Michael J F Blumer

Michael J F Blumer
Medizinische Universität Innsbruck · Division of Clinical and Functional Anatomy

Priv.-Doz. PhD

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86
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Publications

Publications (86)
Article
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Many fish use a set of pharyngeal jaws in their throat to aid in prey capture and processing, particularly of large or complex prey. In this study—combining dissection, CT scanning, histology, and performance testing—we demonstrate a novel use of pharyngeal teeth in the ocean sunfish (Mola mola), a species for which pharyngeal jaw anatomy had not b...
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In animals, pigments but also nanostructures determine skin coloration, and many shades are produced by combining both mechanisms. Recently, we discovered a new mechanism for blue coloration in the ribbontail stingray Taeniura lymma, a species with electric blue spots on its yellow-brown skin. Here, we characterize finescale differences in cell com...
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Structural blue colors are common in animals, with the tissue nanostructures and material systems that produce them—especially bright blues—typically based on highly ordered nano‐architectures. In this study, we describe an unusually bright and angle‐independent structural blue from the skin of ribbontail stingray, arising from a more disordered ar...
Preprint
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Blue structural colors, produced by diverse tissue nanostructures, are known from all major vertebrate clades except cartilaginous fishes (e.g. sharks, rays). We describe a bright angle-independent structural blue from ribbontail stingray skin, arising from a novel cell type with unique quasi-ordered arrays of nano-vesicles enclosing guanine nanopl...
Preprint
Full-text available
Blue structural colors, produced by diverse tissue nanostructures, are known from all major vertebrate clades except cartilaginous fishes (e.g. sharks, rays). We describe a bright angle-independent structural blue from ribbontail stingray skin, arising from a novel cell type with unique quasi-ordered arrays of nano-vesicles enclosing guanine nanopl...
Article
Background: Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is characterized by a phenotypic switch of valvular interstitial cells to bone-forming cells. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are evolutionarily conserved pattern recognition receptors at the interface between innate immunity and tissue repair. Type I interferons (IFNs) are not only crucial for an adequa...
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Background Reliable biomarkers for organ quality assessment during normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) are desired. ATP (adenosine triphosphate) production by oxidative phosphorylation plays a crucial role in the bioenergetic homeostasis of the liver. Thus, detailed analysis of the aerobic mitochondrial performance may serve as predictive tool tow...
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The liver has been proposed as an important “immune organ” of the body, as it is critically involved in a variety of specific and unique immune tasks. It contains a huge resident immune cell repertoire, which determines the balance between tolerance and inflammation in the hepatic microenvironment. Liver-resident immune cells, populating the sinuso...
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In humans, the incidence of congenital defects of the intraembryonic celom and its associated structures has increased over recent decades. Surgical treatment of abdominal and diaphragmatic malformations resulting in congenital hernia requires deep knowledge of ventral body closure and the separation of the primary body cavities during embryogenesi...
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Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) is a genetic disease associated with sudden cardiac death and cardiac fibro‐fatty replacement. Over the last years, several works have demonstrated that different epigenetic enzymes can affect not only gene expression changes in cardiac diseases but also cellular metabolism. Specifically, the histone acetyltransf...
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Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): This research was funded by the Department of Innovation, Research and University of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano-South Tyrol (Italy), and by the Joint Project Südtirol- FWF (Italy-Austria) for A.R., J.T., A.M., R.P.. Background...
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Tessellated cartilage is a distinctive composite tissue forming the bulk of the skeleton of cartilaginous fishes (e.g. sharks and rays), built from unmineralized cartilage covered at the surface by a thin layer of mineralized tiles called tesserae. The finescale structure and composition of elasmobranch tessellated cartilage has largely been invest...
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Background Muscle is severely affected by ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI). Quiescent satellite cells differentiating into myogenic progenitor cells (MPC) possess a remarkable regenerative potential. We herein established a model of local application of MPC in murine hindlimb ischemia/reperfusion to study cell engraftment and differentiation requi...
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The bones are of mesenchymal or ectomesenchymal origin, form the skeleton of most vertebrates, and are essential for locomotion and organ protection. As a living tissue they are highly vascularized and remodelled throughout life to maintain intact. Bones consist of osteocytes entrapped in a mineralized extracellular matrix, and via their elaborated...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background Muscle is severely affected by ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI). Quiescent satellite cells differentiating into myogenic progenitor cells (MPC) possess a remarkable regenerative potential. We herein established a model of local application of MPC in murine hindlimb ischemia/reperfusion to study cell engraftment and differentiation requi...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background Muscle is severely affected by ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI). Quiescent satellite cells differentiating into myogenic progenitor cells (MPC) possess a remarkable regenerative potential. We herein established a model of local application of MPC in murine hindlimb ischemia/reperfusion to study cell engraftment and differentiation requi...
