American Research Journal of Biosciences

Full thickness skin defects and its treatments are fields where new critical challenges remain unsolved. Recent discoveries on the therapeutic application of human umbilical cord derived exosomes (hUCMSCs) provides a new scope into facilitating the wound healing effect. Beyond an effective loading, a natural hydrogel is further employed by multiple studies. It is proved to extend the bioactivity of the exosomes and also to contribute the antibacterial and antioxidant effect using hydrogel. The combination of hydrogel and hUCMSCs might provide synergy benefits. Herein, we established a biocompatible, thermos-sensitive chitosan β-glycero-phosphate (CS/GP) hydrogel enclosing hUCMSCs which is performed on rat cutaneous wound sites. The material preparation and characterization, exosome derivation and characterization, and in vivo wound healing study are examined in this paper. The in vivo study demonstrates the effect of exosome and hydrogel as effective wound-healing promoters individually, implied by a faster and higher wound reduction rate. The study also shows that the effect of hydrogel loaded with exosome proves to need more clarifications and investigations to maximize their influence on wound sites healing

Abstract:Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most malignant types of cancer. It is characterized by insidious onset, aggressive tumor growth, and early metastasis. Advances in treatment strategies are critically needed. In this research project, it is hypothesized that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in Chromosome 17 may play a role in the development and progression of metastatic pancreatic cancer.Method: Blood samples from a total of 229 individuals were previously collected from various clinical cohorts, including patients with primary pancreatic cancer (n=61), metastatic pancreatic cancer (n=47), as well as healthy control (n=121). DNA sequencing in Chromosome 17 from all the samples was also obtained previously. The research work started by obtaining a source database from the National Library of Medicine. The bioinformatics analysis programs Binary Variant Call Format (BCFtools), Sequences Alignment Map Tools (SAMtools), and Burrows-Wheeler Aligner (BWA) were then downloaded and used to analyze and sort the sequences into data tables. Finally, the Entrez Molecular Sequence Database system was used to identify mutations found as SNPs.Results: 153 mutations were identified. Among them, 10 SNPs were unique and frequent to the metastasized pancreatic cancer samples studied. Specifically, 87-94% of the samples from the metastasized pancreatic cancer patients carry at least one of these 10 SNPs, whereas none of these SNPs were identified in the primary pancreatic cancer patients or in the control.Conclusion: Overall, the finding may provide insight into the mutations that spur the growth and spread of pancreatic cancer cells, and may help inform the future development of new cancer treatments.