Survival of rat sciatic nerve segments preserved in storage solutions ex vivo assessed by novel electrophysiological and morphological criteria

Most organ or tissue allografts with viable cells are sto red in solutions ex vivo for hours to seve ral days.Most allografts then require rapid host revascula rization upon transplantation to maintain donor-cell functions(e.g.,cardiac muscle contra ctions,hepatic secretions).In contrast,peripheral nerve allografts stored ex vivo do not require revascularization to act as scaffolds to guide outgrowth by host axons at 1-2 mm/d,likely aided by viable donor Schwann cells.Using current storage solutions and protocols,axons in all these donor orga n/tissue/nerve transplants are expected to rapidly become non-viable due to Wallerian degeneration within days.Therefore,ex vivo storage solutions have not been assessed for preserving normal axonal functions,i.e.,conducting action potentials or maintaining myelin sheaths.We hypothesized that most or all organ storage solutions would maintain axonal viability.We examined several common organ/tissue storage solutions(University of Wisconsin Cold Storage Solution,Normosol-R,Normal Saline,and La ctated Ringe rs) for axonal viability in rat sciatic nerves ex vivo as assessed by maintaining:(1) conduction of artificially-induced compound action potentials;and(2) axonal and myelin morphology in a novel assay method.The ten diffe rent storage solution conditions for peripheral nerves with viable axons(PNVAs) diffe red in their solution composition,osmolarity(250-318 mOsm),temperature(4℃ vs.25℃),and presence of calcium.Compound action potentials and axonal morphology in PNVAs were best maintained for up to 9 days ex vivo in calcium-free hypotonic diluted(250 mOsm) Normosol-R(dNR) at 4℃.Surprisingly,compound action potentials were maintained for only 1-2 days in UW and NS at 4℃,a much shorter duration than PNVAs maintained in 4℃ dNR(9 days) or even in 25℃ dNR(5 days).Viable axons in peripheral nerve allografts are critical for successful polyethylene glycol(PEG)-fusion of viable proximal and distal ends of host axons with viable donor axons to repair segmental-loss peripheral nerve injuries.PEG-fusion repair using PNVAs prevents Wallerian degeneration of many axons within and distal to the graft and results in excellent recovery of sensory/motor functions and voluntary behaviors within weeks.Such PEG-fused PNVAs,unlike all other types of conventional donor transplants,are immune-tolerated without tissue matching or immune suppression.Preserving axonal viability in sto red PNVAs would enable the establishment of PNVA tissue banks to address the current shortage of transplantable nerve grafts and the use of stored PEG-fused PNVAs to repair segmentalloss peripheral nerve injuries.Furthermore,PNVA storage solutions may enable the optimization of ex vivo storage solutions to maintain axons in other types of organ/tissue transplants.

Systematic screening for potential therapeutic targets in osteosarcoma through a kinome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 library

Objective:Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumor.However,the survival of patients with osteosarcoma has remained unchanged during the past 30 years,owing to a lack of efficient therapeutic targets.Methods:We constructed a kinome-targeting CRISPR-Cas9 library containing 507 kinases and 100 nontargeting controls and screened the potential kinase targets in osteosarcoma.The CRISPR screening sequencing data were analyzed with the Model-based Analysis of Genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 Knockout(MAGeCK)Python package.The functional data were applied in the 143B cell line through lenti-CRISPR-mediated gene knockout.The clinical significance of kinases in the survival of patients with osteosarcoma was analyzed in the R2:Genomics Analysis and Visualization Platform.Results:We identified 53 potential kinase targets in osteosarcoma.Among these targets,we analyzed 3 kinases,TRRAP,PKMYT1,and TP53RK,to validate their oncogenic functions in osteosarcoma.PKMYT1 and TP53RK showed higher expression in osteosarcoma than in normal bone tissue,whereas TRRAP showed no significant difference.High expression of all 3 kinases was associated with relatively poor prognosis in patients with osteosarcoma.Conclusions:Our results not only offer potential therapeutic kinase targets in osteosarcoma but also provide a paradigm for functional genetic screening by using a CRISPR-Cas9 library,including target design,library construction,screening workflow,data analysis,and functional validation.This method may also be useful in potentially accelerating drug discovery for other cancer types.

Evacuation Vector Field in Crowd Dynamics

The geometrical effect is one of the most important factors in the kinetic modeling of crowd evacuation, besides the interaction between agents. More precisely, in the process of crowd evacuation, agents have the desire to reach the exit, and the ability to avoid the walls or obstacles. In this study, we propose the evacuation vector field which incorporates the geometrical effects in crowd evacuation. This is useful for modeling the crowd evacuation from complex venue.

