Fibronectin turnover in human mesangial cell cultures as affected by Adriamycin

Fibronectin (FN) turnover and turnover changes induced by the anticancer drug Adriamycin (ADR) were measured in human mesangial cells (HMC) in vitro. HMC cultures synthesize cellular FN (2.2+-0.3% of totalprotein synthesis; n = 12) which is secreted and incorporated into a fibrillar extracellular matrix (ECM). A 24 hr incubation of HMC with ADR (0.5–5 g/ml) resulted in an accumulation of FN in the culture medium, with a maximum increase following 5 pglml(7.3+-2.3pg/cell vs. controls: 4.4+-1.9pg/cell; n= 10). Correspondingly, radioactively labeled immunoprecipitable FN was increased in a dosage-dependent manner in the culture medium up to 50% vs. controls. The incorporation of radioactively labeled FN into ECM was significantly increased following 2 g ADR/ml. In accordance, immunofZuorescence staining revealed an expansion ofpericellular FNfibers in cultures exposed to 2 g ADR/ml. Concomitant with the accumulation of extracelhlar FN, radioactively labeled FN in the cells was reduced by 22%. Qualitative characterization of FN patterns revealed a diminished number of degradation products in the culture medium ofADR-treated HMC. These data suggest thatADR interferes with the turnover of FN secreted by HMC in vitro in such a way that FN accumulates extracellularly. This in turn leads to a reduced FN synthesis. These findings are compatible with a loss of urinary FN degradation products accompanying the onset ofproteinuria in ADR-treated rats.Abbreviations ADR adriamycin - BSA bovine serum albumin - DTT dithiothreitol - ECM extracellular matrix - EDTA ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid disodium salt - ELISA enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay - FCS fetal calf serum - FITC fluorescein isothiocyanate - FN fibronectin - HMC human mesangial cell - PBS phosphate buffered saline - PMSF phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride - SDS sodium dodecyl sulfate - SDS-PAGE SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis     

Soil nutrient dissimilarity and litter nutrient limitation as major drivers of home field advantage in riparian tropical forests

Decomposition is a key process driving carbon and nutrient cycling in ecosystems worldwide. The home field advantage effect (HFA) has been found to accelerate decomposition rates when litter originates from “home” when compared to other (“away”) sites. It is still poorly known how HFA plays out in tropical, riparian forests, particularly in forests under restoration. We carried out three independent reciprocal litter transplant experiments to test how litter quality, soil nutrient concentrations, and successional stage (age) influenced HFA in tropical riparian forests. These experimental areas formed a wide gradient of soil and litter nutrients, which we used to evaluate the more general hypothesis that HFA varies with dissimilarity in soil nutrients and litter quality. We found that HFA increased with soil nutrient dissimilarity, suggesting that litter translocation uncouples relationships between decomposers and litter characteristics; and with litter N:P, indicating P limitation in this system. We also found negative HFA effects at a site under restoration that presented low decomposer ability, suggesting that forest restoration does not necessarily recover decomposer communities and nutrient cycling. Within each of the independent experiments, the occurrence of HFA effects was limited and their magnitude was not related to forest age, nor soil and litter quality. Our results imply that HFA effects in tropical ecosystems are influenced by litter nutrient limitation and soil nutrient dissimilarity between home and away sites, but to further disentangle major HFA drivers in tropical areas, a gradient of dissimilarity between litter and soil properties must be implemented in future experimental designs.     

Metropolis Monte Carlo calculations of DNA structure using internal coordinates and NMR distance restraints: An alternative method for generating a high-resolution solution structure

