background: mehr-80 is a newly established adherent human large cell lung cancer cell line that has not been transfected until now. this study aims to define the optimal transfection conditions and effects of some critical elements for enhancing gene delivery to this cell line by utilizing different non-viral transfection procedures. methods: in the current study, calcium phosphate (cap), deae-...

many cell lines, when cultured under proper conditions, can form three dimensionalstructures called multicellular spheroids. these spheroids resemble in vivo tumor models in severalaspects. therefore, studying growth characteristics and behavior of spheroids is beneficial inunderstanding the behavior of tumors under various experimental conditions. in this work, we havestudied the growth proper...

Microglia is considered the only cell population of mesodermal origin, which comprises 10% of the cells in brain parenchyma. Recent neural stem cell (NSC) studies demonstrate that the brain has regenerative potential. NSCs do not give rise to microglial cells, however indicating that NSCs alone cannot complete the regenetion of the brain. Although the role of microglia is not fully understood, ...

The mechanisms of action of two different serotonin receptors, found in a neuronal cell line (neuroblastoma X glioma hybrid cells) and in a non-excitable glioma cell line, were explored. In both cell lines, serotonin induced a dose-dependent, transient rise of cytosolic Ca2+ activity (measured by fura-2 or indo-1 fluorescence). Ca2+ channel blockers (Ni2+ and La3+, not nifedipine) suppressed th...

Regulating transgene expression in vivo by delivering oral drugs has been a long-time goal for the gene therapy field. A novel gene regulating system based on targeted proteasomal degradation has been recently developed. The system is based on a destabilizing domain (DD) of the Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) that directs fused proteins to proteasomal destruction. Creating YFP p...

Medulloblastoma (MB) represents the most frequent malignant brain tumor of childhood but only a few cell lines and animal models of this primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET) have thus far been established. Using specific cell culture conditions, we were able to derive four human MB cell lines (MHH-MED-1-4) as well as a cell line from a spinal PNET (MHH-PNET-5). The four MB cell lines grew in ...

(ii) hepatocyte growth factor/nerve growth factor/transforming growth factor–␤(TGF␤)/glial cell line–derived neurotrophic factor: 36 Ϯ 13 min –1 (n ϭ 12), (iii) TGF ␣/glial growth factor: 8 Ϯ 5 min –1 (n ϭ 8), and (iv) neurotrophin-3/plate-derived growth factor– AA: 16 Ϯ 6 min –1 (n ϭ 12). Each of these factors promoted cell survival, proliferation, or differentiation in other assays performed ...

Virtually all cell populations in the vertebrate nervous system undergo massive "naturally-occurring" or "programmed" cell death (PCD) early in development. Initially neurons and glia are overproduced followed by the demise of approximately one-half of the original cell population. In this review we highlight current hypotheses regarding how large-scale PCD contributes to the construction of th...

PURPOSE Several eye diseases are accompanied by inflammatory processes. The authors examined the expression of the proinflammatory chemokine CXCL8 and the corresponding receptors in healthy human retinas, in cellular membranes from patients with proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) or human glial cell cultures and in an animal model of PVR in rabbit eyes. METHODS The authors used immunohisto...

Neurogenesis is known to occur in the specific niches of the adult mammalian brain, but whether germinal centers exist in the neural-crest-derived peripheral nervous system is unknown. We have discovered stem cells in the adult carotid body (CB), an oxygen-sensing organ of the sympathoadrenal lineage that grows in chronic hypoxemia. Production of new neuron-like CB glomus cells depends on a pop...