Article
Full-text available
An accepted uniting character of modern cartilaginous fishes (sharks, rays, chimaera) is the presence of a mineralized, skeletal crust, tiled by numerous minute plates called tesserae. Tesserae have, however, never been demonstrated in modern chimaera and it is debated whether the skeleton mineralizes at all. We show for the first time that tessell...
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Cleavage of amyloid precursor protein (APP) by β-secretase BACE1 initiates the production and accumulation of neurotoxic amyloid-β peptides, which is widely considered an essential pathogenic mechanism in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we report that BACE1 is essential for normal auditory function. Compared to wild type littermates, BACE1-/- mice...
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Aims: As many current approaches for heart regeneration exert unfavorable side-effects, the induction of endogenous repair mechanisms in ischemic heart disease is of particular interest. Recently, exosomes carrying angiogenic miRNAs have been described to improve heart function. However, it remains challenging to stimulate specific release of repa...
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Cytokine expression profiles revealed IL‐1ß highly upregulated in rejecting skin of limb allografts. We investigate the effect of intragraft treatment with a neutralizing IL‐1β‐antibody in limb‐transplantation. Following allogenic hind‐limb transplantation, Lewis rats were either left untreated (1) or treated with anti‐lymphocyte‐serum + tacrolimus...
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The expression patterns of the neurotrophin, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, BDNF, and the neurotrophic receptors—p75NTR and Trk receptors—in the developing human fetal inner ear between the gestational weeks (GW) 9 to 12 are examined via in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. BDNF mRNA expression was highest in the cochlea at GW 9 but...
Conference Paper
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Background: Muscle tissue is most susceptible to ischemic injury but has a remarkable potential to recover. Myogenic stem cells are thought to be responsible for this phenomenon. The aim of the proposed study is to investigate the regenerative potential of in-vitro cultivated satellite cells and their effect on muscle tissue damage after limb ische...
Article
The primary skeletal tissue in elasmobranchs -sharks, rays and relatives- is cartilage, forming both embryonic and adult endoskeletons. Only the skeletal surface calcifies, exhibiting mineralized tiles (tesserae) sandwiched between a cartilage core and overlying fibrous perichondrium. These two tissues are based on different collagens (Coll II and...
Article
Background: We herein investigate critical ischemia times and the effect of novel preservation solutions HTK-N and TiProtec on the individual tissues of a rat limb isograft. Methods: Orthotopic hind-limb transplantations were performed in male Lewis rats following 2h, 6h or 10h of cold ischemia. Limbs were flushed and stored in either HTK-N, TiP...
Article
The cartilaginous endoskeletons of Elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) are reinforced superficially by minute, mineralized tiles, called tesserae. Unlike the bony skeletons of other vertebrates, elasmobranch skeletons have limited healing capability and their tissues’ mechanisms for avoiding damage or managing it when it does occur are largely unknown....
Article
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Balance orientation depends on the precise operation of the vestibular end organs and the vestibular ganglion neurons. Previous research on the assemblage of the neuronal network in the developing fetal vestibular organ has been limited to data from animal models. Insights into the molecular expression profiles and signaling moieties involved in em...
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L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM) is a transmembrane molecule belonging to the L1 protein family. It has shown to be a key player in axonal guidance in the course of neuronal development. Furthermore, L1CAM is also crucial for the establishment of the enteric and urogenital organs and is aberrantly expressed in cancer originating in these organs. C...
Article
The endoskeleton of elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) is comprised largely of unmineralized cartilage, differing fundamentally from the bony skeletons of other vertebrates. Elasmobranch skeletons are further distinguished by a tessellated surface mineralization, a layer of minute, polygonal, mineralized tiles called tesserae. This ‘tessellation’ has...
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Purpose To test whether palisade endings are a general feature of mammalian extraocular muscles (EOMs). Methods Thirteen species, some frontal-eyed (human, monkey, cat, and ferret), and others lateral-eyed (pig, sheep, calf, horse, rabbit, rat, mouse, gerbil, and guinea pig) were analyzed. Palisade endings were labeled by using different combinati...