Summary A new method, a restrained Monte Carlo (rMC) calculation, is demonstrated for generating high-resolution structures of DNA oligonucleotides in solution from interproton distance restraints and bounds derived from complete relaxation matrix analysis of two-dimensional nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) spectral peak intensities. As in the case of restrained molecular dynamics (rMD) refinement of structures, the experimental distance restraints and bounds are incorporated as a pseudo-energy term (or penalty function) into the mathematical expression for the molecular energy. However, the use of generalized helical parameters, rather than Cartesian coordinates, to define DNA conformation increases efficiency by decreasing by an order of magnitude the number of parameters needed to describe a conformation and by simplifying the potential energy profile. The Metropolis Monte Carlo method is employed to simulate an annealing process. The rMC method was applied to experimental 2D NOE data from the octamer duplex d(GTA-TAATG)·d(CATTATAC). Using starting structures from different locations in conformational space (e.g. A-DNA and B-DNA), the rMC calculations readily converged, with a root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) of <0.3 Å between structures generated using different protocols and starting structures. Theoretical 2D NOE peak intensities were calculated for the rMC-generated structures using the complete relaxation matrix program CORMA, enabling a comparison with experimental intensities via residual indices. Simulation of the vicinal proton coupling constants was carried out for the structures generated, enabling a comparison with the experimental deoxyribose ring coupling constants, which were not utilized in the structure determination in the case of the rMC simulations. Agreement with experimental 2D NOE and scalar coupling data was good in all cases. The rMC structures are quite similar to that refined by a traditional restrained MD approach (RMSD<0.5 Å) despite the different force fields used and despite the fact that MD refinement was conducted with additional restraints imposed on the endocyclic torsion angles of deoxyriboses. The computational time required for the rMC and rMD calculations is about the same. A comparison of structural parameters is made and some limitations of both methods are discussed with regard to the average nature of the experimental restraints used in the refinement.Abbreviations MC Monte Carlo - rMC restrained Monte Carlo - MD molecular dynamics - rMD restrained molecular dynamics - DG distance geometry - EM energy minimization - 2D NOE two-dimensional nuclear Overhauser effect - DQF-COSY double-quantum-filtered correlation spectroscopy - RMSD root-mean-square deviation To whom correspondence should be addressed.     

Localisation of acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors during mouse palate development and their effects on mouse palate mesenchyme cells in vitro

Summary The distribution of acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors (aFGF, bFGF) was mapped during mouse embryonic palate development. Generally, they localised most intensely in the basement membrane and epithelia rather than the mesenchyme. Localisation was predominantly restricted to the palatal nasal, and medial edge epithelia. Staining was particularly intense in the medial edge epithelia at the time of mid-line epithelial seam formation. Intense staining persisted in the epithelia of the degenerating seam and later in the oral and nasal epithelial triangles. Mouse embryonic palate mesenchyme (MEPM) cells cultured in vitro on a variety of substrata (on plastic, on the surface of a collagen gel and within a collagen gel) responded to treatment with aFGF or bFGF. These responses were modulated by the culture substratum. The FGFs stimulated MEPM cell proliferation on plastic and on collagen, but inhibited cell growth in collagen. The FGFs had little effect on protein production when cells were cultured on plastic, but caused a large reduction in on-collagen and incollagen cultures. This reduction was greater in collagenous than non-collagenous proteins. Generally, treatment with FGFs stimulated the production of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), particularly hyaluronan (HA) and dermatan sulphate (DS). In addition, the size class of HA was shifted to a higher molecular weight form. These data indicate that aFGF and bFGF may play a role in modulating mesenchymal cell matrix biosynthesis, so facilitating palatal epithelial seam degeneration. Correspondence to: M.W.J. Ferguson     

细胞外基质刚度调控压电型机械敏感离子通道组件1对神经干细胞分化的影响

目的 本研究旨在探讨细胞外基质刚度变化对神经干细胞（neural stem cells,NSCs）分化的影响及其作用机制。方法 本研究基于成功构建脊髓损伤大鼠模型,并制备不同刚度（0.7 kPa、40 kPa）的聚丙烯酰胺凝胶基底,将大鼠原代NSCs于不同刚度基底上培养。压电型机械敏感离子通道组件1（piezo type mechanosensitive ion channel component 1,Piezo1）shRNA质粒转染NSCs细胞。免疫荧光染色检测神经元标志物双皮质醇（doublecortion,DCX）和星形胶质细胞标志物胶质纤维酸性蛋白（glial fibrillary acidic protein,GFAP）阳性细胞百分比。免疫组织化学及蛋白质免疫印迹（Western blot）法检测损伤组织及NSCs细胞中Piezo1蛋白的表达水平。结果 与0.7 kPa基质刚度组相比,40 kPa基质刚度组中DCX阳性细胞数增加,而GFAP阳性细胞数减少,Piezo1蛋白表达量上升。脊髓损伤大鼠损伤组织Piezo1蛋白表达显著高于空白对照（sham）组。40 kPa基质刚度条件下沉默Piezo1后,DCX阳性细胞数减少,而GFAP阳性细胞数增加,差异具有统计学意义（P<0.05）。机制研究发现,沉默Piezo1导致IV型胶原及纤连蛋白表达下降。重组纤连蛋白逆转了Piezo1 shRNA对NSCs分化的影响,即DCX阳性细胞数增加,而GFAP阳性细胞数减少。结论 综上可见,硬基底刚度通过促进Piezo1蛋白表达,上调IV型胶原及纤连蛋白表达,从而调控NSCs细胞分化。本研究为基于生物材料治疗脊髓损伤提供了新的视角。     

