Diagnostic challenges in a case of B cell lymphoma unclassifiable with features intermediate between diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and Burkitt lymphoma

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Ginger extract (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) triggers apoptosis in hepatocarcinogenesis induced rats

Ginger extract has been reported previously by our group to exhibit anticancer and an-tioxidant effects by reducing tumour burden and lipid peroxidation respectively in he-patocarcinogenesis induced rats. The current study examined the expression of pro-apoptotic protein caspase-8 and anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 in hepatocarcinogenesis treated rats. Thirty normal male Wistar rats were divided into 5 groups based on the diet given: i) control (normal rat chow), ii) olive oil, iii) ginger extract (100mg/kg body weight), iv) choline deficient diet + ethionine, CDE (to induce liver cancer) and v) CDE+ ginger extract. Rats were killed at week 8, and liver tissues were excised for immuno-histochemical study to identify pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic proteins, caspase-8 and Bcl-2. The observation on H&E staining confirmed the CDE diet induced liver can-cer as indicated by the presence of numerous oval cells. Identification of Bcl-2 expres-sion showed that 91.6% (11/12) of the samples from the CDE group revealed positive staining while treatment with ginger extract however inhibited the expression with only 8.4% (1/12) samples showing positive staining for Bcl-2. As for caspase-8 protein, 41.7% (5/12) of the samples from CDE group showed positive staining, which in-creased to 100% (12/12) with ginger extract treatment. Our findings suggest that gin-ger extract has an anticancer effect by inducing apoptosis in liver cancer cells via up-regulation of the expression of pro-apoptotic protein, caspase-8 and down-regulation of the expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-

Antibiotics Increase Gut Metabolism and Antioxidant Proteins and Decrease Acute Phase Response and Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Preterm Neonates

Background: The appropriate use of antibiotics for preterm infants, which are highly susceptible to develop necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), is not clear. While antibiotic therapy is commonly used in neonates with NEC symptoms and sepsis, it remains unknown how antibiotics may affect the intestine and NEC sensitivity. We hypothesized that broad-spectrum antibiotics, given immediately after preterm birth, would reduce NEC sensitivity and support intestinal protective mechanisms. Methodology/Principal Findings: Preterm pigs were treated with antibiotics for 5 d (oral and systemic doses of gentamycin, ampicillin and metrodinazole; AB group) and compared with untreated pigs. Only the untreated pigs showed evidence of NEC lesions and reduced digestive function, as indicated by lowered villus height and activity of brush border enzymes. In addition, 53 intestinal and 22 plasma proteins differed in expression between AB and untreated pigs. AB treatment increased the abundance of intestinal proteins related to carbohydrate and protein metabolism, actin filaments, iron homeostasis and antioxidants. Further, heat shock proteins and the complement system were affected suggesting that all these proteins were involved in the colonization-dependent early onset of NEC. In plasma, acute phase proteins (haptoglobin, complement proteins) decreased, while albumin, cleaved C3, ficolin and transferrin increased. Conclusions/Significance: Depressed bacterial colonization following AB treatment increases mucosal integrity and reduces bacteria-associated inflammatory responses in preterm neonates. The plasma proteins C3, ficolin, and transferrin are potential biomarkers of the colonization-dependent NEC progression in preterm neonates. © 2012 Jiang et al.published_or_final_versio

The development of path integration: combining estimations of distance and heading

Efficient daily navigation is underpinned by path integration, the mechanism by which we use self-movement information to update our position in space. This process is well-understood in adulthood, but there has been relatively little study of path integration in childhood, leading to an underrepresentation in accounts of navigational development. Previous research has shown that calculation of distance and heading both tend to be less accurate in children as they are in adults, although there have been no studies of the combined calculation of distance and heading that typifies naturalistic path integration. In the present study 5-year-olds and 7-year-olds took part in a triangle-completion task, where they were required to return to the startpoint of a multi-element path using only idiothetic information. Performance was compared to a sample of adult participants, who were found to be more accurate than children on measures of landing error, heading error, and distance error. 7-year-olds were significantly more accurate than 5-year-olds on measures of landing error and heading error, although the difference between groups was much smaller for distance error. All measures were reliably correlated with age, demonstrating a clear development of path integration abilities within the age range tested. Taken together, these data make a strong case for the inclusion of path integration within developmental models of spatial navigational processing

