1,138 research outputs found
Restoration of mitochondrial integrity, telomere length, and sensitivity to oxidation by in vitro culture of Fuchsâ endothelial corneal dystrophy cells
PURPOSE. Fuchsâ endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD), a degenerative disease of the corneal
endothelium that leads to vision loss, is a leading cause of corneal transplantation. The cause
of this disease is still unknown, but the implication of oxidative stress is strongly suggested. In
this study, we analyzed the impact of FECD on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) integrity and
telomere length, both of which are affected by the oxidative status of the cell.
METHODS. We compared the levels of total mtDNA, mtDNA common deletion (4977 bp), and
relative telomere length in the corneal endothelial cells of fresh Descemetâs membraneendothelium explants and cultured cells from healthy and late stage FECD subjects. Oxidantantioxidant gene expression and sensitivity to ultraviolet A (UVA)- and H2O2-induced cell
death were assessed in cultured cells.
RESULTS. Our results revealed increased mtDNA levels and telomere shortening in FECD
explants. We also found that cell culture restores a normal phenotype in terms of mtDNA
levels, telomere length, oxidant-antioxidant gene expression balance, and sensitivity to
oxidative stress-induced cell death in the FECD cells compared with the healthy cells.
CONCLUSIONS. Taken together, these results bring new evidence of the implication of oxidative
stress in FECD. They also show that FECD does not evenly affect the integrity of corneal
endothelial cells and that cell culture can rehabilitate the molecular phenotypes related to
oxidative stress by selecting the more functional FECD cells
NASSAM: a server to search for and annotate tertiary interactions and motifs in three-dimensional structures of complex RNA molecules
Similarities in the 3D patterns of RNA base interactions or arrangements can provide insights into their functions and roles in stabilization of the RNA 3D structure. Nucleic Acids Search for Substructures and Motifs (NASSAM) is a graph theoretical program that can search for 3D patterns of base arrangements by representing the bases as pseudo-atoms. The geometric relationship of the pseudo-atoms to each other as a pattern can be represented as a labeled graph where the pseudo-atoms are the graph's nodes while the edges are the inter-pseudo-atomic distances. The input files for NASSAM are PDB formatted 3D coordinates. This web server can be used to identify matches of base arrangement patterns in a query structure to annotated patterns that have been reported in the literature or that have possible functional and structural stabilization implications. The NASSAM program is freely accessible without any login requirement at http://mfrlab.org/grafss/nassam/
A probable giant planet imaged in the Beta Pictoris disk
Since the discovery of its dusty disk in 1984, Beta Pictoris has become the
prototype of young early-type planetary systems, and there are now various
indications that a massive Jovian planet is orbiting the star at ~ 10 AU.
However, no planets have been detected around this star so far. Our goal was to
investigate the close environment of Beta Pic, searching for planetary
companion(s). Deep adaptive-optics L'-band images of Beta Pic were recorded
using the NaCo instrument at the Very Large Telescope. A faint point-like
signal is detected at a projected distance of ~ 8 AU from the star, within the
North-East side of the dust disk. Various tests were made to rule out with a
good confidence level possible instrumental or atmospheric artifacts. The
probability of a foreground or background contaminant is extremely low, based
in addition on the analysis of previous deep Hubble Space Telescope images. The
object L'=11.2 apparent magnitude would indicate a typical temperature of ~1500
K and a mass of ~ 8 Jovian masses. If confirmed, it could explain the main
morphological and dynamical peculiarities of the Beta Pic system. The present
detection is unique among A-stars by the proximity of the resolved planet to
its parent star. Its closeness and location inside the Beta Pic disk suggest a
formation process by core accretion or disk instabilities rather than a
binary-like formation process.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. A&A Letters, in pres
EAGLE multi-object AO concept study for the E-ELT
EAGLE is the multi-object, spatially-resolved, near-IR spectrograph
instrument concept for the E-ELT, relying on a distributed Adaptive Optics,
