The Transcriptomic Response of Rat Hepatic Stellate Cells to Endotoxin: Implications for Hepatic Inflammation and Immune Regulation

With their location in the perisinusoidal space of Disse, hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) communicate with all of the liver cell types both by physical association (cell body as well as cytosolic processes penetrating into sinusoids through the endothelial fenestrations) and by producing several cytokines and chemokines. Bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), circulating levels of which are elevated in liver diseases and transplantation, stimulates HSCs to produce increased amounts of cytokines and chemokines. Although recent research provides strong evidence for the role of HSCs in hepatic inflammation and immune regulation, the number of HSC-elaborated inflammatory and immune regulatory molecules may be much greater then known at the present time. Here we report time-dependent changes in the gene expression profile of inflammatory and immune-regulatory molecules in LPS-stimulated rat HSCs, and their validation by biochemical analyses. LPS strongly up-regulated LPS-response elements (TLR2 and TLR7) but did not affect TLR4 and down-regulated TLR9. LPS also up-regulated genes in the MAPK, NFκB, STAT, SOCS, IRAK and interferon signaling pathways, numerous CC and CXC chemokines and IL17F. Interestingly, LPS modulated genes related to TGFβ and HSC activation in a manner that would limit their activation and fibrogenic activity. The data indicate that LPS-stimulated HSCs become a major cell type in regulating hepatic inflammatory and immunological responses by altering expression of numerous relevant genes, and thus play a prominent role in hepatic pathophysiology including liver diseases and transplantation

Barriers to utilization of childbirth services of a rural birthing center in Nepal: A qualitative study

© 2017 Khatri et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Background: Maternal mortality and morbidity are public health problems in Nepal. In rural communities, many women give birth at home without the support of a skilled birth attendant, despite the existence of rural birthing centers. The aim of this study was to explore the barriers and provide pragmatic recommendations for better service delivery and use of rural birthing centers. Methods: We conducted 26 in-depth interviews with service users and providers, and three focus group discussions with community key informants in a rural community of Rukum district. We used the Adithya Cattamanchi logic model as a guiding framework for data analysis. Results: Irregular and poor quality services, inadequate human and capital resources, and poor governance were health system challenges which prevented service delivery. Contextual barriers including difficult geography, poor birth preparedness practices, harmful culture practices and traditions and low level of trust were also found to contribute to underutilization of the birthing center. Conclusion: The rural birthing center was not providing quality services when women were in need, which meant women did not use the available services properly because of systematic and contextual barriers. Approaches such as awareness-raising activities, local resource mobilization, ensuring access to skilled providers and equipment and other long-term infrastructure development works could improve the quality and utilization of childbirth services in the rural birthing center. This has resonance for other centers in Nepal and similar countries

Synthesis of Some Novel Fused Substituted 3-(4-substitutedphenyl)-6,6-diphenyl-3,3a dihydroimidazo [2',1':2,3][1,3] thiazolo[4,5-c][1,2] Isoxazoles

The present study describes the synthesis of some novel arylidene cyclic chalcones 2-(4-substituted benzylidene)-6,6-diphenylimidazo[2,1-b][1,3]thiazole-3,5-diones and their transformation to 3-(4-substitutedphenyl)-6,6-diphenyl-3,3a- dihydroimidazo[2´,1´:2,3][1,3]thiazolo[4,5-c][1,2]oxazol-7(6H)-ones via cyclization using hydroxylamine hydrochloride. The starting chalcones have been synthesized by the condensation of various aromatic aldehydes and methylene entity of synthesized imidazothiazole-3,5-diones which were obtained by the cyclization of 5,5-diphenyl-2-thioxoimidazolidin-4-ones and chloroacetic acid. The intermediate 5,5-diphenyl-2-thioxoimidazolidin-4-ones have been synthesized by the condensation of α-diketone (benzil) with thiourea in presence of ethanolic alkali followed by Pinacol-Pinacolone rearrangement. Structures of all the newly synthesized compounds were confirmed by chemical, analytical and spectral data.Fil: Dangi, R. R.. Mody University Of Science And Technology; IndiaFil: Kumari, Maya. Mody University Of Science And Technology; IndiaFil: Khyaliya, Priyanka. Mody University Of Science And Technology; IndiaFil: Parellada, Eduardo Alberto. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia. Instituto de Química Orgánica. Cátedra de Química Orgánica III; ArgentinaFil: Neske, Adriana Neske. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia. Instituto de Química Orgánica. Cátedra de Química Orgánica III; ArgentinaFil: Ameta, K. L.. Mody University Of Science And Technology; Indi

