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International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Volume 16, Issue 8

2015 August - 181 articles

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Articles (181)

  • Review
  • Open Access
114 Citations
14,651 Views
23 Pages

14 August 2015

Hypertrophic differentiation of chondrocytes is a main barrier in application of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for cartilage repair. In addition, hypertrophy occurs occasionally in osteoarthritis (OA). Here we provide a comprehensive review on recent...

  • Review
  • Open Access
247 Citations
24,906 Views
43 Pages

Disease Resistance Gene Analogs (RGAs) in Plants

  • Manoj Kumar Sekhwal,
  • Pingchuan Li,
  • Irene Lam,
  • Xiue Wang,
  • Sylvie Cloutier and
  • Frank M. You

14 August 2015

Plants have developed effective mechanisms to recognize and respond to infections caused by pathogens. Plant resistance gene analogs (RGAs), as resistance (R) gene candidates, have conserved domains and motifs that play specific roles in pathogens’ r...

  • Article
  • Open Access
31 Citations
8,669 Views
17 Pages

Tangential Flow Ultrafiltration Allows Purification and Concentration of Lauric Acid-/Albumin-Coated Particles for Improved Magnetic Treatment

  • Jan Zaloga,
  • Marcus Stapf,
  • Johannes Nowak,
  • Marina Pöttler,
  • Ralf P. Friedrich,
  • Rainer Tietze,
  • Stefan Lyer,
  • Geoffrey Lee,
  • Stefan Odenbach and
  • Christoph Alexiou
  • + 1 author

14 August 2015

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) are frequently used for drug targeting, hyperthermia and other biomedical purposes. Recently, we have reported the synthesis of lauric acid-/albumin-coated iron oxide nanoparticles SEONLA-BSA, whic...

  • Article
  • Open Access
38 Citations
8,325 Views
18 Pages

14 August 2015

Ferredoxins (FDX) are final electron carrier proteins in the plant photosynthetic pathway, and function as major electron donors in diverse redox-driven metabolic pathways. We previously showed that overexpression of a major constitutively expressed...

  • Review
  • Open Access
47 Citations
8,898 Views
33 Pages

Physiological and Molecular Aspects of Tolerance to Environmental Constraints in Grain and Forage Legumes

  • Adnane Bargaz,
  • Mainassara Zaman-Allah,
  • Mohamed Farissi,
  • Mohamed Lazali,
  • Jean-Jacques Drevon,
  • Rim T. Maougal and
  • Carlsson Georg

13 August 2015

Despite the agronomical and environmental advantages of the cultivation of legumes, their production is limited by various environmental constraints such as water or nutrient limitation, frost or heat stress and soil salinity, which may be the result...

  • Review
  • Open Access
98 Citations
13,415 Views
18 Pages

Angiogenesis-Related Biomarkers (sFlt-1/PLGF) in the Prediction and Diagnosis of Placental Dysfunction: An Approach for Clinical Integration

  • Ignacio Herraiz,
  • Elisa Simón,
  • Paula Isabel Gómez-Arriaga,
  • José Manuel Martínez-Moratalla,
  • Antonio García-Burguillo,
  • Elena Ana López Jiménez and
  • Alberto Galindo

13 August 2015

Placental dysfunction is involved in a group of obstetrical conditions including preeclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction, and placental abruption. Their timely and accurate recognition is often a challenge since diagnostic criteria are still ba...

  • Article
  • Open Access
12 Citations
7,778 Views
13 Pages

Human Dermal Stem/Progenitor Cell-Derived Conditioned Medium Improves Senescent Human Dermal Fibroblasts

  • Ji-Yong Jung,
  • Joong Hyun Shim,
  • Hyun Choi,
  • Tae Ryong Lee and
  • Dong Wook Shin

13 August 2015

Adult skin stem cells are recognized as potential therapeutics to rejuvenate aged skin. We previously demonstrated that human dermal stem/progenitor cells (hDSPCs) with multipotent capacity could be enriched from human dermal fibroblasts using colla...

  • Review
  • Open Access
59 Citations
7,969 Views
15 Pages

13 August 2015

The role and function of a given protein is dependent on its structure. In recent years, however, numerous studies have highlighted the importance of unstructured, or disordered regions in governing a protein’s function. Disordered proteins have be...

  • Review
  • Open Access
128 Citations
11,049 Views
31 Pages

13 August 2015

Abiotic stress accounts for huge crop losses every year across the globe. In plants, the photosynthetic machinery gets severely damaged at various levels due to adverse environmental conditions. Moreover, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated...

