Interleukin-1β Modulation of the Mechanobiology of Primary Human Pulmonary Fibroblasts: Potential Implications in Lung Repair

Pro-inflammatory cytokines like interleukin-1β (IL-1β) are upregulated during early responses to tissue damage and are expected to transiently compromise the mechanical microenvironment. Fibroblasts are key regulators of tissue mechanics in the lungs and other organs. However, the effects of IL-1β on fibroblast mechanics and functions remain unclear. Here we treated human pulmonary fibroblasts from control donors with IL-1β and used Atomic Force Microscopy to unveil that IL-1β significantly reduces the stiffness of fibroblasts concomitantly with a downregulation of filamentous actin (F-actin) and alpha-smooth muscle (α-SMA). Likewise, COL1A1 mRNA was reduced, whereas that of collagenases MMP1 and MMP2 were upregulated, favoring a reduction of type-I collagen. These mechanobiology changes were functionally associated with reduced proliferation and enhanced migration upon IL-1β stimulation, which could facilitate lung repair by drawing fibroblasts to sites of tissue damage. Our observations reveal that IL-1β may reduce local tissue rigidity by acting both intracellularly and extracellularly through the downregulation of fibroblast contractility and type I collagen deposition, respectively. These IL-1β-dependent mechanical effects may enhance lung repair further by locally increasing pulmonary tissue compliance to preserve normal lung distension and function. Moreover, our results support that IL-1β provides innate anti-fibrotic protection that may be relevant during the early stages of lung repair.     

Cross-disciplinary collaboration versus coexistence in LIS serials: analysis of authorship affiliations in four European countries

Scientometrics - The interdisciplinary nature of library and information science (LIS) research has been highlighted for some time now. The term “interdisciplinary” is used primarily in...     

Effect of the annealing procedure and the molecular weight on the crystalline phase morphology and thermal properties of polylactide

The thermomechanical properties of poly(lactide) (PLA) are strongly related to its semicrystalline microstructure and morphology. Thermal annealing is a strategy to improve the crystallinity of PLA. However, the different techniques and specimen types needed for each kind of characterization could lead to misleading conclusions. In this work, annealed samples of three PLA grades with different molecular weights were studied by DSC, wide angle X‐ray scattering and polarized optical microscopy (POM) and the results are related to their thermomechanical and impact properties. Special focus is put on the POM results obtained by different approaches and the suitability of each of them to be related to the thermomechanical properties. By annealing medium molecular weight PLA specimens at 140 °C an important increase of the heat distortion temperature was obtained, which was not related to the spherulite size but to the combination of high crystallinity degree together with high α/α′ crystal type ratio. However, the impact properties of annealed PLA decreased with increase in the annealing temperature according to an increment in crystallinity and in the α/α′ crystal ratio. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry     

Performance comparison of multi-container deployment schemes for HPC workloads: an empirical study

The Journal of Supercomputing - The high-performance computing (HPC) community has recently started to use containerization to obtain fast, customized, portable, flexible, and reproducible...     

Anti-Trypanosoma cruzi Activity of Metabolism Modifier Compounds

Chagas disease is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and affects over 6 million people worldwide. Development of new drugs to treat this disease remains a priority since those currently available have variable efficacy and frequent adverse effects, especially during the long regimens required for treating the chronic stage of the disease. T. cruzi modulates the host cell-metabolism to accommodate the cell cytosol into a favorable growth environment and acquire nutrients for its multiplication. In this study we evaluated the specific anti-T. cruzi activity of nine bio-energetic modulator compounds. Notably, we identified that 17-DMAG, which targets the ATP-binding site of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), has a very high (sub-micromolar range) selective inhibition of the parasite growth. This inhibitory effect was also highly potent (IC₅₀ = 0.27 μmol L⁻¹) against the amastigote intracellular replicative stage of the parasite. Moreover, molecular docking results suggest that 17-DMAG may bind T. cruzi Hsp90 homologue Hsp83 with good affinity. Evaluation in a mouse model of chronic T. cruzi infection did not show parasite growth inhibition, highlighting the difficulties encountered when going from in vitro assays onto preclinical drug developmental stages.     

Titanate Anodes for Sodium Ion Batteries

For reasons of cost and supply security issues, there is growing interest in the development of rechargeable sodium ion batteries, particularly for large-scale grid storage applications. Like the much better known and technologically important lithium ion analogs, the devices operate by shuttling alkali metal cations between two host materials, which undergo insertion processes at different electrochemical potentials. A particular challenge for the sodium systems is identification of a suitable anode material due to the fact that sodium does not intercalate into graphite. Although several alternatives, including disordered carbons and alloys are being investigated, the most promising options at present lie with titanates, not in the least because of attractive characteristics such as low toxicity, ease of synthesis, wide availability, and low cost. A large variety of sodium titanate compounds can be prepared, many of which have tunnel or layered structures that can readily undergo reversible reductive intercalation reactions. A brief overview of the physical, structural, and electrochemical characteristics of several of the most promising materials for sodium-ion battery applications is given in this paper, and a comparison is made between the sodium and the lithium insertion behaviors. For some of these compounds, insertion of sodium occurs at unusually low potentials, a feature that has important implications for the design of high-energy sodium-ion systems.