Developing cardiac and skeletal muscle share fast-skeletal myosin heavy chain and cardiac troponin-I expression

Skeletal muscle derived stem cells (MDSCs) transplanted into injured myocardium can differentiate into fast skeletal muscle specific myosin heavy chain (sk-fMHC) and cardiac specific troponin-I (cTn-I) positive cells sustaining recipient myocardial function. We have recently found that MDSCs differentiate into a cardiomyocyte phenotype within a three-dimensional gel bioreactor. It is generally accepted that terminally differentiated myocardium or skeletal muscle only express cTn-I or sk-fMHC, respectively. Studies have shown the presence of non-cardiac muscle proteins in the developing myocardium or cardiac proteins in pathological skeletal muscle. In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that normal developing myocardium and skeletal muscle transiently share both sk-fMHC and cTn-I proteins. Immunohistochemistry, western blot, and RT-PCR analyses were carried out in embryonic day 13 (ED13) and 20 (ED20), neonatal day 0 (ND0) and 4 (ND4), postnatal day 10 (PND10), and 8 week-old adult female Lewis rat ventricular myocardium and gastrocnemius muscle. Confocal laser microscopy revealed that sk-fMHC was expressed as a typical striated muscle pattern within ED13 ventricular myocardium, and the striated sk-fMHC expression was lost by ND4 and became negative in adult myocardium. cTn-I was not expressed as a typical striated muscle pattern throughout the myocardium until PND10. Western blot and RT-PCR analyses revealed that gene and protein expression patterns of cardiac and skeletal muscle transcription factors and sk-fMHC within ventricular myocardium and skeletal muscle were similar at ED20, and the expression patterns became cardiac or skeletal muscle specific during postnatal development. These findings provide new insight into cardiac muscle development and highlight previously unknown common developmental features of cardiac and skeletal muscle. © 2012 Clause et al

The re-identification risk of Canadians from longitudinal demographics

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The public is less willing to allow their personal health information to be disclosed for research purposes if they do not trust researchers and how researchers manage their data. However, the public is more comfortable with their data being used for research if the risk of re-identification is low. There are few studies on the risk of re-identification of Canadians from their basic demographics, and no studies on their risk from their longitudinal data. Our objective was to estimate the risk of re-identification from the basic cross-sectional and longitudinal demographics of Canadians.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Uniqueness is a common measure of re-identification risk. Demographic data on a 25% random sample of the population of Montreal were analyzed to estimate population uniqueness on postal code, date of birth, and gender as well as their generalizations, for periods ranging from 1 year to 11 years.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Almost 98% of the population was unique on full postal code, date of birth and gender: these three variables are effectively a unique identifier for Montrealers. Uniqueness increased for longitudinal data. Considerable generalization was required to reach acceptably low uniqueness levels, especially for longitudinal data. Detailed guidelines and disclosure policies on how to ensure that the re-identification risk is low are provided.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A large percentage of Montreal residents are unique on basic demographics. For non-longitudinal data sets, the three character postal code, gender, and month/year of birth represent sufficiently low re-identification risk. Data custodians need to generalize their demographic information further for longitudinal data sets.</p

Do the colors of educational number-tools improve children’s mathematics and numerosity?

This study examined how colored educational tools improve children’s numerosity (‘number sense’) and/or mathematics. We tested children 6-10 years (n=3236) who had been exposed to colored numbers from the educational tools Numicon (Oxford University Press, 2018) or Numberjacks (Ellis, 2006), which map colors to magnitudes or Arabic numerals respectively. In a free-association task pairing numbers with colors, a subset of children spontaneously provided colors matching these schema. These children, who had internalized Numicon (colored magnitude), showed significantly better numerosity but not mathematics compared to peers. There was no similar benefit from internalizing Numberjacks (colored numerals). These data support a model in which colored number-tools provide benefits at different levels of numerical cognition, according to their different levels of cross-modal mappings

Barriers and opportunities to increase PD incidence and prevalence: Lessons from a European Survey.

