Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine 
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This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.Generation of Closed Transverse Fractures in Small Animals
The most common procedure that has been developed for use in rats and mice to model fracture healing is described. The nature of the regenerative processes that may be assessed and the types of research questions that may be addressed with this model are briefly outlined. The detailed surgical protocol to generate closed simple transverse fractures is presented, and general considerations when setting up an experiment using this model are described. (Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine)
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - February 3, 2014 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
Overview of Skeletal Repair (Fracture Healing and Its Assessment)
The study of postnatal skeletal repair is of immense clinical interest. Optimal repair of skeletal tissue is necessary in all varieties of elective and reparative orthopedic surgical treatments. However, the repair of fractures is unique in this context in that fractures are one of the most common traumas that humans experience and are the end-point manifestation of osteoporosis, the most common chronic disease of aging. In the first part of this introduction the basic biology of fracture healing is presented. The second part discusses the primary methodological approaches that are used to examine repair of skeletal hard t...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - February 3, 2014 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
Overview of Skeletal Development
Development of cartilage and bone, the core components of the mouse skeletal system, depends on the well-coordinated proliferation and differentiation of skeletogenic cells, including chondrocytes and osteoblasts. These cells differentiate from common progenitor cells originating in the mesoderm and neural crest. Multiple signaling pathways and transcription factors tightly regulate differentiation and proliferation of skeletal cells. In this chapter, we overview the process of mouse skeletal development and discuss major regulators of skeletal cells at each developmental stage. (Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine)
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - February 3, 2014 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
The Mouse Digit Tip: From Wound Healing to Regeneration
A challenge to the study of regeneration is determining at what point the processes of wound healing and regeneration diverge. The mouse displays level-specific regeneration responses. An amputation through the distal third of the terminal phalanx will prompt a regeneration response and result in a new digit tip that mimics the morphology of the lost digit tip. Conversely, an amputation through the distal third of the intermediate phalanx initiates a wound healing and scarring response. The mouse, therefore, provides a model for studying the transition between wound healing and regeneration in the same animal. This chapter...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
Gain-of-Function Assays in the Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) to Identify Signaling Pathways That Induce and Regulate Limb Regeneration
The adult salamander has been studied as a model for regeneration of complex tissues for many decades. Only recently with the development of gain-of-function assays for regeneration, has it been possible to screen for and assay the function of the multitude of signaling factors that have been identified in studies of embryonic development and tumorigenesis. Given the conservation of function of these regulatory pathways controlling growth and pattern formation, it is now possible to use the functional assays in the salamander to test the ability of endogenous as well as small-molecule signaling factors to induce a regenera...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
Vascular Connexins in Restenosis After Balloon Injury
Atherosclerosis is an arterial progressive disease characterized by accumulation of lipids, macrophages, T lymphocytes, and smooth muscle cells in large- and medium-sized arteries. Erosion and rupture of the atherosclerotic plaque may induce myocardial infarction and cerebrovascular accidents that are responsible for a large percentage of sudden death. Atherosclerosis is often treated by angioplasty generally followed by stent implantation. Although angioplasty and stent implantation are necessary for the survival of the patient, they induce a trauma in the vessel wall that favors a vascular reaction called restenosis and ...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
Targeting Wnt Signaling to Improve Wound Healing After Myocardial Infarction
Myocardial infarction is one of the major causes of left ventricular dilatation, frequently leading to heart failure. In the last decade, the wound healing process that takes place in the infarct area after infarction has been recognized as a novel therapeutic target to attenuate left ventricular dilatation and preserve an adequate cardiac function. In this chapter, we discuss the role of Wnt signaling in the wound healing process after infarction, with a specific focus on its modulating effect on myofibroblast characteristics. (Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine)
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
Cryoinjury Models of the Adult and Neonatal Mouse Heart for Studies of Scarring and Regeneration
