In vivo pediatric shoulder muscle volumes and their relationship to 3D strength

In the pediatric shoulder, injury and pathology can disrupt the muscle force balance, resulting in severe functional losses. As little data exists pertaining to in vivo pediatric shoulder muscle function, musculoskeletal data are crucially needed to advance the treatment of pediatric shoulder pathology/injury. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a pediatric database of in vivo volumes for the major shoulder muscles and correlate these volumes with maximum isometric flexion/extension, internal/external rotation, and abduction/adduction joint moments. A methodology was developed to derive 3D shoulder muscle volumes and to divide the deltoid into sub-units with unique torque producing capabilities, based on segmentation of three-dimensional magnetic resonance images. Eleven typically developing children/adolescents (4F/7M, 12.0±3.2 years, 150.8±16.7 cm, 49.2±16.4 kg) participated. Correlation and regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between volume and maximum, voluntary, isometric joint torques. The deltoid demonstrated the largest (30.4±1.2%) and the supraspinatus the smallest (4.8±0.5%) percent of the total summed volume of all six muscles evaluated. The anterior and posterior deltoid sections were 43.4±3.9% and 56.6±3.9% of the total deltoid volume. The percent volumes were highly consistent across subjects. Individual muscle volumes demonstrated moderate-high correlations with torque values (0.70–0.94, p<0.001). This study presents a comprehensive database documenting normative pediatric shoulder muscle volume. Using these data a clear relationship between shoulder volume and the torques they produce was established in all three rotational degrees-of-freedom. This study furthers the understanding of shoulder muscle function and serves as a foundation for evaluating shoulder injury/pathology in the pediatric/adolescent population.     

Comparison of Five Bacteriophages as Models for Viral Aerosol Studies

Bacteriophages are perceived to be good models for the study of airborne viruses because they are safe to use, some of them display structural features similar to those of human and animal viruses, and they are relatively easy to produce in large quantities. Yet, only a few studies have investigated them as models. It has previously been demonstrated that aerosolization, environmental conditions, and sampling conditions affect viral infectivity, but viral infectivity is virus dependent. Thus, several virus models are likely needed to study their general behavior in aerosols. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of aerosolization and sampling on the infectivity of five tail-less bacteriophages and two pathogenic viruses: MS2 (a single-stranded RNA [ssRNA] phage of the Leviviridae family), Φ6 (a segmented double-stranded RNA [dsRNA] phage of the Cystoviridae family), ΦX174 (a single-stranded DNA [ssDNA] phage of the Microviridae family), PM2 (a double-stranded DNA [dsDNA] phage of the Corticoviridae family), PR772 (a dsDNA phage of the Tectiviridae family), human influenza A virus H1N1 (an ssRNA virus of the Orthomyxoviridae family), and the poultry virus Newcastle disease virus (NDV; an ssRNA virus of the Paramyxoviridae family). Three nebulizers and two nebulization salt buffers (with or without organic fluid) were tested, as were two aerosol sampling devices, a liquid cyclone (SKC BioSampler) and a dry cyclone (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health two-stage cyclone bioaerosol sampler). The presence of viruses in collected air samples was detected by culture and quantitative PCR (qPCR). Our results showed that these selected five phages behave differently when aerosolized and sampled. RNA phage MS2 and ssDNA phage ΦX174 were the most resistant to aerosolization and sampling. The presence of organic fluid in the nebulization buffer protected phages PR772 and Φ6 throughout the aerosolization and sampling with dry cyclones. In this experimental setup, the behavior of the influenza virus resembled that of phages PR772 and Φ6, while the behavior of NDV was closer to that of phages MS2 and ΦX174. These results provide critical information for the selection of appropriate phage models to mimic the behavior of specific human and animal viruses in aerosols.     

