Constitutional markers of urticaria and their prognostic significance (analysis of scientific literature)

Annotation. The purpose of the work is to analyze the scientific literature regarding the constitutional markers of urticaria and their prognostic significance. The analysis of modern scientific literature in the scientometric databases PubMed and MEDLINE is carried out. A review of the literature indicates that significant progress has been made in understanding the etiopathogenesis of urticaria in recent decades, with some clinical and anamnestic signs suggestive of adverse outcomes. However, identifying patients with the highest risk of complications remains an unresolved issue. In connection with the development and implementation in clinical practice of methods of genetic typing, much attention is paid to the search for genetic predictors of adverse course of this dermatosis. To date, phenotypic marker profiles that have been little modified over a lifetime and available for visualization in everyday clinical practice have not been properly considered in assessing the risk of urticaria. Modern anthropocentric approach to solving the problem of risk prediction in urticaria opens up the prospect of taking into account constitutional (personality-typological, somato-typological) and genetic factors that are the basis of psychobiological reactivity of the individual, determining individual variability of pathogenesis and clinical manifestations, patterns severity and frequency of complications.

The red-beard evolutionary explanation of human sociality

Recent evolutionary studies on cooperation devote specific attention to non-verbal expressions of emotions. In this paper, I examine Robert Frank’s popular attempt to explain emotions, non-verbal markers and social behaviours. Following this line of work, I focus on the green-beard explanation of social behaviours. In response to the criticisms raised against this controversial ultimate explanation, based on resources found in Frank’s work, I propose an alternative red-beard explanation of human sociality. The red-beard explanation explains the emergence and evolution of emotions, a proximate cause, rather than patterns of behaviour. In contrast to simple evolutionary models that invoke a green-beard mechanism, I demonstrate that the red-beard explanation can be evolutionary stable. Social emotions are a common cause of a social behaviour and a phenotypic marker and therefore cooperative behaviour cannot be suppressed without also changing the marker.

LMT USV Toolbox, a Novel Methodological Approach to Place Mouse Ultrasonic Vocalizations in Their Behavioral Contexts—A Study in Female and Male C57BL/6J Mice and in Shank3 Mutant Females

Ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are used as a phenotypic marker in mouse models of neuropsychiatric disorders. Nevertheless, current methodologies still require time-consuming manual input or sound recordings clean of any background noise. We developed a method to overcome these two restraints to boost knowledge on mouse USVs. The methods are freely available and the USV analysis runs online at https://usv.pasteur.cloud. As little is currently known about usage and structure of ultrasonic vocalizations during social interactions over the long-term and in unconstrained context, we investigated mouse spontaneous communication by coupling the analysis of USVs with automatic labeling of behaviors. We continuously recorded during 3 days undisturbed interactions of same-sex pairs of C57BL/6J sexually naive males and females at 5 weeks and 3 and 7 months of age. In same-sex interactions, we observed robust differences between males and females in the amount of USVs produced, in the acoustic structure and in the contexts of emission. The context-specific acoustic variations emerged with increasing age. The emission of USVs also reflected a high level of excitement during social interactions. We finally highlighted the importance of studying long-term spontaneous communication by investigating female mice lacking Shank3, a synaptic protein associated with autism. While the previous short-time constrained investigations could not detect USV emission abnormalities, our analysis revealed robust differences in the usage and structure of the USVs emitted by mutant mice compared to wild-type female pairs.

Isolation and Characterization of Female Rabbit Periosteal Derived Progenitor Cells

Background Periosteum is a specialized highly vascularized connective tissue that is formed of an external fibrous layer containing collagen fibers and micro vessels and an inner cambium layer that facing the bone. Cambium layer includes periosteum derived progenitor cells (PDPCs) which have osteochondrogenic potential both in vitro and in vivo and act as major players in bone development and fracture healing. Periosteum derived progenitor cells display properties of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), including clonogenicity, phenotypic marker expression, and ability to differentiate into osteoblasts, chondrocytes and adipocytes. So, they are recognized to be essential for the initiation of bone graft healing and remodeling, but their clinical application is still limited due to inaccessibility. The aim of the present study is isolation, culture and characterization of rabbit’s PDPCs. Methods twenty-five adult female rabbits were used to harvest periosteal samples. Cell cultures were obtained by migration of cells from periosteal fragments (explant culture). Immunostaining of the cells of PDPCs in subculture (third passage) was performed. Result On day three of primary culture, the PDPCs were not started to migrate from the periosteal explant edges. However, on day six of primary culture, few spindle PDPCs cells appeared at the edge of explant. on day 20 of primary culture, PDPCs were mostly confluent ( about 9095%) . Immunostaining of PDPCs in subculture (third passage) showed positive brownish reaction of the branched cells for CD105 and CD44 and negative immune reaction for both CD34 and CD45. Conclusion The current study yielded isolation and cultured of female rabbit Periosteal derived progenitor cells. Periosteal derived stem cells are display properties of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), including clonogenicity, phenotypic marker expression.

