Genetic Variation and Regulation of MICA Alters Natural Killer Cell-Mediated Immunosurveillance in Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer.

The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) among individuals under age 50, or early-onset CRC (EOCRC), has been rising over the past few decades for unclear reasons, and the etiology of the disease remains largely unknown. Known genetic risk factors do not explain this increase, pointing to possible environmental and as-yet unidentified genetic contributors and their interactions. Previous research linked genetic variation on chromosome 6 to increased CRC risk. This region harbors multiple immune genes, including the gene encoding Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) class I polypeptide-related sequence A (MICA). MICA is a polygenic ligand for the Natural Killer Group 2D receptor (NKG2D), a receptor expressed on Natural Killer (NK) cells and other lymphocytes. Given that intra-tumoral NK cell infiltration correlates with favorable CRC outcomes, we hypothesized that germline genetic variation in MICA could influence CRC risk. In a discovery set of 40,125 cases and controls, we show that the minor G allele at Chr6:31373718C>G (hg19) is associated with increased risk for CRC (odds ratio (OR) = 1.09, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04 - 1.15, p = 0.0009). The effect is stronger in EOCRC (OR = 1.26, 95% CI 1.08 - 1.44, p = 0.0023) than in those 50 and over (OR = 1.07, 95% CI 1.02 - 1.13; p = 0.012) (Ratio of ORs = 1.32, 95% CI 1.14 - 1.52, p = 0.0002). In an independent validation set of 77,983 cases and controls, the adjusted interaction by age-of-onset was significant at OR = 1.15 (95% CI 1.03 - 1.34, p = 0.0150) with a higher risk in EOCRC. Expression quantitative trait locus analysis in normal colonic epithelia showed that MICA RNA expression decreases linearly with each additional copy of the minor G allele (p = 3.345 × 10e-18). Bulk RNA analysis of the tumor immune microenvironment revealed that tumors from patients with CG or GG genotypes have lower resting and activated NK cell infiltration as compared to tumors from patients with CC genotype. Multiplex immunofluorescence analysis demonstrated that patients with a G allele (i.e. CG or GG genotype, but not CC genotype) have a statistically significant decrease in the number of NK cells in tumor compared to adjacent normal colonic mucosa. Taken together, population-based epidemiologic, molecular, genetic, cellular and immunologic evidence demonstrate that MICA genotype is associated with increased risk of EOCRC and reduced number of NK cells in colorectal tumors, suggesting that patients with a G allele have altered NK cell-mediated immunosurveillance. These novel findings suggest that EOCRC may have a previously unrecognized innate immune-mediated etiology which merits further investigation.

A Novel Summer Camp Integrating Physical, Psychological, and Educational Health in Youth: The THINK Program.

Numerous youth summer programs focus upon physical fitness, nutritional health, psychological well-being, or education. Few, however, have integrated all of these elements into a single program. The Translational Health in Nutrition and Kinesiology (THINK) program provides an integrative nutrition and exercise science curriculum that is interfaced with social emotional learning (SEL) and STEM education to enhance healthy behaviors in youth. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the THINK program could improve physical fitness, nutrition habits, SEL, and STEM education in a 6-week summer program covering a 3-year period. Participants from South Miami were enrolled in THINK (n = 108, 58 males, 50 females, 12.03 + 0.56 years). Physical fitness assessments, the Positive Youth Development Inventory (PYDI), the Students' Attitude Towards STEM Survey, and the Adolescent Food Habits Checklist (ADFH) were recorded at baseline and post-testing. Means and standard error values were evaluated for all dependent variables. Paired samples t-tests (SPSS version 27) were used to determine changes. Improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness (p < 0.001), power (p < 0.006), flexibility (p < 0.001), agility (p < 0.001), muscular endurance (p < 0.001), lean body mass (p < 0.001), ADFH (p < 0.001), and PYDI (p = 0.038) were found. An integrative summer fitness program can result in improvements in physical fitness, nutrition habits, and SEL in as little as six weeks.

