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- Jensen Waern, Marianne, et al.
(author)
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Oral immunosuppressive medication for growing pigs in transplantation studies
- 2012
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In: Laboratory Animals. - Thousand Oaks, USA : Sage Publications. - 0023-6772 .- 1758-1117. ; 46:2, s. 148-151
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Immunosuppressive (IS) medication is needed to avoid graft rejection in porcine transplantation models. An ideal IS therapy should have no side-effects, but increased susceptibility to infections, disturbed intestinal microflora and toxic effects on organs and tissues are commonly reported. The aim of the present study was to design an IS protocol with tacrolimus and mycophenolic acid to be used for maintenance therapy in the post-transplant period. An eligible whole blood trough value for tacrolimus was 5-15 mu g/L. Conventional specific pathogen-free pigs were fitted with an indwelling catheter under general anaesthesia, and after the acclimatization period three groups were formed: group A (n = 4) received 0.15 mg/kg body weight (BW) twice daily tacrolimus and 500 mg twice daily mycophenolic acid; group B (n = 4) received 0.3 mg/kg BW twice daily tacrolimus and 500 mg twice daily mycophenolic acid; group C (n = 2) did not receive any medication. Daily clinical examinations and analyses of blood concentrations of tacrolimus and glucose were performed. Total and differential white blood cell counts, enzyme activities, bilirubin and electrolyte concentrations were measured every fourth day. At the end of the experiment, the pigs were killed with an overdose of pentobarbital intravenously and a necropsy was performed immediately. All animals seemed to tolerate the IS treatment well. No alterations in their clinical state of health were observed throughout the study and daily weight gain was similar for the three groups. The necropsy did not reveal any pathological findings related to medication. The study showed that 0.25 mg/kg BW twice daily tacrolimus and 500 mg twice daily mycophenolic acid would be an appropriate maintenance dosage for conventional pigs.
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| 3. |
- Zhang, Boxi, 1987-, et al.
(author)
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The periodontal pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis changes the gene expression in vascular smooth muscle cells involving the TGFbeta/Notch signalling pathway and increased cell proliferation
- 2013
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In: BMC Genomics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2164. ; 14, s. 770-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Porphyromonas gingivalis is a gram-negative bacterium that causes destructive chronic periodontitis. In addition, this bacterium is also involved in the development of cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of P. gingivalis infection on gene and protein expression in human aortic smooth muscle cells (AoSMCs) and its relation to cellular function.Results: AoSMCs were exposed to viable P. gingivalis for 24 h, whereafter confocal fluorescence microscopy was used to study P. gingivalis invasion of AoSMCs. AoSMCs proliferation was evaluated by neutral red assay. Human genome microarray, western blot and ELISA were used to investigate how P. gingivalis changes the gene and protein expression of AoSMCs. We found that viable P. gingivalis invades AoSMCs, disrupts stress fiber structures and significantly increases cell proliferation. Microarray results showed that, a total of 982 genes were identified as differentially expressed with the threshold log2 fold change >|1| (adjust p-value <0.05). Using bioinformatic data mining, we demonstrated that up-regulated genes are enriched in gene ontology function of positive control of cell proliferation and down-regulated genes are enriched in the function of negative control of cell proliferation. The results from pathway analysis revealed that all the genes belonging to these two categories induced by P. gingivalis were enriched in 25 pathways, including genes of Notch and TGF-beta pathways.Conclusions: This study demonstrates that P. gingivalis is able to invade AoSMCs and stimulate their proliferation. The activation of TGF-beta and Notch signaling pathways may be involved in the bacteria-mediated proliferation of AoSMCs. These findings further support the association between periodontitis and cardiovascular diseases.
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