Epidemiology of sexually transmitted Chlamydia trachomatis infections in male patients

868 male urethritis patients were studied for the presence of chlamydiae in the 1981-1986 period. 36% of NGU, 31.3% of gonococcal urethritis and 58.8% of PGU urethritis patients presented C. trachomatis infections as detected by cell culture inoculation. Chlamydial infection was recorded more often in the 21-30 years age group (30.8%), in unmarried patients (70.6%), as well as in people with low educational degree (46.6% of cases), 42.3% of the C. trachomatis cases were already confronted with one or more urethritis episodes. 24.7% of patients have been subjected to a previous antichlamydial treatment.     

Safety Indices during Fetal Echocardiography at the Time of First-Trimester Scan Are Machine Dependent

The aim of our study was to evaluate the thermal index (TI) and mechanical index (MI), during the assessment of the fetal heart at the time of first-trimester scan, with different ultrasound machines. This was part of an observational study conducted in patients undergoing routine first-trimester screening. Cases were examined with Voluson E8 or 730Pro scanners using 2–8 MHz transabdominal probes. TI and MI were retrieved from the saved displays while in gray mode, color flow mapping and pulsed-wave (PW) Doppler examinations of the fetal heart and also from the ductus venosus (DV) assessment. We evaluated 552 fetal cardiac examinations, 303 (55%) performed with Voluson E8 and 249 (45%) with Voluson 730Pro ultrasound machines. The gray-scale exam of the heart and the PW Doppler DV assessment had TI values significantly lower for the Voluson E8 group (median, 0.04 vs. 0.2 and 0.1 vs. 0.2, respectively). The MI values from gray-scale and color flow mapping of the heart were significantly lower (median, 0.6 vs, 1.2 and 0.7 vs. 1) and for PW Doppler exam of the tricuspid flow were significantly higher (median 0.4 vs. 0.2) in the Voluson E8 group. The TI values from Doppler examinations of the heart, either color flow or PW imaging and MI values from DV assessment were not significantly different between the two groups. A different (newer) generation of ultrasound equipment provides lower or at least the same safety indices for most of the first-trimester heart examinations.     

Peptide backbone circularization enhances antifreeze protein thermostability

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) are a class of ice‐binding proteins that promote survival of a variety of cold‐adapted organisms by decreasing the freezing temperature of bodily fluids. A growing number of biomedical, agricultural, and commercial products, such as organs, foods, and industrial fluids, have benefited from the ability of AFPs to control ice crystal growth and prevent ice recrystallization at subzero temperatures. One limitation of AFP use in these latter contexts is their tendency to denature and irreversibly lose activity at the elevated temperatures of certain industrial processing or large‐scale AFP production. Using the small, thermolabile type III AFP as a model system, we demonstrate that AFP thermostability is dramatically enhanced via split intein‐mediated N‐ and C‐terminal end ligation. To engineer this circular protein, computational modeling and molecular dynamics simulations were applied to identify an extein sequence that would fill the 20‐Å gap separating the free ends of the AFP, yet impose little impact on the structure and entropic properties of its ice‐binding surface. The top candidate was then expressed in bacteria, and the circularized protein was isolated from the intein domains by ice‐affinity purification. This circularized AFP induced bipyramidal ice crystals during ice growth in the hysteresis gap and retained 40% of this activity even after incubation at 100°C for 30 min. NMR analysis implicated enhanced thermostability or refolding capacity of this protein compared to the noncyclized wild‐type AFP. These studies support protein backbone circularization as a means to expand the thermostability and practical applications of AFPs.     

Soil Manganese Enrichment from Industrial Inputs: A Gastropod Perspective

Manganese is one of the most abundant metal in natural environments and serves as an essential microelement for all living systems. However, the enrichment of soil with manganese resulting from industrial inputs may threaten terrestrial ecosystems. Several studies have demonstrated harmful effects of manganese exposure by cutaneous contact and/or by soil ingestion to a wide range of soil invertebrates. The link between soil manganese and land snails has never been made although these invertebrates routinely come in contact with the upper soil horizons through cutaneous contact, egg-laying, and feeding activities in soil. Therefore, we have investigated the direct transfer of manganese from soils to snails and assessed its toxicity at background concentrations in the soil. Juvenile Cantareus aspersus snails were caged under semi-field conditions and exposed first, for a period of 30 days, to a series of soil manganese concentrations, and then, for a second period of 30 days, to soils with higher manganese concentrations. Manganese levels were measured in the snail hepatopancreas, foot, and shell. The snail survival and shell growth were used to assess the lethal and sublethal effects of manganese exposure. The transfer of manganese from soil to snails occurred independently of food ingestion, but had no consistent effect on either the snail survival or shell growth. The hepatopancreas was the best biomarker of manganese exposure, whereas the shell did not serve as a long-term sink for this metal. The kinetics of manganese retention in the hepatopancreas of snails previously exposed to manganese-spiked soils was significantly influenced by a new exposure event. The results of this study reveal the importance of land snails for manganese cycling in terrestrial biotopes and suggest that the direct transfer from soils to snails should be considered when precisely assessing the impact of anthropogenic Mn releases on soil ecosystems.     