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
7,453 Views
10 Pages

13 August 2015

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) is approved for disease-modifying treatment of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Animal experiments suggested that part of its therapeutic effect is due to a reduction of T-cell infiltration of the central...

  • Article
  • Open Access
30 Citations
6,384 Views
15 Pages

13 August 2015

Lead (Pb) poisoning has always been a serious health concern, as it permanently damages the central nervous system. Chronic Pb accumulation in the human body disturbs oligodendrocytes (OLs) differentiation, resulting in dysmyelination, but the molecu...

  • Review
  • Open Access
158 Citations
19,124 Views
19 Pages

13 August 2015

Zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) are essential but are sometimes deficient in humans, while cadmium (Cd) is toxic if it accumulates in the liver and kidneys at high levels. All three are contained in the grains of rice, a staple cereal. Zn and Fe concentrati...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
4,543 Views
13 Pages

12 August 2015

The OH-initiated reaction rate constants (kOH) are of great importance to measure atmospheric behaviors of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) in the environment. The rate constants of 75 PCDDs with the OH radical at 298.15 K have been calculat...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
6,564 Views
11 Pages

Osteoclast Differentiation Is Impaired in a Subgroup of SLE Patients and Correlates Inversely with Mycophenolate Mofetil Treatment

  • Barbara G. Fürnrohr,
  • Benjamin Rhodes,
  • Luis E. Munoz,
  • Katrin Weiß,
  • Tim J. Vyse and
  • Georg Schett

12 August 2015

Osteoporosis can arise in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients secondary to medication and/or chronic inflammation. To analyze if patients with SLE have phenotypically-impaired osteoclastogenesis, we differentiated ex vivo monocytes from 72 SL...

  • Review
  • Open Access
23 Citations
10,028 Views
29 Pages

12 August 2015

Enzymes in the transcarbamylase family catalyze the transfer of a carbamyl group from carbamyl phosphate (CP) to an amino group of a second substrate. The two best-characterized members, aspartate transcarbamylase (ATCase) and ornithine transcarbam...

  • Article
  • Open Access
75 Citations
8,829 Views
13 Pages

12 August 2015

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting the nigrostriatal pathway, where patients do not manifest motor symptoms until >50% of neurons are lost. Thus, it is of great importance to determine early neuronal cha...

  • Review
  • Open Access
32 Citations
11,364 Views
16 Pages

Detecting Antigen-Specific T Cell Responses: From Bulk Populations to Single Cells

  • Chansavath Phetsouphanh,
  • John James Zaunders and
  • Anthony Dominic Kelleher

12 August 2015

A new generation of sensitive T cell-based assays facilitates the direct quantitation and characterization of antigen-specific T cell responses. Single-cell analyses have focused on measuring the quality and breadth of a response. Accumulating data f...

  • Review
  • Open Access
40 Citations
16,821 Views
29 Pages

Cardiovascular Disease Modeling Using Patient-Specific Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

  • Atsushi Tanaka,
  • Shinsuke Yuasa,
  • Koichi Node and
  • Keiichi Fukuda

12 August 2015

The generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has opened up a new scientific frontier in medicine. This technology has made it possible to obtain pluripotent stem cells from individuals with genetic disorders. Because iPSCs carry the ident...

  • Article
  • Open Access
160 Citations
16,964 Views
15 Pages

Nutritional Characterization and Phenolic Profiling of Moringa oleifera Leaves Grown in Chad, Sahrawi Refugee Camps, and Haiti

  • Alessandro Leone,
  • Giovanni Fiorillo,
  • Franca Criscuoli,
  • Stefano Ravasenghi,
  • Laura Santagostini,
  • Gelsomina Fico,
  • Angela Spadafranca,
  • Alberto Battezzati,
  • Alberto Schiraldi and
  • Simona Bertoli
  • + 3 authors

12 August 2015

Moringa oleifera is a plant that grows in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Its leaves are rich of nutrients and bioactive compounds. However, several differences are reported in the literature. In this article we performed a nutritional c...

  • Article
  • Open Access
15 Citations
5,805 Views
18 Pages

Protective Effects of Hong Shan Capsule against Lethal Total-Body Irradiation-Induced Damage in Wistar Rats

  • Jianzhong Li,
  • Jing Xu,
  • Weiheng Xu,
  • Yang Qi,
  • Yiming Lu,
  • Lei Qiu,
  • Zhenlin Hu,
  • Zhiyong Chu,
  • Yifeng Chai and
  • Junping Zhang

12 August 2015

Hong Shan Capsule (HSC), a crude drug of 11 medicinal herbs, was used in clinical practice for the treatment of radiation injuries in China. In this study, we investigated its protection in rats against acute lethal total-body irradiation (TBI). Pre-...

