Alterations of CD8+CD28- T cells in systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis

published_or_final_versio

Histological evidence for reversible cardiomyocyte changes and serum cardiac troponin T elevation after exercise in rats.

This study characterized cardiac troponin T (cTnT) appearance and associated histological evidence of reversible or irreversible changes in myocardial ultrastructure, determined via electron microscopy, in rats undertaking isoproterenol (ISO) infusion or an endurance exercise challenge. Male rats were randomized into ISO and exercise groups. In ISO trials rats were killed 5 h (ISO-5H) and 24 h (ISO-REC19H) after a single ISO or saline injection (SAL-5H; SAL-REC19H). In the exercise trials rats were killed before, as a control (EXE-CON), immediately after (EXE-END5H) and 19 h after (EXE-REC19H) a 5-h bout of swimming with 5% body weight attached to their tail. Serum cTnT was quantified by electrochemiluminescence, and myocardial samples in ISO-REC19H, EXE-REC19H and SAL-REC19H were harvested for assessment of specific mitochondrial injury scores using electron-microscopy. cTnT was undetectable in all control animals (SAL-5H/SAL-REC19H and EXE-CON). cTnT increased in all animals after ISO and exercise but the response was significantly higher (P < 0.05) at ISO-5H (median [range]: 2.60 [1.76-6.18] μg · L(-1)) than at EXE-END5H (median [range]: 0.05 [0.02-0.14] μg · L(-1)). cTnT returned to baseline at EXE-REC19H, but had not completely recovered at ISO-REC19H (median [range]: 0.17 [0.09-1.22] μg · L(-1)). Mitochondrial "injury scores" were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in ISO-REC19H compared to EXE-REC19H and SAL-REC19H, with no difference between EXE-REC19H and SAL-REC19H. Mitochondria from EXE-REC19H appeared aggregated in nonlinear clusters in a small number of scans. These findings suggest that acute exercise-induced appearance of cTnT in this animal model is only associated with reversible changes in cardiomyocyte structure

Effects of triptolide, an active ingredient of trypterygium Wilfordii Hook F (Thunder God Vine, a traditional Chinese herb), on rheumatoid synovial fibroblast function

published_or_final_versio

Inspiratory muscle warm-up does not improve cycling time-trial performance

Purpose: This study examined the effects of an active cycling warm-up, with and without the addition of an inspiratory muscle warm-up (IMW), on 10-km cycling time-trial performance

Nanoparticles of Block Ionomer Complexes from Double Hydrophilic Poly(acrylic acid)-b-poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(acrylic acid) Triblock Copolymer and Oppositely Charged Surfactant

The novel water-dispersible nanoparticles from the double hydrophilic poly(acrylic acid)-b-poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(acrylic acid) (PAA-b-PEO-b-PAA) triblock copolymer and oppositely charged surfactant dodecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (DTAB) were prepared by mixing the individual aqueous solutions. The structure of the nanoparticles was investigated as a function of the degree of neutralization (DN) by turbidimetry, dynamic light scattering (DSL),ζ-potential measurement, and atomic force microscope (AFM). The neutralization of the anionic PAA blocks with cationic DTAB accompanied with the hydrophobic interaction of alkyl tails of DTAB led to formation of core–shell nanoparticles with the core of the DTAB neutralized PAA blocks and the shell of the looped PEO blocks. The water-dispersible nanoparticles with negative ζ-potential were obtained over the DN range from 0.4 to 2.0 and their sizes depended on the DN. The looped PEO blocks hindered the further neutralization of the PAA blocks with cationic DTAB, resulting in existence of some negative charged PAA-b-PEO-b-PAA backbones even when DN > 1.0. The spherical and ellipsoidal nature of these nanoparticles was observed with AFM

Impact of high-intensity interval training and moderate-intensity continuous training on resting and post-exercise cardiac troponin T concentration.

We evaluated the influence of 12 weeks high-intensity interval training (HIIT, repeated 4-min cycling at 90% V̇O2max interspersed with 3-min rest, 200-300 KJ/session, 3-4 days wk-1 ) and work-equivalent moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT, continuous cycling at 60% V̇O2max ) on resting cardiac troponin T (cTnT) as well as exercise-induced cTnT appearance. Forty-eight sedentary obese young women were randomly assigned to HIIT, MICT, or a control group. V̇O2max and body composition were measured before and after training. At baseline, cTnT was assessed using a high-sensitivity assay at rest and immediately, 2 h and 4 h after 45-min cycling at 60% V̇O2max . After a 12-wk training period, cTnT was assessed before and after 45-min cycling at the same relative and absolute intensities as before training. Training led to higher V̇O2max and lower fat mass in both HIIT and MICT (all P < 0.05). Before training, cTnT was significantly elevated in all three groups (35 to 118%, all P < 0.05) with acute exercise. After training both resting and post-exercise cTnT levels (same relative intensity) were similar to pre-training values. In contrast, post-exercise cTnT (same absolute intensity, which represented a smaller exercise stimulus) was not elevated from rest in both HIIT and MICT groups. In conclusion, 12 weeks of either HIIT or MICT largely abolished the elevation of post-exercise cTnT concentration when exercise was performed at the same absolute intensity. There was, however, no impact of training on resting cTnT or post-exercise cTnT appearance for exercise performed at the same relative intensity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Sex differences in release of cardiac troponin T after endurance exercise.

