4.Chem Sci: For the first time in the world! Scientists successfully use bacterial homing properties to direct stem cells into heart tissue to treat heart disease!

doi: 10.1039 / c9sc02650a

Recently, in a research report published in the international journal Chemical Science, the University of Bristol has developed a new method for directing stem cells directly into heart tissue through research in the world for the first time. This may be fundamentally expected Improve treatments for patients with cardiovascular disease.

Cardiovascular disease causes death in more than a quarter of the population in the UK; so far, clinical trials using stem cells have often produced very promising results, that is, stem cells are extracted from patients or donors and cultured, and injection into the patient's heart regenerates damaged tissue. However, despite the imminent emergence of these new generation of cell therapies, there are still major challenges related to stem cell distribution research. The higher blood flow in the heart can be combined with a variety of tissues, and continuous circulation contact means that most stem cells eventually enter the lungs and spleen.

In this study, the researchers developed a new method to overcome the above problem, that is, using special proteins to modify stem cells so that they can return to heart tissue. Researcher Dr. Adam Perriman said that with the help of regenerative cell therapy, we can treat patients after a heart attack, but cells rarely reach where we want them to go, and our research aims to use this new technology re-improves the cell membrane so that when it is injected, it “homes” to specific tissues.

Some bacterial cells have such characteristics. They can help themselves to detect and return to diseased tissues. For example, bacteria in the mouth can cause septic laryngitis. If they enter the bloodstream, they will reach the heart. The researchers' idea is to replicate the homing ability of bacteria and apply it to stem cells. The new technology developed by researchers can help observe how bacterial cells use adhesin to return to heart tissue. Based on this theory, researchers can create artificial cell membranes that combine with adhesin in animal models. Researchers have discovered that this newly developed cell modification technology can work by directing stem cells into the heart of mice.

5.Exper Biol Med: New achievements of Chinese scientists! Expect to develop new stem cell therapy for type 2 diabetes and obesity!

doi: 10.1177 / 1535370219839643

Recently, in a research report published in the international journal Experimental Biology and Medicine, researchers from Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital and Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine through research are expected to develop a new treatment for obesity and type 2 diabetes. The researchers said that transplantation of adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells may improve the metabolic balance of animal models and reduce validation performance.

The sit-in lifestyle, together with a high-fat and high-sugar diet, makes diabetes an epidemic in the global population. According to World Health Organization data, there are currently approximately 3.47 million diabetic patients worldwide, of which approximately 90% are type 2 diabetes patients. ; In patients with type 2 diabetes, the body cannot use insulin properly, a process called insulin resistance.

At first, the pancreas was able to make additional insulin, but over time, it couldn't make enough insulin, and then the body's blood sugar level would rise; if it is not treated in time, higher blood sugar will damage the body's heart and kidneys , nerves and eyes; obesity is a contributing factor to type 2 diabetes, and inflammation in the body of obese patients often exacerbates insulin resistance. A preliminary clinical study showed that transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells may improve the metabolic balance of type 2 diabetes patients whose adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) is rich, and researchers can use minimally invasive methods to harvest them. However, researchers currently do not know whether this operation can effectively improve the metabolic function in patients with type 2 diabetes or obesity.

In the current study, researchers studied mice fed a high-fat diet and evaluated ADSCs' ability to improve insulin tolerance. Mice fed high-fat diets with ADSCs showed decreased blood glucose levels and insulin sensitivity increase; more importantly, these protective effects may be caused by an increase in glucose intake of the body's skeletal muscle and adipose tissue inhibitors of inflammation. Related research results show that ADSC transplantation can improve the high-fat diet through a variety of mechanisms Glucose tolerance and metabolic balance were fed to mice. Researcher Wang said that we found that overexpression of neuroregulin can improve the efficiency of ADSCs in improving insulin resistance and other obesity-related metabolic disorders, which may be expected to be a new treatment for obesity and insulin tolerance and type 2 diabetes.

6.J Biomed Mater Res A: concentration-dependent cell behavior and osteogenic differentiation induced by magnetic graphene oxide-treated bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

doi: 10.1002 / jbm.a.36791

Scaffold-free cell sheets play an important role in stem cell-based regeneration. Graphene oxide (GO) has given nano particles (NP) with special characteristics, so it has attracted more and more attention in recent years. However, the presence of toxicity in GO and its derivatives limits their ability to promote osteogenic differentiation. Magnetic graphene oxide (MGO) is a new combination of Fe3O4 and GO, which has a variety of unique properties and has not been studied in bone tissue engineering.

In this study, MGO was created and, for the first time, previously undiscovered relationships-including the effects of cellular behavior and osteogenic differentiation-and the related mechanisms of MGO in rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) were investigated. Here, we find that MGO is not only biocompatible at low concentrations, but also significantly accelerates osteogenic differentiation in BMSCs. Both cell behavior and bone formation differentiation in BMSCs treated with MGO showed concentration-dependent characteristics. In addition, the regulation of osteogenic differentiation in BMSCs treated with MGO may be related to the Wnt / β-catenin and BMP signaling pathways. In addition, MGO showed better osteogenic differentiation capacity than GO in BMSCs.

The current work demonstrates the important use of MGO nanocomposite scaffolds in biocompatibility and bone regeneration, and can provide new insights for future bone regeneration.

To be continued in Part Three…