The use of bioreactors for cartilage tissue engineering has become increasingly important as traditional batch-fed culture is not optimal for in vitro tissue growth. Most tissue engineering bioreactors rely on convection as the primary means to provide mass transfer; however, convective transport can also impart potentially unwanted and/or uncontrollable mechanical stimuli to the cells resident in the construct. The reliance on diffusive transport may not necessarily be ineffectual as previous studies have observed improved cartilaginous tissue growth when the constructs were cultured in elevated volumes of media. In this study, to approximate an infinite reservoir of media, we investigated the effect of continuous culture on cartilaginous tissue growth in vitro. Isolated bovine articular chondrocytes were seeded in high density, 3D culture on Millicell filters. After two weeks of preculture, the constructs were cultivated with or without continuous media flow (5-10 microL/min) for a period of one week. Tissue engineered cartilage constructs grown under continuous media flow significantly accumulated more collagen and proteoglycans (increased by 50-70%). These changes were similar in magnitude to the reported effect of through-thickness perfusion without the need for large volumetric flow rates (5-10microL/min as opposed to 240-800 microL/min). Additionally, tissues grown in the reactor displayed some evidence of the stratified morphology of native cartilage as well as containing stores of intracellular glycogen. Future studies will investigate the effect of long-term continuous culture in terms of extracellular matrix accumulation and subsequent changes in mechanical function.
It is now well accepted that protease activated receptor (PAR) 1 and PAR4 have differential roles in platelet activation. PAR4, a low-affinity thrombin receptor in human platelets, participates in sustained platelet activation in a P2Y12-dependent manner; however, the mechanisms are not defined. Our previous studies demonstrated that thrombin induces the association of PAR4 with P2Y12, together with arrestin recruitment to the complex. Here we show that PAR4 and P2Y12 directly interact to coregulate Akt signaling after PAR4 activation. We observed direct and specific interaction of P2Y12 with PAR4 but not PAR1 by bioluminescent resonance energy transfer when the receptors were coexpressed in human embryonic kidney 293T cells. PAR4-P2Y12 dimerization was promoted by PAR4-AP and inhibited by P2Y12 antagonist. By using sequence comparison of the transmembrane domains of PAR1 and PAR4, we designed a mutant form of PAR4, "PAR4SFT," by replacing LGL194-196 at the base of transmembrane domain 4 with the corresponding aligned PAR1 residues SFT 220-222. PAR4SFT supported only 8.74% of PAR4-P2Y12 interaction, abolishing P2Y12-dependent arrestin recruitment to PAR4 and Akt activation. Nonetheless, PAR4SFT still supported homodimerization with PAR4. PAR4SFT failed to induce a calcium flux when expressed independently; however, coexpression of increasing concentrations of PAR4SFT, together with PAR4 potentiated PAR4-mediated calcium flux, suggested that PAR4 act as homodimers to signal to Gq-coupled calcium responses. In conclusion, governs agonist-dependent association of PAR4 with P2Y12 and contributes to Gqcoupled calcium responses. PAR4-P2Y12 association supports arrestin-mediated sustained signaling to Akt. Hence, PAR4-P2Y12 dimerization is likely to be important for the PAR4-P2Y12 dependent stabilization of platelet thrombi.
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