A Monocytic Barrier to the Humanization of Immunodeficient Mice

Mice with severe immunodeficiencies have become very important tools for studying foreign cells in an in vivo environment. Xenotransplants can be used to model cells from many species, although most often, mice are humanized through the transplantation of human cells or tissues to meet the needs of medical research. The development of immunodeficient mice is reviewed leading up to the current state-of-the-art strains, such as the NOD-scid-gamma (NSG) mouse. NSG mice are excellent hosts for human hematopoietic stem cell transplants or immune reconstitution through transfusion of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. However, barriers to full hematopoietic engraftment still remain; notably, the survival of human cells in the circulation is brief, which limits overall hematological and immune reconstitution. Reports have indicated a critical role for monocytic cells, monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells, in the clearance of xenogeneic cells from circulation. Various aspects of the NOD genetic background that affect monocytic cell growth, maturation, and function that are favorable to human cell transplantation are discussed. Important receptors, such as SIRPα, that form a part of the innate immune system and enable the recognition and phagocytosis of foreign cells by monocytic cells are reviewed. The development of humanized mouse models has taken decades of work in creating more immunodeficient mice, genetic modification of these mice to express human genes, and refinement of transplant techniques to optimize engraftment. Future advances may focus on the monocytic cells of the host to find ways for further engraftment and survival of xenogeneic cells.

Embryonic Tissue and Blastema Transplantations

Embryo grafts have been an experimental pillar in developmental biology, and particularly, in amphibian biology. Grafts have been essential in constructing fate maps of different cell populations and migratory patterns. Likewise, autografts and allografts in older larvae or adult salamanders have been widely used to disentangle mechanisms of regeneration. The combination of transgenesis and grafting has widened even more the application of this technique.In this chapter, we provide a detailed protocol for embryo transplants in the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum ). The location and stages to label connective tissue, muscle, or blood vessels in the limb and blood cells in the whole animal. However, the potential of embryo transplants is enormous and impossible to cover in one chapter. Furthermore, we provide a protocol for blastema transplantation as an example of allograft in older larvae.

Antibody screening data of human midgestation liver cells with a focus on hematopoietic, liver sinusoidal endothelial, and hepatoblast cell-populations

OBJECTIVES

Cell-surface antigen screening was performed on human fetal liver cells using flow cytometry. The goal was to provide proteomic expression data on a number of human fetal liver cell populations that can inform studies on developmental hepatology and hematology.

DATA DESCRIPTION

A 21 weeks' gestation liver was depleted of erythrocytes prior to antibody staining. Screening was performed using phycoerythrin-labelled antibodies against 332 antigens. In addition to these antibodies, all samples were stained for CD14, CD45, CD235a, and CD326 (epithelial cell adhesion molecule - EpCAM). Subpopulations of fetal liver cells were identified using the co-stained antigens. Hematopoietic cells were identified by their expression of CD45 and CD235a; non-hematopoietic cells were further subdivided based on CD14 and CD326 expression. CD326⁺⁺CD14^low hepatoblasts and CD14⁺⁺ liver sinusoidal endothelial cells were analyzed for the frequency and intensity of antigen expression. Analyzed flow cytometry data are presented for the expression of the antigens on hematopoietic cells and on non-hematopoietic cells in the context of CD14 and CD326 expression.

BloodCaps: A capsule network based model for the multiclassification of human peripheral blood cells

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

The classification of human peripheral blood cells yields significance in the detection of inflammation, infections and blood cell disorders such as leukemia. Limitations in traditional algorithms for blood cell classification and increased computational processing power have allowed machine learning methods to be utilized for this clinically prevalent task.

METHODS

In the current work, we present BloodCaps, a capsule based model designed for the accurate multiclassification of a diverse and broad spectrum of blood cells.

RESULTS

Implemented on a large-scale dataset of 8 categories of human peripheral blood cells, the proposed architecture achieved an overall accuracy of 99.3%, outperforming convolutional neural networks such as AlexNet(81.5%), VGG16(97.8%), ResNet-18(95.9%) and InceptionV3(98.4%). Furthermore, we devised three new datasets(low-resolution dataset, small dataset, and low-resolution small dataset) from the original dataset, and tested BloodCaps in comparison with AlexNet, VGG16, ResNet-18, and InceptionV3. To further validate the applicability of our proposed model, we tested BloodCaps on additional public datasets such as the All IDB2, BCCD, and Cell Vision datasets. Compared with the reported results, BloodCaps showed the best performance in all three scenarios.

