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Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders

Posted in Behavior, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Cognition, Curation, Nutrition, Nutrition Disorders, Population Health Management, Nutrition and Phytochemistry, Social Development, Statistical Methods for Research Evaluation, Stress Disorders, Substance Abuse, Translational Science, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders

Writer and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP 

 

Introduction

Anorexia nervosa is a stress related disorder that occurs mainly in women, closely related to bulimia, and is related to self-esteem, or to a preoccupation with how the individual would like to see themselves. It is not necessarily driven by conscious motive, but lies in midbrain activities that govern hormonal activity and social behavior

 

Eating disorders

Christopher G Fairburn, Paul J Harrison
Lancet 2003; 361: 407–16

Eating disorders are an important cause of physical and psychosocial morbidity in adolescent girls and young adult women. They are much less frequent in men. Eating disorders are divided into three diagnostic categories: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and the atypical eating disorders. However, the disorders have many features in common and patients frequently move between them, so for the purposes of this Seminar we have adopted a transdiagnostic perspective. The cause of eating disorders is complex and badly understood. There is a genetic predisposition, and certain specific environmental risk factors have been implicated. Research into treatment has focused on bulimia nervosa, and evidence-based management of this disorder is possible. A specific form of cognitive behavior therapy is the most effective treatment, although few patients seem to receive it in practice. Treatment of anorexia nervosa and atypical eating disorders has received remarkably little research attention.

Eating disorders are of great interest to the public, of perplexity to researchers, and a challenge to clinicians. They feature prominently in the media, often attracting sensational coverage. Their cause is elusive, with social, psychological, and biological processes all seeming to play a major part, and they are difficult to treat, with some patients actively resisting attempts to help them.

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are united by a distinctive core psychopathology, which is essentially the same in female and male individuals; patients overevaluate their shape and weight. Whereas most of us assess ourselves on the basis of our perceived performance in various domains—eg, relationships, work, parenting, sporting prowess—patients with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa judge
their self-worth largely, or even exclusively, in terms of their shape  and weight and their ability to control them. Most of the other features
of these disorders seem to be secondary to this psychopathology and to its consequences—for example, self-starvation. Thus, in anorexia nervosa there is a sustained and determined pursuit of weight loss and, to the extent that this pursuit is successful, this behavior is not seen as a problem. Indeed, these patients tend to view their low weight as an accomplishment rather than an affliction. In bulimia nervosa, equivalent attempts to control shape and weight are undermined by frequent episodes of uncontrolled overeating (binge eating) with the result that patients  often describe themselves as failed anorexics.  The core psychopathology has other manifestations; for example,  many patients mislabel certain adverse physical and emotional states as feeling fat, and some repeatedly scrutinize aspects of their shape,
which could contribute to them overestimating their size.

Panel 1: Classification and diagnosis of eating disorders

Definition of an eating disorder

  • There is a definite disturbance of eating habits or weight- control behavior
  • Either this disturbance, or associated core eating disorder features, results in a clinically significant impairment of physical health or psychosocial functioning (core eating disorder features comprise the disturbance of eating and any associated over-evaluation of shape or weight)
  • The behavioral disturbance should not be secondary to any general medical disorder or to any other psychiatric condition

Classification of eating disorders

  • Anorexia nervosa
  • Bulimia nervosa
  • Atypical eating disorders (or eating disorder not otherwise specified)

Principal diagnostic criteria

  • Anorexia nervosa
  1. Over-evaluation of shape and weight—ie, judging self-worth largely, or exclusively, in terms of shape and weight
  2. Active maintenance of an unduly low bodyweight—eg, body-mass index 17·5 kg/m2
  3. Amenorrhea in post-menarche females who are not taking an oral contraceptive. The value of the amenorrhea criterion can be questioned since most female patients who meet the other two diagnostic criteria are amenorrheic, and those who menstruate
    seem to resemble closely those who do not
  • Bulimia nervosa
  1. Over-evaluation of shape and weight—ie, judging self-worth largely,
    or exclusively, in terms of shape and weight
  2. Recurrent binge eating—i.e., recurrent episodes of uncontrolled overeating
  3. Extreme weight-control behavior—e.g., strict dietary restriction, frequent self-induced vomiting or laxative misuse

Diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa are not met

  • Atypical eating disorders

Eating disorders of clinical severity that do not conform to the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa

Research into the pathogenesis of the eating disorders has focused almost exclusively on anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. There is undoubtedly a genetic predisposition and a range of environmental risk factors, and there is some information with respect to the identity and relative importance of these contributions. However, virtually nothing is known about the individual causal processes involved, or about how they interact and vary across the development and maintenance of the disorders.

 

Panel 3: Main risk factors for anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa

  • General factors
  1. Female
  2. Adolescence and early adulthood
  3. Living in a Western society
  • Individual-specific factors

Family history

  • Eating disorder of any type
  • Depression
  • Substance misuse, especially alcoholism (bulimia nervosa)
  • Obesity (bulimia nervosa)

Premorbid experiences

  • Adverse parenting (especially low contact, high expectations, parental discord)
  • Sexual abuse
  • Family dieting
  • Critical comments about eating, shape, or weight from family and others
  • Occupational and recreational pressure to be slim Premorbid characteristics

Low self-esteem

  • Perfectionism (anorexia nervosa and to a lesser extent bulimia nervosa)
  • Anxiety and anxiety disorders
  • Obesity (bulimia nervosa)
  • Early menarche (bulimia nervosa)

There has been extensive research into the neurobiology of eating disorders. This work has focused on neuropeptide and monoamine (especially 5-HT) systems thought to be central to the physiology of eating and weight regulation. Of the various central and peripheral abnormalities reported, many are likely to be secondary to the aberrant eating and associated weight loss. However, some aspects of 5-HT function remain abnormal after recovery, leading to speculation that there is a trait monoamine abnormality that might predispose to the development of eating disorders or to associated characteristics such as perfectionism. Furthermore, normal dieting in healthy women alters central 5-HT function, providing a potential mechanism by which eating disorders might be precipitated in women vulnerable for other reasons.

Specific psychological theories have been proposed to account for the development and maintenance of eating disorders. Most influential in terms of treatment have been cognitive behavioral theories. In brief, these theories propose that the restriction of food intake that characterizes the onset of many eating disorders has two main origins, both of which may operate. The first is a need to feel in control of life, which gets displaced onto controlling eating. The second is over-evaluation of shape and weight in those who have been sensitized to their appearance. In both instances, the resulting dietary restriction is highly reinforcing. Subsequently, other processes begin to
operate and serve to maintain the eating disorder.

 

Depression, coping, hassles, and body dissatisfaction: Factors associated with disordered eating

Rose Marie Ward, M. Cameron Hay
Eating Behaviors 17 (2015) 14–18
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2014.12.002

The objective was to explore what predicts first-year college women’s disordered eating tendencies when they arrive on campus. The 215 first-year college women completed the surveys within the first 2 weeks of classes. A structural model examined how much the Helplessness, Hopelessness, Haplessness Scale, the Brief COPE, the Brief College Student Hassle Scale, and the Body Shape Questionnaire predicted eating disordered tendencies (as measured by the Eating Attitudes Test). The Body Shape Questionnaire, the Helplessness, Hopelessness, Haplessness Scale (inversely), and the Denial subscale of the Brief COPE significantly predicted eating disorder tendencies in first-year college women. In addition, the Planning and Self-Blame subscales of the Brief COPE and the Helplessness, Hopelessness, Haplessness Scale predicted the Body Shape Questionnaire. In general, higher levels on the Helplessness, Hopelessness, Haplessness Scale and higher levels on the Brief College Student Hassle Scale related to higher levels on the Brief COPE. Coping seems to remove the direct path from stress and depression to disordered eating and body dissatisfaction.

Eating disorders and disordered eating on college campuses are a pervasive problem. Research estimates that approximately 8–13.5% of college women meet the criteria for clinically diagnosed eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulima nervosa, or eating disorders not otherwise specified. In addition, negative moods and stress seem to relate eating disorders. Diagnosable eating disorders emerge in the broader context of disordered eating, that is — engaging in practices such as restricting calories, eating less fat, skipping meals, using nonprescription diet pills, using laxatives, or inducing vomiting. Whereas disordered eating is broadly associated with the dynamics of human development in adolescence in the United States and the socio-cultural pressure to be thin, college environments may particularly predispose young women to disordered eating. In a national survey, 57% of female college students reported trying to lose weight, while only 38% of female college students categorized themselves as overweight.

The mean for the overall EAT scale was 8.89 (SD=9.26, mode=2, median = 6, range 0 to 60). Over 13% (n = 22) of the sample met the criteria for potential eating disorders with overall scores of 20 or greater. One primary model was tested using the quantitative measurement data. The model fit the data, χ2 (n = 191, 72) = 89.33, p = .08, CFI N .99, TLI = .99, and RMSEA = .035.

Note: Only significant paths shown; *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001; HHH = Helplessness, Hopelessness, Haplessness Scale; Hassles = Brief College Student Hassle Scale; EAT = Eating Attitudes Test-26; BSQ = Body Satisfaction Questionnaire; CFI = Comparative Fit Index; TLI = Tucker-Lewis Index; RMSEA = Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation.

Structural modeling predicting eating disorder tendencies

Structural modeling predicting eating disorder tendencies

Structural modeling predicting eating disorder tendencies. Note: Only significant paths shown; *p < .05; **p < .01; **p < .001; HHH = Helplessness, Hopelessness, Haplessness Scale; Hassles = Brief College Student Hassle Scale; EAT = Eating Attitudes Test-26; BSQ = Body Satisfaction Questionnaire; CFI = Comparative Fit Index; TLI= Tucker–Lewis Index; RMSEA = Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation.

By identifying the risk factors through research, interventions can be developed that empower people to take control of their own eating behavior. This kind of intervention is supported by the finding that those students with more agentive, active coping styles, or who did not report frequent experiences of helplessness, haplessness, and hopelessness were less likely to have disordered eating behaviors. Whereas active coping has been associated with lower disordered eating in some studies (e.g., Ball & Lee, 2000), others suggest a more complicated relationship between denial or avoidant coping and disordered eating.

 

The cognitive behavioral model for eating disorders: A direct evaluation in children and adolescents with obesity

Veerle Decaluwe, Caroline Braet
Eating Behaviors 6 (2005) 211–220
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2005.01.006

Objective: The cognitive behavioural model of bulimia nervosa. The clinical features and maintenance of bulimia nervosa. In K.D. Brownell, and J.P. Foreyt (Eds.), Handbook of eating disorders: physiology, psychology and treatment of obesity, anorexia and bulimia (pp. 389–404). New York: Basic Books.] provides the theoretical framework for cognitive behavior therapy of Bulimia Nervosa. For a long time it was assumed that the model can also be used to understand the mechanism of binge eating among obese individuals. The present study aimed to test whether the specific hypotheses derived from the cognitive behavioral theory of bulimia nervosa are also valid for children and adolescents with obesity. Method: The prediction of the model was tested using structural equation modeling. Data were collected from 196 children and adolescents.  Results: In line with the model, the results suggest that a lower self-esteem predicts concerns about eating, weight and shape, which in turn predict dietary restraint, which then further is predictive of binge eating.
Discussion: The findings suggest that the mechanisms specified in the model of bulimia nervosa is also operational among obese youngsters. The cognitive behavioral model of Bulimia Nervosa (BN), outlined by Fairburn, Cooper, and Cooper (1986), provides the theoretical framework for cognitive behavior therapy of BN (Fairburn, Marcus, & Wilson, 1993; Wilson, Fairburn, & Agras, 1997). According to this model, over-evaluation of eating, weight and shape plays a central role in the maintenance of BN. It is assumed that over-concern in combination with a low self-esteem can lead to dietary restraint (e.g. strict dieting and other weight control behavior). However, the rigid and unrealistic dietary rules are difficult to follow and the eating behavior is seen as a failure. Moreover, minor dietary slips are considered as evidence of lack of control and can lead to an all-or-nothing reaction in which all efforts to control eating are abandoned. This condition makes people vulnerable to binge eating. In order to minimize weight gain as a result of overeating, some patients practice compensatory purging (compensatory vomiting or laxative misuse).

The present study aimed to directly evaluate the model among a population of children and adolescents suffering from obesity. It is justified to study this model in a group at-risk. Binge eating is [V. Decaluwe´, C. Braet / Eating Behaviors 6 (2005) 211–220] not restricted to adulthood and is recognized among children with obesity as well (Decaluwe´ & Braet, 2003). Even in childhood, associated eating and shape concerns and comorbid psychopathology are manifest. Until now, little is known about how the risk factors for BED operate. A case-control study by Fairburn et al. (1998) reported a number of adverse factors in childhood, carrying a higher risk of developing BED, including negative self-evaluation, parental depression, adverse experiences (sexual or physical abuse and parental problems), overweight and repeated exposure to negative comments about shape, weight and eating. Moreover, it seems that childhood obesity is not only a risk factor for developing BED, but also one of the risk factors for the development of BN (Fairburn, Welch, Doll, Davies, & O’Connor, 1997). If Fairburn’s model is able to predict binge eating in an obese population, we can discover how the risk factors are related to one another and how they are operating to predict disordered eating among obese youngsters.

To conclude, in the present study, we were interested whether the cognitive behavioral theory would predict disordered eating in a young obese population. Because the study focuses on subjects at risk for developing binge-eating problems, BED or BN, we considered the cognitive behavioral theory as a risk factor model for eating disorders rather than a model for the maintenance of eating disorders.

  1. Method

2.1. Design

The prediction of the models was evaluated using structural equation modeling (LISREL 8.50; Jo¨reskog & So¨rbom, 2001). The dependent variables were binge eating, over-evaluation of eating, shape and weight, and dietary restraint. The independent variable was self-esteem. Purging behavior was not included in the structural equation modeling since binge eating among children occurs in the absence of compensatory behavior. Next, it is worth noting that the concept of self-esteem is implicit in the original cognitive model of BN. In order to compare the present research with the study of Byrne and McLean (2002), self-esteem was included in the evaluation of the model.

A sample of 196 children and adolescents with obesity (78 boys and 118 girls) between the ages of 10 and 16 participated in the study (M=12.73 years, SD=1.75). All subjects were seeking help for obesity. The sample consisted of children seeking inpatient or outpatient treatment. All children seeking inpatient or outpatient treatment between July 1999 and December 2001 were invited to participate. The response rate was 72%. Children younger than 10 or older than 16 and mentally retarded children were excluded from the study. All participating children obtained a diagnosis of primary obesity. The group had a mean overweight of 172.69% (SD=27.09) with a range of 120–253%. The study was approved by the local research ethics committee. The subjects were visited at their homes before they entered into treatment. Informed consent was obtained from both the children and their parents. Two subjects (1%), both female, met the full diagnostic criteria for BED and 18 subjects (9.2%) experienced at least one binge-eating episode over the previous three months (overeating with loss of control), but did not endorse all of the other DSM-IV criteria that are required for a diagnosis of BED.

To conclude, in the present study, we were interested whether the cognitive behavioral theory would predict disordered eating in a young obese population. Because the study focuses on subjects at risk for developing binge-eating problems, BED or BN, we considered the cognitive behavioral theory as a risk factor model for eating disorders rather than a model for the maintenance of eating disorders.

A two-step procedure was followed to construct the measurement model. We first conducted a confirmatory factor analysis on the variance–covariance matrix of the items of the exogenous construct (independent latent variable) b self-esteem Q. The construct b self-esteem Q is composed of 5 items of the Global self-worth subscale of the SPPA. Goodness-of-fit statistics were generated by the analysis. Items with poor loading (absolute t-value = 1.96) were removed. This resulted in a satisfactory model, χ2 (2)=6.23, p=0.04, GFI=0.97, AGFI=0.87 after omitting 1 item. The parameter estimates between the observed items and the latent variable ranged from 0.49 to 0.88.

Self-esteem was highly negatively correlated with over-evaluation of eating, weight and shape (standardized ϒ=-0.59, t=-5.05), indicating that higher levels of concerns about eating, weight and shape were associated with a lower self-esteem. Over-evaluation of eating, weight and shape, in turn, was shown to be significantly related with dietary restraint (standardized β=0.70, t=2.71), indicating that more concerns about eating, weight or shape were associated with higher levels of dietary restraint. Finally, dietary restraint was significantly associated with binge eating (standardized β=0.45, t=2.14), indicating that higher levels of dietary restraint were associated with a higher level of binge eating. The feedback from binge eating to over-evaluation of eating, weight and shape was not significant. Overall, the results appeared to suggest that a lower self-esteem predicts concerns over eating, weight and shape, which in turn predict dietary restraint. This would then be predictive of binge eating.

To our knowledge, this was the first study that directly evaluated the CBT model of BN among children. Overall, the model was found to be a good fit of the data. The main predictions of the model were confirmed. We can conclude that the CBT model provides a relatively valid explanation of the prediction of binge-eating problems in a young obese sample. Three findings supported the model and one finding did not confirm the model.

First, in line with the model, the construct self-esteem was a predictor of the over-evaluation of eating, weight and shape. This finding is also consistent with findings of Byrne and McLean (2002) and previous research in children and adolescents, which also found an association between over-concern with weight and shape and a lower self-esteem.

Second, the over-evaluation of eating, weight and shape, in turn, was a direct predictor of dietary restraint. Our findings were in line with prospective studies that found that thin-ideal internalization and body dissatisfaction (components of the over-evaluation of shape and weight) had a significant effect on dieting. Our findings also support the cross sectional study of Womble et al. (2001), who found a direct association between body dissatisfaction and dietary restraint among obese women. As in adults, children seem to respond in the same manner by dieting to lose weight. To our knowledge, the relationship between over-evaluation and dietary restraint has never been explored before among children with obesity.

Third, in accordance with the CBT model of BN, the key pathway between dietary restraint and binge eating was confirmed: higher levels of dietary restraint were associated with higher rates of binge eating. It seems that the subjects of this study were not able to maintain their dietary restraint.

 

Transdiagnostic Theory and Application of Family-Based Treatment for Youth With Eating Disorders

Katharine L. Loeb, James Lock, Rebecca Greif, Daniel le Grange
Cognitive and Behavioral Practice 19 (2012) 17-30

This paper describes the transdiagnostic theory and application of family-based treatment (FBT) for children and adolescents with eating disorders. We review the fundamentals of FBT, a transdiagnostic theoretical model of FBT and the literature supporting its clinical application, adaptations across developmental stages and the diagnostic spectrum of eating disorders, and the strengths and challenges of this approach, including its suitability for youth. Finally, we report a case study of an adolescent female with eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) for whom FBT was effective. We conclude that FBT is a promising outpatient treatment for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and their EDNOS variants. The transdiagnostic model of FBT posits that while the etiology of an eating disorder is unknown, the pathology affects the family and home environment in ways that inadvertently allow for symptom maintenance and progression. FBT directly targets and resolves family level variables,  including secrecy, blame, internalization of illness, and extreme active or passive parental responses to the eating disorder. Future research will test these mechanisms, which are currently theoretical.

 

The Evolution of “Enhanced” Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Eating Disorders: Learning From Treatment Nonresponse

Zafra Cooper and Christopher G. Fairburn
Cognitive and Behavioral Practice 18 (2011) 394–402

In recent years there has been widespread acceptance that cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is the treatment of choice for bulimia nervosa. The cognitive behavioral treatment of bulimia nervosa (CBT-BN) was first described in 1981. Over the past decades the theory and treatment have evolved in response to a variety of challenges. The treatment has been adapted to make it suitable for all forms of eating disorder—thereby making it “transdiagnostic” in its scope— and treatment procedures have been refined to improve outcome. The new version of the treatment, termed enhanced CBT (CBT-E) also addresses psychopathological processes “external” to the eating disorder, which, in certain subgroups of patients, interact with the disorder itself. In this paper we discuss how the development of this broader theory and treatment arose from focusing on those patients who did not respond well to earlier versions of the treatment.

In recent years there has been widespread acceptance that cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is the treatment of choice for bulimia nervosa (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 2004; Wilson, Grilo, & Vitousek, 2007; Shapiro et al., 2007). The cognitive behavioral treatment of bulimia nervosa (CBT-BN) was first described in 1981 (Fairburn). Several years later, Fairburn (1985) described further procedural details along with a more complete exposition of the theory upon which the treatment was based (1986). This theory has since been extensively studied and the treatment derived from it, CBT-BN (Fairburn et al., 1993), has been tested in a series of treatment trials (e.g., Agras, Crow, et al., 2000; Agras, Walsh, et al., 2000; Fairburn, Jones, et al., 1993). A detailed treatment manual was published in 1993 (Fairburn, Jones, et al.). In 1997 a supplement to the manual was published (Wilson, Fairburn, & Agras) and the theory was elaborated in the same year (Fairburn).

According to the cognitive behavioral theory of bulimia nervosa, central to the maintenance of the disorder is the patient’s over-evaluation of shape and weight, the so-called “core psychopathology” [Fig. 1 – not shown – schematic form the core eating disorder maintaining mechanisms (modified from Fairburn, Cooper, & Shafran, 2003 )]. Most other features can be understood as stemming directly from this psychopathology, including the dietary restraint and restriction, the other forms of weight-control behavior, the various forms of body checking and avoidance, and the preoccupation with thoughts about shape, weight, and eating (Fairburn, 2008).

The only feature of bulimia nervosa that is not obviously a direct expression of the core psychopathology is binge eating. The cognitive behavioral theory proposes that binge eating is largely a product of a form of dietary restraint (attempts to restrict eating), which may or may not be accompanied by dietary restriction (actual undereating). Rather than adopting general guidelines about how they should eat, patients try to adhere to multiple demanding, and highly specific, dietary rules and tend to react in an extreme and negative fashion to the (almost inevitable) breaking of these rules.

A substantial body of evidence supports CBT-BN, and the findings indicate that CBTBN is the leading treatment. However, at best, half the patients who start treatment make a full and lasting response. Between 30% and 50% of patients cease binge eating and purging, and a further proportion show some improvement while others drop out of treatment or fail to respond. These findings led us to ask the question, “Why aren’t more people getting better?”

In the light of our experience with patients, we proposed that in certain patients one or more of four additional maintaining processes interact with the core eating disorder maintaining mechanisms and that when this occurs they constitute further obstacles to change. The first of these maintaining mechanisms concerns the influence of extreme perfectionism (“clinical perfectionism”). The second concerns difficulty coping with intense mood states (“mood intolerance”). Two other mechanisms concern the impact of unconditional and pervasive low self-esteem (“core low self-esteem”), and marked interpersonal problems (“interpersonal difficulties”).  This new theory represents an extension of the original theory illustrated in Fig. 1. Fig. 2 shows in schematic form both the core maintaining mechanisms and the four hypothesized additional mechanisms.

