A gelatinous protein mixture derived from mouse tumor cells and commercialized as Matrigel
is commonly used as a basement membrane matrix for stem cells because it retains the stem cells in an undifferentiated state. However, Matrigel is not a well-defined matrix, and therefore can produce a source of variability in experimental results. In this study, we present an in-depth proteomic analysis of Matrigel using a dynamic iterative exclusion method coupled with fractionation protocols that involve ammonium sulfate precipitation, size exclusion chromatography, and one-dimensional SDS-PAGE. The ability to identify the low mass and abundance components of Matrigel illustrates the utility of this method for the analysis of the extracellular check details matrix, as well as the complexity of the matrix itself.”
“BACKGROUND
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires tax-exempt hospitals to conduct assessments of community needs and address identified needs. Most tax-exempt
hospitals will need to meet this requirement by the end of 2013.
METHODS
We conducted a national study of the level and pattern of community benefits that tax-exempt hospitals provide. The study comprised more than 1800 tax-exempt hospitals, approximately this website two thirds of all such institutions. We used reports that hospitals filed with the Internal Revenue Service for fiscal year 2009 that provide expenditures for seven types of community benefits. We combined these reports with other data to examine whether institutional, community, and market characteristics are associated with the provision of community benefits by hospitals.
RESULTS
Tax-exempt hospitals spent 7.5% of their operating expenses on community benefits during fiscal year 2009. More than 85% of these expenditures were devoted to charity care and other patient care services. Of the remaining community-benefit expenditures, approximately Mannose-binding protein-associated serine protease 5% were devoted to community health improvements that hospitals undertook directly.
The rest went to education in health professions, research, and contributions to community groups. The level of benefits provided varied widely among the hospitals (hospitals in the top decile devoted approximately 20% of operating expenses to community benefits; hospitals in the bottom decile devoted approximately 1%). This variation was not accounted for by indicators of community need.
CONCLUSIONS
In 2009, tax-exempt hospitals varied markedly in the level of community benefits provided, with most of their benefit-related expenditures allocated to patient care services. Little was spent on community health improvement.”
“Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) degrades angiotensin II to angiotensin-(1-7) and is expressed in podocytes. Here we overexpressed ACE2 in podocytes in experimental diabetic nephropathy using transgenic methods where a nephrin promoter drove the expression of human ACE2.