BACKGROUND:Atrial fibrillation (AF) is frequently associated with enhanced inflammatory response. The NLRP3 (NACHT, LRR, and PYD domain containing protein 3) inflammasome mediates caspase-1 ...activation and interleukin-1β release in immune cells but is not known to play a role in cardiomyocytes (CMs). Here, we assessed the role of CM NLRP3 inflammasome in AF.
METHODS:NLRP3 inflammasome activation was assessed by immunoblot in atrial whole-tissue lysates and CMs from patients with paroxysmal AF or long-standing persistent (chronic) AF. To determine whether CM-specific activation of NLPR3 is sufficient to promote AF, a CM-specific knockin mouse model expressing constitutively active NLRP3 (CM-KI) was established. In vivo electrophysiology was used to assess atrial arrhythmia vulnerability. To evaluate the mechanism of AF, electric activation pattern, Ca spark frequency, atrial effective refractory period, and morphology of atria were evaluated in CM-KI mice and wild-type littermates.
RESULTS:NLRP3 inflammasome activity was increased in the atrial CMs of patients with paroxysmal AF and chronic AF. CM-KI mice developed spontaneous premature atrial contractions and inducible AF, which was attenuated by a specific NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitor, MCC950. CM-KI mice exhibited ectopic activity, abnormal sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca release, atrial effective refractory period shortening, and atrial hypertrophy. Adeno-associated virus subtype-9–mediated CM-specific knockdown of Nlrp3 suppressed AF development in CM-KI mice. Finally, genetic inhibition of Nlrp3 prevented AF development in CREM transgenic mice, a well-characterized mouse model of spontaneous AF.
CONCLUSIONS:Our study establishes a novel pathophysiological role for CM NLRP3 inflammasome signaling, with a mechanistic link to the pathogenesis of AF, and establishes the inhibition of NLRP3 as a potential novel AF therapy approach.
Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is applied in proteinuric kidney diseases, but the exact mechanism of its effect on podocytes is still unknown. Our previous in vitro experiments suggested that MMF can ...ameliorate podocyte damage via restoration of the Ca2+-actin cytoskeleton axis. The goal of this study was to characterize podocyte biology during MMF treatment in nephrotoxic serum (NTS) nephritis (NTN). NTN was induced in three-week old wild-type mice. On day 3, half of the mice were treated with MMF (100 mg/kgBW/d p.o.) for one week. On day 10, we performed proteomic analysis of glomeruli as well as super-resolution imaging of the slit diaphragm. For multiphoton imaging of Ca2+ concentration (Ca2+i), the experimental design was repeated in mice expressing podocyte-specific Ca2+ sensor. MMF ameliorated the proteinuria and crescent formation induced by NTS. We identified significant changes in the abundance of proteins involved in Ca2+ signaling and actin cytoskeleton regulation, which was further confirmed by direct Ca2+i imaging in podocytes showing decreased Ca2+ levels after MMF treatment. This was associated with a tendency to restoration of podocyte foot process structure. Here, we provide evidence that MPA has a substantial direct effect on podocytes. MMF contributes to improvement of Ca2+i and amelioration of the disorganized actin cytoskeleton in podocytes. These data extend the knowledge of direct effects of immunosuppressants on podocytes that may contribute to a more effective treatment of proteinuric glomerulopathies with the least possible side effects.
Tantalum (Ta) and tantalum nitride thin films are highly important as diffusion barriers and adhesion layers in microelectronics and hard coatings for cutting tools. In this study, the effect of the ...underlying substrate on the phase formation of Ta and the influence of a changing N2/Ar flow ratio on hardness, phase and composition of reactively formed tantalum nitride have been investigated. Ta is DC sputter deposited and forms β-Ta on amorphous diamond-like carbon and on the amorphous natural oxide layers of Ti and Si(100) while a 15nm TaN seed layer results in the formation of α-Ta. The chemical composition of the topmost layers of a substrate influences the formation of α- and β-Ta. With increasing N2/Ar flow ratios a transition from amorphous Ta-rich tantalum nitride over face-centered cubic tantalum nitride (fcc-TaN) to (100) textured fcc-TaN at flow ratios above 45% is observed. The hardness of the tantalum nitride thin film reaches a maximum at a flow ratio of 45%, followed by a decrease in hardness for higher N2/Ar flow ratios. The increase in hardness is associated with a decrease in grain size and shows a stronger correlation for a Meyers and Ashworth relationship than for a Hall–Petch relationship.
