Seasonal modulation of immunity by melatonin and gonadal steroids in a short day breeder goat Capra hircus

Role of melatonin in regulation of immunity and reproduction has never been studied in detail in goats. The aim of the present study was to explore hormonal regulation of immunity in goats with special reference to melatonin. Plasma of male and female goats (n = 18 per sex per season) was processed for hormonal (estrogen, testostrone, and melatonin) and cytokine (interleukin [IL-2], IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor α) measurements during three seasons, i.e., summer, monsoon, and winter. To assess cell-mediated immune response, percent stimulation ratio of thymocytes was recorded during three seasons. To support and establish the modulation by hormones, Western blot analysis for expressions of melatonin receptors (MT1, MT2), androgen receptor, and estrogen receptor α and estimations of marker enzymes, arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase for melatonin and 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase activities for steroidogenesis were performed in thymus. All the hormones and cytokines were estimated by commercial kits. Biochemical, immunologic, and Western blot analyses were done by standardized protocols. We noted a significant increase in estrogen and testosterone levels (P < 0.05) in circulation during monsoon along with melatonin (P < 0.05) presenting a parallel relationship. Expressions of melatonin receptors (MT1 and MT2) in thymus of both the sexes were significantly high (P < 0.01) during winter. Estrogen receptor α expression in female thymus was significantly high during monsoon (P < 0.05). However, androgen receptor showed almost static expression pattern in male thymus during three seasons. Further, both arylalkylamineN-acetyltransferase and 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase enzyme activities were significantly high (P < 0.05; P < 0.01, respectively) during monsoon. These results suggest that there may be a functional parallelism between gonadal steroids and melatonin as melatonin is progonadotrophic in goats. Cell-mediated immune parameters (percent stimulation ratio of thymocytes) and circulatory levels of cytokines (IL-2, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor α) were significantly high (P < 0.01) during monsoon. In vitro supplementation of gonadal steroids to T-cell culture suppressed immunity but cosupplementation with melatonin restored it. Further, we may also suggest that reproductive and immune seasonality are maintained by variations in circulatory hormones and local synthesis of melatonin and gonadal steroids. These functional interactions between melatonin and gonadal steroid might be of great importance in regulating the goat immunity by developing some hormonal microcircuit (gonadal steroid and melatonin) in lymphatic organs.     

RuBisCo activase—a catalytic chaperone involved in modulating the RuBisCo activity and heat stress-tolerance in wheat

Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology - RuBisCo activase modulate the activity of RuBisCo and protect the nascent proteins from aggregation under heat stress (HS). Here, we have...     

Allocation in life cycle inventory: partial set of solutions to an ill-posed problem

Background, aim, and scope

The primary aim of this paper is to indicate that partitioning allocation methods yields only a small subset of solutions to an ill-posed problem that has potentially infinitely many exact solutions. It will be shown that each of the existing partitioning methods arrives at just one particular solution from among infinitely many solutions of an underdetermined system of linear equations.

Materials and methods

Some life cycle inventories fall into a class of functions called estimable functions in linear model framework, in which case they are invariant to allocation assumptions. This class of functions unites results described by Heijungs and Frischknecht (Int J Life Cycle Assess 3:321–332, 1998) and Heijungs and Suh (2002, Conjecture 1, p. 91). The inventories for non-estimable functions obtained through allocation are, in fact, derived under a set of additional implicit equality constraints called side conditions, often resulting in inventory results which differ greatly from one allocation to the next.

Results and discussions

This paper explicates (1) identification of all estimable functions from any given technology matrix and (2) recovery of side conditions imposed on non-estimable functions through partitioning. These methods are illustrated in a simple example, and their relation to least squares techniques for allocation explored by Marvuglia et al. (Int J Life Cycle Assess 15:1020–1040, 2010) ;(Int J Agr Environ Inf Syst 3:51–71, 2012) are discussed.

Conclusions and outlook

Recommendations are made that may lead to more meaningful ways to obtain additional data or include additional information in life cycle inventories in the future.     

Distinct Distribution Pattern of Hepatitis B Virus Genotype C and D in Liver Tissue and Serum of Dual Genotype Infected Liver Cirrhosis and Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients

Aims

The impact of co-infection of several hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes on the clinical outcome remains controversial. This study has for the first time investigated the distribution of HBV genotypes in the serum and in the intrahepatic tissue of liver cirrhotic (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients from India. In addition, the genotype-genotype interplay and plausible mechanism of development of HCC has also been explored.

