• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
• /
• 제35권1호
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2011

Techniques to evaluate gene expression profiling, such as sufficiently sensitive cDNA microarrays or real-time quantitative PCR, are efficient methods for monitoring human pluripotent stem cell (hESC/iPSC) cultures. However, most of these high-throughput tests have a limited use due to high cost, extended turn-around time, and the involvement of highly specialized technical expertise. Hence, there is an urgency of rapid, cost-effective, robust, yet sensitive method development for routine screening of hESCs/hiPSCs. A critical requirement in hESC/hiPSC cultures is to maintain a uniform undifferentiated state and to determine their differentiation capacity by showing the expression of gene markers representing all three germ layers, including ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. To quantify the modulation of gene expression in hESCs/hiPSC during their propagation, expansion, and differentiation via embryoid body (EB) formation, we developed a simple, rapid, inexpensive, and definitive multimarker, semiquantitative multiplex RT-PCR platform technology. Among the 9 gene primers tested, 5 were pluripotent markers comprising set 1, and 3 lineage-specific markers were combined as set 2, respectively. We found that these 2 sets were not only effective in determining the relative differentiation in hESCs/hiPSCs, but were easily reproducible. In this study, we used the hES/hiPS cell lines to standardize the technique. This multiplex RT-PCR assay is flexible and, by selecting appropriate reporter genes, can be designed for characterization of different hESC/hiPSC lines during routine maintenance and directed differentiation.

• Molecular Medicine Reports
• /
• 제20권4호
• /
• pp.3709-3718
• /
• 2019

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is characterized by recurrent pancreatic injury, resulting in inflammation and fibrosis. Currently, there are no drugs for the treatment of pancreatic fibrosis associated with CP. Piperine, a natural alkaloid found in black pepper, has been reported to show anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, and antitumor activities. Although piperine exhibits numerous properties in regards to the regulation of diverse diseases, the effects of piperine on CP have not been established. To investigate the effects of piperine on CP in vivo, we induced CP in mice through the repetitive administration of cerulein (50 ㎍/kg) six times at 1-h intervals, 5 times per week, for a total of 3 weeks. In the pre-treatment groups, piperine (1, 5, or 10 mg/kg) or corn oil were administrated orally at 1 h before the first cerulein injection, once a day, 5 times a week, for a total of 3 weeks. In the post-treatment groups, piperine (10 mg/kg) or corn oil was administered orally at 1 or 2 week after the first cerulein injection. Pancreases were collected for histological analysis. In addition, pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) were isolated to examine the anti-fibrogenic effects and regulatory mechanisms of piperine. Piperine treatment significantly inhibited histological damage in the pancreas, increased the pancreatic acinar cell survival, reduced collagen deposition and reduced pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. In addition, piperine treatment reduced the expression of fibrotic mediators, such as α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), collagen, and fibronectin 1 in the pancreas and PSCs. Moreover, piperine treatment reduced the production of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β in the pancreas and PSCs. Furthermore, piperine treatment inhibited TGF-β-induced pSMAD2/3 activation but not pSMAD1/5 in the PSCs. These findings suggest that piperine treatment ameliorates pancreatic fibrosis by inhibiting TGF-β/SMAD2/3 signaling during CP.

• International Journal of Stem Cells
• /
• 제10권1호
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 2017

Human cardiomyocytes (CMs) cease to proliferate and remain terminally differentiated thereafter, when humans reach the mid-20s. Thus, any damages sustained by myocardium tissue are irreversible, and they require medical interventions to regain functionality. To date, new surgical procedures and drugs have been developed, albeit with limited success, to treat various heart diseases including myocardial infarction. Hence, there is a pressing need to develop more effective treatment methods to address the increasing mortality rate of the heart diseases. Functional CMs are not only an important in vitro cellular tool to model various types of heart diseases for drug development, but they are also a promising therapeutic agent for cell therapy. However, the limited proliferative capacity entails difficulties in acquiring functional CMs in the scale that is required for pathological studies and cell therapy development. Stem cells, human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) in particular, have been considered as an unlimited cellular source for providing functional CMs for various applications. Notable progress has already been made: the first clinical trials of hPSCs derived CMs (hPSC-CMs) for treating myocardial infarction was approved in 2015, and their potential use in disease modeling and drug discovery is being fully explored. This concise review gives an account of current development of differentiation, purification and maturation techniques for hPSC-CMs, and their application in cell therapy development and pharmaceutical industries will be discussed with the latest experimental evidence.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• 제87권1호
• /
• pp.52-64
• /
• 2024

