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To improve outcomes following lung transplantation, it is essential to understand the immunological mechanisms that result in chronic graft failure. The associated clinical syndrome is termed chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD), which is known to be induced by alloimmune-dependent (i.e., rejection) and alloimmune-independent factors (e.g., infections, reflux and environmental factors). We aimed to explore the alloimmune-related mechanism, i.e., pulmonary rejection. In this study, we use a murine orthotopic left lung transplant model using isografts and allografts (C57BL/6 or BALB/c as donors to C57BL/6 recipients), with daily immunosuppression (10 mg/kg cyclosporin A and 1.6 mg/kg methylprednisolone). Serial sacrifice was performed at days 1, 7 and 35 post-transplantation (n = 6 at each time point for each group). Left transplanted lungs were harvested, a single-cell suspension was made and absolute numbers of immune cells were quantified using multicolor flow cytometry. The rejection process followed the principles of a classic immune response, including innate but mainly adaptive immune cells. At day 7 following transplantation, the numbers of interstitial macrophages, monocytes, dendritic cells, NK cells, NKT cells, CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T and B cells were increased in allografts compared with isografts. Only dendritic cells and CD4+ T cells remained elevated at day 35 in allografts. Our study provides insights into the immunological mechanisms of true pulmonary rejection after murine lung transplantation. These results might be important in further research on diagnostic evaluation and treatment for CLAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with conventional water-filled tensiometers, polymer-filled osmotic tensiometers (OTs) can measure a higher matric suction by increasing the osmotic pressure of the water inside the tensiometer. The measuring range of an OT is equal to the osmotic pressure of water inside the OT. All previous research has used commercial polymers in developing OTs and the mechanism of long-term pressure decay of OTs was not found. In this study, polymers including polyacrylamide (PAM) and sodium polyacrylate (NaPA) with different degrees of cross-linking were synthesised by ultraviolet polymerisation to develop new OTs. Long-term pressure variations of OTs indicated that the pressure decay was more likely due to the stress relaxation of polymer materials instead of polymer leakage. PAM-filled OTs have a faster stress relaxation behaviour than NaPA-filled OTs, so that they can keep constant pressure (i.e. constant measuring range) for a long time and there is no need for pressure correction based on the pressure decay rate. However, the measuring range of PAM-filled OTs is lower than that of NaPA-filled OTs. The result of matric suction measurements demonstrated that the proposed OTs can be used to measure matric suction both in low and high ranges with fast response and high accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs), an emerging class of crystalline porous materials, are proposed as a new type of support for grafting lanthanide ions (Ln3+) and employing these hybrid materials as ratiometric luminescent thermometers. A TpBpy‐COF—prepared from 1,3,5‐triformylphloroglucinol (Tp) and 2,2′‐bipyridine‐5,5′‐diamine (Bpy) grafted with Eu/Tb and Dy acetylacetone (acac) complexes can be successfully used as a luminescent thermometer in the 10–360 K (Eu) and 280–440 K (Tb) ranges with good sensing properties (thermal sensitivity up to 1.403 % K−1, temperature uncertainty δT<1 K above 110 K). For the Eu/Tb systems, we observe an unusual and rarely reported behavior, that is, no thermal quenching of the Tb3+ emission, a result of the absence of ion‐to‐ligand/host energy back‐transfer. The LnCOF materials proposed here could be a new class of materials employed for temperature‐sensing applications following up on the well‐known luminescent metal–organic framework thermometers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) correlates the water content of a soil to its soil suction, which is a very important property of unsaturated soils. Osmotic tensiometers (OTs) have shown their capability in high soil suction measurement. This study tried to use OT combined with a pressure plate and WP4C dewpoint potentiometer to determine the SWCC of a residual soil. Three OTs with different measuring ranges (900 kPa, 1200 kPa, 2300 kPa) were prepared for soil suction measurement. The temperature effect on the pressure variations of OTs was illustrated based on Flory-Huggins polymer theories and an appropriate calibration equation was proposed to eliminate the temperature effect on the accuracy of soil suction measurement using OT. The OT showed a fast response in soil suction measurement and the equilibrium can be established in 10–15 min during SWCC measurement. Comparison of the SWCC data obtained from the pressure plate, OT, and WP4C dewpoint potentiometer proves that the OT had good performance