This program of work illustrates the value of focusing attention on those patients who benefit least from treatment. Doing so resulted in the enhanced form of CBT, which appears to be markedly more effective and more useful (in terms of the full range of patients treated) than its forerunner, CBT-BN.

 

A novel measure of compulsive food restriction in anorexia nervosa: Validation of the Self-Starvation Scale (SS)

Lauren R. Godier, Rebecca J. Park
Eating Behaviors 17 (2015) 10–13
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2014.12.004

The characteristic relentless self-starvation behavior seen in Anorexia Nervosa (AN) has been described as evidence of compulsivity,with increasing suggestion of transdiagnostic parallels with addictive behavior. There is a paucity of standardized self-report measures of compulsive behavior in eating disorders (EDs). Measures that index the concept of compulsive self-starvation in AN are needed to explore the suggested parallels with addictions. With this aima novel measure of self-starvation was developed (the Self-Starvation Scale, SS). 126 healthy participants, and 78 individuals with experience of AN, completed the new measure along with existing measures of eating disorder symptoms, anxiety and depression. Initial validation in the healthy sample indicated good reliability and construct validity, and incremental validity in predicting eating disorder symptoms. The psychometric properties of the SS scale were replicated in the AN sample. The ability of this scale to predict ED symptoms was particularly strong in individuals currently suffering from AN. These results suggest the SS may be a useful index of compulsive food restriction in AN. The concept of ‘starvation dependence’ in those with eating disorders, as a parallel with addiction, may be of clinical and theoretical importance.

The compulsive nature of Anorexia Nervosa (AN) has increasingly been compared to the maladaptive cycle of compulsive drug-seeking behavior (Barbarich-Marsteller, Foltin, & Walsh, 2011). Individuals with AN engage in persistent weight loss behavior, such as extreme self-starvation and excessive exercise, to modulate anxiety associated with ingestion of food, in a similar way to the use of mood altering drugs in substance dependence. Substance dependence is described as a persistent state in which there is a lack of control over compulsive drug-seeking, and lack of regard for the risk of serious negative consequences, which may parallel the relentlessness with which individuals with AN pursue weight loss despite profoundly negative physiological and psychological consequences.

Considering the parallels suggested between AN and substance dependence, it may be useful to use the concept of ‘dependence’ on starvation when measuring compulsive behaviors in eating disorders (EDs) such as AN. For that reason, a novel measure of self-starvation, the Self-Starvation Scale (SS) was derived, in part by adapting the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) (Gearhardt, Corbin, & Brownell, 2009) for this construct.

The set of online questionnaires was created using Bristol Online Surveys (BOS; Institute of Learning and Research Technology, University of Bristol, UK). In addition to the new measure described below, ED symptoms were measured using the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q) (Fairburn & Beglin, 2008), and the Clinical Impairment Assessment (CIA) (Bohn & Fairburn, 2008). Depression symptoms were measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) (Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001). Anxiety symptoms were measured using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment-7 (GAD-7) (Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams, & Lowe, 2006). The mirror image concept of ‘food addiction’ was measured using the YFAS (Gearhardt et al., 2009). Excessive exercise was measured using the Compulsive Exercise Test (CET) (Taranis, Touyz, & Meyer, 2011). Impulsivity was measured using the Barratt Impulsivity Scale-11 (BIS-11) (Patton, Stanford, & Barratt, 1995). Substance abuse symptoms were measured using the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire (LDQ) (Raistrick et al., 1994).

The results of this study suggest that using the criteria of dependence in capturing compulsive self-starvation behavior in AN may have some validity. The utility of this criteria in capturing compulsive behavior across disorders, including AN, suggests that compulsivity as a construct of behavior may have transdiagnostic application (Godier & Park, 2014; Robbins, Gillan, Smith, de Wit, & Ersche, 2012), on which disorder-specific themes are superimposed.

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Heart-Lung-Kidney: Essential Ties

Posted in Anemia in CVD Patients, Biological Networks, Biomarkers & Medical Diagnostics, Ca2+ triggered activation, Calcium Signaling, Calmodulin Kinase and Contraction, Cardiomyopathy, Cardiovascular Pharmacogenomics, Curation, Diagnostics and Lab Tests, Disease Biology, Gene Regulation, HTN, Innovations, tagged , , , , , , on February 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Heart-Lung-Kidney: Essential Ties

Writer and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP 

 

Introduction

The basic functioning of the heart, and the kidney have been covered in depth elsewhere, and pulmonary function less, except in this series.  The relationship between them on the basis of endocrine, signaling, and metabolic balance is the focus in this piece.

Other elated articles can be found in http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com:

The Amazing Structure and Adaptive Functioning of the Kidneys: Nitric Oxide – Part I
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/11/26/the-amazing-structure-and-adaptive-functioning-of-the-kidneys/

Nitric Oxide and iNOS have Key Roles in Kidney Diseases – Part II
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/11/26/nitric-oxide-and-inos-have-key-roles-in-kidney-diseases/

Stroke and Bleeding in Atrial Fibrillation with Chronic Kidney Disease
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/16/stroke-and-bleeding-in-atrial-fibrillation-with-chronic-kidney-disease/

Risks of Hypoglycemia in Diabetics with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/01/risks-of-hypoglycemia-in-diabetics-with-ckd/

Acute Lung Injury
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/02/26/acute-lung-injury/

Neonatal Pathophysiology
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/02/22/neonatal-pathophysiology/

Altitude Adaptation
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/02/24/altitude-adaptation/

Action of Hormones on the Circulation
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/02/17/action-of-hormones-on-the-circulation/

Innervation of Heart and Heart Rate
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/02/15/innervation-of-heart-and-heart-rate/

Neural Activity Regulating Endocrine Response
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/02/13/neural-activity-regulating-endocrine-response/

Adrenal Cortex
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/02/07/adrenal-cortex/

Thyroid Function and Disorders
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/02/05/thyroid-function-and-disorders/

Highlights in the History of Physiology
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/12/28/highlights-in-the-history-of-physiology/

The Evolution of Clinical Chemistry in the 20th Century
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/12/13/the-evolution-of-clinical-chemistry-in-the-20th-century/

Complex Models of Signaling: Therapeutic Implications
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/10/31/complex-models-of-signaling-therapeutic-implications/

Cholesterol and Regulation of Liver Synthetic Pathways
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/10/25/cholesterol-and-regulation-of-liver-synthetic-pathways/

A Brief Curation of Proteomics, Metabolomics, and Metabolism
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/10/03/a-brief-curation-of-proteomics-metabolomics-and-metabolism/

Natriuretic Peptides in Evaluating Dyspnea and Congestive Heart Failure
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/09/08/natriuretic-peptides-in-evaluating-dyspnea-and-congestive-heart-failure/

Omega-3 fatty acids, depleting the source, and protein insufficiency in renal disease
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/07/06/omega-3-fatty-acids-depleting-the-source-and-protein-insufficiency-in-renal-disease/

Summary – Volume 4, Part 2: Translational Medicine in Cardiovascular Diseases
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/05/10/summary-part-2-volume-4-translational-medicine-in-cardiovascular-diseases/

More on the Performance of High Sensitivity Troponin T and with Amino Terminal Pro BNP in Diabetes
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/20/more-on-the-performance-of-high-sensitivity-troponin-t-and-with-amino-terminal-pro-bnp-in-diabetes/

Diagnostic Value of Cardiac Biomarkers
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/04/diagnostic-value-of-cardiac-biomarkers/

Erythropoietin (EPO) and Intravenous Iron (Fe) as Therapeutics for Anemia in Severe and Resistant CHF: The Elevated N-terminal proBNP Biomarker
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/12/10/epo-as-therapeutics-for-anemia-in-chf/

The Young Surgeon and The Retired Pathologist: On Science, Medicine and HealthCare Policy – Best writers Among the WRITERS
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/12/10/the-young-surgeon-and-the-retired-pathologist-on-science-medicine-and-healthcare-policy-best-writers-among-the-writers/

Renal Function Biomarker, β-trace protein (BTP) as a Novel Biomarker for Cardiac Risk Diagnosis in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/11/13/renal-function-biomarker-%CE%B2-trace-protein-btp-as-a-novel-biomarker-for-cardiac-risk-diagnosis-in-patients-with-atrial-fibrilation/

Leptin signaling in mediating the cardiac hypertrophy associated with obesity
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/11/03/leptin-signaling-in-mediating-the-cardiac-hypertrophy-associated-with-obesity/

The Role of Tight Junction Proteins in Water and Electrolyte Transport
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/10/07/the-role-of-tight-junction-proteins-in-water-and-electrolyte-transport/

Selective Ion Conduction
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/10/07/selective-ion-conduction/

Translational Research on the Mechanism of Water and Electrolyte Movements into the Cell
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/10/07/translational-research-on-the-mechanism-of-water-and-electrolyte-movements-into-the-cell/

Landscape of Cardiac Biomarkers for Improved Clinical Utilization
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/22/landscape-of-cardiac-biomarkers-for-improved-clinical-utilization/

Calcium-Channel Blocker, Calcium as Neurotransmitter Sensor and Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction (Ryanopathy)
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/16/calcium-channel-blocker-calcium-as-neurotransmitter-sensor-and-calcium-release-related-contractile-dysfunction-ryanopathy/

Disruption of Calcium Homeostasis: Cardiomyocytes and Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells: The Cardiac and Cardiovascular Calcium Signaling Mechanism
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/12/disruption-of-calcium-homeostasis-cardiomyocytes-and-vascular-smooth-muscle-cells-the-cardiac-and-cardiovascular-calcium-signaling-mechanism/

Renal Distal Tubular Ca2+ Exchange Mechanism in Health and Disease
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/02/renal-distal-tubular-ca2-exchange-mechanism-in-health-and-disease/

Cardiac Contractility & Myocardium Performance: Therapeutic Implications for Ryanopathy (Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction) and Catecholamine Responses
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/28/cardiac-contractility-myocardium-performance-ventricular-arrhythmias-and-non-ischemic-heart-failure-therapeutic-implications-for-cardiomyocyte-ryanopathy-calcium-release-related-contractile/

Advanced Topics in Sepsis and the Cardiovascular System at its End Stage
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/18/advanced-topics-in-sepsis-and-the-cardiovascular-system-at-its-end-stage/

The Cardio-Renal Syndrome (CRS) in Heart Failure (HF)
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/06/30/the-cardiorenal-syndrome-in-heart-failure/

More…

Sodium homeostasis

Icariin attenuates angiotensin II‑induced hypertrophy and apoptosis in H9c2 cardiomyocytes by inhibiting reactive oxygen species‑dependent JNK and p38 pathways

H Zhou, Y Yuan, Y Liu, Wei Deng, Jing Zong, Zhou‑Yan Bian, Jia Dai and Qi‑Zhu Tang
Exper and Therapeutic Med 7: 1116-1122, 2014
http://dx.doi.org:/10.3892/etm.2014.1598

Icariin, the major active component isolated from plants of the Epimedium family, has been reported to have potential protective effects on the cardiovascular system. However, it is not known whether icariin has a direct effect on angiotensin II (Ang II)‑induced cardiomyocyte enlargement and apoptosis. In the present study, embryonic rat heart‑derived H9c2 cells were stimulated by Ang II, with or without icariin administration. Icariin treatment was found to attenuate the Ang II‑induced increase in mRNA expression levels of hypertrophic markers, including atrial natriuretic peptide and B‑type natriuretic peptide, in a concentration‑dependent manner. The cell surface area of Ang II‑treated H9c2 cells also decreased with icariin administration. Furthermore, icariin repressed Ang II‑induced cell apoptosis and protein expression levels of Bax and cleaved‑caspase 3, while the expression of Bcl‑2 was increased by icariin. In addition, 2′,7’‑dichlorofluorescein diacetate incubation revealed that icariin inhibited the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), which were stimulated by Ang II. Phosphorylation of c‑Jun N‑terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 in Ang II‑treated H9c2 cells was blocked by icariin. Therefore, the results of the present study indicated that icariin protected H9c2 cardiomyocytes from Ang II‑induced hypertrophy and apoptosis by inhibiting the ROS‑dependent JNK and p38 pathways.

Short-term add-on therapy with angiotensin receptor blocker for end-stage inotrope-dependent heart failure patients: B-type natriuretic peptide reduction in a randomized clinical trial

Marcelo E. Ochiai, ECO Brancalhao, RSN Puig, KRN Vieira, et al.
Clinics. 2014; 69(5):308-313
http://dx.doi.org:/10.6061/clinics/2014(05)02

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate angiotensin receptor blocker add-on therapy in patients with low cardiac output during decompensated heart failure. METHODS: We selected patients with decompensated heart failure, low cardiac output, dobutamine dependence, and an ejection fraction ,0.45 who were receiving an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor. The patients were randomized to losartan or placebo and underwent invasive hemodynamic and B-type natriuretic peptide measurements at baseline and on the seventh day after intervention. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01857999. RESULTS: We studied 10 patients in the losartan group and 11 patients in the placebo group. The patient characteristics were as follows: age 52.7 years, ejection fraction 21.3%, dobutamine infusion 8.5 mcg/kg.min, indexed systemic vascular resistance 1918.0 dynes.sec/cm5.m2, cardiac index 2.8 L/min.m2, and B-type natriuretic peptide 1,403 pg/mL. After 7 days of intervention, there was a 37.4% reduction in the B-type natriuretic peptide levels in the losartan group compared with an 11.9% increase in the placebo group (mean difference, – 49.1%; 95% confidence interval: -88.1 to -9.8%, p = 0.018). No significant difference was observed in the hemodynamic measurements. CONCLUSION: Short-term add-on therapy with losartan reduced B-type natriuretic peptide levels in patients hospitalized for decompensated severe heart failure and low cardiac output with inotrope dependence.

Development of a Novel Heart Failure Risk Tool: The Barcelona Bio-Heart Failure Risk Calculator (BCN Bio-HF Calculator)

Josep Lupon, Marta de Antonio, Joan Vila, Judith Penafiel, et al.
PLoS ONE 9(1): e85466. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1371/journal.pone.0085466

Background: A combination of clinical and routine laboratory data with biomarkers reflecting different pathophysiological pathways may help to refine risk stratification in heart failure (HF). A novel calculator (BCN Bio-HF calculator) incorporating N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP, a marker of myocardial stretch), high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT, a marker of myocyte injury), and high-sensitivity soluble ST2 (ST2), (reflective of myocardial fibrosis and remodeling) was developed. Methods: Model performance was evaluated using discrimination, calibration, and reclassi-fication tools for 1-, 2-, and 3-year mortality. Ten-fold cross-validation with 1000 bootstrapping was used. Results: The BCN Bio-HF calculator was derived from 864 consecutive outpatients (72% men) with mean age 68.2612 years (73%/27% New York Heart Association (NYHA) class I-II/III-IV, LVEF 36%, ischemic etiology 52.2%) and followed for a median of 3.4 years (305 deaths). After an initial evaluation of 23 variables, eight independent models were developed. The variables included in these models were age, sex, NYHA functional class, left ventricular ejection fraction, serum sodium, estimated glomerular filtration rate, hemoglobin, loop diuretic dose, β-blocker, Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor/Angiotensin-2 receptor blocker and statin treatments, and hs-cTnT, ST2, and NT-proBNP levels. The calculator may run with the availability of none, one, two, or the three biomarkers. The calculated risk of death was significantly changed by additive biomarker data. The average C-statistic in cross-validation analysis was 0.79. Conclusions: A new HF risk-calculator that incorporates available biomarkers reflecting different pathophysiological pathways better allowed individual prediction of death at 1, 2, and 3 years.

TNF and angiotensin type 1 receptors interact in the brain control of blood pressure in heart failure

Tymoteusz Zera, Marcin Ufnal, Ewa Szczepanska-Sadowska
Cytokine 71 (2015) 272–277
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cyto.2014.10.019

Accumulating evidence suggests that the brain renin-angiotensin system and proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α, play a key role in the neuro-hormonal activation in chronic heart failure (HF). In this study we tested the involvement of TNF-α and angiotensin type 1 receptors (AT1Rs) in the central control of the cardiovascular system in HF rats. Methods: we carried out the study on male Sprague–Dawley rats subjected to the left coronary artery ligation (HF rats) or to sham surgery (sham-operated rats). The rats were pretreated for four weeks with intracerebroventricular (ICV) infusion of either saline (0.25 µl/h) or TNF-α inhibitor etanercept (0.25 µg/0.25 µl/h). At the end of the pretreatment period, we measured mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) and heart rate (HR) at baseline and during 60 min of ICV administration of either saline (5 µl/h) or AT1Rs antagonist losartan (10 µg/5 µl/h). After the experiments, we measured the left ventricle end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) and the size of myocardial scar. Results: MABP and HR of sham-operated and HF rats were not affected by pretreatments with etanercept or saline alone. In sham-operated rats the ICV infusion of losartan did not affect MABP either in saline or in etanercept pretreated rats. In contrast, in HF rats the ICV infusion of losartan significantly decreased MABP in rats pretreated with saline, but not in those pretreated with etanercept. LVEDP was significantly elevated in HF rats but not in sham-operated ones. Surface of the infarct scar exceeded 30% of the left ventricle in HF groups, whereas sham-operated rats did not manifest evidence of cardiac scarring. Conclusions: our study provides evidence that in rats with post-infarction heart failure the regulation of blood pressure by AT1Rs depends on centrally acting endogenous TNF-α.

Statins in heart failure—With preserved and reduced ejection fraction. An update

Dimitris Tousoulis , E Oikonomou, G Siasos, C Stefanadis
Pharmacology & Therapeutics 141 (2014) 79–91
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2013.09.001

HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors or statins beyond their lipid lowering properties and mevalonate inhibition exert also their actions through a multiplicity of mechanisms. In heart failure (HF) the inhibition of isoprenoid intermediates and small GTPases, which control cellular function such as cell shape, secretion and proliferation, is of clinical significance. Statins share also the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor pathway and inactivate extracellular-signal-regulated kinase phosphorylation suppressing inflammatory cascade. By down-regulating Rho/Rho kinase signaling pathways, statins increase the stability of eNOS mRNA and induce activation of eNOS through phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt/eNOS pathway restoring endothelial function. Statins change also myocardial action potential plateau by modulation of Kv1.5 and Kv4.3 channel activity and inhibit sympathetic nerve activity suppressing arrhythmogenesis. Less documented evidence proposes also that statins have antihypertrophic effects – through p21ras/mitogen activated protein kinase pathway – which modulate synthesis of matrix metalloproteinases and procollagen 1 expression affecting interstitial fibrosis and diastolic dysfunction. Clinical studies have partly confirmed the experimental findings and despite current guidelines new evidence supports the notion that statins can be beneficial in some cases of HF. In subjects with diastolic HF, moderately impaired systolic function, low B-type natriuretic peptide levels, exacerbated inflammatory response and mild interstitial fibrosis evidence supports that statins can favorably affect the outcome. Under the lights of this evidence in this review article we discuss the current knowledge on the mechanisms of statins’ actions and we link current experimental and clinical data to further understand the possible impact of statins’ treatment on HF syndrome.

Since 1980 when the first 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor or statin was introduced in clinical practice, statins have been extensively used in the treatment of patients with dyslipidemia as well as of those with coronary artery disease (CAD). Importantly, large scale trials and metanalysis have documented their significant benefits in terms of primary and secondary CAD prevention which out-weigh any potential side effects. Statins’ benefits extend, according to recent studies, even in patients with normal or low cholesterol levels and beyond their lipid lowering effects, indicating their multiple protective mechanisms.

Heart failure (HF) is a complex syndrome with different definitions and its diagnosis is based on a combination of symptoms, clinical signs and imaging or laboratory data. different categorization schemes have been used dividing HF in acute or chronic, in systolic or diastolic, and in ischemic or dilated simply reflecting the complexity of the syndrome and the multiplicity of the pathophysiologic mechanisms implicated in the disease development and progression. In addition to the diverse pathophysiology of HF the syndrome is also characterized by high morbidity and mortality. Recent treatment advantages such as angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and beta blockers have not yet proven their clinical benefit in subjects with diastolic HF.

As the most common cause of HF is CAD and statins have proven their benefits in a wide spectrum of diseases directly or indirectly associated with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors have been tested in subjects with HF. Interestingly, non-randomized, observational and retrospective early studies in subjects with HF of ischemic and non-ischemic etiology have suggested that statins are associated with improved outcomes. Thereafter, two large scale randomized control trials failed to demonstrate any benefits in mortality of HF patients treated with rosuvastatin and subsequently current HF guidelines do not include recommendations for statin use except from when they are indicated for comorbidities, such as established CAD.

Statins inhibit HMG-CoA reductase. This enzyme catalyzes the conversion of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A to L-mevalonic acid, which is the rate-limiting step in the cholesterol synthesis pathway. Inhibition of the mevalonate pathway and of cholesterol synthesis triggers an increase in LDL receptor activity by stimulating production of mRNA for LDL receptor in liver. The induction of LDL receptors is responsible for the observed increase in plasma clearance of LDL cholesterol. CAD is the cause of approximately two-thirds of cases of systolic HF. The beneficial effects of statins-induced LDL reduction are well established in patients with atherosclerosis and CAD. Nevertheless, the results from statin treatment, even in ischemic HF cases, are not straightforward and several mechanisms have been proposed for this paradox.

multiplicity of HMG CoA reductase inhibitors mechanisms and their effects

multiplicity of HMG CoA reductase inhibitors mechanisms and their effects

The figure demonstrates the multiplicity of HMG CoA reductase inhibitors mechanisms and their effects. ↓: decrease; ↑ increase; FPP: farnesyl pyrophosphate: GGPP: geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate; Ras, Rac, Rho; small GTPases; eNOS: endothelial nitric oxide synthase; ATP: adenosine triphosphate; PI-3 kinase: phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase; AMPK: AMP activated protein kinase; GTP: Guanosine triphosphate; NADPH: Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate; ERK: extracellular-signal-regulated kinase; Shadow box represents adverse mechanism and actions of HGM CoA reductase inhibitors.

The anti-inflammatory effects of HMG CoA reductase inhibitors in atherosclerosis have been early recognized. Statins also have a potent anti-inflammatory effect in HF models. Importantly, there is a link between inflammation and HF pathogenesis and is now widely accepted that pro-inflammatory cytokines cause systolic dysfunction, myocardial hypertrophy, activate a fetal gene program in cardiac myocytes, disturb extracellular matrix structure, cause cardiac cachexia etc. In addition, data from the Vesnarinone trial (VEST) in 384 patients with HF demonstrate a decline in survival with increasing TNFα levels confirming the notion that circulating cytokines are associated with adverse prognosis of HF patients.

