Endothelial Progenitors Exist within the Kidney and Lung Mesenchyme

The renal endothelium has been debated as arising from resident hemangioblast precursors that transdifferentiate from the nephrogenic mesenchyme (vasculogenesis) and/or from invading vessels (angiogenesis). While the Foxd1-positive renal cortical stroma has been shown to differentiate into cells that support the vasculature in the kidney (including vascular smooth muscle and pericytes) it has not been considered as a source of endothelial cell progenitors. In addition, it is unclear if Foxd1-positive mesenchymal cells in other organs such as the lung have the potential to form endothelium. This study examines the potential for Foxd1-positive cells of the kidney and lung to give rise to endothelial progenitors. We utilized immunofluorescence (IF) and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to co-label Foxd1-expressing cells (including permanently lineage-tagged cells) with endothelial markers in embryonic and postnatal mice. We also cultured FACsorted Foxd1-positive cells, performed in vitro endothelial cell tubulogenesis assays and examined for endocytosis of acetylated low-density lipoprotein (Ac-LDL), a functional assay for endothelial cells. Immunofluorescence and FACS revealed that a subset of Foxd1-positive cells from kidney and lung co-expressed endothelial cell markers throughout embryogenesis. In vitro, cultured embryonic Foxd1-positive cells were able to differentiate into tubular networks that expressed endothelial cell markers and were able to endocytose Ac-LDL. IF and FACS in both the kidney and lung revealed that lineage-tagged Foxd1-positive cells gave rise to a significant portion of the endothelium in postnatal mice. In the kidney, the stromal-derived cells gave rise to a portion of the peritubular capillary endothelium, but not of the glomerular or large vessel endothelium. These findings reveal the heterogeneity of endothelial cell lineages; moreover, Foxd1-positive mesenchymal cells of the developing kidney and lung are a source of endothelial progenitors that are likely critical to patterning the vasculature. © 2013 Sims-Lucas et al

Expression of Cellulosome Components and Type IV Pili within the Extracellular Proteome of Ruminococcus flavefaciens 007

Funding: The Rowett Institute receives funding from SG-RESAS (Scottish Government Rural and Environmental Science and Analysis Service). Visit of M.V. was supported by research grants from FEMS and Slovene human resources development and scholarship funds. Parts of this work were funded by grants from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), Jerusalem, Israel – BSF Energy Research grant to E.A.B. and B.A.W. and Regular BSF Research grants to R.L. and B.A.W. – and by the Israel Science Foundation (grant nos 966/09 and 159/07 291/08). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Four-color flow cytometric analysis of peripheral blood donor cell chimerism

Passenger leukocytes have been demonstrated to play significant roles in initiating and also regulating immune reactions after organ transplantation. Reliable techniques to detect donor leukocytes in recipients after organ transplantation are essential to analyze the role, function, and behavior of these leukocytes. In this report we describe a simple, reliable method to detect donor cells with low frequencies using peripheral blood samples. Detection of small numbers of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) mismatched cells was first studied using four-color flow cytometry in artificially created cell mixtures. By selecting the CD45+ population and simultaneous staining with several leukocyte lineage markers (CD3, CD4, CD8, CD56, and CD19), MHC-mismatched leukocytes were consistently detected in cell suspensions prepared from directly stained whole blood samples with a threshold sensitivity as low as 0.1%-0.2%. When the fresh peripheral blood mononuclear cells were separated by conventional Ficoll gradient purification, similar, but slightly lower levels of donor cells were detected. Blood samples obtained 1-5 months after liver, kidney, and intestine transplants revealed that the kind of organ allograft influenced levels and lineage pattern of the circulating donor cells. This procedure provided a simple and reliable method in determining early chimerism in transplant recipients. However, the detection of MHC-mismatched leukocytes of all lineages was much lower when frozen peripheral blood mononuclear cells were used. © American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, 2003. Published by Elsevier Inc

Serological evidence for human cystic echinococcosis in Slovenia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is caused by the larva of tapeworm <it>Echinococcus granulosus</it>. Dogs and other canids are the primary definitive hosts for this parasite. CE may develop after accidental ingestion of tapeworm eggs, excreted with the feces of these animals. In the intestine, the larvae released from the eggs are nested in the liver, lungs or other organs of livestock as intermediate hosts and humans as aberrant hosts. The aim of this study was to examine serologically whether some of the patients in Slovenia, suspected of CE by imaging findings in the liver or lungs had been infected with the larva of <it>Echinococcus granulosus</it>.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Between January 1, 2002 and the end of December 2006, 1323 patients suspected of having echinococcosis were screened serologically by indirect haemagglutination assay (IHA). For confirmation and differentiation of <it>Echinococcus </it>spp. infection, the sera of IHA-positive patients were then retested by western blot (WB).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Out of 127 IHA-positive sera, 34 sera were confirmed by WB and considered specific for CE. Of 34 sera of CE-positive patients sera, 32 corresponded to the characteristic imaging findings of a liver cysts and 2 to those of lung cysts. The mean age of CE-positive patients was 58.3 years. No significant differences were found between the CE-positive patients in regard to their sex.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In the study, it was found out that CE was mostly spread in the same area of Slovenia as in the past, but its prevalence decreased from 4.8 per 10⁵inhabitants in the period 1956–1968 to 1.7 per 10⁵inhabitants in the period 2002–2006. In spite of the decreased prevalence of CE in the last years, it is suggested that clinicians and public health authorities, especially in the eastern parts of Slovenia where the most CE patients come from, should pay greater attention to this disease in the future.</p

