Thyroid status of males with acute infectious pulmonary destruction

The aim of the study was to investigate the indicators of the thyroid status in males with acute infectious pulmonary destruction (AIPD), depending on the disease form and the presence of complications. Material and methods. The serum levels of total triiodothyronine (T3), total thyroxine (T4) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) were measured by radioimmunoassay in 80 males with AIPD and 30 healthy males volunteers. Results. T3 serum level is decreased in males with AIPD and is not depended on the disease form and complications. T3 serum level reduction is occurred due to decrease of peripheral conversion of thyroid hormones. If AIPD is complicated by sepsis, then T4 production is reduced. T4 serum level correlates with the presence of sepsis in males with AIPD (rS = –0.49; p = 0.000003). The sepsis probability threshold in males with AIPD for value T4 is ≤95.5 nmol/L with a sensitivity of 100 % and a specificity of 62.5 %. Thyroid function remains normal in 25 % (95 % CI: 16–34) of males with AIPD, in other cases it is represented by: primary hypothyroidism – in 11 % (95 % CI: 4–18), nonthyroidal illness syndrome (NTIS) type I – in 44 % (95 % CI: 33–55), NTIS type II – in 11 % (95 % CI: 4–18), NTIS type V – in 9 % (95 % CI: 3–15). NTIS type II is associated with the highest mortality rate (pFisher = 0.0015). T4 serum levels correlate with mortality in males with AIPD (rS = –0.37; p = 0.00082). The mortality probability threshold in males with AIPD for value T4 is ≤70.1 nmol/L with a sensitivity of 68.7 % and a specificity of 78.1 %. The obtained data indicates the advisability of monitoring and analysis of the thyroid status indicators in males with AIPD for the diagnosis of sepsis and prognosis of the disease outcome

Diffusion and ballistic contributions of the interaction correction to the conductivity of a two-dimensional electron gas

The results of an experimental study of interaction quantum correction to the conductivity of two-dimensional electron gas in A$_3$B$_5$ semiconductor quantum well heterostructures are presented for a wide range of $T\tau$-parameter ($T\tau\simeq 0.03-0.8$), where $\tau$ is the transport relaxation time. A comprehensive analysis of the magnetic field and temperature dependences of the resistivity and the conductivity tensor components allows us to separate the ballistic and diffusion parts of the correction. It is shown that the ballistic part renormalizes in the main the electron mobility, whereas the diffusion part contributes to the diagonal and does not to the off-diagonal component of the conductivity tensor. We have experimentally found the values of the Fermi-liquid parameters describing the electron-electron contribution to the transport coefficients, which are found in a good agreement with the theoretical results.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

Density of states measurements for the heavy subband of holes in HgTe quantum wells

A valence band in narrow HgTe quantum wells contains well-conductive Dirac-like light holes at the Γ point and a poorly conductive heavy hole subband located in the local valleys. Here we propose and employ two methods to measure the density of states for these heavy holes. The first method uses a gate-recharging technique to measure thermodynamical entropy per particle. As the Fermi level is tuned with gate voltage from a light to heavy subband, the entropy increases dramatically, and the value of this increase gives an estimate for the density of states. The second method determines the density of states for heavy holes indirectly from the gate voltage dependence of the period of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations for light holes. The results obtained by both methods are in reasonable agreement with each other. Our approaches can be applied to measure large effective carrier masses in other two-dimensional gated systems. © 2020 American Physical Society.The authors are thankful to S. S. Krishtopenko, and I. S. Burmistrov for discussions. The measurements facilities of the LPI were used for entropy detection of the heavy carriers. These measurements were supported by Russian Science Foundation Grant No 18-72-10073. The work has been supported in part by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grant No. 18-02-00050 and 18-29-20053)

Иммуносупрессорные особенности фенотипа стромы опухолей почки различных гистологических типов

Background. Renal cell carcinoma is a heterogeneous group of tumors characterized by high vascularization and immunogenicity. Immunotherapy has made a breakthrough in the treatment of this pathology, however, the lack of development of criteria for its use does not allow to achieve even greater success. It is known that the tumor stroma plays an important role in the success of immunotherapy. Among the various histological types of kidney tumors, the stroma of the clear cell renal cell carcinoma has been studied in sufficient detail. However, the remaining histological types are practically not studied.Objective: description of the immunosuppressive phenotype of the stroma of kidney tumors of various histological types.Materials and methods. The study included tumor samples obtainedfrom 44patients with renal cell carcinoma of various histological types (16 samples of chromophobe cancer, 15 samples of clear cell and 13 samples of papillary renal cell carcinoma). The method of immunohis-tochemistry evaluated the expression of tumor stromal markers, namely CD68, CD206, PU.1, CD3, IDO1 and PD-L1 in the studied samples.Results. Analysis of the total number of macrophages associated with the tumor showed that the smallest number is observed in samples of chromophobe renal cancer, while in the samples of clear cell cancer their number is greatest. A similar situation is observed for T-cells: the largest number of CD3+ cells is observed in clear cell tumors. In chromophobe and papillary tumors, their number is reduced. Papillary tumors are also characterized by an almost complete absence of expression of PD-L1 and IDO1 compared to other histological types of kidney tumors. We also showed that for PU.1 there is a strong positive correlation between its quantity and localization, as in CD68. Thus, PU.1 can be used as a general marker for describing stromal macrophages in kidney tumors.Conclusion. The study showed that kidney tumors of various histological types strongly and significantly differ in the composition of their microenvironment. These data, of course, must be considered when choosing immune therapy in the treatment of this pathology.Введение. Почечно-клеточная карцинома представляет собой гетерогенную группу опухолевых заболеваний, характеризующуюся высокой васкуляризированностью и иммуногенностью. Иммунотерапия совершила прорыв в лечении данной патологии, однако недостаточность выработки критериев ее применения не позволяет добиться еще больших успехов. Известно, что в успехе иммунотерапии немаловажную роль играет опухолевая строма. Среди различных гистологических типов опухолей почки строма светлоклеточного варианта почечно-клеточной карциномы изучена достаточно подробно. Однако остальные гистологические типы практически не изучены.Цель исследования — описание иммуносупрессорного фенотипа стромы опухолей почки различных гистологических типов. Материалы и методы. В исследование были включены образцы опухолей, полученные от 44 больных почечно-клеточным раком различных гистологических типов (16 образцов хромофобного, 15 образцов светлоклеточного и 13 образцов папиллярного рака почки). В исследуемых образцах иммуногистохимически проведена оценка экспрессии маркеров опухолевой стромы, а именно CD68, CD206, PU.1, CD3, IDO1 и PD-L1.Результаты. Анализ общего числа макрофагов, ассоциированных с опухолью, показал, что наименьшее их количество наблюдается в образцах хромофобного рака почки, в то время как в образцах светлоклеточного рака их количество наибольшее. Для Т-клеток отмечена похожая ситуация: наибольшее число CD3+-клеток наблюдается в светлоклеточных опухолях. В хромофобных и папиллярных опухолях их количество снижено. Также папиллярные опухоли характеризуются практически полным отсутствием экспрессии PD-L1 и IDO1 по сравнению с другими гистологическими типами опухолей почки. Также мы показали, что для PU.1 наблюдается сильная положительная корреляция его количества с локализацией, как и для CD68. Таким образом, PU.1 можно использовать в качестве общего маркера для описания стромальных макрофагов в опухолях почки.Заключение. Результаты исследования показали, что опухоли почки различных гистологических типов сильно и значимо отличаются по составу своего микроокружения. Это, несомненно, необходимо учитывать при выборе иммунной терапии в лечении данной патологии