background: fusion of dendritic cells (dcs) with melanoma cells could reinforce the antigenicity of tumors as a strategy for the treatment of malignant melanoma. however, the insufficient quantity of dcs and the low fusion efficiency limits the development of such approach. objective: to define the dosage of the stimulating factors as well as the induction condition for the optimal dcs preparat...

Spinophilin/neurabin II is an actin-associated scaffolding protein enriched in the dendritic spines of neurons. Previously, the actin-binding domain (ABD) of spinophilin was localized to a domain between amino acids (aa) 1 and 154. In a mass spectrometry screen for spinophilin-binding proteins, we have identified an additional actin-binding region between aa 151 and 282. F-actin co-sedimentatio...

Most excitatory synapses terminate on dendritic spines. Spines vary in size, and their volumes are proportional to the area of the postsynaptic density (PSD) and synaptic strength. PSD-95 is an abundant multi-domain postsynaptic scaffolding protein that clusters glutamate receptors and organizes the associated signaling complexes. PSD-95 is thought to determine the size and strength of synapses...

Mouse CA1 pyramidal neurons express apamin-sensitive SK2-containing channels in the post-synaptic membrane, positioned close to NMDA-type (N-methyl-D-aspartate) glutamate receptors. Activated by synaptically evoked NMDAR-dependent Ca(2+) influx, the synaptic SK2-containing channels modulate excitatory post-synaptic responses and the induction of synaptic plasticity. In addition, their activity-...

Disruption of the postsynaptic density (PSD), a network of scaffold proteins located in dendritic spines, is thought to be responsible for synaptic dysfunction and loss in early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD). Extending our previous demonstration that derangement of the PSD by soluble amyloid-beta (Abeta) involves proteasomal degradation of PSD-95, a protein important for ionotropic glutamate r...

there are two main methods for preparing the puramatrix (pm) as a three-dimensional (3-d) scaffold for supporting the cells including surface plating and encapsulation. in the surface-plating procedure, the scaffold is created by adding an ionic agent such as medium to pm. after adjusting the ph by changing the medium, cells are seeded on top of the scaffold. in the encapsulation method, pm and...

to date, various approaches have been used in attempt to treat spinal cord injury (sci) but there is no definite treatment for repair of the damaged tissue. it is well known that sci results in a loss of neural tissues and formation of cystic cavities that inhibit regeneration of axons. tissue engineering, in which cells, signals and scaffolds are combined, is one of the most promising areas of...

Huafeng Sun, Xingang Wang, Weijie Yu, Xinlei Hu, Chuangang You, Hang Hu, Chunmao Han* Department of Burn, Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310009, China *Corresponding Author Email: [email protected] Introduction Local delivery of GM-CSF (granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) has been has been used for treating human chronic skin ulcers and deep secondd...