Forty-two per cent of patients with chronic urticaria in our study had alexithymia. Female patients had approximately 48% higher odds of having alexithymia. Patients with uncontrolled urticaria had ...58% higher odds of having alexithymia. Among those with mild urticaria activity, the likelihood of having alexithymia was twice that of urticaria-free individuals. The use osf older first-generation antihistamines doubled the odds of having alexithymia. Patients with chronic urticaria with cardiovascular comorbidities had a 2.5-fold increased risk of alexithymia.
In fungi, heterotrimeric G proteins are key regulators of biological processes such as mating, virulence, morphology, among others. Mucor circinelloides is a model organism for many biological ...processes, and its genome contains the largest known repertoire of genes that encode putative heterotrimeric G protein subunits in the fungal kingdom: twelve Gα (McGpa1–12), three Gβ (McGpb1–3), and three Gγ (McGpg1–3). Phylogenetic analysis of fungal Gα showed that they are divided into four distinct groups as reported previously. Fungal Gβ and Gγ are also divided into four phylogenetic groups, and to our understanding this is the first report of a phylogenetic classification for fungal Gβ and Gγ subunits.
Almost all genes that encode putative heterotrimeric G subunits in M. circinelloides are differentially expressed during dimorphic growth, except for McGpg1 (Gγ) that showed very low mRNA levels at all developmental stages. Moreover, several of the subunits are expressed in a similar pattern and at the same level, suggesting that they constitute discrete complexes. For example, McGpb3 (Gβ), and McGpg2 (Gγ), are co-expressed during mycelium growth, and McGpa1, McGpb2, and McGpg2, are co-expressed during yeast development. These findings provide the conceptual framework to study the biological role of these genes during M. circinelloides morphogenesis.
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•First report of a large repertoire of encoding genes for Heterotrimeric G proteins in fungal organism.•First phylogenetic classification of fungal Gβ and Gγ subunits.•mRNA levels of Mucor circinelloides genes encoding Heterotrimeric G proteins were measured.
The gastrointestinal tract is the largest hormone-producing organ in the body due to a specialized cell population called enteroendocrine cells (EECs). The number of EECs increases in the mucosa of ...inflammatory bowel disease patients; however, the mechanisms responsible for these changes remain unknown. Here, we show that the pro-inflammatory cytokines interferon γ (IFNγ) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) or dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis increase the number of EECs producing chromogranin A (CgA) in the colonic mucosa of C57BL/6J mice. CgA-positive cells were non-proliferating cells enriched with inactive phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) and autophagy markers. Moreover, inhibition of Akt and autophagy prevented the increase in CgA-positive cells after IFNγ/TNFα treatment. Similarly, we observed that CgA-positive cells in the colonic mucosa of patients with colitis expressed Akt and autophagy markers. These findings suggest that Akt signaling and autophagy control differentiation of the intestinal EEC lineage during inflammation.
