Isotropic multi-scale neuronal reconstruction from high-ratio expansion microscopy with contrastive unsupervised deep generative models.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Current methods for imaging reconstruction from high-ratio expansion microscopy (ExM) data are limited by anisotropic optical resolution and the requirement for extensive manual annotation, creating a significant bottleneck in the analysis of complex neuronal structures. METHODS: We devised an innovative approach called the IsoGAN model, which utilizes a contrastive unsupervised generative adversarial network to sidestep these constraints. This model leverages multi-scale and isotropic neuron/protein/blood vessel morphology data to generate high-fidelity 3D representations of these structures, eliminating the need for rigorous manual annotation and supervision. The IsoGAN model introduces simplified structures with idealized morphologies as shape priors to ensure high consistency in the generated neuronal profiles across all points in space and scalability for arbitrarily large volumes. RESULTS: The efficacy of the IsoGAN model in accurately reconstructing complex neuronal structures was quantitatively assessed by examining the consistency between the axial and lateral views and identifying a reduction in erroneous imaging artifacts. The IsoGAN model accurately reconstructed complex neuronal structures, as evidenced by the consistency between the axial and lateral views and a reduction in erroneous imaging artifacts, and can be further applied to various biological samples. CONCLUSION: With its ability to generate detailed 3D neurons/proteins/blood vessel structures using significantly fewer axial view images, IsoGAN can streamline the process of imaging reconstruction while maintaining the necessary detail, offering a transformative solution to the existing limitations in high-throughput morphology analysis across different structures.

Patterns of Extrathoracic Metastases in Different Histological Types of Lung Cancer.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths mainly attributable to metastasis, especially extrathoracic metastasis. This large-cohort research is aimed to explore metastatic profiles in different histological types of lung cancer, as well as to assess clinicopathological and survival significance of diverse metastatic lesions. Lung cancer cases were extracted and enrolled from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. χ2-tests were conducted to make comparisons of metastatic distribution among different histological types and odds ratios were calculated to analyze co-occurrence relationships between different metastatic lesions. Kaplan-Meier methods were performed to analyze survival outcomes according to different metastatic sites and Cox regression models were conducted to identify independent prognostic factors. In total, we included 159,241 lung cancer cases with detailed metastatic status and complete follow-up information. In order to understand their metastatic patterns, we elucidated the following points in this research: (1) Comparing the frequencies of different metastatic lesions in different histological types. The frequency of bone metastasis was highest in adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, LCLC and NSCLC/NOS, while liver was the most common metastatic site in SCLC. (2) Elaborating the tendency of combined metastases. Bi-site metastases occurred more common than tri-site and tetra-site metastases. And several metastatic sites, such as bone and liver, intended to co-metastasize preferentially. (3) Clarifying the prognostic significance of single-site and bi-site metastases. All single-site metastases were independent prognostic factors and co-metastases ended up with even worse survival outcomes. Thus, our findings would be beneficial for research design and clinical practice.

Upregulation of bacterial-specific Th1 and Th17 responses that are enriched in CXCR5+CD4+ T cells in non-small cell lung cancer.

The microbial community in the mucosal surfaces is involved in the development of human cancers, including gastric cancer and colorectal cancer. The respiratory tract in the lung also hosts a distinctive microbial community, but the correlation between this community and lung cancer is largely unknown. Here, we examined the Th1 and Th17 responses toward several bacterial antigens, in CD4+ T cells sourced from the peripheral blood (PB), the lung cancer (LC) tissue, and the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Compared to healthy controls, the NSCLC patients presented significantly higher frequencies of Th1 and Th17 cells reacting to Streptococcus salivarius and S. agalactiae, in the PB, LC, and GI tract. Further investigation showed that the upregulation in anti-bacteria response was likely antigen-specific for two reasons. Firstly, the frequencies of Th1 and Th17 cells reacting to Escherichia coli, a typical GI bacterium, were not upregulated in the PB and the LC of NSCLC patients. Secondly, the S. salivarius and S. agalactiae responses could be partially blocked by Tü39, a MHC class II blocking antibody, suggesting that antigen-specific interaction between CD4+ T cells and antigen-presenting cells was required. We also found that S. salivarius and S. agalactiae could potently activate the monocytes to secrete higher levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-12, and tumor necrosis factor, which were Th1- and Th17-skewing cytokines. Interestingly, whereas CXCR5+CD4+ T cells represented <20% of total CD4+ T cells, they represented 17%-82% of bacteria-specific Th1 or Th17 cells. Together, these data demonstrated that NSCLC patients presented a significant upregulation of bacterial-specific Th1 and Th17 responses that were enriched in CXCR5+CD4+ T cells.

Function and regulation of LAG3 on CD4+CD25- T cells in non-small cell lung cancer.

