New combinations for Sonoran Desert plants

We provide new nomenclatural combinations for three Sonoran Desert plants: Opuntia engelmannii var. laevis (J.M. Coulter) Felger, Verrier, & Carnahan, comb. nov.; Parkinsonia florida subsp. peninsulare (Rose) Hawkins & Felger, comb. nov.; and Parkinsonia ×sonorae (Rose & I.M. Johnston ex I.M. Johnston) Hawkins & Felger, comb. nov

Treating infants with frigg: linking disease aetiologies, medicinal plant use and careseeking behaviour in southern Morocco

Background: Although most Moroccans rely to some extent on traditional medicine, the practice of frigg to treat paediatric ailments by elderly women traditional healers known as ferraggat, has not yet been documented. We describe the role of these specialist healers, document the medicinal plants they use, and evaluate how and why their practice is changing. Methods: Ethnomedicinal and ethnobotanical data were collected using semi-structured interviews and observations of medical encounters. Information was collected from traditional healers, namely ferraggat, patients, herbalists and public health professionals. Patients’ and healers’ narratives about traditional medicine were analysed and medicinal plant lists were compiled from healers and herbalists. Plants used were collected, vouchered and deposited in herbaria. Results: Ferragat remain a key health resource to treat infant ailments in the rural High Atlas, because mothers believe only they can treat what are perceived to be illnesses with a supernatural cause. Ferragat possess baraka, or the gift of healing, and treat mainly three folk ailments, taqait, taumist and iqdi, which present symptoms similar to those of ear infections, tonsillitis and gastroenteritis. Seventy plant species were used to treat these ailments, but the emphasis on plants may be a recent substitute for treatments that used primarily wool and blood. This change in materia medica is a shift in the objects of cultural meaningfulness in response to the increasing influence of orthodox Islam and state-sponsored modernisation, including public healthcare and schooling. Conclusions: Religious and other sociocultural changes are impacting the ways in which ferraggat practice. Treatments based on no-longer accepted symbolic elements have been readily abandoned and substituted by licit remedies, namely medicinal plants, which play a legitimisation role for the practice of frigg. However, beliefs in supernatural ailment aetiologies, as well as lack or difficult access to biomedical alternatives, still underlie the need for specialist traditional healers

Interfamilial relationships in order Fabales: new insights from the nuclear regions sqd1 and 26S rDNA

Leguminosae, Polygalaceae, Quillajaceae and Surianaceae together comprise the order Fabales. Phylogenetic relationships within Fabales remain an unsolved problem even though interfamilial relationships have been examined in a number of studies using different sampling approaches and both molecular and morphological data. In this study, we gather information from the nuclear 26S rDNA region as well as previously published data from the sqd1,matK and rbcL regions. Phylogenetic analyses were performed by maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference. Overall, the best-supported topology for the relationships among families within the order places the pair of Leguminosae and Polygalaceae as sister to the pair of Quillajaceae and Surianaceae. However, our approximately unbiased (AU) test of the combined data results has shown that none of the seven different topologies rejected. Furthermore, three topologies were not significantly different from each other. Therefore, similar to the previous studies, this study did not find well-supported dichotomous relationships among the four Fabales families. The Fabales topology was very sensitive to both data choice and the phylogenetic methods used, which may indicate a rapid-near-simultaneous evolution of the four Fabales families. Our results also show that while nuclear sqd1 can be helpful as a complementary region, both the nuclear sqd1 and rDNA 26S regions could be problematic when analyzed individually

