Introduction: Tissue-engineered oral mucosa (TEOM) is increasingly being used to model oral mucosal diseases and to assess drug toxicity. Current TEOM models are constructed using normal oral fibroblasts (NOF) contained within a hydrogel matrix with normal oral keratinocytes (NOK) cultured on top. NOK are not commercially available and suffer from donor-to-donor variability. Therefore, oral mucosal models based on immortalised keratinocytes may offer advantages over NOK-based models. The objective of this study was to construct and characterise the TEOM developed using TERT2-immortalised oral keratinocyte (FNB6) cells and validate its similarity to normal oral muco-sal tissue. Methods: TEOM were constructed by culturing FNB6 cells on top of a NOF-populated collagen type-1 hydrogel in tissue culture transwell inserts cultured at an air-to-liquid interface and collected at 14 day. TEOM were subjected to morphological (H&E and PAS), ultrastructural (TEM) and immunohistological (Ki-67, cytokeratin 14 and E-cadherin) analysis. Results: Histologically TEOM mimicked native oral mucosa displaying a stratified epithelium, fibroblast-containing connective tissue and basement membrane. Furthermore, TEM confirmed the presence of des-mosomes and hemi-desmosomes in the epithelium. IHC revealed expression of differentiation markers (cytokeratin 14), proliferation (Ki-67), cell adhesion (E-cadherin). Conclusion: FNB6 mucosal models able to mimic native oral mucosa structure. It has potential for drug delivery and toxicity evaluation, and replacing models based on NOK where access to primary cells is limited.
Cervical cancer is the most common gynecological cancer and one of the major causes of female cancer-related death worldwide particularly in developing countries. Thus far, there are a few in vivo models have been developed in investigating this type of cancer. In this study, we induced cervical cancer in Balb/c mice by exploiting the carcinogenic property of diestylstilbestrol (DES). The Balb/c pregnant mice were given subcutaneous (SC) injection of 67μg/kg body weight of DES on GD 13, and the mice gave birth approximately at gestation day 19-22. Female offspring were reared and the body weight was recorded once weekly. The female offspring were sacrificed at age of 5 months. Upon termination, blood was collected in a plain tube via cardiac puncture and the reproductive tracts were collected and weighed. The reproductive tract sections were stained using H&E for observation of pathological changes. The progression of disease state was monitored by measuring the level of serum interleukin (IL-6) using the Mouse IL-6 ELISA Assay Kit (BD OptEIA™, USA). All parameters were compared with Not-induced group. The outcome of this study demonstrated a significant difference in body weight gain, reproductive organ weight, diameter of cervix and the level of serum IL-6 in the Induced group as compared to the Not-induced group (P<0.05). Histopathological findings revealed the presence of adenosis only in the Induced group. It shows that DES could be employed as an agent to induce cervical carcinogenesis in animal model. In addition to that, new potential anti-cancer agents from various sources could be further evaluated using this technique.
Dillenia suffruticosa (Family: Dilleniaceae) locally known as Simpoh air has been reported to be used traditionally to treat cancerous growth. Therefore, the present study was attempted to investigate the antioxidant and cytotoxic properties of different parts (root, flower, fruit and leaf) of D. suffruticosa extracts.