Ovalbumin sensitization and challenge increases the number of lung cells possessing a mesenchymal stromal cell phenotype

Abstract Background Recent studies have indicated the presence of multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) in human lung diseases. Excess airway smooth muscle, myofibroblasts and activated fibroblasts have each been noted in asthma, suggesting that mesenchymal progenitor cells play a role in asthma pathogenesis. We therefore sought to determine whether MSCs are present in the lungs of ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized and challenged mice, a model of allergic airways disease. Methods Balb/c mice were sensitized and challenged with PBS or OVA over a 25 day period. Flow cytometry as well as colony forming and differentiation potential were used to analyze the emergence of MSCs along with gene expression studies using immunochemical analyses, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and gene expression beadchips. Results A CD45-negative subset of cells expressed Stro-1, Sca-1, CD73 and CD105. Selection for these markers and negative selection against CD45 yielded a population of cells capable of adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation. Lungs from OVA-treated mice demonstrated a greater average colony forming unit-fibroblast (CFU-F) than control mice. Sorted cells differed from unsorted lung adherent cells, exhibiting a pattern of gene expression nearly identical to bone marrow-derived sorted cells. Finally, cells isolated from the bronchoalveolar lavage of a human asthma patient showed identical patterns of cell surface markers and differentiation potential. Conclusions In summary, allergen sensitization and challenge is accompanied by an increase of MSCs resident in the lungs that may regulate inflammatory and fibrotic responses.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78265/1/1465-9921-11-127.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78265/2/1465-9921-11-127.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78265/3/1465-9921-11-127-S1.DOCPeer Reviewe

Food and Modernity in Post-Vatican II Catholicism: Herman Zaccarelli and The Food Research Center for Catholic Institutions (FRCCI)

This paper tells the story of a Catholic monk named Herman Zaccarelli who saw an opening in post-World War II Catholic America for the updating and modernizing of food in religious institutions. At this time Vatican II, a theological movement of monumental proportions, created great change for Catholics worldwide, not only in religious practice but in everyday culture, including food. Brother Herman founded a research center in 1961 on the campus of Stonehill College outside of Boston, MA, which ran conferences and seminars for monks and nuns that sought to change their approach to cooking and eating. Zaccarelli, a product of mid-twentieth century American cultural ideas and mores, grounded his efforts in religious obligation and located the change he sought within the “spirit of Vatican II.” Many of the new ideas and practices ran counter to long-held habits and rituals regarding food—habits of restraint, asceticism and sacrifice, which set up intergenerational tensions. This story focused on food illustrates these larger tensions and transformations in post-WWII American Catholicism

Framework and Rationale for Developing a Single Language Exploratory Program For Students in Grades 1 – 3

This materials development project provides middle and high school language teachers, in a public school setting, the rationale and curriculum for implementing an introductory language program to elementary aged children in their school. This paper explores the author’s school community and the interest in providing an introductory language program for elementary aged students in the school district. The author, a second language teacher in the school, is also an advocate for introducing this type of programming, with the hopes that it will create enthusiasm and motivation for further language study in the students’ middle and high school years. The project begins with an introduction of the author’s philosophies and attitudes towards teaching and learning a second language. The author provides the reader with the necessary materials that she used to teach a four week French exploratory course and then provides her own personal reflections regarding the materials that she developed and implemented

Final Report - Monitoring of organic chemicals in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park using time integrated monitoring tools (2009-2010)

The Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program (MMP) was established in 2005 to assess any improvement in water quality in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and the status of key ecosystems. Annual monitoring of inshore GBR sites and several rivers has been conducted by Entox since 2005. The principal objective of the monitoring activities conducted by Entox as part of MMP Project 3.7.8 during 2009 – 2010 was to: “Determine time integrated baseline concentrations of specific organic chemicals in water with the aim to evaluate long term trends in pesticide concentrations along inshore waters of the GBR

Political strategies of external support for democratization

Political strategies of external support to democratization are contrasted and critically examined in respect of the United States and European Union. The analysis begins by defining its terms of reference and addresses the question of what it means to have a strategy. The account briefly notes the goals lying behind democratization support and their relationship with the wider foreign policy process, before considering what a successful strategy would look like and how that relates to the selection of candidates. The literature's attempts to identify strategy and its recommendations for better strategies are compared and assessed. Overall, the article argues that the question of political strategies of external support for democratization raises several distinct but related issues including the who?, what?, why?, and how? On one level, strategic choices can be expected to echo the comparative advantage of the "supporter." On a different level, the strategies cannot be divorced from the larger foreign policy framework. While it is correct to say that any sound strategy for support should be grounded in a theoretical understanding of democratization, the literature on strategies reveals something even more fundamental: divergent views about the nature of politics itself. The recommendations there certainly pinpoint weaknesses in the actual strategies of the United States and Europe but they have their own limitations too. In particular, in a world of increasing multi-level governance strategies for supporting democratization should go beyond preoccupation with just an "outside-in" approach

The Deep Structure of Imagination

One of the major topics of Ann Ulanov’s work is that of the imagination, particularly the “life of the imaginary,” associated with the unconscious. For Ulanov, following Jung, the unconscious is a creative matrix—a primordial wellspring from which conscious thinking flows and on which it depends. This conscious, secondary-process thinking includes the various ways we think about human experience and “selfhood,” as well as the ways we think about God