Fertilization capacity with rainbow trout DNA-damaged sperm and embryo developmental success

Mammalian spermatozoa undergo a strong selection process along the female tract to guarantee fertilization by good quality cells, but risks of fertilization with DNA-damaged spermatozoa have been reported. In contrast, most external fertilizers such as fish seem to have weaker selection procedures. This fact, together with their high prolificacy and external embryo development, indicates that fish could be useful for the study of the effects of sperm DNA damage on embryo development. We cryopreserved sperm from rainbow trout using egg yolk and low-density lipoprotein as additives to promote different rates of DNA damage. DNA fragmentation and oxidization were analyzed using comet assay with and without digestion with restriction enzymes, and fertilization trials were performed. Some embryo batches were treated with 3-aminobenzamide (3AB) to inhibit DNA repair by the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase, which is an enzyme of the base excision repair pathway. Results showed that all the spermatozoa cryopreserved with egg yolk carried more than 10% fragmented DNA, maintaining fertilization rates of 61.1+/-2.3 but a high rate of abortions, especially during gastrulation, and only 14.5+/-4.4 hatching success. Furthermore, after 3AB treatment, hatching dropped to 3.2+/-2.2, showing that at least 10% DNA fragmentation was repaired. We conclude that trout sperm maintains its ability to fertilize in spite of having DNA damage, but that embryo survival is affected. Damage is partially repaired by the oocyte during the first cleavage. Important advantages of using rainbow trout for the study of processes related to DNA damage and repair during development have been reported. Reproduction (2010) 139 989-997Junta de Castilla y Leon (Spain) [LE007A06]; University of Leoninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The AMIGA sample of isolated galaxies. XI. Optical characterisation of nuclear activity

Context.- This paper is part of a series involving the AMIGA project (Analysis of the Interstellar Medium of Isolated GAlaxies), which identifies and studies a statistically-significant sample of the most isolated galaxies in the northern sky. Aims.- We present a catalogue of nuclear activity, traced by optical emission lines, in a well-defined sample of the most isolated galaxies in the local Universe, which will be used as a basis for studying the effect of the environment on nuclear activity. Methods.- We obtained spectral data from the 6th Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which were inspected in a semi-automatic way. We subtracted the underlying stellar populations from the spectra (using the software Starlight) and modelled the nuclear emission features. Standard emission-line diagnostics diagrams were applied, using a new classification scheme that takes into account censored data, to classify the type of nuclear emission. Results.- We provide a final catalogue of spectroscopic data, stellar populations, emission lines and classification of optical nuclear activity for AMIGA galaxies. The prevalence of optical active galactic nuclei (AGN) in AMIGA galaxies is 20.4%, or 36.7% including transition objects. The fraction of AGN increases steeply towards earlier morphological types and higher luminosities. We compare these results with a matched analysis of galaxies in isolated denser environments (Hickson Compact Groups). After correcting for the effects of the morphology and luminosity, we find that there is no evidence for a difference in the prevalence of AGN between isolated and compact group galaxies, and we discuss the implications of this result. Conclusions.- We find that a major interaction is not a necessary condition for the triggering of optical AGN.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, 12 tables, published in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Figure 5 corrected: [OI] diagram adde

MEGARA, the new intermediate-resolution optical IFU and MOS for GTC: getting ready for the telescope

MEGARA (Multi-Espectrógrafo en GTC de Alta Resolución para Astronomía) is an optical Integral-Field Unit (IFU) and Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS) designed for the GTC 10.4m telescope in La Palma that is being built by a Consortium led by UCM (Spain) that also includes INAOE (Mexico), IAA-CSIC (Spain), and UPM (Spain). The instrument is currently finishing AIV and will be sent to GTC on November 2016 for its on-sky commissioning on April 2017. The MEGARA IFU fiber bundle (LCB) covers 12.5x11.3 arcsec2 with a spaxel size of 0.62 arcsec while the MEGARA MOS mode allows observing up to 92 objects in a region of 3.5x3.5 arcmin2 around the IFU. The IFU and MOS modes of MEGARA will provide identical intermediate-to-high spectral resolutions (RFWHM~6,000, 12,000 and 18,700, respectively for the low-, mid- and high-resolution Volume Phase Holographic gratings) in the range 3700-9800ÅÅ. An x-y mechanism placed at the pseudo-slit position allows (1) exchanging between the two observing modes and (2) focusing the spectrograph for each VPH setup. The spectrograph is a collimator-camera system that has a total of 11 VPHs simultaneously available (out of the 18 VPHs designed and being built) that are placed in the pupil by means of a wheel and an insertion mechanism. The custom-made cryostat hosts a 4kx4k 15-μm CCD. The unique characteristics of MEGARA in terms of throughput and versatility and the unsurpassed collecting are of GTC make of this instrument the most efficient tool to date to analyze astrophysical objects at intermediate spectral resolutions. In these proceedings we present a summary of the instrument characteristics and the results from the AIV phase. All subsystems have been successfully integrated and the system-level AIV phase is progressing as expected