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Sorting of native (unpermeabilized) SVF-cells from human subcutaneous (s)WAT for cell surface staining (cs) of DLK1 and CD34 identified three main populations: ~10% stained cs-DLK1(+)/cs-CD34(-), ~20% cs-DLK1(+)/cs-CD34(+dim) and ~45% cs-DLK1(-)/cs-CD34(+). FACS analysis after permeabilization showed that all these cells stained positive for intrac...
Conference Paper
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Fish skeletal tissues are far more diverse than those of mammals, providing unique windows into skeletal biology, development and form-function relationships in general, but also the evolutionary and environmen tal pressures that shape anatomy. We investigate the materials, structure and mechanics of elasmobranch cartilage, comprised of unmineraliz...
Conference Paper
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The skeletons of cartilaginous fishes (sharks and rays) comprise an inner core of uncalcified cartilage, an outer fibrous perichondrium, and a layer of mineralized tiles (tesserae) between them [1-3]. As mammalian perichondrium and cartilage are patterned on different collagens (Coll1 and Coll2, respectively), it has been long debated whether tesse...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The skeletons of cartilaginous fishes (sharks and rays) comprise an inner core of uncalcified cartilage, an outer fibrous perichondrium, and a layer of mineralized tiles (tesserae) between them. As mammalian perichondrium and cartilage are patterned on different collagens (Coll1 and Coll2, respectively), it has been debated whether tesserae are mor...
Article
The skeletons of cartilaginous fishes (sharks and rays) comprise an inner core of uncalcified cartilage, an outer fibrous perichondrium, and a layer of mineralized tiles (tesserae) between them. As mammalian perichondrium and cartilage are patterned on different collagens (Coll1 and Coll2, respectively), it has been debated whether tesserae are mor...
Article
Full-text available
Tissue-engineered xenografts represent a promising treatment option in heart valve disease. However, inflammatory response leading to graft failure and incomplete in vitro repopulation with recipient cells remain challenging. Shock waves (SWs) were shown to modulate inflammation and to enhance re-epithelialization. We therefore aimed to investigate...
Article
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Studies on the formation of neuronal structures of the human cochlea are rare, presumptively, due to the difficult accessibility of specimens, so that most investigations are performed on mouse models. By means of immunohistochemical and transmission electron microscopic techniques we investigated an uninterrupted series of unique specimens from ge...
Article
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Human auditory nerve afferents consist of two separate systems; one is represented by the large type I cells innervating the inner hair cells and the other one by the small type II cells innervating the outer hair cells. Type I spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) constitute 96% of the afferent nerve population and, in contrast to other mammals, their so...
Article
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Background: The effect of cold ischemia (CI) in vascularized composite allotransplantation is unknown. We herein assess tissue-specific damage, acceptable CI time, and the effect of preservation solutions in a syngenic rat hindlimb transplant model. Methods: Lewis rat limbs were flushed and stored for 2, 10, or 30 hr CI in saline, histidine-tryp...
Article
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We describe a novel 3D co-culture model using non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines in combination with lung fibroblasts. This model allows the investigation of tumour-stroma interactions and addresses the importance of having a more in vivo like cell culture model. Automation-compatible multi-well hanging drop microtiter plates were used f...
Article
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Human spiral ganglion (SG) neurons show remarkable survival properties and maintain electric excitability for a long time after complete deafness and even separation from the organ of Corti, features essential for cochlear implantation. Here, we analyze and compare the localization and distribution of gap junction (GJ) intercellular channels and co...
Article
The female urethra has often been neglected in previous studies on the development of the human urogenital system. Our aim has been to reach a consensus on the organogenesis of the female urethra and the vagina with respect to interactions between the epithelia with different evolutionary origins. Therefore we tried to clarify open questions on the...
Article
Introduction: We describe a novel 3D co-culture method using non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines in combination with a lung fibroblast cell line in the hanging drop technology. This method allows the investigation of tumour-stroma interactions and addresses the importance of having a more in vivo like cell culture model. Compared to other...
Article
Introduction: We describe a novel 3D co-culture method using non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines in combination with a lung fibroblast cell line in the hanging drop technology. Compared to other 3D models, it better reflects tumour growth in its microenvironment since no addition of growth factors or artificial extracellular matrix (ECM)...
Article
Hearing loss is a frequent finding in intensive care patients due to several causes. However, sepsis has not been examined as a possible cause. The aim of the study is to assess the influence of experimental sepsis on hearing thresholds and to evaluate pathologic changes in the cochlea. Eighteen sepsis mice, 13 sham and 13 control animals were incl...
