The hematopoietic factor GM-CSF (Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) promotes neuronal differentiation of adult neural stem cells in vitro

Background  

Granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is a hematopoietic growth factor involved in the generation of granulocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells from hematopoietic progenitor cells. We have recently demonstrated that GM-CSF has anti-apoptotic functions on neurons, and is neuroprotective in animal stroke models.     

Directed neuronal differentiation of human embryonic stem cells

Background

We have developed a culture system for the efficient and directed differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (HESCs) to neural precursors and neurons.HESC were maintained by manual passaging and were differentiated to a morphologically distinct OCT-4⁺/SSEA-4^- monolayer cell type prior to the derivation of embryoid bodies. Embryoid bodies were grown in suspension in serum free conditions, in the presence of 50% conditioned medium from the human hepatocarcinoma cell line HepG2 (MedII).

Results

A neural precursor population was observed within HESC derived serum free embryoid bodies cultured in MedII conditioned medium, around 7–10 days after derivation. The neural precursors were organized into rosettes comprised of a central cavity surrounded by ring of cells, 4 to 8 cells in width. The central cells within rosettes were proliferating, as indicated by the presence of condensed mitotic chromosomes and by phosphoHistone H3 immunostaining. When plated and maintained in adherent culture, the rosettes of neural precursors were surrounded by large interwoven networks of neurites. Immunostaining demonstrated the expression of nestin in rosettes and associated non-neuronal cell types, and a radial expression of Map-2 in rosettes. Differentiated neurons expressed the markers Map-2 and Neurofilament H, and a subpopulation of the neurons expressed tyrosine hydroxylase, a marker for dopaminergic neurons.

Conclusion

This novel directed differentiation approach led to the efficient derivation of neuronal cultures from HESCs, including the differentiation of tyrosine hydroxylase expressing neurons. HESC were morphologically differentiated to a monolayer OCT-4⁺ cell type, which was used to derive embryoid bodies directly into serum free conditions. Exposure to the MedII conditioned medium enhanced the derivation of neural precursors, the first example of the effect of this conditioned medium on HESC.

     

Attaining and maintaining criticality in a neuronal network model

We propose a cellular automaton model for neuronal networks that combines short-term synaptic plasticity with long-term metaplasticity. We investigate how these two mechanisms contribute to attaining and maintaining operation at the critical point. We find that short-term plasticity, represented in the model by synaptic depression and synaptic recovery, is sufficient to allow the system to attain the critical state, if the level of plasticity is properly chosen. However, it is not sufficient to maintain the criticality if the system is perturbed. But the long time scale change in the short-term plasticity, a change in the way synaptic efficacy is modified, allows the system to recover from perturbation. Working together, these two time scales of plasticity could help the system to attain and maintain criticality, leading to a self-organized critical state.     

Different types of bursting in Chay neuronal model

Based on actual neuronal firing activities, bursting in the Chay neuronal model is considered, in which V _K, reversal potentials for K⁺, V _C, reversal potentials for Ca²⁺, time kinetic constant λ _n and an additional depolarized current I are considered as dynamical parameters. According to the number of the Hopf bifurcation points on the upper branch of the bifurcation curve of fast subsystem, which is associated with the stable limit cycle corresponding to spiking states, different types of bursting and their respective dynamical behavior are surveyed by means of fast-slow dynamical bifurcation analysis. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10432010, 10526002 and 10702002)     

Simulation of spray development and turbulent combustion processes in low and high speed diesel engines by the CMC-ISR model

Simulation is performed to analyse the characteristics of turbulent spray combustion in conventional low and high speed diesel engine conditions. Turbulence–chemistry interaction is resolved by the Conditional Moment Closure (CMC) model in the spatially integrated form of an Incompletely Stirred Reactor (ISR). After validation against measured pressure traces, characteristic length and time scales and dimensionless numbers are estimated at the locations of sequentially injected fuel groups. Conditional flame structures are calculated for sequentially evaporated fuel groups to consider different available periods for ignition chemistry. Injection overlaps the combustion period in the high rpm engine, while most combustion occurs after injection and evaporation are complete in the low rpm engine. Ignition occurs in rich premixture with the initial peak temperature at the equivalence ratio around 2–4 as observed in Dec [2]. It corresponds to the most reactive mixture fraction of the minimum ignition delay for the given mixture states. Combustion proceeds to lean and rich sides in the mixture fraction space as a diffusion process by turbulence. The mean scalar dissipation rates (SDRs) are lower than the extinction limit to show stability of diffusion flames throughout the combustion period.     

Long term behavior of lithographically prepared in vitro neuronal networks

We measured the long term spontaneous electrical activity of neuronal networks with different sizes, grown on lithographically prepared substrates and recorded with multi-electrode-array technology. The time sequences of synchronized bursting events were used to characterize network dynamics. All networks exhibit scale-invariant Lévy distributions and long-range correlations. These observations suggest that different-size networks self-organize to adjust their activities over many time scales. As predictions of current models differ from our observations, this calls for revised models.     

Two-photon processes in the parton model

We study here some two-photon processes in colliding e^±e^? beam reactions, with the aim of testing the parton model. The parton contributions should dominate in certain well defined kinematical limits, and provide an essential difference between photonic and hadronic processes.     

Cerebrospinal fluid promotes survival and astroglial differentiation of adult human neural progenitor cells but inhibits proliferation and neuronal differentiation

Background  

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are a promising source for cell replacement therapies for neurological diseases. Growing evidence suggests an important role of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) not only on neuroectodermal cells during brain development but also on the survival, proliferation and fate specification of NSCs in the adult brain. Existing in vitro studies focused on embryonic cell lines and embryonic CSF. We therefore studied the effects of adult human leptomeningeal CSF on the behaviour of adult human NSCs (ahNSCs).     

