Retinal Microvascular Endothelial Cells & Diabetic Retinopathy

HRMECS in Action

Our Human Retinal Microvascular Endothelial Cells in this publication on Diabetic Retinopathy. In this study, the authors show that human retinal microvascular endothelial cells exposed to high levels of glucose regulate miR-200b repression through histone methylation and that inhibition of PRC2 increases miR-200b while reducing VEGF: Michael Anthony Ruiz, Biao Feng, and Subrata Chakrabarti. Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 Regulates MiR-200b in Retinal Endothelial Cells: Potential Relevance in Diabetic Retinopathy. PLoS One. 2015; 10(4): e0123987. Published online 2015 Apr 17. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123987...To investigate PRC2 and miR-200b regulation in the context of diabetic retinopathy, the major cell type used for investigation was the human retinal microvascular endothelial cell (HRMECs,Neuromics/ Olaf Pharmaceuticals, Worchester, MA, Cat# HEC09)...

Figure: High levels of glucose alter VEGF and miR-200b expression in HRMECs. A: HRMECs exposed to various concentrations of D-glucose for 24 hours exhibited differential mRNA levels of VEGF. Compared to 5mM D-glucose, VEGF expression was significantly increased at 15mM and 25mM D-glucose concentrations, with no change at 20mM L-glucose. B: Measured by WST-1 assay, HRMECs exposed to increasing concentrations of D-glucose for 24 hours exhibited decreased cell viability at 25mM, 50mM and 100mM compared to 5mM. C: HRMECs exposed to 25mM (high glucose; HG) glucose for 24 and 48 hours demonstrated significantly increased VEGF mRNA compared to 5mM (normal glucose; NG). These differences were not observed at time points earlier than 24 hours. D,E: HRMECs exposed to 5mM D-glucose (NG) 25mM D-glucose (HG) and 20mM L-glucose+5mM D-glucose (osmotic control; OSM). HRMECs cultured for 24 hours and 48 hours in HG showed significantly decreased levels of miR-200b with parallel increased levels of VEGF expression compared to NG and OSM. F,G: VEGF is also increased at the protein level in HG compared to NG as measured by Western Blotting. [* p < 0.05 compared to NG; n = 6; data expressed as mean ± SEM, normalized to β-actin or U6 and expressed as a fold change of NG]. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0123987.

Check out our growing catalog of Human Endothelial Cells-Artery, Microvascular, Vein, Umbilical Cord Derived + Culture Media.

Mouse and Human Motor Neurons

Designed for Neuro-muscular Diseases Research

Clients have been using our easy to culture and research proven GFP Labeled Mouse Motor Neurons for Neuro-muscular disease research. This includes the inclusion of the cells in several ALS drug discovery programs being conducted by large Pharma.

Image: GFP+ mMN Mouse Motor Neurons at 2 days post thaw 20X.

I am pleased to announce the addition of Human Motor Neurons to our Primary Human, Mouse and Rat Neurons, Astrocytes and Neuron-Astroglial co-culture solutions.

Image: Human alpha-Motor Neurons

Questions?  Do not hesitate to contact me directly, Pete Shuster, CEO and Owner, Neuromics, pshuster@neuromics.com and direct phone: 612-801-1007. Thank you.

hNP1 Neural Progenitors and HTS Tox Assays

Sensitivity of Neural Progenitor Cells to Chemical Induced Apoptosis

This article demonstrates the sensitivity of Neuromics' hNP1TM Neural Progenitors to chemically induced apoptosis: Ingrid Druwea, Theresa M. Freudenrich, Kathleen Wallace, Timothy J. Shafer, William R. Mundy. Sensitivity of neuroprogenitor cells to chemical-induced apoptosis using a multiplexed assay suitable for high-throughput screening. doi:10.1016/j.tox.2015.03.011.

Summary: The results demonstrate that, (1) all three commercially available models generated a robust source of proliferating neuroprogenitor cells, and that the assay was sensitive and reproducible when used in a multi-well plate format; (2) there were differences in the response of the rodent and human neuroprogenitor cells to a set of chemicals previously shown to induce apoptosis in vitro; and (3) proliferating neuroprogenitor cells were more sensitive to chemical-induced apoptosis than differentiated neurons, suggesting that neuroprogenitor cells are one of the cell models that should be considered for use in a developmental neurotoxicity screening battery.

Here're more publications of referencing use of hNP1 Neural Progenitors:

Yuji Kaneko, Hideki Shojo, Jack Burns, Meaghan Staples, Naoki Tajiri, Cesar V. Borlongan, DJ-1 ameliorates ischemic cell death in vitro possibly via mitochondrial pathway, Neurobiology of Disease, Available online 21 September 2013, ISSN 0969-9961, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nbd.2013.09.007...Cell culture and oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) hNPCs were obtained from Neuromics...

Xiufang Guo, Severo Spradling, Maria Stancescu, Stephen Lambert, James J. Hickman. Derivation of sensory neurons and neural crest stem cells from human neural progenitor hNP1. Biomaterials, In Press, Corrected Proof,Mar 2013.doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2013.02.061 ...hNP1, were obtained from Neuromics (Edina, Minnesota)...

Questions? Do not hesitate to contact me, Pete Shuster: pshuster@neuromics.com or direct phone: 612-801-1007.

Connective-Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF/CCN2) Induces Astrogenesis

SOX-2 Proves a Marker For Astrogenesis

This proved  surprising to the authors of a recent publication referencing use of our Monoclonal SOX-2 Antibody. We have added our SOX-2 abs to our Glial-Astrocyte Markers. See: Fabio A. Mendes , Juliana M. Coelho Aguiar , Suzana A. Kahn, Alice H. Reis, Luiz Gustavo Dubois, Luciana Ferreira Romão, Lais S. S. Ferreira, Hervé Chneiweiss, Vivaldo Moura Neto, José G. Abreu. Connective-Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF/CCN2) Induces Astrogenesis and Fibronectin Expression of Embryonic Neural Cells In Vitro. Published: August 4, 2015DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0133689...monoclonal anti-Sox2 (Neuromics, Acris, Germany) in blocking solution were incubated with the membranes overnight at 4°C, followed by incubation with Peroxidase-conjugated anti-rabbit IgG and peroxidase-conjugated anti-mouse IgG secondary antibodies...

Figure: Exogenous CTGF protein increases the number of Sox2-positive cells of a neural progenitor culture. Immunostaining showing Sox2 (A and D) expression of untreated and CTGF-treated cells. C and F show merged pictures of Sox2 immunostaining together with nuclei-DAPI staining. Scale bars 10 μm. G shows the percentage of cells that were positive for Sox2. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0133689.g002

Neuromics have a significant catalog of potent and proven Asytoglial, Neuronal, Schwann Cell and Oligodendrocyte Markers.