so-called Multi Object Adaptive Optics. This paper presents the results of a
phase A study. Using 84x84 actuator deformable mirrors, the performed analysis
demonstrates that 6 laser guide stars and up to 5 natural guide stars of
magnitude R<17, picked-up in a 7.3' diameter patrol field of view, allow us to
obtain an overall performance in terms of Ensquared Energy of 35% in a 75x75
mas^2 spaxel at H band, whatever the target direction in the centred 5' science
field for median seeing conditions. The computed sky coverage at galactic
latitudes |b|~60 is close to 90%.Comment: 6 pages, to appear in the proceedings of the AO4ELT conference, held
in Paris, 22-26 June 200
Adaptive Optics for Astronomy
Adaptive Optics is a prime example of how progress in observational astronomy
can be driven by technological developments. At many observatories it is now
considered to be part of a standard instrumentation suite, enabling
ground-based telescopes to reach the diffraction limit and thus providing
spatial resolution superior to that achievable from space with current or
planned satellites. In this review we consider adaptive optics from the
astrophysical perspective. We show that adaptive optics has led to important
advances in our understanding of a multitude of astrophysical processes, and
describe how the requirements from science applications are now driving the
development of the next generation of novel adaptive optics techniques.Comment: to appear in ARA&A vol 50, 201
LP 349-25: a new tight M8V binary
We present the discovery of a tight M8V binary, with a separation of only 1.2
astronomical units, obtained with the PUEO and NACO adaptive optics systems,
respectively at the CFHT and VLT telescopes. The estimated period of LP 349-25
is approximately 5 years, and this makes it an excellent candidate for a
precise mass measurement.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics Letter
Uplift, Feedback, and Buoyancy: Radio Lobe Dynamics in NGC 4472
© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We present results from deep (380 ks) Chandra observations of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) outburst in the massive early-type galaxy NGC 4472. We detect cavities in the gas coincident with the radio lobes and estimate the eastern and western lobe enthalpy to be (1.1 ± 0.5) à 10 56 erg and (3 ± 1) à 10 56 erg and the average power required to inflate the lobes to be (1.8 ± 0.9) à 10 41 erg s -1 and (6 ± 3) à 10 41 erg s -1 , respectively. We also detect enhanced X-ray rims around the radio lobes with sharp surface brightness discontinuities between the shells and the ambient gas. The temperature of the gas in the shells is less than that of the ambient medium, suggesting that they are not AGN-driven shocks but rather gas uplifted from the core by the buoyant rise of the radio bubbles. We estimate the energy required to lift the gas to be up to (1.1 ± 0.3) à 10 56 erg and (3 ± 1) à 10 56 erg for the eastern and western rims, respectively, constituting a significant fraction of the total outburst energy. A more conservative estimate suggests that the gas in the rim was uplifted at a smaller distance, requiring only 20%-25% of this energy. In either case, if a significant fraction of this uplift energy is thermalized via hydrodynamic instabilities or thermal conduction, our results suggest that it could be an important source of heating in cool core clusters and groups. We also find evidence for a central abundance drop in NGC 4472. The iron abundance profile shows that the region along the cavity system has a lower metallicity than the surrounding undisturbed gas, similar to the central region. This also shows that bubbles have lifted low-metallicity gas from the center
Correcting pervasive errors in RNA crystallography through enumerative structure prediction
Three-dimensional RNA models fitted into crystallographic density maps
exhibit pervasive conformational ambiguities, geometric errors and steric
clashes. To address these problems, we present enumerative real-space
refinement assisted by electron density under Rosetta (ERRASER), coupled to
Python-based hierarchical environment for integrated 'xtallography' (PHENIX)
diffraction-based refinement. On 24 data sets, ERRASER automatically corrects
the majority of MolProbity-assessed errors, improves the average Rfree factor,
resolves functionally important discrepancies in noncanonical structure and
refines low-resolution models to better match higher-resolution models
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