background: methamphetamine (ma) is a potent psychomotor stimulant with high abuse and addictive potential. ma is a neurotoxic drug which is widely abused by females of childbearing age, raising serious public health concerns in terms of exposure of the fetus to the drug. neurotoxic effects of ma on adult are well known, such as dopaminergic nerve terminal degeneration and cell death in regions...

Little is known about the differentiation capabilities of nonhematopoietic cells of the human fetal liver. We report the isolation and characterization of a human fetal liver multipotent progenitor cell (hFLMPC) population capable of differentiating into liver and mesenchymal cell lineages. Human fetal livers (74-108 days of gestation) were dissociated and maintained in culture. We treated the ...

Fetal mouse liver hepatocytes proliferate on a substrate of irradiated pigskin epidermis scored with scalpel blade slits to permit cell access to the basement membrane. At the time the cells are explanted, fetal genes, such as those responsible for production of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGTase), are strongly expressed. The levels of GGTase decrease rapidly and beco...

We have used a c-kit-specific monoclonal antibody, immuno-fluorescence staining and flow fluorocytometry or microscopy analysis to assess the cell surface expression of the c-kit receptor on a panel of non-transformed clones representing different stages of T- and B-lymphocyte development, freshly isolated lymphoid cells from thymus, bone marrow and spleen of young adult C57BL/6 mice and cells ...

We determined a transcriptional profile specific for clonal stromal mesenchymal stem cells from adult and fetal hematopoietic sites. To identify mesenchymal stem cell-like stromal cell lines, we evaluated the adipocytic, osteoblastic, chondrocytic, and vascular smooth muscle differentiation potential and also the hematopoietic supportive (stromal) capacity of six mouse stromal cell lines from a...

Fetal liver intriguingly consists of hepatic parenchymal cells and hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells. Human fetal liver aged 22 wk of gestation (HFL22w) corresponds to the turning point between immigration and emigration of the hematopoietic system. To gain further molecular insight into its developmental and functional characteristics, HFL22w was studied by generating expressed sequence tags...

We report that the chemokine receptor CXCR4 is required for the retention of B lineage and granulocytic precursors within fetal liver and bone marrow microenvironment. In CXCR4-deficient embryos, pro-B cells are present in blood but hardly detectable in liver; myeloid cells are elevated in blood and reduced in liver compared to wild-type embryos. Mice reconstituted with CXCR4-deficient fetal li...

In recent years, research in the field of stem cells is rapidly expanding and the published data are of great promise for the future of the regenerative medicine. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are a relatively new direction in these studies. Their ability to differentiate to a number of cell types indicates that they have the potential to be used as therapy for a variety of medical conditions. A...

HeLa cells grown in tissue culture have certain components in common with normal human tis sues. For example, Miller and Hsu (6) have shown that antiserum prepared against HeLa cells in rabbits is cytotoxic for fibroblasts and epithelial cells derived from adult and newborn skin and also from tonsils, as well as for HeLa. Moreover, the anti-HeLa serum gave a precipitate with an extract of human...

microRNAs (miRNAs) are short noncoding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression. Although recent evidences have been indicated that their aberrant expression may play an important role in cancer stem cells, the mechanism of their deregulation in neoplastic transformation of liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs) has not been explored. In our study, the HCC model was established in F344 rats by DE...