Digital Commons Network^™

An Epigenetic Map Of Age-Associated Autosomal Loci In Northern European Families At High Risk For The Metabolic Syndrome, Omar Ali, Diana Cerjak, Jack W. Kent, Roland James, John Blangero, Melanie A. Carless, Yi Zhang

School of Medicine Publications

Background: The prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome (MetS), and cardiovascular disease increases with age in all populations. Epigenetic features are hypothesized to play important roles in the pathophysiology of age-associated diseases, but a map of these markers is lacking. We searched for genome-wide age-associated methylation signatures in peripheral blood of individuals at high risks for MetS by profiling 485,000 CpG sites in 192 individuals of Northern European ancestry using the Illumina HM450 array. Subjects (ages 6-85 years) were part of seven extended families, and 73% of adults and 32% of children were overweight …

Sulfidic Spring In The Gypsum Karst System Of Monte Conca (Italy): Chemistry And Microbiological Evidences, Marianna Messina, Tiziana Grech, Fiorenzo Fiorenza, Alessandro Marlettta, Pietro Valenti, Salvatore Petralia

International Journal of Speleology

Monte Conca Cave is a karst system placed in Messinian evaporites, consisting of an active cave and a resurgence located on the massif of Monte Conca, Campofranco within the "Riserva Naturale Integrale di Monte Conca". A sulfidic spring is located in the terminal gallery of the cave. To characterize the physical and chemical parameters of the Monte Conca cave and of the sulfidic spring, air temperature, relative humidity, water pH, and concentrations of dissolved sulfides, nitrates and sulfates were monitored. The high sulfide consumption rate in the sulfidic spring, evaluated by a kinetic study, suggests that biotic consumption is dominant. …

Born Naked By Farley Mowat, Ted Geier

The Goose

Farley Mowat's charming childhood memoir covers the usual Mowat terrain: riotous humour, humble reverence, and a meticulous accounting of the little things that make life--all life--dear to us. Mowat's work deserves regular attention in animal studies and environmental literary studies. His autobiographical techniques, as this review suggests, can be both assets and occasional impediments. But there is no replacing or replicating a Farley Mowat, and Born Naked deserves to be read immediately and repeatedly as one of the lasting legacies of a long life, well-lived.

Design And Synthesis Of Bioactive Peptidomimetics, Yaogang Hu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs) play a very important role in biological functions and therefore the inhibition of specific Protein-Protein Interactions has a huge therapeutic value. The most successful small molecular PPIs inhibitors do not fit with the prevalent `Rule of Five' drug profile. To overcome the disadvantages of small molecular PPIs inhibitors, peptide based PPIs inhibitors were developed. Herein we describe the development of a new class of peptidomimetics AA-peptides. The AApeptides were designed based on chiral PNA backbone. Substitution of nucleobases yields AApeptides that are resistant to proteolysis and capable of mimicking peptides. Two types of AApeptides were discussed in …

A Standardized Autopsy Procurement Allows For The Comprehensive Study Of Dipg Biology., Madhuri Kambhampati, Jennifer P. Perez, Sridevi Yadavilli, Amanda M. Saratsis, D. Ashley Hill, Cheng-Ying Ho, Eshini Panditharatna, Melissa Markel, Roger J. Packer, Javad Nazarian

Pathology Faculty Publications

Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is one of the least understood and most deadly childhood cancers. Historically, there has been a paucity of DIPG specimens for molecular analysis. However, due to the generous participation of DIPG families in programs for postmortem specimen donation, there has been a recent surge in molecular analysis of newly available tumor specimens. Collaborative efforts to share data and tumor specimens have resulted in rapid discoveries in other pediatric brain tumors, such as medulloblastoma, and therefore have the potential to shed light on the biology of DIPG. Given the generous gift of postmortem tissue donation from …

Pathway To Autism Spectrum Disorders: Finding Patterns Of Common Genetic Variation Underlying The Complex Disorder, Yo Son Park

Open Access Dissertations

The field of genetics has witnessed a tremendous increase in the amount of information in the past decade resulting from genotyping and resequencing technologies. There has been an explosion in the development, application and optimization of statistical and computational methods to analyze these data. In particular, genome-wide scanning of common or rare genetic variants and their associations to a phenotypic trait has been successfully applied in several studies. For complex diseases such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), however, interrogating single locus associations by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has been unable to unambiguously identify disorder causing genes. In this dissertation, an …

