| 11. |
- Spotorno, Nicola, et al.
(författare)
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Plasma neurofilament light protein correlates with diffusion tensor imaging metrics in frontotemporal dementia
- 2020
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Ingår i: Plos One. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 15:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Neurofilaments are structural components of neurons and are particularly abundant in highly myelinated axons. The levels of neurofilament light chain (NfL) in both cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma have been related to degeneration in several neurodegenerative conditions including frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and NfL is currently considered as the most promising diagnostic and prognostic fluid biomarker in FTD. Although the location and function of filaments in the healthy nervous system suggests a link between increased NfL and white matter degeneration, such a claim has not been fully elucidated in vivo, especially in the context of FTD. The present study provides evidence of an association between the plasma levels of NfL and white matter involvement in behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD) by relating plasma concentration of NfL to diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics in a group of 20 bvFTD patients. The results of both voxel-wise and tract specific analysis showed that increased plasma NfL concentration is associated with a reduction in fractional anisotropy (FA) in a widespread set of white matter tracts including the superior longitudinal fasciculus, the fronto-occipital fasciculus the anterior thalamic radiation and the dorsal cingulum bundle. Plasma NfL concentration also correlated with cortical thinning in a portion of the right medial prefrontal cortex and of the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex. These results support the hypothesis that blood NfL levels reflect the global level of neurodegeneration in bvFTD and help to advance our understanding of the association between this blood biomarker for FTD and the disease process.
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
- Adler, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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A Robust Method to Store Complement C3 With Superior Ability to Maintain the Native Structure and Function of the Protein
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Immunology. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 1664-3224. ; 13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Complement components have a reputation to be very labile. One of the reasons for this is the spontaneous hydrolysis of the internal thioester that is found in both C3 and C4 (but not in C5). Despite the fact that approximate to 20,000 papers have been published on human C3 there is still no reliable method to store the protein without generating C3(H2O), a fact that may have affected studies of the conformation and function of C3, including recent studies on intracellular C3(H2O). The aim of this work was to define the conditions for storage of native C3 and to introduce a robust method that makes C3 almost resistant to the generation of C3(H2O). Here, we precipitated native C3 at the isoelectric point in low ionic strength buffer before freezing the protein at -80 degrees C. The formation of C3(H2O) was determined using cation exchange chromatography and the hemolytic activity of the different C3 preparations was determined using a hemolytic assay for the classical pathway. We show that freezing native C3 in the precipitated form is the best method to avoid loss of function and generation of C3(H2O). By contrast, the most efficient way to consistently generate C3(H2O) was to incubate native C3 in a buffer at pH 11.0. We conclude that we have defined the optimal storage conditions for storing and maintaining the function of native C3 without generating C3(H2O) and also the conditions for consistently generating C3(H2O).
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| 14. |
- Adler, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Regulation of the innate immune system by fragmented heparin-conjugated lipids on lipid bilayered membranes in vitro
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of materials chemistry. B. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 2050-750X .- 2050-7518. ; 11:46, s. 11121-11134
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Surface modification with heparin is a powerful biomaterial coating strategy that protects against innate immunity activation since heparin is a part of the proteoglycan heparan sulfate on cell surfaces in the body. We studied the heparinization of cellular and material surfaces via lipid conjugation to a heparin-binding peptide. In the present study, we synthesized fragmented heparin (fHep)-conjugated phospholipids and studied their regulation of the innate immune system on a lipid bilayered surface using liposomes. Liposomes have versatile applications, such as drug-delivery systems, due to their ability to carry a wide range of molecules. Owing to their morphological similarity to cell membranes, they can also be used to mimic a simple cell-membrane to study protein-lipid interactions. We investigated the interaction of complement-regulators, factor H and C4b-binding protein (C4BP), as well as the coagulation inhibitor antithrombin (AT), with fHep-lipids on the liposomal surface. Herein, we studied the ability of fHep-lipids to recruit factor H, C4BP, and AT using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring. With dynamic light scattering, we demonstrated that liposomes could be modified with fHep-lipids and were stable up to 60 days at 4 degree celsius. Using a capillary western blot-based method (Wes), we showed that fHep-liposomes could recruit factor H in a model system using purified proteins and assist in the degradation of the active complement protein C3b to iC3b. Furthermore, we found that fHep-liposomes could recruit factor H and AT from human plasma. Therefore, the use of fHep-lipids could be a potential coating for liposomes and cell surfaces to regulate the immune system on the lipid surface.
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| 15. |
- Andrén, Eva, et al.