The proposed, by the aforementioned mechanisms, anti-inflammatory effects of statins have been confirmed experimentally. Indeed, in a rat HF model with preserved ejection fraction (EF), treatment with rosuvastatin resulted in a significant additional improvement in HF and cardiac remodeling, partly due to decreased myocardial inflammation. In rats after acute myocardial infarction simvastatin treatment for 4 weeks beneficially modified the levels of TNFα, interleukin (IL)-1, 6 and 10 in the infarct regions. Importantly, in 446 patients with systolic HF, followed up for a period of 24 months, statins’ treatment was associated with a decrease in serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha receptor II. Recently, in a randomized study of 22 subjects with ischemic HF short term atorvastatin treatment achieved a significant decrease in serum levels of intracellular adhesion molecule-1.

Taken together we can conclude that HMG CoA reductase inhibitors can modify inflammatory status by modulation of PRAP and ERK pathways by down regulating Toll like receptor 4 mRNA expressions and LDL oxidation and by reducing soluble lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 mass and activity. Importantly, the theoretical anti-inflammatory properties were confirmed in experimental and clinical HF models.

Endothelial dysfunction contributes to the pathogenesis of HF and can enhance adverse left ventricle (LV) remodeling and increase afterload in subjects with HF. Interestingly, statins have been constantly associated with improved endothelial function in subjects with a variety of cardiovascular diseases. Endothelium derived nitric oxide (NO) is an important determinant of endothelial function and HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors can up regulate endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) by different mechanisms.

Statins induce down regulation of Rho/Rho kinase signaling pathways, increasing the stability of eNOS mRNA and its expression . In addition, in human endothelial cells the Rho-kinase inhibitor, hydroxyfasudil leads to the activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt/eNOS pathway. Statins also induce activation of eNOS through the rapid activation of the serine–threonine protein kinase Akt. The beneficial effects of Akt activation are not limited to eNOS phoshorylation but extend to the promotion of new blood vessels growth. HMG CoA reductase inhibitors can further affect endothelial function through their effect on caveolin-1. Caveolin-1 binds to eNOS inhibiting NO production. Incubation of endothelial cells with atorvastatin promotes NO production by decreasing caveolin-1 expression, regardless of the level of extracellular LDL-cholesterol. These effects were reversed with mevalonate highlighting the therapeutic potential of inhibiting cholesterol synthesis in peripheral cells to correct NO-dependent endothelial dysfunction associated with hypercholesterolemia and possibly other diseases.

Although the experimentally confirmed benefits of HMG CoA reductase inhibitors in diastolic dysfunction and left ventricle stiffness, few data exist concerning the underlying mechanisms. As diastolic dysfunction precedes myocardial hypertrophy the anti-hypertrophic pathways mentioned in the previous section (inhibition of RhoA/Ras/ERK, PRAPγ pathways, inhibition of a large G(h) protein-coupled pathway etc.), may also contribute to the restoration of diastolic function. Moreover, in angiotensin II induced diastolic dysfunction in hypertensive mice, pravastatin not only improved diastolic function but also down-regulated collagen I, transforming growth factor-beta, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs)-2 and -3, atrial natriuretic factor, IL-6 TNFα, Rho kinase 1 gene expression, and upregulated eNOS gene expression. These findings suggest the potential involvement of Rho kinase 1 in the beneficial effects of pravastatin in diastolic HF. Taken together data suggest that HMG CoA reductase inhibitors might be beneficial in patients with diastolic HF, a hypothesis that remains to be confirmed by clinical studies. Nevertheless, mechanistic studies have not fully explored the pathways affecting diastolic function and most data until now are indirect. Therefore efforts should be focus on the underline mechanisms affecting collagen synthesis, MMPs activity extracellular matrix synthesis and overall diastolic function in HF subjects under statin treatment.

Statins through inhibition of small GTPases can modulate MMPs activity in several cell types such as endothelial cells and human macrophages. In rat and human cardiac fibroblasts, stimulated with either transforming growth factor β1 or angiotensin II, atorvastatin reduced collagen synthesis and α1-procollagen mRNA as well as gene expression of the profibrotic peptide connective tissue growth factor 4. This antifibrotic action may contribute to the anti-remodelling effect of statins. In mouse cardiac fibroblasts treated with angiotensin II, the combination of pravastatin and pioglitazone blocked angiotensin II p38 MAPK and p44/42 MAPK activation and procollagen expression-1.

Several studies have documented the impact of statin treatment on arrhythmia potential. The arrhythmic protective effects of statins can be attributed not only to anti-inflammatory properties but also to changes in myocardial action potential plateau by modulation of Kv1.5 and Kv4.3 channel activity. Atorvastatin and simvastatin block Kv1.5 and Kv4.3 channels shifting the inactivation curve to more negative potentials following a complex mechanism that does not imply the binding of the drug to the channel pore. Moreover, in hypertrophied neonatal rat ventricular myocytes simvastatin alleviated the reduction of Kv4.3 expression, I(to) currents in subepicardial myocardium from the hypertrophied left ventricle. Furthermore, pravastatin in an animal model attenuated reperfusion induced lethal ventricular arrhythmias by inhibition of calcium overload.

Taking together experimental and cellular evidence supporting an effect of statin treatment in myocardial contractility is spare and for the time being we cannot definitively conclude on the clinical impact of HMG CoA reductase inhibitors in myocardial systolic performance.

Half of the cases of HF are attributed to diastolic dysfunction and the prognosis of HF with preserved EF is as ominous as the prognosis of HF with systolic dysfunction. Unfortunately, no treatment has yet been shown, convincingly, to reduce morbidity and mortality in patients with HF and preserved EF, while this group of patients is usually excluded from large prospective randomized trials and accordingly few data exist for the role of statins in this heterogeneous population.

As there is substantially lack of evidence concerning the effects of HMG CoA reductase inhibitors in subjects with HF and preserved EF the first indirect hypothesis was extrapolated from observational prospective studies in subjects with ischemic heart disease and no evidence of congestive HF. Indeed, in a cohort of 430 consecutive patients with ischemic heart disease and a mean EF of 57% Okura et al. observed that subjects under HMG CoA reductase inhibitors treatment had decreased E/E′ ratio—corresponding to a better diastolic function—and a significantly higher survival rate (Okura et al., 2007). According to the authors those beneficially effects can be attributed to improved endothelial function and vasodilatory response to reactive hyperemia, attenuation of myocardial hypertrophy, and interstitial fibrosis.

Despite the positive results from mechanistic and experimental studies clinical studies have failed to confirm a definitive role of HMG CoA reductase inhibitors in HF. Nevertheless, by extrapolating experimental and mechanistic data in clinical settings we further understand how HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors can beneficially affect subgroups of HF subjects such as those with preserved EF, low B-type natriuretic peptide levels, exacerbated inflammatory response and limited interstitial fibrosis. Nevertheless, as a definitive mechanism is lacking, there is uncertainty about the decisive mode of action and further mechanistic studies are needed to reveal how HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors act in HF substrate.

Pro- A-Type Natriuretic Peptide, Proadrenomedullin, and N-Terminal Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Used in a Multimarker Strategy in Primary Health Care in Risk Assessment of Patients with Symptoms of Heart Failure

Urban Alehagen, Ulf Dahlstr€Om,  Jens F. Rehfeld, And Jens P. Goetze
J Cardiac Fail 2013; 19(1):31-39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2012.11.002

Use of new biomarkers in the handling of heart failure patients has been advocated in the literature, but most often in hospital-based populations. Therefore, we wanted to evaluate whether plasma measurement of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), midregional pro-A-type  atriuretic peptide (MR-proANP), and midregional proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM), individually or combined, gives prognostic information regarding cardiovascular and all-cause mortality that could motivate use in elderly patients presenting with symptoms suggestive of heart failure in primary health care. Methods and Results: The study included 470 elderly patients (mean age 73 years) with symptoms of heart failure in primary health care. All participants underwent clinical examination, 2-dimenstional echocardiography, and plasma measurement of the 3 propeptides and were followed for 13 years. All mortality was registered during the follow-up period. The 4th quartiles of the biomarkers were applied as cutoff values. NT-proBNP exhibited the strongest prognostic information with 4-fold increased risk for cardiovascular mortality within 5 years. For all-cause mortality MR-proADM exhibited almost 2-fold and NTproBNP 3-fold increased risk within 5 years. In the 5e13-year perspective, NT-proBNP and MR-proANP showed significant and independent cardiovascular prognostic information. NT-proBNP and MR-proADM showed significant prognostic information regarding all-cause mortality during the same time. In those with ejection fraction (EF) !40%, MR-proADM exhibited almost 5-fold increased risk of cardiovascular mortality with 5 years, whereas in those with EF O50% NT-proBNP exhibited 3-fold increased risk if analyzed as the only biomarker in the model. If instead the biomarkers were all below the cutoff value, the patients had a highly reduced mortality risk, which also could influence the handling of patients. Conclusions: The 3 biomarkers could be integrated in a multimarker strategy for use in primary health care.

Novel Biomarkers in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction

Kevin S. Shah, Alan S. Maisel
Heart Failure Clin 10 (2014) 471–479
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hfc.2014.04.005

KEY POINTS

  • Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF) is a common subtype of congestive heart failure for which therapies to improve morbidity and mortality have been limited thus far.
  • Numerous biomarkers have emerged over the past decade demonstrating prognostic significance in HFPEF, including natriuretic peptides, galectin-3, soluble ST2, and high-sensitivity troponins.
  • These markers reflect the multiple mechanisms implicated in the pathogenesis of HFPEF, and future research will likely use these markers to not only help determine heart failure phenotypes but also target specific therapies.

Heart failure (HF) is a global epidemic, defined as an abnormality of cardiac function leading to the inability to deliver oxygen at a rate adequate to meet the requirements of tissues. It is truly a clinical syndrome of symptoms and signs resulting from this cardiac abnormality. Over the past decade, further characterization into 2 entities has occurred: HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF) and HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFREF). HFPEF, previously termed diastolic HF, encompasses the syndrome of HF with a preserved ejection fraction. Cutoffs for this ejection fraction typically are from 45% to 50%. The prevalence of HF is upward of 1% to 2% of the adult population, with an increased prevalence found in elderly and female patients. Multiple studies have shown that the prevalence of HFPEF is actually comparable with the number of patients with HFREF. As expected, most deaths from HFPEF are cardiovascular, comprising 51% to 70% of mortality.

The pathophysiology of HFPEF is controversial and remains poorly understood. Originally, HFPEF was thought to be a primary manifestation of diastolic dysfunction of the left ventricle. However, patients with HFREF are known to also commonly have impaired ventricular relaxation. The primary mechanism of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction is based on structural remodeling and endothelial dysfunction, lending itself to LV stiffness, and increased left atrial pressure. This pressure change is what drives pulmonary venous congestion and subsequent symptomatology. The ventricular stiffness commonly seen in HFPEF is attributed to multiple mechanisms, including fibrosis, excessive collagen deposition, cardiomyocyte stiffness, and slow LV relaxation.

The natriuretic peptides (NPs) are the cornerstone biomarker in congestive HF (CHF). Many of the details of the role of NPs are covered in an article – Florea VG, Anand IS. Biomarkers. Heart Fail Clin 2012;8(2):207–24. The Breathing Not Properly trial originally helped establish the role of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) in the diagnosis of CHF. BNP and the N-terminal prohormone BNP (NT-proBNP) have been shown in numerous trials to be an excellent tool for ruling out CHF as a cause of acute dyspnea. Aside from a strong negative predictive value, NPs correlate with HF severity, prognostication, outpatient CHF management, and screening. When attempting to use NPs specifically to distinguish between HFPEF and HFREF, results have shown that NPs do not have a particular cutoff, but are typically elevated in HFPEF in comparison with patients without HF. These levels of NPs in HFPEF are typically lower than levels in patients with HFREF.

Although the role of novel renal biomarkers has not been fully explored specifically in HFPEF, they likely have an impactful role in the assessment and management of acute kidney injury (AKI) and the cardiorenal syndrome. Two biomarkers are briefly discussed here: neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and cystatin C. NGAL is a 25-kDa protein in the lipocalin family of proteins with a role in inflammation and immune modulation.

The future of biomarkers and their utility in HF is very promising, starting with the potential for using biomarkers as end points in trials. Biomarkers serve as surrogates for various pathophysiologic mechanisms, and there are potential benefits in using them as trial end points. Advantages include the ability to obtain quick and early data, as well as possibly better understand the nature of the disease. However, the counterargument against using biomarkers as trial end points includes whether treatment effects on a biomarker reliably predict effects on a clinically meaningful end point.
Reduced cGMP signaling activates NF-κB in hypertrophied hearts of mice lacking natriuretic peptide receptor-A

Elangovan Vellaichamy, Naveen K. Sommana, Kailash N. Pandey
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 327 (2005) 106–111
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.bbrc.2004.11.153

Mice lacking natriuretic peptide receptor-A (NPRA) develop progressive cardiac hypertrophy and congestive heart failure. However, the mechanisms responsible for cardiac hypertrophic growth in the absence of NPRA signaling are not yet known. We sought to determine the activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) in Npr1 (coding for NPRA) gene-knockout (Npr1-/-) mice exhibiting cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis. NF-κB binding activity was 4-fold greater in the nuclear extract of Npr1-/-mutant mice hearts as compared with wild-type (Npr1+/+) mice hearts. In parallel, inhibitory κB kinase-b activity and IκB-α protein phosphorylation were also increased 3- and 4-fold, respectively, in hypertrophied hearts of mutant mice. cGMP levels were significantly reduced 5-fold in plasma and 10-fold in ventricular tissues of mutant mice hearts  relative to wild-type controls. The present findings provide direct evidence that ablation of NPRA/cGMP signaling activates NF-κB binding activity associated with hypertrophic growth of mutant mice hearts.

Regulation of guanylyl cyclase/natriuretic peptide receptor-A gene expression

Renu Garg, Kailash N. Pandey
Peptides 26 (2005) 1009–1023
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.peptides.2004.09.022

Natriuretic peptide receptor-A (NPRA) is the biological receptor of the peptide hormones atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP). The level and activity of this receptor determines the biological effects of ANP and BNP in different tissues mainly directed towards the maintenance of salt and water homeostasis. The core transcriptional machinery of the TATA-less Npr1 gene, which encodes NPRA, consists of three SP1 binding sites and the inverted CCAAT box. This promoter region of Npr1 gene has been shown to contain several putative binding sites for the known transcription factors, but the functional significance of most of these regulatory sequences is yet to be elucidated. The present review discusses the current knowledge of the functional significance of the promoter region of Npr1 gene and its transcriptional regulation by a number of factors including different hormones, growth factors, changes in extracellular osmolarity, and certain physiological and patho-physiological conditions.

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), a member of natriuretic peptide family is a polypeptide consisting of 28 amino acids and was discovered as a potent vasodilator and diuretic hormone produced in granules of the atrium. The natriuretic peptide family consists of the peptide hormones ANP, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP), each of which is derived from a separate gene. ANP and BNP are cardiac derived peptides, which are secreted and up-regulated in myocardium in response to different patho-physiological stimuli, while CNP is an endothelium-derived mediator that plays an important paracrine role in the vasculature. All of these natriuretic peptides elicit a number of vascular, renal, and endocrine effects mainly directed towards the maintenance of blood pressure and extracellular fluid volume by binding to their specific cell surface receptors. ANP exerts its effects at a number of sites including the kidney, where it produces natriuretic and diuretic responses; the adrenal gland, where it inhibits aldosterone synthesis and secretion; vascular smooth muscle cells, where it produces vasorelaxation; the endothelial cells, where it may regulate vascular permeability; gonadal cells, where it affects synthesis of androgen and estradiol. Each of these target sites of ANP activity has been shown to possess specific high affinity receptors for ANP. To date, three different subtypes of natriuretic peptide receptors have been characterized, purified, and cloned, i.e. natriuretic peptide receptors A, B, and C also designated as NPRA, NPRB, and NPRC, respectively. ANP and BNP specifically bind to NPRA, which contains guanylyl cyclase catalytic activity and produces intracellular secondary messenger cGMP in response to hormone binding.

NPRA is considered the biological receptor of ANP and BNP because most of the physiological effects of these hormones are triggered by generation of cGMP or its cell permeable analogs. Recent studies with mice lacking the Npr1 gene, demonstrated that genetic disruption of NPRA increases the blood pressure and causes hypertension in these animals. On the other hand, the effect of ANP was found to be increased linearly in Npr1 gene-duplicated mice
in a manner consistent with gene copy number. All this clearly indicates that the level of NPRA expression determines the extent of the biological effects of ANP and BNP. But the intervention strategies aimed at controlling NPRA expression are limited by the paucity of studies in this area. The cDNA and gene encoding NPRA designated as Npr1 has been cloned and characterized in mouse, rat, bull frog, euryhaline eel, and medaka fish. The primary structure of this gene is essentially same in all the different species and contains 22 exons interrupted by 21 introns.  The Npr1 gene sequence has been found to be interspersed with a number of repetitive elements including (SINES), (MER2), and tandem repeat elements in all the different species.

Although the Npr1 gene transcriptional regulation is only poorly understood, the activity and expression of NPRA assessed primarily through ANP stimulated cGMP accumulation are found to be regulated by a number of factors including auto-regulation by natriuretic peptides themselves, other hormones such as endothelin, glucocorticoids, and angiotensin II (ANG II), growth factors, changes in extracellular ion composition, and certain physiological and patho-physiological conditions.

The core molecular machinery of the TATA-less Npr1 gene consisting of SP1 binding sites and the inverted CCAAT box has been authenticated to be indeed functional in rat promoter element. It has been shown that the molecular machinery that regulates the basal expression of Npr1 gene consists of three SP1 binding sites in conjunction with an inverted CCAAT box present in the proximal promoter region. Mutation in any of these SP1 binding sites which
are located within 350 bp upstream of transcription start site in rat Npr1 promoter inhibited SP1 and SP3 binding and decreased the promoter activity by 50–75%, while simultaneous mutation of all the three led to a >90% reduction in promoter activity. The proximal SP1 binding site was much more effective than the distal sites in inducing the expression implying that the proximity to the core transcriptional machinery contributes to the magnitude of the observed effect. The over-expression of either SP1 or SP3 resulted in the induction of the wild type Npr1 promoter, confirming that these transcription factors serve as positive regulators of the Npr1 gene expression.

A number of natriuretic peptides such as ANP, BNP, CNP, and urodilatin (i.e. ANP95–126) can down-regulate ligand dependent NPRA activity after as little as 2 h prior exposure to the ligand, which remains suppressed until 48 h of exposure in cultured cells. The early reduction of NPRA activity is independent of changes in Npr1 gene expression as the pretreatment of cultured cells with actinomycin D (an inhibitor of transcription) for 1 h failed to block the response to ANP implying that ligand acts, at least early on, through a post transcriptional mechanism in reducing NPRA activity. The sustained reduction of NPRA activity, on the other hand, has been shown in fact due to reduction in NPRA mRNA levels (∼50%) by treatment with 100nM ANP for 48 h. This reduction could also be affected by treatment of cultured cells with 8-Br-cGMP with similar kinetic response and was amplified by phosphodiesterase inhibitors, but was not shared by NPRC-selective ligand cANF, suggesting that the down regulation of Npr1 gene expression is mediated by elevations of intracellular cGMP involving either NPRA or NPRB. .. The cGMP regulatory region was pinpointed to position−1372 to−1354 bp from the transcription start site of Npr1 by gel shift assays and footprinting analysis, which indicated its interaction with transcriptional factor(s). Further cross-competition experiments with mutated oligonucleotides led to the definition of a consensus sequence (−1372 bp AaAtRKaNTTCaAcAKTY −1354 bp) for the novel cGMP-RE, which is conserved in the human (75% identity) and mouse (95% identity) Npr1 promoters. The combination of these transcriptional and post-transcriptional ligand-dependent regulatory mechanisms provides the cells with greater flexibility in both initiating and maintaining the suppression of NPRA activity.

The peptide hormone Ang II is an important component of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and exerts its biological effects such as blood pressure regulation, vasoconstriction, and cell proliferation in many tissues including the kidney, adrenal glands, brain, and vasculature. The two vasoactive peptide hormones, Ang II (vasoconstrictive) and ANP (vasodilatory), interact and mutually antagonize the biological effects of each other at various levels. ANP has been shown to inhibit Ang II-induced contraction of isolated glomeruli and cultured mesangial cells, as well as Ang II-stimulated activation of protein kinase C and mitogen activated protein kinase in vascular smooth muscle cells in a cGMP-dependent manner. Inversely, Ang II has been shown to down-regulate guanylyl cyclase activity of the biological receptor of ANP, NPRA, by activating protein kinase C and/or by stimulating protein tyrosine phosphatase activity, thereby inhibiting the ANP stimulated cGMP accumulation. Ang II also reduces the ANP dependent cGMP levels by stimulating cGMP hydrolysis, apparently
via a calcium dependent cGMP phosphodiesterase.

Endothelin is a vasoconstrictor peptide that was originally isolated from porcine endothelial cells. It is produced as three isoforms (ET1-3) that bind to two receptor subtypes (ETA and ETB). ET is produced in the kidney and subject to regulation by a number of local and systemic factors including immune cytokines and extracellular tonicity. Since, endothelin is avidly expressed in the nephron segment, where NPRA is up-regulated by osmotic stimulus, it was investigated whether endothelin plays a role in the control of basal or osmotically regulated Npr1 gene expression in these cells. The endogenous endothelin and not the exogeneously administered endothelin inhibit the basal but not osmotically stimulated expression of Npr1. The type A (BQ610) and type B (IRL 1038) endothelin receptor antagonists increased the level of NPRA mRNA by two to three-fold, whereas co-administration of exogenous endothelin resulted in partial reversal of this stimulatory effect of receptor antagonists. The increase in extracellular tonicity reduces the endothelin mRNA accumulation (∼15% of control levels) in inner medullary collecting duct cells but this reduction is not found to be linked to the stimulation of NPRA activity/expression in response to osmotic stress.

