LEI FU¹, JINGWEN JIANG², XUEWU CHEN², FENGTING ZHU², HUI ZHANG²

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.5, pp. 1289-1297, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.016726

Abstract The levels of hsa circular RNA_0002198 (hsa_circ_0002198) have been found to be significantly upregulated in keloid dermal fibroblasts. However, the functional role of hsa_circ_0002198 in keloid fibroblasts and the underlying molecular mechanism for its effects have not been reported. In this study, the levels of hsa_circ_0002198 and nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain, leucine rich repeat and pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) expression in keloid scar tissues and adjacent normal skin tissues were determined by quantitative real-time PCR and western blotting, respectively. In vitro models of keloid tissue were created by culturing primary keloid fibroblasts obtained from patients. A series of functional… More >

FREDERICK H. SILVER

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.2, pp. 297-299, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.017406

Abstract Gravity plays a central role in vertebrate development and evolution. Mechanotransduction involves the tensile tethering of veins and arteries, connections between the epidermis and dermis in skin, tensile stress concentrations that occur at tissue interfaces, cell-cell interactions, cell-collagen fiber stress transfer in extracellular matrix and fluid shear flow. While attention in the past has been directed at understanding the myriad of biochemical players associated with mechanotransduction pathways, less attention has been focused on determining the tensile mechanical behavior of tissues in vivo. Fibroblasts sit on the surface of collagen fibers in living skin and exert a retractile force on the… More >

XINYAN CHEN^1,2, HAIXIA ZHANG^1,2, LIN LI^1,2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 1023-1032, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014873

Abstract Corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL) has revolutionized the treatment of keratoconus in the past decade. In order to evaluate the 3-month effects of CXL on corneal fibroblasts, a longitudinal study at the tissue and cellular level was carried out with a total of 16 rabbits that underwent CXL, deepithelialization (DEP), or non-treatment (control) and kept for 1 to 3 months. The duration of corneal stromal remodeling after CXL was determined by examining the differentiation, apoptosis, and number changes of keratocytes in tissue sections from animals 1, 2, or 3 months post-treatment. Upon the finish of tissue remodeling, separate rabbits were used… More >

ZHIPING WEI^1,2, YAJUN LIU¹, MEIWEN YANG³, MENGDI LI¹, KEXIN LI¹, LUXI ZHENG¹, HUIQIONG GUO¹, FENFANG HONG^4,*, SHULONG YANG^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 1005-1012, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014581

Abstract Background and Objective: LTB4 has been shown to be involved in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) pathogenesis. The effect of Dioscin(Dio) on the LTB4 pathway of RA have not been reported yet. This study aimed at further exploring whether Dioscin’s effects on TNF-α induced collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) rat fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) connected with the LTB4 and its receptor pathway. Materials & Methods: In this experiment, control group, TNF-α group, and different concentrations of Dioscin groups were established. Cell viability was evaluated using MTT assay. The levels of LTB4 in the samples of above groups were measured using ELISA. The mRNA expression levels… More >

TING LI^1,#, XINHUI SUN^2,#, NANNAN LI¹, HONGMIN GUO^2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 985-994, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.012371

Abstract Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) play pivotal roles in cell migration and proliferation. However, the identity of the FGF that plays a dominant role in kidney cell proliferation remains unclear. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the dominant FGF among all FGFs. To this end, RNA-sequencing, qRT-PCR, western blotting, and ChIP assays were performed. FGF9 showed the highest expression among all FGFs, and its overexpression significantly promoted proliferation in the mouse kidney cell line C57BL/6 and increased JNK and AKT phosphorylation levels. Further, RNA-seq analysis identified 365 upregulated and 276 downregulated genes in FGF9-overexpressed cells. These differentially expressed genes were classified… More >

Xiaona Li^1,*, Sijia Wang¹, Jie Song¹, Yixian Qin², Jizhong Yang³, Rui He^4,*, Weiyi Chen¹

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.18, No.1, pp. 11-19, 2021, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2021.014071

