Identifying chemokines as therapeutic targets in renal disease: Lessons from antagonist studies and knockout mice

Chemokines, in concert with cytokines and adhesion molecules, play multiple roles in local and systemic immune responses. In the kidney, the temporal and spatial expression of chemokines correlates with local renal damage and accumulation of chemokine receptor-bearing leukocytes. Chemokines play important roles in leukocyte trafficking and blocking chemokines can effectively reduce renal leukocyte recruitment and subsequent renal damage. However, recent data indicate that blocking chemokine or chemokine receptor activity in renal disease may also exacerbate renal inflammation under certain conditions. An increasing amount of data indicates additional roles of chemokines in the regulation of innate and adaptive immune responses, which may adversively affect the outcome of interventional studies. This review summarizes available in vivo studies on the blockade of chemokines and chemokine receptors in kidney diseases, with a special focus on the therapeutic potential of anti-chemokine strategies, including potential side effects, in renal disease. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

Globales Informationssystem Zünslerfalter (GlobIZ).

Das Globale Informationssystem Zünslerfalter (GlobIZ) ist eine internetbasierte Datenbank, welche die gleichzeitige Eingabe nomenklatorischer und bibliographischer Daten durch mehrere Nutzer ermöglicht. GlobIZ stellt einen synonymischen Katalog der Namen der Pyraloidea (Insecta: Lepidoptera), einschließlich der dazugehörigen Literaturreferenzen im Internet frei zur Verfügung. Ursprünglich als ein Projekt für die Pyraloidea begonnen, haben nun auch Spezialisten anderer Gruppen, z. B. Psychidae, ihr Interesse angemeldet, dieses System zu nutzen. GloBIZ ist ein Teilprojekt des Koordinatenknotens Insecta (Evertebrata I) im GBIF-Deutschland Verbund.The Global Information System on Pyraloidea (GlobIZ) is a web-based database. It allows the editing of nomenclatural and bibliographical data simultaneously by several users. GlobIZ provides a synonymic catalogue of the names of Pyraloidea (Insecta: Lepidoptera), including the relevant literature references. This information is universally available and free of charge via the world wide web. Originally, the project was restricted to the Pyraloidea, but several systematists of other groups of Lepidoptera, e. g. Psychidae, have signalled their interest to work with this system. GloBIZ is part of the German National GBIF node Insecta (Evertebrata I)

Nachweis erniedrigter Flußgeschwindigkeiten in der Arteria cerebri anterior bei Früh- und Neugeborenen sowie älteren Säuglingen mit Hirnblutungen mit Hilfe der gepulsten Dopplersonographie = Detection of reduced flow velocities in the anterior cerebral artery in premature and newborn infants and in older infants with cerebral hemorrhages using pulsed Doppler sonography

34 infants with intracerebral haemorrhage (intraventricular haemorrhage 26; subdural haemorrhage 2; epidural haemorrhage 2; subarachnoidal haemorrhage 4) were investigated by pulsed Doppler-sonography. Absolute flow velocities were measured in the anterior cerebral arteries in infants with intracranial haemorrhage and compared with the flow velocities of a healthy control group of identical gestational age, actual age and weight. All flow velocities were significantly reduced in premature and full-term infants with intracranial haemorrhage, whereas the pulsatility-index was significantly increased. 10 infants with severe intracranial haemorrhage developed a shunt-depending posthaemorrhagic hydrocephalus. These children showed a significant reduction of all flow velocities in the anterior cerebral arteries in comparison to the healthy control group. The diastolic forward flow was more reduced than the maximal systolic velocity resulting in a significant increase of the pulsatility index. In rapidly progressive hydrocephalus, often no diastolic flow or even a retrograde diastolic flow could be found. After shunt-implantation normalisation of the flow velocities could be observed. Reduced flow velocities could be observed. Reduced flow velocities in the anterior cerebral arteries in infants with subdural, epidural and subarachnoidal haemorrhage were associated with a bad outcome: 1 infant died, 1 infant developed severe leucomalacia, and 1 infant showed atrophy of one cerebral hemisphere. Normal flow velocities in the intracranial arteries in subdural, epidural and subarachnoidal were associated with a favourable prognosis. Absent or even retrograde diastolic flow indicates a dramatic decrease of cerebral perfusion. The longer the pathologic flow patterns were demonstrable the worse was prognosis

Host specificity and species colouration mediate the regional decline of nocturnal moths in central European forests

