The composition of the gut microbiome reflects the overall health status of the host. In this study, stool samples representing the gut microbiomes from 6 gluten-sensitive (GS) captive juvenile ...rhesus macaques were compared with those from 6 healthy, age- and diet-matched peers. A total of 48 samples representing both groups were studied using V4 16S rRNA gene DNA analysis. Samples from GS macaques were further characterized based on type of diet administered: conventional monkey chow, i.e., wheat gluten-containing diet (GD), gluten-free diet (GFD), barley gluten-derived diet (BOMI) and reduced gluten barley-derived diet (RGB). It was hypothesized that the GD diet would lower the gut microbial diversity in GS macaques. This is the first report illustrating the reduction of gut microbial alpha-diversity (
< 0.05) following the consumption of dietary gluten in GS macaques. Selected bacterial families (e.g.,
and
) were enriched in GS macaques while
was enriched in healthy animals. Within several weeks after the replacement of the GD by the GFD diet, the composition (beta-diversity) of gut microbiome in GS macaques started to change (
= 0.011) towards that of a normal macaque. Significance for alpha-diversity however, was not reached by the day 70 when the feeding experiment ended. Several inflammation-associated microRNAs (miR-203, -204, -23a, -23b and -29b) were upregulated (
< 0.05) in jejunum of 4 biopsied GS macaques fed GD with predicted binding sites on 16S ribosomal RNA of
(accession number: NR_025911),
(NR_041364) and
(AJ297218) that were overrepresented in feces. Additionally, claudin-1, a validated tight junction protein target of miR-29b was significantly downregulated in jejunal epithelium of GS macaques. Taken together, we predict that with the introduction of effective treatments in future studies the diversity of gut microbiomes in GS macaques will approach those of healthy individuals. Further studies are needed to elucidate the regulatory pathways of inflammatory miRNAs in intestinal mucosa of GS macaques and to correlate their expression with gut dysbiosis.
This paper explores notions of (hetero)sexuality circulating in elementary school classrooms through an analysis of students' own talk and interactions. Data collected during a multi-site ethnography ...in a diverse set of elementary schools demonstrate that while curricular silences and teachers contribute to heteronormative classroom environments, children also take up and perpetuate heteronormative ideals in their own interactions both through explicitly anti-gay talk and by silencing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ)-inclusive perspectives, thereby maintaining the heteronormativity of schools. Findings show (hetero)sexuality to be a constitutive part of classroom life, present even in the formal teaching/instructional time of elementary schools and even in the talk/activities of children themselves. Uninterrupted, these discourses intersect with the official curriculum and reify schools as places in which LGBTQ people/perspectives are not welcome or valued, creating social and academic effects for all students.
Many breast cancer survivors have coexistent chronic diseases or comorbidities at the time of their cancer diagnosis. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the association of comorbidities on ...breast cancer survivors' quality of life. A prospective design was used to recruit 140 women before cancer surgery, 134 women completed the study. Comorbidities were assessed using self-report and verified by medical record review and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) before and 12-month after cancer surgery. Quality of life was evaluated using Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36 v2). Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, t-tests, Fisher's exact test, and correlations were performed for data analysis. A total of 28 comorbidities were identified. Among the 134 patients, 73.8% had at least one of the comorbidities, 54.7% had 2-4, and only 7.4% had 5-8. Comorbidities did not change at 12 months after surgery. Numbers of comorbidities by patients' self-report and weighted categorization of comorbidities by CCI had a similar negative correlation with overall quality of life scores as well as domains of general health, physical functioning, bodily pain, and vitality. Comorbidities, specifically hypertension, arthritis, and diabetes, were associated with poorer quality of life in multiple domains among breast cancer survivors. Future research should consider the combined influence of comorbidity and cancer on patients' quality of life.
