Cell Research Announces the Appointment of New Deputy Editor-in-chief

Cell Research is pleased to announce that Dr Dangsheng Li has been appointed as the new Deputy Editor-in-chief for our journal, starting March 2006. Dangsheng received his BS degree （in Cell Biology） from the University of Science and Technology of China, and obtained his PhD （in Molecular Biology） from Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences. After extensive postdoctoral training at New York University Medical Center, he joined Cell Press in 2004 to serve as an Associate Editor for the premium biology journal Cell. Dangsheng will be in charge of the scientific editing operations of Cell Research, working closely with our academic Editors, members of our Editorial Board, as well as our expert reviewers. Dangsheng shares our goals of developing and growing Cell Research, and we are extremely pleased to be able to appoint him to this position.     

Effects of feeder layer and BRL conditioned medium on mouse embryonic stem cells

In vitro growth and maintenance of embryonic stem (ES) cell lines derived from ICM cells of various blastocysts of 129 strain mice,the sustenance of their pluripotency and normal karyotype depend on the feeder layer of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF).Compared with the feeder layer of MEF cells,medium conditioned by Buffalo rat liver cells (BRL-CM) is able to maintain pluripotency and karyotypic normality of ES cells only in short term cell propagation.Besides,ES cells grown in BRL-CM are also capable of aggregation with 8-cell embryos of Swiss strain and develop into germ line chimaeras.Modification to the method of aggregating ES cells with early embryos by making a hole in agar layer on the top of MEF feeder cells was shown to be more converient and efficient than the conventional microdrop method.     

Molecular Characterization of Plant Prevacuolar and Endosomal Compartments

Prevacuolar compartments （PVCs） and endosomal compartments are membrane-bound organelles mediating protein traffic to vacuoles in the secretory and endocytic pathways of plant cells. Over the years, great progress has been made towards our understanding in these two compartments in plant cells. In this review, we will summarize our contributions toward the identification and characterization of plant prevacuolar and endosomal compartments. Our studies will serve as important steps in future molecular characterization of PVC biogenesis and PVC-mediated protein traffickinq in plant cells.     

Electron Tomography in Plant Cell Biology

This review focuses on the contribution of electron tomography-based techniques to our understanding of cellular processes in plant cells. Electron microscopy techniques have evolved to provide better three-dimensional resolution and improved preservation of the subcellular components. In particular, the combination of cryofixation/freeze substitution and electron tomography have allowed plant cell biologists to image organelles and macromolecular complexes in their native cellular context with unprecedented three-dimensional resolution （4-7 nm）. Until now, electron tomography has been applied in plant cell biology for the study of cytokinesis, Golgi structure and trafficking, formation of plant endosome/prevacuolar compartments, and organization of photosynthetic membranes. We discuss in this review the new insights that these tomographic studies have brought to the plant biology field.     

M16添加牛磺酸和EDTA支持昆明白小鼠体外受精并发育至囊胚

在以往研究工作的基础上证明了通过添加2.5mmol/L的牛磺酸和0.1mmol/L的EDTA至M16培养液中,可支持昆明白小鼠的体外受精（IVF）,并支持受精卵突破2－细胞阻滞发育至囊胚期。本研究进一步证明了牛磺酸和EDTA在昆明小鼠早期胚胎发育和克服2－细胞阻滞中起关键作用。 Abstract:The results of our early experiments show that the 2-cell block can be overcome by culturing zygote in modified M16 ,modified CZB and TE medium.Our research shows that the taurine and EDTA play key role in overcoming 2-cell block in Kunming mouse.The results show that the addition of taurine and EDTA to M16 medium can support the IVF and develoment to blastocyst in vitro in Kunming strain mice.This is the first report that M16 medium added with taurine and EDTA can be used in both IVF and culture medium to overcome the 2-cell block of embryo development in Kunming strain mouse.     

Recent progress on mechanisms of human cognition and brain disorders

正Human cognition plays a crucial role in our daily life. It enables us to perceive a constant influx of inputs, to memorize the scenarios, and to reason or decide their outcomes (Thagard, 2005). Abnormal cognitive function, which is usually involved in neurological and mental diseases, such as chronic pain, mood disorders, autism, dementia, often seriously deteriorates individuals’ life quality and brings inexhaustible social problems.     