Glucocorticoids influence the cardiovascular system and induce a rapid increase in blood pressure. Glucocorticoids are known to regulate
transcription in many systems, possibly by interacting with glucocorticoid responsive elements and associated chromatin proteins. These have been shown to affect the atrial endocrine system by regulating both the synthesis and secretion of ANP in vitro and in vivo. Thus, it seems plausible that glucocorticoid may also interact with the atrial endocrine system by modulating ANP receptor levels. The stimulation of vascular smooth muscle cells from rat mesenteric artery with dexa-methasone (a highly specific synthetic glucocorticoid agonist) caused an increase in NPRA mRNA levels in a time dependent manner which reached a plateau after 48 h of glucocorticoid administration. This mRNA increase was mimicked by cortisol and inhibited by glucocorticoid receptor antagonists RU38486. Also cGMP generated by NPRA in dexamethasone treated cells was higher than in control cells and this production was mimicked by cortisol and blocked by RU 38486. These results suggest that glucocorticoids exert a positive effect on NPRA transcription in rat mesenteric arteries.

Previous studies have shown that guanylyl cyclase activity of NPRA is either activated, or inhibited by an increase in extracellular tonicity. Though none of these studies were definitive in terms of elucidating the mechanisms involved, they suggested that the activation predominates with longer exposure (∼24 h), while the inhibition with short-term exposure (minutes) to the osmotic stimulus. More recently, the mechanism(s) underlying the activation of NPRA expression by osmotic stimulus has been investigated. The NaCl (75 mM) or sucrose (150 mM), but not osmotically inert solute, urea (150 mM) increased NPRA activity, gene expression, and promoter activity after as early as 4 h reaching a maximum at 24 h in inner medullary collecting duct cells. The osmotic stimulus also activated extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK), c-Jun-NH2-terminal kinase (JNK), and p38 mitogen activated protein kinase- (p38 MAPK-β). The inhibition of p38 MAPK-βwith SB20580 completely  blocked the osmotic stimulation of receptor activity and expression, and caused a dose-dependent reduction in promoter activity, whereas inhibition of ERK with PD98059 had no effect.

The expression of NPRB, the biological receptor of CNP, has been shown to be regulated by a number of factors including natriuretic peptide ligands, intracellular cAMP levels, water deprivation, TGF-1, dexamethasone treatment, as well as renal sodium status, as its mRNA levels were upregulated in the renal cortex of sodium depleted animals. NPRB expression has also been found to be regulated by alternative splicing. Three isoforms of NPRB have been identified of which NPRB1 is the full length form and responds maximally to CNP, NPRB2 isoform contains a 25 amino acid deletion in protein kinase homology domain and NPRB3 contains a partial extracellular ligand binding domain and fails to bind the ligand. The relative expression levels of the three isoforms vary across different tissues. Since, the smaller splice variants of NPRB act as dominant negative isoforms by blocking formation of active NPRB1 homodimers, these isoforms might play important role in the tissue specific regulation of receptor, NPRB.

The NPRC expression has also been found to be down-regulated by its ligands and their secondary messenger, cGMP, hormones, growth factors, dietary salt supplementation, β-adrenergic blocker, and physiological as well as patho-physiological conditions. On the other hand, NPRC expression gets augmented by TGF-β1, 1,25-dihydroxy VitaminD3 and during conditions like chronic heart failure.

Hypertension is the leading cause of human deaths in today’s world. The natriuretic peptide system plays a well defined role in the regulation of blood pressure and fluid volume. The cellular and physiological effects of natriuretic peptides (ANP, BNP, and CNP) are mediated by their specific receptors NPRA, NPRB, and NPRC. The transcriptional regulation of these receptors has been studied since their identification, but still remains poorly understood. Better understanding and the elucidation of different molecular mechanisms responsible for the regulation of NPRA expression would provide us the framework to develop the therapeutic strategies to manipulate the expression levels of this receptor and to control the biological actions of ANP and BNP during different patho-physiological conditions.

Inhibition of Heat Shock Protein 90 (Hsp90) in Proliferating Endothelial Cells Uncouples Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase Activity

Jingsong Ou, Zhijun Ou, AW Ackerman, KT Oldham, & KA Pritchard, Jr.
Free Radical Biol Med 2003; 34(2):269–276
PII S0891-5849(02)01299-6

Dual increases in nitric oxide (•NO) and superoxide anion (O2•-) production are one of the hallmarks of endothelial cell proliferation. Increased expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) has been shown to play an important role in maintaining high levels of •NO generation to offset the increase in O2•- that occurs during proliferation. Although recent reports indicate that heat shock protein 90 (hsp90) associates with eNOS to increase •NO generation, the role of hsp90 association with eNOS during endothelial cell proliferation remains unknown. In this report, we examine the effects of endothelial cell proliferation on eNOS expression, hsp90 association with eNOS, and the mechanisms governing eNOS generation of •NO and O2•-. Western analysis revealed that endothelial cells not only increased eNOS expression during proliferation but also hsp90 interactions with the enzyme. Pretreatment of cultures with radicicol (RAD, 20 µM), a specific inhibitor that does not redox cycle, decreased A23187-stimulated •NO production and increased Lω-nitroargininemethylester (L-NAME)-inhibitable O2•-generation. In contrast, A23187 stimulation of controls in the presence of L-NAME increased O2•- generation, confirming that during proliferation eNOS generates •NO. Our findings demonstrate that hsp90 plays an important role in maintaining •NO generation during proliferation. Inhibition of hsp90 in vascular endothelium provides a convenient mechanism for uncoupling eNOS activity to inhibit •NO production. This study provides new understanding of the mechanisms by which ansamycin antibiotics inhibit endothelial cell proliferation. Such information may be useful in the development and design of new antineoplastic agents in the future.

Natriuretic Peptides, Ejection Fraction, and Prognosis – Parsing the Phenotypes of Heart Failure

James L. Januzzi, JR
J Amer Coll Cardiol 2013; 61(14): 1507-9
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2013.01.039

Since the first pivotal studies introduced the natriuretic peptides as biomarkers for the diagnosis of heart failure (HF), use of both B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and its N-terminal equivalent (NT-proBNP) has grown not only for this indication, but also for establishing HF prognosis as well. Indeed, a vast array of studies has established the natriuretic peptides as the biomarker gold standard to prognosticate risk for a wide array of relevant complications in HF (ranging from ventricular arrhythmias to pump failure). In these studies, the prognostic information provided by BNP and NT-proBNP in HF was independent of a number of relevant covariates, including left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).

It has been known for quite a while that patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) typically have lower natriuretic peptide values than do those with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). A conundrum is thus present: whereas both BNP and NTproBNP tend to be lower in HFpEF, when these peptides are elevated in this setting, they remain prognostic; this intriguing circumstance has been relatively poorly studied. It is in this setting that van Veldhuisen et al. examined the impact of LVEF on the prognostic merits of BNP in the COACH (Coordinating Study Evaluating Outcomes of Advising and Counseling in Heart Failure) study in the present issue of the Journal. The investigators found—as expected—that BNP levels were lower in HFpEF, but for a given BNP concentration, prognosis of those with HFpEF in COACH was just as poor as those with HFrEF at matched BNP values. Stated differently, a high BNP in a patient with HFpEF imparted similar prognostic information as it would in someone with HFrEF. Actually, whereas LVEF was not obviously prognostically impactful, when considered across the range of ventricular function, an elevated BNP concentration in the most normal range of LVEF seemed to be associated with a higher risk than at the lower ranges of pump function. Although it is previously established that BNP or NT-proBNP are prognostic independently of LVEF, the well-executed analysis by van Veldhuisen et al. (van Veldhuisen DJ, Linssen GCM, Jaarsma T, et al. B-type natriuretic peptide and prognosis in heart failure patients with preserved and reduced ejection fraction. J Am Coll Cardiol 2013;61:1498–506.) allows for a more in-depth examination of this phenomenon and raises some important questions.

Phenotypic Definition of the Patient With Heart Failure

Phenotypic Definition of the Patient With Heart Failure

Phenotypic Definition of the Patient With Heart Failure

Natriuretic Peptides in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction

Mark Richards, James L. Januzzi Jr, Richard W. Troughton
Heart Failure Clin 10 (2014) 453–470
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hfc.2014.04.006

KEY POINTS

  • Threshold values of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal prohormone B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) validated for diagnosis of undifferentiated acutely decompensated heart failure (ADHF) remain useful in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF), with minor loss of diagnostic performance.
  • BNP and NT-proBNP measured on admission with ADHF are powerfully predictive of in-hospital mortality in both HFPEF and heart failure with reduced EF (HFREF), with similar or greater risk in HFPEF as in HFREF associated with any given level of either peptide.
  • In stable treated heart failure, plasma natriuretic peptide concentrations often fall below cut-point values used for the diagnosis of ADHF in the emergency department; in HFPEF, levels average approximately half those in HFREF.
  • BNP and NT-proBNP are powerful independent prognostic markers in both chronic HFREF and chronic HFPEF, and the risk of important clinical adverse outcomes for a given peptide level is similar regardless of left ventricular ejection fraction.
  • Serial measurement of BNP or NT-proBNP to monitor status and guide treatment in chronic heart failure may be more applicable in HFREF than in HFPEF.

 

The bioactivity of atrial NP (ANP) and B-type NP (BNP) encompasses short-term and longterm hemodynamic, renal, neurohormonal, and trophic effects. The relationship between cardiac hemodynamic load, plasma concentrations of ANP and BNP, and the cardioprotective profile of NP bioactivity have led to investigation of both biomarker and therapeutic potential of

NPs in HF.

PlasmaBNPandNT-proBNP thresholds (100pg/mL and 300 pg/mL, respectively) used in the diagnosis of undifferentiated ADHF retain good diagnosticperformance for acute HFPEF

 

Plasma NPs are related to multiple echo indicators of cardiac structure and function in both HFREF and HFPEF.
Box 1Causes of increased plasma cardiac natriuretic peptides

Cardiac

Heart failure, acute and chronic

Acute coronary syndromes

Atrial fibrillation

Valvular heart disease

Cardiomyopathies

Myocarditis

Cardioversion

Left ventricular hypertrophy

Noncardiac

Age

Female sex

Renal impairment

Pulmonary embolism

Pneumonia (severe)

Obstructive sleep apnea

Critical illness

Bacterial sepsis

Severe burns

Cancer chemotherapy

Toxic and metabolic insults

 

BNP and NT-proBNP fall below ADHF thresholds in stable HFREF in approximately 50% and 20% of cases, respectively. Levels in stable HFPEF are even lower, approximately half those in HFREF.
Whereas BNPs have 90% sensitivity for asymptomatic LVEF of less than 40% in the community (a precursor state for HFREF), they offer no clear guide to the presence of early community based HFPEF.
Guidelines recommend BNP and NT-proBNP as adjuncts to the diagnosis of acute and chronic HF and for risk stratification. Refinements for application to HFPEF are needed.
The prognostic power of NPs is similar in HFREF and HFPEF. Defined levels of BNP and NT-proBNP correlate with similar short-term and long-term risks of important clinical adverse outcomes in both HFREF and HFPEF.
Diagnostic algorithm for suspected heart failure presenting either acutely or nonacutely

Diagnostic algorithm for suspected heart failure presenting either acutely or nonacutely

Diagnostic algorithm for suspected heart failure presenting either acutely or nonacutely. a In the acute setting, mid-regional pro–atrial natriuretic peptide may also be used (cutoff point 120 pmol/L; ie, <120 pmol/L 5 heart failure unlikely). b Other causes of elevated natriuretic peptide levels in the acute setting are an acute coronary syndrome, atrial or ventricular arrhythmias, pulmonary embolism, and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with elevated right heart pressures, renal failure, and sepsis. Other causes of an elevated natriuretic level in the nonacute setting are old age (>75 years), atrial arrhythmias, left ventricular hypertrophy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and chronic kidney disease. c Exclusion cutoff points for natriuretic peptides are chosen to minimize the false-negative rate while reducing unnecessary referrals for echocardiography. d Treatment may reduce natriuretic peptide concentration, and natriuretic peptide concentrations may not be markedly elevated in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. BNP, B-type natriuretic peptide; ECG, electrocardiogram; NT-proBNP, N-terminal prohormone of B-type natriuretic peptide. (From McMurray JJ, Adamopoulos S, Anker SD, et al. The task force for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure 2012 of the European Society of Cardiology. ESC guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure 2012. Eur Heart J 2012;33:1787–847; with permission.)

Natriuretic Peptide Receptor-A Negatively Regulates Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase and Proliferation of Mesangial Cells: Role of cGMP-Dependent Protein Kinase

Kailash N. Pandey, Houng T. Nguyen, Ming Li, and John W. Boyle
Biochem Biophys Res Commun 271, 374–379 (2000)
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1006/bbrc.2000.2627

peptide (ANP) and its guanylyl cyclase/natriuretic peptide receptor-A (NPRA) on mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 (MAPK/ERK2) activity in rat mesangial cells overexpressing NPRA. Agonist hormones such as platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), angiotensin II (ANG II), and endothelin-1 (ET-1) stimulated 2.5- to 3.5-fold immunoreactive MAPK/ERK2 activity in these cells. ANP inhibited agonist-stimulated activity of MAPK/ERK2 by 65–75% in cells overexpressing NPRA, whereas in vector transfected cells, its inhibitory effect was only 18–20%. NPRA antagonist A71915 and KT5823, a specific inhibitor of cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) completely reversed the inhibitory effect of ANP on MAPK/ERK2 activity. ANP also inhibited the PDGF stimulated [3H]thymidine uptake by almost 70% in cells overexpressing NPRA, as compared with only 20–25% inhibition in vector-transfected cells. These
results demonstrate that ANP/NPRA system negatively regulates MAPK/ERK2 activity and proliferation of mesangial cells in a PKG-dependent manner.

 

Regulation of lipoprotein lipase by Angptl4

Wieneke Dijk and Sander Kersten
Trends in Endocrin and Metab, Mar2014; 25(3):146-155
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tem.2013.12.005

Triglyceride (TG)-rich chylomicrons and very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) distribute fatty acids (FA) to various tissues by interacting with the enzyme lipoprotein lipase (LPL). The protein angiopoietin-like 4 (Angptl4) is under sensitive transcriptional control by FA and the FA-activated peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs), and its tissue expression largely overlaps with that of LPL. Growing evidence indicates that Angptl4 mediates the physiological fluctuations in LPL activity, including the decrease in
adipose tissue LPL activity during fasting. This review focuses on the major ambiguities concerning the mechanism of LPL inhibition by Angptl4, as well as on the physiological role of Angptl4 in lipid metabolism, highlighting its function in a variety of tissues, and uses this information to make suggestions for further research.

Box 1. LPL and TG metabolism

LPL belongs to a family of lipases that also includes hepatic lipase, pancreatic lipase, and endothelial lipase. Because LPL is essential in the lipolytic processing of chylomicrons and VLDL, LPL is primarily expressed in tissues that either require large amounts of FA as fuel or are responsible for TG storage, which include heart, skeletal muscle, and adipose tissue. Upon production by the underlying parenchymal cells, LPL is released into the subendothelial space and is transported to the luminal side of the capillary endothelium by the GPI-anchored protein GPIHBP1, which after transport continues to anchor LPL to the capillary endothelium. The essential role for LPL in the clearance of plasma TG is well-demonstrated by the severe hypertriglyceridemia of patients carrying homozygous mutations in the LPL gene. Generalized deletion of LPL in mice results in severe hypertriglycer-idemia, resulting in the premature death of pups within 24 h after birth. Analogous to the deletion of LPL, the mislocalization of LPL to the subendothelial spaces due the absence or misfolding of GPIHBP1 also results in severe chylomicronemia and hypertriglyceridemia. The LPL enzyme is catalytically active as a non-covalent head-to-tail dimer with a catalytic N-terminal domain and a non-catalytic C terminal domain. Folding of LPL into its dimer conformation occurs in the endoplasmic reticulum, chaperoned by lipase maturation factor 1, calreticulin, and calnexin. In its active 3D conformation, the catalytic site of LPL is postulated to be covered by a lid, which can be opened by the binding of chylomicrons and VLDL to the C terminus. The active LPL dimers rapidly exchange subunits, indicating that a dynamic equilibrium exists between LPL dimers and dimerization-competent monomers. Dimerization-competent monomers have, however, not yet been isolated, and it is unclear whether this monomer is catalytically active. The enzymatic activity of LPL is lost when the LPL dimer is converted into inactive, folded monomers. This conversion to inactive monomers is mainly regulated via post-translational mechanisms and is dependent on nutritional state. Enzymatic activity of inactive monomers can be regained in vitro by the addition of calcium, indicating that inactivation of LPL is a reversible process.

One of the key questions is whether (patho)physiological variations in LPL activity are mediated via regulation of Angptl4 cleavage and/or oligomerization, and which factors are involved in modulating Angptl4 in vivo. Recent biochemical evidence suggests that FA may be able to promote dissociation of oligomers, which, by destabilizing the protein, would impair its ability to inhibit LPL. Destabilization of Angptl4 by FA is, however, seemingly at odds with the marked stimulatory effect of FA on Angptl4 production observed in vitro and in vivo.

The currently accepted molecular model for the inhibition of LPL by Angptl4 is that Angptl4 stimulates the conversion of catalytically active LPL dimers into inactive monomers – following in vitro studies showing that coincubation of LPL and Angptl4 increases the abundance of LPL monomers. Subsequent studies revealed that the proportion of LPL dimers is reduced in post-heparin plasma of mice that overexpress Angptl4 in favor of LPL monomers, providing in vivo support for the dimer-to monomer conversion. The elucidation of the purported biochemical mechanism has strengthened the status of Angptl4 as a LPL inhibitor, but several questions related to the in vivo mechanism remain unanswered. Whereas the original in vitro experiments favored the hypothesis that Angptl4 enzymatically and irreversibly catalyzes the LPL dimer-to-monomer conversion, an in vivo study of Angptl4 transgenic mice suggested that Angptl4 is physically bound to LPL monomers, thereby driving the LPL dimer–monomer equilibrium towards inactive monomers. The latter study also revealed that the relative decrease in post-heparin plasma LPL activity upon Angptl4 overexpression is much more pronounced than the relative decrease in heparin-releasable LPL dimers, pointing to an additional or alternative mechanism. In support, a recently published study suggests that Angptl4, instead of acting as a catalyst, functions as a conventional, non-competitive inhibitor that binds to LPL to prevent the hydrolysis of substrate LPL and Angptl4 are regulated by changes in nutritional state in a tissue-specific manner, reflecting the different functions of these tissues and the corresponding variations in physiological requirements for lipids. Below, we discuss current knowledge on the regulation of Angptl4 and LPL in response to various physiological stimuli and address the importance of Angptl4 in lipid uptake. An overview of the role of Angptl4 in physiological regulation of lipid metabolism is presented in Figure 2.

model for mechanisms of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) inhibition by Angptl4.

model for mechanisms of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) inhibition by Angptl4.

Figure 1. Hypothetical model for mechanisms of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) inhibition by Angptl4. Angiopoietin-like 4 (Angptl4) and LPL are expressed in the parenchymal cells of muscle, heart, and adipose tissue. Following secretion of LPL and Angptl4 into the subendothelial space, transport of LPL to the capillary lumen is mediated by two mechanisms. The principal transport mechanism (1) relies on GPIHBP1 [glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored high density lipoprotein-binding protein] picking up LPL from the subendothelial space and transporting it to the capillary lumen. This action by GPIHBP1 is opposed by Angptl4, which is bound to extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and which retains and inhibits LPL. In the presence of GPIHBP1, high expression levels of Angptl4 are needed to overcome the competition with GPIHBP1. Angptl4 secreted into the capillary lumen, primarily as N-terminal truncation fragment generated by cleavage by proprotein convertases (PCs), inhibits LPL activity on the endothelium by promoting the irreversible conversion of LPL dimers into inactive monomers and/or via a reversible mechanism that requires binding of Angptl4 to LPL. The second transport mechanism involves a so far unidentified carrier and can be disrupted by Angptl4. In the absence of GPIHBP1, Angptl4 fully retains LPL in the subendothelial space (a). The additional loss of Angptl4 liberates LPL and allows it to be transported to the endothelial surface via the unidentified carrier (b). This model suggests that Angptl4 and LPL start interacting before arrival in the capillary lumen, either in the parenchymal cells or in the subendothelial space. Abbreviation: HSPG, heparan sulfate proteoglycan.

Regulation and role of angiopoietin-like 4 (Angptl4)

Regulation and role of angiopoietin-like 4 (Angptl4)

Figure 2. Regulation and role of angiopoietin-like 4 (Angptl4) in lipid metabolism. Angptl4 is expressed in parenchymal cells of white adipose tissue (WAT), liver, intestine, heart and muscle, as well as in macrophages, where it is subject to cell- and tissue-specific regulation. Angptl4 is a sensitive target of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) transcription factors in several tissues. In WAT the expression of Angptl4 is induced during fasting and by the transcription factors PPARg, glucocorticoid receptor (GR), and hypoxia inducible factor 1a (HIF1a). In WAT Angptl4 stimulates lipolysis of stored triglycerides (TG) and inhibits lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity. Expression of Angptl4 in liver is stimulated by PPARa, PPARd, and GR. Because the liver does not express LPL, Angptl4 is mainly released into the blood, affecting LPL activity in peripheral tissues. Angptl4 may also impact upon hepatic lipase activity in liver. Expression of Angptl4 in heart and skeletal muscle is potently induced by fatty acids (FA) via PPARd activation. Angptl4 inhibits LPL activities in cardiac and likely skeletal muscle. FA also stimulate Angptl4 expression in macrophages via PPARd, leading to local inhibition of LPL activity. We hypothesize that macrophage LPL enables uptake of remnant particles containing lipid antigens, which are subsequently presented to natural killer T cells. In the intestine, FA stimulate Angptl4 expression via one of the PPARs. Angptl4 produced by enterocytes may be released towards the lumen and inhibit pancreatic lipase activity. Angptl4 produced by enteroendocrine cells is released towards the blood and may inhibit LPL in distant tissues.

Box 2. Outstanding questions

  1. What is the importance of Angptl4 cleavage and oligomerization to Angptl4 function in vivo?
  2. What is the precise biochemical mechanism behind the inhibition of LPL activity by Angptl4?
  3. At which cellular location(s) does the inhibition of LPL by Angptl4 occur and, if at multiple locations, what is the relative contribution of both tissue-produced Angptl4 compared to circulating Angptl4 with respect to inhibition of tissue LPL activity.
  4. What is the interplay between GPIHBP1 and Angptl4 in the regulation of LPL activity?
  5. What is the protein structure of Angptl4 and LPL?
  6. Does Angptl4 also regulate LPL activity in brown adipose tissue and skeletal muscle and, if so, how is the expression of Angptl4 regulated in these tissues?
  7. What is the potential of Angptl4 as a biomarker in the context of disorders of lipid metabolism?

