BACKGROUND Under compromised biliary regeneration, transdifferentiation of hepatocytes into biliary epithelial cells (BEC) has been previously observed in rats, upon exposure to BEC-specific toxicant methylene dianiline (DAPM) followed by bile duct ligation (BDL), and in patients with chronic biliary liver disease. However, mechanisms promoting such transdifferentiation are not fully understood...

INTRODUCTION Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) could accomplish neural transdifferentiation with the presence of certain growth factors in vitro. It has been proved that bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) can realize neural transdifferentiation only by being co-cultured with Schwann cells (SCs), and in our former studies we have confirmed that ADSCs could do so too. This paper aims to investiga...

Muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) are multipotent stem cells with a remarkable long-term self-renewal and regeneration capacity. Here, we show that postnatal MDSCs could be transdifferentiated into Schwann cell-like cells upon the combined treatment of three neurotrophic factors (PDGF, NT-3 and IGF-2). The transdifferentiation of MDSCs was initially induced by Schwann cell (SC) conditioned medi...

OBJECTIVE Accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and remodeling of the microstructure of the cusp characterize aortic valve sclerosis, the early phase of calcific aortic valve disease. These events are associated with activation of valvular interstitial cells (VICs) toward an osteogenic-like phenotype. Because ROS cause DNA damage and transcriptional activation we investigated the relati...

PURPOSE Extracellular matrix and the cytokine TGF-β influence scar formation in an interdependent fashion. In this study, the impact of extracellular matrix elasticity on TGF-β-induced signal transduction and myofibroblast transdifferentiation was examined. METHODS Primary human tenon fibroblasts were seeded on collagen-coated glass coverslips (rigid environment) or collagen or polyacrylamide...

Cell transdifferentiation is characterized by loss of some phenotypes along with acquisition of new phenotypes in differentiated cells. Differentiated cells are endowed with the capacity of transforming into cells of a different type having other functions (1,2). Gene expression in differentiated cells has long been considered an irreversible phenomenon that is established at the time of replic...

Background: Bone marrow stromal stem cells (BMSC) are appropriate source of multipotent stem cells that are ideally suited for use in various cell-based therapies. It can be differentiated into neuronal-like cells under appropriate conditions. This study examined the effectiveness of co-stimulation of creatine and retinoic acid in increasing the differentiation of BMSC into GABAergic neuron-lik...

Our current understanding of cellular transdifferentiation systems is limited. It is oftentimes unknown, at a genome-wide scale, how much transdifferentiated cells differ quantitatively from both the starting cells and the target cells. Focusing on transdifferentiation of primary human skin fibroblasts by forced expression of myogenic transcription factor MyoD, we performed quantitative analyse...

Transdifferentiation has been described as a novel method for converting human fibroblasts into induced cardiomyocyte-like cells. Such an approach can produce differentiated cells to study physiology or pathophysiology, examine drug interactions or toxicities, and engineer cardiac tissues. Here we describe the transdifferentiation of human dermal fibroblasts towards the cardiac cell lineage via...