Proinflammatory Cytokines Induce XFG Development Sarenac Vulovic, Tatjana S.; Pavlovic, Sladjana M.; Zdravkovic, Nemanja S.
Ocular immunology and inflammation,
11/2016, Volume:
24, Issue:
6
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Purpose: To reveal the roles of proinflammatory cytokines within the process of pseudoexfoliation (PEX) production.
Methods: Our study included 120 patients referred to cataract surgery (early and ...late stage of pseudoexfoliation syndrome (XFS), pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (XFG), and control group). Serum and humor levels of cytokines were measured in a sample with high sensitivity enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit.
Results: Our findings revealed that TNF-α and IL-17, overlooked by IL-6 action in the early stage and in the phase of glaucoma, played the main role in the inflammation activation in the tissue in the early and late stage of XFS and in XFG.
Conclusions: Local conditions cause chronic inflammation in the eye, subsequently activating fibrotic process with fibrotic tissue deposits in the eye.
There are limited data available in the literature about the frequency and distribution of endocarditis in suckling and weaned piglets. The goal of this study was to investigate the frequency and ...distribution of lesions from cases of spontaneous valvular endocarditis in young piglets and to determine the bacterial agents involved in those lesions. Valvular endocarditis lesions in suckling piglets were detected in 21/454 cases (4.62%) and in 20/306 cases (6.53%) in weaned piglets. Streptococci were the dominant bacterial species isolated in 68% of the cases; S. suis was identified in 48.7% of the cases, S. pyogenes in 7.3% and S. spp., which could not be further identified, were cultured in 12.1% of the cases. E. rhusiopathiae was identified as the causal agent of endocarditis in four cases in the weaned piglets. In three cases, A. suis and S. aureus were isolated, and, in two cases, A. pleuropneumoniae was identified. Y. enterocolitica was isolated form one case of valvular endocarditis in a weaned pig. The finding of valvular endocarditis caused by Y. enterocolitica is an uncommon finding in pigs, and to the authors’ knowledge, there are no other reports of this agent being the cause of endocarditis in pigs. The involvement of Y. enterocolitica in endocarditis might have been assisted by the predisposing role of immunosuppressive viruses, such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome.
The aim of this study was to investigate histamine blood concentration in subjects suffering from different types of ischemic heart diseases during the period of eight days. Our results showed that ...the histamine blood level was associated with different types of ischemic heart diseases. The blood histamine level in all investigated patients was significantly higher when compared to control subjects (44.87 ± 1.09 ng mL−1), indicating the increase of histamine release in patients suffering from coronary diseases. In patients suffering from ACS-UA and ACS-STEMI, the second day peak of histamine level occurs (90.85 ± 6.34 ng mL−1 and 121.7 ± 6.34 ng mL−1, resp.) probably as the reperfusion event. Furthermore, our data suggest that histamine can be additional parameter of myocardial ischemia along with cardiac specific enzymes and may prove to be an excellent single prognostic marker for multitude of ischemic heart diseases.
Blockchain networks serve as a transparent and secure ledger storage solution, yet they remain vulnerable to attacks. There must be some mechanism to protect the blockchain network from attacks. ...Among various attacks, the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is considered severe, which is challenging to detect accurately and reliably. Machine learning techniques are used to detect the attack, which requires exploring all global attack data in a single system, which is difficult in practice. This article proposes a distributed machine learning mechanism called Federated Machine Learning for detecting the presence of DDoS attacks. But in federated machine learning the model itself can be poisoned by the malicious collaborating node which is another problem that this article solves by storing the model in blockchain and by introducing a new reputation-based miner selection procedure. The proposed framework integrates the federation of machine learning within the blockchain network framework for detecting DDoS attacks. Under the integrated framework, miners are used to train the blocks and they also participate in the machine learning training. A dynamic reputation-based miner selection mechanism that can balance exploration and exploitation is proposed for optimal miner selection, which can ensure the high accuracy of the machine learning model and improve the security of blockchain from attacks like DDoS attacks and 51% attacks. The proposed framework is tested with Random Forest, Multilayer Perceptron, and Logistic Regression machine learning algorithms. The proposed mechanism achieved maximum accuracy of 99.1% using random forest model which is superior to the existing mechanism of detection of DDoS attacks.
