Neuromuscular activation patterns during treadmill walking after space flight

Astronauts adopt a variety of neuromuscular control strategies during space flight that are appropriate for locomoting in that unique environment, but are less than optimal upon return to Earth. We report here the first systematic investigation of potential adaptations in neuromuscular activity patterns associated with postflight locomotion. Astronaut-subjects were tasked with walking on a treadmill at 6.4 km/h while fixating a visual target 30 cm away from their eyes after space flights of 8-15 days. Surface electromyography was collected from selected lower limb muscles and normalized with regard to mean amplitude and temporal relation to heel strike. In general, high correlations (more than 0.80) were found between preflight and postflight activation waveforms for each muscle and each subject: however relative activation amplitude around heel strike and toe off was changed as a result of flight. The level of muscle cocontraction and activation variability, and the relationship between the phasic characteristics of the ankle musculature in preparation for toe off also were altered by space flight. Subjects also reported oscillopsia during treadmill walking after flight. These findings indicate that, after space flight, the sensory-motor system can generate neuromuscular-activation strategies that permit treadmill walking, but subtle changes in lower-limb neuromuscular activation are present that may contribute to increased lower limb kinematic variability and oscillopsia also present during postflight walking.     

Micropatterned surfaces for control of cell shape, position, and function

The control of cell position and function is a fundamental focus in the development of applications ranging from cellular biosensors to tissue engineering. Using microcontact printing of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiolates on gold, we manufactured substrates that contained micrometer-scale islands of extracellular matrix (ECM) separated by nonadhesive regions such that the pattern of islands determined the distribution and position of bovine and human endothelial cells. In addition, the size and geometry of the islands were shown to control cell shape. Traditional approaches to modulate cell shape, either by attaching suspended cells to microbeads of different sizes or by plating cells on substrates coated with different densities of ECM, suggested that cell shape may play an important role in control of apoptosis as well as growth. Data are presented which show how micropatterned substrates were used to definitively test this hypothesis. Progressively restricting bovine and human endothelial cell extension by culturing cells on smaller and smaller micropatterned adhesive islands regulated a transition from growth to apoptosis on a single continuum of cell spreading, thus confirming the central role of cell shape in cell function. The micropatterning technology is therefore essential not only for construction of biosurface devices but also for the investigation of the fundamental biology of cell-ECM interactions.     

The effect of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection on clinical parameters in steady-state bronchiectasis

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection on clinical parameters in Chinese patients with noncystic fibrosis and steady-state bronchiectasis. DESIGN: Prospective, cross-sectional clinicomicrobiological study with informed consent. SETTING: Consecutive outpatient recruitment from a specialist bronchiectasis respiratory clinic. PATIENTS: Outpatients (n = 100; 62 women; 55.1+/-16.7 years old; FEV1/FVC 1.4+/-0.7/2.1+/-0.9 L), who had stable respiratory symptoms for more than 3 weeks. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Respiratory pathogens isolated from the sputum were: Pseudomonas aeruginosa (33), Haemophilus influenzae (10), Moraxella catarrhalis (2), other Gram-negative bacilli (5), Streptococcus pneumoniae (6), Staphylococcus aureus (5), mycobacteria (3), and yeast (1). Clinical parameters in patients with positive isolation of P aeruginosa were compared with those without the organism in the sputum culture (non-P aeruginosa). In the P aeruginosa group, the FEV1/FVC ratio and sputum volume were lower (p < 0.005) and higher (p < 0.0001), respectively, than those of the non-P aeruginosa group. The FEV1/FVC ratio (< 60%) and sputum volume (grading > 5) were independently associated with a positive sputum isolation of P aeruginosa with odds ratios of 3.1 (confidence interval [CI] 1.2 to 8.4; p < 0.01) and 4.7 (CI 1.6 to 13.3; p < 0.001), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: P aeruginosa is the predominant respiratory pathogen isolated in the sputum of Chinese patients with steady-state bronchiectasis, and its isolation is associated with high sputum output (> or = 75th quartile) and moderately severe airflow obstruction (FEV1/FVC < 60%).     

