Transcriptome Responses of Insect Fat Body Cells to Tissue Culture Environment

Tissue culture is performed to maintain isolated portions of multicellular organisms in an artificial milieu that is outside the individual organism and for considerable periods of time; cells derived from cultured explants are, in general, different from cells of the corresponding tissue in a living organism. The changes in cultured tissues that precede and often explain the subsequent cell proliferation of explant-derived cells have been partially studied, but little is known about the molecular and genomic basis of these changes. Comparative transcriptomics of intact and cultured (90 hours in MGM-450 insect medium) Bombyx mori tissues revealed that fewer genes represented a larger portion of the transcriptome of intact fat body tissues than of cultured fat body tissues. This analysis also indicated that expression of genes encoding sugar transporters and immune response proteins increased during culture and that expression of genes encoding lipoproteins and cuticle proteins decreased during culture. These results provide support for hypotheses that cultured tissues respond immunologically to surgery, adapt to the medium by accelerating sugar uptake, and terminate their identity as part of an intact organism by becoming independent of that organism

Intolerance of uncertainty and mental wellbeing: serial mediation by rumination and fear of COVID-19

The novel coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become globally widespread with millions of confirmed cases and many countries implementing various levels of quarantine. Therefore, it is important to investigate the psychological consequences of this process, given the unique situation that has been experienced globally. Therefore, the present study examined whether intolerance of uncertainty was related to mental wellbeing and whether this relationship was mediated by rumination and fear of COVID-19. The sample comprised 1772 Turkish individuals (aged between 18 and 73 years) from 79 of 81 cities in Turkey, who completed measures of mental wellbeing, intolerance of uncertainty, rumination, and fear of COVID-19. Results of serial mediation analyses showed that intolerance of uncertainty had a significant direct effect on mental wellbeing. Rumination and fear of COVID-19, in combination, serially mediated the association between intolerance of uncertainty and mental wellbeing. The findings are discussed within the framework of the psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and related literature

Hystricognathy vs Sciurognathy in the Rodent Jaw: A New Morphometric Assessment of Hystricognathy Applied to the Living Fossil Laonastes (Diatomyidae)

While exceptional for an intense diversification of lineages, the evolutionary history of the order Rodentia comprises only a limited number of morphological morphotypes for the mandible. This situation could partly explain the intense debates about the taxonomic position of the latest described member of this clade, the Laotian rock rat Laonastes aenigmamus (Diatomyidae). This discovery has re-launched the debate on the definition of the Hystricognathi suborder identified using the angle of the jaw relative to the plane of the incisors. Our study aims to end this ambiguity. For clarity, it became necessary to revisit the entire morphological diversity of the mandible in extant and extinct rodents. However, current and past rodent diversity brings out the limitations of the qualitative descriptive approach and highlights the need for a quantitative approach. Here, we present the first descriptive comparison of the masticatory apparatus within the Ctenohystrica clade, in combining classic comparative anatomy with morphometrical methods. First, we quantified the shape of the mandible in rodents using 3D landmarks. Then, the analysis of osteological features was compared to myological features in order to understand the biomechanical origin of this morphological diversity. Among the morphological variation observed, the mandible of Laonastes aenigmamus displays an intermediate association of features that could be considered neither as sciurognathous nor as hystricognathous

Mathematical model describing erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Implications for blood viscosity changes in traumatic shock and crush syndrome