The increased antibiotic resistance of pathogenic bacteria requires intense research of new wound healing agents. Novel wound dressings should be designed to provide wound disinfection, good ...moisture, and fast epithelization. In this study, bacterial cellulose (BC) was impregnated with graphene quantum dots (GQDs) for potential use in wound healing treatment. The BC was successfully loaded with approximately 11.7 wt% of GQDs. The actual release of GQDs from new designed composite hydrogels were 13%. Novel GQDs-BC hydrogel composites are biocompatible and showed significant inhibition towards Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae and bactericidal effect towards Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The in vitro healing analysis showed significant migration of human fibroblasts after the GQDs-BC hydrogels application. Furthermore, after 72 h exposure to GQDs-BC, endothelial nitric oxide synthase, vascular endothelial growth factor A, matrix metallopeptidase 9, and Vimentin gene expression in fibroblast were significantly upregulated promoting angiogenesis. GQDs-BC hydrogel composites showed very good wound fluid absorption and water retention, which satisfies good dressing properties. All obtained results propose new designed GQDs-BC hydrogels as potential wound dressings.
The outbreak of lactococcosis affecting rainbow trout, weighing 70 - 120 g, occurred at a trout aquaculture facility in Central-West Serbia during July, 2018. This outbreak lasted for three weeks, ...and cumulative mortality attributed to the disease was around 40%. The diseased fish showed erratic swimming, dark discoloration and exophthalmia, with the cumulative mortality of around 40%. A pure Gram-positive cocci isolates were obtained from the eye and kidney samples. Based on colony morphology, phenotypic and biochemical characteristics, the isolated bacterium was presumably identified as Lactococcus garvieae. Using the BBL CRYSTAL GP ID system, the isolate was identified as L. garvieae and the identity of the isolate was confirmed with MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry. Blast analysis of 16S rRNA sequence of our isolate had a 99.4 to 99.6% similarity to the L. garvieae strains previously isolated from diseased fish. The antibacterial activity of 15 antimicrobials against L. garvieae was evaluated using disc diffusion. In this paper, we report the first case of lactococcosis in rainbow trout in Serbia, isolation and characterization of causative agent, Lactococcus garvieae from diseased rainbow trout.
Since the pathogenic bacteria biofilms are involved in 70% of chronic infections and their resistance to antibiotics is increased, the research in this field requires new healing agents.
New ...composite hydrogels were designed as potential chronic wound dressings composed of bacterial cellulose (BC) with chitosan polymer (Chi) – BC-Chi and chitosan nanoparticles (nChiD) – BC-nChiD. nChiD were obtained by gamma irradiation at doses: 20, 40 and 60 kGy. Physical and chemical analyses showed incorporation of Chi and encapsulation of nChiD into BC. The BC-Chi has the highest average surface roughness. BC-nChiD hydrogels show an irradiated dose-dependent increase of average surface roughness. New composite hydrogels are biocompatible with excellent anti-biofilm potential with up to 90% reduction of viable biofilm and up to 65% reduction of biofilm height. The BC-nChiD showed better dressing characteristics: higher porosity, higher wound fluid absorption and faster migration of cells (in vitro healing). All obtained results confirmed both composite hydrogels as promising chronic wound healing agents.
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•Chitosan dots used in hydrogel composing were obtained by gamma irradiation.•New designed composite hydrogels are biocompatible.•New hydrogels reduce pathogenic biofilm up to 90% and their height up to 65%.•Hydrogels with chitosan dots have better wound fluid absorption and cell migration.•Hydrogels with chitosan dots showed better potential role in chronic wound healing.
