Background/Aim: It has been reported that adipose tissue contain progenitor cells with angiogenic potential and that therapy based on adipose tissuederived progenitor cells administration may constitute a promising cell therapy in patients with ischemic disease. In this study we evaluated the effect of culture-expanded mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) derived from adipose tissue on neovascularization and blood flow in an animal model of limb ischemia in immunodeficient mice. Methods: MSC were cultured from human adipose tissue by collagenase digestion. Hindlimb ischemia was created by ligating the proximal femoral artery of male nude mice. Human adipose tissue stromal cells (hADSC) were transplanted one day or 7 days after ligation. Results: During culture expansion of hADSC CD34 expression was downregulated. The laser Doppler perfusion index was significantly higher in the CD34(-), Flk-1(-), CD31(-) ADSC-transplanted group than in the control group, even when cells were transplanted 7days after hindlimb ischemia. Histological examination showed that hADSC transplantation recovered muscle injury and increased vascular density, compared with the control group. The effect of hADSC was correlated with the number of transplanted cells, but not with the ratio of CD34 expression. In vitro, hADSC can form vessel-like structure and express von Willibrand Factor. Conditioned media from hADSC increased proliferation and inhibited apoptotic cell death in of human aortic endothelial cells. Conclusion: This study showed that hADSC can be an ideal source for therapeutic angiogenesis in ischemic disease.

Droplet impact has been imaged on different rigid, smooth, and rough substrates for three liquids with different viscosity and surface tension, with special attention to the lower impact velocity range. Of all studied parameters, only surface tension and viscosity, thus the liquid properties, clearly play a role in terms of the attained maximum spreading ratio of the impacting droplet. Surface roughness and type of surface (steel, aluminum, and parafilm) slightly affect the dynamic wettability and maximum spreading at low impact velocity. The dynamic contact angle at maximum spreading has been identified to properly characterize this dynamic spreading process, especially at low impact velocity where dynamic wetting plays an important role. The dynamic contact angle is found to be generally higher than the equilibrium contact angle, showing that statically wetting surfaces can become less wetting or even nonwetting under dynamic droplet impact. An improved energy balance model for maximum spreading ratio is proposed based on a correct analytical modeling of the time at maximum spreading, which determines the viscous dissipation. Experiments show that the time at maximum spreading decreases with impact velocity depending on the surface tension of the liquid, and a scaling with maximum spreading diameter and surface tension is proposed. A second improvement is based on the use of the dynamic contact angle at maximum spreading, instead of quasi-static contact angles, to describe the dynamic wetting process at low impact velocity. This improved model showed good agreement compared to experiments for the maximum spreading ratio versus impact velocity for different liquids, and a better prediction compared to other models in literature. In particular, scaling according to We(1/2) is found invalid for low velocities, since the curves bend over to higher maximum spreading ratios due to the dynamic wetting process.

Background Our understanding of the gut microbiota of animals is largely based on studies of mammals. To better understand the evolutionary basis of symbiotic relationships between animal hosts and indigenous microbes, it is necessary to investigate the gut microbiota of non-mammalian vertebrate species. In particular, fish have the highest species diversity among groups of vertebrates, with approximately 33,000 species. In this study, we comprehensively characterized gut bacterial communities in fish. Results We analyzed 227 individual fish representing 14 orders, 42 families, 79 genera, and 85 species. The fish gut microbiota was dominated by Proteobacteria (51.7%) and Firmicutes (13.5%), different from the dominant taxa reported in terrestrial vertebrates (Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes). The gut microbial community in fish was more strongly shaped by host habitat than by host taxonomy or trophic level. Using a machine learning approach trained on the microbial community composition or predicted functional profiles, we found that the host habitat exhibited the highest classification accuracy. Principal coordinate analysis revealed that the gut bacterial community of fish differs significantly from those of other vertebrate classes (reptiles, birds, and mammals). Conclusions Collectively, these data provide a reference for future studies of the gut microbiome of aquatic animals as well as insights into the relationship between fish and their gut bacteria, including the key role of host habitat and the distinct compositions in comparison with those of mammals, reptiles, and birds.

We report on the wetting dynamics of a 4.3 μL deionized (DI) water droplet impinging on microtextured aluminum (Al 6061) surfaces, including microhole arrays (hole diameter 125 μm and hole depth 125 μm) fabricated using a conventional microcomputer numerically controlled (μ-CNC) milling machine. This study examines the influence of the texture area fraction ϕ(s) and drop impact velocity on the spreading characteristics from the measurement of the apparent equilibrium contact angle, dynamic contact angle, and maximum spreading diameter. We found that for textured surfaces the measured apparent contact angle (CA) takes on values of up to 125.83°, compared to a CA of approximately 80.59° for a nontextured bare surface, and that the spreading factor decreases with the increased texture area fraction because of increased hydrophobicity, partial penetration of the liquid, and viscous dissipation. In particular, on the basis of the model of Ukiwe and Kwok (Ukiwe, C.; Kwok, D. Y. Langmuir 2005, 21, 666), we suggest a modified equation for predicting the maximum spreading factor by considering various texturing effects and wetting states. Compared with predictions by using earlier published models, the present model shows better agreement with experimental measurements of the maximum spreading factor.

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