Search results for "81"
showing 10 items of 2468 documents
Phosphodiesterase-5 Inhibition Alleviates Pulmonary Hypertension and Basal Lamina Thickening in Rats Challenged by Chronic Hypoxia
2018
javax.xml.bind.JAXBElement@6f8948ff Hypoxia represents both an outcome of cardiopulmonary diseases and a trigger for severe pulmonary complications as pulmonary hypertension. Because nitric oxide (NO) is a critical mediator in the development of pulmonary hypertension, the modulators of its downstream function may become target of pharmacological interventions aimed at alleviating the impact of this condition. Here, we investigate the effects of an early administration of phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor in rats where pulmonary artery hypertension was induced by chronic exposure to hypoxia. javax.xml.bind.JAXBElement@162dc677 Rats were divided into three groups: normoxic control, hypoxic with …
Molecular Pathways Mediating Immunosuppression in Response to Prolonged Intensive Physical Training, Low-Energy Availability, and Intensive Weight Lo…
2019
Exercise and exercise-induced weight loss have a beneficial effect on overall health, including positive effects on molecular pathways associated with immune function, especially in overweight individuals. The main aim of our study was to assess how energy deprivation (i.e., "semi-starvation") leading to substantial fat mass loss affects the immune system and immunosuppression in previously normal weight individuals. Thus, to address this hypothesis, we applied a high-throughput systems biology approach to better characterize potential key pathways associated with immune system modulation during intensive weight loss and subsequent weight regain. We examined 42 healthy female physique athle…
A liposomal RNA vaccine inducing neoantigen-specific CD4+ T cells augments the antitumor activity of local radiotherapy in mice
2020
Antigen-encoding, lipoplex-formulated RNA (RNA-LPX) enables systemic delivery to lymphoid compartments and selective expression in resident antigen-presenting cells. We report here that the rejection of CT26 tumors, mediated by local radiotherapy (LRT), is further augmented in a CD8+ T cell-dependent manner by an RNA-LPX vaccine that encodes CD4+ T cell-recognized neoantigens (CD4 neoantigen vaccine). Whereas CD8+ T cells induced by LRT alone were primarily directed against the immunodominant gp70 antigen, mice treated with LRT plus the CD4 neoantigen vaccine rejected gp70-negative tumors and were protected from rechallenge with these tumors, indicating a potent poly-antigenic CD8+ T cell r…
Iron Status of Vegans, Vegetarians and Pescatarians in Norway
2021
Although plant-based diets provide well-established physical and environmental health benefits, omitting meat or meat products has also been associated with a risk of being deficient in specific nutrients, such as iron. As data on the iron status among Norwegian vegans, vegetarians and pescatarians are lacking, the present study aimed to assess iron status in these groups of healthy adults. Blood markers for iron status were measured in 191 participants (18–60 years old) comprising 106 vegans, 54 vegetarians and 31 pescatarians: serum-ferritin (S-Fe), serum-iron (S-Iron) and serum-total iron binding capacity (S-TIBC). Serum-transferrin-saturation (S-TSAT) was estimated (S-Iron/S-TIBC × 100)…
Autoantibodies in Spondyloarthritis, Focusing on Anti-CD74 Antibodies
2019
Spondyloarthritis (SpA) is an inflammatory rheumatic disease with diverse clinical presentation. The diagnosis of SpA remains a big challenge in daily clinical practice because of the limitation in specific biomarkers of SpA, more biomarkers are still needed for SpA diagnosis and disease activity monitoring. In the past, SpA was considered predominantly as auto-inflammatory disease vs. autoimmune disease. However, in recent years several researches demonstrated a broad autoantibody response in SpA patients. Study also indicated that mice lack of ZAP70 in T cell develop SpA featured inflammation. These studies indicated the autoimmune features of SpA and gave rise to the potential use of aut…
COVID-19 Sepsis and Microcirculation Dysfunction
2020
The spreading of Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, known as COVID-19, has caused a great number of fatalities all around the World. Up to date (2020 May 6) in Italy we had more than 28,000 deaths, while there were more than 205.000 infected. The majority of patients affected by COVID-19 complained only slight symptoms: fatigue, myalgia or cough, but more than 15% of Chinese patients progressed into severe complications, with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), needing intensive treatment. We tried to summarize data reported in the last months from several Countries, highlighting that COVID-19 was characterized by cytokine storm (CS) and endothelial dysfunction in severely ill patie…
Polymorphism rs1761667 in the CD36 Gene Is Associated to Changes in Fatty Acid Metabolism and Circulating Endocannabinoid Levels Distinctively in Nor…
2017
The multifunctional CD36 scavenger receptor facilitates fatty acid (FA) uptake and oxidation and it has been involved in the pathophysiology related to dysfunctional FA metabolism. The common variant in the CD36 gene, rs1761667 (A/G), whose allele A is characterized by a reduced protein expression, has been associated with taste sensitivity to and preference for fat. We therefore aimed at evaluating whether the CD36 polymorphism may influence fatty acid metabolism and endocannabinoid biosynthesis in normal weight (NW) and obese (OB) subjects. Red blood cell (RBC) fatty acid composition, and plasma endocannabinoid levels were determined. In NW subjects with AA genotype was found a marked red…
Do shifts in life strategies explain microbial community responses to increasing nitrogen in tundra soil?
2016
Subarctic tundra soils store large quantities of the global organic carbon (C) pool as the decomposition of plant litter and soil organic matter is limited by low temperatures and limiting nutrients. Mechanisms that drive organic matter decomposition are still poorly understood due to our limited knowledge of microbial communities and their responses to changing conditions. In subarctic tundra large grazers, in particular reindeer, exert a strong effect on vegetation and nutrient availability causing drastic nutrient pulses in the soils located along the migratory routes. Here we studied the effect of increased nitrogen (N) availability on microbial community structure and activities by lab…
Transcriptional Upregulation of DNA Damage Response Genes in Bank Voles (Myodes glareolus) Inhabiting the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
2018
Exposure to ionizing radiation (IR) from radionuclides released into the environment can damage DNA. An expected response to exposure to environmental radionuclides, therefore, is initiation of DNA damage response (DDR) pathways. Increased DNA damage is a characteristic of many organisms exposed to radionuclides but expression of DDR genes of wildlife inhabiting an area contaminated by radionuclides is poorly understood. We quantified expression of five central DDR genes Atm, Mre11, p53, Brca1, and p21 in the livers of the bank vole Myodes glareolus that inhabited areas within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) that differed in levels of ambient radioactivity, and also from control areas ou…
Monitoring of ticks and tick-borne pathogens through a nationwide research station network in Finland.
2020
In 2015 a long-term, nationwide tick and tick-borne pathogen (TBP) monitoring project was started by the Finnish Tick Project and the Finnish Research Station network (RESTAT), with the goal of producing temporally and geographically extensive data regarding exophilic ticks in Finland. In the current study, we present results from the first four years of this collaboration. Ticks were collected by cloth dragging from 11 research stations across Finland in May September 2015-2018 (2012-2018 in Seili). Collected ticks were screened for twelve different pathogens by qPCR: Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia garinii, Borrelia valaisiana, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia miyamotoi, Babesia sp…