[Evaluation of carotid plaque neovascularization in carotid stenosis by contrast-enhanced ultrasound]

Objective: The identification of neovascularization in carotid plaque in carotid artery stenosis by contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) provides other risk markers for stroke besides carotid artery stenosis -intraplaque neovascularization. Methods: From January 2017 to September 2017, 40 patients with carotid atherosclerosis plaque were examined by contrast-enhanced ultrasound in China-Japanese Friendship Hospital. The enhancement intensity (EI) measured by contrast-enhanced ultrasound was compared with the micro-vessel density (MVD) measured by histopathology after carotid endarterectomy (CEA). Contrast-enhanced ultrasound was used to observe whether there was enhancement in the plaque and the enhancement was divided into 0-2 grades. The EI in plaque, the ratio of EI in plaque to EI in carotid artery lumen were calculated by time intensity curve quantitative analysis software. Pathological sections of carotid plaques after CEA were stained with CD34 and neovascularization density was measured. Results: There were significant differences in age, EI1, EI1/EI2 and CD34 among patients with different grades of plaque enhancement (P<0.05), but no significant differences in gender and EI2 (P>0.05). The density of neovascularization obtained by CD34 staining was highly positively correlated with EI1 (r=0.836, P<0.001), EI1/EI2 (r=0.955, P<0.001), but not with age (r=0.066, P=0.684), EI2 (r=0.159, P=0.328). Conclusions: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound can observe the neovascularization in carotid plaque, which is a simple and non-invasive method to evaluate the stability of carotid plaque. CEUS may also help to extract features of vulnerable plaques, such as acute intraplaque hemorrhage.

Hypoxia improves hair inductivity of dermal papilla cells via nuclear NADPH oxidase 4-mediated reactive oxygen species generation'

BACKGROUND

Dermal papilla cells (DPCs) play a key role in hair regeneration and morphogenesis. Therefore, tremendous efforts have been made to promote DPC hair inductivity.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to investigate the mitogenic and hair inductive effects of hypoxia on DPCs and examine the underlying mechanism of hypoxia-induced stimulation of DPCs.

METHODS

DPCs' hair inductivity was examined under normoxia (20% O₂ ) and hypoxia (2% O₂ ).

RESULTS

Hypoxia significantly increased the proliferation and delayed senescence of DPCs via Akt phosphorylation and downstream pathways. Hypoxia upregulated growth factor secretion of DPCs through the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. Hypoxia-preconditioned DPCs induced the telogen-to-anagen transition in C₃ H mice, and also enhanced hair neogenesis in a hair reconstitution assay. Injected green fluorescent protein-labelled DPCs migrated to the outer root sheath of the hair follicle, and hypoxia-preconditioning increased survival and migration of DPCs in vivo. Conditioned medium obtained from hypoxia increased the hair length of mouse vibrissa follicles via upregulation of alkaline phosphatase, vascular endothelial growth factor, and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor. We examined the mechanism of this hypoxia-induced stimulation, and found that reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a key role. For example, inhibition of ROS generation by N-acetylcysteine or diphenyleneiodonium treatment attenuated DPCs' hypoxia-induced stimulation, but treatment with ROS donors induced mitogenic effects and anagen transition. NADPH oxidase 4 is highly expressed in the DPC nuclear region, and NOX4 knockout by CRISPR-Cas9 attenuated the hypoxia-induced stimulation of DPCs.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that DPC culture under hypoxia has great advantages over normoxia, and is a novel solution for producing DPCs for cell therapy. What's already known about this topic? Dermal papilla cells (DPCs) play a key role in hair regeneration and morphogenesis, but they are difficult to isolate and expand for use in cell therapy. Tremendous efforts have been made to increase proliferation of DPCs and promote their hair formation ability. What does this study add? Hypoxia (2% O₂ ) culture of DPCs increases proliferation, delays senescence and enhances hair inductivity of DPCs. Reactive oxygen species play a key role in hypoxia-induced stimulation of DPC. What is the translational message? Preconditioning DPCs under hypoxia improves their hair regenerative potential, and is a novel solution for producing DPCs for cell therapy to treat hair loss.

