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Purpose To motivate investments in housing projects, the state may allow private entities to mobilize capital through selling off-plan buildings and use proceeds to complete the project. The state senses the risks for consumers in these projects: frauds certainly occur. To safeguard consumers’ interests, the Vietnamese Government requires developers to obtain a bank's refund guarantee to sell off-plan. This paper aims to point out how consumers are marginalized due to the mechanism (mechanisms) dedicated to protecting them. Design/methodology/approach The authors review the legal regulations in Vietnam, contracts in transactions on which they have given legal consultation (the authors leave the information anonymous for privacy issues), and real disputes exposed by newspapers re: off-plan sales. Findings This paper argues that the measure fails for two reasons. First, there are many weaknesses allowing banks to avoid this mechanism. Second, banks lend to developers, and as such, play the role of a secured creditor. In these situations, there is a conflict of interest between the bank's roles and between the bank and consumers. Moreover, Vietnamese law, by endowing banks the privilege of seizing and obtaining possession of collaterals, may put aside consumers' interests. Originality/value Bank's refund guarantee’ is a recent initiative of the Vietnamese Government, offered to safeguard consumers’ interests in off-plan sales. Issues arising thereupon have not yet been fully exposed, especially, in conjunction with a broad view of the Vietnamese legal system. The analysis and critiques offered by this study may have policy implications for other jurisdictions as well.

Introduction: Indocyanine green (ICG) clearance and remnant liver volume (RLV) are the two important factors in predicting post-hepatectomy liver failure (PHLF) after major hepatectomy; however, the combination of these is still controversial. This study is to find a way to combine these to select candidates for safe major hepatectomy. Methods: A prospective cohort study included 137 major hepatectomies. ICG clearance (through ICG remnant at 15 minutes: ICG-R15), liver function results and the ratio of remnant to standard liver volume (RLV/SLV) were analyzed to examine their relations to PHLF. These variables, gender and age were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression to establish a model to predict PHLF. Results: PHLF rate after major hepatectomy was 16.8% with 5.8% for grade B-C. ICG-R15 and RLV/SLV were significantly associated with PHLF (p = 0.019 and 0.007 respectively). ICG-R15 was not significantly associated with the grade of PHLF while RLV/SLV was but the post-hoc analysis showed no significant difference. Group RLV/SLV < 40% tended to have higher rate and grade of PHLF than group RLV/SLV > 40% but the difference was not significant (p = 0.063 and 0.072 respectively). Based on gender, age, ICG-R15 and RLV/SLV, PHLF rate could be estimated with model performance of 77%. Conclusion: ICG clearance and RLV were associated with PHLF after major hepatectomy. It was safe and feasible to perform major hepatectomy with RLV/SLV under 40% and good ICG-R15. It was possible to estimate PHLF rate based on the patients’ gender, age, ICG-R15 and RLV/SLV.

Introduction: Indocyanine green (ICG) clearance (through ICG retention rate at 15 minutes - ICG-R15) is proven to correlate with histological fibrosis stage. Child-Pugh score, although proven to have weaker correlation, is still one of pre-hepatectomy liver function assessments. This study is to compare ICG-R15 and Child-Pugh score in evaluation of histological fibrosis stage and predicting of post-hepatectomy liver failure (PHLF) and to create the model of staging estimation for fibrosis. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted in 340 patients of hepatectomy. ICG-R15, Child-Pugh score and platelet count (PLT) were analyzed to examine their association with histological fibrosis stage and PHLF. Ordinal logistic regression was used to establish the model of staging estimation for fibrosis. Results: Child-Pugh score showed no significant association with histological fibrosis stage (p = 0.257) while ICG-R15 had a weak correlation (r = 0.232, p < 0.001), INR had a weak correlation (r = 0.156, p = 0.004), PLT had a negative correlation (r = -0.378, p < 0.001). The histological fibrosis stage could be estimated based on gender, age, ICG-R15 and PLT with AUC of 0.68. ICG-R15 was shown to be related to PHLF (p = 0.039) in which non-PHLF group had 0.75 times lower ICG-R15 than PHLF group while Child-Pugh score was shown to be statistically insignificant. Conclusion: ICG clearance test was better than Child-Pugh score in evaluation of pre-hepatectomy liver function and predicting of PHLF. It was possible to estimate the histological fibrosis stage based on gender, age, ICG-R15 and PLT.

