Search results for "Taxis"
showing 10 items of 205 documents
Spontaneous Spatiotemporal Ordering of Shape Oscillations Enhances Cell Migration
2019
The migration of cells is relevant for processes such as morphogenesis, wound healing, and invasion of cancer cells. In order to move, single cells deform cyclically. However, it is not understood how these shape oscillations influence collective properties. Here we demonstrate, using numerical simulations, that the interplay of directed motion, shape oscillations, and excluded volume enables cells to locally "synchronize" their motion and thus enhance collective migration. Our model captures elongation and contraction of crawling ameboid cells controlled by an internal clock with a fixed period, mimicking the internal cycle of biological cells. We show that shape oscillations are crucial f…
Los conectores pragmáticos en español coloquial (I) : su papel argumentativo
1993
Entre los elementos que favorecen la cohesión y la coherencia de la conversación coloquial desta can los llamados conectares pragmáticos, unidades que, además de encadenar las unidades del hebla, aseguran la transición de determinadas secuencias del texto hablado, colaborando en el mantenimiento del hilo del discurso y la tensión comunicativa. El conector pragmático se presenta como articulador frástico y transfrástico al mismo tiempo. Y en este sentido su papel se vincula predominantemente a la organización de la actividad discursiva como marcador metadiscursivo o la actividad argumentativa como conector argumentativo. En concreto, en su función argumentativa, tiene la propiedad funcional …
Chemotaxis and Haptotaxis on Cellular Level
2018
Chemotaxis and haptotaxis have been a main theme in the macroscopic study of bacterial and cellular motility. In this work, we use a successful model that describes cellular motility and investigate the influence these processes have on the shape and motility of fast migrating cells. We note that, despite the biological and modelling differences of chemotaxis and haptotaxis, the cells exhibit many similarities in their migration. In particular, after an initial adjustment phase, the cells obtain a stable shape, similar in both cases, and move with constant velocity.
Pattern formation and transition to chaos in a chemotaxis model of acute inflammation
2021
We investigate a reaction-diffusion-chemotaxis system that describes the immune response during an inflammatory attack. The model is a modification of the system proposed in Penner, Ermentrout, and Swigon [SIAM J. Appl. Dyn. Syst., 11 (2012), pp. 629-660]. We introduce a logistic term in the immune cell dynamics to reproduce the macrophages' activation, allowing us to describe the disease evolution from the early stages to the acute phase. We focus on the appearance of pattern solutions and their stability. We discover steady-state (Turing) and wave instabilities and classify the bifurcations deriving the corresponding amplitude equations. We study stationary radially symmetric solutions an…
Carbocysteine regulates innate immune responses and senescence processes in cigarette smoke stimulated bronchial epithelial cells
2013
Cigarette smoke represents the major risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Cigarette smoke extracts (CSE) alter TLR4 expression and activation in bronchial epithelial cells. Carbocysteine, an anti-oxidant and mucolytic agent, is effective in reducing the severity and the rate of exacerbations in COPD patients. The effects of carbocysteine on TLR4 expression and on the TLR4 activation downstream events are largely unknown. This study was aimed to explore whether carbocysteine, in a human bronchial epithelial cell line (16-HBE), counteracted some pro-inflammatory CSE-mediated effects. In particular, TLR4 expression, LPS binding, p21 (a senescence marker), IL-8 mRNA and…
A novel epitope of N-CAM defines precursors of human adherent NK cells
2004
AbstractActivated, adherent natural killer (A-NK) cells represent a distinct subpopulation of interleukin (IL)-2-stimulated NK cells, which are selectively endowed with the increased expression of integrins and ability to adhere to solid surfaces, migrate into, infiltrate, and destroy cancerous tissues. The present study defines the phenotype and functions of precursors of A-NK (pre-A-NK) cells in humans. Peripheral blood pre-A-NK cells, in contrast to the rest of NK cells, express a novel epitope of CD56 neuronal cell adhesion molecule, termed ANK-1, and increased cell-surface levels of integrins. Pre-A-NK cells also express low levels of CD56 and CD161, and some express CD162 receptor, do…
Cytotoxicity of tumor antigen specific human T cells is unimpaired by arginine depletion.
2013
Tumor-growth is often associated with the expansion of myeloid derived suppressor cells that lead to local or systemic arginine depletion via the enzyme arginase. It is generally assumed that this arginine deficiency induces a global shut-down of T cell activation with ensuing tumor immune escape. While the impact of arginine depletion on polyclonal T cell proliferation and cytokine secretion is well documented, its influence on chemotaxis, cytotoxicity and antigen specific activation of human T cells has not been demonstrated so far. We show here that chemotaxis and early calcium signaling of human T cells are unimpaired in the absence of arginine. We then analyzed CD8(+) T cell activation…
LrhA as a new transcriptional key regulator of flagella, motility and chemotaxis genes in Escherichia coli
2002
The function of the LysR-type regulator LrhA of Escherichia coli was defined by comparing whole-genome mRNA profiles from wild-type E. coli and an isogenic lrhA mutant on a DNA microarray. In the lrhA mutant, a large number (48) of genes involved in flagellation, motility and chemotaxis showed relative mRNA abundances increased by factors between 3 and 80. When a representative set of five flagellar, motility and chemotaxis genes was tested in lacZ reporter gene fusions, similar factors for derepression were found in the lrhA mutant. In gel retardation experiments, the LrhA protein bound specifically to flhD and lrhA promoter DNA (apparent K-D approximate to 20 nM), whereas the promoters of…
Mouse langerhans cells differentially express an activated T cell-attracting CC chemokine.
1999
Epidermal Langerhans cells represent an immature population of dendritic cells, not yet able to prime naive T cells. Following in vitro culture Langerhans cells mature into potent immunostimulatory cells. We constructed a representative cDNA library of in vitro matured murine Langerhans cells. Applying a differential screening procedure 112 differentially expressed cDNA clones were isolated. Thirty-six clones represented cDNA fragments of the same gene, identifying it to be the most actively expressed gene induced in maturing Langerhans cells. A full-length cDNA was sequenced completely. The open reading frame codes for a protein of 92 amino acids containing a leader peptide of 24 amino aci…
Quantitative Data on Petunia Embryogenesis: Mitotic Activity and Characteristics of the Cell Cycles
1988
The studies on the embryonal development of Angiosperms are essentially descriptive and some quantitative data are only available at the present time. Within Dicotyledons, one must mentioned the works of Rietsema and al. (1955) on the growth of ovules and embryos of Datura stramonium, the interesting comparison between the growth of Capsella and Gossypium embryos effected by Pollock and Jensen (1964), the studies of Simoncioli (1974) and Tykarska (1980) on two Brassicaceae, respectively Diplotaxis erucoides and Brassica napus, and the work of Gray and al. (1984) on the embryo development of Daucus carota.