Introducing a novel intraoral mandibular nerve block technique for loco-regional analgesia in camels (Camelus dromedarius): a cadaveric study using computed tomography.

The aim of this study was to introduce a novel intraoral technique for performing mandibular nerve blocks in dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius). In this study, 18 adult camel skulls of varying ages and breeds were examined to determine the position of the mandibular foramen. Using a Vernier caliper, three dimensions in millimeters were measured: (1) the distance between the mandibular foramen (MF) and the caudal edge of the third molar tooth at the occlusal surface level, (2) the distance between the MF and the rostral edge border of the mandible's ramus (RER) at the occlusal surface level, and (3) the distance between the MF and the ventral margin border of the mandible (VM). The technique was evaluated using five intact camel cadaver heads (n = 5), and a total of ten mandibular nerve blocks were described. An 18-gauge 80-mm Tuohy needle was inserted into the mouth commissure and advanced caudally while injecting a saline-methylene blue solution. The accuracy of the injection was confirmed through the infiltration of the contrast dye into the target area using computed tomography (CT) and post procedural dissection. Anatomical study of the mandibular nerve site was performed to aid the blind insertion of the needle. The findings contribute to the development of veterinary anesthesia techniques and provide anatomical considerations for clinicians performing oral surgeries in sedated camels. The results demonstrated the successful implementation of the intraoral technique, highlighting its efficacy and reliability in achieving local anesthesia for oral surgeries involving the lower jaw and teeth in sedated camels. Further research studies are needed to evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of the technique and to compare it with existing approaches.

Outcomes of dietary alpha-lipoic acid on testicular vascularization, steroid hormones, and seminal quality in aged Baladi bucks.

BACKGROUND: Senescence is accompanied by a progressive decrease in male reproductive performance, mainly due to oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction. Alpha lipoic acid (ALA) is a potent antioxidant, that diffuses freely in aqueous and lipid phases, possessing anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic properties. This study aimed to examine the effects of supplemental dietary ALA on testicular hemodynamics (TH), circulating hormones, and semen quality in aged goats. Twelve Baladi bucks were divided into two groups (n = 6 each); the first fed a basic ration and served as a control group (CON), while the second received the basic ration supplemented with 600 mg ALA/ kg daily for consecutive eight weeks (ALA). RESULTS: There were improvements in testicular blood flow in the ALA group evidenced by a lower resistance index (RI) and pulsatility index (PI) concurrent with higher pampiniform-colored areas/pixel (W3-W6). There were increases in testicular volume and decreases in echogenicity (W3-W5; ALA vs. CON). Compared to the CON, ALA-bucks had higher serum concentrations of testosterone, estradiol, and nitric oxide (W3-W5). There were enhancements in semen traits (progressive motility, viability, morphology, and concentration, alanine aminotransferase enzyme) and oxidative biomarkers (catalase, total antioxidant capacity, and malondialdehyde). CONCLUSIONS: ALA dietary supplementation (600 mg/kg diet) improved aged bucks' reproductive performance by enhancing the testicular volume, testicular hemodynamics, sex steroids, and semen quality.

The effects of aging and gestational month on uteroplacental vascular perfusion, and umbilical artery hemodynamics in pregnant jennies.

This study aimed to correlate the pulsed wave spectral indices of the middle uterine artery at both sides with placental development in jenny within mid-late pregnancies, and establish umbilical Doppler values for different ages and different gestational months. Twenty Equus Asinus pregnant jennies 260-450 kg (average, 320 ± 10 kg) were examined from 5 to 9 months of pregnancy with different ages (4-14 years). Monthly B-mode ultrasound examination was performed on both the combined thickness of the uterus and placenta (CTUP; mm) and umbilical artery cross-sectional diameter, and Doppler mode examination was performed on both the middle uterine (MUA at right [R] and left [L] sides) and umbilical arteries to measure both Doppler indices that expressed by resistance (RI) and pulsatility indices (PI), and blood flow rate. CTUP was elevated within pregnancy time at different ages (P < 0.05). L. PI was significantly declined throughout different ages (P < 0.05), but this declining trend was not observed in L. RI. The L. blood flow rate (R; bpm) was elevated among different ages and different months (P < 0.05). Both RI and PI were significantly decreased from 5 to 9 month of gestation period in jennies (P < 0.05).. The umbilical arteries cross-sectional diameter (Umb A; mm), was elevated among different ages and different months, while both Doppler indices were declined. A positive correlation was found (between both Doppler indices of both umbilical and uterine arteries P < 0.001). There was elevated vascular perfusion in uterine and umbilical arteries associated with reduced both Doppler indices along the course of pregnancy at different ages.

