid Gurevich, and Gülseren Irmak
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Biomaterials ,Chitosan ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Primary (chemistry) ,chemistry ,Biomedical Engineering ,Biophysics ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,Adhesion - Published
- 2014
33. Adult Stem Cells and Biocompatible Scaffolds as Smart Drug Delivery Tools for Cardiac Tissue Repair
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Sara Romanazzo, Perpétua Pinto-do-Ó, Stefania Pagliari, Giancarlo Forte, Diogo Mosqueira, and Takao Aoyagi
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medicine.medical_specialty ,Cardiotonic Agents ,Heart Diseases ,Polymers ,Paracrine Communication ,Clinical uses of mesenchymal stem cells ,Biocompatible Materials ,Biochemistry ,Paracrine signalling ,Drug Discovery ,medicine ,Humans ,Progenitor cell ,Pharmacology ,Drug Carriers ,business.industry ,Myocardium ,Organic Chemistry ,Hydrogels ,Surgery ,Cell biology ,Adult Stem Cells ,Targeted drug delivery ,Drug delivery ,Cytokines ,Nanoparticles ,Molecular Medicine ,Stem cell ,business ,Adult stem cell - Abstract
The contribution of adult stem cells to cardiac repair is mostly ascribed to an indirect paracrine effect, rather than to their actual engraftment and differentiation into new contractile and vascular cells. This effect consists in a direct reduction of host cell death, promotion of neovascularization, and in a “bystander effect” on local inflammation. A number of cytokines secreted by adult stem/progenitor cells has been proposed to be responsible for the consistent beneficial effect reported in the early attempts to deliver different stem cell subsets to the injured myocardium. Aiming to maximize their beneficial activity on the diseased myocardium, the genetic modification of adult stem cells to enhance and/or control the secretion of specific cytokines would turn them into active drug delivery vectors. On the other hand, engineering biocompatible scaffolds as to release paracrine factors could result in multiple advantages: (1) achieve a local controlled release of the drug of interest, thus minimizing off-target effects, (2) enhance stem cell retention in the injured area and (3) boost the beneficial paracrine effects exerted by adult stem cells on the host tissue. In the present review, a critical overview of the state-of-the-art in the modification of stem cells and the functionalization of biocompatible scaffolds to deliver beneficial soluble factors to the injured myocardium is offered. Besides the number of concerns to be addressed before a clinical application can be foreseen for such concepts, this path could translate into the generation of active scaffolds as smart cell and drug delivery systems for cardiac repair.
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- 2013
34. Self-Renewal and Multipotency Coexist in a Long-Term Cultured Adult Rat Dental Pulp Stem Cell Line: An Exception to the Rule?
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Federica Di Scipio, Andrea Elio Sprio, Stefano Geuna, Paolo Di Nardo, Anna Folino, Giancarlo Forte, Paolina Salamone, Stefania Pagliari, Stefania Raimondo, Giovanni Nicolao Berta, and Francesca Pagliari
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Male ,Cellular differentiation ,Cell Culture Techniques ,Biology ,Stem cell marker ,dental pulp stem cell ,neural crest ,cell model ,long-term culture ,Cell Clone ,Animals ,Cell Lineage ,Neoplastic transformation ,Rats, Wistar ,Progenitor cell ,Cells, Cultured ,Dental Pulp ,Cell Proliferation ,Cell Differentiation ,Cell Biology ,Hematology ,Flow Cytometry ,Coculture Techniques ,Rats ,Cell biology ,Adult Stem Cells ,Cell Transformation, Neoplastic ,Phenotype ,Cell culture ,Immunology ,Stem cell ,Developmental Biology ,Adult stem cell - Abstract
The stemness state is characterized by self-renewal and differentiation properties. However, stem cells are not able to preserve these characteristics in long-term culture because of the intrinsic fragility of their phenotype easily undergoing senescence or neoplastic transformation. Furthermore, although isolated from the same original tissue using similar protocols, adult stem cells can display dissimilar phenotypes and important cell clone/species contamination. Finally, the lack of a clear standardization contributes to complicate the comprehension about the stemness condition. In this context, cell lines displaying a particularly stable phenotype must be identified to define one or multiple benchmarks against which other stem cell lines could be reliably assessed. The present paper demonstrates that it is possible to isolate from the rat dental pulp a stem cell line (MUR-1) that does not display neoplastic transformation in long-term culture. MUR-1 cells stably express a broad range of stemness markers and are able to differentiate into adipogenic, osteogenic, chondrogenic, neurogenic, and cardiomyogenic lineages independently of the culture passages. Moreover, serial in vitro passages have not changed their immunophenotype, proliferation capacity, or differentiation potential. The uniqueness of these characteristics candidates MUR-1 as a model to reliably improve the understanding of the mechanisms governing the stem cell fate in the same as well as in other stem cell populations.
