1,720,959 research outputs found
ROLE OF FUCOSYLTRANSFERASE-VII AND P-SELECTIN GLYCOPROTEIN LIGAND-1 IN THE MIGRATION OF CD4+CD25+ REGULATORY CELLS IN INFLAMED BRAIN
CD4+CD25+ regulatory T (Treg) cells participate in immunologic homeostasis by active suppression of inappropriate immune responses and are able to inhibit a variety of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Treg cells inhibit the activation of autoreactive T cells and suppress organ-specific autoimmunity. The mechanisms of Treg cells involved in the regulation of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) are not well understood. Recent studies have shown a direct involvment of Treg cells in the natural resolution of EAE within the central nervous system (CNS) and a strong correlation between their migration pattern and their ability to control inflammatory responses. However, the molecular mechanisms controlling the migration of Tregs in inflamed brain are not known. P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) and alpha (1,3) fucosyltransferases (FucT), enzymes that catalyze the glycosylation of PSGL-1 and control its functionality, are molecules involved in the migration of leukocytes in sites of inflammation. The GOAL of this study was to determine the role of PSGL-1 in the migration of Treg cells in mice with EAE.
METHODS: Active and transfer EAE were performed in WT/C57Bl/6, FucT-VII and PSGL-1 deficient (FucT-VII-/- and PSGL-1-/-) mice using MOG35-55 peptide. CD4+CD25+ cells were obtained by magnetic cell sorting. Flow cytometry and ImageStream technology were used to determine the expression and distribution of adhesion molecules and binding capacity to P-selectin and E-selectin chimeras. Migration properties of WT, FucT-VII-/- and PSGL-1-/- Tregs were determined with in vivo migration assays using 3H-glycerol-labeled Tregs. Intravital microscopy experiments were performed in order to determine the ability of WT, FucT-VII-/- and PSGL-1-/- Tregs to interact with inflamed brain endothelium.
RESULTS: Encephalitogenic T cells produced from FucT-VII-/- and PSGL-1-/- mice transferred a significantly more severe disease that WT T cells. We observed no significant differences in the expression of adhesion molecules and IL-4 and IFN-γ production of autoreactive T cells from PSGL-1 and FucT-VII deficient mice. However, co-cultures with CD4+CD25+ Tregs and effector cells showed that deficiency of PSGL-1 and FucT-VII leads to a marked decrease of suppression capacity of Tregs. Interestingly, activated CD4+CD25+ Tregs have increased expression of functional PSGL-1 and a significantly higher suppressor activity in vitro when compared to naïve cells. In addition, activated Tregs display increased migration capacity in inflamed brain in mice with EAE. Both activated and naïve WT Treg cells preferentially migrated into the CNS in the pre-clinical phase of active EAE, than at disease onset. Treg cells from FucT-VII-/- and PSGL-1-/- mice present decreased migration ability to inflamed CNS when compared to WT Tregs. Moreover, intravital microscopy experiments showed a dramatic decrease of adhesive interactions in inflamed brain microcirculation in FucT-VII-/- and PSGL-1-/- Tregs. Finally, Tregs deficient of PSGL-1 and FucT-VII displayed a reduced capacity to suppress active EAE when compared to WT cells.
CONCLUSION: Our data demonstrate that PSGL-1 and the fucosylation of its glycans by FucT-VII are involved in the suppression mediated by CD4+CD25+ Treg cells in MOG-induced EAE. Moreover, in addition to a role in cell-cell contact required for efficient suppression, our results suggest a key role of PSGL-1 and FucT-VII activity in the recruitment of CD4+CD25+ cells into the brain of mice with EAE
Inverse agonism of cannabinoid CB1 receptor blocks the adhesion of encephalitogenic T cells in inflamed brain venules by a protein kinase A-dependent mechanism
It is well known that the cannabinoid system has a significant role in the regulation of the immune responses. Cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 are expressed on T lymphocytes and mediate the immunomodulatory effects of cannabinoids on T cell functions. Here we show that the treatment of proteolipid protein (PLP)139-151-specific T cells with SR141716A, a CB1 inverse agonist and prototype of the diarylpyrazoles series, induced a strong inhibition of firm adhesion in inflamed brain venules in intravital microscopy experiments. In contrast, SR144528, a potent CB2 inverse agonist, had no significant effect on both rolling and arrest of activated T cells. In addition, two analogs of SR141716A and CB1 inverse agonists, AM251 and AM281 inhibited encephalitogenic T cell adhesion suggesting that selective CB1 inverse agonism interfere with lymphocyte trafficking in the CNS. Flow cytometry experiments showed that CB1 inverse agonists have no effect on adhesion molecule expression suggesting that CB1 blockade interferes with signal transduction pathways controlling T cell adhesion in inflamed brain venules. In addition, integrin clustering was not altered after treatment with CB1 inverse agonists suggesting that adhesion blockade is not due to the modulation of integrin valency. Notably, the inhibitory effect exerted by AM251 and AM281 on the adhesive interactions was completely reverted in the presence of protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor H89, suggesting that cAMP and PKA activation play a key role in the adhesion blockade mediated by CB1 inverse agonists. To further strengthen these results and unveil a previously unknown inhibitory role of cAMP on activated T cell adhesion in vivo in the context of CNS inflammation, we showed that intracellular increase of cAMP induced by treatment with Bt2cAMP, a permeable analog of cAMP, and phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitor theophylline efficiently blocked the arrest of encephalitogenic T cells in inflamed brain venules. Our data show that modulation of CB1 function has anti-inflammatory effects and suggests that inverse agonism of CB1 block signal transduction mechanisms controlling encephalitogenic T cells adhesion in inflamed brain venules by a PKA-dependent mechanism
Preventive and therapeutic beneficial effect of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells in chronic EAE
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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