1,720,983 research outputs found
CX3CL1 and CX3CR1 expression in tertiary lymphoid structures in salivary gland infiltrates: fractalkine contribution to lymphoid neogenesis in Sjogren's syndrome
Methods. We assessed the presence of CX3CL1 protein in sera by ELISA in 21 patients with primary SS, 11 patients with Sicca syndrome (Sicca), 20 RA patients and 10 blood donors. Histological evaluation was performed on sequential sections of salivary gland tissue. Using TaqMan RT-PCR we studied CX3CL1 and CX3CR1 mRNA expression in salivary gland tissues from a molecular point of view. Results. Increased serum levels of CX3CL1 protein were observed in SS patients compared with controls (P < 0.0001) and in RA patients compared with controls (P < 0.0001), but no difference was found between Sicca patients and controls (P = 0.22). We identified histologically the cells expressing CX3CL1 and CX3CR1 in salivary glands of SS patients and we localized the molecule within tertiary lymphoid structures. Finally, the mRNA levels of the CK and its receptor were up-regulated in SS salivary glands. Conclusion. We believe that our findings point to the need for future studies on CX3CL1 and CX3CR1 proteins as contributors to the formation of ectopic GCs and possibly as a new tool in the evaluation and diagnosis of SS
Attenuation of PI3K/Akt-Mediated Tumorigenic Signals through PTEN Activation by DNA Vaccine-Induced Anti-ErbB2 Antibodies
By studying BALB/c mice deficient in immune components, we show that the protective immunity to rat ErbB2(+) tumors rests on the Ab response elicited by the electroporation of a DNA vaccine encoding the extracellular and transmembrane domains of rat ErbB2. In vivo, the adoptive transfer of vaccine-elicited anti-rat ErbB2 Abs protected against a challenge of rat ErbB2(+) carcinoma cells (TUBO cells). In vitro, such Abs inhibited TUBO cell growth by impairing cell cycle progression and inducing apoptosis. To correlate intrinsic mechanisms of Ab action with their tumor-inhibitory potential, first we showed that TUBO cells constitutively express phosphorylated transgenic ErbB2/autochthonous ErbB3 heterodimers and exhibit a basal level of Akt phosphorylation, suggesting a constitutive activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway. Treatment with anti-ErbB2 Abs caused a drastic reduction in the basal level of Akt phosphorylation in the absence of an impairment of PI3K enzymatic activity. Notably, the same Ab treatment induced an increase in PTEN phosphatase activity that correlated with a reduced PTEN phosphorylation. In conclusion, vaccine-induced anti-ErbB2 Abs directly affected the transformed phenotype of rat ErbB2(+) tumors by impairing ErbB2-mediated PI3K/Akt signaling
NeuT-based vaccination-induced antibodies attenuate PI3K/akt-mediated tumorigenic signals through PTEN activation
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
Gut microbiota alterations affect glioma growth and innate immune cells involved in tumor immunosurveillance in mice
Glioma is a CNS tumor with few therapeutic options. Recently, host microbiota has been involved in the immune modulation of different tumors, but no data are available on the possible effects of the gut-immune axis on brain tumors. Here we investigated the effect of gut microbiota alteration in a syngeneic (GL261) mouse model of glioma, treating mice with two antibiotics (ABX) and evaluating the effects on tumor growth, microbe composition, natural killer (NK) cells and microglia phenotype. We report that ABX treatment altered i) the intestinal microbiota at family level ii) reduced cytotoxic NK cell subsets and iii) altered the expression of inflammatory and homeostatic proteins in microglia. All these findings could contribute to the increased growth of intracranial glioma that was observed after ABX treatment. These results demonstrate that chronic ABX administration alters microbiota composition and contributes to modulate brain immune state paving the way to glioma growth. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
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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