Innate Immune Cell Recovery Is Positively Regulated by NLRP12 during Emergency Hematopoiesis

With enhanced concerns of terrorist attacks, dual exposure to radiation and thermal combined injury (RCI) has become a real threat with devastating immunosuppression. NLRP12, a member of the NOD-like receptor family, is expressed in myeloid and bone marrow cells and has been implicated as a checkpoint regulator of inflammatory cytokines as well as an inflammasome activator. We show that NLRP12 has a profound impact on hematopoietic recovery during RCI by serving as a checkpoint of TNF signaling and preventing hematopoietic apoptosis. Using a mouse model of RCI, increased NLRP12 expression was detected in target tissues. Nlrp12−/− mice exhibited significantly greater mortality, inability to fight bacterial infection, heightened levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, overt granulocyte/monocyte progenitor cell apoptosis and failure to reconstitute peripheral myeloid populations. Anti-TNF antibody administration improved peripheral immune recovery. These data suggest that NLRP12 is essential for survival after RCI by regulating myelopoiesis and immune reconstitution

Teaching English as a Non-Imperial Language in an Underprivileged Public School in Spain

This article summarizes the processes and findings of a 2-year collaborative action research (CAR) project that analyzed and aimed to counteract some of the most negative educational effects of English linguistic imperialism in the field of English language teaching (ELT) and, more concretely, in the context of English as a foreign language education in Spain. The CAR investigated the ramifications of this phenomenon in a primary school located in one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the city of València. The pedagogical alternative it embraced in order to reverse the underlying tenets of ELT under present-day neoliberal imperialism consisted in combining art and multimodality through a series of projects; a variety of qualitative strategies were used (classroom observation, journal entries, recordings, student interviews, photographs, etc.) to assess its effects. Evidence showed that the three projects developed during the CAR succeeded in offering a worthwhile educational experience and hence a valuable critical alternative to mainstream ELT, one that brought about a change in the way the socially underprivileged students related to the English language

Comparison of Short-Term Outcomes in Kidney Transplant Recipients from SARS-CoV-2-Infected versus Noninfected Deceased Donors.

BACKGROUND: Acceptable posttransplant outcomes were reported in kidney transplant recipients from donors with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), however, there are no comparative studies with well-matched controls. METHODS: This multicenter, prospective observational study, which included three transplant centers in the US, enrolled 61 kidney recipients from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-infected deceased donors. Using optimal matching methods, we matched every recipient to three comparators receiving kidneys from SARS-CoV-2-negative deceased donors with otherwise highly similar characteristics within the same transplant centers to compare 6-month eGFR. RESULTS: Among recipients of SARS-CoV-2-infected donor kidneys, one recipient died with a functional graft within 6 months. Mean 6-month eGFR was not significantly different between SARS-CoV-2-infected and non-infected donor groups (55±21 and 57±25 mL/min/1.73m2; p=0.61). Six-month eGFR in recipients from SARS-CoV-2-infected donors who died from reasons other than COVID-19 was not significantly different from those from SARS-CoV-2-negative donors (58±22 and 56±25 mL/min/1.73m2; p=0.51). However, recipients from donors who died from COVID-19 had significantly lower 6-month eGFR that those from SARS-CoV-2-negative donors (46±17 and 58±27 mL/min/1.73m2; p=0.03). No donor-to-recipient SARS-CoV-2 transmission was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Six-month eGFR was not significantly different between recipients of kidneys from SARS-CoV-2-infected and non-infected donors. However, those receiving kidneys from donors who died from COVID-19 had significantly lower 6-month eGFR. Donor-to-recipient SARS-CoV-2 transmission was not observed

Innate Immune Cell Recovery Is Positively Regulated by NLRP12 during Emergency Hematopoiesis

With enhanced concerns of terrorist attacks, dual exposure to radiation and thermal combined injury (RCI) has become a real threat with devastating immunosuppression. NLRP12, a member of the NOD-like receptor family, is expressed in myeloid and bone marrow cells and has been implicated as a checkpoint regulator of inflammatory cytokines as well as an inflammasome activator. We show that NLRP12 has a profound impact on hematopoietic recovery during RCI by serving as a checkpoint of TNF signaling and preventing hematopoietic apoptosis. Using a mouse model of RCI, increased NLRP12 expression was detected in target tissues. Nlrp12−/− mice exhibited significantly greater mortality, inability to fight bacterial infection, heightened levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, overt granulocyte/monocyte progenitor cell apoptosis and failure to reconstitute peripheral myeloid populations. Anti-TNF antibody administration improved peripheral immune recovery. These data suggest that NLRP12 is essential for survival after RCI by regulating myelopoiesis and immune reconstitution