基于拉曼技术的单细胞生长检测方法

目的 单细胞生长检测可以更加科学地揭示微生物代谢变化的规律,为后期微生物工程应用提供指导。针对微生物生长应用于食品安全期和最佳食用期的精准检测问题,本文提出一种基于拉曼技术的单细胞生长检测方法。方法 首先,通过同步培养实验采集了枯草芽孢杆菌两个批次共900个单细胞拉曼光谱（SCRS）数据,其中600个用于训练和测试,另一批次300个用于模型验证。其次,基于主成分分析的特征关系矩阵,提出CP-SP特征评估方法以筛选SCRS特征用于模型检测。再基于XGBoost构建检测模型,并应用网格搜索和交叉验证对检测模型进行调优。最后,应用混淆矩阵、ROC曲线评估模型对细胞滞后期、对数期和稳定期的检测准确率、敏感性和特异性。结果 选用CP-SP筛选的第一、第二和第四主成分较特征贡献率前3个主成分的分类性能提高了3.1%,调优后的细胞生长检测模型测试准确率为96.0%,验证准确率为92.3%。结论 基于拉曼技术的单细胞生长检测方法能准确识别单细胞生长状态且具有较高的泛化能力,可为食品安全和保鲜制定精准调控机制提供科学指导。     

Doubling protected land area may be inefficient at preserving the extent of undeveloped land and could cause substantial regional shifts in land use

Projection of land use and land-cover change is highly uncertain yet drives critical estimates of carbon emissions, climate change, and food and bioenergy production. We use new, spatially explicit land availability data in conjunction with a model sensitivity analysis to estimate the effects of additional land protection on land use and land cover. The land availability data include protected land and agricultural suitability and is incorporated into the Moirai land data system for initializing the Global Change Analysis Model. Overall, decreasing land availability is relatively inefficient at preserving undeveloped land while having considerable regional land-use impacts. Current amounts of protected area have little effect on land and crop production estimates, but including the spatial distribution of unsuitable (i.e., unavailable) land dramatically shifts bioenergy production from high northern latitudes to the rest of the world, compared with uniform availability. This highlights the importance of spatial heterogeneity in understanding and managing land change. Approximately doubling the current protected area to emulate a 30% protected area target may avoid land conversion by 2050 of less than half the newly protected extent while reducing bioenergy feedstock land by 10.4% and cropland and grazed pasture by over 3%. Regional bioenergy land may be reduced (increased) by up to 46% (36%), cropland reduced by up to 61%, pasture reduced by up to 100%, and harvested forest reduced by up to 35%. Only a few regions show notable gains in some undeveloped land types of up to 36%. Half of the regions can reach the target using only unsuitable land, which would minimize impacts on agriculture but may not meet conservation goals. Rather than focusing on an area target, a more robust approach may be to carefully select newly protected land to meet well-defined conservation goals while minimizing impacts to agriculture.     

