Author Correction: Comparative Proteomic Analysis in Scar-Free Skin Regeneration in Acomys cahirinus and Scarring Mus musculus.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Comparative Proteomic Analysis in Scar-Free Skin Regeneration in Acomys cahirinus and Scarring Mus musculus.

The spiny mouse, Acomys cahirinus displays a unique wound healing ability with regeneration of all skin components in a scar-free manner. To identify orchestrators of this regenerative response we have performed proteomic analyses of skin from Acomys and Mus musculus before and after wounding. Of the ~2000 proteins identified many are expressed at similar levels in Acomys and Mus, but there are significant differences.

rAAVrh74.MCK. Demonstrates Safety and Widespread Muscle Glycosylation after Intravenous Delivery in C57BL/6J Mice.

rAAVrh74.MCK. is a surrogate gene therapy that inhibits muscular dystrophy in multiple animal models.

Upper Extremity Rehabilitation Using Fully Immersive Virtual Reality Games With a Head Mount Display: A Feasibility Study.

Background: Rehabilitation therapy using a virtual reality (VR) system for stroke patients has gained attention. However, few studies have investigated fully immersive VR using a head-mount display (HMD) for upper extremity rehabilitation in stroke patients.

Objective: To investigate the feasibility, preliminary efficacy, and usability of a fully immersive VR rehabilitation program using a commercially available HMD for upper-limb rehabilitation in stroke patients.

The natural course of passive tenodesis grip in individuals with spinal cord injury with preserved wrist extension power but paralyzed fingers and thumbs.

Study Design: Cross-sectional.

Objectives: To investigate the natural course of passive tenodesis grip in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) with no experience of tenodesis splint application and the related factors for success of the grip.

Setting: Community-dwelling persons with chronic SCI in South Korea.

Controlled multiple neutral planes by low elastic modulus adhesive for flexible organic photovoltaics.

To protect brittle layers in organic photovoltaic devices, the mechanical neutral plane strategy can be adopted through placing the brittle functional materials close to the neutral plane where stress and strain are zero during bending. However, previous research has been significantly limited in the location and number of materials to protect through using a single neutral plane. In this study, multiple neutral planes are generated using low elastic modulus adhesives and are controlled through quantitative analyses in order to protect the multiple brittle materials at various locations.

Scale of Carbon Nanomaterials Affects Neural Outgrowth and Adhesion.

Carbon nanomaterials have become increasingly popular microelectrode materials for neuroscience applications. Here we study how the scale of carbon nanotubes and carbon nanofibers affect neural viability, outgrowth, and adhesion. Carbon nanotubes were deposited on glass coverslips via a layer-by-layer method with polyethylenimine (PEI).

Cell type-specific genetic and optogenetic tools reveal hippocampal CA2 circuits.

The formation and recall of episodic memory requires precise information processing by the entorhinal-hippocampal network. For several decades, the trisynaptic circuit entorhinal cortex layer II (ECII)→dentate gyrus→CA3→CA1 and the monosynaptic circuit ECIII→CA1 have been considered the primary substrates of the network responsible for learning and memory. Circuits linked to another hippocampal region, CA2, have only recently come to light.

Active and passive immunization strategies based on the SDPM1 peptide demonstrate pre-clinical efficacy in the APPswePSEN1dE9 mouse model for Alzheimer's disease.

Recent clinical and pre-clinical studies suggest that both active and passive immunization strategies targeting Aβ amyloid may have clinical benefit in Alzheimer's disease. Here, we demonstrate that vaccination of APPswePSEN1dE9 mice with SDPM1, an engineered non-native Aβ amyloid-specific binding peptide, lowers brain Aβ amyloid plaque burden and brain Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 peptide levels, improves cognitive learning and memory in Morris water maze tests and increases the expression of synaptic brain proteins. This was the case in young mice immunized prior to development of significant brain amyloid burden, and in older mice, where brain amyloid was already present.

Identification of new dystroglycan complexes in skeletal muscle.

The dystroglycan complex contains the transmembrane protein β-dystroglycan and its interacting extracellular mucin-like protein α-dystroglycan. In skeletal muscle fibers, the dystroglycan complex plays an important structural role by linking the cytoskeletal protein dystrophin to laminin in the extracellular matrix. Mutations that affect any of the proteins involved in this structural axis lead to myofiber degeneration and are associated with muscular dystrophies and congenital myopathies.

A Method to Produce and Purify Full-Length Recombinant Alpha Dystroglycan: Analysis of N- and O-Linked Monosaccharide Composition in CHO Cells with or without LARGE Overexpression.

α dystroglycan (αDG) is part of the dystrophin-associated glycoprotein (DAG) complex, a series of cytoskeletal, transmembrane, and membrane-associated proteins that serve to link the extracellular matrix (ECM) surrounding individual skeletal myofibers to the intracellular F-actin cytoskeleton. Glycosylation and ECM protein binding to αDG are regulated by a number of genes that, when defective, give rise to congenital or limb-girdle forms of muscular dystrophy termed dystroglycanopathies. One such dystroglycanopathy gene is LARGE.

Comparative proteomic profiling of dystroglycan-associated proteins in wild type, mdx, and Galgt2 transgenic mouse skeletal muscle.

Dystroglycan is a major cell surface glycoprotein receptor for the extracellular matrix in skeletal muscle. Defects in dystroglycan glycosylation cause muscular dystrophy and alterations in dystroglycan glycosylation can impact extracellular matrix binding. Here we describe an immunoprecipitation technique that allows isolation of beta dystroglycan with members of the dystrophin-associated protein complex (DAPC) from detergent-solubilized skeletal muscle.

