LPS Counter Regulates RNA Expression of Extracellular Proteases and Their Inhibitors in Murine Macrophages

Besides their evident importance in host defense, macrophages have been shown to play a detrimental role in different pathological conditions, including chronic inflammation, atherosclerosis, and cancer. Regardless of the exact situation, macrophage activation and migration are intimately connected to extracellular matrix degradation. This process is accomplished by multiple proteolytic enzymes, including serine proteases and members of the matrix metalloproteinase family. In this study, we have utilized qPCR arrays to simultaneously analyze the temporal expression pattern of a range of genes involved in extracellular matrix metabolism in the mouse derived-macrophage cell line RAW 264.7 following stimulation with LPS. Our results revealed that LPS induces the expression of matrix metalloproteinases while at the same time decreased the expression of matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors. The opposite scenario was found for the genes encoding serine proteases, which were downregulated while their inhibitors were upregulated. In addition, intergenic comparison of the expression levels of related proteases revealed large differences in their basal expression level. These data highlight the complexity of the gene expression regulation implicated in macrophage-dependent matrix degradation and furthermore emphasize the value of qPCR array techniques for the investigation of the complex regulation of the matrix degradome

Inverse spectral problems for Sturm-Liouville operators with singular potentials

The inverse spectral problem is solved for the class of Sturm-Liouville operators with singular real-valued potentials from the space $W^{-1}_2(0,1)$. The potential is recovered via the eigenvalues and the corresponding norming constants. The reconstruction algorithm is presented and its stability proved. Also, the set of all possible spectral data is explicitly described and the isospectral sets are characterized.Comment: Submitted to Inverse Problem

Modelling of Salmonella dynamics in the pig slaughterhouse

The burden of Salmonella entering pig slaughterhouses across the European Union (EU) is considered to be of public health significance. Therefore, targets will be set for each EU Member State (MS) to reduce the prevalence of Salmonella infection in pigs at slaughter. In order to meet the set target, each MS will need to develop a National Control Plan (NCP)