The infection of human fetal thymus organ cultures (FTOC) with coxsackievirus B4 E2 (CVB4 E2) was investigated. Both positive- and negative-strand viral RNA were detected by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) in CVB4 E2-infected FTOC, which supported high yields of virus production (approximately 10(6) 50% tissue culture infective doses/ml), and in flow-sorted thymocyte p...

Organ cultures of rat kidney produce a factor capable of stimulating erythropoiesis in exhypoxic polycythemic mice. This material appears to be renal erythropoietic factor or erythrogenin, since biologic activity was observed only after incubation of the culture media with rat serum. Production of this material was similar in cultures prepared from four different anatomic regions of the kidney,...

A serum-free organ culture model for chondrocyte maturation, using the Avian sternum, was developed. Day-14 chick embryo sterna were placed in organ culture in the presence of defined medium. The optimal medium for chondrocyte terminal differentiation contained specific concentrations of dexamethasone, insulin, thyroid hormone and ascorbic acid. Three parameters, including sternal growth, cell ...

This report outlines a method for rapid quantification of corneal epithelial cell movement in a block organ culture system designed to model a penetrating or perforating wound of the cornea. Rabbit corneas were secured over a plastic conformer with a chalazion clamp. Two-millimeter, full-thickness corneal specimens were sampled from central and peripheral cornea and placed in tissue culture. Th...

In all mammals, the sensory epithelium for audition is located along the spiraling organ of Corti that resides within the conch shaped cochlea of the inner ear (fig 1). Hair cells in the developing cochlea, which are the mechanosensory cells of the auditory system, are aligned in one row of inner hair cells and three (in the base and mid-turns) to four (in the apical turn) rows of outer hair ce...

Normal adult human bladder obtained at cystoscopy has been maintained in long-term organ culture. Several media were tested for their ability to maintain viability and normal tissue morphology. The optimum medium was Ham's F-12 nutrient mixture, supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum, hydrocortisone (1 microgram/ml), and FeSO4, (0.45 microgram/ml). During the first 28 days in vitro, epithelial ...

1. Explants of mammary gland from mid-pregnant rabbits were cultured in medium 199 containing insulin, prolactin and cortisol, and specific anti-casein immunoglobulin G was used to measure the amount, rate of synthesis and rate of degradation of casein in the explants in the presence of hormones and after removal of hormones from previously stimulated tissue. 2. The amount of casein in particle...

Two characteristics of the tetracycline-group antibiotics have recently focused the special attention of teratologists: these drugs are known to pass readily across the placental'barrier' (Charles, 1954; Frost & Villanueva, 1960; Gibbons & Reichelderfer, 1960; Hughes, Lee & Flood, 1965; Simpson, Burnette & Bawden, 1967), and they are incorporated into the foetal skeleton, where they may remain ...

INTRODUCTION The technical and quality aspects of organ culture as a storage method for human donor corneas are described. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data electronically stored since 1989 of > 41,000 corneas, processed in the Cornea Bank Amsterdam, are analysed. The technical information of eye banks collected in the Directory of the European Eye Bank Association (EEBA) is used as comparison. Euro...