Cellular Density Effect on RGD Ligand Internalization in Glioblastoma for MRI Application

Cellular density is a parameter measured for glioma grade and invasiveness diagnosis. The characterization of the cellular density can be performed, non invasively, by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), since, this technique displays a good resolution. Nevertheless MRI sensitivity is critical. Development of smart contrast agents appears useful to increase MRI signal to noise ratio (SNR). Tumor invasiveness is correlated with high expression of integrins that can be targeted by RGD motif. In this study, MRI contrast agents or fluorescent probes linked to RGD-peptides were used, in a glioma model, to assess the relation between RGD uptake/signal improvement/cell density and consequently tumor invasiveness.Experiments were performed in vitro with U87-MG glioma cells. Flow cytometry and microscopy experiments with RGD and iRGD-alexa488 demonstrated that cell internalization was dependent on cell density. The internalization involved a clathrin-dependent endocytosis. Cytoskeleton and particularly the microtubules were concerned. Actin filaments played a minor role. The internalization was also dependent on the glycolysis and the oxidative phosphorylations. The cellular density modulated the importance of the endocytosis pathways and of the metabolism but not the cytoskeleton contribution. The internalization of the RGD-peptide associated to gadolinium chelate increased the SNR of U87 cells. Moreover, following the cell density augmentation, the SNR increased with a low amplitude but a trend was clearly determined. In conclusion, RGD-peptide internalization appeared, in vitro, as a marker of cellular density. In perspective, the combination of these peptides with contrast agents associated to more sensitive MRI techniques could improve the MRI signal allowing the characterization of cellular density for tumor diagnosis.     

Focus: Addiction: Investigating Maternal Brain Structure and its Relationship to Substance Use and Motivational Systems

Substance use during pregnancy and the postpartum period may have significant implications for both mother and the developing child. However, the neurobiological basis of the impact of substance use on parenting is less well understood. Here, we examined the impact of maternal substance use on cortical gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volumes and whether this was associated with individual differences in motivational systems of behavioral activation and inhibition. Mothers were included in the substance-using group if any addictive substance was used during pregnancy and/or in the immediate postpartum period (within 3 months of delivery). GM volume was reduced in substance-using mothers compared to non-substance-using mothers, particularly in frontal brain regions. In substance-using mothers, we also found that frontal GM was negatively correlated with levels of behavioral activation (i.e., the motivation to approach rewarding stimuli). This effect was absent in non-substance-using mothers. Taken together, these findings indicate a reduction in GM volume is associated with substance use and that frontal GM volumetric differences may be related to approach motivation in substance-using mothers.     

Improving the Safety of Staphylococcus aureus Polyvalent Phages by Their Production on a Staphylococcus xylosus Strain

Team1 (vB_SauM_Team1) is a polyvalent staphylococcal phage belonging to the Myoviridae family. Phage Team1 was propagated on a Staphylococcus aureus strain and a non-pathogenic Staphylococcus xylosus strain used in industrial meat fermentation. The two Team1 preparations were compared with respect to their microbiological and genomic properties. The burst sizes, latent periods, and host ranges of the two derivatives were identical as were their genome sequences. Phage Team1 has 140,903 bp of double stranded DNA encoding for 217 open reading frames and 4 tRNAs. Comparative genomic analysis revealed similarities to staphylococcal phages ISP (97%) and G1 (97%). The host range of Team1 was compared to the well-known polyvalent staphylococcal phages phi812 and K using a panel of 57 S. aureus strains collected from various sources. These bacterial strains were found to represent 18 sequence types (MLST) and 14 clonal complexes (eBURST). Altogether, the three phages propagated on S. xylosus lysed 52 out of 57 distinct strains of S. aureus. The identification of phage-insensitive strains underlines the importance of designing phage cocktails with broadly varying and overlapping host ranges. Taken altogether, our study suggests that some staphylococcal phages can be propagated on food-grade bacteria for biocontrol and safety purposes.     

Time‐shift experiments and patterns of adaptation across time and space

Time‐shift experiments provide measures of the mean fitness of a population in environments of different points in time. Here, we show how to use this type of data to decompose mean fitness into (1) the effect of the environment in which the population is transplanted, (2) the effect of the genetic composition of the population and (3) ‘temporal adaptation’, which measures how the population fits the environment at that time. We derive analytical results for the pattern of ‘temporal adaptation’ and show that it is in general maximal in the recent past. The link between ‘temporal adaptation’ and ‘local adaptation’ is discussed, and we show when patterns of adaptation in time and space are expected to be similar. Finally, we illustrate the potential use of this approach using a data set measuring the adaptation of HIV to the immune response of several recently infected patients.