A human-specific deletion in mouse Cmah increases disease severity in the mdx model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

During the evolution of humans, an inactivating deletion was introduced in the CMAH (cytidine monophosphate-sialic acid hydroxylase) gene, which eliminated biosynthesis of the common mammalian sialic acid N-glycolylneuraminic acid from all human cells. We found that this human-specific change in sialylation capacity contributes to the marked discrepancy in phenotype between the mdx mouse model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and the human disease. When compared to human patients with DMD, mdx mice show reduced severity or slower development of clinically relevant disease phenotypes, despite lacking dystrophin protein in almost all muscle cells.

Glycan profiling of a defect in decorin glycosylation in equine systemic proteoglycan accumulation, a potential model of progeroid form of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

Defects in glycosylation of decorin can result in systemic hereditary disease. A mutation in the galactosyl transferase I gene is the underlying defect of a progeroid form of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. We have previously described pathological changes in equine systemic proteoglycan accumulation (ESPA, formerly degenerative suspensory ligament desmitis) as consisting of excessive presence of decorin and other proteoglycans in organs and structures with a high content of connective tissue.

The synaptic CT carbohydrate modulates binding and expression of extracellular matrix proteins in skeletal muscle: Partial dependence on utrophin.

The CT carbohydrate, Neu5Ac/Neu5Gcalpha2,3[GalNAcbeta1,4]Galbeta1,4GlcNAcbeta-, is specifically expressed at the neuromuscular junction in skeletal myofibers of adult vertebrates. When Galgt2, the glycosyltransferase that creates the synaptic beta1,4GalNAc portion of this glycan, is overexpressed in extrasynaptic regions of the myofiber membrane, alpha dystroglycan becomes glycosylated with the CT carbohydrate and this coincides with the ectopic expression of synaptic dystroglycan-binding proteins, including laminin alpha4, laminin alpha5, and utrophin. Here we show that both synaptic and extrasynaptic forms of laminin and agrin have increased binding to the CT carbohydrate compared to sialyl-N-acetyllactosamine, its extrasynaptically expressed precursor.

Overexpression of the cytotoxic T cell (CT) carbohydrate inhibits muscular dystrophy in the dyW mouse model of congenital muscular dystrophy 1A.

A number of recent studies have demonstrated therapeutic effects of transgenes on the development of muscle pathology in the mdx mouse model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but none have been shown also to be effective in mouse models for laminin alpha2-deficient congenital muscular dystrophy (MDC1A). Here, we show that overexpression of the cytotoxic T cell (CT) GalNAc transferase (Galgt2) is effective in inhibiting the development of muscle pathology in the dy(W) mouse model of MDC1A, much as we had previously shown in mdx animals. Embryonic overexpression of Galgt2 in skeletal muscles using transgenic mice or postnatal overexpression using adeno-associated virus both reduced the extent of muscle pathology in dy(W)/dy(W) skeletal muscle.

Degenerative suspensory ligament desmitis as a systemic disorder characterized by proteoglycan accumulation.

Background: Degenerative suspensory ligament desmitis (DSLD) is a debilitating disorder thought to be limited to suspensory ligaments of Peruvian Pasos, Peruvian Paso crosses, Arabians, American Saddlebreds, American Quarter Horses, Thoroughbreds, and some European breeds. It frequently leads to persistent, incurable lameness and need to euthanize affected horses. The pathogenesis remains unclear, though the disease appears to run in families.

Altered cortical synaptic morphology and impaired memory consolidation in forebrain- specific dominant-negative PAK transgenic mice.

Molecular and cellular mechanisms for memory consolidation in the cortex are poorly known. To study the relationships between synaptic structure and function in the cortex and consolidation of long-term memory, we have generated transgenic mice in which catalytic activity of PAK, a critical regulator of actin remodeling, is inhibited in the postnatal forebrain. Cortical neurons in these mice displayed fewer dendritic spines and an increased proportion of larger synapses compared to wild-type controls.

The effects of enrofloxacin on decorin and glycosaminoglycans in avian tendon cell cultures.

Tendonitis and tendon rupture have been reported to occur during or following therapy with fluoroquinolone antibiotics. Though the pathogenesis is unknown, several studies suggest that fluoroquinolone antibiotics alter proteoglycan content in soft tissues, including tendons, and thereby alter collagen fibrillogenesis. To better understand the mechanism of action of fluoroquinolones, we studied the effects of enrofloxacin, a widely used fluoroquinolone in veterinary medicine, on avian tendon cell cultures established from gastrocnemius tendons from 18-day-old chicken embryos.

Translational control by MAPK signaling in long-term synaptic plasticity and memory.

Enduring forms of synaptic plasticity and memory require new protein synthesis, but little is known about the underlying regulatory mechanisms. Here, we investigate the role of MAPK signaling in these processes. Conditional expression of a dominant-negative form of MEK1 in the postnatal murine forebrain inhibited ERK activation and caused selective deficits in hippocampal memory retention and the translation-dependent, transcription-independent phase of hippocampal L-LTP.

Proteoglycans in chicken gastrocnemius tendons change with exercise.

Growth, loading, and mobilization lead to changes in tendon structure. Recent studies have shown that proteoglycans (PGs) regulate the organization of collagen fibrils, the main structural components of tendons. We hypothesized that moderate exercise alters PG synthesis in the avian gastrocnemius tendon.

Immunoblotting assays for keratan sulfate.

The detection of microquantities of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in biological samples has been hampered by the lack of sensitive methods. In this paper we describe the modification and development of three sensitive assays capable of detecting nanogram quantities of GAGs in biological samples. The first assay detects total GAGs.