Single melatonin injection enhances the testicular artery hemodynamic, reproductive hormones, and semen parameters in German shepherd dogs.

This study aimed to determine the effects of melatonin administration on testicular vascular perfusion in relation to steroid hormones and semen characteristics in dogs. The study included 12 normospermic German shepherd dogs (weighed 35 ± 0.5 kg and aged 4 ± 0.5 years). Males received a single melatonin administration (melatonin dimethyl sulfoxide + corn oil via subcutaneous route; MEL; n = 6), while the rest of the animals served as controls (dimethyl sulfoxide + corn oil; Control; n = 6). Males were subjected to routine examination on days -15, 0, 15, 30, 45, and 60. All examined dogs were subjected to Doppler screening, semen collection, and blood sampling. The MEL group showed a significant (P < 0.05) elevation in semen volume, concentration, percentage of sperm motility, and total sperm × 106 / ejaculate compared to other control males. Doppler indices as resistance (RI) and pulsatility (PI) indices declined (P < 0.05) from D 30 (1.02 ± 0.01) until day 60 (0.87 ± 0.02) of treatment. In MEL males, the peak systolic point of velocity (PSV; cm/sec) of the testicular artery elevated (P < 0.05) on day 60 (20.15 ± 0.99) compared to its value on day 0 (17.39 ± 1.84). On D 60, the levels of testosterone (T), estradiol 17-ß (E2), and nitric oxide (NO) elevated (P < 0.05). A negative correlation was detected between testicular volume, scrotal circumference (SC), T levels, Doppler indices, and velocities. In conclusion, single melatonin administration could improve testicular vascularization via increasing Doppler velocities and intratesticular colored areas. In addition, it could improve semen picture and steroids (T and E2) and nitric oxide.

Assessment of the accuracy of testicular dysfunction detection in male donkey (Equus asinus) with the aid of colour-spectral Doppler in relation to plasma testosterone and serum nitric oxide levels.

This study aimed to determine the usefulness of colour and pulsed Doppler modes for the accurate diagnosis of donkeys suffering from subfertility to determine whether testicular vascularity assessment could be an indicator for sperm functionality. The study sample was composed of 10 male donkeys with normospermia (control group) and 10 donkeys with hypospermia. Animals underwent scrotal circumference measurement, testicular Doppler examination, seminal evaluation, blood sampling and hormonal assay. Semen volume and concentration were significantly (p ≤ .05) lower in the subfertile group (30.25 ± 1.22 ml and 89.44 ± 2.55 × 106 /ml) as compared with the control group (82.76 ± 1.65 ml and 452.78 ± 1.25 × 106 /ml), and total sperm/ejaculation was significantly (p ≤ .05) higher in the normal donkeys (28.30 ± 2.32 × 109 /total ejaculated) as compared with the subfertile group. Intratesticular coloured area showed a marked decline in the hypospermic males. There was no significant difference between the two groups in testosterone level, although the normal group showed an increase in nitric oxide metabolites. Both Doppler indices of the three branches of the testicular artery were elevated significantly (p ≤ .05) in abnormal donkeys, whereas Doppler peak systolic and end-diastolic velocities were increased in the normal group. Male donkeys with subfertility demonstrated lower arterial vascularity parameters in the form of intratesticular coloured area and blood flow rate; therefore, the most optimal parameters for differentiating subfertile hypospermic from normospermic donkeys were found to be the two Doppler indices, velocities parameters, testicular blood flow rate and nitric oxide levels.