Introduction: Knowledge and attitude regarding pain management is one of the factors with the highest predictive value and it can explain 69% of nurses' s pain management practice[2]. Therefore, a standard tool to measure the pain management knowledge and attitude of nurses in Vietnam is needed. Objective: Testing the validity and reliability of the Knowledge and attitudes survey regarding pain tool Vietnamese version (KASRP -V), so as to measure the nurse's pain management knowledge level in Vietnam Method: The psychometric properties testing of KASRP tool Vietnamese version has undergone a strict standardization process including testing for content validity, discriminant validity, test-retest reliability, internal consistency reliability. 6 experts assessed the content validity. 50 nurses and 73 nursing students were selected to collect data for the discriminant validity testing. Thirty nurses out of 50 nurses were selected to collect data for the internal consistency reliability and test-retest reliability testing. Results:The KASRP tool Vietnamese version includes 41 items, the CVI index for each item ranged from 0.83-1, S-CVI=0.996. The discriminant validity was verified because there was a difference in knowledge scores between the group of nurses with experience in patient care and the group of 4th years nursing students (Z=-2.256,p=0.01).. Internal consistency reliability was measured by Cronbach alpha score. The Cronbach alpha value of each item ranged from 0.885 - 0.887 and the total score was 0.888. The correlation coefficient between each item with the total ranged from 0.300 - 0.446. The ICC score = 0.977 (with 95% CI=0.631-0.994,p= .000) was measured to assess test-retest reliability Conclusion: This evaluation of the KASRP -V demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability

Natural guanidines, molecules that contain the guanidine moiety, are structurally unique and often exhibit potent biological activities. A phytochemical investigation of the leaves of Alchornea rugosa (Lour.) Müll.Arg. by MS/MS-based molecular networking revealed eight undescribed guanidine-flavanol conjugates named rugonines A-H. The chemical structures of the isolated compounds were comprehensively elucidated by NMR spectroscopy, HRESIMS, and circular dichroism (CD) analysis. All isolated compounds were tested for autophagosome formation in HEK293 cells stably expressing GFP-LC3. The results revealed that compounds rugonines D-G showed potential autophagy inhibitory activity.

Rugonidines A-F (1-6), three pairs of novel configurationally semistable diastereomers featuring an unprecedented 1,6-dioxa-7,9-diazaspiro[4.5]dec-7-en-8-amine scaffold, were isolated from Alchornea rugosa based on MS/MS-based molecular networking analysis. Their structures were elucidated by NMR spectroscopy in combination with quantum-chemical calculations. Compounds 1-3 showed a significant increase in glucose uptake level in differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes using 2-deoxy-2-[(7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazol-4-yl)amino]-d-glucose (2-NBDG) as a fluorescent-tagged glucose probe.

Ten phenolic constituents, including three new macrocyclic glycosides (

Elaeocarpus hygrophilus Kurz. is a tropical tree that has recently been used for food and medicinal purposes. This study aimed to reveal the phytochemicals and evaluate the anti-influenza viral and neuroprotective effects of different parts of this plant including leaves, stems, fruit peels, and seeds. The study results indicated that the leaf extract was a potential candidate in the inhibition of the influenza viral replication through anti-neuraminidase receptors and attenuation of the glutamate-induced neuronal cell death and cellular oxidative stress. Using molecular networking as well as fragmentation, twenty-six known compounds were dereplicated from the leaves of E. hygrophilus. Molecular docking simulations of target proteins (PDB: 3CL0 and 4CXT) with these predicted compounds indicated that phenolic compounds from the EtOH leaf extract may be considered as active components for treating not only neuraminidase inhibitor-resistant strains but also activating Keap1/Nrf2 pathway. The anti-influenza viral and neuroprotective effects of the leaf extract and the link between the two activities could significantly contribute to the development of natural product drugs for influenza treatment and prevention of neuropsychiatric adverse events. These results suggested further research about the phytochemicals and the bio-guided isolation of the most active fractions from the leaf extract and their respective herbal drug formulations, with effective and secure aspects, to low-income populations of the tropics.