•Chemical composition of the substrate influences the phase of deposited Ta.•FCC-TaN seed layer leads to α-Ta on the natural oxide layers of Ti and Si(100).•Meyers and Ashworth relationship correlates stronger than Hall–Petch relationship.
Hydrogen adsorption in two different metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), MOF‐5 and Cu‐BTC (BTC: benzene‐1,3,5‐tricarboxylate), with Zn2+ and Cu2+ as central metal ions, respectively, is investigated at ...temperatures ranging from 77 K to room temperature. The process responsible for hydrogen storage in these MOFs is pure physical adsorption with a heat of adsorption of approximately –4 kJ mol–1. With a saturation value of 5.1 wt.‐% for the hydrogen uptake at high pressures and 77 K, MOF‐5 shows the highest storage capacity ever reported for crystalline microporous materials. However, at low pressures Cu‐BTC shows a higher hydrogen uptake than MOF‐5, making Cu‐based MOFs more promising candidates for potential storage materials. Furthermore, the hydrogen uptake is correlated with the specific surface area for crystalline microporous materials, as shown for MOFs and zeolites.
Physisorption of hydrogen in microporous materials with high specific surface area (SSA) is a promising route to achieve high hydrogen‐storage capacities. The hydrogen uptake of two metal–organic framework (MOF) structures based on Zn (MOF‐5) and Cu (Cu‐BTC) metal ions are examined. The saturation values at 77 K are 5.1 and 3.6 wt.‐%, respectively, and proportional to the SSA. At low pressures, however, Cu‐BTC shows a higher hydrogen uptake than MOF‐5.
In mycobacteria, transcriptional activator PafBC is responsible for upregulating the majority of genes induced by DNA damage. Understanding the mechanism of PafBC activation is impeded by a lack of ...structural information on this transcription factor that contains a widespread, but poorly understood WYL domain frequently encountered in bacterial transcription factors. Here, we determine the crystal structure of Arthrobacter aurescens PafBC. The protein consists of two modules, each harboring an N-terminal helix-turn-helix DNA-binding domain followed by a central WYL and a C-terminal extension (WCX) domain. The WYL domains exhibit Sm-folds, while the WCX domains adopt ferredoxin-like folds, both characteristic for RNA-binding proteins. Our results suggest a mechanism of regulation in which WYL domain-containing transcription factors may be activated by binding RNA or other nucleic acid molecules. Using an in vivo mutational screen in Mycobacterium smegmatis, we identify potential co-activator binding sites on PafBC.