Angiotensin II stimulates cardiac myocyte hypertrophy via paracrine release of TGF-beta 1 and endothelin-1 from fibroblasts

We examined the effects of different cytokine combinations and culture conditions on the expansion and modulation of cell surface antigens of CD34+ derived dendritic cells (DCs), the most efficient antigen-presenting cells capable of stimulating resting T cells in the primary immune response. Cells with a dendritic morphology and expressing HLA-DR, CD1a, S100 and CD83 were maximally expanded under serum-free conditions with the addition of SCF, GM-CSF, TNF-alpha, TGF-beta and Flt-3 ligand (fold increase of CD1a+ cells = 102 +/- 32 after 2 weeks of culture). CD34+ cells were also grown under continuous flow conditions in an artificial capillary system: after 14d of culture, the expansion in the total cell number was lower than that of the static cultures (3.3 +/- 2 v 18.9 +/- 4) but the percentage of CD1a+/CD83+/ CD80+ cells was considerably higher, whereas the CD14+ cells were significantly reduced (8.9 +/- 2 v 26 +/- 13). In continuous perfusion cultures, low levels of DC precursors and of LTC-IC were still present up to day 14. The DCs generated under flow conditions stimulated the mixed leucocyte reaction (MLR) more than the cells grown in static cultures. By electron microscopy, cells grown in the continuous flow system showed an increased number of large cells with numerous dendritic processes and abundant multilamellar complexes. The cells expanded under these conditions were sorted on the basis of their light-scatter properties into two fractions: one containing a predominance of CD1a+/S100+/ CD8 3+/CD80+/CD14- 'large cells' with great internal complexity (mature DCs); the second including 'small cells' either CD33+/CD14+, CD33+/CD15+ or CD33+/CD13-/CD14. The DCs generated and selected with this method are therefore particularly well suited for immunotherapeutic protocols.     

Increased incidence of spina bifida occulta in fluorosis prone areas

Spina bifida, a congenital deformity of the posterior wall of vertebrae of the spine, is a midline defect of skin, vertebral arches and neural tube, usually in the lumbosacral region. Its incidence is reported to be 0.2 to 0.4 per 1000 live births. Various hypotheses have been put forward as etiological factors for spina bifida including consumption of potato affected by blight and hardness of drinking water but these have not been proven. Two groups of 50 randomly chosen children were established. The study group consisted of children aged 5 to 12 years, weighing 15 to 30 kg, consuming fluoride rich drinking water (4.5 and 8.5 ppm fluoride; WHO permissible limit is 1.5 ppm fluoride), and manifesting either clinical, dental and/or skeletal fluorosis. The control group consisted of age and weight-matched children, consuming less than or equal to 1.5 ppm fluoride in drinking water and not showing any evidence of fluoride toxicity. These children were evaluated for antenatal history, general clinical examination (especially for dimples, tufts of hair, haemangioma on skin throughout the length of spine), other congenital abnormalities, evidence of fluoride toxicity, biochemical estimation for fluoride levels in blood and serum and by skiagrams of the spine to examine for the presence of spina bifida occulta. A total of 22 (44%) of the 50 children in group A, the study group, and 6 (12%) of the 50 children in group B, the control group, revealed spina bifida occulta in the lumbosacral region.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Tyrosine phosphorylation events during different stages of collagen-platelet activation

Three groups of phosphoproteins have been distinguished, basing on the velocity and extent of phosphorylation in platelets stimulated with collagen. pp60c-src constituted the first group; the increase in its phosphorylation was the highest and most rapid (maximal in 30 s after the addition of collagen). pp80/85 and non-identified protein of 65 kDa formed the second group; the increase in their phosphorylation was twice smaller than that of pp60c-src, and reached its maximum 60 s after the addition of collagen. pp120, pp72syk, and two non-identified phosphoproteins of 90 and 75 kDa constituted the third group; the increase in their phosphorylation was 4-10-fold lower than that of pp60c-src and reached its maximum after 180 s. We conclude that the phosphorylation of pp60c-src is important for the change of shape of platelets, the phosphorylation of pp80/85 and pp65 for the initiation of the formation of aggregates and the phosphorylation of the third group of phosphoproteins for the formation of massive aggregates. This conclusion was supported by using a monoclonal anti-GPIb antibody, which did not inhibit the shape change of platelets and did not inhibit pp60c-src phosphorylation. This antibody inhibited aggregate formation as well as tyrosine phosphorylation of proteins belonging to the second and the third group of phosphoproteins.     

A hybrid online-product recommendation system: Combining implicit rating-based collaborative filtering and sequential pattern analysis

Many online shopping malls in which explicit rating information is not available still have difficulty in providing recommendation services using collaborative filtering (CF) techniques for their users. Applying temporal purchase patterns derived from sequential pattern analysis (SPA) for recommendation services also often makes users unhappy with the inaccurate and biased results obtained by not considering individual preferences. The objective of this research is twofold. One is to derive implicit ratings so that CF can be applied to online transaction data even when no explicit rating information is available, and the other is to integrate CF and SPA for improving recommendation quality. Based on the results of several experiments that we conducted to compare the performance between ours and others, we contend that implicit rating can successfully replace explicit rating in CF and that the hybrid approach of CF and SPA is better than the individual ones.