(författare)
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Öppna prioriteringar inom nya områden : logopedi, nutritionsbedömning, habilitering och arbetsterapi
- 2011
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Det finns fortfarande ett behov av att öka kunskapen om och stödja den praktiska tillämpningen av riksdagens riktlinjer för öppna prioriteringar inom svensk hälso- och sjukvård. Flera förslag på hur ett sådant stöd kan se ut har tagits fram de senaste åren. Spridning av goda exempel är ett sådant förslag, metodstöd ett annat (PrioriteringsCentrum 2007). En mer påtaglig form av metodstöd är den nationella modell som vuxit fram för att konkretisera innebörden i riktlinjerna (Carlsson m fl 2007). Den får idag anses som välbeprövad inom ett flertal områden och har bidragit till att samsynen och kommunicerbarheten kring prioriteringar har ökat i landet. Erfarenheter visar dock att det behövs pedagogisk vägledning i hur modellen kan tillämpas. För att möta upp efterfrågan på sådant metodstöd erbjuder Prioriteringscentrum handledning i grupp. Den första handledningsgruppen är nu avslutad och det är deltagarnas prioriteringsarbeten som presenteras i denna rapport i syfte att sprida konkreta exempel på försök att tillämpa prioriteringsriktlinjerna.I rapporten presenteras fyra prioriteringsarbeten med fokus på: Regionsamverkan inom arbetsterapi Logopedi Yrkesspecifika prioriteringar på väg till teamet Från projekt till integrerat redskapExemplet med prioriteringar i regionsamverkan utgörs av det prioriteringsarbete som genomförts i det s k femklövernätverket bestående av en samverkansgrupp för arbetsterapeuter i ledningsposition på sjukhusen i Uppland, Västmanland, Södermanland, Gävleborg och Dalarna. Arbetet var ett försök att skapa gemensamma prioriteringar i regionen för ett sjukdomsområde som kändes relevant. Valet kom att falla på arbetsterapi inom reumatologi. Arbetet har sedan huvudsakligen bedrivits i en projektgrupp, bestående av en representant från varje sjukhus där arbetet växlat mellan arbete på hemmaplan och avstämningsträffar i projektgruppen.Försöket har visat att det finns en samsyn inom regionen kring prioriteringar inom arbetsterapi och reumatologi. Säkerheten i prioriteringarna har ökat i och med att fem arbetsterapiorganisationer tillsammans bidragit med ett stort underlagsmaterial bl a genom att delge varandra sina kliniska erfarenheter. Förutsättningarna för en mer likartad vård i regionen har ökat. Arbetet har också gett upphov till frågor om i vilka situationer det är att föredra att prioriteringsarbete bedrivs lokalt, regionvis och/eller nationellt.
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| 16. |
- Antonelli, Alexandre, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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SUPERSMART: ecology and evolution in the era of big data
- 2014
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Ingår i: PeerJ PrePrints. - : PeerJ. - 2167-9843.
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Rapidly growing biological data volumes – including molecular sequences, species traits, geographic occurrences, specimen collections, and fossil records – hold an unprecedented, yet largely unexplored potential to reveal how ecological and evolutionary processes generate and maintain biodiversity. Most biodiversity studies integrating ecological data and evolutionary history use an idiosyncratic step-by-step approach for the reconstruction of time-calibrated phylogenies in light of ecological and evolutionary scenarios. Here we introduce a conceptual framework, termed SUPERSMART (Self-Updating Platform for Estimating Rates of Speciation and Migration, Ages, and Relationships of Taxa), and provide a proof of concept for dealing with the moving targets of biodiversity research. This framework reconstructs dated phylogenies based on the assembly of molecular datasets and collects pertinent data on ecology, distribution, and fossils of the focal clade. The data handled for each step are continuously updated as databases accumulate new records. We exemplify the practice of our method by presenting comprehensive phylogenetic and dating analyses for the orders Primates and the Gentianales. We believe that this emerging framework will provide an invaluable tool for a wide range of hypothesis-driven research questions in ecology and evolution.
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| 17. |
- Asif, Sana, et al.
