Disclosed are compositions and methods for promoting survival of or axon regeneration in neurons by increasing mitochondrial motility in the neuron. Also disclosed are methods to treat neuronal injury and disease and disorders characterized by neuronal injury. Agents that increase Armcx1 activity, such as Armcx1 polypeptide or vectors comprising nucleic acid encoding Armcx1 polypeptide, are proposed for use in the methods. Pharmaceutical composition comprising the agents, and methods for identifying additional agents are also disclosed.

The present invention relates to a therapeutic agent for immune cell migration-caused disease and a method for screening the same and, more particularly, to a pharmaceutical composition comprising a KRS inhibitor (or expression or activity inhibitor) as an effective ingredient for preventing or treating an immune cell migration-related disease, a method for controlling the migration of immune cells by regulating a level of KRS in immune cells, a cell membrane site-specific moiety level of KRS or the migration of KRS to the cell membrane, and a method for screening a therapeutic agent for immune cell migration-caused disease, using KRS. According to the present invention, the migration of immune cells can be controlled by means of KRS, which can find very useful applications in the prevention, alleviation, and treatment of immune cell migration-related disease.

An extracellular biomimetic for assessing and analyzing cell invasion includes hydrogel matrix and a first peptide crosslinked to the hydrogel matrix, where the first peptide is responsive to a first substance released by diseased cells upon invasion into the biomimetic. The biomimetic further includes at least one modulating agent enabling cell invasion independent from said first substance. The hydrogel matrix can comprise hyaluronate modified with furanyl functional groups, and the modulating agent can be viscoelastic polymer forming reversible crosslinks within the hydrogel matrix. Examples of the viscoelastic polymer include methyl cellulose, or functionalized methyl cellulose, for example, with thiol functional groups. The first substance released by diseased cells is an enzyme, for example, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP). The biomimetic can be used for drug screening to identify compounds that reduce the invasion and viability of the diseased cells, for example, cells from the lung, brain, breast, prostate, and human pluripotent stem cells.

A method for sorting motile cells includes introducing an initial population of motile cells into an inlet port of a microfluidic channel, the initial population of motile cells having a first average motility; incubating the population of motile cells in the microfluidic channel; and collecting a sorted population of motile cells at an outlet port of the microfluidic channel. The sorted population of motile cells has a second average motility higher than the first average motility.

The present invention provides methods for determining bone growth velocity comprising: (a) measuring an amount of a collagen X marker in a sample obtained from a subject in need thereof; and (b) comparing the amount of collagen X marker measured in step (a) with a collagen X marker standard curve, wherein the amount of collagen X marker is measured using at least two reagents. In an embodiment, there is at least one capture reagent and at least one detection reagent. In a preferred embodiment for measuring CXM, the capture reagent is the aptamer SOMA1 and the detection reagent is the monoclonal antibody mAb X34. The present invention further provides methods for treating diseases, disorders or conditions comprising receiving an identification of an amount of CXM in a sample, wherein the amount of CXM has been identified using a combination of SOMA1 and mAb X34 as CXM-binding reagents, and administering a treatment in light of the amount of CXM in the sample.

Provided herein is a method for assessing angiogenic effects of a test composition, the method including: providing human microvessel (MV) fragments selected to correspond to a desired patient profile; embedding the human MV fragments in a gel matrix of a three dimensional (3D) in vitro culture; providing serum free media to the 3D in vitro culture; contacting the 3D in vitro culture comprising embedded human MV fragments with a test composition; and assessing the angiogenic effects of the test composition by measuring at least one angiogenic growth parameter of the 3D in vitro culture comprising embedded human MV fragments. Also provided herein are 3D in vitro cultures useful in the disclosed methods.

The present disclosure relates to a microfluidic device capable of mimicking a biological microenvironment thereby achieving control of a microenvironment with time through control of the diffusion of target elements between chambers by interrupting or generating fluid flow inside a channel, and a method for manufacturing the same, and the microfluidic device according to an aspect of the present disclosure can mimic the biological microenvironment which changes constantly with time via a simple temporary operation of generating or interrupting fluid flow in the channel mechanically and can control diffusion via a simple method, and accordingly, a complicated microenvironment can be reproduced since the number and arrangement of diffusion chambers and channels can be designed variously.

Systems and methods are provided for simultaneously assaying cell adhesion or cell rolling for multiple cell specimens. One embodiment provides a system for assaying adhesion or cell rolling of multiple cell specimens that includes a confocal imaging system containing a parallel plate flow chamber, a pump in fluid communication with the parallel plate flow chamber via a flow chamber inlet line and a cell suspension in fluid communication with the parallel plate flow chamber via a flow chamber outlet line. The system also includes a laser scanning system in electronic communication with the confocal imaging system, and a computer in communication with the confocal imaging system and laser scanning system. In certain embodiments, the laser scanning system emits multiple electromagnetic wavelengths simultaneously it cause multiple fluorescent labels having different excitation wavelength maximums to fluoresce. The system can simultaneously capture real-time fluorescence images from at least seven cell specimens in the parallel plate flow chamber.

A method for the preparation of one or more microfluidic chemotactic device prototypes wherein channel and/or barrier dimensions and chemo-attractant and/or cell binding agent concentration and/or type are varied for developing an optimized microfluidic chemotaxis device for a particular cell type and chemo- attractant type as well as instructions for use of same. This process may also require determination of cell density and cell solution volume.

Provided herein are compositions and methods for detecting migration of effector cells towards a target cell, and cytotoxicity of the migrated effector cells against the target cells. The effector cells are modified to express a homing or migratory receptor, and the target cells are modified to express the cognate ligand. The methods can be carried out in a Boyden chamber or tranwells with a porous membrane between the wells. The membrane can be coated with an extracellular matrix component to simulate a solid tumor environment.