Role of cellular senescence and NOX4-mediated oxidative stress in systemic sclerosis pathogenesis.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by progressive fibrosis of skin and numerous internal organs and a severe fibroproliferative vasculopathy resulting frequently in severe disability and high mortality. Although the etiology of SSc is unknown and the detailed mechanisms responsible for the fibrotic process have not been fully elucidated, one important observation from a large US population study was the demonstration of a late onset of SSc with a peak incidence between 45 and 54 years of age in African-American females and between 65 and 74 years of age in white females. Although it is not appropriate to consider SSc as a disease of aging, the possibility that senescence changes in the cellular elements involved in its pathogenesis may play a role has not been thoroughly examined. The process of cellular senescence is extremely complex, and the mechanisms, molecular events, and signaling pathways involved have not been fully elucidated; however, there is strong evidence to support the concept that oxidative stress caused by the excessive generation of reactive oxygen species may be one important mechanism involved. On the other hand, numerous studies have implicated oxidative stress in SSc pathogenesis, thus, suggesting a plausible mechanism in which excessive oxidative stress induces cellular senescence and that the molecular events associated with this complex process play an important role in the fibrotic and fibroproliferative vasculopathy characteristic of SSc. Here, recent studies examining the role of cellular senescence and of oxidative stress in SSc pathogenesis will be reviewed

New tools for grazing incidence neutron scattering experiments open perspectives to study nano-scale tribology mechanisms

Using grazing incidence scattering methods allows for depth profiling near surface structures very efficiently Dosch (1986). In parallel, layered structures have been used as resonators to enhance the wave field Kozhevnikov et al. (2007), Khaydukov et al. (2011), Kozhevnikov et al. (2011) and Nesnidal and Walker (1996) that directly increases the scattered intensity too. Third, the combination of these methods with neutron spin echo spectroscopy allows for near surface studies of dynamics Jaksch et al. (2015) and Frielinghaus et al. (2012) that can be correlated to tribological effects on the molecular level. This field of science, the tribology, - so far - has been driven mainly by the surface force balance that measures the macroscopic response of the system (latest research employs also AFM) Raviv et al. (2003) [1], Chung et al. (2016) [2] and Mocny and Klok (2016) [3]. The progress of this method was to reach the nano-scale distances that were necessary to obtain information about the friction of the nano-structures. The proposed method of grazing incidence neutron spin echo spectroscopy gives access to much more detailed information of molecular response to confinement by one or two hard walls, and therefore would pave the way for very rich and precise tribological comparisons of theory with experiments