In the past decade, angiopoietin-like proteins have been demonstrated to regulate plasma TG levels powerfully in mice and humans. The elucidation of these proteins as inhibitors of LPL activity has led to a paradigm shift in how clearance of circulating TG and thereby tissue uptake of FA are regulated. Most of our understanding of angiopoietin-like proteins has resulted from detailed study of Angptl4.

A major portion of the physiological variation in LPL activity in various tissues can be attributed to regulation of Angptl4 production. We predict that Angptl4 will turn out to be equally important for governing LPL activity in muscle during exercise, in brown adipose tissue during cold, and in several tissues during fasting.

Besides the increasing recognition of the pivotal role of Angptl4 in lipid metabolism as an inhibitor of LPL, major insight has been gained into the molecular mechanism of action of Angptl4. Key questions remain, however, especially related to the interaction between LPL, GPIHBP1, and Angptl4 on the endothelium and in the subendothelial space. Several points of interest have been highlighted throughout the text; these include the elucidation of the molecular structure for LPL and Angptl4 by X-ray crystallography and the clarification of in vivo Angptl4 cleavage and oligomerization.

Native Low-Density Lipoprotein Induces Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase Dysfunction: Role of Heat Shock Protein 90 And Caveolin-1

Kirkwood A. Pritchard, Jr., Allan W. Ackerman, Jingsong Ou, et al.
Free Radical Biol & Med 2002; 33(1):52–62 PII S0891-5849(02)00851-1

Although native LDL (n-LDL) is well recognized for inducing endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction, the mechanisms remain unclear. One hypothesis is n-LDL increases caveolin-1 (Cav-1), which decreases nitric oxide (•NO) production by binding endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) in an inactive state. Another is n-LDL increases superoxide anion (O2•-), which inactivates •NO. To test these hypotheses, EC were incubated with n-LDL and then analyzed for •NO, O2•-, phospho-eNOS (S1179), eNOS, Cav-1, calmodulin (CaM), and heat shock protein 90 (hsp90). n-LDL increased NOx by more than 4-fold while having little effect on A23187-stimulated nitrite production. In contrast, n-LDL decreased cGMP under basal and A23187-stimulated conditions and increased O2•-by a mechanism that could be inhibited by L-nitroargininemethylester (L-NAME) and BAPTA/AM. n-LDL increased phospho-eNOS by 149%, eNOS by [1]34%, and Cav-1 by 28%, and decreased the association of hsp90 with eNOS by 49%. n-LDL did not appear to alter eNOS distribution between membrane fractions (-85%) and cytosol (-15%). Only 3–6% of eNOS in membrane fractions was associated with Cav-1. These data support the hypothesis that n-LDL increases O2•-, which scavenges •NO, and suggest that n-LDL uncouples eNOS activity by decreasing the association of hsp90 as an initial step in signaling eNOS to generate O2•-.

In conclusion, n-LDL decreases the association of hsp90 with eNOS, increases phospho-eNOS levels, and increases eNOS-dependent O2•-generation. These findings suggest that activation of eNOS without adequate levels of hsp90 may signal eNOS to switch from •NO to O2•-generation. Such changes in eNOS radical product generation may play an important role in impairing endothelial and vascular function.

New insights into IGF-1 signaling in the heart

Rodrigo Troncoso, C Ibarra, JM Vicencio, E Jaimovich, and S Lavandero
Trends in Endocrin and Metab, Mar 2014; 25(3):128-131
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tem.2013.12.002

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) signaling regulates contractility, metabolism, hypertrophy, autophagy, senescence, and apoptosis in the heart. IGF-1 deficiency is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, whereas cardiac activation of IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R) protects from the detrimental effects of a high-fat diet and myocardial infarction. IGF-1R activates multiple pathways through its intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity and through coupling to heterotrimeric G protein. These pathways involve classic second messengers, phosphorylation cascades, lipid signaling, Ca2+ transients, and gene expression. In addition, IGF-1R triggers signaling in different subcellular locations including the plasma membrane, perinuclear T tubules, and also in internalized vesicles. In this review, we provide a fresh and updated view of the complex IGF-1 scenario in the heart, including a critical focus on therapeutic strategies.

The hormone insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is a small peptide of 7.6 kDa, which is composed of 70 amino acids and shares 50% homology with insulin. IGF-1 plays key roles in regulating proliferation, differentiation, metabolism, and cell survival. It is mainly synthesized and secreted by the liver in response to hypothalamic growth hormone (GH); its plasma concentration is finely regulated (Box 1). However, other tissues also produce IGF-1, which acts locally as an autocrine and paracrine hormone. IGF-1 exhibits pleiotropic effects in many organs and is also involved in the development of several pathologies.

Box 1. IGF-1 synthesis and biodisponibilityInsulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is a 70 amino acid peptide

hormone with endocrine, paracrine, and autocrine effects. It shares

>60% structure homology with IGF-2 and 50% with pro-insulin. IGF-

1 is mainly synthesized in the liver in response to hypothalamic

growth hormone (GH). In the peripheral circulation it exerts negative

feedback on the somatotrophic axis suppressing pituitary GH

release. IGF-1 can also be generated in almost all tissues, but liver

synthesis accounts for nearly 75% of circulating IGF-1 levels. As a

hormone with a wide range of physiological roles, IGF-1 circulating

levels must be strictly controlled. Around 98% of circulating IGF-1 is

bound to insulin-like growth factor binding protein (IGFBP). Six

forms of high affinity IGFBP have been described, with IGFBP3

binding approximately 90% of circulating IGF-1. Also, IGFBP1–6 and

their fragments have significant intrinsic biological activity independent

of IGF-1 interaction.

Canonical and noncanonical IGF-1 signaling pathways Activation of IGF-1R requires the sequential phosphorylation of three conserved tyrosine residues within the activation loop of the catalytic domain. From these phosphorylated motifs, tyrosine 950 contained in an NPXY motif provides a docking site for the recruitment of adaptor proteins, such as insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) and Shc, as an obligatory step to initiate signaling cascades. Two canonical pathways are activated by IGF-1R in cardiomyocytes – the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway and the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway. Both pathways have been extensively studied, and their involvement in the pro-hypertrophic and pro-survival actions in cardiomyocytes is well established. Interestingly, a noncanonical signaling mechanism for IGF-1R in cardiomyocytes has been described in several recent studies. These studies show that some of the effects of IGF-1 are inhibited by the heterotrimeric Gi protein blocker Pertussis toxin (PTX) in several cell lines, suggesting that IGF-1R is a dual-activity receptor that triggers tyrosine-kinase-dependent responses as well as Gi-protein-dependent pathways. This duality has been reported in cultured neonatal cardiomyocytes; IGF-1R can activate ERK and Akt but also phospholipase C (PLC), which increases inositol 1,4,5 triphosphate (InsP3; IP3) leading to nuclear Ca2+ signals.

The cardiac effects of IGF-1 are mediated by activation of the plasma membrane IGF-1R, which belongs to the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) family. IGF-1R comprises a α2β2 heterotetrameric complex of approximately 400 kDa. Structurally, IGF-1R has two extracellular a-subunits that contain the ligand-binding sites. Each α-subunit couples to one of two membrane-spanning β-subunits, which contain an intracellular domain with intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity. Both subunits of IGF-1R are the product of one single gene, which is synthesized as a 180 kDa precursor. The immature IGF-1R full peptide is further glycosylated, dimerized, and proteolytically processed for assembly of the mature receptor isoforms a and b. In neonatal and adult rat cardiomyocytes, the IGF-1R precursor peptide and the processed α and β receptor subunits have been detected. Binding of IGF-1 to its receptor initiates a complex signaling cascade in cardiomyocytes.

Figure 1. not shown. Canonical and noncanonical signaling pathways activated by insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) in cardiomyocytes. Binding of IGF-1 to plasma membrane IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R) leads to receptor autophosphorylation in the intracellular β-subunits. Docking of Grβ2 to the phosphorylated IGF-1Rβ subunits leads to extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation through the Ras/Raf/Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK) axis. Phosphorylated ERK can translocate to the nucleus to control gene expression. Phosphorylated β-subunits also provide docking sites for insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1), which mediates phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) activation and Akt phosphorylation. Downstream targets of activated Akt are mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), which suppresses autophagy and promotes protein synthesis by activating S6K and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E binding protein 1 (4EBP1). Akt also phosphorylates and inactivates Bad, thus inhibiting apoptosis. IGF-1R activation also promotes its interaction with a Pertussis-toxin-sensitive heterotrimeric Gi protein, which mediates the activation of phospholipase C (PLC) and hydrolysis of plasma membrane phosphatidylinositol 4,5 biphosphate (PIP2) to form inositol 1,4,5 triphosphate (InsP3; IP3) which activates InsP3 receptors located at the endoplasmin reticulum (ER)/nuclear envelope Ca2+ store, producing nucleoplasmic and cytoplasmic Ca2+ increases. The former is involved in the regulation of specific target genes and the latter promotes mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake, which increases mitochondrial respiration and metabolism, further preventing apoptosis and regulating autophagy. Canonical signaling pathways include the ERK and Akt axes, and are shown in red, whereas the noncanonical G protein pathway is shown in blue. Both pathways interact as Ca2+ contributes to ERK activation and additionally both Akt and ERK can compensate each other’s activation. Abbreviations: MEK, Mitogen-activated protein kinase; mTOR, mechanistic target of rapamycin; 4EBP1, eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E binding protein 1; PIP2, phosphatidylinositol 4,5 biphosphate.

Figure 2. not shown. Classical versus proposed models of nuclear Ca2+ signaling in cardiomyocytes. The insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) can specifically regulate nuclear Ca2+ signaling independently of the role of Ca2+ on excitation–contraction coupling. On the classic model, inositol 1,4,5 triphosphate (InsP3; IP3) produced after IGF-1R activation travels from the peripheral plasma membrane to the nucleus, where it activates InsP3 receptors. In this model InsP3 bypasses its receptors present on the sarcoplasmic reticulum, which would lead to cytosolic Ca2+ signals. The novel model that we propose is based on recent findings, where the IGF-1R signaling complex is present in T-tubule invaginations toward the nucleus. In these compartments, IGF-1R activation leads to locally restricted InsP3 production that allows nuclear Ca2+ signals to regulate gene expression of genes associated with the development of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Abbreviations: RyR, ryanodine receptor; ECC, excitation–contraction coupling; PLC, phospholipase C; DHPR, dihydropyridine receptor.

The beneficial roles of IGF-1 in the cardiovascular system largely explain the interest in the development of new IGF-1-based treatments for cardiovascular disease. So far the FDA has approved two drugs for the treatment of IGF-1 deficiency: mecasermin (Increlex1), a human recombinant IGF-1 analog; and mecasermin rinfabate (IPLEX1), a binary protein complex of human recombinant IGF-1 and human recombinant IGBP-3. The safety of a chronic systemic IGF-1 therapy is open to question because it could promote severe adverse effects, such as an increased risk of cancer. To avoid these problems, several researchers have selectively overexpressed IGF-1 and IGF-1R in the heart.

Box 2. Outstanding questionsInsulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is an old friend of the heart. Despite the well-known protective effects of IGF-1 on cardiac function and the antiapoptotic effects of this peptide, novel evidence opens new questions to this longstanding relationship.

·       How do the multiple signaling pathways triggered by IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R) interact with each other?

·       What lies further than extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)/Akt/Ca2+ activation toward heart function?

·       Do these signaling pathways regulate cardiac fibroblast or endothelial cell function?

·       Which are the specific downstream signaling pathways of the different pools of IGF-1R and their role in regulating cardiomyocyte survival, hypertrophy, metabolism, proliferation?

·       What drives IGF-1R to such specific subcellular compartments?

·       What is the relevance of the hybrid IGF-1R/insulin receptors on cardiovascular disease?

·       Does a crosstalk exist between insulin receptor and IGF-1R in the heart under physiological and pathological conditions?

·       Is one pathway more beneficial than the other?

·       Will stem cell therapy of cardiac progenitors be able to provide concrete treatment opportunities?

·       Is IGF-1 a key regulator of this outcome?

Abundant evidence supports the key physiological roles of IGF-1 in the heart. In cardiomyocytes, IGF-1 activates multiple downstream signaling pathways for controlling cell death, metabolism, autophagy, differentiation, transcription, and protein synthesis (Figure 1). Of great interest are the findings that the entire IGF-1R complex is strategically located in perinuclear sarcolemmal invaginations that locally control nuclear Ca2+ signaling and transcriptional upregulation (Figure 2). This novel evidence changesmthe classical paradigm of IGF-1 signaling and adds a new level of complexity that may be relevant for other signaling receptors in the heart: interorganelle communication between plasma membrane invaginations and the nucleus.
The strategic localization of IGF-1R in these structures and the association with heterotrimeric G proteins may explain the differences in the phenotypic response induced by IGF-1 and others agonists, like endothelin-1 and angiotensin II, that also signal through intracellular Ca2+. By activating a noncanonical, selective mechanism of nuclear Ca2+ release, IGF-1 can regulate the expression of a specific set of cardiac genes via the generation of a particular signal-encoding pattern, leading to adaptive cardiac hypertrophy, antiapoptotic effects, and metabolic adaptation.

Pulmonary Hypertension in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction – any Pathophysiological Role of Mitral Regurgitation

Marco Guazzi
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.jacc.2009.04.088

read with interest the study by Lam et al. (1) as an important contribution to the pathophysiological and clinical impact of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in hypertensive patients with heart failure and preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (HFpEF). Recent guidelines on arterial PH recognize HFpEF as a growing cause of left-sided PH, but a definitive appreciation of its true prevalence and prognostic relevance is lacking. The present study provides some new important information on this subject.

It is noteworthy that HFpEF was associated, in a high rate of cases (83%), with a typical hemodynamic pattern of precapillary PH, and a strong correlation was found between pulmonary artery systolic pressure and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure. Most important, pulmonary artery systolic pressure, rather than other echocardiography-derived measures of diastolic dysfunction, was the only significant multivariate predictor of mortality, a finding that was confirmed even when combined comorbid diseases potentially contributing to PH development, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, were taken into account.

In patients with systolic heart failure, a major determinant of PH development is mitral regurgitation. Whether mitral regurgitation could be a putative factor in the pathogenesis of PH in HFpEF patients remains an open and intriguing question.

Accordingly, it would be of interest if the authors could provide some details on how many HFpEF patients exhibited mitral regurgitation, especially in comparison with control hypertensive patients without HFpEF.

Lam CSP, Roger VL, Rodeheffer RJ, Borlaug BA, Enders FT, Redfield MM. Pulmonary hypertension in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: a community-based study. J Am Coll Cardiol 2009; 53:1119–23.

Midregion Prohormone Adrenomedullin and Prognosis in Patients Presenting with Acute Dyspnea Results from the BACH (Biomarkers in Acute Heart Failure) Trial

Alan Maisel, MD, Christian Mueller, Richard M. Nowak,W. Frank Peacock, et al.
J Am Coll Cardiol 2011; 58(10):1057–67
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.jacc.2011.06.006

Objectives The aim of this study was to determine the prognostic utility of midregion proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM) in all patients, cardiac and noncardiac, presenting with acute shortness of breath.
Background The recently published BACH (Biomarkers in Acute Heart Failure) study demonstrated that MR-proADM had superior accuracy for predicting 90-day mortality compared with B-type natriuretic peptide (area under the curve: 0.674 vs. 0.606, respectively, p < 0.001) in acute heart failure.
Methods The BACH trial was a prospective, 15-center, international study of 1,641 patients presenting to the emergency department with dyspnea. Using this dataset, the prognostic accuracy of MR-proADM was evaluated in all patients enrolled for predicting 90-day mortality with respect to other biomarkers, the added value in addition to clinical variables, as well as the added value of additional measurements during hospital admission.
Results Compared with B-type natriuretic peptide or troponin, MR-proADM was superior for predicting 90-day all-cause mortality in patients presenting with acute dyspnea (c index = 0.755, p < 0.0001). Furthermore, MR-proADM added significantly to all clinical variables (all adjusted hazard ratios: HR=3.28), and it was also superior to all other biomarkers. MRproADM added significantly to the best clinical model (bootstrap-corrected c index increase: 0.775 to 0.807; adjusted standardized hazard ratio: 2.59; 95% confidence interval: 1.91 to 3.50; p < 0.0001). Within the model, MR-proADM was the biggest contributor to the predictive performance, with a net reclassification improvement of 8.9%. Serial evaluation of MR-proADM performed in patients admitted provided a significant added value compared with a model with admission values only (p< 0.0005). More than one-third of patients originally at high risk could be identified by the biomarker evaluation at discharge as low-risk patients. Conclusions MR-proADM identifies patients with high 90-day mortality and adds prognostic value to natriuretic peptides in patients presenting with acute shortness of breath. Serial measurement of this biomarker may also prove useful for monitoring, although further studies will be required. (Biomarkers in Acute Heart Failure [BACH]; NCT00537628)

Invasive Hemodynamic Characterization of Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction

Mads J. Andersen, Barry A. Borlaug
Heart Failure Clin 10 (2014) 435–444
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hfc.2014.03.001

KEY POINTS

  • Invasive hemodynamic assessment in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) was originally a primary research tool to advance the understanding of the pathophysiology of HFpEF.
  • The role of invasive hemodynamic assessment in HFpEF is expanding to the diagnostic arena where invasive assessment offers a robust, sensitive, and specific way to diagnose or exclude HFpEF in patients with unexplained dyspnea and normal ejection fraction.
  • In future years, invasive hemodynamic profiling may more rigorously phenotype patients to individualized therapy and, potentially, deliver novel device-based structural interventions.

The circulatory system serves to deliver substrates to the body via the bloodstream while removing the byproducts of cellular metabolism. Hemodynamics broadly refers to the study of the forces involved in the circulation of blood, which are governed by to the physical properties of the heart and vasculature and their dynamic regulation by the autonomic nervous system.

Afterload represents the forces opposing ventricular ejection and can be quantified by systolic left ventricular (LV) wall stress and aortic input impedance or its individual components (resistance, compliance, characteristic impedance). Wall stress is inconvenient because it depends on heart size and geometry, whereas impedance is cumbersome because it is a frequency-domain parameter that cannot be easily coupled with time-domain measures of ventricular function. Effective arterial elastance (Ea), defined by the ratio of LV end-systolic pressure (ESP) to stroke volume, provides a robust measure of total arterial load. Ea is not a directly measured parameter but, instead, a net or lumped stiffness of the vasculature that incorporates both mean and oscillatory components of afterload (Fig. 1). Preload reflects the degree of myofiber stretch before the onset of contraction, which, in turn, dictates the force and velocity of contraction according to the Frank-Starling principle. In everyday practice, preload is often conceptualized as equivalent to LV filling pressures. However, in fact, preload is most accurately reflected by the LV volume at end-diastole volume (EDV). Filling pressures are related to EDV by the LV diastolic chamber stiffness, which differs in healthy volunteers and subjects with HFpEF.

Fig. 1. Not shown. Ventricular-arterial coupling in the pressure-volume plane. Pressure volume loop at steady state is shown in dark black. The area subtended by the loop (shaded) represents the stroke work. Stroke volume is the difference between end-diastolic volume (EDV) and end-systolic volume (ESV). Ea is defined by the negative slope connecting the ESP and ESV coordinates with EDV and pressure = 0. With acute preload reduction (dotted line loops) there is progressive reduction in EDV, ESV, and ESP. The linear slope of the endsystolic pressure volume relationship (ESPVR) is LV end-systolic elastance (Ees). The curvilinear slope of the end diastolic pressure–volume relationship (EDVPR) is derived by fitting pressure volume coordinates measured during diastasis to the equation shown. The exponential power or stiffness constant (b) obtained is a measure of LV diastolic stiffness. (Adapted from Borlaug BA, Kass DA. Invasive hemodynamic assessment in heart failure. Heart Fail Clin 2009;5(2):217–28; with permission.)

Fig. 3. Not shown. Left ventricular diastolic reserve in HFpEF. In the normal healthy adult, the rate of LV pressure decay during isovolumic contraction (t) is rapid and increases markedly during exercise in association with a reduction in LVmin, allowing for suction of blood into the LV, with no increase in left atrial pressure or LV end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) despite an increase in LV end-diastolic volume and marked shortening of the cycle length. In HFpEF, relaxation is prolonged at baseline (increased t) with inadequate hastening (shortening of t) during exercise, contributing to an inability to reduce LVmin and, consequently, a complete lack of suction effects. LV filling then completely depends on left atrial hypertension, which develops in tandem with marked elevation in LVEDP. (Data from Borlaug BA, Jaber WA, Ommen SR, et al. Diastolic relaxation and compliance reserve during dynamic exercise in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Heart 2011;97(12):964–9.)

Fig. 4. Preload and filling pressures in HFpEF. (A) Cumulative distribution plot shows that acute changes in stroke volume with nitroprusside infusion are lower in HFpEF (black) compared with HFrEF (red). Because afterload (Ea) is lowered, any acute reduction in SV must be related to reduction in preload volume (EDV) and nearly 40% of HFpEF patients experienced stroke volume reduction with nitroprusside, despite high filling pressures (PCWP 20–25 mm Hg), indicating increased reliance on high pressures to achieve adequate EDV. *p<0.0001 compared with HFrEF. (B) LVEDP in a healthy adult (blue) and in a HFpEF patient with increased LV diastolic stiffness (green). At the same preload (EDV), pressure is more than twofold higher in HFpEF. In contrast, at the same LV diastolic pressure (15 mm Hg), LV volume is much lower in HFpEF, indicating decreased LV diastolic capacitance. V15, volume at end-diastolic pressure = 15 mm Hg; LVEDP. (Adapted from Schwartzenberg S, Redfield MM, From AM, et al. Effects of vasodilation in heart failure with preserved or reduced ejection fraction implications of distinct pathophysiologies on response to therapy. J Am Coll Cardiol 2012;59(5):442–51; with permission.)