ArrayExpress update--trends in database growth and links to data analysis tools.

The ArrayExpress Archive of Functional Genomics Data (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress) is one of three international functional genomics public data repositories, alongside the Gene Expression Omnibus at NCBI and the DDBJ Omics Archive, supporting peer-reviewed publications. It accepts data generated by sequencing or array-based technologies and currently contains data from almost a million assays, from over 30 000 experiments. The proportion of sequencing-based submissions has grown significantly over the last 2 years and has reached, in 2012, 15% of all new data. All data are available from ArrayExpress in MAGE-TAB format, which allows robust linking to data analysis and visualization tools, including Bioconductor and GenomeSpace. Additionally, R objects, for microarray data, and binary alignment format files, for sequencing data, have been generated for a significant proportion of ArrayExpress data.

Off-pump pulmonary embolectomy.

Pulmonary embolism is a common clinical condition associated with high mortality. Surgical pulmonary embolectomy (SPE), despite having been in existence for over 100 years, is generally regarded as an option of last resort with high mortality rates. Prompt recognition of predictors of mortality, such as right ventricular stress on echocardiography, helps decision-making for immediate surgical pulmonary embolectomy prior to development of significant circulatory collapse, with promising results.We present a 71-year-old male, with recent intracranial bleed and acute massive bilateral pulmonary embolism. The patient underwent successful off-pump surgical pulmonary embolectomy.

Optimising parallel R correlation matrix calculations on gene expression data using MapReduce.

BACKGROUND: High-throughput molecular profiling data has been used to improve clinical decision making by stratifying subjects based on their molecular profiles. Unsupervised clustering algorithms can be used for stratification purposes. However, the current speed of the clustering algorithms cannot meet the requirement of large-scale molecular data due to poor performance of the correlation matrix calculation. With high-throughput sequencing technologies promising to produce even larger datasets per subject, we expect the performance of the state-of-the-art statistical algorithms to be further impacted unless efforts towards optimisation are carried out. MapReduce is a widely used high performance parallel framework that can solve the problem. RESULTS: In this paper, we evaluate the current parallel modes for correlation calculation methods and introduce an efficient data distribution and parallel calculation algorithm based on MapReduce to optimise the correlation calculation. We studied the performance of our algorithm using two gene expression benchmarks. In the micro-benchmark, our implementation using MapReduce, based on the R package RHIPE, demonstrates a 3.26-5.83 fold increase compared to the default Snowfall and 1.56-1.64 fold increase compared to the basic RHIPE in the Euclidean, Pearson and Spearman correlations. Though vanilla R and the optimised Snowfall outperforms our optimised RHIPE in the micro-benchmark, they do not scale well with the macro-benchmark. In the macro-benchmark the optimised RHIPE performs 2.03-16.56 times faster than vanilla R. Benefiting from the 3.30-5.13 times faster data preparation, the optimised RHIPE performs 1.22-1.71 times faster than the optimised Snowfall. Both the optimised RHIPE and the optimised Snowfall successfully performs the Kendall correlation with TCGA dataset within 7 hours. Both of them conduct more than 30 times faster than the estimated vanilla R. CONCLUSIONS: The performance evaluation found that the new MapReduce algorithm and its implementation in RHIPE outperforms vanilla R and the conventional parallel algorithms implemented in R Snowfall. We propose that MapReduce framework holds great promise for large molecular data analysis, in particular for high-dimensional genomic data such as that demonstrated in the performance evaluation described in this paper. We aim to use this new algorithm as a basis for optimising high-throughput molecular data correlation calculation for Big Data.

High dimensional biological data retrieval optimization with NoSQL technology.

