Browse Articles

The Potential of Fibroblast Growth Factors to Stimulate Hair Growth In Vitro

Cheng et al. | Nov 07, 2021

The Potential of Fibroblast Growth Factors to Stimulate Hair Growth In Vitro

Identifying treatments that can stimulate hair growth use could help those struggling with undesirable hair loss. Here, the authors show that Fibroblast Growth Factors can stimulate the division of cells isolated from the mouse hair follicle. Their results suggest that this family of growth factors might be helpful in stimulating hair growth in living animals as well.

Read More...

Effects of vascular normalizing agents on immune marker expression in T cells, dendritic cells, and melanoma cells

Yaskolko et al. | Nov 03, 2021

Effects of vascular normalizing agents on immune marker expression in T cells, dendritic cells, and melanoma cells

Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) are lymph node-like structures that form at sites of inflammation, and their presence in cancer patients is predictive of a better clinical outcome. One significant obstacle to TLS formation is reduced immune cell infiltration into the tumor microenvironment (TME). Recent studies have shown that vasculature normalizing (VN) agents may override this defect to improve tissue perfusion and increased immune cell entry into the TME. However, their effects on immune cell and tumor cell phenotype remain understudied. Here the authors investigate whether treating tumor cells with VN would reduce their immunosuppressive phenotype and promote production of chemokine that recruit immune cells and foster TLS formation.

Read More...

Albuterol extends lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans

Belkin et al. | Oct 19, 2021

Albuterol extends lifespan of <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i>

The objective of this experiment is to determine if the medication albuterol has a positive impact on the lifespan of C. elegans. We hypothesize that if albuterol is added to the diet of C. elegans, then the lifespan of C. elegans will increase. Albuterol increased the mean lifespan of C. elegans by 4.31 ± 0.13 days, compared to the control group and increased the outer range of the C. elegans lifespan. The method of which this occurred is still unknown.

Read More...

Strain-selective in vitro and in silico structure activity relationship (SAR) of N-acyl β-lactam broad spectrum antibiotics

Poosarla et al. | Oct 19, 2021

Strain-selective <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in silico</i> structure activity relationship (SAR) of N-acyl β-lactam broad spectrum antibiotics

In this study, the authors investigate the antibacterial efficacy of penicillin G and its analogs amoxicillin, carbenicillin, piperacillin, cloxacillin, and ampicillin, against four species of bacteria. Results showed that all six penicillin-type antibiotics inhibit Staphylococcus epidermidis, Escherichia coli, and Neisseria sicca with varying degrees of efficacy but exhibited no inhibition against Bacillus cereus. Penicillin G had the greatest broad-spectrum antibacterial activity with a high radius of inhibition against S. epidermidis, E. coli, and N. sicca.

Read More...

The analysis of the antimicrobial benefits of Populus balsamifera

Breen et al. | Sep 22, 2021

The analysis of the antimicrobial benefits of <em>Populus balsamifera</em>

In this study, the authors investigated the antimicrobial properties of the tree species, Populus balsamifera. It was observed that the extract of the buds of P. balsamifera was highly effective against gram-positive bacteria. This helps to indicate the potential use of P. balsamifera in the medical field to eliminate gram-positive bacteria.

Read More...