Insights into the role of phytohormones regulating pAtNIP5;1 activity and boron transport in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Aiming to counteract B deficiency impacts, plants have developed different strategies in order to reach an optimal growth in soils with limited B availability. These include B transport mechanisms that involves a facilitated transport, via channel proteins, and a high-affinity active transport driven by borate transporters. The AtNIP5;1 channel protein is a member of Major Intrinsic Protein family which facilitates B influx into the roots under low B supply. In order to explore the phytohormone-dependent regulation of AtNIP5;1, the effects of abscisic acid (ABA), ethylene, auxins and cytokinins on the activity of AtNIP5;1 promoter were evaluated using the reporter line pNIP5;1-GUS. The results show that ABA treatment increased pAtNIP5;1 activity. Besides, a larger B uptake was found following ABA treatment under B deficiency suggesting a role of ABA inducing B uptake. The ethylene precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) caused an induction of AtNIP5;1 expression although did not correlate with higher B concentrations nor with an improvement in root growth. On the contrary, auxins and cytokinins caused slight changes in pAtNIP5;1 induction. Altogether, these results show a regulatory role of phytohormones in AtNIP5;1 promoter what may affect B transport. The herein provided information may contribute to better understand the regulation of B transport in plants towards minimizing B deficiency impacts on agriculture.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor and ciliary neurotrophic factor in maternal plasma and umbilical cord blood from pre-eclamptic and physiological pregnancies.

The aim of the study was to investigate the circulating levels of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in maternal serum and umbilical cord blood from respective pregnancies in pre-eclampsia (PE) cases and a control cohort. A total of 12 pre-eclampsia cases and 34 healthy controls were enrolled and the maternal peripheral blood - umbilical cord blood duos, were examined for BDNF and CNTF levels. BNDF levels were significantly higher in umbilical cord blood from pre-eclamptic pregnancies; there was also significant difference between maternal plasma and umbilical cord blood levels of BDNF (p < 0.001) in the controls. The CNTF levels in umbilical cord blood (CNTF-UCB) were significantly higher in PE cases than in the controls (p = 0.03). Significant differences were observed in expression of BDNF and CNTF proteins in maternal peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood between pre-eclampsia cases and healthy controls.

Visfatin is secreted into the breast milk and is correlated with weight changes of the infant after the birth.

INTRODUCTION: Visfatin is a recently identified adipokine with numerous metabolic and immunoregulatory properties that has been implicated in the regulation of the white adipose tissue (WAT) and significant changes in visfatin levels were reported during pregnancy. The aim of the study was to investigate dynamics of visfatin levels in maternal serum and human breast milk during a 180-d period after the delivery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: : Breast milk and venous blood samples were obtained from 24 healthy lactating women with uncomplicated, physiological pregnancy and appropriate-for-gestational age neonates and serum-milk sample duos were collected at the time of birth, at the 1-3, 12-14, 28-30, 88-90 and 178-180 postpartum. RESULTS: Our study demonstrates that (1) visfatin is abundantly secreted into breast milk in humans, reaching approx. 100× higher concentrations compared to maternal serum; (2) visfatin concentrations in maternal serum show significant variations after the delivery and (3) visfatin concentration in colostrum could be used for prediction of the subsequent weight development (less/more severe weight loss during first 3 days after the birth) of the infant. DISCUSSION: Our data suggest that visfatin could play an important role in regulation of adiposity of the infant after the birth.

Circulating levels of B-cell activating factor in paediatric patients with malignancy with or without cancer-related cachexia.

BACKGROUND: Cancer-related cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome characterised by progressive loss of body weight and it affects a large proportion of patients with advanced cancer. Cachexia is associated with reduced treatment tolerance, response to therapy, quality of life and duration of survival, whereas some of its mechanisms are shared across the whole continuum of diseases in the population, either cancer-related or non-cancer related e.g. systemic inflammation, increased lipolysis, insulin resistance and reduced physical performance. However, so far there has been only little effort to utilise the integrative physiology of adipose tissue to achieve therapeutic gain. B cell-activating factor (BAFF) is a novel member of the TNF ligand superfamily, is mainly produced by myeloid cells and has recently been shown to participate in B-cell survival and B- and T-cell maturation, but also in adipogenesis. Therefore, it represents an elegant candidate molecule linking the immune system and adipose tissue metabolism, both being involved deeply in the pathogenesis of cachexia. Moreover, it has been described very recently that BAFF directly influences secretion of IL-6 and IL-10. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this study, pre-treatment circulating levels of BAFF were investigated in a cohort of 83 paediatric patients with malignancy (0-18 y) with or without cancer-related cachexia using ELISA-based methodology. RESULTS: Apart from logical significant associations of BAFF circulating levels with disease severity in B-lineage malignancies (ALL or B-cell lymphomas), we observed significant elevation of BAFF in adolescent patients with Ewing sarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma, compared to the circulating levels appropriate for given age. CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this is so far the first study focusing on BAFF in paediatric malignancies with or without cancer-related cachexia. More research into whether BAFF can represent a useful circulating biomarker for detection and monitoring of the cancer-related cachexia is imperative.