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- 2012
35. Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles Protect Cardiac Progenitor Cells from Oxidative Stress
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Stefania Pagliari, Eugenio Magnani, Francesca Pagliari, Enrico Traversa, Paolo Di Nardo, Corrado Mandoli, Silvia Licoccia, Giancarlo Forte, Giorgia Nardone, and Marilena Minieri
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Materials science ,Settore ING-IND/22 - Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali ,Cellular differentiation ,Cell ,General Physics and Astronomy ,medicine.disease_cause ,Regenerative medicine ,Mice ,Microscopy, Electron, Transmission ,nanoparticles . reactive oxygen species ,cerium oxide , nanoparticles . reactive oxygen species ,medicine ,Animals ,General Materials Science ,Cytotoxicity ,cerium oxide ,Cell damage ,chemistry.chemical_classification ,Reactive oxygen species ,Cell growth ,Myocardium ,Stem Cells ,Settore CHIM/07 - Fondamenti Chimici delle Tecnologie ,General Engineering ,Cell Differentiation ,Cerium ,medicine.disease ,Cell biology ,Mice, Inbred C57BL ,Oxidative Stress ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,chemistry ,Immunology ,Nanoparticles ,Female ,Oxidative stress - Abstract
Cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) are a promising autologous source of cells for cardiac regenerative medicine. However, CPC culture in vitro requires the presence of microenvironmental conditions (a complex array of bioactive substance concentration, mechanostructural factors, and physicochemical factors) closely mimicking the natural cell surrounding in vivo, including the capability to uphold reactive oxygen species (ROS) within physiological levels in vitro. Cerium oxide nanoparticles (nanoceria) are redox-active and could represent a potent tool to control the oxidative stress in isolated CPCs. Here, we report that 24 h exposure to 5, 10, and 50 μg/mL of nanoceria did not affect cell growth and function in cardiac progenitor cells, while being able to protect CPCs from H(2)O(2)-induced cytotoxicity for at least 7 days, indicating that nanoceria in an effective antioxidant. Therefore, these findings confirm the great potential of nanoceria for controlling ROS-induced cell damage.
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- 2012
36. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
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Geoff Dumsday, Leping Yan, Hans Leemhuis, Sandra Vieira, Tiago Pereira, Veronica Glattauer, Laurent DAVID, Cristian Pablo Pennisi, James Gardiner, Francesca Pagliari, Arlyng Gyveth González Vázquez, Salvatrice Rigogliuso, Isabel Amaral, Rui Costa, Célia Henriques, Ana Cristina Rodrigues, Vladimir Zachar, Stefania Pagliari, Paulo Rui Fernandes, Alexandre Felipe Leitão, Morten Andersen, Carlota García-Santiago, Clara Sanz Nogués, Meir Israelowitz, Frank Boury, Frederik Maes, Ana Rita Ferreira, Ferry Melchels, Clemens Holzer, João Paulo Borges, Ling Qin, Julio Suay, Catarina Santos, Vincenzo La Carrubba, YI LI, Emanuel Fernandes, Laboratoire d'ingénierie osteo-articulaire et dentaire (LIOAD), Université de Nantes (UN)-IFR26-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Micro et Nanomédecines Biomimétiques (MINT), Université d'Angers (UA)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Bretagne Loire (UBL), Institut des Molécules et Matériaux du Mans (IMMM), Le Mans Université (UM)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Univ Angers, Okina
- Subjects
[SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio] ,Niche ,Biomedical Engineering ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,02 engineering and technology ,Biology ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Spinal cord ,Biomaterials ,[SDV] Life Sciences [q-bio] ,030207 dermatology & venereal diseases ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,medicine ,0210 nano-technology ,Neuroscience ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,Progenitor - Abstract
International audience
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
37. Towards the Generation of Patient-Specific Patches for Cardiac Repair
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Mitsuhiro Ebara, Francesca Pagliari, Paolo Di Nardo, Stefania Pagliari, Giancarlo Forte, and Takao Aoyagi
- Subjects
Cancer Research ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy ,Clinical uses of mesenchymal stem cells ,Context (language use) ,Bioinformatics ,Mice ,Animals ,Humans ,Medicine ,Myocytes, Cardiac ,Precision Medicine ,Progenitor cell ,Induced pluripotent stem cell ,Tissue Engineering ,Tissue Scaffolds ,business.industry ,Stem Cells ,Cardiac muscle ,Cell Differentiation ,Heart ,Cell Biology ,Embryonic stem cell ,Rats ,Surgery ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Cardiovascular Diseases ,Stem cell ,business ,Stem Cell Transplantation ,Adult stem cell - Abstract
