Integratomics of Human Dermal Fibroblasts Treated with Low Molecular Weight Hyaluronic Acid

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a glycosaminoglycan very common in commercial products from pharmaceuticals to cosmetics due to its widespread distribution in humans and its diversified physico-chemical proprieties. Despite its extended use and preliminary evidence showing even also opposite activities to the native form, the precise cellular effects of HA at low-molecular-weight (LWM-HA) are currently unclear. The ‘omics sciences currently in development offer a new and combined perspective on the cellular and organismal environment. This work aims to integrate lipidomics analyses to our previous quantitative proteomics one for a multi-omics vision of intra- and extra-cellular impact of different concentrations (0.125, 0.25, and 0.50%) of LMW-HA (20–50 kDa) on normal human dermal fibroblasts by LC-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). Untargeted lipidomics allowed us to identify 903 unique lipids mostly represented by triacylglycerols, ceramides, and phosphatidylcholines. According to proteomics analyses, LMW-HA 0.50% was the most effective concentration also in the lipidome rearrangement especially stimulating the synthesis of ceramides involved in skin hydration and reparation, cell signaling, and energy balance. Finally, integrative analyses showed 25 nodes covering several intra- and extra-cellular functions. The more complete comprehension of intra- and extra-cellular effects of LMW-HA here pointed out will be useful to further exploit its features and improve current formulations even though further studies on lipids biosynthesis and degradation are necessary.     

The effect of core and lanthanide ion dopants in sodium fluoride-based nanocrystals on phagocytic activity of human blood leukocytes

Sodium fluoride-based β-NaLnF4 nanoparticles (NPs) doped with lanthanide ions are promising materials for application as luminescent markers in bio-imaging. In this work, the effect of NPs doped with yttrium (Y), gadolinium (Gd), europium (Eu), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb) and terbium (Tb) ions on phagocytic activity of monocytes and granulocytes and the respiratory burst was examined. The surface functionalization of <10-nm NPs was performed according to our variation of patent pending ligand exchange method that resulted in meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) molecules on their surface. Y-core-based NCs were doped with Eu ions, which enabled them to be excited with UV light wavelengths. Cultures of human peripheral blood (n = 8) were in vitro treated with five different concentrations of eight NPs for 24 h. In summary, neither type of nanoparticles is found toxic with respect to conducted test; however, some cause toxic effects (they have statistically significant deviations compared to reference) in some selected doses tested. Both core types of NPs (Y-core and Gd-core) impaired the phagocytic activity of monocytes the strongest, having minimal or none whatsoever influence on granulocytes and respiratory burst of phagocytic cells. The lowest toxicity was observed in Gd-core, Yb, Tm dopants and near-infrared nanoparticles. Clear dose-dependent effect of NPs on phagocytic activity of leukocytes and respiratory burst of cells was observed for limited number of samples.     

Diffusion-weighted MRI in prostate cancer -- comparison between single-shot fast spin echo and echo planar imaging sequences

Diffusion-weighted (DW) MRI at 1.5 T was carried out in two groups of patients. MRI data were correlated with the biopsy and histopathology (where available). The performance of two sequences -- a single-shot FSE (14 patients) and a single-shot EPI (15 patients) -- was compared. Average ADC values from the normal peripheral zone (PZ), central gland (CG) and the tumour [prostate carcinoma (PCa)] were calculated from b values of 0 and 600. Tukey-Kramer test was used for statistical analysis. EPI produced higher values of ADC (10(-3) mm(2)/s) than FSE sequence: 1.992+/-0.208 vs. 1.573+/-0.270 in PZ (P<.001), 1.518+/-0.126 vs. 1.373+/-0.179 in CG and 1.214+/-0.254 vs. 0.993+/-0.158 in PCa (P<.01). In conclusion, both EPI and FSE sequences showed differences in ADC between normal PZ, CG and PCa; however, EPI produced significantly higher ADC values than FSE.     

