Candida albicans is a commensal yeast that often colonizes various parts of humans, mainly epithelial, dermal or mucosal (oral cavity, gastrointestinal and genital tract etc.) tissues, but also an opportunistic pathogen that can be involved in a wide range of asymptomatic to severe, invasive infections in immunodeficient individuals. It exhibits certain unique properties such as phenotypic switching (crucial for avoiding the immune system), unique mating pattern (both asexual and sexual) and haploinsufficiency. This fungus has been also known to be a major cause of oral and skin infections, with a higher number of cases occurring in HIV positive individuals. Strains isolated from different parts of the body exhibit certain differences in their morphology and properties, among which, biofilms formation ability needs to be better understood in order to design efficient antifungal strategies. This review paper gives a brief description of various aspects of Candida albicans pathogenesis.

Bone tissue engineering is a new and modern strategy that serves for repairing major bone defects. Three essential elements are involved in bone tissue engineering: a scaffold, a cell source that can convert into bone cells and growth factors. In order to develop new and original biomaterials with high compatibility it is necessary to fully understand osteoblastogenesis. Osteoblasts and osteoclasts are the two types of cells involved in the formation of bone tissue. Osteoblasts are cells responsible for bone growth and for synthesizing bone matrix, whereas osteoclasts function in bone resorbtion. There are some osteogenic markers that osteoblasts are able to produce during bone formation, that have an important role in the processes of migration, proliferation and differentiation. Also, the differentiation process is governed by three major signaling pathways: Wnt, Hedgehog and Notch, which have the role to regulate osteogenesis by controlling proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. This review aims to synthesize the most important information known so far regarding the main stages and markers of osteogenesis, as well as the main biomaterials, major cell types and specific osteogenic inducers involved in bone tissue engineering. Moreover, this review can serve as a guideline for further applications concerning this subject.

Candida albicans is a commensal yeast that often colonizes various parts of humans, mainly epithelial, dermal or mucosal (oral cavity, gastrointestinal and genital tract etc.) tissues, but also an opportunistic pathogen that can be involved in a wide range of asymptomatic to severe, invasive infections in immunodeficient individuals. It exhibits certain unique properties such as phenotypic switching (crucial for avoiding the immune system), unique mating pattern (both asexual and sexual) and haploinsufficiency. This fungus has been also known to be a major cause of oral and skin infections, with a higher number of cases occurring in HIV positive individuals. Strains isolated from different parts of the body exhibit certain differences in their morphology and properties, among which, biofilms formation ability needs to be better understood in order to design efficient antifungal strategies. This review paper gives a brief description of various aspects of Candida albicans pathogenesis.

Adipose tissue engineering represents a promising solution for the regeneration of adipose tissue. The goal is to achieve a substitute for this specific tissue, appropriate for implantation at the lesion site, by combining cells, biomaterials and induction factors that promote adipogenesis. The cells undergo adipogenic differentiation, specific genes are up-regulated by transcription factors and certain signaling pathways are activated or silenced. The aim of this review was to provide the readers with an overview of the main molecular events associated with adipogenesis, stressing on the most important aspects of signaling during this process, as well as with the main aspects of adipose tissue engineering up to date.

Due to their diverse and multiple antimicrobial features, inorganic and organic nanoparticles (NPs) represent promising candidates for the development of novel antimicrobial strategies, which could be used to complement current antimicrobial agents that fail to combat pathogens, including multidrug-resistant and biofilm-forming microorganisms. The high surface / volume ratio of NPs provides a maximum loading of therapeutic molecules. Additionally, NPs coated with different antimicrobial agents could represent an important alternative strategy to combat biofilm infections. Among the most common types of NPs, the metal, metal oxide and carbon-based NPs are the most used for antimicrobial applications and the purpose of this review is to present some of their antimicrobial features.

Inflammation and male genital tract infections could interfere with the spermatogenesis process and lead to damages in sperm quality, as well as to seminal tract obstruction, being thus considered two of the most important causes of male infertility. Therefore, currently, there is an acute need for a better standardization of the methodology used in the clinical practice to detect and identify microorganisms infecting the male urogenital tract and also for the correct diagnosis of inflammatory processes correlated with male infertility. This paper aims to review some of the physiological changes of the main determinants of sperm quality induced by inflammatory and infectious processes, such as increased seminal leucocytes, oxidative stress and cytokines production.