CALIFA, the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey III. Second public data release

CALIFA is the first legacy survey being performed at Calar Alto. The CALIFA collaboration would like to thank the IAA-CSIC and MPIA-MPG as major partners of the observatory, and CAHA itself, for the unique access to telescope time and support in manpower and infrastructures. The CALIFA collaboration thanks also the CAHA staff for the dedication to this project. R.G.B., R.G.D., and E.P. are supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion under grant AYA2010-15081. S.Z. is supported by the EU Marie Curie Integration Grant "SteMaGE" Nr. PCIG12-GA-2012-326466 (Call Identifier: FP7-PEOPLE-2012 CIG). J.F.B. acknowledges support from grants AYA2010-21322-C03-02 and AIB-2010-DE-00227 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), as well as from the FP7 Marie Curie Actions of the European Commission, via the Initial Training Network DAGAL under REA grant agreement number 289313. Support for L.G. is provided by the Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism's Millennium Science Initiative through grant IC12009, awarded to The Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, M.A.S.L.G. also acknowledges support by CONICYT through FONDECYT grant 3140566. A.G. acknowledges support from the FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement n. 267251 (AstroFIt). J.M.G. acknowledges support from the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the Fellowship SFRH/BPD/66958/2009 from FCT (Portugal) and research grant PTDC/FIS-AST/3214/2012. RAM was funded by the Spanish programme of International Campus of Excellence Moncloa (CEI). J.M.A. acknowledges support from the European Research Council Starting Grant (SEDmorph; P.I. V. Wild). I.M., J.M. and A.d.O. acknowledge the support by the projects AYA2010-15196 from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion and TIC 114 and PO08-TIC-3531 from Junta de Andalucia. AMI acknowledges support from Agence Nationale de la Recherche through the STILISM project (ANR-12-BS05-0016-02). M.M. acknowledges financial support from AYA2010-21887-C04-02 from the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad. P.P. is supported by an FCT Investigador 2013 Contract, funded by FCT/MCTES (Portugal) and POPH/FSE (EC). P.P. acknowledges support by FCT under project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-029170 (Reference FCT PTDC/FIS-AST/3214/2012), funded by FCT-MEC (PIDDAC) and FEDER (COMPETE). T.R.L. thanks the support of the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte by means of the FPU fellowship. PSB acknowledges support from the Ramon y Cajal program, grant ATA2010-21322-C03-02 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO). C.J.W. acknowledges support through the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant 303912. V.W. acknowledges support from the European Research Council Starting Grant (SEDMorph P.I. V. Wild) and European Career Re-integration Grant (Phiz-Ev P.I.V. Wild). Y.A. acknowledges financial support from the Ramon y Cajal programme (RyC-2011-09461) and project AYA2013-47742-C4-3-P, both managed by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, as well as the "Study of Emission-Line Galaxies with Integral-Field Spectroscopy" (SELGIFS) programme, funded by the EU (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IRSES-612701) within the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions scheme. We thank the referee David Wilman for very useful comments that improved the presentation of the paper.This paper describes the Second Public Data Release (DR2) of the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey. The data for 200 objects are made public, including the 100 galaxies of the First Public Data Release (DR1). Data were obtained with the integral-field spectrograph PMAS/PPak mounted on the 3.5 m telescope at the Calar Alto observatory. Two different spectral setups are available for each galaxy, (i) a lowresolution V500 setup covering the wavelength range 3745–7500 Å with a spectral resolution of 6.0 Å (FWHM); and (ii) a medium-resolution V1200 setup covering the wavelength range 3650–4840 Å with a spectral resolution of 2.3 Å (FWHM). The sample covers a redshift range between 0.005 and 0.03, with a wide range of properties in the color–magnitude diagram, stellar mass, ionization conditions, and morphological types. All the cubes in the data release were reduced with the latest pipeline, which includes improved spectrophotometric calibration, spatial registration, and spatial resolution. The spectrophotometric calibration is better than 6% and the median spatial resolution is 200 : 4. In total, the second data release contains over 1.5 million spectra.Instituto de Salud Carlos III Spanish Government AYA2010-15081 AYA2010-15196European Union (EU) PCIG12-GA-2012-326466Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) AYA2010-21322-C03-02 AIB-2010-DE-00227FP7 Marie Curie Actions of the European Commission, via the Initial Training Network DAGAL under REA 289313Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism's Millennium Science Initiative IC12009Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT) CONICYT FONDECYT 3140566Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) from FCT (Portugal) SFRH/BPD/66958/2009Spanish programme of International Campus of Excellence Moncloa (CEI)European Research Council (ERC)Junta de Andalucia TIC 114 PO08-TIC-3531French National Research Agency (ANR) ANR-12-BS05-0016-02Spanish Government AYA2010-21887-C04-02FCT Investigador Contract - FCT/MCTES (Portugal)European Commission Joint Research Centre European Social Fund (ESF)FCT - FCT-MEC (PIDDAC) FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-029170 FCT PTDC/FIS-AST/3214/2012European Union (EU)Spanish Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte by FPURamon y Cajal program from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) ATA2010-21322-C03-02European Union (EU) 303912European Career Re-integration GrantSpanish Government RyC-2011-09461 AYA2013-47742-C4-3-PEuropean Union (EU) FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IRSES-612701PTDC/FIS-AST/3214/2012Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) ST/K000985/

