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Response Of Monovalent Cation Transporters To Pro-Apoptotic Protein Kinase C Modulators In Human Lens Epithelial Cells, Michael Anthony Lepera

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Protein kinase inhibition by staurosporine causes apoptotic volume decrease involving potassium (K) channels in immortalized human B3 lens epithelial cells (LECs). Here, the effect of two pro-apoptotic protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors [12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) and chelerythrine (CET)] were studied on membrane K transport in a fetal human LEC line (FHL124) by western blotting, immunofluorescence, ion flux, ATP, apoptosis, and biotinylation assays. Long term TPA exposure (0-6 h) inhibited 75% of Na-K-2Cl cotransport (NKCC). In contrast, short term (0-20 min) exposure to 50 μM CET reduced Na/K pump and NKCC by >90% and >70%, respectively, without retrieval from the membrane into …

Differentiation Of Megakaryocytes/Platelets And Neurons From Human Endometrial Stromal Progenitor Cells, Jinju Wang

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Human endometrium is a high dynamic tissue that contains stem/progenitor cells. These endometrial stromal progenitor cells (hESCs) have been differentiated into a number of mesodermal lineages. There is limited information on differentiating hESCs into neurons, and no information on differentiating hESCs into megakaryocytes (MKs) and platelets (PLTs). The aim of this work was to investigate the possibility of differentiating hESCs into two distinct lineages: MKs, with subsequent PLT formation, and neurons.

We isolated hESCs from human endometrial tissue and cultured the cells for 4-6 passages. Before each differentiation experiment, the purity of hESCs was confirmed by flow cytometry analysis which …