NK cells sense tumors, course of disease and treatments: Consequences for NK-based therapies

The recent findings on NK activation indicate that these cells are important antitumor effectors. NK cells participate in the graft-vs.-leukemia effect to control the relapse in leukemic patients transplanted with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells. In various tumors, correlation between NK cell infiltrates and prognosis were reported. However, tumor-infiltrating NK cells are yet poorly characterized. We here summarize our results and the recent studies of the literature on tumor-infiltrating NK cells, and discuss the impact of these novel insights into NK cell responses against tumors for the design of NK cell-based therapies

Guidelines for energy management in the South African wine industry

CITATION: Brent, A., Silinga, C. & Sanetra, N. 2016. Guidelines for energy management in the South African wine industry. Journal of Energy in Southern Africa, 27(4):53–63, doi:10.17159/2413-3051/2016/v27i4a1458.The original publication is available at https://journals.assaf.org.za/index.php/jesaPressure is mounting on the wine industry to consider energy management interventions to, inter alia, reduce energy consumption – to be more competitive, become more self-reliant, and to reduce the carbon footprint of the sector. This paper then summarises the process that was undertaken to develop an appropriate energy management guideline for the South African wine industry. It is based on a literature analysis of best practices elsewhere, and a number of case studies across different sizes of winery operations in South Africa. The positive outcomes from energy management interventions at these cases are demonstrated, but a number of challenges are also highlighted. Recommendations are made accordingly.https://journals.assaf.org.za/index.php/jesa/article/view/1458Publisher's versio

Interaction of Polysialic Acid with CCL21 Regulates the Migratory Capacity of Human Dendritic Cells

Dendritic cells (DCs) are the most potent antigen-presenting cells (APCs). Immature DCs (iDCs) are situated in the periphery where they capture pathogen. Subsequently, they migrate as mature DCs (mDCs) to draining lymph nodes to activate T cells. CCR7 and CCL21 contribute to the migratory capacity of the DC, but it is not completely understood what molecular requirements are involved. Here we demonstrate that monocyte-derived DCs dramatically change ST8Sia IV expression during maturation, leading to the generation of polysialic acid (polySia). PolySia expression is highly upregulated after 2 days Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4) triggering. Surprisingly, only immunogenic and not tolerogenic mDCs upregulated polySia expression. Furthermore, we show that polySia expression on DCs is required for CCL21-directed migration, whereby polySia directly captures CCL21. Corresponding to polySia, the expression level of CCR7 is maximal two days after TLR4 triggering. In contrast, although TLR agonists other than LPS induce upregulation of CCR7, they achieve only a moderate polySia expression. In situ we could detect polySia-expressing APCs in the T cell zone of the lymph node and in the deep dermis. Together our results indicate that prolonged TLR4 engagement is required for the generation of polySia-expressing DCs that facilitate CCL21 capture and subsequent CCL21-directed migration

Goat and buffalo milk fat globule membranes exhibit better effects at inducing apoptosis and reduction the viability of HT-29 cells

Bovine milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) has shown many health benefits, however, there has not been much study on non-cattle MFGMs. The purpose of this study was to compare the anti-proliferation effects and investigate the mechanisms of MFGMs from bovine, goat, buffalo, yak and camel milk in HT-29 cells. Results showed that protein content in MFGM of yak milk is the highest among five MFGM. All MFGMs inhibited cellular proliferation which was in agreement with cell morphology and apoptosis. However, the number of cells in S-phase from 24 h to 72 h was increased significantly by treatment with goat, buffalo and bovine MFGMs (100 μg/mL), but not yak and camel. All MFGMs treatment significantly reduced the mitochondrial membrane potential (with an order of goat>buffalo>bovine>camel>yak) and Bcl-2 expression, but increased the expression of both Bax and Caspase-3. Taken together, the results indicate that all MFGMs, especially goat and buffalo MFGMs, showed better effects at inducing apoptosis and inhibition of the proliferation of HT-29 cells. The mechanism might be arresting the cell cycle at S phase, depolarization of mitochondrial membrane potential, down-regulation of Bcl-2 expression and increase of Bax and Caspase-3 expression

Chemical vapour deposition of freestanding sub-60 nm graphene gyroids

The direct chemical vapour deposition of freestanding graphene gyroids with controlled sub-60 nm unit cell sizes is demonstrated. Three-dimensional (3D) nickel templates were fabricated through electrodeposition into a selectively voided triblock terpolymer. The high temperature instability of sub-micron unit cell structures was effectively addressed through the early introduction of the carbon precursor, which stabilizes the metallized gyroidal templates. The as-grown graphene gyroids are self-supporting and can be transferred onto a variety of substrates. Furthermore, they represent the smallest free standing periodic graphene 3D structures yet produced with a pore size of tens of nm, as analysed by electron microscopy and optical spectroscopy. We discuss generality of our methodology for the synthesis of other types of nanoscale, 3D graphene assemblies, and the transferability of this approach to other 2D materials