Serum tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase-1 levels are associated with mortality in patients with malignant middle cerebral artery infarction

Background: In the last years, circulating matrix metalloproteinases (MMP)-9 levels have been associated with functional outcome in ischemic stroke patients. However the prognostic value of circulating levels of tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases (TIMP)-1 and MMP-10 in functional outcome of ischemic stroke patients has been scarcely studied. In addition, to our knowledge, serum MMP-9, MMP-10 and TIMP-1 levels in patients with malignant middle cerebral artery infarction (MMCAI) for mortality prediction have not been studied, and these were the objectives of this study. Methods: This was a multicenter, observational and prospective study carried out in six Spanish Intensive Care Units. We included patients with severe MMCAI defined as Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) lower than 9. We measured circulating levels of MMP-9, MMP-10, TIMP-1, in 50 patients with severe MMCAI at diagnosis and in 50 healthy subjects. Endpoint was 30-day mortality. Results: Patients with severe MMCAI showed higher serum levels of MMP-9 (p = 0.001), MMP-10 (p 239 ng/mL are associated with 30-day mortality (OR = 5.82; 95 % CI = 1.37-24.73; P = 0.02) controlling for GCS and age. The area under the curve for TIMP-1 as predictor of 30-day mortality was 0.81 (95 % CI = 0.67-0.91; P < 0.001). We found an association between circulating levels of TIMP-1 and MMP-10 (rho = 0.45; P = 0.001), plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1 (rho = 0.53; P < 0.001), and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha (rho = 0.70; P < 0.001). Conclusions: The most relevant and new findings of our study, were that serum TIMP-1 levels in MMCAI patients were associated with mortality, and could be used as a prognostic biomarker of mortality in MMCAI patients

Antioxidant status in fresh and cryopreserved sperm from gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata)

Second International Workshop on Biology of Fish Gametes (Valencia, Spain, september 9-11, 2009)Cryopreservation may induce oxidalive stress on the sperm membrane, causing irreversible damage such as changes in membrane fluidity, enzymatic activity and further peroxidative insult affecting to DNA and other cellular structures. These findings are associated with a reduction in sperm motility, viability and fertilizing ability, due to a significant generation of reactive species (ROS) by spermatozoa (Aitken et aI., 1989a,b; de Lamirande and Gagnon, 1992). Superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione reductase (GSR) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) are the main proactive enzymes, acting as scavenging agents that remove reactive species once formed. In fish spermatozoa there are no previous studies on the presence and activity of these enzymes, or how cryopreservation could affect their functionality. It is known that during freezing/thawing spermatozoa suffer different kind of stress that may be responsible for ROS production. Moreover, damage on sperm function can be minimized by addition of antioxidants to semen prior to cryopreservation (Bucak et aI., 2007), thus the evaluation of total oxidants in plasma samples may give some indication on further post-thaw sperm quality. The aim of the present work was to analyse total antioxidant levels (TAS) and the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPX), glutathione reductase (GSR) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in fresh and cryopreserved sperm.S. Martínez-Páramo, was supported by FCT postdoctoral fellowship (SFRH/BPO/48520/2008) from the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. E. Cabrita and F. Martinez-Pastor were supported by Ramón and Cajal research contracts.Peer Reviewe

State of the art of the cryopreservation of fish sperm

Trabajo presentado en el 12th FELASA SECAL Congress (Animal research: better science for fewer animals), celebrado en Barcelona del 10 al 13 de junio de 2013.Fish sperm cryopreservation is a technique of undoubted interest that can be applied in several fields of research and production. This technique is well established in freshwater and marine fish species. For aquaculture production, sperm cryopreservation allows synchronizing gamete availability and the transport of sperm within fish farms.Peer Reviewe