Biophysical Basis Of The Antagonistic Action Of Yap Transcriptional Regulator And Wwox Tumor Suppressor, Brett Schuchardt

Open Access Theses

WW-domain containing proteins such as the antagonistic pair, YAP2 transcriptional regulator and WWOX tumor suppressor, mediate a multitude of homeostatic cellular processes including cell growth, proliferation, and apoptosis through specific interactions with shared PPXY-containing cognate ligands, which help transmit signals from the plasma membrane through the cytosol into the nucleus. Although there are numerous cell and mouse studies describing the signaling cascade events of such protein-protein interactions, the molecular basis of WW-PPXY interactions has yet to be explored. In addition, the ability of WW domains to act alone or in tandem, such as those found in YAP2 and WWOX, may …

Human Animal Chimeras For Therapeutic Protocols, Bracha Sklar

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Research on humans is limited, therefore human animal chimeras have been used to study human systems. A Human animal chimera is an animal containing animal and human cell lines. The primary goal of human animal chimera research is to establish an animal with human cellular characters, which can and should more realistically be able to imitate as closely as possible the in vivo situations in humans. This research is very important, because it allows scientists to study human systems in vivo using a humanized animal model. However ethical issues arise when experimenting with humans and animals being mixed together. Using …

Engaging Students In Current Topics: Ecosystem Disruption, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll

Faculty Publications & Research

One of the most compelling aspects of studying biology is that it has immediate relevance to the world around us. It is the study of life, which can give us amazing insight into how we as organisms work as well as our place in Earth’s ecosystem. This second point is especially crucial for our students to understand, as the Earth is in many ways in a state of ecological crisis. Ecosystems across the globe are changing, often as the result of human influence, and an understanding of the causes and effects of these changes is essential for our students, especially …

Anticancer Activity Of A Thymidine Quinoxaline Conjugate Is Modulated By Cytosolic Thymidine Pathways, Qiong Wei, Haijuan Liu, Honghao Zhou, Dejun Zhang, Zhiwei Zhang, Qibing Zhou

Medicinal Chemistry Publications

Background

High levels of thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) and thymidine phosphorylase (TYMP) are key molecular targets by thymidine therapeutics in cancer treatment. The dual roles of TYMP as a tumor growth factor and a key activation enzyme of anticancer metabolites resulted in a mixed outcome in cancer patients. In this study, we investigated the roles of TK1 and TYMP on a thymidine quinoxaline conjugate to evaluate an alternative to circumvent the contradictive role of TYMP.

Methods

TK1 and TYMP levels in multiple liver cell lines were assessed along with the cytotoxicity of the thymidine conjugate. Cellular accumulation of the thymidine …

Generation Of Multicellular Tumor Spheroids With Microwell-Based Agarose Scaffolds For Drug Testing, Xue Gong, Chao Lin, Jian Cheng, Jiansheng Su, Hang Zhao, Tianlin Liu, Xuejun Wen, Peng Zhao

Chemical and Life Science Engineering Publications

Three dimensional multicellular aggregate, also referred to as cell spheroid or microtissue, is an indispensable tool for in vitro evaluating antitumor activity and drug efficacy. Compared with classical cellular monolayer, multicellular tumor spheroid (MCTS) offers a more rational platform to predict in vivo drug efficacy and toxicity. Nevertheless, traditional processing methods such as plastic dish culture with nonadhesive surfaces are regularly time-consuming, laborious and difficult to provide uniform-sized spheroids, thus causing poor reproducibility of experimental data and impeding high-throughput drug screening. In order to provide a robust and effective platform for in vitro drug evaluation, we present an agarose scaffold …

Effects Of Long-Term Exposure Of Female Rats To Low Levels Of Lead: Ovary And Uterus Histological Architecture Changes, Eugenia Dumitrescu, Viorica Chiurciu, Florin Muselin, Roxana Popescu, Diana Brezovan, Romeo Teodor Cristina

Turkish Journal of Biology

The aim of the current study was to evaluate lead accumulation in the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and uterus and to take note of any consequent histo-architectural changes. The experiment involved a 12-month chronic exposure of 28 Wistar female rats at sexual maturity (221 ± 0.88 g/individual) to lead acetate in drinking water. The rats were divided into 4 groups based on the level of lead exposure: E1 at 0.050 mg L^{-1}, E2 at 0.100 mg L^{-1}, E3 at 0.150 mg L^{-1} , and a control group that received tap water. Lead level evaluation was performed by atomic absorption spectrometry at …