Cardiovascular diseases represent the main cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Millions of people are affected by such diseases in the industrialized countries, with hundreds of thousands new cases diagnosed every year. Among cardiac diseases, heart failure is the most common end-stage pathology, leading to impaired cardiac output and cardiac performance as a result of the irreversible loss of contractile cardiomyocytes. Tissue engineering holds the promise to provide personalized solutions to the problem of cardiac muscle repair. Indeed, the identification of little reservoirs of stem and progenitor cells within every body district opened new perspectives to the setup of patient-specific protocols for cardiac diseases. Nonetheless, the results of the first pre-clinical and clinical trials in which adult stem/progenitor cells were adopted pointed at the route of delivery to the injured organ as well as at the cell source as the main issues for cardiac tissue engineers. In fact, when adult stem cells were directly injected into the myocardium or delivered through bloodstream to the heart, no or few cells could be found engrafted within host tissue few days after the administration. Renewed enthusiasm was generated by the techniques set up to enrich cardiomyocytes obtained by embryonic stem cells and by the recent disclosure of the protocols to obtain reprogrammed pluripotent cells or reprogrammed cardiomyocytes out of patients' own somatic cells. In this context, additional efforts to setup efficient systems to deliver stem cells to the injured site are required. The application of forefront technologies to fabricate synthetic and hybrid scaffolds to be employed as cell delivery systems and the acknowledgement that surface physical, mechanical, chemical properties can exert specific effects on stem cells per se prompted new enthusiasm in the field. In this respect, a cardiac-specific scaffold should be able to comply with cardiac muscle architecture, be deformable as to indulge and possibly sustain cardiac contraction. As expected, such a scaffold should favor stem cell electromechanical coupling with host tissue, while promoting the vascularization of the newly-formed tissue.
- Published
- 2011
38. Stem Cell Aligned Growth Induced by CeO2 Nanoparticles in PLGA Scaffolds with Improved Bioactivity for Regenerative Medicine
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Francesca Pagliari, Silvia Licoccia, Giancarlo Forte, Stefania Pagliari, Enrico Traversa, Paolo Di Nardo, and Corrado Mandoli
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Settore MED/09 - Medicina Interna ,Materials science ,Cell growth ,Settore ING-IND/22 - Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali ,Settore CHIM/07 - Fondamenti Chimici delle Tecnologie ,Mesenchymal stem cell ,technology, industry, and agriculture ,Nanoparticle ,Nanotechnology ,Condensed Matter Physics ,Nanoceramic ,Casting ,Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials ,Biomaterials ,PLGA ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,chemistry ,visual_art ,Electrochemistry ,visual_art.visual_art_medium ,Ceramic ,Stem cell - Abstract
Hybrid 2D polymeric-ceramic biosupports are fabricated by mixing a nanostructured CeO2 powder with 85:15 poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)/dichloromethane solutions at specific concentrations, followed by solvent casting onto pre-patterned molds. The mold patterning allows the orientation of ceramic nanoparticles into parallel lines within the composite scaffold. The ability of the produced films to host and address cell growth is evaluated after 1,3, and 6 days of culturing with murine derived cardiac and mesenchymal stem cells (CSCs and MSCs), and compared with PLGA films without ceramics and loaded with nanostructured TiO2. Aligned cell growth is observed only for scaffolds that incorporate oriented ceramic nanoparticles, attributed to the nanoceramic ability to modulate the roughness pitch, thus improving cell sensitivity towards the host surface features. Better CSC and MSC proliferative activity is observed for CeO2 composites with respect to either TiO2-added or unfilled PLCA films. This evidence may be related to the nanostructured CeO2 antioxidative properties. © 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
- Published
- 2010
39. Multiscale three-dimensional scaffolds for soft tissue engineering via multimodal electrospinning
- Author
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Francesca Pagliari, Giancarlo Forte, Stefania Pagliari, Roberta Fiaccavento, Ornella Franzese, Marilena Minieri, Enrico Traversa, Silvia Licoccia, Antonio Rinaldi, Sherif Soliman, and Paolo Di Nardo
