Does mTOR regulate vascular smooth muscle cell differentiation from human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal progenitors?
We describe novel pleiotropic effects of rapamycin at very low concentrations that stabilized differentiated contractile VSMCs from MSCs in addition to exerting antiproliferative and enhanced homing effects.
Fetal pig beta cells are resistant to the toxic effect of the human cytokines, TNF-alpha and IL-1beta, in vitro. This resistance suggests that fetal, but not adult beta cells, when transplanted into humans with type 1 diabetes may be protected from primary nonfunction and will be partially protected from autoimmune destruction.