Immuno-assays

Immuno-assays are helpful serological techniques for the laboratory diagnosis of autoimmune blistering diseases (AIBD) and for monitoring disease activity of individual patients. The three main immuno-assays are immunoblotting, immunoprecipitation and ELISA. All three make use of the ability of the autoimmune IgG to bind to the target antigen. Immunoblotting is used to visualize the apparent molecular mass of the antigen thereby enabling its identification. The same goes for immunoprecipitation that, although being a more laborious technique than immunoblotting, has the advantage that it recognizes more epitopes on the autoantigen than immunoblotting. Whereas immunoblotting and immunoprecipitation are qualitative assays ELISA is a rapid and easy quantitative technique. ELISA therefore enables monitoring of the antibody titer during the disease course. Two recently developed techniques, keratinocyte binding assay and keratinocyte footprint assay are the most sensitive assays for pemphigus and anti-laminin-332 mucous membrane pemphigoid.</p

Systems biology in animal sciences

Systems biology is a rapidly expanding field of research and is applied in a number of biological disciplines. In animal sciences, omics approaches are increasingly used, yielding vast amounts of data, but systems biology approaches to extract understanding from these data of biological processes and animal traits are not yet frequently used. This paper aims to explain what systems biology is and which areas of animal sciences could benefit from systems biology approaches. Systems biology aims to understand whole biological systems working as a unit, rather than investigating their individual components. Therefore, systems biology can be considered a holistic approach, as opposed to reductionism. The recently developed ‘omics’ technologies enable biological sciences to characterize the molecular components of life with ever increasing speed, yielding vast amounts of data. However, biological functions do not follow from the simple addition of the properties of system components, but rather arise from the dynamic interactions of these components. Systems biology combines statistics, bioinformatics and mathematical modeling to integrate and analyze large amounts of data in order to extract a better understanding of the biology from these huge data sets and to predict the behavior of biological systems. A ‘system’ approach and mathematical modeling in biological sciences are not new in itself, as they were used in biochemistry, physiology and genetics long before the name systems biology was coined. However, the present combination of mass biological data and of computational and modeling tools is unprecedented and truly represents a major paradigm shift in biology. Significant advances have been made using systems biology approaches, especially in the field of bacterial and eukaryotic cells and in human medicine. Similarly, progress is being made with ‘system approaches’ in animal sciences, providing exciting opportunities to predict and modulate animal traits

Direct immunofluorescence microscopy

Direct immunofluorescence plays an important role in the diagnosis of autoimmune blistering diseases. The purpose of direct immunofluorescence microscopy is to detect in vivo antibodies in patient's skin or mucosa. Direct immunofluorescence of pemphigus shows depositions of immunoglobulins and/or complement on the epithelial cell surface of keratinocytes, whereas pemphigoid shows linear deposition of immunoglobulins along the epidermal basement membrane zone. This linear deposition can be separated in an n-serrated pattern and a u-serrated pattern. An n-serrated pattern is seen in blistering diseases with binding above the lamina densa with antibodies against hemidesmosomal components, e.g. bullous pemphigoid, while a u-serrated pattern points to a sublamina densa binding diseases caused by autoantibodies against type VII collagen, e.g. epidermolysis bullosa acquisita. Finally, dermatitis herpetiformis shows a granular IgA deposition along the epidermal basement membrane zone.</p

Indirect immunofluorescence microscopy

The purpose of indirect immunofluorescence microscopy is to detect circulating antibodies in patient's serum. For this purpose an adequate substrate is necessary to visualize these antibodies. Monkey esophagus is the most widely used substrate for detecting of circulating autoantibodies in patients with autoimmune blistering diseases. In all variants of pemphigus antibodies show an epithelial cell surface pattern, resulting from present autoantibodies against the desmosomal molecules desmoglein 1 and/or 3. This pattern is also called chicken wire or honeycomb pattern. In pemphigoid a linear deposition along the epithelial basement membrane can be observed, caused by autoantibodies against hemidesmosomes or their connecting proteins underneath. Human salt split skin is a valuable substrate in the diagnosis of subepidermal autoimmune blistering diseases. Important antigens in the roof of salt split skin are type XVII collagen (BP180) and BP230, whereas laminin 332, p200 and type IV collagen are situated in the floor of the blister. This implies that bullous pemphigoid, mucous membrane pemphigoid, pemphigoid gestationis, and lichen planus pemphigoides show staining of IgG on the epidermal side of the blister. On the other hand anti-laminin 332 pemphigoid, anti-p200 pemphigoid, epidermolysis bullosa acquisita, and bullous SLE show staining on the dermal side. Other less used, but valuable substrates in some instances, are rat bladder and knock-out skin.</p