INTRODUCTION: Peritoneal dialysis (PD) remains underutilised and unplanned start of dialysis further diminishes the likelihood of patients starting on PD, although outcomes are equal to haemodialysis (HD). METHODS: A survey was sent to members of EuroPD and regional societies presenting a case vignette of a 48-year-old woman not previously known to the nephrology department and who arrives at the emergency department with established end-stage kidney disease (unplanned start), asking which dialysis modality would most likely be chosen at their respective centre. We assessed associations between the modality choices for this case vignette and centre characteristics and PD-related practices. RESULTS: Of 575 respondents, 32.8%, 32.2% and 35.0% indicated they would start unplanned PD, unplanned HD or unplanned HD with intention to educate patient on PD later, respectively. Likelihood for unplanned start of PD was only associated with quality of structure of the pre-dialysis program. Structure of pre-dialysis education program, PD program in general, likelihood to provide education on PD to unplanned starters, good collaboration with the PD access team and taking initiatives to enhance home-based therapies increased the likelihood unplanned patients would end up on PD. CONCLUSIONS: Well-structured pre-dialysis education on PD as a modality, good connections to dedicated PD catheter placement teams and additional initiatives to enhance home-based therapies are key to grow PD programs. Centres motivated to grow their PD programs seem to find solutions to do so

Previous fracture and subsequent fracture risk : a meta-analysis to update FRAX

A large international meta-analysis using primary data from 64 cohorts has quantified the increased risk of fracture associated with a previous history of fracture for future use in FRAX. The aim of this study was to quantify the fracture risk associated with a prior fracture on an international basis and to explore the relationship of this risk with age, sex, time since baseline and bone mineral density (BMD). We studied 665,971 men and 1,438,535 women from 64 cohorts in 32 countries followed for a total of 19.5 million person-years. The effect of a prior history of fracture on the risk of any clinical fracture, any osteoporotic fracture, major osteoporotic fracture, and hip fracture alone was examined using an extended Poisson model in each cohort. Covariates examined were age, sex, BMD, and duration of follow-up. The results of the different studies were merged by using the weighted β-coefficients. A previous fracture history, compared with individuals without a prior fracture, was associated with a significantly increased risk of any clinical fracture (hazard ratio, HR = 1.88; 95% CI = 1.72-2.07). The risk ratio was similar for the outcome of osteoporotic fracture (HR = 1.87; 95% CI = 1.69-2.07), major osteoporotic fracture (HR = 1.83; 95% CI = 1.63-2.06), or for hip fracture (HR = 1.82; 95% CI = 1.62-2.06). There was no significant difference in risk ratio between men and women. Subsequent fracture risk was marginally downward adjusted when account was taken of BMD. Low BMD explained a minority of the risk for any clinical fracture (14%), osteoporotic fracture (17%), and for hip fracture (33%). The risk ratio for all fracture outcomes related to prior fracture decreased significantly with adjustment for age and time since baseline examination. A previous history of fracture confers an increased risk of fracture of substantial importance beyond that explained by BMD. The effect is similar in men and women. Its quantitation on an international basis permits the more accurate use of this risk factor in case finding strategies

Assisted peritoneal dialysis across Europe: Practice variation and factors associated with availability