Gene expression profiling in a mouse model of infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis reveals upregulation of immediate early genes and mediators of the inflammatory response

Background  

The infantile form of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (also known as infantile Batten disease) is caused by hereditary deficiency of a lysosomal enzyme, palmitoyl-protein thioesterase-1 (PPT1), and is characterized by severe cortical degeneration with blindness and cognitive and motor dysfunction. The PPT1-deficient knockout mouse recapitulates the key features of the disorder, including seizures and death by 7–9 months of age. In the current study, we compared gene expression profiles of whole brain from PPT1 knockout and normal mice at 3, 5 and 8 months of age to identify temporal changes in molecular pathways implicated in disease pathogenesis.     

Aspects of nucleation and drift processes in a one-dimensional model

We introduce a one-dimensional model involving the nucleation and the drift of many particles. The model originates from interacting kink systems and simulates time evolution in modulated systems. In this model the nucleation rate of a particle depends nonlocally on the density of preexisting particles and the drift of particles is due to a weak and repulsive interaction among them. We first study the statistics of this model in the case that the drift of particles is negligible, and then consider the effects of the drift of particles.     

Existence and stability of limit cycles in a macroscopic neuronal population model

We present rigorous results concerning the existence and stability of limit cycles in a macroscopic model of neuronal activity. The specific model we consider is developed from the Ki set methodology, popularized by Walter Freeman. In particular we focus on a specific reduction of the KII sets, denoted RKII sets. We analyse the unfolding of supercritical Hopf bifurcations via consideration of the normal forms and centre manifold reductions. Subsequently we analyse the global stability of limit cycles on a region of parameter space and this is achieved by applying a new methodology termed Global Analysis of Piecewise Linear Systems. The analysis presented may also be used to consider coupled systems of this type. A number of macroscopic mean-field approaches to modelling human EEG may be considered as coupled RKII networks. Hence developing a theoretical understanding of the onset of oscillations in models of this type has important implications in clinical neuroscience, as limit cycle oscillations have been demonstrated to be critical in the onset of certain types of epilepsy.     

QCD development in the early universe

Physics of Atomic Nuclei - The high-energy limit of Quantum Chromodynamics is generated by the contraction of its gauge groups. Contraction parameters are taken identical with those of the...     

Physical processes during development of lightning flashes

The objective of this paper is to review our present understanding of the physical processes in lightning flashes during their development within or outside a cloud, following lightning initiation. This represents the ‘big picture’ of lightning development, in the scale of the cloud dimensions themselves. Since the acceptance of the bi-directional, zero-net-charge leader concept, significant changes have occurred in our understanding of the key physical processes of which a lightning flash is comprised, and in the analytical relationship between the electrical structure of a cloud and lightning parameters. These changes are discussed with an emphasis on the unifying nature of the bi-directional leader concept. To cite this article: V. Mazur, C. R. Physique 3 (2002) 1393–1409.     

Effect of the neutron lifetime on processes in the early universe

The influence of the neutron lifetime on the abundance of light elements produced during the primordial nucleosynthesis early in the birth of the Universe is considered. Among light elements, namely, D, ³He, ⁴He, and ⁷Li, ⁴He proves to be most sensitive to neutron lifetime τ_n. Astronomic data on the light element abundance also provide the best accuracy for ⁴He. The solution of a number of problems discussed in this paper requires improving the accuracy of observations for the ⁴He abundance and refining the value of τ_n.     

Some rare processes in a model of composite quarks and leptons

The branching ratios of some rare processes, i.e. meson →μe, meson →meson μe, baryon → baryon μe, are calculated in a composite quark and lepton model. Use is made of an effective Hamiltonian which originates from hypercolor singlet 0^? and 1^? bound state exchange mechanism, acting at a mass scaleM _P andM _V respectively. Under the reasonable assumptionM _P =M _V onlyK _L →μe puts a significant limit on the composite scale.     

The Weinberg-Salam model and early cosmology

The consequences for cosmology of the phase transition in which SU(2)×U(1) symmetry is broken in the Weinberg-Salam model are discussed. The qualitative arguments concerning the effect of the phase transition on the baryon-to-entropy ratio that were recently posed by Witten for the case of a Coleman-Weinberg light Higgs boson are confirmed through exact numerical computations, but some quantitative disagreement is found. The computations are extended to the case in which the light Higgs boson is not of the Coleman-Weinberg type and the nature of the phase transition is discussed. Other cosmological effects are considered.     

Deep-inelastic one-particle inclusive processes in the parton model

We study the processes e + N → e′ + h + anything, e⁺ + e^? → h + anything, within the parton model of Landshoff, Polkinghorne and Short. Definite and peculiar predictions are obtained, also common to the Drell, Levy and Yan cut-off theory and to the λφ³ ladder model. These predictions can be summarized as follows: (i) in the photon fragmentation region the cross section factorizes after integration over transverse momentum of h; (ii) in the target fragmentation region Regge behaviour, valid at large ω, gives rise to double Regge exchange for small values of the Feynman variable y, but only up to $\text{y ??1/ω}$; (iii) the structure functions vanish at y = 0; (iv) total multiplicities in the first process increase like 1n ω for large ω, and in the second reach a finite limit at large q².In the case where only one SU(3) multiplet of partons is present (as in the quark parton model) unique relations, valid in the limit of exact SU(3), are found between the cross section and multiplicities in the first process and the analogous quantities for the forward region of the second process.