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BackgroundA majority of autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), occur predominantly in females. Recent studies have identified specific dysregulated microRNAs (miRNAs) in both human and murine lupus, implying an important contribution of these miRNAs to lupus pathogenesis. However, to date, there is no study that examined sex differences in miRNA expression in immune cells as a plausible basis for sex differences in autoimmune disease. This study addresses this aspect in NZB/WF1 mice, a classical murine lupus model with marked female bias, and further investigates estrogen regulation of lupus-associated miRNAs.MethodsThe Taqman miRNA assay system was used to quantify the miRNA expression in splenocytes from male and female NZB/WF1 mice at 17–18, 23, and 30 weeks (wks) of age. To evaluate potential estrogen's effect on lupus-associated miRNAs, 6-wk-old NZB/WF1 male mice were orchidectomized and surgically implanted with empty (placebo) or estrogen implants for 4 and 26 wks, respectively. To assess the lupus status in the NZB/WF1 mice, serum anti-dsDNA autoantibody levels, proteinuria, and renal histological changes were determined.ResultsThe sex differences in the expression of lupus-associated miRNAs, including the miR-182-96-183 cluster, miR-155, miR-31, miR-148a, miR-127, and miR-379, were markedly evident after the onset of lupus, especially at 30 wks of age when female NZB/WF1 mice manifested moderate to severe lupus when compared to their male counterparts. Our limited data also suggested that estrogen treatment increased the expression of aforementioned lupus-associated miRNAs, with the exception of miR-155, in orchidectomized male NZB/WF1 mice to a similar level in age-matched intact female NZB/WF1 mice. It is noteworthy that orchiectomy, itself, did not affect the expression of lupus-associated miRNAs.ConclusionTo our knowledge, this is the first study that demonstrated sex differences in the expression of lupus-associated miRNAs in splenocytes, especially in the context of autoimmunity. The increased expression of lupus-associated miRNA in female NZB/WF1 mice and conceivably in estrogen-treated orchidectomized male NZB/WF1 mice was associated with lupus manifestation. The notable increase of lupus-associated miRNAs in diseased, female NZB/WF1 mice may be a result of both lupus manifestation and the female gender.

Aims:  Ethidium monoazide in combination with quantitative PCR (EMA–qPCR) has been considered as a promising method to enumerate viable cells; however, its efficacy can be significantly affected by disinfection conditions and various environments. In this study, thermal disinfection, osmotic pressure and acids with different pH values were systematically investigated to achieve the optimum conditions. Methods and Results:  EMA treatment of pure cultures at low concentration (10 μg ml−1) for 20 min resulted in effective differentiation between viable and nonviable bacteria and had no effect on viable cells. Heating at 85°C for 35 min was the optimum condition that yields inactivated Escherichia coli (E. coli) cells that were not detected with EMA–qPCR. Performing EMA treatment in high‐salt ion environment (sodium chloride concentration ≥4%) could weaken EMA inhibition effect. Both strong and weak acid solutions could react with EMA, change its absorption spectra and influence EMA inhibition effect. Because of the sublethal acidification injury, underestimation of cell counts were found using EMA–qPCR method, and 40‐min incubation in Luria–Bertani medium could completely offset this error. Conclusion:  Our results provided optimum EMA treatment, thermal disinfection and environment conditions for EMA–qPCR and demonstrated the feasibility of this method when enumerating viable cells under varied osmotic pressure and pH environment. Significance and Impact of the Study:  Optimum EMA treatment, thermal disinfection and EMA‐treated environment will be successfully applied in EMA–qPCR. Osmotic pressure and acid‐induced injury can be detected by EMA–qPCR with optimization.

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Rosmarinic acid (RA) has numerous pharmacologic effects, including anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic effects. This study aimed to evaluate the preventive activity of RA in a murine model of asthma and to investigate its possible molecular mechanisms. Female BALB/c mice sensitized and challenged with ovalbumin (Ova) were pretreated with RA (5, 10 or 20 mg/kg) at 1 h before Ova challenge. The results demonstrated that RA markedly inhibited increases in inflammatory cells and Th2 cytokines in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), significantly reduced the total IgE and Ova-specific IgE concentrations, and greatly ameliorated airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) compared with the control Ova-induced mice. Histological analyses showed that RA substantially decreased the number of inflammatory cells and mucus hypersecretion in the airway. In addition, our results suggested that the protective effects of RA might be mediated by the suppression of ERK, JNK and p38 phosphorylation and activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB). Furthermore, RA pretreatment resulted in a noticeable reduction in AMCase, CCL11, CCR3, Ym2 and E-selectin mRNA expression in lung tissues. These findings suggest that RA may effectively delay the progression of airway inflammation.

A novel antifungal peptide with high potency was isolated from foxtail millet seeds.

Estrogen, a natural immunomodulator, regulates the development and function of diverse immune cell types. There is now renewed attention on neutrophils and neutrophil serine proteases (NSPs) such as neutrophil elastase (NE), proteinase 3 (PR3), and cathepsin G (CG) in inflammation and autoimmunity. In this study, we found that although estrogen treatment significantly reduced total splenocytes number, it markedly increased the splenic neutrophil absolute numbers in estrogen-treated C57BL/6 (B6) mice when compared to placebo controls. Concomitantly, the levels of NSPs and myeloperoxidase (MPO) were highly upregulated in the splenocytes from estrogen-treated mice. Despite the critical role of NSPs in the regulation of non-infectious inflammation, by employing NE-/-/PR3-/-/CG-/- triple knock out mice, we demonstrated that the absence of NSPs affected neither estrogen’s ability to increase splenic neutrophils nor the induction of inflammatory mediators (IFNγ, IL-1β, IL-6, TNFα, MCP-1, and NO) from ex vivo activated splenocytes. Depletion of neutrophils in vitro in splenocytes with anti-Ly6G antibody also had no obvious effect on NSP expression or LPS-induced IFNγ and MCP-1. These data suggest that estrogen augments NSPs, which appears to be independent of enhancing ex vivo inflammatory responses. Since estrogen has been implicated in regulating several experimental autoimmune diseases, we extended our observations in estrogen-treated B6 mice to spontaneous autoimmune-prone female MRL-lpr, B6-lpr and NZB/WF1 mice. There was a remarkable commonality with regards to the increase of neutrophils and concomitant increase of NSPs and MPO in the splenic cells of different strains of autoimmune-prone mice and estrogen-treated B6 mice. Collectively, since NSPs and neutrophils are involved in diverse pro-inflammatory activities, these data suggest a potential pathologic implication of increased neutrophils and NSPs that merits further investigation.

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