| 1. |
- Klionsky, Daniel J., et al.
(författare)
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Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy
- 2012
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Ingår i: Autophagy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1554-8635 .- 1554-8627. ; 8:4, s. 445-544
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.
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| 2. |
- Jung, Young-Eun, et al.
(författare)
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The Korean version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale: An extended validation
- 2012
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Ingår i: Stress and Health. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1532-3005 .- 1532-2998. ; 28:4, s. 319-326
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD‐RISC) is a brief self‐rating questionnaire for measuring resilience. The aims of the present study were to describe the development of a Korean version of the CD‐RISC (K‐CD‐RISC) and to more firmly establish its psychometric properties in terms of reliability and validity. The participants consisted of a general population sample (n = 194) and psychiatric outpatients (n = 127) with non‐psychotic mood or anxiety disorders. The K‐CD‐RISC score means (standard deviation) were 65.9 (13.6) in the general population and 50.4 (20.5) in the psychiatric outpatients. The mean score of the general population was significantly higher than that of the psychiatric outpatients. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five factors, and the obtained factor structure was verified through confirmatory factor analysis. In the general population, the Cronbach's α coefficient of the K‐CD‐RISC was found to be 0.92. Greater resilience was found to be associated with less perceived stress, anxiety and depression and with higher levels of positive affect and purpose in life. Taken together, our findings suggest that the K‐CD‐RISC has good psychometric properties and is a valid and reliable tool for assessing resilience.
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| 3. |
- Lee, Hyun-Seob, et al.
(författare)
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Foxa2 and Nurr1 Synergistically Yield A9 Nigral Dopamine Neurons Exhibiting Improved Differentiation, Function, and Cell Survival
- 2010
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Ingår i: Stem Cells. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1549-4918 .- 1066-5099. ; 28:3, s. 501-512
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Effective dopamine (DA) neuron differentiation from neural precursor cells (NPCs) is prerequisite for precursor/stem cell-based therapy of Parkinson's disease (PD). Nurr1, an orphan nuclear receptor, has been reported as a transcription factor that can drive DA neuron differentiation from non-dopaminergic NPCs in vitro. However, Nurr1 alone neither induces full neuronal maturation nor expression of proteins found specifically in midbrain DA neurons. In addition, Nurr1 expression is inefficient in inducing DA phenotype expression in NPCs derived from certain species such as mouse and human. We show here that Foxa2, a forkhead transcription factor whose role in midbrain DA neuron development was recently revealed, synergistically cooperates with Nurr1 to induce DA phenotype acquisition, midbrain-specific gene expression, and neuronal maturation. Thus, the combinatorial expression of Nurr1 and Foxa2 in NPCs efficiently yielded fully differentiated nigral (A9)-type midbrain neurons with clearly detectable DA neuronal activities. The effects of Foxa2 in DA neuron generation were observed regardless of the brain regions or species from which NPCs were derived. Furthermore, DA neurons generated by ectopic Foxa2 expression were more resistant to toxins. Importantly, Foxa2 expression resulted in a rapid cell cycle exit and reduced cell proliferation. Consistently, transplantation of NPCs transduced with Nurr1 and Foxa2 generated grafts enriched with midbrain-type DA neurons but reduced number of proliferating cells, and significantly reversed motor deficits in a rat PD model. Our findings can be applied to ongoing attempts to develop an efficient and safe precursor/stem cell-based therapy for PD. STEM CELLS 2010; 28: 501-512
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| 4. |
- Guanter, Luis, et al.