Application of induced pluripotent stem cell and embryonic stem cell technology to the study of male infertility

Stem cells (SCs) are classes of undifferentiated biological cells existing only at the embryonic, fetal, and adult stages that can divide to produce specialized cell types during fetal development and remain in our bodies throughout life. The progression of regenerative and reproductive medicine owes the advancement of respective in vitro and in vivo biological science on the stem cell nature under appropriate conditions. The SCs are promising therapeutic tools to treat currently of infertility because of wide sources and high potency to differentiate. Nevertheless, no effective remedies are available to deal with severe infertility due to congenital or gonadotoxic stem cell deficiency in prepubertal childhood. Some recent solutions have been developed to address the severe fertility problems, including in vitro formation of germ cells from stem cells, induction of pluripotency from somatic cells, and production of patient‐specific pluripotent stem cells. There is a possibility of fertility restoration using the in vitro formation of germ cells from somatic cells. Accordingly, the present review aimed at studying the literature published on the medical application of stem cells in reproductive concerns.     

Neural Transplantation for Parkinson's Disease

1. Neural transplantation is one promising approach for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Fetal substantia nigra cells are a good source of dopamine, but in order to avoid ethical and immunological problems, adrenal medullary chromaffin cells have been investigated as an alternative source.2. Grafted adrenal medullary chromaffin cells can provide dopamine as well as several neurotrophic factors that affect dopaminergic neurons in the brain.3. We review experimental studies for application of neural transplantation techniques in Parkinson's disease, including immunological studies, cryopreservation, microvasculature, donor tissue, and direct gene delivery studies performed in our laboratory. Our clinical experience and new approach involving a polymer-encapsulated cell grafting procedure are also described.     

掷孢酵母及其应用研究进展

掷孢酵母是一类能够弹射孢子(称为掷孢子)的酵母菌,主要由Bullera属、Sporobolomyces属和Sporidiobolus属组成,该类酵母分布广泛。在实验室培养过程中多以芽殖、掷孢子以及菌丝状生长,Sporidiobolus属的菌株经配对能够形成有性孢子。分子生物学手段的开展使掷孢酵母各类群间的系统发育关系更加明确。本文结合本实验室的研究结果,阐述了掷孢酵母存在的细胞分化现象,并且推测细胞分化有助于菌体抵抗逆境。因此,掷孢酵母可以作为一种潜在的模式生物对抗逆机制进行探究。在食品和环境问题备受瞩目的今天,掷孢酵母以其可自身积累酯类、色素、酶类等有益代谢产物的特点,及治理污染物特性越来越受到人们的关注。     

Redox biology in normal cells and cancer: Restoring function of the redox/Fyn/c-Cbl pathway in cancer cells offers new approaches to cancer treatment

This review discusses a unique discovery path starting with novel findings on redox regulation of precursor cell and signaling pathway function and identification of a new mechanism by which relatively small changes in redox status can control entire signaling networks that regulate self-renewal, differentiation, and survival. The pathway central to this work, the redox/Fyn/c-Cbl (RFC) pathway, converts small increases in oxidative status to pan-activation of the c-Cbl ubiquitin ligase, which controls multiple receptors and other proteins of central importance in precursor cell and cancer cell function. Integration of work on the RFC pathway with attempts to understand how treatment with systemic chemotherapy causes neurological problems led to the discovery that glioblastomas (GBMs) and basal-like breast cancers (BLBCs) inhibit c-Cbl function through altered utilization of the cytoskeletal regulators Cool-1/βpix and Cdc42, respectively. Inhibition of these proteins to restore normal c-Cbl function suppresses cancer cell division, increases sensitivity to chemotherapy, disrupts tumor-initiating cell (TIC) activity in GBMs and BLBCs, controls multiple critical TIC regulators, and also allows targeting of non-TICs. Moreover, these manipulations do not increase chemosensitivity or suppress division of nontransformed cells. Restoration of normal c-Cbl function also allows more effective harnessing of estrogen receptor-α (ERα)-independent activities of tamoxifen to activate the RFC pathway and target ERα-negative cancer cells. Our work thus provides a discovery strategy that reveals mechanisms and therapeutic targets that cannot be deduced by standard genetics analyses, which fail to reveal the metabolic information, isoform shifts, protein activation, protein complexes, and protein degradation critical to our discoveries.     