Updated Clinical Classification of Pulmonary Hypertension

Gérald Simonneau, Ivan M. Robbins, Maurice Beghetti, et al.
J Am Coll of Cardiol   2009; 54(1), Suppl S
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.jacc.2009.04.012

The aim of a clinical classification of pulmonary hypertension (PH) is to group together different manifestations of disease sharing similarities in pathophysiologic mechanisms, clinical presentation, and therapeutic approaches. In 2003, during the 3rd World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension, the clinical classification of PH initially adopted in 1998 during the 2nd World Symposium was slightly modified. During the 4th World Symposium held in 2008, it was decided to maintain the general architecture and philosophy of the previous clinical classifications. The modifications adopted during this meeting principally concern Group 1, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). This subgroup includes patients with PAH with a family history or patients with idiopathic PAH with germline mutations (e.g., bone morphogenetic protein receptor-2, activin receptor-like kinase type 1, and endoglin). In the new classification, schistosomiasis and chronic hemolytic anemia appear as separate entities in the subgroup of PAH associated with identified diseases. Finally, it was decided to place pulmonary venoocclusive disease and pulmonary capillary hemangiomatosis in a separate group, distinct from but very close to Group 1 (now called Group 1=). Thus, Group 1 of PAH is now more homogeneous. (J Am Coll Cardiol 2009; 54: S43–54)
Updated Evidence-Based Treatment Algorithm in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Robyn J. Barst,  J. Simon R. Gibbs, Hossein A. Ghofrani, et al.
J Am Coll Cardiol 2009; 54(1), Suppl S,

Uncontrolled and controlled clinical trials with different compounds and procedures are reviewed to define the risk benefit profiles for therapeutic options in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). A grading system for the level of evidence of treatments based on the controlled clinical trials performed with each compound is used to propose an evidence-based treatment algorithm. The algorithm includes drugs approved by regulatory agencies for the treatment of PAH and/or drugs available for other indications. The different treatments have been evaluated mainly in idiopathic PAH, heritable PAH, and in PAH associated with the scleroderma spectrum of diseases or with anorexigen use. Extrapolation of these recommendations to other PAH subgroups should be done with caution. Oral anticoagulation is proposed for most patients; diuretic treatment and supplemental oxygen are indicated in cases of fluid retention and hypoxemia, respectively. High doses of calcium-channel blockers are indicated only in the minority of patients who respond to acute vasoreactivity testing. Nonresponders to acute vasoreactivity testing or responders who remain in World Health Organization (WHO) functional class III, should be considered candidates for treatment with either an oral phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor or an oral endothelin-receptor antagonist. Continuous intravenous administration of epoprostenol remains the treatment of choice in WHO functional class IV patients. Combination therapy is recommended for patients treated with PAH monotherapy who remain in WHO functional class III. Atrial septostomy and lung transplantation are indicated for refractory patients or where medical treatment is unavailable. (J Am Coll Cardiol 2009;54:S78–84)

Inhibition and down-regulation of gene transcription and guanylyl cyclase activity of NPRA by angiotensin II involving protein kinase C

Kiran K. Arise, Kailash N. Pandey
Biochem and Biophys Res Commun 349 (2006) 131–135
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.bbrc.2006.08.003

The objective of this study was to investigate the role of protein kinase C (PKC) in the angiotensin II (Ang II)-dependent repression of Npr1 (coding for natriuretic peptide receptor-A, NPRA) gene transcription. Mouse mesangial cells (MMCs) were transfected with Npr1 gene promoter-luciferase construct and treated with Ang II and PKC agonist or antagonist. The results showed that the treatment of MMCs with 10 nM Ang II produced a 60% reduction in the promoter activity of Npr1 gene. MMCs treated with 10 nM Ang II exhibited 55% reduction in NPRA mRNA levels, and subsequent stimulation with 100 nM ANP resulted in 50% reduction in guanylyl cyclase (GC) activity. Furthermore, the treatment of MMCs with Ang II in the presence of PKC agonist phorbol ester (100 nM) produced an almost 75% reduction in NPRA mRNA and 70% reduction in the intracellular accumulation of cGMP levels. PKC antagonist staurosporine completely reversed the effect of Ang II and phorbol ester. This is the first report to demonstrate that ANG II-dependent transcriptional repression of Npr1 gene promoter activity and down-regulation of GC activity of translated protein, NPRA is regulated by PKC pathways.

Transcriptional regulation of guanylyl cyclase/natriuretic peptide receptor-A gene

Prerna Kumar, Kiran K. Arise, Kailash N. Pandey
peptides 27 (2006) 1762–1769
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.peptides.2006.01.004

Activation of natriuretic peptide receptor-A (NPRA) produces the second messenger cGMP, which plays a pivotal role in maintaining blood pressure and cardiovascular homeostasis. In the present study, we have examined the role of trans-acting factor Ets-1 in transcriptional regulation of Npr1 gene (coding for NPRA).Using deletional analysis of the Npr1 promoter, we have defined a 400 base pair (bp) region as the core promoter, which contains consensus binding sites for transcription factors including: Ets-1, Lyf-1, and GATA-1/2. Over-expression of Ets-1 in mouse mesangial cells (MMCs) enhanced Npr1 gene transcription by 12-fold. However, overexpression of GATA-1 or Lyf-1 repressed Npr1 basal promoter activity by 50% and 80%, respectively. The constructs having a mutant Ets-1 binding site or lacking this site failed to respond to Ets-1 activation of Npr1 gene transcription. Collectively, the present results demonstrate that Ets-1 greatly stimulates Npr1 gene promoter activity, implicating its critical role in the regulation and function of NPRA at the molecular level.

Several agents that are known to upregulate Ets-1 transcription, include RA, TNF-alpha, VEGF, and TPA. Ets-1 is upregulated at exposure to agonists such as serum in vitro and is expressed in injured vasculature. MAPK-mediated phosphorylation positively regulates the transcriptional activation functions of Ets-1 by recruiting CBP/p300. Not much is known about Ets-1 expression or regulation in mesangial cells. A temporal increase of mesangial cell Ets-1 expression has been reported which correlates with mesangial cell activation
in mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis suggesting involvement of PDGF-B. There might be a possibility that during glomerulonephritis increased Ets-1 expression upregulates Npr1 gene as a protective mechanism. Npr1 gene has been shown to negatively regulate mitogen-activated protein kinase and proliferation of mesangial cells.

In conclusion, our results demonstrate that the precise control of Npr1 gene transcriptional activity is achieved through a synergy of activators and repressors in which Ets-1 plays an integral role as a transcriptional activator. Comparatively, Lyf-1 and GATA-1 act as repressors, inhibiting and regulating the transcriptional activity of Npr1 gene promoter. The present findings suggest that Ets-1 plays a critical role in enhancing Npr1 gene transcription and may have an important influence in hypertension and cardiovascular homeostasis at the molecular level.

Krüppel-like transcription factor 11 (KLF11) overexpression inhibits cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis in mice

Yue Zheng, Ye Kong, Feng Li
Biochem and Biophys Res Commun 443 (2014) 683–688
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2013.12.024

The Krüppel-like factors (KLFs) belong to a subclass of Cys2/His2 zinc-finger DNA-binding proteins. The KLF family member KLF11 is originally identified as a transforming growth factor b (TGF-b)-inducible gene and is one of the most studied in this family. KLF11 is expressed ubiquitously and participates  in diabetes and regulates hepatic lipid metabolism. However, the role of KLF11 in cardiovascular system is largely unknown. Here in this study, we reported that KLF11 expression is down-regulated in failing human hearts and hypertrophic murine hearts. To evaluate the roles of KLF11 in cardiac hypertrophy, we generated cardiac-specific KLF11 transgenic mice. KLF11 transgenic mice do not show any difference from their littermates at baseline. However, cardiac-specific KLF11 overexpression protects mice from TAC-induced cardiac hypertrophy, with reduced radios of heart weight (HW)/body weight (BW), lung weight/BW and HW/tibia length, decreased left ventricular wall thickness and increased fractional shortening. We also observe lower expression of hypertrophic fetal genes in TAC-challenged KLF11 transgenic mice compared with WT mice. In addition, KLF11 reduces cardiac fibrosis in mice underwent hypertrophy. The expression of fibrosis markers are also down-regulated when KLF11 is overexpressed in TAC-challenged mice. Taken together, our findings identify a novel anti-hypertrophic and anti-fibrotic role of KLF11, and KLF11 activator may serve as candidate drug for heart failure patients.

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Acute Lung Injury

Posted in Biological Networks, Ca2+ triggered activation, Calcium Signaling, Calmodulin Kinase and Contraction, Cell Biology, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Chemical Biology and its relations to Metabolic Disease, Clinical Diagnostics, Curation, Cytoskeleton, Disease Biology, Disease Biology, Small Molecules in Development of Therapeutic Drugs, Drug Toxicity, Gene Regulation, Hematology, Human Immune System in Health and in Disease, Lipid metabolism, Metabolism, Metabolomics, Microbiology, Nitric Oxide in Health and Disease, Nutrition and Phytochemistry, Pharmaceutical Analytics, Pharmaceutical Drug Discovery, Pharmacologic toxicities, Plant extract, Proteins, Regulated Clinical Trials: Design, Methods, Components and IRB related issues, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 26, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Acute Lung Injury

Writer and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP 

 

 

Introduction

Acute lung injury is a serious phenomenon only recognized as having significant relevance to allogeneic blood transfusion in the last 15 years.  It is not limited to transfusion events, and is also related to SIRS and sepsis.  It is simulated in experimental models by lipoprotein, such as endotoxin.  It occurs in the pretransfused surgical patient, or in the medical patient as well.  Why it was not recognized earlier is a matter of conjecture.  The significant reduction in immune modulated blood type incompatibility reactions in Western countries is a factor.  The other factor is that the lipoprotein antigenic fractions involved are associated with component transfusions other than stored red cells. The following discussion will elaborate on what is increasingly recognized as a relevant issue in medicine today.
Transfusion Related Reaction

In medicine, transfusion related acute lung injury (TRALI) is a serious blood transfusion complication characterized by the acute onset of non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema following transfusion of blood products.[1]

Although the incidence of TRALI has decreased with modified transfusion practices, it is still the leading cause of transfusion-related fatalities in the United States from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2012.

Transfusion Related Acute Lung Injury

TRALI-Hyaline_membranes_-_very_high_mag

TRALI-Hyaline_membranes_-_very_high_mag

Micrograph of diffuse alveolar damage, the histologic correlate of TRALI. H&E stain. Very high magnification micrograph of hyaline membranes, as seen in diffuse alveolar damage (DAD), the histologic correlate of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), transfusion related acute lung injury (TRALI), acute interstitial pneumonia (AIP).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Hyaline_membranes_-_very_high_mag.jpg/1024px-Hyaline_membranes_-_very_high_mag.jpg

TRALI is defined as an acute lung injury that is temporally related to a blood transfusion; specifically, it occurs within the first six hours following a transfusion.[3]

It is typically associated with plasma components such as platelets and Fresh Frozen Plasma, though cases have been reported with packed red blood cells since there is some residual plasma in the packed cells. The blood component transfused is not part of the case definition. Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) is an uncommon syndrome that is due to the presence of leukocyte antibodies in transfused plasma. TRALI is believed to occur in approximately one in every 5000 transfusions. Leukoagglutination and pooling of granulocytes in the recipient’s lungs may occur, with release of the contents of leukocyte granules, and resulting injury to cellular membranes, endothelial surfaces, and potentially to lung parenchyma. In most cases leukoagglutination results in mild dyspnea and pulmonary infiltrates within about 6 hours of transfusion, and spontaneously resolves;

Occasionally more severe lung injury occurs as a result of this phenomenon and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) results. Leukocyte filters may prevent TRALI for those patients whose lung injury is due to leukoagglutination of the donor white blood cells, but because most TRALI is due to donor antibodies to leukocytes, filters are not helpful in TRALI prevention. Transfused plasma (from any component source) may also contain antibodies that cross-react with platelets in the recipient, producing usually mild forms of posttransfusion purpura or platelet aggregation after transfusion.

Another nonspecific form of immunologic transfusion complication is mild to moderate immunosuppression consequent to transfusion. This effect of transfusion is not completely understood, but appears to be more common with cellular transfusion and may result in both desirable and undesirable effects. Mild immunosuppression may benefit organ transplant recipients and patients with autoimmune diseases; however, neonates and other already immunosuppressed hosts may be more vulnerable to infection, and cancer patients may possibly have worse outcomes postoperatively.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfusion-related_acute_lung_injury

 

 

Perioperative transfusion-related acute lung injury: The Canadian Blood Services experience

Asim Alam, Mary Huang, Qi-Long Yi, Yulia Lin, Barbara Hannach
Transfusion and Apheresis Science 50 (2014) 392–398
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.transci.2014.04.008

Purpose: Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) is a devastating transfusion-associated adverse event. There is a paucity of data on the incidence and characteristics of TRALI cases that occur perioperatively. We classified suspected perioperative TRALI cases reported to Canadian Blood Services between 2001 and 2012, and compared them to non-perioperative cases to elucidate factors that may be associated with an increased risk of developing TRALI in the perioperative setting. Methods: All suspected TRALI cases reported to Canadian Blood Services (CBS) since 2001 were reviewed by two experts or, from 2006 to 2012, the CBS TRALI Medical Review Group (TMRG). These cases were classified based on the Canadian Consensus Conference (CCC) definitions and detailed in a database. Two additional reviewers further categorized them as occurring within 72 h from the onset of surgery (perioperative) or not in that period (non-perioperative). Various demographic and characteristic variables of each case were collected and compared between groups. Results: Between 2001 and 2012, a total of 469 suspected TRALI cases were reported to Canadian Blood Services; 303 were determined to be within the TRALI diagnosis spectrum. Of those, 112 (38%) were identified as occurring during the perioperative period. Patients who underwent cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass (25.0%), general surgery (18.0%) and orthopedics patients (12.5%) represented the three largest surgical groups. Perioperative TRALI cases comprised more men (53.6% vs. 41.4%, p = 0.04) than non-perioperative patients. Perioperative TRALI patients more often required supplemental O2 (14.3% vs. 3.1%, p = 0.0003), mechanical ventilation (18.8% vs. 3.1%), or were in the ICU (14.3% vs. 3.7%, p = 0.0043) prior to the onset of TRALI compared to non-perioperative TRALI patients. The surgical patients were transfused on average more components than non-perioperative patients (6.0 [SD = 8.3] vs. 3.6 [5.2] products per patient, p = 0.0002). Perioperative TRALI patients were transfused more plasma (152 vs. 105, p = 0.013) and cryoprecipitate (51 vs. 23, p < 0.01) than non-perioperative TRALI patients. There was no difference between donor antibody test results between the groups. Conclusion: CBS data has provided insight into the nature of TRALI cases that occur perioperatively; this  group represents a large proportion of TRALI cases.

 

Transfusion-related acute lung injury: a clinical review

Alexander P J Vlaar, Nicole P Juffermans
Lancet 2013; 382: 984–94
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(12)62197-7

Three decades ago, transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) was considered a rare complication of transfusion medicine. Nowadays, the US Food and Drug Administration acknowledge the syndrome as the leading cause of transfusion-related mortality. Understanding of the pathogenesis of TRALI has resulted in the design of preventive strategies from a blood-bank perspective. A major breakthrough in efforts to reduce the incidence of TRALI has been to exclude female donors of products with high plasma volume, resulting in a decrease of roughly two-thirds in incidence. However, this strategy has not completely eradicated the complication. In the past few years, research has identified patient-related risk factors for the onset of TRALI, which have empowered physicians to take an individualized approach to patients who need transfusion.

Development of an international consensus definition has aided TRALI research, yielding a higher incidence in specific patient populations than previously acknowledged Patients suffering from a clinical disorder such as sepsis are increasingly recognized as being at risk for development of TRALI. Thereby, from a diagnosis by exclusion, TRALI has become the leading cause of transfusion-related mortality. However, the syndrome is still under diagnosed and under-reported in some countries.

Although blood transfusion can be life-saving, it can also be a life-threatening intervention. Physicians use blood transfusion on a daily basis. Increased awareness of the risks of this procedure is needed, because management of patient-tailored transfusion could reduce the risk of TRALI. Such an individualized approach is now possible as insight into TRALI risk factors evolves. Furthermore, proper reporting of TRALI could prevent recurrence.

Absence of an international definition for TRALI previously contributed to underdiagnosis. As such, a consensus panel, and the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Working Group in 2004, formulated a case definition of TRALI based on clinical and radiological parameters. The definition is derived from the widely used definition of acute lung injury (panel 1). Suspected TRALI is defined as fulfilment of the definition of acute lung injury within 6 h of transfusion in the absence of another risk factor (panel 1).

Although this definition seems to be straightforward, the characteristics of TRALI are indistinguishable from acute lung injury due to other causes, such as sepsis or lung contusion. Therefore, this definition would rule out the possibility of diagnosing TRALI in a patient with an underlying risk factor for acute lung injury who has also received a transfusion. To identify such cases, the term possible TRALI was developed.

Although the TRALI definition is an international consensus definition, surveillance systems in some countries, including the USA, France and the Netherlands, use an alternative in which imputability is scored. Imputability aims to identify the likelihood that transfusion is the causal factor. Imputability scores mostly imply that other causes of acute lung injury can be ruled out, so that diagnosis of TRALI is by exclusion. However, observational and animal studies suggest that risk factors for TRALI include other disorders, such as sepsis. Therefore, an imputability definition would result in underdiagnosis of TRALI. The consensus definition accommodates the uncertainty of the association of acute lung injury to the transfusion in possible TRALI. The conventional definition of TRALI uses a timeframe of 6 h in which acute lung injury needs to develop after a blood transfusion. In critically ill patients, transfusion increases the risk (odds ratio 2·13, 95% CI 1·75–2·52) for development of acute lung injury 6–72 h after transfusion.  However, whether the pathogenesis of delayed TRALI is similar to that of TRALI is unclear.

A two-hit hypothesis has been proposed for TRALI. The first hit is underlying patient factors, resulting in adherence of primed neutrophils to the pulmonary endothelium. The second hit is caused by mediators in the blood transfusion that activate the endothelial cells and pulmonary neutrophils, resulting in capillary leakage and subsequent pulmonary edema. The second hit can be antibody-mediated or non-antibody-mediated.

Panel 1: Definition of transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI)

Suspected TRALI

  • Acute onset within 6 h of blood transfusion
    • PaO2/FIO2<300 mm Hg, or worsening of P to F ratio
    • Bilateral infi ltrative changes on chest radiograph
    • No sign of hydrostatic pulmonary oedema (pulmonary arterial occlusion
    pressure ≤18 mm Hg or central venous pressure ≤15 mm Hg)
    • No other risk factor for acute lung injury

Possible TRALI
Same as for suspected TRALI, but another risk factor present for acute lung injury

Delayed TRALI
Same as for (possible) TRALI and onset within 6–72 h of blood transfusion

Pathophysiology of two-hit mediated transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI).  The pre-phase of the syndrome consists of a fi rst hit, which is mainly systemic. This first hit is the underlying disorder of the patient (eg, sepsis or pneumonia) causing neutrophil attraction to the capillary of the lung. Neutrophils are attracted to the lung by release of cytokines and chemokines from upregulated lung endothelium. Loose binding by L-selectin takes place. Firm adhesion is mediated by E-selectin and platelet-derived P-selectin and intracellular adhesion molecules (ICAM-1). In the acute phase of the syndrome, a second hit caused by mediators in the blood transfusion takes place. This hit results in activation of inflammation and coagulation in the pulmonary compartment. Neutrophils adhere to the injured capillary endothelium and marginate through the interstitium into the air space, which is filled with protein-rich edema fluid. In the air space, cytokines interleukin-1, -6, and -8, (IL-1, IL-6, and IL-8, respectively) are secreted, which act locally to stimulate chemotaxis and activate neutrophils resulting in formation of the elastase-α1-antitrypsin (EA) complex. Neutrophils can release oxidants, proteases, and other proinflammatory molecules, such as platelet-activating factor (PAF), and form neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Furthermore, activation of the coagulation system happens, shown by an increase in thrombin-antithrombin complexes (TATc), as does a decrease in activity of the fibrinolysis system, shown by a reduction in plasminogen activator activity. The influx of protein-rich edema fluid into the alveolus leads to the inactivation of surfactant, which contributes to the clinical picture of acute respiratory distress in the onset of TRALI. PAI-1 = plasminogen activator inhibitor-1.

Antibody-mediated TRALI is caused by passive transfusion of HLA or human neutrophil antigen (HNA) and corresponding antibodies from the donor directed against antigens of the recipient. Neutrophil activation occurs directly by binding of the antibody to the neutrophil surface (HNA antibodies) or indirectly, mainly by binding to the endothelial cells with activation of the neutrophil (HLA class I antibodies) or to monocytes with subsequent activation of the neutrophil (HLA class II antibodies). The antibody titer and the volume of antibody containing plasma both increase the risk for onset of TRALI. Although the role of donor HLA and HNA antibodies from transfused blood is widely accepted, not all TRALI cases are antibody mediated. In many patients, antibodies cannot be detected. Furthermore, many blood products containing antibodies do not lead to TRALI. This finding has led to development of an alternative hypothesis for the onset of TRALI, termed non-antibody-mediated TRALI.

Non-antibody-mediated TRALI is caused by accumulation of proinflammatory mediators during storage of blood products, and possibly by ageing of the erythrocytes and platelets themselves. Although most preclinical studies have noted a positive correlation between storage time of cell-containing blood products and TRALI, the mechanism is controversial. Two mechanisms have been suggested, including either plasma or the aged cells. In a small-case study and animal experiments, accumulation of bioactive lipids and soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L) in the plasma layer of cell-containing blood products has been associated with TRALI. Bioactive lipids are thought to cause neutrophil activation through the G-protein coupled receptor on the neutrophil.

The two-hit model suggests that patients in a poor clinical state are at risk for development of TRALI. However, cases have been described of antibody-mediated TRALI developing in fairly healthy recipients. To explain this discrepancy, a threshold model has been suggested in which a threshold must be overcome to induce a TRALI reaction. The threshold is dependent both on the predisposition of the patient (first hit) and the quantity of antibodies in the transfusion (second hit). A large quantity of antibody that matches the recipient’s antigen can cause severe TRALI in a recipient with no predisposition.

Threshold model of antibody-mediated transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI). A specific threshold must be overcome to induce a TRALI reaction. To overcome a threshold, several factors act together: the activation status of the pulmonary neutrophils at the time of transfusion, the strength of the neutrophil-priming activity of transfused mediators (A), and the clinical status of the patient (B).

Panel 2: Clinical characteristics of transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) and transfusion-associated circulatory overload (TACO)

TRALI
• Dyspnea
• Fever
• Usually hypotension
• Hypoxia
• Leukopenia
• Thrombocytopenia
• Pulmonary edema on chest x-ray
• Normal left ventricular function*
• Normal pulmonary artery occlusion pressure

TACO
• Dyspnea
• Usually hypertension
• Hypoxia
• Pulmonary edema on chest radiographs
• Normal or decreased left ventricular function
• Increased pulmonary artery occlusion pressure
• Raised brain natriuretic peptide

Restrictive transfusion policy

The most effective prevention is a restrictive transfusion strategy. In a randomised clinical trial in critically ill patients, a restrictive transfusion policy for red blood cells was associated with a decrease in incidence of acute lung injury compared with a liberal strategy (7·7% vs 11·4%), suggesting that some of these patients might have had TRALI. The restrictive threshold was well tolerated and has greatly helped in guidance of red blood cell transfusion in the intensive-care unit.