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The organogenesis of the male human urethra is still a subject of controversy. Although many studies have been conducted, the mechanisms of urethral development still need further investigation to clarify questions concerning the sequences in its development. Our aim has been to elucidate the spatiotemporal distribution of relevant immunohistochemi...
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Tartrate resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) was shown to be critical for skeleton development, and TRAP deficiency leads to a reduced resorptive activity during endochondral ossification resulting in an osteopetrotic phenotype and shortened long bones in adult mice. A proper longitudinal growth depends on a timely, well-coordinated vascularization a...
Article
During long bone development the original cartilaginous model in mammals is replaced by bone, but at the long bone endings the avascular articular cartilage remains. Before the articular cartilage attains structural maturity it undergoes reorganization, and molecules such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and endostatin could be involved...
Article
In long bones of murine species, undisturbed development of the epiphysis depends on the generation of vascularized cartilage canals shortly after birth. Despite its importance, it is still under discussion how this event is exactly regulated. It was suggested previously that, following increased hypoxia in the epiphyseal core, angiogenic factors a...
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The mouse mutant wavy tail Tg(Col1a1-lacZ)304ng was created through transgene insertion and exhibits defects of the vertebral column. Homozygous mutant animals have compressed tail vertebrae and wedge-shaped intervertebral discs, resulting in a meandering tail. Delayed closure of lumbar neural arches and lack of processus spinosi have been observed...
Article
Endochondral bone formation, the process by which most parts of our skeleton evolve, leads to the establishment of the diaphyseal primary (POC) and epiphyseal secondary ossification centre (SOC) in long bones. An essential event for the development of the SOC is the early generation of vascularized cartilage canals that requires the proteolytic cle...
Article
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In the long bones, endochondral bone formation proceeds via the development of a diaphyseal primary ossification centre (POC) and an epiphyseal secondary ossification centre (SOC). The growth plate, the essential structure for longitudinal bone growth, is located between these two sites of ossification. Basically, endochondral bone development depe...
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To provide a tool to investigate the mechanisms inducing and maintaining cancer-related pain and hyperalgesia, a soft tissue tumor/metastasis model was developed that is applicable in C57BL/6J wild-type and transgenic mice. We show that the experimental tumor-induced heat hyperalgesia and nociceptor sensitization were prevented by systemic treatmen...
Article
In mammals, the exact role of cartilage canals is still under discussion. Therefore, we studied their development in the distal femoral epiphysis of mice to define the importance of these canals. Various approaches were performed to examine the histological, cellular, and molecular events leading to bone formation. Cartilage canals started off as i...
Article
Osteoblasts and osteocytes derive from the same precursors, and osteocytes are terminally differentiated osteoblasts. These two cell types are distinguishable by their morphology, localization and levels of expression of various bone cell-specific markers. In the present study on the chicken femur we investigated the properties of the mesenchymal c...
Article
This article summarizes the authors' previous studies on proprioceptors in extraocular muscles (EOMs) of mammals and man. They report on muscle spindles in the EOMs of man, Golgi tendon organs in the EOMs of even-toed ungulates, and palisade endings in the EOMs of the cat. Muscle spindles: Muscle spindles are present in the EOMs of some mammals and...
Article
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To analyze palisade endings in extraocular muscles (EOMs) of a primate species and to examine our previous findings in cat that palisade endings are putative effector organs. Eleven monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) of both sexes, between 4 and 6 years of age were analyzed. Whole EOM myotendons were immunostained with four combinations of triple-fluore...
Article
We investigated the development of cartilage canals to clarify their function in the process of bone formation. Cartilage canals are tubes containing vessels that are found in the hyaline cartilage prior to the formation of a secondary ossification centre (SOC). Their exact role is still controversial and it is unclear whether they contribute to en...
Article
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To analyze palisade endings in cat extraocular muscles (EOMs) and to clarify whether these EOM-specific organs are sensory or motor. Twelve cats aged between 1 and 16 years were analyzed. Whole EOM tendons were immunostained using four different combinations of triple fluorescence labeling. Triple labeling included antibodies against choline acetyl...
Article
A detailed study of so-called communicating cartilage canals, which penetrate deeply up into the lower hypertrophic zone of the epiphyseal growth plate in the embryonic chicken femur (E20), was carried out with the aim to clarify whether or not these canals are involved in the bone-forming process. In addition, we examined the manner in which carti...