Stochastic Resonance Activity Influences Serum Tryptophan Metabolism in Healthy Human Subjects

Background Stochastic resonance therapy (SRT) is used for rehabilitation of patients with various neuropsychiatric diseases. An alteration in tryptophan metabolism along the kynurenine pathway has been identified in the central and peripheral nervous systems in patients with neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases and during the aging process. This study investigated the effect of SRT as an exercise activity on serum tryptophan metabolites in healthy subjects. Methods Serum L-tryptophan, L-kynurenine, kynurenic acid, and anthranilic acid levels were measured one minute before SRT and at one, 5, 15, 30, and 60 minutes after SRT. We found that SRT affected tryptophan metabolism. Serum levels of L-tryptophan, L-kynurenine, and kynurenic acid were significantly reduced for up to 60 minutes after SRT. Anthranilic acid levels were characterized by a moderate, non significant transient decrease for up to 15 minutes, followed by normalization at 60 minutes. Tryptophan metabolite ratios were moderately altered, suggesting activation of metabolism after SRT. Lowering of tryptophan would generally involve activation of tryptophan catabolism and neurotransmitter, protein, and bone biosynthesis. Lowering of kynurenic acid by SRT might be relevant for improving symptoms in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and depression, as well as certain pain conditions

Aspergillus fumigatus Triggers Inflammatory Responses by Stage-Specific β-Glucan Display

Inhalation of fungal spores (conidia) occurs commonly and, in specific circumstances, can result in invasive disease. We investigated the murine inflammatory response to conidia of Aspergillus fumigatus, the most common invasive mold in immunocompromised hosts. In contrast to dormant spores, germinating conidia induce neutrophil recruitment to the airways and TNF-α/MIP-2 secretion by alveolar macrophages. Fungal β-glucans act as a trigger for the induction of these inflammatory responses through their time-dependent exposure on the surface of germinating conidia. Dectin-1, an innate immune receptor that recognizes fungal β-glucans, is recruited in vivo to alveolar macrophage phagosomes that have internalized conidia with exposed β-glucans. Antibody-mediated blockade of Dectin-1 partially inhibits TNF-α/MIP-2 induction by metabolically active conidia. TLR-2- and MyD88-mediated signals provide an additive contribution to macrophage activation by germinating conidia. Selective responsiveness to germinating conidia provides the innate immune system with a mechanism to restrict inflammatory responses to metabolically active, potentially invasive fungal spores

Various Spatiotemporal Expression Profiles of Anther-Expressed Genes in Rice

The male gametophyte and tapetum play different roles during anther development although they are differentiated from the same cell lineage, the L2 layer. Until now, it has not been possible to delineate their transcriptomes due to technical difficulties in separating the two cell types. In the present study, we characterized the separated transcriptomes of the rice microspore/pollen and tapetum using laser microdissection (LM)-mediated microarray. Spatiotemporal expression patterns of 28,141 anther-expressed genes were classified into 20 clusters, which contained 3,468 (12.3%) anther-enriched genes. In some clusters, synchronous gene expression in the microspore and tapetum at the same developmental stage was observed as a novel characteristic of the anther transcriptome. Noteworthy expression patterns are discussed in connection with gene ontology (GO) categories and gene annotations, which are related to important biological events in anther development, such as pollen maturation, pollen germination, pollen tube elongation and pollen wall formation

Inverse correlation between E-cadherin and Snail expression in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines in vitro and in vivo

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a well-known malignancy in the world. However, the molecular mechanism of carcinogenesis and tumour progression remains unclear. Recently, reduced E-cadherin expression due to transcriptional suppressor Snail was proven in a panel of epithelial and dedifferentiated cells derived from carcinomas of various etiologies. In the present study, we examined Snail and E-cadherin mRNA/protein expression in five hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines with variable phenotypes (HuL-1, Hep-G2, Changliver, HLE, and HLF). The results demonstrated that the presence of Snail mRNA in HuL-1, Changliver, HLE and HLF cells detected by RT–PCR, which was further proven by in situ hybridization in tumours induced by HuL-1, Changliver, and HLF cells where Snail mRNA signals expressed in each of the sections. By contrast, E-cadherin mRNA and protein expression were only detected in Hep-G2 cells by RT–PCR and Western blot, respectively. These results were also consistent with the data obtained from in vivo immunohistochemical staining where membranous expression of endogenous E-cadherin protein was revealed only in tumour sections induced by Hep-G2 cells. Here we are the first to report that there is an inverse correlation between Snail and E-cadherin expression in HCC cells as well

The complete inventory of receptors encoded by the rat natural killer cell gene complex

The natural killer cell gene complex (NKC) encodes receptors belonging to the C-type lectin superfamily expressed primarily by NK cells and other leukocytes. In the rat, the chromosomal region that starts with the Nkrp1a locus and ends with the Ly49i8 locus is predicted to contain 67 group V C-type lectin superfamily genes, making it one of the largest congregation of paralogous genes in vertebrates. Based on physical proximity and phylogenetic relationships between these genes, the rat NKC can be divided into four major parts. We have previously reported the cDNA cloning of the majority of the genes belonging to the centromeric Nkrp1/Clr cluster and the two telomeric groups, the Klre1–Klri2 and the Ly49 clusters. Here, we close the gap between the Nkrp1/Clr and the Klre1–Klri2 clusters by presenting the cDNA cloning and transcription patterns of eight genes spanning from Cd69 to Dectin1, including the novel Clec2m gene. The definition, organization, and evolution of the rat NKC are discussed

Temperature stress differentially modulates transcription in meiotic anthers of heat-tolerant and heat-sensitive tomato plants

Contains fulltext : 92405.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Author Correction: The landscape of viral associations in human cancers

Correction to: Nature Genetics https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0558-9, published online 05 February 2020

Comprehensive Network Analysis of Anther-Expressed Genes in Rice by the Combination of 33 Laser Microdissection and 143 Spatiotemporal Microarrays

Co-expression networks systematically constructed from large-scale transcriptome data reflect the interactions and functions of genes with similar expression patterns and are a powerful tool for the comprehensive understanding of biological events and mining of novel genes. In Arabidopsis (a model dicot plant), high-resolution co-expression networks have been constructed from very large microarray datasets and these are publicly available as online information resources. However, the available transcriptome data of rice (a model monocot plant) have been limited so far, making it difficult for rice researchers to achieve reliable co-expression analysis. In this study, we performed co-expression network analysis by using combined 44 K agilent microarray datasets of rice, which consisted of 33 laser microdissection (LM)-microarray datasets of anthers, and 143 spatiotemporal transcriptome datasets deposited in RicexPro. The entire data of the rice co-expression network, which was generated from the 176 microarray datasets by the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) method with the mutual rank (MR)-based cut-off, contained 24,258 genes and 60,441 genes pairs. Using these datasets, we constructed high-resolution co-expression subnetworks of two specific biological events in the anther, “meiosis” and “pollen wall synthesis”. The meiosis network contained many known or putative meiotic genes, including genes related to meiosis initiation and recombination. In the pollen wall synthesis network, several candidate genes involved in the sporopollenin biosynthesis pathway were efficiently identified. Hence, these two subnetworks are important demonstrations of the efficiency of co-expression network analysis in rice. Our co-expression analysis included the separated transcriptomes of pollen and tapetum cells in the anther, which are able to provide precise information on transcriptional regulation during male gametophyte development in rice. The co-expression network data presented here is a useful resource for rice researchers to elucidate important and complex biological events