Differences in tumor-associated T-cell receptor repertoires between early-onset and average-onset colorectal cancer.

The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) among individuals younger than age 50 (early-onset CRC [EOCRC]) has substantially increased, and yet the etiology and molecular mechanisms underlying this alarming rise remain unclear. We compared tumor-associated T-cell repertoires between EOCRC and average-onset CRC (AOCRC) to uncover potentially unique immune microenvironment-related features by age of onset. Our discovery cohort included 242 patients who underwent surgical resection at Cleveland Clinic from 2000 to 2020. EOCRC was defined as younger than age 50 years at diagnosis (N = 126) and AOCRC as 60 years of age or older (N = 116). T-cell receptor (TCR) abundance and clonality were measured by immunosequencing of tumors. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate the associations between TCR repertoire features and age of onset, adjusting for sex, race, tumor location, and stage. Findings were replicated in 152 EOCRC and 1984 AOCRC cases from the Molecular Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Study. EOCRC tumors had significantly higher TCR diversity compared with AOCRC tumors in the discovery cohort (odds ratio [OR] = 0.44, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.32 to 0.61, P < .0001). This association was also observed in the replication cohort (OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.62 to 0.89, P = .0013). No significant differences in TCR abundance were observed between EOCRC and AOCRC in either cohort. Higher TCR diversity, suggesting a more diverse intratumoral T-cell response, is more frequently observed in EOCRC than AOCRC. Further studies are warranted to investigate the role of T-cell diversity and the adaptive immune response more broadly in the etiology and outcomes of EOCRC.

Germline genetic regulation of the colorectal tumor immune microenvironment.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the contribution of germline genetics to regulating the briskness and diversity of T cell responses in CRC, we conducted a genome-wide association study to examine the associations between germline genetic variation and quantitative measures of T cell landscapes in 2,876 colorectal tumors from participants in the Molecular Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Study (MECC). METHODS: Germline DNA samples were genotyped and imputed using genome-wide arrays. Tumor DNA samples were extracted from paraffin blocks, and T cell receptor clonality and abundance were quantified by immunoSEQ (Adaptive Biotechnologies, Seattle, WA). Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes per high powered field (TILs/hpf) were scored by a gastrointestinal pathologist. Regression models were used to evaluate the associations between each variant and the three T-cell features, adjusting for sex, age, genotyping platform, and global ancestry. Three independent datasets were used for replication. RESULTS: We identified a SNP (rs4918567) near RBM20 associated with clonality at a genome-wide significant threshold of 5 × 10- 8, with a consistent direction of association in both discovery and replication datasets. Expression quantitative trait (eQTL) analyses and in silico functional annotation for these loci provided insights into potential functional roles, including a statistically significant eQTL between the T allele at rs4918567 and higher expression of ADRA2A (P = 0.012) in healthy colon mucosa. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that germline genetic variation is associated with the quantity and diversity of adaptive immune responses in CRC. Further studies are warranted to replicate these findings in additional samples and to investigate functional genomic mechanisms.

Heterozygote advantage at HLA class I and II loci and reduced risk of colorectal cancer.