S₃ flavor symmetry at the LHC

Discrete symmetries employed to explain neutrino mixing and mass hierarchies are often associated with an enlarged scalar sector which might lead to exotic Higgs decay modes. We explore such a possibility in a scenario with S3 flavor symmetry which requires three scalar SU(2) doublets. The spectrum is fixed by minimizing the scalar potential, and we observe that the symmetry of the model leads to tantalizing Higgs decay models potentially observable at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Gene expression patterns in anterior pituitary associated with quantitative measure of oestrous behaviour in dairy cows

Intensive selection for high milk yield in dairy cows has raised production levels substantially but at the cost of reduced fertility, which manifests in different ways including reduced expression of oestrous behaviour. The genomic regulation of oestrous behaviour in bovines remains largely unknown. Here, we aimed to identify and study those genes that were associated with oestrous behaviour among genes expressed in the bovine anterior pituitary either at the start of oestrous cycle or at the mid-cycle (around day 12 of cycle), or regardless of the phase of cycle. Oestrous behaviour was recorded in each of 28 primiparous cows from 30 days in milk onwards till the day of their sacrifice (between 77 and 139 days in milk) and quantified as heat scores. An average heat score value was calculated for each cow from heat scores observed during consecutive oestrous cycles excluding the cycle on the day of sacrifice. A microarray experiment was designed to measure gene expression in the anterior pituitary of these cows, 14 of which were sacrificed at the start of oestrous cycle (day 0) and 14 around day 12 of cycle (day 12). Gene expression was modelled as a function of the orthogonally transformed average heat score values using a Bayesian hierarchical mixed model on data from day 0 cows alone (analysis 1), day 12 cows alone (analysis 2) and the combined data from day 0 and day 12 cows (analysis 3). Genes whose expression patterns showed significant linear or non-linear relationships with average heat scores were identified in all three analyses (177, 142 and 118 genes, respectively). Gene ontology terms enriched among genes identified in analysis 1 revealed processes associated with expression of oestrous behaviour whereas the terms enriched among genes identified in analysis 2 and 3 were general processes which may facilitate proper expression of oestrous behaviour at the subsequent oestrus. Studying these genes will help to improve our understanding of the genomic regulation of oestrous behaviour, ultimately leading to better management strategies and tools to improve or monitor reproductive performance in bovines

Non-bullous Lichen Planus Pemphigoides:A Case Report

is missing (Short communication)

Cattle Grazing Effects on \u3ci\u3ePhragmites australis\u3c/i\u3e in Nebraska

Phragmites australis (common reed) is one of the most widely distributed flowering plants in North America. The introduced lineage occurs in wetland and riparian areas covering a range of climatic types. In Nebraska, an abundance of livestock could help to reduce P. australis with proper timing and grazing intensities. In 2011, a 3-yr study was initiated to evaluate targeted cattle grazing and herbicide effects and the nutritive value of this species. Treatments included a single application of imazapyr (Habitatt, BASF Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC) herbicide applied in the first year, grazing, and a control. Grazing was applied for up to five consecutive days in June and August 2011 and 2012 and in June 2013. Stem density, height, and biomass of P. australis were determined before each grazing period and in 2014. Diet samples were collected from rumenally fistulated steers each grazing period. Imazapyr provided 100% control of P. australis; however, re-establishment began 2 yr post-treatment. Grazing significantly reduced pregrazing P. australis biomass in the second and third growing season (P \u3c 0.05). Stem density and height in the grazed treatment was similar to the control through 2012; however, in 2013 and 2014, control stem density was 1.5 times greater and height was 1.4 times that of the grazed treatment. Crude protein content of diet samples was greater in 2011 (16.8%) compared with 2012 (14.3%, P \u3c 0.05). In vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) of diet samples (45.4%) was not affected by year or month (P \u3c 0.05). The relatively low IVDMD suggests that some form of energy supplementation would be needed to create a better nutritional balance. The cumulative effect of grazing does have the potential to reduce P. australis populations, but other methods would have to be used for greater control and site restoration