A comparison of blood gases and acid-base measurements in arterial, arterialized venous, and venous blood during short-term maximal exercise

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between blood gases and acid-base measurements in arterial, arterialized venous, and venous blood measured simultaneously during short-term maximal exercise. Ten well-trained male cyclists performed a graded maximal exercise test on a cycle ergometer to determine the power output corresponding to their peak oxygen consumption (test I), and a short-term maximal test on a cycle ergometer at peak power output (test II). During test II arterial, arterialized venous and venous blood were sampled simultaneously for determination of partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide, pH, bicarbonate (HCO3-), base excess (BE), and lactate (La). Samples were taken at rest, the end of 1 min of exercise (1 ME), at the end of exercise (EE), and at 2 min of recovery (REC). During test II, subjects maintained a peak power output of 370.6 (62.1) W [mean (SD)] for 4.5, SD 1.6 min. Except at rest venous and arterialized venous measurements tended to be the same at all sampling intervals, but differed significantly from measurements in arterial blood (P less than 0.05). BE was the only variable that rendered consistently significant correlations between arterial and arterialized venous blood at each sampling interval. The pooled correlation coefficient between arterial and arterialized venous BE was r = 0.83 [regression equation: BEa = (0.84 BEav)-0.51]. Arterial La was significantly higher than venous La at 1 ME (2.8, 0.7 vs 0.8, 0.3 mmol.l-1) and higher than both venous and arterialized venous La at EE.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Chimeric antigen receptor engineered innate immune cells in cancer immunotherapy

Introducing chimeric antigen receptor into immune cells against malignancies has contributed to a revolutionary innovation in cancer immunotherapy. As an important type of adaptive immune cells, T cells first caught researchers' attention and became great success in chimeric antigen receptor-based immunotherapy. However, engineered T cells seem to hit their bottleneck when resistance of cancerous cells, less encouraging responses in solid tumors and unwanted toxicities to the host remain to be solved.Meanwhile, innate immune cells get to join the race. Representatives such as natural killer cells, natural killer T cells, γδT cells and macrophages also prove to be well redirected with chimeric antigen receptors. Compared to chimeric antigen receptor engineered T cells, these engineered innate immune cells may possess multiple targeting and killing mechanisms, have the potential to crack the barrier of solid tumors and have less side effects in the host. Besides, possible universal access to cell resources and improvements in expansion and transduction techniques make these cells promising candidates with huge potential in translational medicine. Therefore, innate immune cells claim a brand-new dimension and are likely to supplement T cells greatly in the field of chimeric antigen receptor-based immunotherapy.     

A Method for Cell Culture and Maintenance of Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea in Agar Stab

Ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) are predominantly found and closely linked with geochemical cycling of nitrogen in non-extreme habitats. However, these strains have mainly been investigated using liquid cultures of enriched cells. Here, we provide an agar stab as a simple and reliable means of cultivating and maintaining AOA.     

Structure of the tetragonal surface virulence array protein and gene of Aeromonas salmonicida

The paracrystalline surface protein array of the pathogenic bacterium Aeromonas salmonicida is a primary virulence factor with novel binding capabilities. The species-specific structural gene (vapA) for this array protein (A-protein) was cloned into lambda gt11 but was unstable when expressed in Escherichia coli, undergoing an 816-base pair deletion due to a 21-base pair direct repeat within the gene. However, the gene was stable in cosmid pLA2917 as long as expression was poor. A-protein was located in the cytoplasmic, inner membrane and periplasmic fractions in E. coli. The DNA sequence revealed a 1,506-base pair open reading frame encoding a protein consisting of a 21-amino acid signal peptide, and a 481-residue 50,778 molecular weight protein containing considerable secondary structure. When assembled into a paracrystalline protein array on Aeromonas the cell surface A-protein was totally refractile to cleavage by trypsin, but became trypsin sensitive when disassembled. Trypsin cleavage of the isolated protein provided evidence that both the NH2- and COOH-terminal regions form distinct structural domains, consistent with three-dimensional ultrastructural evidence. The NH2-terminal 274-residue domain remained refractile to trypsin activity. This segment connects by a trypsin and CNBr-sensitive 78-residue linker region to a COOH-terminal 129-residue fragment which could apparently refold into a partially trypsin-resistant structure after cleavage at residue 323.     

Cell source,differentiation, functional stimulation,and potential application of human thermogenic adipocytes in vitro

Recent investigations have showed that the functional thermogenic adipocytes are present in both infants and adult humans. Accumulating evidence suggests that the coexistence of classical and inducible brown (brite) adipocytes in humans at adulthood and these adipocytes function to generate heat from energy resulting in reducing body fat and improving glucose metabolism. Human thermogenic adipocytes can be differentiated in vitro from stem cells, cell lines, or adipose stromal vascular fraction. Pre-activated human brite adipocytes in vitro can maintain their thermogenic function in normal or obese immunodeficient mice; therefore, they improve glucose homeostasis and reduce fat mass in obese animals. These key findings have opened a new door to use in vitro thermogenic adipocytes as a cell therapy to prevent obesity and related disorders. Thus, this paper intends to highlight our knowledge in aspects of in vitro human brite/brown adipocytes for the further studies.     

Metabolism of phenols by Ochromonas danica

Abstract This study investigated the catabolic potential of a eukaryotic alga to degrade one of the most common organic pollutants, phenol. The alga, Ochromonas danica (993/28), was selected for study after screening for its heterotrophic capabilities. The catabolic versatility of the alga was elucidated by incubating with a variety of phenolic compounds. The alga removed phenol, all the cresol isomers and 3,4-xylenol from its incubation media, with phenol being removed more rapidly than any of its methylated homologues. Consequently, the alga was found to have a greater specificity for phenol than for o - or p -cresols. This study shows that O. danica could catabolize phenol and its methylated homologues.