Actinomycosis is an underreported chronic invasive disease caused by Actinomyces spp. In that group of diseases, pelvic actinomycosis is very rare and most of the cases reported in the literature have shown unilateral psoas muscle involvement. We report a 35-year-old woman with a retroperitoneal mass located in the left psoas muscle that makes abdominal tenderness and difficulty in walking. She had a 7-year history of intrauterine device which had been removed one month just before this event. After undergoing two laparotomies to perform a biopsy with undetermined results, she developed a new mass in the right psoas muscle which was similar to the left one. On the third attempt, the histopathology revealed yellow sulfur granules of Actinomyces which reacted positively with periodic acid Schiff and Grocott’s dye. After three months of treatment with Amoxicillin plus Clavulanic acid, her abscesses were completely resolved. Actinomycosis should always be included in the diagnostic list in patients with a pelvic mass and a history of intrauterine device.

In the search for antiviral cyclopeptides against influenza A virus, five unprecedented Caryophyllaceae-type cyclopeptides (1-5) were isolated from the leaves of Melicope pteleifolia. Their chemical structures and absolute configurations were unambiguously determined by means of advanced Marfey's analysis and comprehensive spectroscopic analyses including two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance and MS/MS fragmentation. Interestingly, compounds 3-5 contain an unusual heterocycle, a 3a-hydroxypyrroloindole moiety, which was biosynthetically formed by a nucleophilic cyclization from the least abundant amino acid, tryptophan, precursor and has aroused a great interest in the aspect of chemical diversity and biological activity. All isolates (1-5) were evaluated for their protective effects against influenza A viruses H1N1 and H9N2 in MDCK cells. All isolated cyclopeptides exhibited strong anti-influenza activity, especially against H1N1. Compound 3 showed the most potent CPE inhibition effect, which was stronger than that of the positive control ribavirin against H1N1, with an EC50 (μM) of 2.57 ± 0.45 along with higher selectivity.

Post-mortem reproduction is a complex and contested matter attracting attention from a diverse group of scholars and resulting in various responses from a range of countries. Vietnam has been reluctant to deal directly with this matter and has, accordingly, permitted post-mortem reproduction implicitly. First, by analysing Vietnam's post-mortem reproduction cases, this paper reflects on the manner in which Vietnamese authorities have handled each case in the context of the contemporary legal framework, and it reveals the moral questions arising therefrom. The article then offers an account of Vietnamese social norms as an explanation for the tendency to conduct post-mortem reproduction. In arguing that a deeper and more thorough examination of the moral and ethical reasoning is required, the paper advocates in favour of supportive post-mortem reproduction regulation. In doing so, the paper seeks to reconcile the Vietnamese legal framework and post-mortem reproduction experiences of other countries. The article concludes that Vietnam and countries sharing the similar cultural traits should permit post-mortem reproduction explicitly. This would require full engagement with the ethical and legal issues arising, and careful promulgation of regulations and guidelines based on comparative experiences of a range of countries in handling this matter.

Alzheimer's disease (AD), a neurocognitive impairment affecting human mental capacity, is related to the accumulation of amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) and the hyperphosphorylation of tau protein. In addition to modern therapies approved for AD treatment, natural products with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties have been studied for their potential to prevent AD pathogenesis. Six new noroleanane triterpenoids from the fruit peels of Camellia japonica were isolated, and their structures were determined by diverse spectroscopic methods. The neuroprotective effects of the six new compounds were tested against Aβ-induced neurotoxicity and neuroinflammation in mouse hippocampal and microglial cells. In the model of HT22-transfected cells, compounds 1-4 showed strongly neuroprotective effects via antioxidant response element gene activation and decreased the level of glutamate uptake. Compounds 1-4 also appeared to have strong inhibitory effects on NO production in Aβ1-42-transfected BV2 microglial cells. A docking simulation study was used to explain the inhibitory effects of compounds 1-4 on β-secretase 1 (BACE1). Noroleanane triterpenoids 1-4 had potential neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects against Aβ-induced neuronal damage. The structure-activity relationships of the 30 oleanane triterpenoids from C. japonica were assessed in a model of Aβ1-42-transfected HT22 cells.