Objective: Reduced diversity at Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) loci may adversely affect the host's ability to recognize tumor neoantigens and subsequently increase disease burden. We hypothesized that increased heterozygosity at HLA loci is associated with a reduced risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: We imputed HLA class I and II four-digit alleles using genotype data from a population-based study of 5,406 cases and 4,635 controls from the Molecular Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Study (MECC). Heterozygosity at each HLA locus and the number of heterozygous genotypes at HLA class -I (A, B, and C) and HLA class -II loci (DQB1, DRB1, and DPB1) were quantified. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the risk of CRC associated with HLA heterozygosity. Individuals with homozygous genotypes for all loci served as the reference category, and the analyses were adjusted for sex, age, genotyping platform, and ancestry. Further, we investigated associations between HLA diversity and tumor-associated T cell repertoire features, as measured by tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs; N=2,839) and immunosequencing (N=2,357). Results: Individuals with all heterozygous genotypes at all three class I genes had a reduced odds of CRC (OR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.56-0.97, p= 0.031). A similar association was observed for class II loci, with an OR of 0.75 (95% CI: 0.60-0.95, p= 0.016). For class-I and class-II combined, individuals with all heterozygous genotypes had significantly lower odds of developing CRC (OR: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.49-0.87, p= 0.004) than those with 0 or one heterozygous genotype. HLA class I and/or II diversity was associated with higher T cell receptor (TCR) abundance and lower TCR clonality, but results were not statistically significant. Conclusion: Our findings support a heterozygote advantage for the HLA class-I and -II loci, indicating an important role for HLA genetic variability in the etiology of CRC.

Transformer-based biomarker prediction from colorectal cancer histology: A large-scale multicentric study.

Deep learning (DL) can accelerate the prediction of prognostic biomarkers from routine pathology slides in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, current approaches rely on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and have mostly been validated on small patient cohorts. Here, we develop a new transformer-based pipeline for end-to-end biomarker prediction from pathology slides by combining a pre-trained transformer encoder with a transformer network for patch aggregation. Our transformer-based approach substantially improves the performance, generalizability, data efficiency, and interpretability as compared with current state-of-the-art algorithms. After training and evaluating on a large multicenter cohort of over 13,000 patients from 16 colorectal cancer cohorts, we achieve a sensitivity of 0.99 with a negative predictive value of over 0.99 for prediction of microsatellite instability (MSI) on surgical resection specimens. We demonstrate that resection specimen-only training reaches clinical-grade performance on endoscopic biopsy tissue, solving a long-standing diagnostic problem.

Tumor immune infiltration estimated from gene expression profiles predicts colorectal cancer relapse.

A substantial fraction of patients with stage I-III colorectal adenocarcinoma (CRC) experience disease relapse after surgery with curative intent. However, biomarkers for predicting the likelihood of CRC relapse have not been fully explored. Therefore, we assessed the association between tumor infiltration by a broad array of innate and adaptive immune cell types and CRC relapse risk. We implemented a discovery-validation design including a discovery dataset from Moffitt Cancer Center (MCC; Tampa, FL) and three independent validation datasets: (1) GSE41258 (2) the Molecular Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer (MECC) study, and (3) GSE39582. Infiltration by 22 immune cell types was inferred from tumor gene expression data, and the association between immune infiltration by each cell type and relapse-free survival was assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression. Within each of the four independent cohorts, CD4+ memory activated T cell (HR: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.90-0.96; FDR = 0.0001) infiltration was associated with longer time to disease relapse, independent of stage, microsatellite instability, and adjuvant therapy. Based on our meta-analysis across the four datasets, 10 innate and adaptive immune cell types associated with disease relapse of which 2 were internally validated using multiplex immunofluorescence. Moreover, immune cell type infiltration was a better predictors of disease relapse than Consensus Molecular Subtype (CMS) and other expression-based biomarkers (Immune-AICMCC:238.1-238.9; CMS-AICMCC: 241.0). These data suggest that transcriptome-derived immune profiles are prognostic indicators of CRC relapse and quantification of both innate and adaptive immune cell types may serve as candidate biomarkers for predicting prognosis and guiding frequency and modality of disease surveillance.

Bridging the Gap: Patient Navigation Increases Colonoscopy Follow-up After Abnormal FIT.

