Microgel coating gives donor cells a boost in reversing pulmonary fibrosis
Single cell encapsulation in gel can optimize cell-based therapy
2021-06-08
(Press-News.org) Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have shown that even after lung tissue has been damaged, it may be possible to reverse fibrosis and promote tissue repair through treatment with microgel-coated mesenchymal stromal cells.
Pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic disease caused by environmental toxins, medications or medical conditions like pneumonia and rheumatoid arthritis. It is characterized by the formation of scar tissue due to damage or an unchecked immune response, and it can cause mild to severe difficulty breathing and oxygen deprivation. Fibrosis is currently thought to be mostly irreversible, as current drug treatments are only mildly effective at managing symptoms and generally cause significant side effects.
Mesenchymal stromal cells, or MSCs, are multipotent and self-renewing, much like stem cells, and they have been studied for their potential to treat conditions like fibrosis.
"While previous studies tested the therapeutic effects of MSCs - which are known to suppress inflammation and to adapt to different tissue environments - their efficacy has so far been limited to early phases of the disease, when inflammation levels are high and scar tissue is still forming" said Jae-Won Shin, UIC assistant professor of pharmacology and bioengineering at the College of Medicine and corresponding author of the study. "Our approach was to optimize MSC-based therapeutics to work after inflammation has been reduced, which is when most people are diagnosed with fibrosis."
As described in a new paper published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the UIC researchers engineered a thin microgel that, when designed in a specific way, can boost the therapeutic potential of MSCs to degrade scar tissue and regenerate healthy tissue in mouse models of fibrosis.
Shin and his colleagues engineered the microgel, which is as soft as healthy lung tissue, and incorporated a small protein called tumor necrosis factor-alpha. Also known as TNF-alpha, this protein acts as an inflammatory signal that encourages MSCs to synthesize collagenase. Collagenase is an enzyme that degrades excess collagen in fibrotic tissues and promotes the restoration of damaged tissues.
To optimize the MSCs with the microgel, the UIC researchers designed a microfluidic device to encapsulate individual cells rapidly and consistently in the thin gel.
"We miniaturized down to the small scale, the individual cell, which is important for delivery of the therapeutic into the tiny airways of the lungs," said study first author Sing-Wan Wong, a UIC postdoctoral research associate in the department of pharmacology and regenerative medicine.
In models of fibrotic injury, the UIC researchers observed reduced indicators of scaring and increased indicators of healthy lung tissue, such as normal collagen levels and architecture, only among the mice treated with MSCs coated in their TNF-alpha-incorporated gel via single cell encapsulation.
"This is really one of the first scientific demonstrations that collagen levels can be normalized well after fibrotic injury, and that the cell environment, not just the cells themselves, can be designed at the single-cell level in a precise manner," Shin said. "Our results suggest a feasible approach to predictively program cellular functions for desired therapeutic outcomes."
INFORMATION:
Co-authors of the study are Chandra Tamatam, Ik Sung Cho, Peter Toth, Raymond Bargi, Patrick Belvitch, James Lee, Jalees Rehman and Sekhar Reddy.
This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01HL141255, R00HL125884, R01GM124235, R01HL136946).
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-06-08
Most cities in São Paulo state (Brazil) have low potential capacity to adapt to climate change in terms of the ability to formulate public policy that facilitates the revamping of their housing and transportation systems, for example, to account for the impact of climate change.
This is the main conclusion of a study conducted by researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in partnership with colleagues at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and the Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI) in Brazil, and the University of Michigan in the United States.
Researchers linked to a project supported by FAPESP participated in the study. The results ...
2021-06-08
If your idea of conspiracy theories entails aliens, UFOs, governmental cover-ups at Roswell Air Force base, and the melody of The X-Files--you're not alone. That was, indeed, the classic notion, says END ...
2021-06-08
The spectacularly colorful aurora borealis -- or northern lights -- that fills the sky in high-latitude regions has fascinated people for thousands of years. Now, a team of scientists has resolved one of the final mysteries surrounding its origin.
Scientists know that electrons and other energized particles that emanate from the sun as part of the "solar wind" speed down Earth's magnetic field lines and into the upper atmosphere, where they collide with oxygen and nitrogen molecules, kicking them into an excited state. These molecules then relax by emitting light, producing the beautiful green and red hues of the aurora.
