Development of Murine Hepatic NK Cells during Ontogeny: Comparison with Spleen NK Cells

The phenotype of developing liver NK cells (CD3−NK1.1+) was investigated during mouse ontogeny comparing with spleen NK cells. The highest percentage of hepatic CD27−CD11b− NK cells occurred at the fetal stage. After birth, the percentage of CD27−CD11b−NK cells in both the liver and spleen gradually decreased to their lowest level at 6 weeks. More CD27+CD11b−NK cells were detected in the liver than that in spleen from week 1 to 6. Expression of NKG2A on liver NK cells was decreased but still much higher than that of spleen NK cells after 1 week. The NKG2D expression on liver NK cells increased to its highest level and was significantly higher than on spleen NK cells till 4 weeks. During mouse ontogeny, weaker expression of NKp46 and CD2 and stronger expression of CD69, CD11c, 2B4, and CD73 were observed on liver NK cells. Furthermore, neonatal liver NK cells express higher IFN-γ and perforin than adult .These results suggest that the maturation process of NK cells is unique in the livers, and liver microenvironments might play critical roles to keep NK cells in an immature status

Diagnostic utility of LunX mRNA in peripheral blood and pleural fluid in patients with primary non-small cell lung cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Progress in lung cancer is hampered by the lack of clinically useful diagnostic markers. The goal of this study was to provide a detailed evaluation of lung cancer tumor markers indicative of molecular abnormalities and to assess their diagnostic utility in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Quantitative real-time RT-PCR was used to determine <it>LunX, CK19, CEA, VEGF-C </it>and <it>hnRNP A2/B1 </it>mRNA levels in peripheral blood and pleural fluid from NSCLC patients, compared with those from patients with other epithelial cancer (esophagus cancer and breast cancer), benign lung disease (pneumonia and tuberculo pleurisy) and from healthy volunteers.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In peripheral blood <it>LunX </it>mRNA was detectable in 75.0% (33/44) of patients with NSCLC, but not in patients with other epithelial cancer (0/28), benign lung disease (0/10) or in healthy volunteers (0/15). In contrast, all other genetic markers were detected in patients with either NSCLC, other epithelia cancer or benign lung disease, and in healthy volunteers. The expression level and positive rate of <it>LunX </it>mRNA in peripheral blood correlated with the pathologic stage of NSCLC (P < 0.001 and P = 0.010 respectively). Furthermore, <it>LunX </it>mRNA was detected in 92.9% (13/14) of malignant pleural fluid samples and was the only marker whose expression level was significantly different between malignant and benign pleural fluid (P < 0.001). Additionally, expression of <it>LunX </it>mRNA in the peripheral blood of NSCLC patients decreased shortly after clinical treatment (P = 0.005).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Of several commonly used genetic markers, <it>LunX </it>mRNA is the most specific gene marker for lung cancer and has potential diagnostic utility when measured in the peripheral blood and pleural fluid of NSCLC patients.</p

Prediction of persistency for day 305 of lactation at the moment of the insemination decision

When deciding on the voluntary waiting period of an individual cow, it might be useful to have insight into the persistency for the remainder of that lactation at the moment of the insemination decision, especially for farmers who consider persistency in their reproduction management. Currently, breeding values for persistency are calculated for dairy cows but, to our knowledge, prediction models to accurately predict persistency at different moments of insemination are lacking. This study aimed to predict lactation persistency for DIM 305 at different insemination moments (DIM 50, 75, 100, and 125). Available cow and herd level data from 2005 to 2022 were collected for a total of 20,508 cows from 85 herds located in the Netherlands and Belgium. Lactation curve characteristics were estimated for every daily record using the data up to and including that day. Persistency was defined as the number of days it takes for the milk production to decrease by half during the declining stage of lactation, and calculated from the estimated lactation curve characteristic ‘decay’. Four linear regression models for each of the selected insemination moment were built separately to predict decay at DIM 305 (decay-305). Independent variables included the lactation curve characteristics at the selected insemination moment, daily milk yield, age, calving season, parity group and other herd variables. The average decay-305 of primiparous cows was lower than that of multiparous cows (1.55 *10−3 vs. 2.41*10−3, equivalent to a persistency of 447 vs. 288 days, respectively). Results showed that our models had limitations in accurately predicting persistency, although predictions improved slightly at later insemination moments, with R2 values ranging between 0.27 and 0.41. It can thus be concluded that, based only on cow and herd milk production information, accurate prediction of persistency for DIM 305 is not feasible

Effect of Metformin on Lactate Metabolism in Normal Hepatocytes under High Glucose Stress in Vitro

