An Experimental Model of Neuro–Immune Interactions in the Eye: Corneal Sensory Nerves and Resident Dendritic Cells

The cornea is an avascular connective tissue that is crucial, not only as the primary barrier of the eye but also as a proper transparent refractive structure. Corneal transparency is necessary for vision and is the result of several factors, including its highly organized structure, the physiology of its few cellular components, the lack of myelinated nerves (although it is extremely innervated), the tightly controlled hydration state, and the absence of blood and lymphatic vessels in healthy conditions, among others. The avascular, immune-privileged tissue of the cornea is an ideal model to study the interactions between its well-characterized and dense sensory nerves (easily accessible for both focal electrophysiological recording and morphological studies) and the low number of resident immune cell types, distinguished from those cells migrating from blood vessels. This paper presents an overview of the corneal structure and innervation, the resident dendritic cell (DC) subpopulations present in the cornea, their distribution in relation to corneal nerves, and their role in ocular inflammatory diseases. A mouse model in which sensory axons are constitutively labeled with tdTomato and DCs with green fluorescent protein (GFP) allows further analysis of the neuro-immune crosstalk under inflammatory and steady-state conditions of the eye.     

Evaluation across and within collaborative manufacturing networks: a comparison of manufacturers’ interactions and attributes

Evaluation on collaborative manufacturing network (CMN) structure characteristics has important implications for network operations such as production decision-making, product recovery, creating consensus. Several recent studies suggest that augmenting network structure with nodes’ attributes can provide a more fine-grained understanding of the network. However, there have been few studies to provide a systematic understanding of these effects in a CMN at scale. This gap is bridged using an industrial printing machinery CMN data-set collected on a web-based producing and outsourcing service platform. Novel phenomena with respect to both interaction and attribute metrics across and within the CMNs are observed. Moreover, although many studies employ either interaction or attribute data to study the relative roles of manufacturers in a CMN, relatively little is known about the relationship between these two types of data. This study explores this relationship by comparing two defined metrics (i.e. relational capability and node capability), which evaluate the manufacturers’ interactions and attributes, respectively. We examine to what extent the two metrics of manufacturers correlate with each other, and how possible dissimilarities and similarities can be explained based on the collected industrial CMN data-set. The insights thereby provide a better basis for efficient operations decision-making in CMN.     

Bridging the Gap: Plant-Endophyte Interactions as a Roadmap to Understanding Small-Molecule Communication in Marine Microbiomes

Probing the composition of the microbiome and its association with health and disease states is more accessible than ever due to the rise of affordable sequencing technology. Despite advances in our ability to identify members of symbiont communities, untangling the chemical signaling that they use to communicate with host organisms remains challenging. In order to gain a greater mechanistic understanding of how the microbiome impacts health, and how chemical ecology can be leveraged to advance small-molecule drug discovery from microorganisms, the principals governing communication between host and symbiont must be elucidated. Herein, we review common modes of interkingdom small-molecule communication in terrestrial and marine environments, describe the differences between these environments, and detail the advantages and disadvantages for studies focused on the marine environment. Finally, we propose the use of plant-endophyte interactions as a stepping stone to a greater understanding of similar interactions in marine invertebrates, and ultimately in humans.     

Determination of exchange enthalpy and entropy parameters of poly(dimethyl siloxane) with some n-alkanes by inverse gas chromatography

The total interaction parameter at infinitely high polymer concentration. χ_t^∞, and the effective exchange energy parameter, X̄₁₂, of poly(dimethyl siloxane) with n-pentane, n-hexane, n-heptane and n-nonane were determined around room temperature using the inverse gas chromatography technique. The values of χ_t^∞ are in agreement with corresponding literature values. The exchange enthalpy X₁₂ and entropy, Q₁₂, parameters were determined at the same temperature. The X₁₂ parameters increase with the carbon number of the n-alkanes, while their temperature dependence is almost negligible. The Q₁₂ parameters are approximately independent of temperature and carbon number of the n-alkanes.     

