Dynamic changes in gene expression and signalling during trophoblast development in the horse

Equine chorionic girdle trophoblast cells play important endocrine and immune functions critical in supporting pregnancy. Very little is known about the genes and pathways that regulate chorionic girdle trophoblast development. Our aim was to identify genes and signalling pathways active in vivo in equine chorionic girdle trophoblast within a critical 7 days window. We exploited the late implantation of the equine conceptus to obtain trophoblast tissue. An Agilent equine 44K microarray was performed using RNA extracted from Chorionic Girdle and Chorion (control) from equine pregnancy days 27, 30, 31 and 34 (n=5), corresponding to the initiation of chorionic girdle trophoblast proliferation, differentiation and migration. Data was analysed using R packages limma and maSigPro, Ingenuity Pathway Analysis and DAVID and verified using qRT-PCR, promoter analysis, western blotting and migration assays. Microarray analysis showed gene expression (absolute log FC > 2, FDR-adjusted P<0.05) was rapidly and specifically induced in the chorionic girdle between days 27 and 34 (compared to day 27, day 30=116, day 31=317, day 34=781 genes). Pathway analysis identified 35 pathways modulated during chorionic girdle development (e.g. FGF, Integrin, Rho GTPases, MAPK) including pathways that have limited description in mammalian trophoblast (e.g. IL-9, CD40 and CD28 signalling). Rho A and ERK/MAPK activity was confirmed as was a role for transcription factor ELF5 in regulation of the CGB promoter. The purity and accessibility of chorionic girdle trophoblast proved to be a powerful resource to identify candidate genes and pathways involved in early equine placental development

Disability and perceived stress in primary care patients with major depression

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is highly prevalent in the Spanish primary care (PC) setting and the leading cause of disability in Spain. The aim of this study was to evaluate several key psychometric properties of the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) in patients with or without MDD and varying degrees of symptom severity using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Method: A total of 1, 704 PC patients participating in the PsicAP clinical trial completed the SDS and PHQ-9. We evaluated the factor structure, measurement invariance across gender, internal consistency, and the discriminative and predictive validity. Results: Confirmatory factor analyses revealed a unifactorial model of the SDS containing 4 items (SDS-4) with the best model fit (CFI: .99; GFI: .99; TLI: 96; RMSEA: .10). This model contained the three life domain items (work, family, and social life) plus perceived stress (PS) with significant loadings. The internal consistency of the SDS-4 was acceptable in patients with or without MDD, regardless of symptom severity. The SDS-4 also showed good discriminative capacity and acceptable predictive validity in all subsamples. Conclusions: These findings support the use of the SDS-4 to assess depression-related disability in patients at Spanish primary care centres

Seasonal and dietary influences on adipose tissue and systemic gene expression in control and previously laminitic ponies

The aims of the study were to determine whether adipose tissue global gene expression (i) differs between never laminitic (NL) and previously laminitic (PL) ponies; (ii) is influenced by season and/or a diet designed to simulate spring grass and (iii) differences seen also occur systemically in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Subcutaneous adipose tissue and PBMCs were obtained from six NL and six PL ponies on three occasions; summer, winter (season study) and in winter after consuming a diet simulating spring grass for seven days (diet study). Adipose tissue global gene expression was determined using a 44K equine specific microarray, validated using multiplex quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) and analysed using GeneSpring software and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. PBMC gene expression was quantified using qRT-PCR. The total number of genes whose expression differed (=2-fold change, p=0.01) between PL and NL ponies was greater in summer (192 genes) compared to winter (58 genes); 40/192 genes influenced by disease in the summer were also seasonally regulated and were predominantly associated with inflammation. The genes modified by dietary intervention and PBMC gene expression did not follow the same pattern as the season study. Thus, adipose tissue global gene expression differed between NL and PL ponies most in summer compared to winter, and these differentially expressed genes predominantly related to inflammation