The high diversity of insects has limited the volume of long-term community data with a high taxonomic resolution and considerable geographic replications, especially in forests. Therefore, trends and causes of changes are poorly understood. Here we analyse trends in species richness, abundance and biomass of nocturnal macro moths in three quantitative data sets collected over four decades in forests in southern Germany. Two local data sets, one from coppiced oak forests and one from high oak forests included 125K and 48K specimens from 559 and 532 species, respectively. A third regional data set, representing all forest types in the temperate zone of central Europe comprised 735K specimens from 848 species. Generalized additive mixed models revealed temporal declines in species richness (−38%), abundance (−53%) and biomass (−57%) at the regional scale. These were more pronounced in plant host specialists and in dark coloured species. In contrast, the local coppiced oak forests showed an increase, in species richness (+62%), while the high oak forests showed no clear trends. Left and right censoring as well as cross validation confirmed the robustness of the analyses, which led to four conclusions. First, the decline in insects appears in hyper diverse insect groups in forests and affects species richness, abundance and biomass. Second, the pronounced decline in host specialists suggests habitat loss as an important driver of the observed decline. Third, the more severe decline in dark species might be an indication of global warming as a potential driver. Fourth, the trends in coppiced oak forests indicate that maintaining complex and diverse forest ecosystems through active management may be a promising conservation strategy in order to counteract negative trends in biodiversity, alongside rewilding approaches

The Swiss Kidney Stone Cohort (SKSC), a longitudinal, multi-centric, observational cohort to study course and causes of kidney stone disease in Switzerland.

Kidney stone disease has a high prevalence worldwide of approximately 10 % of the population and is characterized by a high recurrence rate Kidney stone disease results from a combination of genetic, environmental, and life-style risk factors, and the dissection of these factors is complex. The Swiss Kidney Stone Cohort (SKSC) is an investigator-initiated prospective, multi-centric longitudinal, observational study in patients with kidney stones followed with regular visits over a period of 3 years after inclusion. Ongoing follow-ups by biannual telephone interviews will provide long-term outcome data up to 10 years. SKSC comprises 782 adult patients (age > 18 yrs) with either recurrent stones or a single stone event with at least one risk factor for recurrence. In addition, a control cohort of 207 individuals without kidney stone history and absence of kidney stones on a low-dose CT-scan at enrolment has also been recruited. SKSC includes extensive collections of clinical data, biochemical data in blood and 24 hr urine samples, and genetic data. Biosamples are stored at a dedicated biobank. Information on diet and dietary habits were collected through food frequency questionnaires and standardized recall interviews by trained dieticians with the Globodiet software. SKSC provides an unique opportunity and resource to further study cause and course of kidney disease in a large population with data and samples collected of a homogenous collective of patients throughout the whole Swiss population

Die Bedeutung von Gehölzen für einheimische, phytophage Insekten

Einheimische Gehölzarten spielen eine herausragende Rolle für die Erhaltung der einheimischen Insektenfauna. Von 8.127 geprüften, weitestgehend phytophagen (pflanzenfressenden), in Deutschland vorkommenden Blattkäfern, Prachtkäfern, Rüsselkäfern, Pflanzenwespen, Schmetterlingen, Wanzen, Wildbienen und Zikaden sind 3.140 Arten (38,6 %) auf Gehölze als Nahrungspflanzen angewiesen. Diese phytophage Gilde umfasst je nach Gehölzart 23-36 % der daran lebenden Insektenarten. Gemeinsam mit den übrigen Gilden (z.B. Räuber, Parasitoide und Zersetzer) ist die Anzahl der direkt oder indirekt von Gehölzen abhängigen Insektenarten deutlich höher und entspricht etwa einem Drittel aller in Deutschland vorkommenden Insektenarten. Unter den in diesem Beitrag betrachteten, in mindestens einem Entwicklungsstadium an Gehölzen fressenden Phytophagen sind 88,6 % der Insektenarten auf Gehölze aus Gattungen angewiesen, die mit mindestens einer einheimischen Art in Deutschland vertreten sind. 10,0 % der betrachteten Insektenarten nutzen sowohl Gehölzgattungen mit mindestens einer einheimischen Art als auch Gehölzgattungen, die in Deutschland nur mit gebietsfremden Arten vertreten sind. 1,4 % ernähren sich ausschließlich an Gehölzgattungen, die in Deutschland nur mit gebietsfremden Arten vertreten sind. In Deutschland gebietsfremde Gehölzarten, ohne einheimische Verwandte auf Gattungsebene, sind nur für wenige eingeschleppte Insektenarten oder solche mit einem sehr breiten Nahrungsspektrum als Nahrungspflanzen geeignet und spielen somit für die Erhaltung der einheimischen Insektenvielfalt eine untergeordnete Rolle

