Altered mitochondrial response to activation of T-cells in neonate

Mitochondrial functions have a major impact on T-cell functionality. In this study we characterized whether mitochondrial function in the neonatal T-cells differs from that in the adult T-cells during short T-cell activation. METHODS: We used fow cytometry methods to test mitochondrial mass and to monitor mitochondrial Ca(2+) levels, mitochondrial potential and superoxide generation in parallel with cytoplasmic Ca(2+) levels during phythohaemagglutinine-induced activation of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells of 12 term neonates and 11 healthy adults. RESULTS: Baseline mitochondrial mass of CD4+ and CD8+ cells was lower in the neonate than in the adult. In comparison with the adult, neonatal resting CD4+ T-cells had lower cytoplasmic Ca(2+) levels and this was associated with normal activation induced Ca(2+)-response. During short-term activation cytoplasmic Ca(2+)-response was lower in neonatal than in adult CD8+ T-cells. Mitochondrial Ca(2+) uptake was increased in CD4+ neonatal T cells while it decreased in CD8+ T-cells. Mitochondrial depolarization was increased in CD4+ and decreased in CD8+ neonatal T-cells compared to adults. Superoxide generation was higher and equal in neonatal CD4+ and CD8+ cells, respectively, compared to the adult ones. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that neonatal T-cells exhibit marked differences in mitochondrial function and superoxide generation compared to adult T-cells

Robot-Assisted Hybrid Esophagectomy Is Associated with a Shorter Length of Stay Compared to Conventional Transthoracic Esophagectomy:A Retrospective Study

Aim. To compare the peri- and postoperative data between a hybrid minimally invasive esophagectomy (HMIE) and the conventional Ivor Lewis esophagectomy. Methods. Retrospective comparison of perioperative characteristics, postoperative complications, and survival between HMIE and Ivor Lewis esophagectomy. Results. 216 patients were included, with 160 procedures performed with the conventional and 56 with the HMIE approach. Lower perioperative blood loss was found in the HMIE group (600 ml versus 200 ml, p<0.001). Also, a higher median number of lymph nodes were harvested in the HMIE group (median 28) than in the conventional group (median 23) (p=0.002). The median length of stay was longer in the conventional group compared to the HMIE group (11.5 days versus 10.0 days, p=0.03). Patients in the HMIE group experienced fewer grade 2 or higher complications than the conventional group (39% versus 57%, p=0.03). The rate of all pulmonary (51% versus 43%, p=0.32) and severe pulmonary complications (38% versus 18%, p = 0.23) was not statistically different between the groups. Conclusions. The HMIE was associated with lower intraoperative blood loss, a higher lymph node harvest, and a shorter hospital stay. However, the inborn limitations with the retrospective design stress a need for prospective randomized studies. Registration number is DRKS00013023

Decrease in alpha-1 antiproteinase antitrypsin is observed in primary Sjogren's syndrome condition

Primary Sjogren’s syndrome (pSS) is a systemic autoimmune disease that is characterized by the infiltration of immune cells. Although the loss of salivary gland function is a major manifestation observed in pSS, the factors that could promote these changes in salivary gland tissue in pSS is not yet determined. Herein, we provide evidence that loss of alpha-1 antiproteinase antitrypsin could contribute to the induction of pSS. Alpha-1 antiproteinase antitrypsin belongs to the family of serpin proteins that function as protease inhibitors and protect secretory cells against proteases, especially to elastases that is secreted from lymphocytes. Importantly, expression of alpha-1 antiproteinase antitrypsin was decreased (more than 3-fold), along with an increase in elastase expression, in pSS samples when compared with age-matched non-SS-SICCA patients. Consistent with the human data, loss of alpha-1 antiproteinase antitrypsin, as well as an increase in immune infiltration, was observed in IL14α transgenic mice that exhibit SS like symptoms. Moreover, an age-dependent increase in elastase expression was observed in IL14α transgenic mice along with a decrease in total saliva secretion. Importantly, a 4-fold increase in microRNA132 expression, but not in other microRNAs, and increased DNA methylation in the promoter/noncoding region of serpina gene was observed in pSS, which could be responsible for the inhibition of alpha-1 antiproteinase antitrypsin expression in salivary gland cells of pSS patients. Together, these findings demonstrate that epigenetic regulations that include DNA methylation and microRNAs that could modulate the expression of alpha-1 antiproteinase antitrypsin in salivary glands and could be involved in the onset of pSS

