Faraday wave lattice as an elastic metamaterial.

Metamaterials enable the emergence of novel physical properties due to the existence of an underlying subwavelength structure. Here, we use the Faraday instability to shape the fluid-air interface with a regular pattern. This pattern undergoes an oscillating secondary instability and exhibits spontaneous vibrations that are analogous to transverse elastic waves. By locally forcing these waves, we fully characterize their dispersion relation and show that a Faraday pattern presents an effective shear elasticity. We propose a physical mechanism combining surface tension with the Faraday structured interface that quantitatively predicts the elastic wave phase speed, revealing that the liquid interface behaves as an elastic metamaterial.

Elastin-derived peptides enhance melanoma growth in vivo by upregulating the activation of Mcol-A (MMP-1) collagenase.

BACKGROUND: Elastin peptides possess several biological activities and in vitro data suggest they could be involved in the early phase of melanoma growth. METHODS: Using diverse in vitro and in vivo techniques (cell proliferation, invasion and migration assays, zymography, western blots, collagen degradation assay, reverse transcription PCR, melanoma allographs and immunohistochemistry), we analysed the effect of elastin-derived peptides (EDPs) on B16F1 melanoma growth and invasion, as well as on the proteolytic systems involved. RESULTS: We found that EDPs dramatically promote in vivo tumour development of B16F1 melanoma, as well as their in vitro migration and invasion. The inhibition of serine proteases and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) activities, by aprotinin and galardin, respectively, demonstrated that these enzymes were involved in these processes. However, we found that EDPs did not increase urokinase-type plasminogen activator, tissue-type plasminogen activator or MMP-2 expression and/or activation, neither in vitro nor in vivo. Nevertheless, we observed a strong increase of pro-MMP-9 secretion in EDPs-treated tumours and, more importantly, an increase in the expression and activation of the murine counterpart of MMP-1, named murine collagenase-A (Mcol-A). Moreover, we show that plasminogen system inhibition decreases collagen degradation by this enzyme. Finally, the use of a specific blocking antibody against Mcol-A abolished EDP-induced B16F1 invasion in vitro, showing that this MMP was directly involved in this process. CONCLUSION: Our data show that in vivo, EDPs are involved in melanoma growth and invasion and reinforced the concept of elastin fragmentation as a predictive factor.

Reverse homeosis in homeotically reconstructed ribbonworms.

Homeosis is the replacement of one body part by another, which may be caused by either developmental or genetic variations. It is particularly obvious in segmented animals, like insects, in which one body segment may be transformed into another. However, homeosis also occurs in animals without overt segmentation that also have detailed positional information specifying their body plan. By grafting, we have artificially generated homeotic ribbonworms of the species Lineus ruber with a duplicated ocellar region replacing the postocellar region anterior to the brain. Such chimeric animals are capable of complete morphogenetic regulation of the anterior-posterior (A-P) pattern. The missing postocellar region is restored by intercalary regeneration, and the anterior duplicated ocellar region is eliminated by a process called transgeneration. Thus, homeosis is reversed, and a completely normal pattern along the A-P axis is restored. This reverse homeosis involves the elimination of the syngeneic eyes and the survival of the grafted allogeneic eye region. LsPax-6, the Lineus sanguineus ortholog of the mammalian Pax-6 gene, which is considered to be a master control gene for eye morphogenesis, is expressed specifically in regenerating, regenerated, and intact eye regions. Our data show that ribbonworm eyes are either maintained or they regress according to their position along the A-P axis, even though there are no obvious segmental boundaries. This system allows us to test the function of LsPax-6 protein not only during eye regeneration but also during maintenance and regression of the eyes.

Expression of sex-specific molecular markers in clones of bipartite allophenic nemertines produced by somatic embryogenesis from Lineus sanguineus male/female chimera fragments.

SDS-PAGE electrophoresis showed major sex-specific proteins in sexually maturing and mature Lineus sanguineus. These "egg-specific" (145, 78 and 40 kDa) and "sperm-specific" (55,52 and 28 kDa) proteins are useful for studying sex differentiation in bilaterally allophenic worms produced by asexual reproduction of bipartite male/female chimeric worms. This study was carried out on 2 symmetrical clones of bilaterally allophenic worms, derived by somatic embryogenesis from fragments transected from chimeras obtained by exchange-grafting lateral body halves of male and female specimens, and from their asexually-derived progeny. The electrophoretic patterns of proteins extracted from sexually immature, maturing and mature allophenic animals from the 5th to the 19th year of cloning, showed the presence of all female-specific markers and the absence of male-specific markers. There was also complete biochemical feminization of the male halves. The synthesis of the only egg-specific molecules in initially male lateral body halves means that the long-term cloning results in the total repression of genes encoding sperm-specific proteins, since genetically male determinant-bearing cells can randomly re-express the testis characteristic as fertile but rudimentary male gonads.