Dsg2 Upregulation as a Rescue Mechanism in Pemphigus

In pemphigus vulgaris (PV), autoantibodies directed against the desmosomal cadherin desmoglein (Dsg) 3 cause loss of intercellular adhesion. It is known that Dsg3 interactions are directly inhibited by autoantibody binding and that Dsg2 is upregulated in epidermis of PV patients. Here, we investigated whether heterophilic Dsg2-Dsg3 interactions occur and would modulate PV pathogenesis. Dsg2 was upregulated in PV patients’ biopsies and in a human ex vivo pemphigus skin model. Immunoprecipitation and cell-free atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments demonstrated heterophilic Dsg2-Dsg3 interactions. Similarly, in Dsg3-deficient keratinocytes with severely disturbed intercellular adhesion Dsg2 was upregulated in the desmosome containing fraction. AFM revealed that Dsg2-Dsg3 heterophilic interactions showed binding frequency, strength, Ca2+-dependency and catch-bond behavior comparable to homophilic Dsg3-Dsg3 or homophilic Dsg2-Dsg2 interactions. However, heterophilic Dsg2-Dsg3 interactions had a longer lifetime compared to homophilic Dsg2-Dsg2 interactions and PV autoantibody-induced direct inhibition was significantly less pronounced for heterophilic Dsg2-Dsg3 interactions compared to homophilic Dsg3 interactions. In contrast, a monoclonal anti-Dsg2 inhibitory antibody reduced heterophilic Dsg2-Dsg3 and homophilic Dsg2-Dsg2 binding to the same degree and further impaired intercellular adhesion in Dsg3-deficient keratinocytes. Taken together, the data demonstrate that Dsg2 undergoes heterophilic interactions with Dsg3, which may attenuate autoantibody-induced loss of keratinocyte adhesion in pemphigus

Current oscillations in a metallic ring threaded by a time-dependent magnetic flux

We study a mesoscopic metallic ring threaded by a magnetic flux which varies linearly in time PhiM(t)=Phi t with a formalism based in Baym-Kadanoff-Keldysh non-equilibrium Green functions. We propose a method to calculate the Green functions in real space and we consider an experimental setup to investigate the dynamics of the ring by recourse to a transport experiment. This consists in a single lead connecting the ring to a particle reservoir. We show that different dynamical regimes are attained depending on the ratio hbar Phi/Phi0 W, being Phi0=h c/e and W, the bandwidth of the ring. For moderate lengths of the ring, a stationary regime is achieved for hbar Phi/Phi0 >W. In the opposite case with hbar Phi/Phi0 < W, the effect of Bloch oscillations driven by the induced electric field manifests itself in the transport properties of the system. In particular, we show that in this time-dependent regime a tunneling current oscillating in time with a period tau=2piPhi0/Phi can be measured in the lead. We also analyze the resistive effect introduced by inelastic scattering due to the coupling to the external reservoir.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figure

Bloch oscillations, Zener tunneling and Wannier-Stark ladders in the time-domain

We present a time-domain analysis of carrier dynamics in a semiconductor superlattice with two minibands. Integration of the density-matrix equations of motion reveals a number of new features: (i) for certain values of the applied static electric field strong interband transitions occur; (ii) in static fields the complex time-dependence of the density-matrix displays a sequence of stable plateaus in the low field regime, and (iii) for applied fields with a periodic time-dependence the dynamic response can be understood in terms of the quasienergy spectra.Comment: 4 pages, 6 PostScript figures available from [email protected], REVTEX 3.

Super Bloch oscillations in the Peyrard-Bishop-Holstein model

Recently, polarons in the Peyrard-Bishop-Holstein model under DC electric fields were established to perform Bloch oscillations, provided the charge-lattice coupling is not large. In this work, we study this model when the charge is subjected to an applied field with both DC and AC components. Similarly to what happens in the rigid lattice, we find that the carrier undergoes a directed motion or coherent oscillations when the AC field is resonant or detuned with respect to the Bloch frequency, respectively. The electric density current and its Fourier spectrum are also studied to reveal the frequencies involved in the polaron dynamics

Schrodinger cat states prepared by Bloch oscillation in a spin-dependent optical lattice

We propose to use Bloch oscillation of ultra-cold atoms in a spin-dependent optical lattice to prepare schrodinger cat states. Depending on its internal state, an atom feels different periodic potentials and thus has different energy band structures for its center-of-mass motion. Consequently, under the same gravity force, the wave packets associated with different internal states perform Bloch oscillation of different amplitudes in space and in particular they can be macroscopically displaced with respect to each other. In this way, a cat state can be prepared.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; slightly modifie

Superfluid Dynamics of a Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Periodic Potential

We investigate the superfluid properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped in a one dimensional periodic potential. We study, both analytically (in the tight binding limit) and numerically, the Bloch chemical potential, the Bloch energy and the Bogoliubov dispersion relation, and we introduce {\it two} different, density dependent, effective masses and group velocities. The Bogoliubov spectrum predicts the existence of sound waves, and the arising of energetic and dynamical instabilities at critical values of the BEC quasi-momentum which dramatically affect its coherence properties. We investigate the dependence of the dipole and Bloch oscillation frequencies in terms of an effective mass averaged over the density of the condensate. We illustrate our results with several animations obtained solving numerically the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, movies and published paper available at http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1367-2630/5/1/11

Effects of impurity scattering on electron-phonon resonances in semiconductor superlattice high-field transport

A non-equilibrium Green's function method is applied to model high-field quantum transport and electron-phonon resonances in semiconductor superlattices. The field-dependent density of states for elastic (impurity) scattering is found non-perturbatively in an approach which can be applied to both high and low electric fields. I-V curves, and specifically electron-phonon resonances, are calculated by treating the inelastic (LO phonon) scattering perturbatively. Calculations show how strong impurity scattering suppresses the electron-phonon resonance peaks in I-V curves, and their detailed sensitivity to the size, strength and concentration of impurities.Comment: 7 figures, 1 tabl