Montmorrilonite K10 catalyzed efficient synthesis of some 4'-nitrochalcones and their 1, 3, 5-triaryl-2-pyrazolines and in vitro antimicrobial evaluation

An expeditious synthesis of some 4´-nitrochalcones (3a-n) and their subsequent facile one-pot transformation to 1, 3,5-triaryl-2-pyrazolines (4a-n) has been carried out using montmorrilonite K10 via microwave mediated solvent free protocol.An emphasis is given to highlighting the greenness of the processes, and a fair comparison is also provided between differentinorganic solid supports as catalysts. Both conventional as well as non-conventional approaches have been explored bycomparing the reaction conditions and yields. The newly synthesized pyrazolines were studied for their in vitro antimicrobialevaluation against bacterial strains Bacillus pumilus and Escherichia coli and fungal strains Aspergillus niger and Penicilliumchrysogenum. Findings of biological evaluation highlighted 4b, 4e, 4j and 4m as potential new leads in the search of newantimicrobial agents. The structures of newly synthesized compounds have been established on the basis of elemental analysisand spectroscopic studies.Fil: Ameta, K. L.. Faculty Of Arts, Science & Commerce, Mody University Of; IndiaFil: Rathore, Nitu S.. Faculty Of Arts, Science & Commerce, Mody University Of; IndiaFil: Kumari, Maya. Faculty Of Arts, Science & Commerce, Mody University Of; IndiaFil: Khyaliya, Priyanka. University of Science and Technology; IndiaFil: Dangi R. R.. Faculty Of Arts, Science & Commerce, Mody University Of; IndiaFil: Parellada, Eduardo Alberto. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia. Instituto de Química Orgánica. Cátedra de Química Orgánica III; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa; ArgentinaFil: Neske, Adriana. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia. Instituto de Química Orgánica. Cátedra de Química Orgánica III; Argentin

African and Asian origin pearl millet populations: Genetic diversity pattern and its association with yield heterosis

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is a staple food crop of arid and semi-arid regions of Asia and Africa. Forty-five pearl millet populations of Asian and African origin were assessed for genetic diversity using 29 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The SSR-based clustering and structure analyses showed that Asian origin–Asian bred (As-As) and African origin–African bred (Af-Af) populations were distributed across seven clusters, indicating no strong relationship among populations with their geographical origin. Most of the African origin–Asian bred (Af-As) populations had a higher average number of alleles per locus than As-As or Af-Af populations, and the majority of them clustered separately from As-As or Af-Af populations, indicating that introgression of African origin breeding materials led to the development of new gene pools adapted to the Asian region. Fourteen populations representing seven clusters were crossed according to a diallel mating design to generate 91 population hybrids (seeds of direct and reciprocal crossesweremixed) and evaluated at three locations in 2016. All the 91 hybrids when partitioned into three groups based on genetic distance (GD) between parental combinations (low,moderate, and high), revealed no correlation between GD and panmictic midparent heterosis in any of the groups, indicating that grain yield heterosis cannot be predicted based on GD. Two population hybrids (GB 8735 × ICMP 87307 and Sudan I × Ugandi) exhibited high levels of yield heterosis over standard checks and can be further utilized using different breeding schemes to develop high-yielding pearl millet cultivars

Mapping Host Plant Resistance Qtls against Three Virulent Isolates of Downy Mildew PathogenIn Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum [L.] R. Br.)

Downy mildew (DM) epidemics have repeatedly caused huge grain and straw production losses on pearl millet single-cross hybrids in India. The present study was undertaken to identify the QTL positions controlling DMR on the linkage map for a pearl millet mapping population of 295 F7 RIL population derived from a single F1 plant from plant × plant cross 81 B-P13 (susceptible) × AIMP 92901-P03 (resistant) using three isolates of the pathogen from Gujarat, Haryana and Rajasthan. A skeleton genetic linkage map of 536.8 cM (Haldane) was constructed using MapMaker/Exp version 3.0b at LOD threshold value of 3.0 using 39 scorable polymorphic loci. A total of four major DMR QTLs were identified on linkage groups of 1,3 and 4. The inheritance of of these QTLs showed AIMP 92901-P03 providing the resistant alleles. At least one DMR QTL was detected and mapped for each of the three DM isolates. After validation, marker-assisted selection (MAS) can now be used for improving DMR of elite pearl millet hybrid parental lines using polymorphic flanking markers from donor parent AIMP 92901-P03

