Variability over time and correlates of cholesterol and blood pressure in systemic lupus erythematosus: a longitudinal cohort study

Introduction  

Total cholesterol (TC) and blood pressure (BP) are likely to take a dynamic course over time in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). This would have important implications in terms of using single-point-in-time measurements of these variables to assess coronary artery disease (CAD) risk. The objective of this study was to describe and quantify variability over time of TC and BP among patients with SLE and to determine their correlates.     

Identification of Tumor Antigens in the HLA Peptidome of Patient-derived Xenograft Tumors in Mouse

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Highlights

• •Sufficient tumor tissues are often unavailable large HLA peptidome discovery.
• •Using patient derived xenograft (PDX) tumors can overcome this limitation.
• •The large PDX HLA peptidomes expand significantly those of the original biopsies.
• •The HLA peptidomes of the PDX tumors included many tumor antigens.

     

DQ α and β RFLP reveals the composition of the DQ molecule recognized by T-cell clones

Pst I RFLP, revealed with DQ and DQ probes, was compared with Taq I RFLP using a panel of DR-homozygous cell lines and HLA-typed family members. Taq I patterns, characteristic for each DR-associated DQ and allelic forms, were recognized in the homozygous state and then proven to segregate in the heterozygous members of informative families. The presence of both specific and chains was found to be necessary to form the type of DQ molecule specifically recognized by two alloreactive T-cell clones. Particular and associations also seem to be responsible for some Dw splits of the DRw6-positive cells. Taq I RFLP analysis may be more complex than the Pst I analysis, but is certainly more informative and complete, considering the type of information we were seeking by performing these types of experiments.Abbreviations used in this paper BSA bovine serum albumin - GLO glyoxalase - kb kilobase(s) - LCL lymphoblastoid cell line - MHC major histocompatibility complex - PBL peripheral blood lymphocyte - PLT primed lymphocyte test - RFLP restriction fragment length polymorphism - SDS sodium dodecyl sulfate - SSC standard sodium citrate - SSCP sodium, sodium citrate, sodium phosphate - TBE Tris-borate, boric acid, ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA) - TCGF T-cell growth factor     

Increased lymphocyte adherence to human arterial endothelial cell monolayers in the context of allorecognition.

The interactions of alloreactive T lymphocytes with the vascular endothelium were studied in an in vitro model of lymphocyte adherence to cultured human arterial endothelial cell (HAEC) monolayers. Donor-primed lymphocytes (DPL) were shown to have significantly greater adherence to donor HAEC than were third-party primed lymphocytes. Limiting dilution analysis of adherent DPL showed an enrichment of donor-reactive lymphocytes compared with nonadherent DPL. This study examines the allospecific nature of this increased lymphocyte adherence. HAEC constitutively express class I HLA Ag and can be induced by IFN-gamma to express class II Ag. DPL adherence to class I+ HAEC was inhibited only in the presence of mAb directed against class I Ag. DPL adherence to class I+ and class II+ HAEC was inhibited in the presence of mAb directed against class I and class II Ag. Class I- and class II-specific adherence was also shown to involve CD8 and CD4 molecules, respectively, whereas lymphocyte function-associated Ag do not appear to play a major role in long term alloreactive lymphocyte adherence to HAEC. These findings suggest that alloreactive lymphocyte adherence to HAEC is mediated by two mechanisms. One is based on allorecognition, primarily of HLA Ag, and the other is related to presumably non-Ag-specific interactions between activated lymphocytes and the vascular endothelium. The studies presented provide evidence to suggest that HLA-specific lymphocyte adherence to endothelium may significantly contribute to the development of alloreactive lymphocyte infiltrates within the allograft.     

Expression of galectins on microvessel endothelial cells and their involvement in tumour cell adhesion

Lactoside-binding lectins (galectins) with molecular weights of about 14.5 kDa (galectin-1) and 29–35 kDa (galectin-3) bind preferentially to polylactosaminoglycan-containing glycoconjugates and have been found on the surface of tumour cells and implicated in cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix adhesion and metastasis. We have demonstrated by immunoblotting that both galectin-1 and galectin-3 are present in extracts of endothelial cells cultured from bovine aorta, rat lung, mouse lung and mouse brain microvessels, whereas mouse hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells expressed primarily galectin-1. These galectins were also localized by indirect immunofluorescent labelling on the surface of the different endothelial cells in culture and by immunohistochemical staining in human tissuesin vivo. Anti-galectin-1 antibodies inhibited the adhesion of liver-preferring murine RAW117-H10 large-cell lymphoma cells to hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells or lung microvessel endothelial cellsin vitro. The data indicate that galectin-1 is expressed on the extracellular surface of endothelial cells and can mediate in part the adhesion of RAW117-H10 cells to liver microvessel endothelial cells.     

