Reactive Oxygen Species Are Key Mediators of Demyelination in Canine Distemper Leukoencephalitis but not in Theiler’s Murine Encephalomyelitis

(1) Background: Canine distemper virus (CDV)-induced demyelinating leukoencephalitis (CDV-DL) in dogs and Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis (TME) virus (TMEV)-induced demyelinating leukomyelitis (TMEV-DL) are virus-induced demyelinating conditions mimicking Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Reactive oxygen species (ROS) can induce the degradation of lipids and nucleic acids to characteristic metabolites such as oxidized lipids, malondialdehyde, and 8-hydroxyguanosine. The hypothesis of this study is that ROS are key eector molecules in the pathogenesis of myelin membrane breakdown in CDV-DL and TMEV-DL. (2) Methods: ROS metabolites and antioxidative enzymes were assessed using immunofluorescence in cerebellar lesions of naturally CDV-infected dogs and spinal cord tissue of TMEV-infected mice. The transcription of selected genes involved in ROS generation and detoxification was analyzed using gene-expression microarrays in CDV-DL and TMEV-DL. (3) Results: Immunofluorescence revealed increased amounts of oxidized lipids, malondialdehyde, and 8-hydroxyguanosine in CDV-DL while TMEV-infected mice did not reveal marked changes. In contrast, microarray-analysis showed an upregulated gene expression associated with ROS generation in both diseases. (4) Conclusion: In summary, the present study demonstrates a similar upregulation of gene-expression of ROS generation in CDV-DL and TMEV-DL. However, immunofluorescence revealed increased accumulation of ROS metabolites exclusively in CDV-DL. These results suggest dierences in the pathogenesis of demyelination in these two animal models

Pressure-point-garments: haptic stimulation of the body enabled through a fashionable 3D-textile interface

Developments in textile and fiber engineering have allowed the development of functional clothing such as protective wear, sportswear, and medical clothing. Stimulating pressure points on the skin has a wide range of applications in manual therapy – both to eliminate functional disorders in the musculoskeletal system and to relieve pain. An acupressure-like effect can be achieved when the practitioner or the person pressures the skin with the thumb on specific pressure-points on the body. So far, there have not been any product solutions which combine (full)-body garments with an acupressure-like effect. Understanding textiles as a grid which holds pressure balls in place and making use of fiber and textile technologies for industrial knitting has enabled “trykk.” to develop four pressure-point-garments with different textile variables. The purpose of the garment is to substitute the mechanical stimulation of the acupressure-like thumb on the skin through a patent-pending 3-dimensional textile-body interface which consists of a flexible textile grid and small marble-sized semi-precious stone balls. This paper describes a study set-up where the four prototypes in five different haptic use-scenarios are compared to the average force applied in an acupressure-like intervention. Besides, data of the likeability (satisfaction) regarding the four distinctive textiles were obtained. Results demonstrated a comparable performance of the prototypes in four out of five use case scenarios. Textile variables significantly altered users’ interest in the garments, yet had no significant effect on the technical performance and the perceived intensity of stimulation

The impact of upstream and downstream processing on the quality of oil bodies of partially de-hulled sunflower seeds

