Effects of double ligation of Stensen's duct on the rabbit parotid gland

Salivary gland duct ligation is an alternative to gland excision for treating sialorrhea or reducing salivary gland size prior to tumor excision. Duct ligation also is used as an approach to study salivary gland aging, regeneration, radiotherapy, sialolithiasis and sialadenitis. Reports conflict about the contribution of each salivary cell population to gland size reduction after ductal ligation. Certain cell populations, especially acini, reportedly undergo atrophy, apoptosis and proliferation during reduction of gland size. Acini also have been reported to de-differentiate into ducts. These contradictory results have been attributed to different animal or salivary gland models, or to methods of ligation. We report here a bilateral double ligature technique for rabbit parotid glands with histologic observations at 1, 7, 14, 30, 60 days after ligation. A large battery of special stains and immunohistochemical procedures was employed to define the cell populations. Four stages with overlapping features were observed that led to progressive shutdown of gland activities: 1) marked atrophy of the acinar cells occurred by 14 days, 2) response to and removal of the secretory material trapped in the acinar and ductal lumens mainly between 30 and 60 days, 3) reduction in the number of parenchymal (mostly acinar) cells by apoptosis that occurred mainly between 14–30 days, and 4) maintenance of steady-state at 60 days with a low rate of fluid, protein, and glycoprotein secretion, which greatly decreased the number of leukocytes engaged in the removal of the luminal contents. The main post- ligation characteristics were dilation of ductal and acinar lumens, massive transient infiltration of mostly heterophils (rabbit polymorphonuclear leukocytes), acinar atrophy, and apoptosis of both acinar and ductal cells. Proliferation was uncommon except in the larger ducts. By 30 days, the distribution of myoepithelial cells had spread from exclusively investing the intercalated ducts pre-ligation to surrounding a majority of the residual duct-like structures, many of which clearly were atrophic acini. Thus, both atrophy and apoptosis made major contributions to the post-ligation reduction in gland size. Structures also occurred with both ductal and acinar markers that suggested acini differentiating into ducts. Overall, the reaction to duct ligation proceeded at a considerably slower pace in the rabbit parotid glands than has been reported for the salivary glands of the rat.     

Dopamine receptor genetic polymorphisms and body composition in undernourished pastoralists: An exploration of nutrition indices among nomadic and recently settled Ariaal men of northern Kenya

Background  

Minor alleles of the human dopamine receptor polymorphisms, DRD2/TaqI A and DRD4/48 bp, are related to decreased functioning and/or numbers of their respective receptors and have been shown to be correlated with body mass, height and food craving. In addition, the 7R minor allele of the DRD4 gene is at a higher frequency in nomadic compared to sedentary populations. Here we examine polymorphisms in the DRD2 and DRD4 genes with respect to body mass index (BMI) and height among men in two populations of Ariaal pastoralists, one recently settled (n = 87) and the other still nomadic (n = 65). The Ariaal live in northern Kenya, are chronically undernourished and are divided socially among age-sets.     

Linking microarray reporters with protein functions

Background  

The analysis of microarray experiments requires accurate and up-to-date functional annotation of the microarray reporters to optimize the interpretation of the biological processes involved. Pathway visualization tools are used to connect gene expression data with existing biological pathways by using specific database identifiers that link reporters with elements in the pathways.     

Supramolecular structures of peptide assemblies in membranes by neutron off-plane scattering: method of analysis

In a previous paper (Yang et al., Biophys. J. 75:641-645, 1998), we showed a simple, efficient method of recording the diffraction patterns of supramolecular peptide assemblies in membranes where the samples were prepared in the form of oriented multilayers. Here we develop a method of analysis based on the diffraction theory of two-dimensional liquids. Gramicidin was used as a prototype model because its pore structure in membrane in known. At full hydration, the diffraction patterns of alamethicin and magainin are similar to gramicidin except in the scale of q (the momentum transfer of scattering), clearly indicating that both alamethicin and magainin form pores in membranes but of different sizes. When the hydration of the multilayer samples was decreased while the bilayers were still fluid, the in-plane positions of the membrane pores became correlated from one bilayer to the next. We believe that this is a new manifestation of the hydration force. The effect is most prominent in magainin patterns, which are used to demonstrate the method of analysis. When magainin samples were further dehydrated or cooled, the liquid-like diffraction turned into crystal-like patterns. This discovery points to the possibility of investigating the supramolecular structures with high-order diffraction.     

