Expression of nidogens in rat uterus and embryo during decidualization and implantation

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the expression of nidogen-1 and nidogen-2 and their possible role in decidualization and implantation events during early pregnancy in rats. The tissue samples were examined from pregnant animals between gestational days 1-8 using immunocytochemistry. The uterine luminal epithelium, the glandular epithelium, and the myometrial smooth muscle cells stained strongly from gestational days 1-8 with both nidogen antibodies. At day 4 the decidual reaction areas began to appear in the stromal matrix and immunostaining of both nidogens revealed that the basement membrane of the surface epithelium was discontinuous. The differentiation of stromal cells into decidual cells was seen at gestational day 5 and both nidogens were weakly expressed in the decidualizing cells. At day 6, nidogen-2 immunoreactivity was higher in the primary decidual cells close to the embryo than nidogen-1, and during development of the decidual tissue both nidogens appeared in the endometrial stromal cells. At day 7, while expression of both nidogens declined in the primary decidual cells, their expression was markedly observed in the secondary decidual cells close to the myometrium. At day 8, expression of both nidogens was also observed to increase in the primary decidual cells. While nidogen-2 expression was seen in the parietal endoderm and primary ectoderm of the rat embryos at this developmental stage, nidogen-1 expression was only detected in the parietal endoderm. These results indicate that nidogen-1 and nidogen-2 could play important roles during embryogenesis, decidualization, and implantation in the endometrium of rat uterus.     

Matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) expression in preeclamptic decidua and MMP9 induction by tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin 1 beta in human first trimester decidual cells

Extravillous trophoblasts (EVTs) invade human decidua via sequential integrin-mediated binding and proteolysis of basement membrane proteins in the extracellular matrix (ECM). In preeclampsia, shallow EVT invasion impairs spiral artery and arteriole remodeling to reduce uteroplacental blood flow. Excess decidual cell-expressed matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) 2 and 9, in response to preeclampsia-related interleukin 1 beta (IL1B) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF), may inappropriately degrade these basement membrane proteins and impede EVT invasion. This study found significantly higher immunohistochemical MMP9 levels in decidual cells and adjacent interstitial trophoblasts in placental sections of preeclamptic versus gestational age-matched control women. In contrast, immunostaining for MMP2 and tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases 1 and 2 (TIMP1 and TIMP2) were similar in preeclamptic and control groups. First-trimester decidual cells were incubated with estradiol (E(2)) or E(2) + medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), with or without TNF or IL1B. As measured by ELISA, both cytokines elicited concentration-dependent increases in secreted MMP9 levels that were unaffected by MPA. In contrast, secreted levels of MMP2, TIMP1, and TIMP2 were unchanged in all treatment groups. Substrate gel zymography and Western blotting confirmed that each cytokine increased secreted levels of MMP9 but not MMP2. Similarly, quantitative RT-PCR found that TNF and IL1B enhanced MMP9, but not MMP2, mRNA levels. At the implantation site, inflammatory cytokine-enhanced MMP9 may promote preeclampsia by disrupting the decidual ECM to interfere with normal stepwise EVT invasion.     

Potential Conflicts of Interest of Editorial Board Members from Five Leading Spine Journals

Conflicts of interest arising from ties between pharmaceutical industry and physicians are common and may bias research. The extent to which these ties exist among editorial board members of medical journals is not known. This study aims to determine the prevalence and financial magnitude of potential conflicts of interest among editorial board members of five leading spine journals. The editorial boards of: The Spine Journal; Spine; European Spine Journal; Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine; and Journal of Spinal Disorders & Techniques were extracted on January 2013 from the journals’ websites. Disclosure statements were retrieved from the 2013 disclosure index of the North American Spine Society; the program of the 20th International Meeting on Advanced Spine Techniques; the program of the 48th Annual Meeting of the Scoliosis Research Society; the program of the AOSpine global spine congress; the presentations of the 2013 Annual Eurospine meeting; and the disclosure index of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Names of the editorial board members were compared with the individuals who completed a disclosure for one of these indexes. Disclosures were extracted when full names matched. Two hundred and ten (29%) of the 716 identified editorial board members reported a potential conflict of interest and 154 (22%) reported nothing to disclose. The remaining 352 (49%) editorial board members had no disclosure statement listed for one of the indexes. Eighty-nine (42%) of the 210 editorial board members with a potential conflict of interest reported a financial relationship of more than $10,000 during the prior year. This finding confirms that potential conflicts of interest exist in editorial boards which might influence the peer review process and can result in bias. Academia and medical journals in particular should be aware of this and strive to improve transparency of the review process. We emphasize recommendations that contribute to achieving this goal.     