Few publications on oil bodies or oleosomes seem concerned about their quality (chemical and physical) ex-vivo. This work attempts to identify the main factors (processing and pre-processing) that affect the quality/integrity of sunflower seed oil bodies recovered through a wet-milling process. The physical state of seeds during wet milling had a significant impact on the quality of the oil body suspension. Pre-soaking for 6 hours before wet milling and multiple washing with alkaline buffer (0.1M sodium bicarbonate) was performed to isolate high quality oil body suspensions. It was evident from different physical measurements such as particle size, ζ-potential and light microscopy that pre-soaking had a positive influence on the quality of oil body suspensions with no significant signs of aggregation or coalescence. It was also observed that the resultant washed oil body suspensions were highly surface charged (-28.4 ± 1.2 mV) indicating very stable suspension phase behavior. Washing oil bodies not only removes non-integral, extraneous proteins (derived from the seed matrix) but enriches the lipid content including Tocopherol (α-tocopherol: 491.6 mg/kg of washed oil bodies compared with 252.6 mg/kg crude oil bodies). Changes in the composition of oil bodies after washing have been observed before, but this research also monitored the size of oil bodies after washing, and our results indicate that certain factors can shift the distribution of droplet size. It is believed that any change in average size of droplets indicate the presence of disrupted oil bodies whose surface chemistry has changed enough to compromise their integrity on washing. The retention of droplet size on washing may, therefore, be diagnostic for the recovery of intact oil bodies. An assessment of the integrity of oil bodies recovered from sunflower seeds after accelerated aging (5 months) was carried out. Free fatty acid was more pronounced in oil rather than oil bodies, this could be due to the elimination of some of the free acid bound to oil body during washing. Although some minor variation was observed during seed aging, however, the oil bodies remained stable in the final suspension. The results indicate that oil body membrane was extremely robust under extreme conditions and the integrity of oil bodies was preserved. In addition, oil bodies obtained in this study were resistant to oxidation due to the presence of naturally occurring antioxidants (including vitamin E) associated with them.. The results indicate that the physical barrier of surface membrane protein (oelosin) protect oil bodies against pro-oxidants

Neurons are MHC Class I-Dependent Targets for CD8 T Cells upon Neurotropic Viral Infection

Following infection of the central nervous system (CNS), the immune system is faced with the challenge of eliminating the pathogen without causing significant damage to neurons, which have limited capacities of renewal. In particular, it was thought that neurons were protected from direct attack by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) because they do not express major histocompatibility class I (MHC I) molecules, at least at steady state. To date, most of our current knowledge on the specifics of neuron-CTL interaction is based on studies artificially inducing MHC I expression on neurons, loading them with exogenous peptide and applying CTL clones or lines often differentiated in culture. Thus, much remains to be uncovered regarding the modalities of the interaction between infected neurons and antiviral CD8 T cells in the course of a natural disease. Here, we used the model of neuroinflammation caused by neurotropic Borna disease virus (BDV), in which virus-specific CTL have been demonstrated as the main immune effectors triggering disease. We tested the pathogenic properties of brain-isolated CD8 T cells against pure neuronal cultures infected with BDV. We observed that BDV infection of cortical neurons triggered a significant up regulation of MHC I molecules, rendering them susceptible to recognition by antiviral CTL, freshly isolated from the brains of acutely infected rats. Using real-time imaging, we analyzed the spatio-temporal relationships between neurons and CTL. Brain-isolated CTL exhibited a reduced mobility and established stable contacts with BDV-infected neurons, in an antigen- and MHC-dependent manner. This interaction induced rapid morphological changes of the neurons, without immediate killing or impairment of electrical activity. Early signs of neuronal apoptosis were detected only hours after this initial contact. Thus, our results show that infected neurons can be recognized efficiently by brain-isolated antiviral CD8 T cells and uncover the unusual modalities of CTL-induced neuronal damage

Pressure-point-garments: haptic stimulation of the body enabled through a fashionable 3D-textile interface

Developments in textile and fiber engineering have allowed the development of functional clothing such as protective wear, sportswear, and medical clothing. Stimulating pressure points on the skin has a wide range of applications in manual therapy – both to eliminate functional disorders in the musculoskeletal system and to relieve pain. An acupressure-like effect can be achieved when the practitioner or the person pressures the skin with the thumb on specific pressure-points on the body. So far, there have not been any product solutions which combine (full)-body garments with an acupressure-like effect. Understanding textiles as a grid which holds pressure balls in place and making use of fiber and textile technologies for industrial knitting has enabled “trykk.” to develop four pressure-point-garments with different textile variables. The purpose of the garment is to substitute the mechanical stimulation of the acupressure-like thumb on the skin through a patent-pending 3-dimensional textile-body interface which consists of a flexible textile grid and small marble-sized semi-precious stone balls. This paper describes a study set-up where the four prototypes in five different haptic use-scenarios are compared to the average force applied in an acupressure-like intervention. Besides, data of the likeability (satisfaction) regarding the four distinctive textiles were obtained. Results demonstrated a comparable performance of the prototypes in four out of five use case scenarios. Textile variables significantly altered users’ interest in the garments, yet had no significant effect on the technical performance and the perceived intensity of stimulation