Pros and cons of fatty acids in bone biology

Despite the growing interest in deciphering the causes and consequences of obesity-related disorders, the mechanisms linking fat intake to bone behaviour remain unclear. Since bone fractures are widely associated with increased morbidity and mortality, most notably in elderly and obese people, bone health has become a major social and economic issue. Consistently, public health system guidelines have encouraged low-fat diets in order to reduce associated complications. However, from a bone point of view, mechanisms linking fat intake to bone alteration remain quite controversial. Thus, after more than a decade of dedicated studies, this timely review offers a comprehensive overview of the relationships between bone and fatty acids. Using clinical evidences as a starting-point to more complex molecular elucidation, this work highlights the complexity of the system and reveals that bone alteration that cannot be solved simply by taking ω-3 pills. Fatty acid effects on bone metabolism can be both direct and indirect and require integrated investigations. Furthermore, even at the level of a single cell, one fatty acid is able to trigger several different independent pathways (receptors, metabolites…) which may all have a say in the final cellular metabolic response.     

Pros and cons of using aberrant glycosylation as companion biomarkers for therapeutics in cancer

Cancer treatment has been stratified by companion biomarker tests that serve to provide information on the genetic status of cancer patients and to identify patients who can be expected to respond to a given treatment. This stratification guarantees better efficiency and safety during treatment. Cancer patients, however, marginally benefit from the current companion biomarker-aided treatment regimens, presumably because companion biomarker tests are dependent solely on the mutation status of several genes status quo. In the true sense of the term, "personalized medicine", cancer patients are deemed to be identified individually by their molecular signatures, which are not necessarily confined to genetic mutations. Glycosylation is tremendously dynamic and shows alterations in cancer. Evidence is accumulating that aberrant glycosylation contributes to the development and progression of cancer, holding the promise for use of glycosylation status as a companion biomarker in cancer treatment. There are, however, several challenges derived from the lack of a reliable detection system for aberrant glycosylation, and a limited library of aberrant glycosylation. The challenges should be addressed if glycosylation status is to be used as a companion biomarker in cancer treatment and contribute to the fulfillment of personalized medicine.     

Pros and cons of a prion-like pathogenesis in Parkinson's disease

Background  

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a slowly progressive neurodegenerative disorder which affects widespread areas of the brainstem, basal ganglia and cerebral cortex. A number of proteins are known to accumulate in parkinsonian brains including ubiquitin and α-synuclein. Prion diseases are sporadic, genetic or infectious disorders with various clinical and histopathological features caused by prion proteins as infectious proteinaceous particles transmitting a misfolded protein configuration through brain tissue. The most important form is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which is associated with a self-propagating pathological precursor form of the prion protein that is physiologically widely distributed in the central nervous system.     

Pros and cons of inhibiting cholesteryl ester transfer protein

Whether or not it is desirable to inhibit cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) has been an important question for over fifteen years since genetic CETP deficiency was found. Recently, some epidemiological studies which have been reported in Japan as well as Western countries help to clarify the atherogenicity of human subjects with mutations or polymorphisms in the CETP gene. In addition, some experimental atherosclerosis studies, in which CETP was inhibited in rabbits with different approaches, have been reported. There was a considerable difference in the atherogenicity of human CETP deficiency and CETP-inhibited rabbits. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in this field as well as discussing the significance of CETP in reverse cholesterol transport, a major protective system against atherosclerosis.     

Pros and cons: on-line versus off-line analysis of fermentations

A fermenter is a complex system consisting of metabolically active cells suspended in a medium which is often aerated. Since the behaviour of such systems is not determined by the initial conditions fermentations must be subject to closed loop control. Closed loop control can be applied using either on-line or off-line methods.     

Pros and cons of external swabbing of amphibians for genetic analyses

Non-invasive DNA sampling is an important tool in amphibian conservation. Buccal swabs are nowadays replacing the wounding toe-clipping method. Skin and cloaca swabbing are even less invasive and easier to handle than buccal swabbing, but could result in contaminations of genetic material. Therefore, we test if external skin and cloaca swabs are as reliable as buccal swabs for genetic analysis of amphibians. We analysed eight microsatellite loci for the common frog (Rana temporaria, Linnaeus 1758) and compared genotyping results for buccal, skin and cloaca swabs regarding allelic dropouts and false alleles. Furthermore, we compared two DNA extraction methods regarding efficiency and cost. DNA quality and quantity (amplification success, genotyping error rate, in nanogram per microlitre) were comparable among DNA sources and extraction methods. However, skin and cloaca samples exhibited high degrees of contamination with foreign individuals, which was due to sample collection during mating season. Here, we established a simple low budget procedure to receive DNA of amphibians avoiding stressful buccal swabbing or harmful toe clipping. However, the possibility of contaminations of external swabs has to be considered.     

