Mateja Erdani Kreft

Mateja Erdani Kreft
University of Ljubljana · Institute of Cell Biology

PhD

About

145
Publications
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Publications

Publications (145)
Chapter
Urothelium is the epithelium found lining the bladder and associated urinary tract. It functions as a predominantly impermeable urinary barrier even while accommodating major changes in surface area during bladder filling and voiding. Evolved for this role, urothelium displays many adaptations, exemplified in the highly specialized tight junctions...
Article
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Lactate and ATP formation by aerobic glycolysis, the Warburg effect, is considered a hallmark of cancer. During angiogenesis in non-cancerous tissue, proliferating stalk endothelial cells (ECs) also produce lactate and ATP by aerobic glycolysis. In fact, all proliferating cells, both non-cancer and cancer cells, need lactate for the biosynthesis of...
Article
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Magneto-mechanical actuation (MMA) using the low-frequency alternating magnetic fields (AMFs) of magnetic nanoparticles internalized into cancer cells can be used to irreparably damage these cells. However, nanoparticles in cells usually agglomerate, thus greatly augmenting the delivered force compared to single nanoparticles. Here, we demonstrate...
Article
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Many preclinical studies have shown that birth-associated tissues, cells and their secreted factors, otherwise known as perinatal derivatives (PnD), possess various biological properties that make them suitable therapeutic candidates for the treatment of numerous pathological conditions. Nevertheless, in the field of PnD research, there is a lack o...
Article
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Bladder cancer is the 10th most commonly diagnosed cancer with the highest lifetime treatment costs. The human amniotic membrane (hAM) is the innermost foetal membrane that possesses a wide range of biological properties, including anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and anticancer properties. Despite the growing number of studies, the mechanisms asso...
Article
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Urinary bladder cancer can be treated by intravesical application of therapeutic agents, but the specific targeting of cancer urothelial cells and the endocytotic pathways of the agents are not known. During carcinogenesis, the superficial urothelial cells exhibit changes in sugar residues on the apical plasma membranes. This can be exploited for s...
Article
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The effects of the shape anisotropy of nanoparticles on cellular uptake is still poorly understood due to challenges in the synthesis of anisotropic magnetic nanoparticles of the same composition. Here, we design and synthesize spherical magnetic nanoparticles and their anisotropic assemblies, namely magnetic nanochains (length ∼800 nm). Then, nano...
Article
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Several animal studies have described the potential effect of cannabidiol (CBD) in alleviating the symptoms of interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS), a chronic inflammatory disease of the urinary bladder. However, the effects of CBD, its mechanism of action, and modulation of downstream signaling pathways in urothelial cells, the mai...
Chapter
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Tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) are thin membranous tubes that connect cells, providing a route for cell-to-cell communication and pathogen spread. TNTs form between a variety of cell types, but the mechanisms by which they form are largely unknown. We review general concepts related to the formation and stability of membranous tubular structures, with...
Article
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Tunnelling nanotubes (TNTs) are membranous connections that represent a unique type of intercellular communication in different cell types. They are associated with cell physiology and cancer pathology. The possible existence of tunnelling nanotubes communication between urothelial cancer and normal cells has not yet been elucidated. Therefore, we...
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Terapevtske možnosti pri končni odpovedi ledvic so zelo omejene, zato je težnja po razumevanju bolezenskih procesov v ledvicah, ki vodijo v slabšanje ledvične funkcije, zelo velika. Razumevanje teh procesov bi namreč omogočilo razvoj novih terapevtskih pristopov za preprečevanje razvoja ali upočasnitev napredovanja ledvične disfunkcije. V zadnjem d...
Preprint
Full-text available
Urinary bladder cancer can be treated by intravesical application of therapeutic agents, but the specific targeting of cancer urothelial cells and the endocytotic pathways of the agents are not known. During carcinogenesis, the superficial urothelial cells exhibit changes in sugar residues on the apical plasma membranes. This can be exploited for s...
Article
Full-text available
Perinatal derivatives or PnDs refer to tissues, cells and secretomes from perinatal, or birth-associated tissues. In the past 2 decades PnDs have been highly investigated for their multimodal mechanisms of action that have been exploited in various disease settings, including in different cancers and infections. Indeed, there is growing evidence th...
Article
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The Golgi complex undergoes considerable structural remodeling during differentiation of urothelial cells in vivo and in vitro. It is known that in a healthy bladder the differentiation from the basal to the superficial cell layer leads to the formation of the tightest barrier in our body, i.e., the blood–urine barrier. In this process, urothelial...