During an effort to find insulin mimetic compounds, the leaves of Gymnema inodorum were shown to have a stimulatory effect on glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocyte cells. Bioassay-guided fractionation on a 70% ethanol extract of G. inodorum was applied to yield two new (1 and 2) and two known (8 and 9) oleanane triterpenoids with a methyl anthranilate moiety together with five further new oleanane triterpenoids (3-7). The chemical structures of all isolates were determined based on their spectroscopic data, including IR, UV, NMR, and mass spectrometric analysis. The isolated compounds (1-9) were determined for their stimulatory activities on glucose uptake in differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocyte cells using 2-deoxy-2-[(7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazol-4-yl)amino]-d-glucose (2-NBDG) as a fluorescent-tagged glucose probe. Three compounds (3, 5, and 9) showed stimulatory effects on the uptake of 2-NBDG in 3T3-L1 adipocyte cells. Chemicals with a methyl anthranilate moiety have been considered as crucial contributors of flavor odor in foods, and quantitative analysis showed the content of compound 8 to be 0.90 ± 0.01 mg/g of the total extract. These results suggest that the leaves of G. inodorum have the potential to be used as an antidiabetic functional food or tea.

Rugonidines A-F (

Chemical investigation of the plant Gymnema latifolium led to the isolation of seven undescribed 23-glycosyl oleanane triterpenoids, gymlatinosides GLF1-GLF7, and two known compounds, gymnemosides D and E. The structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated using diverse spectroscopic methods. The extract of G. latifolium and all isolated compounds significantly enhanced 2-[N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl)amino]-2-deoxyglucose (2-NBDG) uptake into 3T3-L1 adipocytes at 20 μM. Among them, gymlatinosides GLF2 and gymlatinosides GLF4 showed particularly potent stimulatory effects on glucose uptake in a dose-dependent manner. Further investigation revealed that gymlatinosides GLF2 at 20 μM upregulated the expression of phosphorylated AMPK (p-AMPK). The results suggested that gymlatinosides GLF2 may enhance glucose uptake via regulating the AMPK signaling pathway.

The major class of bioactive metabolites in Gymnema sylvestre, a popular Ayurvedic medicinal plant for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, is oleanane triterpenoids. In this study, a targeted, biosynthesis-inspired approach using UHPLC-qTOF/MS was implemented to elucidate the whole chemical profile of this plant for the standardization of the Vietnamese G. sylvestre variety. The known compounds were first determined to identify the building blocks of the biosynthetic intermediates and the construction rules for synthesizing oleanane triterpenoids in the plant. These blocks were recombined to build a virtual library of all reasonable compounds consistent with the deduced construction rules. Various techniques, including relative mass defect filtering, multiple key ion analysis, mass fragmentation analysis, and comparison with standard references, were applied to determine the presence of these predicted compounds. Conventional isolation and structure elucidation of six of the new compounds were carried out to identify the new building blocks and validate the assignments. Consequently, 119 peaks were quickly assigned to oleanane triterpenoids, and among them, 77 peaks were predicted to be new compounds based on their molecular formulas and mass fragmentation patterns. All the identified metabolites were then classified into different layers to analyze their logical relationships, and a multilayered chemical profile of the oleanane triterpenoids was constructed. This new approach is expected to be practical for characterizing structures of modular secondary metabolites, such as triterpenoid saponins, and for proposing biosynthetic relationships among compounds of the same class of metabolites in medicinal plants.

Two undescribed sesquiterpene lactone-proaporphine hybrid skeletons, two undescribed sesquiterpenes, and four known compounds were isolated from the aerial part of Magnolia grandiflora L. The structures of isolated compounds were unambiguously determined based on the interpretation of a combination of NMR spectroscopy, HRESIMS, DP4+ probability calculation of carbon data, X-ray crystallographic analyses, and ECD calculation. The isolated compounds were investigated for their anti-inflammatory activity against nitric oxide production and the protein expression of COX-2 in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells.

