Human adipose derived stroma/stem cells grow in serum-free medium as floating spheres,”

With the goal of obtaining clinically safe human adipose-derived stroma/stem cells (ASC) and eliminating the use of serum, we have developed a new culture system that allows the expansion of ASC as spheres in a defined medium. These spheres can be passaged several times. They are not only aggregated cells but rather originate from single cells as clonal spheres can be obtained after seeding at very low density and reform clonal spheres after dissociation. These spheres can also revert to monolayer growth when plated in medium containing human plasma and even generate fibroblast-like colonies (CFU-f). Under several differentiation-specific media, spheresderived ASC maintain their capacity to differentiate into osteoblasts, endothelial cells and adipocytes. These results indicate that human ASC can be maintained in a serum-free 3D culture system, which is of great interest for the expansion in bioreactors of autologous ASC and their use in clinical trials

Notes on entropic characteristics of quantum channels

One of most important issues in quantum information theory concerns transmission of information through noisy quantum channels. We discuss few channel characteristics expressed by means of generalized entropies. Such characteristics can often be dealt in line with more usual treatment based on the von Neumann entropies. For any channel, we show that the $q$-average output entropy of degree $q\geq1$ is bounded from above by the $q$-entropy of the input density matrix. Concavity properties of the $(q,s)$-entropy exchange are considered. Fano type quantum bounds on the $(q,s)$-entropy exchange are derived. We also give upper bounds on the map $(q,s)$-entropies in terms of the output entropy, corresponding to the completely mixed input.Comment: 10 pages, no figures. The statement of Proposition 1 is explicitly illustrated with the depolarizing channel. The bibliography is extended and updated. More explanations. To be published in Cent. Eur. J. Phy

Relations for certain symmetric norms and anti-norms before and after partial trace

Changes of some unitarily invariant norms and anti-norms under the operation of partial trace are examined. The norms considered form a two-parametric family, including both the Ky Fan and Schatten norms as particular cases. The obtained results concern operators acting on the tensor product of two finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. For any such operator, we obtain upper bounds on norms of its partial trace in terms of the corresponding dimensionality and norms of this operator. Similar inequalities, but in the opposite direction, are obtained for certain anti-norms of positive matrices. Through the Stinespring representation, the results are put in the context of trace-preserving completely positive maps. We also derive inequalities between the unified entropies of a composite quantum system and one of its subsystems, where traced-out dimensionality is involved as well.Comment: 11 pages, no figures. A typo error in Eq. (5.15) is corrected. Minor improvements. J. Stat. Phys. (in press

Formyl Peptide Receptor as a Novel Therapeutic Target for Anxiety-Related Disorders

Formyl peptide receptors (FPR) belong to a family of sensors of the immune system that detect microbe-associated molecules and inform various cellular and sensorial mechanisms to the presence of pathogens in the host. Here we demonstrate that Fpr2/3-deficient mice show a distinct profile of behaviour characterised by reduced anxiety in the marble burying and light-dark box paradigms, increased exploratory behaviour in an open-field, together with superior performance on a novel object recognition test. Pharmacological blockade with a formyl peptide receptor antagonist, Boc2, in wild type mice reproduced most of the behavioural changes observed in the Fpr2/3(-/-) mice, including a significant improvement in novel object discrimination and reduced anxiety in a light/dark shuttle test. These effects were associated with reduced FPR signalling in the gut as shown by the significant reduction in the levels of p-p38. Collectively, these findings suggest that homeostatic FPR signalling exerts a modulatory effect on anxiety-like behaviours. These findings thus suggest that therapies targeting FPRs may be a novel approach to ameliorate behavioural abnormalities present in neuropsychiatric disorders at the cognitive-emotional interface

Effects of mesenchymal stromal cells versus serum on tendon healing in a controlled experimental trial in an equine model

Abstract Background Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) have shown promising results in the treatment of tendinopathy in equine medicine, making this therapeutic approach seem favorable for translation to human medicine. Having demonstrated that MSC engraft within the tendon lesions after local injection in an equine model, we hypothesized that they would improve tendon healing superior to serum injection alone. Methods Quadrilateral tendon lesions were induced in six horses by mechanical tissue disruption combined with collagenase application 3 weeks before treatment. Adipose-derived MSC suspended in serum or serum alone were then injected intralesionally. Clinical examinations, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging were performed over 24 weeks. Tendon biopsies for histological assessment were taken from the hindlimbs 3 weeks after treatment. Horses were sacrificed after 24 weeks and forelimb tendons were subjected to macroscopic and histological examination as well as analysis of musculoskeletal marker expression. Results Tendons injected with MSC showed a transient increase in inflammation and lesion size, as indicated by clinical and imaging parameters between week 3 and 6 (p < 0.05). Thereafter, symptoms decreased in both groups and, except that in MSC-treated tendons, mean lesion signal intensity as seen in T2w magnetic resonance imaging and cellularity as seen in the histology (p < 0.05) were lower, no major differences could be found at week 24. Conclusions These data suggest that MSC have influenced the inflammatory reaction in a way not described in tendinopathy studies before. However, at the endpoint of the current study, 24 weeks after treatment, no distinct improvement was observed in MSC-treated tendons compared to the serum-injected controls. Future studies are necessary to elucidate whether and under which conditions MSC are beneficial for tendon healing before translation into human medicine

Effects of a Ceramic Biomaterial on Immune Modulatory Properties and Differentiation Potential of Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells of Different Origin.

