Macrophage Regulation of Muscle Regrowth From Disuse in Aging

This murine model combines a septic insult with hindlimb muscle disuse to recapitulate the bedridden feature of the typical septic patient. The model represents a significant departure from previous models to study muscle dysfunction in sepsis and is a reproducible approach to addressing therapeutic strategies to treat this...

Presented here is a protocol to quantify and produce dynamic images of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) mediated regulation of macrophage (MΦ) phagocytosis of non-opsonized yeast (zymosan) particles that are conjugated to a pH-sensitive fluorescent...

This protocol describes a robust, reproducible and simple method of isolation and culture of myoblast progenitor cells from the skeletal muscle of adult and aged people. The muscles used here include foot and leg muscles. This approach enables the isolation of an enriched population of primary myoblasts for functional...

This video demonstrates an assay to study mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) regulation of macrophage phagocytosis in a co-culture. Upon co-culturing MSC with macrophages, non-opsonized zymosan particles conjugated to a pH-sensitive fluorophore are added to be phagocytosed by the macrophages. With the increase in phagocytosis, the fluorescence intensity rises, allowing the determination of MSC-mediated regulation of phagocytic...

Tissues are maintained through a balance of cellular aging and regeneration. Aging refers to the gradual loss of cellular function, and regeneration is the repair of damaged tissue generally mediated by preexisting adult or somatic stem cells. Scientists are interested in understanding the biological mechanisms behind these two complex processes. By doing so, researchers may be able to use somatic stem cells to treat degenerative diseases and develop therapies that could delay the effects of...

Master transcription regulators are regulatory proteins that are predominantly responsible for regulating the expression of multiple genes. Often these genes work in concert to drive a  complex process. Activation of a master transcription regulator can lead to a cascade of transcriptional activation necessary for that outcome. These regulators can directly bind to the regulatory sequences of the various genes involved, or they can indirectly regulate transcription by binding to regulatory...