Critical steps in the isolation and expansion of adipose-derived stem cells for translational therapy.

Since the discovery of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs), there have been high expectations of their putative clinical use. Recent advances support these expectations, and it is expected that the transition from pre-clinical and clinical studies to implementation as a standard treatment modality is imminent. However ASCs must be isolated and expanded according to good manufacturing practice guidelines and a basic assurance of quality, safety, and medical effectiveness is needed for authorisation by regulatory agencies, such as European Medicines Agency and US Food and Drug Administration. In this review, a collection of studies investigating the influence of different steps of the isolation and expansion protocol on the yield and functionality of ASCs has been presented in an attempt to come up with best recommendations that ensure potential beneficial clinical outcome of using ASCs in any therapeutic setting. If the findings confirm the initial observations of beneficial effects of ASCs, the path is paved for implementing these ASC-based therapies as standard treatment options.

Environmental health risk communication in the case "Terra dei Fuochi": content analysis of online newspaper articles.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study is to evaluate the way in which information is conveyed by one of the major national newspapers, in its online version, Repubblica.it, about health risks associated with the "Terra dei Fuochi". METHODS: A retrospective systematic search in the online newspaper database was carried out for articles published from 1st January through 13th May 2014. The keyword used was "Terra dei Fuochi". A corpus, containing all articles included, was built in order to perform content analysis and text-mining using the T-LAB software, together with a critical interpretation. The co-occurrence analysis was performed using the keywords: environment, prevention, waste , risk and science. RESULTS: A total of 211 articles were retrieved, but only 188 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. The section of publication with the largest number of articles was represented by Repubblica Napoli edition with 50% of articles, whereas, only 2% of articles were included in the Environment section, and no article has been placed in the Health section. The most occurring lemmas were: waste, Naples, President, environmental - environment and health. Lemmas as disaster, drama, alarm and fear occur with medium frequency. Among the lemmas with less occurrence there were: remediation, cancer, people, information and recycle. However, terms as communication and risk management were absent. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes to our understanding of how environmental health risks associated with the "Terra dei Fuochi" issue are presented by the newspapers to the public, which has implications for how the public may learn about risk management information.

Myosin-X, a novel myosin with pleckstrin homology domains, associates with regions of dynamic actin.

Myosin-X is the founding member of a novel class of unconventional myosins characterized by a tail domain containing multiple pleckstrin homology domains. We report here the full-length cDNA sequences of human and bovine myosin-X as well as the first characterization of this protein's distribution and biochemical properties. The 235 kDa myosin-X contains a head domain with <45% protein sequence identity to other myosins, three IQ motifs, and a predicted stalk of coiled coil. Like several other unconventional myosins and a plant kinesin, myosin-X contains both a myosin tail homology 4 (MyTH4) domain and a FERM (band 4.1/ezrin/radixin/moesin) domain. The unique tail domain also includes three pleckstrin homology domains, which have been implicated in phosphatidylinositol phospholipid signaling, and three PEST sites, which may allow cleavage of the myosin tail. Most intriguingly, myosin-X in cultured cells is present at the edges of lamellipodia, membrane ruffles, and the tips of filopodial actin bundles. The tail domain structure, biochemical features, and localization of myosin-X suggest that this novel unconventional myosin plays a role in regions of dynamic actin.