A major limitation in studies of the injured heart is animal-to-animal variability in wound size resulting from commonly used techniques such as left anterior descending coronary artery ligation. This variability can make standard errors sufficiently large that mean separation between treatment and control groups can be difficult without replicating numbers (n) of animals in groups by excessive amounts. Here, we describe the materials and protocol necessary for delivering a standardized non-transmural cryoinjury to the left ventricle of an adult mouse heart that may in part obviate the issue of injury variance between anim...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
Injury Models to Study Cardiac Remodeling in the Mouse: Myocardial Infarction and Ischemia–Reperfusion
Deep tissue wound healing requires a complex sequence of several factors working in unison to repair the organ at risk. Myocardial infarction (MI) is particularly complex due to several local and systemic factors mediating the repair process within the heart. The wound healing process during this time is critical—the cardiac myocytes are at risk of apoptotic cell death, autophagy, and necrosis. During the early remodeling period, the fibroblasts and myofibroblasts play critical roles in infarct scar formation, a process that is greatly influenced by a robust inflammatory response. Construction of the infarct scar is ...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
Cardiac Wound Healing Post-myocardial Infarction: A Novel Method to Target Extracellular Matrix Remodeling in the Left Ventricle
Myocardial infarction (MI) is a leading cause of death worldwide. Permanent ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) is a commonly used surgical model to study post-MI effects in mice. LAD occlusion induces a robust wound healing response that includes extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling. This chapter provides a detailed guide on the surgical procedure to permanently ligate the LAD. Additionally, we describe a prototype method to enrich cardiac tissue for ECM, which allows one to focus on ECM remodeling in the left ventricle following surgically induced MI in mice. (Source: Springer protocols feed b...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
A Novel and Efficient Model of Coronary Artery Ligation in the Mouse
Coronary artery ligation to induce myocardial infarction (MI) and ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in mice is typically performed by an invasive and time-consuming approach that requires ventilation and a full thoracotomy (classical method), often resulting in extensive tissue damage and high mortality. Here, we describe a novel and rapid surgical method to induce MI that does not require ventilation. This method is much more efficient and safer than the classical method of MI and I/R injury. (Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine)
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
A Corneal Scarring Model
Corneal opacification (i.e., haze) following a non-denaturing acute injury to the cornea is a process which takes about 5 days to manifest itself, indicating that it is the consequence of cellular and molecular biological processes. In order to obtain a better understanding of the haze development process, and to test candidate anti-haze therapies, we use a corneal scarring model whereby we create an excimer laser wound in the center of rabbit corneas. The primary data generated by this model are (1) changes in corneal thickness with time; (2) wound closure rates, or re-epithelialization; (3) changes in the location and de...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
Murine Models of Human Wound Healing
In vivo wound healing experiments remain the most predictive models for studying human wound healing, allowing an accurate representation of the complete wound healing environment including various cell types, environmental cues, and paracrine interactions. Small animals are economical, easy to maintain, and allow researchers to take advantage of the numerous transgenic strains that have been developed to investigate the specific mechanisms involved in wound healing and regeneration. Here we describe three reproducible murine wound healing models that recapitulate the human wound healing process. (Source: Springer protocol...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
Human Ex Vivo Wound Healing Model
Wound healing is a spatially and temporally regulated process that progresses through sequential, yet overlapping phases and aims to restore barrier breach. To study this complex process scientists use various in vivo and in vitro models. Here we provide step-by-step instructions on how to perform and employ an ex vivo wound healing model to assess epithelization during wound healing in human skin. (Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine)
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
The Wound Watch: An Objective Staging System for Wounds in the Diabetic (db/db) Mouse Model
As in cancer biology, in wound healing there is a need for objective staging systems to decide for the best treatment and predictors of outcome. We developed in the diabetic (db/db) wound healing model, a staging system, the “wound watch,” based on the quantification of angiogenesis and cell proliferation in open wounds. In chronic wounds, there is often a lack of cellular proliferation and angiogenesis that leads to impaired healing. The wound watch addresses this by quantifying the proliferative phase of wound healing in two dimensions (cellular division and angiogenesis). The results are plotted in a two-dim...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news