EVIDENCE OF AN ORGANIC MATRIX FROM DIATOM BIOSILICA1

Most biominerals appear to be composites of organic material and mineral. Whether biosilica is such a composite is unresolved because of a lack of evidence for such organic components. We present evidence that organic material exists within diatom biosilica and can be extracted using HF/NH₄F solutions from frustules isolated from Cyclotella meneghiniana Kütz and diatomaceous earth. To eliminate organic casing on the silicified frustules as a source of organic materials, the casing was removed by oxidation of frustules with NaOCl before extraction. The removal of the casing was confirmed in that oxidized frustules no longer displayed the ability to be stained with ruthenium red and fluorescamine. Frustules examined with EDXA showed an emission peak from sulfur before treatment but no peak following treatment, indicating that oxidation removed organic sulfur. The organic material obtained from extracts of fresh frustules contained both soluble and insoluble components. Only soluble material was evident in extracts from diatomaceous earth. The soluble material appears to contain glycoproteins with relatively high levels of serine and glycine. The soluble proteins from fresh frustules also appear to be phosphorylated. Indirect evidence is presented that suggests the soluble proteins may contain regions of primary structure enriched in anionic amino acids. The soluble extracts differ from general cell contents when the two fractions are compared, suggesting that frustules contain specialized organic material. The identification of silica-specific organic material suggests that mineralization in diatoms may be in part matrix-mediated.     

Establishment and characterization of a novel human myoepithelial cell line and matrix-producing xenograft from a parotid basal cell adenocarcinoma

Summary Myoepithelial cells exert important paracrine effects on epithelial morphogenesis and mitogenesis through direct cell-cell interactions and through synthesis of a basement membrane extracellular matrix. To study these effects further, this study established the first immortalized human myoepithelial cell line, HMS-1, and transplantable xenograft, HMS-X, from the rare parotid basal cell adenocarcinoma. The cell line exhibited a fully differentiated myoepithelial phenotype and the xenograft exhibited the rare property of accumulating an abundant extracellular matrix composed of both basement membrane and nonbasement membrane components with the latter predominating. With HMS-1 as a feeder layer, dramatic and specific induction of epithelial morphogenesis (sheroid formation) occurred with selected normal epithelial and primary carcinoma target cells. HMS-1 and HMS-X provide distinct advantages over the conventional murine matrices in existence. They will be invaluable in future studies of human tumor-myoepithelial and matrix interactions important for tumor cell growth, invasion, and metastasis.     

Angiogenic potential of microvessel fragments established in three-dimensional collagen gels

Summary During angiogenesis, the microvasculature displays both vessel remodeling and expansion under the control of both cellular and extracellular influences. We have evaluated the role of angiogenic and angiostatic molecules on angiogenesis in anin vitro model that more appropriately duplicates the cellular and extracellular components of this process. Freshly isolated microvessel fragments from rat adipose tissue (RFMF) were cultured within three-dimensional collagen I gels. These fragments were characterized at the time of isolation and were composed of vessel segments observed in the microvasculature of fatin situ (i.e., arterioles, venules, and capillaries). Fragments also exhibited characteristic ablumenally associated cells including smooth muscle cells and pericytes. Finally, fragments were encased in an extracellular matrix composed of collagen type IV and collagen type I/III. The elongation of microvascular elements was subsequently evaluated using morphologic and immunocytochemical techniques. The proliferation, migration, and elongation of cellular elements in microvessel fragments from rat adipose tissue was dependent on initial fragment density, matrix density, and required serum. Inclusion of endothelial cell growth factors to microvessel fragments from rat adipose tissue 3-D cultures resulted in the accelerated elongation of tube structures and the expression of von Willebrand factor in cells constituting these tubes. Molecules with reported angiostatic capacity (e.g., transforming growth factor and hydrocortisone) inhibited vessel tube elongation. In vitro methods have been developed to evaluate numerous mechanisms associated with angiogenesis, including endothelial cell proliferation, migration, and phenotypic modulation. Microvascular endothelial cell fragments described in this study represent anin vitro population of cells that accurately duplicate thein vivo microcirculatory elements of fat. The proliferation of cells and elongation of microvascular elements subsequently observed in three-dimensional cultures provides anin vitro model of angiogenesis. Microvascular formation in this system results from pre-existing microvessel fragments unlike tube formation observed when cultured endothelial cells are placed in three-dimensional gels. This form of tube formation from cultured endothelium is more characteristic of vasculogenesis. Thus, the formation of microvascular elements from microvessel fragments provides the opportunity to examine the mechanisms regulating angiogenesis in anin vitro system amenable to precise experimental manipulation.