The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) plays an important physiological role in hematopoiesis. AHR is highly expressed in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) and inhibition of AHR results in ...a marked expansion of human umbilical cord blood–derived HSPCs following cytokine stimulation. It is unknown whether AHR also contributes earlier in human hematopoietic development. To model hematopoiesis, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) were allowed to differentiate in defined conditions in the presence of the AHR antagonist StemReginin-1 (SR-1) or the AHR agonist 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). We demonstrate a significant increase in CD34+CD31+ hematoendothelial cells in SR-1–treated hESCs, as well as a twofold expansion of CD34+CD45+ hematopoietic progenitor cells. Hematopoietic progenitor cells were also significantly increased by SR-1 as quantified by standard hematopoietic colony-forming assays. Using a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9)-engineered hESC-RUNX1c-tdTomato reporter cell line with AHR deletion, we further demonstrate a marked enhancement of hematopoietic differentiation relative to wild-type hESCs. We also evaluated whether AHR antagonism could promote innate lymphoid cell differentiation from hESCs. SR-1 increased conventional natural killer (cNK) cell differentiation, whereas TCDD treatment blocked cNK development and supported group 3 innate lymphoid cell (ILC3) differentiation. Collectively, these results demonstrate that AHR regulates early human hematolymphoid cell development and may be targeted to enhance production of specific cell populations derived from human pluripotent stem cells.
•Small-molecule inhibition and CRISPR/Cas9 deletion of AHR promote early hematoendothelial cell differentiation from hESCs.•AHR inhibition enhances the differentiation of cNK cells from hESCs whereas AHR hyperactivation supports development of ILC3s.
•Juvenile southern flounder were exposed to sediment mixed with different amount of oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill.•The exposure was performed for 32 days, with growth and survival assessed ...throughout.•After the termination of the experiment, the survivors were examined at multiple endpoints, including histopathology and microbiome analysis.•The results indicated that the flounder were adversely affected at each endpoint examined.•Growth and survival were significantly reduced.•Histopathology found effects on gills and livers of exposed fish.•The microbiomes of the exposed fish were significantly altered by the exposure to sediment-associated oil in both gills and intestines.
Exposure to oiled sediments can negatively impact the health of fish species. Here, we examine the effects of chronic exposure of juvenile southern flounder, Paralichthys lethostigma, to a sediment-oil mixture. Oil:sediment mixtures are persistent over time and can become bioavailable following sediment perturbation or resuspension. Juvenile flounder were exposed for 32 days under controlled laboratory conditions to five concentrations of naturally weathered Macondo MC252 oil mixed into uncontaminated, field-collected sediments. The percent composition of individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) of the weathered oil did not change after mixing with the sediment. Spiked exposure sediments contained 0.04–395mg/kg tPAH50 (sum of 50 individual PAH concentration measurements). Mortality increased with both exposure duration and concentration of sediment-associated PAHs, and flounder exposed to concentrations above 8mg/kg tPAH50 showed significantly reduced growth over the course of the experiment. Evident histopathologic changes were observed in liver and gill tissues of fish exposed to more than 8mg/kg tPAH50. All fish at these concentrations showed hepatic intravascular congestion, macrovesicular hepatic vacoulation, telangiectasia of secondary lamellae, and lamellar epithelial proliferation in gill tissues. Dose-dependent upregulation of Cyp1a expression in liver tissues was observed. Taxonomic analysis of gill and intestinal commensal bacterial assemblages showed that exposure to oiled sediments led to distinct shifts in commensal bacterial population structures. These data show that chronic exposure to environmentally-relevant concentrations of oiled sediments produces adverse effects in flounder at multiple biological levels.
A growing body of literature has examined sex differences in a variety of outcomes from moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), including outcomes for social functioning. Social functioning is ...an area in which adults with TBI have significant long-term challenges (1-4), and a better understanding of sex and gender differences in this domain may have a significant clinical impact. This paper presents a brief narrative review of current evidence regarding sex differences in one aspect of social functioning in adults with TBI: social cognition, specifically affect recognition and Theory of Mind (ToM). Data from typical adults and adults with TBI are considered in the broader context of common stereotypes about social skills and behaviors in men vs. women. We then discuss considerations for future research on sex- and gender-based differences in social cognition in TBI, and in adults more generally.
•CdSO4, ZnSO4, and Cd-based QDs are able to induce the mortality of Daphnia.•Both CdSO4 and Cd-based QDs leads to Cd accumulation in vivo.•Both CdSO4 and Cd-based QDs increased expression of ...metallothionein (MT-1).•GAPDH was the most reliable reference gene for RT-qPCR analysis in Daphnia.•Cd, Zn, and CdSe/ZnS QDs induced different patterns of gene expression.
