Contents of total Hg and Hg fraction, organic matter, pH, grain size and chemical composition were measured to investigate the pollution characteristics and binding behavior of Hg in soils collected from the Chatian Hg mining deposit (CMD), southwestern China. The average concentration of Hg concentration in the CMD soils was 155 and 1,315 times higher than that in control soils and Chinese soi...

PURPOSE To compare the regenerative potential of cultured oral mucosal epithelial cells sheets (COMECs) from Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) subjects with those from non-SJS subjects. METHODS Human oral mucosal epithelial cells from SJS and non-SJS subjects were cultured, and colony-forming efficiency (CFE), proliferative and migration potential, expression of cytokines/growth factors and stem...

Observations in thyroid patients and experimental animals show that the skin is an important target for the thyroid hormones. We previously showed that deletion in mice of the thyroid hormone nuclear receptors TRα1 and TRβ (the main thyroid hormone-binding isoforms) results in impaired epidermal proliferation, hair growth, and wound healing. Stem cells located at the bulges of the hair follicle...

In Mexico, the bdemocratization of natural assetsQ through an agrarian reform process laid the territorial foundation for the establishment of a large community forest sector. The common property regime and agrarian policies established by the Mexican Revolution also created a common form of governance for all of rural Mexico. Concepts from common property theory and social and natural capital ...

OBJECTIVE To define a population-level cohort of individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the province of British Columbia from available registries and administrative datasets using a validated case-finding algorithm. METHODS Individuals were identified for possible cohort inclusion from the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (CfE) drug treatment program (antiret...

Occupational exposure to airborne nickel is associated with an elevated risk for respiratory tract diseases including lung cancer. Therefore, the increased production of Ni-containing nanoparticles necessitates a thorough assessment of their physical, chemical, as well as toxicological properties. The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the characteristics of nickel metal (Ni) and ...

PURPOSE Because of a shortage of fresh corneal tissue for research, it was of interest to investigate the potential of successfully isolating human limbal epithelial cells (hLECs) from organ culture corneal-scleral (OCCS) rims. METHODS Superficial segments of corneal limbus were dissected and digested using collagenase (0.5 mg/mL, 16 hours at 37 °C). Cell suspensions were separated into four ...

PURPOSE To investigate methods of isolating putative corneal epithelial stem cells from cultured limbal tissue. METHODS Three extraction techniques were compared to identify an efficient method of obtaining a large number of viable corneal epithelial stem cells from the limbus. Limbal tissues were extracted by incubation at 37 degrees C or 4 degrees C for 1 or 16 hours, respectively, with 1.2...

Inorganic arsenic is a well-known human skin carcinogen. Chronic arsenic exposure results in various types of human skin lesions, including squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). To investigate whether mutant stem cells participate in arsenic-associated carcinogenesis, we repeatedly exposed the HaCaT cells line to an environmentally relevant level of arsenic (0.05 ppm) in vitro for 18 weeks. Following ...