Prevention of chemotherapy-induced premature ovarian insufficiency in mice by scaffold-based local delivery of human embryonic stem cell-derived mesenchymal progenitor cells

BACKGROUND

Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is one of the most serious side effects of chemotherapy in young cancer survivors. It may not only reduce fecundity but also affect lifelong health. There is no standard therapy for preserving ovarian health after chemotherapy. Recently, administration of embryonic stem cell-derived mesenchymal progenitor cells (ESC-MPCs) has been considered a new therapeutic option for preventing POI. However, the previous method of directly injecting cells into the veins of patients exhibits low efficacy and safety. This study aimed to develop safe and effective local delivery methods for the prevention of POI using two types of bioinspired scaffolds.

METHODS

Female mice received intraperitoneal cisplatin for 10 days. On day 11, human ESC-MPCs were delivered through systemic administration using intravenous injection or local administration using intradermal injection and intradermal transplantation with a PLGA/MH sponge or hyaluronic acid (HA) gel (GEL) type of scaffold. PBS was injected intravenously as a negative control. Ovarian function and fertility were evaluated 4 weeks after transplantation. Follicle development was observed using hematoxylin and eosin staining. The plasma levels of sex hormones were measured using ELISA. Expression levels of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) and ki-67 were detected using immunostaining, and the quality of oocytes and embryos was evaluated after in vitro fertilization. The estrous cycles were observed at 2 months after transplantation.

RESULTS

The local administration of human ESC-MPCs using the bioinspired scaffold to the backs of mice effectively prolonged the cell survival rate in vivo. The HA GEL group exhibited the best recovered ovarian functions, including a significantly increased number of ovarian reserves, estrogen levels, and AMH levels and decreased apoptotic levels. Furthermore, the HA GEL group showed improved quality of oocytes and embryos and estrous cycle regularity.

CONCLUSIONS

HA GEL scaffolds can be used as new delivery platforms for ESC-MPC therapy, and this method may provide a novel option for the clinical treatment of chemotherapy-induced POI.

A Pilot Clinical Study of Ocular Prosthesis Fabricated by Three-dimensional Printing and Sublimation Technique

Purpose

We sought to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of patient-specific ocular prostheses produced by three-dimensional (3D) printing and the sublimation technique. A comparison with prostheses produced using manual manufacturing methods was then performed.

Methods

To confirm the biological and physiochemical safety, cytotoxicity, systemic acute toxicity, intradermal reaction, and skin sensitization tests were conducted according to the International Organization for Standardization guidelines. The compressive strength of the prostheses was also tested. Further, a case series of three patients who wore the 3D printed prostheses for more than eight hours daily for 4 weeks was executed. Self-assessments by these individuals using a questionnaire and safety evaluations focusing on the occurrence of conjunctival inflammation or allergic reactions according to the Cornea and Contact Lens Research Unit criteria by slit-lamp examination and similarity assessment were completed.

Results

The 3D printed ocular prostheses met the necessary qualifications per the biological and physiochemical safety tests, showing the absence of cytotoxicity, acute systemic toxicity, intradermal reactivity, and skin-sensitizing potency. Also, there was no difference in strength test results between previous ocular prostheses and the 3D printed ones. Self-assessment by the patients yielded satisfactory results, with no significant difference in the level of satisfaction reported for the 3D printed and previous handmade ocular prostheses. The 3D printed prosthesis did not trigger any side effects in the conjunctival sac and showed similar objective findings with respect to the color of the iris, sclera, and vessel patterns.

Conclusions

Our study confirms the biologic and physiochemical safety of 3D-printed ocular prostheses created using computer-aided design technology and a sublimation technique. The patients’ questionnaires and the judgment of the ophthalmologists/ocularists showed that the 3D printed ocular prosthesis was acceptable in function and appearance through a case series report.

