The relationship between Muc5ac high secretion and Munc18b upregulation in obese asthma.

OBJECTIVE: Mucus production and hypersecretion are important pathophysiological features of asthma. Airway mucus secretion is more serious in obese asthma. Therefore, it is of great significance to elucidate the mechanism of asthma airway mucus high secretion in improving the control of asthma and the prognosis of obese asthmatic patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Obese asthmatic mice model was established to test the airway resistance and mucin secretion by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. Munc18b and Muc5ac expression levels were determined by Western-blotting. Munc18b conditioned knockout mice were adopted to explore the mechanism of Muc5ac high secretion. RESULTS: The mice weight increased in obese asthmatic model accompanied by elevated airway resistance. HE staining showed enhanced mucin secretion, which was correlated to weight and airway resistance. Munc18b and Muc5ac expressions significant upregulated in an obese asthmatic mouse model compared with normal control. Muc5ac expression failed to show elevation in Munc18b conditioned knockout mice. CONCLUSIONS: Muc5ac high secretion was positively correlated with Munc18b upregulation in obese asthma. Munc18b participated in inducing Muc5ac high expression.

Determination of the smoke-plume heights and their dynamics with ground-based scanning lidar.

Lidar-data processing techniques are analyzed, which allow determining smoke-plume heights and their dynamics and can be helpful for the improvement of smoke dispersion and air quality models. The data processing algorithms considered in the paper are based on the analysis of two alternative characteristics related to the smoke dispersion process: the regularized intercept function, extracted directly from the recorded lidar signal, and the square-range corrected backscatter signal, obtained after determining and subtracting the constant offset in the recorded signal. The analysis is performed using experimental data of the scanning lidar obtained in the area of prescribed fires.

Differential susceptibility of metastatic lymphoma cells to natural immunity.

The susceptibility of metastatic variant lymphoma cells to natural immunity was studied using a low malignant/metastatic parental RAW117-P cell line and its liver colonizing highly malignant/metastatic RAW117-H10 cell line. The metastatic variant RAW117-H10 cells express a significantly lower amount of laminin-like and fibronectin-like molecules as determined by flow cytometry using monospecific polyclonal antibodies to laminin and fibronectin. Our studies indicated that the RAW117-H10 cells are resistant to natural killer (NK) cell-mediated cytotoxicity. In vitro activation of the effector cells with interferon-gamma increased the susceptibility of these cells to NK-mediated cytotoxicity while maintaining the difference between the two cell lines. However, when recombinant interleukin-2 was used to activate the effector cells, the cytotoxicity of the lymphokine-activated effector cells to both parental low metastatic RAW117-P cells and highly metastatic RAW117-H10 cells was similar.

Salt-induced conversion of B-DNA to Z-DNA inhibited by aflatoxin B1.

The carcinogen aflatoxin B1 was reacted with a polymer of alternating deoxyguanine and deoxycytosine residues to determine the effect that adduct formation has on the conversion of this polymer from the right-handed B-DNA form found at low salt concentrations to the left-handed Z-DNA form found at high salt concentrations. Reaction with aflatoxin strongly inhibited the salt-induced conversion of this polymer from B-DNA to Z-DNA. This inhibition could be detected even at relatively low binding levels.