In Vitro Study of the Effects of Angiostrongylus cantonensis Larvae Extracts on Apoptosis and Dysfunction in the Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB)

It has been hypothesized that blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction in Angiostrongylus cantonensis infection might be due to the apoptosis of the hosts' BBB cells. Here, we evaluated this hypothesis through several methods, all based on an in vitro mouse BBB model consisting of primary culture brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) and brain astrocytic cells (BACs). In the present study, a four-hour percolation and HRP permeability experiment showed that A. cantonensis larvae extracts can increase the permeability of the BBB. Apoptosis among BMECs and BACs after exposure to larvae extracts was monitored by TUNEL and annexin-V-FITC/PI double staining. A. cantonensis larvae extracts were found to induce apoptosis in both BMECs and BACs. For this reason, we concluded that the induction of apoptosis might participate in the BBB dysfunction observed during angiostrongyliasis. Improved fundamental understanding of how A. cantonensis induces apoptosis may lead to new approaches to the treatment or prevention of this parasitic disease

A β-Lactam Antibiotic Dampens Excitotoxic Inflammatory CNS Damage in a Mouse Model of Multiple Sclerosis

In multiple sclerosis (MS) and its animal model experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), impairment of glial “Excitatory Amino Acid Transporters” (EAATs) together with an excess glutamate-release by invading immune cells causes excitotoxic damage of the central nervous system (CNS). In order to identify pathways to dampen excitotoxic inflammatory CNS damage, we assessed the effects of a β-lactam antibiotic, ceftriaxone, reported to enhance expression of glial EAAT2, in “Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein” (MOG)-induced EAE. Ceftriaxone profoundly ameliorated the clinical course of murine MOG-induced EAE both under preventive and therapeutic regimens. However, ceftriaxone had impact neither on EAAT2 protein expression levels in several brain areas, nor on the radioactive glutamate uptake capacity in a mixed primary glial cell-culture and the glutamate-induced uptake currents in a mammalian cell line mediated by EAAT2. Moreover, the clinical effect of ceftriaxone was preserved in the presence of the EAAT2-specific transport inhibitor, dihydrokainate, while dihydrokainate alone caused an aggravated EAE course. This demonstrates the need for sufficient glial glutamate uptake upon an excitotoxic autoimmune inflammatory challenge of the CNS and a molecular target of ceftriaxone other than the glutamate transporter. Ceftriaxone treatment indirectly hampered T cell proliferation and proinflammatory INFγ and IL17 secretion through modulation of myelin-antigen presentation by antigen-presenting cells (APCs) e.g. dendritic cells (DCs) and reduced T cell migration into the CNS in vivo. Taken together, we demonstrate, that a β-lactam antibiotic attenuates disease course and severity in a model of autoimmune CNS inflammation. The mechanisms are reduction of T cell activation by modulation of cellular antigen-presentation and impairment of antigen-specific T cell migration into the CNS rather than or modulation of central glutamate homeostasis

Astrocytes: biology and pathology

Astrocytes are specialized glial cells that outnumber neurons by over fivefold. They contiguously tile the entire central nervous system (CNS) and exert many essential complex functions in the healthy CNS. Astrocytes respond to all forms of CNS insults through a process referred to as reactive astrogliosis, which has become a pathological hallmark of CNS structural lesions. Substantial progress has been made recently in determining functions and mechanisms of reactive astrogliosis and in identifying roles of astrocytes in CNS disorders and pathologies. A vast molecular arsenal at the disposal of reactive astrocytes is being defined. Transgenic mouse models are dissecting specific aspects of reactive astrocytosis and glial scar formation in vivo. Astrocyte involvement in specific clinicopathological entities is being defined. It is now clear that reactive astrogliosis is not a simple all-or-none phenomenon but is a finely gradated continuum of changes that occur in context-dependent manners regulated by specific signaling events. These changes range from reversible alterations in gene expression and cell hypertrophy with preservation of cellular domains and tissue structure, to long-lasting scar formation with rearrangement of tissue structure. Increasing evidence points towards the potential of reactive astrogliosis to play either primary or contributing roles in CNS disorders via loss of normal astrocyte functions or gain of abnormal effects. This article reviews (1) astrocyte functions in healthy CNS, (2) mechanisms and functions of reactive astrogliosis and glial scar formation, and (3) ways in which reactive astrocytes may cause or contribute to specific CNS disorders and lesions

Particulate Fillers in Thermoplastics

The characteristics of particulate filled thermoplastics are determined by four factors: component properties, composition, structure and interfacial interactions. The most important filler characteristics are particle size, size distribution, specific surface area and particle shape, while the main matrix property is stiffness. Segregation, aggregation and the orientation of anisotropic particles determine structure. Interfacial interactions lead to the formation of a stiff interphase considerably influencing properties. Interactions are changed by surface modification, which must be always system specific and selected according to its goal. Under the effect of external load inhomogeneous stress distribution develops around heterogeneities, which initiate local micromechanical deformation processes determining the macroscopic properties of the composites

