Nemkirális építőelemekből álló polárosan rendezett folyadékkristályok = Mesogens with polar ordering of non-chiral building blocks

A pályázat munkatervében körvonalazott kutatási tervnek megfelelően a munka több szálon futott. Első lépést a vegyületek kémiai szintézise jelentette, ami a vizsgálni kívánt molekulaszerkezetű vegyületek megtervezését, a szintézisút kidolgozását és magát az előállítást foglalta magában. Számos esetben a vegyületekből elegyek is készültek, a fizikai folyamatok jobb megértése céljából. A pályázatból támogatott kémiai munka igen eredményes volt, nagy számú, többségében új vegyület előállítása történt meg. Ezt követték az anyagok fizikai-kémiai és fizikai módszerekkel történő vizsgálatai, amelyek során számos új eredmény és felismerés született, amit a megjelent publikációk száma és a folyóiratok minősége is demonstrál. Új, kísérleti vizsgálati módszereket és esetenként elméleti modelleket is kidolgoztunk. A pályázat támogatásával 45 cikket jelentettünk meg, amelyek kumulatív impakt faktora 103 (ebbol 5.15 IF/MFt adódik) és 96 konferenciaelőadást tartottunk nemzetközi rendezvényeken. | The research work during the project has been conducted in several directions according to the work plan of the proposal. The first step was the chemical synthesis of the desired materials which consisted of the design of the molecules, the finding of the synthetic rout and the actual production process of the compounds. In several subprojects mixtures have also been prepared from the pure compounds in order to be able to follow and understand some specific physical processes. The chemical work carried out during the project was very fruitful, a great number of mostly new substances have been synthesized. As a next step, the physico-chemical and the physical investigations followed, which have produced several original results and achievements as demonstrated by the large number of the publications and the impact factors of the journals. New experimental methods and theoretical models have been worked out. During the project 45 publications appeared with a cumulative impact factor of 103 (5.15 IF/MFt) and 96 conference contributions have been made at international meetings

Electric field-induced interfacial instability in a ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal

Studies of sessile droplets and fluid bridges of a ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal in externally applied electric fields are presented. It is found that above a threshold a fingering instability occurs, resembling to Rayleigh-type instability observed in charged droplets in electric fields or circular drop-type instabilities observed in ferromagnetic liquids in magnetic field. The frequency dependence of the threshold voltage was determined in various geometries. The nematic director and ferroelectric polarization direction was found to point along the tip of the fingers that appear to repel each other, indicating that the ferroelectric polarization is essentially parallel to the director. The results are interpreted in analogy to the Rayleigh and circular drop-type instabilities

Cellular immune response in Dupuytren\u27s disease

Uvod: Patogeneza Dupuytrenove bolesti je nejasna, no mogu se pretpostaviti upalni mehanizmi u njenoj pozadini. Materijali i metode: Mjerili smo udjele različitih podvrsta monocita i lim-focita u perifernoj krvi prema stadiju bolesti kod 39 bolesnika oboljelih od Dupuytrenove bolesti. Rezultate smo usporedili s rezultatima 29 zdravih kontrolnih ispitanika iz iste dobne skupine. Mjerenja su napravljena pomoću protočne citometrije. Rezultati: U aktivnom su stadiju bolesnici imali bitno povišen udio monocita, NK-stanica sličnih T-limfocitima, dok je udio B-limfocita bio značajno snižen, uključujući CD5+ B-limfocite. Udjeli CD4+, CD8+ T-limfocita i B-limfocita nisu se znatno promijenili. U naprednom su stadiju bolesti udjeli monocita i B-limfocita ostali konstantnima, no značajno su se snizili udjeli T-limfocita. U četiri slučaja među bolesnicima koji boluju od Dupuytrenove bolesti pojavile su se limfoidne neoplazme zrelih B- ili T-limfocita. Zaključci: Naši rezultati podupiru prijašnja mišljenja da su limfociti povezani s patogenezom Dupuytrenove bolesti te pojačavaju ulogu monocita, NK-stanica sličnih T-limfocitima i promjenu imunosnog odgovora između stadija bolesti.Background: The pathogenesis of Dupuytren\u27s disease is unclear, but inflammatory mechanisms might be supposed in the background. Materials and methods: The ratios of the subsets of monocytes and lymphocytes in the peripheral blood were measured according to the stage of the disease of 39 Dupuytren\u27s patients. They were compared with those of 29 healthy, age-matched controls. The measurements were accomplished by flow-cytometry. Results: In an active stage, the patients had significantly increased ratios of monocytes, NK-like T-cells, whereas significantly decreased ratio of B-lymphocytes, including CD5+ B-cells. The ratios of CD4+, CD8+ T-cells and NK-cells did not change significantly. In the advanced stage, the ratios of monocytes and B-lymphocytes remained constant, but the ratios of T-cells decreased significantly. In four cases among Dupuytren\u27s patients, mature B- or T-cell lymphoid malignancies occurred. Conclusions: Our results support the previous considerations that lymphocytes are involved in the pathogenesis of Dupuytren\u27s disease and enhance the role of monocytes, NK-like T-cells and the alteration of immune response between the stages of the disease

