Fourier Ring Correlation and Anisotropic Kernel Density Estimation Improve Deep Learning Based SMLM Reconstruction of Microtubules.

Single-molecule super-resolution microscopy (SMLM) techniques like STORM can reveal biological structures down to the nanometer scale. The achievable resolution is not only defined by the localization precision of individual fluorescent molecules, but also by their density, which becomes a limiting factor e.g.

Iterative training of robust k-space interpolation networks for improved image reconstruction with limited scan specific training samples.

Purpose: To evaluate an iterative learning approach for enhanced performance of robust artificial-neural-networks for k-space interpolation (RAKI), when only a limited amount of training data (auto-calibration signals [ACS]) are available for accelerated standard 2D imaging.

Methods: In a first step, the RAKI model was tailored for the case of limited training data amount. In the iterative learning approach (termed iterative RAKI [iRAKI]), the tailored RAKI model is initially trained using original and augmented ACS obtained from a linear parallel imaging reconstruction.

Barbershops as a setting for supporting men's mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study from the UK.

Background: Previous research has highlighted the need to promote help-seeking by men with mental health problems.

Aims: To investigate barbers' views about offering mental health support for men in barbershops, with a specific focus on the psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method: We used a sequential mixed-methods qualitative design with online data collection.

[The innovative dynamics for the restructuring of the health services].

Challenges posed by demographic and epidemiological changes and by the need to reduce costs have required the restructuring of the health services. Health innovations play a major role in this process, as technologies are fundamental both to expand the access and to adapt the system to the population's needs. However, the generation of health innovation is not based solely on sanitary demands and conditioning factors; on the contrary, it often reflects a trajectory of development and the interests of restricted groups in society.

Chemokine gene expression and clonal analysis of B cells in tissues involved by lymphoid interstitial pneumonitis from HIV-infected pediatric patients.

Lymphoid interstitial pneumonitis (LIP), a frequent pulmonary complication in HIV-infected pediatric patients, is characterized histologically by marked infiltration of lymphoid cells. We sought to evaluate the nature and pathogenesis of the lymphoid infiltrates and to examine the relationship of LIP to pulmonary MALT lymphoma that has been described in pediatric HIV positive patients. To examine the potential contribution of chemokines and cytokines to the inflammatory cell recruitment in tissues involved by lymphoid interstitial pneumonitis from HIV-infected pediatric patients, RNA was extracted from paraffin-embedded tissues from five lung biopsies in four pediatric HIV-positive patients and from five control, normal lung biopsies in five HIV-negative patients and was analyzed by semiquantitative RT-PCR for the expression of cytokines (TNF-alpha, GM-CSF, IFN-gamma, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-18) and chemokines (IP-10, Mig, regulated upon activation, normal T expressed and secreted [RANTES], and MIP1-alpha and beta) after normalization for G3PDH.

Disparate intracellular processing of human IL-12 preprotein subunits: atypical processing of the P35 signal peptide.

IL-12 is a heterodimeric cytokine produced by APC that critically regulates cell-mediated immunity. Because of its crucial function during immune responses, IL-12 production is stringently regulated, in part through transcriptional control of its p35 subunit, which requires the differentiative effects of IFN-gamma for expression. To determine whether post-transcriptional aspects of IL-12 production might be regulated, we examined intracellular protein processing of each subunit.

Human NK cells express endothelial nitric oxide synthase, and nitric oxide protects them from activation-induced cell death by regulating expression of TNF-alpha.

Although NO appears important in rodent immune responses, its involvement in the human immune system is unclear. We report that human NK cells express constitutive endothelial NO synthase mRNA and protein, but not detectable levels of inducible NO synthase. They produce NO following activation by coculture with target cells or cross-linking with anti-CD16 mAb, and production is increased in the presence of IL-2.

Human astrocytes inhibit HIV-1 expression in monocyte-derived macrophages by secreted factors.

Objective: To determine the effects of primary human fetal and adult astrocytes on HIV-1 replication in monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM).

Design: HIV-1 can infect the brain in the early stage of systemic infection. The HIV-1-associated cognitive/motor complex develops later in the course of the disease, suggesting that brain cells may inhibit the early productive infection and the development of neurological disease.

Differential chemokine expression in tissues involved by Hodgkin's disease: direct correlation of eotaxin expression and tissue eosinophilia.

Hodgkin's disease (HD) is a lymphoid malignancy characterized by infrequent malignant cells surrounded by abundant inflammatory cells. In this study, we examined the potential contribution of chemokines to inflammatory cell recruitment in different subtypes of HD. Chemokines are small proteins that are active as chemoattractants and regulators of cell activation.