CONCLUSIONS

The proposed method proved superior in octal classification among all three datasets. We believe the proposed method represents a promising tool to improve the diagnostic performance of clinical blood examinations.

Continuous changes in biological levels of complete blood count in a high altitude area of China

Objectives

We aimed to establish a new reference interval of blood cell parameters by classifying and counting blood Cells of 16- to 85-year-old healthy volunteers and observing continuous changes with age.

Methods

We analyzed the blood cell parameters of 42,678 cases (men, 24,406; women, 18,272), and compared the blood cell parameters of men and women in different age groups using an independent samples t-test. Using limits of 2.5%-97.5%, a 90% confidence interval was used to develop new reference intervals.

Results

Counts of blood cell parameters, including white blood Cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, basophils, red blood Cells, hemoglobin, hematocrit, distribution width of red blood Cells and platelets, were found to differ between men and women in different age groups. These parameters were used to establish a new reference interval of blood Cells.

Conclusion

The blood cell parameters of both men and women changed with increasing age. The reference interval that we established will provide more accurate basic evidence for clinical diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

Blood Particle Separation Using Dielectrophoresis in A Novel Microchannel: A Numerical Study

Objective

We present a four-branch model of the dielectrophoresis (DEP) method that takes into consideration the inherent properties of particles, including size, electrical conductivity, and permittivity coefficient. By using this model, bioparticles can be continuously separated by the application of only a one-stage separation process.

Materials and Methods

In this numerical study, we based the separation process on the differences in the particle sizes. We used the various negative DEP forces on the particles caused by the electrodes to separate them with a high efficiency. The particle separator could separate blood cells because of their different sizes.

Results

Blood cells greater than 12 μm were guided to a special branch, which improved separation efficiency because it prevented the deposition of particles in other branches. The designed device had the capability to separate blood cells with diameters of 2.0 μm, 6.2 μm, 10.0 μm, and greater than 12.0 μm. The applied voltage to the electrodes was 50 V with a frequency of 100 kHz.

Conclusion

The proposed device is a simple, efficient DEP-based continuous cell separator. This capability makes it ideal for use in various biomedical applications, including cell therapy and cell separation, and results in a throughput increment of microfluidics devices.

Association of hematological indices with prediabetes: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Prediabetes is a condition that occurs when blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be classified as diabetes. Prediabetic people have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Moreover Hyperglycemia has multiple effects on the hematological parameters.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the association between hematological indices and anthropometric measurement, with prediabetes.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 125 diabetics and 259 prediabetics in the 20-70 age range. They were selected by a convenience sampling method at the Taban Diabetes Center in 2015. An oral glucose tolerance test was performed for each participant who had never been diagnosed with diabetes. Participants were characterized as having prediabetes or diabetes according to American Diabetes Association criteria. The hematologic parameters were measured by using Sysmex-KX 21N analyzers. Data were analyzed by IBM-SPSS version 22 using independent-samples t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient at p<0.05.

RESULTS

There was significant difference in mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCVH) (33.81±0.92 g/dL vs. 34.06±1.05 g/dL) between prediabetes patients and diabetes. There was not a statistically significant difference in the prediabetics' hematological parameters, compared with the diabetics. In the prediabetic group, only the mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration was found to be negatively correlated with diastolic blood pressure (p=0.013) and FBS (p=0.026).

CONCLUSION

Hematological indices are important markers for the assessment of variations in size, number, and maturity of different blood cells. Hematological indices could be utile indicators of vascular complication and glycemic control in type 2 DM patients. Thus, they are important for the evaluation and early management of patients with per diabetes.

Identification of a molecular profile associated with immune status in first-onset schizophrenia patients

OBJECTIVES

Alterations in immunological parameters have been reported for schizophrenia although little is known about the effects of inflammatory status on immune-related functional changes at disease onset. Here, we have investigated such T cell-dependent molecular changes in first-onset, antipsychotic-naive schizophrenia patients using a novel ex vivo blood culture system.