Circulating hemocytes from larvae and adults of Carabus (Chaetocarabus) lefebvrei Dejean 1826 (Coleoptera, Carabidae): cell types and their role in phagocytosis after in vivo artificial non-self-challenge

Carabus lefebvrei Dejean 1826 is an helicophagous Italian endemic ground beetle that lives in central and south Apennines mountain forests, from lower altitudes to about 1500 m. In ground beetles, no morphofunctional data about immune system is available, even though they are well known both taxonomically and ecologically and they have been often used as indicators of the habitat quality due to their specificity to certain habitat types. In the current investigation the cellular population in the hemolymph of adult and third instar larvae of C. lefebvrei has been characterized by means of light and electron microscopy analysis and phagocytosis assays were performed in vivo by injection of 0.9 microm carboxylate-modified polystyrene latex beads in order to identify the hemocyte types involved in phagocytosis. Four morphotypes of circulating hemocytes were found both in larvae and in adults: prohemocytes, granulocytes, oenocytoids and plasmatocytes. After in vivo artificial non-self-challenge treatments, C. lefebvrei showed a non-specific immune response involving phagocytosis performed by plasmatocytes, both in adults and in larvae and by oenocitoids in larvae. In untreated animals, the hemocyte type presenting a firm phagocytic activity, the plasmatocytes, presented a percentage significantly higher in larvae than in adults, and after latex beads injections in larvae there was a tendency of significant difference in plasmatocyte percentage compared to controls injected with phosphate saline buffer. We think that these differences could be correlated with the peculiar morphology (less chitinization) and ecology of larval stages that are more sensitive to pathogens than adults.     

Hydrogen storage properties and neutron scattering studies of Mg2(dobdc)--a metal-organic framework with open Mg2+ adsorption sites

The hydrogen storage properties of Mg(2)(dobdc) (dobdc(4-) = 2,5-dioxido-1,4-benzenedicarboxylate), a metal-organic framework possessing hexagonal one-dimensional channels decorated with unsaturated Mg(2+) coordination sites, have been examined through low- and high-pressure adsorption experiments, infrared spectroscopy, and neutron scattering studies.     

Meta-heuristic improvements applied for steel sheet incremental cold shaping

In previous studies, a wrapper feature selection method for decision support in steel sheet incremental cold shaping process (SSICS) was proposed. The problem included both regression and classification, while the learned models were neural networks and support vector machines, respectively. SSICS is the type of problem for which the number of features is similar to the number of instances in the data set, this represents many of real world decision support problems found in the industry. This study focuses on several questions and improvements that were left open, suggesting proposals for each of them. More specifically, this study evaluates the relevance of the different cross validation methods in the learned models, but also proposes several improvements such as allowing the number of chosen features as well as some of the parameters of the neural networks to evolve, accordingly. Well-known data sets have been use in this experimentation and an in-depth analysis of the experiment results is included. 5 $\times $ 2 CV has been found the more interesting cross validation method for this kind of problems. In addition, the adaptation of the number of features and, consequently, the model parameters really improves the performance of the approach. The different enhancements have been applied to the real world problem, an several conclusions have been drawn from the results obtained.     

Metal-mediated thiol-disulfide interconversion--a new tool for metallosupramolecular chemistry

Metal-mediated redox-interconversion of the new ligand 2,2':6',2'-terpyridine-6(1H)-thione and the corresponding disulfide allows the programmed assembly of dinucleating ligands.     

Quadratic spatial solitons in periodically poled KTiOPO4

The evolution of fundamental beams into quadratic spatial solitons was investigated in a periodically poled bulk KTiOPO4 crystal near and at phase matching. Various soliton properties, such as trapping efficiency as a function of phase mismatch, poling-induced walk-off, and the effects of pulse width, beam width, and input beam quality, were measured. Effects attributed to the presence of cubic nonlinearities were also observed.     

Acylmethanesulfonamides as new acylating agents for primary amines

A new, simple and efficient procedure for the preparation of secondary amides through internal condensation of acylmethanesulfonamides ammonium salts is described. The selective acylation of mixed primary-secondary amines could be an attractive application of the new method.