Soluble Intracellular Adhesion Molecule-1 in Patients with Unipolar or Bipolar Affective Disorders

Background: Immunological and vascular markers may play a role in the pathophysiology of mood disorders and mood changes. Aim: To test whether the cell adhesion molecule soluble intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) may serve as a biomarker for patients with unipolar or bipolar affective disorders when compared to a healthy control group, and whether sICAM-1 blood levels change during different mood states. Methods: sICAM-1 serum concentrations were compared between 20 healthy controls and 48 patients with affective disorders (unipolar, bipolar II and bipolar I disorder) during different mood states (euthymic mood state, depression or mania). Results: When compared to healthy controls, patients with affective disorders had significantly higher sICAM-1 levels during the euthymic state (p = 0.015). Differences became more pronounced during depression (p = 0.013). When unipolar and bipolar patients were analyzed separately, unipolar patients significantly differed from controls during the euthymic and depressive mood state, while bipolar II patients showed a trend towards higher sICAM-1 levels during depression. Patients with bipolar I disorders had significantly higher sICAM-1 levels during manic states when compared to controls (p = 0.007). Conclusions: sICAM-1 elevation in unipolar and bipolar patients, independent of mood changes, might support the hypothesis of chronic immune activation and endothelial dysfunction in patients with affective disorders. (C) 2016 S. Karger AG, Base

Fibroblast Response to Nanocolumnar TiO2 Structures Grown by Oblique Angle Sputter Deposition

Cells are established to sense and respond to the properties, including nano- and microscale morphology, of the substrate they adhere to, which opens up the possibility to tailor bioactivity. With this background, the potential of tilted TiO2 nanostructures grown by oblique angle sputtering to affect fibroblasts with particular focus on inducing anisotropy in cell behavior is explored. By depositing TiO2 at different oblique angles relative to the substrate normal, morphologies, columnar tilt angle, roughness, and distances between neighbored nanocolumns can be adjusted. To assess bioactivity of the resulting structures, L929-mouse fibroblasts are seeded in vitro on TiO2 nanostructured substrates. Angle-dependent movement and velocity distributions of the cells on differently tilted columns and a smooth reference sample are studied. Cell proliferation rates and cell areas are additional factors which provide information about viability and the well-being of cells. It could be shown that the local topography of the surface has an influence on the directed movement of the cells. © 2021 The Authors. Advanced Materials Interfaces published by Wiley-VCH Gmb

Abstracts from the 8th International Conference on cGMP Generators, Effectors and Therapeutic Implications

This work was supported by a restricted research grant of Bayer AG

Inactivated Orf-virus shows disease modifying antiviral activity in a guinea pig model of genital herpesvirus infection

Background: Inactivated Orf virus (iORFV) has been used as a preventative as well as a therapeutic immunomodulator in veterinary medicine in different species. iORFV elicits strong effects on cytokine secretion in mice and human immune cells leading to an auto-regulated loop of initial up-regulation of inflammatory and Th1-related cytokines followed by Th2-related cytokines that attenuate immunopathology. The therapeutic potential of iORFV has been recognized in several models for difficult-to-treat disease areas such as chronic viral diseases, liver fibrosis or various forms of cancer. Methods: Guinea pigs were infected with Human Herpesvirus (HSV)-2 strain MS and treated with iORFV, Acyclovir (ACV) or placebo, respectively. Clinical score of herpes lesions and viral shedding was assessed over a period of 40 days. In addition, viral DNA in dorsal root ganglia was quantified at the end of the study. Results: Disease symptoms were minimal or absent in iORFV-treated guinea pigs but tended to be severe in animals treated with either ACV or placebo. The cumulated disease score was significantly reduced in iORFV-treated but not in ACV- or placebo-treated guinea pigs. In addition, treatment with iORFV, but not ACV or placebo, led to significant reduction of viral DNA load in dorsal root ganglia. Conclusion: iORFV effectively suppressed recurrences in guinea pigs experimentally infected with HSV. iORFV did not only reduce recurrent disease episodes but was, compared with ACV, more effective in reducing latency as measured by viral DNA detected in dorsal root ganglia of infected animals. Keywords: Immunotherapy, Immunomodulation, Orf virus, Herpesvirus, Recurrent genital herpes diseas

