Journal: Brain : a journal of neurology

Article Title: Connexin43 mimetic peptide reduces vascular leak and retinal ganglion cell death following retinal ischaemia.

doi: 10.1093/brain/awr338

Figure Lengend Snippet: Figure 3 Three hours of hypoxia and 6 h of reperfusion lead to significant endothelial cell death in vitro in rat brain microvascular endothelial cells (RBMVEC; A). Non-specific gap junction blocker carbenoxolone, non-specific hemichannel blocker LaCl3, and connexin43 (Cx43) mimetic peptide protected endothelial cells against hypoxic injury, with the number of viable cells significantly higher than no treatment, while scrambled peptide did not have any protective effects. The number of viable cells was expressed as percentage of the control without hypoxia. Hypoxia and reperfusion also lead to significant propidium iodide dye uptake into primary rat brain microvascular endothelial cells indicating open hemichannels (B). Carbenoxolone, LaCl3 and connexin43 mimetic peptide significantly prevented dye uptake compared to no treatment, indicating hemichannel closure, while scrambled peptide did not have any effect. Stars denote statistical significance when compared to the control group or compared between groups in brackets; P 5 0.05.

Article Snippet: Rat brain microvascular endothelial cells (R840K-05a, Cell Applications) were plated into 24-well plates (1 105 cells/well) in rat brain microvascular endothelial cell growth media (R819K-500, Cell Applications) and allowed to settle for 16 h. Medium was then removed and replaced with Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium/F12 containing 0.5% foetal bovine serum and 1% glutamine.

Techniques: In Vitro, Control

Journal: Scientific Reports

Article Title: Inducing an LCST in hydrophilic polysaccharides via engineered macromolecular hydrophobicity

doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-41947-z

Figure Lengend Snippet: Phase separated dextran solution exhibited negligible cytotoxicity to human dermal fibroblasts. ( a ) Schematic demonstration of the setup of in vitro cell culture in the presence of phase separated Dex-MA solution, where red represents phase-separated microdomains in solution and green corresponds to attached HDFs. ( b ) Phase contrast microscope image of cells and phase separated Dex-MA (Mw: 86 kDa, f = 88%) in PBS (pH ~ 7.4) solution after seeding at 10 mg/mL concentration. ( c ) Fluorescence confocal microscope images of live/dead assay of HDF cells cultured with and without Dex-MA in DMEM media, where green color represents live cells and red color represents dead cells. ( d ) The bar plot compares cell viability in DMEM media containing Dex-MA to the control group. ( e ) Confocal microscope image of HDF cells cultured in the presence of phase-separated Dex-MA solutions in DMEM media and DMEM media without Dex-MA (control); stained with Hoechst (gray), Ki67 (green) and phalloidin (magenta), respectively. Scale bars: 100 µm.

Article Snippet: Human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs, passage ~ 7–9, Lonza, Basel, Switzerland) were cultured in fully supplemented Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM) (Lonza, Basel, Switzerland).

Techniques: In Vitro, Cell Culture, Microscopy, Concentration Assay, Fluorescence, Live Dead Assay, Control, Staining