Unknotting the polarized vacuum of quenched QED

A knot-theoretic explanation is given for the rationality of the quenched QED beta function. At the link level, the Ward identity entails cancellation of subdivergences generated by one term of the skein relation, which in turn implies cancellation of knots generated by the other term. In consequence, each bare three-loop diagram has a rational Laurent expansion in the Landau gauge, as is verified by explicit computation. Comparable simplification is found to occur in scalar electrodynamics, when computed in the Duffin-Kemmer-Petiau formalism.Comment: 11 pages, LaTe

An electrical method to measure low-frequency collective and synchronized cell activity using extracellular electrodes

An electrical method to measure extracellular bioelectrical activity in vitro is presented. This method exploits the Helmholtz capacitive double-layer established at the electrode surface. Small extracellular voltage variations in the order of μVs induce through the double-layer capacitor a displacement current that is measured. This current is then enhanced by a gain factor proportional to the electrode capacitance. In addition, when measurements are carried out at low frequencies in current mode the electrode contribution to the noise can be minimized. The performance of the electrodes and the method is demonstrated using zebrafish hearts and glioma cell cultures. We propose that this electrical method is an ideal tool to measure in vitro slow and temporally synchronized events that are often involved in long range intracellular signaling.</p

role of female sex hormone receptors

Funding Information: Funding: This study was supported by grant IECT-FAPEMA-05796/18 and FAPEMA IECT 30/2018-IECT Saúde, by the Research Center of the Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (project no. PI86-CI-IPOP-66-2017); by European Investment Funds by FEDER/COMPETE/POCI—Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Program, and national funds by FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under projects UID/AGR/04033/2020, UIDB/CVT/00772/2020 and by Base Funding-UIDB/00511/2020 of the Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology, and Energy—LEPABE—funded by national funds through the FCT/MCTES (PID-DAC); Project 2SMART-engineered Smart materials for Smart citizens, with reference NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000054, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.A growing proportion of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OPSCC) are associated with infection by high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV). For reasons that remain largely unknown, HPV+OPSCC is significantly more common in men than in women. This study aims to determine the incidence of OPSCC in male and female HPV16-transgenic mice and to explore the role of female sex hormone receptors in the sexual predisposition for HPV+ OPSCC. The tongues of 30-weeks-old HPV16-transgenic male (n = 80) and female (n = 90) and matched wild-type male (n = 10) and female (n = 10) FVB/n mice were screened histologically for intraepithelial and invasive lesions in 2017 at the Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences (CITAB), Por-tugal. Expression of estrogen receptors alpha (ERα) and beta (ERβ), progesterone receptors (PR) and matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) was studied immunohistochemically. Collagen remodeling was studied using picrosirius red. Female mice showed robust ERα and ERβ expression in intraepithelial and invasive lesions, which was accompanied by strong MMP2 expression and marked collagen remodeling. Male mice showed minimal ERα, ERβ and MMP2 expression and unaltered collagen patterns. These results confirm the association of HPV16 with tongue base cancer in both sexes. The higher cancer incidence in female versus male mice contrasts with data from OPSCC patients and is associated with enhanced ER expression via MMP2 upregulation.publishersversionpublishe

