Fin whales as bioindicators of multi-decadal change in carbon and oxygen stable isotope shifts in the North Atlantic

Global changes, and particularly the massive release of CO2 to the atmosphere and subsequent global warming, have altered the baselines of carbon and oxygen stable isotopic ratios. Temporal shifts in these baselines can be advantageously monitored through cetacean skin samples because these animals are highly mobile and therefore integrate in their tissues the heterogeneity of local environmental signals. In this study, we examine variation of delta C-13 and delta O-18 values in the skin of fin whales sampled over three decades in two different North Atlantic feeding grounds: west Iceland and northwest Spain. These locations are situated about 2700 km apart and thus represent a wide latitudinal range within the North Atlantic Ocean. The delta C-13 decrease in both areas is attributed to the burning of fossil fuels and increased deforestation worldwide, the so-called Suess effect. The dissimilarity in the magnitude of the shift between the two areas is coincidental with previous information on local shifts and lies within the ranges of variation observed. delta O-18 values experienced a minimal, yet significant change in fin whales from W Iceland (a decline of - 0.44 parts per thousand between 1986 and 2013) but not in those from NW Spain. This is in concordance with a higher rise in temperatures in the former area than in the latter. The study validates the use of cetacean skin to monitor temporal and geographical shifts in stable isotopic values and alerts that, when applying this tool to ecological research, comparisons between sample sets should take into account temporal and latitudinal scales

Time evolution of in vivo articular cartilage repair induced by bone marrow stimulation and scaffold implantation in rabbits

Purpose: Tissue engineering techniques were used to study cartilage repair over a 12-month period in a rabbit model. Methods: A full-depth chondral defect along with subchondral bone injury were originated in the knee joint, where a biostable porous scaffold was implanted, synthesized of poly(ethyl acrylate-co-hydroxyethyl acrylate) copolymer. Morphological evolution of cartilage repair was studied 1 and 2 weeks, and 1, 3, and 12 months after implantation by histological techniques. The 3-month group was chosen to compare cartilage repair to an additional group where scaffolds were preseeded with allogeneic chondrocytes before implantation, and also to controls, who underwent the same surgery procedure, with no scaffold implantation. Results: Neotissue growth was first observed in the deepest scaffold pores 1 week after implantation, which spread thereafter; 3 months later scaffold pores were filled mostly with cartilaginous tissue in superficial and middle zones, and with bone tissue adjacent to subchondral bone. Simultaneously, native chondrocytes at the edges of the defect started to proliferate 1 week after implantation; within a month those edges had grown centripetally and seemed to embed the scaffold, and after 3 months, hyaline-like cartilage was observed on the condylar surface. Preseeded scaffolds slightly improved tissue growth, although the quality of repair tissue was similar to non-preseeded scaffolds. Controls showed that fibrous cartilage was mainly filling the repair area 3 months after surgery. In the 12-month group, articular cartilage resembled the untreated surface. Conclusions: Scaffolds guided cartilaginous tissue growth in vivo, suggesting their importance in stress transmission to the cells for cartilage repair.This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through MAT2010-21611-C03-00 project (including the FEDER financial support), by Conselleria de Educacion (Generalitat Valenciana, Spain) PROMETEO/2011/084 grant, and by CIBER-BBN en Bioingenieria, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina. The work of JLGR was partially supported by funds from the Generalitat Valenciana, ACOMP/2012/075 project. CIBER-BBN is an initiative funded by the VI National R&D&i Plan 2008-2011, Iniciativa Ingenio 2010, Consolider Program, CIBER Actions and financed by the - Instituto de Salud Carlos III with assistance from the European Regional Development Fund.Sancho-Tello Valls, M.; Forriol, F.; Gastaldi, P.; Ruiz Sauri, A.; Martín De Llano, JJ.; Novella-Maestre, E.; Antolinos Turpín, CM.... (2015). 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Physical and Biological Analysis of Polymeric Substrates for Epithelial Cell Growth. Biomacromolecules, 8(8), 2429-2436. doi:10.1021/bm0703012Funayama, A., Niki, Y., Matsumoto, H., Maeno, S., Yatabe, T., Morioka, H., … Toyama, Y. (2008). Repair of full-thickness articular cartilage defects using injectable type II collagen gel embedded with cultured chondrocytes in a rabbit model. Journal of Orthopaedic Science, 13(3), 225-232. doi:10.1007/s00776-008-1220-zKitahara, S., Nakagawa, K., Sah, R. L., Wada, Y., Ogawa, T., Moriya, H., & Masuda, K. (2008). In Vivo Maturation of Scaffold-free Engineered Articular Cartilage on Hydroxyapatite. Tissue Engineering Part A, 14(11), 1905-1913. doi:10.1089/ten.tea.2006.0419Martinez-Diaz, S., Garcia-Giralt, N., Lebourg, M., Gómez-Tejedor, J.-A., Vila, G., Caceres, E., … Monllau, J. C. (2010). In Vivo Evaluation of 3-Dimensional Polycaprolactone Scaffolds for Cartilage Repair in Rabbits. 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Rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in Old World waters