Construction of a Molecular Linkage Map of Pearl Millet Using SSR Markers

For pearl millet production in the semi-arid tropics, Sclerospora graminicola is a major biotic constraint causes Downy mildew. The pathogen is heterothallic and frequent recombination leads to evolution of new virulent populations. Identification of resistance to new virulent isolates is a prerequisite for resistance breeding. A very good understanding of ability to manipulate oligogenic and quantitative traits is offered to plant breeders by recent advances in genetic marker technology. In the present investigation, Genotypic data generated for a total of 39 marker loci (SSRs) were used to construct a linkage map of the pearl millet mapping population of 295 Recombinant Inbred Population based on the cross 81B-P13 × AIMP 92901-deriv-P03.A skeleton linkage map of seven linkage groups with a total map length of 536.8cMwasconstructed using Map Maker/Exp version 3.0b at LOD threshold value of 3.0 and map was drawn using Map Chart 2.2. Among all the linkage groups of the present study, linkage group1 has the highest map length (146.6 cM) followed by linkage group 2 (98.3 cM). The linkage group 3 (6.6 cM) has been recorded as the shortest among all seven linkage pearl millet groups in this study

Indigenous approaches of pest management in vegetables with special reference to coriander in southern Rajasthan, India

The present survey based study was conducted to record the indigenous pest management practices which were prepared by the use of various ethnobotanical plant parts, animal bi-products etc., for vegetable pest control by the farmers of tribal community in four tribal districts of southern Rajasthan. Data revealed that nowadays, indigenous knowledge of insect-pests management is being alive in age old people of few communities, amongst tribes of southern Rajasthan is one of the community in which some farmers are still practicing indigenous tactics for controlling pests on vegetables. 28 indigenous practices constituted by locally available wild plants constituents, animal byproducts, natural resource and few spiritual mean were applied with age old knowledge of farmers recorded effective management of various insect-pests infesting vegetables including coriander. The highest Fic value was recorded for aphids followed by thrips and jassids. The used value was recorded in the range of 0.09 to 0.69 for all locations. The highest UV secured for indigenous practices of Neem leaf extract; cow butter milk + cow dung ash + chilli seed powder; Neem seed kernel extract and ker plant + neem leaf + negadi leaf extract. These practices were easy in preparation, cost effective, eco-friendly and widely acceptable by the community in region need to be documented for future reference

Genetic Variability for Downy Mildew Disease Incidence in Mapping Population Parents of Pearl Millet

Downy mildew caused by Sclerospora graminicola (Sacc.) Shroet. is a major biotic constraint to pearl millet production in the semi-arid tropics. The pathogen is heterothallic and frequent recombination leads to evolution of new virulent populations. Identification of resistance to new virulent isolates is a prerequisite for resistance breeding. In the present investigation, forty parents along with five control entries were screened against three Indian populations of Sclerospora graminicola under greenhouse conditions. Among the parental lines under study, ICMP 85410-P7, LGD-1-B-10, Tift 23DB-P1-P5, H77/833-2-P5, H77/833-2, Tift 238D1, ICMB 89111-P6, 81B-P13, ICMB 01222-P1, ICMB 95333-P1, ICMB 95333-P5 and IPC 804-P4 were found to be highly susceptible (>80 % DMI) in screening against three Indigenous pathogen isolates from Gujarat (Sg445), Haryana (Sg519) and Rajasthan (Sg526), while 863B-P2, AIMP 92901-S1-183-2-2-B-P08 and AIMP 92901-S1-15-1-2-B-P03 were resistant (<10% DMI) to test isolates. Some parents exhibited different levels of DM incidence to pathogen - isolates

Thin Film PZT-Based PMUT Arrays for Deterministic Particle Manipulation

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) based piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUTs) for particle manipulation applications were designed, fabricated, characterized and tested. The PMUTs had a diaphragm diameter of 60 lm, a resonant frequency of ∼ 8 MHz and an operational bandwidth of 62.5%. Acoustic pressure output in water was 9.5 kPa at 7.5 mm distance from a PMUT element excited with a unipolar waveform at 5 Vpp. The element consisted of 20 diaphragms connected electrically in parallel. Particle trapping of 4 lm silica beads was shown to be possible with 5 Vpp unipolar excitation. Trapping of multiple beads by a single element and deterministic control of particles via acoustophoresis without the assistance of microfluidic flow were demonstrated. It was found that the particles move towards diaphragm areas of highest pressure, in agreement with literature and simulations. Unique bead patterns were generated at different driving frequencies and were formed at frequencies up to 60 MHz, much higher than the operational bandwidth. Levitation planes were generated above 30 MHz driving frequency