In the search for antiviral cyclopeptides against influenza A virus, five unprecedented Caryophyllaceae-type cyclopeptides (

MS/MS-based molecular networking showed differences in the chemical profiles, especially the terpenoid-coupled-phloroglucinol clusters, of Psidium guajava grown in Jeju Island of South Korea ("Jejuguava"), Vietnam and China. A chemical investigation of the 95% EtOH extract of Jejuguava leaves revealed meroterpenoids characterized by a dihydropyran ring junction between an acylphloroglucinol structure and terpenoid, and named jejuguajavones A-J (1-10). Compounds (±)-8-(±)-10 are racemic mixtures that were separated using a chiral HPLC column. The chemical structures of all the isolated compounds (1-10) were determined by analyzing the spectroscopic data and performing electronic circular dichroism calculations. Among the isolates, compounds 1-4 exhibit inhibitory activity against the protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) enzyme, and this result was confirmed by molecular docking simulations.

Alzheimer's disease (AD), a neurocognitive impairment affecting human mental capacity, is related to the accumulation of amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) and the hyperphosphorylation of tau protein. In addition to modern therapies approved for AD treatment, natural products with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties have been studied for their potential to prevent AD pathogenesis. Six new noroleanane triterpenoids from the fruit peels of

Nephelium lappaceum (rambutan) is an edible tropical fruit that is widely grown in Southeast Asia. In general, the seeds contain high nutrients, but rambutan seeds are thrown out during processing. In this study, the anti-aging activity of rambutan seeds was evaluated with a new approach through the selective inhibition of the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (senomorphics). Luciferase promoter assays using p16INK4A and SA-&beta, gal promoters for rambutan showed that its seeds possessed strong senomorphic activity. Molecular networking using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-qTOF-MS) with a tandem database (UPLC-qTOF-MS/MS) was applied to determine the chemical composition of rambutan. Based on the activity results, nine compounds, one new (7) and eight known kaempferol type compounds, were isolated from the seeds. Compounds 2, 4 and 9 significantly reduced the mRNA expression levels of senescence markers, such as p16INK4A, p21CIP1, p53 and SA-&beta, gal. These compounds also significantly increased the level of SIRT1, a longevity modulator. Compounds 2, 4 and 9 decreased the mRNA expression levels of senescence-associated secretory phenotypes (SASPs) and subsequently decreased the number of SA-&beta, gal-positive cells. Thus, rambutan seeds and its constituents might be able to protect against age-related problems.

During an effort to find insulin mimetic compounds, the leaves of

Nephelium lappaceum (rambutan) is an edible tropical fruit that is widely grown in Southeast Asia. In general, the seeds contain high nutrients, but rambutan seeds are thrown out during processing. In this study, the anti-aging activity of rambutan seeds was evaluated with a new approach through the selective inhibition of the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (senomorphics). Luciferase promoter assays using p16INK4A and SA-β-gal promoters for rambutan showed that its seeds possessed strong senomorphic activity. Molecular networking using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-qTOF-MS) with a tandem database (UPLC-qTOF-MS/MS) was applied to determine the chemical composition of rambutan. Based on the activity results, nine compounds, one new (7) and eight known kaempferol type compounds, were isolated from the seeds. Compounds 2, 4 and 9 significantly reduced the mRNA expression levels of senescence markers, such as p16INK4A, p21CIP1, p53 and SA-β-gal. These compounds also significantly increased the level of SIRT1, a longevity modulator. Compounds 2, 4 and 9 decreased the mRNA expression levels of senescence-associated secretory phenotypes (SASPs) and subsequently decreased the number of SA-β-gal-positive cells. Thus, rambutan seeds and its constituents might be able to protect against age-related problems.

The major class of bioactive metabolites in

Background The study investigates the diagnostic value of calretinin immunohistochemical staining (CIS) on rectal suction biopsies (RSB) in Hirschsprung's disease (HD). Methods A prospective study was conducted at Children's Hospital 2 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from January through December 2015. Patients suspected of HD during this period underwent RSB and were followed in order to assess the accuracy of the diagnostic test with CIS compared with conventional histology (H&E). Results A total of 188 children with RSB were investigated. Median age was 7.1 (range 0.2–159) months with 65.4% boys. HD was confirmed in 80 (42.6%) children. There were 1 false positive and no false-negative cases. The sensitivity and specificity were 100% (80/80) and 99.1% (107/108) for CIS and 100% and 85.2% for H&E, respectively. Cohen's kappa coefficient was 0.9891 with a diagnostic accuracy of 99.5% for CIS, compared with 0.8303 and 91.5% for H&E, respectively. There were no serious complications related to the RSB. Conclusion RSB with CIS is a useful diagnostic method for HD, with easy interpretation and no need for cryostat. CIS has a high diagnostic accuracy and should be considered as the primary method for the diagnosis of HD by RSB. Level of evidence: Diagnostic Studies – Level I.

