Chronic Stress-Related Neural Activity Associates With Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease in a Community-Based Cohort: Data From the Washington, D.C. Cardiovascular Health and Needs Assessment.

Psychosocial stress correlates with cardiovascular (CV) events; however, associations between physiologic measures of stressors and CVD remain incompletely understood, especially in racial/ethnic minority populations in resource-limited neighborhoods. We examined associations between chronic stress-related neural activity, measured by amygdalar Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake, and aortic vascular FDG uptake (arterial inflammation measure) in a community-based cohort. Forty participants from the Washington, DC CV Health and Needs Assessment (DC-CHNA), a study of a predominantly African-American population in resource-limited urban areas and 25 healthy volunteers underwent detailed phenotyping, including FDG PET/CT for assessing amygdalar activity (AmygA), vascular FDG uptake, and hematopoietic (leukopoietic) tissue activity.

Genome Assembly and Annotation of the Trichoplusia ni Tni-FNL Insect Cell Line Enabled by Long-Read Technologies.

Background: derived cell lines are commonly used to enable recombinant protein expression via baculovirus infection to generate materials approved for clinical use and in clinical trials. In order to develop systems biology and genome engineering tools to improve protein expression in this host, we performed de novo genome assembly of the -derived cell line Tni-FNL.

Methods: By integration of PacBio single-molecule sequencing, Bionano optical mapping, and 10X Genomics linked-reads data, we have produced a draft genome assembly of Tni-FNL.

Regulation of Hepatic UGT2B15 by Methylation in Adults of Asian Descent.

The hepatic uridine 5'-diphosphate-glucuronosyl transferases (UGTs) are critical for detoxifying endo- and xenobiotics. Since UGTs are also dynamically responsive to endogenous and exogenous stimuli, we examined whether epigenetic DNA methylation can regulate hepatic UGT expression and differential effects of ethnicity, obesity, and sex. The methylation status of UGT isoforms was determined with Illumina Methylation 450 BeadChip arrays, with genotyping confirmed by sequencing and gene expression confirmed with quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (q-RT-PCR).

The Effects of Obesity on Drug Metabolism in Children.

Obesity in children is a significant clinical concern. There are many anecdotes and case studies regarding specific reactions of obese children to medications including therapeutic failure, adverse drug reactions and/or requirements for higher weight-adjusted dosing. There isis, however, a lack of basic and clinical data dissecting the mechanisms of these effects on pharmaceutical efficacy and safety.

Health disparities in the Native Hawaiian homeless.

While it is well accepted that Native Hawaiians have poor health statistics compared to other ethnic groups in Hawaii, it is not well documented if these disparities persist when comparing Native Hawaiian homeless individuals to the general homeless population. This paper examines the Native Hawaiian homeless population living in three shelters on the island of Oahu, to determine if there are significant differences in the frequency of diseases between the Native Hawaiian and non-Native Hawaiian homeless. A retrospective data collection was performed using records from the Hawaii Homeless Outreach and Medical Education (H.

Genome wide profiling of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), their derivatives and embryonal carcinoma cells to develop base profiles of U.S. Federal government approved hESC lines.

Background: In order to compare the gene expression profiles of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines and their differentiated progeny and to monitor feeder contaminations, we have examined gene expression in seven hESC lines and human fibroblast feeder cells using Illumina bead arrays that contain probes for 24,131 transcript probes.

Results: A total of 48 different samples (including duplicates) grown in multiple laboratories under different conditions were analyzed and pairwise comparisons were performed in all groups. Hierarchical clustering showed that blinded duplicates were correctly identified as the closest related samples.

A novel, high-performance random array platform for quantitative gene expression profiling.

We have developed a new microarray technology for quantitative gene-expression profiling on the basis of randomly assembled arrays of beads. Each bead carries a gene-specific probe sequence. There are multiple copies of each sequence-specific bead in an array, which contributes to measurement precision and reliability.