MANUALS IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH – serie

As part of the boom in biotechnology, particularly in tissue engineering, primary human cell culture has become a major pillar in academic research and the biopharmaceutical industry. Obtaining a viable culture from a tissue sample and maintaining it for experimental, diagnostic or therapeutic purposes can be quite a challenge. Based on laboratory protocols and practical experience from many years of primary cell culture, this manual presents the basic steps necessary for culturing primary human cells.Written by students for students, the manual serves well as a practical guide to primary human cell culture. The authors have left much space for notes and the design of the manual is such that it can be continuously upgraded and extended. The content of this manual is by no means exhaustive. Protocols for specific cell types, out of over 200 different cell types in the human body, were selected from major tissue groupings in the body. They should serve as a foundation for individual researchers to experiment, explore, and establish niche protocols for their specific needs. Inspired by the practical clinical checklists available to residents and trainees in medicine, the authors have chosen a compact physical format that can fit into the pocket of a lab coat.

Tissue engineering has been recognized as offering an alternative technique to whole-organ and tissue transplantation for diseased, failed, or malfunctioned organs. To reconstruct a new tissue via tissue engineering, the following triad components are needed: (1) cells which are harvested and dissociated from the donor tissue; (2) biomaterials as scaffold substrates in which cells are attached and cultured, resulting in implantation at the desired site of the functioning tissue; and (3) growth factors which promote and/or prevent cell adhesion, proliferation, migration, and differentiation. Of these three key components, scaffolds play a critical role in tissue engineering. This timely book focuses on the preparation and characterization of scaffold biomaterials for the application of tissue-engineered scaffolds. More importantly, it serves as an experimental guidebook on the standardization of the fabrication process and characterization of scaffolding technology.

This is the first experimental protocol book that covers the differentiation of bone marrow-derived stem cells (BMSCs) into specific cell types, targeted at the undergraduate and graduate student level. The 19 chapters deal with the differentiation methods using small molecules, cytokines and polymeric scaffolds.BMSCs are pluripotential in that they not only act as myelo-regenerative and supportive cells, but can also differentiate into almost any kind of cells in our body. In addition, when implanted in vivo, they could help repair multiple tissues such as blood vessels, heart, liver and so on.For the differentiation of BMSCs, many methods have been introduced to adjust their microenvironment (chemical and physical cues), including chemical induction methods using large or small molecules and pellet culture; mechanical stimulation induction methods using cyclic mechano-transduction or ultrasonication; cytokine-released method using scaffolds; and so on.

The second volume of the series Manuals in Biomedical Research, this book is aimed to be both a concise introduction to the diverse field of microscopy and a practical guide those who require the use of microscopic for methods in their research. It provides young as well as experienced scientists a state-of-the-art multidisciplinary overview of microscopic techniques, covering all the major microscopy fields in biomedical sciences and showing their application in evaluating samples ranging from molecules to cells and tissues.Microscopy has revolutionized our understanding of biological events. Within the last two decades, microscopic techniques have provided insights into the dynamics of biological processes that regulate such events. Biological discovery, to a large extent, depends on advances in imaging techniques and various microscopic techniques have emerged as central and indispensable tools in the biomedical sciences.The four authors bring with them extensive experiences spanning across disciplines such as Microbiology, Molecular and Cell Biology, Tissue Engineering, Biomedical and Regenerative Medicine and so forth, reinforcing the fact that microscopy has proven useful in countless investigations into the mysteries of life.

Biochemistry plays an important role in all areas of the biological and medical sciences. With most of the research or diagnosis involved in these areas being based on biochemically obtained observations, it is essential to have a profile of well standardized protocols.This manual is a basic guide for all students, researchers and experts in biochemistry, designed to help readers in directly starting off their experiments without prior knowledge of the protocol. The book dwells on the concepts used in designing the methodologies, thereby giving ample room for researchers to modify them according to their research requirements.

Laboratory animal research remains a very important part of basic research and drug development. With the worldwide increase in biotechnology, more and more researchers are required to use animals for research. However, many have basic or little training in experimental techniques or in the background information, which remains very important. This book rectifies the problem by providing animal researchers and technicians with the essentials for conducting their work in the laboratory, offering detailed protocols and information that can be referred to on a daily basis. Broadly covering a number of important topics, it draws attention to many of the techniques required to conduct animal research well and responsibly in order to obtain better experimental results.