Adipose-derived stem/stromal cells in kidney transplantation: Status quo and future perspectives

Kidney transplantation (KT) is the gold standard treatment of end-stage renal disease. Despite progressive advances in organ preservation, surgical technique, intensive care, and immunosuppression, long-term allograft survival has not significantly improved. Among the many peri-operative complications that can jeopardize transplant outcomes, ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) deserves special consideration as it is associated with delayed graft function, acute rejection, and premature transplant loss. Over the years, several strategies have been proposed to mitigate the impact of IRI and favor tolerance, with rather disappointing results. There is mounting evidence that adipose stem/stromal cells (ASCs) possess specific characteristics that could help prevent, reduce, or reverse IRI. Immunomodulating and tolerogenic properties have also been suggested, thus leading to the development of ASC-based prophylactic and therapeutic strategies in pre-clinical and clinical models of renal IRI and allograft rejection. ASCs are copious, easy to harvest, and readily expandable in culture. Furthermore, ASCs can secrete extracellular vesicles (EV) which may act as powerful mediators of tissue repair and tolerance. In the present review, we discuss the current knowledge on the mechanisms of action and therapeutic opportunities offered by ASCs and ASC-derived EVs in the KT setting. Most relevant pre-clinical and clinical studies as well as actual limitations and future perspective are highlighted

Estudio de las funciones dieléctricas del semiconductor sulfuro de plomo

Hemos calculado la estructura electrónica con la formulación de la funcional densidad, del semiconductor PbS. A partir de ella, calculamos la variación en frecuencia de las funciones dieléctricas en el espectro comprendido entre 0 y 5 eV. Los picos obtenidos, así como la forma general de las curvas correspondientes a las partes real ε 1 e imaginaria ε2, resultan muy bien caracterizados y entendidos en base a los diagramas de bandas y densidades de estados calculados. El espectro dispersivo tiene su punto de inflexión en razonable acuerdo con la energía a la cual la absorción alcanza su máximo y comienza a disminuir, correspondiendo a un comportamiento metálico en el rango de las energías mayores a 3 eV. También presentamos resultados de la reflectividad de este material.Fil: Albanesi, Eduardo Aldo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; ArgentinaFil: Repetto, G.H.. Universidad Nacional de Entre Ríos; ArgentinaFil: Peltzer y Blanca, Eitel Leopoldo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos; ArgentinaFil: Dominguez, F.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos; Argentin

La inoculación de Azospirillum brasilense mejora la calidad de las plántulas de un mezquite (Prosopis juliflora)

Inoculation of mycorrhizal fungi and rhizobacteria in plants can improve their growth and physiological status, which could be particularly important for agricultural and forestry plants used for the revegetation of arid areas. Prosopis juliflora is a forest pioneer species that is drought resistant and has multiple uses (fodder, shade and shelter for livestock; timber and firewood, live fences and windbreaks in agroforestry systems). Azospirillum brasilense is a rhizobacterium that improves the growth of many agricultural crops. The hypothesis of this study was that P. juliflora seedlings produced in the nursery can respond positively to inoculation with A. brasilense CECT 590. Five months after inoculation, we examined the growth, water relations (osmotic potential at full turgor, osmotic potential at zero turgor, and the modulus of elasticity at full turgor), and concentration and content of macronutrients (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) in the seedlings. Subsequently, a trial was conducted to analyse root growth potential. A. brasilense CECT 590 inoculation caused an osmotic adjustment in P. juliflora seedlings but decreased the elasticity of the cell walls. Inoculation with A. brasilense CECT 590 significantly improved plant growth due in part to an increase of N concentration in the seedlings. A. brasilense CECT 590 inoculation also caused an increase in the root growth potential. The increased growth of P. juliflora seedlings inoculated with A. brasilense was probably caused by more than one mechanism. Inoculation with A. brasilense at the nursery may be a suitable technique for producing improved seedling material for restoration purposes.La inoculación de hongos de micorrizacion y rizobacterias en las plantas puede mejorar su crecimiento y calidad fisiológica, especialmente en plantas agrícolas y forestales empleadas para la regeneración de zonas áridas. Prosopis juliflora es una especie forestal pionera, resistente a la sequía, y de usos múltiples (forraje, sombra y cobijo para el ganado, madera y leña, cercas vivas y cortinas cortavientos en sistemas agroforestales). Azospirillum brasilense es una rizobacteria que mejora el crecimiento de muchos cultivos agrícolas. La hipótesis de este estudio fue que las plántulas de P. juliflora producidas en vivero pueden responder positivamente a la inoculación con A. brasilense CECT 590. Cinco meses después desde la inoculación, se analizó el crecimiento, relaciones hídricas (potencial osmótico en saturación, potencial osmótico en el punto de pérdida de turgencia, y módulo de elasticidad a total turgor), concentración y contenido de macronutrientes (N, P, K, Ca y Mg) en las plántulas. Posteriormente se realizó un ensayo para analizar el Potencial de Crecimiento Radical. La inoculación de A. brasilense CECT 590 causó un ajuste osmótico de las plántulas de P. juliflora, pero disminuyó la elasticidad de las paredes celulares. A. brasilense CECT 590 mejoró significativamente el crecimiento de la planta, debido en parte al incremento de la concentración de N en las plántulas. La inoculación con A. brasilense CECT 590 también causó un incremento del potencial de crecimiento radical. El incremento del crecimiento en las plántulas de P. juliflora inoculadas con A. brasilense fue probablemente debido a más de un mecanismo. La inoculación con A. brasilense en vivero puede ser una técnica adecuada para la producción de material de plántulas mejorado con fines de restauración