Species-Level Para- and Polyphyly in DNA Barcode Gene Trees : Strong Operational Bias in European Lepidoptera

AbstractThe proliferation of DNA data is revolutionizing all fields of systematic research. DNA barcode sequences, now available for millions of specimens and several hundred thousand species, are increasingly used in algorithmic species delimitations. This is complicated by occasional incongruences between species and gene genealogies, as indicated by situations where conspecific individuals do not form a monophyletic cluster in a gene tree. In two previous reviews, nonmonophyly has been reported as being common in mitochondrial DNA gene trees. We developed a novel web service “Monophylizer” to detect non-monophyly in phylogenetic trees and used it to ascertain the incidence of species nonmonophyly in COI (a.k.a. cox1) barcode sequence data from 4977 species and 41,583 specimens of European Lepidoptera, the largest data set ofDNAbarcodes analyzed fromthis regard. Particular attentionwas paid to accurate species identification to ensure data integrity. We investigated the effects of tree-building method, sampling effort, and other methodological issues, all of which can influence estimates of non-monophyly. We found a 12% incidence of non-monophyly, a value significantly lower than that observed in previous studies. Neighbor joining (NJ) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods yielded almost equal numbers of non-monophyletic species, but 24.1% of these cases of non-monophyly were only found by one of these methods. Non-monophyletic species tend to show either low genetic distances to their nearest neighbors or exceptionally high levels of intraspecific variability. Cases of polyphyly in COI trees arising as a result of deep intraspecific divergence are negligible, as the detected cases reflected misidentifications or methodological errors. Taking into consideration variation in sampling effort, we estimate that the true incidence of non-monophyly is ∼23%, but with operational factors still being included. Within the operational factors, we separately assessed the frequency of taxonomic limitations (presence of overlooked cryptic and oversplit species) and identification uncertainties. We observed that operational factors are potentially present in more than half (58.6%) of the detected cases of non-monophyly. Furthermore,we observed that in about 20% of non-monophyletic species and entangled species, the lineages involved are either allopatric or parapatric—conditions where species delimitation is inherently subjective and particularly dependent on the species concept that has been adopted. These observations suggest that species-level non-monophyly in COI gene trees is less common than previously supposed, with many cases reflecting misidentifications, the subjectivity of species delimitation or other operational factors.Abstract The proliferation of DNA data is revolutionizing all fields of systematic research. DNA barcode sequences, now available for millions of specimens and several hundred thousand species, are increasingly used in algorithmic species delimitations. This is complicated by occasional incongruences between species and gene genealogies, as indicated by situations where conspecific individuals do not form a monophyletic cluster in a gene tree. In two previous reviews, nonmonophyly has been reported as being common in mitochondrial DNA gene trees. We developed a novel web service “Monophylizer” to detect non-monophyly in phylogenetic trees and used it to ascertain the incidence of species nonmonophyly in COI (a.k.a. cox1) barcode sequence data from 4977 species and 41,583 specimens of European Lepidoptera, the largest data set ofDNAbarcodes analyzed fromthis regard. Particular attentionwas paid to accurate species identification to ensure data integrity. We investigated the effects of tree-building method, sampling effort, and other methodological issues, all of which can influence estimates of non-monophyly. We found a 12% incidence of non-monophyly, a value significantly lower than that observed in previous studies. Neighbor joining (NJ) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods yielded almost equal numbers of non-monophyletic species, but 24.1% of these cases of non-monophyly were only found by one of these methods. Non-monophyletic species tend to show either low genetic distances to their nearest neighbors or exceptionally high levels of intraspecific variability. Cases of polyphyly in COI trees arising as a result of deep intraspecific divergence are negligible, as the detected cases reflected misidentifications or methodological errors. Taking into consideration variation in sampling effort, we estimate that the true incidence of non-monophyly is ∼23%, but with operational factors still being included. Within the operational factors, we separately assessed the frequency of taxonomic limitations (presence of overlooked cryptic and oversplit species) and identification uncertainties. We observed that operational factors are potentially present in more than half (58.6%) of the detected cases of non-monophyly. Furthermore,we observed that in about 20% of non-monophyletic species and entangled species, the lineages involved are either allopatric or parapatric—conditions where species delimitation is inherently subjective and particularly dependent on the species concept that has been adopted. These observations suggest that species-level non-monophyly in COI gene trees is less common than previously supposed, with many cases reflecting misidentifications, the subjectivity of species delimitation or other operational factors