Mesenchymal Stem Cell Secreted-Extracellular Vesicles are Involved in Chondrocyte Production and Reduce Adipogenesis during Stem Cell Differentiation

Tsai Yu-Chen,Cheng Tai-Shan,Liao Hsiu-Jung,Chuang Ming-Hsi,Chen Hui-Ting,Chen Chun-Hung,Zhang Kai-Ling,Chang Chih-Hung,Lin Po-Cheng,Huang Chi-Ying F. 한국조직공학과 재생의학회 2022 조직공학과 재생의학 Vol.19 No.6

BACKGROUND: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are derived from internal cellular compartments, and have potential as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool in degenerative disease associated with aging. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have become a promising tool for functional EVs production. This study investigated the efficacy of EVs and its effect on differentiation capacity. METHODS: The characteristics of MSCs were evaluated by flow cytometry and stem cell differentiation analysis, and a production mode of functional EVs was scaled from MSCs. The concentration and size of EVs were quantitated by Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA). Western blot analysis was used to assess the protein expression of exosomespecific markers. The effects of MSC-derived EVs were assessed by chondrogenic and adipogenic differentiation analyses and histological observation. RESULTS: The range of the particle size of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs)- and Wharton’s jelly -MSCs-derived EVs were from 130 to 150 nm as measured by NTA, which showed positive expression of exosomal markers. The chondrogenic induction ability was weakened in the absence of EVs in vitro. Interestingly, after EV administration, type II collagen, a major component in the cartilage extracellular matrix, was upregulated compared to the EV-free condition. Moreover, EVs decreased the lipid accumulation rate during adipogenic induction. CONCLUSION: The results indicated that the production model could facilitate production of effective EVs and further demonstrated the role of MSC-derived EVs in cell differentiation. MSC-derived EVs could be successfully used in cell-free therapy to guide chondrogenic differentiation of ADSC for future clinical applications in cartilage regeneration.

Factors Predicting Nurse Intent and Status Regarding Pap Smear Examination in Taiwan: a Cross-sectional Survey

Chen, Shu-Ling,Tsai, Shu-Fang,Hsieh, Mei-Mei,Lee, Lin-Lin,Tzeng, Ya-Ling Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2016 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.17 No.1

Background: Nurses are the most visible, frontline personnel providing health education to patients. In particular, nurse experience with Pap examinations have the potential to influence women's attitudes toward screening for cervical cancer. However, nurses in Taiwan have lower rates of Pap testing than the general population. Understanding the factors predicting nurse intent to have a Pap exam and Pap exam status would inform interventions and policies to increase their Pap exam uptake. Therefore, the present study was undertaken. Materials and Methods: Data were collected by questionnaire from a convenient sample of 504 nurses at a regional hospital in central Taiwan between August and October 2011 and analyzed by descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, and logistic regression. Results: Nurse intention to have a Pap exam was predicted by younger age, less negative attitudes toward Pap exams, and greater influence of others recommendations. However, nurses were more likely to actually have had a Pap exam if they were older, married, had sexual experience, and had a high intention to have a Pap exam. Conclusions: Nurses who are younger than 34 years old, unmarried, sexually inexperienced, and with low intention to have a Pap exam should be targeted with interventions to educate them not only about the importance of Pap exams in detecting cervical cancer, but also about strategies to decrease pain and embarrassment during exams. Nurses with less negative attitudes and experiences related to Pap exams would serve as role models to persuade women to have Pap exams, thus increasing the uptake rate of Pap exams in Taiwan.

Animal Exposure Study to Investigate the Impact of Electronic Cigarette Aerosols on Atherosclerosis

Tsai-Ling Chen,Shih-Hsin Cheng,Kai-Chien Yang,Ta-Chih Hsiao 대한환경공학회 2019 대한환경공학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.2019 No.-

Developments of DNA oligonucleotides with site-specific methyl-phosphotriester linkages for molecular detections and precision medicine

Wen-Yih CHEN,Meng-Wei WU,Chih-Chin TSAI,Tsai-Ling LI,Yu-Hsuan CHANG,Wei-Chen LIN,Wei-Cheng CHOU 한국생물공학회 2019 한국생물공학회 학술대회 Vol.2019 No.4

Taiwan Agricultural Ecosystem Plant Investigation Methodology for Evaluating Agricultural Ecosystem Services

Tsai, Jenn-Kuo,Chen, Chi-Ling National Institute of Ecology 2022 Proceedings of NIE Vol.3 No.1