What ...
2021-06-08
MELVILLE, N.Y., June 8, 2021 -- Many voice actors use a variety of speech vocalizations and patterns to create unique and memorable characters. How they create those amazing voices could help speech pathologists better understand the muscles involved for creating words and sounds.
During the 180th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, which will be held virtually June 8-10, Colette Feehan, from Indiana University, will talk about how voice actor performances can lead to better understanding about the speech muscles under our control. The session, "Articulatory and acoustic phonetics of voice actors," will take place Tuesday, June 8, at 2:40 p.m. Eastern U.S.
Just like any professional of any field that requires some sort of physical skill, voice actors certainly put in time and ...
2021-06-08
New research published in the journal Psychological Science reveals a pervasive but unfounded stereotype: that women (but not men) who engage in casual sex have low self-esteem. This finding was consistent across six separate experiments with nearly 1,500 total participants.
"We were surprised that this stereotype was so widely held," said Jaimie Arona Krems, an assistant professor of psychology at Oklahoma State University and first author on the paper. "This stereotype was held by both women and men, liberals and conservatives, and across the spectrum in terms of people's levels of religiosity and sexism." But across the studies, Krems also observed that the stereotype was unfounded: There was virtually no relationship ...
2021-06-08
During the COVID-19 pandemic, food systems faced disruptions from staff shortages and supply chain issues. Now, a Virginia Tech researcher is assisting with efforts to help plants themselves from facing their own pandemic.
Just like human diseases, plant diseases don't have arbitrary boundaries. These diseases don't stop at a border crossing or a port of entry. That's why plant disease surveillance, improved plant disease detection systems, and predictive plant disease modeling - integrated at the global scale - are necessary to mitigate future plant disease outbreaks and protect the global food supply, according to a team of researchers in a new commentary published in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
"The ...
2021-06-08
That internal nagging feeling that drives you to seek sleep at night and wake in the morning to eat, work, and play, is, it turns out, genetic, and it's not just in people. Nearly every living organism - from animals to plants as well as several microorganisms and fungi - has an internal body clock, or a circadian rhythm.
Yet, scientists have been perplexed out how these genes operate. Now, Virginia Tech scientists have taken a step closer to an answer thanks to the DNA of a mouse, a petri dish, and much patience. In a new study published in the journal Genes & Development, Shihoko Kojima, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, part of the
Virginia Tech College of Science, ...
2021-06-08
In a study of healthy volunteers, National Institutes of Health researchers have mapped out the brain activity that flows when we learn a new skill, such as playing a new song on the piano, and discovered why taking short breaks from practice is a key to learning. The researchers found that during rest the volunteers' brains rapidly and repeatedly replayed faster versions of the activity seen while they practiced typing a code. The more a volunteer replayed the activity the better they performed during subsequent practice sessions, suggesting rest ...
2021-06-08
Last year, Anupam Mazumdar, a physicist from the University of Groningen, jointly proposed an experiment together with colleagues from the UK that could conclusively prove whether gravity is a quantum phenomenon. This experiment would focus on observing two relatively large, entangled quantum systems in free fall. In a new article, published on 4 June in Physical Review Research, the scientists describe in more detail how two types of noise could be reduced. They suggest that quantum interference could be applied in the production of a sensitive instrument that could detect movements of objects ranging from butterflies to burglars and black holes.
Is gravity a quantum phenomenon? That is one of the major outstanding questions ...
2021-06-08
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Since the end of the long-running conflict in Colombia, large areas of forest have been rapidly converted to agricultural uses, suggesting the peace agreement presents a threat to conservation the country's rainforest, a new study from Oregon State University shows.
In 2016, Colombia officially signed a peace agreement ending the country's six-decade civil war, which mainly took place within the Andes-Amazon region, an extremely biodiverse rainforest and a critical biological corridor.
Some deforestation was expected after the peace accord was reached, but an analysis of 30 years of land transfers - a term used to describe changes in control and use of a parcel of land - showed a 40% increase in conversion from ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Microgel coating gives donor cells a boost in reversing pulmonary fibrosis
Single cell encapsulation in gel can optimize cell-based therapy