Background/Aim. Liver damage, with potentially serious consequences, is not uncommon in hospitalized cardiac patients. The aim of our study was to determine the risk factor profile for liver damage ...in patients hospitalized from a deterioration of their acute or chronic cardiac illness. Methods. The study had observational case-control design with retrospective data collections from medical files of adult patients hospitalized in a tertiary health care center. The cases (n = 140) were subjects with novel liver injury (which emerged during hospital stay) and three control subjects were matched (age, date) for each case subject (n = 420). The primary outcome was hepatotoxicity (present or absent) and independent variables were proposed risk factors. Statistical analysis included descriptive methods, hypothesis testing and univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression, with p ? 0.05. Results. In the whole study population, there were 432 (77.1%) females and the mean age of patients was 64.1 years standard deviation (SD) = 10.7, range 24?85 years. The most common illnesses were coronary heart disease (n = 385), hypertension (n = 334) and arrhythmia (n = 115). Mean value of Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score was 3.8 (SD=1.7; range 1-10) corresponding to estimated CCI 10-years survival rate of 54.4% (SD = 33.5%). In the group of cases, 114 (81.4%) of the patients had hepatocellular, 9 (6.4%) cholestatic and 17 (12.2%) mixed type of hepatic injury. Factors independently associated with hepatotoxic event were previous occasional alcohol intake odds ratio (OR) 96.47; 95% confidence interval (CI) 28.95?321.43; p < 0.001), amiodarone (OR 3.70; 95% CI 1.82?7.53; p < 0.001), enoxaparin (OR 3.29; 95% CI 1.79?6.05; p < 0.001), obesity (OR 2.78; 95% CI 1.15? 6.71; p < 0.023), atorvastatin (OR 2.67; 95% CI 1.33?5.38; p < 0.006) and CCI total score (OR 1.89; 95% CI 1.53?2.34; p < 0.001). Conclusion. Major factors associated with acute liver damage in patients hospitalized in cardiology ward of a tertiary health care institution were patient?s constitutional and habitual characteristics (occasional alcohol intake, obesity, CCI total score) and drugs with known hepatotoxic properties (amiodarone, enoxaparin, atorvastatin).
AIM: To establish the role of nitric oxide(NO), ascorbic acid and tumour necrosis factor α(TNF-α) in the pathogenesis of pseudoexfoliation glaucoma(XFG).METHODS: Our study included 120 patients who ...were referred for cataract surgery. All patients were divided into four groups according to clinical findings: XFG,early and late pseudoexfoliation syndrome(XFS), and cataract(without pseudoexfoliation). Serum and aqueous humour levels of the ascorbic acid, NO and TNF-α were measured. The concentrations of the ascorbic acid and NO were measured by an appropriate spectrophotometric method. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)was used to determine TNF-α level.RESULTS: Aqueous humour concentration of ascorbic acid was significantly lower in patients with late XFS(0.61 ±0.11 mmol/L) and XFG(0.48 ±0.15 mmol/L)compared to patients with early XFS(0.9 ±0.15 mmol/L)and cataract(1.16 ±0.22 mmol/L), while there was no difference in serum concentration in all examined groups.Aqueous humour concentration of NO was significantly higher in patients with XFG(77.7 ±11.4 μmol/L) compared to patients with early XFS(50.27 ±9.34 μmol/L) and cataract(49.77 ±7.1 μmol/L), while serum concentration was increased in the early stage of XFS(73.26±8.29 μmol/L).Aqueous humour level of proinflammatory cytokine TNF-αwas increased in patients with XFS(early 460.04±18.32 pg/mL;late 502.42±53.23 pg/mL) and XFG(510.34±43.07 pg/mL),while there was no difference in serum level in all examined groups of patients.CONCLUSION: Reduced ascorbic acid and elevated NO and inflammation related cytokine TNF-α level in aqueous humour of the patients with developed XFG suggest that oxidative stress induces local inflammation.
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