Multifaceted role of cycling DOF factor 3 (CDF3) in the regulation of flowering time and abiotic stress responses in Arabidopsis.

DNA-binding with one finger (DOF)-type transcription factors are involved in many fundamental processes in higher plants, from responses to light and phytohormones to flowering time and seed maturation, but their relation with abiotic stress tolerance is largely unknown. Here, we identify the roles of CDF3, an Arabidopsis DOF gene in abiotic stress responses and developmental processes like flowering time. CDF3 is highly induced by drought, extreme temperatures and abscisic acid treatment. The CDF3 T-DNA insertion mutant cdf3-1 is much more sensitive to drought and low temperature stress, whereas CDF3 overexpression enhances the tolerance of transgenic plants to drought, cold and osmotic stress and promotes late flowering. Transcriptome analysis revealed that CDF3 regulates a set of genes involved in cellular osmoprotection and oxidative stress, including the stress tolerance transcription factors CBFs, DREB2A and ZAT12, which involve both gigantea-dependent and independent pathways. Consistently, metabolite profiling disclosed that the total amount of some protective metabolites including γ-aminobutyric acid, proline, glutamine and sucrose were higher in CDF3-overexpressing plants. Taken together, these results indicate that CDF3 plays a multifaceted role acting on both flowering time and abiotic stress tolerance, in part by controlling the CBF/DREB2A-CRT/DRE and ZAT10/12 modules.

Transient Transactivation Studies in Nicotiana benthamiana Leaves.

Transitory gene expression systems in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves, in combination with the use of gene silencing suppressors as the p19 or HC-pro proteins that allow for elevated levels of gene expression, have proven to be a highly versatile tool to analyze transcriptional function of DNA binding factors in the activated or repressed expression of their gene targets. This experimental setup uses Agrobacterium-mediated infection to deliver the various DNA constructs into the cell, and offers the advantage with respect to mesophyll protoplast transfection procedures that it entails a much easier protocol, in addition to preserving the intact leaf tissue, thus being more amenable to the study of wound and stress signaling pathways or to the functional analyses of regulators that respond to Ca+2 signatures. Furthermore, by using reporter constructs based on the LUCIFERASE (LUC) gene, which does not require a destructive determination assay, this expression system can be used to test for changes in gene activity over time or in response to various treatments, thus providing a comprehensive understanding of the signaling pathways that modulate activity of the expressed regulators and therefore their in vivo function in the control of the analyzed promoter.

Results of a pilot trial of immunotherapy with dendritic cells pulsed with autologous tumor lysates in patients with advanced cancer.

AIMS AND BACKGROUND: The purpose of the study was to test the immunological and clinical effects of infusions of dendritic cells pulsed with autologous tumor lysate in patients with advanced cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 15 patients with metastatic cancer (melanoma in 10, lung cancer in 2, renal cell carcinoma in 1, sarcoma in 1, breast cancer in 1) were harvested by leukapheresis after mobilization with GM-CSF (5 microg/kg/day s.c. for 4 days). Mononuclear cells were separated and cultured in GM-CSF (1000 U/ml) and interleukin-4 (1000 U/ml) for 7 days. Phenotype was assessed by 2-color flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry. On day 6, dendritic cells were pulsed with 1 g of fresh autologous tumor lysate for 24 h and infused intravenously. Interleukin-2 (6 million IU), interferon a (4 million IU) and GM-CSF (400 microg) were injected s.c. daily for 10 days beginning on the day of dendritic cell infusion. Treatment was repeated every 21 days for 3 courses. RESULTS: The morphology, immunocytochemistry and phenotype of cultured cells was consistent with dendritic cells: intense positivity for HLA-DR and CD86, with negativity for markers of other lineages, including CD3, CD4, CD8 and CD14. More than 5 x 10(7) dendritic cells were injected in all patients. Nine patients developed >5 mm delayed type cutaneous hypersensitivity reactions to tumor lysate+/-GM-CSF after the first immunization (larger than GM-CSF in all cases). Median delayed type cutaneous hypersensitivity to lysate +/- GM-CSF was 3 cm after the third immunization. One melanoma patient with skin, liver, lung and bone metastases had a partial response lasting 8 months (followed by progression in the brain). Seven patients had stable disease for >3 months, and 7 had progression. CONCLUSIONS: Infusion of tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cells induces a strong cell-mediated antitumor immune reaction in patients with advanced cancer and has some clinical activity.

Tendon xanthomas in familial hypercholesterolemia are associated with a differential inflammatory response of macrophages to oxidized LDL.

Tendon xanthomas (TX) are pathognomonic lipid deposits commonly found in familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) patients. The aim of this study was to determine whether macrophages from FH patients with TX (TX+) have higher predisposition to foam cells formation after oxidized LDL (oxLDL) overload than those from FH patients without TX (TX-), and if their differential gene expression profile could explain these different phenotypes. Total RNA pools from macrophages from FH patients TX+ and TX- were analyzed using Affymetrix oligonucleotide arrays to evaluate the gene expression profile in presence and absence of oxLDL. Also, the intracellular lipid content was measured by fluorescence flow cytometry. Results of these studies suggest that macrophages from FH subjects TX+ compared to those TX- have a differential response to oxLDL, since they show higher intracellular cholesterol ester accumulation and a differential gene expression profile. The gene array data were validated by relative quantitative real-time RT-PCR and quantitative ELISA in culture media and plasma samples. FH subjects TX+ showed increased plasma tryptase, TNF-alpha, IL-8 and IL-6 concentrations. We propose that TX formation are associated with higher intracellular lipid content, and higher inflammatory response of macrophages in response to oxLDL.