The demand for biomarker that applied in prognosis, early diagnosis, predicting and/or monitoring the therapeutic response and detection of recurrent cancer is the worldwide expection. One of the biomarker, which the worldwide researches focused on, is the hypermethylation at CpG island of promoter which undergoes the DNA methylation changes in carcinogenesis. In current study, the target gene is GSTP1 (Glutathion-Stransferase pi 1 gene), with one of the most function is particularly involved in detoxification. Because of this function, GSTP1 (obviously based on the frequencies of methylation) has been chosen as a potential candidate gene for several clinical trials in predicting of the response to the demethylation drugs in several cancers, including breast cancer. In this study, we foscused on the evaluation of the methylation status of 115 biopsy specimens collected from university medical center HCMC, including 95 breast cancer specimens and 20 noncancerous breast tissue. The results showed that 41 of 95 (43.2 %) breast cancer specimens are hypermethylated, no methylation was found on the noncancerous breast tissue (p

Bisphenol A (BPA) is known as an endocrine disruptor compound and commonly found in food-packaging plastics and in aquatic environment. It is scientifically concerned that BPA may causes significant health risks to human and aquatic animals. In fact, most of scientific studies have been conducted with BPA-acute toxicity in early stages of animal development, while far lesser researches have been focused on BPA-chronic toxicity in adults. This study was to investigate the chronic effects of environmental 1, 10 and 100 µg/L BPA to four-week-old zebrafishes (Danio rerio) after 60 days of exposure in terms of changing of body morphology, hepatocyte morphology and the transcriptional expression of biomarker gene for lipid metabolism. As a result, significant effects were found in: 1/ the increase of body weight, but not body length; 2/ the increase in the number of vacuolated hepatocytes corresponding to relatively higher glycogen and lipid content; 3/ shifting hepatocyte morphology to basophilic cytoplasm and cytoplasmic and/or nuclear enlargement, but not inflammation signs (macrophages, granuloma, fibrosis/cirrhosis); 4/ the decrease of mRNA level of PPARγ and C/EBPα genes in liver. Our study here indicates that the exposure to μg/L range concentration of BPA leads to adipogensis in adult zebrafishes.

In this study, the advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) using Fenton reaction (F-AOPs) was applied in order to remove colour in combined wastewater from pulp and paper industry after treated by a combination of coagulation and activated sludge. The effects of key operating parameters, such as the concentration of iron (II) sulfate, hydrogen peroxide dosage, pH, visible light as well as photocatalyst TiO2 on the decolorization were studied and discussed. Some kinetic rate constants at different conditions have been determined. The results shown that F-AOPs was a suitable technique for removing colour from effluent from pulp and paper industry. At optimum conditions, the colour removal was more than 90% and 100% without with photocatalyst after 40 minutes of reaction, respectively.

Non-expanded adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are commonly used in preclinical and clinical articular cartilage injury treatment; however, there are usually insufficient non-expanded ADSCs for transplantation. This research aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of expanded ADSC transplantation in a mouse model. The stromal vascular fraction from abdominal adipose tissue was subcultured for ten passages to enrich for and expand the number of ADSCs. The safety of expanded ADSCs was assessed by evaluating their “stemness” via ADSC-specific marker expression, the expression of two tumorigenesis-related genes (Oct-3/4 and Nanog) using real-time RT-PCR, and in vivo tumor formation in NOD/SCID mice. ADSC efficacy was determined by assessing their chondrocytic differentiative potential in vitro in cartilage-inducing medium as well as in vivo via injection into a NOD/SCID mice joint failure model. The results showed that expanded ADSCs were negative for Oct-3/4 and Nanog and did not induce tumor formation in mice. Furthermore, ADSCs differentiated into chondrocytes, both in vitro and in vivo, and enhanced the regeneration of articular cartilage in NOD/SCID mice as compared with the control. These results confirm that expanded ADSCs are safe and effective for the treatment of injured articular cartilage and offer a promising therapy for degenerative cartilaginous diseases.