Recognition of the Phanerozoic “Young Granite Gneiss” in the central Yeongnam Massif

Up to now, all the high-grade gneisses of the Korean peninsula have been regarded as Precambrian basement rocks and presence of the Phanerozoic high-grade metamorphic rocks have remained unknown. However, such granite gneiss is discovered through this study from the central Yeongnam massif near Gimcheon. SHRIMP zircon U-Pb age determinations on the granite gneiss, having well-developed gneissic foliations and migmatitic textures, reveal concordant age of ca. 250 Ma indicating the Early Triassic emplacement of this pluton, which is in contradict to the previous belief that it is a Precambrian product. Even though the granite gneiss reveals well-developed gneissic foliations and some zircons show rather low Th/U ratios, the metamorphic age has not been determined successfully. However, the age of metamorphism can be constrained as middle Triassic considering the absence of any evidences of metamorphism from the nearby granitic plutons having emplacement ages of ca. 225 Ma. Early Triassic emplacement and subsequent Middle Triassic metamorphism of the granite gneiss from the Yeongnam massif bear a remarkable resemblance to the case of South China block. We suggest the possibility that Early to Middle Triassic metamorphism of the Korean peninsula might be products of the intracontinental collisional events not directly related with the Early Triassic continental collision event

Body temperature-activated protein-based injectable adhesive hydrogel incorporated with decellularized adipose extracellular matrix for tissue-specific regenerative stem cell therapy

Adipose tissue engineering represents a valuable alternative for reconstructive and cosmetic applications to restore soft tissue loss. Herein, for the development of a tissue-engineered adipose substitute, we designed an injectable thermoresponsive tissue adhesive hydrogel by grafting bioengineered mussel adhesive protein (MAP) with poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and incorporating decellularized adipose tissue (DAT) powder as a biochemical cue. The body temperature-activated PNIPAM-grafted MAP (MAP-PNIPAM) hydrogel showed 3.2-times higher water retention ability, high porosity, and 8.4-times stronger tissue adhesive properties compared to the PNIPAM gel alone with pore collapse. Moreover, we found that the introduction of 5 wt% DAT powder had adipo-inductive and adipo-conductive effects, which might be due to the provision of biochemical substrates enriched in collagen and laminin for cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. In vivo subcutaneous injection of the adipose-derived stem cell-laden DAT-incorporated MAP-PNIPAM hydrogel further demonstrated better volume maintenance, angiogenesis, and lipid accumulation than control injectable alginate gel or DAT powder only. Collectively, our injectable body temperature-activated tissue adhesive MAP-PNIPAM hydrogel system with a decellularized extracellular matrix source can be utilized as a promising alternative for tissue-specific regenerative stem cell therapy. Statement of Significance For adipose tissue engineering, we designed an injectable body temperature-activated adhesive hydrogel by grafting bioengineered mussel adhesive protein (MAP) with poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and incorporating adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) and decellularized adipose tissue (DAT) powder as regenerative cell and ECM sources. PNIPAM has been widely used for cell sheet engineering, but not for cell carriers due to its dramatic thermal contractive properties. By conjugation with hydrophilic MAP, water retention ability and tissue adhesiveness of the scaffold increased by a factor of 3.2- and 8.4-fold, respectively, which are highly required for survival of the transplanted cells and interfacial integration with host tissues. In vivo performance demonstrated that ASCs/DAT powder-laden MAP-PNIPAM hydrogel achieved better volume maintenance, neovascularization, and adipogenesis than control injectable groups. (C) 2020 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.11Nsciescopu

A single-amino-acid variant of the H60 CD8 epitope generates specific immunity with diverse TCR recruitment

TCR of CD8 T cells recognizes peptides of 8–9 amino acids in length (epitope) complexed with MHC class I. Peptide ligands differing from an epitope by one or two amino acids are thought to modulate the immune response specific to that epitope. H60 is a minor histocompatibility antigen for which the specific CD8 T-cell response dominates during alloresponse after MHC-matched allogeneic transplantation. In the present study, we developed a transgenic mouse (designated H60H Tg) expressing a variant of H60, designated H60H, in which the arginine residue at position 4 of the H60 epitope sequence (LTFNYRNL) is replaced by a histidine residue (LTFHYRNL). Immunization of female C57BL/6 mice with splenocytes from male H60H Tg induced a CD8 T cell primary response and memory response after re-challenge. The response was CD4 help-dependent, demonstrating the potency of H60H as a cellular antigen. The response induced by the H60H cellular antigen was comparable to that induced by H60 in its peak magnitude and overall immune kinetics. H60H challenge recruited broadly diverse TCRs to the specific response, shaping a TCR repertoire different from that of the natural H60 epitope. However, some of the TCRs did overlap between the H60H- and H60-specific CD8 T cells, suggesting that H60H might modulate the H60-specific response. These results may provide a basis for the modulation of the H60-specific CD8 T-cell response

Supplementary Material for: Metformin Is Associated with a Favorable Outcome in Diabetic Patients with Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer

<b><i>Background and Objective:</i></b> Type 2 diabetes is known to increase the risk and progression of certain types of cancer. Metformin treatment of diabetic patients is reported to have beneficial effects on some cancers. We evaluated the clinical outcome of diabetic patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) according to metformin treatment. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We reviewed 943 patients diagnosed with DTC after total thyroidectomy between 1995 and 2005 in a tertiary hospital. The study involved 60 diabetic patients and 210 control patients matched for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), and tumor size. <b><i>Results:</i></b> There were no differences in the clinicopathological features and disease-free survival (DFS) between diabetic patients and the control group over 8.9 years of follow-up. Of the diabetic patients with DTC, 35 patients (58%) were treated with metformin. There were no differences in age, sex, BMI, tumor size, antidiabetic medication, glycated hemoglobin, or C-peptide levels in metformin and nonmetformin groups. However, cervical lymph node (LN) metastasis was more prevalent in the metformin group than in the nonmetformin group (OR 3.52, p = 0.035). Among diabetic patients with cervical LN metastasis of DTC, the metformin subgroup (17.1 years) was associated with longer DFS than the nonmetformin subgroup (8.6 years) (HR 0.16, p = 0.021); metformin treatment was also associated with longer DFS in this subgroup in multivariate analysis after adjusting age, BMI, duration of diabetes, presence of tumor at resection margin, and serum thyroglobulin level at ablation (HR 0.03, p = 0.035). <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Metformin treatment is associated with low recurrence in diabetic patients with cervical LN metastasis of DTC