Cytokine-induced cell death in immortalized Schwann cells: roles of nitric oxide and cyclic AMP

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interferon-gamma are pleiotropic cytokines that regulate Schwann cell responses during injury and inflammatory demyelination. We have previously shown that cyclic AMP (cAMP)-elevating agents decrease the demyelination and Wallerian degeneration in experimental allergic neuritis. In this study, we examined the role of cAMP in cytokine-mediated signaling in a spontaneously immortal Schwann cell clone (iSC). We found that tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interferon-gamma exert synergistic inhibitory action on Schwann cell viability via the production of nitric oxide (NO) and ceramide (cer). Furthermore, we found that: (i) NO synthase inhibitors attenuate the cytokine-induced cer accumulation and cell death indicating that NO acts upstream of cer; and (ii) cytokine-induced cell death is decreased in iSCs pretreated continuously for 48-72 h with forskolin, an activator of adenylate cyclase. Although forskolin modulates the phosphorylation of ERKs and Akt, it decreases the susceptibility of iSC to cytokines via a separate mechanism operating after NO induction and before cer accumulation. We propose that the protective effect of cAMP-elevating agents in experimental allergic neuritis may be mediated in part via modulation of Schwann cell responses to cytokines.     

eEF-2 Phosphorylation Down-Regulates P-Glycoprotein Over-Expression in Rat Brain Microvessel Endothelial Cells

ObjectiveWe investigated whether glutamate, NMDA receptors, and eukaryote elongation factor-2 kinase (eEF-2K)/eEF-2 regulate P-glycoprotein expression, and the effects of the eEF-2K inhibitor NH125 on the expression of P-glycoprotein in rat brain microvessel endothelial cells (RBMECs).MethodsCortex was obtained from newborn Wistar rat brains. After surface vessels and meninges were removed, the pellet containing microvessels was resuspended and incubated at 37°C in culture medium. Cell viability was assessed by the MTT assay. RBMECs were identified by immunohistochemistry with anti-vWF. P-glycoprotein, phospho-eEF-2, and eEF-2 expression were determined by western blot analysis. Mdr1a gene expression was analyzed by RT-PCR.ResultsMdr1a mRNA, P-glycoprotein and phospho-eEF-2 expression increased in L-glutamate stimulated RBMECs. P-glycoprotein and phospho-eEF-2 expression were down-regulated after NH125 treatment in L-glutamate stimulated RBMECs.ConclusionseEF-2K/eEF-2 should have played an important role in the regulation of P-glycoprotein expression in RBMECs. eEF-2K inhibitor NH125 could serve as an efficacious anti-multidrug resistant agent.     

Ammonium photo-production by heterocytous cyanobacteria: potentials and constraints

Over the last decades, production of microalgae and cyanobacteria has been developed for several applications, including novel foods, cosmetic ingredients and more recently biofuel. The sustainability of these promising developments can be hindered by some constraints, such as water and nutrient footprints. This review surveys data on N₂-fixing cyanobacteria for biomass production and ways to induce and improve the excretion of ammonium within cultures under aerobic conditions. The nitrogenase complex is oxygen sensitive. Nevertheless, nitrogen fixation occurs under oxic conditions due to cyanobacteria-specific characteristics. For instance, in some cyanobacteria, the vegetative cell differentiation in heterocyts provides a well-adapted anaerobic microenvironment for nitrogenase protection. Therefore, cell cultures of oxygenic cyanobacteria have been grown in laboratory and pilot photobioreactors (Dasgupta et al., 2010; Fontes et al., 1987; Moreno et al., 2003; Nayak & Das, 2013). Biomass production under diazotrophic conditions has been shown to be controlled by environmental factors such as light intensity, temperature, aeration rate, and inorganic carbon concentration, also, more specifically, by the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the culture medium. Currently, there is little information regarding the production of extracellular ammonium by heterocytous cyanobacteria. This review compares the available data on maximum ammonium concentrations and analyses the specific rate production in cultures grown as free or immobilized filamentous cyanobacteria. Extracellular production of ammonium could be coupled, as suggested by recent research on non-diazotrophic cyanobacteria, to that of other high value metabolites. There is little information available regarding the possibility for using diazotrophic cyanobacteria as cellular factories may be in regard of the constraints due to nitrogen fixation.     