Characteristics of IgG subclasses and complement deposition in BP230-type bullous pemphigoid

BACKGROUND

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is the most common autoimmune blistering disease. BP180 is the primary autoantigen of BP, and in a portion of BP cases, BP230 is the only target of autoantibodies. Such BP is called BP230-type BP. BP230-type BP tends to show milder clinical phenotypes than conventional BP, but the reason is unclear. The pathogenic roles of autoantibodies and complement activation have been shown in conventional BP, but the distribution of IgG subclasses and the degree of complement deposition in BP230-type BP remain unclear.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the distribution of IgG subclasses and the degree of complement deposition in BP230-type BP with those in conventional BP with autoantibodies to BP180 and BP230 (BP180-BP230-type BP).

METHODS

The diagnosis of BP was confirmed by the histopathology of the lesions, the deposition of IgG and complement in the perilesional skin and the presence of circulating autoantibodies to BP180 and BP230. The disease severity was determined by bullous pemphigoid disease area index. The deposition of IgG subclasses and complement deposition were examined by direct immunofluorescence of the perilesional skin in 6 BP230-type BP cases and 11 BP180-BP230-type BP cases.

RESULTS

Sixty seven percent of BP230-type BP cases show a mild clinical phenotype. All BP230-type BP cases and 82% of BP180-BP230-type BP cases were found to demonstrate the clear deposition of IgG4 at the basement membrane zone of skin specimens. Notably, the deposition of IgG1 and IgG3 was faint or negative in all of the BP230-type BP cases, whereas they were clearly detected in 91% and 64% of the BP180-BP230-type BP cases, respectively. The deposition of complement C3 tended to be weaker in BP230-type BP than in BP180-BP230-type BP.

CONCLUSION

The mild clinical phenotype of BP230-type BP may correlate with the weaker deposition of IgG1, IgG3 and complement in the skin lesions.

[Paclitaxel enhances the protective effect of myocardial ischemia preconditioning on ischemia/reperfusion injury in aged rat]

