Effect of Age and Lipoperoxidation in Rat and Human Adipose Tissue-Derived Stem Cells

A wide range of clinical applications in regenerative medicine were opened decades ago with the discovery of adult stem cells. Highly promising adult stem cells are mesenchymal stem/stromal cells derived from adipose tissue (ADSCs), primarily because of their abundance and accessibility. These cells have multipotent properties and have been used extensively to carry out autologous transplants. However, the biology of these cells is not entirely understood. Among other factors, the regeneration capacity of these cells will depend on both their capacity of proliferation/differentiation and the robustness of the biochemical pathways that allow them to survive under adverse conditions like those found in damaged tissues. The transcription factors, such as Nanog and Sox2, have been described as playing an important role in stem cell proliferation and differentiation. Also, the so-called longevity pathways, in which AMPK and SIRT1 proteins play a crucial role, are essential for cell homeostasis under stressful situations. These pathways act by inhibiting the translation through downregulation of elongation factor-2 (eEF2). In order to deepen knowledge of mesenchymal stem cell biology and which factors are determinant in the final therapeutic output, we evaluate in the present study the levels of all of these proteins in the ADSCs from humans and rats and how these levels are affected by aging and the oxidative environment. Due to the effect of aging and oxidative stress, our results suggest that before performing a cell therapy with ADSCs, several aspects reported in this study such as oxidative stress status and proliferation and differentiation capacity should be assessed on these cells. This would allow us to know the robustness of the transplanted cells and to predict the therapeutic result, especially in elder patients, where probably ADSCs do not carry out their biological functions in an optimal way

Molecular Characterization of Growth Hormone-producing Tumors in the GC Rat Model of Acromegaly

D.A.C. was supported by the Nicolás Monardes program of the Andalusian Ministry of Health (C-0015-2014) and by a grant from the Andalusian Ministry of Science and Innovation (CTS-7478). A.S-M and A.L.C were supported by grants from the ISCIII-Subdirección General de Evaluación y Fomento de la Investigación co-funded with Fondos FEDER (PI12/0143 and PI13/02043, respectively) and the Andalusian Regional Government (CTS-444) and a grant from Pfizer Spain. R.L.C. was supported by a grant from Andalusian Ministry of Health (PI0302-2012). R.M.L. was supported by grants from Proyecto de Investigación en Salud (FIS) PI13- 00651 (funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III), CTS-1406, PI-0639-2012, BIO-0139 (funded by Junta de Andalucía) and by Ayuda Merck Serono 2013. J. P. C. was funded by a grant (BFU2013-43282-R) from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. CIBER is an initiative of Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad, Spain. J.F.M.R. is supported by the “Sara Borrell” program from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III. R.M. Luque and J.P. Castaño have received grants and lecture fees from Ipsen and Novartis. E. Venegas-Moreno and A. Soto-Moreno received grants and lecture fees from Ipsen, Novartis and Pfizer. A. Leal-Cerro received grants from Novartis and Pfizer. David Cano received a grant from Novartis

Mesenchymal stem cells increase proliferation but do not change quiescent state of osteosarcoma cells: Potential implications according to the tumor resection status

Conventional therapy of primary bone tumors includes surgical excision with wide resection, which leads to physical and aesthetic defects. For reconstruction of bone and joints, allografts can be supplemented with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Similarly, adipose tissue transfer (ATT) is supplemented with adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) to improve the efficient grafting in the correction of soft tissue defects. MSC-like cells may also be used in tumor-targeted cell therapy. However, MSC may have adverse effects on sarcoma development. In the present study, human ADSCs, MSCs and pre-osteoclasts were co-injected with human MNNG-HOS osteosarcoma cells in immunodeficient mice. ADSCs and MSCs, but not the osteoclast precursors, accelerated the local proliferation of MNNG-HOS osteosarcoma cells. However, the osteolysis and the metastasis process were not exacerbated by ADSCs, MSCs, or pre-osteoclasts. In vitro proliferation of MNNG-HOS and Saos-2 osteosarcoma cells was increased up to 2-fold in the presence of ADSC-conditioned medium. In contrast, ADSC-conditioned medium did not change the dormant, quiescent state of osteosarcoma cells cultured in oncospheres. Due to the enhancing effect of ADSCs/MSCs on in vivo/in vitro proliferation of osteosarcoma cells, MSCs may not be good candidates for osteosarcoma-targeted cell therapy. Although conditioned medium of ADSCs accelerated the cell cycle of proliferating osteosarcoma cells, it did not change the quiescent state of dormant osteosarcoma cells, indicating that ADSC-secreted factors may not be involved in the risk of local recurrence

Factor structure and measurement invariance across various demographic groups and over time for the phq-9 in primary care patients in spain

The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is a widely-used screening tool for depression in primary care settings. The purpose of the present study is to identify the factor structure of the PHQ-9 and to examine the measurement invariance of this instrument across different sociodemographic groups and over time in a sample of primary care patients in Spain. Data came from 836 primary care patients enrolled in a randomized controlled trial (PsicAP study) and a subsample of 218 patients who participated in a follow-up assessment at 3 months. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test one- and two-factor structures identified in previous studies. Analyses of multiple-group invariance were conducted to determine the extent to which the factor structure is comparable across various demo- graphic groups (i.e., gender, age, marital status, level of education, and employment situa- tion) and over time. Both one-factor and two-factor re-specified models met all the pre- established fit criteria. However, because the factors identified in the two-factor model were highly correlated (r = .86), the one-factor model was preferred for its parsimony. Multi-group CFA indicated measurement invariance across different demographic groups and across time. The present findings suggest that physicians in Spain can use the PHQ-9 to obtain a global score for depression severity in different demographic groups and to reliably monitor changes over time in the primary care setting

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV