Publications by authors named "Ramkumar Thiyagarajan"

An aged immune system undergoes substantial changes where myelopoiesis dominates within the bone marrow. Monocytic-MDSCs (M-MDSCs) have been found to play an important role in osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption. In this study, we sought to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the osteoclastogenic potential of bone marrow M-MDSCs during normal aging through transcriptomic and metabolic changes.

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Background: Frailty, a syndrome characterized by decreased reserve and resistance to stressors across multiple physiologic systems, is highly prevalent in people living with multiple sclerosis (pwMS), independent of age or disability level. Frailty in MS is strongly associated with adverse clinical outcomes, such as falls, and may aggravate MS-related symptoms. Consequently, there is a pressing necessity to explore and evaluate strategies to reduce frailty levels in pwMS.

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Mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of cellular senescence, with the loss of mitochondrial function identified as a potential causal factor contributing to senescence-associated decline in cellular functions. Our recent findings revealed that ectopic expression of the pluripotency transcription factor NANOG rejuvenates dysfunctional mitochondria of senescent cells by rewiring metabolic pathways. In this study, we report that NANOG restores the expression of key enzymes, PYCR1 and PYCR2, in the proline biosynthesis pathway.

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Cystinosis is an autosomal recessive disease resulting from mutations in , which encodes for cystinosin, a proton-coupled cystine transporter that exports cystine from lysosomes. The major clinical form, infantile cystinosis, is associated with renal failure due to the malfunctioning of the renal proximal tubule (RPT). To examine the hypothesis that the malfunctioning of the cystinotic RPT arises from defective differentiation, human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) were generated from human dermal fibroblasts from an individual with infantile cystinosis, as well as a normal individual.

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Tristetraprolin (TTP; also known as NUP475, GOS24, or TIS11), encoded by Zfp36, is an RNA-binding protein that regulates target gene expression by promoting mRNA decay and preventing translation. Although previous studies have indicated that TTP deficiency is associated with systemic inflammation and a catabolic-like skeletal phenotype, the mechanistic underpinnings remain unclear. Here, using both TTP-deficient (TTPKO) and myeloid-specific TTPKO (cTTPKO) mice, we reveal that global absence or loss of TTP in the myeloid compartment results in a reduced bone microarchitecture, whereas gain-of-function TTP knock-in (TTPKI) mice exhibit no significant loss of bone microarchitecture.

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Background: Osteoclastic bone resorption markedly increases with aging, leading to osteoporosis characterized by weak and fragile bones. Mice exhibit greater bone resorption and poor bone mass when Sirt1 is removed from their osteoclasts. Here we investigated the impacts of putative Sirt1 activators, Resveratrol (RSV), SRT2183, and SRT1720, on osteoclast formation and activity in primary mouse bone marrow cells (BMCs) derived from wild-type (WT) and osteoclast specific Sirt1 knockout (OC-Sirt1KO) mice and in the RAW264.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study explores metabolic changes in aged myoblasts, revealing that they face issues like poor glycolysis and insulin resistance, particularly in both human and mouse models of aging.
  • It was found that senescent myoblasts produce excess ammonium through a specific metabolic pathway involving methionine, which can contribute to aging effects.
  • By manipulating factors like the NANOG protein or inhibiting a specific enzyme (methionine adenosyltransferase 2A), researchers enhanced muscle regeneration and strength, suggesting that altering methionine metabolism could counteract age-related muscle decline.
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Mitochondrial dysfunction, a hallmark of aging, has been associated with the onset of aging phenotypes and age-related diseases. Here, we report that impaired mitochondrial function is associated with increased glutamine catabolism in senescent human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and myofibroblasts derived from patients suffering from Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome. Increased glutaminase (GLS1) activity accompanied by loss of urea transporter SLC14A1 induces urea accumulation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and DNA damage.

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Aging results in enhanced myelopoiesis, which is associated with an increased prevalence of myeloid leukemias and the production of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). Tristetraprolin (TTP) is an RNA binding protein that regulates immune-related cytokines and chemokines by destabilizing target mRNAs. As TTP expression is known to decrease with age in myeloid cells, we used TTP-deficient (TTPKO) mice to model aged mice to study TTP regulation in age-related myelopoiesis.

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Senescence of myogenic progenitors impedes skeletal muscle regeneration. Here, we show that overexpression of the transcription factor NANOG in senescent myoblasts can overcome the effects of cellular senescence and confer a youthful phenotype to senescent cells. NANOG ameliorated primary hallmarks of cellular senescence including genomic instability, loss of proteostasis, and mitochondrial dysfunction.

