Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte Typing as a Useful Tool to Objectify the Oral Mucosa Patch Test in the Diagnosis of Allergic Contact Mucositis to Nickel

Nickel (Ni) exposure through the intestinal mucosa may cause a hypersensitivity reaction recently defined as allergic contact mucositis (ACM). This condition is identifiable by the oral mucosa patch test (omPT), a qualitative and subjective examination that requires clinical expertise. Our aim was to evaluate if a peripheral blood lymphocyte typing performed before and after the omPT for Ni may be able to objectify this examination for diagnostic purposes. Thirty patients with symptoms referable to the ingestion of Ni-rich foods were subjected to omPT for Ni. Before and after the omPT, each patient underwent blood sampling for the typing of total lymphocytes and their subsets (T, T helper or Th, T cytotoxic or Tc, B, natural killer or NK). Statistical analysis was performed by Student t test and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. According to the omPT outcomes, 18 patients were defined as Ni-sensitive and the remaining 12 as controls. In Ni-sensitive patients, the number of total, T, Th, Tc, and B lymphocytes/μL whole blood increased after the omPT (p?<?0.0001 for the first three, p?=?0.0004 and p?=?0.0001 for the last two lymphocyte types). No omPT-dependent lymphocyte increase was observed in controls. The post/pre omPT cell ratio, especially if calculated for Th lymphocytes, appears to be an effective index for diagnostic purposes (sensitivity?=?100 %, specificity?=?83.3 %, Youden index?=?0.833, area under curve (AUC)?=?0.926, p?<?0.0001). In conclusion, the peripheral blood lymphocyte typing with calculation of post/pre omPT cell ratio has the potential to support the omPT in diagnosing ACM, with the advantage of providing quantitative and objective data.     

The Acoustic Codes: How Animal Sign Processes Create Sound-Topes and Consortia via Conflict Avoidance

In this essay we argue for the possibility to describe the co-presence of species in a community as a consortium built by acoustic codes, using mainly the examples of bird choruses. In this particular case, the consortium is maintained via the sound-tope that different bird species create by singing in a chorus. More generally, the formation of acoustic codes as well as cohesive communicative systems (the consortia) can be seen as a result of plastic adaptational behaviour of the specimen who can solve and avoid conflicts both with conspecifics and with other species in the vicinity. Thus, sign-relations appear to resolve potential conflicts, and as a foundation for symbiotic aggregations. The spatio-temporal configuration of consortia—their chronotope—includes several eco-fields as respective to different functions of the participating organisms. Biological study is combined with a semiotic approach that, as we suggest, should be more often used together to effectively describe ecological processes.     

Mucosal Adjuvant Activity of IL-2 Presenting Spores of Bacillus subtilis in a Murine Model of Helicobacter pylori Vaccination

The endospores of Bacillus subtilis are now widely used as a platform for presentation of heterologous proteins and due to their safety record and high resistance to harsh environmental conditions can be considered as potential vehicles for oral vaccination. In this research we show that recombinant B. subtilis spores presenting a fragment of the Helicobacter acinonychis UreB protein and expressing the ureB gene under vegetative promoter elicit a strong cellular immune response in orally immunized mice when co-administered with spores presenting IL-2. We show for the first time the successful application of two types of recombinant spores, one carrying an antigen and the other an adjuvant, in a single oral immunization.     

In silico approach to quantify nucleus self-deformation on micropillared substrates

Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology - Considering the major role of confined cell migration in biological processes and diseases, such as embryogenesis or metastatic cancer, it has become...     

Protection from cigarette smoke‐induced vascular injury by recombinant human relaxin‐2 (serelaxin)

Smoking is regarded as a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This study investigates whether serelaxin (RLX, recombinant human relaxin‐2) endowed with promising therapeutic properties in CVD, can be credited of a protective effect against cigarette smoke (CS)‐induced vascular damage and dysfunction. Guinea pigs exposed daily to CS for 8 weeks were treated with vehicle or RLX, delivered by osmotic pumps at daily doses of 1 or 10 μg. Controls were non‐smoking animals. Other studies were performed on primary guinea pig aortic endothelial (GPAE) cells, challenged with CS extracts (CSE) in the absence and presence of 100 ng/ml (17 nmol/l) RLX. In aortic specimens from CS‐exposed guinea pigs, both the contractile and the relaxant responses to phenylephrine and acetylcholine, respectively, were significantly reduced in amplitude and delayed, in keeping with the observed adverse remodelling of the aortic wall, endothelial injury and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) down‐regulation. RLX at both doses maintained the aortic contractile and relaxant responses to a control‐like pattern and counteracted aortic wall remodelling and endothelial derangement. The experiments with GPAE cells showed that CSE significantly decreased cell viability and eNOS expression and promoted apoptosis by sparkling oxygen free radical‐related cytotoxicity, while RLX counterbalanced the adverse effects of CSE. These findings demonstrate that RLX is capable of counteracting CS‐mediated vascular damage and dysfunction by reducing oxidative stress, thus adding a tile to the growing mosaic of the beneficial effects of RLX in CVD.