Metabonomics and Intensive Care

This article is one of ten reviews selected from the Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency medicine 2016. Other selected articles can be found online at http://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/annualupdate2016. Further information about the Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine is available from http://www.springer.com/series/8901

VADER: a variable dose-rate external 137Cs irradiator for internal emitter and low dose rate studies.

In the long term, 137Cs is probably the most biologically important agent released in many accidental (or malicious) radiation disasters. It can enter the food chain, and be consumed, or, if present in the environment (e.g. from fallout), can provide external irradiation over prolonged times. In either case, due to the high penetration of the energetic γ rays emitted by 137Cs, the individual will be exposed to a low dose rate, uniform, whole body, irradiation. The VADER (VAriable Dose-rate External 137Cs irradiatoR) allows modeling these exposures, bypassing many of the problems inherent in internal emitter studies. Making use of discarded 137Cs brachytherapy seeds, the VADER can provide varying low dose rate irradiations at dose rates of 0.1 to 1.2 Gy/day. The VADER includes a mouse "hotel", designed to allow long term simultaneous residency of up to 15 mice. Two source platters containing ~ 250 mCi each of 137Cs brachytherapy seeds are mounted above and below the "hotel" and can be moved under computer control to provide constant low dose rate or a varying dose rate mimicking 137Cs biokinetics in mouse or man. We present the VADER design and characterization of its performance over 18 months of use

Serum Metabolome and Lipidome Changes in Adult Patients with Primary Dengue Infection

10.1371/journal.pntd.0002373PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases78

Molecular cloning, expression and radiation hybrid mapping of the bovine deiodinase type II (DIO2) and deiodinase type III (DIO3) genes

Thyroid hormones play a critical role in mammalian development and metabolism. Their activity is regulated in a complex, tissue-specific manner by three isoforms of deiodinases. The goal of this study was to sequence the full-length bovine type II deiodinase (DIO2) and type III deiodinase (DIO3) cDNAs and characterize mRNA expression levels of each of the three deiodinase isoforms in several bovine tissues. Sequencing of bovine DIO2 and DIO3 cDNAs revealed a high degree of predicted amino acid sequence identity with their orthologs in other mammalian species and demonstrated the conservation of selenocysteine residues within the catalytic domains of both bovine proteins. Bovine DIO2 and DIO3 were positioned on chromosomes 10 and 21, respectively, by radiation hybrid mapping. Expression patterns of the three deiodinase isoforms were similar for deiodinase type I (DIO1) and DIO2 to those observed in other species. Expression level of DIO3 transcripts was greatest in mammary gland and kidney, although low-level expression was detected in most tissues sampled. Results of this work will aid in the study of deiodinase gene expression and thyroid hormone regulation in cattle