Tracking atrazine degradation in soil combining C-mineralisation assays and compound-specific isotope analysis.

The quantification of pesticide dissipation in agricultural soil is challenging. In this study, we investigated atrazine biodegradation in both liquid and soil experiments bioaugmented with distinct atrazine-degrading bacterial isolates. This was achieved by combining C-mineralisation assays and compound-specific isotope analysis of atrazine.

An Early Neoplasia Index (ENI10), Based on Molecular Identity of CD10 Cells and Associated Stemness Biomarkers, is a Predictor of Patient Outcome in Many Cancers.

Unlabelled: An accurate estimate of patient survival at diagnosis is critical to plan efficient therapeutic options. A simple and multiapplication tool is needed to move forward the precision medicine era. Taking advantage of the broad and high CD10 expression in stem and cancers cells, we evaluated the molecular identity of aggressive cancer cells.

In Vitro Approaches to Determine the Potential Carcinogenic Risk of Environmental Pollutants.

One important environmental/health challenge is to determine, in a feasible way, the potential carcinogenic risk associated with environmental agents/exposures. Since a significant proportion of tumors have an environmental origin, detecting the potential carcinogenic risk of environmental agents is mandatory, as regulated by national and international agencies. The challenge mainly implies finding a way of how to overcome the inefficiencies of long-term trials with rodents when thousands of agents/exposures need to be tested.

Macrophage-Colony-Stimulating Factor Receptor Enhances Prostate Cancer Cell Growth and Aggressiveness In Vitro and In Vivo and Increases Osteopontin Expression.

Prostate cancer is a major public health concern and one of the most prevalent forms of cancer worldwide. The definition of altered signaling pathways implicated in this complex disease is thus essential. In this context, abnormal expression of the receptor of Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor-1 (M-CSF or CSF-1) has been described in prostate cancer cells.

Dimethomorph degradation in vineyards examined by isomeric and isotopic fractionation.

Knowledge of the degradation extent and pathways of fungicides in the environment is scarce. Fungicides may have isomers with distinct fungal-control efficiency, toxicity and fate in the environment, requiring specific approaches to follow up the degradation of individual isomers. Here we examined the degradation of the widely used fungicide dimethomorph (DIM) in a vineyard catchment using ratios of carbon stable isotopes (δC) and E/Z isomer fractionation (IF(Z)).

Altered BMP2/4 Signaling in Stem Cells and Their Niche: Different Cancers but Similar Mechanisms, the Example of Myeloid Leukemia and Breast Cancer.

Understanding mechanisms of cancer development is mandatory for disease prevention and management. In healthy tissue, the microenvironment or niche governs stem cell fate by regulating the availability of soluble molecules, cell-cell contacts, cell-matrix interactions, and physical constraints. Gaining insight into the biology of the stem cell microenvironment is of utmost importance, since it plays a role at all stages of tumorigenesis, from (stem) cell transformation to tumor escape.

Interplay between FLI-1 and the LDB1 complex in murine erythroleukemia cells and during megakaryopoiesis.

Transcription factors are key players in a broad range of cellular processes such as cell-fate decision. Understanding how they act to control these processes is of critical importance for therapy purposes. FLI-1 controls several hematopoietic lineage differentiation including megakaryopoiesis and erythropoiesis.

Single-cell analysis of autophagy activity in normal and de novo transformed human mammary cells.

Assessment of autophagy activity has historically been limited to investigations of fixed tissue or bulk cell populations. To address questions of heterogeneity and relate measurements to functional properties of viable cells isolated from primary tissue, we created a lentiviral (RFP-GFP-MAP1LC3B) vector that allows the autophagosome and autolysosome content of transduced cells to be monitored at the single-cell level. Use of this strategy to analyze purified subsets of normal human mammary cells showed that both the luminal progenitor-containing (LP) subset and the basal cells (BCs) display highly variable but overall similar autophagic flux activity despite differences suggested by measurements of the proteins responsible (i.

A new agarose-based microsystem to investigate cell response to prolonged confinement.

Emerging evidence suggests the importance of mechanical stimuli in normal and pathological situations for the control of many critical cellular functions. While the effect of matrix stiffness has been and is still extensively studied, few studies have focused on the role of mechanical stresses. The main limitation of such analyses is the lack of standard in vitro assays enabling extended mechanical stimulation compatible with dynamic biological and biophysical cell characterization.

Do rainfall characteristics affect the export of copper, zinc and synthetic pesticides in surface runoff from headwater catchments?

Rainfall and runoff characteristics may influence off-site export of pesticides into downstream aquatic ecosystems. However, the relationship between rainfall characteristics and pesticide export from small headwater catchments remains elusive due to confounding factors including the application dose and timing and the variation of pesticide stocks in soil. Here we examined the impact of rainfall characteristics on the export of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and 12 legacy and currently used synthetic pesticides in surface runoff from a headwater vineyard catchment.

p53 activation during ribosome biogenesis regulates normal erythroid differentiation.