人体肠道细菌群落与疾病

肠道定植有100万亿细菌,这占到了人体细菌总量的绝大多数。一旦肠道菌群失调,就会产生一系列疾病。本文介绍了人体肠道细菌群落异常与5种肠道疾病和5种肠道外疾病的关系,并推荐用益生菌和益生素来治疗人体肠道细菌群落异常。为了解人体肠道细菌群落和人体健康的关系,美国国立卫生研究院已启动了人类微生物组计划,欧洲委员会也正在资助人类肠道宏基因组学项目,而中国在此项目中亦取得了可喜进步。基于肠道宏基因组的个体化医疗时代已不再遥远。     

Adhesion,proliferation, and differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells on RGD nanopatterns of varied nanospacings

The present report is an extension of our preceding publication in Biomaterials (2013) entitled “Effect of RGD nanospacing on differentiation of stem cells.” Cell-adhesive peptide arginine-glycine-aspartate (RGD) was nanopatterned on a non-fouling poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogel, and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from rat bone marrow were cultured on the patterned surfaces at nanospacings from 37 to 124 nm. Cell adhesion parameters such as spreading areas varied with RGD nanospacings significantly. The differences were well observed at both the first and eighth days, which confirmed the persistence of this nanospacing effect on our nanopatterns. The proliferation rate also varied with the nanospacings. Osteogenic and adipogenic inductions were undertaken, and a significant influence of RGD nanospacing on stem cell differentiation was found. The effect on differentiation cannot be simply interpreted by differences in cell adhesion and proliferation. We further calculated the fractions of single, coupled, and multiple cells on those nanopatterns, and ruled out the possibility that the extent of cell-cell contact determined the different differentiation fractions. Accordingly, we reinforced the idea that RGD nanospacing might directly influence stem cell differentiation.     

成体干细胞研究进展

近年来由于成体干细胞研究技术的突破 ,成体干细胞的多向分化潜能日益为人们所关注。尤其“横向分化”的发现 ,不仅更新了对成体干细胞的传统认识 ,而且为其临床疾病治疗奠定了基础。介绍了成体干细胞的特点及分化潜能 ,并对其临床应用作了概括性讨论。     

Stem cells and regenerative medicine

Stem cells have been defined as clonogenic cells that undergo both self-renewal and differentiation to more committed progenitors and functionally specialized mature cells. Of late years, stem cells have been identified in a variety of tissues of an adult body. Depending on the source, they have the potential to form one or more, or even all cell types of an organism. Stem cell research provided some outstanding contributions to our understanding of developmental biology and offered much hope for cell replacement therapies overcoming a variety of diseases. The establishment of human ES cell lines enabled us to generate all tissues we comprise. Recently, excitement has been evoked by the controversial evidence that adult stem cells have a much higher degree of developmental plasticity than previously imagined. More recently, the existence of multipotent somatic stem cells in bone marrow has been reported. Combined with these discoveries and achievements as well as the developing technologies, scientists are now trying to bring stem cell therapies to the clinic.     

Seaweed cultivation: Methods and problems

This paper presents an overview of the state of the art in global seaweed cultivation. It describes methodological approaches and main cultivation methods and discusses different problems arising during the application of these methods. One of the major problems is the negative effect of large-scale monoculture of seaweeds on natural benthic biocenoses. We express our views on how to tackle the most acute problems of macroalgal farming on the basis of our own data and data from other authors. The sustainable use of natural monodominant seaweed communities is shown to be preferable to mariculture. A detailed analysis is given of various mariculture models and the latest achievements in the integrated farming of seaweeds, fish, crustaceans, and mollusks.     

Self- and non-self-recognition in bisexual mating of Dictyostelium discoideum

Cell recognition plays a central part in the sexual process. Although cell-surface molecules involved in gamete recognition have been identified in several organisms, our knowledge of the molecular basis of sexual cell recognition is still limited. We have been studying molecular mechanisms of sexual cell fusion using the lower eukaryote Dictyostelium discoideum . There are homothallic, heterothallic, bisexual and asexual strains in D. discoideum , and how they distinguish between each other to find out proper partners is an interesting and important question. However, analytical studies of sexuality in D. discoideum have been carried out mostly on heterothallic strains, and the polymorphism of the mating system has not yet been thoroughly investigated. In the present study, we extended our analysis to the bisexual mating phenomenon paying special attention to the mechanism of self-incompatibility. We showed that a bisexual strain WS2162 was self-incompatible at the step of sexual cell fusion. Results of antibody inhibition of cell fusion and detection of gp138, a cell-fusion-related protein found in heterothallic strains, suggest that a molecular basis for bisexual and heterothallic mating are common. We propose two models to clarify the mechanisms of self- and non-self discrimination in bisexual mating patterns of D. discoideum .