BACKGROUND: High-throughput transcriptomic data generated by microarray experiments is the most abundant and frequently stored kind of data currently used in translational medicine studies. Although microarray data is supported in data warehouses such as tranSMART, when querying relational databases for hundreds of different patient gene expression records queries are slow due to poor performance. Non-relational data models, such as the key-value model implemented in NoSQL databases, hold promise to be more performant solutions. Our motivation is to improve the performance of the tranSMART data warehouse with a view to supporting Next Generation Sequencing data. RESULTS: In this paper we introduce a new data model better suited for high-dimensional data storage and querying, optimized for database scalability and performance. We have designed a key-value pair data model to support faster queries over large-scale microarray data and implemented the model using HBase, an implementation of Google's BigTable storage system. An experimental performance comparison was carried out against the traditional relational data model implemented in both MySQL Cluster and MongoDB, using a large publicly available transcriptomic data set taken from NCBI GEO concerning Multiple Myeloma. Our new key-value data model implemented on HBase exhibits an average 5.24-fold increase in high-dimensional biological data query performance compared to the relational model implemented on MySQL Cluster, and an average 6.47-fold increase on query performance on MongoDB. CONCLUSIONS: The performance evaluation found that the new key-value data model, in particular its implementation in HBase, outperforms the relational model currently implemented in tranSMART. We propose that NoSQL technology holds great promise for large-scale data management, in particular for high-dimensional biological data such as that demonstrated in the performance evaluation described in this paper. We aim to use this new data model as a basis for migrating tranSMART's implementation to a more scalable solution for Big Data.

Platelet-rich plasma attenuates the UPEC-induced cystitis via inhibiting MMP-2,9 activities and downregulation of NGF and VEGF in Canis Lupus Familiaris model.

One of the most prevalent disorders of the urinary system is urinary tract infection, which is mostly brought on by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). The objective of this study was to evaluate the regenerative therapeutic and antibacterial efficacy of PRP for induced bacterial cystitis in dogs in comparison to conventional antibiotics. 25 healthy male mongrel dogs were divided into 5 groups (n = 5). Control negative group that received neither induced infection nor treatments. 20 dogs were randomized into 4 groups after two weeks of induction of UPEC cystitis into; Group 1 (control positive; G1) received weekly intravesicular instillation of sodium chloride 0.9%. Group 2 (syst/PRP; G2), treated with both systemic intramuscular antibiotic and weekly intravesicular instillation of PRP; Group 3 (PRP; G3), treated with weekly intravesicular instillation of PRP, and Group 4 (syst; G4) treated with an intramuscular systemic antibiotic. Animals were subjected to weekly clinical, ultrasonographic evaluation, urinary microbiological analysis, and redox status biomarkers estimation. Urinary matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-2, MMP-9) and urinary gene expression for platelet-derived growth factor -B (PDGF-B), nerve growth factor (NGF), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were measured. At the end of the study, dogs were euthanized, and the bladder tissues were examined macroscopically, histologically, and immunohistochemically for NF-κB P65 and Cox-2. The PRP-treated group showed significant improvement for all the clinical, Doppler parameters, and the urinary redox status (p < 0.05). The urinary MMPs activity was significantly decreased in the PRP-treated group and the expression level of urinary NGF and VEGF were downregulated while PDGFB was significantly upregulated (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, the urinary viable cell count was significantly reduced in all treatments (P < 0.05). Gross examination of bladder tissue showed marked improvement for the PRP-treated group, expressed in the histopathological findings. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed a marked increase in Cox-2 and NF-κB P65 in the PRP-treated group (P < 0.05). autologous CaCl2-activated PRP was able to overcome the bacterial infection, generating an inflammatory environment to overcome the old one and initiate tissue healing. Hence, PRP is a promising alternative therapeutic for UPEC cystitis instead of conventional antibiotics.

Effect of pyometra on vascularity alterations, oxidative stress, histopathology and inflammatory molecules in feline.