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Periodontitis is a common chronic inflammatory disease characterized by destruction of the supporting structures of the teeth. Severe periodontitis is highly prevalent-affecting 10%-15% of adults-and carries several negative comorbidities, thus reducing quality of life. Although a clear relationship exists between severity of obesity and incidence of periodontal disease, the biologic mechanisms that support this link are incompletely understood.

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Objectives: Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), an essential cofactor for mitochondrial function, declines with aging, which may lead to impaired physical performance. Nicotinamide riboside (NR), a NAD precursor, restores cellular NAD levels. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of short-term NR supplementation on physical performance in middle-aged mice and the effects on mouse and human muscle stem cells.

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Low 25-OH serum vitamin D (VitD) is pervasive in older adults and linked to functional decline and progression of frailty. We have previously shown that chronic VitD insufficiency in "middle-aged" mice results in impaired anaerobic exercise capacity, decreased lean mass, and increased adiposity. Here, we examine if VitD insufficiency results in similar deficits and greater frailty progression in old-aged (24 to 28 months of age) mice.

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Complement (C) system is a double edge sword acting as the first line of defense on the one hand and causing aggravation of disease on the other. C activation when unregulated affects different organs including muscle regeneration. However, the effect of factor H (FH), a critical regulator of the alternative C pathway in muscle remains to be studied.

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Age-related alteration of the immune system with aging, or immunosenescence, plays a major role in several age-associated conditions, including loss of bone integrity. Studies over the past several years have clearly established the immune system is chronically activated with advanced aging, termed inflammaging, and is characterized by elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines in response to physiological or environmental cues that essentially result in an arrested immune system that maintains a low-level state of activation. This age-associated inflammation impacts several biological systems including the innate immune system, where aging results in a skewing of the hematopoiesis toward the myeloid lineage, including the expansion of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs).

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Frailty syndrome increases the risk for disability and mortality, and is a major health concern amidst the geriatric shift in the population. High intensity interval training (HIIT), which couples bursts of vigorous activity interspersed with active recovery intervals, shows promise for the treatment of frailty. Here we compare and contrast five Fried physical phenotype and one deficit accumulation based mouse frailty assessment tools for identifying the impacts of HIIT on frailty and predicting functional capacity, underlying pathology, and survival in aged female mice.

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High intensity interval training (HIIT) is emerging as a therapeutic approach to prevent, delay, or ameliorate frailty. In particular short session HIIT, with regimens less than or equal to 10 min is of particular interest as several human studies feature routines as short as a few minutes a couple times a week. However, there is a paucity of animal studies that model the impacts of short session HIIT.

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Complement system is an important arm of the immune system that promotes inflammation. Complement Factor H (FH) is a critical regulator of the alternative complement pathway. Its absence causes pathology in different organs resulting in diseases such as age related macular degeneration and dense deposit disease.

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Methamphetamine (METH) is a drug of abuse, the acute and chronic use of which induces neurotoxic responses in the human brain, ultimately leading to neurocognitive disorders. Our goals were to understand the impact of METH on microglial mitochondrial respiration and to determine whether METH induces the activation of the mitochondrial-dependent intrinsic apoptosis pathway in microglia. We assessed the expression of pro- apoptosis genes using qPCR of RNA extracted from a human microglial cell line (HTHU).

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High blood pressure (BP) is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease morbidity. Considering the growing evidence of nonpharmacological interventions in the management of high BP, we designed a randomized, parallel active-controlled study on the effect of yoga and standard lifestyle modification (LSM) on BP and heart rate in individuals with prehypertension (systolic BP 120-139 mm Hg and/or diastolic BP 80-89 mm Hg). Volunteers (20-60 years) of both genders without any known cardiovascular disease were randomized into either LSM group (n = 92) or LSM+yoga group (n = 92).

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Background: Hypertension, one of the modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), is known to be associated with increased oxidative stress and reduced cardiovagal modulation. Similar to hypertension, prehypertension is associated with increased risk of adverse cardiovascular (CV) events. We planned this study to find the association between prehypertension, cardiovagal modulation, oxidative stress, and associated CV risk factors.

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Background: The worldwide burden of diabetes in 2030 is projected around 552 million. Diabetes leads to higher risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Altered cardiac autonomic function (CAF) measured by heart rate variability (HRV) is observed in early stages of diabetes but the relationship between impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and HRV is still debatable.

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