Assessing protein-DNA interactions: Pros and cons of classic and emerging techniques

正Investigation of protein-DNA interactions provides important information for understanding gene function and regulation,but identification and validation of specific interactions remain major challenges in the post-genomics era.Therefore,effective and economical methods to assess protein-DNA interactions are highly sought-after by molecular biologists.Choosing the appropriate method to examine a specific protein-DNA interaction also remains a crucial challenge     

Radiolabelled proteins for positron emission tomography: Pros and cons of labelling methods

Background

Dynamic biomedical research is currently yielding a wealth of information about disease-associated molecular alterations on cell surfaces and in the extracellular space. The ability to visualize and quantify these alterations in vivo could provide important diagnostic information and be used to guide individually-optimized therapy. Biotechnology can provide proteinaceous molecular probes with highly specific target recognitions. Suitably labelled, these may be used as tracers for radionuclide-based imaging of molecular disease signatures. If the labels are positron-emitting radionuclides, the superior resolution, sensitivity and quantification capability of positron emission tomography (PET) can be exploited.

Scope of review

This article discusses different approaches to labelling proteins with positron-emitting nuclides with suggestions made depending on the biological features of the tracers.

Major conclusions

Factors such as matching biological and physical half-lives, availability of the nuclide, labelling yields, and influences of labelling on targeting properties (affinity, charge and lipophilicity, cellular processing and retention of catabolites) should be considered when selecting a labelling strategy for each proteinaceous tracer.

General significance

The labelling strategy used can make all the difference between success and failure in a tracer application. This review emphasises chemical, biological and pharmacological considerations in labelling proteins with positron-emitting radionuclides.     

Pros and cons of using genomic SSRs and EST-SSRs for resolving phylogeny of the genus Gossypium

The genus Gossypium is comprised of 50 diverse cotton species representing eight different genomes (A through G and K), however, phylogenetic relationship using various DNA marker types such as RAPD and SSRs was determined on limited number of cotton species. In this report, we have demonstrated the application of genomic SSRs (gSSRs) and EST-SSRs, and after combining both the data sets, for resolving the phylogenies of 36 cotton species including seven races. Out of the 100 primer pairs surveyed (50 for gSSRs and 50 for EST-SSRs), 75 produced scorable amplification products in all species. Out of these, 73 were found to be polymorphic and amplified 135 alleles ranging from 1 to 5 alleles per SSR marker (average 2.87 alleles per marker). The gSSRs amplified higher number of alleles (72) compared to the EST-SSRs (63). In total 22 highly informative SSRs with PIC values ≥0.5 were identified. Genomic SSRs containing di-while EST-SSRs containing tri-nucleotide repeats exhibited high polymorphism compared to the other nucleotide repeats containing gSSRs/EST-SSRs. Number of tandem repeats and polymorphism were positively correlated. Neither the type of chromosome nor the location of the SSRs showed association with the polymorphism. Gossypium herbaceum var. africanum (Watt) Hutch. ex and Ghose and Gossypium robinsonii F. Muell. were found the most genetically diverse, while among races of Gossypium hirsutum L. “yucatanense” and G. hirsutum “punctatum” were found genetically diverse. Of the three data sets, clustering analysis based on EST-SSRs and combined data sets, revealed parallel results reported in earlier studies. This study further confirmed that Gossypium darwinii Watt has close relationship with Gossypium barbadense L. Moreover, Gossypium raimondii Ulbr. and G. herbaceum/Gossypium arboreum L. are close living relatives of the ancestor allotetraploid species. Our studies suggest that for resolving phylogenetic relationship among the various plant species EST-SSRs could be a better choice. This information can be instrumental in transferring novel alleles or loci from the wild species into the cultivated cotton species which would set a stage for cultivating genetically diverse cultivars—a way to achieve sustainable cotton production in changing climate.     

Pros and cons of a group webpage design project in a freshman anatomy and physiology course

To generate motivation and promote the development of written communication skills, students in a freshman-level anatomy and physiology course for nonmajors created group webpages describing historically important diseases. After the groups had been formed, each individual was assigned specific components of the disease (e.g., causes or treatments), which were subsequently combined into a final product. Interviews and questionnaires were used to document students' previous educational experiences regarding, and attitudes toward, the project. Students learned more about website design than about anatomy and physiology, but students preferred the assignment over traditional term papers. Although most students could find relevant information for this project on the internet, they were uncritical in judging the accuracy of the information they found.     

