Quantifiable Biomarkers of Normal Aging in the Japanese Medaka Fish (Oryzias latipes)

BACKGROUND: Small laboratory fish share many anatomical and histological characteristics with other vertebrates, yet can be maintained in large numbers at low cost for lifetime studies. Here we characterize biomarkers associated with normal aging in the Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes), a species that has been widely used in toxicology studies and has potential utility as a model organism for experimental aging research. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The median lifespan of medaka was approximately 22 months under laboratory conditions. We performed quantitative histological analysis of tissues from age-grouped individuals representing young adults (6 months old), mature adults (16 months old), and adults that had survived beyond the median lifespan (24 months). Livers of 24-month old individuals showed extensive morphologic changes, including spongiosis hepatis, steatosis, ballooning degeneration, inflammation, and nuclear pyknosis. There were also phagolysosomes, vacuoles, and residual bodies in parenchymal cells and congestion of sinusoidal vessels. Livers of aged individuals were characterized by increases in lipofuscin deposits and in the number of TUNEL-positive apoptotic cells. Some of these degenerative characteristics were seen, to a lesser extent, in the livers of 16-month old individuals, but not in 6-month old individuals. The basal layer of the dermis showed an age-dependent decline in the number of dividing cells and an increase in senescence-associated β-galactosidase. The hearts of aged individuals were characterized by fibrosis and lipofuscin deposition. There was also a loss of pigmented cells from the retinal epithelium. By contrast, age-associated changes were not apparent in skeletal muscle, the ocular lens, or the brain. SIGNIFICANCE: The results provide a set of markers that can be used to trace the process of normal tissue aging in medaka and to evaluate the effect of environmental stressors

Two-Photon Microscopy for Non-Invasive, Quantitative Monitoring of Stem Cell Differentiation

BACKGROUND: The engineering of functional tissues is a complex multi-stage process, the success of which depends on the careful control of culture conditions and ultimately tissue maturation. To enable the efficient optimization of tissue development protocols, techniques suitable for monitoring the effects of added stimuli and induced tissue changes are needed. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we present the quantitative use of two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and second harmonic generation (SHG) as a noninvasive means to monitor the differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) using entirely endogenous sources of contrast. We demonstrate that the individual fluorescence contribution from the intrinsic cellular fluorophores NAD(P)H, flavoproteins and lipofuscin can be extracted from TPEF images and monitored dynamically from the same cell population over time. Using the redox ratio, calculated from the contributions of NAD(P)H and flavoproteins, we identify distinct patterns in the evolution of the metabolic activity of hMSCs maintained in either propagation, osteogenic or adipogenic differentiation media. The differentiation of these cells is mirrored by changes in cell morphology apparent in high resolution TPEF images and by the detection of collagen production via SHG imaging. Finally, we find dramatic increases in lipofuscin levels in hMSCs maintained at 20% oxygen vs. those in 5% oxygen, establishing the use of this chromophore as a potential biomarker for oxidative stress. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In this study we demonstrate that it is possible to monitor the metabolic activity, morphology, ECM production and oxidative stress of hMSCs in a non-invasive manner. This is accomplished using generally available multiphoton microscopy equipment and simple data analysis techniques, such that the method can widely adopted by laboratories with a diversity of comparable equipment. This method therefore represents a powerful tool, which enables researchers to monitor engineered tissues and optimize culture conditions in a near real time manner

NACA Technical Notes

Note presenting experiments performed to determine the effect of injecting coolant air through a porous sintered bronze plate into a constant-area tunnel through which hot air was flowing. The boundary layer was turbulent over the porous plate for all runs. Results regarding constant wall temperature, constant mass flow, and variation of wall temperature with coolant-flow rate are provided

NACA Technical Notes

Note presenting the use of an integral technique to reduce the laminar boundary-layer equations on the windward generator of the plane of symmetry to a set of simultaneous algebraic equations. The method enables the skin friction coefficients and Stanton number to be calculated in a much shorter time than was needed to obtain exact numerical solutions from the boundary-layer equations

NACA Research Memorandums

Memorandum presenting an investigation of flow separation from a flat plate ahead of two blunt two-dimensional bodies in detail at Mach number 2. Interferograms were obtained for the separated regions, and the pitot-pressure distribution and flow directions were surveyed in one of the regions. Results regarding recovery factors and static pressures, density, total pressure, Mach number distribution, and flow-direction survey are provided

Molecular jenga: The percolation phase transition (collapse) in virus capsids

Virus capsids are polymeric protein shells that protect the viral cargo. About half of known virus families have icosahedral capsids that self-assemble from tens to thousands of subunits. Capsid disassembly is critical to the lifecycles of many viruses yet is poorly understood. Here, we apply a graph- and percolation theory to examine the effect of removing capsid subunits on capsid stability and fragmentation. Based on the structure of the icosahedral capsid of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), we constructed a graph of rhombic subunits arranged with icosahedral symmetry. Though our approach neglects dependence on energetics, time, and molecular detail, it quantitatively predicts a percolation phase transition consistent with recent in vitro studies of HBV capsid dissociation. While the stability of the capsid graph followed a gradual quadratic decay, the rhombic tiling abruptly fragmented when we removed more than 25% of the subunits, near the percolation threshold observed experimentally. This threshold may also affect results of capsid assembly, which also experimentally produces a preponderance of 90mer intermediates, as the intermediate steps in these reactions are reversible and can thus resemble dissociation. Application of percolation theory to understanding capsid association and dissociation may prove a general approach to relating virus biology to the underlying biophysics of the virus particle