  • Article
  • Open Access
33 Citations
7,796 Views
20 Pages

12 August 2015

Kansenone is a triterpene from the root of the traditional Chinese medicine, Euphorbia kansui. However, kansenone exerts serious toxicity, but the exact mechanism was not clear. In this work, the effects of kansenone on cell proliferation, cell cycle...

  • Review
  • Open Access
27 Citations
8,041 Views
31 Pages

11 August 2015

The idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) constitute a heterogeneous group of chronic disorders that include dermatomyositis (DM), polymyositis (PM), sporadic inclusion body myositis (IBM) and necrotizing autoimmune myopathy (NAM). They represent...

  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
5,936 Views
18 Pages

11 August 2015

The chlorothiophenoxy radicals (CTPRs) are key intermediate species in the formation of polychlorinated dibenzothiophenes/thianthrenes (PCDT/TAs). In this work, the formation of CTPRs from the complete series reactions of 19 chlorothiophenol (CTP)...

  • Review
  • Open Access
62 Citations
9,970 Views
9 Pages

LincRNA-p21: Implications in Human Diseases

  • Sai-Sai Tang,
  • Bi-Ying Zheng and
  • Xing-Dong Xiong

11 August 2015

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), which lack significant protein-coding capacity, regulate various biological processes through diverse and as yet poorly understood molecular mechanisms. However, a number of studies in the past few years have documented...

  • Technical Note
  • Open Access
16 Citations
6,525 Views
11 Pages

In Vitro Expansion of CAG, CAA, and Mixed CAG/CAA Repeats

  • Grzegorz Figura,
  • Edyta Koscianska and
  • Wlodzimierz J. Krzyzosiak

11 August 2015

Polyglutamine diseases, including Huntington’s disease and a number of spinocerebellar ataxias, are caused by expanded CAG repeats that are located in translated sequences of individual, functionally-unrelated genes. Only mutant proteins containing p...

  • Article
  • Open Access
50 Citations
12,430 Views
26 Pages

Comparative Analysis of the Brassica napus Root and Leaf Transcript Profiling in Response to Drought Stress

  • Chunqing Liu,
  • Xuekun Zhang,
  • Ka Zhang,
  • Hong An,
  • Kaining Hu,
  • Jing Wen,
  • Jinxiong Shen,
  • Chaozhi Ma,
  • Bin Yi and
  • Tingdong Fu
  • + 1 author

11 August 2015

Drought stress is one of the major abiotic factors affecting Brassica napus (B. napus) productivity. In order to identify genes of potential importance to drought stress and obtain a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms regarding the resp...

  • Review
  • Open Access
36 Citations
17,526 Views
18 Pages

New Immunosuppressive Therapies in Uveitis Treatment

  • Salvador Mérida,
  • Elena Palacios,
  • Amparo Navea and
  • Francisco Bosch-Morell

11 August 2015

Uveitis is an inflammatory process that initially starts in the uvea, but can also affect other adjacent eye structures, and is currently the fourth cause of blindness in developed countries. Corticoids are probably the most widespread treatment, but...

  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
6,257 Views
16 Pages

11 August 2015

The development of porous hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogels for corneal endothelial tissue engineering is attractive because they can be used as functional cell delivery carriers to help in the reconstruction of damaged areas. The purpose of this study...

  • Article
  • Open Access
67 Citations
9,121 Views
16 Pages

Wnt3a Promotes the Vasculogenic Mimicry Formation of Colon Cancer via Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling

  • Lisha Qi,
  • Wangzhao Song,
  • Zhiyong Liu,
  • Xiulan Zhao,
  • Wenfeng Cao and
  • Baocun Sun

10 August 2015

Our previous study provided evidence that non-canonical Wnt signaling is involved in regulating vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formation. However, the functions of canonical Wnt signaling in VM formation have not yet been explored. In this study, we found...

  • Review
  • Open Access
51 Citations
15,503 Views
21 Pages

10 August 2015

Neurogenic bladder (NB) or neurogenic lower urinary tract dysfunction (NLUTD), a dysfunction of the urinary bladder and urethra due to disease of the central nervous system or peripheral nerves, is a major global medical and social problem. Numerous...

  • Review
  • Open Access
11 Citations
6,947 Views
27 Pages

Role of Pharmacogenetics in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Outcome in Children

  • Raffaella Franca,
  • Gabriele Stocco,
  • Diego Favretto,
  • Nagua Giurici,
  • Giuliana Decorti and
  • Marco Rabusin

10 August 2015

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is an established therapeutic procedure for several congenital and acquired disorders, both malignant and nonmalignant. Despite the great improvements in HSCT clinical practices over the last few decades...