Macroscopic polarization and band offsets at nitride heterojunctions

Ab initio electronic structure studies of prototypical polar interfaces of wurtzite III-V nitrides show that large uniform electric fields exist in epitaxial nitride overlayers, due to the discontinuity across the interface of the macroscopic polarization of the constituent materials. Polarization fields forbid a standard evaluation of band offsets and formation energies: using new techniques, we find a large forward-backward asymmetry of the offset (0.2 eV for AlN/GaN (0001), 0.85 eV for GaN/AlN (0001)), and tiny interface formation energies.Comment: RevTeX 4 pages, 2 figure

Safety of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine in egg allergy: in vivo and in vitro management

Background: Egg allergy is the second most prevalent form of food allergy in childhood. In spite of the evidence accumulated, inoculating egg allergy children with attenuated vaccines grown on chick embryo cell cultures, such as the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, is regarded (erroneously) as potentially dangerous or even anaphylactogenic, by many. An issue perceived as particularly conflicting also by Health Professionals. Case presentation: A 15-year-old boy, with a history of severe egg allergy in early infancy, who was still sensitized to egg allergens, including baked egg, had never received MMR vaccination, in fear of possible anaphylaxis, in spite of the fact that this vaccination is mandatory in the first year of life, in Italy. Because of that, he was not allowed to attend school, longer, and was referred to us in order to assess the potential risk of MMR vaccination. Upon thorough allergologic workup, sensitization to MMR vaccine components was excluded by an in vivo approach, consisting in skin prick tests, intradermal tests, and subcutaneous injection test, corroborated by vaccine-specific B-lymphocyte proliferation assay, ex vivo. T-cell proliferation in response to MMR vaccine was also excluded. Eventually, the boy was inoculated with MMR vaccine and was readmitted to school. Conclusions: The diagnostic strategy adopted appears feasible and easy-to-perform and may be adopted in controversial cases (as the one reported), characterized by previous severe allergic reactions to egg. The B-lymphocyte proliferation assay we developed may represent a useful and reliable tool not only in research but also in clinical practice