Emotional contagion in mice: The role of familiarity

Empathy is a complex emotional process that involves sharing an emotional state with another organism. The extent to which nonhuman animals are capable of empathizing with others is still far from clear, partly due to a lack of empirical work in this domain, but also due to definitional confusion of empathy with emotional contagion and other related terms. In this study, an observer mouse witnessed a familiar cagemate or an unfamiliar non-cagemate receiving electric foot shocks in an experiment that consisted of three periods: baseline (no shocks), test (shocks) and recovery (no shocks). Freezing behavior in the observer was significantly increased in the cagemate, as opposed to the non-cagemate condition during the test period, but not during baseline or recovery, emphasizing the role of familiarity in empathy-like processes. In agreement with this, we also found a correlation that approached significance between the total number of fecal droppings of the observers, as an indication of distress, and those of the demonstrator in the cagemate, but not in the non-cagemate, condition. While the freezing behavior of the demonstrators increased with time, reaching a maximum at the recovery period, the observers froze the most during the test period while the demonstrators were receiving the electric foot shocks. The observation that the freezing response of the observers ceased when the shocks in the adjacent compartment stopped could be due to a decrease in saliency of the demonstrators’ behavioral response. Finally, the presence of a cagemate, as compared to a stranger, possibly reduced the demonstrator’s pain-induced behavior, suggesting an ameliorating effect of familiarity on stress responses

Soluble intracellular adhesion molecule-1 in patients with unipolar or bipolar affective disorders

$\textit {Background:}$ Immunological and vascular markers may play a role in the pathophysiology of mood disorders and mood changes. $\textit {Aim:}$ To test whether the cell adhesion molecule soluble intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) may serve as a biomarker for patients with unipolar or bipolar affective disorders when compared to a healthy control group, and whether sICAM-1 blood levels change during different mood states. $\textit {Methods:}$ sICAM-1 serum concentrations were compared between 20 healthy controls and 48 patients with affective disorders (unipolar, bipolar II and bipolar I disorder) during different mood states (euthymic mood state, depression or mania). $\textit {Results:}$ When compared to healthy controls, patients with affective disorders had significantly higher sICAM-1 levels during the euthymic state (p = 0.015). Differences became more pronounced during depression (p = 0.013). When unipolar and bipolar patients were analyzed separately, unipolar patients significantly differed from controls during the euthymic and depressive mood state, while bipolar II patients showed a trend towards higher sICAM-1 levels during depression. Patients with bipolar I disorders had significantly higher sICAM-1 levels during manic states when compared to controls (p = 0.007). $\textit {Conclusions:}$ sICAM-1 elevation in unipolar and bipolar patients, independent of mood changes, might support the hypothesis of chronic immune activation and endothelial dysfunction in patients with affective disorders

Microglial activation in a neuroinflammational animal model of schizophrenia--a pilot study.

peer reviewedInflammatory and immunological processes interfering with brain development are discussed as one cause of schizophrenia. Various signs of overactivation of the immune system were often found in this disease. Based on post-mortem analysis showing an increased number of activated microglial cells in patients with schizophrenia, it can be hypothesized that these cells contribute to disease pathogenesis and may actively be involved in gray matter loss observed in such patients. In the present study, PolyI:C incubation of pregnant dams was used as animal model of schizophrenia, and the number and shape of microglia were assessed in the offspring in the early phase of this disease, using fluorescence immunostaining (Iba1). Descendants of mice exposed to PolyI:C at embryonic day 9 showed higher number of microglial cells in the hippocampus and striatum, but not in the frontal cortex at postnatal day 30, which is similarly to adolescence in man, as compared to those exposed to saline. Furthermore, offspring microglia from PolyI:C treated mothers were morphologically characterized by a reduced arborization indicative for a status of higher activation compared to the offspring microglia from vehicle treated mice. This study supports the hypothesis that maternal infection during embryogenesis contributes to microglial activation in the offspring, which may therefore represent a contributing factor to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and underlines the need for new pharmacological treatment options in this regard