Low Rates of Both Lipid-Lowering Therapy Use and Achievement of Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Targets in Individuals at High-Risk for Cardiovascular Disease across Europe

AimsTo analyse the treatment and control of dyslipidaemia in patients at high and very high cardiovascular risk being treated for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Europe.ConclusionsThere is a considerable opportunity for improvement in rates of lipid-lowering therapy use and achievement of lipid-level targets in high-risk and very-high-risk patients being treated for primary CVD prevention in Europe.     

Analysis of the Sonic Hedgehog Signaling Pathway in Normal and Abnormal Bladder Development

In this study, we examined the expression of Sonic Hedgehog, Patched, Gli1, Gli2, Gli3 and Myocardin in the developing bladders of male and female normal and megabladder (mgb−/−) mutant mice at embryonic days 12 through 16 by in situ hybridization. This analysis indicated that each member of the Sonic Hedgehog signaling pathway as well as Myocardin displayed distinct temporal and spatial patterns of expression during normal bladder development. In contrast, mgb−/− bladders showed both temporal and spatial changes in the expression of Patched, Gli1 and Gli3 as well as a complete lack of Myocardin expression. These changes occurred primarily in the outer mesenchyme of developing mgb−/− bladders consistent with the development of an amuscular bladder phenotype in these animals. These results provide the first comprehensive analysis of the Sonic Hedgehog signaling pathway during normal bladder development and provide strong evidence that this key signaling cascade is critical in establishing radial patterning in the developing bladder. In addition, the lack of detrusor smooth muscle development observed in mgb−/− mice is associated with bladder-specific temporospatial changes in Sonic Hedgehog signaling coupled with a lack of Myocardin expression that appears to result in altered patterning of the outer mesenchyme and poor initiation and differentiation of smooth muscle cells within this region of the developing bladder.     

The Occurrence of Fungi in the Recently Discovered Jarkowicka Cave in the Karkonosze Mts. (Poland)

Our study is one of the very few cases of speleomycological research in recently discovered caves. The aim of this research was to assess the population size of fungal colonies and their species composition in the Jarkowicka cave, discovered in 2012. The air samples were taken from one location outside the cave and from two locations inside of it. Mycological evaluation of the rocks inside the cave was performed usingswab sampling procedure. In the Jarkowicka cave we found 22 species of fungi, including 13 isolated from air at the entrance and from the walls, and 8 species from air inside the cave. Cladosporium spp. were the fungi most frequently isolated from internal atmosphere of the Jarkowicka cave, and from the external air. On the other hand, the fungi most frequently isolated from the rocks were Mucor spp. We found several species not yet described as cave inhabitants: Hypocrea pachybasioides, Cladosporium uredinicola, and Embellisia abundans. Our study may provide a basis for comparison to other similar studies conducted in frequently visited caves by tourists.     

An Old Mom Keeps You Young: Mother’s Age at Last Birth and Offspring Longevity in Nineteenth-Century Utah

This study analyzes the intergenerational effects of late childbearing on offspring’s adult longevity in a population in Utah (United States) that does not display evidence of parity-specific birth control—a so-called natural fertility population. Studies have found that for women who experience late menopause and prolonged reproduction, aging is postponed and longevity is increased. This is believed to indicate female “robustness” and the impact of biological or genetic factors. If indeed there is a genetic component involved, one would expect to also find evidence for the intergenerational transmission of longevity benefits. Our study investigates the relationship between prolonged natural fertility of mothers and their offspring’s survival rates in adulthood. Gompertz regression models (N = 7,716) revealed that the offspring of mothers who were naturally fertile until a relatively advanced age lived significantly longer. This observed positive effect of late reproduction was not independent of but conditional upon survival of the mother to the end of her fecundity (defined as age 50). Offspring’s relative risks at death beyond age 50 were 6–12 percent lower than those of their counterparts born to mothers who had an average age at last birth. Our results, which account for various early, adult, and later-life conditions, as well as shared frailty, suggest that there is a positive relationship between mother’s age at last birth and offspring longevity, and strengthen the notion that age at menopause is a good predictor of this relationship.     

Top‐down network analysis characterizes hidden termite–termite interactions

The analysis of ecological networks is generally bottom‐up, where networks are established by observing interactions between individuals. Emergent network properties have been indicated to reflect the dominant mode of interactions in communities that might be mutualistic (e.g., pollination) or antagonistic (e.g., host–parasitoid communities). Many ecological communities, however, comprise species interactions that are difficult to observe directly. Here, we propose that a comparison of the emergent properties from detail‐rich reference communities with known modes of interaction can inform our understanding of detail‐sparse focal communities. With this top‐down approach, we consider patterns of coexistence between termite species that live as guests in mounds built by other host termite species as a case in point. Termite societies are extremely sensitive to perturbations, which precludes determining the nature of their interactions through direct observations. We perform a literature review to construct two networks representing termite mound cohabitation in a Brazilian savanna and in the tropical forest of Cameroon. We contrast the properties of these cohabitation networks with a total of 197 geographically diverse mutualistic plant–pollinator and antagonistic host–parasitoid networks. We analyze network properties for the networks, perform a principal components analysis (PCA), and compute the Mahalanobis distance of the termite networks to the cloud of mutualistic and antagonistic networks to assess the extent to which the termite networks overlap with the properties of the reference networks. Both termite networks overlap more closely with the mutualistic plant–pollinator communities than the antagonistic host–parasitoid communities, although the Brazilian community overlap with mutualistic communities is stronger. The analysis raises the hypothesis that termite–termite cohabitation networks may be overall mutualistic. More broadly, this work provides support for the argument that cryptic communities may be analyzed via comparison to well‐characterized communities.     

Fumigant activity of essential oils and components of Illicium verum and Schizonepeta tenuifolia against Botrytis cinerea and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides

To develop a natural fungicide against Botrytis cinerea and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, a total of 25 essential oils were tested for their fumigant activity against post-harvest pathogens. The vaporous phases of oils were treated to each fungus on potato dextrose agar medium in half-plate separated Petri plates at 10 microg per plate. The essential oil of Illicium verum strongly inhibited the mycelial growth of both B. cinerea and C. gloeosporioides by over 90%. On the other hand, the essential oil of Schizonepeta tenuifolia showed inhibitory activity against mycelial growth of only B. cinerea by over 90%. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and bioassay indicated trans-anethole in I. verum and menthone in S. tenuifolia as a major antifungal constituent. The essential oils of I. verum and S. tenuifolia and their major constituents could be used to manage post-harvest diseases caused by B. cinerea and C. gloeosporioides.     

Verification of endometrial tissue biomarkers previously discovered using mass spectrometry-based proteomics by means of immunohistochemistry in a tissue microarray format

Verification of candidate protein biomarkers is a necessary step in moving from the initial discovery to application. Here, we report results of a verification exercise involving six candidate endometrial cancer biomarkers previously discovered using mass-tagging and multidimensional liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (DeSouza L., et al. J. Proteome Res. 2005, 4, 377-386) on a cohort of 148 patient samples by means of immunohistochemistry on a tissue microarray format. A panel of the three best-performing biomarkers, chaperonin 10, pyruvate kinase M2, and alpha-1-antitrypsin, achieved a sensitivity of 0.85, specificity of 0.93, predictive value of 0.90, and positive predictive value of 0.88 in discriminating malignant from benign endometrium. The ruggedness of this panel of biomarkers was verified in a 2/3-training-set-1/3-test-set cross-validation analysis by randomly splitting the cohort in 10 ways. The roles of chaperonin 10 and pyruvate kinase M2 in tumorigenesis confirm them as credible cancer biomarkers.     

Aging, exercise, and endothelial progenitor cell clonogenic and migratory capacity in men.