CONTEXT: Post-exercise cardiac troponin release has been extensively described in athletic groups but little attention has been given to any role of sex in mediating this phenomenon. OBJECTIVE: We compared the release of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) after endurance running in training-experience, biological-age and maturity-matched young male and female runners. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nineteen male (training history: 2.3 ± 1.0 years; mean age: 16.1 ± 1.2 years; Tanner stage: 3.7 ± 0.6) and 19 female (training history: 2.2 ± 1.0 years; mean age: 15.9 ± 1.4 years; Tanner stage: 4.0 ± 0.4) runners performed a 21 km run with "all-out" effort. Serum cTnT levels were assessed at pre-exercise (Pre-ex) and at 4 h post-exercise (Post-ex). RESULTS: At Pre-ex, cTnT concentrations were below the 99th percentile value (10 ng.l(-1)) in 32/38 runners. Post-ex cTnT increased in all subjects but the response was substantially higher (p < 0.05) in males [median (range): 210 (20-1360) ng.l(-1)] than females [median (range): 80 (10-550) ng.l(-1)]. At Post-ex, 95% (95% confidence interval: 75-99%) of males and 63% (95% confidence interval: 41-81%) of females (p < 0.05) had cTnT concentrations above the cut-off for acute myocardial infarction. CONCLUSIONS: The present data suggest that post-exercise cTnT elevation occurs in all runners but is augmented in young male compared to female athletes

Influenza Research Database: An integrated bioinformatics resource for influenza virus research

The Influenza Research Database (IRD) is a U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)-sponsored Bioinformatics Resource Center dedicated to providing bioinformatics support for influenza virus research. IRD facilitates the research and development of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics against influenza virus by providing a comprehensive collection of influenza-related data integrated from various sources, a growing suite of analysis and visualization tools for data mining and hypothesis generation, personal workbench spaces for data storage and sharing, and active user community support. Here, we describe the recent improvements in IRD including the use of cloud and high performance computing resources, analysis and visualization of user-provided sequence data with associated metadata, predictions of novel variant proteins, annotations of phenotype-associated sequence markers and their predicted phenotypic effects, hemagglutinin (HA) clade classifications, an automated tool for HA subtype numbering conversion, linkouts to disease event data and the addition of host factor and antiviral drug components. All data and tools are freely available without restriction from the IRD website at https://www.fludb.org.National Institutes of Health/National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases [HHSN272201400028C]. Funding for open access charge: J. Craig Venter Institute

Mitochondrial dysfunction resulting from loss of cytochrome c impairs radiation-induced bystander effect

Cytochrome c is a pivotal protein that resides in mitochondria as component of mitochondria respiration and apoptosis initiator. Using murine cells lacking cytochrome c, we showed here that cytochrome c-deficient cells had attenuated reactive oxygen species/nitric oxide and micronuclei induction to radiation-induced bystander signals, indicating cytochrome c is essential for the bystander effect

Effect of pre-stroke use of ACE inhibitors on ischemic stroke severity

BACKGROUND: Recent trials suggest that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) are effective in prevention of ischemic stroke, as measured by reduced stroke incidence. We aimed to compare stroke severity between stroke patients who were taking ACEI before their stroke onset and those who were not, to examine the effects of pretreatment with ACEI on ischemic stroke severity. METHODS: We retrospectively studied 126 consecutive patients presenting within 24 hours of ischemic stroke onset, as confirmed by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI). We calculated the NIHSS score at presentation, as the primary measure of clinical stroke severity, and categorized stroke severity as mild (NIHSS [less than or equal to] 7), moderate (NIHSS 8–13) or severe (NIHSS [greater than or equal to] 14). We analyzed demographic data, risk-factor profile, blood pressure (BP) and medications on admissions, and determined stroke mechanism according to TOAST criteria. We also measured the volumes of admission diffusion- and perfusion-weighted (DWI /PWI) magnetic resonance imaging lesions, as a secondary measure of ischemic tissue volume. We compared these variables among patients on ACEI and those who were not. RESULTS: Thirty- three patients (26%) were on ACE-inhibitors. The overall median baseline NIHSS score was 5.5 (range 2–21) among ACEI-treated patients vs. 9 (range 1–36) in non-ACEI patients (p = 0.036). Patients on ACEI prior to their stroke had more mild and less severe strokes, and smaller DWI and PWI lesion volumes compared to non-ACEI treated patients. However, none of these differences were significant. Predictably, a higher percentage of patients on ACEI had a history of heart failure (p = 0.03). Age, time-to-imaging or neurological evaluation, risk-factor profile, concomitant therapy with lipid lowering, other antihypertensives or antithrombotic agents, or admission BP were comparable between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that ACE-inhibitors may reduce the clinical severity of stroke, as measured by NIHSS score. Further, larger-scale, prospective studies areneeded to validate our findings, and to elucidate the mechanism(s) of ACEImediated benefits in patients with ischemic stroke