On the deflection of asteroids with mirrors

This paper presents an analysis of an asteroid deflection method based on multiple solar concentrators. A model of the deflection through the sublimation of the surface material of an asteroid is presented, with simulation results showing the achievable orbital deflection with, and without, accounting for the effects of mirror contamination due to the ejected debris plume. A second model with simulation results is presented analyzing an enhancement of the Yarkovsky effect, which provides a significant deflection even when the surface temperature is not high enough to sublimate. Finally the dynamical model of solar concentrators in the proximity of an irregular celestial body are discussed, together with a Lyapunov-based controller to maintain the spacecraft concentrators at a required distance from the asteroid

ACCESS: Design and Sub-System Performance

Establishing improved spectrophotometric standards is important for a broad range of missions and is relevant to many astrophysical problems. ACCESS, "Absolute Color Calibration Experiment for Standard Stars", is a series of rocket-borne sub-orbital missions and ground-based experiments designed to enable improvements in the precision of the astrophysical flux scale through the transfer of absolute laboratory detector standards from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to a network of stellar standards with a calibration accuracy of 1% and a spectral resolving power of 500 across the 0.35 -1.7 micrometer bandpass

Two-dimensional peptide separation improving sensitivity of selected reaction monitoring-based quantitative proteomics in mouse liver tissue: Comparing off-gel electrophoresis and strong cation exchange chromatography.

Protein expression analysis is one of the most powerful tools to further the understanding of biological systems. Progress in the field of mass spectrometry has shifted focus from gel-based approaches to the upcoming LC-selected reaction monitoring (SRM) technique which combines high technical accuracy with absolute quantification of proteins and the capability for high-throughput analyses. Due to these properties, LC-SRM has the potential to become the foundation for biomarker analysis, targeted hypothesis driven proteomic studies and contribute to the field of systems biology. While the performance of LC-SRM applied to samples from various bodily fluids, particularly plasma, and microorganisms has been extensively investigated, there is only little experience with its application to animal tissue samples. Here, we show that a conventional one-dimensional LC-SRM workflow applied to mouse liver tissue suffers from a shortcoming in terms of sensitivity for lower abundance proteins. This problem could be solved through the extension of the standard workflow by an additional dimension of separation at the peptide level prior to online LC-SRM. For this purpose, we used off-gel electrophoresis (OGE) which is also shown to outperform strong cation exchange (SCX) in terms of resolution, gain of signal intensity, and predictability of separation. The extension of the SRM workflow by a high resolving peptide separation technique is an ideal combination as it allows the addition of stable isotope standards directly after trytic digestion and will increase the dynamic range of protein abundances amenable by SRM in animal tissue

The epoxyeicosatrienoic acid pathway enhances hepatic insulin signaling and is repressed in insulin-resistant mouse liver.

While it is widely accepted that ectopic lipid accumulation in the liver is associated with hepatic insulin resistance, the underlying molecular mechanisms have not been well characterized. Here we employed time resolved quantitative proteomic profiling of mice fed a high fat diet to determine which pathways were affected during the transition of the liver to an insulin-resistant state. We identified several metabolic pathways underlying altered protein expression. In order to test the functional impact of a critical subset of these alterations, we focused on the epoxyeicosatrienoic acid (EET) eicosanoid pathway, whose deregulation coincided with the onset of hepatic insulin resistance. These results suggested that EETs may be positive modulators of hepatic insulin signaling. Analyzing EET activity in primary hepatocytes, we found that EETs enhance insulin signaling on the level of Akt. In contrast, EETs did not influence insulin receptor or insulin receptor substrate-1 phosphorylation. This effect was mediated through the eicosanoids, as overexpression of the deregulated enzymes in absence of arachidonic acid had no impact on insulin signaling. The stimulation of insulin signaling by EETs and depression of the pathway in insulin resistant liver suggest a likely role in hepatic insulin resistance. Our findings support therapeutic potential for inhibiting EET degradation

Apoe, Mbl2 and Psp plasma protein levels correlate with diabetic phenotype in NZO mice - an optimized rapid workflow for SRM-based quantification.

Male New Zealand Obese (NZO) mice progress through pathophysiological stages similar to humans developing obesity-associated type 2 diabetes (T2D). The current challenge is to establish quantitative proteomics from small plasma sample amounts. We established an analytical workflow that facilitates a reproducible depletion of high-abundance proteins, has high throughput applicability, and allows absolute quantification of proteins from mouse plasma samples by LC-SRM-MS. The ProteoMiner equalizing technology was adjusted to the small sample amount and reproducibility of the identifications was monitored by spike proteins. Based on the label-free relative quantification of proteins in depleted plasma of a test set of NZO mice, assays for potential candidates were designed for the setup of a targeted selected reaction monitoring (SRM) approach and absolute quantification. We could demonstrate that apolipoprotein E (Apoe), mannose-binding lectin 2 (Mbl2) and parotid secretory protein (Psp) are present at significantly different quantities in depleted plasma of diabetic NZO mice compared to non-diabetic controls using AQUA peptides. Quantification was validated for Mbl2 using the ELISA technology on non-depleted plasma. We conclude that the depletion technique is applicable to restricted sample amounts and suitable for the identification of T2D signatures in plasma

Combining metabolomic non-targeted GC×GC-ToF-MS analysis and chemometric ASCA-based study of variances to assess dietary influence on type 2 diabetes development in a mouse model.