Abstract The cornea is a load-bearing tissue. Lower biomechanical properties in the local tissue of keratoconic cornea evoke mechanical stress increase. Inflammatory cytokines have been shown to be over-expressed in patients with keratoconus. However, how mechanical stimuli are involved in the production of inflammatory cytokines in keratoconus remains unclear. The objective of the study is to determine the role of mechanical stretch in the regulation of inflammatory cytokines and the underlying mechanisms in keratoconus. Human keratoconic fibroblasts (hKCFs) were subjected to 12% cyclic mechanical stretch at 0.1 Hz or in static conditions as controls. N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate and… More >

Tamilselvan SUBRAMANI^1,2, Suresh RAO², Kamatchiammal SENTHILKUMAR³, Soundararajan PERIASAMY⁴, Noorjahan Banu ALITHEEN¹

BIOCELL, Vol.37, No.3, pp. 71-76, 2013, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2013.37.071

Abstract The present study demonstrates that the expression of c-Jun and c-Fos are elevated in gingival fibroblast cells treated with angiotensin II and cyclosporine. The healthy human gingival tissues were collected and gingival fibroblasts were isolated and cultured. We used RT-PCR and Western blot analysis to identify the expression of c-Jun and c-Fos in cyclosporine and angiotensin II treated human gingival fibroblast cells. We found that angiotensin II in combination with cyclosporine induces c-Jun and c-Fos expressions significantly; however, the angiotensin II antagonist losartan inhibits the expression of c-Jun and c-Fos (p < 0.01). The data suggest that angiotensin II in… More >

A. LÓPEZ-HERRERA^1*, J. RUIZ-SÁENZ², Y.P. GÓEZ³, W. ZAPATA³, P.A. VELILLA³, A.E. ARANGO³, S. URCUQUI-INCHIMA³

BIOCELL, Vol.33, No.2, pp. 121-132, 2009, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2009.33.121

Abstract To determine whether fibroblasts from Blanco Orejinegro cattle, exhibit any level of resistance to infection against vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) serotypes Indiana (VSV-I) or New Jersey (VSVNJ), 30 fibroblast cultures were phenotyped to evaluate their resistance/susceptibility. Thirty three % of Blanco Orejinegro fibroblast cultures were classified as very resistant, 50% as resistant, and 17% as susceptible to VSV-I infection, whereas 20% were classified as very resistant, 50% as resistant and 30% as susceptible to VSV-NJ infection. Therefore, there appears to be a large variation in phenotypic polymorphism among the fibroblasts to infection by VSV. To elucidate the mechanisms responsible for… More >

WANG JIANMIN, SONG RUIHUA, CHEN LEI, YIN LIANGJUN, CHEN BO, SUN JING, GOU YUANBING, ZHAO LING, CHEN LIN

BIOCELL, Vol.30, No.2, pp. 269-278, 2006, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2006.30.269

Abstract Objective: To investigate the functions of Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor-2 (FGFR2) at different stages of cell differentiation. The engineered murine embryonic stem (ES) cells with conditional knockout of FGFR2 were developed depending on Cre-loxP. Methods: Cre-loxP system was used in a conditional targeting vector. The competent AM-1 bacteria, which expressed Cre-recombinase, was used to confirm the Cre-mediated deletion of the floxed exons 7 and 8 of FGFR2. The targeting vector was electroporated into the ES cells, and the transfected ES cells were screened with G418 and Ganciclovir. Finally, the ES clones with correct targeting events were identified by Southern Blot… More >

Lianhong Pan¹, Li Yang^2,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 118-118, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07133

Abstract Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic joint bone disease which always leads to the dysfunction and disability of arthritis. Synovial inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis and progress of OA which can secrete large amounts of inflammatory cytokines. There is an urgent need to find safe and effective drugs that can reduce the inflammation and regulate the pathogenesis of cytokines of the OA disease. Icariin, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, is the major pharmacological active component of herb Epimedium. This study we investigated the influence of icariin on the main cells in synovium-osteoarthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes (OA-FLSs). The OA-FLSs were… More >