Intravenous levosimendan-norepinephrine combination during off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting in a hemodialysis patient with severe myocardial dysfunction

This the case of a 63 year-old man with end-stage renal disease (on chronic hemodialysis), unstable angina and significantly impaired myocardial contractility with low left ventricular ejection fraction, who underwent off-pump one vessel coronary bypass surgery. Combined continuous levosimendan and norepinephrine infusion (at 0.07 μg/kg/min and 0.05 μg/kg/min respectively) started immediately after anesthesia induction and continued for 24 hours. The levosimendan/norepinephrine combination helped maintain an appropriate hemodynamic profile, thereby contributing to uneventful completion of surgery and postoperative hemodynamic stability. Although levosimendan is considered contraindicated in ESRD patients, this case report suggests that combined perioperative levosimendan/norepinephrine administration can be useful in carefully selected hemodialysis patients with impaired myocardial contractility and ongoing myocardial ischemia, who undergo off-pump myocardial revascularization surgery

A Model for the Development of the Rhizobial and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbioses in Legumes and Its Use to Understand the Roles of Ethylene in the Establishment of these two Symbioses

We propose a model depicting the development of nodulation and arbuscular mycorrhizae. Both processes are dissected into many steps, using Pisum sativum L. nodulation mutants as a guideline. For nodulation, we distinguish two main developmental programs, one epidermal and one cortical. Whereas Nod factors alone affect the cortical program, bacteria are required to trigger the epidermal events. We propose that the two programs of the rhizobial symbiosis evolved separately and that, over time, they came to function together. The distinction between these two programs does not exist for arbuscular mycorrhizae development despite events occurring in both root tissues. Mutations that affect both symbioses are restricted to the epidermal program. We propose here sites of action and potential roles for ethylene during the formation of the two symbioses with a specific hypothesis for nodule organogenesis. Assuming the epidermis does not make ethylene, the microsymbionts probably first encounter a regulatory level of ethylene at the epidermis–outermost cortical cell layer interface. Depending on the hormone concentrations there, infection will either progress or be blocked. In the former case, ethylene affects the cortex cytoskeleton, allowing reorganization that facilitates infection; in the latter case, ethylene acts on several enzymes that interfere with infection thread growth, causing it to abort. Throughout this review, the difficulty of generalizing the roles of ethylene is emphasized and numerous examples are given to demonstrate the diversity that exists in plants

Endocrine disruptors and spontaneous premature labor: a case control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Premature labor is a poorly understood condition. Estrogen is thought to play a key role and therefore the labor process may be affected by endocrine disruptors. We sought to determine whether or not an environmental toxicant, DDE, or dietary derived endocrine disruptors, daidzein and genistein, are associated with spontaneous preterm labor.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cases were defined as primiparous patients having a preterm delivery at or before 35 weeks following the spontaneous onset of labor. Controls were defined as primiparous women who delivered on the same day as the cases but at term gestation.</p> <p>Over approximately 1 year, 26 cases and 52 controls were recruited. Subjects agreed to have blood tests on day one postpartum for DDE and for the phytoestrogens genistein and daidzein.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean concentration of DDE was similar in the case and control groups: 4.29 vs 4.32 ng/g lipid p = .85. In the case group, 13/26 had detectable levels of daidzein (range 0.20 – 1.56 ng/ml) compared to 25/52 controls (range 0.21 – 3.26 ng/ml). The mean concentration of daidzein was similar in cases compared to controls: 0.30 vs .34 ng/ml p = 0.91. Of the case group,14/26 had detectable levels of genistein (range 0.20 – 2.19 ng/ml) compared to 32/52 controls (range 0.21 – 2.55 ng/ml). The mean concentration of genistein was similar in cases compared to controls: 0.39 vs 0.31 ng/ml, p = 0.61.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The serum levels of DDE in this population were found to be low.</p> <p>There appears to be no relationship between serum concentrations of DDE, daidzein, and genistein and spontaneous preterm labor in our population. The inability to identify an effect may be related to the comparatively low concentrations of DDE in our population and the rapid and variable reduction of phytoestrogens from women in labor.</p

High throughput screening of hydrolytic enzymes from termites using a natural substrate derived from sugarcane bagasse

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The description of new hydrolytic enzymes is an important step in the development of techniques which use lignocellulosic materials as a starting point for fuel production. Sugarcane bagasse, which is subjected to pre-treatment, hydrolysis and fermentation for the production of ethanol in several test refineries, is the most promising source of raw material for the production of second generation renewable fuels in Brazil. One problem when screening hydrolytic activities is that the activity against commercial substrates, such as carboxymethylcellulose, does not always correspond to the activity against the natural lignocellulosic material. Besides that, the macroscopic characteristics of the raw material, such as insolubility and heterogeneity, hinder its use for high throughput screenings.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper, we present the preparation of a colloidal suspension of particles obtained from sugarcane bagasse, with minimal chemical change in the lignocellulosic material, and demonstrate its use for high throughput assays of hydrolases using Brazilian termites as the screened organisms.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Important differences between the use of the natural substrate and commercial cellulase substrates, such as carboxymethylcellulose or crystalline cellulose, were observed. This suggests that wood feeding termites, in contrast to litter feeding termites, might not be the best source for enzymes that degrade sugarcane biomass.</p

Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Parabasalia with Improved Taxon Sampling and New Protein Markers of Actin and Elongation Factor-1α

BACKGROUND: Inferring the evolutionary history of phylogenetically isolated, deep-branching groups of taxa-in particular determining the root-is often extraordinarily difficult because their close relatives are unavailable as suitable outgroups. One of these taxonomic groups is the phylum Parabasalia, which comprises morphologically diverse species of flagellated protists of ecological, medical, and evolutionary significance. Indeed, previous molecular phylogenetic analyses of members of this phylum have yielded conflicting and possibly erroneous inferences. Furthermore, many species of Parabasalia are symbionts in the gut of termites and cockroaches or parasites and therefore formidably difficult to cultivate, rendering available data insufficient. Increasing the numbers of examined taxa and informative characters (e.g., genes) is likely to produce more reliable inferences. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Actin and elongation factor-1α genes were identified newly from 22 species of termite-gut symbionts through careful manipulations and seven cultured species, which covered major lineages of Parabasalia. Their protein sequences were concatenated and analyzed with sequences of previously and newly identified glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and the small-subunit rRNA gene. This concatenated dataset provided more robust phylogenetic relationships among major groups of Parabasalia and a more plausible new root position than those previously reported. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We conclude that increasing the number of sampled taxa as well as the addition of new sequences greatly improves the accuracy and robustness of the phylogenetic inference. A morphologically simple cell is likely the ancient form in Parabasalia as opposed to a cell with elaborate flagellar and cytoskeletal structures, which was defined as most basal in previous inferences. Nevertheless, the evolution of Parabasalia is complex owing to several independent multiplication and simplification events in these structures. Therefore, systematics based solely on morphology does not reflect the evolutionary history of parabasalids

A Central Role of Abscisic Acid in Stress-Regulated Carbohydrate Metabolism

Background: Abiotic stresses adversely affect plant growth and development. The hormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays a central role in the response and adaptation to environmental constraints. However, apart from the well established role of ABA in regulating gene expression programmes, little is known about its function in plant stress metabolism. Principal Findings: Using an integrative multiparallel approach of metabolome and transcriptome analyses, we studied the dynamic response of the model glyophyte Arabidopsis thaliana to ABA and high salt conditions. Our work shows that salt stress induces complex re-adjustment of carbohydrate metabolism and that ABA triggers the initial steps of carbon mobilisation. Significance: These findings open new perspectives on how high salinity and ABA impact on central carbohydrate metabolism and highlight the power of iterative combinatorial approaches of non-targeted and hypothesis-driven experiments in stress biology

Neurodevelopmental toxicity of prenatal polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) by chemical structure and activity: a birth cohort study

Abstract Background Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are ubiquitous environmental toxins. Although there is growing evidence to support an association between PCBs and deficits of neurodevelopment, the specific mechanisms are not well understood. The potentially different roles of specific PCB groups defined by chemical structures or hormonal activities e.g., dioxin-like, non-dioxin like, or anti-estrogenic PCBs, remain unclear. Our objective was to examine the association between prenatal exposure to defined subsets of PCBs and neurodevelopment in a cohort of infants in eastern Slovakia enrolled at birth in 2002-2004. Methods Maternal and cord serum samples were collected at delivery, and analyzed for PCBs using high-resolution gas chromatography. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development -II (BSID) were administered at 16 months of age to over 750 children who also had prenatal PCB measurements. Results Based on final multivariate-adjusted linear regression model, maternal mono-ortho-substituted PCBs were significantly associated with lower scores on both the psychomotor (PDI) and mental development indices (MDI). Also a significant association between cord mono-ortho-substituted PCBs and reduced PDI was observed, but the association with MDI was marginal (p = 0.05). Anti-estrogenic and di-ortho-substituted PCBs did not show any statistically significant association with cognitive scores, but a suggestive association between di-ortho-substituted PCBs measured in cord serum and poorer PDI was observed. Conclusion Children with higher prenatal mono-ortho-substituted PCB exposures performed more poorly on the Bayley Scales. Evidence from this and other studies suggests that prenatal dioxin-like PCB exposure, including mono-ortho congeners, may interfere with brain development in utero. Non-dioxin-like di-ortho-substituted PCBs require further investigation