Revealing Invisible Water: Moisture Recycling as an Ecosystem Service

An ecosystem service is a benefit derived by humanity that can be traced back to an ecological process. Although ecosystem services related to surface water have been thoroughly described, the relationship between atmospheric water and ecosystem services has been mostly neglected, and perhaps misunderstood. Recent advances in land-atmosphere modeling have revealed the importance of terrestrial ecosystems for moisture recycling. In this paper, we analyze the extent to which vegetation sustains the supply of atmospheric moisture and precipitation for downwind beneficiaries, globally. We simulate land-surface evaporation with a global hydrology model and track changes to moisture recycling using an atmospheric moisture budget model, and we define vegetation-regulated moisture recycling as the difference in moisture recycling between current vegetation and a hypothetical desert world. Our results show that nearly a fifth of annual average precipitation falling on land is from vegetation-regulated moisture recycling, but the global variability is large, with many places receiving nearly half their precipitation from this ecosystem service. The largest potential impacts for changes to this ecosystem service are land-use changes across temperate regions in North America and Russia. Likewise, in semi-arid regions reliant on rainfed agricultural production, land-use change that even modestly reduces evaporation and subsequent precipitation, could significantly affect human well-being. We also present a regional case study in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil, where we identify the specific moisture recycling ecosystem services associated with the vegetation in Mato Grosso. We find that Mato Grosso vegetation regulates some internal precipitation, with a diffuse region of benefit downwind, primarily to the south and east, including the La Plata River basin and the megacities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. We synthesize our global and regional results into a generalized framework for describing moisture recycling as an ecosystem service. We conclude that future work ought to disentangle whether and how this vegetation-regulated moisture recycling interacts with other ecosystem services, so that trade-offs can be assessed in a comprehensive and sustainable manner.     

Microplastics in soil-plant system: effects of nano/microplastics on plant photosynthesis,rhizosphere microbes and soil properties in soil with different residues

Plant and Soil - To investigate the effects of polystyrene microplastics (PS-beads) on the soil properties, photosynthesis of Flowering Chinese cabbage, the rhizosphere microbial community and...     

猴免疫缺陷病毒（SIV）在艾滋病模型恒河猴组织中的分布和载量测定

目的研究当艾滋病恒河猴模型的血浆病毒载量处于低水平或阴性时,猴免疫缺陷病毒（simian immunodeficiency viruses,SIV）在宿主组织中的分布情况。方法SIVmac251感染恒河猴10只,定期检测其血浆载量,感染病毒平均高峰时间第14天时,活检取淋巴结。选取感染18个月后病毒载量最低水平和阴性的2只艾滋病猴（SAIDS）,经安死术后取淋巴结、脾、肝、肺、肾、脑等组织,用原位杂交和实时荧光定量PCR的方法检测病毒在组织中的分布和组织中的病毒载量。结果感染后14d,10只猴血浆病毒载量达到10^7copies/mL,淋巴结组织病毒载量为10^5-10^8copies/g,原位杂交方法在腹股沟淋巴结中检测到强阳性斑点。感染后第18个月的2只猴,血浆病毒载量下降并维持不高于10^2copies/mL水平或阴性,但组织分布不尽相同,在肠系膜淋巴结、肾上腺、海马回、空肠、脾脏等组织中检测到10^5-10^6copies/g的病毒载量,于一只猴的脑积液中检测到10^3copies/mL的病毒载量。用原位杂交的方法在肠系膜淋巴结和空肠中检测到强阳性斑点,其它组织中未检测到阳性斑点。结论实验证实SAIDS猴在血浆病毒载量低甚至阴性时,病毒在不同组织中仍有分布,有些组织中甚至出现高病毒载量,提示在制备SIV/SAIDS模型中,尤其在药物筛选和疫苗评价时,应考虑组织病毒载量指标的测定和药物、疫苗对组织病毒的治疗清除作用的评价。     

In vitro traits of adenovirus-transformed cell lines and their relevance to tumorigenicity in nude mice

Six independently isolated adenovirus 2-transformed rat cell lines and one adenovirus 5-transformed human cell line have been examined in vitro for serum growth requirements, saturation density, anchorage-independent growth, proteolytic enzyme activity and the presence of LETS glycoprotein and T antigen. This series of adenovirus-transformed cell lines exhibits an oncogenic spectrum ranging from being tumorigenic in immunocompetent rats through to nontumorigenic in adult nude mice. The relevance of the in vitro findings to growth potential in vivo is discussed.