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Aijun Wang

Bio: Aijun Wang is an academic researcher from University of California, Davis. The author has contributed to research in topics: Mesenchymal stem cell & Stem cell. The author has an hindex of 37, co-authored 141 publications receiving 4812 citations. Previous affiliations of Aijun Wang include Tsinghua University & Shandong University.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Insight is provided of how substrate stiffness differentially regulates stem cell differentiation, and have significant implications for the design of biomaterials with appropriate mechanical property for tissue regeneration.

677 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, composite fibers are prepared via electrospinning from either W/O or O/W emulsion and the beads-in-string structures in these fibers are demonstrated and this technique is proved to be an effective method for microencapsulation.

309 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Evidence is provided that the differentiation of MVSCs, rather than the de-differentiation of SMCs, contributes to vascular remodeling and diseases, and this hypothesis is supported.
Abstract: It is generally accepted that the de-differentiation of smooth muscle cells, from the contractile to the proliferative/synthetic phenotype, has an important role during vascular remodelling and diseases. Here we provide evidence that challenges this theory. We identify a new type of stem cell in the blood vessel wall, named multipotent vascular stem cells. Multipotent vascular stem cells express markers, including Sox17, Sox10 and S100β, are cloneable, have telomerase activity, and can differentiate into neural cells and mesenchymal stem cell-like cells that subsequently differentiate into smooth muscle cells. On the other hand, we perform lineage tracing with smooth muscle myosin heavy chain as a marker and find that multipotent vascular stem cells and proliferative or synthetic smooth muscle cells do not arise from the de-differentiation of mature smooth muscle cells. In response to vascular injuries, multipotent vascular stem cells, instead of smooth muscle cells, become proliferative, and differentiate into smooth muscle cells and chondrogenic cells, thus contributing to vascular remodelling and neointimal hyperplasia. These findings support a new hypothesis that the differentiation of multipotent vascular stem cells, rather than the de-differentiation of smooth muscle cells, contributes to vascular remodelling and diseases.

265 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Notch signaling mediates TGF‐β regulation of MSC differentiation and that Notch signaling induces the differentiation of M SCs and hESCs into SMCs, which represents a novel mechanism involved in stem cell differentiation.
Abstract: The differentiation of stem cells into smooth muscle cells (SMCs) plays an important role in vascular development and remodeling In addition, stem cells represent a potential source of SMCs for regenerative medicine applications such as constructing vascular grafts Previous studies have suggested that various biochemical factors, including transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) and the Notch pathway, may play important roles in vascular differentiation However, the interactions of these two signaling pathways in the differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have not been clearly defined In this study, we profiled the gene expression in MSCs in response to TGF-beta, and showed that TGF-beta induced Notch ligand Jagged 1 (JAG1) and SMC markers, including smooth muscle alpha-actin (ACTA2), calponin 1 (CNN1), and myocardin (MYOCD), which were dependent on the activation of SMAD3 and Rho kinase In addition, knocking down JAG1 expression partially blocked ACTA2 and CNN1 expression and completely blocked MYOCD expression, suggesting that JAG1 plays an important role in TGF-beta-induced expression of SMC markers On the other hand, the activation of Notch signaling induced the expression of SMC markers in MSCs and human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) Notch activation in hESCs also resulted in an increase of neural markers and a decrease of endothelial markers These results suggest that Notch signaling mediates TGF-beta regulation of MSC differentiation and that Notch signaling induces the differentiation of MSCs and hESCs into SMCs, which represents a novel mechanism involved in stem cell differentiation

239 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This study demonstrates that iPSC-derived multipotent NCSCs can be directly used for tissue engineering and that the approach that combines stem cells and scaffolds has tremendous potential for regenerative medicine applications.

231 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review summarizes the most recent and state of the art work in electrospinning and its uses in tissue engineering and drug delivery and its ability to fabricate fibers with diameters on the nanometer size scale.

2,872 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work aims to provide a comprehensive overview of electrospun nanofibers, including the principle, methods, materials, and applications, and highlights the most relevant and recent advances related to the applications by focusing on the most representative examples.
Abstract: Electrospinning is a versatile and viable technique for generating ultrathin fibers. Remarkable progress has been made with regard to the development of electrospinning methods and engineering of electrospun nanofibers to suit or enable various applications. We aim to provide a comprehensive overview of electrospinning, including the principle, methods, materials, and applications. We begin with a brief introduction to the early history of electrospinning, followed by discussion of its principle and typical apparatus. We then discuss its renaissance over the past two decades as a powerful technology for the production of nanofibers with diversified compositions, structures, and properties. Afterward, we discuss the applications of electrospun nanofibers, including their use as "smart" mats, filtration membranes, catalytic supports, energy harvesting/conversion/storage components, and photonic and electronic devices, as well as biomedical scaffolds. We highlight the most relevant and recent advances related to the applications of electrospun nanofibers by focusing on the most representative examples. We also offer perspectives on the challenges, opportunities, and new directions for future development. At the end, we discuss approaches to the scale-up production of electrospun nanofibers and briefly discuss various types of commercial products based on electrospun nanofibers that have found widespread use in our everyday life.

2,289 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a review discusses the various attempts reported on solving this problem from the point of view of the chemistry and the structure of these polymers highlighting the drawbacks and advantages of each method and proposes that based on considerations of structure-property relations, it is possible to obtain chitin fibers with improved strength by making use of their nanostructures and/or mesophase properties of chitins.

2,278 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review summarizes the most recent advances in the field over the past 4 years, specifically highlighting new and interesting discoveries in tissue engineering and drug delivery applications.
Abstract: Utilization of polymers as biomaterials has greatly impacted the advancement of modern medicine. Specifically, polymeric biomaterials that are biodegradable provide the significant advantage of being able to be broken down and removed after they have served their function. Applications are wide ranging with degradable polymers being used clinically as surgical sutures and implants. In order to fit functional demand, materials with desired physical, chemical, biological, biomechanical and degradation properties must be selected. Fortunately, a wide range of natural and synthetic degradable polymers has been investigated for biomedical applications with novel materials constantly being developed to meet new challenges. This review summarizes the most recent advances in the field over the past 4 years, specifically highlighting new and interesting discoveries in tissue engineering and drug delivery applications.

1,712 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
08 Dec 2008-Polymer
TL;DR: The importance of electrospinning for biomedical applications like tissue engineering drug release, wound dressing, enzyme immobilization etc. is highlighted in this paper, where the focus is also on the types of materials that have been electrospun.

1,608 citations