Signaling Circuits and Regulation of Immune Suppression by Ovarian Tumor-Associated Macrophages

The barriers presented by immune suppression in the ovarian tumor microenvironment present one of the biggest challenges to development of successful tumor vaccine strategies for prevention of disease recurrence and progression following primary surgery and chemotherapy. New insights gained over the last decade have revealed multiple mechanisms of immune regulation, with ovarian tumor-associated macrophages/DC likely to fulfill a central role in creating a highly immunosuppressive milieu that supports disease progression and blocks anti-tumor immunity. This review provides an appraisal of some of the key signaling pathways that may contribute to immune suppression in ovarian cancer, with a particular focus on the potential involvement of the c-KIT/PI3K/AKT, wnt/β-catenin, IL-6/STAT3 and AhR signaling pathways in regulation of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase expression in tumor-associated macrophages. Knowledge of intercellular and intracellular circuits that shape immune suppression may afford insights for development of adjuvant treatments that alleviate immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment and enhance the clinical efficacy of ovarian tumor vaccines

Forage type and transportation stress effects on gut microbial counts and meat quality in goats

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of feeding highly condensed tannin legume (sericea lespedeza, SL; Lespedeza cuneata) forage on gastrointestinal tract microbial counts and meat quality in goats. Intact male Spanish kids were kept in 0.40 ha paddocks of SL, bermudagrass (BG; Cynodon dactylon; control), or a combination of SL + BG (n = 10 goats per treatment group) for 8 wk. All goats were supplemented with a commercial feed pellet at 0.45 kg·head−1·d−1 for the first 4 wk and 0.23 kg·head−1·d−1 for the final 4 wk of the trial. At the end of the experiment, half the goats from each paddock were subjected to 3 h transportation stress, then all animals were humanely slaughtered. Diet or stress did not have a significant effect on skin Escherichia coli, coliform, or aerobic plate counts, and carcass, rumen, and fecal bacterial counts. Muscle pH at 24 h postmortem tended (P = 0.06) to be higher in transported compared with non-transported goats. The results indicate that SL consumption by goats for 8 wk did not significantly affect gastrointestinal tract, skin, and carcass microbial counts or meat quality, although preslaughter stress could influence meat quality due to changes in the course of postmortem pH decline.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author