Peculiarities of the economic crisis in the post-Soviet space

Last global financial-economic crisis started at the end of 2007 has affected a large number of countries. The crisis, which arose initially in developed countries, was sharply transferred to countries with economies in transition. Thus, the modern economic and financial crisis of the post-Soviet countries came from the outside. The current crisis has shown the pros and cons of the process of economic globalization. The authors examined the problem of intra-regional channels of crisis dissemination, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of national economies, and establishes the degree of involvement of these economies in the globalization process and determines the level of risk associated with this process. The crisis was evaluated based on the performance of the economy of a single countryOstatni światowy kryzys finansowo-gospodarczy, który rozpoczął się pod koniec 2007 roku wpłynął na wiele krajów. Kryzys, który powstał początkowo w państwach rozwiniętych, szybko rozprzestrzenił się do krajów o gospodarkach w okresie przejściowym, takich jak postsowieckie. Obecny kryzys tych państw wykazał wady i zalety procesu globalizacji ekonomicznej. Autorzy artykułu zbadali problem wewnątrzregionalnych kanałów rozpowszechniania się kryzysu, a także mocnych i słabych stron gospodarek krajowych. Przedstawili także stopień zaangażowania tych gospodarek w procesie globalizacji, jak również poziom ryzyka związanego z tym procesem. Kryzys był badany na podstawie wyników gospodarczych jednego państwa

Functional SNPs in the Human Autoimmunity-Associated Locus 17q12-21

Genome-wide association studies (GWASes) revealed several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human 17q12-21 locus associated with autoimmune diseases. However, follow-up studies are still needed to identify causative SNPs directly mediating autoimmune risk in the locus. We have chosen six SNPs in high linkage disequilibrium with the GWAS hits that showed the strongest evidence of causality according to association pattern and epigenetic data and assessed their functionality in a local genomic context using luciferase reporter system. We found that rs12946510, rs4795397, rs12709365, and rs8067378 influenced the reporter expression level in leukocytic cell lines. The strongest effect visible in three distinct cell types was observed for rs12946510 that is predicted to alter MEF2A/C and FOXO1 binding sites

Functional SNPs in the Human Autoimmunity-Associated Locus 17q12-21

Genome-wide association studies (GWASes) revealed several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human 17q12-21 locus associated with autoimmune diseases. However, follow-up studies are still needed to identify causative SNPs directly mediating autoimmune risk in the locus. We have chosen six SNPs in high linkage disequilibrium with the GWAS hits that showed the strongest evidence of causality according to association pattern and epigenetic data and assessed their functionality in a local genomic context using luciferase reporter system. We found that rs12946510, rs4795397, rs12709365, and rs8067378 influenced the reporter expression level in leukocytic cell lines. The strongest effect visible in three distinct cell types was observed for rs12946510 that is predicted to alter MEF2A/C and FOXO1 binding sites

The single nucleotide variant rs12722489 determines differential estrogen receptor binding and enhancer properties of an IL2RA intronic region.

We studied functional effect of rs12722489 single nucleotide polymorphism located in the first intron of human IL2RA gene on transcriptional regulation. This polymorphism is associated with multiple autoimmune conditions (rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis). Analysis in silico suggested significant difference in the affinity of estrogen receptor (ER) binding site between alternative allelic variants, with stronger predicted affinity for the risk (G) allele. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay showed that purified human ERα bound only G variant of a 32-bp genomic sequence containing rs12722489. Chromatin immunoprecipitation demonstrated that endogenous human ERα interacted with rs12722489 genomic region in vivo and DNA pull-down assay confirmed differential allelic binding of amplified 189-bp genomic fragments containing rs12722489 with endogenous human ERα. In a luciferase reporter assay, a kilobase-long genomic segment containing G but not A allele of rs12722489 demonstrated enhancer properties in MT-2 cell line, an HTLV-1 transformed human cell line with a regulatory T cell phenotype

Western blot analysis of CLU isoform.

<p>(A) Electrophoresis of stromal proteins from spleen and mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) was performed in reducing and non-reducing conditions. Immunopositive bands mobility corresponds to secreted CLU isoform (sCLU). (B) Quantitative comparison of splenic sCLU expression in wild type (WT) and LTβR-deficient (LTβR-KO) mice. Data is normalized to the average WT expression and represented as mean±SD. * – Difference from the wild type is significant at <i>p</i><0.05.</p

Relative mRNA levels of known and potential LTβR target genes in various mouse tissues.

<p>Real-time PCR data on mRNA levels in various tissues from wild type, TNFR1-KO, and LTβR-KO mice of selected genes down-regulated in LTβR-KO splenic stroma. Data was normalized to GAPDH, which expression level was taken as 100%. Note high expression of clusterin in wild type spleen and its dramatic reduction in spleen upon LTβR knockout. Data is represented as mean±SD. * – Difference from the wild type is significant at <i>p</i><0.05.</p

Changes in sCLU protein level in spleen and MLN of WT mice at day 8 after immunization with SRBC.

<p>Western blot of total tissue homogenates shows an increase in sCLU amount in spleen but not MLN. Data is representative of 2 independent experiments.</p

Clusterin expression in activated MEF.

<p>(A) MEF were incubated with either Reh cells bearing surface LT (“LT+”) or Jurkat cells not expressing LT on their surface (“LT−”) for indicated time periods, and clusterin mRNA was measured by real-time RT-PCR. Data was normalized to mouse β-actin. (B) Physical interaction of MEF with lymphoid cells in culture. Data is represented as mean±SD.</p