The Fornax Cluster through S-PLUS

The Southern Photometric Local Universe Survey (S-PLUS) aims to map ≈ 9300 deg2of the southernsky using the Javalambre filter system of 12 optical bands, 5 Sloan-like filters and 7 narrow-band filters centeredon several prominent stellar features ([OII], Ca H+K, D4000, Hδ, Mgb, Hα and CaT). S-PLUS is carried outwith the T80-South, a new robotic 0.826 m telescope located on CTIO, equipped with a wide field of view camera(2 deg2). In this poster we introduce project #59 of the S-PLUS collaboration aimed at studying the Fornaxgalaxy cluster covering an sky area of ≈ 11 × 7 deg2, and with homogeneous photometry in the 12 optical bandsof S-PLUS (Coordinator: A. Smith Castelli).Fil: Smith Castelli, Analia Viviana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; ArgentinaFil: Mendez de Olivera, C.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Herpic, F.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Barbosa, C.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Escudero, Carlos Gabriel. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Grossi, M.. Observatorio de Valongo; BrasilFil: Sodré, L.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: de Bom, .. Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas; BrasilFil: Zenocratti, Lucas Jesús. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: de Rossi, Maria Emilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio. - Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio(i); ArgentinaFil: Cortesi, A.. Observatorio de Valongo; BrasilFil: Cid Fernandes, R.. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina; BrasilFil: Lopes, A.. Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología E Innovacao. Observatorio Nacional. Departamento Astronomia y Astrofísica; BrasilFil: Telles, E.. Ministério de Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacao. Observatorio Nacional; BrasilFil: Oliveira Schwarz, G. B.. Universidade Anhembi Morumbi; BrasilFil: Dantas, M. L. L.. Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center; PoloniaFil: Faifer, Favio Raúl. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; ArgentinaFil: Chies Santos, A.. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina; BrasilFil: Saponara, Juliana. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía; ArgentinaFil: Reynaldi, María Victoria. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; ArgentinaFil: Andruchow, Ileana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; ArgentinaFil: Sesto, Leandro Alberto. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Mestre, M.. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: de Amorim, A. L.. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina; BrasilFil: de Lima, E. V. R.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Abboud, J.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Cernic, V.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Souza de Almeida Garcia, I.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; Brasil62° Reunión Anual de la Asociación Argentina de AstronomíaRosarioArgentinaUniversidad Nacional de RosarioComplejo Astronómico Municipal Galileo Galile

Disentangling the mechanisms shaping the surface ocean microbiota

BACKGROUND: The ocean microbiota modulates global biogeochemical cycles and changes in its configuration may have large-scale consequences. Yet, the underlying ecological mechanisms structuring it are unclear. Here, we investigate how fundamental ecological mechanisms (selection, dispersal and ecological drift) shape the smallest members of the tropical and subtropical surface-ocean microbiota: prokaryotes and minute eukaryotes (picoeukaryotes). Furthermore, we investigate the agents exerting abiotic selection on this assemblage as well as the spatial patterns emerging from the action of ecological mechanisms. To explore this, we analysed the composition of surface-ocean prokaryotic and picoeukaryotic communities using DNA-sequence data (16S- and 18S-rRNA genes) collected during the circumglobal expeditions Malaspina-2010 and TARA-Oceans. RESULTS: We found that the two main components of the tropical and subtropical surface-ocean microbiota, prokaryotes and picoeukaryotes, appear to be structured by different ecological mechanisms. Picoeukaryotic communities were predominantly structured by dispersal-limitation, while prokaryotic counterparts appeared to be shaped by the combined action of dispersal-limitation, selection and drift. Temperature-driven selection appeared as a major factor, out of a few selected factors, influencing species co-occurrence networks in prokaryotes but not in picoeukaryotes, indicating that association patterns may contribute to understand ocean microbiota structure and response to selection. Other measured abiotic variables seemed to have limited selective effects on community structure in the tropical and subtropical ocean. Picoeukaryotes displayed a higher spatial differentiation between communities and a higher distance decay when compared to prokaryotes, consistent with a scenario of higher dispersal limitation in the former after considering environmental heterogeneity. Lastly, random dynamics or drift seemed to have a more important role in structuring prokaryotic communities than picoeukaryotic counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: The differential action of ecological mechanisms seems to cause contrasting biogeography, in the tropical and subtropical ocean, among the smallest surface plankton, prokaryotes and picoeukaryotes. This suggests that the idiosyncrasy of the main constituents of the ocean microbiota should be considered in order to understand its current and future configuration, which is especially relevant in a context of global change, where the reaction of surface ocean plankton to temperature increase is still unclear. Video Abstract