Essential and Instructive Roles of GATA Factors in Eosinophil Development

GATA transcription factors are major regulators of hematopoietic and immune system. Among GATA factors, GATA-1, GATA-2, and GATA-3 play crucial roles in the development of erythroid cells, hematopoietic stem, and progenitor cells, and T helper type 2 (Th2) cells, respectively. A high level of GATA-1 and GATA-2 expression has been observed in eosinophils, but their roles in eosinophil development remain uncertain both in vitro and in vivo. Here we show that enforced expression of GATA-1 in human primary myeloid progenitor cells completely switches myeloid cell fate into eosinophils. Expression of GATA-1 exclusively promotes development and terminal maturation of eosinophils. Functional domain analyses revealed that the COOH-terminal finger is essential for this capacity while the other domains are dispensable. Importantly, GATA-1–deficient mice failed to develop eosinophil progenitors in the fetal liver. On the other hand, GATA-2 also showed instructive capacity comparable to GATA-1 in vitro and efficiently compensated for GATA-1 deficiency in terms of eosinophil development in vivo, indicating that proper accumulation of GATA factors is critical for eosinophil development. Taken together, our findings establish essential and instructive roles of GATA factors in eosinophil development. GATA-1 and GATA-2 could be novel molecular targets for therapeutic approaches to allergic inflammation

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Just a Matter of Screaming?: A study of K-pop and Fanchants

Today, K-pop is a worldwide cultural phenomenon that receives attention from both media and academia. However, K-pop fanchants, which consist of encouragement calls toward performers, tend to be dismissed as screaming. This thesis examines the complex social interactions and meanings associated with practicing these fanchants. Discourse analysis, music analysis, and interviews with fans are used to study K-pop and fanchants. This thesis consists largely of two parts; first, a discussion on K-pop addressing cultural identity and gender identity; and examining how fanchants are created, practiced, and used to build identity. Cultural identities around K-pop have been constructed by 1) cultural ‘odourless’ (Iwabuchi 2002) which involves erasing Korean-ness and incorporating Nordic producers and ‘cultural odour’ to appeal to Western music markets. 2) Developing devoted fandomhoods through fandom activities during the ‘comeback’ period before and after releasing new songs or albums. And 3) a discourse of the Korean training system, which gives K-pop legitimacy as an ‘authentic’ performance, constructed by both artists and the fandoms. Second, how gender is performed and perceived by K-pop and its consumers is discussed. For masculinity, soft masculinity, which combines feminine figures and is promoted by concepts of Chinese wen masculinity and Japanese bishonen masculinity (S. Jung 2011a), is constructed by influences from both western media’s orientalist views and fandom’s emphases of subcultural practices to subvert stigmatizations of K-pop. Concepts of femininity, such as ssen-unni (strong sister), where artists emphasise female empowerment resonated with third wave feminism. However, practices labelled as ‘marketable feminism’, which is mixed feminist-friendly attitudes as an onstage performance and hyper-sexualised figures designed by male producers, convey contradicting messages. On the other hand, because performers emphasise feminist issues, fans feel encouraged and satisfied by the ssenunni presentation despite understanding the commercial strategy employed. Finally, fanchants are examined by taking BTS’s song IDOL (2018) as a case study. This thesis proposes that K-pop fanchants can be classified into largely two types, name chants, which express the fandom’s love towards the idols through calling the names of the idols and band; and music fanchants, which involve interacting with the song. Analyses of IDOL fanchants reveal that fanchants are intertwined artfully with the song’s cultural references such as chuimsae (audiences’ encourage calls) in pansori (traditional Korean narrative music), resulting in successfully incorporating multicultural audiences in practicing traditional Korean chuimsae. In addition, through interviews with members of the fandom, the fandom also recognises fanchants as an integral part of the song and make efforts to memorise fanchants deliberately or through passive daily music consumption. This thesis argues that fanchants works as a communication tool for fans to convey love to artists and build identity and community within the fandom

The Distinctive Effects of Acute and Chronic Psychological Stress on Airway Inflammation in a Murine Model of Allergic Asthma

ABSTRACTBackgroundPsychological stress has long been recognized to be associated with asthma symptoms. There appear to be individual differences in the susceptibility to even the same kind of stress, and furthermore, stress responses are different between the types of the stress, acute and chronic, even in the same person. However, the mechanisms linking stress to asthma are not well defined. Psychological stress upregulates the expression of endogenous opioids. The opioids stimulate the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and sympathetic and adrenomedullary system, through the activation of μ-opioid receptor (MOR) to release stress hormones, such as cortisol and catecholamines, respectively. These hormones can modulate immune responses via the induction of Th1 immunity.MethodsFemale BALB/c and C57BL/6, wild and MOR-deficient, mice sensitized with ovalbumin (OVA) were exposed to OVA with or without either acute or chronic restraint stress. Airway inflammation was evaluated by the measurement of the number of inflammatory cells and cytokine contents in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids.ResultsIn BALB/c mice, but not in C57BL/6 mice, the number of total cells, eosinophils and lymphocytes in the acute stress group were significantly decreased compared with those in the non-acute stress group. In contrast, chronic stress significantly increased the cell numbers and the contents of IL-4 and IL-5 in both mouse strains. Furthermore, these exacerbations were abolished in MOR-deficient mice.ConclusionsThese results suggest that acute stress modifies the allergic airway responses distinctively depending on the genetic background, and MOR is involved in the chronic psychological stress-induced exacerbation of allergic airway inflammation

Longitudinal changes in structural lung abnormalities using MDCT in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with asthma-like features.

BACKGROUND:Some patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have asthma-like features. However, there have been few reports on the structural lung abnormalities found in this patient population. Multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) can detect emphysematous low-attenuation areas (LAA) within the lung, airway thickness (wall area percentage, WA%), and the loss of pulmonary vasculature as the percentage of small pulmonary vessels with cross-sectional area (CSA) less than 5 mm2 (%CSA<5). We analyzed differences in structural lung changes over time between patients with COPD and those with COPD with asthma-like features using these CT parameters. MATERIAL AND METHODS:We performed pulmonary function tests (PFTs), MDCT, and a COPD assessment test (CAT) in 50 patients with COPD and 29 patients with COPD with asthma-like features at the time of enrollment and two years later. We analyzed changes in clinical parameters and CT indices over time and evaluated differences in structural changes between groups. RESULTS:The CAT score and FEV1 did not significantly change during the follow-up period in either group. Emphysematous LAA regions significantly increased in both groups. The %CSA<5 showed a small but significant increase in COPD patients, but a significant decrease in patients with COPD with asthma-like features. The WA% at the distal bronchi was significantly decreased in COPD, but did not significantly change in COPD with asthma -like features. CONCLUSION:Emphysematous LAA increased in patients with COPD with and without asthma-like features. The %CSA<5 and WA% at the distal bronchi did not change in parallel with LAA. Furthermore, changes in %CSA<5 were significantly different between patients with COPD and those with COPD with asthma-like features. Patients with COPD with asthma-like features may have different longitudinal structural changes than those seen in COPD patients