Incidence and risk factors for Contegra graft infection following right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction: long-term results.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk factors associated with Contegra graft (Medtronic Minneapolis, MN, USA) infection after reconstruction of the right ventricular outflow tract. METHODS: One hundred and six Contegra grafts were implanted between April 1999 and April 2010 for the Ross procedure (n = 46), isolated pulmonary valve replacement (n = 32), tetralogy of Fallot (n = 24), double-outlet right ventricle (n = 7), troncus arteriosus (n = 4), switch operation (n = 1) and redo of pulmonary valve replacement (n = 2). The median age of the patients was 13 years (range 0-54 years). A follow-up was completed in all cases with a median duration of 7.6 years (range 1.7-12.7 years). RESULTS: There were 3 cases of in-hospital mortality. The survival rate during 7 years was 95.7%. Despite the lifelong endocarditis prophylaxis, Contegra graft infection was diagnosed in 12 (11.3%) patients at a median time of 4.4 years (ranging from 0.4 to 8.7 years). Univariate analysis of preoperative, perioperative and postoperative variables was performed and the following risk factors for time to infection were identified: female gender with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.19 (P = 0.042), systemic-to-pulmonary shunt (HR 6.46, P < 0.01), hypothermia (HR 0.79, P = 0.014), postoperative renal insufficiency (HR 11.97, P = 0.015) and implantation of permanent pacemaker during hospitalization (HR 5.29, P = 0.075). In 2 cases, conservative therapy was successful and, in 10 patients, replacement of the infected valve was performed. The Contegra graft was replaced by a homograft in 2 cases and by a new Contegra graft in 8 cases. Cox's proportional hazard model indicated that time to graft infection was significantly associated with tetralogy of Fallot (HR 0.06, P = 0.01), systemic-to-pulmonary shunt (HR 64.71, P < 0.01) and hypothermia (HR 0.77, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Contegra graft infection affected 11.3% of cases in our cohort, and thus may be considered as a frequent entity that can be predicted by both intraoperative and early postoperative factors. After the diagnosis of infection associated with the Contegra graft was confirmed, surgical treatment was the therapy of choice

The role of immune PSA complex (iXip) in the prediction of prostate cancer

Purpose: To analyse the performance of iXip in the prediction of prostate cancer (PCa) and high-grade PCa. Methods: A consecutive series of men undergoing MRI/FUSION prostate biopsies were enrolled in one centre. Indications for prostate biopsy included abnormal prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels (PSA>4 ng/ml) and/or abnormal digital rectal examination (DRE) and/or abnormal MRI. All patients underwent the evaluation of serum PSA-IgM concentration and the iXip ratio was calculated. Accuracy iXip for the prediction of PCa was evaluated using multivariable binary regression analysis and receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curves. Results: Overall 160 patients with a median age of 65 (62/73) years were enrolled. Overall, 42% patients were diagnosed with PCa and 75% of them had high-grade cancer (Epstein ≥ 3). Patients with PCa were older and presented higher PSA levels, higher PIRADS scores and lower prostate volumes (PVs). On ROC analysis iXip presented an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.57 in the prediction of PCa and of 0.54 for the prediction of high-grade PCa. Conclusions: In our experience, immune PSA complexes are not predictors of PCa. iXip analysis should not be included in the diagnostic pathway of patients at increased risk of PCa

Predictors of prosocial behavior during the covid-19 national lockdown in italy: Testing the role of psychological sense of community and other community assets

There is growing support for viewing communities as a multilevel construct in which the interdependence between individuals and community systems contributes to the promotion of individual responsibilities in thinking and enacting changes to respond to people\u2019s and community\u2019s needs. However, there is currently scant evidence regarding the influence of psychological sense of community and the role of community assets on prosocial behavior during the COVID-19 national lockdown. The main aim of the current study was to test a conceptual model of community assets as predictors of prosocial behavior during Italy\u2019s COVID-19 national lockdown. A sample of 3,964 Italian adults was involved in the current study. We collected data using an online questionnaire, between April 12 and May 21, 2020, during the nationwide lockdown restrictions. To collect data, we employed convenience and virtual snowball sampling strategies (i.e., email, social networks, and online channels). Using structural equation modeling, we found that prosocial behavior was predicted by sense of community responsibility but not by sense of community. Moreover, sense of community and sense of community responsibility were predicted by community members\u2019 perception of its assets, in particular collective resilience and adequate information. Finally, trust in the institutional response to the pandemic predicted community members\u2019 perception of collective resilience and receiving adequate information through the community. The present study suggests that community qualities, positively perceived by community members, are crucial in promoting prosocial behaviors and producing collective goods during a pandemic