Fate predetermination of cardiac myocytes during zebrafish heart regeneration

Adult zebrafish have the remarkable ability to regenerate their heart upon injury, a process that involves limited dedifferentiation and proliferation of spared cardiomyocytes (CMs), and migration of their progeny. During regeneration, proliferating CMs are detected throughout the myocardium, including areas distant to the injury site, but whether all of them are able to contribute to the regenerated tissue remains unknown. Here, we developed a CM-specific, photoinducible genetic labelling system, and show that CMs labelled in embryonic hearts survive and contribute to all three (primordial, trabecular and cortical) layers of the adult zebrafish heart. Next, using this system to investigate the fate of CMs from different parts of the myocardium during regeneration, we show that only CMs immediately adjacent to the injury site contributed to the regenerated tissue. Finally, our results show an extensive predetermination of CM fate during adult heart regeneration, with cells from each myocardial layer giving rise to cells that retain their layer identity in the regenerated myocardium. Overall, our results indicate that adult heart regeneration in the zebrafish is a rather static process governed by short-range signals, in contrast to the highly dynamic plasticity of CM fates that takes place during embryonic heart regeneration

The Local Microenvironment Limits The Regenerative Potential Of The Mouse Neonatal Heart

Neonatal mice have been shown to regenerate their hearts during a transient window of time of approximately 1 week after birth. However, experimental evidence for this phenomenon is not undisputed, because several laboratories have been unable to detect neonatal heart regeneration. We first confirmed that 1-day-old neonatal mice are indeed able to mount a robust regenerative response after heart amputation. We then found that this regenerative ability sharply declines within 48 hours, with hearts of 2-day-old mice responding to amputation with fibrosis, rather than regeneration. By comparing the global transcriptomes of 1- and 2-day-old mouse hearts, we found that most differentially expressed transcripts encode extracellular matrix components and structural constituents of the cytoskeleton. These results suggest that the stiffness of the local microenvironment, rather than cardiac cell-autonomous mechanisms, crucially determines the ability or inability of the heart to regenerate. Testing this hypothesis by pharmacologically decreasing the stiffness of the extracellular matrix in 3-day-old mice, we found that decreased matrix stiffness rescued the ability of mice to regenerate heart tissue after apical resection. Together, our results identify an unexpectedly restricted time window of regenerative competence in the mouse neonatal heart and open new avenues for promoting cardiac regeneration by local modification of the extracellular matrix stiffness

The tumor suppressor PP2A is functionally inactivated in blast crisis CML through the inhibitory activity of the BCR/ABL-regulated SET protein

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Exploring Cosmic Origins with CORE: Cosmological Parameters

We forecast the main cosmological parameter constraints achievable with theCORE space mission which is dedicated to mapping the polarisation of the CosmicMicrowave Background (CMB). CORE was recently submitted in response to ESA'sfifth call for medium-sized mission proposals (M5). Here we report the resultsfrom our pre-submission study of the impact of various instrumental options, inparticular the telescope size and sensitivity level, and review the great,transformative potential of the mission as proposed. Specifically, we assessthe impact on a broad range of fundamental parameters of our Universe as afunction of the expected CMB characteristics, with other papers in the seriesfocusing on controlling astrophysical and instrumental residual systematics. Inthis paper, we assume that only a few central CORE frequency channels areusable for our purpose, all others being devoted to the cleaning ofastrophysical contaminants. On the theoretical side, we assume LCDM as ourgeneral framework and quantify the improvement provided by CORE over thecurrent constraints from the Planck 2015 release. We also study the jointsensitivity of CORE and of future Baryon Acoustic Oscillation and Large ScaleStructure experiments like DESI and Euclid. Specific constraints on the physicsof inflation are presented in another paper of the series. In addition to thesix parameters of the base LCDM, which describe the matter content of aspatially flat universe with adiabatic and scalar primordial fluctuations frominflation, we derive the precision achievable on parameters like thosedescribing curvature, neutrino physics, extra light relics, primordial heliumabundance, dark matter annihilation, recombination physics, variation offundamental constants, dark energy, modified gravity, reionization and cosmicbirefringence. (ABRIDGED

COVID-19 symptoms at hospital admission vary with age and sex: results from the ISARIC prospective multinational observational study

Background: The ISARIC prospective multinational observational study is the largest cohort of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. We present relationships of age, sex, and nationality to presenting symptoms. Methods: International, prospective observational study of 60 109 hospitalized symptomatic patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 recruited from 43 countries between 30 January and 3 August 2020. Logistic regression was performed to evaluate relationships of age and sex to published COVID-19 case definitions and the most commonly reported symptoms. Results: ‘Typical’ symptoms of fever (69%), cough (68%) and shortness of breath (66%) were the most commonly reported. 92% of patients experienced at least one of these. Prevalence of typical symptoms was greatest in 30- to 60-year-olds (respectively 80, 79, 69%; at least one 95%). They were reported less frequently in children (≤ 18 years: 69, 48, 23; 85%), older adults (≥ 70 years: 61, 62, 65; 90%), and women (66, 66, 64; 90%; vs. men 71, 70, 67; 93%, each P < 0.001). The most common atypical presentations under 60 years of age were nausea and vomiting and abdominal pain, and over 60 years was confusion. Regression models showed significant differences in symptoms with sex, age and country. Interpretation: This international collaboration has allowed us to report reliable symptom data from the largest cohort of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Adults over 60 and children admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are less likely to present with typical symptoms. Nausea and vomiting are common atypical presentations under 30 years. Confusion is a frequent atypical presentation of COVID-19 in adults over 60 years. Women are less likely to experience typical symptoms than men

Exit forzato ed equa valorizzazione: un binomio indissolubile?

L’art. 2437-sexies c.c. rende applicabile alle ipotesi di riscatto previste dallo statuto la disciplina del recesso, per quanto riguarda la liquidazione delle azioni. Ciò significa che il valore di liquidazione delle azioni oggetto di riscatto deve essere determinato secondo i criteri di valutazione stabiliti dalla legge per il caso di recesso, in ossequio a quello che è stato efficacemente denominato come principio di “equa valorizzazione” delle azioni oggetto di recesso. Il rinvio della disciplina del recesso alla fattispecie del riscatto, seppur chiaro nei suoi lineamenti generali, pone delicate questioni interpretative, sia nel proprio ambito di applicazione sia al di fuori della fattispecie del riscatto in senso stretto. In questo scritto vengono esaminati gli aspetti più rilevanti di tali questioni, per verificare se e come il principio di equa valorizzazione debba effettivamente trovare applicazione in tutte le ipotesi di exit forzato

Le fondazioni industriali: un nuovo modello di holding no profit per i gruppi quotati?

Analisi del modello organizzativo delle c.d. "fondazioni industriali", aventi lo scopo di detenere e gestire una partecipazione di controllo di un gruppo di impres