Biotechnological and socio-environmental potential of Campomanesia adamantium (Myrtaceae): an interdisciplinary review.

Guavira (Campomanesia adamantium, Myrtaceae) is a native fruit from the Brazilian Cerrado savanna and is socio-economically important for the indigenous and traditional people living in the Central-West. This is a bibliographic review of the biological properties of guavira and its derivatives, and, after discussing experimental studies, an interdisciplinary approach is conducted highlighting the im-portance of Agroforestry Systems as an ecological restoration tool to leverage the production chain of guavira while providing ecosystem services. Many research groups studied effects of polyphenols and other bioactive compounds and biological properties of this fruit and other plant parts such as antibiotic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-hyperlipidemic, anti-diarrheic and antitumoral activities, cardiovascular and hepatic protection and action against neuropathic pain. Besides, guavira by-products benefit poultry intestinal health, similarly to antibiotics added to their feed. Furthermore, several biotechnological products were found, like pulp flour, seasoning from the peel, sunscreen, and seed oil similar to olive oil with pharmaceutical and industrial potential. We conclude by emphasizing the importance of guavira for restoration and preservation of the threatened Brazilian Cerrado, and for the socio-environmental development of family agriculture. The same approach and study are welcome and necessary in other regions and domains worldwide having their native flora as means for a restorative end.

Immortalization of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells by TERT Affects Adenosine Metabolism and Impairs their Immunosuppressive Capacity.

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are promising candidates for cell-based therapies, mainly due to their unique biological properties such as multipotency, self-renewal and trophic/immunomodulatory effects. However, clinical use has proven complex due to limitations such as high variability of MSCs preparations and high number of cells required for therapies. These challenges could be circumvented with cell immortalization through genetic manipulation, and although many studies show that such approaches are safe, little is known about changes in other biological properties and functions of MSCs. In this study, we evaluated the impact of MSCs immortalization with the TERT gene on the purinergic system, which has emerged as a key modulator in a wide variety of pathophysiological conditions. After cell immortalization, MSCs-TERT displayed similar immunophenotypic profile and differentiation potential to primary MSCs. However, analysis of gene and protein expression exposed important alterations in the purinergic signaling of in vitro cultured MSCs-TERT. Immortalized cells upregulated the CD39/NTPDase1 enzyme and downregulated CD73/NT5E and adenosine deaminase (ADA), which had a direct impact on their nucleotide/nucleoside metabolism profile. Despite these alterations, adenosine did not accumulate in the extracellular space, due to increased uptake. MSCs-TERT cells presented an impaired in vitro immunosuppressive potential, as observed in an assay of co-culture with lymphocytes. Therefore, our data suggest that MSCs-TERT have altered expression of key enzymes of the extracellular nucleotides/nucleoside control, which altered key characteristics of these cells and can potentially change their therapeutic effects in tissue engineering in regenerative medicine.

Identification of valid endogenous control genes for determining gene expression in C6 glioma cell line treated with conditioned medium from adipose-derived stem cell.

INTRODUCTION: There is growing evidence that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be important players in the tumor microenvironment. They can affect the glioma progression through the modulation of different genes. This modulation can be evaluated through a very useful model, treating the tumor cells with MSC-conditioned medium. However, for an accurate and reliable gene expression analysis, normalization of gene expression data against reference genes is a prerequisite. METHODS: We performed a systematic review in an attempt to find a reference gene to use when analyzing gene expression in C6 glioma cells lines. Considering that we were not able to find a reference gene originated by an appropriate validation, in this study we evaluated candidate genes to be used as reference gene in C6 cells under different treatments with adipose-derived stem cells conditioned medium (CM-ADSCs). ß-actin (ACTB); glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH); hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase I (HPRT-1); TATA box binding protein (TBP) and beta-2-microglobulin (B2M) were evaluated by real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR). The mean Cq, the maximum fold change (MFC) and NormFinder software were used for reference gene evaluation and selection. RESULTS: The GAPDH and ACTB genes have been the most widely used reference genes to normalize among the different investigated genes in our review, however, controversially these genes underwent a substantial variability among the genes evaluated in the present work. Individually, TBP gene was more stable when compared with other genes analyzed and the combination of TBP and HPRT-1 was even more stable. CONCLUSION: These results evidence the importance of appropriate validation of reference genes before performing qPCR experiments. Besides, our data will contribute with researchers that work analyzing the role of ADSCs in glioma microenvironment through gene expression.