Objective: To investigate if paclitaxel can enhance the protective effect of myocardial ischemia preconditioning on ischemia/reperfusion injury in aged ratand explore related mechanism. Methods: Primary cardiomyocytes of Sprague-Dawley rats were isolated by trypsin and divided into 5 groups(n=6 each): control group, hypoxia injury group, hypoxia preconditioning group, paclitaxel group,and paclitaxel+hypoxia preconditioning group. The structure of microtubules and the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α(HIF-1α) were analyzed by immunofluorescence staining. The Langendorff isolated heart perfusion model was applied in 4 groups: hypoxia reperfusion injury group, hypoxia preconditioning group, paclitaxel group, and paclitaxel+hypoxia preconditioning group. Each group was further divided into elderly subgroup and adult subgroup (n=6 each). Left ventricular developed pressure and maximum rate of rise in left ventricular pressure were analyzed. Results: (1) Primary cardiomyocyte experiments showed that the myocardial tubular microtubule structure in control group was intact and evenly stained; most of the microtubules in the hypoxia-injured group were absent and the tubular tissue was broken; the hypoxia-induced damage on microtubule structure was smaller in the hypoxic preconditioning group compared with the hypoxic injury group (microtubule staining was not uniform, and the lattice structure was broken, but not that obvious as in the hypoxia group); the tubular structure of the microtubules of the paclitaxel group was basically complete, and the staining was basically uniform.The integrity of tubular structure was maintained to some extent, similar to a normal microtubule structure in paclitaxel+hypoxia preconditioning group. The expression of HIF-1α in the cytoplasm and nucleus was very low in the control group, which was evidenced in both cytoplasm and nucleus in the hypoxic injury group.The expression was further increased in hypoxic preconditioning group, significant nuclear HIF-1 expression was found in the paclitaxel group, the expression was aggregated in the nucleus in the Paclitaxel+ hypoxia preconditioning group. (2)In Langendorff isolated heart perfusion model, left ventricular developed pressure was similar between the elderly subgroup and the adult subgroup at the end of the infusion,after precondition, 5 minutes of reperfusion, 30 minutes of reperfusion, and 60 minutes of reperfusion in the hypoxic injury group (all P> 0.05).In the hypoxic injury group, both the elderly subgroup and the adult subgroup had lower left ventricular developed pressure at 30 minutes of reperfusion when compared with the end of the infusion((15.63±4.88) mmHg (1 mmHg=0.133 kPa) vs. (95.63±22.14)mmHg and (17.31±2.75)mmHg vs. (91.00±9.58)mmHg, respectively,all P<0.05). In the hypoxic preconditioning group, the adult subgroup had higher left ventricular developed pressure at 5 and 30 minutes of reperfusion when compared with the elderly subgroup((7.13±1.02) mmHg vs. (3.75±1.06)mmHg and (43.94±3.21)mmHg vs.(16.31±1.54)mmHg, respectively,all P<0.01). In the paclitaxel group, the adult subgroup had higher left ventricular developed pressure at 30 and 60 minutes of reperfusion when compared with the elderly subgroup((44.31±7.59)mmHg vs. (5.44±1.21)mmHg, (51.56±6.03)mmHg vs. (22.19±5.14)mmHg, respectively, all P<0.01). In the paclitaxel+hypoxia preconditioning group, both the elderly subgroup and the adult subgroup had lower left ventricular developed pressure at 30 minutes of reperfusion when compared with the end of the infusion((18.63±4.30)mmHg vs. (99.94±8.23) mmHg, P<0.01; (49.69±5.34)mmHg vs. (95.31±5.26)mmHg, P<0.05). Meanwhile, the adult subgroup had higher left ventricular developed pressure at 30 minutes of reperfusion when compared with the elderly subgroup((49.69±5.34)mmHg vs. (18.63±4.33)mmHg, P<0.01).The adult subgroup had higher change rate of maximum rate of rise in left ventricular pressure at 60 minutes of reperfusion when compared with the elderly subgroup in hypoxia preconditioning group, paclitaxel group, and paclitaxel combined hypoxia preconditioning group((62.83±3.92)% vs. (33.33±3.20)%, (44.17±2.32)% vs. (36.67±2.88)%, (72.50±2.66)% vs. (53.17±2.56)%, respectively,all P<0.01). Conclusion: Paclitaxel can enhance the myocardial protective effect of myocardial ischemia preconditioning through stabilizing microtubules of cardiomyocytes and promoting HIF-1α localization in the nucleus.

TSLP regulates eotaxin-1 production by nasal epithelial cells from patients with eosinophilic CRSwNP

BACKGROUND

Eosinophilic chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (eCRSwNP) is characterized by Th2-skewed inflammation with eosinophilic infiltration. Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) promotes the development of allergic inflammation. Although increased TSLP is found in eCRSwNP, little is known about whether TSLP regulates eotaxin-1 production, a potent eosinophil chemoattractant that recruits and activates eosinophils.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects and mechanisms of TSLP in eotaxin-1 production in the eosinophilic inflammation of eCRSwNP.

METHODS

Human nasal epithelial cells (HNECs) from eCRSwNP patients were stimulated with recombinant human TSLP in the presence or absence of CYT387 (Janus kinase 1/2 inhibitor). Phosphorylated signal transducer activator of transcription 3 (p-STAT3) was measured by using immunocytochemistry. Eotaxin-1 expression was determined by using real-time PCR. Western blotting was used to detect the levels of p-STAT3 and eotaxin-1 protein.

RESULTS

The treatment with TSLP induced STAT3 phosphorylation in HNECs, and promoted p-STAT3 nuclear translocation, leading to a time-dependent increase of eotaxin-1 expression. However, these effects were attenuated by CYT387 pretreatment.

CONCLUSION

TSLP regulated eotaxin-1 production in HNECs via JAK1/2-STAT3 signaling, which might contribute to the eosinophilic inflammation of eCRSwNP.