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Scaffold ,Settore MED/09 - Medicina Interna ,Materials science ,business.product_category ,Cell Survival ,Polyesters ,Settore ING-IND/22 - Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali ,Nanofibers ,Biomedical Engineering ,Fluorescent Antibody Technique ,Biochemistry ,Diffusion ,Biomaterials ,Mice ,Multiscale scaffold ,Cell Movement ,Materials Testing ,Microfiber ,Animals ,Electrospinning, Multiscale scaffold, Nanofibers, Microfibers, Soft tissue engineering ,Cell Lineage ,Fiber ,Porosity ,Cell Shape ,Telomerase ,Molecular Biology ,Microscale chemistry ,Cell Proliferation ,Mechanical Phenomena ,Tissue Engineering ,Tissue Scaffolds ,Electrospinning ,Soft tissue engineering ,Settore CHIM/07 - Fondamenti Chimici delle Tecnologie ,Reproducibility of Results ,Cell Differentiation ,Mesenchymal Stem Cells ,General Medicine ,Microstructure ,Mice, Inbred C57BL ,Nanofiber ,Microfibers ,Microscopy, Electron, Scanning ,Female ,business ,Biotechnology ,Biomedical engineering - Abstract
A novel (scalable) electrospinning process was developed to fabricate bio-inspired multiscale three-dimensional scaffolds endowed with a controlled multimodal distribution of fiber diameters and geared towards soft tissue engineering. The resulting materials finely mingle nano- and microscale fibers together, rather than simply juxtaposing them, as is commonly found in the literature. A detailed proof of concept study was conducted on a simpler bimodal poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffold with modes of fiber distribution at 600 nm and 3.3 microm. Three conventional unimodal scaffolds with mean diameters of 300 nm and 2.6 and 5.2 microm, respectively, were used as controls to evaluate the new materials. Characterization of the microstructure (i.e. porosity, fiber distribution and pore structure) and mechanical properties (i.e. stiffness, strength and failure mode) indicated that the multimodal scaffold had superior mechanical properties (Young's modulus approximately 40MPa and strength approximately 1MPa) in comparison with the controls, despite the large porosity ( approximately 90% on average). A biological assessment was conducted with bone marrow stromal cell type (mesenchymal stem cells, mTERT-MSCs). While the new material compared favorably with the controls with respect to cell viability (on the outer surface), it outperformed them in terms of cell colonization within the scaffold. The latter result, which could neither be practically achieved in the controls nor expected based on current models of pore size distribution, demonstrated the greater openness of the pore structure of the bimodal material, which remarkably did not come at the expense of its mechanical properties. Furthermore, nanofibers were seen to form a nanoweb bridging across neighboring microfibers, which boosted cell motility and survival. Lastly, standard adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation tests served to demonstrate that the new scaffold did not hinder the multilineage potential of stem cells.
- Published
- 2010
40. Interfacing Sca-1posMesenchymal Stem Cells with Biocompatible Scaffolds with Different Chemical Composition and Geometry
- Author
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Ornella Franzese, Marilena Minieri, Francesca Pagliari, Roberta Fiaccavento, A. M. Di Francesco, Paolo Cossa, A. Laudisi, Stefania Pagliari, Enzo Bonmassar, P. Di Nardo, and Giancarlo Forte
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Telomerase ,Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis ,Cellular differentiation ,Mesenchymal stem cell ,General Medicine ,Transfection ,Biology ,Cell biology ,Transduction (genetics) ,Membrane protein ,Apoptosis ,Cell culture ,Immunology ,Genetics ,Molecular Medicine ,Molecular Biology ,Biotechnology - Abstract
An immortalized murine mesenchymal stem cell line (mTERT-MSC) enriched forLinneg/Sca-1posfraction has been obtained through the transfection of MSC with murine TERT and single-cell isolation. Such cell line maintained the typical MSC self-renewal capacity and continuously expressed MSC phenotype. Moreover, mTERT-MSC retained the functional features of freshly isolated MSC in culture without evidence of senescence or spontaneous differentiation events. Thus, mTERT-MSC have been cultured onto PLA films, 30 and 100 μm PLA microbeads, and onto unpressed and pressed HYAFF-11 scaffolds. While the cells adhered preserving their morphology on PLA films, clusters of mTERT-MSC were detected on PLA beads and unpressed fibrous scaffolds. Finally, mTERT-MSC were not able to colonize the inner layers of pressed HYAFF-11. Nevertheless, such cell line displayed the ability to preserve Sca-1 expression and to retain multilineage potential when appropriately stimulated on all the scaffolds tested.