Chapter
The function of glycoproteins depends both on their polypeptide chain and sugar residues. For detection and localization of glycoproteins in tissue sections, methods of immunohistochemistry (IHC) and lectin histochemistry (LHC) are usually used separately. For a better understanding of the expression and distribution of variants of glycoproteins, t...
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Full-text available
Escherichia coli is known to be an important uropathogenic agent. Several models were developed for investigating the uropathogensis of E. coli, including the recent biomimetic porcine urothelial in vitro model. The aim of this study was to assess the cytokine response of the cells of the biomimetic porcine urothelial model to different E. coli str...
Article
Full-text available
Urothelial cells of the urinary bladder play a critical role in the development and progression of interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS), a chronic and debilitating inflammatory disease. Given the lack of data on the exact phenotype and function of urothelial cells in an inflammatory setting (as in IC/BPS), we performed the first in-...
Article
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Perinatal derivatives (PnD) are birth-associated tissues, such as placenta, umbilical cord, amniotic and chorionic membrane, and thereof-derived cells as well as secretomes. PnD play an increasing therapeutic role with beneficial effects on the treatment of various diseases. The aim of this review is to elucidate the modes of action of non-hematopo...
Article
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The tumour microenvironment, which is comprised of various cell types and the extracellular matrix, substantially impacts tumour initiation, progression, and metastasis. Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are one of the key stromal cells in the tumour microenvironment, and their interaction with cancer cells results in the transformation of naïv...
Article
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Fluorescence microscopy has become one of the most important tools for biologists to visualize and study organelles and molecules in a cell. Fluorescent markers are used to visualize specific molecules. One of the most used markers is green fluorescent protein (GFP), which can be expressed along with a protein of interest. However, it is known that...
Article
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Urinary tract infections can be severe, sometimes fatal, diseases whose etiological pathogens are predominantly uropathogenic strains of E. coli (UPEC). To investigate the UPEC pathogenesis, several models have already been established with minor or major disadvantages. The aim was to develop a simple, fast, and inexpensive biomimetic in vitro mode...
Chapter
The correlation between TB, which is one of the primary causes of chronic inflammatory disease and healthy microbiota in the community, is not sufficiently well known. The gut microbiota is critical for the regulation of inflammatory and immunological responses, and it has a substantial impact on the patient’s wellness. It was revealed that individ...
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Based on their cell ultrastructure, two types of erythrophores in the spotted skin regions of brown trout ( Salmo trutta ) were previously described. To test the hypothesis regarding the origin of a new cell type following genome duplication, we analysed the gene and paralogue gene expression patterns of erythrophores in brown trout skin. In additi...
Article
L-377,202 prodrug consists of doxorubicin (Dox) conjugated to a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) peptide substrate that can be cleaved by enzymatically active PSA at the tumor site. Despite the initial promise in phase I trial, further testing of L-377,202 (herein called Dox-PSA) was ceased due to some degree of non-specific activation and toxicity...
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Intra-amniotic infection and inflammation (IAI) affect fetal development and are highly associated with preterm labor and premature rupture of membranes, which often lead to adverse neonatal outcomes. Human amniotic membrane (hAM), the inner part of the amnio-chorionic membrane, protects the embryo/fetus from environmental dangers, including microb...
Article
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Certain active drugs and excipients of nasal formulations may impair ciliary function and mucociliary clearance. The ciliary beat frequency (CBF) is a key parameter for determining muco-ciliary clearance rate, and in vitro assessments of CBF have proven to be accurate and reproducible. Since topical nasal formulations are applied with repeated dose...
Article
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Knowledge of the beneficial effects of perinatal derivatives (PnD) in wound healing goes back to the early 1900s when the human fetal amniotic membrane served as a biological dressing to treat burns and skin ulcerations. Since the twenty-first century, isolated cells from perinatal tissues and their secretomes have gained increasing scientific inte...
Article
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Despite being among the ten most common cancers with high recurrence rates worldwide, there have been no major breakthroughs in the standard treatment options for bladder cancer in recent years. The use of a human amniotic membrane (hAM) to treat cancer is one of the promising ideas that have emerged in recent years. This study aimed to investigate...
Article
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The fetal membranes provide a supportive environment for the growing embryo and later fetus. Due to their versatile properties, the use of fetal membranes in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is increasing in recent years. Moreover, as microbial infections present a crucial complication in various treatments, their antimicrobial properti...
