BACKGROUND Syngas fermentation, the bioconversion of CO, CO2, and H2 to biofuels and chemicals, has undergone considerable optimization for industrial applications. Even more, full-scale plants for ethanol production from syngas fermentation by pure cultures are being built worldwide. The composition of syngas depends on the feedstock gasified and the gasification conditions. However, it remain...

The air-blood barrier is mainly composed of alveolar epithelial cells and macrophages. Whereas the epithelium acts as a diffusional barrier, macrophages represent an immunological barrier, in particular for larger molecules and nanoparticles. This paper describes a new co-culture of human cell lines representing both cell types. Acquiring, culturing and maintaining primary alveolar epithelial c...

The in vitro development of DNA-injected bovine zygotes, produced in vitro, was compared when cultured with or without mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF). The in vivo viability of the embryos produced in these in vitro culture systems was assessed by single or double transfer to recipients taken to term. For these experiments, in vitro fertilized oocytes were not injected (Experiment 1) or were ...

BACKGROUND Endothelial cell co-culture assays are differentiation assays which simulate the formation of capillary-like tubules with the aid of a supportive cell layer. Different cell types have been employed as a supportive cell layer, including human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) and human mammary fibroblasts. However, these sources of human tissue-derived cells are limited, a...

We used a direct-contact endothelial cell-smooth muscle cell (EC-SMC) co-culture to examine whether quiescent SMCs regulate the EC inflammatory response to tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha. ECs were cultured under static and physiological flow conditions. Compared with TNF-alpha-treated ECs in monoculture, TNF-alpha-treated ECs in co-culture had less NF-kappaB nuclear translocation; less inter...