Proliferation of epithelial cells derived from rat dorsolateral prostate in serum-free primary cell culture and their response to androgen

Summary Primary cultured epithelial cells derived from the rat dorsolateral prostate proliferated in serum-free nutrient medium WAJC 404 supplemented with mitogens: insulin (650 nM), cholera toxin (120 pM), epidermal growth factor (EGF) (2.5 nM), dexamethasone (300 nM), and bovine pituitary extract (25 μg/ml). The culture consisted of two types of epithelial cell colonies: one originated from single cells or small cell aggregates and the other was epithelial cell outgrowth from small tissue fragments attached to a substratum. There were differences in requirements for the mitogens between the two types of colonies. Requirements for cholera toxin, bovine pituitary extract, and dexamethasone were higher in the former type of colonies, and those for EGF were higher in the latter type of colonies. Proliferation of the epithelial cells in either type, of colony was suppressed more than 50% by 1 nM dihydrotestosterone. This suppressive effect was not mediated by stromal component in the tissue fragments, and was counteracted by cyproterone acetate, indicating specific and direct action of the androgen on prostate epithelial cells. The results suggest that there is discrete participation of polypeptide growth factors and androgen in proliferation and differentiation, respectively, of prostate epithelial cells in vivo.     

Comparison of the reaction products of oleic acid ozonized in BCl3-, HCl- and BF3-MeOH media

In BF₃-MeOH medium, the principal ozonolysis reaction products of oleic acid were methyl nonanoate (MMC₉) and dimethyl azelate (DMC₉) in yields of 98% with formation of minor secondary reaction products (methyl octanoate, nonaldehyde with nonaldehyde dimethyl acetal and dimethyl suberate, plus the C₉ half-ester-aldehyde, with its corresponding acetal). The gas-liquid chromatographic analysis of the ozonolysis reaction products in BCl₃- and HCl-MeOH revealed the existence of 4 major components with low yields of methyl nonanoate and dimethyl azelate (45–50%). The two other major reaction products, isolated by a combination of thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), were identified as the chlorinated acetals, 1,1-dimethoxy-2-chloro-nonane and the 8-chloro-9,9-dimethoxy methyl nonanoate.     

Effect of macroscale formation of intraluminal thrombus on blood flow in abdominal aortic aneurysms

A mathematical approach of blood flow within an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) with intraluminal thrombus (ILT) is presented. The macroscale formation of ILT is modeled as a growing porous medium with variable porosity and permeability according to values proposed in the literature. The model outlines the effect of a porous ILT on blood flow in AAAs. The numerical solution is obtained by employing a structured computational mesh of an idealized fusiform AAA geometry and applying the Galerkin weighted residual method in generalized curvilinear coordinates. Results on velocity and pressure fields of independent cases with and without ILT are presented and discussed. The vortices that develop within the aneurysmal cavity are studied and visualized as ILT becomes more condensed. From a mechanistic point of view, the reduction of bulge pressure, as ILT is thickening, supports the observation that ILT could protect the AAA from a possible rupture. The model also predicts a relocation of the maximum pressure region toward the zone proximal to the neck of the aneurysm. However, other mechanisms, such as the gradual wall weakening that usually accompany AAA and ILT formation, which are not included in this study, may offset this effect.     

Stem Cell Conditioned Media Contains Important Growth Factors and Improves In Vitro Buffalo Embryo Production

The present study was designed to investigate the effect of MSCs-conditioned media (CM) on quality buffalo embryo production in vitro. MSCs were harvested from Wharton’s jelly of 2-3 month old fetus and MSCs CM was collected. Immunocytochemistry and western blot assay revealed that MSCs secrete several important growth factors viz. FGF-2, IGF-1, LIF, TGF-β, and VEGF. Slaughterhouse derived culture grade cumulus oocyte complexes (COCs) were matured and fertilized in vitro. Presumptive zygotes were divided in four groups and cultured in vitro in respective media viz. group I (100% mSOF), Group II (100% Knockout Media DMEM+SR), Group III (50% CM + 50% mSOF), and group IV (100% CM). It was found that though the cleavage rate did not changed significantly (p < 0.05), but blastocyst rate was increased significantly (p < 0.05) in Group III and IV (24.24 ± 1.34 and 23.29 ± 1.25, respectively) compared to group I and II (16.04 ± 1.46 and 17.72 ± 0.94, respectively). Similarly, TCN was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in 50% CM and 100% CM replacement group (93.33 ± 1.91 and 92.13 ± 1.04, respectively) than the other two groups. It can be concluded from the study that MSCs secrete several important growth factors and MSCs-CM can be effectively used for enhancement of quality buffalo embryo production in vitro.     

Characterization of recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor expression by FT-IR spectroscopy: Studies on thermal induction and media formulation on the stability of the protein secondary structure

The Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic approach has been employed to understand the recombinant human G-CSF (rhG-CSF) protein accumulation, secondary structure, and thermal stability in Escherichia coli grown under a temperature shift strategy (37 and 28°C) in various media formulations. The choline?+?sodium pyruvate (37°C) and sodium pyruvate (28°C) formulations have shown the highest inclusion body (IB) accumulation of 0.41 and 0.46?mg/mL, respectively. Furthermore, insights on the structure of the rhG-CSF within IBs and intact cells have been investigated through secondary structure analysis. Thermal stability experiments were also carried out to explain the pattern of the second derivative structure of rhG-CSF. The studies showed that choline?+?sodium pyruvate formulation has preserved the protein secondary structure even at 82°C. Overall, the FT-IR spectroscopic technique can also be adopted to accelerate the characterization of other recombinant therapeutic proteins of E. coli origin.     

