ELECTRON MICROSCOPY OF HELA CELLS AFTER THE INGESTION OF COLLOIDAL GOLD

Tissue cultures of HeLa cells were grown in media containing colloidal gold, and after various intervals, the cells were fixed, embedded, and sectioned for electron microscopy. Uncoated grids with small holes were used in many of the experiments. Intracellular particles of gold were identified in areas surrounded by single membranes, in moderately dense granules, in globoid bodies, and in the cytoplasmic matrix. Gold particles were not found in typical mitochondria, Golgi complex, ergastoplasm (granular forms of endoplasmic reticulum), or nuclei. The phenomenon of pinocytosis was considered to be the most likely means by which the gold particles were ingested, and the locations of gold particles appeared to have significance concerning theories that membranous organelles of the cytoplasm may be derived from the cell membrane.     

A Pilot Study of Neurofeedback for Chronic PTSD

EEG Biofeedback (also known as neurofeedback) has been in use as a clinical intervention for well over 30 years; however, it has made very little impact on clinical care. One reason for this has been the difficulty in designing research to measure clinical change in the real world. While substantial evidence exists for its efficacy in treating attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, relatively little evidence exists for its utility in other disorders including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The current study represents a “proof-of-concept” pilot for the use of neurofeedback with multiply-traumatized individuals with treatment-resistant PTSD. Participants completed 40 sessions of neurofeedback training two times per week with sensors randomly assigned (by the study coordinator, who was not blind to condition) to sensor placements of either T4-P4 or T3-T4. We found that neurofeedback significantly reduced PTSD symptoms (Davidson Trauma Scale scores averaged 69.14 at baseline to 49.26 at termination), and preceded gains in affect regulation (Inventory of Altered Self-Capacities-Affect Dysregulation scores averaged 23.63 at baseline to 17.20 at termination). We discuss a roadmap for future research.     

Dipeptidyl nitrile inhibitors of Cathepsin L

A series of potent Cathepsin L inhibitors with good selectivity with respect to other cysteine Cathepsins is described and SAR is discussed with reference to the crystal structure of a protein-ligand complex.     

Immunoglobulin G galactosylation and sialylation are associated with pregnancy-induced improvement of rheumatoid arthritis and the postpartum flare: results from a large prospective cohort study

Introduction  

Improvement of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) during pregnancy has been causatively associated with increased galactosylation of immunoglobulin G (IgG) N-glycans. Since previous studies were small, did not include the postpartum flare and did not study sialylation, these issues were addressed in the present study.     

Multispectral fingerprinting for improved in vivo cell dynamics analysis

Background  

Tracing cell dynamics in the embryo becomes tremendously difficult when cell trajectories cross in space and time and tissue density obscure individual cell borders. Here, we used the chick neural crest (NC) as a model to test multicolor cell labeling and multispectral confocal imaging strategies to overcome these roadblocks.     

Comparing genomic prediction accuracy from purebred,crossbred and combined purebred and crossbred reference populations in sheep

Background

The accuracy of genomic prediction depends largely on the number of animals with phenotypes and genotypes. In some industries, such as sheep and beef cattle, data are often available from a mixture of breeds, multiple strains within a breed or from crossbred animals. The objective of this study was to compare the accuracy of genomic prediction for several economically important traits in sheep when using data from purebreds, crossbreds or a combination of those in a reference population.

Methods

The reference populations were purebred Merinos, crossbreds of Border Leicester (BL), Poll Dorset (PD) or White Suffolk (WS) with Merinos and combinations of purebred and crossbred animals. Genomic breeding values (GBV) were calculated based on genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP), using a genomic relationship matrix calculated based on 48 599 Ovine SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms) genotypes. The accuracy of GBV was assessed in a group of purebred industry sires based on the correlation coefficient between GBV and accurate estimated breeding values based on progeny records.

Results

The accuracy of GBV for Merino sires increased with a larger purebred Merino reference population, but decreased when a large purebred Merino reference population was augmented with records from crossbred animals. The GBV accuracy for BL, PD and WS breeds based on crossbred data was the same or tended to decrease when more purebred Merinos were added to the crossbred reference population. The prediction accuracy for a particular breed was close to zero when the reference population did not contain any haplotypes of the target breed, except for some low accuracies that were obtained when predicting PD from WS and vice versa.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that crossbred animals can be used for genomic prediction of purebred animals using 50 k SNP marker density and GBLUP, but crossbred data provided lower accuracy than purebred data. Including data from distant breeds in a reference population had a neutral to slightly negative effect on the accuracy of genomic prediction. Accounting for differences in marker allele frequencies between breeds had only a small effect on the accuracy of genomic prediction from crossbred or combined crossbred and purebred reference populations.     

Histological and morphological evaluations of the digestive tract and associated organs of haddock throughout post-hatching ontogeny

At hatching, the oesophagus of haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus lacks goblet cells, the intestine is a simple undifferentiated tube, the liver is present as a rounded mass caudal to the heart, and numerous zymogen granules are present in the pancreas. The first intestinal convolution appears at day 2, at the posterior end of the digestive tract. The oesophagus displays alcian blue and PAS positive mucus secreting cells on day 12, which become numerous by day 15. By day 18, epithelial cells of the posterior intestine show evidence of protein absorption in the form of supranuclear vacuoles. The swimbladder inflates in 50% of the larvae by day 22, although inflation rate is highly variable. By day 35, or 10 mm, a pyloric caecal ridge appears which separates the presumptive stomach, which is now showing evidence of gastric gland formation, from the intestine. This marks the beginning of digestive features characteristic of the juvenile stage.     

Structure determination of histidine decarboxylase from Lactobacillus 30a at 3.0 A resolution

The crystal structure of histidine decarboxylase from Lactobacillus 30a has been determined by X-ray diffraction methods to a resolution of 3.0 A. This protein is a pyruvoyl-dependent enzyme that is formed by an unusual self-activation process. The structure was determined from an electron density map calculated using multiple isomorphous replacement phases from two heavy-atom derivatives and included contributions from anomalous scattering measurements. The final mean figure of merit was 0.79, based on 28,805 independent reflections. The molecule has an (alpha beta)6 subunit composition and crystallizes in the space group 14122 with a = b = 221.7 A and c = 107.1 A. There is one (alpha beta)3 half molecule per asymmetric unit. The (alpha beta)6 particle is dumbbell-shaped, with each (alpha beta)3 unit being approximately spherical, with a diameter of about 65 A. There is a large central cavity approximately 30 A deep around the molecular 3-fold axis of the (alpha beta)3 unit. The 3-fold related active site pockets are located around the bottom of this cavity and are separated from each other by a distance of approximately 23 A. The inner portion of each (alpha beta) unit, which lies near the interface between the two (alpha beta)3 particles, consists mainly of random coil with several small helical and sheet regions. The outer region of each (alpha beta) unit has an unusual structure consisting of two overlapping, predominantly antiparallel beta-pleated sheets, lined on each side by an alpha-helix. The walls of the central cavity are formed by the 3-fold repeat of two strands from this beta-sandwich structure and one of the helices.