Article
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Urinary bladder cancer is often multifocal; however, the intraluminal dissemination of the urothelial cancer cells is poorly understood. The involvement of N-cadherin in the adhesion of the cancer urothelial cells to the urothelium had not previously been studied. Therefore, we herein explore the possibility of the intraluminal dissemination of the...
Article
Full-text available
Identification of novel agents for bladder cancer treatment is highly desirable due to the high incidence of tumor recurrence and the risk of progression to muscle-invasive disease. The key feature of the cholesterol-dependent toxin listeriolysin O mutant (LLO Y406A) is its preferential activity at pH 5.7, which could be exploited either directly f...
Article
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FLO-1 cell line represents an important tool in esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) research as a verified and authentic cell line to study the disease pathophysiology and antitumor drug screenings. Since in vitro characteristics of cells depend on the microenvironment and culturing conditions, we performed a thorough characterization of the FLO-1 cell...
Article
This study investigates the effect of PD1 blockade on the therapeutic efficacy of novel doxorubicin-loaded temperature-sensitive liposomes. Herein, we report photothermally-activated, low temperature-sensitive magnetoliposomes (mLTSL) for efficient drug delivery and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The mLTSL were prepared by embedding small nitrod...
Article
Full-text available
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) represent a serious global health issue, especially due to emerging multidrug-resistant UTI-causing bacteria. Recently, we showed that the human amniotic membrane (hAM) could be a candidate for treatments and prevention of UPEC and Staphylococcus aureus infections. However, its role against multidrug-resistant bacter...
Article
Full-text available
When the brain is in a pathological state, the content of lipid droplets (LDs), the lipid storage organelles, is increased, particularly in glial cells, but rarely in neurons. The biology and mechanisms leading to LD accumulation in astrocytes, glial cells with key homeostatic functions, are poorly understood. We imaged fluorescently labeled LDs by...
Preprint
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) represent a serious global health issue, especially due to emerging multidrug-resistant UTI-causing bacteria. Recently, we showed that the human amniotic membrane (hAM) could be a candidate for treatments and prevention of UPEC and Staphylococcus aureus infections. However, its role against multidrug-resistant bacter...
Article
Full-text available
Progress in the understanding of the biology of perinatal tissues has contributed to the breakthrough revelation of the therapeutic effects of perinatal derivatives (PnD), namely birth-associated tissues, cells, and secreted factors. The significant knowledge acquired in the past two decades, along with the increasing interest in perinatal derivati...
Article
Full-text available
Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers among men in industrialized countries and on the global level incidence and mortality rates are increasing. In spite of progress in surgical treatment and chemotherapy, the prognosis remains poor for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Therefore, there is a great need for the development of...
Article
Full-text available
Many studies evaluated the short-term in vitro toxicity of nanoparticles (NPs); however, long-term effects are still not adequately understood. Here, we investigated the potential toxic effects of biomedical (polyacrylic acid and polyethylenimine coated magnetic NPs) and two industrial (SiO2 and TiO2) NPs following different short-term and long-ter...
Preprint
Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers among men in industrialized countries and on the global level incidence and mortality rates are increasing. In spite of progress in surgical treatment and chemotherapy, the prognosis remains poor for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Therefore, there is a great need for the development of...
Article
Full-text available
Culturing cells in three-dimensional systems that include extracellular matrix components and different cell types mimic the native tissue and as such provide much more representative results than conventional two-dimensional cell cultures. In order to develop biomimetic bladder tissue in vitro, we used human amniotic membrane (AM) extracellular ma...
Article
Full-text available
PurposeThis study aimed to characterize a commercially available primary human nasal epithelial cell culture and its gene expression of a wide range of drug transporters under different culture conditions.Methods Human nasal cells were cultured in three different types of culture media at the air-liquid (A-L) or liquid-liquid (L-L) interfaces for 1...
Patent
The present invention fits in the field of medical or veterinary science, and relates in general to a procedure for the preparation of mammalian amniotic membrane homogenate that can be used as an antimicrobial agent. More specifically, the present invention relates to a procedure for the preparation of an antimicrobial agent characterized in that...
Article
Full-text available
Lectin histochemistry (LHC) and immunohistochemistry (IHC), which demonstrate the composition and localisation of sugar residues and proteins in cell membranes, respectively, are generally used separately. Using these two methods, we previously demonstrated that malignant transformation of urothelial cells results in the alterations of protein glyc...