METHODS

Blood samples from patients (n=17) and controls (n=17) were collected into stimulant-containing or null control TruCulture™ tubes, incubated 24 hours and the concentrations of 107 immune and metabolic molecules measured in the conditioned media using the HumanMAP™ immunoassay system.

RESULTS

Nine molecules showed altered release from schizophrenia blood cells compared to those from controls and this was replicated in an independent cohort. In silico pathway analysis showed that these molecules had roles in endothelial cell function, inflammation, acute phase response and fibrinolysis pathways. Importantly, five of these molecules showed altered release only after stimulation.

CONCLUSIONS

This study has identified a reproducible peripheral molecular signature associated with altered immune function in first-onset schizophrenia subjects. This suggests that immune status can affect the biomarker profile which could be important for personalized medicine strategies. Furthermore, whole blood culture analysis may be useful in the identification of diagnostic tools or novel treatment strategies due to ease-of-use and clinical accessibility.

The enhanced ability of peripheral mononuclear cells differentiating into neural cells in term infants with good improvement suffering from severe hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy

OBJECTIVE

It has been found that asphyxia influences proliferation and differentiation of brain neural stem cells in newborn animal models, and that peripheral blood stem cells play an important role in repairing brain damage. But it has not been reported yet whether asphyxia influences peripheral blood stem cells differentiating into neural cells, and whether with the progress of the disease there is a change of peripheral blood stem cells differentiating into neural cells in newborns with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).

METHODS

Fifty term HIE infants were enrolled in research from March, 2007 to March, 2010. There were 10 cases of the severe HIE patients with good improvement, the severe HIE patients with poor improvement, the moderate HIE patients, the mild HIE patients and the controls, respectively. The peripheral mononuclear cells collected within 24 hours and on 7th day after birth were cultured in vitro for 10 days to differentiate into neural cells. The induced nestin positive cells were identified with Immunohistochemistry and counted. Findings : Within 24 hours after birth, there were no difference of induced nestin positive cells among the severe HIE patients with good improvement (68.99±7.85), the severe HIE patients with poor improvement (71.43±6.88), the moderate HIE patients (73.34±6.46), the mild HIE patients (70.46±6.66) and the controls (71.13±7.19, F=0.51, P=0.7). In the severe HIE patients with obvious improvement, the induced nestin positive cells from 7th day peripheral blood mononuclear cells (94.50±15.57) increased markedly compared with that within 24 hours (68.99±7.85, t=4.66, P<0.001), and were higher than the induced nestin positive cells from 7(th) day peripheral blood mononuclear cells in the severe HIE patients with no obvious improvement (94.50±15.57 vs 69.48±5.32, t=4.62, P<0.001).

CONCLUSION

The ability of peripheral mononuclear cells differentiating into neural cells in term infants with good improvement suffering from severe HIE was enhanced, which may suggest possible relationship between the brain repair and the peripheral stem cells.

Predictors of blood transfusion in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting surgery

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this retrospective study is to identify intraoperative patient's characteristics predicting the need for blood transfusion during CABG in our local cardiac surgical service.

METHODS

This study included 1835 consecutive patients, 1311 males and 524 females with mean age 58.8±9.9 years, undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting. Risk factors detected by univariate study were entered in a multivariate logistic regression model of the relationship between preoperative variables and blood transfusion.

RESULTS

Blood transfusion was used in 435 patients (29.9%). Univariate analysis identified hemoglobin, smoking, hypertension, sex, diabetes, BMI and use of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) as significant predictors. Multivariate analysis revealed hemoglobin (OR: 0.8; CI: 0.74-0.86; P<0.001), CPB use (OR: 12.2; CI: 8.2-18.1; P<0.001) and female gender (OR: 2.29; CI:1.72-3.04; P<0.001) as independent risk factors for blood transfusion.

CONCLUSIONS

The predictors of RBC transfusion after isolated CABG were performing CPB, preoperative hemoglobin and female gender. These factors can be used as a clinical tool to preserve blood bank resources without increasing patient's risk.