Microparticles Harboring Sonic Hedgehog Morphogen Improve the Vasculogenesis Capacity of Endothelial Progenitor Cells Derived from Myocardial Infarction Patients.

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) play a role in endothelium integrity maintenance and regeneration. Decreased numbers of EPC or their impaired function correlates with an increase in cardiovascular events. Thus, EPC are important predictors of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. Microparticles carrying Sonic hedgehog (Shh) morphogen (MPShhþ) trigger pro-angiogenic responses, both in endothelial cells and in ischaemic rodent models. Here, we propose that MPShhþ regulates EPC function, thus enhancing vasculogenesis, and correcting the defects in dysfunctional EPC obtained from acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients

Glycosylation as new pharmacological strategies for diseases associated with excessive angiogenesis

Angiogenesis is a complex process describing the growth of new blood vessels from existing vasculature, and is triggered by local pro-angiogenic factors, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which increase the metabolism of endothelial cells (ECs). Angiogenesis takes part in various physiological conditions such as embryogenesis, placental growth, and in pathological conditions such as tumor growth, diabetic retinopathy, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ischemic diseases. Current therapies against excessive angiogenesis target vascular growth signaling. However, tumors often counteract these therapies through adaptive mechanisms, thus novel alternative anti-angiogenic strategies are needed. Targeting metabolism is a new anti-angiogenic paradigm, especially through the inhibition of energy metabolism and glycosylation, with the perspective of maintaining the delicate balance between the beneficial and deleterious effects of excessive angiogenesis in patients. Recent studies described a role for EC glycolysis and its main regulator 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase 3 (PFKFB3) in the regulation of angiogenesis, but only few studies are related to the role of the hexosamine biosynthesis pathway during angiogenesis. Glycosylation allows the formation of glycoproteins, glycolipids and proteoglycans and impacts many pathways. The addition of glycans to N-linked proteins is catalyzed by the enzymatic activity of N-acetylglucosaminyltransferases (GnTs), which regulates the glycosylation status of key angiogenic factors such as VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2) and Notch. In addition, glycan-galectin (Gal) interactions regulate vascular signaling programs and may contribute to tumor adaptations to anti-angiogenic strategies. Herein, we review novel pharmacological strategies targeting glycosylation, which could be used to decrease excessive angiogenesis in pathological conditions

Energy and time resolution for a LYSO matrix prototype of the Mu2e experiment

We have measured the performances of a LYSO crystal matrix prototype tested with electron and photon beams in the energy range 60$-$450 MeV. This study has been carried out to determine the achievable energy and time resolutions for the calorimeter of the Mu2e experiment.Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures, 13th Pisa Meeting on Advanced Detector

Measurement of time resolution of the Mu2e LYSO calorimeter prototype

In this paper we present the time resolution measurements of the Lutetium–Yttrium Oxyorthosilicate (LYSO) calorimeter prototype for the Mu2e experiment. The measurements have been performed using the e− beam of the Beam Test Facility (BTF) in Frascati, Italy in the energy range from 100 to 400 MeV. The calorimeter prototype consisted of twenty five 30 x 30 x 130 mm^3, LYSO crystals read out by 10 × 10 mm^2 Hamamatsu Avalanche Photodiodes (APDs). The energy dependence of the measured time resolution can be parametrized as σ_t(E)=a/√E/GeV⊕b, with the stochastic and constant terms a=(51 ± 1)ps and b=(10 ± 4)ps, respectively. This corresponds to the time resolution of (162 ±4 )ps at 100 MeV

Characterization of a prototype for the electromagnetic calorimeter of the Mu2e experiment

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab searches the neutrinoless conversion of the muon into electron in the field of an Aluminum nucleus. The observation of this process would be a proof of the Charged Lepton Flavor Violation (CLFV). In case of no observation, the upper limit will be set to Rμe < 6×10−17 @ 90% CL, improving by a factor of 4 the previous best determination. The Mu2e detector apparatus consists of a straw tubes tracker that will measure the electrons momentum, and an electromagnetic calorimeter that provides a tracking-independent measurement of the electron energy, time and position. In this paper, we describe the baseline project of the EMC and present results in terms of performances and R&D

Microparticles Carrying Sonic Hedgehog Favor Neovascularization through the Activation of Nitric Oxide Pathway in Mice

BACKGROUND: Microparticles (MPs) are vesicles released from plasma membrane upon cell activation and during apoptosis. Human T lymphocytes undergoing activation and apoptosis generate MPs bearing morphogen Shh (MPs(Shh+)) that are able to regulate in vitro angiogenesis.METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we investigated the ability of MPs(Shh+) to modulate neovascularization in a model of mouse hind limb ischemia. Mice were treated in vivo for 21 days with vehicle, MPs(Shh+), MPs(Shh+) plus cyclopamine or cyclopamine alone, an inhibitor of Shh signalling. Laser doppler analysis revealed that the recovery of the blood flow was 1.4 fold higher in MPs(Shh+)-treated mice than in controls, and this was associated with an activation of Shh pathway in muscles and an increase in NO production in both aorta and muscles. MPs(Shh+)-mediated effects on flow recovery and NO production were completely prevented when Shh signalling was inhibited by cyclopamine. In aorta, MPs(Shh+) increased activation of eNOS/Akt pathway, and VEGF expression, being inhibited by cyclopamine. By contrast, in muscles, MPs(Shh+) enhanced eNOS expression and phosphorylation and decreased caveolin-1 expression, but cyclopamine prevented only the effects of MPs(Shh+) on eNOS pathway. Quantitative RT-PCR revealed that MPs(Shh+) treatment increased FGF5, FGF2, VEGF A and C mRNA levels and decreased those of α5-integrin, FLT-4, HGF, IGF-1, KDR, MCP-1, MT1-MMP, MMP-2, TGFβ1, TGFβ2, TSP-1 and VCAM-1, in ischemic muscles. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These findings suggest that MPs(Shh+) may contribute to reparative neovascularization after ischemic injury by regulating NO pathway and genes involved in angiogenesis

Design and construction of the MicroBooNE Cosmic Ray Tagger system

The MicroBooNE detector utilizes a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) with an 85 t active mass to study neutrino interactions along the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) at Fermilab. With a deployment location near ground level, the detector records many cosmic muon tracks in each beam-related detector trigger that can be misidentified as signals of interest. To reduce these cosmogenic backgrounds, we have designed and constructed a TPC-external Cosmic Ray Tagger (CRT). This sub-system was developed by the Laboratory for High Energy Physics (LHEP), Albert Einstein center for fundamental physics, University of Bern. The system utilizes plastic scintillation modules to provide precise time and position information for TPC-traversing particles. Successful matching of TPC tracks and CRT data will allow us to reduce cosmogenic background and better characterize the light collection system and LArTPC data using cosmic muons. In this paper we describe the design and installation of the MicroBooNE CRT system and provide an overview of a series of tests done to verify the proper operation of the system and its components during installation, commissioning, and physics data-taking

A Deep Neural Network for Pixel-Level Electromagnetic Particle Identification in the MicroBooNE Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber

We have developed a convolutional neural network (CNN) that can make a pixel-level prediction of objects in image data recorded by a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) for the first time. We describe the network design, training techniques, and software tools developed to train this network. The goal of this work is to develop a complete deep neural network based data reconstruction chain for the MicroBooNE detector. We show the first demonstration of a network's validity on real LArTPC data using MicroBooNE collection plane images. The demonstration is performed for stopping muon and a $\nu_\mu$ charged current neutral pion data samples