Typology of environmental conditions at the onset of winter phytoplankton blooms in a shallow macrotidal coastal ecosystem, Arcachon Bay (France)

Phytoplankton dynamics were assessed in the macrotidal ecosystemof Arcachon Bay through high-frequency surveys over a 5-yearperiod in order to characterize typology of environmental conditionsat the onset of the productive period. Temporal variations ofhydrological and biological parameters were examined in externaland internal waters of the lagoon, during the winter–springperiods from 1999 to 2003. An additional survey was performedduring winter–spring 2005 in order to study the verticalstructure of the water column. The occurrence of winter phytoplanktonblooms between January and March emerged as a recurrent event.The early onset of the productive period is influenced by thebiological functioning of adjacent Bay of Biscay oceanic waters.It is hypothesized that under a propitious hydrodynamic regime,phytoplankton inocula from the Bay of Biscay enter in the ArcachonBay where cells presumably find favourable conditions for theirfast development. The timing of the onset of those winter bloomsin Arcachon Bay seems to be mainly influenced by the presenceof anticyclonic weather conditions (associated with an increasein incident irradiance) during late winter (i.e. by February),while the water column does not show any particular stabilizationnor stratification liable to facilitate the onset of these blooms.Moreover, these winter blooms dominated by diatoms led to anearly nutrient depletion which could have inevitable consequenceson the structuration of the food web during spring and summer.     

In vitro culture technique for Cryptocaryon irritans, a parasitic ciliate of marine teleosts

A medium for the in vitro culture of Cryptocaryon irritans, which is an obligatorily parasitic ciliate of marine teleosts and causes 'white spot disease', was developed. The medium consisted of a layer of cultured fish cells (FHM), with an agarose gel layer covering the cell layer. The agarose gel contained 0.22% agarose, 10% fetal calf serum, 100 I.U. ml(-1) Penicillin G potassium and 100 microg ml(-1) streptomycin sulphate. Theronts of C. irritans transformed to trophonts and grew to 180 microm in mean length in the medium, although they gradually decreased in number. When trophonts fully developed in medium were transferred into seawater 4 d after inoculation, approximately 70% of them transformed to encysted tomonts and released theronts. When fish were challenged with theronts obtained from in vitro-raised parasites, approximately 40% of the theronts were recovered from fish, indicating comparative infectivity of in vitro-raised theronts to those of in vivo-raised theronts. This is the first report that C. irritans fully developed in vitro and its entire life cycle was completed without a host fish.     

Protective role of macrophages in noninflammatory lung injury caused by selective ablation of alveolar epithelial type II Cells

Macrophages have a wide variety of activities and it is largely unknown how the diverse phenotypes of macrophages contribute to pathological conditions in the different types of tissue injury in vivo. In this study we established a novel animal model of acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by the dysfunction of alveolar epithelial type II (AE2) cells and examined the roles of alveolar macrophages in the acute lung injury. The human diphtheria toxin (DT) receptor (DTR), heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (HB-EGF), was expressed under the control of the lysozyme M (LysM) gene promoter in the mice. When DT was administrated to the mice they suffered from acute lung injury and died within 4 days. Immunohistochemical examination revealed that AE2 cells as well as alveolar macrophages were deleted via apoptosis in the mice treated with DT. Consistent with the deletion of AE2 cells, the amount of surfactant proteins in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was greatly reduced in the DT-treated transgenic mice. When bone marrow from wild-type mice was transplanted into irradiated LysM-DTR mice, the alveolar macrophages became resistant to DT but the mice still suffered from acute lung injury by DT administration. Compared with the mice in which both AE2 cells and macrophages were deleted by DT administration, the DT-treated LysM-DTR mice with DT-resistant macrophages showed less severe lung injury with a reduced amount of hepatocyte growth factor in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. These results indicate that macrophages play a protective role in noninflammatory lung injury caused by the selective ablation of AE2 cells.     

Were inefficient mitochondrial haplogroups selected during migrations of modern humans? A test using modular kinetic analysis of coupling in mitochondria from cybrid cell lines

We introduce a general test of the bioenergetic importance of mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) variants: modular kinetic analysis of oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria from cybrid cells with constant nuclear DNA but different mtDNA. We have applied this test to the hypothesis [Ruiz-Pesini, Mishmar, Brandon, Procaccio and Wallace (2004) Science 303, 223-226] that particular mtDNA haplogroups (specific combinations of polymorphisms) that cause lowered coupling efficiency, leading to generation of less ATP and more heat, were positively selected during radiations of modern humans into colder climates. Contrary to the predictions of this hypothesis, mitochondria from Arctic haplogroups had similar or even greater coupling efficiency than mitochondria from tropical haplogroups.     