Seeing 3D Objects in a Single Image via Self-Supervised Static-Dynamic Disentanglement

Human perception reliably identifies movable and immovable parts of 3D scenes, and completes the 3D structure of objects and background from incomplete observations. We learn this skill not via labeled examples, but simply by observing objects move. In this work, we propose an approach that observes unlabeled multi-view videos at training time and learns to map a single image observation of a complex scene, such as a street with cars, to a 3D neural scene representation that is disentangled into movable and immovable parts while plausibly completing its 3D structure. We separately parameterize movable and immovable scene parts via 2D neural ground plans. These ground plans are 2D grids of features aligned with the ground plane that can be locally decoded into 3D neural radiance fields. Our model is trained self-supervised via neural rendering. We demonstrate that the structure inherent to our disentangled 3D representation enables a variety of downstream tasks in street-scale 3D scenes using simple heuristics, such as extraction of object-centric 3D representations, novel view synthesis, instance segmentation, and 3D bounding box prediction, highlighting its value as a backbone for data-efficient 3D scene understanding models. This disentanglement further enables scene editing via object manipulation such as deletion, insertion, and rigid-body motion.Comment: Project page: https://prafullsharma.net/see3d

Thoracic epidural analgesia reduces gastric microcirculation in the pig

BACKGROUND: Thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) is used for pain relief during and after abdominal surgery, but the effect of TEA on the splanchnic microcirculation remains debated. We evaluated whether TEA affects splanchnic microcirculation in the pig. METHODS: Splanchnic microcirculation was assessed in nine pigs prior to and 15 and 30 min after induction of TEA. Regional blood flow was assessed by neutron activated microspheres and changes in microcirculation by laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI). RESULTS: As assessed by LSCI 15 min following TEA, gastric arteriolar flow decreased by 22 % at the antrum (p = 0.020) and by 19 % at the corpus (p = 0.029) of the stomach. In parallel, the microcirculation decreased by 19 % at the antrum (p = 0.015) and by 20 % at the corpus (p = 0.028). Reduced arteriolar flow and microcirculation at the antrum was confirmed by a reduction in microsphere assessed regional blood flow 30 min following induction of TEA (p = 0.048). These manifestations took place along with a drop in systolic blood pressure (p = 0.030), but with no significant change in mean arterial pressure, cardiac output, or heart rate. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that TEA may have an adverse effect on gastric arteriolar blood flow and microcirculation. LSCI is a non-touch technique and displays changes in blood flow in real-time and may be important for further evaluation of the concern regarding the effect of thoracic epidural anesthesia on gastric microcirculation in humans. TRIAL REGISTRATIONS: Not applicable, non-human study

Regional integration of long-term national dense GNSS network solutions

The EUREF Permanent Network Densification is a collaborative effort of 26 European GNSS analysis centers providing series of daily or weekly station position estimates of dense national and regional GNSS networks, in order to combine them into one homogenized set of station positions and velocities. During the combination, the station meta-data, including station names, DOMES numbers, and position offset definitions were carefully homogenized, position outliers were efficiently eliminated, and the results were cross-checked for any remaining inconsistencies. The results cover the period from March 1999 to January 2017 (GPS week 1000-1933) and include 31 networks with positions and velocities for 3192 stations, well covering Europe. The positions and velocities are expressed in ITRF2014 and ETRF2014 reference frames based on the Minimum Constraint approach using a selected set of ITRF2014 reference stations. The position alignment with the ITRF2014 is at the level of 1.5, 1.2, and 3.2 mm RMS for the East, North, Up components, respectively, while the velocity RMS values are 0.17, 0.14, and 0.38 mm/year for the East, North, and Up components, respectively. The high quality of the combined solution is also reflected by the 1.1, 1.1, and 3.5 mm weighted RMS values for the East, North, and Up components, respectively