Human immunodeficiency virus-1-infected macrophages induce inducible nitric oxide synthase and nitric oxide (NO) production in astrocytes: astrocytic NO as a possible mediator of neural damage in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

Nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in normal neural cell function. Dysregulated or overexpression of NO contributes to neurologic damage associated with various pathologies, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated neurological disease. Previous studies suggest that HIV-infected monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) produce low levels of NO in vitro and that inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) is expressed in the brain of patients with neurologic disease.

Interferon-gamma-dependent inducible expression of the human interleukin-12 p35 gene in monocytes initiates from a TATA-containing promoter distinct from the CpG-rich promoter active in Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphoblastoid cells.

Interleukin-12 (IL-12) production by human monocytes is stringently regulated through the inducibility of both subunits, p35 and p40, and expression of p35 mRNA is the limiting factor for the secretion of the bioactive IL-12 p70 heterodimer. Optimal induction of p35 mRNA requires priming of the monocytes by interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), followed by brief exposure to lipopolysaccharide or other bacterial products. To investigate control of p35 gene expression, we isolated genomic clones containing the human p35 gene and determined the 5' end of the mRNA expressed in monocytes.

Type C retrovirus released from porcine primary peripheral blood mononuclear cells infects human cells.

As part of the evaluation of porcine cells, tissues, and organs intended for transplantation into humans, we investigated the conditions required to induce expression and release of porcine endogenous retrovirus (PoEV) from primary cells. Pigs contain endogenous retroviral sequences encoding infectious retrovirus, yet little is known about the conditions required to activate the expression and release of PoEV from primary cells. We show here that mitogenic activation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) isolated from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) miniature pig and the Yucatan pig resulted in the activation and release of an infectious type C retrovirus.

The role of Mig, the monokine induced by interferon-gamma, and IP-10, the interferon-gamma-inducible protein-10, in tissue necrosis and vascular damage associated with Epstein-Barr virus-positive lymphoproliferative disease.

The mechanisms of tissue necrosis and vascular damage characteristics of certain Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated lymphoproliferative disorders are unknown. The CXC chemokines interferon-gamma-inducible protein-10 (IP-10) and the monokine induced by interferon-gamma (Mig) caused tissue necrosis and vascular damage in Burkitt's lymphoma tumors established in nude mice. We report higher levels of IP-10 and Mig gene expression in tissues with necrosis and vascular damage from EBV-positive lymphomatoid granulomatosis and nasal or nasal-type T/natural killer (NK)-cell lymphomas compared with tissues with lymphoid hyperplasia, which lacked tissue necrosis and vascular damage.

Mig, the monokine induced by interferon-gamma, promotes tumor necrosis in vivo.

Mig, the monokine induced by interferon-gamma, is a CXC chemokine active as a chemoattractant for activated T cells. Mig is related functionally to interferon-inducible protein 10 (IP-10), with which it shares a receptor, CXCR3. Previously, IP-10 was found to have antitumor activity in vivo.

Interferon-inducible protein-10 identified as a mediator of tumor necrosis in vivo.

Human Burkitt lymphoma cell lines give rise to progressively growing subcutaneous tumors in athymic mice. These tumors are induced to regress by inoculation of Epstein-Barr virus-immortalized normal human lymphocytes. In the present study, analysis of profiles of murine cytokine/chemokine gene expression in Burkitt tumor tissues excised from the nude mice showed that expression of the murine alpha-chemokine interferon-inducible protein-10 (IP-10) was higher in the regressing than in the progressive Burkitt tumors.

Differential effects of interleukin-12 treatment on gene expression by allostimulated T cells from young and aged mice.

Alloantigen stimulation was used to examine the effect of interleukin (IL-12) treatment of stimulated cells from young and aged mice on the expression of mRNAs for perforin and granzyme B, two proteins known to be intimately involved in an important lytic pathway used by CTL, and mRNA for interferon (IFN)-gamma, production of which is highly stimulated by IL-12 As reported previously, IL-12 augmented the lytic activity by cells from both young and aged mice, although the relative increase was greater for the latter. The mRNAs encoding perforin and granzyme B were both marginally enhanced at early time points (for cells from young mice) or throughout the stimulation (for cells from aged mice) following allo-stimulation in the presence of IL-12. The levels of augmentation of these mRNAs was consistent with the augmentation of lytic activity.

Activated mast cells produce interleukin 13.

