taxus    is an endangered plant which is the only commercial source of paclitaxel, which is used for treatment of ovary and breast cancer. as production of this valuable drug is a destructive process, other alternatives should be considered for its sustainable production. plant tissue and cell culture is a promising method for production of secondary metabolites. in order to optimize yew callus...

The mucosa associated lymphoid tissue regulates and coordinates immune responses against mucosal pathogens. Mucosal tissues are the major targets exposed to HIV during transmission. In this paper we describe in vitro models of HIV mucosal infection using human explants to investigate target cells within this tissue.

The effect of glucose on growth of the beta cell population was characterized in rat pancreatic organ culture. The effect was monitored by measuring [3H]thymidine labelling indices of beta cells during the culture period and by quantitation of beta cell population size at the end of the culture period. Foetal and neonatal pancreases and different glucose levels were compared. Glucose was found ...

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is still one of the main causes of death in the world, despite significant advances in clinical treatments. Stem cell transplantation methods have the potential to improve cardiac function and patients' outcome following heart attack, but optimal cell types, cell preparation methods and cell delivery routes are yet to be developed. Mammalian hearts contain a small f...

Objective: In cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory response plays an important role and affects heart function. As a flavonoid compound, p-coumaric acid (pCA), commonly exists in many fruits and vegetables and has a therapeutic effect on inflammatory diseases due to its anti-inflammatory properties. The purpose of the present study was to investigate pCA anti-inflammatory effect and the miRNAs...

INTRODUCTION Little is known about endogenous or cytokine-stimulated aggrecan catabolism in the meniscal fibrocartilage of the knee. The objectives of this study were to characterize the structure, distribution, and processing of aggrecan in menisci from immature bovines, and to identify mechanisms of extracellular matrix degradation that lead to changes in the mechanical properties of meniscal...

Endometriosis is a debilitating disease found in 10-15% of reproductive-age women and is characterized by the presence of endometrial tissue outside of the uterus. The present study characterizes the expression of AhR and ARNT mRNA in a human endometrial explant culture model in the absence and presence of TCDD exposure. In a parallel, companion study using this model, TCDD exposure was shown t...