Effects of polystyrene nano- and microplastics on human breast epithelial cells and human breast cancer cells.

The continuous littering of the environment with plastic and the resulting nano- and microplastics produced from various processes are ever-increasing problems. These materials also affect humans, as the absorption and accumulation of nano- and microplastics and their effects on health have thus far been rarely researched, which also applies to cancer. In the present study, the absorption of different sizes of polystyrene (PS) nano- and microplastics (PS particles) into human breast epithelial cells and human breast cancer cells was investigated.

Two-Dimensional Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry Untangles the Deep Metabolome of Marine Dissolved Organic Matter.

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is an ultracomplex mixture that plays a central role in global biogeochemical cycles. Despite its importance, DOM remains poorly understood at the molecular level. Over the last decades, significant efforts have been made to decipher the chemical composition of DOM by high-resolution mass spectrometry (HR-MS) and liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS).

Dissolved Organic Matter Contains Ketones Across a Wide Range of Molecular Formulas.

The carbonyl functionality of natural organic matter (NOM) is poorly constrained. Here, we treated Suwannee River NOM (SRNOM) with ammonium acetate and sodium cyanoborohydride to convert ketone-containing compounds by reductive amination to their corresponding primary amines. The total dissolved nitrogen content increased by up to 275% after amination.

How Much Do You Fuse? A Comparison of Cell Fusion Assays in a Breast Cancer Model.

Cell fusion is a biological process that is crucial for the development and homeostasis of different tissues, but it is also pathophysiologically associated with tumor progression and malignancy. The investigation of cell fusion processes is difficult because there is no standardized marker. Many studies therefore use different systems to observe and quantify cell fusion in vitro and in vivo.

Global Growth Phase Response of the Gut Bacterium Phocaeicola vulgatus (Phylum Bacteroidota).

Introduction: Phocaeicola vulgatus (basonym Bacteroides vulgatus) belongs to the intestinal microbiome of healthy humans and animals, where it participates in the fermentative breakdown of biopolymers ingested with food. In doing so, P. vulgatus contributes to the shaping of the gut metabolome, which benefits the host health.

Iron Promotes the Retention of Terrigenous Dissolved Organic Matter in Subtidal Permeable Sediments.

Marine permeable sediments are important sites for organic matter turnover in the coastal ocean. However, little is known about their role in trapping dissolved organic matter (DOM). Here, we examined DOM abundance and molecular compositions (9804 formulas identified) in subtidal permeable sediments along a near- to offshore gradient in the German North Sea.

Treeline displacement may affect lake dissolved organic matter processing at high latitudes and altitudes.

Climate change induced shifts in treeline position, both towards higher altitudes and latitudes induce changes in soil organic matter. Eventually, soil organic matter is transported to alpine and subarctic lakes with yet unknown consequences for dissolved organic matter (DOM) diversity and processing. Here, we experimentally investigate the consequences of treeline shifts by amending subarctic and temperate alpine lake water with soil-derived DOM from above and below the treeline.

Universal microbial reworking of dissolved organic matter along environmental gradients.

Soils are losing increasing amounts of carbon annually to freshwaters as dissolved organic matter (DOM), which, if degraded, can offset their carbon sink capacity. However, the processes underlying DOM degradation across environments are poorly understood. Here we show DOM changes similarly along soil-aquatic gradients irrespective of environmental differences.

Altered Phenotypes of Breast Epithelial × Breast Cancer Hybrids after ZEB1 Knock-Out.

ZEB1 plays a pivotal role in epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), (cancer) cell stemness and cancer therapy resistance. The M13HS tumor hybrids, which were derived from spontaneous fusion events between the M13SV1-EGFP-Neo breast epithelial cells and HS578T-Hyg breast cancer cells, express ZEB1 and exhibit prospective cancer stem cell properties. To explore a possible correlation between the ZEB1 and stemness/ EMT-related properties in M13HS tumor hybrids, ZEB1 was knocked-out by CRISPR/Cas9.

Disentangling Biological Transformations and Photodegradation Processes from Marine Dissolved Organic Matter Composition in the Global Ocean.

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) holds the largest amount of organic carbon in the ocean, with most of it residing in the deep for millennia. Specific mechanisms and environmental conditions responsible for its longevity are still unknown. Microbial transformations and photochemical degradation of DOM in the surface layers are two processes that shape its molecular composition.

Cell Fusion and Syncytia Formation in Cancer.

The natural phenomenon of cell-cell fusion does not only take place in physiological processes, such as placentation, myogenesis, or osteoclastogenesis, but also in pathophysiological processes, such as cancer. More than a century ago postulated, today the hypothesis that the fusion of cancer cells with normal cells leads to the formation of cancer hybrid cells with altered properties is in scientific consensus. Some studies that have investigated the mechanisms and conditions for the fusion of cancer cells with other cells, as well as studies that have characterized the resulting cancer hybrid cells, are presented in this review.

Temperature Thresholds of Pyrogenic Dissolved Organic Matter in Heating Experiments Simulating Forest Fires.

Heating temperature (HT) during forest fires is a critical factor in regulating the quantity and quality of pyrogenic dissolved organic matter (DOM). However, the temperature thresholds at which maximum amounts of DOM are produced (TT) and at which the DOC gain turns into net DOC loss (TT) remain unidentified on a component-specific basis. Here, based on solid-state C nuclear magnetic resonance, absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopies, and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, we analyzed variations in DOM composition in detritus and soil with HT (150-500 °C) and identified temperature thresholds for components on structural, fluorophoric, and molecular formula levels.

