Topic Review
Treatment for Preterm Brain Injury
With a worldwide incidence of 15 million cases, preterm birth is a major contributor to neonatal mortality and morbidity, and concomitant social and economic burden Preterm infants are predisposed to life-long neurological disorders due to the immaturity of the brain. The risks are inversely proportional to maturity at birth. In the majority of extremely preterm infants (<28 weeks’ gestation), perinatal brain injury is associated with exposure to multiple inflammatory perinatal triggers that include antenatal infection (i.e., chorioamnionitis), hypoxia-ischemia, and various postnatal injurious triggers (i.e., oxidative stress, sepsis, mechanical ventilation, hemodynamic instability).
  • 464
  • 15 Nov 2022
Topic Review Video
Transgenerational-Epigenetic Inheritance and Immune System
Epigenetic modifications cause heritable changes in gene expression which are not due to alterations in underlying DNA sequence. Inside the eukaryotic nucleus, there is condense packing of DNA around histone proteins to constitute chromatin structure. Epigenetic modifications are caused by factors that alter chromatin structure. Some epigenetic factors are enzymes that regulate DNA methylation and histone modifications, non-coding RNA, and prions. An offspring inherits parental epigenetic modifications but most of them are deleted and reset during early developmental stages. Some epigenetic modifications are retained and persist across multiple generations. If any epigenetic modification is the result of a stimulus or immune response in one generation, such that the modification continues to be inherited in subsequent generations which are not subjected to the stimulus; and the inheritance continues beyond the 3rd generation in the female germline and 2nd generation in male, then the phenomenon is called transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TGEI). This entry is focused on a review which discusses some examples of TGEI that are reported in association with  immune system development and disorders.
  • 637
  • 22 May 2021
Topic Review
Transcriptional and Post-Transcriptional Regulation of Autophagy
Autophagy is a widely conserved process in eukaryotes that is involved in a series of physiological and pathological events, including development, immunity, neurodegenerative disease, and tumorigenesis. It is regulated by nutrient deprivation, energy stress, and other unfavorable conditions through multiple pathways. In general, autophagy is synergistically governed at the RNA and protein levels. The upstream transcription factors trigger or inhibit the expression of autophagy- or lysosome-related genes to facilitate or reduce autophagy. Moreover, a significant number of non-coding RNAs (microRNA, circRNA, and lncRNA) are reported to participate in autophagy regulation. Finally, post-transcriptional modifications, such as RNA methylation, play a key role in controlling autophagy occurrence.
  • 367
  • 11 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Toxicological Impact of Rare Earth Elements (REEs)
Scientific evidence shows that exposure to lanthanides triggers a wide variety of toxic insults from reproductive performance to fertilization, redox metabolism, embryogenesis and regulation of embryonic gene expression. This was thoroughly demonstrated for gadolinium, the most widespread lanthanide widely used in diagnostic medicine, whose uptake in sea urchin embryos occurs in a time- and concentration-dependent manner, correlates with decreased calcium absorption and primarily affects skeletal growth, with incorrect regulation of the skeletal gene regulatory network. The results collected on sea urchin embryos demonstrate a variable sensitivity of the early life stages of different species, highlighting the importance of testing the effects of pollution in different species.
  • 393
  • 21 Mar 2022
Topic Review
The Mitotic Spindle
During cell division, the mitotic spindle, a macromolecular structure primarily comprised of microtubules, drives chromosome alignment and partitioning between daughter cells. Mitotic spindles can sense cellular dimensions in order to adapt their length and mass to cell size.
  • 1.7K
  • 29 Jan 2022
Topic Review
The Impact of Hormesis upon Clinical Aging
Digital information technology is placing an increased cognitive load on our neurons. This enriched environment, provides ‘information-that-requires-action’, which acts through hormesis and activates the neuronal stress response. As a result, human neurons are under continual pressure to maintain themselves. Thus, repair resources must be allocated preferentially to the neuron, at the expense of the germline, through the bidirectional cross-talk between neuron vs germline. The result of this hormetic cognitive stress may be a reduction of age-related degeneration, which lasts indefinitely, with a corresponding reduction in reproduction.
  • 111
  • 11 Sep 2023
Topic Review
The Double Homeobox Gene
The double homeobox (Dux) gene, encoding a double homeobox transcription factor, is one of the key drivers of totipotency in mice. Recent studies showed Dux was temporally expressed at the 2-cell stage and acted as a transcriptional activator during zygotic genome activation (ZGA) in embryos. A similar activation occurs in mouse embryonic stem cells, giving rise to 2-cell-like cells (2CLCs). Though the molecular mechanism underlying this expanded 2CLC potency caused by Dux activation has been partially revealed, the regulation mechanisms controlling Dux expression remain elusive.
  • 623
  • 17 Feb 2022
Topic Review
The Divergent Pluripotent in Mouse and Human Cells
Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), which can self-renew and give rise to all cell types in all three germ layers, have great potential in regenerative medicine. Studies have shown that PSCs can have three distinct but interrelated pluripotent states: naive, formative, and primed. The PSCs of each state are derived from different stages of the early developing embryo and can be maintained in culture by different molecular mechanisms.
  • 320
  • 02 Sep 2022
Topic Review
The ABC Model of Happiness
Happiness is a feeling, an immediate experience, not a cognitive construct. It is based on activity in the brain’s neurobiological reward and motivation systems, which have been retained in evolution.
  • 870
  • 01 Jul 2022
Topic Review
The “3Ds” of Growing Kidney Organoids
A kidney organoid is a three-dimensional (3D) cellular aggregate grown from stem cells in vitro that undergoes self-organization, recapitulating aspects of normal renal development to produce nephron structures that resemble the native kidney organ. These miniature kidney-like structures can also be derived from primary patient cells and thus provide simplified context to observe how mutations in kidney-disease-associated genes affect organogenesis and physiological function.
  • 708
  • 17 Feb 2023
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