Morphological Characterization of Bambara Groundnut [Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.] Landraces in Kenya

Background: Bambara groundnut [Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.], an indigenous drought tolerant crop of African origin is one of most important leguminous crop in Sub-Saharan Africa. Small-scale farmers continue cultivating unimproved landraces over the production areas in Kenya. Bambara exist variously as mixtures of seeds, which contain variable types of seed morphology which need to be agronomically and phenotypically differentiated. The study aimed at characterizing Bambara groundnuts collected in Kenya using morphological markers. Methods: One hundred and five germplasm assembled from four major growing agro-ecologies (Busia, Kakamega, Bungom and Vihiga Counties) and Kenya National Gene bank, were evaluated at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) - Alupe (0.4347° N, 34.2422° E) in a randomized complete block design with three replications in the long and short rains of 2015. Nineteen quantitative traits and seven qualitative traits were observed and measured at different growth stages and during harvesting. Result: Many landraces displayed pointed, round and yellowish pod, with grooved and oval seeds. About 49.4% had round leaves, 21.5% had elliptical leaves, while 55.7% were heterogeneous for leaf shape. Quantitative traits were significant (p≤0.05) except for seed weight, seed number per plant and number of stems. The first four principal components accounted for a total of 73.1% of the variations. germplasm were divided into two distinct clusters. Leaf morphology variations could be used as a reliable phenotypic marker in Bambara breeding.

RNA-Seq-Based Profiling of pl Mutant Reveals Transcriptional Regulation of Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Purple-colored leaves in plants attain much interest for their important biological functions and could be a potential source of phenotypic marker in selecting individuals in breeding. The transcriptional profiling helps to precisely identify mechanisms of leaf pigmentation in crop plants. In this study, two genetically unlike rice genotypes, the mutant purple leaf (pl) and wild (WT) were selected for RNA-sequencing and identifying the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that are regulating purple leaf color. In total, 609 DEGs were identified, of which 513 and 96 genes were up- and down-regulated, respectively. The identified DEGs are categorized into metabolic process, carboxylic acid biosynthesis, phenylpropanoids, and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis process enrichment by GO analysis. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) confirmed their association with phenylpropanoid synthesis, flavonoid synthesis, and phenylalanine metabolism. To explore molecular mechanism of purple leaf color, a set of anthocyanin biosynthetic and regulatory gene expression patterns were checked by qPCR. We found that OsPAL (Os02g0626100, Os02g0626400, Os04g0518400, Os05g0427400 and Os02g0627100), OsF3H (Os03g0122300), OsC4HL (Os05g0320700), and Os4CL5 (Os08g0448000) are associated with anthocyanin biosynthesis, and they were up-regulated in pl leaves. Two members of regulatory MYB genes (OsMYB55; Os05g0553400 and Os08g0428200), two bHLH genes (Os01g0196300 and Os04g0300600), and two WD40 genes (Os11g0132700 and Os11g0610700) also showed up-regulation in pl mutant. These genes might have significant and vital roles in pl leaf coloration and could provide reference materials for further experimentation to confirm the molecular mechanisms of anthocyanin biosynthesis in rice.

Precise Measurement of the Fitness Effects of Spontaneous Mutations by Droplet Digital PCR in Burkholderia cenocepacia