The influence of the blood vessel diameter on the full scattering profile from cylindrical tissues: experimental evidence for the shielding effect

Optical methods for detecting physiological state based on light–tissue interaction are noninvasive, inexpensive, simplistic, and thus very useful. The blood vessels in human tissue are the main cause of light absorbing and scattering. Therefore, the effect of blood vessels on light–tissue interactions is essential for optically detecting physiological tissue state, such as oxygen saturation, blood perfusion and blood pressure. We have previously suggested a new theoretical and experimental method for measuring the full scattering profile, which is the angular distribution of light intensity, of cylindrical tissues. In this work we will present experimental measurements of the full scattering profile of heterogenic cylindrical phantoms that include blood vessels. We show, for the first time that the vessel diameter influences the full scattering profile, and found higher reflection intensity for larger vessel diameters accordance to the shielding effect. For an increase of 60% in the vessel diameter the light intensity in the full scattering profile above 90° is between 9% to 40% higher, depending on the angle. By these results we claim that during respiration, when the blood‐vessel diameter changes, it is essential to consider the blood‐vessel diameter distribution in order to determine the optical path in tissues.

A CT scan of the measured silicon‐based phantoms. The phantoms contain the same blood volume in different blood‐vessel diameters.     

Liberts’ Wet-in-Wet Painting

This article describes important global and local initiatives that have one common goal: to give access to and equal opportunities for arts/music education to all children and adolescents. The article also discusses the lack of information available to global leaders in arts education—without a worldwide picture of arts education practices, it is difficult to design local or global policies. The case of Brazil is presented, showing a timeline of advocacy campaigns and the success of establishing a law that assures compulsory music education in schools, as well as the challenges of regulating the profession and the need to rethink our pedagogical paradigm in a contemporary world. Regardless of local or international perspective, the establishment of policy needs to be based on research data and include dialogue between policymakers and arts teachers.     

The heritability of metabolic profiles in newborn twins

Identifying genetic and metabolic biomarkers in neonates has the potential to improve diagnosis and treatment of common complex neonatal diseases, and potentially lead to risk assessment and preventative measures for common adulthood illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. There is a wealth of information on using fatty acid, amino acid and organic acid metabolite profiles to identify rare inherited congenital diseases through newborn screening, but little is known about these metabolic profiles in the context of the ‘healthy'' newborn. Recent studies have implicated many of the amino acid and fatty acid metabolites utilized in newborn screening in common complex adult diseases such as cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and obesity. To determine the heritability of metabolic profiles in newborns, we examined 381 twin pairs obtained from the Iowa Neonatal Metabolic Screening Program. Heritability was estimated using multilevel mixed-effects linear regression adjusting for gestational age, gender, weight and age at time of sample collection. The highest heritability was for short-chain acylcarnitines, specifically C4 (h²=0.66, P=2 × 10⁻¹⁶), C4-DC (h²=0.83, P<10⁻¹⁶) and C5 (h²=0.61, P=1 × 10⁻⁹). Thyroid stimulating hormone (h²=0.58, P=2 × 10⁻⁵) and immunoreactive trypsinogen (h²=0.52, P=3 × 10⁻⁹) also have a strong genetic component. This is direct evidence for a strong genetic contribution to the metabolic profile at birth and that newborn screening data can be utilized for studying the genetic regulation of many clinically relevant metabolites.     

Fostering diffusion of scientific contents of National Society Cardiovascular Journals:the new ESC search engine

European Society of Cardiology (ESC) National Society Cardiovascular Journals (NSCJs) are high-quality biomedical journals focused on cardiovascular diseases. The Editors’ Network of the ESC devises editorial initiatives aimed at improving the scientific quality and diffusion of NSCJ. In this article we will discuss on the importance of the Internet, electronic editions and open access strategies on scientific publishing. Finally, we will propose a new editorial initiative based on a novel electronic tool on the ESC web-page that may further help to increase the dissemination of contents and visibility of NSCJs.     

Ethnicity,the search for rapists and the press

Media reporting of rape continues to provoke concern. This article focuses on the press reporting of the discovery and search for alleged rapists. On examining nine British newspapers for one complete year (1992), a serious distortion in the media reporting of ethnicity emerges at this early stage of the criminal process. While there is an over‐representation of minority ethnic men accused of rape coming to the notice of the police, the cases identified as involving minority ethnic (particularly black) men as assailants, are much more likely to be reported widely. The distortion is then intensified by associating minority ethnic (and again particularly, black men) with certain types of rape. However, there are important differences between newspapers in their coverage. Furthermore, while media coverage of the search for rapists is a matter of concern, it also needs to be seen as part of the wider process of the social construction of rapists. Nevertheless, the conclusion is that the media coverage of rape tends to distort in ways which may well exacerbate hostility against minority ethnic groups.