In vitro cultured progenitors and precursors of cardiac cell lineages from human normal and post-ischemic hearts.

The demonstration of the presence of dividing primitive cells in damaged hearts has sparked increased interest about myocardium regenerative processes. We examined the rate and the differentiation of in vitro cultured resident cardiac primitive cells obtained from pathological and normal human hearts in order to evaluate the activation of progenitors and precursors of cardiac cell lineages in post-ischemic human hearts. The precursors and progenitors of cardiomyocyte, smooth muscle and endothelial lineage were identified by immunocytochemistry and the expression of characteristic markers was studied by western blot and RT-PCR.The amount of proteins characteristic for cardiac cells (alpha-SA and MHC, VEGFR-2 and FVIII, SMA for the precursors of cardiomyocytes, endothelial and smooth muscle cells, respectively) inclines toward an increase in both alpha-SA and MHC. The increased levels of FVIII and VEGFR2 are statistically significant, suggesting an important re-activation of neoangiogenesis. At the same time, the augmented expression of mRNA for Nkx 2.5, the trascriptional factor for cardiomyocyte differentiation, confirms the persistence of differentiative processes in terminally injured hearts. Our study would appear to confirm the activation of human heart regeneration potential in pathological conditions and the ability of its primitive cells to maintain their proliferative capability in vitro. The cardiac cell isolation method we used could be useful in the future for studying modifications to the microenvironment that positively influence cardiac primitive cell differentiation or inhibit, or retard, the pathological remodeling and functional degradation of the heart

PINK1 homozygous W437X mutation in a patient with apparent dominant transmission of parkinsonism.

We analyzed the PINK1 gene in 58 patients with early-onset Parkinsonism and detected the homozygous mutation W437X in 1 patient. The clinical phenotype was characterized by early onset (22 years of age), good re- sponse to levodopa, early fluctuations and dyskinesias, and psychiatric symptoms. The mother, heterozygote for W437X mutation, was affected by Parkinson’s disease and 3 further relatives were reported affected, according to an autosomal dominant transmission

Bulk viscosity in 2SC and CFL quark matter

The bulk viscosities of two color-superconducting phases, the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase and the 2SC phase, are computed and compared to the result for unpaired quark matter. In the case of the CFL phase, processes involving kaons and the superfluid mode give the largest contribution to the bulk viscosity since all fermionic modes are gapped. In the case of the 2SC phase, ungapped fermionic modes are present and the process u+d u+s provides the dominant contribution. In both cases, the bulk viscosity can become larger than that of the unpaired phase for sufficiently large temperatures (T >~ 1 MeV for CFL, T >~ 0.1 MeV for 2SC). Bulk viscosity (as well as shear viscosity) is important for the damping of r-modes in compact stars and thus can potentially be used as an indirect signal for the presence or absence of color-superconducting quark matter.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, contribution to the proceedings of QCD@Work 2007, Martina Franca (Italy

Assessment of Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerase1 (PARP1) expression and activity in cells purified from blood and milk of dairy cattle

Poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation (PAR) is a post-translational protein modification catalysed by enzyme member of the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) family. The activation of several PARPs is triggered by DNA strand breakage and the main PARP enzyme involved in this process is PARP1. Besides its involvement in DNA repair, PARP1 is involved in several cellular processes including transcription, epigenetics, chromatin re-modelling as well as in the maintenance of genomic stability. Moreover, several studies in human and animal models showed PARP1 activation in various inflammatory disorders. The aims of the study were (1) to characterize PARP1 expression in bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and (2) to evaluate PAR levels as a potential inflammatory marker in cells isolated from blood and milk samples following different types of infection, including mastitis. Our results show that (i) bovine PBMC express PARP1; (ii) lymphocytes exhibit higher expression of PARP1 than monocytes; (iii) PARP1 and PAR levels were higher in circulating PBMCs of infected cows; (iv) PAR levels were higher in cells isolated from milk with higher Somatic Cell Counts (SCC > 100,000 cells/mL) than in cells from milk with low SCCs. In conclusion, these findings suggest that PARP1 is activated during mastitis, which may prove to be a useful biomarker of mastitis

Super-hydrodynamic limit in interacting particle systems

This paper is a follow-up of the work initiated in [3], where it has been investigated the hydrodynamic limit of symmetric independent random walkers with birth at the origin and death at the rightmost occupied site. Here we obtain two further results: first we characterize the stationary states on the hydrodynamic time scale and show that they are given by a family of linear macroscopic profiles whose parameters are determined by the current reservoirs and the system mass. Then we prove the existence of a super-hyrdrodynamic time scale, beyond the hydrodynamic one. On this larger time scale the system mass fluctuates and correspondingly the macroscopic profile of the system randomly moves within the family of linear profiles, with the randomness of a Brownian motion.Comment: 22 page

Secondary Baryon Asymmetry in pi(+-)p Collisions

The process of secondary baryon production in pi(+-)p collisions at high energies in the central and forward fragmentation regions is considered in the framework of the Quark-Gluon String Model. The contribution of the string-junction mechanism to the baryon production is analysed. The results of numerical calculations are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data on the Lambda/bar(Lambda) and p/bar(p)$ asymmetries.Comment: Contribution to the Proceedings of QCD@Work 2007, International Workshop on Quantum Chromodynamics, Theory and Experiment, Martina Franca-Valle d'Itria, Italy, June 16-20, 2007 (6 pages and 4 figures

The Polymer Stress Tensor in Turbulent Shear Flows

The interaction of polymers with turbulent shear flows is examined. We focus on the structure of the elastic stress tensor, which is proportional to the polymer conformation tensor. We examine this object in turbulent flows of increasing complexity. First is isotropic turbulence, then anisotropic (but homogenous) shear turbulence and finally wall bounded turbulence. The main result of this paper is that for all these flows the polymer stress tensor attains a universal structure in the limit of large Deborah number \De\gg 1. We present analytic results for the suppression of the coil-stretch transition at large Deborah numbers. Above the transition the turbulent velocity fluctuations are strongly correlated with the polymer's elongation: there appear high-quality "hydro-elastic" waves in which turbulent kinetic energy turns into polymer potential energy and vice versa. These waves determine the trace of the elastic stress tensor but practically do not modify its universal structure. We demonstrate that the influence of the polymers on the balance of energy and momentum can be accurately described by an effective polymer viscosity that is proportional to to the cross-stream component of the elastic stress tensor. This component is smaller than the stream-wise component by a factor proportional to \De ^2 . Finally we tie our results to wall bounded turbulence and clarify some puzzling facts observed in the problem of drag reduction by polymers.Comment: 11 p., 1 Fig., included, Phys. Rev. E., submitte

Epoetin alfa increases frataxin production in Friedreich's ataxia without affecting hematocrit.

Objective of the study was to test the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of two single doses of Epoetin alfa in patients with Friedreich's ataxia. Ten patients were treated subcutaneously with 600 IU/kg for the first dose, and 3 months later with 1200 IU/kg. Epoetin alfa had no acute effect on frataxin, whereas a delayed and sustained increase in frataxin was evident at 3 months after the first dose (+35%; P < 0.05), and up to 6 months after the second dose (+54%; P < 0.001). The treatment was well tolerated and did not affect hematocrit, cardiac function, and neurological scale. Single high dose of Epoetin alfa can produce a considerably larger and sustained effect when compared with low doses and repeated administration schemes previously adopted. In addition, no hemoglobin increase was observed, and none of our patients required phlebotomy, indicating lack of erythropoietic effect of single high dose of erythropoietin. © 2010 Movement Disorder Society