Patient-tailored transfusion policy

Transfusion cannot be avoided altogether. A multivariate analysis in patients in intensive care showed that patient related risk factors contributed more to the onset of TRALI than did transfusion-related risk factors, suggesting that development of a TRALI reaction is dependent more on host factors then on factors in the blood product. Therefore, a patient-tailored approach aimed at reducing TRALI risk factors could be effective to alleviate the risk of TRALI.

Despite limitations of diagnostic tests, TRALI incidence seems to be high in at-risk patient populations. Therefore, TRALI is an underestimated health-care problem. Preventive measures, such as mainly male donor strategies, have been successful in reducing risk of TRALI. Identification of risk factors further improves the risk–benefit assessment of a blood transfusion. Efforts to further decrease the risk of TRALI needs increased awareness of this syndrome among physicians.

 

Transfusion-related acute lung injury: Current understanding and preventive strategies

A.P.J. Vlaar
Transfusion Clinique et Biologique 19 (2012) 117–124
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tracli.2012.03.001

Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) is the most serious complication of transfusion medicine. TRALI is defined as the onset of acute hypoxia within 6 hours of a blood transfusion in the absence of hydrostatic pulmonary edema. The past decades have resulted in a better understanding of the pathogenesis of this potentially life-threating syndrome. The present notion is that the onset of TRALI follows a threshold model in which both patient and transfusion factors are essential. The transfusion factors can be divided into immune and non-immune mediated TRALI. Immune-mediated TRALI is caused by the passive transfer of human neutrophil antibodies (HNA) or human leukocyte antibodies (HLA) present in the blood product reacting with a matching antigen in the recipient. Non-immune mediated TRALI is caused by the transfusion of stored cell-containing blood products. Although the mechanisms behind immune-mediated TRALI are reasonably well understood, this is not the case for non-immune mediated TRALI. The increased understanding of pathways involved in the onset of immune-mediated TRALI has led to the design of preventive strategies. Preventive strategies are aimed at reducing the risk to exposure of HLA and HNA to the recipient of the transfusion. These strategies include exclusion of “at risk” donors and pooling of high plasma volume products and have shown to reduce the TRALI incidence effectively.

Studies show that, in at risk patient populations, up to 8% of transfused patients may develop TRALI. Since the syndrome TRALI has been recognized, evidence on the pathogenesis of TRALI has been accumulating. The present notion is that the onset of TRALI follows a threshold model in which both patient and transfusion factors are essential in the development of TRALI. The transfusion factors can be divided into immune and non-immune mediated TRALI. Immune-mediated TRALI is caused by the passive transfer of human neutrophil antibodies (HNA) or human leukocyte antibodies (HLA) present in the blood product, reacting with a matching antigen in the recipient. Non-immune mediated TRALI is caused by the transfusion of stored cell-containing blood products. In recent years, many countries have successfully implemented preventive strategies resulting in a decrease of the incidence of TRALI.

Definition of transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI).

  • Acute onset within 6 hours after a blood transfusion
  • PaO2/FiO2 < 300 mmHg
  • Bilateral infiltrative changes on the chest X-ray
  • No sign of hydrostatic pulmonary edema (PAOP < 18 mmHg or CVP < 15 mmHg)
  • No other risk factor for acute lung injury present

Possible TRALI

  • Other risk factor for acute lung injury present

PAOP: pulmonary arterial occlusion pressure; CVP: central venous pressure

The first landmark report creating the basis for the understanding of the pathogenesis of TRALI was published by Popovsky et al. in 1983. They provided evidence on the association between the presence of leucocyte antibodies in the donor serum and onset of acute lung injury in the recipient of the transfusion. It was also recognized that multiparous blood donors whose plasma contained these antibodies represented a potential transfusion hazard. It was this research group that was the first to identify TRALI as a distinct clinical entity. Subsequently, many other authors reported on the association between the presence of HLA or HNA antibodies in donor blood and the onset of TRALI in the recipient.

Although the role of transfused blood donor HLA and HNA antibodies was widely accepted to be involved in the onset of TRALI, not all cases could be explained by this theory. A significant part of reported TRALI cases have no detectable antibodies. Also, many antibody-containing blood products fail to produce TRALI.

The alternative hypothesis proposed by the group of Silliman posed that TRALI is a “two hit” event. The “first hit” is the underlying condition of the patient, resulting in priming of the pulmonary neutrophil. The “second hit” is the transfusion of a blood product causing activation of the neutrophils in the pulmonary compartment, causing pulmonary edema finally resulting in TRALI. The transfusion factors causing the “second hit” are divided in two groups; immune and non-immune mediated TRALI.

The “second hit” is the transfusion itself and is either immune or non-immune mediated TRALI. The mechanisms behind immune-mediated TRALI are widely accepted and proven in both pre-clinical and clinical studies.  The mechanisms involved in non-immune mediated TRALI are less clear.

The role of stored cell-containing blood products in the onset of non-immune TRALI has extensively been studied in preclinical and clinical studies. Although most of the pre-clinical studies find a positive correlation between the transfusion of stored cell-containing blood products in the presence of a “first hit” and the onset of TRALI, the mechanism behind the onset is controversial.

TRALI management consists mainly of preventing future adverse reactions and providing proper incidence estimates. All suspected TRALI cases should be reported to the blood bank for immunologic work-up as it is impossible to distinguish immune-mediated TRALI from non-immune mediated TRALI at bedside. Immunologic work-up includes testing of incompatibility by cross-matching donor plasma against recipient’s leucocytes. A donor with antibodies which are incompatible with the patient is excluded from further donation of blood for transfusion products. Furthermore, it is important to stress that the absence of a positive serologic work-up does not exclude the diagnosis of TRALI. TRALI is a clinical diagnosis and the immunologic work-up can be supportive but is not part of the diagnosis of TRALI. the two-event hypothesis and threshold hypothesis do not exclude the role of antibodies in the occurrence of TRALI in the presence of an inflammatory condition. Thus any patient fulfilling the TRALI definition (including possible TRALI) should be reported to the blood bank for an immunologic work-up of the recipient and the implicated donors on the presence of HLA and HNA antibodies.

Prevention of immune-mediated TRALI is achieved by exclusion of donors proven to have HLA or HNA antibodies in their plasma present or donors “at risk” to have these antibodies present.

  1. Exclusion of HLA or HNA positive donors
  2. Exclusion of donors “at risk” of being HLA or HNA positive
    Female donors – more specifically, multiparous donors
  3. Testing donors for HLA or HNA antibodies
  4. Multiple plasma pooling
    solvent/detergent plasma is produced from multiple donations, leading to an at least 500-fold dilution of a single plasma unit;
    neither HNA nor HLA antibodies are detectable in solvent/detergent fresh frozen plasma.
  5. To prevent non-immune mediated TRALI, the use of fresh blood only has been suggested

Strategies to prevent the onset of TRALI include the exclusion of female plasma donors and the pooling of plasma products. These strategies have already been implemented in some countries resulting in a reduction of the incidence of TRALI.
Transfusion-related immunomodulation (TRIM): An update

Eleftherios C. Vamvakas, Morris A. Blajchman
Blood Reviews (2007) 21, 327–348
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.blre.2007.07.003

Allogeneic blood transfusion (ABT)-related immunomodulation (TRIM) encompasses the laboratory immune aberrations that occur after ABT and their established or purported clinical effects. TRIM is a real biologic phenomenon resulting in at least one established beneficial clinical effect in humans, but the existence of deleterious clinical TRIM effects has not yet been confirmed. Initially, TRIM encompassed effects attributable to ABT by immunomodulatory mechanisms (e.g., cancer recurrence, postoperative infection, or virus activation). More recently, TRIM has also included effects attributable to ABT by pro-inflammatory mechanisms (e.g., multiple-organ failure or mortality). TRIM effects may be mediated by: (1) allogeneic mononuclear cells; (2) white-blood-cell (WBC)-derived soluble mediators; and/or (3) soluble HLA peptides circulating in allogeneic plasma. This review categorizes the available randomized controlled trials based on the inference(s) that they permit about possible mediator(s) of TRIM, and examines the strength of the evidence available for relying on WBC reduction or autologous transfusion to prevent TRIM effects.

Allogeneic blood transfusion (ABT) may either cause alloimmunization or induce tolerance in recipients. ABTs introduce a multitude of foreign antigens into the recipient, including HLA-DR antigens found on the donor’s dendritic antigen presenting cells (APCs). The presence or absence of recipient HLA-DR antigens on the donor’s white blood cells (WBCs) plays a decisive role as to whether alloimmunization or immune suppression will ensue following ABT. In general, allogeneic transfusions sharing at least one HLA-DR antigen with the recipient induce tolerance, while fully HLA-DR-mismatched transfusions lead to alloimmunization.

In addition to the degree of HLA-DR compatibility between donor and recipient, the immunogenicity of cellular or soluble HLA antigens associated with transfused blood components depends on the viability of the donor dendritic APCs and the presence of co-stimulatory signals for the presentation of the donor antigens to the recipient’s T cells. Nonviable APCs and/or the absence of the requisite co-stimulatory signals result in T-cell unreponsiveness.  Thus, when a multitude of antigens is introduced into the host by an ABT, the host response to some of these antigens is often decreased, and immune tolerance ensues. ABT has been shown to cause decreased helper T-cell count, decreased helper/suppressor T-lymphocyte ratio, decreased lymphocyte response to mitogens, decreased natural killer (NK) cell function, reduction in delayed-type hypersensitivity, defective antigen presentation, suppression of lymphocyte blastogenesis, decreased cytokine (IL-2, interferon-c) production, decreased monocyte/macrophage phagocytic function, and increased production of antiidiotypic and anticlonotypic antibodies.

All these laboratory immune aberrations that indicate immune suppression and occur in transfused patients could potentially be associated with clinically-manifest ABT effects. Thus a variety of beneficial or deleterious clinical effects, potentially attributable to ABT-related immunosuppression, have been described over the last 30 years. The constellation of all such ABT-associated laboratory and clinical findings is known as ABT-related immunomodulation (TRIM). Initially, TRIM encompassed effects attributable to ABT by means of immunologic mechanisms only; however more recently, the term has been used more broadly, to encompass additional effects that could be related to ABT by means of ‘‘proinflammatory’’ rather than ‘‘immunomodulatory’’ mechanisms.

Over 30 years ago, it was reported that pre-transplant ABTs could improve renal-allograft survival in patients who had undergone renal transplantation.  This beneficial immunosuppressive effect of ABT has been confirmed by animal data, observational clinical studies, and clinical experience worldwide, although it has not been proven in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Before the advent of the AIDS pandemic, it had become standard policy in many renal units to deliberately expose patients on transplant waiting lists to one or more red blood cell (RBC) transfusions.

All the available data considered together indicate that TRIM is most likely a real biologic phenomenon, which results in at least one established beneficial clinical effect in humans, although the available evidence has not yet confirmed  the existence and/or magnitude of the deleterious clinical TRIM effects. In fact, the debate over the existence of such deleterious clinical TRIM effects has been long and sometimes acrimonious.

Many studies tended to indicate that patients receiving perioperative transfusion (compared with those not needing transfusion) almost always had a higher risk of developing postoperative bacterial infection. The studies also indicated that patients receiving ABT differed from those not receiving a transfusion in several prognostic factors that predisposed to adverse clinical outcomes.

The specific constituent(s) of allogeneic blood that mediate(s) either or both the immunomodulatory and the pro-inflammatory effect(s) of ABT remain
(s) unknown, and the published literature suggests that these TRIM effects
may be mediated by: (1) allogeneic mononuclear cells; (2) soluble biologic response modifiers released in a time dependent manner from WBC granules or membranes into the supernatant fluid of RBC or platelet concentrates
during storage; and/or  (3) soluble HLA class I peptides that circulate in allogeneic plasma. If each of these mediators do cause TRIM effects, ABT effects mediated by allogeneic mononuclear cells would be expected to be preventable by WBC reduction (performed either before or after storage of cellular blood components), as well as by autologous transfusion. The ABT effects mediated by soluble HLA peptides circulating in allogeneic plasma would be expected to be preventable only by autologous transfusion.

BENEFICIAL TRIM EFFECTS

  1. Enhanced survival of renal allografts
  2. Reduced recurrence rate of Crohn’s disease

DELETERIOUS

  1. Increased recurrence rate of resected malignancies
  2. Increased incidence of postoperative bacterial infections
  3. Activation of endogenous CMV or HIV infection
  4. Increased short-term (up to 3-month) mortality

Possible mechanisms and mediators of TRIM effects

Although the mechanisms of TRIM have been debated extensively, the exact mechanism(s) of this phenomenon has yet to be elucidated. A number of putative mechanisms have been postulated. The three major mechanisms accounting for much of the experimental data include:

  • clonal deletion,
  • induction of anergy, and
  • immune suppression.

Conceptually, clonal deletion refers to the inactivation and removal of alloreactive lymphocytes that would, for example, cause the rejection of an allograft; anergy implies immunologic nonresponsiveness; and immune suppression suggests that the responding cell is being inhibited of doing so by a cellular mechanism or by a cytokine. Antiidiotypic antibodies, which are predominantly of the VH6 gene family, have also been demonstrated in the sera of ABT recipients and in patients with long-term functioning renal allografts.

To date, no RCT has enrolled patients with sarcomas—tumors whose growth is stimulated by TGF-β—or patients with tumors for which the immune response plays a major role. (These would include skin tumors—such as melanomas, keratoacanthomas, squamous and basal-cell carcinomas—and certain virus-induced tumors—notably Kaposi’s sarcoma and certain lymphomas.) Instead, the 3 available RCTs of ABT and cancer recurrence enrolled patients with colorectal cancer—a tumor that is not sufficiently antigenic to render an impairment of host immunity capable of facilitating tumor growth, and a tumor whose cells have not been shown to be stimulated by TGF-β.

Fig not shown. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the association of WBC-containing allogeneic blood transfusion (ABT) with cancer recurrence. For each RCT, the figure shows the odds ratio (OR) of cancer recurrence in recipients of non-WBC-reduced allogeneic versus autologous or WBC-reduced allogeneic RBCs, as calculated from an intention-to-treat analysis. A deleterious effect of ABT (and thus a benefit from autologous transfusion or WBC reduction) exists when the OR is greater than 1 as well as statistically significant. (In the figure, each OR is surrounded by its 95% confidence interval [CI]; if the 95% CI of the OR includes the null value of 1, the TRIM effect is not statistically significant [p > 0.05]).

Fig not shown. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the association of WBC-containing allogeneic blood transfusions with postoperative infection (n = 17). For each RCT, the figure shows the odds ratio (OR) of postoperative infection in recipients of non-WBC reduced allogeneic versus autologous or WBC-reduced allogeneic RBCs, as calculated from an intention-to-treat analysis. A deleterious effect of ABT (and thus a benefit from autologous transfusion or WBC reduction) exists when the OR is greater than 1 as well as statistically significant. (In the figure, each OR is surrounded by its 95% confidence interval [CI]; if the 95% CI of the OR includes the null value of 1, the TRIM effect is not statistically significant [p > 0.05]).

The totality of the evidence from RCTs does not demonstrate a TRIM effect manifest across all clinical settings and transfused RBC products. Instead, WBC-containing ABT is associated with an increased risk of short-term (up to 3-month post transfusion) mortality from all causes combined specifically in cardiac surgery. The additional deleterious TRIM effect detected by the latest meta-analysis (i.e., the effect on postoperative infection prevented by poststorage filtration) contradicts current theories about the pathogenesis of TRIM, because it is not accompanied by a similar or larger effect prevented by prestorage filtration.

Thus, only in cardiac surgery (Fig. 5 – not shown) are the findings of RCTs pertaining to a deleterious TRIM effect consistent. Even in this setting, however, the reasons for the excess deaths attributed to WBC containing ABT remain elusive. The initial hypothesis suggested that WBC-containing ABT may predispose to MOF which, in turn, may predispose to mortality. However, hitherto, no cardiac-surgery RCT has demonstrated an association between WBC-containing ABT and MOF, and no other cause of death specifically attributed to WBC-containing ABT has been proposed.

The TRIM effect seen in cardiac surgery deserves further study to pinpoint the cause(s) of the excess deaths, but-now that the majority of transfusions in Western Europe and North America are WBC reduced- the undertaking of further RCTs comparing recipients of non-WBC-reduced versus WBC reduced allogeneic RBCs in cardiac surgery is unlikely. For countries that have not yet converted to universal WBC reduction, whether to opt for WBC reduction of all cellular blood components transfused in cardiac surgery-in the absence of information on the specific cause(s) of death ascribed to WBC-containing ABT-is a policy decision that will have to be made based on the hitherto available data.

 

Regulation of alveolar fluid clearance and ENaC expression in lung by exogenous angiotensin II

Jia Denga, Dao-xin Wanga, Wang Deng, Chang-yi Li, Jin Tong, Hilary Ma
Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology 181 (2012) 53– 61
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.resp.2011.11.009

Angiotensin II (Ang II) has been demonstrated as a pro-inflammatory effect in acute lung injury, but studies of the effect of Ang II on the formation of pulmonary edema and alveolar filling remains unclear. Therefore, in this study the regulation of alveolar fluid clearance (AFC) and the expression of epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) by exogenous Ang II was verified. SD rats were anesthetized and were given Ang II with increasing doses (1, 10 and 100 [1]g/kg per min) via osmotic minipumps, whereas control rats received only saline vehicle. AT1 receptor antagonist ZD7155 (10 mg/kg) and inhibitor of cAMP degeneration rolipram (1 mg/kg) were injected intraperitoneally 30 min before administration of Ang II. The lungs were isolated for measurement of alveolar fluid clearance. The mRNA and protein expression of ENaC were detected by RT-PCR and Western blot. Exposure to higher doses of Ang II reduced AFC in a dose-dependent manner and resulted in a non-coordinate regulation of α-ENaC vs the regulation of β- and ϒ-ENaC, however Ang II type 1 (AT1) receptor antagonist ZD7155 prevented the Ang II-induced inhibition of fluid clearance and dysregulation of ENaC expression. In addition, exposure to inhibitor of cAMP degradation rolipram blunted the Ang II-induced inhibition of fluid clearance. These results indicate that through activation of AT1 receptor, exogenous Ang II promotes pulmonary edema and alveolar filling by inhibition of alveolar fluid clearance via downregulation of cAMP level and dysregulation of ENaC expression.

Effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) receptor antagonists and rolipram on AFC

Effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) receptor antagonists and rolipram on AFC

Effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) receptor antagonists and rolipram on rat alveolar fluid clearance (AFC). Then AFC was measured 1 h after fluid instillation (4 mL/kg). Amiloride (100 [1]M), Ang II (10−7 M), ZD7155 (10−6 M), and rolipram (10−5 M) were added to the instillate as indicated (n = 10 per group). Mean values ± SEM. p < 0.01 vs control. p < 0.01 vs Ang II + ZD7155.
p < 0.05 vs amiloride. p < 0.05 vs Ang II.

Effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) on cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)

Effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) on cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)

Effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) on cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) concentration in lung. Rats were given saline or Ang II (1, 10 and 100 µg/kg per min) for 6 h, and cAMP in lung was determined by RIA (n = 30 per group). Mean values ± SEM. p < 0.01 vs control. p < 0.05 vs 10 µg/kg Ang II.

Histological examination of lung

Histological examination of lung

Histological examination of lung. Rats were given saline or Ang II (10 µg/kg per min) by osmotic minipump for 6 h. ZD7155 (10 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally 30 min before administration of Ang II. Shown are representative lung specimens obtained from the control (A), Ang II (B) and Ang II + ZD7155 (C) groups. All photographs are at 100× magnification. Interstitial edema and inflammatory cell infiltration were seen in Ang II group, but reduced in Ang II + ZD7155 group.
The present results demonstrate that Ang II infusion is associated with pulmonary edema and alveolar filling. Three important findings were observed:

(1) high doses of Ang II led to reduction of alveolar fluid clearance, and this effect was blunted by an AT1 receptor antagonist.
(2) Ang II infusion increased the abundance of α-ENaC, whereas decreased the abundance ofβ and ϒ-ENaC, and these effects were reversed in response to an AT1 receptor antagonist.
(3) Ang II infusion decreased cAMP concentration in lung tissue, and an inhibitor of cAMP degradation prevented inhibition of alveolar fluid clearance by Ang II, but had no effect on the dysregulation of ENaC.

Our data indicate that Ang II results in pulmonary edema by inhibition of alveolar fluid clearance via down-regulation of cellular cAMP level and dysregulation of the abundance of ENaC, whereas these effects are prevented by an AT1 receptor antagonist.

The renin-angiotensin system is a major regulator of body fluid and sodium balance, predominantly through the actions of its main effector Ang II. Several previous experimental studies demonstrated that plasma Ang II levels vary in both physiological and pathological conditions. In the kidney, Ang II added to the peritubular perfusion has a biphasic action with stimulation of sodium reabsorption at low doses (10−12–10−10M) and inhibition at high doses (10−7–10−6M) (Harris and Young, 1977). In vitro, Ang II also exerts a dose-dependent dual action on intestinal absorption (Levens, 1985). The evidence shows that the effect of Ang II on sodium and water absorption is dose-dependent. Our results showed that low intravenous doses of Ang II (<1 µg/kg per min) had no effect on alveolar fluid clearance which represents the sodium and water reabsorption in alveoli. However, with high intravenous doses, Ang II decreased alveolar fluid clearance. This finding suggests that the effect of Ang II on fluid absorption in lung is also dose-dependent.

