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Study of the Human Chronic Wound Tissue: Addressing Logistic Barriers and Productive Use of Laser Capture Microdissection
Direct procurement of tissue samples from clinically presented chronic human wounds is a powerful approach to understand mechanism at play in an actual problem wound. While such approach suffers from limitations related to lack of reproducible conditions across wounds, something that we are used to in the laboratory while studying wounds on experimental animals, the direct study of human wound tissue helps recognize the right questions to ask in the laboratory. Going back and forth between human wound and experimental animal studies helps steer studies on experimental wounds in a clinically relevant direction. In this chap...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

Novel Methods for the Investigation of Human Hypertrophic Scarring and Other Dermal Fibrosis
Hypertrophic scar (HTS) represents the dermal equivalent of fibroproliferative disorders that occur after injury involving the deep dermis while superficial wounds to the skin heal with minimal or no scarring. HTS is characterized by progressive deposition of collagen that occurs with high frequency in adult dermal wounds following traumatic or thermal injury. Increased levels of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), decreased expression of small leucine-rich proteoglycans (SLRPs), and/or fibroblast subtypes may influence the development of HTS. The development of HTS is strongly influenced by the cellular and ...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

Alternatives for Animal Wound Model Systems
In this chapter a review of animal model systems already being utilized to study normal and pathologic wound healing is provided. We also go into details on alternatives for animal wound model systems. The case is made for limitations in the various approaches. We also discuss the benefits/limitations of in vitro/ex vivo systems bringing everything up to date with our current work on developing a cell-based reporter system for diabetic wound healing. (Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine)
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

A Model System for Primary Abdominal Closures
The foreign body response to medical devices and materials implanted in the human body, including scarring, fibrous encapsulation, and potential rejection, is a longstanding and serious clinical issue. There are no widely acceptable or safe therapies for ameliorating the foreign body response. Clinical complications resulting from the response include disfigurement of silicone prostheses and loss of function of devices such as implanted pacemakers, stents, and shunts. Cellularized implants and stem cells placed in the body are also subject to the foreign body response with the added issue that the regenerative repair inten...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

Cell-Based Therapies for Myocardial Repair: Emerging Role for Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) in the Treatment of the Chronically Injured Heart
Accumulating data support the use of bone marrow (BM)-derived MSCs in animal models (e.g., swine) to restore cardiac function and tissue perfusion in chronic cardiac injury. Based on results obtained in swine, we are currently conducting phase I/II clinical trials to address the safety, cell type, cell dose, delivery technique, and efficacy of MSCs in patients with chronic heart failure. MSCs for these trials are isolated from harvested BM and then processed and expanded for intracardiac injection. The BM-MSCs in use for the clinical trials are of clinical grade having been processed successfully in an FDA-approved cGMP fa...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

Neural Repair with Pluripotent Stem Cells
The nervous system is characterized by its complex network of highly specialized cells that enable us to perceive stimuli from the outside world and react accordingly. The computational integration enabled by these networks remains to be elucidated, but appropriate sensory input, processing, and motor control are certainly essential for survival. Consequently, loss of nervous tissue due to injury or disease represents a considerable biomedical challenge. (Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine)
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

Novel Animal Models for Tracking the Fate and Contributions of Bone Marrow Derived Cells in Diabetic Healing
There is a vast wealth of information to be gained by tracking both the fate and contribution of individual cell types to the wound healing response. This is particularly important in research focused on impaired healing, such as diabetic wound healing, where the number or function of one or more specific cell types may be abnormal and contribute to the observed healing derangements. Specifically, diabetic wounds have been shown to have an overactive inflammatory response and decreased angiogenesis. The ability to track specific cell types participating in these responses would dramatically improve our understanding of the...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