(författare)
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Global and time-resolved monitoring of crop photosynthesis with chlorophyll fluorescence
- 2014
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 111:14, s. E1327-E1333
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Photosynthesis is the process by which plants harvest sunlight to produce sugars from carbon dioxide and water. It is the primary source of energy for all life on Earth; hence it is important to understand how this process responds to climate change and human impact. However, model-based estimates of gross primary production (GPP, output from photosynthesis) are highly uncertain, in particular over heavily managed agricultural areas. Recent advances in spectroscopy enable the space-based monitoring of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) from terrestrial plants. Here we demonstrate that spaceborne SIF retrievals provide a direct measure of the GPP of cropland and grassland ecosystems. Such a strong link with crop photosynthesis is not evident for traditional remotely sensed vegetation indices, nor for more complex carbon cycle models. We use SIF observations to provide a global perspective on agricultural productivity. Our SIF-based crop GPP estimates are 50-75% higher than results from state-of-the-art carbon cycle models over, for example, the US Corn Belt and the Indo-Gangetic Plain, implying that current models severely underestimate the role of management. Our results indicate that SIF data can help us improve our global models for more accurate projections of agricultural productivity and climate impact on crop yields. Extension of our approach to other ecosystems, along with increased observational capabilities for SIF in the near future, holds the prospect of reducing uncertainties in the modeling of the current and future carbon cycle.
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| 5. |
- Fisher, Joshua B., et al.
(författare)
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African tropical rainforest net carbon dioxide fluxes in the twentieth century
- 2013
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Ingår i: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 1471-2970 .- 0962-8436. ; 368:1625, s. 9-20120376
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The African humid tropical biome constitutes the second largest rainforest region, significantly impacts global carbon cycling and climate, and has undergone major changes in functioning owing to climate and land-use change over the past century. We assess changes and trends in CO2 fluxes from 1901 to 2010 using nine land surface models forced with common driving data, and depict the inter-model variability as the uncertainty in fluxes. The biome is estimated to be a natural (no disturbance) net carbon sink (−0.02 kg C m−2 yr−1 or −0.04 Pg C yr−1, p < 0.05) with increasing strength fourfold in the second half of the century. The models were in close agreement on net CO2 flux at the beginning of the century (σ1901 = 0.02 kg C m−2 yr−1), but diverged exponentially throughout the century (σ2010 = 0.03 kg C m−2 yr−1). The increasing uncertainty is due to differences in sensitivity to increasing atmospheric CO2, but not increasing water stress, despite a decrease in precipitation and increase in air temperature. However, the largest uncertainties were associated with the most extreme drought events of the century. These results highlight the need to constrain modelled CO2 fluxes with increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations and extreme climatic events, as the uncertainties will only amplify in the next century.
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| 6. |
- Ljungberg, Börje, 1949-, et al.
(författare)
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The epidemiology of renal cell carcinoma
- 2011
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Ingår i: European Urology. - Arnhem : Elsevier Science. - 0302-2838 .- 1873-7560. ; 60:4, s. 615-621
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context: Kidney cancer is among the 10 most frequently occurring cancers in Western communities. Globally, about 270 000 cases of kidney cancer are diagnosed yearly and 116 000 people die from the disease. Approximately 90% of all kidney cancers are renal cell carcinomas (RCC). Objective: The causes of RCC are not completely known. We have reviewed known aetiologic factors.Evidence acquisition: The data provided in the current review are based on a thorough review of available original and review articles on RCC epidemiology with a systemic literature search using Medline.Evidence synthesis: Smoking, overweight and obesity, and germline mutations in specific genes are established risk factors for RCC. Hypertension and advanced kidney disease, which makes dialysis necessary, also increase RCC risk. Specific dietary habits and occupational exposure to specific carcinogens are suspected risk factors, but results in the literature are inconclusive. Alcohol consumption seems to have a protective effect for reasons yet unknown. Hardly any information is available for some factors that may have a high a priori role in the causation of RCC, such as salt consumption.Conclusions: Large collaborative studies with uniform data collection seem to be necessary to elucidate a complete list of established risk factors of RCC. This is necessary to make successful prevention possible for a disease that is diagnosed frequently in a stage where curative treatment is not possible anymore.
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| 7. |
- Proletov, Ian, et al.
(författare)
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Primary and secondary glomerulonephritides 1.
- 2014
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Ingår i: Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation : official publication of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association - European Renal Association. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1460-2385. ; 29 Suppl 3:May, s. 186-200
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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