A streptomycin-resistant Escherichia coli mutant with ribosomes temperature-sensitive in the suppression of a nonsense codon.

Summary Cell free extracts from a streptomycin-resistant E. coli mutant which is also temperature-sensitive for Q phage were studied for suppression of a nonsense mutation at various temperatures. The streptomycin-resistant ribosomes of the mutant were found to be temperature-sensitive in suppression of an amber mutation in f2 phage coat protein while retaining the ability to synthesize proteins at an elevated temperature (42° C). The restriction of amber suppression at 42° C is assumed to be related to an alteration in the ribosomal protein S12 of the streptomycin-resistant mutant which also causes a change in its electrophoretic mobility.     

A model for processing of movement in the visual system

Processing of spatio-temporal information in the human visual system has been investigated thoroughly during the past decade, but is still far from being properly understood. Moreover, the theory of separation of information by means of sustained and transient channels already at the retinal level is not satisfactory, as experimental results indicate that these two types of channels span a continuum of temporal characteristics. It is however obvious, that the process of pattern recognition and velocity perception calls for their separation at some level of the hierarchy. In this communication, we extend our model of three-dimensional spatio-temporal frequency expansion in the visual system (Gafni and Zeevi, 1977) to show how velocity-information extraction channels, sensitive to direction and velocity exclusively, can be formed by simple summation of signals from well-defined sets of channels representing points in the frequency space. Correspondence of these channels to characteristics of the cortical neurons is discussed.     

Automatic Detection of Whole Night Snoring Events Using Non-Contact Microphone

Objective

Although awareness of sleep disorders is increasing, limited information is available on whole night detection of snoring. Our study aimed to develop and validate a robust, high performance, and sensitive whole-night snore detector based on non-contact technology.

Design

Sounds during polysomnography (PSG) were recorded using a directional condenser microphone placed 1 m above the bed. An AdaBoost classifier was trained and validated on manually labeled snoring and non-snoring acoustic events.

Patients

Sixty-seven subjects (age 52.5±13.5 years, BMI 30.8±4.7 kg/m², m/f 40/27) referred for PSG for obstructive sleep apnea diagnoses were prospectively and consecutively recruited. Twenty-five subjects were used for the design study; the validation study was blindly performed on the remaining forty-two subjects.

Measurements and Results

To train the proposed sound detector, >76,600 acoustic episodes collected in the design study were manually classified by three scorers into snore and non-snore episodes (e.g., bedding noise, coughing, environmental). A feature selection process was applied to select the most discriminative features extracted from time and spectral domains. The average snore/non-snore detection rate (accuracy) for the design group was 98.4% based on a ten-fold cross-validation technique. When tested on the validation group, the average detection rate was 98.2% with sensitivity of 98.0% (snore as a snore) and specificity of 98.3% (noise as noise).

Conclusions

Audio-based features extracted from time and spectral domains can accurately discriminate between snore and non-snore acoustic events. This audio analysis approach enables detection and analysis of snoring sounds from a full night in order to produce quantified measures for objective follow-up of patients.     

Gender and ethnicity in the Zionist nation-building project: the case of Hannah Helena Thon

According to Nira Yuval-Davis some of the most important ways in which women are involved in national projects concern their capacity as biological and cultural reproducers of the nation and guardians of its boundaries. In this article I argue that Jewish women in Mandate Palestine not only guarded and reproduced national boundaries, but also redefined them. Middle-class women's organizations acted as agents of ‘nationalization’ and westernization among Mizrahi (lit. Oriental) Jewish communities, who were largely excluded from the imagined community of the nation by Ashkenazi Zionists. I explain the conjunction of gender and ethnicity in the Zionist nation-building project through the life and letters of journalist and social activist Hannah Helena Thon. Two main factors serve as an explanation: the countries from which the leaders of the organizations emerged and their traditions of social work; and the position of middle-class women in the Jewish social field.     

Promoters maintain their relative activity levels under different growth conditions

Most genes change expression levels across conditions, but it is unclear which of these changes represents specific regulation and what determines their quantitative degree. Here, we accurately measured activities of ～900 S. cerevisiae and ～1800 E. coli promoters using fluorescent reporters. We show that in both organisms 60–90% of promoters change their expression between conditions by a constant global scaling factor that depends only on the conditions and not on the promoter's identity. Quantifying such global effects allows precise characterization of specific regulation—promoters deviating from the global scale line. These are organized into few functionally related groups that also adhere to scale lines and preserve their relative activities across conditions. Thus, only several scaling factors suffice to accurately describe genome‐wide expression profiles across conditions. We present a parameter‐free passive resource allocation model that quantitatively accounts for the global scaling factors. It suggests that many changes in expression across conditions result from global effects and not specific regulation, and provides means for quantitative interpretation of expression profiles.