Adult Stem Cells in Small Animal Wound Healing Models
This chapter broadly reviews the use of stem cells as a means to accelerate wound healing, focusing first on the properties of stem cells that make them attractive agents to influence repair, both alone and as vehicles for growth factor delivery. Major stem cell reservoirs are described, including adult, embryonic, and induced pluripotent cell sources, outlining the advantages and limitations of each source as wound healing agents, as well as the possible mechanisms responsible for wound healing acceleration. Finally, the chapter includes a materials and methods section that provides an in-depth description of adult tissue...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

A Tissue-Engineered Corneal Wound Healing Model for the Characterization of Reepithelialization
Progress in tissue engineering has led to the discovery of technologies allowing reconstruction of autologous tissues from the patient’s own cells and the development of new in vitro models to study cellular and molecular mechanisms implicated in wound healing. The outer surface of the eye, the cornea, is involved in the sense of sight, thus an adequate reepithelialization process after wounding is essential in order to maintain corneal function. In this chapter, protocols to generate a new in vitro three-dimensional human corneal wound healing model suitable for studying the different components that play important ...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

Urothelial Cell Culture
This chapter reviews the use of urothelial cells as a means to enhance tissue regeneration and wound healing in urinary tract system. It addresses the properties of urothelial cells, including their role as a permeability barrier to protect underlying muscle tissue from the caustic effects of urine and as one of the main cell types, along with smooth muscle cells, that are used in urethral or bladder tissue engineering today. This description includes a general overview of various isolation techniques and culture methods that have been developed to improve urinary tract reconstruction in vivo and aid the characterization o...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

An In Vivo Model System for Evaluation of the Host Response to Biomaterials
We describe an in vivo model system designed to evaluate the host response to implanted biomaterials: The partial thickness rat abdominal wall defect model. The model allows for determination of the temporal and spatial distribution of the cellular and vascular response, the remodeling of the implanted material and surrounding host soft tissue, and the function of the remodeled tissue over time. (Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine)
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

Chapter 14 Human Ex Vivo Wound Healing Model
(Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine)
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

Cell-Populated Collagen Lattice Contraction Model for the Investigation of Fibroblast Collagen Interactions
The fibroblast-populated collagen lattice (FPCL) was intended to act as the dermal component for “skin-equivalent” or artificial skin developed for skin grafting burn patients. The “skin-equivalent” was clinically unsuccessful as a skin graft, but today it is successfully used as a dressing for the management of chronic wounds. The FPCL has, however, become an instrument for investigating cell–connective tissue interactions within a three-dimensional matrix. Through the capacity of cell compaction of collagen fibrils, the FPCL undergoes a reduction in volume referred to as lattice contraction....
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - September 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

The Formation of a Tissue-Engineered Cornea Using Plastically Compressed Collagen Scaffolds and Limbal Stem Cells
Collagen has excellent biocompatibility, is biodegradable, and possesses low immunogenicity. Therefore, this protein is a very suitable substrate for the formation of a corneal scaffold for therapeutic use. The highly hydrated nature of conventional collagen gels, however, results in a gel that is structurally weak and difficult to manipulate. In this chapter, we describe a novel method to cultivate limbal epithelial cells (LEC) on a compressed collagen scaffold. The compressed collagen scaffold can be rapidly constructed using a cell-independent process, which produces dense and mechanically strong collagen constructs wit...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - June 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news

In Vivo Confocal Microscopy of the Cornea to Assess Tissue Regenerative Response After Biomaterial Implantation in Humans
Laser-scanning in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) of the cornea is becoming an increasingly popular tool to examine the living human cornea with cellular-level detail in both healthy and pathologic states. Here, we describe the use of the IVCM technique to examine the processes of tissue healing and regeneration in the living human eye after biomaterial implantation. The regenerative response can be assessed by performing longitudinal IVCM imaging of a laboratory-made, cell-free biomaterial, after direct implantation into a pathologic eye as a primary alternative to human donor tissue transplantation. (Source: Springer pro...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Molecular Medicine - June 4, 2013 Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: news