Methods

The assessment of HBV genotypes was performed by nested PCR using either surface or HBx specific primers from both the circulating virus in the serum and replicative virus that includes covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) and relaxed circular DNA (rcDNA) of HBV from the intrahepatic tissue. The integrated virus within the host chromosome was genotyped by Alu-PCR method. Each PCR products were cloned and sequences of five randomly selected clones were subsequently analysed.

Results

HBV/genotype D was detected in the serum of all LC and HCC patients whereas the sequences of the replicative HBV DNA (cccDNA and rcDNA) from the intrahepatic tissue of the same patients revealed the presence of both HBV/genotype C and D. The sequences of the integrated viruses exhibited the solo presence of HBV/genotype C in the majority of LC and HCC tissues while both HBV/genotype C and D clones were found in few patients in which HBV/genotype C was predominated. Moreover, compared to HBV/genotype D, genotype C had higher propensity to generate double strand breaks, ER stress and reactive oxygen species and it had also showed higher cellular homologous-recombination efficiency that engendered more chromosomal rearrangements, which ultimately led to development of HCC.

Conclusions

Our study highlights the necessity of routine analysis of HBV genotype from the liver tissue of each chronic HBV infected patient in clinical practice to understand the disease prognosis and also to select therapeutic strategy.     

On the “rigorous proof of fuzzy error propagation with matrix-based LCI”

Purpose

This short note re-examines the proof of fuzzy error propagation with matrix-based LCI in Heijungs and Tan (Int J Life Cycle Assess 15:1014–1019, 2010) paper (referred to as HT hereafter), published in this journal. We provide counter examples to the claims made therein, point out the key error in their proof and identify correct sufficient conditions under which the largest (smallest) values of the given α-cuts of fuzzy numbers in the technology matrix yield the smallest (largest) scaling factors.

Methods

HT uses iterative perturbations of a matrix to seemingly provide a rigorous proof of this result. Flaws in their arguments are identified and demonstrated by way of a counterexample. A classical result on monotonic property of the inverse of M-matrices leads to the correct sufficient conditions under which HT result holds.

Results

Since counter examples can be found, the result stated in HT is not, in general, guaranteed.

Conclusions

As claimed in the HT paper, checking the upper and lower bounds of α-cuts may not be sufficient to describe the uncertainty (the full range of values) in the final inventory. However, slightly stronger conditions on the fuzzy technology matrix provide these inventory bounds.     

Phenotypic spectrum in uniparental disomy: Low incidence or lack of study?

CONTEXT:

Alterations in the human chromosomal complement are expressed phenotypically ranging from (i) normal, via (ii) frequent fetal loss in otherwise normal person, to (iii) sub-clinical to severe mental retardation and dysmorphism in live births. A subtle and microscopically undetectable chromosomal alteration is uniparental disomy (UPD), which is known to be associated with distinct birth defects as per the chromosome involved and parental origin. UPD can be evident due to imprinted genes and/or activation of recessive mutations.

AIMS:

The present study comprises of data mining of published UPD cases with a focus on associated phenotypes. The goal was to identify non-random and recurrent associations between UPD and various genetic conditions, which can possibly indicate the presence of new imprinted genes.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN:

Data mining was carried out using the homepage “http://www.fish.uniklinikum-jena.de/UPD.html.”, an online catalog of published cases with UPD.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

The UPD cases having normal karyotype and with or without clinical findings were selected to analyze the associated phenotypes for each chromosome, maternal or paternal involved in UPD.

RESULTS:

Our results revealed many genetic conditions (other than the known UPD syndromes) to be associated with UPD. Even in cases of bad obstetric history as well as normal individuals chance detection of UPD has been reported.

CONCLUSIONS:

The role of UPD in human genetic disorders needs to be studied by involving larger cohorts of individuals with birth defects as well as normal population. The genetic conditions were scrutinized in terms of inheritance patterns; majority of these were autosomal recessive indicating the role of UPD as an underlying mechanism.     

Photosynthetic Response of Plants Under Different Abiotic Stresses: A Review

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - Plants encounter various abiotic stresses due to their sessile nature which include heavy metals, salt, drought, nutrient deficiency, light intensity, pesticide...