Imaging the boundaries—innovative tools for microscopy of living cells and real-time imaging

Recently, light microscopy moved back into the spotlight, which is mainly due to the development of revolutionary technologies for imaging real-time events in living cells. It is truly fascinating to see enzymes “at work” and optically acquired images certainly help us to understand biological processes better than any abstract measurements. This review aims to point out elegant examples of recent cell-biological imaging applications that have been developed with a chemical approach. The discussed technologies include nanoscale fluorescence microscopy, imaging of model membranes, automated high-throughput microscopy control and analysis, and fluorescent probes with a special focus on visualizing enzyme activity, free radicals, and protein–protein interaction designed for use in living cells

The evolution and investigation of native coronary arteries in patients after coronary stent implantations: a study by 320-detector CT angiography

To study the role of 320-detector coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) in assessing native coronary arteries in patients treated with coronary stents. 123 patients with coronary stenting received both CTA and conventional coronary angiography (CCA) within 1 day. The clinical parameters, coronary calcium scoring, CTA and CCA were analyzed to determine the prevalence of significant stenosis of native coronary arteries (SSNCA), the predictive value of CTA and the factors correlating with SSNCA and newly developed SSNCA after stenting (NDSSNCAS), with CCA as the standard of reference, using both vessel-based analysis (VBA) and patient-based analysis (PBA). Both the source and the reconstructed images were analyzed by CTA. All native coronary arteries were interpretable independent of cardiac motion. CTA showed a sensitivity/specificity of 93.5 %/97.3 % and 92.5 %/92.5 % in diagnosing SSNCA in VBA and PBA, respectively. The significant factors related to SSNCA were higher calcium scores (P = 0.003), a higher serum glucose level (P = 0.048), a greater number of vessels without previous stent placement (P = 0.003) and fewer stents implanted within the vessels (P = 0.003). The risk factors showed no significant correlation from PBA on SSNCA or from NDSSNCAS on either VBA or PBA. CTA demonstrates excellent correlation with CCA. The prevalence of SSNCA is significantly correlated with the presence of higher calcium scores in the arteries, a higher serum glucose level, a greater number of vessels without previous stent placement and fewer stents implanted within the vessels; PBA on SSNCA and NDSSNCAS on both VBA and PBA showed no significance

The bioenergetics of inflammation: insights into obesity and type 2 diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic metabolic disorders worldwide, and its incidence in Asian countries is alarmingly high. Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is closely associated with obesity, and the staggering rise in obesity is one of the primary factors related to the increased frequency of T2DM. Low-grade chronic inflammation is also accepted as an integral metabolic adaption in obesity and T2DM, and is believed to be a major player in the onset of insulin resistance. However, the exact mechanism(s) that cause a persistent chronic low-grade infiltration of leukocytes into insulin-target tissues such as adipose, skeletal muscle and liver are not entirely known. Recent developments in the understanding of leukocyte metabolism have revealed that the inflammatory polarization of immune cells, and consequently their immunological function, are strongly connected to their metabolic profile. Therefore, it is hypothesized that dysfunctional immune cell metabolism is a central cellular mechanism that prevents the resolution of inflammation in chronic metabolic conditions such as that observed in obesity and T2DM. The purpose of this review is to explore the metabolic demands of different immune cell types, and identify the molecular switches that control immune cell metabolism and ultimately function. Understanding of these concepts may allow the development of interventions that can correct immune function and may possibly decrease chronic low-grade inflammation in humans suffering from obesity and T2DM. We also review the latest clinical techniques used to measure metabolic flux in primary leukocytes isolated from obese and T2DM patients.European Journal of Clinical Nutrition advance online publication, 12 April 2017; doi:10.1038/ejcn.2017.45