Pros and cons for Martian life: scientific debate on ALH84001]

Scientific debate related to possible martian life is summarized in this article. Even there is no firm conclusion yet to convince the existence of life on Mars, intensive studies on the meteorite ALH84001 have invoked many valuable findings.     

Pros and cons of using a standard protocol to test germination of alpine species

Plant Ecology - Storing seeds in seed banks is an effective way to preserve plant diversity and conserve species. An essential step towards a valuable conservation is the validation of germination....     

Pros and cons of the use of immunotherapeutic procedures with special reference to adoptive immunotherapy in proliferative diseases

Consequences, results, and side-effects known today about active and passive as well as adoptive immunotherapy in human neoplastic diseases are described in a survey and discussed in view of the experiences obtained by animal experiments. In this connection, special attention is attributed to restoring the haematopoietic function by bone-marrow transplantation or implantation of thymus tissue from an immunological point of view.     

Pros and cons of group living in the forest tent caterpillar: separating the roles of silk and of grouping

Group living can incur both benefits and costs, mediated by different mechanisms. In many gregarious caterpillars, collective use of a network of silk trails is thought to improve foraging. Grouping, i.e., close contact with conspecifics, has been postulated to have both positive (thermoregulation and predator defense) and negative (competition and pathogen transmission) effects. The present experiment distinguishes between silk produced by group members and grouping per se in their effects on growth and development of both early and late larval stadia of the forest tent caterpillar [Malacosoma disstria Hübner (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae)] in a laboratory context. For both developmental stadia tested, pre‐established silk trails decreased latency to food finding and hence increased food consumption and growth rate. For younger larvae, pre‐established silk also decreased investment in silk production. Grouping young caterpillars accelerated development at the expense of growth, possibly as a mechanism to avoid intraspecific competition in later larval stadia. In older caterpillars, grouping decreased meal duration, suggesting that competition can indeed occur towards the end of larval development, even in the presence of surplus food. This led to a decrease in growth without any effect on instar duration. The benefits of exogenous silk thus decreased during larval development, whereas the costs associated with crowding increased. Ontogenetic shifts in grouping are common in many taxa: the present study is among the first to provide empirical evidence for an adaptive explanation of observed ontogenetic changes in aggregative behavior.     

The role of multivalency in antibody mediated liposome targeting

We have investigated the role of multivalency in immunoliposome binding to cells displaying different amounts of surface antigen using liposomes with increasing numbers of palmitoyl anti-H2Kk antibodies incorporated into the bilayer. RDM-4 lymphoma cells were treated with proteinase k to generate a series of cells with various amounts of H2Kk antigen. Percent binding of immunoliposomes was related to the number of antigens displayed by the RDM-4 cell. Increasing liposome binding was observed with increasing number of antibody molecules per liposome. However, the ratio of binding of the high-antigen-density cells to that of the low-antigen-density cells was higher with immunoliposomes of lower antibody density than the ones with higher antibody density. This result suggests that for better discrimination between cells differing in antigen density, liposomes with lower numbers of antibody molecules per liposome may be more useful as a discriminatory tool for cells with a low level antigen expression than liposomes with greater antibody densities.     

Functional role of forest diversity: Pros and cons of synthetic stands and across-site comparisons in established forests

In contrast to grasslands, forests have only rarely been the subject of functional biodiversity research. This paper addresses specific problems, which arise from applying the synthetic stand approach to long-lived plants, which can be taken to simulate the loss or addition of tree species or tree functional groups in forest stands. Planted synthetic stands often deviate from natural forests in several properties including trophic structure, tree age distribution, and horizontal and vertical canopy structures. Moreover, edge effects and the absence of a quasi-steady state in soil development limit the spectrum of processes which can be analysed for biodiversity effects in synthetic tree stands. We propose that these shortcomings can partly be overcome by combining the synthetic stand approach with observational studies in existing forest stands of contrasting tree diversity. The potentials and limitations of comparisons among existing stands for functional biodiversity research are briefly discussed using the example of the Hainich Tree Diversity Matrix, a species-rich temperate broad-leaved forest consisting of a small-scale mosaic of stands differing in tree diversity, which originated from a variety of historic forest-use practices.