The osteology of the golden grey mullet Liza aurata (Teleostei: Mugiliformes: Mugilidae) including interactive three-dimensional reconstructions

Grey mullets are remarkably characterized by their overall uniform external morphology. Identifying species as well as positioning the Mugiliformes in a phylogenetic context is rather difficult. Most recently they were placed in the newly erected Ovalentaria, but more detailed relationships to potential sister taxa were not resolved. Studying the internal morphology, especially the osteology, might provide new insights into the evolution of the Mugiliformes as well as help clarify their phylogenetic position within the Ovalentaria. A detailed osteology of the golden grey mullet Liza aurata is presented. The use of cleared and stained specimens allowed for a complete examination of bony and cartilaginous structures, and a 3D reconstruction from a μCT data set provided additional information on the positional relationships of the bones. Following this, the data obtained were compared with different mugilid species, particularly with the flathead grey mullet Mugil cephalus. Several differences between these species could be identified, such as the position of the basisphenoid, the shape of the hyomandibular and the composition of the branchial arches. These characters might help in understanding the evolutionary changes happening within the mugiliforms and will provide the basis to study this taxon in detail, finally allowing the reconstruction of the body plan of grey mullets.     

Long-term survival after adoptive bone marrow T cell therapy of advanced metastasized breast cancer: follow-up analysis of a clinical pilot trial

Background

The bone marrow (BM) of breast cancer patients harbors tumor-reactive memory T cells (TCs) with therapeutic potential. We recently described the immunologic effects of adoptive transfer of ex vivo restimulated tumor-reactive memory TCs from the BM of 12 metastasized breast cancer patients in a clinical phase-I study. In this trial, adoptive T cell transfer resulted in the occurrence of circulating tumor antigen-reactive type-1 TCs. We here describe the long-term clinical outcome and its correlation with tumor-specific cellular immune response in 16 metastasized breast cancer patients, including 12 included in the original study.

Methods

Sixteen metastatic breast cancer patients with preexisting tumor-reactive BM memory TCs were included into the study. The study protocol involved one transfusion of TCs which were reactivated in vitro with autologous dendritic cells pulsed with lysates of MCF-7 breast cancer cells as source of tumor antigens. The presence of tumor-reactive memory TCs was analyzed by IFN-γ ELISpot assays.

Results

Tumor-reactive memory TCs in the peripheral blood were induced de novo in 7/16 patients (44 %) after adoptive TC transfer. These patients were considered immunologic responders to the therapy. Positive adoptive immunotherapy (ADI) response was observed significantly more often in patients without bone metastases (p = 0.0051), in patients with high levels of tumor-reactive BM TCs prior to therapy (p = 0.036) and correlated significantly with the estimated numbers of transferred tumor-reactive TCs (p = 0.0021). After the treatment, we observed an overall median survival of 33.8 months in the total cohort with three patients alive at last follow-up and more than 7 years after ADI. Numbers of transferred tumor-reactive TCs correlated significantly with the overall survival of patients (p = 0.017). Patients with an immunologic response to ADI in the peripheral blood had a significantly longer median survival than nonresponders (median survival 58.6 vs. 13.6 months; p = 0.009).

Conclusion

In metastasized breast cancer patients, adoptive transfer of BM TCs can induce the presence of tumor antigen-reactive type-1 TCs in the peripheral blood. Patients with immunologic response after ADI show a significantly longer overall survival. Patients with bone metastases significantly less frequently respond to the treatment and, therefore, might not be optimal candidates for ADI. Although the present study does not yet prove the therapeutic effect of ADI, these findings shed light on the relation between immune response and cancer prognosis and suggest that transfer of reactivated BM TCs might bear therapeutic potential.     

