Autophagy in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)

Autophagy is a mechanism involved in cellular homeostasis under basal and stressed conditions delivering cytoplasmic content to the lysosomes for degradation to macronutrients. The potential role of autophagy in disease is increasingly recognised and investigated. To date, a key role of autophagy in hepatic lipid metabolism is recognised and dysfunctional autophagy might be an underlying cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Nevertheless, the exact role of autophagy in lipid metabolism remains controversial, with both a lipolytic function of autophagy and lipogenic function reported. This chapter aims to review the current knowledge on autophagy in NAFLD, with a special focus on its role in hepatic lipid metabolism, hepatic glucose metabolism and insulin resistance, steatohepatitis, hepatocellular injury and hepatic fibrogenesis. Finally, interaction with another cellular homeostatic process, the unfolded protein response (UPR), will be briefly discussed

Free and protein-conjugated polyamines in mouse epidermal cells. Effect of high calcium and retinoic acid.

We have investigated polyamine metabolism in primary cultures of mouse epidermal cells. These cells, which grow at low Ca2+ levels as a monolayer with characteristics of basal cells, terminally differentiate when the extracellular Ca2+ level is raised above 1 mM. The cellular levels of free polyamines were measured, and, after incubation of cell cultures with [3H]putrescine, the distribution of label in both acid-soluble and acid-insoluble cellular components was examined. Free polyamine levels were reduced in cells induced to differentiate. Treatment with retinoic acid, which prevents differentiation and causes increased proliferation, resulted in an increase in free putrescine. Upon adjustment of the calcium concentration to a level that induces differentiation, the enzyme transglutaminase was activated, and a concomitant increase in the level of both protein-bound mono- and bis-gamma-glutamyl derivatives of putrescine and spermidine was observed. Isolation of a material of apparent molecular weight about 6000 which contains only mono-gamma-glutamylpolyamines and the finding of both mono- and bis-gamma-glutamylpolyamines in the protein fraction containing cornified cell envelopes provided the basis for speculation on polyamines in envelope formation. Our data suggest that polyamines play a role during epidermal cell differentiation through transglutaminase-mediated post-translational modification

Presence of Palaemon macrodactylus in a Europe estuary: evidence for a successful invasion of the Gironde (SW France)

Palaemon macrodactylus, an exotic shrimp native to the northwest Pacific Ocean, has been recorded in many estuaries along the Atlantic coast of Europe since the late 1990’s. In this study, a regular monthly survey, held since 1992 of the middle section of the Gironde estuary, revealed this species’ rapid and full colonization of the system since its appearance in samples during summer 1998. In the Gironde, the population of P. macrodactylus is self-sustaining and the species is now established there. Our study highlights two important elements that might explain its successful colonization: its ability to quickly invade a niche under-exploited by the similar native species and its greater reproductive output. The species’spatio-temporal distribution in relation to environmental variables was studied and compared with that of the native species P. longirostris. The exotic species was shown to mainly inhabit the polyhaline and mesohaline section of the estuary, which are sections generally under-exploited by females of the native species. Furthermore, fecundity analysis and larval abundance survey results revealed a higher potential fecundity and a greater proportion of larvae and juvenile stages for P. macrodactylus in the natural environment

Spherical designs and lattices

In this article we prove that integral lattices with minimum <= 7 (or <= 9) whose set of minimal vectors form spherical 9-designs (or 11-designs respectively) are extremal, even and unimodular. We furthermore show that there does not exist an integral lattice with minimum <=11 which yields a 13-design.Comment: The final publication is available at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13366-013-0155-

Plastic flow and structural heterogeneities in silicate glasses - A high throughput investigation

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Chern-Simons Theory on S^1-Bundles: Abelianisation and q-deformed Yang-Mills Theory

We study Chern-Simons theory on 3-manifolds $M$ that are circle-bundles over 2-dimensional surfaces $\Sigma$ and show that the method of Abelianisation, previously employed for trivial bundles $\Sigma \times S^1$, can be adapted to this case. This reduces the non-Abelian theory on $M$ to a 2-dimensional Abelian theory on $\Sigma$ which we identify with q-deformed Yang-Mills theory, as anticipated by Vafa et al. We compare and contrast our results with those obtained by Beasley and Witten using the method of non-Abelian localisation, and determine the surgery and framing presecription implicit in this path integral evaluation. We also comment on the extension of these methods to BF theory and other generalisations.Comment: 37 pages; v2: references adde