Among nanostructured materials, magnetic nanowires have been heeded because of their high shape anisotropy and their easy fabrication methods. Electrochemical deposition on the anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) is one of the best methods to grow different nanowires. In this paper, the AAO was fabricated on the 1100 Al alloy substrate by hard anodizing in 0. 3 M oxalic acid solution. Then, a barrier layer thinning process was carried out for the electrodeposition process. A pulsed electrodeposition process was used to fill the nano-pores. According to this method, cobalt nanowires were grown in the nano-holes. Structural, crystalline, and magnetic properties of the samples were evaluated using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), respectively. The results showed that nanowires have a diameter of 87 nm and crystalline structure with crystalline plates in directions (100), (002), and (110). A coercivity value of 600 Oe was obtained for nanowires, which is several times larger than cobalt bulk.

Introduction: Understanding neuroectoderm formation and its subsequent diversification to functional neural subtypes remains elusive. We have shown here for the first time that embryonic stem cells (ESCs) can differentiate into neurons and motor neurons (MNs) by using a co-culture embryonic notochord model in vitro.Materials and Methods: Mouse ESCs were induced to form neural precursors via timed exposure to retinoic acid (RA) using the 4-/4+ RA protocol. These cells were then co-cultured with alginate bead-encapsulated notochords isolated from Hamburger and Hamilton stage 6-10 chick embryos. The use of notochord alone was not able to induce neural differentiation from ESCs and therefore, notochord does not possess neural inducing activity.Results: The most successful neuronal cells and MN differentiation was only observed following the co-culture of RA-pretreated ESCs with notochord. This resulted in a significantly greater number of cells expressing microtubule associated protein 2 (MAP2), HB9, choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and MN-specific genes.Conclusion: While further characterization of these differentiated cells will be essential before transplantation studies commence, these data illustrate the effectiveness of embryonic notochord co-culture, in providing valuable molecular cues for directed differentiation of ESCs towards an MN lineage.

Objective(s): Sertoli cells support in vivo germ cell production; but, its exact mechanism has not been well understood. The present study was designed to analyze the effect of Sertoli cells in differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) to germ cells.Materials and Methods: A fusion construct composed of a Stra8 gene promoter and the coding region of enhanced green fluorescence protein was produced to select differentiated mESCs. To analyze sertoli cells’ effect in differentiation process, mESCs were separated into two groups: the first group was cultured on gelatin with retinoic acid treatment and the second group was co-cultured with sertoli cell feeder without retinoic acid induction. Expressions of pre-meiotic (Stra8), meiotic (Dazl and Sycp3) and post-meiotic (Prm1) genes were evaluated at different differentiation stages (+7, +12 and +18 days of culture).Results: In the first group, expressions of meiotic and post-meiotic genes started 12 and 18 days after induction with retinoic acid, respectively. In the second group, 7 days after co-culturing with Sertoli cells, expression of meiotic and post-meiotic genes was observed.Conclusion: These results show that differentiation process to germ cells is supported by Sertoli cells. Our findings provide a novel effective approach for generation of germ cell in vitro and studying the interaction of germ cells with their niche.