- Published
- 2009
41. Hippo Pathway Effectors Control Cardiac Progenitor Cell Fate by Acting as Dynamic Sensors of Substrate Mechanics and Nanostructure
- Author
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Jun Nakanishi, Diogo Mosqueira, Enrico Traversa, Perpétua Pinto-do-Ó, Marie-José Goumans, Mitsuhiro Ebara, Stefania Pagliari, Sara Romanazzo, Koichiro Uto, Carmen Escobedo-Lucea, Paolo Di Nardo, Ornella Franzese, Giancarlo Forte, Akiyoshi Taniguchi, and Takao Aoyagi
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Settore MED/09 - Medicina Interna ,Intracellular Space ,Myocardial Infarction ,cardiac differentiation ,General Physics and Astronomy ,02 engineering and technology ,substrate nanotopography ,mechano-transduction ,Extracellular matrix ,Cell Movement ,General Materials Science ,0303 health sciences ,Effector ,General Engineering ,Signal transducing adaptor protein ,Adaptor Proteins ,Mechanics ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases ,Biomechanical Phenomena ,Extracellular Matrix ,Adult Stem Cells ,Signal transduction ,Stem cell ,0210 nano-technology ,Mechanical Processes ,adult cardiac progenitor cell ,Signal Transduction ,Adult ,Biology ,Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases ,03 medical and health sciences ,Humans ,YAP/TAZ ,Hippo Signaling Pathway ,Progenitor cell ,030304 developmental biology ,Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing ,Cell Proliferation ,Mechanical Phenomena ,Hippo signaling pathway ,Cell growth ,Myocardium ,Signal Transducing ,Nanostructures ,Phosphoproteins ,Transcription Factors ,YAP-Signaling Proteins ,Acyltransferases - Abstract
Stem cell responsiveness to extracellular matrix (ECM) composition and mechanical cues has been the subject of a number of investigations so far, yet the molecular mechanisms underlying stem cell mechano-biology still need full clarification. Here we demonstrate that the paralog proteins YAP and TAZ exert a crucial role in adult cardiac progenitor cell mechano-sensing and fate decision. Cardiac progenitors respond to dynamic modifications in substrate rigidity and nanopattern by promptly changing YAP/TAZ intracellular localization. We identify a novel activity of YAP and TAZ in the regulation of tubulogenesis in 3D environments and highlight a role for YAP/TAZ in cardiac progenitor proliferation and differentiation. Furthermore, we show that YAP/TAZ expression is triggered in the heart cells located at the infarct border zone. Our results suggest a fundamental role for the YAP/TAZ axis in the response of resident progenitor cells to the modifications in microenvironment nanostructure and mechanics, thereby contributing to the maintenance of myocardial homeostasis in the adult heart. These proteins are indicated as potential targets to control cardiac progenitor cell fate by materials design.
- Published
- 2014
42. A multistep procedure to prepare pre-vascularized cardiac tissue constructs using adult stem sells, dynamic cell cultures, and porous scaffolds
- Author
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Giancarlo Forte, Arti Ahluwalia, Takao Aoyagi, Stefania Pagliari, Marie-José Goumans, Annalisa Tirella, and Sjoerd N. Duim
- Subjects
Pathology ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Scaffold ,food.ingredient ,patient-derived stem cells ,lcsh:QP1-981 ,Physiology ,Chemistry ,Mesenchymal stem cell ,Gelatin ,Regenerative medicine ,dynamic culture ,lcsh:Physiology ,Cell biology ,Adult Stem Cells ,cardiac tissue engineering ,food ,Cell culture ,Physiology (medical) ,medicine ,Original Research Article ,Stem cell ,Progenitor cell ,vascularized three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds ,Adult stem cell - Abstract
The vascularization of tissue engineered products represents a key issue in regenerative medicine which needs to be addressed before the translation of these protocols to the bedside can be foreseen. Here we propose a multistep procedure to prepare pre-vascularized three-dimensional (3D) cardiac bio-substitutes using dynamic cell cultures and highly porous biocompatible gelatin scaffolds. The strategy adopted exploits the peculiar differentiation potential of two distinct subsets of adult stem cells to obtain human vascularized 3D cardiac tissues. In the first step of the procedure, human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are seeded onto gelatin scaffolds to provide interconnected vessel-like structures, while human cardiomyocyte progenitor cells (hCMPCs) are stimulated in vitro to obtain their commitment towards the cardiac phenotype. The use of a modular bioreactor allows the perfusion of the whole scaffold, providing superior performance in terms of cardiac tissue maturation and cell survival. Both the cell culture on natural-derived polymers and the continuous medium perfusion of the scaffold led to the formation of a densely packaged proto-tissue composed of vascular-like and cardiac-like cells, which might complete maturation process and interconnect with native tissue upon in vivo implantation. In conclusion, the data obtained through the approach here proposed highlight the importance to provide stem cells with complementary signals in vitro able to resemble the complexity of cardiac microenvironment.
- Published
- 2014
43. Targeting pleiotropic signaling pathways to control adult cardiac stem cell fate and function
- Author
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Gabriele Grassi, Giancarlo Forte, Jakub Jelinek, Stefania Pagliari, S., Pagliari, J., Jelinek, Grassi, Gabriele, and Forte, Giancarlo
- Subjects
Cell signaling ,Pathology ,medicine.medical_specialty ,heart regeneration ,Physiology ,Review Article ,Biology ,lcsh:Physiology ,stem cell homeostasis ,Physiology (medical) ,cardiacstemcell ,medicine ,cell signaling ,Progenitor cell ,Tissue homeostasis ,cellsignaling ,lcsh:QP1-981 ,Regeneration (biology) ,differentiation ,stemcellhomeostasis ,Cell biology ,heartregeneration ,Signal transduction ,Stem cell ,cardiac stem cell ,Function (biology) ,Homeostasis - Abstract
The identification of different pools of cardiac progenitor cells resident in the adult mammalian heart opened a new era in heart regeneration as a means to restore the loss of functional cardiac tissue and overcome the limited availability of donor organs. Indeed, resident stem cells are believed to participate to tissue homeostasis and renewal in healthy and damaged myocardium although their actual contribution to these processes remain unclear. The poor outcome in terms of cardiac regeneration following tissue damage point out at the need for a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling CPC behavior and fate determination before new therapeutic strategies can be developed. The regulation of cardiac resident stem cell fate and function is likely to result from the interplay between pleiotropic signaling pathways as well as tissue- and cell-specific regulators. Such a modular interaction – which has already been described in the nucleus of a number of different cells where transcriptional complexes form to activate specific gene programs - would account for the unique responses of cardiac progenitors to general and tissue-specific stimuli.The study of the molecular determinants involved in cardiac stem/progenitor cell regulatory mechanisms may shed light on the processes of cardiac homeostasis in health and disease and thus provide clues on the actual feasibility of cardiac cell therapy through tissue-specific progenitors.
