StemCells Therapy

Mercury-Caused Endocrine Conditions Causing Widespread Adverse Health Effects, Cognitive Effects, and Fertility Effects B.Windham(Ed.)http://www.home.earthlink.net/~berniew1/endohg.html Introduction.As will be documented in this paper, the majority of the population receives significant mercury exposures and significant adverse health effects are common. Mercury has been found to be an endocrine system disrupting chemical in animals and people, disrupting function of [...]

Even high-end perfumes are made with cocktails of dangerous and untested chemicals that may produce problems from allergies to hormone disruption, a study by the Environmental Working Group and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has found. The Federal Fair Packaging and Labeling Act of 1973 explicitly exempts manufacturers of cosmetics and personal care products from [...]

Therapy with sodium phenylacetate/benzoate or sodium phenylbutyrate in urea cycle disorder patients has been associated with a selective reduction in branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) in spite of adequate dietary protein intake. Based on this clinical observation, we investigated the potential of phenylbutyrate treatment to lower BCAA and their corresponding -keto acids (BCKA) in patients with [...]

The survival of motor neuron (SMN) protein is essential for cytoplasmic assembly of spliceosomal snRNPs. Although the normal proportion of endogenous snRNAs is unevenly altered in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) tissues, the biogenesis of individual snRNPs is not dramatically affected in SMN-deficient cells. The SMN protein is also required for normal Cajal body (CB) formation, [...]

Central corneal thickness (CCT) is a risk factor of glaucoma, the most common cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. The identification of genetic determinants affecting CCT in the normal population will provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the association between CCT and glaucoma, as well as the pathogenesis of glaucoma itself. We conducted two genome-wide association [...]

Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder caused by expanded polyglutamine repeats in the huntingtin (Htt) protein. Mutant Htt may damage and kill striatal neurons by a mechanism involving reduced production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and increased oxidative and metabolic stress. Because electroconvulsive shock (ECS) can stimulate the production of BDNF and protect [...]

Understanding how the epigenetic blueprint of the genome shapes human phenotypes requires systematic evaluation of the complex interplay between gene activity and the different layers of the epigenome. Utilizing microarray-based techniques, we explored the relationships between DNA methylation, DNA replication timing and gene expression levels across a variety of human tissues and cell lines. The [...]

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the most common genetic disease leading to infant mortality. This neuromuscular disorder is caused by the loss or mutation of the telomeric copy of the ‘survival of motor neuron’ (Smn) gene, termed SMN1. Loss of SMN1 leads to reduced SMN protein levels, inducing degeneration of motor neurons (MN) and progressive [...]

Selenoprotein N (SelN) deficiency causes a group of inherited neuromuscular disorders termed SEPN1-related myopathies (SEPN1-RM). Although the function of SelN remains unknown, recent data demonstrated that it is dispensable for mouse embryogenesis and suggested its involvement in the regulation of ryanodine receptors and/or cellular redox homeostasis. Here, we investigate the role of SelN in satellite [...]

X chromosome inactivation (XCI) is an essential epigenetic process which involves several non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), including Xist, the master regulator of X-inactivation initiation. Xist is flanked in its 5′ region by a large heterochromatic hotspot, which contains several transcription units including a gene of unknown function, Ftx (five prime to Xist). In this article, we [...]

Mutations in the gene encoding the catalytic subunit of the cone photoreceptor phosphodiesterase (PDE6C) have been recently reported in patients with autosomal recessive inherited achromatopsia (ACHM) and early-onset cone photoreceptor dysfunction. Here we present the results of a comprehensive study on PDE6C mutations including the mutation spectrum, its prevalence in a large cohort of ACHM/cone [...]

Mammalian circadian rhythms are synchronized to the external time by daily resetting of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in response to light. As the master circadian pacemaker, the SCN coordinates the timing of diverse cellular oscillators in multiple tissues. Aberrant regulation of clock timing is linked to numerous human conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, various [...]

Historically, our understanding of molecular genetic aspects of human germ cell development has been limited, at least in part due to inaccessibility of early stages of human development to experimentation. However, the derivation of pluripotent stem cells may provide the necessary human genetic system to study germ cell development. In this study, we compared the [...]

It is commonly stated that microtubules gradually disintegrate as tau becomes dissociated from them in tauopathies such as Alzheimer’s disease. However, there has been no compelling evidence to date that such disintegration is due to depolymerization of microtubules from their ends. In recent studies, we have shown that neurons contain sufficient levels of the microtubule-severing [...]

Loss-of-function mutations in dysferlin cause muscular dystrophy, and dysferlin has been implicated in resealing membrane disruption in myofibers. Given the importance of membrane fusion in many aspects of muscle function, we studied the role of dysferlin in muscle growth. We found that dysferlin null myoblasts have a defect in myoblast–myotube fusion, resulting in smaller myotubes [...]

M1 macrophages play a major role in worsening muscle injury in the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. However, mdx muscle also contains M2c macrophages that can promote tissue repair, indicating that factors regulating the balance between M1 and M2c phenotypes could influence the severity of the disease. Because interleukin-10 (IL-10) modulates macrophage activation [...]