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Applied Sciences
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Cell Biology: Latest Advances and Prospects
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Cell Biology: Latest Advances and Prospects

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Biosciences and Bioengineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 5320

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mihail S. Chervenkov

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Guest Editor
Department Anatomy, Physiology And Animal Sciences, University of Forestry, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria
Interests: cytology; histology; embryology
Dr. Darin Zerti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy
Interests: retina; neurodegeneration; neuroprotection; retinal pigment epithelium; retinal function; age related macular degeneration; retinal organoids; hESCs; iPSCs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Elena N. Stoyanova

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Molecular Biology, Institute of Biology and Immunology of Reproduction, Acad. “Kiril Bratanov”, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria
Interests: medicinal plants; secondary metabolites production; natural products for cancer treatment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The medicine of the future is personalized, artificially intelligent, safer, and more efficient. Stem cells are among the important players in the development of personalized regenerative medicine. Stem cells (embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, and adult stem cells) are isolated from various tissues and organs using diverse protocols that affect their abilities to self-renew and differentiate. An in-depth understanding of the practical aspects of stem cell isolation, in vitro maintenance, and characterization is needed for the development of effective stem-cell-based therapies.

In this Special Issue, our goal is to bring together research and review articles that demonstrate the recent progress in fundamental and applied studies on stem cells.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Opportunities and challenges in using stem cells in vivo and in vitro
  • Techniques for the isolation and characterization of human and animal stem cells
  • Three-dimensional stem cell culture systems
  • Stem cells in disease modeling
  • Applications of stem cells and/or their exosomes in medicine (dentistry, orthopedics, cardiology, neurology, wound healing, endocrinology, etc.)

Dr. Mihail S. Chervenkov
Dr. Darin Zerti
Dr. Elena N. Stoyanova
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • stem cells
  • disease modeling
  • stem cell culture systems
  • regenerative medicine

