Hypoxia enhances the tissue protective effect of erythropoietin and its analogues in an endothelial cell injury model

PO has tissue protective activities in ischemic disease but also has prothrombotic, erythropoietic effects. Carbamylated EPO (CEPO) retains the protective actions without the erythropoietic effects. To assess the potential of these molecules in atherosclerosis (an ischemic heart disease), we investigated EPO and CEPO in an in vitro model of injury using bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC) in hypoxia and normoxia.. BAECs were grown to confluence in 10% FBS in 12 well culture plates. They were then cultured under normoxia (21% oxygen) or hypoxia (5% oxygen) 24 h prior to their use in an injury model using the ‘scratch assay.’ The effects of EPO and CEPO on endothelial closure were assessed using a range of concentrations (0-10 ng/mL). In separate experiments, the effects of EPO and CEPO on BAEC proliferation and chemotaxis were also assessed under similar hypoxic conditions. Gene expression of the receptors that may be involved in their protective pathway [EPOR and the β common chain receptor (βCR)] were assessed using quantitative PCR. The effects of both EPO and CEPO were enhanced under hypoxic conditions (13 ± 2.6 %, and 10 ± 1.69 %, p0.05). Whilst, the expression of EPOR gene increased by 2.1 ± 0.8 folds (p<0.05) In hypoxia, βCR expression was not affected by the change in oxygen tension. The effects of EPO and CEPO in the scratch assay appeared to be mediated by enhancing cell proliferation and migration of BAECs (p<0.05). In conclusion, the enhanced effects of EPO and CEPO on endothelial cells under hypoxia requires further investigation in processes in which hypoxia may play a role, e.gfor example. in atherogenesis and re-stensosis following angioplasty

A sureth version of the east-syriac dialogue poem of mary and the gardener

In the present paper, a Sureth version is published of the dialogue poem of Mary and the Gardener. As a first attempt to reconstruct the history of this text, the poetic version in the vernacular is compared with five manuscript witnesses of the Classical Syriac original. The poem is presented as part of an intertextual web of Classical Syriac hymns for Easter and Pentecost that are preserved in late liturgical collections and appear to be narrative and rhetorical expansions of John 20:11-17. Formal and thematic parallels to the poem are then found in the broader framework of Christian and Jewish hymnography written in varieties of Late Aramaic

Simon Magus and Simon Peter in Rome. The Sureth Version of a Late East-Syriac Hymn for the Commemoration of Saints Peter and Paul

A Sureth (Christian North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic) version of an East-Syriac hymn on Simon Magus and Simon Peter in Rome and its late Classical Syriac Vorlage are here published for the first time. The text is part of a small group of hymns on Peter and Rome that belong to the East Syriac liturgy for the commemoration of Saints Peter and Paul. The episode of the public contest and specific narrative details derive from the Syriac History of Simon Cephas, the Chief of the Apostles. These narrative and poetic texts on Peter have their ultimate roots in literary works, such as the Acts of Peter and the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions, that circulated in various languages from the Antiquity onwards and forms the genuine lore of Christian culture, in Europe as well as in Africa and the Near East. More or less consciously adopting a rather narrow-minded, confessional point of view, we are used to label as apocryphal this kind of foundational Christian literature. An attempt is made to contextualize the two versions of the hymn and their text transmission in the histories of both Classical Syriac and Sureth literatures

A Sureth Version of the East-Syriac Dialogue Poem of Mary and the Gardener

In the present paper, a Sureth version is published of the dialogue poem of Mary and the Gardener. As a first attempt to reconstruct the history of this text, the poetic version in the vernacular is compared with five manuscript witnesses of the Classical Syriac original. The poem is presented as part of an intertextual web of Classical Syriac hymns for Easter and Pentecost that are preserved in late liturgical collections and appear to be narrative and rhetorical expansions of John 20:11-17. Formal and thematic parallels to the poem are then found in the broader framework of Christian and Jewish hymnography written in varieties of Late Aramaic