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Understanding the role of seascape in shaping genetic and demographic population structure is highly challenging for marine pelagic species such as cetaceans for which there is generally little evidence of what could effectively restrict their dispersal. In the present work, we applied a combination of recent individual-based landscape genetic approaches to investigate the population genetic structure of a highly mobile extensive range cetacean, the harbour porpoise in the eastern North Atlantic, with regards to oceanographic characteristics that could constrain its dispersal.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Analyses of 10 microsatellite loci for 752 individuals revealed that most of the sampled range in the eastern North Atlantic behaves as a 'continuous' population that widely extends over thousands of kilometres with significant isolation by distance (IBD). However, strong barriers to gene flow were detected in the south-eastern part of the range. These barriers coincided with profound changes in environmental characteristics and isolated, on a relatively small scale, porpoises from Iberian waters and on a larger scale porpoises from the Black Sea.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The presence of these barriers to gene flow that coincide with profound changes in oceanographic features, together with the spatial variation in IBD strength, provide for the first time strong evidence that physical processes have a major impact on the demographic and genetic structure of a cetacean. This genetic pattern further suggests habitat-related fragmentation of the porpoise range that is likely to intensify with predicted surface ocean warming.</p

Combining self-assembling peptide gels with three-dimensional elastomer scaffolds

[EN] Some of the problems raised by the combination of porous scaffolds and self-assembling peptide (SAP) gels as constructs for tissue engineering applications are addressed for the first time. Scaffolds of poly(- ethyl acrylate) and the SAP gel RAD16-I were employed. The in situ gelation of the SAP gel inside the pores of the scaffolds was studied. The scaffold-cum-gel constructs were characterized morphologically, physicochemically and mechanically. The possibility of incorporating an active molecule (bovine serum albumin, taken here as a model molecule for others) in the gel within the scaffold’s pores was assessed, and the kinetics of its release in phosphate-buffered saline was followed. Cell seeding and colonization of these constructs were preliminarily studied with L929 fibroblasts and subsequently checked with sheep adipose-tissue-derived stem cells intended for further preclinical studies. Static (conventional) and dynamically assisted seedings were compared for bare scaffolds and the scaffold-cum-gel constructs. The SAP gel inside the pores of the scaffold significantly improved the uniformity and density of cell colonization of the three-dimensional (3-D) structure. These constructs could be of use in different advanced tissue engineering applications, where, apart from a cell-friendly extracellular matrix -like aqueous environment, a larger-scale 3-D structure able to keep the cells in a specific place, give mechanical support and/or conduct spatially the tissue growth could be required.The authors acknowledge funding through the European Commission FP7 project RECATABI (NMP3-SL-2009-229239), and from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion through projects MAT2011-28791-C03-02 and -03. Dr. J.C. Chachques (Hopital Europeen Georges Pompidou, Paris) is thanked for providing the ASCs employed in this study. MMP acknowledges support of CIBER-BBN initiative, financed by Institut de Salud Carlos III (Spain) with the assistance of the European Regional Development Fund.Vallés Lluch, A.; Arnal Pastor, MP.; Martínez Ramos, C.; Vilariño Feltrer, G.; Vikingsson, L.; Castells Sala, C.; Semino, CE.... (2013). Combining self-assembling peptide gels with three-dimensional elastomer scaffolds. Acta Biomaterialia. 9(12):9451-9460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2013.07.038S9451946091