(författare)
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Heparinization of cell surfaces with short peptide-conjugated PEG-lipid regulates thromboinflammation in transplantation of human MSCs and hepatocytes
- 2016
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Ingår i: Acta Biomaterialia. - : Elsevier BV. - 1742-7061 .- 1878-7568. ; 35, s. 194-205
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Infusion of therapeutic cells into humans is associated with immune responses, including thromboinflammation, which result in a large loss of transplanted cells\ To address these problems, heparinization of the cell surfaces was achieved by a cell-surface modification technique using polyethylene glycol conjugated phospholipid (PEG-lipid) derivatives. A short heparin-binding peptide was conjugated to the PEG-lipid for immobilization of heparin conjugates on the surface of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and human hepatocytes. Here three kinds of heparin-binding peptides were used for immobilizing heparin conjugates and examined for the antithrombogenic effects on the cell surface. The heparinized cells were incubated in human whole blood to evaluate their hemocompatibility by measuring blood parameters such as platelet count, coagulation markers, complement markers, and Factor Xa activity. We found that one of the heparin-binding peptides did not show cytotoxicity after the immobilization with heparin conjugates. The degree of binding of the heparin conjugates on the cell surface (analyzed by flow cytometer) depended on the ratio of the active peptide to control peptide. For both human MSCs and hepatocytes in whole-blood experiments, no platelet aggregation was seen in the heparin conjugate-immobilized cell group vs. the controls (non-coated cells or control peptide). Also, the levels of thrombin-antithrombin complex (TAT), C3a, and sC5b-9 were significantly lower than those of the controls, indicating a lower activation of coagulation and complement. Factor Xa analysis indicated that the heparin conjugate was still active on the cell surface at 24 h post-coating. It is possible to immobilize heparin conjugates onto hMSC and human hepatocyte surfaces and thereby protect the cell surfaces from damaging thromboinflammation. Statement of Signigficance We present a promising approach to enhance the biocompatibility of therapeutic cells. Here we used short peptide-conjugated PEG-lipid for cell surface modification and heparin conjugates for the coating of human hepatocytes and MSCs. We screened the short peptides to find higher affinity for heparinization of cell surface and performed hemocompatibility assay of heparinized human hepatocytes and human MSCs in human whole blood. Using heparin-binding peptide with higher affinity, not only coagulation activation but also complement activation was significantly suppressed. Thus, it was possible to protect human hepatocytes and human MSCs from the attack of thromboinflammatory activation, which can contribute to the improvement graft survival. (C) 2016 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 18. |
- Banke, Elin, et al.
(författare)
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Superantigen activates the gp130 receptor on adipocytes resulting in altered adipocyte metabolism.
- 2014
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Ingår i: Metabolism, Clinical and Experimental. - : Elsevier BV. - 1532-8600. ; 63:6, s. 831-840
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The bacteria Staphylococcus aureus is part of the normal bacterial flora and produces a repertoire of enterotoxins which can cause food poisoning and toxic shock and might contribute to the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases. These enterotoxins directly cross-link the T cell receptor with MHC class II, activating large amounts of T cells and are therefore called superantigens. It was recently discovered that the superantigen SEA binds to the cytokine receptor gp130. As obesity and type 2 diabetes are highly associated with inflammation of the adipose tissue and gp130 has been shown to play an important role in adipocytes, we wanted to investigate the effect of SEA on adipocyte signaling and function.
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| 19. |
- Bergström, Tobias, et al.
(författare)
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Developmentally regulated collagen/integrin interactions confer adhesive properties to early postnatal neural stem cells
- 2014
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Ingår i: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - General Subjects. - : Elsevier BV. - 0304-4165 .- 1872-8006. ; 1840:8, s. 2526-2532
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background:It is becoming increasingly apparent that the extracellular matrix acts as an important regulator of the neural stem niche. Previously we found that neural stem and progenitor cells (NSPCs) derived from the early postnatal subventricular zone of mice adhere to a collagen/hyaluronan hydrogel, whereas NSPCs from the adult and embryonic brain do not.Methods:To examine the specific adhesive properties of young stem cells in more detail, NSPCs isolated from embryonic, postnatal day 6 (P6), and adult mouse brains were cultured on collagen I.Results:Early postnatal NSPCs formed paxillin-positive focal adhesions on collagen I, and these adhesions could be prevented by an antibody that blocked integrin beta 1. Furthermore, we found the corresponding integrin alpha subunits alpha 2 and alpha 11 levels to be highest at the postnatal stage. Gene ontology analysis of differentially expressed genes showed higher expression of transcripts involved in vasculature development and morphogenesis in P6 stem cells, compared to adult.Conclusions:The ability to interact with the extracellular matrix differs between postnatal and adult NSPCs.General significance:Our observations that the specific adhesive properties of early postnatal NSPCs, which are lost in the adult brain, can be ascribed to the integrin subunits expressed by the former furthering our understanding of the developing neurogenic niche. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Matrix-mediated cell behaviour and properties.
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| 20. |
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