Abortion access for U.S. active-duty servicewomen: A scoping review.

Objectives: U.S. active-duty servicewomen experience barriers to abortion care that civilian women do not experience due to military regulations and federal law.

Small-molecule studies identify CDK8 as a regulator of IL-10 in myeloid cells.

Enhancing production of the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10) is a promising strategy to suppress pathogenic inflammation. To identify new mechanisms regulating IL-10 production, we conducted a phenotypic screen for small molecules that enhance IL-10 secretion from activated dendritic cells. Mechanism-of-action studies using a prioritized hit from the screen, BRD6989, identified the Mediator-associated kinase CDK8, and its paralog CDK19, as negative regulators of IL-10 production during innate immune activation.

High C-Reactive Protein Is Associated with Poor Sleep Quality Independent of Nocturnal Symptoms in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Background: Sleep disruption is common in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). However, studies demonstrating a similar prevalence in irritable bowel syndrome suggest that nighttime disruption due to diarrhea and abdominal pain may be key drivers of poor sleep quality. Whether inflammation is associated with poor sleep independently has not been examined previously.

Complex host genetics influence the microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease.

Background: Human genetics and host-associated microbial communities have been associated independently with a wide range of chronic diseases. One of the strongest associations in each case is inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but disease risk cannot be explained fully by either factor individually. Recent findings point to interactions between host genetics and microbial exposures as important contributors to disease risk in IBD.

Automated Video-Based Analysis of Contractility and Calcium Flux in Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes Cultured over Different Spatial Scales.

Contractile motion is the simplest metric of cardiomyocyte health in vitro, but unbiased quantification is challenging. We describe a rapid automated method, requiring only standard video microscopy, to analyze the contractility of human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPS-CM). New algorithms for generating and filtering motion vectors combined with a newly developed isogenic iPSC line harboring genetically encoded calcium indicator, GCaMP6f, allow simultaneous user-independent measurement and analysis of the coupling between calcium flux and contractility.

Small-molecule screening identifies inhibition of salt-inducible kinases as a therapeutic strategy to enhance immunoregulatory functions of dendritic cells.

Genetic alterations that reduce the function of the immunoregulatory cytokine IL-10 contribute to colitis in mouse and man. Myeloid cells such as macrophages (MΦs) and dendritic cells (DCs) play an essential role in determining the relative abundance of IL-10 versus inflammatory cytokines in the gut. As such, using small molecules to boost IL-10 production by DCs-MΦs represents a promising approach to increase levels of this cytokine specifically in gut tissues.

The effectiveness of a short food frequency questionnaire in determining vitamin D intake in children.

Previous studies have found a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in children, yet few validated dietary vitamin D assessment tools are available for use in children. Our objective was to determine whether a short food frequency questionnaire (SFFQ) can effectively assess vitamin D intake in children. Vitamin D intake ascertained by a SFFQ was compared with assessments by a previously validated long food frequency questionnaire (LFFQ) in a population of 296 healthy 6- to 14-y-old children (54% male, 60% African American) from Pittsburgh, PA.

Evolutionary dynamics of gene and isoform regulation in Mammalian tissues.

Most mammalian genes produce multiple distinct messenger RNAs through alternative splicing, but the extent of splicing conservation is not clear. To assess tissue-specific transcriptome variation across mammals, we sequenced complementary DNA from nine tissues from four mammals and one bird in biological triplicate, at unprecedented depth. We find that while tissue-specific gene expression programs are largely conserved, alternative splicing is well conserved in only a subset of tissues and is frequently lineage-specific.

Processing the interspecies quorum-sensing signal autoinducer-2 (AI-2): characterization of phospho-(S)-4,5-dihydroxy-2,3-pentanedione isomerization by LsrG protein.

The molecule (S)-4,5-dihydroxy-2,3-pentanedione (DPD) is produced by many different species of bacteria and is the precursor of the signal molecule autoinducer-2 (AI-2). AI-2 mediates interspecies communication and facilitates regulation of bacterial behaviors such as biofilm formation and virulence. A variety of bacterial species have the ability to sequester and process the AI-2 present in their environment, thereby interfering with the cell-cell communication of other bacteria.