The expression of MMP‐1 and MMP‐9 is up‐regulated by smooth muscle cells after their cross‐talk with macrophages in high glucose conditions

Patients with diabetes mellitus have an increased risk of myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease‐related death, exhibiting highly vulnerable plaques. Many studies have highlighted the major role of macrophages (MAC) and smooth muscle cells (SMC) and the essential part of metalloproteases (MMPs) in atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability. We hypothesize that in diabetes, the interplay between MAC and SMC in high glucose conditions may modify the expression of MMPs involved in plaque vulnerability. The SMC‐MAC cross‐talk was achieved using trans‐well chambers, where human SMC were grown at the bottom and human MAC in the upper chamber in normal (NG) or high (HG) glucose concentration. After cross‐talk, the conditioned media and cells were isolated and investigated for the expression of MMPs, MCP‐1 and signalling molecules. We found that upon cross‐talk with MAC in HG, SMC exhibit: (i) augmented expression of MMP‐1 and MMP‐9; (ii) significant increase in the enzymatic activity of MMP‐9; (iii) higher levels of soluble MCP‐1 chemokine which is functionally active and involved in MMPs up‐regulation; (iv) activated PKCα signalling pathway which, together with NF‐kB are responsible for MMP‐1 and MMP‐9 up‐regulation, and (v) impaired function of collagen assembly. Taken together, our data indicate that MCP‐1 released by cell cross‐talk in diabetic conditions binds to CCR2 and triggers MMP‐1 and MMP‐9 over‐expression and activity, features that could explain the high vulnerability of atherosclerotic plaque found at diabetic patients.     

Facilitated c-Fos Induction in Mice Deficient for the AMPA Receptor-Associated Protein Ckamp44

The recently identified Cystine-knot containing AMPAR-associated protein (Ckamp44) represents a novel AMPAR-related protein that critically controls AMPAR-mediated currents and short-term plasticity. However, the effects of the lack of this protein at network level are not entirely understood. Here we used c-Fos brain mapping to analyse whether the excitatory/inhibitory balance is altered in the absence of the Ckamp44. We found that Ckamp44^?/? mice treated with an NMDAR antagonist exhibited a very robust c-Fos expression pattern, similar with that seen in mice lacking the GluN2A subunit of NMDAR treated with the same compound. This finding is unexpected, in particular, since Ckamp44 expression is strongest in dentate gyrus granule cells and less abundant in the rest of the brain.     

Evidence of divergent selection for drought and cold tolerance at landscape and local scales in Abies alba Mill. in the French Mediterranean Alps

Understanding local adaptation in forest trees is currently a key research and societal priority. Geographically and ecologically marginal populations provide ideal case studies, because environmental stress along with reduced gene flow can facilitate the establishment of locally adapted populations. We sampled European silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) trees in the French Mediterranean Alps, along the margin of its distribution range, from pairs of high‐ and low‐elevation plots on four different mountains situated along a 170‐km east–west transect. The analysis of 267 SNP loci from 175 candidate genes suggested a neutral pattern of east–west isolation by distance among mountain sites. F_ST outlier tests revealed 16 SNPs that showed patterns of divergent selection. Plot climate was characterized using both in situ measurements and gridded data that revealed marked differences between and within mountains with different trends depending on the season. Association between allelic frequencies and bioclimatic variables revealed eight genes that contained candidate SNPs, of which two were also detected using F_ST outlier methods. All SNPs were associated with winter drought, and one of them showed strong evidence of selection with respect to elevation. Q_ST–F_ST tests for fitness‐related traits measured in a common garden suggested adaptive divergence for the date of bud flush and for growth rate. Overall, our results suggest a complex adaptive picture for A. alba in the southern French Alps where, during the east‐to‐west Holocene recolonization, locally advantageous genetic variants established at both the landscape and local scales.     

Comparison of Chromosome 4 gene expression profile between lung telocytes and other local cell types

Telocytes (TCs) are new cellular entities of mesenchymal origin described almost ubiquitously in human and mammalian organs ( www.telocytes.com ). Different subtypes of TCs were described, all forming networks in the interstitial space by homo‐ and heterocellular junctions. Previous studies analysed the gene expression profiles of chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 17 and 18 of murine pulmonary TCs. In this study, we analysed by bioinformatics tools the gene expression profiles of chromosome 4 for murine pulmonary TCs and compared it with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), fibroblasts (Fbs), alveolar type II cells (ATII), airway basal cells, proximal airway cells, CD8(+) T cells from bronchial lymph nodes (T‐BL) and CD8(+) T cells from lungs (T‐L). Key functional genes were identified with the aid of the reference library of the National Center for Biotechnology Information Gene Expression Omnibus database. Seventeen genes were up‐regulated and 56 genes were down‐regulated in chromosome 4 of TCs compared with other cells. Four genes (Akap2, Gpr153, Sdc3 and Tbc1d2) were up‐regulated between one and fourfold and one gene, Svep1, was overexpressed over fourfold. The main functional networks were identified and analysed, pointing out to a TCs involvement in cellular signalling, regulation of tissue inflammation and cell expansion and movement.