69

Under a high magnification of 8000X, this scanning electron micrograph (SEM) revealed some of the ultrastructural morphology displayed by red blood cells (RBCs) in a blood specimen of a 6 year old male patient that has sickle cell with hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (S-HPFH). In these individuals, the presence of the persistent fetal hemoglogin reduces the severity of the consequences of the sickle cell disease, thereby, reducing the degree of cellular deformity, i.e., sickling, seen in the sickled cells.

Courtesy: CDC Public Health Image Library

43

Triple exposure of rat glia culture (400x) using fluorescent photomicroscopy. 

Glial cells, or neuroglia, are a major category of cells in the nervous system. In the central nervous system they include astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, microglia, and ependymal cells; in the peripheral nervous system, they include satellite cells, and Schwann cells. Broadly, these cells function in the development and repair of neurons, myelination, and they maintain structural integrity of the nervous system.

Read an earlier post on the Schwann cells, oligodendrocytes, and the process of myelination here.

Photo Credit: Nancy Kedersha, via the Nikon Small World Competition Gallery

128

laboratoryequipment:

Kinase Inhibitors Speed the Development of Stem Cells

The process researchers use to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)—a special type of stem cell that can be made in the lab from any type of adult cell—is time consuming and inefficient. To speed things up, researchers at Sanford-Burnham turned to kinase inhibitors. These chemical compounds block the activity of kinases, enzymes responsible for many aspects of cellular communication, survival and growth. As they outline in a paper published in Nature Communications, the team found several kinase inhibitors that, when added to starter cells, help generate many more iPSCs than the standard method. This new capability will likely speed up research in many fields, better enabling scientists around the world to study human disease and develop new treatments.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/09/kinase-inhibitors-speed-development-stem-cells

129

Stratified squamous epithelium

(Source: medicalschool)

349

fuckyeahmolecularbiology:

Meet The Neurosphere

A neurosphere is a system composed of free-floating clusters of neural stem cells. Because stem cells cannot be studied in vivo, neurospheres provide a method of investigating neural precursor cells in vitro. To grow a neurosphere, putative neural stem cells are suspended in a medium lacking adherent substrates but containing necessary growth factors, like epidermal growth factor and fibroblast growth factor. This allows the neural cells to form characteristic 3D spheres. 

The clinical applications of neurospheres are still in their infancy, but they have the potential to help treat many diseases. Transplanted neural stem cells are not only able to cross the blood-brain barrier and integrate themselves into the host’s brain without disrupting normal function - they are also incredibly versatile, and have been shown to proliferate and differentiate in various other tissues of the body when transplanted. Researchers are currently exploring the use of neural stem cells obtained from neurospheres to aid in the growth of inner ear neurons and hair cells; the hope is that these cells may be able to restore auditory function in hearing-impaired patients.

The image above is of a neurosphere from Vanderbilt University’s Department of Molecular and Cell Biology.

25

RNA (ribonucleic acid, a nucleic acid similar to DNA), has a broad range of cellular functions beyond basic cellular transcription and translation. RNA is involved in regulating cellular processes such as cell development, and immune and stress responses. RNA can also serve as a catalyst, with catalyzing molecules possessing similar molecular structures to protein catalysts.

Credit: Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation

107

Frozen human iPS cells:

Human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell colonies created from adult skin cells. Blue represents all DNA. Green and red indicates cell surface proteins found on pluripotent cells.  Photo courtesy of William Collins in the lab of Deepak Srivastava and Christopher Schlieve at the  Gladstone Institutes.

241

fuckyeahmolecularbiology:

Mycoplasma genitalium, the owner of the title ‘world’s smallest genome of any living organism’ at a measly 525 genes, made headlines this week as it was replicated by a computer.

Researchers at Stanford University created a computer model of the organism, basing it on over 900 scientific papers. The overall tally of experimentally determined parameters in the model was 1,900; those were split into 28 algorithms, which stepped in for certain biological processes.

Scientists hope that one day biologists can test hypotheses that wouldn’t normally be possible in the real world and expand the digitising technology used on the bacterium into larger creatures. But there’s a whole lot of genes between Mycoplasma genitalium and anything else. 

The paper was originally published in the journal Cell.

Image is of Mycoplasma genitalium.

103

This image depicts leukocyte macrophages (white blood cells) swarming to attack HIV virions in the brain. The inflammation caused by this process that seems be responsible for dementia in HIV patients.

Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation

(Source: nsf.gov)

79

Fluorescent micrograph of mouse bone cells cultured on nanofibers.

Photo Credit: Hongjun Wang, Stevens Institute of Technology

(Source: nsf.gov)

24

This image depicts the parasitic bacteria known as Wolbachia entering an arthropod host cell, where it incorporates its DNA into the host’s DNA to be transcribed and translated, similarly to some viruses.

Credit: Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation

(Source: nsf.gov)