Objective To study the effect of metformin on lactate metabolism in hepatocytes in vitro under high glucose stress. In vitro LO2 cells, liver cells were randomly divided into blank control group, 25 tendency/L glucose solution, 27 tendency/L glucose solution,29 tendency/L glucose solution, 31 tendency/L glucose solution, 33 tendency/L glucose solution,35 tendency/L glucose solution treatment group, the optimal concentration of 31 tendency after L, use 30 tendency for L metformin solution, and then divided into blank control group, the optimal concentration of glucose solution, normal liver cells + metformin solution normal liver cells. The optimal concentration of glucose solution normal liver cells + metformin solution respectively in the 12 h, 24 h,48 h on cell count plate to calculate the number of liver cells, and using lactic acid determination kit the optimal concentration of glucose solution + normal liver cells and normal liver cells + the optimal concentration of glucose solution + metformin solution respectively in the 12 h, 24 h, 48 h of cell cultures of lactic acid value. There was no significant change in the lactic acid concentration but significant increase in the number of surviving hepatocytes in the highglycemic control group compared with that in the high-glycemic control group without metformin. Metformin has no significant effect on lactic acid metabolism of hepatocytes under high glucose stress in vitro, and has a protective effect on hepatocytes under high glucose stress. Based on this,it is preliminarily believed that metformin is not the direct factor leading to diabetic lactic acidosis

Herd level economic comparison between the shape of the lactation curve and 305 d milk production

Herd milk production performance is generally evaluated using the herd's average 305-day milk production (HM305). Economic comparisons between herds are also often made using HM305. Comparing herds is thus based on summarized milk production, and not on the form of the lactation curves of the cows within the herd. Cow lactation curve characteristics can be aggregated on a calendar year basis to herd lactation curve characteristics (HLCC) (herd magnitude, herd time to peak yield and herd persistency). Thus far, no literature has evaluated whether the shape of the lactation curve (described by HLCC) is better able to explain the economic variation of herds than summarized milk production such as HM305 does. This study aims to determine whether HM305 or HLCC is better able to explain the variation in economic performance between herds. To do so, we evaluated 8 years of Dutch longitudinal data on milk production and the financial accounts of 1,664 herds. Cow lactation curve characteristics were calculated through lactation curve modeling and aggregated to HLCC on a calendar year basis for two parity groups (primiparous cows and multiparous cows). Using income over feed cost per cow (IOFC-cow) or per 100 kg milk (IOFC-milk) as the dependent variable separately, we developed four linear mixed models. Two models were used to analyse the association between herd economic performance and HLCC; the other two models were used to analyse the association between herd economic performance and HM305. A Cox test and J test were used to compare two non-nested models to investigate whether HM305 or HLCC better explain IOFC. The average IOFC-cow was €2,305 (SD = 408) per year, while the average IOFC-milk was €32.1 (SD = 4.6). Results showed that HLCC and HM305 explain the same amount of variance of IOFC-cow or IOFC-milk. IOFC-cow was associated with HM305 and HLCC (except herd time to peak yield for primiparous cows). Herd magnitude was most strongly associated with IOFC-cow, followed by herd persistency and herd time to peak yield of multiparous cows. IOFC-milk was not associated with HM305 or HLCC (except for a weak negative association with herd persistency for primiparous cows). IOFC-cow and IOFC-milk were driven most by time effects. In conclusion, HLCC and HM305 explain the same amount of variance in IOFC-cow or IOFC-milk. HLCC is more computationally expensive, while HM305 is more readily available

Optimal Power Allocation for Integrated Visible Light Positioning and Communication System with a Single LED-Lamp

In this paper, we investigate an integrated visible light positioning and communication (VLPC) system with a single LED-lamp. First, by leveraging the fact that the VLC channel model is a function of the receiver's location, we propose a system model that estimates the channel state information (CSI) based on the positioning information without transmitting pilot sequences. Second, we derive the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) on the positioning error variance and a lower bound on the achievable rate with on-off keying modulation. Third, based on the derived performance metrics, we optimize the power allocation to minimize the CRLB, while satisfying the rate outage probability constraint. To tackle this non-convex optimization problem, we apply the worst-case distribution of the Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) and the block coordinate descent (BCD) methods to obtain the feasible solutions. Finally, the effects of critical system parameters, such as outage probability, rate threshold, total power threshold, are revealed by numerical results.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, accepted by IEEE Transactions on Communication

CD4+ T Cells Play a Critical Role in Microbiota-Maintained Anti-HBV Immunity in a Mouse Model