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

29 pages, 3694 KiB  
Article
Enhanced Detection of Mitochondrial Heteroplasmy and DNA Hypomethylation in Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Using a Novel Adaptive Sampling Protocol
by Antonina Gospodinova, Yuliia Mariienko, Diana Pendicheva-Duhlenska, Soren Hayrabedyan and Krassimira Todorova
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(11), 5822; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15115822 - 22 May 2025
Abstract
Objective: Mitochondria drive cellular energy production and regulate key biological processes. High levels of heteroplasmic in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variants can cause mitochondrial dysfunction and clinical symptoms. Third-generation sequencing overcomes the limitations of traditional mtDNA analysis methods, offering improved cost, throughput, and sensitivity. [...] Read more.
Objective: Mitochondria drive cellular energy production and regulate key biological processes. High levels of heteroplasmic in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variants can cause mitochondrial dysfunction and clinical symptoms. Third-generation sequencing overcomes the limitations of traditional mtDNA analysis methods, offering improved cost, throughput, and sensitivity. We developed an integrated approach for analyzing methylation patterns and genetic variations in mtDNA and ADME genes. Methods: We implemented Oxford Nanopore’s long-read sequencing with adaptive sampling (AS) to enrich enzymatically linearized mtDNA and absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) genes without PCR amplification, enabling native sequencing in adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AdMSC). Our custom algorithm preserved phase relationships between base modifications and sequence polymorphisms. Results: We identified differential methylation patterns in ADME genes correlating with specific genetic variants, suggesting epigenetic regulation of drug response. Adaptive sampling identifies a wider range of variant diversity, while whole genome sequencing (WGS) uncovers higher-frequency hotspots. Both methods offer complementary insights into mitochondrial heteroplasmy. In mtDNA, direct sequencing showed extensive hypomethylation, and low levels of non-CpG methylation were detected regardless of sequencing coverage depth. These sparse methylation patterns showed non-random distribution, correlating with functional regions and heteroplasmic sites. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the utility of adaptive sampling for the integrated analysis of mtDNA heteroplasmy and native base modifications, revealing widespread hypomethylation independent of coverage depth. The approach showcases the potential for combined pharmacoepigenomic and mitochondrial profiling in precision medicine, disease modeling, and therapeutic development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cell Biology: Latest Advances and Prospects)
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15 pages, 2909 KiB  
Article
Hematopoietic Stem Cells of Bone Marrow and Their Total RNA in Rat Liver Regeneration
by Nina Onishchenko, Murat Shagidulin, Zalina Gonikova, Alla Nikolskaya, Ludmila Kirsanova, Artem Venediktov, Ksenia Pokidova, Egor Kuzmin, Natalia Kuznetsova, Igor Kozlov, Dmitry Telyshev, Natalia Kartashkina, Viacheslav Varentsov, Maria Timofeeva, Victor Sevastjanov, Andrei Elchaninov, Gennadii Piavchenko and Sergey Gautier
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(7), 3782; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15073782 - 30 Mar 2025
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Abstract
Hematopoietic stem cells derived from bone marrow are known to induce tissue repair. Their mechanisms to induce liver regeneration are not clear and may have numerous adverse effects. We compared the regenerative potential of intact hematopoietic stem cells (iHSCs), their total RNA, and [...] Read more.
Hematopoietic stem cells derived from bone marrow are known to induce tissue repair. Their mechanisms to induce liver regeneration are not clear and may have numerous adverse effects. We compared the regenerative potential of intact hematopoietic stem cells (iHSCs), their total RNA, and apoptotic hematopoietic stem cells (aHSCs) in liver damage. Male Wistar rats (n = 40 per group) experienced a 75% liver resection and received single intraperitoneal injections of saline (control group), iHSCs, aHSCs, or total RNA of iHSCs. We recorded animal survival, liver mass, blood markers of liver cell lysis and function (albumin, aminotransferases, alkaline phosphatase), and liver histological features: mitotic index and expression of markers for proliferation and apoptosis (caspase-9, caspase-3, and Ki-67). We assessed the survival with the log-rank test and used Wilcoxon and t tests for the other parameters. Animals of all HSC- or RNA-treated groups survived until the end of the experiment with full blood marker recovery (p = 0.037). The liver mass enlarged mostly after apoptotic hematopoietic stem cells and total RNA. Mitotic index peaked in the group of total RNA with a lower but earlier increase for the aHSC group, and Ki-67 proliferation for the total RNA group was the highest (all the differences were significant with p values ˂ 0.05). We found the aHSCs and total RNA of iHSC group to be the most efficient for liver reparation. Total RNA from HSCs is preferred for further liver regeneration studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cell Biology: Latest Advances and Prospects)
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16 pages, 28105 KiB  
Article
Mesenchymal Stromal/Stem Cells Isolated by Explant Culture Method from Wharton’s Jelly and Subamnion Possess Similar Biological Characteristics
by Snejana Kestendjieva, Mihail Chervenkov, Tsvetelina Oreshkova, Milena Mourdjeva and Elena Stoyanova
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(17), 8036; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14178036 - 8 Sep 2024
Viewed by 4205
Abstract
Human umbilical cord (UC) is an attractive source of mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine due to its easy availability, non-invasive procedure of collection, and no ethical concerns. The aim of this study was to isolate MSCs from the [...] Read more.
Human umbilical cord (UC) is an attractive source of mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine due to its easy availability, non-invasive procedure of collection, and no ethical concerns. The aim of this study was to isolate MSCs from the Wharton’s jelly (WJ) and subamnion (SA) from the same umbilical cord by an optimized explant method, and to compare the morphology, proliferation, and stemness properties of the MSCs from both sources. Cells from the WJ and SA of six umbilical cords were characterized by flow cytometry, differentiation capacity and proliferation assays, immunofluorescence staining, and RT-PCR. The optimized explant method was successfully used to isolate WJ-MSCs and SA-MSCs. The MSCs from both sources showed similar patterns of growth kinetics, adipogenic and osteogenic potential, and the expression of pluripotency markers (OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, and SSEA-4). The current findings support the usage of the optimized explant method to generate a relatively homogenous population of MSCs from Wharton’s jelly and subamnion, which can facilitate the reproducibility of the results from experimental and practical applications of the obtained cells. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cell Biology: Latest Advances and Prospects)
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