Productivity of ospreys in Connecticut--Long Island increases as DDE residues decline.

Nesting success of ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) breeding in the Connecticut--Long Island area has increased since 1973 and is now approaching the levels recorded prior to the 1950's. Simultaneously, DDE and dieldrin residues have declined in unhatched eggs. Levels of polychorinated biphenyls have shown no changes over the period 1969 to 1976. The increase in productivity is attributed primarily to lower levels of DDE contamination. Detrimental effects in the past on ospreys in the Connecticut River estuary are attributed to local contamination with dieldrin.

New roles for autophagy and spermidine in T cells.

The conserved lysosomal degradation pathway autophagy is now recognised as an essential cog in immune function. While functionally widespread in the innate immune system, knowledge of its roles in adaptive immunity is more limited. Although autophagy has been implicated in naïve T cell homeostasis, its requirement in antigen-specific T cells during infection was unknown. Using a murine model where the essential autophagy gene Atg7 is deleted in the T cell lineage, we have shown that autophagy is dispensable for effector CD8+ T cell responses, but crucial for the formation of memory CD8+ T cells. Here, we suggest reasons why autophagy might be important for the formation of long-lasting immunity. Like in the absence of autophagy, T cell memory formation during ageing is also defective. We observed diminished autophagy levels in T cells from aged mice, linking autophagy to immunosenescence. Importantly, T cell responses to influenza vaccination could be significantly improved using the autophagy-inducing compound spermidine. These results suggest the autophagy pathway as a desirable target to improve aged immunity and modulate T cell function.