IL-1 receptor signaling is required at multiple stages of sensitization and elicitation of the contact hypersensitivity response

Contact hypersensitivity (CHS) is a CD8 T cell-mediated response to hapten skin sensitization and challenge. The points at which IL-1R signaling is required during this complex, multistep immune response have not been clearly delineated. The role of IL-1R signaling during 2, 4 dinitro-1-fluorobenezene (DNFB) sensitization to induce hapten-specific CD8 effector T cells and in the trafficking of the effector T cells to the DNFB challenge site to elicit the response were investigated using IL-1R deficient mice. DNFB-sensitized IL-1R(-/-) mice had low CHS responses to hapten challenge that were caused in part by marked decreases in hapten-specific CD8 T cell development to IL-17- and IFN-γ-producing cells during sensitization. Hapten-primed wild type CD8 T cell transfer to naive IL-1R(-/-) mice did not result in T cell activation in response to hapten challenge, indicating a need for IL-1R signaling for the localization or activation, or both, of the CD8 T cells at the challenge site. Decreased CD8 T cell priming in sensitized IL-1R(-/-) mice was associated with marked decreases in hapten-presenting dendritic cell migration from the sensitized skin to draining lymph nodes. Transfer of hapten-presenting dendritic cells from wild type donors to naive IL-1R(-/-) mice resulted in decreased numbers of the dendritic cells in the draining lymph nodes and decreased priming of hapten-specific CD8 T cells compared with dendritic cell transfer to naive wild type recipients. These results indicate that IL-1R signaling is required at multiple steps during the course of sensitization and challenge to elicit CHS.     

Phylogeography of pacific herring Clupea pallasii from Eurasian seas

Eleven samples of Pacific herring from the four seas of Eurasia (Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, Bering Sea, and White Sea), and one sample of Atlantic herring were analyzed. Complete and partial sequences of the mtDNA control region with the sizes up to 1071 bp were used. To verify the haplogroups identified, additional sequencing of the cytochrome oxidase I gene was performed. It was demonstrated that Pacific herring from the seas of Eurasia belonged to one mitochondrial haplogroup. The gene flow between the localities from different parts of the Far Eastern sea basins was about 11% per locality, per generation, which led to constant leveling of herring intraspecific differentiation. The data presented gave no reasons for subdivision of the herring populations in accordance to ecological characters (lacustrine and marine). Analysis of global molecular variance (global AMOVA) demonstrated that in Asian water basins, more than 98% of molecular polymorphism was found within the samples at the low level of significance (P < 0.05).     

Metabolism of adenosine and thymidine in healthy females of different ages and females with mastopathies

The activity of thymidine kinase, thymidine phosphorylase, adenosine deaminase and 5'-nucleotidase of AMP was studied in tissues of 39 healthy females, as well as blood serum and lymphocytes of 60 healthy females, as well as in 50 patients with fibrocavernous mastopathy aged as 23-70. Comparative determination of adenosine metabolism enzymes activity in lymphocytes was carried out simultaneously with studying some immunological indexes in the organism of the same-aged healthy females and ones with mastopathy. It was revealed that age-related changes in the activity of thymidine kinase in blood serum reflected the analogous changes in enzyme activity in tissues of the healthy women. A direct correlation was established between thymidine kinase activity and age both in the healthy females and those with mastopathy. A significant decrease in activity of thymidine phosphorylase was demonstrated in blood serum of the patients with mastopathy in the age 46-60. Determined 4-fold increase in the activity of adenosine deaminase in serum was accompanied by decreased enzyme activity in lymphocytes and decreased Lymphocyte Blast Transformation Index in the same age range. Changes of immunological status are more expressed in T-system of immunity. The revealed metabolic changes in DNA-precursors metabolism in the patients with mastopathy aged as 46-60 might be one of the reasons of increased risk of oncological disease in this age group.     

Flora Europaea Notulae Systematicae ad Floram Europaeam spectantes No. 20 Corrigenda et Addenda

Following the publication of the last of the series of Flora Europaea Notulae, No. 20 in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society , 76: 297–384 (1978), a number of additions or alterations have been drawn to our attention. These are published in continuation.     

