This study was designed to examine the effects of retinoic acid adding to cumulus and/or fibroblast cellsmonolayer on the development of mouse early embryos. One-cell mouse embryos were obtained from NMRImice after superovulation by an intraperitoneal injection of 5 IU equine chorionic gonadotrophin (eCG)followed 48 hrs later by 5 IU human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG). Mouse embryonic fibrobla...

Fibroblasts play a major role in tissue repair and remodeling. Their differentiation into myofibroblasts, marked by increased expression of smooth muscle-specific alpha-actin (alpha-SMA), is believed to be important in wound healing and fibrosis. We have recently described a role for MK2 in this phenotypic differentiation in culture. In this article, we demonstrate that MK2 also regulates myofi...

The culture-induced senescence of mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEF) correlates with reduction of cell proliferation. In this work we found that the accumulation of cells with 4C DNA content and the transcriptional change of several microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) are relevant events in culture senescence. By comparing the miRNA expression profiles of physiologically senescent MEF and that of senescent ...

BACKGROUND Macrolide resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) is a worldwide problem. AIMS The aim of this work was to analyze the phenotypes, genotypes, and clonal relatedness among macrolide-resistant S. pneumoniae strains isolated from various clinical specimens in our hospital. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional study. METHODS 80 non-duplicate S. pneumoniae strains were analyz...

OBJECTIVE To study the effect of minimal enteral feeding (MEF) on intestinal permeability and feeding tolerance in preterm infants with intrauterine growth retardation (gestational age < 37 weeks, birth weight for gestational age p < 10). Furthermore, to determine whether fetal blood flow pulsatility or intestinal permeability predict feeding tolerance in these infants. DESIGN Randomised cont...

The in vitro activities of 6 antimicrobial agents against clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococci) were investigated and the erythromycin minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were correlated with the two major macrolide resistance determinants, mef(A) and erm(B). MICs of commonly used antibiotics as well as the presence of macrolide resistance determinant genes in all iso...

Hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) is presumed to be essential for lipolysis, which is defined as the mobilization of free fatty acids from adipocytes. In the present study, we investigated the effects of various lipolytic hormones on the lipolysis in adipocytes derived from mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF adipocytes) prepared from HSL-deficient mice (HSL-/-). HSL-/- MEF differentiated into mature...

Constitutive hedgehog (Hh) signaling is associated with the genesis of medulloblastomas (MB). The objective of this study is to identify special microRNAs (miRNAs) regulated by the Hh pathway, and to clarify the role of miRNAs during the genesis of MB induced by sustained Hh activation. In the primary screening, we used stem-loop RT-PCR to test the expression of 90 different miRNAs in the wildt...

By application of a variant of poliovirus, Type 2, MEF(1) strain, as a selective agent it was possible to distinguish among stable parent strains of epithelial cells and their clonal derivatives by their differential morphologic response to infection. The variant of poliovirus grew in a number of cell strains without induction of observable cytopathogenic changes. Other strains of cells reacted...

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and metal-enhanced-fluorescence (MEF)-based optical biosensors exhibit unique properties compared to other sensing devices that can be exploited for the design point-of-care (POC) diagnostic tools [1]. Plasmonic exploit capability of noble-metal nanoparticles absorbing light at a well-defined wavelength. The increasing request wearable, flexible easy-t...