The State of the Art of Piezo1 Channels in Skeletal Muscle Regeneration

Piezo1 channels are highly mechanically-activated cation channels that can sense and transduce the mechanical stimuli into physiological signals in different tissues including skeletal muscle. In this focused review, we summarize the emerging evidence of Piezo1 channel-mediated effects in the physiology of skeletal muscle, with a particular focus on the role of Piezo1 in controlling myogenic precursor activity and skeletal muscle regeneration and vascularization. The disclosed effects reported by pharmacological activation of Piezo1 channels with the selective agonist Yoda1 indicate a potential impact of Piezo1 channel activity in skeletal muscle regeneration, which is disrupted in various muscular pathological states. All findings reported so far agree with the idea that Piezo1 channels represent a novel, powerful molecular target to develop new therapeutic strategies for preventing or ameliorating skeletal muscle disorders characterized by an impairment of tissue regenerative potential.     

Chronic-Antibiotics Induced Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis Rescues Memory Impairment and Reduces β-Amyloid Aggregation in a Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease Model

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifactorial pathology characterized by β-amyloid (Aβ) deposits, Tau hyperphosphorylation, neuroinflammatory response, and cognitive deficit. Changes in the bacterial gut microbiota (BGM) have been reported as a possible etiological factor of AD. We assessed in offspring (F1) 3xTg, the effect of BGM dysbiosisdysbiosis in mothers (F0) at gestation and F1 from lactation up to the age of 5 months on Aβ and Tau levels in the hippocampus, as well as on spatial memory at the early symptomatic stage of AD. We found that BGM dysbiosisdysbiosis with antibiotics (Abx) treatment in F0 was vertically transferred to their F1 3xTg mice, as observed on postnatal day (PD) 30 and 150. On PD150, we observed a delay in spatial memory impairment and Aβ deposits, but not in Tau and pTau protein in the hippocampus at the early symptomatic stage of AD. These effects are correlated with relative abundance of bacteria and alpha diversity, and are specific to bacterial consortia. Our results suggest that this specific BGM could reduce neuroinflammatory responses related to cerebral amyloidosis and cognitive deficit and activate metabolic pathways associated with the biosynthesis of triggering or protective molecules for AD.     

Referenzprozessabläufe für Telekommunikationsunternehmen

The telecommunication market is experiencing substantial changes. New business models, innovative services, and technologies require reengineering, transformation, and process standardization. Enterprise Architecture Frameworks support the transformation by specifying methods, procedures, and reference models. With the Enhanced Telecom Operation Map (eTOM), the TM Forum offers an international de facto reference process framework, based on specific features and requirements of the telecommunication industry. However, this reference framework only offers a hierarchical collection of processes on different levels of abstraction; a control view in terms of a sequential ordering of tasks and hence a real process flow as well as an end-to-end view on the customer are missing. In this paper, we extend the eTOM reference model by reference process flows, in which we abstract and generalize the knowledge about processes in telecommunication companies. With reference process flows, we aim to assist companies in achieving a structured and transparent re-structuring and re-design of their processes. We demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of our reference process flows in two case studies, and evaluate them by means of criteria for reference model evaluation. Our reference process flows have been accepted as a standard by the TM Forum and published as part of eTOM version 9. We further elaborate on those components of our approach which can be applied outside the telecommunication industry.