INTRODUCTION: Recent studies indicate low rates of follow-up colonoscopy after abnormal fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) within safety net health systems. A patient navigation (PN) program is an evidence-based strategy that has been shown to improve colonoscopy completion in private and public healthcare settings. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a PN program to encourage follow-up colonoscopy after abnormal FIT within a large safety net hospital system. METHODS: We established an enterprisewide PN program at 5 tertiary care hospitals within the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services system in 2018. The PN assisted adult patients aged 50-75 years with an abnormal FIT to a follow-up colonoscopy within 6 months. PN activities included initiating referral for and scheduling of colonoscopy, performing reminder phone calls to patient for their upcoming colonoscopy, and following up with patients who did not attend their colonoscopy. We assess the effectiveness of the PN intervention by comparing follow-up colonoscopy rates with a period before the intervention. RESULTS: There were 2,531 patients with abnormal FIT results (n = 1,214 in 2017 and n = 1,317 in 2018). A majority were women (55% in 2017 vs 52% in 2018) with a mean age of 60 ± 6.2 years. From a previous mean of 163 days without PN in 2017, the mean time from abnormal FIT to colonoscopy with PN improved to 113 days in 2018. The frequency of colonoscopy completion with PN increased from 40.6% (n = 493) in 2017 to 46% (n = 600) in 2018. DISCUSSION: After the introduction of the PN program, there was a significant increase in patients undergoing follow-up colonoscopy after abnormal FIT and patients were more likely to undergo colonoscopy within the recommended 6 months.

Social Support and Suicidal Ideation Among Prisoners with Major Depressive Disorder.

This study explored the impact of social support on suicidal ideation in 169 prisoners with major depressive disorder, accounting for known demographic, criminological, and clinical risk factors. Greater social support was associated with a lower likelihood of the presence of current suicide ideation. This effect remained significant even after adjusting for other significant predictors of suicide ideation including sex, length of sentence served, severity of current depression, and having prior suicide attempts. This study is the first to explore social support and other known risk factors for suicide ideation in a prison population with major depressive disorder. Our findings demonstrate that, even in the presence of significant risk factors for suicidal ideation, social support remained a strong predictor, suggesting the importance of fostering social support in correctional settings.

Psychosocial outcomes following germline multigene panel testing in an ethnically and economically diverse cohort of patients.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the psychological outcomes of germline multigene panel testing, particularly among diverse patients and those with moderate-risk pathogenic variants (PVs). METHODS: Study participants (N = 1264) were counseled and tested with a 25- or 28-gene panel and completed a 3-month postresult survey including the Multidimensional Impact of Cancer Risk Assessment (MICRA). RESULTS: The mean age was 52 years, 80% were female, and 70% had cancer; 45% were non-Hispanic White, 37% were Hispanic, 10% were Asian, 3% were Black, and 5% had another race/ethnicity. Approximately 28% had a high school education or less, and 23% were non-English-speaking. The genetic test results were as follows: 7% had a high-risk PV, 6% had a moderate-risk PV, 35% had a variant of uncertain significance (VUS), and 52% were negative. Most participants (92%) had a total MICRA score ≤ 38, which corresponded to a mean response of "never," "rarely," or only "sometimes" reacting negatively to results. A multivariate analysis found that mean total MICRA scores were significantly higher (more uncertainty/distress) among high- and moderate-risk PV carriers (29.7 and 24.8, respectively) than those with a VUS or negative results (17.4 and 16.1, respectively). Having cancer or less education was associated with a significantly higher total MICRA score; race/ethnicity was not associated with the total MICRA score. High- and moderate-risk PV carriers did not differ significantly from one another in the total MICRA score, uncertainty, distress, or positive experiences. CONCLUSIONS: In a diverse population undergoing genetic counseling and multigene panel testing for hereditary cancer risk, the psychological response corresponded to test results and showed low distress and uncertainty. Further studies are needed to assess patient understanding and subsequent cancer screening among patients from diverse backgrounds. LAY SUMMARY: Multigene panel tests for hereditary cancer have become widespread despite concerns about adverse psychological reactions among carriers of moderate-risk pathogenic variants (mutations) and among carriers of variants of uncertain significance. This large study of an ethnically and economically diverse cohort of patients undergoing panel testing found that 92% "never," "rarely," or only "sometimes" reacted negatively to results. Somewhat higher uncertainty and distress were identified among carriers of high- and moderate-risk pathogenic variants, and lower levels were identified among those with a variant of uncertain significance or a negative result. Although the psychological response corresponded to risk, reactions to testing were favorable, regardless of results.

