The Methodist Hospital Research Institute

4 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Biology

Bioluminescence Imaging of Heme Oxygenase-1 Upregulation in the Gua Sha Procedure

Kenneth K. Kwong^1,2, Lenuta Kloetzer^1,2,3,4, Kelvin K. Wong^5,6, Jia-Qian Ren^1,2, Braden Kuo^1,2,3,4, Yan Jiang⁷, Y. Iris Chen^1,2, Suk-Tak Chan^1,2,8, Geoffrey S. Young⁹, Stephen T.C. Wong^5,6

¹Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, ²Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, ³Gastrointestinal Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, ⁴Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, ⁵Center for biotechnology and Informatics, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, ⁶Department of Radiology, The Methodist Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College, ⁷Bejing University of Chinese Medicine, ⁸Department of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, ⁹Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Gua Sha, traditional Chinese therapeutic skin scraping, causes subcutaneous microvascular blood extravasation. We report a protocol of bioluminescence imaging of HO-1-luciferase transgenic mice to demonstrate that Gua Sha upregulates heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in multiple organs.

Medicine

Establishment and Propagation of Human Retinoblastoma Tumors in Immune Deficient Mice

Wesley S. Bond^1,2, Lalita Wadhwa^2,3, Laszlo Perlaky^2,3, Rebecca L. Penland⁴, Mary Y. Hurwitz^2,3, Richard L. Hurwitz^*2,3,5,6, Patricia Chèvez-Barrios^*4,5,7

¹Interdepartmental Program in Translational Biology & Molecular Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, ²Texas Children's Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, ³Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, ⁴Department of Pathology, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, ⁵Department of Ophthalmology, Retinoblastoma Center of Houston, ⁶Baylor College of Medicine, Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, ⁷Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine

A method is described to propagate human retinoblastoma tumors in mice. Tumor cells are directly injected into the eyes of immune deficient mice. Secondary tumors have been successfully established using both cells directly harvested from human tumors and cultured tumorspheres.

Bioengineering

Low Molecular Weight Protein Enrichment on Mesoporous Silica Thin Films for Biomarker Discovery

Jia Fan^1,2, James W. Gallagher¹, Hung-Jen Wu¹, Matthew G. Landry¹, Jason Sakamoto¹, Mauro Ferrari¹, Ye Hu¹

¹Department of Nanomedicine, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, ²CAS Key Laboratory for Biological Effects of Nanomaterials & Nanosafety, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology

We developed a technology based on mesoporous silica thin film for the selective recovery of low molecular weight proteins and peptides from human serum. The physico-chemical properties of our mesoporous chips were finely tuned to provide substantial control in peptide enrichment and consequently profile the serum proteome for diagnostic purposes.

Bioengineering

Porous Silicon Microparticles for Delivery of siRNA Therapeutics

Jianliang Shen^*1,2, Xiaoyan Wu^*1,3, Yeonju Lee¹, Joy Wolfram^1,4, Zhizhou Yang¹, Zong-Wan Mao², Mauro Ferrari^1,5, Haifa Shen^1,6

¹Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, ²MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinorganic and Synthetic Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, ³Pediatrics Department of Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, ⁴CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials & Nanosafety, National Center for Nanoscience & Technology of China, ⁵Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, ⁶Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Weill Cornell Medical College

Delivery remains the main challenge for the therapeutic implementation of small interfering RNA (siRNA). This protocol involves the use of a multifunctional and biocompatible siRNA delivery platform, consisting of arginine and polyethylenimine grafted porous silicon microparticles.