Age Structure Of Hemidactylus Turcicus (L., 1758) (Sauria: Gekkonidae) From Southwestern Anatolia (Muğla, Turkey), Betül Kanat, Cemal Varol Tok

Turkish Journal of Zoology

In this study, a total of 36 (12♂♂, 18♀♀, 6 juveniles) Hemidactylus turcicus specimens, caught in the vicinity of Muğla (Turkey) between 2006 and 2011, were evaluated using the skeletochronology method. The mean snout-to-vent length (SVL) was measured as 28.45 ± 1.92 mm for juveniles, 50.53 ± 1.06 mm for males, and 51.1 ± 0.75 mm for females. When the cross-sections were examined, the age range was determined to be 4-8 years in the males and 4-9 years in the females. Individuals reach sexual maturity in 2-3 years. The maximum age was calculated as 9 years for a female. It …

Assessing Age, Growth, And Reproduction Of Alburnus Mossulensis And Acanthobrama Marmid (Cyprinidae) Populations In Karakaya Dam Lake (Turkey), Aysel Alkan Uçkun, Di̇dem Gökçe

Turkish Journal of Zoology

In total, 626 individuals of Alburnus mossulensis and 586 individuals of Acanthobrama marmid were collected monthly from Karakaya Dam Lake on the upper Euphrates River. The gonadosomatic index, somatic condition, oocyte size, and fecundity were calculated on a monthly basis. Reading of scales indicated that the maximum age was 4+ years for A. mossulensis and A. marmid. The estimated length-weight relationships were W = 0.206 × FL^{2.065} for females and W = 0.119 × FL^{2.138} for males in A. mossulensis, and W = 0.029 × FL^{2.678} for females and W = 0.030 × FL^{2.631} for males in A. marmid. Growth …

A Karyotype Comparison Among 3 Species Of Allactaga (Mammalia: Dipodidae) From Central Iran, Maryam Rahimi-Pozve, Mansoureh Malekian, Mahmoud-Reza Hemami

Turkish Journal of Zoology

We studied karyotype and chromosomal characteristics of 3 species of five-toed jerboa from central Iran, including Allactaga firouzi, A. williamsi, and A. elater. This study revealed that the 3 species possessed a diploid number of 48 chromosomes. The first pair of chromosomes was significantly larger than other chromosomes in all 3 species. The total length of the haploid genome of Allactaga elater was longer than those of the other 2 species, and most of the chromosomes of the 3 species were metacentric. Based on total form percentage, interchromosomal asymmetry index, and centromeric index, Allactaga elater had the highest interchromosomal asymmetry. …

Generation Of Multicellular Tumor Spheroids With Microwell-Based Agarose Scaffolds For Drug Testing, Xue Gong, Chao Lin, Jian Cheng, Jiansheng Su, Hang Zhao, Tianlin Liu, Xuejun Wen, Peng Zhao

Chemical and Life Science Engineering Publications

Three dimensional multicellular aggregate, also referred to as cell spheroid or microtissue, is an indispensable tool for in vitro evaluating antitumor activity and drug efficacy. Compared with classical cellular monolayer, multicellular tumor spheroid (MCTS) offers a more rational platform to predict in vivo drug efficacy and toxicity. Nevertheless, traditional processing methods such as plastic dish culture with nonadhesive surfaces are regularly time-consuming, laborious and difficult to provide uniform-sized spheroids, thus causing poor reproducibility of experimental data and impeding high-throughput drug screening. In order to provide a robust and effective platform for in vitro drug evaluation, we present an agarose scaffold …

Differential Expression Analysis Of Rna Sequencing Data By Incorporating Non-Exonic Mapped Reads, Hung-I Harry Chen, Yuanhang Liu, Yi Zou, Zhao Lai, Devanand Sarkar, Yufei Huang, Yidong Chen

Human and Molecular Genetics Publications

Background

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a powerful tool for genome-wide expression profiling of biological samples with the advantage of high-throughput and high resolution. There are many existing algorithms nowadays for quantifying expression levels and detecting differential gene expression, but none of them takes the misaligned reads that are mapped to non-exonic regions into account. We developed a novel algorithm, XBSeq, where a statistical model was established based on the assumption that observed signals are the convolution of true expression signals and sequencing noises. The mapped reads in non-exonic regions are considered as sequencing noises, which follows a Poisson distribution. Given …