The objective of the current study was to develop a predictive model for calf disease detection in the preweaning period using data from automated milk feeders (AMF). A deep convolutional neural ...network (CNN) architecture for the detection of respiratory disease and diarrhea in dairy calves was developed. German Holstein calves were fed milk replacer either ad libitum (up to 25 L/d; n = 32) or restrictively (6 L/d; n = 32) via AMF from 10 ± 3 d of life on. Concentrate, hay, and water were freely available. Calf health parameters were scored daily. The AMF measured milk replacer (MR) intake, number of rewarded visits, number of unrewarded visits, and drinking speed. A calf was considered sick if its fecal score was 3 or 4 and its respiratory score was 2 or 3. Only data from AMF up to 47 d of age were included in the analysis. This cut in the data was made to avoid data from the weaning period. Data were split in 80:20 ratios for training and testing data sets according to the Pareto principle. A minimum sensitivity of 80% was considered an appropriate requirement for the prediction models. Considering all calves in group housing, cross-validation of the test data set showed a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 79%, with a positive predictive value and a negative predictive value of 37 and 97%, respectively. The area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic for the deep CNN model was 0.81 for all group-housed calves. The CNN model yielded sensitivity and specificity of 83 and 71%, respectively (for ad libitum-fed calves), and 82 and 87%, respectively (for restricted-fed calves), with good area under the curve-receiver operating characteristic (0.77 to 0.87), indicating that the CNN models can predict calf disease in both groups with different MR allowances. The permutation feature importance was measured by the decrease in model accuracy, and features (behaviors) were summarized in descending order of their relative importance to the CNN model. Drinking speed and MR intake were the main factors to predict calf disease in calves fed ad libitum. The number of unrewarded visits to the milk feeder and MR intake were the main factors to predict calf disease in restricted-fed calves. Despite the relatively small sample size, the results provide strong evidence that daily feeding behavior data from AMF can be used to identify calves at risk for disease. In conclusion, despite a very good testing performance of the CNN model, the relatively low daily prevalence of calf disease in the present study resulted in a high proportion of false-positive alarms.
Reviews on the inflammatory role of adipose tissue outside the field of metabolism are rare. There is increasing evidence provided by numerous basic research studies from nearly all internal medicine ...subspecializations that adipocytes and adipocytokines are involved in primary inflammatory processes and diseases. Therefore, it is the aim of the present review to discuss and to summarize the current knowledge on the inflammatory role of adipocytokines and special types of regional adipocytes such as retroorbital, synovial, visceral, subdermal, peritoneal, and bone marrow adipocytes in internal medicine diseases. Future clinical and therapeutic implications are discussed.
The metal-organic framework MOF-5 has attracted significant attention due to its ability to store large quantities of H
2 by mass, up to 10 wt.% absolute at 70 bar and 77 K. On the other hand, since ...MOF-5 is typically obtained as a bulk powder, it exhibits a low volumetric density and poor thermal conductivity—both of which are undesirable characteristics for a hydrogen storage material. Here we explore the extent to which powder densification can overcome these deficiencies, as well as characterize the impact of densification on crystallinity, pore volume, surface area, and crush strength. MOF-5 powder was processed into cylindrical tablets with densities up to 1.6 g/cm
3 by mechanical compaction. We find that optimal hydrogen storage properties are achieved for
ρ ∼ 0.5 g/cm
3, yielding a 350% increase in volumetric H
2 density with only a modest 15% reduction in gravimetric H
2 excess in comparison to the powder. Higher densities result in larger reductions in gravimetric excess. Total pore volume and surface area decrease commensurately with the gravimetric capacity, and are linked to an incipient amorphization transformation. Nevertheless, a large fraction of MOF-5 crystallinity remains intact in densities up to 0.75 g/cm
3, as confirmed from powder XRD. Predictably, the radial crush strength of the pellets is enhanced by densification, increasing by a factor of 4.3 between a density of 0.4 g/cm
3 and 0.6 g/cm
3. Thermal conductivity increases slightly with tablet density, but remains below the single crystal value.
Proteasomes are present in eukaryotes, archaea and Actinobacteria, including the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis, where proteasomal degradation supports persistence inside the host. In ...mycobacteria and other members of Actinobacteria, prokaryotic ubiquitin-like protein (Pup) serves as a degradation tag post-translationally conjugated to target proteins for their recruitment to the mycobacterial proteasome ATPase (Mpa). Here, we use single-particle cryo-electron microscopy to determine the structure of Mpa in complex with the 20S core particle at an early stage of pupylated substrate recruitment, shedding light on the mechanism of substrate translocation. Two conformational states of Mpa show how substrate is translocated stepwise towards the degradation chamber of the proteasome core particle. We also demonstrate, in vitro and in vivo, the importance of a structural feature in Mpa that allows formation of alternating charge-complementary interactions with the proteasome resulting in radial, rail-guided movements during the ATPase conformational cycle.
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