Farming practices that balance environmental friendliness with biodiversity are increasingly valuable. Wild plants on farmlands compete for nutrients with crops and create a crucial microhabitat and resources for animals such as natural enemies. Investigating farmlands and their surrounding plants with limited human and material resources has become an essential aspect of evaluating the agricultural ecosystem services. This study investigated plants in six agricultural long-term ecological research sites in Taiwan from 2017 to 2020 to determine the ideal season for investigation. Cluster analysis was performed to group habitats with similar plant composition, and the species-area curves of the clusters in each season were created. The results indicated that the agricultural ecosystem could be divided into farmlands, banks, orchards, and tea gardens. The habitats were divided into farmland, bank, Chia-Yi orchard, Gu-Keng orchard, and tea garden clusters. Ground plant cover can be investigated all year with at least 18 quadrats. However, if human and material resources are limited, 10 quadrats should be the minimum for farmlands in autumn and for the other microhabitats in spring. The minimum number of quadrats is 10 for banks, 17 for orchards, and 9 for tea gardens.

Indoxyl sulfate, homocysteine, and antioxidant capacities in patients at different stages of chronic kidney disease

Chen Cheng-Hsu,Huang Shih-Chien,Yeh En-Ling,Lin Pei-Chih,Tsai Shang-Feng,Huang Yi-Chia 한국영양학회 2022 Nutrition Research and Practice Vol.16 No.4

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Increased levels of uremic toxins and decreased antioxidant capacity have a significant impact on the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, it remains unclear whether they interact with each other to mediate the damage of kidney function. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether uremic toxins (i.e., homocysteine and indoxyl sulfate [IS]), as well as glutathione-dependent antioxidant enzyme activities are dependently or independently associated with kidney function during different stages of CKD patients. SUBJECTS/METHODS One hundred thirty-two patients diagnosed with CKD at stages 1 to 5 participated in this cross-sectional study. RESULTS Patients who had reached an advanced CKD stage experienced an increase in plasma uremic toxin levels, along with decreased glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity. Plasma homocysteine, cysteine, and IS concentrations were all positively associated with each other, but negatively correlated to GSH-Px activity levels after adjusting for potential confounders in all CKD patients. Although plasma homocysteine, cysteine, IS, and GSH-Px levels were significantly associated with kidney function, only plasma IS levels still had a significant association with kidney function after these parameters were simultaneously adjusted. In addition, plasma IS could interact with GSH-Px activity to be associated with kidney function. CONCLUSIONS IS plays a more dominant role than homocysteine and GSH-Px activity in relation to kidney function.

Clinical Features of Patients with Esophageal and Second Primary Cancers

Tsai, Huang-Wen,Chang, Chih-Chun,Sun, Jen-Tang,Liou, Ching-Biau,Lin, Hsiu-Chen,Lin, I-Hsin,Yu, Yun-Chieh,Weng, Wei-Ling,Leong, Ka-I,Yen, Tzung-Hai,Wu, Jiann-Ming Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.22

Background: The prevalence of esophageal cancer (EC) with second primary cancers (SPC) is increasing worldwide. This study was aimed to understand the clinical features of EC patients with SPC in the Taiwanese population. Materials and Methods: Clinical and laboratory data for 180 EC patients with or without SPC were collected between January 2009 and December 2013. Information on treatment approaches, location of SPCs and ABO blood type were also collected and stratified. Results: The most common SPC in EC patients was hypopharyngeal cancer, followed by laryngeal cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma in our study. Malignancies of colon, prostate and lung were also found. There was a significant higher portion of blood type A in the EC patients with SPC compared with those without (42.4% vs 19.5%, P=0.006). Conclusions: The frequency and SPC site distribution and blood type A should be considered in clinical evaluation of EC patients with a high risk of developing SPC in the Taiwanese population.

