Correction: A secreted proteomic footprint for stem cell pluripotency.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Biochemical changes precede affective and cognitive anomalies in aging adult C57BL/6J mice with a prior history of adolescent alcohol binge-drinking.

The early initiation of binge-drinking and biological sex are critical risk factors for the development of affective disturbances and cognitive decline, as well as neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease. Further, a history of excessive alcohol consumption alters normal age-related changes in the pattern of protein expression in the brain, which may relate to an acceleration of cognitive decline. Here, we aimed to disentangle the interrelation between a history of binge-drinking during adolescence, biological sex and normal aging on the manifestation of negative affect, cognitive decline and associated biochemical pathology.

Design of experiments for the automated development of a multicellular cardiac model for high-throughput screening.

Cardiovascular toxicity remains a major cause of drug attrition in early drug development, clinical trials, and post-market surveillance. In vitro assessment of cardiovascular liabilities often relies on single cell type-based model systems coupled with functional assays, like calcium flux and multielectrode arrays. Although these models offer high-throughput capabilities and demonstrate good predictivity for functional cardiotoxicities, they fail to consider the vital contribution of non-myocyte cells, thus limiting the potential for integrated risk assessment.

A secreted proteomic footprint for stem cell pluripotency.

With a view to developing a much-needed non-invasive method for monitoring the healthy pluripotent state of human stem cells in culture, we undertook proteomic analysis of the waste medium from cultured embryonic (Man-13) and induced (Rebl.PAT) human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). Cells were grown in E8 medium to maintain pluripotency, and then transferred to FGF2 and TGFβ deficient E6 media for 48 hours to replicate an early, undirected dissolution of pluripotency.

SnoRNAs in cardiovascular development, function, and disease.

Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are emerging as important regulators of cardiovascular (patho)biology. Several roles of snoRNAs have recently been identified in heart development and congenital heart diseases, as well as their dynamic regulation in hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies, coronary heart disease (CHD), myocardial infarction (MI), cardiac fibrosis, and heart failure. Furthermore, reports of changes in vesicular snoRNA expression and altered levels of circulating snoRNAs in response to cardiac stress suggest that snoRNAs also function in cardiac signaling and intercellular communication.