Liver Sinusoid On A Chip: Long-Term Layered Co-Culture Of Primary Rat Hepatocytes And Endothelial Cells In Microfluidic Platforms, Young Bok (Abraham) Kang, Temitope R. Sodunke, Jason Lamontagne, Joseph Cirillo, Caroline Rajiv, Michael J. Bouchard, Moses Noh

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

We describe the generation of microfluidic platforms for the co-culture of primary hepatocytes and endothelial cells; these platforms mimic the architecture of a liver sinusoid. This paper describes a progressional study of creating such a liver sinusoid on a chip system. Primary rat hepatocytes (PRHs) were co-cultured with primary or established endothelial cells in layers in single and dual microchannel configurations with or without continuous perfusion. Cell viability and maintenance of hepatocyte functions were monitored and compared for diverse experimental conditions. When primary rat hepatocytes were co-cultured with immortalized bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs) in a dual microchannel with continuous …

In Vitro Recapitulation Of Functional Microvessels For The Study Of Endothelial Shear Response, Nitric Oxide And [Ca2+]I, Xiang Li, Sulei Xu, Pingnian He, Yuxin Liu

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Microfluidic technologies enable in vitro studies to closely simulate in vivo microvessel environment with complexity. Such method overcomes certain constrains of the statically cultured endothelial monolayers and enables the cells grow under physiological range of shear flow with geometry similar to microvessels in vivo. However, there are still existing knowledge gaps and lack of convincing evidence to demonstrate and quantify key biological features of the microfluidic microvessels. In this paper, using advanced micromanufacturing and microfluidic technologies, we presented an engineered microvessel model that mimicked the dimensions and network structures of in vivo microvessels with a long-term and continuous perfusion capability, …

Natural Product Derivatives As Promising Anti-Pancreatic Cancer Agents, Hong Zhang

Honors Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Modeling Partial Lipodystrophy Using Human Pluripotent Stem-Cell Derived Cide-C E186x Mutant Adipocytes, Audrey A. Tran

Honors Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Dynamic Reciprocity Between Cells And Their Microenvironment In Reproduction, J. T. Thorne, T. R. Segal, S. Chang, S. Jorge, J. H. Segars, P. C. Leppert

Journal Articles

Dynamic reciprocity (DR) refers to the ongoing, bidirectional interaction between cells and their microenvironment, specifically the extracellular matrix (ECM). The continuous remodeling of the ECM exerts mechanical force on cells and modifies biochemical mediators near the cell membrane, thereby initiating cell-signaling cascades that produce changes in gene expression and cell behavior. Cellular changes, in turn, affect the composition and organization of ECM components. These continuous interactions are the fundamental principle behind DR, and its critical role throughout development and adult tissue homeostasis has been extensively investigated. While DR in the mammary gland has been well described, we provide direct evidence …

Structure Activity Related, Mechanistic, And Modeling Studies Of Gallotannins Containing A Glucitol-Core And Α-Glucosidase, Hang Ma, Ling Wang, Daniel B. Niesen, Ang Cai, Bongsup P. Cho, Wen Tan, Qiong Gu, Jun Xu, Navindra P. Seeram

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Gallotannins containing a glucitol core, which are only produced by members of the maple (Acer) genus, are more potent α-glucosidase inhibitors than the clinical drug, acarbose. While this activity is influenced by the number of substituents on the glucitol core (e.g. more galloyl groups leads to increased activity), the mechanisms of inhibitory action are not known. Herein, we investigated ligand–enzyme interactions and binding mechanisms of a series of ‘glucitol-core containing gallotannins (GCGs)’ against the α-glucosidase enzyme. The GCGs included ginnalins A, B and C (containing two, one, and one galloyl/s, respectively), maplexin F (containing 3 galloyls) and …

Egfr And Her2: Is There A Role In Ovarian Cancer?, E. Teplinsky, F. Muggia

Journal Articles

Advanced ovarian cancer carries a grim prognosis and development of targeted therapies to improve outcomes has become an active area of research in this disease. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and HER2/neu have shown to be overexpressed in ovarian cancer and there have been several clinical trials evaluating anti-EGFR and HER2 therapies in ovarian cancer. Unfortunately, the drugs have shown minimal efficacy and more recent work has now focused on identifying mechanisms of resistance and alternative ways of targeting these pathways. This review will discuss the currently published trials with anti-EGFR and HER2 agents in ovarian cancer and the …

