Relevance of monocytic features for neovascularization capacity of circulating endothelial progenitor cells

Background— Transplantation of ex vivo expanded circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) from peripheral blood mononuclear cells improves the neovascularization after critical ischemia. However, the origin of the endothelial progenitor lineage and its characteristics have not yet been clearly defined. Therefore, we investigated whether the phenotype and functional capacity of EPCs to improve neovascularization depend on their monocytic origin

Sustainability as a Means of Improving Environmental Justice

This article explains why environmental justice provides much of the foundation for sustainable development, and shows how sustainability can improve our ability to achieve environmental justice. The article first explains a basic but often unrecognized truth about environmental policy: environmental pollution and degradation, sooner or later, harms humans. Both sustainable development and environmental justice respond to this problem, though in somewhat different ways. Sustainable development, however, suggests a broader set of tools to address this problem than are often employed for environmental justice. The article shows how four broad approaches — more and better sustainability options, law for sustainability, visionary and pragmatic governance, and an American movement for sustainability — can enrich and strengthen the quest for environmental justice. These approaches are taken from a 2012 book, Acting as if Tomorrow Matters: Accelerating the Transition to Sustainability, to which the authors of this article contributed

Making America a Better Place for All: Sustainable Development Recommendations for the Biden Administration

In 2015, the United Nations Member States, including the United States, unanimously approved 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. The SDGs are nonbinding; each nation is to implement them based on its own priorities and circumstances. This Article argues that the SDGs are a critical normative framework the United States should use to improve human quality of life, freedom, and opportunity by integrating economic and social development with environmental protection. It collects the recommendations of 22 experts on steps that the Biden-Harris Administration should take now to advance each of the SDGs. It is part of a book project that will recommend not only federal actions, but also actions by state and local governments, the private sector, and civil society. In the face of multiple challenges and opportunities, this Article is intended to contribute to a robust public discussion about how to accelerate the transition to a sustainable society and make America a better place for all

Making America A Better Place for All: Sustainable Development Recommendations for the Biden Administration

In 2015, the United Nations Member States, including the United States, unanimously approved 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. The SDGs are nonbinding; each nation is to implement them based on its own priorities and circumstances. This Article argues that the SDGs are a critical normative framework the United States should use to improve human quality of life, freedom, and opportunity by integrating economic and social development with environmental protection. It collects the recommendations of 22 experts on steps that the Biden-Harris Administration should take now to advance each of the SDGs. It is part of a book project that will recommend not only federal actions, but also actions by state and local governments, the private sector, and civil society. In the face of multiple challenges and opportunities, this Article is intended to contribute to a robust public discussion about how to accelerate the transition to a sustainable society and make America a better place for all

Impairment of circulating endothelial progenitors in Down syndrome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pathological angiogenesis represents a critical issue in the progression of many diseases. Down syndrome is postulated to be a systemic anti-angiogenesis disease model, possibly due to increased expression of anti-angiogenic regulators on chromosome 21. The aim of our study was to elucidate some features of circulating endothelial progenitor cells in the context of this syndrome.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Circulating endothelial progenitors of Down syndrome affected individuals were isolated, <it>in vitro </it>cultured and analyzed by confocal and transmission electron microscopy. ELISA was performed to measure SDF-1α plasma levels in Down syndrome and euploid individuals. Moreover, qRT-PCR was used to quantify expression levels of <it>CXCL12 </it>gene and of its receptor in progenitor cells. The functional impairment of Down progenitors was evaluated through their susceptibility to hydroperoxide-induced oxidative stress with BODIPY assay and the major vulnerability to the infection with human pathogens. The differential expression of crucial genes in Down progenitor cells was evaluated by microarray analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We detected a marked decrease of progenitors' number in young Down individuals compared to euploid, cell size increase and some major detrimental morphological changes. Moreover, Down syndrome patients also exhibited decreased SDF-1α plasma levels and their progenitors had a reduced expression of SDF-1α encoding gene and of its membrane receptor. We further demonstrated that their progenitor cells are more susceptible to hydroperoxide-induced oxidative stress and infection with Bartonella henselae. Further, we observed that most of the differentially expressed genes belong to angiogenesis, immune response and inflammation pathways, and that infected progenitors with trisomy 21 have a more pronounced perturbation of immune response genes than infected euploid cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our data provide evidences for a reduced number and altered morphology of endothelial progenitor cells in Down syndrome, also showing the higher susceptibility to oxidative stress and to pathogen infection compared to euploid cells, thereby confirming the angiogenesis and immune response deficit observed in Down syndrome individuals.</p

Governing for Sustainability: Accelerating the Transition to a Sustainable Society

Sustainable development may be one of the most important and potentially transformational ideas to come out of the last century. The ultimate objectives of sustainable development are freedom, opportunity, justice, and quality of life for everyone in this and future generations. While the United States has a substantial body of environmental and social protection laws, we are far from being a sustainable society. The question is what to do.This book provides a detailed set of recommendations for federal, state, tribal, territorial, and local governments, as well as the private sector and civil society organized around the United Nations\u27 Sustainable Development Goals. The various contributions that personal behavior can make toward both public and private governance are included as well. These recommendations would help make America a better place for all. Every American has a role to play

Liberating Sustainable Development From Its Non-Historical Shackles

In this Article, we argue that sustainable development is historically a much broader and more societally beneficial concept than it is often understood to be, and that it is often limited, particularly in the United States, by the supposition that it is just about the environment, or about environmental and energy law. If we really want to understand sustainable development, in other words, we need to liberate it from its non-historical shackles.Sustainable development is a broad-spectrum conceptual framework for fostering human wellbeing by integrating environmental protection and social wellbeing with economic development and peace and security. It does so in a way that seeks to optimize all of them concurrently, instead of treating them as inherently opposing or unrelated concepts. At its core, sustainable development would transform how Americans conceive of and pursue environmental protection—and over time the law that supports and drives development. Sustainable development has the substantive capacity to be one of the most important and potentially transformational ideas to come out of the last century. Some scholars have described it as an idea or principle of the same level of fundamental importance as freedom, equality, and justice.This Article provides an overview of the history of sustainable development, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015, showing that sustainable development has consistently been about changing development patterns, and not simply about the environment. It then shows the quite different and more environmentally-oriented and environmental-law-oriented way that sustainable development has been framed in the Unites States—sustainable development’s non-historical shackles. The Article explains two key benefits of unshackling sustainable development from this limiting perspective. Sustainable development and particularly the SDGs can enrich and strengthen nearly all U.S. policymaking by helping to spot issues and develop law reform agendas. In addition, sustainable development can activate all stakeholders, and is already doing so—something that is vitally necessary if we are to effectively address the many challenges we now face

The Constitutional Right to Save the Environment

More than 50 years ago, Franklin Kury drafted and championed an Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution. His book, The Constitutional Question to Save the Planet: The Right to a Healthy Environment (ELI Press 2021), expands upon the story of his amendment to demonstrate how its principles can be the basis for addressing climate change in the rest of the world. On October 13, 2021, the Environmental Law Institute hosted Kury and leading experts (Franklin Kury, John Dernbach, Julia Olson, and Barry Hill) to explore the impact environmental rights amendments can have on stabilizing the climate system through legal channels at the state and federal levels. This is an edited transcript of that discussion