The ever-increasing production and use of nanocrystaline semiconductors (Quantum dots; QDs) will inevitably result in increased appearance of these nanomaterials in the aquatic environment. However, the behavior and potential toxicity of heavy metal constituted nanoparticulates in aquatic invertebrates is largely unknown, especially with regard to molecular responses. The freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex is a well-suited toxicological and ecological model to study molecular responses to environmental stressors. In this study, D. pulex were exposed for 48h to sublethal doses of QDs (25% and 50% of LC50) with differing spectral properties (CdTe and CdSe/ZnS QDs) and Cd and Zn salts. Our data suggest that acute exposure to both CdSO4 and Cd-based QDs leads to Cd uptake in vivo, which was biologically supported by the observation of increased expression of metallothionein (MT-1). Furthermore, Cd, Zn, and CdSe/ZnS QDs induced different patterns of gene expression regarding stress defense and DNA repair, which furthers our knowledge regarding which response pathways are affected by nanoparticulate forms of metals versus ionic forms in aquatic crustaceans.
Cet article se penche sur une série de photographies prises par Eli Lotar lors d’un voyage avec son collègue photographe Jacques-André Boiffard à bord de l’Exir Dallen, un voilier appartenant à un ...ingénieur industriel nommé Fernando de Cárdenas. Rejoignant le groupe de Cárdenas alors que le navire se dirigeait de l’Espagne vers l’Afrique du Nord en 1933 et 1934, les photographes documentèrent les populations pauvres vivant le long des côtes des deux continents. À cette époque, Lotar et Boiffard s’étaient engagés dans la politique communiste et participaient aux activités de l’Association des écrivains et artistes révolutionnaires (AEAR). En analysant ces photos en relation à la critique de l’AEAR de l’intervention franco-espagnole au Maroc, je soutiens que la série Exir Dallen était une tentative pour mobiliser la photographie au service de politiques anticoloniales et antifascistes. Ce faisant, je remets en cause un récit commun en histoire de l’art qui met les deux photographes presque exclusivement en rapport avec le surréalisme.
Both unipolar and bipolar depression have been linked with impairments in executive functioning (EF). In particular, mood symptom severity is associated with differences in common EF, a latent ...measure of general EF abilities. The relationship between mood disorders and EF is particularly salient in adolescence and young adulthood when the ongoing development of EF intersects with a higher risk of mood disorder onset. However, it remains unclear if common EF impairments have associations with specific symptom dimensions of mood pathology such as blunted positive affect, mood instability, or physiological arousal, or if differences in common EF more broadly relate to what is shared across various symptom domains, such as general negative affect or distress. To address this question, bifactor models can be applied to simultaneously examine the shared and unique contributions of particular mood symptom dimensions. However, no studies to our knowledge have examined bifactor models of mood symptoms in relation to measures of common EF. This study examined associations between common EF and general vs. specific symptom dimensions (anhedonia, physiological arousal, and mania) using structural equation modeling in adolescents and young adults with varying severity of mood symptoms (
= 495, ages = 13-25 years, 68.69% female). A General Depression factor capturing shared variance across symptoms statistically predicted lower Common EF. Additionally, a factor specific to physiological arousal was associated with lower Common EF. Anhedonia-specific and Mania-specific factors were not significantly related to Common EF. Altogether, these results indicate that deficits in common EF are driven by, or reflect, general features of mood pathology that are shared across symptom dimensions but are also specifically associated with physiological arousal.
The composition of the gastrointestinal microbiota and associated metabolites changes dramatically with diet and the development of obesity. Although many correlations have been described, specific ...mechanistic links between these changes and glucose homeostasis remain to be defined. Here we show that blood and intestinal levels of the microbiota-produced
formyl peptide, formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine, are elevated in high-fat diet-induced obese mice. Genetic or pharmacological inhibition of the
formyl peptide receptor Fpr1 leads to increased insulin levels and improved glucose tolerance, dependent upon glucagon-like peptide 1. Obese Fpr1 knockout mice also display an altered microbiome, exemplifying the dynamic relationship between host metabolism and microbiota. Overall, we describe a new mechanism by which the gut microbiota can modulate glucose metabolism, providing a potential approach for the treatment of metabolic disease.
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