Organ printing: the future of bone regeneration?

In engineered bone grafts, the combined actions of bone-forming cells, matrix and bioactive stimuli determine the eventual performance of the implant. The current notion is that well-built 3D constructs include the biological elements that recapitulate native bone tissue structure to achieve bone formation once implanted. The relatively new technology of organ/tissue printing now enables the accurate 3D organization of the components that are important for bone formation and also addresses issues, such as graft porosity and vascularization. Bone printing is seen as a great promise, because it combines rapid prototyping technology to produce a scaffold of the desired shape and internal structure with incorporation of multiple living cell types that can form the bone tissue once implanted.     

Leaf area prediction for corn (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Zea mays</Emphasis> L.) cultivars with multiregression analysis

Leaf area is one of the most important parameter for plant growth. Reliable equations were offered to predict leaf area for Zea mays L. cultivars. All equations produced for leaf area were derived as affected by leaf length and leaf width. As a result of ANOVA and multiregression analysis, it was found that there was a close relationship between actual and predicted growth parameters. The produced leaf-area prediction model in the present study is LA = a + b L + c W + d LZ where LA is leaf area, L is leaf length, W is maximum leaf width, LZ is leaf zone and a, b, c, d are coefficients. R ² values were between 0.88–0.97 and standard errors were found to be significant at the p<0.001 significance level.     

Utilization of spline functions for smoothing fermentation data and for estimation of specific rates

A response surface method of smoothing fermentation data with spline functions is presented. The available electron balance is used to optimally select the values of the smoothing parameters associated with the spline functions. The method is applied to six sets of anaerobic fermentation data in which pure and mixed cultures are grown in batch followed by fed batch culture. Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus are cultured on 3% dry milk. Measured concentrations of biomass, lactose, galactose, lactic acid, and other acid products are smoothed using spline functions. Values of specific growth rate, specific lactose consumption rate, specific galactose formation rate, and specific acid product formation rate are estimated and the consistency of the results is examined using the available electron balance. The results show that the method works reasonably well, but that an upper bound should be used for the smoothing parameters to obtain accurate estimates of the derivative quantities.     

Associations between endothelial nitric oxide synthase A/B, angiotensin converting enzyme I/D and serotonin transporter L/S gene polymorphisms with pulmonary hypertension in COPD patients

Different biochemical pathways and cellular mechanisms play role in the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Alveolar hypoxia is not the only determinant of vascular remodeling, genetic factors are thought to have additive effects. We aimed to investigate the effects of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS A/B), angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE I/D) and serotonin transporter (5-HTT L/S) gene polymorphisms on development and severity of PH in COPD patients. 50 COPD patients without PH (group 1); 30 COPD patients with PH confirmed with echocardiography (group 2) and 49 healthy subjects (group 3) as control group were included to the study. eNOS A/B, ACE I/D and 5-HTT L/S gene polymorphisms and allele frequencies of COPD patients with and without PH and healthy subjects were determined. Functional parameters and echocardiographic measurements were recorded. Patients with PH were also assessed in two subgroups according to the severity of pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP). Significant differences among three groups in the distribution of 5-HTT genotype and allele frequency were present (respectively p = 0.002; p = 0.021). In group 2, LL and LS genotype rate was 93.3 % with a frequency of 71.2 % L allele and 28.3 % of S allele. 5-HTT LL genotype was present in 88.9 % of patients with PAP ≥50 mmHg significantly (p = 0.012). Other genotype distributions were not significantly different between two subgroups. The results of this study can suggest that COPD patients with L allele of 5-HTT may have higher risk for the development of PH and patients with LL genotype of 5-HTT may present higher PAP. We also demonstrated that eNOS and ACE gene polymorphisms were not associated with the development and severity of PH in our study population. Further studies with larger numbers of patients are needed to explore these relationships.     