Semi-automated fabrication of customized ocular prosthesis with three-dimensional printing and sublimation transfer printing technology

An ocular prosthesis is a custom-made polymeric insert that can be placed in an anophthalmic socket for cosmetic rehabilitation of patients who have lost their eyes. The process of creating such a custom-made ocular prosthesis is time-consuming and labor-intensive because it involves artistic work that is carried out manually. This paper proposes a novel semi-automated method for fabricating customized ocular prostheses using three-dimensional (3D) printing and sublimation transfer printing. In the proposed method, an impression mold of the patient's anophthalmic socket is first optically scanned using a 3D scanner to produce a 3D model. The ocular prosthesis is then produced via a digital light processing 3D printer using biocompatible photopolymer resin. Subsequently, an image of the iris and blood vessels of the eye is prepared by modifying a photographed image of the contralateral normal eye, and printed onto the 3D-printed ocular prosthesis using a dye sublimation transfer technique. Cytotoxicity assessments of the base material and fabricated ocular prosthesis indicate that there is no adverse effect on cellular viability and proliferation. The proposed method reduces the time and skill required to fabricate a customized ocular prosthesis, and is expected to provide patients with easier access to quality custom-made ocular prostheses.

Shellac Films as a Natural Dielectric Layer for Enhanced Electron Transport in Polymer Field-Effect Transistors

Shellac, a natural polymer resin obtained from the secretions of lac bugs, was evaluated as a dielectric layer in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) on the basis of donor (D)-acceptor (A)-type conjugated semiconducting copolymers. The measured dielectric constant and breakdown field of the shellac layer were ∼3.4 and 3.0 MV/cm, respectively, comparable with those of a poly(4-vinylphenol) (PVP) film, a commonly used dielectric material. Bottom-gate/top-contact OFETs were fabricated with shellac or PVP as the dielectric layer and one of three different D-A-type semiconducting copolymers as the active layer: poly(cyclopentadithiophene- alt-benzothiadiazole) with p-type characteristics, poly(naphthalene-bis(dicarboximide)- alt-bithiophene) [P(NDI2OD-T2)] with n-type characteristics, and poly(dithienyl-diketopyrrolopyrrole- alt-thienothiophene) [P(DPP2T-TT)] with ambipolar characteristics. The electrical characteristics of the fabricated OFETs were then measured. For all active layers, OFETs with a shellac film as the dielectric layer exhibited a better mobility than those with PVP. For example, the mobility of the OFET with a shellac dielectric and n-type P(NDI2OD-T2) active layer was approximately 2 orders of magnitude greater than that of the corresponding OFET with a PVP insulating layer. When P(DPP2T-TT) served as the active layer, the OFET with shellac as the dielectric exhibited ambipolar characteristics, whereas the corresponding OFET with the PVP dielectric operated only in hole-accumulation mode. The total density of states was analyzed using technology computer-aided design simulations. The results revealed that compared with the OFETs with PVP as the dielectric, the OFETs with shellac as the dielectric had a lower trap-site density at the polymer semiconductor/dielectric interface and much fewer acceptor-like trap sites acting as electron traps. These results demonstrate that shellac is a suitable dielectric material for D-A-type semiconducting copolymer-based OFETs, and the use of shellac as a dielectric layer facilitates electron transport at the interface with D-A-type copolymer channels.

The water extract of Samultang protects the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA)-induced damage and nitric oxide production of C6 glial cells via down-regulation of NF-kappaB

Samultang has been traditionally used for treatment of ischemic heart and brain diseases in oriental medicine. However, little is known about the mechanism by which Samultang rescues the myocardial and neuronal cells from ischemic damage. This study was designed to evaluate whether the water extract of Samultang may modulate the production of nitric oxide (NO) in LPS and PMA treated-C6 glial cells to protect the cells from NO-induced cytotoxicity. C6 glial cells treated with both LPS and PMA significantly produced a large amount of NO compared to untreated, PMA, or LPS-treated cells. In parallel with NO production, cotreatment of LPS and PMA induced the severe apoptotic death of C6 glial cells. However, Samultang significantly reduced both cell death and NO production by LPS/PMA in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, the modulatory effects of Samultang on LPS/PMA-induced cytotoxicity and NO production could be mimicked by exogenous treatments of N(G)MMA, a nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor, and pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC), a strong NF-kappaB inhibitor. Treatment of C6-glial cells with LPS/PMA induced the transcriptional activation of NF-kappaB, which was markedly inhibited by Samultang. Taken together, we suggest that the protective effects of Samultang against LPS/PMA-induced cytotoxicity may be mediated by the suppression of NO synthesis via down-regulation of NF-kappaB activation.