17 research outputs found
Differential profiling of lacrimal cytokines in patients suffering from thyroid-associated orbitopathy.
The aim was to investigate the levels of cytokines and soluble IL-6R in the tears of patients with thyroid-associated orbitopathy (TAO) disease. Schirmer's test was adopted to collect tears from TAO patients (N = 20, 17 women, mean age (±SD): 46.0 years (±13.4)) and healthy subjects (N = 18, 10 women, 45.4 years (±18.7)). Lacrimal cytokines and soluble IL-6R (sIL-6R) were measured using a 10-plex panel (Meso Scale Discovery Company) and Invitrogen Human sIL-6R Elisa kit, respectively. Tear levels of IL-10, IL-12p70, IL-13, IL-6 and TNF-α appeared significantly higher in TAO patients than in healthy subjects. Interestingly, IL-10, IL-12p70 and IL-8 levels increased in tears whatever the form of TAO whereas IL-13, IL-6 and TNF-α levels were significantly elevated in inflammatory TAO patients, meaning with a clinical score activity (CAS) ≥ 3, compared to controls. Furthermore, only 3 cytokines were strongly positively correlated with CAS (IL-13 Spearman coeff. r: 0.703, p = 0.0005; IL-6 r: 0.553, p = 0.011; IL-8 r: 0.618, p = 0.004, respectively). Finally, tobacco use disturbed the levels of several cytokines, especially in patient suffering of TAO. The differential profile of lacrimal cytokines could be useful for the diagnosis of TAO patients. Nevertheless, the tobacco use of these patients should be taken into account in the interpretation of the cytokine levels
Dynamical effects of back-coupling on an atom laser
Atom lasers have been demonstrated in both pulsed and semi-continuous modes. The dynamics of these devices is predicted to be dramatically different to the optical laser due to fundamental differences between the two types of boson fields; however to date it is the similarities that have been emphasized. Here we show how the atom laser dynamics are strongly affected by coupling of the output beam back to the condensate
Fluctuations in instantaneous frequency predict alpha amplitude during visual perception
Though the amplitude and frequency of neural oscillations in the alpha band are related to dissociable visual processes, they are not independent mathematically. Here, the authors show that fluctuations in instantaneous frequency predict alpha amplitude during visual discrimination tasks