Extreme fetal growth is associated with increased susceptibility to a range of adult diseases through an unknown mechanism of cellular memory. We tested whether heritable epigenetic processes in long-lived CD34(+) haematopoietic stem/progenitor cells showed evidence for re-programming associated with the extremes of fetal growth. Here we show that both fetal growth restriction and over-growth a...

background: β-thalassemia considers worldwide public health disorders. novel fetal hemoglobin inducer agents such as thalidomide and sodium butyrate have been attended for ameliorating clinical complications of such disorders. material and methods: we used thalidomide and sodium butyrate for increasing the level of fetal hemoglobin in erythroid progenitors. briefly, after isolation of cd133+ st...

in the last century, neural stem cells are used in a lot of studies for basic and therapeutic investigations. several sources are identified for neural stem cells including embryonic, fetal and adult stem cells. although most of studies have focused in embryonic as well as fetal cells due to their capacity to generate progenies, these cells have some problems such as immunological, availability...

Background Vitamin A-storing hepatic stellate cells (HSC) are mainly known for their contribution to fibrogenesis in chronic liver disease, but their identity and function in normal liver remained unclear. Since HSC possess stem/ progenitor cell characteristics [1] their contribution to stem cell-associated functions in the liver was investigated. Stem cell functions in the liver were reported ...

The equilibrium between proliferation and quiescence of myogenic progenitor and stem cells is tightly regulated to ensure appropriate skeletal muscle growth and repair. The non-receptor tyrosine phosphatase Ptpn11 (Shp2) is an important transducer of growth factor and cytokine signals. Here we combined complex genetic analyses, biochemical studies and pharmacological interference to demonstrate...

stem cells, the last of which can be obtained from fetal tissues, including amniotic fluid [5]. Analyses of human amniotic fluid have been used as safe and reliable screening tools for fetal genetic and congenital diseases for many years [6]. Amniotic fluid contains cells originating from both embryonic and extraembryonic tissues (amnion, placenta, fetus skin, and respiratory, gastrointestinal,...

During prenatal development the liver is composed of multiple cell types with unique properties compared to their adult counterparts. We aimed to establish multilineage cultures of human fetal liver cells that could maintain stem cell and progenitor populations found in the developing liver. An aim of this study was to test if maturation of fetal hepatocytes in short-term cultures supported by ...

Analysis of historical age-specific colorectal cancer rates, present day age-specific colonic adenoma prevalence and the few reports of direct measurements of genetic change in human tissues as a function of age in adults have led to a new set of hypotheses about carcinogenesis. A key observation, that the calculated rate of growth of preneoplasia is equal to the calculated growth rate of the j...

BACKGROUND Human induced pluripotent stem cells offer perspectives for cell therapy and research models for diseases. We applied this approach to the normal and pathological erythroid differentiation model by establishing induced pluripotent stem cells from normal and homozygous sickle cell disease donors. DESIGN AND METHODS We addressed the question as to whether these cells can reach comple...