Microfluidic tissue model for live cell screening

We have developed a microfluidic platform modeled after the physiologic microcirculation for multiplexed tissue-like culture and high-throughput analysis. Each microfabricated culture unit consisted of three functional components: a 50 microm wide cell culture pocket, an artificial endothelial barrier with 2 microm pores, and a nutrient transport channel. This configuration enabled a high density of cancer cells to be maintained for over 1 week in a solid tumor-like morphology when fed with continuous flow. The microfluidic chip contained 16 parallel units for "flow cell" based experiments where live cells were exposed to a soluble factor and analyzed via fluorescence microscopy or flow-through biochemistry. Each fluidically independent tissue unit contained approximately 500 cells fed with a continuous flow of 10 nL/min. As a demonstration, the toxicity profile of the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel was collected on HeLa cells cultured in the microfluidic format and compared with a 384-well dish for up to 5 days of continuous drug exposure.     

拟南芥高亲和性K~+转运蛋白AtHAK5功能位点的鉴定

AtHAK5是拟南芥高亲和性钾转运体,其基因表达受低钾条件强烈诱导,编码蛋白在低钾条件下可以整合到质膜.生物信息学分析发现其氨基酸序列含有多处潜在的磷酸化位点.本研究假设这些位点对于AtHAK5的功能至关重要,为探讨AtHAK5的功能位点,分别将AtHAK5 cDNA和带有13种不同点突变位点的AtHAK5转化到athak5突变体中,获得14种稳定表达的转基因植株.利用athak5突变体根对Cs敏感的表型,最终确定T549A和T666A为非核心磷酸化位点.如下11个位点为AtHAK5功能必需位点:F85L,T86A,T311A,T359A,P551S,D552N,S603A,S604A,K668E,S698A和V713L.     

基于最大熵生态位模型的中华穿山甲潜在适宜生境预测

中华穿山甲（Manis pentadactyla）属于全球极度濒危物种,也是我国一级保护动物。对中华穿山甲的非法捕杀曾导致其种群数量锐减。但是,近年来相关研究报道较少,穿山甲分布状况不明,极大地制约了对该物种的有效保护。搜集了近年来国内中华穿山甲的救护记录和救护新闻,甄别出67个记录分布点,利用最大熵模型软件（MaxEnt）进行因子筛选,结果表明最冷季度降水量、人口密度、年降水量、坡度、坡向、海拔等6个环境变量是与中华穿山甲分布显著相关的影响因子。基于6个主导环境变量构建的MaxEnt模型AUC平均值为0.961±0.014,预测结果达到极好标准。刀切法（Jackknife）表明,其中最冷季度降水量、年降水量、人口密度和海拔是影响中华穿山甲分布的主要因素。中华穿山甲适宜生境（出现概率大于0.498）具有以下特点：最冷季度降水量141.22-439.46 mm,年降水量1471.67-2386.56 mm,人口密度≥390人/km²,海拔<316.98 m。该模型预测中华穿山甲在我国的潜在分布适宜区主要位于我国长江以南地区,总面积约为74.27×10⁴ km²,占国土面积的7.73%,主要集中在江西、广东、湖南和广西省,面积分别占该区域的97.58%,89.65%,76.90%和73.08%;其次是浙江、福建、台湾和安徽省。湖北、江苏、四川、云南、贵州等省份也有中华穿山甲的零星分布。湖北东南部、江苏南部、浙江西南部和福建西北部等与江西接壤的区域也是中华穿山甲的重要潜在分布适宜区。明确中华穿山甲的潜在分布适宜区,可为该物种的种群保护和栖息地管理提供科技支撑。     

Tunable Spectrum Selective Enhanced Absorption of Monolayer Graphene in Fano Resonant Waveguide Grating with four-Part Period

Plasmonics - Spectral responses of a novel resonant waveguide grating (WGG) configuration, in which monolayer graphene is prepared on top of the WGG, and the period is composed of two grating...