Three-dimensionally two-photon lithography realized vascular grafts.

Generation of artificial vascular grafts as blood vessel substitutes is a primary challenge in biomaterial and tissue-engineering research. Ideally, these grafts should be able to recapitulate physiological and mechanical properties of natural vessels and guide the assembly of an endothelial cell lining to ensure hemo-compatibility. In this paper, we advance on this challenging task by designing and fabricating 3D vessel analogues by two-photon laser lithography using a synthetic photoresist. These scaffolds guarantee human endothelial cell adhesion and proliferation, and proper elastic behavior to withstand the pressure exerted by blood flow.

An Overview of Lipid Droplets in Cancer and Cancer Stem Cells.

For decades, lipid droplets have been considered as the main cellular organelles involved in the fat storage, because of their lipid composition. However, in recent years, some new and totally unexpected roles have been discovered for them: (i) they are active sites for synthesis and storage of inflammatory mediators, and (ii) they are key players in cancer cells and tissues, especially in cancer stem cells. In this review, we summarize the main concepts related to the lipid droplet structure and function and their involvement in inflammatory and cancer processes.

Influence of ceria nanoparticles on chemical structure and properties of segmented polyesters.

In this work, we present new nanocomposite materials derived from segmented copolyesters, comprising ethylene terephthalate (PET) segments and dimerized linoleic acid (DLA), and nanometric cerium oxide particles (CeO2). Nanoparticles were incorporated in situ during polycondensation in various concentrations, from 0.1 up to 0.6 wt.%. It was found that preparation of nanocomposites in situ, during polycondensation, had no significant influence on changes in segmental composition as determined from (1)H and (13)C, as well as 2D NMR. Thermal analysis and calculated degree of crystallinity showed that increasing concentration of ceria nanoparticles lead to an increase in mass content of PET crystallites in hard segments. The XRD investigations also showed an increased intensity of characteristic signals with increasing ceria concentration. Simultaneously, the incorporation of CeO2 led to an increase in tensile strength and elongation at break, indicating a reinforcing and plasticizing effect of ceria nanoparticles. However, the modulus at 10% strain decreased with increasing amount of nanoparticles. The in vitro culture of human cardiac progenitor cells (hCPCs) on the new materials indicated a homogenous cell displacement across the samples after 5 days with no signs of cytotoxicity, indicating good biocompatibility in vitro of CeO2-based nanocomposites and a potential for biomedical applications.

Interfacing Sca-1(pos) mesenchymal stem cells with biocompatible scaffolds with different chemical composition and geometry.

An immortalized murine mesenchymal stem cell line (mTERT-MSC) enriched for Lin(neg)/Sca-1(pos) fraction has been obtained through the transfection of MSC with murine TERT and single-cell isolation. Such cell line maintained the typical MSC self-renewal capacity and continuously expressed MSC phenotype. Moreover, mTERT-MSC retained the functional features of freshly isolated MSC in culture without evidence of senescence or spontaneous differentiation events. Thus, mTERT-MSC have been cultured onto PLA films, 30 and 100 microm PLA microbeads, and onto unpressed and pressed HYAFF-11 scaffolds. While the cells adhered preserving their morphology on PLA films, clusters of mTERT-MSC were detected on PLA beads and unpressed fibrous scaffolds. Finally, mTERT-MSC were not able to colonize the inner layers of pressed HYAFF-11. Nevertheless, such cell line displayed the ability to preserve Sca-1 expression and to retain multilineage potential when appropriately stimulated on all the scaffolds tested.