Background: In Europe, the number of elderly end-stage kidney disease patients is increasing. Few of those patients receive peritoneal dialysis (PD), as many cannot perform PD autonomously. Assisted PD programmes are available in most European countries, but the percentage of patients receiving assisted PD varies considerably. Hence, we assessed which factors are associated with the availability of an assisted PD programme at a centre level and whether the availability of this programme is associated with proportion of home dialysis patients. Methods: An online survey was sent to healthcare professionals of European nephrology units. After selecting one respondent per centre, the associations were explored by chi (2) tests and (ordinal) logistic regression. Results: In total, 609 respondents completed the survey. Subsequently, 288 respondents from individual centres were identified; 58% worked in a centre with an assisted PD programme. Factors associated with availability of an assisted PD programme were Western European and Scandinavian countries (OR: 5.73; 95% CI: 3.07-10.68), non-academic centres (OR: 2.01; 95% CI: 1.09-3.72) and centres with a dedicated team for education (OR: 2.87; 95% CI: 1.35-6.11). Most Eastern & Central European respondents reported that the proportion of incident and prevalent home dialysis patients was 30% for both incident and prevalent home dialysis patients. Availability of an assisted PD programme was associated with a higher incidence (cumulative OR: 1.91; 95% CI: 1.21-3.01) and prevalence (cumulative OR: 2.81; 95% CI: 1.76-4.47) of patients on home dialysis. Conclusions: Assisted PD was more commonly offered among non-academic centres with a dedicated team for education across Europe, especially among Western European and Scandinavian countries where higher incidence and prevalence of home dialysis patients was reported

High-performance and stable photoelectrochemical water splitting cell with organic-photoactive-layer-based photoanode

Considering their superior charge-transfer characteristics, easy tenability of energy levels, and low production cost, organic semiconductors are ideal for photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen production. However, organic-semiconductor-based photoelectrodes have not been extensively explored for PEC water-splitting because of their low stability in water. Herein, we report high-performance and stable organic-semiconductors photoanodes consisting of p-type polymers and n-type non-fullerene materials, which is passivated using nickel foils, GaIn eutectic, and layered double hydroxides as model materials. We achieve a photocurrent density of 15.1 mA cm???2 at 1.23 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) with an onset potential of 0.55 V vs. RHE and a record high half-cell solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 4.33% under AM 1.5 G solar simulated light. After conducting the stability test at 1.3 V vs. RHE for 10 h, 90% of the initial photocurrent density are retained, whereas the photoactive layer without passivation lost its activity within a few minutes

Acoustic trauma slows AMPAR-mediated EPSCs in the auditory brainstem, reducing GluA4 subunit expression as a mechanism to rescue binaural function

Damaging levels of sound (acoustic trauma, AT) diminish peripheral synapses, but what is the impact on the central auditory pathway? Developmental maturation of synaptic function and hearing were characterized in the mouse lateral superior olive (LSO) from postnatal day 7 (P7) to P96 using voltage-clamp and auditory brainstem responses. IPSCs and EPSCs show rapid acceleration during development, so that decay kinetics converge to similar sub-millisecond time-constants (τ, 0.87 ± 0.11 and 0.77 ± 0.08 ms, respectively) in adult mice. This correlated with LSO mRNA levels for glycinergic and glutamatergic ionotropic receptor subunits, confirming a switch from Glyα2 to Glyα1 for IPSCs and increased expression of GluA3 and GluA4 subunits for EPSCs. The NMDA receptor (NMDAR)-EPSC decay τ accelerated from >40 ms in prehearing animals to 2.6 ± 0.4 ms in adults, as GluN2C expression increased. In vivo induction of AT at around P20 disrupted IPSC and EPSC integration in the LSO, so that 1 week later the AMPA receptor (AMPAR)-EPSC decay was slowed and mRNA for GluA1 increased while GluA4 decreased. In contrast, GlyR IPSC and NMDAR-EPSC decay times were unchanged. Computational modelling confirmed that matched IPSC and EPSC kinetics are required to generate mature interaural level difference functions, and that longer-lasting EPSCs compensate to maintain binaural function with raised auditory thresholds after AT. We conclude that LSO excitatory and inhibitory synaptic drive matures to identical time-courses, that AT changes synaptic AMPARs by expression of subunits with slow kinetics (which recover over 2 months) and that loud sounds reversibly modify excitatory synapses in the brain, changing synaptic function for several weeks after exposure

Organisms in experimental research

Rachel A. Ankeny and Sabina Leonell