Recent studies have demonstrated distinctive motility and responses to extracellular cues of cells in isolation, cells collectively in groups, and cell fragments. Here we provide a protocol for generating cell sheets, isolated cells, and cell fragments of keratocytes from zebrafish scales. The protocol starts with a comprehensive fish preparation, ...
Xenopus laevis tadpoles can regenerate tail, including spinal cord, after partial amputation, but lose this ability during a specific period around stage 45. They regain this ability after stage 45. What happens during this "refractory period" might hold the key to spinal cord regeneration. We hypothesize that electric currents at amputated stumps ...
Significance: Natural, endogenous electric fields (EFs) and currents arise spontaneously after wounding of many tissues, especially epithelia, and are necessary for normal healing. This wound electrical activity is a long-lasting and regulated response. Enhancing or inhibiting this electrical activity increases or decreases wound healing, respectiv...
We investigated and characterized the effect of externally applied electric fields (EF) on retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells by exposing primary cultures of human RPE cells (hRPE) and those from the ARPE19 immortalized cell line to various strengths of EF (EF-treated cells) or to no EF (control cells) under different conditions including prese...
Damage to the respiratory epithelium is one of the most critical steps to many life-threatening diseases, such as acute respiratory distress syndrome and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The mechanisms underlying repair of the damaged epithelium have not yet been fully elucidated. Here we provide experimental evidence suggesting a novel mecha...
We studied the process of lens regeneration in the rat following an extracapsular lens extraction preserving the anterior lens capsule and anterior lens epithelium. We assessed clinically the clarity of the newly regenerated lens, evaluated changes in the lens electrical currents following surgery and during the regeneration process and correlated ...
Endogenous electric fields (EFs) occur naturally in vivo and play a critical role during tissue/organ development and regeneration, including that of the central nervous system(1,2). These endogenous EFs are generated by cellular regulation of ionic transport combined with the electrical resistance of cells and tissues. It has been reported that ap...
BACKGROUND: Effective wound healing has been a lasting and challenging topic in health care. Various strategies have been used to accelerate and perfect the healing process. One such strategy has involved the application of an exogenous electrical stimulus to chronic wounds with the aim of stimulating healing responses. THE PROBLEM: The biology of ...
Breaching of the cell membrane is one of the earliest and most common causes of cell injury, tissue damage, and disease. If the compromise in cell membrane is not repaired quickly, irreversible cell damage, cell death and defective organ functions will result. It is therefore fundamentally important to efficiently repair damage to the cell membrane...