This study aimed to investigate blood flow, hemodynamical features by Doppler ultrasound, the oxidative stress biomarkers from serum samples, and histopathology from uterine tissue, in healthy queens and queens with pyometra. Twenty queens were categorized into two groups, according to signs, history, and ultrasound findings, as pyometra and control healthy queens. Doppler ultrasonography, total antioxidant capacity (TAC), malondialdehyde (MDA), albumin, bacteriological isolation, histopathology, and immunohistochemistry of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) P65 were performed. Uterine diameter and thickness increased significantly in the pyometra group compared to control. Uterine peak velocity and flow rate were significantly higher in the control group. The pyometra group showed a significant decrease in albumin, TAC, and a significant increase in MDA. Fibrosis and mononuclear inflammatory cell infiltration were seen in the pyometra samples. The mean area percentage of TNF-α expression in the uteri of the pyometra group was higher. The expression of NF-κB P65 in the uteri in the pyometra group was significantly higher. Doppler ultrasonography can provide valuable information for diagnosing pyometra in queens by elevating the uterine thickness with reducing blood flow rate. Oxidative stress, TNF-α, and NF-κB expression alterations varied between pyometra and control groups.

ArrayExpress update--an archive of microarray and high-throughput sequencing-based functional genomics experiments.

The ArrayExpress Archive (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress) is one of the three international public repositories of functional genomics data supporting publications. It includes data generated by sequencing or array-based technologies. Data are submitted by users and imported directly from the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus. The ArrayExpress Archive is closely integrated with the Gene Expression Atlas and the sequence databases at the European Bioinformatics Institute. Advanced queries provided via ontology enabled interfaces include queries based on technology and sample attributes such as disease, cell types and anatomy.

FAIR in action - a flexible framework to guide FAIRification.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data more than any other scientific challenge to date. We developed a flexible, multi-level, domain-agnostic FAIRification framework, providing practical guidance to improve the FAIRness for both existing and future clinical and molecular datasets. We validated the framework in collaboration with several major public-private partnership projects, demonstrating and delivering improvements across all aspects of FAIR and across a variety of datasets and their contexts. We therefore managed to establish the reproducibility and far-reaching applicability of our approach to FAIRification tasks.

The FAIR Cookbook - the essential resource for and by FAIR doers.

The notion that data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable, according to the FAIR Principles, has become a global norm for good data stewardship and a prerequisite for reproducibility. Nowadays, FAIR guides data policy actions and professional practices in the public and private sectors. Despite such global endorsements, however, the FAIR Principles are aspirational, remaining elusive at best, and intimidating at worst. To address the lack of practical guidance, and help with capability gaps, we developed the FAIR Cookbook, an open, online resource of hands-on recipes for "FAIR doers" in the Life Sciences. Created by researchers and data managers professionals in academia, (bio)pharmaceutical companies and information service industries, the FAIR Cookbook covers the key steps in a FAIRification journey, the levels and indicators of FAIRness, the maturity model, the technologies, the tools and the standards available, as well as the skills required, and the challenges to achieve and improve data FAIRness. Part of the ELIXIR ecosystem, and recommended by funders, the FAIR Cookbook is open to contributions of new recipes.

Gene expression atlas at the European bioinformatics institute.

The Gene Expression Atlas (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/gxa) is an added-value database providing information about gene expression in different cell types, organism parts, developmental stages, disease states, sample treatments and other biological/experimental conditions. The content of this database derives from curation, re-annotation and statistical analysis of selected data from the ArrayExpress Archive of Functional Genomics Data. A simple interface allows the user to query for differential gene expression either (i) by gene names or attributes such as Gene Ontology terms, or (ii) by biological conditions, e.g. diseases, organism parts or cell types. The gene queries return the conditions where expression has been reported, while condition queries return which genes are reported to be expressed in these conditions. A combination of both query types is possible. The query results are ranked using various statistical measures and by how many independent studies in the database show the particular gene-condition association. Currently, the database contains information about more than 200,000 genes from nine species and almost 4500 biological conditions studied in over 30,000 assays from over 1000 independent studies.

