First Examinations to date the exactly Time of Infection of Sooty Blotch

Sooty blotch disease caused by a complex of different funghi. The incidence and severity of these disease are dependent on moisture and temperatur conditions during the summer months. A great problem is to fix the exactly ti me of infection. If this would be possible the threaten apple orchards could be better controlled by plant protection. To date the exactly ti me of a possible infection, the apple fruits were wrapped in plastic films during the growing season. After full flower the fruits were bagged on various dates and kept covered until harvest. The first symptoms of sooty blotch disease appeared in the apple orchard at 17 July 2000. If the time of infection is dated 2-3 weeks bevor the first symptoms appeared, so the infection could be placed to 26.127. June 2000. Between the 26. 06.2000 and the 17 July 2000 the weather conditions had been favorable for the sooty blotch disease. During this peri od we bagged fruits on four different termi ns. After harvest we placed the fruits in a moist chamber for 10 days. During this time it was possible to develop sooty blotch symptoms on the fruit surface. Ali of those fruits were affected with sooty blotch symptoms. Fruits befor this termin didn't show any symptoms. This would mean, that the first infection in 2000 took piace in late June and not earlier

Chlamydia pneumoniae infection acts as an endothelial stressor with the potential to initiate the earliest heat shock protein 60-dependent inflammatory stage of atherosclerosis

We identified increased expression and redistribution of the intracellular protein 60-kDa human heat shock protein (hHSP60) (HSPD1) to the cell surface in human endothelial cells subjected to classical atherosclerosis risk factors and subsequent immunologic cross-reactivity against this highly conserved molecule, as key events occurring early in the process of atherosclerosis. The present study aimed at investigating the role of infectious pathogens as stress factors for vascular endothelial cells and, as such, contributors to early atherosclerotic lesion formation. Using primary donor-matched arterial and venous human endothelial cells, we show that infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae leads to marked upregulation and surface expression of hHSP60 and adhesion molecules. Moreover, we provide evidence for an increased susceptibility of arterial endothelial cells for redistribution of hHSP60 to the cellular membrane in response to C. pneumoniae infection as compared to autologous venous endothelial cells. We also show that oxidative stress has a central role to play in endothelial cell activation in response to chlamydial infection. These data provide evidence for a role of C. pneumoniae as a potent primary endothelial stressor for arterial endothelial cells leading to enrichment of hHSP60 on the cellular membrane and, as such, a potential initiator of atherosclerosi

Electrical stimulation counteracts muscle atrophy associated with aging in humans

Functional and structural muscle decline is a major problem during aging. Our goal was to improve in old subjects quadriceps m. force and mobility functional performances (stair test, chair rise test, timed up and go test) with neuromuscular electrical stimulation (9 weeks, 2-3times/week, 20-30 minutes per session). Furthermore we performed histological and biological molecular analyses of vastus lateralis m. biopsies. Our findings demonstrate that electrical stimulation significantly improved mobility functional performancies and muscle histological characteristics and molecular markers

Dynamic and static circulating cancer microRNA biomarkers : a validation study

For cancers and other pathologies, early diagnosis remains the most promising path to survival. Profiling of longitudinal cohorts facilitates insights into trajectories of biomarkers. We measured microRNA expression in 240 serum samples from patients with colon, lung, and breast cancer and from cancerfree controls. Each patient provided at least two serum samples, one prior to diagnosis and one following diagnosis. The median time interval between the samples was 11.6 years. Using computational models, we evaluated the circulating profiles of 21 microRNAs. The analysis yielded two sets of biomarkers, static ones that show an absolute difference between certain cancer types and controls and dynamic ones where the level over time provided higher diagnostic information content. In the first group, miR-99a-5p stands out for all three cancer types. In the second group, miR-155-5p allows to predict lung cancers and colon cancers. Classification in samples from cancer and non-cancer patients using gradient boosted trees reached an average accuracy of 79.9%. The results suggest that individual change over time or an absolute value at one time point may predict a disease with high specificity and sensitivity