BACKGROUND: The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is a simple and inexpensive laboratory test, which is widespread in clinical practice, for assessing the inflammatory or acute response. This work addresses the theoretical and experimental investigation of sedimentation a single and multiple particles in homogeneous and heterogeneous (multiphase) medium, as it relates to their internal structure (aggregation of solid or deformed particles). METHODS: The equation system has been solved numerically. To choose finite analogs of derivatives we used the schemes of directional differences. RESULTS: (1) Our model takes into account the influence of the vessel wall on group aggregation of particles in tubes as well as the effects of rotation of particles, the constraint coefficient, and viscosity of a mixture as a function of the volume fraction. (2) This model can describe ESR as a function of the velocity of adhesion of erythrocytes; (3) Determination of the ESR is best conducted at certain time intervals, i.e. in a series of periods not exceeding 5 minutes each; (4) Differential diagnosis of various diseases by means of ESR should be performed using the aforementioned timed measurement of ESR; (5) An increase in blood viscosity during trauma results from an increase in rouleaux formation and the time-course method of ESR will be useful in patients with trauma, in particular, with traumatic shock and crush syndrome. CONCLUSION: The mathematical model created in this study used the most fundamental differential equations that have ever been derived to estimate ESR. It may further our understanding of its complex mechanism

Consolidation of an Olfactory Memory Trace in the Olfactory Bulb Is Required for Learning-Induced Survival of Adult-Born Neurons and Long-Term Memory

Background: It has recently been proposed that adult-born neurons in the olfactory bulb, whose survival is modulated by learning, support long-term olfactory memory. However, the mechanism used to select which adult-born neurons following learning will participate in the long-term retention of olfactory information is unknown. We addressed this question by investigating the effect of bulbar consolidation of olfactory learning on memory and neurogenesis. Methodology/Principal Findings: Initially, we used a behavioral ecological approach using adult mice to assess the impact of consolidation on neurogenesis. Using learning paradigms in which consolidation time was varied, we showed that a spaced (across days), but not a massed (within day), learning paradigm increased survival of adult-born neurons and allowed long-term retention of the task. Subsequently, we used a pharmacological approach to block consolidation in the olfactory bulb, consisting in intrabulbar infusion of the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin, and found impaired learning and no increase in neurogenesis, while basic olfactory processing and the basal rate of adult-born neuron survival remained unaffected. Taken together these data indicate that survival of adult-born neurons during learning depends on consolidation processes taking place in the olfactory bulb. Conclusion/Significance: We can thus propose a model in which consolidation processes in the olfactory bulb determine both survival of adult-born neurons and long-term olfactory memory. The finding that adult-born neuron survival durin

Dedifferentiation and Proliferation of Mammalian Cardiomyocytes

It has long been thought that mammalian cardiomyocytes are terminally-differentiated and unable to proliferate. However, myocytes in more primitive animals such as zebrafish are able to dedifferentiate and proliferate to regenerate amputated cardiac muscle.Here we test the hypothesis that mature mammalian cardiomyocytes retain substantial cellular plasticity, including the ability to dedifferentiate, proliferate, and acquire progenitor cell phenotypes. Two complementary methods were used: 1) cardiomyocyte purification from rat hearts, and 2) genetic fate mapping in cardiac explants from bi-transgenic mice. Cardiomyocytes isolated from rodent hearts were purified by multiple centrifugation and Percoll gradient separation steps, and the purity verified by immunostaining and RT-PCR. Within days in culture, purified cardiomyocytes lost their characteristic electrophysiological properties and striations, flattened and began to divide, as confirmed by proliferation markers and BrdU incorporation. Many dedifferentiated cardiomyocytes went on to express the stem cell antigen c-kit, and the early cardiac transcription factors GATA4 and Nkx2.5. Underlying these changes, inhibitory cell cycle molecules were suppressed in myocyte-derived cells (MDCs), while microRNAs known to orchestrate proliferation and pluripotency increased dramatically. Some, but not all, MDCs self-organized into spheres and re-differentiated into myocytes and endothelial cells in vitro. Cell fate tracking of cardiomyocytes from 4-OH-Tamoxifen-treated double-transgenic MerCreMer/ZEG mouse hearts revealed that green fluorescent protein (GFP) continues to be expressed in dedifferentiated cardiomyocytes, two-thirds of which were also c-kit(+).Contradicting the prevailing view that they are terminally-differentiated, postnatal mammalian cardiomyocytes are instead capable of substantial plasticity. Dedifferentiation of myocytes facilitates proliferation and confers a degree of stemness, including the expression of c-kit and the capacity for multipotency

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field