in the determination of SWCC, especially for the transition zone (i.e., 10–1500 kPa suction range), by providing more data points to define the SWCC in a shorter period. The results show that the usage of OT will shorten the time required for the determination of SWCC and could be considered as a new and reliable technique in SWCC measurement. • OT combined with a pressure plate and WP4C dewpoint potentiometer to determine the SWCC of a residual soil. • Insiginificant pressure decay effect for short-time suction measurement using OT. • Temperature calibration based on Flory-Huggins polymer theories to improve the accuracy of OT suction measurement. • OT provided more data points to define the SWCC especially in the transition zone in a shorter period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sexual dimorphism in brain gene expression has been recognized in several animal species. However, the relevant regulatory mechanisms remain poorly understood. To investigate whether sex-biased gene expression in mammalian brain is globally regulated or locally regulated in diverse brain structures, and to study the genomic organisation of brain-expressed sex-biased genes, we performed a large scale gene expression analysis of distinct brain regions in adult male and female mice. Results: This study revealed spatial specificity in sex-biased transcription in the mouse brain, and identified 173 sex-biased genes in the striatum; 19 in the neocortex; 12 in the hippocampus and 31 in the eye. Genes located on sex chromosomes were consistently over-represented in all brain regions. Analysis on a subset of genes with sexbias in more than one tissue revealed Y-encoded male-biased transcripts and X-encoded female-biased transcripts known to escape X-inactivation. In addition, we identified novel coding and non-coding X-linked genes with female-biased expression in multiple tissues. Interestingly, the chromosomal positions of all of the female-biased non-coding genes are in close proximity to protein-coding genes that escape X-inactivation. This defines Xchromosome domains each of which contains a coding and a non-coding female-biased gene. Lack of repressive chromatin marks in non-coding transcribed loci supports the possibility that they escape X-inactivation. Moreover, RNA-DNA combined FISH experiments confirmed the biallelic expression of one such novel domain. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the amount of genes with sex-biased expression varies between individual brain regions in mouse. The sex-biased genes identified are localized on many chromosomes. At the same time, sexually dimorphic gene expression that is common to several parts of the brain is mostly restricted to the sex chromosomes. Moreover, the study uncovered multiple female-biased non-coding genes that are nonrandomly co-localized on the X-chromosome with protein-coding genes that escape X-inactivation. This raises the possibility that expression of long non-coding RNAs may play a role in modulating gene expression in domains that escape X-inactivation in mouse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rücktitelbild: Developing Luminescent Ratiometric Thermometers Based on a Covalent Organic Framework (COF) (Angew. B Kovalente organische Gerüste (COFs) b können mit Eu SP 3+ sp - und Tb SP 3+ sp -Komplexen gepfropft werden, welche die Porengröße des Materials verringern, wenn sie an das COF angebracht werden. Wie A. M. Kaczmarek, L. D. Carlos et al. in ihrem Forschungsartikel auf S. 1948 beschreiben, emittieren die Eu SP 3+ sp - und Tb SP 3+ sp -Ionen rotes bzw. grünes Licht und erlauben eine Nutzung des Systems als neuartiges Lumineszenz-Thermometer. [Extracted from the article]

Integrin α11β1 is a collagen receptor that has been reported to be overexpressed in the stroma of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). In the current study, we further analyzed integrin α11 expression in 14 tumor types by screening a tumor tissue array while using mAb 203E3, a newly developed monoclonal antibody to human α11. Different degrees of expression of integrin α11 were observed in the stroma of breast, ovary, skin, lung, uterus, stomach, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tumors. Co-expression queries with the myofibroblastic cancer-associated fibroblast (myCAF) marker, alpha smooth muscle actin (αSMA), demonstrated a moderate level of α11+ in myCAFs associated with PDAC and HNSCC tumors, and a lack of α11 expression in additional stromal cells (i.e., cells positive for fibroblast-specific protein 1 (FSP1) and NG2). The new function-blocking α11 antibody, mAb 203E1, inhibited cell adhesion to collagen I, partially hindered fibroblast-mediated collagen remodeling and obstructed the three-dimensional (3D) migration rates of PDAC myCAFs. Our data demonstrate that integrin α11 is expressed in a subset of non-pericyte-derived CAFs in a range of cancers and suggest that α11β1 constitutes an important receptor for collagen remodeling and CAF migration in the tumor microenvironment (TME). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]