Pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells (PHSC) are very rare cells whose functional capabilities can only be analyzed indirectly. For a better understanding and possible manipulation of mechanisms that regulate self-renewal and commitment to differentiation of PHSC, it is necessary to purify these cells and to develop assays for their growth in vitro. In the present study, a rapid and simple, wide...

Pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells (PHSC) are rare cells capable of multilineage differentiation, long-term reconstituting activity and extensive self-renewal. Such cells are the logical targets for many forms of corrective gene therapy, but are poor targets for retroviral mediated gene transfer owing to their quiescence, as retroviral transduction requires that the target cells be cycling. T...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES There is evidence that the passage of nociceptive information through the posterior horn of the spinal cord (PHSC) on its way to rostral levels of the central nervous system undergoes profound excitatory and inhibitory influences. The objective of the present study was to compare the effects of the subarachnoid administration of methysergide, phentolamine, and phentola...

The acidic skin surface pH (pHSS) plays a crucial role in the maintenance of a vital stratum corneum (SC) and an intact epidermal barrier. However, ageing affects the pH of the skin, both pHSS and the pH of the stratum corneum (pHSC). The purpose of this article is to review the physiological function of skin pH and the effects of an age-related increase of skin pH. Moreover, the consequences f...

The transcription factors SCL/Tal-1 and AML1/Runx1 control the generation of pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells (pHSC) and, thereby, primitive and definitive hematopoiesis, during embryonic development of the mouse from mesoderm. Thus, Runx1-deficient mice generate primitive, but not definitive hematopoiesis, while Tal-1-deficient mice are completely defective. Primitive as well as definitive...

The number of CD34+ cells in the peripheral blood of cancer patients is known to be increased following the administration of high dose chemotherapy and hematopoietic growth factors. These so-called peripheral blood stem cell grafts are now frequently used for autologous transplantation of patients with malignancies. In this report, we address the question of whether true long-term repopulating...

BACKGROUND Symptoms description is often not enough to provide clinicians with guidelines for treatments and patients' clinical history does not represent an exhaustive source of data. Psychopathological dysfunctions are known to relate to the core disturbances that underlie different forms of psychopathology so the identification of such dysfunctions could be helpful for treatments. Some tools...