Identification of Giardia lamblia DHHC Proteins and the Role of Protein S-palmitoylation in the Encystation Process

Protein S-palmitoylation, a hydrophobic post-translational modification, is performed by protein acyltransferases that have a common DHHC Cys-rich domain (DHHC proteins), and provides a regulatory switch for protein membrane association. In this work, we analyzed the presence of DHHC proteins in the protozoa parasite Giardia lamblia and the function of the reversible S-palmitoylation of proteins during parasite differentiation into cyst. Two specific events were observed: encysting cells displayed a larger amount of palmitoylated proteins, and parasites treated with palmitoylation inhibitors produced a reduced number of mature cysts. With bioinformatics tools, we found nine DHHC proteins, potential protein acyltransferases, in the Giardia proteome. These proteins displayed a conserved structure when compared to different organisms and are distributed in different monophyletic clades. Although all Giardia DHHC proteins were found to be present in trophozoites and encysting cells, these proteins showed a different intracellular localization in trophozoites and seemed to be differently involved in the encystation process when they were overexpressed. dhhc transgenic parasites showed a different pattern of cyst wall protein expression and yielded different amounts of mature cysts when they were induced to encyst. Our findings disclosed some important issues regarding the role of DHHC proteins and palmitoylation during Giardia encystation.Fil: Merino, Maria Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Zamponi, Nahuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Vranych, Cecilia Verónica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Touz, Maria Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Ropolo, Andrea Silvana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; Argentin

Phosphorescent Energy Downshifting for Diminishing Surface Recombination in Silicon Nanowire Solar Cells

Molecularly engineered Ir(III) complexes can transfer energy from short-wavelength photons (lambda < 450 nm) to photons of longer wavelength (lambda > 500 nm), which can enhance the otherwise low internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of crystalline Si (c-Si) nanowire solar cells (NWSCs) in the shortwavelength region. Herein, we demonstrate a phosphorescent energy downshifting system using Ir(III) complexes at short wavelengths (300-450 nm) to diminish the severe surface recombination that occurs in c-Si NWSCs. The developed Ir(III) complexes can be considered promising energy converters because they exhibit superior intrinsic properties such as a high quantum yield, a large Stokes shift, a long exciton diffusion length in crystalline film, and a reproducible synthetic procedure. Using the developed 1011) complexes, highly crystalline energy downshifting layers were fabricated by ultrasonic spray deposition to enhance the photoluminescence efficiency by increasing the radiative decay. With the optimized energy downshifting layer, our 1cm(2) c-Si NWSCs with Ir(III) complexes exhibited a higher IQE value for short-wavelength light (300-450 nm) compared with that of bare Si NWSCs without Ir(III) complexes, resulting in a notable increase in the short-circuit current density (from 34.4 mA.cm(-2) to 36.5 mA.cm(-2) )

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

NF-kappaB Mediated Transcriptional Repression of Acid Modifying Hormone Gastrin

Helicobacter pylori is a major pathogen associated with the development of gastroduodenal diseases. It has been reported that H. pylori induced pro-inflammatory cytokine IL1B is one of the various modulators of acid secretion in the gut. Earlier we reported that IL1B-activated NFkB down-regulates gastrin, the major hormonal regulator of acid secretion. In this study, the probable pathway by which IL1B induces NFkB and affects gastrin expression has been elucidated. IL1B-treated AGS cells showed nine-fold activation of MyD88 followed by phosphorylation of TAK1 within 15 min of IL1B treatment. Furthermore, it was observed that activated TAK1 significantly up-regulates the NFkB subunits p50 and p65. Ectopic expression of NFkB p65 in AGS cells resulted in about nine-fold transcriptional repression of gastrin both in the presence and absence of IL1B. The S536A mutant of NFkB p65 is significantly less effective in repressing gastrin. These observations show that a functional NFkB p65 is important for IL1B-mediated repression of gastrin. ChIP assays revealed the presence of HDAC1 and NFkB p65 along with NCoR on the gastrin promoter. Thus, the study provides mechanistic insight into the IL1B-mediated gastrin repression via NFk