  • Article
  • Open Access
19 Citations
8,419 Views
14 Pages

ALS-Linked P56S-VAPB Mutation Impairs the Formation of Multinuclear Myotube in C2C12 Cells

  • Yukako Tokutake,
  • Keita Yamada,
  • Masaki Ohata,
  • Yoshihito Obayashi,
  • Megumi Tsuchiya and
  • Shinichi Yonekura

10 August 2015

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects upper and lower motor neurons. Since motor neurons target skeletal muscles, the maintenance system of muscles is disturbed in ALS; however, the mecha...

  • Review
  • Open Access
204 Citations
25,027 Views
22 Pages

10 August 2015

Blueberries, besides having commonly-recognized taste properties, are also a valuable source of health-promoting bioactive compounds. For several decades, blueberries have gained in popularity all over the world, and recent years have seen not only...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
6,552 Views
19 Pages

Changes of the Cytoplasmic Proteome in Response to Alcoholic Hepatotoxicity in Rats

  • Dong Hwan Kim,
  • Eun-Mi Lee,
  • Sun-Hee Do,
  • Da-Hee Jeong and
  • Kyu-Shik Jeong

10 August 2015

Proteomic analyses have already been used in a number of hepatological studies and provide important information. However, few reports have focused on changes in the cytoplasmic proteome. The present study therefore aimed to evaluate changes in cytop...

  • Review
  • Open Access
130 Citations
14,805 Views
20 Pages

7 August 2015

Chitosan is widely used in molecular imprinting technology (MIT) as a functional monomer or supporting matrix because of its low cost and high contents of amino and hydroxyl functional groups. The various excellent properties of chitosan, which inclu...

  • Review
  • Open Access
67 Citations
12,101 Views
20 Pages

Overview of Nrf2 as Therapeutic Target in Epilepsy

  • Liliana Carmona-Aparicio,
  • Claudia Pérez-Cruz,
  • Cecilia Zavala-Tecuapetla,
  • Leticia Granados-Rojas,
  • Liliana Rivera-Espinosa,
  • Hortencia Montesinos-Correa,
  • Jacqueline Hernández-Damián,
  • José Pedraza-Chaverri,
  • Aristides III Sampieri and
  • Noemí Cárdenas-Rodríguez
  • + 1 author

7 August 2015

Oxidative stress is a biochemical state of imbalance in the production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and antioxidant defenses. It is involved in the physiopathology of degenerative and chronic neuronal disorders, such as epilepsy. Experime...

  • Article
  • Open Access
59 Citations
9,323 Views
16 Pages

The Essential Role of Vitellogenin Receptor in Ovary Development and Vitellogenin Uptake in Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel)

  • Lin Cong,
  • Wen-Jia Yang,
  • Xuan-Zhao Jiang,
  • Jin-Zhi Niu,
  • Guang-Mao Shen,
  • Chun Ran and
  • Jin-Jun Wang

7 August 2015

The vitellogenin receptor (VgR) functions as an essential component in uptaking and transporting vitellogenin (Vg) in female adults, which is involved in ovary development and oviposition. This study aimed to clarify the molecular characteristics and...

  • Article
  • Open Access
91 Citations
12,674 Views
12 Pages

7 August 2015

Regulation of melanogenesis has been the focus of treatment for hyperpigmentary skin disorders. Although hesperidin is one of the most well-known, naturally occurring flavonoids with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect, its anti-melanogenic effe...

  • Article
  • Open Access
34 Citations
10,272 Views
16 Pages

Permeability Study of Polyphenols Derived from a Phenolic-Enriched Hibiscus sabdariffa Extract by UHPLC-ESI-UHR-Qq-TOF-MS

  • Isabel Borrás-Linares,
  • María Herranz-López,
  • Enrique Barrajón-Catalán,
  • David Arráez-Román,
  • Isabel Gonzálezlvarez,
  • Marival Bermejo,
  • Alberto Fernández Gutiérrez,
  • Vicente Micol and
  • Antonio Segura-Carretero

7 August 2015

Previous findings on the capacity of Hibiscus sabdariffa (HS) polyphenols to ameliorate metabolic disturbances justify the necessity of studies oriented to find the potential metabolites responsible for such an effect. The present study examined the...