Spherical-cap droplets of a photo-responsive bent liquid crystal dimer

The stays and research activities of J. Y. and F. A. in Hungary, and P. S. and A. B. in Japan are supported by the JSPS-HAS bilateral program. J. Y. was partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 15K17739. A. J. acknowledges financial support by NSF DMR: 1307674. Financial support from the grants NKFIH PD 121019 and FK 125134 are acknowledged.Peer reviewedPostprin

I-Block: a simple Escherichia coli-based assay for studying sequence-specific DNA binding of proteins

We have developed a simple method called I-Block assay, which can detect sequence-specific binding of proteins to DNA in Escherichia coli. The method works by detecting competition between the protein of interest and RNA polymerase for binding to overlapping target sites in a plasmid-borne lacI promoter variant. The assay utilizes two plasmids and an E. coli host strain, from which the gene of the Lac repressor (lacI) has been deleted. One of the plasmids carries the lacI gene with a unique NheI restriction site created in the lacI promoter. The potential recognition sequences of the tested protein are inserted into the NheI site. Introduction of the plasmids into the E. coliΔlacI host represses the constitutive β-galactosidase synthesis of the host bacterium. If the studied protein expressed from a compatible plasmid binds to its target site in the lacI promoter, it will interfere with lacI transcription and lead to increased β-galactosidase activity. The method was tested with two zinc finger proteins, with the lambda phage cI857 repressor, and with CRISPR-dCas9 targeted to the lacI promoter. The I-Block assay was shown to work with standard liquid cultures, with cultures grown in microplate and with colonies on X-gal indicator plates

A felnőttkori csontvelőből származó mesenchymalis őssejtek felhasználása sérült szövetek pótlására = Use of mesenchymal stem cells from adult bone marrow for injured tissue repair

A csontvelőből származó mesenchymalis őssejtek pluripotensek, s képesek porc, csont, valamint adiposus és ínsejtekké differenciálódni. Ezen mesenchymalis progenitor sejteket stromasejteknek vagy mesenchymalis őssejteknek nevezik. A csontvelőben két fő sejttípus van: haematopoeticus sejt és stromasejt. Mesenchymalis őssejtek kis beavatkozással nyerhetők a csontvelőből, majd sejtkultúrában szaporíthatóak. Differenciálódásuk bioaktív molekulákkal, specifikus növekedési faktorokkal segíthető elő. A transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) család tagjai proteinek, közülük a bone morphogenetic proteinek (BMP) a legfontosabb faktorok, amelyek elősegítik a mesenchymalis őssejtek porc- és csontszövetté történő differenciálódását. Kevésbé ismert még ezen sejteknek a tenogenesisben való szerepe, de már vannak biztató adatok e téren is. A mesenchymalis őssejteknek és növekedési faktoroknak a sérült szövetekbe való juttatásra vivő vázanyagra (carrier, scaffold) van szükség. Mesenchymalis őssejtek használhatók fel génterápiára és a tissue engineering alkalmazására. A szerzők jelen munkájukban áttekintik a mesenchymalis őssejtek, biomolekulák és növekedési faktorok szövetpótlás céljából történő használatával foglalkozó kísérletes vizsgálatok eddigi eredményeit és ismertetik a klinikai alkalmazás lehetőségeit. | Mesenchymal stem cells are known as being multipotent and exhibit the potential for differentiation into different cells/tissue lineages, including cartilage, bone, adipose tissue, tendon, and ligament. These pluripotent mesenchymal progenitor cells are denoted as stromal or mesenchymal stem cells. Bone marrow contains two main cell types: hematopoietic cells and stromal cells. The stem cells for non hematopoietic tissues are referred as mesenchymal cells because of their ability to differentiate as mesenchymal or stromal cells. Mesenchymal cells are easily obtainable from bone marrow by means of minimally invasive approach and can be expanded in culture and permitted to differentiate into the desired lineage. The differentiation can be reached by the application of bioactive signaling molecules, specific growth factors. The transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) superfamily member proteins such as the bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP-s) are the most important factors of chondrogenic and osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. From the series of recently indentified factors, BMP 2,4 and 7 may play an important role in chondrogenic and osteogenic differentiation proteins. Little is known, however, about the signaling pathway involved in tenogenesis of mesenchymal stem cells, but there are some encouraging data about fibroblastic differentiation. The success of growth factor therapy needs a delivery system with biomaterials. Mesenchymal stem cells have become promising vehicles for gene therapy, cell therapy and tissue engineering. In present review, authors deal with the experimental investigations and with the clinical application of the adult bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells with bioactive molecules, growth factors