Vera M. Mendes

Quieting the Storm: Hypoxia as a Strategy to Boost UC-MSC Therapies for Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy

This study compares prolonged mild hypoxia and short severe hypoxia preconditioning of UC-MSCs for neonatal HIE treatment, finding that short severe hypoxia improves functional recovery and alters proteomic pathways related to neural repair.

Physioxia-modulated mesenchymal stem cells secretome has higher capacity to preserve neuronal network and translation processes in hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy in vitro model

This study shows that physioxia-modulated UC-MSC secretome better preserves neuronal network and translation processes in an in vitro HIE model than traditional UC-MSCs.

Readaptation of mesenchymal stem cells to high stiffness and oxygen environments modulate the extracellular matrix

This study shows that culturing mesenchymal stem cells under physiological stiffness and oxygen conditions increases secretion of redox and immunomodulatory proteins while reducing extracellular matrix proteins.

Mimicking physiological stiffness or oxygen levels in vitro reorganizes mesenchymal stem cells machinery toward a more naive phenotype

This paper shows that culturing MSCs on soft substrates or under low oxygen levels alters their proteome, promoting a more naive phenotype by affecting redox homeostasis, protein chaperones, and translational complexity.