Regulatory T Cell in Stroke: A New Paradigm for Immune Regulation

Stroke is a common, debilitating trauma that has an incompletely elucidated pathophysiology and lacks an effective therapy. FoxP3+CD25+CD4+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) suppress a variety of normal physiological and pathological immune responses via several pathways, such as inhibitory cytokine secretion, direct cytolysis induction, and antigen-presenting cell functional modulation. FoxP3+CD25+CD4+ Tregs are involved in a variety of central nervous system diseases and injuries, including axonal injury, neurodegenerative diseases, and stroke. Specifically, FoxP3+CD25+CD4+ Tregs exert neuroprotective effects in acute experimental stroke models. These beneficial effects, however, are difficult to elucidate. In this review, we summarized evidence of FoxP3+CD25+CD4+ Tregs as potentially important immunomodulators in stroke pathogenesis and highlight further investigations for possible immunotherapeutic strategies by modulating the quantity and/or functional effects of FoxP3+CD25+CD4+ Tregs in stroke patients

Equity in use of maternal health services in Western Rural China: a survey from Shaanxi province

BACKGROUND: The 20(th) century was marked by a significant improvement in worldwide human health and access to healthcare. However, these improvements were not completely or uniformly distributed among, or even within, nations. This study was designed to assess the use of maternal health services by pregnant women in China, with a focus on the inequity related to family income level. METHODS: Two population-based cross-sectional surveys were carried out in the Zhenan and Lantian counties in March 2007 and from December 2008 to March 2009. A total of 2562 women completed the questionnaires, including 948 who were pregnant in 2006 and 1614 from 2008–2009. The concentration index (CI) was calculated and used to analyze the parameters of maternal health care in the two counties surveyed. RESULTS: The responses in both 2006 and 2008–2009 indicated a bias towards higher (rich) economic statuses for the use of maternal and child health services. The CI of ‘delivery at health facility’ was 0.0206 (95% confidence interval between 0.0114 and 0.0299) for 2006 and 0.0053 (95% confidence interval between 0.0015 and 0.0091) for 2008, which represented a statistically significant inequity for women of lower (poor) economic statuses. Similar CI was observed in ‘receiving antenatal care within 12 weeks’ for 2006 (CI(2006) = 0.0956, 95% confidence interval between 0.0516 and 0.1396). The CIs of ‘postnatal visit’ and ‘postnatal visit >3-times’ was positive (except for 2006), indicating that the poor used postnatal care less than the non-poor. In 2008, poor women had C-sections more often than non-poor women (CI(2008) = −0.0629, 95% confidence interval between-0.1165 and −0.0093), but such a difference was not observed in 2006. CONCLUSIONS: In 2006 and 2008, the use of maternal health services in western rural China was significantly unequal between pregnant women of poor and non-poor economic statuses. Financial support that enables poorer pregnant women to use health services will be beneficial. Utilization of maternal healthcare services can be improved if out-of-pocket expenses can be minimized

A zebrafish model of conditional targeted podocyte ablation and regeneration

Podocytes are specialized cells that contribute critically to the normal structure and function of the glomerular filtration barrier. Their depletion plays an important role in the pathogenesis of glomerulosclerosis. Here, we report generation of a genetic model of conditional podocyte ablation and regeneration in zebrafish using a bacterial nitroreductase strategy to convert a prodrug, Metronidazole, into a cytotoxic metabolite. A transgenic zebrafish line was generated that expresses a green fluorescence protein (GFP) and the nitroreductase fusion protein under the control of the podocin promoter Tg(podocin:nitroreductase-GFP). Treatment of these transgenic zebrafish with Metronidazole results in podocyte apoptosis, a loss of nephrin and podocin expression, foot process effacement, and a leaky glomerular filtration barrier. Following Metronidazole washout, proliferating cells were detected in the glomeruli of recovering transgenic fish with a restoration of nitroreductase-GFP fluorescence, nephrin and podocin expression, a reestablishment of normal foot process architecture and glomerular barrier function. Thus, our studies show that zebrafish podocytes are capable of regenerating following depletion and establish the Tg(podocin:NTR-GFP) fish as a new model to study podocyte injury and repair

OHMI: The Ontology of Host-Microbiome Interactions

Host-microbiome interactions (HMIs) are critical for the modulation of biological processes and are associated with several diseases, and extensive HMI studies have generated large amounts of data. We propose that the logical representation of the knowledge derived from these data and the standardized representation of experimental variables and processes can foster integration of data and reproducibility of experiments and thereby further HMI knowledge discovery. A community-based Ontology of Host-Microbiome Interactions (OHMI) was developed following the OBO Foundry principles. OHMI leverages established ontologies to create logically structured representations of microbiomes, microbial taxonomy, host species, host anatomical entities, and HMIs under different conditions and associated study protocols and types of data analysis and experimental results

Gridded inventories of historical usage for selected organochlorine pesticides in Gansu Province, China

HCHs and DDTs were banned in 1983 in China; however, they are still remaining in various environmental media. Since endosulfan was introduced in China in 1994, it is widely used in agriculture. In this study, temporal and spatial uses of endosulfan, HCHs, and DDTs in Gansu province of China have been presented. It is estimated that the total usage is 701 tons for endosulfan between 1994 and 2007, 1,712 tons for HCHs between 1952 and 1983, and 462 tons for DDTs between 1951 and 1983, respectively. Endosulfan usage increased dramatically in 1998 due to its application on other crops except on cotton. The HCH and DDT usage displayed a rapid increase after 1972, reaching the peak in 1976 and in 1975, respectively; since then, they declined until being banned in 1983. The gridded usage inventories of these three kinds of organochlorine pesticides in Gansu province, with a 1/4A degrees longitude by 1/6A degrees latitude resolution, have been created by using different crops for endosulfan and the area of dry farmland for HCHs and DDTs as surrogate data. The most intensive use was in northwestern regions for endosulfan and southeastern regions for HCHs and DDTs in Gansu province

Electroacupuncture and human iPSC-derived small extracellular vesicles regulate the gut microbiota in ischemic stroke via the brain-gut axis

Electroacupuncture (EA) and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived small extracellular vesicles (iPSC-EVs) have substantial beneficial effects on ischemic stroke. However, the detailed mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we explored the mechanisms underlying the regulation of EA and iPSC-EVs in the microbiome-gut-brain axis (MGBA) after ischemic stroke. Ischemic stroke mice (C57BL/6) were subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) or Sham surgery. EA and iPSC-EVs treatments significantly improved neurological function and neuronal and intestinal tract injury, downregulated the levels of IL-17 expression and upregulated IL-10 levels in brain and colon tissue after cerebral ischemia−reperfusion. EA and iPSC-EVs treatments also modulated the microbiota composition and diversity as well as the differential distribution of species in the intestines of the mice after cerebral ischemia−reperfusion. Our results demonstrated that EA and iPSC-EVs treatments regulated intestinal immunity through MGBA regulation of intestinal microbes, reducing brain and colon damage following cerebral ischemia and positively impacting the outcomes of ischemic stroke. Our findings provide new insights into the application of EA combined with iPSC-EVs as a treatment for ischemic stroke