Despite remarkable mechanical durability and strength, hyaline cartilage has very limited capacity for self-repair when injured and over time, may degenerate to osteoarthritis. We evaluated the most significant mile stones attained, in the pursuit of cure for cartilage defects and osteoarthritis. The basic treatment options include: Natural or physical therapy, medications, nutritional supplements, nutriceuticals and chondroprotective agents. Next are repairs and replacements, which include surgical procedures: Debridement/chondroplasty, microfracturing, mosaicplasty, periosteum transplantation, osteochondral autografting and allografting, high tibial osteotomy and total knee arthroplasty. But, current trend has shifted from repair, replacement, to most recently regeneration. Regenerations include the cell and gene therapies. While cell therapy involves the use of cells isolated from different tissues to cause regeneration of cartilage; gene therapy involves the selection of appropriate gene and optimal vector to incorporate cDNA. There has been much positivity reported with big animal models, which has led to several ongoing clinical trials. Translations of these findings hold high promises, though not without inherent regulatory hurdles. Considering the initial success rates, there are increasing hopes of realizing these treatments from bench to bedsides. Significant improvements in the treatment of cartilage degenerations and osteoarthritis have been made so far, but no gold standard delineated.
Various natural biological conduits have been investigated to bridge peripheral nerve injury especially in critical
gap (greater than 3 cm in human). Autograft, the current gold standard, has several drawbacks including limited
availability of donor graft, donor-site morbidity and mismatch in size in clinical practices. The aim of this study was
to analyze the development of nerve conduit using decellularized human umbilical cord (HUC) artery seeded with
neurodifferentiated human MSCs (ndMSCs) in bridging peripheral nerve gap. Artery conduits obtained from HUC were
decellularized to remove native cells (n=3), then characterized by Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining and nuclei
counterstaining with DAPI. The decellularized artery conduit was measured for every 2 weeks until 12 weeks. Next,
mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were differentiated into neural lineage using 400 µg/mL of Centella asiatica. Then,
1.5×106
of MSCs or ndMSCs were seeded into decellularized artery conduit to study cell attachment. H&E staining
and nuclei counterstaining with DAPI showed that all cellular components were removed from the HUC arteries. The
decellularized artery conduit did not collapse and the lumen remained rigid for 12 weeks. Immunocytochemistry
analysis with neural markers namely S100β, P75 NGFR, MBP and GFAP showed that MSCs had differentiated into
neural lineage cells. H&E staining showed that the seeded MSCs and ndMSCs attached to the lumen of the conduits
as early as 2 days. In conclusion, this study showed that nerve conduit using decellularized HUC artery seeded with
neurodifferentiated human MSCs was successfully developed and have the potential to bridge critical nerve gap.
Skin wound healing is a complex physiological event, involving many cellular and molecular components. The event of
wound healing is the coordinated overlap of a number of distinct phases, namely haemostasis, inflammatory, proliferative
and remodelling. The molecular events surrounding wound healing, particularly the reepithelialisation, has been reported
to be similar to the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). In this review, the mechanism between epithelialisation
and EMT were compared. Both are characterised by the loss of epithelial integrity and increased motility. In terms of
the signalling kinases, Smad and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) has been reported to be involved in both
reepithelialisation and EMT. At the transcriptional level, SLUG transcription factor has been reported to be important for
both reepithelialisation and EMT. Extracellular matrix proteins that have been associated with both events are collagen
and laminin. Lastly, both events required the interplay between matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and its inhibitor. As a
conclusion, both reepithelialisation and EMT shares similar signaling cascade and transcriptional regulation to exhibit
decreased epithelial traits and increased motility in keratinocytes.
Centella asiatica (L.) Urban (CA) is a well- known plant used to improve brain and memory functions in traditional
medicine. Scientifically it was proven to show neurogenic effect on neural cell lines and in rat’s hippocampus. Its effect
on spinal cord (SC) neurons, however, have not been studied. Aim of this study was to investigate the effects of raw
extract of CA (RECA) on neurite outgrowths in an organotypic model of SC injury (OMSCI). OMSCI was prepared using SC
slices obtained from postnatal-day 8 rat pups. Spinal cord tissues were embedded in gelatine gel and sliced to produce
300 µm thick slices. These slices were 100% viable for 8 days in culture. RECA, in concentrations of 0-800 µg/mL was
added to the OMSCI media for 7 days, followed by immunostaining for TUJ-1 and GFAP. The investigated parameters
were mean neurite count, mean neurite length, mean longest neurite and growth ratio. The tested RECA concentrations
showed no cytotoxicity. ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests showed no significant difference between groups in all the tested
parameters. This may be due to low content of neurotrophic bioactive compounds content in the extract, which probably
due to differences in geographical location, extraction method and absence of neurotrophic factors in the media. In
conclusion, the tested RECA concentration were found to be safe; but without notable neurotrophic effects on the spinal
cord organotypic model as demonstrated in this study.
Recent progress in alternative medicine has highlighted the benefits of olive as an integral part of therapeutic diet to
promote healthy living. Among the thirty different phenolic compounds of olive known to date; oleocanthal, oleuropein,
tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol are being increasingly investigated for their potential in prevention and healing of several
major forms of neurological dysfunctions and disorders. A considerable amount of literature suggests the neuroprotective
effects of olive and its phenolic compounds are owing to their roles as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic
agents. At preclinical level, olive attenuated cognitive dysfunctions and the functional outcomes in spinal cord injury,
delayed the progression of amyloid beta pathology, improved motor and mitochondrial dysfunctions in Parkinson’s
disease, reversed diabetic-related neurological complications and also ameliorated cerebral pathologies in stroke. In this
paper, we aim to review the neuroprotective role of olive and its phenolic derivatives in the following diseases or deficits
of the nervous system that include cognitive dysfunction, neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, peripheral neuropathy and
spinal cord injury.
Ficus carica, a native plant to the Middle East and Western Asia, is of high value in folk medicine. The therapeutic potential
of Ficus carica has led to the extensive studies in recent years, focusing on evaluating and validating its pharmacological
effect. The present systematic review summarizes the effectiveness of Ficus carica on promoting bone health focusing on
osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis via mineral contents and RANKL pathway. The search was done with Medline via
Ebscohost, Scopus and Google Scholar databases to obtain relevant articles published between 1946 and December
2016. The main inclusion criteria were research articles published in English that reported effect of Ficus carica on
bone health. The literature search returned 716 potentially relevant articles, whereby 5 met the inclusion criteria. This
systematic review concludes Ficus carica plays an important role in the promotion of bone health and can be a potential
pharmaceutical product in the future.