The ability of the host to clear hepatitis B virus (HBV) is closely correlated to the establishment of commensal microbiota. However, how microbiota affects anti-HBV immunity is still unclear. Using a well-known hydrodynamical HBV transfection mouse model and treatment with antibiotics (Atb), we explored the change in adaptive immunity (CD4+ cells, germinal center B cells and anti-HBs Ab). In our setting, normal mice exhibited complete clearance of HBV within 6 weeks post-hydrodynamic injection (HDI) of HBV-containing plasmid, whereas Atb-treated mice lost this capacity, showing high serum level of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) without hepatitis B surface antibodies (anti-HBs), similar as what happened in Rag1−/− mice or CD4−/− mice, suggesting that microbiota may influence the function of CD4+ T cells. Furthermore, the numbers of splenic and hepatic effector CD4+ T cells (CD44hiCD62L−CD4+ T cells) both decreased with impaired function (IFN-γ synthesis), resulting in lower frequency of germinal center B cells and CD4+ follicular helper T cells, and impaired anti-HBs production. We further tried to find the bacterial species responsible for maintaining anti-HBV immunity, and found that each antibiotic alone could not significantly influence HBV clearance compared to antibiotic combination, suggesting that global commensal microbial load is critical for promoting HBV clearance. We also confirmed that TLRs (e.g., TLR2, 4, 9) are not major players in immune clearance of HBV using their agonists and knock-out mice. These results suggest that commensal microbiota play an important role in maintaining CD4+ T cell immunity against HBV infection

Activation of TLR Signaling in Sensitization-Recruited Inflammatory Monocytes Attenuates OVA-Induced Allergic Asthma

The activation of Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling is widely reported to be involved in preventing the development of allergic asthma. However, the mechanism of the protective function of TLR signaling remains limited. Here, we studied the mouse model of ovalbumin (OVA)-induced allergic asthma and found that deficiency of TLR signaling or activating TLR signaling with agonist would aggravate or attenuate OVA-induced allergic asthma, respectively, and TLR signaling-mediated protective effect mainly affected the sensitization phase. After OVA/alum sensitization, neutrophils and inflammatory monocytes were recruited into peritoneal cavity and up-regulated TLRs expression. However, adoptive transfer of inflammatory monocytes but not peritoneal macrophages or neutrophils induced allergic symptoms in recipient mice after OVA challenge even without OVA/alum sensitization, and treating the inflammatory monocytes with TLR agonist in vitro before transfer could abolish this effect, indicating that recruited inflammatory monocytes played a determinant role in OVA-induced allergic asthma, and activation of TLR signaling in them could attenuate allergic symptoms. Finally, we found that activation of TLR signaling could increase the expression of T-helper (Th) 1-associated cytokines in inflammatory monocytes. Our results suggest that activation of TLR signaling in sensitization-recruited inflammatory monocytes attenuates OVA-induced allergic asthma by promoting the expression of Th1-associated cytokines

Differential Regulation of Morphology and Estrogen Receptor-Alpha Expression in the Vagina of Ovariectomized Adult Virgin Rats by Estrogen Replacement: A Histological Study

Background. To determine the exact role of estrogen in vaginal tissue morphology and estrogen receptor-alpha (ERα) distribution in the vagina, which remains controversial. Methods. Sixty rats were randomly categorized: sham-operated (sham), ovariectomy (OVX), and four estradiol treatments (estradiol valerate at 0.4, 0.8, 1.6, and 3.2 mg/kg/day) for 2 weeks. Thereafter, vaginal samples were biopsied from the distal- and proximal-half portions. The percentage of ERα-immunoreactive cells and the ERα score were quantified using immunohistochemistry to assess changes in ERα expression and distribution. Results. OVX induced significant vaginal atrophy and organic index. Estrogen-replacement therapy (ERT) reversed vaginal atrophy. The vaginal distal-half areas showed lower ERα% than the proximal-half areas. The ERα% increased sharply 4 weeks after OVX, especially in the epithelial layer (P=0.023). ERT elicited different degrees of reductions in tissues after the 2-week treatment, but the ERα% in only the epithelium recovered in parallel with that in the sham group (P=0.001). The OVX group showed higher ERα histological scores than the sham group, and the distal-half area changed more evidently than the proximal-half area. ERα expression was nearly unchanged after ERT (P>0.05). Conclusions. ERT is effective for treating obesity and vulvovaginal atrophy caused by hypoestrogenism and advancing age in menopausal women but cannot recover the distribution and expression of ERα

Genome-wide analysis and identification of stress-responsive genes of the CCCH zinc finger family in Capsicum annuum L.

The CCCH zinc finger gene family encodes a class of proteins that can bind to both DNA and RNA, and an increasing number of studies have demonstrated that the CCCH gene family plays a key role in growth and development and responses to environmental stress. Here, we identified 57 CCCH genes in the pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) genome and explored the evolution and function of the CCCH gene family in C. annuum. Substantial variation was observed in the structure of these CCCH genes, and the number of exons ranged from one to fourteen. Analysis of gene duplication events revealed that segmental duplication was the main driver of gene expansion in the CCCH gene family in pepper. We found that the expression of CCCH genes was significantly up-regulated during the response to biotic and abiotic stress, especially cold and heat stress, indicating that CCCH genes play key roles in stress responses. Our results provide new information on CCCH genes in pepper and will aid future studies of the evolution, inheritance, and function of CCCH zinc finger genes in pepper