T cell responses against microsatellite instability-induced frameshift peptides and influence of regulatory T cells in colorectal cancer

High-level microsatellite-unstable (MSI-H) colorectal carcinomas (CRC) represent a distinct subtype of tumors commonly characterized by dense infiltration with cytotoxic T cells, most likely due to expression of MSI-H-related frameshift peptides (FSP). The contribution of FSP and classical antigens like MUC1 and CEA to the cellular immune response against MSI-H CRC had not been analyzed so far. We analyzed tumor-infiltrating and peripheral T cells from MSI-H (n = 4 and n = 14, respectively) and microsatellite-stable (MSS) tumor patients (n = 26 and n = 17) using interferon gamma ELISpot assays. Responses against 4 FSP antigens and peptides derived from MUC1 to CEA were compared with and without depletion of regulatory T cells, and the results were related to the presence of the respective antigens in tumor tissue. Preexisting FSP-specific T cell responses were detected in all (4 out of 4) tumor-infiltrating and in the majority (10 out of 14) of peripheral T cell samples from MSI-H CRC patients, but rarely observed in MSS CRC patients. Preexisting T cell responses in MSI-H CRC patients were significantly more frequently directed against FSP tested in the present study than against peptides derived from classical antigens MUC1 or CEA (p = 0.049). Depletion of regulatory T cells increased the frequency of effector T cell responses specific for MUC1/CEA-derived peptides and, to a lesser extent, T cell responses specific for FSP. Our data suggest that the analyzed FSP may represent an immunologically relevant pool of antigens capable of eliciting antitumoral effector T cell responses.     

Degradation kinetics of biochar from pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization in temperate soils

Background and Aims

Estimates of biochar residence times in soils range over three orders of magnitude. We present the first direct comparison between the biodegradation of a char from hydrothermal carbonization (htcBC) and pyrolysis (pyrBC) with high temporal resolution.

Methods

Mineralization of the biochars and their shared Miscanthus feedstock in three soils was determined directly by the ¹³CO₂ efflux using a novel method incorporating wavelength scanned cavity ring-down spectroscopy. Biochar half-life (t_1/2) was estimated with three empirical models.

Results

(1) The htcBC was readily biodegradable, whereas pyrBC was more recalcitrant. (2) Cumulative degradation of both biochars increased with soil organic carbon and nitrogen content. (3) The corrected Akaike information criterion (AIC_C) showed an overall preference for the double exponential model (DEM) reflecting a labile and a recalcitrant C-pool, over the first-order degradation model (FODM) and a logarithmic model. (4) The DEM resulted in t_1/2 ranging from 19.7–44.5, 0.7–2.1 and 0.8–1.3 years for pyrBC, htcBC and feedstock, respectively.

Conclusion

The degradation was rather similar between feedstock and htcBC but one order of magnitude slower for pyrBC. The AIC_C preferred FODM in two cases, where the DEM parameters indicated no distinction between a labile and recalcitrant carbon pool.     

Global dynamics of two-compartment models for cell production systems with regulatory mechanisms

We present a global stability analysis of two-compartment models of a hierarchical cell production system with a nonlinear regulatory feedback loop. The models describe cell differentiation processes with the stem cell division rate or the self-renewal fraction regulated by the number of mature cells. The two-compartment systems constitute a basic version of the multicompartment models proposed recently by Marciniak-Czochra and collaborators [25] to investigate the dynamics of the hematopoietic system. Using global stability analysis, we compare different regulatory mechanisms. For both models, we show that there exists a unique positive equilibrium that is globally asymptotically stable if and only if the respective reproduction numbers exceed one. The proof is based on constructing Lyapunov functions, which are appropriate to handle the specific nonlinearities of the model. Additionally, we propose a new model to test biological hypothesis on the regulation of the fraction of differentiating cells. We show that such regulatory mechanism is incapable of maintaining homeostasis and leads to unbounded cell growth. Potential biological implications are discussed.     

Evaluating developmental shape changes in Homo antecessor subadult facial morphology

The fossil ATD6-69 from Atapuerca, Spain, dated to ca. 900 ka (thousands of years ago) has been suggested to mark the earliest appearance of modern human facial features. However, this specimen is a subadult and the interpretation of its morphology remains controversial, because it is unclear how developmental shape changes would affect the features that link ATD6-69 to modern humans. Here we analyze ATD6-69 in an evolutionary and developmental context. Our modern human sample comprises cross-sectional growth series from four populations. The fossil sample covers human specimens from the Pleistocene to the Upper Paleolithic, and includes several subadult Early Pleistocene humans and Neanderthals. We digitized landmarks and semilandmarks on surface and CT scans and analyzed the Procrustes shape coordinates using multivariate statistics. Ontogenetic allometric trajectories and developmental simulations were employed in order to identify growth patterns and to visualize potential adult shapes of ATD6-69. We show that facial differences between modern and archaic humans are not exclusively allometric. We find that while postnatal growth further accentuates the differences in facial features between Neanderthals and modern humans, those features that have been suggested to link ATD6-69's morphology to modern humans would not have been significantly altered in the course of subsequent development. In particular, the infraorbital depression on this specimen would have persisted into adulthood. However, many of the facial features that ATD6-69 shares with modern humans can be considered to be part of a generalized pattern of facial architecture. Our results present a complex picture regarding the polarity of facial features and demonstrate that some modern human-like facial morphology is intermittently present in Middle Pleistocene humans. We suggest that some of the facial features that characterize recent modern humans may have developed multiple times in human evolution.     