- Published
- 2014
44. Stable phenotype and function of immortalized Lin-Sca-1+ cardiac progenitor cells in long-term culture: a step closer to standardization
- Author
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Stefania Pagliari, Perpétua Pinto-do-Ó, Tatiana P. Resende, Mariana Valente, Isabel Carvalho, Cláudia Abreu, Paolo Di Nardo, Giancarlo Forte, Ana G. Freire, and Diana S. Nascimento
- Subjects
Cell type ,Cellular differentiation ,Cell ,Cell Culture Techniques ,Myocardial Infarction ,Neovascularization, Physiologic ,Biology ,Neovascularization ,Mice ,In vivo ,medicine ,Animals ,Antigens, Ly ,Progenitor cell ,Cell Line, Transformed ,Myocardium ,Stem Cells ,Graft Survival ,Membrane Proteins ,Cell Differentiation ,Cell Biology ,Hematology ,Phenotype ,Cell biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Cell culture ,Immunology ,medicine.symptom ,Developmental Biology ,Stem Cell Transplantation - Abstract
Putative cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) have been identified in the myocardium and are regarded as promising candidates for cardiac cell-based therapies. Although two distinct populations of CPCs reached the clinical setting, more detailed studies are required to portray the optimal cell type and therapeutic setting to drive robust cell engraftment and cardiomyogenesis after injury. Owing to the scarcity of the CPCs and the need for reproducibility, the generation of faithful cellular models would facilitate this scrutiny. Here, we evaluate whether immortalized Lin(-)Sca-1(+) CPCs (iCPC(Sca-1)) represent their native-cell counterpart, thereby constituting a robust in vitro model system for standardized investigation in the cardiac field. iCPC(Sca-1) were established in vitro as plastic adherent cells endowed with robust self-renewal capacity while preserving a stable phenotype in long-term culture. iCPC(Sca-1) differentiated into cardiomyocytic-, endothelial-, and smooth muscle-like cells when subjected to appropriate stimuli. The cell line consistently displayed features of Lin(-)Sca-1(+) CPCs in vitro, as well as in vivo after intramyocardial delivery in the onset of myocardial infarction (MI). Transplanted iCPC(Sca-1) significantly attenuated the functional and anatomical alterations caused by MI while promoting neovascularization. iCPC(Sca-1) are further shown to engraft, establish functional connections, and differentiate in loco into cardiomyocyte- and vasculature-like cells. These data validate iCPC(Sca-1) as an in vitro model system for Lin(-)Sca-1(+) progenitors and for systematic dissection of mechanisms underlying CPC subsets engraftment/differentiation in vivo. Moreover, iCPC(Sca-1) can be regarded as a ready-to-use CPCs source for pre-clinical bioengineering studies toward the development of novel strategies for restoration of the damaged myocardium.
- Published
- 2013
45. Substrate stiffness affects skeletal myoblast differentiation
- Author
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Sara, Romanazzo, Giancarlo, Forte, Mitsuhiro, Ebara, Koichiro, Uto, Stefania, Pagliari, Takao, Aoyagi, Enrico, Traversa, and Akiyoshi, Taniguchi
- Subjects
Focus Papers - Abstract
To maximize the therapeutic efficacy of cardiac muscle constructs produced by stem cells and tissue engineering protocols, suitable scaffolds should be designed to recapitulate all the characteristics of native muscle and mimic the microenvironment encountered by cells in vivo. Moreover, so not to interfere with cardiac contractility, the scaffold should be deformable enough to withstand muscle contraction. Recently, it was suggested that the mechanical properties of scaffolds can interfere with stem/progenitor cell functions, and thus careful consideration is required when choosing polymers for targeted applications. In this study, cross-linked poly-ε-caprolactone membranes having similar chemical composition and controlled stiffness in a supra-physiological range were challenged with two sources of myoblasts to evaluate the suitability of substrates with different stiffness for cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. Furthermore, muscle-specific and non-related feeder layers were prepared on stiff surfaces to reveal the contribution of biological and mechanical cues to skeletal muscle progenitor differentiation. We demonstrated that substrate stiffness does affect myogenic differentiation, meaning that softer substrates can promote differentiation and that a muscle-specific feeder layer can improve the degree of maturation in skeletal muscle stem cells.