Informe del Taller Ibérico de Histocompatibilidad 2013. Componente de análisis de situación de procedimiento de pruebas cruzadas en guardias de trasplante de órganos / Report of the 2013 Iberian Histocompatibility Workshop of 2013. Component analysis of the proceedings of cross-matching procedures in emergency organ transplantation

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Rheumatoid synovial fluid T cells are sensitive to APO2L/TRAIL.

The infiltration and accumulation of T cells in the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovial fluid (SF) are hallmarks of disease. We aimed to assess the functional relevance of FasL and of APO2L/TRAIL in the persistence of T cells in the rheumatoid SF. We have analyzed the expression of the activation markers HLA-DR and CD69 and also of the death receptor Fas/CD95 and death ligands FasL or APO2L/TRAIL in CD3+ lymphocytes from SF of 62 RA patients, together with their sensitivity to anti-Fas mAb or to rAPO2L/TRAIL, using as controls T lymphocytes present in SF of 20 patients with traumatic arthritis. T lymphocytes infiltrated in SF of RA patients have a chronically activated phenotype, but they are resistant to Fas-induced toxicity. However, they are more susceptible to rAPO2L/TRAIL than T cells in the SF of traumatic arthritis patients. In addition, we found very low amounts of bioactive FasL and APO2L/TRAIL associated with exosomes in SF from RA patients as compared with SF from traumatic arthritis patients. The observation on the sensitivity of RA SF T cells to rAPO2L could have therapeutic implications because bioactive APO2L/TRAIL could be beneficial as a RA treatment.

Human CD8+ T cell blasts are more sensitive than CD4+ T cell blasts to regulation by APO2L/TRAIL.

The mechanisms responsible for the down-modulation of the activation of separated CD4(+) or CD8(+) human T cell blasts were studied using cells obtained from healthy donors. In the presence of IL-2, human CD8(+) T cell blasts were more sensitive than CD4(+) T cell blasts to regulation by APO2 ligand/TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (APO2L/TRAIL), while both T cell subsets were equally sensitive to Fas/CD95 regulation. This regulation was defined as inhibition of IL-2-dependent T cell growth in the absence of cell death induction, characterized by cell cycle arrest in G(2)/M. The physiological validity of these observations was corroborated by the demonstration of intracellular FasL and APO2L/TRAIL expression in CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell blasts, which were secreted in their bioactive form into the supernatant upon PHA, CD3 or CD59 reactivation. Additionally, the inhibition of IL-2-dependent CD4(+) or CD8(+) T cell blast growth upon CD3 or CD59 ligation was dependent, at least partially, on FasL and/or APO2L/TRAIL. These data precisely define the role of APO2L/TRAIL in the regulation of human T cell activation.

Role of ribavirin in membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis associated with hepatitis C virus infection refractory to alpha-interferon.

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been associated with several extrahepatic diseases, such as membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN). alpha-Interferon is currently the treatment of choice for this association. When this therapy fails clinicians face a difficult challenge due to the lack of useful information in these particularly difficult patients. We report the case of a severe nephrotic syndrome due to MPGN associated HCV infection, in which a triple association--interferon plus ribavirin and cyclophosphamide--was needed to control the disease.

The human melanoma cell line MelJuSo secretes bioactive FasL and APO2L/TRAIL on the surface of microvesicles. Possible contribution to tumor counterattack.

Tumor cells have developed multiple mechanisms to evade control by the immune system. Tumoral cells expressing Fas ligand (FasL) have been proposed to "counterattack" against activated antitumoral effector immune cells, although some authors have indicated that FasL is not expressed on the surface of the same tumors, such in the case of melanoma cells. However, other factors could be implicated, such as the balance of soluble versus membrane-bound forms or the secretion of death ligands on the surface of microvesicles, as described previously by our group in human T cells. In the present study, we analyzed the expression and secretion of FasL and APO2 ligand (APO2L)/TRAIL in the human melanoma cell line MelJuSo. We have observed the expression of preformed FasL and APO2L/TRAIL in these cells, their secretion associated with microvesicles upon melanoma activation with PHA or with alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH), and the toxicity of these microvesicles against normal human T cell blasts. We have also observed that the mechanism of secretion of FasL and APO2L/TRAIL from melanoma cells is depending both on microtubules and actin filaments. From these data, it can be concluded that the MelJuSo melanoma cell line has the possibility to "counterattack" against activated immune effector cells. However, the in vivo outcome seems more complex since it has been also described that FasL expressed in tumors has a proinflammatory effect.

Lack of Fas/CD95 surface expression in highly proliferative leukemic cell lines correlates with loss of CtBP/BARS and redirection of the protein toward giant lysosomal structures.

Fas/CD95 is a type-I membrane glycoprotein, which inducesapoptotic cell death when ligated by its physiological ligand. We generated previously hyperproliferative sublines derived from the human T-cell leukemia Jurkat, Jurkat-ws and Jurkat-hp, which lost Fas/CD95 surface expression. We have now observed that the total amount of Fas protein is similar in the sublines and in the parental cells, indicating that in the sublines Fas remains in an intracellular compartment. We have found that the protein is directed toward lysosomes in the sublines, where it is degraded. This defect in the secretory pathway correlates with loss of polyunsaturated fatty acids from cellular lipids, and with the lack of expression of endophilin-I and CtBP/BARS, enzymes that regulate vesicle fission by catalyzing the acylation of arachidonate into lysophosphatidic acid. In addition, great multillamer bodies, which contained acid phosphatase activity, absent in the parental Jurkat cells, were observed by transmission electron microscopy in the sublines.

Rheumatoid sinovial fluid T cells are sensitive to Apo2L/Trail Regulation

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