Mitochondrial haplogroups and lifespan in a population isolate.

Physiochemical differences between mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups that favor oxidative phosphorylation efficiency during periods of caloric limitation can lead to lifespan lengthening when food calories are less abundant. For example, prior work demonstrated that older female haplogroup H carriers had modestly lengthened lifespans beyond 60 years during the Great Depression, a time of caloric limitation in North America. The objective of the current study is to replicate the prior findings in an independent cohort that includes both sexes and younger ages. By determining and cross-referencing the mtDNA genotypes of a culturally homogeneous population isolate to the lifespans of their ancestors, we found that between 1930 and 1939, haplogroup H compared to haplogroup U carriers had a modestly lengthened lifespan (3 years) past 60 years (hazard ratio 2.35; CI95 1.41-3.90; p-value: 0.0029). The lifespan-lengthening association was apparent in both sexes but only after the age of 60. Our results provide further support for the role of mitochondrial genetics in lengthening human lifespan.

Randomized cost-effectiveness trial of group interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) for prisoners with major depression.

OBJECTIVE: This study tested the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) for major depressive disorder (MDD) among prisoners. It is the first fully powered randomized trial of any treatment (pharmacological or psychosocial) targeting MDD among incarcerated individuals. METHOD: One hundred eighty-one male (n = 117) and female (n = 64) prisoners from prison facilities in 2 states were randomized to group IPT (delivered by master's-level and nonspecialist prison counselors) for MDD plus prison treatment as usual (TAU) or to TAU alone. Participants' average age was 39 (range = 20-61); 20% were African American and 19% were Hispanic. Outcomes assessed at posttreatment and 3-month follow-up included depressive symptoms (primary; assessed using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression), suicidality (assessed with the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation and Beck Hopelessness Scale), in-prison functioning (i.e., enrollment in correctional programs; discipline reports; aggression/victimization; and social support), remission from MDD, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. RESULTS: IPT reduced depressive symptoms, hopelessness, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, and increased rates of MDD remission relative to prison TAU alone. Effects on hopelessness were particularly strong. Cost per patient was $2,054 including costs for IPT training and supervision or $575 without these costs. For providers running their second or subsequent IPT group, cost per additional week in remission from MDD (relative to TAU alone) was $524 ($148 excluding training and supervision costs, which would not be needed for established programs). CONCLUSIONS: IPT is effective and cost-effective and we recommend its use for MDD among prisoners. It is currently the only treatment for MDD evaluated among incarcerated individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Developing international open science collaborations: Funder reflections on the Open Science Prize.

The Open Science Prize was established with the following objectives: first, to encourage the crowdsourcing of open data to make breakthroughs that are of biomedical significance; second, to illustrate that funders can indeed work together when scientific interests are aligned; and finally, to encourage international collaboration between investigators with the intent of achieving important innovations that would not be possible otherwise. The process for running the competition and the successes and challenges that arose are presented.

Towards Data Value-Level Metadata for Clinical Studies.

While several standards for metadata describing clinical studies exist, comprehensive metadata to support traceability of data from clinical studies has not been articulated. We examine uses of metadata in clinical studies. We examine and enumerate seven sources of data value-level metadata in clinical studies inclusive of research designs across the spectrum of the National Institutes of Health definition of clinical research. The sources of metadata inform categorization in terms of metadata describing the origin of a data value, the definition of a data value, and operations to which the data value was subjected. The latter is further categorized into information about changes to a data value, movement of a data value, retrieval of a data value, and data quality checks, constraints or assessments to which the data value was subjected. The implications of tracking and managing data value-level metadata are explored.