MicroRNA-21 expression, serum tumor markers, and immunohistochemistry in canine mammary tumors.

BACKGROUND: Canine mammary tumors (CMTs) are one of the most common malignancies in dogs and are associated with significant mortality. Serum tumor markers and non-coding microRNAs have gained widespread popularity in human oncology studies. The present study has two aims, first one is to investigate the miR-21 expression compared with changes in serum tumor markers (CEA and CA15-3) in CMT. The second aim is to detect the immunohistochemistry markers as vimentin, P63, and -SMA in CMT. METHODS: This study enrolled 17 female dogs: 10 with mammary tumors and seven controls without tumors. Blood samples were collected to measure miR-21, CEA, and CA 15-3, and histological samples were prepared for histological grading and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: CA 15-3 was elevated in all animals, whereas CEA levels showed no change compared with controls. miR-21 was upregulated 12.84-fold in animals with CMT. The most frequently recorded CMT was the mixed type. Myoepithelial cells were identified by P63 immunoreactivity, but not SMA. High expression of miR-21 was observed with positive vimentin immunoreactivity, indicating the mesenchymal origin of the tumor cells. CONCLUSION: The present study showed that miR-21 was elevated to a greater extent than CA 15-3 (12.84-fold vs. threefold). Tumors that was positive for vimentin immunoreactivity was also associated with an elevation in the levels of miR-21, showing that miR-21 is released from mesenchymal cells. These findings support the hypothesis that miR-21 may be a more sensitive, noninvasive indicator for CMT.

Histological and hemodynamic characterization of corpus luteum throughout the luteal phase in pregnant and non-pregnant buffalos in relation to nitric oxide levels based on its anatomical determination.

This study aims to compare the complete growth and development of corpus luteum (CL) in domestic buffalos from day 5 until day 40 after ovulation either in pregnant or non-pregnant animals and whether luteal vascularity (LV) with progesterone (P4) and nitric oxide (NO) could determine luteal functionality or not. Pluriparous buffalos (Bubalus bubalis) were categorized as pregnant (n = 6) or non-pregnant (n = 9) after pregnancy check at day 25. Animals were subjected to ultrasound analysis to determine the CL area (cm2) and LV. Blood sampling was performed following the Doppler examination. Ovarian tissue samples from non-pregnant buffalo genitalia (n = 18) and early pregnant buffalo genitalia (n = 3) were collected from great abattoirs. Luteal Doppler indices were lower in the pregnant group, while peak systolic velocity (PSV) was increased (p < 0.05) in the same pregnant females. Both P4 and NOMs were elevated (p < 0.05) in the pregnant group. There was a positive correlation (p < 0.01) between P4 and CL PSV. Based on our macroscopical examination, the CL of non-pregnant buffalos was classified into four stages. Histologically, stage I showed that CL was covered by a highly vascularized connective tissue (CT) capsule. It consisted of small and large lutein cells, whereas stage II was similar to stage I except for the presence of numerous fibroblast cells and vacuolated cells. Stage III was characterized by increasing the number of collagen fibers and the thickness of the blood vessels. Stage IV revealed thickening of the CT capsule and septae, regressed capillaries and arterioles, in addition to shrunken degenerated lutein cells. CL of pregnant buffalos revealed the same structure as CL at stage II. CL area was increased in the pregnant group. The collective data suggested that evaluation of the luteal artery could be extremely helpful to determine the potential benefits of colored and pulsed Doppler in CL vascularization assessment in both luteal and early pregnancy phases.

The therapeutic potential of Camel Wharton jelly mesenchymal stem cells (CWJ-MSCs) in canine chronic kidney disease model.

BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide health problem that its incidence increases nowadays with the increase in the risk of environmental pollution. CKD can progress to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) which usually ends fatally. This study aimed to examine the therapeutic potential of Camel Wharton jelly-mesenchymal stem cells (CWJ-MSCs) in chronic kidney disease model induced in dogs. METHODS: CWJ-MSCs were injected directed to the kidney with ultrasonographic guidance in dogs with 5/6 nephrectomy to evaluate its therapeutic potency in such cases. Analysis of variance was applied in normally distributed quantitative variables while a non-parametric Mann-Whitney test was used for non-normally distributed quantitative variables. RESULTS: The serum urea and creatinine in the treated group were significantly decreased transferring dogs in the treated group from stage 3 to stage 2 CKD according to the IRIS staging system. Histopathology of renal tissue revealed improving CKD lesions by increasing regeneration of degenerated tubules, maintaining the integrity of glomeruli. New vascularization with blood vessels remodeling were common findings. Periodic acid Schiff stain of renal tissue showed the integrity of renal tubules and thickness of the glomerular basement membrane. Fibrosis of cortex and medulla was lower in the treated group than in the CKD model as monitored by Mallory's trichrome stain (MTC). NGAL and KIM-1 genes expression were decreased while VEGF and EGF genes expression were increased indicating renal tissue repair. CONCLUSIONS: CWJ-MSCs have a therapeutic potential in the CKD model induced in dogs.

The efficiency of intrauterine infusion of platelet-rich plasma in the treatment of acute endometritis as assessed by endoscopic, Doppler, oxidative, immunohistochemical, and gene expression alterations in jennies.

This study used autologous platelet-rich plasma (PRP) to treat acute endometritis in jennies with follow-up for alterations in uterine hemodynamics, endoscopic, immunohistochemistry, oxidant/antioxidant imbalance, pro-inflammatory regulatory molecules, and transmembrane mucin expressions. Ten jennies suffering from endometritis (acute type; n = 10) were included in the study. PRP was prepared from each animal and two intrauterine infusions one week apart were administrated. Examination and follow-up were done physically, ultrasonographically, endoscopically and samples were taken for histopathology, immunohistochemistry, and bacteriological examination. Blood and uterine fluid samples were taken to estimate biochemical and oxidative stress alterations. Expression of TRAF6 and MUC1 genes was investigated in uterine fluid, at days -1 (day of diagnosis establishment), 7, 14, and 21. Uterine bacteriological examination showed a decrease in bacterial isolates after PRP treatment. The uterine thickness and uterine vascular perfusion as illustrated by color Doppler ultrasonography were significantly decreased in jennies treated by PRP. Uterine spectral wave pattern showed a significant linear increase in pulsatility index only. Three weeks after first PRP treatment, white light endoscopic examination revealed normal uterine body mucosa and uterine horn folds. A high nuclear factor (NF-κB) expression was seen in the mononuclear cells. A significant reduction in oxidative stress biomarkers in both serum and uterine fluid was recorded after PRP treatment. The TRAF-1 gene expression significantly decreased gradually after intrauterine PRP infusion. The MUC-1 gene expression significantly decreased gradually after intrauterine PRP infusion. Both genes were within normal levels by week 3. Endometritis in jennies is associated with an oxidative process, alterations in serum biochemical parameters, Doppler indices, endoscopic appearance, high NF-κB expression, and upregulation of TRAF-1 and MUC-1 expressions. Two intrauterine infusions of autologous PRP restored normal endometrial appearance after acute endometritis.

ArrayExpress update--from an archive of functional genomics experiments to the atlas of gene expression.

ArrayExpress http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress consists of three components: the ArrayExpress Repository--a public archive of functional genomics experiments and supporting data, the ArrayExpress Warehouse--a database of gene expression profiles and other bio-measurements and the ArrayExpress Atlas--a new summary database and meta-analytical tool of ranked gene expression across multiple experiments and different biological conditions. The Repository contains data from over 6000 experiments comprising approximately 200,000 assays, and the database doubles in size every 15 months. The majority of the data are array based, but other data types are included, most recently-ultra high-throughput sequencing transcriptomics and epigenetic data. The Warehouse and Atlas allow users to query for differentially expressed genes by gene names and properties, experimental conditions and sample properties, or a combination of both. In this update, we describe the ArrayExpress developments over the last two years.