CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Treg) are critical to the maintenance of immune tolerance. Treg are known to utilize a number of molecular pathways to control immune responses and maintain immune homeostasis. Fibrinogen-like protein 2 (FGL2) has been identified by a number of investigators as an important immunosuppressive effector of Treg, which exerts its immunoregulatory activity by binding to inhibitory FcγRIIB receptors expressed on antigen-presenting cells including dendritic cells, endothelial cells, and B cells. More recently, it has been suggested that FGL2 accounts for the immunosuppressive activity of a highly suppressive subset of Treg that express T cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains (TIGIT). Here we discuss the important role of Treg and FGL2 in preventing alloimmune and autoimmune disease. The FGL2–FcγRIIB pathway is also known to be utilized by viruses and tumor cells to evade immune surveillance. Moving forward, therapies based on modulation of the FGL2–FcγRIIB pathway hold promise for the treatment of a wide variety of conditions ranging from autoimmunity to cancer.
Women experiencing early pregnancy loss frequently seek care in emergency departments or early pregnancy clinics. The existing qualitative literature on the experience of miscarriage has yet to address how to connect how these women perceive their care experience and the prevailing structures which may be at the root of why their experience continues to be challenging. This study aimed to look deeper into the sources of negative experiences of early pregnancy loss for insight into how to rethink where to make impactful changes to care. Phenomenologically informed interviews with 59 women revealed several points of tension in the framing of early pregnancy loss, including the view of miscarriage as common, of it as a medical versus emotional experience, and the assumptions around care needs. Our work suggests that these tensions need to be dismantled through more patient-centered approaches to patient–provider relationships, policies, models of care, and medical discourse.
We developed novel artificial flowers that dispense and receive powdered food dyes as pollen analogues while their nectar is replenished by capillary action. Dye receipt, which can be measured colourimetrically, is a direct surrogate for pollen receipt or female reproductive success, but can also serve to compare pollen donation (male reproductive success) from flowers with different colours of dye. By allowing captive bumble bee colonies to visit large arrays of such flowers, we investigated whether total dye receipt depended on the sugar concentration of a flower’s nectar. Estimating pollen transfer, rather than simply visitation rate, is appropriate for this question because flowers with more concentrated nectar might accrue more pollen not only through higher visitation rates but also through longer visits that transfer more pollen per visit. Flowers with richer nectar did receive more dye regardless of their spatial arrangement, but the effect was greatest when rich and poor flowers were segregated in large blocks, as opposed to being intermingled.
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