Activation of Regulatory T Cells during Inflammatory Response Is Not an Exclusive Property of Stem Cells

BACKGROUND: Sepsis and systemic-inflammatory-response-syndrome (SIRS) remain major causes for fatalities on intensive care units despite up-to-date therapy. It is well accepted that stem cells have immunomodulatory properties during inflammation and sepsis, including the activation of regulatory T cells and the attenuation of distant organ damage. Evidence from recent work suggests that these properties may not be exclusively attributed to stem cells. This study was designed to evaluate the immunomodulatory potency of cellular treatment during acute inflammation in a model of sublethal endotoxemia and to investigate the hypothesis that immunomodulations by cellular treatment during inflammatory response is not stem cell specific. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Endotoxemia was induced via intra-peritoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in wild type mice (C3H/HeN). Mice were treated with either vital or homogenized amniotic fluid stem cells (AFS) and sacrificed for specimen collection 24 h after LPS injection. Endpoints were plasma cytokine levels (BD™ Cytometric Bead Arrays), T cell subpopulations (flow-cytometry) and pulmonary neutrophil influx (immunohistochemistry). To define stem cell specific effects, treatment with either vital or homogenized human-embryonic-kidney-cells (HEK) was investigated in a second subset of experiments. Mice treated with homogenized AFS cells showed significantly increased percentages of regulatory T cells and Interleukin-2 as well as decreased amounts of pulmonary neutrophils compared to saline-treated controls. These results could be reproduced in mice treated with vital HEK cells. No further differences were observed between plasma cytokine levels of endotoxemic mice. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results revealed that both AFS and HEK cells modulate cellular immune response and distant organ damage during sublethal endotoxemia. The observed effects support the hypothesis, that immunomodulations are not exclusive attributes of stem cells

Comparison of the turbulence in the wakes of an actuator disc and a model wind turbine by higher order statistics: A wind tunnel study

Knowledge of the turbulence in the wakes of wind turbines is important to improve the operation and lifetime of downstream turbines exposed to these wakes. As the investigation of a rotating turbine can be challenging, both experimentally and numerically, static actuator discs can substitute rotating turbines. To investigate the similarity of the turbulence in the wakes and how turbulent inflow alters the result, an experimental wind tunnel study is presented that compares hot-wire measurements in the central wakes of an actuator disc and a model wind turbine (diameter-based Reynolds number Re ≈ 300000). Two turbulent inflows are investigated, an intermittent, i.e. gusty, atmospheric-like inflow generated by an active grid, and a non-intermittent inflow generated by a regular grid. The data is investigated using one-point and higher-order two-point statistics. We find that the wakes of both models have similar properties for all investigated quantities within the far wake. The turbulence in the central wake is independent of the inflow conditions, and both models filter larger scale intermittency in the far wake with regard to the inflow. Also, we find that the turbine generates its own kind of turbulence that dominates the ambient turbulence and has strong features of homogeneous, isotropic turbulence