Rare SLC13A1 variants associate with intervertebral disc disorder highlighting role of sulfate in disc pathology.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked DownloadBack pain is a common and debilitating disorder with largely unknown underlying biology. Here we report a genome-wide association study of back pain using diagnoses assigned in clinical practice; dorsalgia (119,100 cases, 909,847 controls) and intervertebral disc disorder (IDD) (58,854 cases, 922,958 controls). We identify 41 variants at 33 loci. The most significant association (ORIDD = 0.92, P = 1.6 × 10-39; ORdorsalgia = 0.92, P = 7.2 × 10-15) is with a 3'UTR variant (rs1871452-T) in CHST3, encoding a sulfotransferase enzyme expressed in intervertebral discs. The largest effects on IDD are conferred by rare (MAF = 0.07 - 0.32%) loss-of-function (LoF) variants in SLC13A1, encoding a sodium-sulfate co-transporter (LoF burden OR = 1.44, P = 3.1 × 10-11); variants that also associate with reduced serum sulfate. Genes implicated by this study are involved in cartilage and bone biology, as well as neurological and inflammatory processes.European Commission European Commission Joint Research Centre Novo Nordisk Foundation Novocure Limite

Distribution, abundance and trends in abundance of fin and humpback whales in the North Atlantic

The North Atlantic Sightings Surveys (NASS) are a series of international cetacean line transect surveys, including participation from the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway and Spain, that have been conducted in 1987, 1989, 1995 and 2001. The NASS have covered a very large area of the central and eastern North Atlantic, from East Greenland east to coastal Norway, and from Svalbard south to the Iberian peninsula. The surveys used ships and aircraft as survey platforms. Target species were minke, fin and pilot whales, but all species encountered were registered. Here we present estimates of abundance for fin and humpback whales from the Northeast and Central portions of the survey area. The estimates are negatively biased because of whales diving during the passage of the survey platform and whales being missed by observers, but these and other potential biases are likely small for these species. Fin whales occurred in highest densities in Denmark Strait west of Iceland, while humpback whales were most abundant in shelf waters east and west of Iceland. The abundance of fin whales increased in the survey area over the period, with the greatest increase observed in the waters west of Iceland. There were 29,900 (cv 0.11) fin whales in the area in 2001. There has been a great increase in the abundance of humpback whales around Iceland, but not in other areas. Aerial surveys conducted in Icelandic coastal waters indicate an annual rate of increase of 15% in this area. There were 14,900 (cv 0.26) humpback whales in the entire survey area in 2001. The observed trends are consistent with increases in abundance following the cessation of whaling in this area, but the magnitudes of the observed increases, taken at face value, are greater than expected.. For humpback whales in particular, our recent estimates are substantially higher than some estimates of pre-whaling abundance. Other factors, including differential harvesting of sub-stocks, changes in carrying capacity, immigration from other areas, the near extirpation of some other cetacean species, and operational factors in the surveys themselves, may be involved

Genetic Predisposition of the Severity of Joint Destruction in Rheumatoid Arthritis; A Population Based Study

Pathophysiology and treatment of rheumatic disease

GENETIC PREDISPOSITION OF THE SEVERITY OF JOINT DESTRUCTION IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS; A POPULATION BASED STUDY

Pathophysiology and treatment of rheumatic disease