Development and Evaluation of a Web-Based Dermatology Teaching Tool for Preclinical Medical Students.

INTRODUCTION: There is growing interest in, and emphasis on, electronic teaching tools in medicine. Despite relevant testing on the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), American medical schools offer limited training in skin disorders. Teaching visual topics like dermatology in classroom formats is challenging. We hypothesized that an electronic module would enhance students' dermatology competency. METHODS: A self-directed, case-based module was created. To test its efficacy, 40 medical students were randomized to have module access (interventional group) or none (conventional group). Learning outcomes were compared using a multiple-choice exam, including questions relevant and irrelevant to the module. Outcomes included proportions of correctly answered module questions (module scores) and nonmodule questions (nonmodule scores). Difference scores were calculated: (module score) - (nonmodule score). Positive values indicated that knowledge of module questions surpassed that of nonmodule questions. If there were a training effect, the interventional group's difference score should exceed that of the conventional group. RESULTS: The interventional group scored significantly higher than did the conventional group on module questions-75% (interquartile range [IQR], 69-88) versus 50% (IQR, 38-63), p < .001-and nonmodule questions-85% (IQR, 69-92) versus 69% (IQR, 54-77), p = .02. The Hodges-Lehman median difference estimate of the training effect was 13.0 (95% confidence interval, 0.5-25.5). DISCUSSION: This e-module is effective at enhancing students' competency in dermatology while emphasizing detailed pathophysiology that prepares them for USMLE Step 1. A module-based curriculum may enhance learning in supplement to traditional teaching modalities.

Incidence of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers - a population-based cohort study.

Our study sought to estimate the association between race, gender, comorbidity and body mass index (BMI) on the incidence of hospital-acquired pressure ulcer (PU) from a population-based retrospective cohort comprising 242 745 unique patient hospital discharges in two fiscal years from July 2009 to June 2010 from 15 general and tertiary care hospitals. Cases were patients with a single inpatient encounter that led to an incident PU. Controls were patients without a PU at any encounter during the two fiscal years with the earliest admission retained for analysis. Logistic regression models quantified the association of potential risk factors for PU incidence. Spline functions captured the non-linear effects of age and comorbidity. Overall 2·68% of patients experienced an incident PU during their inpatient stay. Unadjusted analyses revealed statistically significant associations by age, gender, race, comorbidity, BMI, admitted for a surgical procedure, source of admission and fiscal year, but differences by gender and race did not persist in adjusted analyses. Interactions between age, comorbidity and BMI contributed significantly to the likelihood of PU incidence. Patients who were older, with multiple comorbidities and admitted for a surgical diagnosis-related groups (DRG) were at greater risk of experiencing a PU during their stay.

Does cortisol influence core executive functions? A meta-analysis of acute cortisol administration effects on working memory, inhibition, and set-shifting.

The hormone cortisol is often believed to play a pivotal role in the effects of stress on human cognition. This meta-analysis is an attempt to determine the effects of acute cortisol administration on core executive functions. Drawing on both rodent and stress literatures, we hypothesized that acute cortisol administration would impair working memory and set-shifting but enhance inhibition. Additionally, because cortisol is thought to exert different nongenomic (rapid) and genomic (slow) effects, we further hypothesized that the effects of cortisol would differ as a function of the delay between cortisol administration and cognitive testing. Although the overall analyses were nonsignificant, after separating the rapid, nongenomic effects of cortisol from the slower, genomic effects of cortisol, the rapid effects of cortisol enhanced response inhibition, g+ = 0.113, p=.016, but impaired working memory, g+ = -0.315, p=.008, although these effects reversed over time. Contrary to our hypotheses, there was no effect of cortisol administration on set-shifting. Thus, although we did not find support for the idea that increases in cortisol influence set-shifting, we found that acute increases in cortisol exert differential effects on working memory and inhibition over time.