Insulin resistance (IR) lies at the origin of type 2 diabetes. It induces initial compensatory insulin secretion until insulin exhaustion and subsequent excessive levels of glucose (hyperglycemia). A high-calorie diet is a major risk factor contributing to the development of this metabolic disease. For this study, a time-course experiment was designed that consisted of two groups of mice. The aim of this design was to reproduce the dietary conditions that parallel the progress of IR over time. The first group was fed with a high-fatty-acid diet for several weeks and followed by 1 week of a low-fatty-acid intake, while the second group was fed with a low-fatty-acid diet during the entire experiment. The metabolomic fingerprint of C3HeB/FeJ mice liver tissue extracts was determined by means of two-dimensional gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-ToF-MS). This article addresses the application of ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis (ASCA) to the found metabolomic profile. By performing hyphenated high-throughput analytical techniques together with multivariate chemometric methodology on metabolomic analysis, it enables us to investigate the sources of variability in the data related to each experimental factor of the study design (defined as time, diet and individual). The contribution of the diet factor in the dissimilarities between the samples appeared to be predominant over the time factor contribution. Nevertheless, there is a significant contribution of the time-diet interaction factor. Thus, evaluating the influences of the factors separately, as it is done in classical statistical methods, may lead to inaccurate interpretation of the data, preventing achievement of consistent biological conclusions

The impact of blood on liver metabolite profiling - a combined metabolomic and proteomic approach.

Metabolomics has entered the well-established omic sciences as it is an indispensable information resource to achieve a global picture of biological systems. The aim of the present study was to estimate the influence of blood removal from mice liver as part of sample preparation for metabolomic and proteomic studies. For this purpose, perfused mice liver tissue (i.e. with blood removed) and unperfused mice liver tissue (i.e. containing blood) were compared by two-dimensional gas chromatography time of flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-TOFMS) for the metabolomic part, and by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for the proteomic part. Our data showed significant differences between the unperfused and perfused liver tissue samples. Furthermore, we also observed an overlap of blood and tissue metabolite profiles in our data, suggesting that the perfusion of liver tissue prior to analysis is beneficial for an accurate metabolic profile of this orga

Osteopontin deficiency protects against obesity-induced hepatic steatosis and attenuates glucose production in mice.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Obesity is strongly associated with the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The cytokine osteopontin (OPN) was recently shown to be involved in obesity-induced adipose tissue inflammation and reduced insulin response. Accumulating evidence links OPN to the pathogenesis of NAFLD. Here we aimed to identify the role of OPN in obesity-associated hepatic steatosis and impaired hepatic glucose metabolism. METHODS: Wild-type (WT) and Opn (also known as Spp1) knockout (Opn (-/-)) mice were fed a high-fat or low-fat diet to study OPN effects in obesity-driven hepatic alterations. RESULTS: We show that genetic OPN deficiency protected from obesity-induced hepatic steatosis, at least in part, by downregulating hepatic triacylglycerol synthesis. Conversely, absence of OPN promoted fat storage in adipose tissue thereby preventing the obesity-induced shift to ectopic fat accumulation in the liver. Euglycaemic-hyperinsulinaemic clamp studies revealed that insulin resistance and excess hepatic glucose production in obesity were significantly attenuated in Opn (-/-) mice. OPN deficiency markedly improved hepatic insulin signalling as shown by enhanced insulin receptor substrate-2 phosphorylation and prevented upregulation of the major hepatic transcription factor Forkhead box O1 and its gluconeogenic target genes. In addition, obesity-driven hepatic inflammation and macrophage accumulation was blocked by OPN deficiency. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Our data strongly emphasise OPN as mediator of obesity-associated hepatic alterations including steatosis, inflammation, insulin resistance and excess gluconeogenesis. Targeting OPN action could therefore provide a novel therapeutic strategy to prevent obesity-related complications such as NAFLD and type 2 diabetes

Phenotypic comparison of common mouse strains developing high-fat diet-induced hepatosteatosis.

Genetic predisposition and environmental factors contribute to an individual's susceptibility to develop hepatosteatosis. In a systematic, comparative survey we focused on genotype-dependent and -independent adaptations early in the pathogenesis of hepatosteatosis by characterizing C3HeB/FeJ, C57BL/6NTac, C57BL/6J, and 129P2/OlaHsd mice after 7, 14, or 21 days high-fat-diet exposure. Strain-specific metabolic responses during diet challenge and liver transcript signatures in mild hepatosteatosis outline the suitability of particular strains for investigating the relationship between hepatocellular lipid content and inflammation, glucose homeostasis, insulin action, or organelle physiology. Genetic background-independent transcriptional adaptations in liver paralleling hepatosteatosis suggest an early increase in the organ's vulnerability to oxidative stress damage what could advance hepatosteatosis to steatohepatitis. “Universal“ adaptations in transcript signatures and transcription factor regulation in liver link insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cancer, and thyroid hormone metabolism with hepatosteatosis, hence, facilitating the search for novel molecular mechanisms potentially implicated in the pathogenesis of human non-alcoholic-fatty-liver-disease