Chronic respiratory diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and respiratory infections injure the alveoli; the damage evoked is mostly irreversible and occasionally leads to death. Achieving a detailed understanding of the pathogenesis of these fatal respiratory diseases has been hampered by limited access to human alveolar tissue and the differences between mice and humans. Thus, the development of human alveolar organoid (AO) models that mimic in vivo physiology and pathophysiology has gained tremendous attention over the last decade. In recent years, human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have been successfully employed to generate several types of organoids representing different respiratory compartments, including alveolar regions. However, despite continued advances in three-dimensional culture techniques and single-cell genomics, there is still a profound need to improve the cellular heterogeneity and maturity of AOs to recapitulate the key histological and functional features of in vivo alveolar tissue. In particular, the incorporation of immune cells such as macrophages into hPSC-AO systems is crucial for disease modeling and subsequent drug screening. In this review, we summarize current methods for differentiating alveolar epithelial cells from hPSCs followed by AO generation and their applications in disease modeling, drug testing, and toxicity evaluation. In addition, we review how current hPSC-AOs closely resemble in vivo alveoli in terms of phenotype, cellular heterogeneity, and maturity.

• Electronic Materials Letters
• /
• 제14권6호
• /
• pp.712-717
• /
• 2018

In this letter, we have introduced copper chloride ($CuCl_2$) as an additive in the $CH_3NH_3PbI_3$ precursor solution to improve the surface morphology and crystallinity of $CH_3NH_3PbI_3$ films in a single solvent system. Our optimized perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with 2.5 mol% $CuCl_2$ additive showed best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.22%. The PCE of the PSCs fabricated by $CuCl_2$ (2.5 mol%) additive engineering was 56% higher than the PSC fabricated with pristine $CH_3NH_3PbI_3$.

• International Journal of Stem Cells
• /
• 제15권1호
• /
• pp.95-103
• /
• 2022

Background and Objectives: In recent years, brain organoid technologies have been the most innovative advance in neural differentiation research. In line with this, we optimized a method to establish cerebral organoids from feeder-free cultured human pluripotent stem cells. In this study, we focused on the consistent and robust production of cerebral organoids comprising neural progenitor cells and neurons. We propose an optimal protocol for cerebral organoid generation that is applicable to both human embryonic stem cells and human induced pluripotent stem cells. Methods and Results: We investigated formation of neuroepithelium, neural tube, and neural folding by observing the morphology of embryoid bodies at each stage during the cerebral organoid differentiation process. Furthermore, we characterized the cerebral organoids via immunocytochemical staining of sectioned organoid samples, which were prepared using a Cryostat and Vibratome. Finally, we established a routine method to generate early cerebral organoids comprising a cortical layer and a neural progenitor zone. Conclusions: We developed an optimized methodology for the generation of cerebral organoids using hESCs and hiPSCs. Using this protocol, consistent and efficient cerebral organoids could be obtained from hiPSCs as well as hESCs. Further, the morphology of brain organoids could be analyzed through 2D monitoring via immunostaining and tissue sectioning, or through 3D monitoring by whole tissue staining after clarification.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국진공학회 2014년도 제46회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
• /
• pp.484.1-484.1
• /
• 2014

Bulk hetero junction (BHJ) polymer solar cells (PSCs) are one of the most promising fields as alternative energy source. Especially, the development of new p-type conjugated polymer is one of the main issues to get core technology. In this study, a series of varied ratio of 3,6-carbazole in poly[9-(heptadecan-9-yl)-9H-carbazole-2,7-diyl-alt-(5,6-bis-(octyloxy)-4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)benzo-[1,2,5]-thia-diazole)-5,5-diyl] were designed and synthesized. These polymers have good solubility and film formability than PCDTBT which is well known promising material. Investigation of the photovoltaic properties of these new polymers indicated that polymer with 2% of 3,6-carbazole provided higher PCE (3.8% to 4.9%) with enhanced JSC, FF, VOC. We found origin of this improvement using several methods, one of which is reduced bimolecular recombination in polymer.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• 제35권4호
• /
• pp.1098-1104
• /
• 2014