The aim of this study was to assess the immune modulatory properties of human mesenchymal stromal cells obtained from bone marrow (BM-MSCs), fat (ASCs), and cord blood (CB-MSCs) in the presence of a hydroxyapatite and tricalcium-phosphate (HA/TCP) biomaterial as a scaffold for MSC delivery. In resting conditions, a short-term culture with HA/TCP did not modulate the anti-apoptotic and suppressive features of the various MSC types toward T, B, and NK cells; in addition, when primed with inflammatory cytokines, MSCs similarly increased their suppressive capacities in the presence or absence of HA/TCP. The long-term culture of BM-MSCs with HA/TCP induced an osteoblast-like phenotype with upregulation of OSTERIX and OSTEOCALCIN, similar to what was obtained with dexamethasone and, to a higher extent, with bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP-4) treatment. MSC-derived osteoblasts did not trigger immune cell activation, but were less efficient than undifferentiated MSCs in inhibiting stimulated T and NK cells. Interestingly, their suppressive machinery included not only the activation of indoleamine-2,3 dioxygenase (IDO), which plays a central role in T-cell inhibition, but also cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) that was not significantly involved in the immune modulatory effect of human undifferentiated MSCs. Since COX-2 is significantly involved in bone healing, its induction by HA/TCP could also contribute to the therapeutic activity of MSCs for bone tissue engineering

Paroxetine suppresses recombinant human P2X7 responses

P2X7 receptor (P2X7) activity may link inflammation to depressive disorders. Genetic variants of human P2X7 have been linked with major depression and bipolar disorders, and the P2X7 knockout mouse has been shown to exhibit anti-depressive-like behaviour. P2X7 is an ATP-gated ion channel and is a major regulator of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin 1β (IL-1β) secretion from monocytes and microglia. We hypothesised that antidepressants may elicit their mood enhancing effects in part via modulating P2X7 activity and reducing inflammatory responses. In this study, we determined whether common psychoactive drugs could affect recombinant and native human P2X7 responses in vitro. Common antidepressants demonstrated opposing effects on human P2X7-mediated responses; paroxetine inhibited while fluoxetine and clomipramine mildly potentiated ATP-induced dye uptake in HEK-293 cells stably expressing recombinant human P2X7. Paroxetine inhibited dye uptake mediated by human P2X7 in a concentration-dependent manner with an IC50 of 24 μM and significantly reduces ATP-induced inward currents. We confirmed that trifluoperazine hydrochloride suppressed human P2X7 responses (IC50 of 6.4 μM). Both paroxetine and trifluoperazine did not inhibit rodent P2X7 responses, and mutation of a known residue (F 95L) did not alter the effect of either drug, suggesting neither drug binds at this site. Finally, we demonstrate that P2X7-induced IL-1β secretion from lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-primed human CD14+ monocytes was suppressed with trifluoperazine and paroxetine

Chronicle of an early demise, surname extinction in the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries

This is the Author’s Original Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History on 2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01615440.2018.1462747It has been amply demonstrated that individuals' reproductive capability is the key explanatory phenomenon for understanding onomastic disappearance during the early modern period. This article analyzes the evolution and consequences of surname extinction in a specific population: Catalonia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this article two aspects are examined. First, the observed disappearance of surnames is estimated through historical data collected in the Llibres d'Esposalles (Marriage Books) from 1481 to 1600 at Barcelona Cathedral. Second, the estimated natural extinction of those surnames registered in 1481 is forecast by applying a statistical branching processResearch has been funded by Projects MTM2016-76969-P (Spanish State Research Agency, AEI) and MTM2013-41383-P (Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness), both co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), IAP network from Belgian Science Policy. Work of J. Ameijeiras-Alonso has been supported by the Ph.D. Grant BES-2014-071006 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and CompetitivenessNO

Pharmacological Alterations of Anxious Behaviour in Mice Depending on Both Strain and the Behavioural Situation

A previous study comparing non-emotive mice from the strain C57BL/6/ByJ with ABP/Le mice showed ABP/Le to be more anxious in an open-field situation. In the present study, several compounds affecting anxiety were assayed on ABP/Le and C57BL/6/ByJ mice using three behavioural models of anxiety: the elevated plus-maze, the light-dark discrimination test and the free exploratory paradigm. The compounds used were the full benzodiazepine receptor agonist, chlordiazepoxide, and the antagonist, flumazenil, the GABAA antagonist, bicuculline, the full 5-HT1A agonist 8-OH-DPAT, and the mixed 5-HT1A/5-HT1B agonist, RU 24969. Results showed the effect of the compounds to be dependent on both the strain and the behavioural task. Several compounds found to be anxiolytic in ABP/Le mice had an anxiogenic effect on C57BL/6/ByJ mice. More behavioural changes were observed for ABP/Le in the elevated plus-maze, but the clearest findings for C57BL/6/ByJ mice were observed in the light-dark discrimination apparatus. These data demonstrate that anxious behaviour is a complex phenomenon which cannot be described by a single behavioural task nor by the action of a single compound