Understanding how mutations affect survivability is a key component to knowing how organisms and complex traits evolve. However, most mutations have a minor effect on fitness and these effects are difficult to resolve using traditional molecular techniques. Therefore, there is a dire need for more accurate and precise fitness measurements methods. Here, we measured the fitness effects in Burkholderia cenocepacia HI2424 mutation accumulation (MA) lines using droplet-digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR). Overall, the fitness measurements from ddPCR-MA are correlated positively with fitness measurements derived from traditional phenotypic marker assays (r = 0.297, p = 0.05), but showed some differences. First, ddPCR had significantly lower measurement variance in fitness (F = 3.78, p < 2.6x10−13) in control experiments. Second, the mean fitness from ddPCR-MA measurements were significantly lower than phenotypic marker assays (-0.0041 vs -0.0071, p = 0.006). Consistent with phenotypic marker assays, ddPCR-MA measurements observed multiple (27/43) lineages that significantly deviated from mean fitness, suggesting that a majority of the mutations are neutral or slightly deleterious and intermixed with a few mutations that have extremely large effects. Of these mutations, we found a significant excess of mutations within DNA excinuclease and Lys R transcriptional regulators that have extreme deleterious and beneficial effects, indicating that modifications to transcription and replication may have a strong effect on organismal fitness. This study demonstrates the power of ddPCR as a ubiquitous method for high-throughput fitness measurements in both DNA and RNA-based organisms regardless of cell type or physiology.

One-Carbon Metabolism Associated Vulnerabilities in Glioblastoma: A Review

Altered cell metabolism is a hallmark of cancer cell biology, and the adaptive metabolic strategies of cancer cells have been of recent interest to many groups. Metabolic reprogramming has been identified as a critical step in glial cell transformation, and the use of antimetabolites against glioblastoma has been investigated. One-carbon (1-C) metabolism and its associated biosynthetic pathways, particularly purine nucleotide synthesis, are critical for rapid proliferation and are altered in many cancers. Purine metabolism has also been identified as essential for glioma tumourigenesis. Additionally, alterations of 1-C-mediated purine synthesis have been identified as commonly present in brain tumour initiating cells (BTICs) and could serve as a phenotypic marker of cells responsible for tumour recurrence. Further research is required to elucidate mechanisms through which metabolic vulnerabilities may arise in BTICs and potential ways to therapeutically target these metabolic processes. This review aims to summarize the role of 1-C metabolism-associated vulnerabilities in glioblastoma tumourigenesis and progression and investigate the therapeutic potential of targeting this pathway in conjunction with other treatment strategies.

Addition of Popular Exogenous Antioxidant Agent, PBN, to Culture Media May Be an Important Step to Optimization of Myogenic Stem/Progenitor Cell Preparation Protocol

The aim of the study was to modify human skeletal muscle-derived stem/progenitor cells (SkMDS/PCs) and demonstrate the optimal cell preparation protocol for application in post-infarction hearts. We used conditioned SkMDS/PC culture medium with α-phenyl-N-tert-butyl nitrone (PBN). SkMDS/PCs were cultured under hypoxic conditions and the results were compared to the standard ones. We observed a significant increase of CD-56 positive phenotypic marker the ability to form functional myotubes, increase in the proportion of young cells in cell primary suspensions, and a decrease in the percentage of apoptotic cells among PBN-conditioned cells in normoxia an hypoxia. We also observed significantly higher levels of SOD3 expression; maintained expression of SOD1, SOD2, and CAT; a higher level of BCL2 gene expression; and a rather significant decrease in Hsp70 gene expression in PBN-conditioned SkMDS/PCs compared to the WT population under hypoxic conditions. In addition, significant increase of myogenic genes expression was observed after PBN addition to culture medium, compared to WT population under hypoxia. Interestingly, PBN addition significantly increased the lengths of telomeres under hypoxia. Based on the data obtained, we can postulate that PBN conditioning of human SkMDS/PCs could be a promising step in improving myogenic cell preparation protocol for pro-regenerative treatment of post-infarction hearts.

Lifetime Weight Course as a Phenotypic Marker of Severity and Therapeutic Response in Patients with Eating Disorders

The association between lifetime weight fluctuations and clinical characteristics has been widely studied in populations with eating disorders (ED). However, there is a lack of literature examining the potential role of weight course as a transdiagnostic factor in ED so far. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare ED severity and treatment outcomes among four specific BMI profiles based on BMI-trajectories across the lifespan: (a) persistent obesity (OB-OB; (n = 74)), (b) obesity in the past but currently in a normal weight range (OB-NW; n = 156), (c) normal weight throughout the lifespan (NW-NW; n = 756), and (d) current obesity but previously at normal weight (NW-OB; n = 314). Lifetime obesity is associated with greater general psychopathology and personality traits such as low persistence and self-directedness, and high reward dependence. Additionally, greater extreme weight changes (NW-OB and OB-NW) were associated with higher psychopathology but not with greater ED severity. Higher dropout rates were found in the OB-OB group. These results shed new light on the BMI trajectory as a transdiagnostic feature playing a pivotal role in the severity and treatment outcome in patients with ED.