Effect of CO2 on Colony Development by Bifidobacterium Species

This report investigates the requirement for CO₂ for colony formation by Bifidobacterium species in both anoxic and oxic environments. All tested Bifidobacterium species exhibited difficulty in developing colonies in an atmosphere of 100% N₂ but developed well when 1% CO₂ was present. In the presence of CO₂, the oxygen tolerance of the tested species was not improved. In the absence of CO₂, only B. boum, a microaerophilic species, could develop colonies under an N₂-based 5% O₂ atmosphere, indicating that while CO₂ is not an essential factor for colony development, both CO₂ and O₂ have stimulatory effects on B. boum colony development.     

Enrichment of longevity phenotype in mtDNA haplogroups D4b2b, D4a, and D5 in the Japanese population

We report new results from the re-analysis of 672 complete mitochondrial (mtDNA) genomes of unrelated Japanese individuals stratified into seven equal sized groups by the phenotypes: diabetic patients, diabetic patients with severe angiopathy, healthy non-obese young males, obese young males, patients with Alzheimer’s disease, patients with Parkinson’s disease and centenarians. Each phenotype had 96 samples over 27 known haplogroups: A, B4a, B4b, B4c, B*, B5, D*, F1, F2, M*, M7a, M7b, M8, M9, D4a, D4b1, D4b2, D4d, D4e, D4g, D4h, D5, G, Z, M*, N9a, and N9b. A t-test comparing the fraction of samples in a haplogroup to healthy young males showed a significant enrichment of haplogroups D4a, D5, and D4b2 in centenarians. The D4b2 enrichment was limited to a subgroup of 40 of 61 samples which had the synonymous mutation 9296C > T. We identified this cluster as a distinct haplogroup and labeled it as D4b2b. Using an exhaustive procedure, we constructed the complete list of “mutation patterns” for centenarians and showed that the most significant patterns were in D4a, D5, and D4b2b. We argue that if a selection for longevity appeared only once, it was probably an autosomal event which could be dated to after the appearance of the D mega-group but before the coalescent time of D4a, D5, and D4b2b. Using a simple procedure, we estimated that this event occurred 24.4 ± 0.9 kYBP. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Gabriela Alexe and Noriyuki Fuku are joint first authors.     

Mycophenolic acid as a latent agonist of PPARgamma

Mycophenolic acid (MPA), known as an inhibitor of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH), was found to inhibit the differentiation of 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes into mature adipocytes. Although the effect of MPA was attributed to inhibition of IMPDH, we uncovered a hidden biological property of MPA as an agonist of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma).     

Characterization of the estrogenic activities of zearalenone and zeranol in vivo and in vitro

In the present study, we compared the estrogenic activity of zearalenone (ZEN) and zeranol (ZOL) by determining their relative receptor binding affinities for human ERalpha and ERbeta and also by determining their uterotropic activity in ovariectomized female mice. ZOL displayed a much higher binding affinity for human ERalpha and ERbeta than ZEN did. The IC(50) values of ZEN and ZOL for binding to human ERalpha were 240.4 and 21.79nM, respectively, and the IC(50) values for binding to ERbeta were 165.7 and 42.76nM, respectively. In ovariectomized female ICR mice, s.c. administration of ZEN at doses >or=2mg/kg/day for 3 consecutive days significantly increased uterine wet weight compared with the control group, and administration of ZOL increased the uterine wet weight at lower doses (>or=0.5mg/kg/day for 3 days). Based on available X-ray crystal structures of human ERalpha and ERbeta, we have also conducted molecular modeling studies to probe the binding characteristics of ZEN and ZOL for human ERalpha and ERbeta. Our data revealed that ZEN and ZOL were able to occupy the active site of the human ERalpha and ERbeta in a strikingly similar manner as 17beta-estradiol, such that the phenolic rings of ZEN and ZOL occupied the same receptor region as occupied by the A-ring of 17beta-estradiol. The primary reason that ZOL and ZEN is less potent than 17beta-estradiol is likely because 17beta-estradiol could bind to the receptor pocket without significantly changing its conformation, while ZOL or ZEN would require considerable conformational alterations upon binding to the estrogen receptors (ERs).     

Novel scaffold for cathepsin K inhibitors

Pyrrolopyrimidine, a novel scaffold, allows to adjust interactions within the S3 subsite of cathepsin K. The core intermediate 10 facilitated the P3 optimization and identified highly potent and selective cathepsin K inhibitors 11-20.