The role of ribosome biogenesis in erythroid development is supported by the recognition of erythroid defects in ribosomopathies in both Diamond-Blackfan anemia and 5q- syndrome. Whether ribosome biogenesis exerts a regulatory function on normal erythroid development is still unknown. In the present study, a detailed characterization of ribosome biogenesis dynamics during human and murine erythropoiesis showed that ribosome biogenesis is abruptly interrupted by the decline in ribosomal DNA transcription and the collapse of ribosomal protein neosynthesis.

Dissipation of S-metolachlor and butachlor in agricultural soils and responses of bacterial communities: Insights from compound-specific isotope and biomolecular analyses.

The soil dissipation of the widely used herbicides S-metolachlor (SM) and butachlor (BUT) was evaluated in laboratory microcosms at two environmentally relevant doses (15 and 150 μg/g) and for two agricultural soils (crop and paddy). Over 80% of SM and BUT were dissipated within 60 and 30 days, respectively, except in experiments with crop soil at 150 μg/g. Based on compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) and observed dissipation, biodegradation was the main process responsible for the observed decrease of SM and BUT in the paddy soil.

Early Steps of Mammary Stem Cell Transformation by Exogenous Signals; Effects of Bisphenol Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Bone Morphogenetic Proteins.

Estrogens are major regulators of the mammary gland development, notably during puberty, via estrogen receptor (ER) activation, leading to the proliferation and differentiation of mammary cells. In addition to estrogens, the bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) family is involved in breast stem cell/progenitor commitment. However, these two pathways that synergistically contribute to the biology of the normal mammary gland have also been described to initiate and/or promote breast cancer development.

Enantiomer-specific stable carbon isotope analysis (ESIA) to evaluate degradation of the chiral fungicide Metalaxyl in soils.

Chiral pesticides are often degraded enantioselectively in soils, leading to disparity among enantiomers that may display different toxicity levels. Monitoring pesticide degradation extents and processes remains out of reach in the field using conventional bulk and enantiomer concentration analyses. Enantioselective stable carbon isotope analysis (ESIA) combines compound specific isotope analysis (CSIA) and enantioselective analysis, and bears potential to distinguish enantiomer degradation from non-destructive dissipation.

Immature CML cells implement a BMP autocrine loop to escape TKI treatment.

The BCR-ABL specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) changed the outcome of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), turning a life-threatening disease into a chronic illness. However, TKI are not yet curative, because most patients retain leukemic stem cells (LSC) and their progenitors in bone marrow and relapse following treatment cessation. At diagnosis, deregulation of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) pathway is involved in LSC and progenitor expansion.

Cesarean analgesia using levobupivacaine continuous wound infiltration: a randomized trial.

Objective: Neuraxial morphine is considered as a "gold standard" for pain relief after cesarean section, however it causes bothersome side effects. Alternative analgesia including nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) has been proposed. We aimed to assess the morphine sparing effect of continuous wound infiltration with a local anesthetic, when added to multimodal systemic analgesia including NSAID without subarachnoid morphine.

Spi-1, Fli-1 and Fli-3 (miR-17-92) oncogenes contribute to a single oncogenic network controlling cell proliferation in friend erythroleukemia.

Clonal erythroleukemia developing in susceptible mice infected by Friend virus complex are associated with highly recurrent proviral insertions at one of three loci called Spi-1, Fli-1 or Fli-3, leading to deregulated expression of oncogenic Spi-1 or Fli-1 transcription factors or miR-17-92 miRNA cluster, respectively. Deregulated expression of each of these three oncogenes has been independently shown to contribute to cell proliferation of erythroleukemic clones. Previous studies showed a close relationship between Spi-1 and Fli-1, which belong to the same ETS family, Spi-1 activating fli-1 gene, and both Spi-1 and Fli-1 activating multiple common target genes involved in ribosome biogenesis.

SU-D-213CD-06: Workflow and Safety Systems of a Linac-MR Sim-Brachytherapy MRgRT™ Facility.

Purpose: To develop the operational workflow and safety systems of a magnetic resonance-guided radiotherapy system (MRgRT™), which comprises an MR scanner on rails that travels between a linac vault, MR simulation room and brachytherapy suite.

Methods: To develop a safe and streamlined clinical workflow, we conducted a comprehensive process review based on a layered approach to overall MRgRT safety that included i) facility design, (ii) workflow iii) system design and interlocks and iv) policies and procedures. We applied existing guidelines for MR and radiation safety, and employed system-level failure modes and effects analyses to design the MRgRT facility and clinical procedures.

NF-κB regulates protein quality control after heat stress through modulation of the BAG3-HspB8 complex.

We previously found that the NF-κB transcription factor is activated during the recovery period after heat shock; moreover, we demonstrated that NF-κB is essential for cell survival after heat shock by activating autophagy, a mechanism that probably helps the cell to cope with hyperthermic stress through clearance of damaged proteins. In this study, we analyze the involvement of NF-κB in basal and heat-stress-induced protein quality control, by comparing the level of multiubiquitylated and/or aggregated proteins, and proteasome and autophagic activity in NF-κB-competent and NF-κB-incompetent cells. We show that NF-κB has only a minor role in basal protein quality control, where it modulates autophagosome maturation.