Lipofilling is a widely used technique in plastic and reconstructive surgery, but its long-term success is often limited by unpredictable fat graft resorption. Optimizing the adipogenic environment th Show more
Lipofilling is a widely used technique in plastic and reconstructive surgery, but its long-term success is often limited by unpredictable fat graft resorption. Optimizing the adipogenic environment through bioactive factors may enhance graft survival and volume retention. This study investigates the adipogenic potential of Hypoxia Preconditioned Serum (HPS) and Platelet-rich Plasma (PRP), in comparison to normal serum (NS). Cytokine profiles of HPS, PRP, and NS from 10 donors were analyzed. Human preadipocytes (n = 3) were cultured with low (10%) and high (40%) concentrations of these secretomes. Proliferation, cytotoxicity (LDH assay), lipid droplet formation (Oil Red O staining), and gene expression (qPCR) of adipogenic markers (PPARgamma, C/EBPalpha, FABP4, Adiponectin, LPL) were assessed after 2 and 4 days. HPS contained significantly higher levels of Adiponectin, IGF-1, bFGF, VEGF-A, and PDGF-BB compared with PRP and NS, while Leptin was lower in HPS and PRP than in NS. All conditions increased proliferation on day 4, with the highest cell counts in NS-40%. No treatment-related cytotoxicity was observed. HPS-40% induced the strongest adipogenic differentiation, evidenced by increased lipid droplet formation and upregulation of all measured adipogenic genes by day 4. These findings suggest that HPS enhance the proliferation, survival, and differentiation of preadipocytes. Validation in Show less
Recent studies have characterised a family of giant cytoskeletal crosslinkers encoded by the short stop gene in Drosophila and the dystonin/BPAG1 and MACF1 genes in mammals. We refer to the products o Show more
Recent studies have characterised a family of giant cytoskeletal crosslinkers encoded by the short stop gene in Drosophila and the dystonin/BPAG1 and MACF1 genes in mammals. We refer to the products of these genes as spectraplakins to highlight the fact that they share features with both the spectrin and plakin superfamilies. These genes produce a variety of large proteins, up to almost 9000 residues long, which can potentially extend 0.4 micro m across a cell. Spectraplakins can interact with all three elements of the cytoskeleton: actin, microtubules and intermediate filaments. The analysis of mutant phenotypes in BPAG1 in mouse and short stop in Drosophila demonstrates that spectraplakins have diverse roles. These include linking the plasma membrane and the cytoskeleton, linking together different elements of the cytoskeleton and organising membrane domains. Show less