Analysis of Infant Microbiota Composition and the Relationship With Breast Milk Components in the Asian Elephant (Elephas Maximus) at the Zoo

The prevention of diseases through health control is essential at zoos. Here, we investigated the gut microbiota formation during infancy in an Asian elephant and compared the composition between infant and mother. Besides, we analyzed the components of breast milk and examined the correlation with the infant gut microbiota. Analysis revealed the gut microbiota of the infant contained high amount of Lactobacillales and its diversity was relatively low compared to that of the mother. We found several milk components, showed a positive correlation with the change of Lactobacillales. The present study revealed the mechanism of gut microbiota formation during infancy in an Asian elephant and provides important insights into the health control of Asian elephants in zoos

CREB is a critical regulator of normal hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis

The cAMP-responsive element binding protein (CREB) is a 43-kDa nuclear transcription factor that regulates cell growth, memory, and glucose homeostasis. We showed previously that CREB is amplified in myeloid leukemia blasts and expressed at higher levels in leukemia stem cells from patients with myeloid leukemia. CREB transgenic mice develop myeloproliferative disease after 1 year, but not leukemia, suggesting that CREB contributes to but is not sufficient for leukemogenesis. Here, we show that CREB is most highly expressed in lineage negative hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). To understand the role of CREB in hematopoietic progenitors and leukemia cells, we examined the effects of RNA interference (RNAi) to knock down CREB expression in vitro and in vivo. Transduction of primary HSCs or myeloid leukemia cells with lentiviral CREB shRNAs resulted in decreased proliferation of stem cells, cell- cycle abnormalities, and inhibition of CREB transcription. Mice that received transplants of bone marrow transduced with CREB shRNA had decreased committed progenitors compared with control mice. Mice injected with Ba/F3 cells expressing either Bcr-Abl wild-type or T315I mutation with CREB shRNA had delayed leukemic infiltration by bioluminescence imaging and prolonged median survival. Our results suggest that CREB is critical for normal myelopoiesis and leukemia cell proliferation

Difficulties experienced by health care professionals who performed home visits to screen for postpartum depression during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study in Japan

Abstract Background Postpartum depression is a risk factor for suicide and maltreatment of children, and its early detection and appropriate intervention are issues to be resolved. In Japan, local governments are working to detect postpartum depression early by conducting home visits to families with infants within 4 months postpartum, but home-visit professionals have faced new difficulties due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that started in 2020. The purpose of this study was to clarify the difficulties experienced by health care professionals who perform home visits to screen for postpartum depression. Methods Focus-group interviews were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic with health care professionals (n = 13) who make postpartum home visits to families with infants within 4 months. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results Four main categories were identified that describe the difficulties experienced by health care professionals: “Lack of support for partners,” “Difficulty in talking face-to-face,” “Inability to offer family assistance,” and “Anxiety about being a source of infection.” Conclusions This study shed light on the difficulties faced by professionals in supporting mothers and children in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although these difficulties were considered to have become apparent during the pandemic, the results may offer an important perspective for postpartum mental health support even after the pandemic ends. Accordingly, it may be necessary for these professionals to receive supported through multidisciplinary collaboration in order to improve postpartum care in the community

Unexpectedly Efficient Homing Capacity of Purified Murine Hematopoietic Stem Cells

AbstractSingle-cell transplantation analysis revealed that the cells that had the strongest dye efflux activity (“Tip”-SP cells) and had the phenotype CD34− c-Kit+ Sca-1+ Lin− (CD34− KSL cells) exhibited very strong proliferation and multilineage differentiation capacity. Ninety-six percent of the lethally irradiated mice that received a single “Tip”-SP CD34− KSL cell showed significant donor cell engraftment for long term. These findings support the hypothesis that “Tip”-SP CD34− KSL cells represent the most primitive hematopoietic stem cells that are capable of migrating into the primary site and surviving and/or proliferating with nearly absolute efficiency. This led us to propose high marrow-seeding efficiency as a specific characteristic of primitive HSCs, in addition to their self-renewal and multipotent capacity

The Role of CREB as a Proto-oncogene in Hematopoiesis

Cyclic-AMP response element binding protein (CREB) is a transcription factor that functions in glucose homeostasis, growth-factor- dependent cell survival, proliferation and memory. Signaling by hematopoietic growth factors, such as GM-CSF, results in activation of CREB and upregulation of CREB target genes. Data from our laboratory shows that a majority of patients with acute lymphoid and myeloid leukemiaoverexpress CREB in the bone marrow. CREB overexpression is associated with poor initial outcome of clinical disease in AML patients. To study its role in hematopoiesis, we overexpressed CREB in leukemia cell lines and in mice. CREB overexpression resulted in increased survival and proliferation of myeloid cells and blast-transformation of bone marrow progenitor cells from transgenic mice expressing CREB in the myeloid lineage. CREB transgenic mice also develop myeloproliferative disease after one year. Thus, CREB acts as a proto-oncogene to regulate hematopoiesis and contributes to the leukemia phenotype. Our results suggest that CREB-dependent pathways may serve as targets for directed therapies in leukemia in the future