Lynchburg HeadStart Vision Screening Initiative

Graduate Applie

Area at risk and infarct size.

<p>Area at Risk (AAR) in IgG-Fc-treated hearts was not different from ephrinA1-Fc-treated hearts whereas infarct size was 46% smaller in the ephrinA1-Fc-treated group (*p< 0.05) compared to the IgG-Fc group.</p

Western blots of markers for apoptosis, autophagy, fatty acid metabolism, and glycolysis in left ventricular homogenates of control, IgG-Fc-treated, and ephrinA1-Fc-treated mouse hearts at 24hrs.

<p>(a)The ratio of bcl2/bax increased 2-fold and HSP20 increased by 35%, both of which are indicative of reduced apoptosis in ephrinA1-Fc treated mouse hearts compared to IgG-Fc. (b) The ratios of LC3II/LC3I increased 28% and pmTOR/mTOR decreased by 31%, indicating increased autophagy in ephrinA1-Fc relative to IgG-Fc-treated mouse hearts. (c) Decreased CD36 and MCD in ephrinA1-Fc-treated mice by 35% and 70% respectively compared to IgG-Fc treated mice is suggestive of reduced deleterious fatty acid accumulation and increased (d) PGAM2 and PDK2 by 26% and 33% respectively indicate altered glycolytic flux. *p<0.05 compared to control, ** p<0.05 compared to IgG-Fc, ^† p<0.01 compared to control, †† p<0.01 compared to IgG = Fc, ‡ p<0.001 compared to control, ‡‡ p<0.001 compared to IgG-Fc.</p

Inflammatory infiltrate in the infarct zone of IgG-Fc and ephrinA1-Fc treated mouse hearts and serum CXCL1 at 24hrs.

<p>The density of positively stained (A) Ly6G+ neutrophils and (B) CD45+ macrophages (methyl green stained nuclei completely surrounded by dark brown DAB staining) was decreased by 33% and 40% respectively in ephrinA1-Fc-treated compared to IgG-Fc-treated hearts. (C) CXCL1 in serum of ephrinA1-Fc-treated mice was significantly decreased by 39% compared to IgG-Fc-treated mice. *p<0.001 compared to control, ^†p<0.01 compared to control, ^‡ p<0.05 compared to IgG-Fc.</p

Loss of ARID1A/BAF250a-expression in endometriosis: a biomarker for risk of carcinogenic transformation?

Mutations of the tumor-suppressor gene ARID1A result in the loss of protein expression of the BRG-associated factor 250a (BAF250a), a large subunit of transcription-regulating Human SWI/SNF complexes, which have an important role in the control of cell proliferation and tumor suppression. ARID1A mutations are particularly frequent in endometriosis-associated ovarian clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas, and were recently described as a possible key mechanism and early step in the transformation of endometriosis into cancer. Here, we examined the immunohistochemical expression pattern of BAF250a in a tissue microarray including 74 endometriosis and 30 endometrium samples. Ovarian cancer samples (n=136) served as a control. Epithelial BAF250a expression was assessable in 90/104 (87%) and stromal BAF250a expression in 95/104 (91%) of the endometriosis, and endometrium cases due to lack of adequate tissue in some spots. Complete lack of BAF250a expression was observed in three endometriomas (n=3/20, 15%) and one deep-infiltrating endometriosis sample (n=1/22, 5%), but in none of the peritoneal endometriosis (n=0/16) and eutopic endometrium samples (n=0/30). A comparison of the mean immunoreactivity scores revealed a significantly lower expression rate of BAF250a in endometriomas compared with normal endometrium (P<0.0005), as well as peritoneal (P=0.003) and deep-infiltrating endometriosis (P=0.02). Our data demonstrates that a complete loss of BAF250a expression is observable in some endometriotic lesions, especially in endometriomas. In addition, we report that a partial loss of BAF250a expression is occurring in the form of cell clusters indicating a clonal loss of BAF250a expression in these cells. The loss of expression of the tumor-suppressor protein BAF250a in some endometriomas possibly indicates a risk of malignant transformation in these cases, which could be of importance in the determination of individual treatment strategies. However, its role and value as a prognostic parameter in endometriosis needs to be further studied.Modern Pathology advance online publication, 3 February 2012; doi:10.1038/modpathol.2011.217

EphrinA1-Fc attenuates myocardial ischemia/ reperfusion injury in mice

EphrinA1, a membrane-bound receptor tyrosine kinase ligand expressed in healthy car- diomyocytes, is lost in injured cells following myocardial infarction. Previously, we have reported that a single intramyocardial injection of chimeric ephrinA1-Fc at the time of ische- mia reduced injury in the nonreperfused myocardium by 50% at 4 days post-MI by reducing apoptosis and inflammatory cell infiltration. In a clinically relevant model of acute ischemia (30min)/reperfusion (24hr or 4 days) injury, we now demonstrate that ephrinA1-Fc reduces infarct size by 46% and completely preserves cardiac function (ejection fraction, fractional shortening, and chamber dimensions) in the short-term (24hrs post-MI) as well as long-term (4 days). At 24 hours post-MI, diminished serum inflammatory cell chemoattractants in ephrinA1-Fc-treated mice reduces recruitment of neutrophils and leukocytes into the myo- cardium. Differences in relative expression levels of EphA-Rs are described in the context of their putative role in mediating cardioprotection. Validation by Western blotting of selected targets from mass spectrometry analyses of pooled samples of left ventricular tissue ho- mogenates from mice that underwent 30min ischemia and 24hr of reperfusion (I/R) indicates that ephrinA1-Fc administration alters several regulators of signaling pathways that attenu- ate apoptosis, promote autophagy, and shift from FA metabolism in favor of increased gly- colysis to optimize anaerobic ATP production. Taken together, reduced injury is due a combination of adaptive metabolic reprogramming, improved cell survival, and decreased inflammatory cell recruitment, suggesting that ephrinA1-Fc enhances the capacity of the heart to withstand an ischemic insult