Neuroprotective potential of exercise preconditioning in stroke.

Stroke is one of leading causes of mortality and morbidity in the world with limited availability of therapeutic intervention. Exercise has been shown to improve stroke functional outcome in different preclinical and clinical setup. Exercise preconditioning induced neuroprotection in preclinical stroke models is believed to be mediated through its ability to restore brain vasculature and blood brain barrier integrity, promote neurogenesis, and help fight against neuroinflammation and excitotoxicity.

A simulation study on proton computed tomography (CT) stopping power accuracy using dual energy CT scans as benchmark.

Background: Accurate stopping power estimation is crucial for treatment planning in proton therapy, and the uncertainties in stopping power are currently the largest contributor to the employed dose margins. Dual energy x-ray computed tomography (CT) (clinically available) and proton CT (in development) have both been proposed as methods for obtaining patient stopping power maps. The purpose of this work was to assess the accuracy of proton CT using dual energy CT scans of phantoms to establish reference accuracy levels.

Studying extracellular signaling utilizing a glycoproteomic approach: lectin blot surveys, a first and important step.

Successful innovative proteomic analysis is highly dependent on molecular biology techniques at the -surveying and validation stage. This is because mass spectrometry (MS) analyses of complex samples are limited by their dynamic range for detection-so careful front-end sample preparation, fractionation, and enrichment are crucial to find biologically relevant signals in an extremely complex extracellular environment. Here, we share a very useful and simple front-end surveying methodology-lectin blotting-for proteomic analysis of glycosylation patterns-the most abundant posttranslational modification in extracellular signaling.

Transcriptional targets of p53 that regulate cellular proliferation.

In response to various forms of cellular stress, including DNA damage, ribonucleotide depletion, and abnormal proliferative signals, p53 becomes activated as a transcription factor, targeted genes that induce cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis. Eliminating damaged, stressed, or abnormally proliferating cells from the replicating cell population prevents the propagation of potentially cancer-prone cells. Here we focus on the transcriptional targets of p53 that regulate the cell cycle.

Combined smoke inhalation and scald burn in the rat.

The combination of burn injury with smoke inhalation from fires significantly increases mortality. The mechanism of increased mortality is poorly understood but has been associated with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, including cardiac dysfunction. Impaired cardiac function correlates with decreased survival in burn patients.

Targeting expression of the human vitamin D receptor to the keratinocytes of vitamin D receptor null mice prevents alopecia.

Vitamin D receptor (VDR) null mice develop hypocalcemia, hyperparathyroidism, rickets, osteomalacia and alopecia. Normalization of mineral ion homeostasis prevents all of these abnormalities except alopecia. Hair reconstitution assays, performed in athymic nude mice, demonstrate that the lack of VDR in keratinocytes leads to a defect in anagen initiation, similar to that observed in VDR null mice.

The TGF-beta2 isoform is both a required and sufficient inducer of murine hair follicle morphogenesis.

Hair follicle development serves as an excellent model to study control of organ morphogenesis. Three specific isoforms of TGF-beta exist which exhibit a distinct pattern of expression during hair follicle morphogenesis. To clarify the still elusive role of these factors in hair follicle development, we have used a combined genetic and functional approach: analysis of hair follicle development in mice with disruptions of the TGF-beta1, 2, and 3 genes was coupled with a direct functional test of the effect of added purified factors on fetal hair follicle development in skin organ cultures.