Promise(s) of using mesenchymal stem cells in reproductive disorders.

In recent times, infertility among both man and woman has become a major concern affecting about 20 per cent of the population worldwide and has been attributed in part to several aetiological factors such as changes in lifestyle, which includes sedentary life, dietary habits, sleep anomalies, environmental pollution, etc. Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have come to the rescue of many such couples, but presence of metabolic disorders such as obesity, diabetes with insulin resistance (IR) and its secondary complications (micro- and macro-vascular complications), become confounders to the outcome of ART. Cell therapies are arising as a new hope in the management of reproductive disorders and currently, the efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) harvested from the adult sources finds wide application in the management of diseases like stroke, neuropathy, nephropathy, myopathy, wounds in diabetes, etc. Given the capacity of MSCs to preferentially home to damaged tissue and modulate the cellular niche/microenvironment to augment tissue repairs and regeneration, the present review outlines the applications of MSCs in the management of infertility/reproductive disorders.

In vitro studies on a bioreactor module containing encapsulated goat hepatocytes for the development of bioartificial liver.

BACKGROUND: A bioartificial liver may act as a temporary metabolic bridge in patients with acute liver failure. We devised a bioreactor module containing encapsulated goat hepatocytes and studied its efficiency in detoxifying ammonia. METHODS: A hollow-glass bioreactor module was designed and fabricated locally. The module was inoculated with alginate poly-L-lysine microcapsules with entrapped goat hepatocytes. Metabolism of ammonia and glucose was assessed. Antibody-mediated cell cytotoxicity was also assessed. RESULTS: The optimum encapsulated goat hepatocyte concentration was 12-18 billion at a perfusate flow rate of 30 mL/min under oxygenated condition. The optimum ammonium chloride concentration for detoxification was 2.5-5.0 mM. There was little or no cytolysis of encapsulated hepatocytes on exposure to complement-inactivated human AB serum. CONCLUSION: Encapsulated goat hepatocytes efficiently detoxified ammonia to urea. Cells were metabolically active up to 48 hours, indicating their feasibility for use in a bioreactor module. Encapsulation protected the hepatocytes from antibody-mediated cell lysis.