Article
Full-text available
Urinary bladder cancer is one of the leading malignancies worldwide, with the highest recurrence rates. A diet rich in vitamin A has proven to lower the risk of cancer, yet the molecular mechanisms underlying this effect are unknown. We found that vitamin A decreased urothelial atypia and apoptosis during early bladder carcinogenesis induced by N-b...
Article
Full-text available
Background Bladder cancer is the 7th most common cancer in men. About 75% of all bladder cancer are non-muscle invasive (NMIBC). The golden standard for definite diagnosis and first-line treatment of NMIBC is transurethral resection of bladder tumour (TURB). Historically, the monopolar current was used first, today bipolar current is preferred by m...
Article
Full-text available
The majority of the clinically approved iron oxide nanoparticles (IO NPs) used as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been withdrawn from the market either due to safety concerns or lack of profits. To address this challenge, liposomes have been used to prepare IO-based T 2 contrast agents. We studied the influence of differen...
Preprint
Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers among men in industrialized countries and on the global level incidence and mortality rates are increasing. In spite of progress in surgical treatment and chemotherapy, the prognosis remains poor for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Therefore, there is a great need for the development of...
Article
Nasal drug formulations can be effective for local delivery of therapeutic drugs to the sinonasal mucosa or for systemic drug delivery by absorption directly into the bloodstream. The growing field of potential nasal therapies includes nasal vaccination and even treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. However, it is important that nasal drug formu...
Article
Full-text available
Urinary tract infections are among the most common bacterial infections in humans. Moreover, they are highly recurrent and increasingly often resistant to antibiotics. The antimicrobial properties of the amniotic membrane (AM), the innermost layer of fetal membranes, have been briefly reported in the literature, however, the results of published st...
Article
Previously, we reported on the surfactant cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) as a crosslinker of alginate for the formation of stable polyelectrolyte–surfactant–complex nanoparticles. Here, we evaluate this system for increased solubility of a poorly soluble drug. The aim was to use CPC for solubilisation of ibuprofen and to use the micellar associates...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose Due to the emergence and spread of bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics, the development of new antimicrobials is imperative. The antimicrobial effect of the amniotic membrane (AM) has been explored to a limited extent so far. Materials and methods We collected 12 biological samples of AM homogenates and tested their antimicrobial ef...
Preprint
Full-text available
Purpose: Due to the emergence and spread of bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics, the development of new antimicrobials is imperative. The antimicrobial effect of the amniotic membrane (AM), the innermost part of placenta, has been explored to a limited extent so far. Materials and Methods:We collected 12 biological samples of AM homogenates,...
Preprint
Purpose: Due to the emergence and spread of bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics, the development of new antimicrobials is imperative. The antimicrobial effect of the amniotic membrane (AM), the innermost part of placenta, has been explored to a limited extent so far. Materials and Methods:We collected 12 biological samples of AM homogenates,...
Preprint
Purpose: Due to the emergence and spread of bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics, the development of new antimicrobials is imperative. The antimicrobial effect of the amniotic membrane (AM), the innermost part of placenta, has been explored to a limited extent so far. Materials and Methods:We collected 12 biological samples of AM homogenates,...
Preprint
The antimicrobial effect of the amniotic membrane (AM), the innermost part of placenta, has been explored to a limited extent so far. To quantify and better understand the mechanisms behind antibacterial effect of AM, we followed the growth of three common pathogens, uropathogenic Escherichia coli(UPEC), Staphylococcus aureus and Serratia marcescen...
Article
Full-text available
We report a protocol for simultaneous triple labelling of intermediate filaments, microtubules and actin filaments. The described procedure offers an optimal preservation of the structure and antigenicity of individual representatives of cytoskeletal elements and is applicable for labelling of tissue samples and cultured cells. Namely, we demonstra...
Article
Objective According to the regulatory guidelines, one of the critical steps in using in‐vitro permeability methods for permeability classification is to demonstrate the suitability of the method. Here, suitability of the permeability method by using a monolayer of cultured epithelial cells was verified with different criteria. Methods Imaging with...
Preprint
Full-text available
The antimicrobial effect of the amniotic membrane (AM), the innermost part of placenta, has been explored to a limited extent so far. To quantify and better understand the mechanisms behind antibacterial effect of AM, we followed the growth of three common pathogens, uropathogenic Escherichia coli(UPEC), Staphylococcus aureus and Serratia marcescen...