Numerical and functional impairment of circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) is thought to contribute to vascular aging and the associated increase in cardiovascular risk. We tested the following hypotheses: 1) EPC clonogenic and migratory capacity decrease progressively with age in healthy, sedentary adult men; and 2) regular aerobic exercise will improve EPC clonogenic and migratory capacity in previously sedentary middle-aged and older men. Peripheral blood samples were collected from 46 healthy sedentary men: 10 young (26 +/- 1 yr), 15 middle-aged (47 +/- 1 yr), and 21 older (63 +/- 1 yr). Mononuclear cells were isolated and preplated for 2 days, and nonadherent cells were further cultured for 7 days to determine EPC colony-forming units. Migratory activity of EPCs was determined using a modified Boyden chamber. Ten sedentary middle-aged and older men (59 +/- 3 yr) were studied before and after a 3-mo aerobic exercise intervention. The number of EPC colony-forming units was approximately 75% lower (P < 0.01) in middle-aged (12 +/- 3) and older (8 +/- 2) compared with young (40 +/- 7) men. There was no difference in colony count between middle-aged and older men. EPC migration (fluorescent units) was significantly reduced in older (453 +/- 72) compared with young (813 +/- 114) and middle-aged (760 +/- 114) men. The exercise intervention increased (P < 0.05) both EPC colony-forming units (10 +/- 3 to 22 +/- 5) and migratory activity (683 +/- 96 to 1,022 +/- 123) in previously sedentary middle-aged and older men. These results provide further evidence that aging adversely affects EPC function. Regular aerobic-endurance exercise, however, is an effective lifestyle intervention strategy for improving EPC clonogenic and migratory capacity in middle-aged and older healthy men.     

Flight behavior and oviposition of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Tuta absoluta</Emphasis> on susceptible and resistant genotypes of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Solanum lycopersicum</Emphasis>

Plants produce volatile chemical compounds that can negatively affect the preference (antixenosis) or the performance (antibiosis) of herbivorous insects. It is thought that these volatile compounds are used as cues by herbivorous insects to determine the suitability of the plant for egg deposition and, hence, offspring performance. Here, we investigated whether volatiles produced by tomato plants play a role in modulating the flight and oviposition behavior of mated Tuta absoluta females. We found that the behavioral steps displayed by mated females did not differ when they flew toward resistant or susceptible tomato genotypes, but they reached the susceptible genotypes faster than the resistant ones. Moreover, females landed more often and laid more eggs on the most susceptible genotype, the Santa Clara variety. Because this variety is known to be of high quality for the development of T. absoluta larvae, the female’s decision to land and lay more eggs on this genotype seems to be mainly to maximize offspring performance. However, this is not so straightforward because the proportion of landings and eggs laid by T. absoluta on another susceptible genotype tested in this study was not significantly higher than on the resistant genotypes. Finally, although future studies are still needed, considering the antixenotic and antibiotic traits of the resistant genotypes studied here, they are likely to succeed if used in integrated pest management.     

Stimulation of airway mucin gene expression by interleukin (IL)-17 through IL-6 paracrine/autocrine loop

Mucus hypersecretion and persistent airway inflammation are common features of various airway diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cystic fibrosis. One key question is: does the associated airway inflammation in these diseases affect mucus production? If so, what is the underlying mechanism? It appears that increased mucus secretion results from increased mucin gene expression and is also frequently accompanied by an increased number of mucous cells (goblet cell hyperplasia/metaplasia) in the airway epithelium. Many studies on mucin gene expression have been directed toward Th2 cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-4, IL-9, and IL-13 because of their known pathophysiological role in allergic airway diseases such as asthma. However, the effect of these cytokines has not been definitely linked to their direct interaction with airway epithelial cells. In our study, we treated highly differentiated cultures of primary human tracheobronchial epithelial (TBE) cells with a panel of cytokines (interleukin-1alpha, 1beta, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, and tumor necrosis factor alpha). We found that IL-6 and IL-17 could stimulate the mucin genes, MUC5B and MUC5AC. The Th2 cytokines IL-4, IL-9, and IL-13 did not stimulate MUC5AC or MUC5B in our experiments. A similar stimulation of MUC5B/Muc5b expression by IL-6 and IL-17 was demonstrated in primary monkey and mouse TBE cells. Further investigation of MUC5B expression demonstrated that IL-17's effect is at least partly mediated through IL-6 by a JAK2-dependent autocrine/paracrine loop. Finally, evidence is presented to show that both IL-6 and IL-17 mediate MUC5B expression through the ERK signaling pathway.