Effect of dietary supplementation of Bacillus subtilis TLRI 211-1 on laying performance, egg quality and blood characteristics of Leghorn layers

Tsai Ming-Yang,Shih Bor-Ling,Liaw Ren-Bao,Chen Wen-Tsen,Lee Tsung-Yu,Hung Hsi-Wen,Hung Kuo-Hsiang,Lin Yih-Fwu 아세아·태평양축산학회 2023 Animal Bioscience Vol.36 No.4

Objective: TLRI 211-1 is a novel Bacillus subtilis strain. This experiment was to investigate dietary supplementation of TLRI 211-1 on laying performance, egg quality and blood characteristics of layers. Methods: One hundred and twenty 65-wk-old Leghorn layers were divided into four treatment groups for 8 weeks experiment. Each treatment had three replicates. The basal diet was formulated as control group with crude protein 17% and metabolizable energy 2,850 kcal/kg and supplemented with TLRI 211-1 0.1%, 0.3%, and commercial Bacillus amyloliquefaciens 0.1% as treatment 2, 3 and 4 groups, respectively. Both TLRI 211-1 and commercial Bacillus amyloliquefaciens were adjusted to contain 1×109 colony-forming unit (CFU)/mL (g), hence the 0.1% supplemental level was 1×109 CFU/kg. Results: The results showed that TLRI 211-1 0.3% and commercial B. amyloliquefaciens groups had higher weight gain than the other groups; TLRI 211-1 0.1% group had better feed to eggs conversion ratio than the control and commercial B. amyloliquefaciens groups (p<0.05). Bacillus subtilis supplementation increased yolk weight (p<0.05). In egg quality during storage, TLRI 211-1 0.1% had higher breaking strength than the control group at the second week of storage (p<0.05). At the third week of storage, TLRI 211-1 0.3% had higher Haugh unit (p<0.05). Hens fed diets supplemented with TLRI 211-1 0.3% significantly decreased blood triglyceride levels and increased blood calcium levels (p< 0.05). TLRI 211-1 0.3% group had lower H2S (p<0.05) and hence had less unpleasant odor in excreta of hens. Conclusion: In conclusion, supplementation with 0.1% TLRI 211-1 can significantly improve feed to eggs conversion ratio. TLRI 211-1 supplementation also can maintain eggs at their optimum quality level during storage. The study showed that B. subtilis TLRI 211-1 can be used as feed additives for improving egg production performance and egg quality.

Design and Implementation of Ozone Generators with Area-graph Method to Model DBD Chamber

Tsai-Fu Wu,Ling-Chia Yu,Jou-Wen Chen 전력전자학회 2019 ICPE(ISPE)논문집 Vol.2019 No.5

The most well-known models of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) ozone generator chambers are nonlinear model and linear model. And the Lissajous method is usually applied for obtaining the key parameters of these two equivalent models. However, it requires an extra large capacitor and an inductanceless voltage divider, resulting in loading effect to the cell. An area-graph method that can overcome the limitations of Lissajous method is proposed in this paper. A comparison between simulated and experimental results with both Lissajous method and the proposed graphing method is presented.

Upregulating sirtuin 6 ameliorates glycolysis, EMT and distant metastasis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma with krüppel-like factor 10 deficiency

Tsai Yi-Chih,Chen Su-Liang,Peng Shu-Ling,Tsai Ya-Li,Chang Zuong-Ming,Chang Vincent Hung-Shu,Ch’ang Hui-Ju 생화학분자생물학회 2021 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.53 No.-

Krüppel-like factor 10 (KLF10) is a tumor suppressor in multiple cancers. In a murine model of spontaneous pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC), additional KLF10 depletion accelerated distant metastasis. However, Klf10 knockout mice, which suffer from metabolic disorders, do not develop malignancy. The mechanisms of KLF10 in PDAC progression deserve further exploration. KLF10-depleted and KLF10-overexpressing PDAC cells were established to measure epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), glycolysis, and migration ability. A murine model was established to evaluate the benefit of genetic or pharmacological manipulation in KLF10-depleted PDAC cells (PDACshKLF10). Correlations of KLF10 deficiency with rapid metastasis, elevated EMT, and glycolysis were demonstrated in resected PDAC tissues, in vitro assays, and murine models. We identified sirtuin 6 (SIRT6) as an essential mediator of KLF10 that modulates EMT and glucose homeostasis. Overexpressing SIRT6 reversed the migratory and glycolytic phenotypes of PDACshKLF10 cells. Linoleic acid, a polyunsaturated essential fatty acid, upregulated SIRT6 and prolonged the survival of mice injected with PDACshKLF10. Modulating HIF1α and NFκB revealed that EMT and glycolysis in PDAC cells were coordinately regulated upstream by KLF10/SIRT6 signaling. Our study demonstrated a novel KLF10/SIRT6 pathway that modulated EMT and glycolysis coordinately via NFκB and HIF1α. Activation of KLF10/SIRT6 signaling ameliorated the distant progression of PDAC. Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov. identifier: NCT01666184.