  • Article
  • Open Access
32 Citations
10,341 Views
27 Pages

Polymodal Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid (TRPV) Ion Channels in Chondrogenic Cells

  • Csilla Szűcs Somogyi,
  • Csaba Matta,
  • Zsofia Foldvari,
  • Tamás Juhász,
  • Éva Katona,
  • Ádám Roland Takács,
  • Tibor Hajdú,
  • Nóra Dobrosi,
  • Pál Gergely and
  • Róza Zákány

7 August 2015

Mature and developing chondrocytes exist in a microenvironment where mechanical load, changes of temperature, osmolarity and acidic pH may influence cellular metabolism. Polymodal Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid (TRPV) receptors are environmen...

  • Article
  • Open Access
25 Citations
7,941 Views
15 Pages

Identification of Hydroxyanthraquinones as Novel Inhibitors of Hepatitis C Virus NS3 Helicase

  • Atsushi Furuta,
  • Masayoshi Tsubuki,
  • Miduki Endoh,
  • Tatsuki Miyamoto,
  • Junichi Tanaka,
  • Kazi Abdus Salam,
  • Nobuyoshi Akimitsu,
  • Hidenori Tani,
  • Atsuya Yamashita and
  • Naohiro Noda
  • + 4 authors

7 August 2015

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an important etiological agent of severe liver diseases, including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The HCV genome encodes nonstructural protein 3 (NS3) helicase, which is a potential anti-HCV drug target because its...

  • Review
  • Open Access
20 Citations
13,852 Views
20 Pages

7 August 2015

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are a major cause of poor outcome, including placental abruption, organ failure, cerebrovascular accident and disseminated intravascular coagulation. These disorders are associated with increased fetal risk of intr...

  • Review
  • Open Access
80 Citations
20,300 Views
33 Pages

Functional Selectivity and Antidepressant Activity of Serotonin 1A Receptor Ligands

  • Zdzisław Chilmonczyk,
  • Andrzej Jacek Bojarski,
  • Andrzej Pilc and
  • Ingebrigt Sylte

7 August 2015

Serotonin (5-HT) is a monoamine neurotransmitter that plays an important role in physiological functions. 5-HT has been implicated in sleep, feeding, sexual behavior, temperature regulation, pain, and cognition as well as in pathological states incl...

  • Article
  • Open Access
22 Citations
7,355 Views
15 Pages

7 August 2015

This article studied the effects of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) on the potential of synovial fluid mesenchymal stem cells (SF-MSCs) to differentiate. The PRP and SF-MSCs were obtained from the blood and knees of pigs, respectively. The identification...

  • Article
  • Open Access
30 Citations
11,589 Views
22 Pages

7 August 2015

The susceptibility of soybean genotype to Agrobacterium infection is a key factor for the high level of genetic transformation efficiency. The objective of this study is to evaluate the plant factors related to transformation in cotyledonary nodes du...

  • Article
  • Open Access
33 Citations
7,792 Views
20 Pages

7 August 2015

SCM-198 is an alkaloid found only in Herba leonuri and it has been reported to possess considerable neuroprotective effects in animal models of ischemic stroke, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this study, we demonstrated for the...

  • Review
  • Open Access
124 Citations
23,568 Views
28 Pages

Mitochondria Retrograde Signaling and the UPRmt: Where Are We in Mammals?

  • Thierry Arnould,
  • Sébastien Michel and
  • Patricia Renard

6 August 2015

Mitochondrial unfolded protein response is a form of retrograde signaling that contributes to ensuring the maintenance of quality control of mitochondria, allowing functional integrity of the mitochondrial proteome. When misfolded proteins or unasse...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
6,110 Views
18 Pages

6 August 2015

Today, cancer is understood as an epigenetic as well as genetic disease. The main epigenetic hallmarks of the cancer cell are DNA methylation and histone modifications. Proteins such as histone deacetylases (HDACs) that cause modifications of histone...

  • Review
  • Open Access
37 Citations
9,277 Views
13 Pages

6 August 2015

Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, in which axonal transection takes place in parallel with acute inflammation to various, individual extents. The importance of the kynurenine pathway in the physiological fu...

  • Communication
  • Open Access
1 Citations
6,273 Views
10 Pages

Microwave-Induced Chemotoxicity of Polydopamine-Coated Magnetic Nanocubes

  • Khachatur Julfakyan,
  • Yevhen Fatieiev,
  • Shahad Alsaiari,
  • Lin Deng,
  • Alaa Ezzeddine,
  • Dingyuan Zhang,
  • Vincent M. Rotello and
  • Niveen M. Khashab

6 August 2015

Polydopamine-coated FeCo nanocubes (PDFCs) were successfully synthesized and tested under microwave irradiation of 2.45 GHz frequency and 0.86 W/cm2 power. These particles were found to be non-toxic in the absence of irradiation, but gained significa...

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Int. J. Mol. Sci. - ISSN 1422-0067