LAG3 is a surface molecule found on a subset of immune cells. The precise function of LAG3 appears to be context-dependent. In this study, we investigated the effect of LAG3 on CD4+CD25- T cells from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. We found that in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of NSCLC patients, LAG3 was significantly increased in CD4+ T cells directly ex vivo and primarily in the CD4+CD25- fraction, which was regulated by prolonged TCR stimulation and the presence of IL-27. TCR stimulation also increased CD25 expression, but not Foxp3 expression, in LAG3-expressing CD4+CD25- cells Compared to LAG3-nonexpressing CD4+CD25- cells, LAG3-expressing CD4+CD25- cells presented significantly higher levels of PD1 and TIM3, two inhibitory receptors best described in exhausted CD8+ T effector cells. LAG3-expressing CD4+CD25- cells also presented impaired proliferation compared with LAG3-nonexpressing CD4+CD25- cells but could be partially rescued by inhibiting both PD1 and TIM3. Interestingly, CD8+ T cells co-incubated with LAG3-expressing CD4+CD25- cells at equal cell numbers demonstrated significantly lower proliferation than CD8+ T cells incubated alone. Co-culture with CD8+ T cell and LAG3-expressing CD4+CD25- T cell also upregulated soluble IL-10 level in the supernatant, of which the concentration was positively correlated with the number of LAG3-expressing CD4+CD25- T cells. In addition, we found that LAG3-expressing CD4+CD25- T cells infiltrated the resected tumors and were present at higher frequencies of in metastases than in primary tumors. Taken together, these data suggest that LAG3-expressing CD4+CD25- T cells represent another regulatory immune cell type with potential to interfere with anti-tumor immunity.

Exposure to particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) induced macrophage-dependent inflammation, characterized by increased Th1/Th17 cytokine secretion and cytotoxicity.

Particulate matter PM2.5 is a class of airborne particles and droplets with sustained high levels in many developing countries. Epidemiological studies have shown the association between sustained high level of PM2.5 and the risk of many diseases in the respiratory system, including lung cancer. However, the precise mechanisms through which PM2.5 induces respiratory diseases are still unclear. In this study, we demonstrated that CD4+ and CD8+ T cells following PM2.5 treatment demonstrated significantly elevated mRNA and protein levels of interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukin (IL)-10, IL-17, and IL-21 production. This increase in cytokines required the presence of macrophages, such that CD4+ and CD8+ T cells treated with PM2.5 in the absence of macrophages did not present higher IFN-γ, IL-10, or IL-21 expression. In contrast, PM2.5-treated macrophages could significantly upregulate T cell cytokine secretion, even when excess PM2.5 was removed from cell culture. We also observed a macrophage-dependent upregulation of granzyme A and granzyme B expression by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells following PM2.5 treatment. These PM2.5-stimulated CD4+ and CD8+ T cells potently induced the death of human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells. Interestingly, the CD4+ and CD8+ T cells presented synergistic effects at inducing HBE cytotoxicity, such that CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells combined resulted in higher HBE cell death than the sum of the separate effects of CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells. While blocking cytotoxic molecule release significantly compromised the T cell-mediated cytotoxicity against HBE cells, blocking IFN-γ, but not IL-10, could also slightly but significantly reduce T cell-mediated cytotoxicity. Together, these data demonstrated that PM2.5 could promote the inflammation of cytotoxicity of T cells in a macrophage-dependent manner. In addition, PM2.5-treated macrophages presented long-lasting proinflammatory effects on T cells.

Function of follicular helper T cell is impaired and correlates with survival time in non-small cell lung cancer.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) represents one of the most common and aggressive cancers worldwide. The PD-1/PD-L1 interaction plays important roles in cancer immunology, and expression of PD-L1 has been discovered in NSCLC tumor cells. Since follicular helper T (Tfh) cells have characteristic high PD-1 expression, we therefore investigated the inflammatory status of Tfh in NSCLC. CD4+CXCR5+ T cell population was examined to define Tfh cells. Data showed that frequency of Tfh cells in peripheral blood was significantly lower in NSCLC patients than in healthy controls. In both primary and metastatic tumors, infiltration of Tfh cells was observed, suggesting that they participated in the antitumor immunity of NSCLC patients. Compared to other T cell subsets, the Tfh cells from the peripheral blood and the resected tumors of NSCLC patients presented elevated apoptosis and reduced proliferation capacity. The Tfh cells from NSCLC patients were also less effective at downregulating IgD and upregulating CD27 expression in naive B cells, and induced less IgM, IgG and IgA secretion, than those from healthy controls. We then found that the survival time from the date of surgery was positively correlated with the frequency of tumor-infiltrating Tfh cells in NSCLC subjects. Overall, the results from this study demonstrated that the Tfh cells were likely involved in the antitumor immunity and were associated with better clinical outcomes, but suffered strong immunosuppression in NSCLC. Enhancing the Tfh cell activity therefore represents a potential therapeutic strategy in NSCLC.