精制马抗H5N1禽流感病毒免疫球蛋白疏水层析方法的优化

目的对精制马抗H5N1禽流感病毒免疫球蛋白疏水层析方法进行优化。方法将胃蛋白酶直接加入制备好的高效价马抗H5N1禽流感病毒血清进行消化裂解,再加入饱和度为26%的硫酸铵溶液,盐析沉淀离心一次后,直接进行疏水层析进一步纯化F(ab′)2抗体。结果连续洗脱依次出现6个蛋白峰,50min左右,洗脱峰3开始出现,其中含大部分F(ab′)2抗体,此时硫酸铵摩尔浓度约为1.0～1.1mol/L。阶段梯度洗脱,当硫酸铵摩尔浓度降至1.0mol/L时,大量F(ab′)2片段被洗脱下来,纯度达90%以上。结论优化了精制马抗H5N1禽流感病毒免疫球蛋白的疏水层析方法,降低了硫酸铵用量,减少了离心次数,生产周期也大大缩短。     

152型碱式硫酸镁晶须疏水改性研究

以乙醇为溶剂,十七氟葵基三乙氧基硅烷(AC-FAS)为改性剂,对152型碱式硫酸镁晶须(152MHSH)的疏水改性进行了研究。采用扫描电子显微镜(SEM)、X-Ray衍射仪(XRD),傅立叶变换红外光谱仪(FT-IR)和水接触角测试仪(CAM)等测试手段对改性前后样品的形貌、结晶状况及产品组成等进行了表征。结果表明,通过疏水性处理,改性剂被成功包覆在152碱式硫酸镁晶须表面,实现了对其疏水改性的目的。当改性处理时间为1h时获得了理想的疏水表面,其水接触角达到126°。FT-IR、XRD、SEM及EDS分析均表明AC-FAS仅成功包覆在MHSH晶须的表面,并未对晶须的晶型造成影响。     

Temperature-dependent transparency of poly(HPMA-co-DMA) hydrogels: effect of synthesis parameters

The acrylic comonomers hydroxypropyl methacrylate (HPMA) and N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMA) have been used in several earlier studies to produce pH-responsive hydrogels. However, these same monomers can also be used to prepare hydrogels that are highly responsive to temperature. One manifestation of this temperature sensitivity is a sharp decrease in hydrogel optical transparency that occurs when the temperature exceeds a critical transition value. For example, a hydrogel that exhibits a swelling transition at the physiological pH value of 7.4 has a transition temperature of about 45 °C when the environmental salt concentration is 0.15 M. The value of the transparency transition temperature is shown to depend on hydrogel synthesis parameters such as comonomer mole ratio, crosslinker mole ratio, and even initiator concentration. By reducing the mole ratio of the crosslinker tetraethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA), the transition temperature can be lowered by as much as 15 °C. Environmental salt concentration and solvent polarity are also shown to influence the transition temperature.     

Bacterially Secretable Single-Chain Tandem Macrocyclic Peptides for High Affinity and Inhibitory Activity

The inhibition of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) is an effective approach for therapy. Owing to their large binding surface areas to target proteins, macrocyclic peptides are suitable molecules for PPI inhibition. In this study, we developed single-chain tandem macrocyclic peptides (STaMPtides) that inhibits the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor 2 (VEGFR2). They were artificially designed to comprise two different VEGFR2-binding macrocyclic peptides linked in tandem by peptide linkers and secreted by Corynebacterium glutamicum. Most potent VEGFR2-inhibitory STaMPtides with length-optimized linkers exhibited >1000 times stronger inhibitory activity than their parental monomeric peptides, possibly due to the avidity effect of heterodimerization. Our approach of using STaMPtides for PPI inhibition may be used to inhibit other extracellular factors, such as growth factors and cytokines.