[Multidisciplinary classification of magnetic resonance imaging features of neuropsychiatric lupus]

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the clinical correlation between the manifestations of neuropsychiatric lupus (NPSLE) and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

METHODS

Retrospective analysis of 65 neuropsychiatric lupus patients with brain MRI and clinical data from Peking University Third Hospital from January 2006 to October 2016, which was classified by rheumatologist, neurologists, and radiologists based on their brain MRI findings. The correlation between brain MRI findings and clinical manifestations was analyzed.

RESULTS

The characteristics of the brain MRI of the 65 patients were divided into 6 categories: 16 cases (25%) with demyelination in the white matter, 15 cases (23%) with cerebrovascular disease, including 4 cases (6%) with large vascular disease and 11 cases (17%) with small vessel disease, 4 cases (6%) with inflammation, 4 cases (6%) with edema, 13 cases (20%) with multiple manifestation coexistence, and 13 cases (20%) without any abnormality. Except for 4 cases of brain MRI with edema, the clinical manifestations were only epileptic seizures, other patients had complex and diverse clinical manifestations, including epileptic seizures, lupus-like headaches, mental symptoms, blurred vision, peripheral neuropathy and disturbance of consciousness. The incidence of epileptic seizures in patients with edema of MRI is significantly higher than that of other patients, and the therapeutic response time is the shortest.

CONCLUSION

Multidisciplinary collaboration divides the MRI findings of neuropsychiatric lupus patients into six categories. This classification method helps clinicians to predict and intervene early possible neuropsychiatric symptoms to guide clinical treatment.

Effects of genomic selection for intramuscular fat content in breast muscle in Chinese local chickens

Improvements in living standards have resulted in consumers having higher expectations for chicken meat quality. This is particularly true in Asia, where there is high consumer preference for local breeds. Nothing is presently known about the effectiveness of using genomic selection (GS) strategies in chickens to genetically improve meat quality traits that cannot be measured in living potential parents. In this study, 724 Beijing-You chickens were used as a training population; all were genotyped using Illumina 60K SNP chips, and intramuscular fat content in breast muscle (IMF_br ) was measured. Birds in the GS line were selected based on genomic estimated breeding values, IMF_br being the sole trait. Genetic progress in one generation was compared to that from conventional family-based selection, and both were evaluated against random-bred controls. Results showed that relative to the random-bred controls, IMF percentage was improved 9.62% using GS, comparable to the 10.38% improvement using family-based selection. We quantified the effectiveness of GS when applied to a meat quality trait with low heritability in chickens. We plan to introduce custom SNP chips, appropriate for native chicken breeds in China, to assist in applying GS in local breeding and accelerate genetic gain.

AID and TET2 co-operation modulates FANCA expression by active demethylation in diffuse large B cell lymphoma

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is traced to a mature B malignance carrying abnormal activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) expression. AID activity initially focuses on deamination of cytidine to uracil to generate somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination of the immunoglobulin (Ig), but recently it has been implicated in DNA demethylation of genes required for B cell development and proliferation in the germinal centre (GC). However, whether AID activity on mutation or demethylation of genes involves oncogenesis of DLBCL has not been well characterized. Our data demonstrate that the proto-oncogene Fanconi anaemia complementation group A (FANCA) is highly expressed in DLBCL patients and cell lines, respectively. AID recruits demethylation enzyme ten eleven translocation family member (TET2) to bind the FANCA promoter. As a result, FANCA is demethylated and its expression increases in DLBCL. On the basis of our findings, we have developed a new therapeutic strategy to significantly inhibit DLBCL cell growth by combination of the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib with AID and TET2 depletion. These findings support a novel mechanism that AID has a crucial role in active demethylation for oncogene activation in DLBCL.

Universality and correlations in individuals wandering through an online extremist space

The "out of the blue" nature of recent terror attacks and the diversity of apparent motives highlight the importance of understanding the online trajectories that individuals follow prior to developing high levels of extremist support. Here we show that the physics of stochastic walks, with and without temporal correlation, provides a unifying description of these online trajectories. Our unique data set comprising all users of a global social media site reveals universal characteristics in individuals' online lifetimes. Our accompanying theory generates analytical and numerical solutions that describe the characteristics shown by individuals that go on to develop high levels of extremist support and those that do not. Going forward, it is conceivable that a deeper understanding of these temporal and many-body correlations may eventually contribute to the important task of better countering the spread of radical propaganda online.

