Superantigen reactive Vβ6+ T cells induce perforin/granzyme B mediated caspase-independent apoptosis in tumour cells

The endogenous viral superantigen 7 in DBA/2 mice serves as a target antigen on syngeneic ESb-MP lymphoma cells for allogeneic graft-vs-leukaemia reactive cells. Allogeneic viral superantigen 7 reactive Vβ6+ T cells are able to transfer graft-vs-leukaemia reactivity and to kill specifically viral superantigen 7+ ESb-MP tumour cells in vitro. Here we elucidate the mechanism of this superantigen specific cell lysis. Already 10 min after co-incubation with in vitro stimulated Vβ6+ T cells, viral superantigen 7+ ESb-MP tumour cells show an apoptotic phenotype (Annexin V-positivity, DNA-fragmentation). This extremely rapid type of cell death is not mediated by the death inducing ligands CD95L, TRAIL and TNF but by perforin and granzyme B. Surprisingly, neither mitochondria nor any of the known caspases appear to be involved in this type of tumour cell killing. In contrast, nitric oxide, released by activated macrophages and endothelial cells, induces in the same tumour cells another type of apoptosis which is much slower and involves mitochondria and caspase activation. A synergistic effect between the two different effector mechanisms of superantigen reactive donor cytotoxic T lymphocytes and nitric oxide releasing host macrophages and endothelial cells might explain the effective immune rejection of even advanced metastasised cancer in this graft-vs-leukaemia animal model

Enhanced Monocyte Response and Decreased Central Memory T Cells in Children with Invasive Staphylococcus aureus Infections

Staphylococcus aureus has emerged as a significant pathogen causing severe invasive disease in otherwise healthy people. Despite considerable advances in understanding the epidemiology, resistance mechanisms, and virulence factors produced by the bacteria, there is limited knowledge of the in vivo host immune response to acute, invasive S. aureus infections. Herein, we report that peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with severe S. aureus infections demonstrate a distinctive and robust gene expression profile which is validated in a distinct group of patients and on a different microarray platform. Application of a systems-wide modular analysis framework reveals significant over-expression of innate immunity genes and under-expression of genes related to adaptive immunity. Simultaneous flow cytometry analyses demonstrated marked alterations in immune cell numbers, with decreased central memory CD4 and CD8 T cells and increased numbers of monocytes. CD14+ monocyte numbers significantly correlated with the gene expression levels of genes related to the innate immune response. These results demonstrate the value of applying a systems biology approach that reveals the significant alterations in the components of circulating blood lymphocytes and monocytes in invasive S. aureus infections

Diastolic time – frequency relation in the stress echo lab: filling timing and flow at different heart rates

A cutaneous force-frequency relation recording system based on first heart sound amplitude vibrations has been recently validated. Second heart sound can be simultaneously recorded in order to quantify both systole and diastole duration

4th Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization

This book contains the proceedings of the Fourth Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization, which was held in Tübingen, Germany on July 25-27, 2007. APGV is an annual event, sponsored by ACM SIGGRAPH, which brings together researchers from the fields of perception, graphics and visualization. The general goals are to use insights from perception to advance the design of methods for visual, auditory and haptic representation, and to use computer graphics to enable perceptual research that would otherwise not be possible. We received 39 full paper submissions for this year's AGPV. Each submission was reviewed by at least three members of the Program Committee, and we decided to accept 17 of these as full papers, to be presented as Oral presentations at the conference (14 as long papers, and 3 as short papers). The Proceedings also include 15 one-page abstracts describing Poster presentations. The posters include summaries of paper submissions that were not accepted for Oral presentation, as well as separate poster submissions. The Oral Papers cover a wide range of topics. We have classified the papers into four categories, corresponding to the sessions: Faces and Animation, Virtual Environments and Space Perception, Rendering and Surfaces I and II, and Images and Displays. For the first time at APGV this year we have a Keynote Speaker, Greg Ward (Dolby Canada), whose talk is entitled "Dynamic Range and Visual Perception". Greg Ward is a pioneer in global illumination and high dynamic range imaging, and his work has drawn heavily from and contributed substantially to research on human vision. We also have several other Invited Speakers: Volker Blanz (University of Siegen), Oliver Bimber (University of Weimar), Philip Dutré (University of Leuven) and Rafal Mantiuk (Max Planck Institute for Computer Science in Saarbrücken)