Disentangling the complexity of socio-cultural values of temporary rivers

Gefördert durch den Publikationsfonds der Universität Kasse

Enhancing oxygen evolution functionality through anodization and nitridation of compositionally complex alloy

Compositionally complex materials (CCMs) have recently attracted great interest in electrocatalytic applications. To date, very few materials were systematically developed and tested due to the highly difficult preparation of high-surface-area CCMs. In this work, a surface of a compositionally complex FeCoNiCuZn alloy (CCA) was nitridated with subsequent anodization leading to morphological and compositional modifications. Notably, the electrochemical surface area and surface roughness as well as the electrocatalytic activity of the anodized material exhibit significant enhancement. Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity by the anodized CCN (CCN–AO) proceeds with remarkably small overpotential (233 mV) at 10 mA cm−2 in 1 M KOH. Experimental characterization indicates that the oxidation state of Co plays a critical role in the Fe–Co–Ni electrocatalyst. The developed approach and design strategy open up immense prospects in the preparation of a new, affordable, scalable and effective type of complex and high-performance electrocatalytic electrodes with tunable properties

Review article: assessing the costs of natural hazards - state of the art and knowledge gaps

Efficiently reducing natural hazard risks requires a thorough understanding of the costs of natural hazards. Current methods to assess these costs employ a variety of terminologies and approaches for different types of natural hazards and different impacted sectors. This may impede efforts to ascertain comprehensive and comparable cost figures. In order to strengthen the role of cost assessments in the development of integrated natural hazard management, a review of existing cost assessment approaches was undertaken. This review considers droughts, floods, coastal and Alpine hazards, and examines different cost types, namely direct tangible damages, losses due to business interruption, indirect damages, intangible effects, and the costs of risk mitigation. This paper provides an overview of the state-of-the-art cost assessment approaches and discusses key knowledge gaps. It shows that the application of cost assessments in practice is often incomplete and biased, as direct costs receive a relatively large amount of attention, while intangible and indirect effects are rarely considered. Furthermore, all parts of cost assessment entail considerable uncertainties due to insufficient or highly aggregated data sources, along with a lack of knowledge about the processes leading to damage and thus the appropriate models required. Recommendations are provided on how to reduce or handle these uncertainties by improving data sources and cost assessment methods. Further recommendations address how risk dynamics due to climate and socio-economic change can be better considered, how costs are distributed and risks transferred, and in what ways cost assessment can function as part of decision support

Incidence of maternal Toxoplasma infections in pregnancy in Upper Austria, 2000-2007

Sagel U, Krämer A, Mikolajczyk RT. Incidence of maternal Toxoplasma infections in pregnancy in Upper Austria, 2000-2007. BMC Infectious Diseases. 2011;11(1): 348.UNLABELLED: ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Despite three decades of prenatal screening program for toxoplasmosis in Austria, population-based estimates for the incidence of maternal infections with Toxoplasma gondii during pregnancy are lacking. We studied the incidence of primary maternal infections during pregnancy in the Federal State of Upper Austria. METHODS: Screening tests for 63,416 women and over 90,000 pregnancies (more than 84.5% of pregnancies in the studied region) in the time period between 01.01.2000 and 31.12.2007 were analysed. The incidence of toxoplasmosis was estimated indirectly by binomial and directly by interval censored regression. RESULTS: During the studied period, 66 acute infections (risk of 0.07% per pregnancy) were detected, but only 29.8% of seronegative women were tested at least three times during their pregnancies. The seroprevalence of Toxoplasma antibodies among all tested women was 31%. Indirectly estimated incidence (from differences in prevalence by age) was 0.5% per pregnancy, while directly estimated incidence (interval censored regression) was 0.17% per pregnancy (95% confidence interval: 0.13-0.21%). CONCLUSIONS: Calculating incidence from observed infections results in severe underreporting due to many missed tests and potential diagnostic problems. Using statistical modelling, we estimated primary toxoplasmosis to occur in 0.17% (0.13-0.21%) of all pregnancies in Upper Austria

Sustainability of Global Golden Inland Waterways

Sustainable inland waterways should meet the needs of navigation without compromising the health of riverine ecosystems. Here we propose a hierarchical model to describe sustainable development of the Golden Inland Waterways (GIWs) which are characterized by great bearing capacity and transport need. Based on datasets from 66 large rivers (basin area > 100,000 km2) worldwide, we identify 34 GIWs, mostly distributed in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America, typically following a three-stage development path from the initial, through to the developing and on to the developed stage. For most GIWs, the exploitation ratio, defined as the ratio of actual to idealized bearing capacity, should be less than 80% due to ecological considerations. Combined with the indices of regional development, GIWs exploitation, and riverine ecosystem, we reveal the global diversity and evolution of GIWs' sustainability from 2015 to 2050, which highlights the importance of river-specific strategies for waterway exploitation worldwide