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Rush Allison posted an update 2 days, 9 hours ago
The tumor microenvironment profoundly influences the behavior of recruited leukocytes and tissue-resident immune cells. These immune cells, which inherently have environmentally driven plasticity necessary for their roles in tissue homeostasis, dynamically interact with tumor cells and the tumor stroma and play critical roles in determining the course of disease. Among these immune cells, neutrophils were once considered much more static within the tumor microenvironment; however, some of these earlier assumptions were the product of the notorious difficulty in manipulating neutrophils in vitro. Technological advances that allow us to study neutrophils in context are now revealing the true roles of neutrophils in the tumor microenvironment. Here we discuss recent data generated by some of these tools and how these data might be synthesized into more elegant ways of targeting these powerful and abundant effector immune cells in the clinic.In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoclastic bone resorption causes structural joint damage as well as periarticular and systemic bone loss. Periarticular bone loss is one of the earliest indices of RA, often preceding the onset of clinical symptoms via largely unknown mechanisms. Excessive osteoclastogenesis induced by receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL) expressed by synovial fibroblasts causes joint erosion, whereas the role of RANKL expressed by lymphocytes in various types of bone damage has yet to be elucidated. In the bone marrow of arthritic mice, we found an increase in the number of RANKL-expressing plasma cells, which displayed an ability to induce osteoclastogenesis in vitro. Genetic ablation of RANKL in B-lineage cells resulted in amelioration of periarticular bone loss, but not of articular erosion or systemic bone loss, in autoimmune arthritis. find more We also show conclusive evidence for the critical contribution of synovial fibroblast RANKL to joint erosion in collagen-induced arthritis on the arthritogenic DBA/1J background. This study highlights the importance of plasma-cell RANKL in periarticular bone loss in arthritis and provides mechanistic insight into the early manifestation of bone lesion induced by autoimmunity.When the hydration shell of a protein is filled with at least 0.6 gram of water per gram of protein, a significant anti-correlation between the vibrational free energy and the potential energy of energy-minimized conformers is observed. This means that low potential energy, well-hydrated, protein conformers tend to be more rigid than high-energy ones. On the other hand, in the case of CASP target 624, when its hydration shell is filled, a significant energy gap is observed between the crystal structure and the best conformers proposed during the prediction experiment, strongly suggesting that including explicit water molecules may help identifying unlikely conformers among good-looking ones.Cell-fate mapping was used to identify cells that respond to the hedgehog (HH) signaling pathway and that are incorporated into the theca cell layer during ovarian follicle development. Expression of Gli1 is increased by HH signaling and can be used as a marker of cells responsive to HH in reporter mice. In transgenic Gli1ERcre/tdT mice, injection of tamoxifen (TAM) induces cre-mediated recombination and expression of td tomato (tdT) which leads to permanent fluorescent marking of cells expressing Gli1 and their progeny. The identity of tdT-positive cells was determined by co-staining ovaries for endothelial cells (CD31), pericytes (CSPG4), vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC; smooth muscle actin) and steroidogenic cells (cytochrome P450 17A1). Gli1ERcre/tdT mice were injected with TAM on the day of birth. Cells positive for tdT in 2-day-old mice were identified as pericytes, located primarily in the medulla of the ovary in close proximity to endothelial cells. In both prepubertal mice and adult mice treated with equine chorionic gonadotropin to induce the formation of preovulatory follicles, tdT-positive cells were located within the theca cell layer and were identified as pericytes, VSMC and steroidogenic theca cells. Granulosa cells are known to express two HH ligands, Indian HH and desert HH (DHH). In DHHcre/tdT reporter mice, endothelial cells were marked as tdT-positive indicating that endothelial cells, in addition to granulosa cells, express Dhh in the ovary. These findings suggest that HH signaling may stimulate the development of the vasculature along with steroidogenic capacity of the theca layer during follicle development.
Hypertension is the root cause of many chronic diseases. Lifestyle changes (ie, dietary alterations and physical activity) are seen to be an important step in the prevention and treatment of hypertension. Educating people through web-based interventional programs could offer an effective solution and help these patients with hypertension in the existing health care scenario.
In this study, the researchers conducted a scoping literature review of the web-based dietary changes and physical activity-related intervention programs designed for the patients with hypertension and identified the methodologies, effectiveness, protocols, and theories, which could affect and improve existing clinical activities.
This review followed the scoping review methodology to identify and process the peer-reviewed studies published between 2010 and 2020. The literature searches were conducted on the following electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science, MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online), Scien diet and physical activities for patients with hypertension.
We identified many web-based intervention programs for patients with hypertension from the literature databases. The findings indicate that numerous benefits can be derived after using a web-based dietary and physical activity intervention program for hypertension focusing on lifestyle changes. However, developers need to consider the preferences of the patients with regard to the information or the design features while developing or modifying web-based educational websites. These tools could be used for designing a patient-tailored website intervention program that is based on diet and physical activities for patients with hypertension.