Effects on rat testes of the thiosemicarbazone derivative Schiff base (4-(1-phenylmethylcyclobutane-3-yl)-2-(2-hydroxybenzylidenehydrazino)thiazole) and its cadmium(II) complex

The aim of this study was to investigate structural and biochemical changes in testes of rats treated with the thiosemicarbazone derivative thiazole ring Schiff base, (4-(1-phenyl-methylcyclobutane-3-yl)-2-(2-hydroxybenzylidene-hydrazino) thiazole (L), and its Cd(II) complex (CdL(2)). The animals were divided into three groups. Group I was designated as control. The rats in groups II and III were injected subcutaneously with L or CdL(2) respectively at 150-mg kg(-1) doses at 3-day intervals for 15 days. At the end of the study, blood samples were collected for biochemical analysis, and testes were removed for histological examinations. Serum levels of vitamin A, E and MDA of the L-injected group were similar to the control group. While CdL(2) treatment decreased serum vitamin A and E levels, it increased the MDA level compared to other groups. Histologically, the testes structures of L-treated animals were similar to the control. Spermatogenic cells in seminiferous tubules of CdL(2)-treated animals displayed necrosis. Nuclei of spermatogonia and primary spermatocytes were pyknotic and heterochromatic. Homogenous pink particles were present in place of the spermatids. The interstitial areas were oedematous and intertubular vessels were plugged. In conclusion, the present results indicate that L does not cause biochemical and morphological alterations, but its Cd(II) complex has degenerative effects in normal rat testes.     

Optimization of ethanol production using newly isolated ethanologenic yeasts

Yeasts are important microorganisms used for ethanol production; however, they are not equally efficient in the amount of ethanol production under different environmental conditions. It is, therefore, necessary to screen for elite strains to utilize them for commercial production of these commodities. In this study, yeasts were isolated from different Ethiopian traditional fermented alcoholic beverages (teji, tella, shamiata and areqe tinisis), milk and ergo, teff and maize dough, soil and compost, flowers, and fruits to evaluate their potential use for ethanol fermentation process. Isolates were screened for efficient ethanol production and the selected ones were identified using phenotypic and genetic characters using D1/D2 region of LSU rDNA sequence analysis. The yeast isolates were evaluated based on their growth and fermentation of different carbon sources. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize temperature, pH and incubation time using central composite design (CCD) in Design-Expert 7.0.0. A total of 211 yeasts colonies were isolated of which 60% were ethanologenic yeasts (ethanol producers) and 40% were non-ethanol producers. The yeast population detected from various sources was in the range of 10⁵ CFU from traditional foods and beverages to that of 10³ CFU from fruits and soil samples. The data also showed that the number of colony types (diversity) did not correlate with population density. The highly fermentative isolates were taxonomically characterized into four genera, of which 65% of the isolates (ETP37, ETP50; ETP53, ETP89, ETP94) were categorized under Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the remaining were Pichia fermentans ETP22, Kluyveromyces marxianus ETP87, and Candida humilis ETP122. The S. cerevisiae isolates produced ethanol (7.6-9.0 g/L) similar with K. marxianus ETP87 producing 7.97 g/L; comparable to the ethanol produced from commercial baker's yeast (8.43 g/L) from 20 g/L dextrose; whereas C. humilis ETP122 and P. fermentans ETP22 produced 5.37 g/L and 6.43 g/L ethanol, respectively. S. cerevisiae ETP53, K. marxianus ETP87, P. fermentans ETP22 and C. humilis ETP122 tolerated 10% extraneous ethanol but the percentage of ethanol tolerance considerably decreased upon 15%. S. cerevisiae ETP53 produced ethanol optimally at pH 5.0, 60 h, and 34^oC. pH 4.8, temperature 36^oC, and 65 h of time were optimal growth conditions of ethanol fermentation by K. marxianus ETP87. The ethanol fermentation conditions of P. fermentans ETP22 was similar to S. cerevisiae ETP53 though the ethanol titer of S. cerevisiae ETP53 was higher than P. fermentans ETP22. Therefore, S. cerevisiae ETP53, K. marxianus and P. fermentans ETP22 are good candidates for ethanol production.