Cardiac-specific overexpression of perilipin 5 provokes severe cardiac steatosis via the formation of a lipolytic barrier

Cardiac triacylglycerol (TG) catabolism critically depends on the TG hydrolytic activity of adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL). Perilipin 5 (Plin5) is expressed in cardiac muscle (CM) and has been shown to interact with ATGL and its coactivator comparative gene identification-58 (CGI-58). Furthermore, ectopic Plin5 expression increases cellular TG content and Plin5-deficient mice exhibit reduced cardiac TG levels. In this study we show that mice with cardiac muscle-specific overexpression of perilipin 5 (CM-Plin5) massively accumulate TG in CM, which is accompanied by moderately reduced fatty acid (FA) oxidizing gene expression levels. Cardiac lipid droplet (LD) preparations from CM of CM-Plin5 mice showed reduced ATGL- and hormone-sensitive lipase-mediated TG mobilization implying that Plin5 overexpression restricts cardiac lipolysis via the formation of a lipolytic barrier. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed TG hydrolytic activities in preparations of Plin5-, ATGL-, and CGI-58-transfected cells. In vitro ATGL-mediated TG hydrolysis of an artificial micellar TG substrate was not inhibited by the presence of Plin5, whereas Plin5-coated LDs were resistant toward ATGL-mediated TG catabolism. These findings strongly suggest that Plin5 functions as a lipolytic barrier to protect the cardiac TG pool from uncontrolled TG mobilization and the excessive release of free FAs.     

The Essential Function of Genes for a Hydratase and an Aldehyde Dehydrogenase for Growth of Pseudomonas sp. Strain Chol1 with the Steroid Compound Cholate Indicates an Aldolytic Reaction Step for Deacetylation of the Side Chain

In the bacterial degradation of steroid compounds, the enzymes initiating the breakdown of the steroid rings are well known, while the reactions for degrading steroid side chains attached to C-17 are largely unknown. A recent in vitro analysis with Pseudomonas sp. strain Chol1 has shown that the degradation of the C₅ acyl side chain of the C₂₄ steroid compound cholate involves the C₂₂ intermediate 7α,12α-dihydroxy-3-oxopregna-1,4-diene-20S-carbaldehyde (DHOPDCA) with a terminal aldehyde group. In the present study, candidate genes with plausible functions in the formation and degradation of this aldehyde were identified. All deletion mutants were defective in growth with cholate but could transform it into dead-end metabolites. A mutant with a deletion of the shy gene, encoding a putative enoyl coenzyme A (CoA) hydratase, accumulated the C₂₄ steroid (22E)-7α,12α-dihydroxy-3-oxochola-1,4,22-triene-24-oate (DHOCTO). Deletion of the sal gene, formerly annotated as the steroid ketothiolase gene skt, resulted in the accumulation of 7α,12α,22-trihydroxy-3-oxochola-1,4-diene-24-oate (THOCDO). In cell extracts of strain Chol1, THOCDO was converted into DHOPDCA in a coenzyme A- and ATP-dependent reaction. A sad deletion mutant accumulated DHOPDCA, and expression in Escherichia coli revealed that sad encodes an aldehyde dehydrogenase for oxidizing DHOPDCA to the corresponding acid 7α,12α-dihydroxy-3-oxopregna-1,4-diene-20-carboxylate (DHOPDC) with NAD⁺ as the electron acceptor. These results clearly show that the degradation of the acyl side chain of cholate proceeds via an aldolytic cleavage of an acetyl residue; they exclude a thiolytic cleavage for this reaction step. Based on these results and on sequence alignments with predicted aldolases from other bacteria, we conclude that the enzyme encoded by sal catalyzes this aldolytic cleavage.