Dominance competition through affiliation and support in Japanese macaques: An experimental study

It has been proposed that monkeys direct grooming to high-ranking individuals in an attempt to obtain agonistic support in return. But whether these two categories of interactions are causally related has proven difficult to establish. Part of the problem stems from the fact that in stable groups social relationships reflect an equilibrium state and that behaviors need only be performed at low rates and long intervals to maintain the current social structure. In theory, however, if affiliative and supportive interactions are indeed causally related, it should be possible to accentuate their temporal relation, hence their causal dynamics. For example, destabilizing dominance relations can be expected to induce competition for status and force individuals to deploy behavioral tactics for settling new rank relations. We experimentally induced rank reversals in a captive group of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) composed of three matrilines (A-B-C rank order). A reversed C-A-B order composed of three individuals per matriline was maintained for 2 weeks. The results show the close temporal relation among (i) asserting one’s rank, (ii) competing for access to dominants through affiliation and interferences in affiliation, (iii) receiving support from dominants against lower-ranking individuals, and (iv) supporting dominants against subordinates. These findings are compatible with one version of the affiliation-for-support hypothesis, namely that monkeys affiliate with dominants as a way to assert their position in the hierarchy. In a functional perspective, mutual selfishness provides a better explanation than reciprocal altruism because the possibility that both groomers and supporters derive immediate net benefits cannot be excluded.     

人胚DA能神经元移植于帕金森氏病猴模型的TH免疫细胞化学的研究

为了对人胚黑质ＤＡ神经元移植治疗ＰＤ人的临床应用作出客观评估,将８－１２周人胚黑质细胞移植到用ＭＰＴＰ诱发的偏侧ＰＤ猴新纹状体内。实验动物分别存活２个月、５个月和１年后,用ＴＨ免疫细胞化学方法对被移植的人胚ＤＡ细胞的存活和与宿主间的突触联系进行检查。在光镜下可见被移植侧的新纹状体内有ＴＨ阳性细胞,它们成小群散在分布,每小群有３－１０个细胞。ＴＨ阳性细胞的轴突延伸到整个新纹状体,树突呈现出正常发育过     

Mouse Offspring Derived from Fetal Ovaries or Reaggregates Which were Cultured and Transplanted into Adult Females

Primordial germ cells (PGCs) and gonia could be promising novel targets and vehicles for manipulation of the mammalian germ line. To make such manipulation a practical possibility, PGCs or gonia must be allowed to produce gametes and offspring after they were isolated from embryos and manipulated in culture. As the first step to develop such research strategy, we obtained offspring from mouse oogonia which were isolated from embryonic ovaries and cultured as dispersed cells before transplantation into female mice as reaggregates.     

Two relative efficiencies of polymorphic enzymes for characterizing cell lines,detecting contaminations,and monitoring transplants

Summary A new calculation of the relative efficiency of polymorphic enzyme markers, called the REB, was determined and compared with one of Fisher's determinations of the relative efficiency called REA here. The REA estimates the chance of failing, and 1-REA of succeeding, to show a phenotypic difference between two randomly selected persons or cultured cell lines (Case 1). In this study it was shown that the REA also estimates the chance of detecting a cell line mislabeling or similar mixup (Case 2) and a cell line cross-contamination leading to the complete replacement of an original line by contaminating line (Case 3). The new REB determines the probability of failing, and 1-REB of succeeding, to detect a contamination of an original line by another line leading to their coexistence, or at least a sufficiently long period of transitional coexistence before one overgrows the other. The REA and REB also apply to determining the efficiency of polymorphic markers in detecting donor and recipient cells in tissue transplants. This work was developed from the author's involvement in the human tumor cell-line characterization project at Sloan-Kettering Institute and he acknowledges this opportunity and the benefits of his association with Dr. J?rgen Fogh and colleagues in the Human Tumor Cell Laboratory.     

Maladaptive innate immune training of myelopoiesis links inflammatory comorbidities

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Mucus-degrading Bacteroides link carbapenems to aggravated graft-versus-host disease

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Mechanism of indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase inhibiting cardiac allograft rejection in mice

Indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase (IDO)-mediated regulation of tryptophan metabolism plays an important role in immune tolerance in transplantation, but it has not been elucidated which mechanism specifically induces the occurrence of immune tolerance. Our study revealed that IDO exerts immunosuppressive effects through two pathways in mouse heart transplantation, ‘tryptophan depletion’ and ‘tryptophan metabolite accumulation’. The synergism between IDO⁺DC and TC (tryptophan catabolic products) has stronger inhibitory effects on T lymphocyte proliferation and mouse heart transplant rejection than the two intervention factors alone, and significantly prolong the survival time of donor-derived transplanted skin. This work demonstrates that the combination of IDO⁺DC and TC can induce immune tolerance to a greater extent, and reduce the rejection of transplanted organs.