When mast cells are activated through their immunoglobulin (Ig)E receptors, release of low molecular weight mediators like histamine is followed by secretion of multiple cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-3, IL-4, IL-5, and granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Here we report that stimulated mast cells also synthesize IL-13 mRNA and protein; secretion of this cytokine may be of particular importance because of its ability to stimulate IgE expression. IL-13 transcripts detected by a semiquantitative reverse transcriptase-mediated polymerase chain reaction assay were induced within 30 min after stimulation of mast cells by dinitrophenyl plus monoclonal IgE anti-dinitrophenyl, and peaked at about 1 h.

Potent stimulation of monocytic endothelin-1 production by HIV-1 glycoprotein 120.

Monocytes/macrophages play a critical role in the pathogenesis of HIV infection, both as targets for virus replication and as sources of production of multifunctional cytokines. Endothelins, peptides with potent vasoconstricting activities originally isolated from endothelial cells, are also produced and secreted by macrophages in a manner similar to that of other cytokines. In an attempt to explore the potential role of endothelins in HIV-infection, we investigated the effect of the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein, glycoprotein 120, on monocytic endothelin-1 production.

Thrombin is a regulator of astrocytic endothelin-1.

Endothelin-1, a potent vasoconstrictor of cerebral vessels, is produced by rat primary astrocytes and is subject to autostimulatory regulation in these cells. In this study we examined the effect of thrombin on astrocytic endothelins and report that endothelin-1 is released into the culture fluid in response to thrombin treatment. However, increased production of endothelin-1 is not accompanied by a concomitant increase in steady-state levels of endothelin-1 mRNA as assessed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, even though thrombin stimulation leads to increased inositolphospholipid turnover and activation of the nuclear factor AP1.

IL-3-dependent mast cells attach to plate-bound vitronectin. Demonstration of augmented proliferation in response to signals transduced via cell surface vitronectin receptors.

The adhesive interactions of activated mast cells with the extracellular matrix play an important role in anchorage and cellular motility. In this report we demonstrate that IL-3-dependent bone marrow-derived mast cells adhere to plate-bound vitronectin with high affinity in a saturable and dose-dependent manner. This adhesion interaction is unique in that it does not require prior mast cell activation through Fc epsilon RI or after treatment with PMA.

Passive cutaneous anaphylaxis in mouse skin is associated with local accumulation of interleukin-6 mRNA and immunoreactive interleukin-6 protein.

We used a BALB/c model of passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA), an IgE-mediated, mast cell-dependent reaction, to demonstrate the early production of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) mRNA and protein product. Northern blot analysis detects IL-6 mRNA 1, and 2 hours after antigen challenge (dinitrophenyl30-40 human serum albumin [DNP30-40-HSA]) and in situ hybridization reveals that it is primarily cells with round-to-oval nuclei within the dermis (1 to 3 per high-power field) expressing IL-6 mRNA. Immunohistochemistry revealed perinuclear and cytoplasmic staining for immunoreactive IL-6 in mononuclear dermal cells and also cells within the basal keratinocyte layer.

A novel mitogen-inducible gene product related to p50/p105-NF-kappa B participates in transactivation through a kappa B site.

A Rel-related, mitogen-inducible, kappa B-binding protein has been cloned as an immediate-early activation gene of human peripheral blood T cells. The cDNA has an open reading frame of 900 amino acids capable of encoding a 97-kDa protein. This protein is most similar to the 105-kDa precursor polypeptide of p50-NF-kappa B.

Endothelins belong to the assortment of mast cell-derived and mast cell-bound cytokines.

Local accumulation of endothelins (ETs) as cytokine-like factors via autocrine/paracrine mechanisms seems to represent an important aspect of their pathophysiological action. This assumption prompted us to investigate mast cells as a possible source of these peptides. With the use of a combination of high-performance liquid chromatography and a radioimmunoassay specific for endothelin-1 (ET-1), 3-week-old cultures of primary murine bone marrow mast cells (BMMC) as well as various mast cell lines were shown to contain and secrete immunoreactive ET-1.

Mast cells as a source of multifunctional cytokines.

Mast cells have been implicated in the expression of a wide variety of biological responses, including immediate hypersensitivity reactions, host responses to parasites and neoplasms, immunologically non-specific inflammatory and fibrotic conditions, angiogenesis, and tissue remodeling and wound healing. However, the molecular basis for the action of the mast cell in many of these responses is obscure. In this review, John Gordon, Parris Burd and Stephen Galli suggest that the production of a broad panel of multifunctional cytokines may represent an important mechanism by which mast cells influence physiological, immunological and pathological processes.