Repair of spinal cord injury with neuronal relays: From fetal grafts to neural stem cells.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) disrupts the long axonal tracts of the spinal cord leading to devastating loss of function. Cell transplantation in the injured spinal cord has the potential to lead to recovery after SCI via a variety of mechanisms. One such strategy is the formation of neuronal relays between injured long tract axons and denervated neurons. The idea of creating a neuronal relay was first proposed over 25 years ago when fetal tissue was first successfully transplanted into the injured rodent spinal cord. Advances in labeling of grafted cells and the development of neural stem cell culturing techniques have improved the ability to create and refine such relays. Several recent studies have examined the ability to create a novel neuronal circuit between injured axons and denervated targets. This approach is an alternative to long-distance regeneration of damaged axons that may provide a meaningful degree of recovery without direct recreation of lost pathways. This brief review will examine the contribution of fetal grafting to current advances in neuronal grafting. Of particular interest will be the ability of transplanted neurons derived from fetal grafts, neural precursor cells and neural stem cells to reconnect long distance motor and sensory pathways of the injured spinal cord. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Spinal cord injury.

Pedigree structure and kinship measurements of a mid-Michigan community: a new North American population isolate identified.

Previous studies identified a cluster of individuals with an autosomal recessive form of deafness that reside in a small region of mid-Michigan. We hypothesized that affected members from this community descend from a defined founder population. Using public records and personal interviews, we constructed a genealogical database that includes the affected individuals and their extended families as descendants of 461 settlers who emigrated from the Eifel region of Germany between 1836 and 1875. The genealogical database represents a 13-generation pedigree that includes 27,747 descendants of these settlers. Among these descendants, 13,784 are presumed living. Many of the extant descendants reside in a 90-square-mile area, and 52% were born to parents who share at least one common ancestor. Among those born to related parents, the median kinship coefficient is 3.7 × 10(-3). While the pedigree contains 2,510 founders, 344 of the 461 settlers accounted for 67% of the genome in the extant population. These data suggest that we identified a new population isolate in North America and that, as demonstrated for congenital hearing loss, this rural mid-Michigan community is a new resource to discover heritable factors that contribute to common health-related conditions.

Characterization of ectopic colonies that form in widespread areas of the nervous system with neural stem cell transplants into the site of a severe spinal cord injury.

We reported previously the formation of ectopic colonies in widespread areas of the nervous system after transplantation of fetal neural stem cells (NSCs) into spinal cord transection sites. Here, we characterize the incidence, distribution, and cellular composition of the colonies. NSCs harvested from E14 spinal cords from rats that express GFP were treated with a growth factor cocktail and grafted into the site of a complete spinal cord transection. Two months after transplant, spinal cord and brain tissue were analyzed histologically. Ectopic colonies were found at long distances from the transplant in the central canal of the spinal cord, the surface of the brainstem and spinal cord, and in the fourth ventricle. Colonies were present in 50% of the rats, and most rats had multiple colonies. Axons extended from the colonies into the host CNS. Colonies were strongly positive for nestin, a marker for neural precursors, and contained NeuN-positive cells with processes resembling dendrites, GFAP-positive astrocytes, APC/CC1-positive oligodendrocytes, and Ki-67-positive cells, indicating ongoing proliferation. Stereological analyses revealed an estimated 21,818 cells in a colony in the fourth ventricle, of which 1005 (5%) were Ki-67 positive. Immunostaining for synaptic markers (synaptophysin and VGluT-1) revealed large numbers of synaptophysin-positive puncta within the colonies but fewer VGluT-1 puncta. Continuing expansion of NSC-derived cell masses in confined spaces in the spinal cord and brain could produce symptoms attributable to compression of nearby tissue. It remains to be determined whether other cell types with self-renewing potential can also form colonies.