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Caloric Restriction (CR) extends lifespan and augments cellular stress-resistance from yeast to primates, making CR an attractive strategy for organ protection in the clinic. Translation of CR to patients is complex, due to problems regarding adherence, feasibility and safety concerns in frail patients. Novel tailored dietary regimens, which modulate the dietary composition of macro- and micronutrients rather than reducing calorie intake promise similar protective effects and increased translatability. However, a direct head-to-head comparison to identify the most potent approach for organ protection as well as overlapping metabolic consequences has not been performed. We systematically analyzed six dietary preconditioning protocols - fasting mimicking diet (FMD), ketogenic diet (KD), dietary restriction of branched chained amino acids (BCAA), two dietary regimens restricting sulfur-containing amino acids (SR80/100) and CR - in a rodent model of renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) to quantify diet-induced resilience in kidneys. Of the administered diets, FMD, SR80/100 and CR efficiently protect from kidney damage after IRI. Interestingly, these approaches show overlapping changes in oxidative and hydrogen sulfide (H2S)-dependent cysteine catabolism as a potential common mechanism of organ protection.

Caloric Restriction (CR) extends lifespan and augments cellular stress-resistance from yeast to primates, making CR an attractive strategy for organ protection in the clinic. Translation of CR to patients is complex, due to problems regarding adherence, feasibility and safety concerns in frail patients. Novel tailored dietary regimens, which modulate the dietary composition of macro- and micronutrients rather than reducing calorie intake promise similar protective effects and increased translatability. However, a direct head-to-head comparison to identify the most potent approach for organ protection as well as overlapping metabolic consequences has not been performed. We systematically analyzed six dietary preconditioning protocols - fasting mimicking diet (FMD), ketogenic diet (KD), dietary restriction of branched chained amino acids (BCAA), two dietary regimens restricting sulfur-containing amino acids (SR80/100) and CR - in a rodent model of renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) to quantify diet-induced resilience in kidneys. Of the administered diets, FMD, SR80/100 and CR efficiently protect from kidney damage after IRI. Interestingly, these approaches show overlapping changes in oxidative and hydrogen sulfide (H2S)-dependent cysteine catabolism as a potential common mechanism of organ protection. Importantly, these metabolic changes can be recapitulated in patients preconditioned by a diet limiting sulfur-containing amino acids indicating conserved diet-induced mechanisms of stress-resistance that may ultimately lead to clinical application.

BackgroundWell-characterized biomaterials of high quality have great potential for acceleration and quality improvement in translational biomedical research. To improve accessibility of local sample collections, efforts have been made to create central biomaterial banks and catalogues. Available technical solutions for creating professional local sample catalogues and connecting them to central systems are cost intensive and/or technically complex to implement. Therefore, the Translational Thematic Unit HIV of the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) developed a Laboratory Information and Management System (LIMS) called HIV Engaged Research Technology (HEnRY) for implementation into the Translational Platform HIV (TP-HIV) at the DZIF and other research networks.ResultsHEnRY is developed at the University Hospital of Cologne. It is an advanced LIMS to manage processing and storage of samples and aliquots of different sample types. Features include:monitoring of stored samples and associated informationdata selection via query tools or Structured Query Language (SQL)preparation of summary documents, including scannable search listscentralized management of the practical laboratory part of multicentre studies (e.g. import of drawing schemes and sample processing steps),preparation of aliquot shipments, including associated documents to be added to shipmentsunique and secure identification of aliquots through use of customizable Quick Response (QR) code labels directly from HEnRYsupport of aliquot data transmission to central registries.In summary, HEnRY offers all features necessary for a LIMS software. In addition, the structure of HEnRY provides sufficient flexibility to allow the implementation in other research areas.ConclusionHEnRY is a free biobanking tool published under the MIT license. While it was developed to support HIV research in Germany, the feature set and language options, allow much broader applications and make this a powerful free research tool.

We determine the nitrogen concentration of GaN0.01≤x≤0.05As1−x quantum wells by evaluation of high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) images using a high-angle annular dark field detector. Although nitrogen has a smaller atomic number than Ga the image intensity increases with the nitrogen content. This is explained by the influence of static atomic displacements by comparison with frozen lattice simulations. The resulting nitrogen concentrations agree with high resolution X-ray diffraction measurements and strain state analysis applied to STEM images.