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The clinical acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD)-therapy of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is not as satisfactory as expected. Secondary lymphoid organs (SLOs) are the major niches serve to initiate immune responses or induce tolerance. Our previous study showed that CCR7 guide murine MSC line C3H10T1/2 migrating to SLOs. In this study, CCR7 gene was engineered into murine MSCs by lentivirus transfection system (MSCs/CCR7). The immunomodulatory mechanism of MSCs/CCR7 was further investigated. Provoked by inflammatory cytokines, MSCs/CCR7 increased the secretion of nitric oxide and calmed down the T cell immune response in vitro. Immunofluorescent staining results showed that transfused MSCs/CCR7 can migrate to and relocate at the appropriate T cell-rich zones within SLOs in vivo. MSCs/CCR7 displayed enhanced effect in prolonging the survival and alleviating the clinical scores of the GvHD mice than normal MSCs. Owing to the critical relocation sites, MSCs/CCR7 co-infusion potently made the T cells in SLOs more naïve like, thus control T cells trafficking from SLOs to the target organs. Through spoiling the fourth supplemental Billingham's tenet, MSCs/CCR7 potently inhibited the development of GvHD. The study here provides a novel therapeutic strategy of MSCs/CCR7 infusion at a low dosage to give potent immunomodulatory effect for clinical immune disease therapy.

A one-pot method for the synthesis of aromatic ethers using hypervalent iodine(III) reagents obtained from the corresponding iodoaryl compounds is developed. In this concise method, six diaryl ethers and three heterocyclic aromatic ethers are synthesized in good yields. Furthermore, possible mechanisms for the syntheses of the hypervalent iodine reagents and construction of the aromatic ethers are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limits to flight performance at high altitude potentially reflect variable constraints deriving from the simultaneous challenges of hypobaric, hypodense and cold air. Differences in flight-related morphology and maximum lifting capacity have been well characterized for different hummingbird species across elevational gradients, but relevant within-species variation has not yet been identified in any bird species. Here we evaluate load-lifting capacity for Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus) populations at three different elevations in China, and correlate maximum lifted loads with relevant anatomical features including wing shape, wing size, and heart and lung masses. Sparrows were heavier and possessed more rounded and longer wings at higher elevations; relative heart and lung masses were also greater with altitude, although relative flight muscle mass remained constant. By contrast, maximum lifting capacity relative to body weight declined over the same elevational range, while the effective wing loading in flight (i.e. the ratio of body weight and maximum lifted weight to total wing area) remained constant, suggesting aerodynamic constraints on performance in parallel with enhanced heart and lung masses to offset hypoxic challenge. Mechanical limits to take-off performance may thus be exacerbated at higher elevations, which may in turn result in behavioral differences in escape responses among populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retinoblastoma (RB) is a childhood malignancy caused by inactivation of the RB gene, with neuron-specific enolase (NSE) levels considered as its diagnostic marker. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been proven to play a significant role in multiple physiological and pathological processes and several miRNAs were identified as tumor biomarkers in recent studies. In the present study, 65 plasma samples were collected from RB patients and 65 samples from healthy individuals to serve as controls. The miRNA levels were measured via quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and their association with RB was assessed by statistical data analysis and receiver operating characteristic curves. Plasma miRNA (miR)-320, miR-let-7e and miR-21 levels were downregulated in the patient samples, the areas under the curves (AUCs) were 0.548-0.660, whereas the AUCs of combined classifiers were ≥0.990. The plasma miRNA levels, particularly of miR-320, were found to be of value in RB diagnosis and may be considered as novel diagnostic biomarkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driver fatigue is a significant factor in many traffic accidents. We propose a novel approach for driver fatigue detection from facial image sequences, which is based on multiscale dynamic features. First, Gabor filters are used to get a multiscale representation for image sequences. Then Local Binary Patterns are extracted from each multiscale image. To account for the temporal aspect of human fatigue, the LBP image sequence is divided into dynamic units, and a histogram of each dynamic unit is computed and concatenated as dynamic features. Finally a statistical learning algorithm is applied to extract the most discriminative features from the multiscale dynamic features and construct a strong classifier for fatigue detection. The proposed approach is validated under real-life fatigue conditions. The test data includes 600 image sequences with illumination and pose variations from 30 people's videos. Experimental results show the validity of the proposed approach, and a correct rate of 98.33% is achieved which is much better than the baselines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]