- Published
- 2012
46. Human cardiac progenitor cell grafts as unrestricted source of supernumerary cardiac cells in healthy murine hearts
- Author
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M. Ribezzo, Eugenio Magnani, Teruo Okano, Cristina Giacinti, Maria Prat, Enrico Traversa, Mauro Rinaldi, Stefania Pagliari, Stefano Pietronave, Francesca Pagliari, Antonio Musarò, Giancarlo Forte, Carmine Nicoletti, Andrea Zamperone, Marilena Minieri, Giorgia Nardone, Chiara Comoglio, and Paolo Di Nardo
- Subjects
Male ,Settore MED/09 - Medicina Interna ,Heart Ventricles ,Population ,cardiac progenitor cells ,Biology ,Extracellular matrix ,cardiac tissue engineering ,engineered tissue ,Mice ,In vivo ,Cell Movement ,Animals ,Humans ,Myocytes, Cardiac ,Progenitor cell ,education ,Aged ,Aged, 80 and over ,cardiac regeneration ,cell sheet technology ,education.field_of_study ,Tissue Engineering ,Gene Expression Profiling ,Myocardium ,Stem Cells ,Cell Differentiation ,Cell Biology ,Anatomy ,Middle Aged ,In vitro ,Coculture Techniques ,Cell biology ,Endothelial stem cell ,Mice, Inbred C57BL ,Phenotype ,Apoptosis ,Tissue Transplantation ,Molecular Medicine ,Female ,Stem cell ,Developmental Biology - Abstract
Human heart harbors a population of resident progenitor cells that can be isolated by stem cell antigen-1 antibody and expanded in culture. These cells can differentiate into cardiomyocytes in vitro and contribute to cardiac regeneration in vivo. However, when directly injected as single cell suspension, less than 1%-5% survive and differentiate. Among the major causes of this failure are the distressing protocols used to culture in vitro and implant progenitor cells into damaged hearts. Human cardiac progenitors obtained from the auricles of patients were cultured as scaffoldless engineered tissues fabricated using temperature-responsive surfaces. In the engineered tissue, progenitor cells established proper three-dimensional intercellular relationships and were embedded in self-produced extracellular matrix preserving their phenotype and multipotency in the absence of significant apoptosis. After engineered tissues were leant on visceral pericardium, a number of cells migrated into the murine myocardium and in the vascular walls, where they integrated in the respective textures. The study demonstrates the suitability of such an approach to deliver stem cells to the myocardium. Interestingly, the successful delivery of cells in murine healthy hearts suggests that myocardium displays a continued cell cupidity that is strictly regulated by the limited release of progenitor cells by the adopted source. When an unregulated cell source is added to the system, cells are delivered to the myocardium. The exploitation of this novel concept may pave the way to the setup of new protocols in cardiac cell therapy.
- Published
- 2011
47. Cardiac Muscle Engineering: Strategies to Deliver Stem Cells to the Damaged Site
- Author
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Francesca Pagliari, Stefania Pagliari, Takao Aoyagi, Paolo Di Nardo, and Giancarlo Forte
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Ischemic cardiomyopathy ,business.industry ,Bone Marrow Stem Cell ,Dilated cardiomyopathy ,Anatomy ,medicine.disease ,Organ transplantation ,Heart failure ,Internal medicine ,medicine ,Cardiology ,Stem cell ,Progenitor cell ,business ,Survival rate - Abstract
In healthy human hearts, only 10-20% of the total cells are contractile cardiomyocytes and, at the age of 25 years, no more than 1% of them are annually substituted by progenitor cells, this percentage reducing to less than 0.5% at the age of 75. In total, less than 50% of cardiomyocytes are renewed during a normal human life span [1]. For this reason, the topic of cardiac repair is among the major challenges for the tissue engineers worldwide. In fact, cardiac diseases are a predominant cause of mortality and morbidity in industrialized countries, despite the recent advancements achieved in pharmacological treatment and interventional cardiology procedures. Nonetheless, end-stage heart failure management still relies on organ transplantation as unique approach, and, notwithstanding the use of massive immunosuppressive drugs, still a percentage falling within 20%-40% of patients encounters immune rejection during the first year post-transplant [2]. Among the patients not facing severe immune rejection, almost 70% is forced to retire or reduce their working activity, their survival rate falling below 70% during the first five years post organ transplantation [3]. Last, but not least, the economic impact of cardiovascular diseases and stroke has been estimated in 2010 at $503.2 billion [4]. Currently, post-infarction myocardial revascularization protocols include the administration of raw bone marrow stem cells, while a number of clinical trials have been performed or are currently in progress in which different cell subsets are implanted in the damaged tissue by means of surgical techniques. The results of such trials are still controversial. In fact, when autologous skeletal myoblasts were injected into the heart of patients suffering from ischemic cardiomyopathy, the modest functional improvement obtained was impaired by the arising of arrhythmia events, thus requiring the adoption of a pacemaker [5]. On the other side, intracoronary administration of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells resulted in minimal improvements in cardiac contractile function in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy [6]. These mild results were mostly ascribed to a paracrine effect exerted on host tissue, rather than to a direct contribution of stem cells to the contractile activity.
