Whole-Exome Sequencing identified Olfactory Receptor genes as a key contributor to extreme obesity with progression to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis in Mexican patients: Olfactory receptor genes in obese NASH patients.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Obesity is a global health problem that triggers fat liver accumulation. The prevalence of obesity and the risk of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) among young obese Mexican is high. Furthermore, genetic predisposition is a key factor in weight gain and disrupts metabolism. Herein, we used Whole-Exome Sequencing to identify potential causal variants and the biological processes that lead to obesity with progression to NASH among Mexican patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Whole-Exome Sequencing was performed in nine obese patients with NASH diagnosis with a BMI ≥30 kg/m2 and one control (BMI=24.2 kg/m2) by using the Ion S5TM platform. Genetic variants were determined by Ion Reporter software. Enriched GO biological set genes were identified by the WebGestalt tool. Genetic variants within ≥2 obese NASH patients and having scores of SIFT 0.0-0.05 and Polyphen 0.85-1.0 were categorized as pathogenic. RESULTS: A total of 1359 variants with a probable pathogenic effect were determined in obese patients with NASH diagnosis. After several filtering steps, the most frequent pathogenic variants found were rs25640-HSD17B4, rs8105737-OR1I1, rs998544-OR5R1, and rs4916685, rs10037067, and rs2366926 in ADGRV1. Notably, the primary biological processes affected by these pathogenic variants were the sensory perception and detection of chemical stimulus pathways in which the olfactory receptor gene family was the most enriched. CONCLUSIONS: Variants in the olfactory receptor genes were highly enriched in Mexican obese patients that progress to NASH and could be potential targets of association studies.

GAIN: A graphical method to automatically analyze individual neurite outgrowth.

BACKGROUND: Neurite outgrowth is a metric widely used to assess the success of in vitro neural stem cell differentiation or neuron reprogramming protocols and to evaluate high-content screening assays for neural regenerative drug discovery. However, neurite measurements are tedious to perform manually, and there is a paucity of freely available, fully automated software to determine neurite measurements and neuron counting. To provide such a tool to the neurobiology, stem cell, cell engineering, and neuroregenerative communities, we developed an algorithm for performing high-throughput neurite analysis in immunofluorescent images. NEW METHOD: Given an input of paired neuronal nuclear and cytoskeletal microscopy images, the GAIN algorithm calculates neurite length statistics linked to individual cells or clusters of cells. It also provides an estimate of the number of nuclei in clusters of overlapping cells, thereby increasing the accuracy of neurite length statistics for higher confluency cultures. GAIN combines image processing for neuronal cell bodies and neurites with an algorithm for resolving neurite junctions. RESULTS: GAIN produces a table of neurite lengths from cell body to neurite tip per cell cluster in an image along with a count of cells per cluster. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS: GAIN's performance compares favorably with the popular ImageJ plugin NeuriteTracer for counting neurons, and provides the added benefit of assigning neurites to their respective cell bodies. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, GAIN provides a new tool to improve the robust assessment of neural cells by image-based analysis.

Inverted follicular keratosis: dermoscopic and reflectance confocal microscopic features.

Inverted follicular keratosis (IFK) is a rare benign tumor which usually appears as a firm papule on the face. The diagnosis is generally made by histopathology because the clinical appearance is difficult to differentiate from other lesions. Dermoscopic features of IFK have not been established to date. Herein we describe the dermoscopic findings of 4 cases of IFK. Radial peripheral hairpin vessels surrounded by a whitish halo arranged around a central white-yellowish amorphous area were observed in 3 cases, and glomerular vessels were present in the central area of one of them. The fourth case also presented a central white amorphous area but showed arborizing vessels. Reflectance confocal microscopy (available in 1 case) revealed a broadened honeycomb pattern, epidermal projections and hairpin and glomerular vessels. To our knowledge this is the first case series describing the dermoscopic features of inverted follicular keratosis and the first confocal microscopy description of this entity.

Automated measurement of human basophil degranulation.

Basophils disappear after challenge with specific antigen. A human basophil degranulation test has been carried out on a slide using an enriched cell suspension. On each slide, the same volume of cell suspension was deposited in wells with antigen diluted in buffer or with buffer only (control). The basophil count was made on an equal number of randomly distributed microscopic fields either by eye (optical) or by image analyser (automatic). In 33 subjects, the correlation coefficient between the numbers of non-degranulated basophils counted by eye and by image-analyser on control wells was found to be r-0.91, p less than 10-8. In 12 patients (6 with hydatidosis and 6 with schistosomiasis), the percentage of degranulation with three antigen dilutions was measured. The correlation between the results obtained by eye and by image-analyser reached 0.76 (p less than 10-7). The authors now use the automated measurement of human basophil degranulation routinely.