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Cytokine profiles of bronchoalveolar lavage in patients with interstitial lung diseases and non-allergic asthma
No full textDiagnosing and prognosing immune-mediated airway diseases, like hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) and sarcoidosis, is complicated due to their overlapping symptoms and the lack of definitive biomarkers. Hence, we wanted to compare bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cytokine and chemokine profiles from 92 patients with different immune-mediated and inflammatory airway diseases, namely, HP, sarcoidosis, non-allergic asthma, amiodarone lung, and EGPA. We also compared pulmonary function parameters, BAL’s cellularity, and lymphocyte immunophenotypes. We found significant differences across all measured lung functions (VC, VC%, FEV1, FEV1%, and Tiff%) and in the number of macrophages, lymphocytes, neutrophils, and eosinophils. Furthermore, we showed significant differences in CD4, CD8, and CD4/8 across all included ILDs and OLDshowever, no significant differences were found in CD3, CD19, NK, or NKT. We identified nine biomarkers (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-13, VEGF, angiogenin, C4a, RANTES, and MCP-1) that significantly differ in the BAL of patients with HP and sarcoidosis and showed that RANTES and IL-6 are associated with fibrotic outcome. We have demonstrated that interstitial and obstructive lung diseases differ in cytokine and cellular lung imprint, which may, in the future, enable the determination of the disease subtype and thus the identification of targets for the treatment of individuals or subgroups within diseases
Visokointenzivna intervalna vadba izboljša delovanje ožilja bolj kot srednjeintenzivna kontinuirana aerobna vadba
Get PDFThis case study compared the acute effects of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) on vascular and microva-scular function in a healthy male subject (age: 34 yrsbody mass index: 25.82 kg/m2). Key vascular parameters were assessed, including augmentation index (AIx), ca-rotid-femoral and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (cfPWV, baPWV), flow-mediated slowing (FMS%), and tissue saturation index (TSI) recovery slope. HIIT induced a greater reduction in baPWV (mean difference [MD]: 0.9 m/s) and a higher increase in FMS% (MD: 8%) compared to MICT, indicating more favourable changes in periphe-ral arterial stiffness and endothelial function. Additionally, the reoxygenation slope for TSI was more pronounced after HIIT, suggesting improved microvascular recove-ry. Interestingly, AIx increased following MICT (MD from baseline: 11%) but slightly decreased after HIIT (MD from baseline: −5%). These findings suggest that exercise intensity plays a critical role in determining vascular adaptations, with HIIT showing superior acute benefitsV tej študiji primera so bili primerjani akutni učinki visokointenzivnega interval-nega treninga (HIIT) in zmerno intenzivnega kontinuiranega treninga (MICT) na žilno in mikrožilno funkcijo pri zdravem moškem udeležencu (starost: 34 let, indeks teles-ne mase: 25,82 kg/m²). Ocenjeni so bili ključni žilni parametri, vključno z indeksom augmentacije (AIx), karotidno-femoralno in brahialno hitrostjo pulznega vala (cfPWV, baPWV), upočasnitvijo pretoka po ishemičnemu stimulusu (FMS%) in naklonom okre-vanja indeksa nasičenosti tkiva (TSI). HIIT je povzročil večje zmanjšanje baPWV (po-vprečna razlika [MD]: 0,9 m/s) in večje povečanje FMS% (MD: 8 %) v primerjavi z MICT, kar kaže na ugodnejše spremembe periferne arterijske togosti in endotelijske funkcije. Poleg tega je bil po HIIT izrazitejši reoksigenacijski naklon TSI, kar nakazuje izboljšano mikrožilno okrevanje. Zanimivo je, da se je AIx po MICT povečal (MD glede na začetno vrednost: 11 %), po HIIT pa se je rahlo zmanjšal (MD glede na začetno vrednost: −5 %). Ti izsledki nakazujejo, da ima intenzivnost vadbe ključno vlogo pri določanju žilnih prilagoditev, pri čemer HIIT izkazuje boljše akutne koristi
Scale-up of zinc-air battery electrodes enhanced by 3D X-ray imaging
Get PDFThe scale-up of successful laboratory-scale zinc-air battery (ZAB) components is a stumbling block towards commercialization of this sustainable, cheap and safe technology. In this work, we consider electrode nanofabrication solutions that have been proved capable of overcoming durability criticalities at laboratory scale, but can miss their goal upon increasing electrode dimensions, owing to hard-to-discern electrode architecture issues. This contribution shows how X-ray computed microtomography can drive R&D of battery components