- Published
- 2011
48. Adult Stem Cells Meet Three-Dimensional Culture Environments: A Perspective in Myocardial Tissue Restoring
- Author
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Berta, Giovanni Nicolao, Rastaldo, Raffaella, DI SCIPIO, Federica, Sprio, ANDREA ELIO, Salamone, Paolina, Folino, Anna, Francesca, Pagliari, Stefania, Pagliari, Giancarlo, Forte, Pagliaro, Pasquale, Paolo Di Nardo, and Gianni, Losano
- Published
- 2011
49. Cooperation of biological and mechanical signals in cardiac progenitor cell differentiation
- Author
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Giancarlo Forte, Giovanni Vozzi, Francesca Pagliari, Marilena Minieri, Stefania Pagliari, Ana Cristina Vilela-Silva, Enrico Traversa, Arti Ahluwalia, Silvia Licoccia, Paolo Di Nardo, Corrado Mandoli, Maria Prat, and Stefano Pietronave
- Subjects
Settore MED/09 - Medicina Interna ,Polymers ,Polyesters ,Settore ING-IND/22 - Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali ,Cardiovascular research ,Library science ,Chemical science ,Animals ,Humans ,Cardiac Progenitor Cell ,Medicine ,Myocytes, Cardiac ,General Materials Science ,Lactic Acid ,Cells, Cultured ,International research ,Tissue Scaffolds ,business.industry ,Stem Cells ,Mechanical Engineering ,Settore CHIM/07 - Fondamenti Chimici delle Tecnologie ,Cell Differentiation ,Ahluwalia ,Coculture Techniques ,Mechanics of Materials ,business ,Research center - Abstract
Dr. S. Pagliari , Dr. G. Forte , Dr. F. Pagliari , Dr. M. Minieri , Prof. P. Di Nardo Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology Department of Internal Medicine University of Rome “Tor Vergata”Rome 00133, Italy E-mail: dinardo@uniroma2.it Dr. S. Pagliari, Dr. G. Forte, Dr. F. Pagliari, Dr. M. Minieri, Prof. P. Di NardoJapanese-Italian Tissue Engineering Laboratory (JITEL) Tokyo Women’s Medical University-Waseda University Joint Institution for Advanced Biomedical Sciences (TWIns) Tokyo, Japan Dr. S. Pagliari, Dr. G. Forte, Dr. F. Pagliari, Dr. M. Minieri, Prof. P. Di NardoItalian Institute for Cardiovascular Research (INRC) 40126 Bologna, Italy Prof. A. C. Vilela-Silva Instituto de Ciencias Biomedicas and Laboratorio de Tecido Conjuntivo Hospital Universitario Clementino Fraga Filho Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Dr. C. Mandoli , Prof. E. Traversa International Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) 1–1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305–0044, Japan E-mail: TRAVERSA.Enrico@nims.go.jp Dr. S. Pietronave , Prof. M. Prat Department of Medical Sciences University “A. Avogadro” of Piemonte Orientale 28100 Novara, Italy Dr. G. Vozzi , Prof. A. Ahluwalia Interdepartmental Research Center “E. Piaggio” University of Pisa56126 Pisa, Italy Prof. S. Licoccia , Prof. E. Traversa NAST Centre & Department of Chemical Science and Technology University of Rome “Tor Vergata” Roma 00133, Italy [†] S.P. and A.C.V.S. contributed equally to this work.
- Published
- 2011
50. Tissue Engineering: Stem Cell Aligned Growth Induced by CeO2 Nanoparticles in PLGA Scaffolds with Improved Bioactivity for Regenerative Medicine (Adv. Funct. Mater. 10/2010)
- Author
-
Francesca Pagliari, Silvia Licoccia, Paolo Di Nardo, Corrado Mandoli, Enrico Traversa, Stefania Pagliari, and Giancarlo Forte
- Subjects
Cerium oxide ,Materials science ,Nanotechnology ,Condensed Matter Physics ,Regenerative medicine ,Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials ,Biomaterials ,PLGA ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Tissue engineering ,chemistry ,Cell culture ,Electrochemistry ,Ceo2 nanoparticles ,Stem cell - Published
- 2010
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