Synthesis and characterization of a silk fibroin/placenta matrix hydrogel for breast reconstruction.

Reconstructive surgery is a complex and demanding interdisciplinary field. One of the major challenges is the production of sizeable, implantable, inexpensive bioprostheses such as breast implants. In this study, porous hybrid hydrogels were fabricated by a combinatorial method using decellularized human placenta (dHplacenta) and silk fibroin. Histology was used to confirm the acellularity of the dHplacenta. The physio-chemical properties of the hydrogels were evaluated using SEM, FTIR, and rheological assays. The synthesized hydrogels exhibited a uniform 3-D microstructure with an interconnected porous network, and the hybrid hydrogels with a 30/70 ratio had improved mechanical properties compared to the other hydrogels. Hybrid hydrogels were also cultured with adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs). Liposuction was used to obtain adipose tissue from patients, which was then characterized using flow cytometry and karyotyping. The results showed that CD34 and CD31 were downregulated, whereas CD105 and CD90 were upregulated in ADSCs, indicating a phenotype resembling to that of mesenchymal stem cells from the human bone marrow. Moreover, after re-cellularized hydrogel, the live/dead assay and SEM analysis confirmed that most viability and cellular expansion on the hydrogels contained higher ratios of dHplacenta (30/70) than the other two groups. All these findings recapitulated that the 30/70 dHplacenta/silk fibroin hydrogel can perform as an excellent substrate for breast tissue engineering applications.

Cell Sources in Cardiac Tissue Engineering: Current Choices.

The past decade has evidenced numerous developments in the treatment of heart diseases; however many patients with chronic heart failure suffer from low quality of life. Therapeutic methods, including drug-delivery as well as heart transplantation, have been used to improve quality of life. Cell therapy and tissue engineering have been recently introduced to the field of medicine as a novel therapeutic approach. Treatment of heart diseases has seen novel development through the introduction of cell therapy approaches. Based on the evidence, cell therapy has emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of cardiac diseases. Since the first cell transplant to patients, different types of (stem) cells have been studied. This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of different types of cells and their roles in cardiac cell-based therapy.

Differential expression of progesterone receptor isoforms related to PGR +331g/a polymorphism in endometriosis: A case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Endometriosis are defined as a progesterone-resistance disease. Two progesterone receptor (PR) isoforms, namely PR-A and PR-B, mediate the special effects of progesterone. One of the most effective polymorphism in the promoter region of PGR is the +331G/A. OBJECTIVE: The differential expression level of PR isoforms due to +331G/A polymorphism may be able to influence the function of progesterone and reduce the susceptibility of endometriosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This analytic, case-control study was carried out at Royan Institute, Tehran, Iran. Whole-blood samples were collected from 98 infertile women undergoing laparoscopy for endometriosis and 102 healthy fertile women. After DNA extraction, genotype frequencies were determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Then, RNA was extracted from the selected eutopic tissue samples of endometriosis patients. Analysis of PR-A and PR-B mRNA expressions were performed using Real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: The frequency distribution of GG, GA genotypes in +331G/A polymorphism was 98.04%, 1.96% in the patients and 97.96%, 2.04% in the control groups, respectively (p = 0.968). Although our data did not show any significant association with +331G/A in the patient and control groups, we were able to demonstrate significantly higher expression level of PR-B and no significant lower expression level of PR-A isoforms in patients by favoring GA to GG genotypes (p = 0.017, p = 0.731, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our findings show that patients with GA genotypes had a higher expression level of PR-B compared to patients with GG genotypes.

The Effect of Imbalanced Progesterone Receptor-A/-B Ratio on Gelatinase Expressions in Endometriosis.

BACKGROUND: Gelatinases degrade extracellular matrix (ECM) components to allow for physiological remodeling and contribute to pathological tissue destruction in endometriosis. It is known that the function of gelatinases is resistant to suppression by progesterone in endometriosis. The ability of progesterone to impact gene expression depends on the progesterone receptor-A/-B(PR-A/PR-B) ratio. An imbalanced PR-A/PR-B ratio in endometriotic tissue may be the result of the differential expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9, which could be important in the etiology and pathogenesis of the disease. Hence, we decided to study the association of PR-A/PR-B ratio and gelatinases expression in endometriosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this prospective case-control study, we enrolled 40 women, 20 in the case group who were diagnosed with stage III/IV endometriosis and 20 normal subjects without endometriosis (controls) who referred to Royan Institute, Tehran, Iran during 2013-2014. We obtained 60 tissue samples [ectopic (n=20), eutopic (n=20), and normal endometrium (n=20)]. RNA was extracted from the tissue samples in order to analyze PR-A, PR-B, MMP-2, and MMP-9 mRNA levels through real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). RESULTS: There was significantly lower expression of the PR-B isoform in ectopic tissues compared to the control (P=0.002) and eutopic endometrium (P=0.006) tissues. PR-A expression was higher, but not significantly so, in the same ectopic and eutopic endometrium tissues compared to the control tissues (P=0.643). There was significant overexpression of MMP-9 in ectopic samples compared to control (P=0.014) and eutopic endometrium (P=0.012) samples. The PR-A/PR-B ratio was not significantly higher in either eutopic or ectopic samples compared to the control samples (P=0.305). CONCLUSION: Our findings support an altered PR-B expression in endometriosis, which may be associated with MMP-9 overexpression. This finding can be important for disease pathogenesis.