Inner demagnetizing factor in polymer bonded soft magnetic composites

International audienceThe inner demagnetization factor Ni of polymer-bonded soft magnetic composites (PBSMC) varying in filler material and filler content C was measured, using a computer-controlled measurement system. For all materials the results show a decrease from an inner demagnetization factor close to the demagnetization factor of a single particle to NiE0 on increasing the magnetic content C. Measurement data of a selected material were compared with a model derived from an effective medium theory using the composite's effective susceptibility and show superb accordance

Inner demagnetizing factor in polymer bouded soft magnetic materials

International audienceThe inner demagnetizing factor Ni of polymer bonded soft magnetic composites (PBSMC) varying in filler material and filler content C was measured, using a computer controlled measurement system. For all materials the results show a decrease from an inner demagnetizing factor close to the demagnetizing factor of a single particle to Ni ≈ 0 by increasing the magnetic content C. Measurement data of a selected material were compared with a model derived from an effective medium theory using the composite's effective susceptibility and show superb accordance

Evaluation of the diagenesis degree in archaeological bones through the Havriliak-Negami equation

The study of the mechanical spectroscopy (MS) behaviour in archaeological bone remains samples recovered from the Boca de Lega site (Santa Fe, Argentina) in the temperature range between 450 K and 673 K has been performed. Moreover, to our knowledge the mechanical spectroscopy behaviour as a function of temperature in archaeological bones is for first time reported. The present obtained results are of high value from the archaeological point of view due to they suggest that the bone remains were used probably for culinary activities by the preterite societies that habited this area. Attention is putted in the relaxation processes which appear at around of 510 K and 570 K and their relation with the diagenetic degree of the polypeptide chains of bone remains, inferred from the depositional effects from the soil and the replacement of calcium by sodium and potassium. The damping peaks in the archaeological bones are analysed though the study of the behaviour of the parameters corresponding to the fitted Havriliak-Negami (HN) equations. In addition, samples of fresh bones are also measured by means of MS during successive heating and cooling runs for determining the HN parameters in fresh bones for obtaining a reference state. Results from scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetry are also coupled for the discussion of the present work.Fil: Lambri, Melania Lucila. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Ingeniería y Agrimensura. Escuela de Ingeniería Eléctrica. Laboratorio de Extensión e Investigación en Materiales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Lambri, Osvaldo Agustin F.. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Ingeniería y Agrimensura. Escuela de Ingeniería Eléctrica. Laboratorio de Extensión e Investigación en Materiales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Weidenfeller, M.. Friedrich-Alexander-Universität; AlemaniaFil: Weidenfeller, B.. Clausthal University of Technology; AlemaniaFil: Bonifacich, Federico Guillermo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Ingeniería y Agrimensura. Escuela de Ingeniería Eléctrica. Laboratorio de Extensión e Investigación en Materiales; ArgentinaFil: Zelada, Griselda Irene. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Ingeniería y Agrimensura. Escuela de Ingeniería Eléctrica. Laboratorio de Extensión e Investigación en Materiales; ArgentinaFil: Rocchietti, Ana Maria. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; Argentin

Infrared radiofluorescence (IR-RF) dating of middle pleistocene fluvial archives of the Heidelberg Basin (Southwest Germany)

The infrared radiofluorescence (IR-RF) dating technique was applied to eight fluvial samples that were collected from two sediment cores at the Heidelberg Basin located near Viernheim and Ludwigshafen in southwest Germany. Based on the IR-RF derived ages of the samples it was possible to establish a chronological framework for the Mid-Pleistocene fluvial deposits of the Heidelberg Basin. The results allow us to distinguish between four main periods of aggradation. The lowermost sample taken from 100 m core depth lead to an IR-RF age of 643 ± 28 ka pointing to a Cromerian period of aggradation (OIS 17–16). For the Elsterian it is now possible to distinguish between two aggradation periods, one occurring during the Lower Elsterian period (OIS 15) and a second during the Upper Elsterian period (OIS 12–11). For the so called Upper interlayer (or “Oberer Zwischenhorizont” — a layer of organic-rich and finer-grained deposits), the IR-RF results point to a deposition age of around 300 ka, with samples taken directly on top and out of this layer yielding IR-RF ages of 288 ± 19 ka and 302 ± 19 ka, respectively. Hence, the measured IR-RF ages clearly point to a deposition during the Lower Saalian period (OIS 9–8) whereas earlier studies assumed a Cromerian age for the sediments of the Upper Interlayer based on pollen records and also mollusc fauna. The new IR-RF dataset indicates that significant hiatuses are present within the fluvial sediment successions. In particular the Eemian and Upper Saalian deposits are missing in this part of the northern Upper Rhine Graben, as the 300 ka deposits are directly overlain by Weichselian fluvial sediments. It is obvious that time periods of increased fluvial aggradation were interrupted by time periods of almost no aggradation or erosion which should have been mainly triggered by phases of increased and decreased subsidence of the Heidelberg Basin