Polyethylene glycol has immunoprotective effects on sciatic allografts, but behavioral recovery and graft tolerance require neurorrhaphy and axonal fusion

Behavioral recovery using(viable)peripheral nerve allografts to repair ablation-type(segmental-loss)peripheral nerve injuries is delayed or poor due to slow and inaccurate axonal regeneration.Furthermore,such peripheral nerve allografts undergo immunological rejection by the host immune system.In contrast,peripheral nerve injuries repaired by polyethylene glycol fusion of peripheral nerve allografts exhibit excellent behavioral recovery within weeks,reduced immune responses,and many axons do not undergo Wallerian degeneration.The relative contribution of neurorrhaphy and polyethylene glycol-fusion of axons versus the effects of polyethylene glycol per se was unknown prior to this study.We hypothesized that polyethylene glycol might have some immune-protective effects,but polyethylene glycol-fusion was necessary to prevent Wallerian degeneration and functional/behavioral recovery.We examined how polyethylene glycol solutions per se affect functional and behavioral recovery and peripheral nerve allograft morphological and immunological responses in the absence of polyethylene glycol-induced axonal fusion.Ablation-type sciatic nerve injuries in outbred Sprague–Dawley rats were repaired according to a modified protocol using the same solutions as polyethylene glycol-fused peripheral nerve allografts,but peripheral nerve allografts were loose-sutured(loose-sutured polyethylene glycol)with an intentional gap of 1–2 mm to prevent fusion by polyethylene glycol of peripheral nerve allograft axons with host axons.Similar to negative control peripheral nerve allografts not treated by polyethylene glycol and in contrast to polyethylene glycol-fused peripheral nerve allografts,animals with loose-sutured polyethylene glycol peripheral nerve allografts exhibited Wallerian degeneration for all axons and myelin degeneration by 7 days postoperatively and did not recover sciatic-mediated behavioral functions by 42 days postoperatively.Other morphological signs of rejection,such as collapsed Schwann cell basal lamina tubes,were absent in polyethylene glycol-fused peripheral nerve allografts but commonly observed in negative control and loose-sutured polyethylene glycol peripheral nerve allografts at 21 days postoperatively.Loose-sutured polyethylene glycol peripheral nerve allografts had more pro-inflammatory and less anti-inflammatory macrophages than negative control peripheral nerve allografts.While T cell counts were similarly high in loose-sutured-polyethylene glycol and negative control peripheral nerve allografts,loose-sutured polyethylene glycol peripheral nerve allografts expressed some cytokines/chemokines important for T cell activation at much lower levels at 14 days postoperatively.MHCI expression was elevated in loose-sutured polyethylene glycol peripheral nerve allografts,but MHCII expression was modestly lower compared to negative control at 21 days postoperatively.We conclude that,while polyethylene glycol per se reduces some immune responses of peripheral nerve allografts,successful polyethylene glycol-fusion repair of some axons is necessary to prevent Wallerian degeneration of those axons and immune rejection of peripheral nerve allografts,and produce recovery of sensory/motor functions and voluntary behaviors.Translation of polyethylene glycol-fusion technologies would produce a paradigm shift from the current clinical practice of waiting days to months to repair ablation peripheral nerve injuries.

SUMOylation stabilizes hSSB1 and enhances the recruitment of NBS1 to DNA damage sites

Human single-stranded DNA-binding protein 1(hSSB1)is required for the efficient recruitment of the MRN complex to DNA doublestrand breaks and is essential for the maintenance of genome integrity.However,the mechanism by which hSSB1 recruits NBS1 remains elusive.Here,we determined that hSSB1 undergoes SUMOylation at both K79 and K94 under normal conditions and that this modification is dramatically enhanced in response to DNA damage.SUMOylation of hSSB1,which is specifically fine-tuned by PIAS2α,and SENP2,not only stabilizes the protein but also enhances the recruitment of NBS1 to DNA damage sites.Cells with defective hSSB1 SUMOylation are sensitive to ionizing radiation,and global inhibition of SUMOylation by either knocking out UBC9 or adding SUMOylation inhibitors significantly enhances the sensitivity of cancer cells to etoposide.Our findings reveal that SUMOylation,as a novel posttranslational modification of hSSB1,is critical for the functions of this protein,indicating that the use of SUMOylation inhibitors(e.g.,2-D08 and ML-792)may be a new strategy that would benefit cancer patients being treated with chemo-or radiotherapy.