Expanding the Limits of Structural Characterization of Marine Dissolved Organic Matter Using Nonuniform Sampling Frequency-Reversed Edited HSQC NMR.

The multiplicity-edited heteronuclear single quantum correlation (ME-HSQC) NMR method is widely used for the structural characterization of marine dissolved organic matter (DOM), which is a complex molecular mixture comprising millions of individual compounds. However, the standard ME-HSQC suffers from significant signal cancellation and subsequent loss of crucial structural information due to the overlap between CH/CH (positive) and CH (negative) cross-peaks in overcrowded regions. This study introduces nonuniform sampling in frequency-reversed ME-HSQC (NUS FR-ME-HSQC), highlighting its remarkable potential for the comprehensive structural characterization of marine DOM.

Bioactivity profile of dissolved organic matter and its relation to molecular composition.

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) occupies a huge and uncharted molecular space. Given its properties, DOM can be presented as a promising biotechnological resource. However, research into bioactivities of DOM is still in early stages.

Naturally induced biphasic phytoplankton spring bloom reveals rapid and distinct substrate and bacterial community dynamics.

Phytoplankton spring blooms are typical features in coastal seas and provide heterotrophic bacteria with a rich blend of dissolved substrates. However, they are difficult to study in coastal seas in-situ. Here, we induced a phytoplankton spring bloom and followed its fate for 37 days in four 600 L-mesocosms.

Anthropogenic Disturbance Stimulates the Export of Dissolved Organic Carbon to Rivers on the Tibetan Plateau.

The impacts of human activities on the riverine carbon (C) cycle have only recently been recognized, and even fewer studies have been reported on anthropogenic impacts on C cycling in rivers draining the vulnerable alpine areas. Here, we examined carbon isotopes (δC and ΔC), fluorescence, and molecular compositions of riverine dissolved organic matters (DOM) in the Bailong River catchment, the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau to identify anthropogenic impacts on the C cycle. Human activities show limited impact on dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration, but significantly increased the age of DOC (from modern to ∼1600 yr B.

Why do certain cancer cells alter functionality and fuse?

Cancer cell fusion represents a rare event. However, the surviving cancer hybrid cells after a post-hybrid selection process (PHSP) can overgrow other cancer cells by exhibiting a proliferation advantage and/or expression of cancer stem-like properties. Addition of new tumor properties during hetero-fusion of cancer cells e.

Human epidermis organotypic cultures, a reproducible system recapitulating the epidermis in vitro.

The translatability of research is highly dependent on models that recapitulate human tissues and organs. Here, we describe a procedure for the generation of human epidermis organotypic cultures (HEOCs) from primary keratinocytes isolated from foreskin and adult skin as well as from an immortalized keratinocyte cell line (KerTr). We tested several media conditions to develop a defined HEOC growing and expansion media.

Intrinsic signalling factors associated with cancer cell-cell fusion.

Cellular fusion e.g. between cancer cells and normal cells represents a stepwise process that is tightly regulated.

Discovering Nature's Fingerprints: Isotope Ratio Analysis on Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometers.

For a generation or more, the mass spectrometry that developed at the frontier of molecular biology was worlds apart from isotope ratio mass spectrometry, a label-free approach done on optimized gas-source magnetic sector instruments. Recent studies show that electrospray-ionization Orbitraps and other mass spectrometers widely used in the life sciences can be fine-tuned for high-precision isotope ratio analysis. Since isotope patterns form everywhere in nature based on well-understood principles, intramolecular isotope measurements allow unique insights into a fascinating range of research topics.

Determinants of Microbial-Derived Dissolved Organic Matter Diversity in Antarctic Lakes.

Identifying drivers of the molecular composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) is essential to understand the global carbon cycle, but an unambiguous interpretation of observed patterns is challenging due to the presence of confounding factors that affect the DOM composition. Here, we show, by combining ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, that the DOM molecular composition varies considerably among 43 lakes in East Antarctica that are isolated from terrestrial inputs and human influence. The DOM composition in these lakes is primarily driven by differences in the degree of photodegradation, sulfurization, and pH.

Land-use changes in Amazon and Atlantic rainforests modify organic matter and black carbon compositions transported from land to the coastal ocean.

This study assessed black carbon (BC) dynamics, concentrations, and the organic matter (OM) isotopic carbon composition in northeastern South America drainage basin coastal sediments. Paraíba do Sul (PSR; Atlantic Rainforest, Brazil) coastal sediments displayed more C-enriched values (-22.6 ± 1.

Doublecortin and Glypican-2 concentrations in the cerebrospinal fluid from infants are developmentally downregulated.

Objective: Doublecortin (DCX) and glypican-2 (GPC2) are neurodevelopmental proteins involved in the differentiation of neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) to neurons, and are developmentally downregulated in neurons after birth. In this study, we investigated whether the concentrations of DCX and GPC2 in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from human pediatric patients reflect this developmental process or are associated with cerebral damage or inflammatory markers.

Methods: CSF was collected from pediatric patients requiring neurosurgical treatment.

Extracellular Events Involved in Cancer Cell-Cell Fusion.

Fusion among different cell populations represents a rare process that is mediated by both intrinsic and extracellular events. Cellular hybrid formation is relayed by orchestrating tightly regulated signaling pathways that can involve both normal and neoplastic cells. Certain important cell merger processes are often required during distinct organismal and tissue development, including placenta and skeletal muscle.

Molecular level characterization of the biolability of rainwater dissolved organic matter.

The atmospheric wet deposition has been recognized as a significant allochthonous source of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to the ocean. However, few studies have examined the biolability of rainwater dissolved organic matter (DOM) at the molecular level. Rainwater samples were collected and incubated with ambient microbes.