Multiscale dynamical network mechanisms underlying aging of an online organism from birth to death

We present the continuous-time evolution of an online organism network from birth to death which crosses all organizational and temporal scales, from individual components through to the mesoscopic and entire system scale. These continuous-time data reveal a lifespan driven by punctuated, real-time co-evolution of the structural and functional networks. Aging sees these structural and functional networks gradually diverge in terms of their small-worldness and eventually their connectivity. Dying emerges as an extended process associated with the formation of large but disjoint functional sub-networks together with an increasingly detached core. Our mathematical model quantifies the very different impacts that interventions will have on the overall lifetime, period of initial growth, peak of potency, and duration of old age, depending on when and how they are administered. In addition to their direct relevance to online extremism, our findings may offer insight into aging in other network systems of comparable complexity for which extensive in vivo data is not yet available.

Diagnostic performance of two corrected transluminal attenuation gradient metrics in coronary CT angiography for the evaluation of significant in-stent restenosis by dual-source CT: a validation study with invasive coronary angiography

AIM

To determine the diagnostic potential of transluminal attenuation gradients (TAG) with exclusion of stented coronary segments (TAG-ExS) and TAG-corrected contrast opacification (CCO) excluding stented coronary segments (TAG-CCO-ExS) for the assessment of in-stent restenosis (ISR).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

TAG-ExS and TAG-CCO-ExS were calculated in 93 coronary arteries with 190 stents. The diagnostic performances and the incremental values of the two metrics to coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) were analysed and compared.

RESULTS

For all stents and stents >3 mm in diameter, TAG-ExS and TAG-CCO-ExS were significantly lower in ≥50% than that in <50% of ISR (both p<0.05). For stent diameters ≤3 mm, significantly lower TAG-CCO-ExS (p=0.000), but not TAG-ExS (p=0.059), was found in ≥50% than in <50% of ISR. Addition of TAG-ExS or TAG-CCO-ExS to CCTA, did not improve the diagnostic accuracy of CCTA significantly (all p>0.05). Only TAG-CCO-ExS had a significant impact on CCTA for the reclassifications of ISR (p=0.046) in stent diameters ≤3 mm.

CONCLUSIONS

TAG-ExS and TAG-CCO-ExS did not provide incremental diagnostic value over CCTA in assessing ISR. TAG-CCO-ExS slightly enhanced the reclassifications of ISR for stents ≤3 mm in diameter.

Prokaryotic functional expression and activity comparison of three CYP9A genes from the polyphagous pest Helicoverpa armigera

Cytochrome P450s (CYPs or P450s) have been long recognized as very important enzymes in the metabolism of xenobiotic and endogenous compounds, but only a few CYPs have been functionally characterized in insects. The effort in functional characterization of insect P450s is heavily hindered by technical difficulties in preparing active, individual P450 enzymes directly from the target insect. In this paper, we describe the functional expression of two additional pyrethroid resistance-associated CYP9A genes (CYP9A12 and CYP9A17) from the polyphagous pest Helicoverpa armigera in the facile Escherichia coli. The functionality of E. coli produced CYP9A12, CYP9A14, and CYP9A17 was investigated and activities of these CYP9As were compared against three probe substrates after reconstitution with NADPH-dependent cytochrome P450 reductase. The results showed that active forms of CYP9A12 and CYP9A17 were expressed in E. coli with a content of about 1.0-1.5 nmol mg-1 protein in membrane preparations. In vitro assays showed that CYP9A14 was capable of catalyzing O-dealkylation of methoxyresorufin (MROD), ethoxyresorufin (EROD), and benzyloxyresorufin (BROD), while CYP9A12 and CYP9A17 exhibited only MROD and EROD activities. Kinetic studies demonstrated that CYP9A14 had the greatest k cat/K m value for MROD, and CYP9A17 for EROD, while the lowest k cat/K m values for both MROD and EROD were observed for CYP9A12. The distinct biochemical traits suggest that the three paralogous CYP9As may play different roles in xenobiotic metabolism in this important pest.