2014-2015 Annual Report - Office Of International Programs & Study Abroad & Global Learning, Office Of International Programs And Study Abroad & Global Learning, Craig Cobane

Office of International Programs Faculty/Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Behavior Of Gold Nanoparticles In Physiological Environment And The Role Of Agglomeration And Fractal Dimension, Rose Cooper

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The Present study was designed to examine the role of agglomeration, density and the resulting fractal dimension of nanomaterials in cell culture media. Studies were completed on the kinetics and the process of agglomeration, as well as how to calculate fractal dimensions. The correlation of such complex agglomeration patterns of nanomaterials in culture media, their translocation into cells, and toxic effects were observed. Our results showed that smaller primary particles agglomerated at an accelerated rate when compared to the larger primary particles. They also demonstrated increased cellular uptake, but exhibited lower fractal dimensions. The larger primary particle agglomerates displayed obvious …

Moving From Capstones Toward Cornerstones: Successes And Challenges In Applying Systems Biology To Identify Mechanisms Of Autism Spectrum Disorders, Nathan Kopp, Sharlee Climer, Joseph D. Dougherty

Computer Science Faculty Works

The substantial progress in the last few years toward uncovering genetic causes and risk factors for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has opened new experimental avenues for identifying the underlying neurobiological mechanism of the condition. The bounty of genetic findings has led to a variety of data-driven exploratory analyses aimed at deriving new insights about the shared features of these genes. These approaches leverage data from a variety of different sources such as co-expression in transcriptomic studies, protein-protein interaction networks, gene ontologies (GOs) annotations, or multi-level combinations of all of these. Here, we review the recurrent themes emerging from these analyses …

Prenatal Nutrition Counseling Designed To Reduce The Intake Of Moderate And High Glycemic Index Foods Among Selected Normal, Overweight, And Obese Patients From A Nonprofit Faith-Based Patient Medical Care Home, Debra T. Gogatz

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Executive Summary

Prenatal Nutrition Counseling Designed to Reduce the Intake of Moderate and High Glycemic Index Foods Among Selected Normal, Overweight, and Obese Patients from a Nonprofit Faith-based Patient Medical Care Home

Problem

Minority and economically disadvantaged clients at a faith based nonprofit patient medical care home were identified as needing dietary counseling in the first trimester of pregnancy. There has existed a preponderance of evidence linking excessive weight gain in pregnancy to multiple complications for mother and child with a suggested relationship specific to the inflammatory processed initiated within the human body related to the ingestion of excessive calories …

Going Global: The Introduction Of The Asian Isopod Ianiropsis Serricaudis Gurjanova (Crustacea: Peracarida) To North America And Europe, Niels-Viggo Hobbs, Eric Lazo-Wasem, Marco Faasse, Jeffrey R. Cordell, John W. Chapman, Carter S. Smith, Robert Prezant, Rebecca Shell, James T. Carlton

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The Asian isopod Ianiropsis serricaudis is now well established in fouling communities, often associated with introduced ascidians, throughout the Northern Hemisphere but has gone largely unnoticed because of its diminutive size (typically less than 3 mm in length) and the difficulties of identifying small peracarid crustaceans. Known locations include the northeastern Pacific (Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay, and Monterey Bay), the northwestern Atlantic (from the Gulf of Maine to Barnegat Bay, NJ), and the northeastern Atlantic (England and the Netherlands). We predict that this species is widespread along North America and European coasts, and may already be introduced to cold …

Platination Kinetics: Insight Into Rna-Cisplatin Interactions As A Probe For Rna Microenvironments, Gayani Dedduwa-Mudalige

Wayne State University Dissertations

RNAs are crucial for many cellular functions. Thus, studying ligand-RNA interactions and their dynamics in response to changes in the surrounding environment is important. In spite of the well-known DNA coordination, current research also indicates cisplatin binding to RNA. Kinetic studies of rRNA platination reactions are largely unexplored. This research was conducted to achieve two objectives. First, a broad kinetic study was carried out to investigate the cisplatin-rRNA interactions. The structure, function, and ligand interactions depend on RNA microenvironments. Second, the application of platination kinetics as a tool to interrogate RNA electrostatic environments was explored.

Three model rRNA hairpins from …