Loss of heterozygosity and SOSTDC1 in adult and pediatric renal tumors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Deletions within the short arm of chromosome 7 are observed in approximately 25% of adult and 10% of Wilms pediatric renal tumors. Within Wilms tumors, the region of interest has been delineated to a 2-Mb minimal region that includes ten known genes. Two of these ten candidate genes, <it>SOSTDC1 </it>and <it>MEOX2</it>, are particularly relevant to tumor development and maintenance. This finding, coupled with evidence that SOSTDC1 is frequently downregulated in adult renal cancer and regulates both Wingless-Int (Wnt)- and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-induced signaling, points to a role for SOSTDC1 as a potential tumor suppressor.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To investigate this hypothesis, we interrogated the Oncomine database to examine the SOSTDC1 levels in adult renal clear cell tumors and pediatric Wilms tumors. We then performed single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and sequencing analyses of <it>SOSTDC1 </it>in 25 pediatric and 36 adult renal tumors. Immunohistochemical staining of patient samples was utilized to examine the impact of <it>SOSTDC1 </it>genetic aberrations on SOSTDC1 protein levels and signaling.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Within the Oncomine database, we found that SOSTDC1 levels were reduced in adult renal clear cell tumors and pediatric Wilms tumors. Through SNP and sequencing analyses of 25 Wilms tumors, we identified four with loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at 7p and three that affected <it>SOSTDC1</it>. Of 36 adult renal cancers, we found five with LOH at 7p, two of which affected <it>SOSTDC1</it>. Immunohistochemical analysis of SOSTDC1 protein levels within these tumors did not reveal a relationship between these instances of <it>SOSTDC1 </it>LOH and SOSTDC1 protein levels. Moreover, we could not discern any impact of these genetic alterations on Wnt signaling as measured by altered beta-catenin levels or localization.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study shows that genetic aberrations near <it>SOSTDC1 </it>are not uncommon in renal cancer, and occur in adult as well as pediatric renal tumors. These observations of <it>SOSTDC1 </it>LOH, however, did not correspond with changes in SOSTDC1 protein levels or signaling regulation. Although our conclusions are limited by sample size, we suggest that an alternative mechanism such as epigenetic silencing of <it>SOSTDC1 </it>may be a key contributor to the reduced SOSTDC1 mRNA and protein levels observed in renal cancer.</p

Ethnicity strongly influences body fat distribution determining serum adipokine profile and metabolic derangement in childhood obesity

Background: Body fat content and distribution in childhood is influenced by sex and puberty, but interethnic differences in the percentage and distribution of body fat also exist. The abdominal visceral/subcutaneous fat ratio has been the main feature of body fat distribution found to associate with the serum adipokine profile and metabolic derangement in adulthood obesity. This has also been assumed for childhood obesity despite the known singularities of this disease in the pediatric age in comparison to adults. Objective: We aimed to investigate the effect of ethnicity, together with sex and pubertal status, on body fat content and distribution, serum adipokine profile, metabolic impairment and liver steatosis in children and adolescents with obesity. Patients and Methods: One hundred and fifty children with obesity (50% Caucasians/50% Latinos; 50% males/50% females) were studied. Body fat content and distribution were studied by whole body DXA-scan and abdominal magnetic resonance, and their relationships with liver steatosis (as determined by ultrasonography), glycemia, insulinemia, lipid metabolism, uric acid, total and HMW-adiponectin, leptin, leptin-receptor, and sex steroid levels were explored. Results: Latino patients had more severe truncal obesity (higher trunk/lower limb fat ratio, odds ratio 10.00; p &lt; 0.05) and higher prevalence of liver steatosis than Caucasians regardless of sex or pubertal status, but there were no difference in the visceral/subcutaneous abdominal fat ratio, except for pubertal females. A higher trunk/lower limb fat ratio, but not the visceral/subcutaneous abdominal fat ratio, was associated with adipokine profile impairment (higher free leptin index and lower adiponectin levels), insulin resistance and dyslipidemia, and was further enhanced when liver steatosis was present (p &lt; 0.05). A higher abdominal visceral/subcutaneous fat ratio was observed in prepubertal children (p &lt; 0.01), except for Latino females, whereas predominant subcutaneous fat deposition was observed in adolescents. Conclusion: Ethnicity is one of the main determinants of increased trunk body fat accumulation in Latino children with obesity, which is best estimated by the trunk/lower limb fat ratio and related to the development of metabolic derangement and liver steatosis.This work was supported by CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBEROBN) and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, FIS (FIS grant numbers PI09/91060; FIS 10/00747; FIS 13/01295; and FIS 16/00485

