Histophysiology of the immune system of Wistar rats at delayed terms after ovariectomy

The effect of a mesenchymal stem cell conditioned medium fraction on morphological characteristics of hepatocytes in acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure: a preliminary study

Background: In our studies, it was shown that the effectiveness of the conditioned medium obtained by cultivating mesenchymal stem cells depends on the microenvironment conditions used to cultivate the cells. It was demonstrated that the conditioned medium obtained by culturing cells with low oxygen content (10%) has a much more pronounced protective effect.

Methods: Protein compositions obtained from MSCs cultured under hypoxic (10% O₂ hc-MSC) and normal (21% O₂ nc-MSC) conditions were used to treat acute liver failure (ALF) induced in mice by acetaminophen injection. Thus, we obtained fractions normalized by volume, which predominantly contained proteins with masses > 50, 50-30, 30-10, and 10-3 kDa.

Results: The data from biochemical studies have shown that only fractions from 10 to 30 kDa (hcMSC and ncMSC) significantly reduced the level of liver enzymes in the beginning of the acute period after acetaminophen administration. Mass spectrometry analysis of the proteins contained in the isolated fractions showed a sharp increase in the protein levels in the 10-30 kDa hcMSC fraction as compared with that in 10-30 kDa ncMSCs. The composition obtained from MSCs cultured at lower O₂ level (fraction 10-30 kDa hcMSC) was shown to be more potent than the composition prepared from normoxic cells.

Conclusion: The results have shown that a composition obtained by culturing the cells under a reduced content of O₂ (10%), significantly improves the biochemical parameters, and histological arrester reduces the degree of inflammation and stimulates regenerative processes in liver, compared to both the control group and group treated with the composition that was obtained by culturing the cells under normal oxygen content.

Profiling analysis of 17β-estradiol-regulated lncRNAs in mouse thymic epithelial cells

Thymus is the primary organ for T cell differentiation and maturation. Many studies have demonstrated that estrogen plays a crucial role in thymic epithelial cell (TEC) proliferation during thymic involution. LncRNAs are involved in various biological processes; however, estrogen-mediated lncRNA expression in TECs has not been yet reported. To address this question, the mouse medullary thymic epithelial cell line 1 (MTEC1) was treated with 17β-estradiol (E2). By using CCK8 assay and flow cytometry, we found that E2 was able to inhibit viability and proliferation of MTEC1 cells. The expression profiles of lncRNAs in MTEC1 cells with or without E2 treatment were then measured by RNA-Seq, and a total of 962 lncRNAs and 2,469 mRNAs were shown to be differentially expressed. The reliability of RNA-Seq was confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR. Correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the potential function of lncRNAs. According to gene ontology (GO) analysis, differentially expressed lncRNAs were mainly related to cell proliferation, cell cycle and cell apoptosis. KEGG pathway analysis indicated that these lncRNAs were associated with several pathways, namely immunological activity, metabolism and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction. In conclusion, our study provided a novel direction for studying the relationship between lncRNAs and E2 in the thymus.