New electron deficient acceptor-acceptor-acceptor type of monomer unit composed of weak electron accepting benzimidazole and relatively strong electron accepting benzothiadiazole derivatives namely 4,7-bis(6-bromo-1-(2-ethylhexyl)-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (BBB) was synthesized. The Stille polycondensation of the newly synthesized BBB monomer with electron donating 2,6-bis(trimethyltin)-4,8-bis(2-ethylhexyloxy)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene (BDT) afforded donor-acceptor-acceptor-acceptor type of polymer namely 2,6-(4,8-bis(2-ethylhexyloxy)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene)-alt-4,7-bis(1-(2-ethylhexyl)-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (PBDTBBB). The opto-electrical studies revealed that the absorption band of PBDTBBB appeared in the range of 300 nm-525 nm and its highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels were positioned at -5.18 eV and -2.84 eV, respectively. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the polymer solar cell (PSC) prepared from PBDTBBB:PC71BM (1:2 wt %) blend was 1.90%.

• International Journal of Stem Cells
• /
• 제17권3호
• /
• pp.253-269
• /
• 2024

Pancreas serves endocrine and exocrine functions in the body; thus, their pathology can cause a broad range of irreparable consequences. Endocrine functions include the production of hormones such as insulin and glucagon, while exocrine functions involve the secretion of digestive enzymes. Disruption of these functions can lead to conditions like diabetes mellitus and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Also, the symptoms and causality of pancreatic cancer very greatly depends on their origin: pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is one of the most fatal cancer; however, most of tumor derived from endocrine part of pancreas are benign. Pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreatic tissues, is caused by excessive alcohol consumption, the bile duct obstruction by gallstones, and the premature activation of digestive enzymes in the pancreas. Hereditary pancreatic diseases, such as maturity-onset diabetes of the young and hereditary pancreatitis, can be a candidate for disease modeling using human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), due to their strong genetic influence. hPSC-derived pancreatic differentiation has been established for cell replacement therapy for diabetic patients and is robustly used for disease modeling. The disease modeling platform that allows interactions between immune cells and pancreatic cells is necessary to perform in-depth investigation of disease pathogenesis.

• 공업화학
• /
• 제24권4호
• /
• pp.396-401
• /
• 2013

Benzo[1,2,5]thiadiazole, carbazole 및 phenanthrene을 기본 골격으로 한 교대공중합체인 poly[9-(2-octyl-dodecyl)-9H-carbazole-alt-4,7-di-thiophen-2-yl-benzo[1,2,5]thiadiazole] (PCD20TBT)와 poly[9,10-bis-(2-octyl-dodecyloxy)-phenanthrene-alt-4,7-di-thiophen-2-yl-benzo[1,2,5]thiadiazole] (PN40TBT)을 Suzuki coupling reaction을 이용하여 중합하였다. 합성한 고분자들은 chloroform, chlorobenzene, 1,2-dichlorobenzene, tetrahydrofuran, toluene과 같은 유기용매에 대한 용해도가 우수하였다. PCD20TBT의 최대흡수 파장과 밴드갭은 각각 535 nm와 1.75 eV이고, PN40TBT의 최대흡수 파장과 밴드갭은 각각 560 nm과 1.97 eV이었다. PCD20TBT의 HOMO 및 LUMO 에너지준위는 각각 - 5.11 eV와 - 3.36 eV이고, PN40TBT의 HOMO 및 LUMO 에너지준위는 각각 -5.31 eV와 -3.34 eV이었다. 합성한 고분자와 (6)-1-(3-(methoxycarbonyl)-{5}-1-phenyl[5,6]-fullerene(PCBM)을 1:2의 중량비로 블랜딩하여 제작한 이종접합형태(bulk heterojunction) 태양전지를 제작하였다. PCD20TBT의 광전변환효율은 0.52%, PN40TBT의 광전변환효율은 0.60%이었다. 그리고 소자의 단락 전류밀도, 충진 인자와 개방전압은 PCD20TBT가 각각 $-1.97mA/cm^2$, 38.2%, 0.69 V이며, PN40TBT의 경우 각각 $-1.77mA/cm^2$, 42.9%, 0.79 V이었다.