Response to growth hormone in patients with RNPC3 mutations

Peer reviewe

Body Temperature In Captive Long-Beaked Echidnas (Zaglossus Bartoni)

The routine occurrence of both short-term (daily) and long-term torpor (hibernation) in short-beaked echidnas, but not platypus, raises questions about the third monotreme genus, New Guinea's Zaglossus. We measured body temperatures (Tb) with implanted data loggers over three and a half years in two captive Zaglossus bartoni at Taronga Zoo, Sydney. The modal Tb of both long-beaks was 31 degrees C, similar to non-hibernating short-beaked echidnas, Tachyglossus aculeatus, in the wild (30-32 degrees C) and to platypus (32 degrees C), suggesting that this is characteristic of normothermic monotremes. Tb cycled daily, usually over 2-4 degrees C. There were some departures from this pattern to suggest periods of inactivity but nothing to indicate the occurrence of long-term torpor. In contrast, two short-beaked echidnas monitored concurrently in the same pen showed extended periods of low Tb in the cooler months (hibernation) and short periods of torpor at any time of the year, as they do in the wild. Whether torpor or hibernation occurs in Zaglossus in the wild or in juveniles remains unknown. However, given that the environment in this study was conducive to hibernation in short-beaks, which do not easily enter torpor in captivity, and their large size, we think that torpor in wild adult Zaglossus is unlikely

RhIGF-1 treatment increases bone mineral density and trabecular bone structure in children with PAPP-A2 deficiency

KARGER: "This is the peer-reviewed but unedited manuscript version of the following article: Hormone Research in Paediatrics 89.3 (2018): 200-204 DOI: 10.1159/000486336. The final, published version is available at http://www.karger.com/. http://doi.org/10.1159/000486336]."Aim: Our objective was to determine changes in bone mineral density (BMD), trabecular bone score (TBS), and body composition after 2 years of therapy with recombinant human insulin-like growth factor-1 (rhIGF-1) in 2 prepubertal children with a complete lack of circulating PAPP-A2 due to a homozygous mutation in PAPP-A2 (p.D643fs25∗) resulting in a premature stop codon. Methods: Body composition, BMD, and bone structure were determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at baseline and after 1 and 2 years of rhIGF-1 treatment. Results: Height increased from 132 to 145.5 cm (patient 1) and from 111.5 to 124.5 cm (patient 2). Bone mineral content increased from 933.40 to 1,057.97 and 1,152.77 g in patient 1, and from 696.12 to 773.26 and 911.51 g in patient 2, after 1 and 2 years, respectively. Whole-body BMD also increased after 2 years of rhIGF-1 from baseline 0.788 to 0.869 g/cm2in patient 1 and from 0.763 to 0.829 g/cm2in patient 2. After 2 years of treatment, both children had an improvement in TBS. During therapy, a slight increase in body fat mass was seen, with a concomitant increase in lean mass. No adverse effects were reported. Conclusion: Two years of rhIGF-1 improved growth, with a tendency to improve bone mass and bone microstructure and to modulate body composition.The authors are funded by Fondos de Investigación Sanitaria and FEDER (Grants PI1302195 and PI1600485 to J.A.), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (BFU2014-51836-C2-2-R to J.A.C.), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Fisiopatología de Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBEROBN), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (J.A.), and Fundación Endocrinología y Nutrició

The metabolome regulates the epigenetic landscape during naive-to-primed human embryonic stem cell transition.

For nearly a century developmental biologists have recognized that cells from embryos can differ in their potential to differentiate into distinct cell types. Recently, it has been recognized that embryonic stem cells derived from both mice and humans exhibit two stable yet epigenetically distinct states of pluripotency: naive and primed. We now show that nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT) and the metabolic state regulate pluripotency in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).  Specifically, in naive hESCs, NNMT and its enzymatic product 1-methylnicotinamide are highly upregulated, and NNMT is required for low S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) levels and the H3K27me3 repressive state. NNMT consumes SAM in naive cells, making it unavailable for histone methylation that represses Wnt and activates the HIF pathway in primed hESCs. These data support the hypothesis that the metabolome regulates the epigenetic landscape of the earliest steps in human development