Effect of random sample size on the accuracy of nucleotide diversity estimation

Mathematical simulation has been used to analyze how the sample size affects the accuracy of the estimation of molecular variation in a population. The sample size was varied from 1/200 to 1/4 of the total size of the simulated population. The possible effect of the length of the nucleotide sequences compared has also been estimated; it was varied from 500 to 15 000 bp. A tendency towards underestimation of the mean nucleotide diversity (??) by about 25% of the expected value has been found. The sample size and/or the length of the nucleotide sequence used have been shown to affect more the scatter of the ?? values than the accuracy of its measurement (the proportion of correct estimates of ?? is about 14%). The assumption is made that the sample size affects the probability of accepting a false null hypothesis in analysis of the demographic history of a species.     

Physiological and Morphological Specific Features of the Formation of the Thyroid Status in the Aboriginal and Migrant Populations of Magadan Oblast

Ultrasonographic determinations of the thyroid gland volumes and measurement of the blood plasma content of thyroxin and triiodothyronine were carried out in 1176 apparently healthy residents of the Magadan oblast, all those examined being divided by sex, age, and the adaptation time in the North. Special attention was given to the thyroid system parameters of the aborigines 17 to 40 years old living in the urban area and not involved in the traditional life style. The indigenous population of the Extreme North and migrants were shown to have marked functional adaptive hyperplasia of the thyroid gland and diffuse goiter in 15% of cases. The size of the thyroid gland and the level of the thyroid hormones in the aboriginal population are within the average European range. Diffuse goiter manifestations in males virtually do not occur; in women, the incidence does not exceed 5%. The assumption is advanced as to the formation in aborigines of the northern hypothyroid phenotype providing for the sustained optimal level of the thyroid system functioning without an increase in the thyroid volume.     

Method of culturing typhoid microorganisms with automatic regulation of glucose feed]

A system of oxygen-glucose inverse relationship is not acceptable for cultivation of typhoid bacilli with a high reproductive rate and glucose utilization. The elaborated method of automatic glucose supply during typhoid bacilli cultivation permits to lead the process under the optimal conditions by pH and the residual glucose concentration.     

Effects of Pleistocene climatic fluctuations on the phylogeographic and demographic histories of Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii)

We gathered mitochondrial DNA sequences (557 bp from the control region in 935 specimens and 668 bp of the cytochrome b gene in 139 specimens) of Pacific herring collected from 20 nearshore localities spanning the species' extensive range along the North Pacific coastlines of Asia and North America. Haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity were high, and three major phylogeographic lineages (sequence divergences ca. 1.5%) were detected. Using a variety of phylogenetic methods, coalescent reasoning, and molecular dating interpreted in conjunction with paleoclimatic and physiographic evidence, we infer that the genetic make-up of extant populations of C. pallasii was shaped by Pleistocene environmental impacts on the historical demography of this species. A deep genealogical split that cleanly distinguishes populations in the western vs. eastern North Pacific probably originated as a vicariant separation associated with a glacial cycle that drove the species southward and isolated two ancestral populations in Asia and North America. Another deep genealogical split may have involved either a vicariant isolation of a third herring lineage (perhaps originally in the Gulf of California) or it may have resulted simply from the long coalescent times that are possible in large populations. Coalescent analyses showed that all the three evolutionary lineages of C. pallasii experienced major expansions in their most recent histories after having remained more stable in the preceding periods. Independent of the molecular calibration chosen, populations of C. pallasii appear to have remained stable or grown throughout the periods that covered at least two major glaciations, and probably more.     

Green Fluorescent Protein with Anionic Tryptophan-Based Chromophore and Long Fluorescence Lifetime

Spectral diversity of fluorescent proteins, crucial for multiparameter imaging, is based mainly on chemical diversity of their chromophores. Recently we have reported, to our knowledge, a new green fluorescent protein WasCFP—the first fluorescent protein with a tryptophan-based chromophore in the anionic state. However, only a small portion of WasCFP molecules exists in the anionic state at physiological conditions. In this study we report on an improved variant of WasCFP, named NowGFP, with the anionic form dominating at 37°C and neutral pH. It is 30% brighter than enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and exhibits a fluorescence lifetime of 5.1 ns. We demonstrated that signals of NowGFP and EGFP can be clearly distinguished by fluorescence lifetime in various models, including mammalian cells, mouse tumor xenograft, and Drosophila larvae. NowGFP thus provides an additional channel for multiparameter fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy of green fluorescent proteins.