 

Rat models of acute lung injury: Exhaled nitric oxide as a sensitive,noninvasive real-time biomarker of prognosis and efficacy of intervention

Fangfang Liu, Wenli Lib, Jürgen Pauluhn, Hubert Trübel, Chen Wang
Toxicology 310 (2013) 104– 114
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tox.2013.05.016

Exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) has received increased attention in clinical settings because this technique is easy to use with instant readout. However, despite the simplicity of eNO in humans, this endpoint has not frequently been used in experimental rat models of septic (endotoxemia) or irritant acute lung injury (ALI). The focus of this study is to adapt this method to rats for studying ALI-related lung disease and whether it can serve as instant, non-invasive biomarker of ALI to study lung toxicity and pharmacological efficacy. Measurements were made in a dynamic flow of sheath air containing the exhaled breath from spontaneously breathing, conscious rats placed into a head-out volume plethysmograph. The quantity of eNO in exhaled breath was adjusted (normalized) to the physiological variables (breathing frequency, concentration of exhaled carbon dioxide) mirroring pulmonary perfusion and ventilation. eNO was examined on the instillation/inhalation exposure day and first post-exposure day in Wistar rats intratracheally instilled with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or single inhalation exposure to chlorine or phosgene gas. eNO was also examined in a Brown Norway rat asthma model using the asthmagen toluene diisocyanate (TDI). The diagnostic sensitivity of adjusted eNO was superior to the measurements not accounting forthe normalization of physiological variables. In all bioassays – whether septic, airway or alveolar irritant or allergic, the adjusted eNO was significantly increased when compared to the concurrent control. The maximum increase of the adjusted eNO occurred following exposure to the airway irritant chlorine. The specificity of adjustment was experimentally verified by decreased eNO following inhalation dosing ofthe non-selective nitric oxide synthase inhibitor amoni-guanidine. In summary, the diagnostic sensitivity of eNO can readily be applied to spontaneously breathing, conscious rats without any intervention or anesthesia. Measurements are definitely improved by accounting for the disease-related changes inexhaled CO2and breathing frequency. Accordingly, adjusted eNO appears to be a promising methodological improvement for utilizing eNO in inhalation toxicology and pharmacological disease models
with fewer animals.

 

Role of p38 MAP Kinase in the Development of Acute Lung Injury

J Arcaroli, Ho-Kee Yum, J Kupfner, JS Park, Kuang-Yao Yang, and E Abraham
Clinical Immunology 2001; 101(2):211–219
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1006/clim.2001.5108

Acute lung injury (ALI) is characterized by an intense pulmonary inflammatory response, in which neutrophils play a central role. The p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway is involved in the regulation of stress-induced cellular functions and appears to be important in modulating neutrophil activation, particularly in response to endotoxin. Although p38 has potent effects on neutrophil functions under in vitro conditions, there is relatively little information concerning the role of p38 in affecting neutrophil driven inflammatory responses in vivo. To examine this issue, we treated mice with the p38 inhibitor SB203580 and then examined parameters of neutrophil activation and acute lung injury after hemorrhage or endotoxemia. Although p38 was activated in lung neutrophils after hemorrhage or endotoxemia, inhibition of p38 did not decrease neutrophil accumulation in the lungs or the development of lung edema under these conditions. Similarly, the increased production of proinflammatory cytokines and activation of NF-kB in lung neutrophils induced by hemorrhage or endotoxemia was not diminished by p38 inhibition. These results indicate that p38 does not have a central role
in the development of ALI after either hemorrhage or endotoxemia.

 

The coagulation system and pulmonary endothelial function in acute lung injury

James H. Finigan
Microvascular Research 77 (2009) 35–38
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.mvr.2008.09.002

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a disease marked by diffuse endothelial injury and increased capillary permeability. The coagulation system is a major participant in ALI and activation of coagulation is both a consequence and contributor to ongoing lung injury. Increased coagulation and depressed fibrinolysis result in diffuse alveolar fibrin deposition which serves to amplify pulmonary inflammation. In addition, existing evidence demonstrates a direct role for different components of coagulation on vascular endothelial barrier function. In particular, the pro-coagulant protein thrombin disrupts the endothelial actin cytoskeleton resulting in increased endothelial leak. In contrast, the anti-coagulant activated protein C (APC) confers a barrier protective actin configuration and enhances the vascular barrier in vitro and in vivo. However, recent studies suggest a complex landscape with receptor cross-talk, temporal heterogeneity and pro-coagulant/anticoagulant protein interactions. In this article, the major signaling pathways governing endothelial permeability in lung injury are reviewed with a particular focus on the role that endothelial proteins, such as thrombin and APC, which play on the vascular barrier function.

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a devastating illness with an annual incidence of approximately 200,000 and a mortality of 40%. Most commonly seen in the setting of sepsis, ALI is a complex inflammatory syndrome marked by increased vascular permeability resulting in tissue edema and organ dysfunction. The vascular endothelium is a key target and critical participant in the pathogenesis of sepsis-induced organ dysfunction and disruption of the endothelial barrier is central to the pathophysiology of both sepsis and ALI. Sepsis and acute lung injury (ALI) are syndromes marked by diffuse inflammation with a key feature being endothelial cell barrier disruption and increased vascular permeability resulting in widespread organ dysfunction. The endothelial cytoskeleton has been identified as a critical regulator of vascular barrier integrity with a current model of endothelial barrier regulation suggesting a balance between barrier-disrupting cellular contractile forces and barrier-protective cell–cell and cell–matrix forces. These competing forces exert their opposing effects via manipulation of the actin-based endothelial cytoskeleton and associated endothelial regulatory proteins. Endothelial cells generate tension via an actomyosin motor, and focally distributed changes in tension/relaxation can be accomplished by spatially-defined regulation of the phosphorylation of the regulatory 20 kDa myosin light chain (MLC) catalyzed by the Ca2+/calmodulin (CaM)-dependent enzyme myosin light chain kinase (MLCK).

Thrombin is the proto-typical coagulation protein with direct effects on the endothelial barrier via alterations in the cytoskeleton. In the coagulation cascade, thrombin converts fibrinogen to fibrin in the final step of thrombus formation and also activated platelets. In addition, this multifunctional protease is present at sites of vascular inflammation and induces barrier dysfunction. Through its receptor, protease-activated receptor-1 (PAR1), thrombin initiates a series of events which includes MLC phosphorylation, dramatic cytoskeletal reorganization and stress fiber formation, increased cellular contractility, paracellular gap formation, and enhanced fluid and protein transport. Similarly, thrombin exposure results in increased pulmonary edema in vivo, a finding which is also seen after treatment with a PAR1 activating peptide and attenuated in PAR1 knockout mice.

Disruptions in the coagulation system have long been recognized to be an integral part of inflammation, sepsis and ALI. In 1969, Saldeen demonstrated that thrombin infusion produced canine respiratory insufficiency which was linked pathologically to emboli in the pulmonary microcirculation, a condition he labeled the “Microembolism Syndrome” (Saldeen, 1979). Elemental to the pathophysiology of sepsis and ALI is a shift towards a pro-coagulant state. Bronchoalveolar (BAL) fluid from patients with ALI reflects this increase in procoagulant activity with elevated levels of fibrinopeptide A, factor VII and d-dimer. Concomitantly, there is a decrease in fibrinolytic activity, as shown by depressed BAL levels of urokinase and increased levels of the fibrinolysis inhibitors plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI) and α2-antiplasmin.

Given that APC is a vascular endothelial protein which interacts with other coagulation proteins such as thrombin, it seems logical that it might have an effect on endothelial integrity. In cultured human pulmonary endothelial cells, while thrombin results in decreased electrical resistance, a reflection of increased permeability, pre- or post-exposure to physiologic concentrations of APC significantly attenuates this thrombin-induced drop in resistance. These APC-mediated alterations in barrier function are associated with MLC phosphorylation as well as activation of the endothelial protein Rac, and cytoskeletal re-arrangement in a barrier protective configuration all findings very reminiscent of the barrier protective signaling induced by the bioactive lipid, S1P. Interestingly, APC appears to activate sphingosine kinase and mediate its barrier protective effects through PI3 kinase and AKT-dependent ligation of the S1P receptor, S1P1. Moreover, the endothelial barrier-protective effects of APC have been observed in other tissues including brain and kidney. The barrier protection in these beds appears independent of any anti-coagulant effect of APC and is associated with decreased endothelial apoptosis.

Recently, the endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) has been identified as a crucial participant in the protein C pathway. Structurally similar to the major histocompatibility class I/CD1 family of molecules, EPCR binds protein C, presenting it to the thrombin/TM complex, thereby increasing the activation of protein C by ∼20 fold. Importantly, APC can also bind EPCR, and while the bound form of APC loses its extra-cellular anti-coagulant activity, increasing evidence indicates that much, if not all, of APC intra-cellular signaling requires EPCR. APC-mediated increases in endothelial phosphor-MLC and activated Rac are all EPCR-dependent and APC-induced endothelial barrier protection requires ligation of EPCR.

Sepsis and ALI are significant causes of morbidity and mortality in the intensive care unit and are marked by zealous activation of the coagulation system. While this could conceivably confer certain benefits, such as enclosing and spatially controlling an infection, it is clear that this pro-coagulant environment participates in the pathophysiology of ALI, particularly via exacerbating endothelial damage and augmenting endothelial permeability. However, the biology of coagulation in ALI is incompletely understood and trials of new therapies specifically targeting coagulation in patients with ALI have been disappointing. Despite this, recent advances in the knowledge of the dynamic interplay between inflammation and coagulation in ALI as well as endothelial receptor-ligand binding and receptor cross talk have stimulated promising research and identified novel therapeutic targets for patients with ALI.

 

Phosphatidylserine-expressing cell by-products in transfusion: A pro-inflammatory or an anti-inflammatory effect?

  1. Saas, F. Angelot, L. Bardiaux, E. Seilles, F. Garnache-Ottou, S. Perruche
    Transfusion Clinique et Biologique 19 (2012) 90–97
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tracli.2012.02.002

Labile blood products contain phosphatidylserine-expressing cell dusts, including apoptotic cells and microparticles. These cell by-products are produced during blood product process or storage and derived from the cells of interest that exert a therapeutic effect (red blood cells or platelets). Alternatively, phosphatidylserine-expressing cell dusts may also derived from contaminating cells, such as leukocytes, or may be already present in plasma, such as platelet-derived microparticles. These cell by-products present in labile blood products can be responsible for transfusion induced immunomodulation leading to either transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) or increased occurrence of post-transfusion infections or cancer relapse. In this review, we report data from the literature and our laboratory dealing with interactions between antigen-presenting cells and phosphatidylserine-expressing cell dusts, including apoptotic leukocytes and blood cell-derived microparticles. Then, we discuss how these phosphatidylserine-expressing cell by-products may influence transfusion.

Potential consequences of phosphatidylserine-expressing cell by-products in transfusion

Potential consequences of phosphatidylserine-expressing cell by-products in transfusion

Potential consequences of phosphatidylserine-expressing cell by-products in transfusion. Interactions of phosphatidylserine-expressing cell dusts (apoptotic cells or microparticles) may lead to antigen-presenting cell activation or inhibition. Antigen-presenting cell activation may trigger inflammation and be involved in transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI), while antigen-presenting cell inhibition may exert transient immunosuppression or tolerance. Blood product process or storage may influence the generation of phosphatidylserine-expressing cell dusts. PtdSer: phosphatidylserine; APC: antigen-presenting cell.

Several publications report the presence of phosphatidylserine-expressing cell by-products in blood products. These cell by-products may be generated during the blood product process, such as filtration, or during storage (either cold storage for red blood cells or between 20–24 ◦C for platelets). Alternatively, they may be limited by filtration. Phosphatidylserine-expressing cell by-products can be apoptotic cells. Apoptotic cells have been found in different blood products: red blood cell units and platelet concentrates. These apoptotic cells correspond to dying cells of interest: red blood cells or platelets, both enucleated cells that can undergo apoptosis.

Immunomodulatory effects of apoptotic leukocytes

Immunomodulatory effects of apoptotic leukocytes

Immunomodulatory effects of apoptotic leukocytes. Early during the apoptotic program, phosphatidylserine-exposure occurs leading to apoptotic cell removal by macrophages or conventional dendritic cells. This uptake by antigen-presenting cells induces the production of anti-inflammatory factors and concomitantly inhibits the synthesis of inflammatory cytokines. These antigen-presenting cells are refractory to TLR activation. This leads to a transient immunosuppressive microenvironment. If antigen-presenting cells from this microenvironment migrate to secondary lymphoid organs, naive T cells are converted into inducible regulatory T cells. This leads to tolerance against apoptotic cell-derived antigens. M[1]: macrophage; cDC: conventional dendritic cells; PtdSer: phosphatidylserine; Treg: regulatory T cells; Th1: helper T cells; HGF: hepatocyte growth factor; IL-: interleukin; NO: nitrite oxide; PGE-2: prostaglandin-E2; TGF: transforming growth factor; TNF: tumor necrosis factor; TLR: Toll-like receptor.

Implication of phosphatidylserine in the inhibition of both inflammation and specific immune responses has been further demonstrated using  phosphatidylserine-expressing liposomes and is sustained by the following observations:

  • phosphatidylserine-dependent ingestion of apoptotic cells induces TGF-β secretion and resolution of lung inflammation;
  • inhibition of phosphatidylserine recognition through annexin-V enhances the immunogenicity of irradiated tumor cells in vivo;
  • masking of phosphatidylserine inhibits apoptotic cell engulfment and induces autoantibody production in mice.

Based on data from our group and Peter Henson’s group, some authors have speculated that apoptotic leukocytes present in blood products may be responsible for transfusion-related immunosuppression.

The first consequences of phosphatidylserine-expressing apoptotic cells in blood products may be a transient immunosuppression−responsible for an increase in infection rate and of cancer relapse−or tolerance induction− as observed after donor-specific transfusion − when Treg have been generated. However, apoptotic leukocytes become secondarily necrotic in the absence of phagocytes. This may certainly occur in blood product bags. Necrotic cells, through the release of damage-associated molecular patterns, may become immunogenic. The same process may occur for platelets. Necrotic platelets may represent the procoagulant form of platelets. Thus, hemostatic activation of platelets or their by-products may link thrombosis and inflammation to amplify lung microvascular damage during nonimmune TRALI.

What are the next steps to answer the question on the role of phosphatidylserine-expressing cell dusts in the modulation of immune responses after transfusion?

The next steps are to characterize or identify factors involved in the triggering of inflammation or its inhibition and produced during blood product storage or process. Several factors influence the immune responses against dying cells. We can speculate on some factors, including:

  • the number of phosphatidylserine-expressing cell byproducts contained per blood product, as the immunogenicity of apoptotic cells may be proportional to their number;
  • the occurrence of secondary necrosis and so the passive release of intracellular damage-associated molecular patterns that overpasses the inhibitory signals delivered by phosphatidylserine. One of these damage associated molecular patterns can be the heme released from stored red blood cells which signals via TLR4;
  • the size of cell by-products and especially microparticles, since these latter exert different functions according to their size. Moreover, antigen-presenting cells, such as plasmacytoid dendritic cells, respond only to lower size synthetic particles. This may explain the different responses observed between “amateur” phagocytes (plasmacytoid dendritic cells) versus professional phagocytes (conventional dendritic cells/macrophages) after incubation with microparticles. The size of cell by-products diminishes during plasma filtration, as assessed by dynamic light scattering from 101 to 464 nm in unfiltered fresh-frozen plasma versus 21 to 182 nm after 0.2 µm filtration process;
  • expression of the recently described phosphatidylserine receptors on different antigen-presenting cell subsets may also explain the different responses between plasmacytoid dendritic cells versus conventional dendritic cells/macrophages and may impact on the overall immune response.

 

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors and inflammation

Leonardo A. Moraes, Laura Piqueras, David Bishop-Bailey
Pharmacology & Therapeutics 110 (2006) 371 – 385
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2005.08.007

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are members of the nuclear hormone receptors family. PPARs are a family of 3 ligand-activated transcription factors: PPARa (NR1C1), PPARh/y (NUC1; NR1C2), and PPARg (NR1C3). PPARα, -h/y, and -ϒ are encoded by different genes but show substantial amino acid similarity, especially within the DNA and ligand binding domains. All PPARs act as heterodimers with the 9-cis-retinoic acid receptors (retinoid X receptor; RXRs) and play important roles in the regulation of metabolic pathways, including those of lipid of biosynthesis and glucose metabolism, as well as in a variety of cell differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis pathways. Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in the involvement of PPARs in inflammatory processes. PPAR ligands, in particular those of PPARα and PPARϒ, inhibit the activation of inflammatory gene expression and can negatively interfere with proinflammatory transcription factor signaling pathways in vascular and inflammatory cells. Furthermore, PPAR levels are differentially regulated in a variety of inflammatory disorders in man, where ligands appear to be promising new therapies.

Fig. not shown.  Structure and transcriptional activation of PPARs. (A) Generic schematic of the structure of the PPAR family of nuclear receptors. Indicated are the N–C terminal regions subdivided in to 4 domains: the A/B, N terminal domain [also called the activation function (AF)-1 domain]; C, the DNA binding domain; D, the F hinge_region; and E, the ligand binding domain (AF-2). (B) Generic scheme for the activation of a PPAR receptor as a transcription factor. PPAR activation leads to heterodimerization with RXR and an accumulation in the nucleus. Ligand activation of PPAR results in a change from a repressed binding protein complex which may contain histone deacetylases (HDAC), the nuclear receptor corepressor (NCo-R), and the silencing mediator of retinoid and thyroid signaling (SMRT) to an activation complex that may contain the histone acetylases, steroid receptor co-activator-1 (SRC-1), the PPAR binding protein (PBP), cAMP response element binding protein (CBP/p300), TATA box binding proteins, and RNA polymerase (RNA pol) III. The activated PPAR–RXR heterodimer complex binds to DNA sequences called PPAR response elements (PPRE) in target genes initiation their transcription.

Although the nature of true endogenous PPAR ligands are still not known (Bishop-Bailey & Wray, 2003), PPARs can be activated by a wide variety of F endogenous or pharmacological ligands. PPARα activators include a variety of endogenously present fatty acids, LTB4 and hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HETEs), and clinically used drugs, such as the fibrates, a class of first-line drugs in the treatment of dyslipidemia. Similarly, PPARg can be activated by a number of ligands, including docosahexaenoic acid, linoleic acid, the anti-diabetic glitazones, used as insulin sensitizers, and a number of lipids, including oxidized LDL, azoyle-PAF, and eicosanoids, such as 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraynoic acid and the prostanoids PGA1, PGA2, PGD2, and its dehydration products of the PGJ series of cyclopentanones (e.g., 15 deoxy-D12,14-PGJ2). Dyslipidemia and insulin-dependent diabetes are commonly found existing together as part of the metabolic X syndrome.

Because PPARa and PPARg ligands independently are useful clinical drugs in the treatment of these respective disorders, synthetic dual PPARα/ϒ ligands have recently been developed and show a combined clinical efficacy. PPAR h/y activators include fatty acids and prostacyclin and synthetic compounds L-165,041, GW501516, compound F and L-783,483. Unlike PPARα or-ϒ, there are no PPAR h/y drugs in the clinic, although ligands are in phase II clinical trials for dyslipidemia (http://www.science.gsk.com/pipeline). Indeed, part of the challenge in determining the function of PPARh/y has been the identification and availability of new ligands with more potency and selectivity for use as pharmacological tools.

Fig. not shown. Mechanisms of the anti-inflammatory effects of PPARα. PPARα ligands inhibit the activities of NF-nB, AP-1, and T-bet within cells. In sites of local inflammation, tissue and endothelial cell activity is inhibited, and expressions of adhesion molecules (ICAM-1 and VCAM-1), pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1, -6, -8, -12, and TNFα), vasoactive mediators (inducible cyclo-oxygenase, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and endothelin-1; COX-2, iNOS, and ET-1), and proteases (MMP-9) are decreased. The inflammatory responses in leukocytes are also diminished. Monocyte/macrophage activity is decreased, and lipid metabolizing pathways increased, T- and B-lymphocyte proliferation and differentiation are inhibited, and T-lymphocyte and eosinophil chemotaxis reduced. Bold italic text indicates positive regulation by the PPAR, all other text indicates a negative regulation.

Fig. not shown. Mechanisms of the anti-inflammatory effects of PPAR h/y. PPAR h/y ligands inhibit the activities of NF-nB and release the suppressor BCL-6 from PPAR h/y. In sites of local inflammation, endothelial cell adhesion molecule (VCAM-1) and chemokine (MCP-1) are reduced. PPAR h/y and its endogenous ligand(s) are induced during the inflammatory response in keratinocytes, which then promotes cell survival (integrin-linked kinase—Akt pathway) and wound healing. The inflammatory responses in monocyte/ macrophages are modulated. In the absence of ligand, PPAR h/y sequesters BCL-6 and induces MCP-1, MCP-3, and IL-1h. When PPAR h/y ligand is given, BCL-6 is released and MCP-1, -3, and IL-1h levels are reduced. Bold italic text indicates positive regulation by the PPAR, all other text indicates a negative regulation.

Fig. not shown. Mechanisms of the anti-inflammatory effects of PPARg. PPARg ligands can inhibit the activities of NF-nB, AP-1, STAT-1, N-FAT, Erg-1, Jun, and GATA-3 within cells. In sites of local inflammation, tissue and endothelial cell activity is inhibited, and expression of adhesion molecules (ICAM-1), proinflammatory cytokines (IL-8, -12, and TNFα), chemokines (MCP-1, MCP-3, IP-10, Mig, and I-TAC), vasoactive mediators (inducible nitric oxide synthase and endothelin-1; iNOS and ET-1), and proteases (MMP-9) are decreased. The inflammatory responses in leukocytes are also diminished. Monocyte/ macrophage activity is decreased, T- and B-lymphocyte proliferation and differentiation are inhibited, and T-lymphocyte and eosinophil chemotaxis reduced. Platelet activity is inhibited and dendritic cell production of IL-12, and expression of CCL3, CCL5, and CD80 is reduced, so pro-inflammatory TH1 lymphocytes maturation is inhibited. Bold italic text indicates positive regulation by the PPAR, all other text indicates a negative regulation.

The PPARs are one of the most intensely studied members of the nuclear receptor gene family, and since their initial discovery just over decade ago, the PPARs have attracted an increasing amount of experimental and clinical research by investigators from different scientific areas. PPARs through their central roles in regulating energy homeostasis regulate physiological function in many cell types, tissues, and organ systems. Many disease states from carcinogenesis to inflammation have been linked to abnormalities in the function of PPAR-regulated transcription factors. PPARs are expressed or regulate pathophysiology of diverse human disorders including atherosclerosis, inflammation, obesity, diabetes, and the immune response. PPARs have beneficial effects in many inflammatory conditions, where they regulate cytokine production, adhesion molecule expression, fibrinolysis cell proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation. Further studies and development of novel PPAR ligands and their selective modulators may lead to novel therapeutic agents in the many conditions associated with inflammatory processes.

 

Regulators of endothelial and epithelial barrier integrity and function in acute lung injury

Rudolf Lucas, Alexander D. Verin, Stephen M. Black, John D. Catravas
Biochemical Pharmacology 77 (2009) 1763–1772
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.bcp.2009.01.014

Pulmonary permeability edema is a major complication of acute lung injury (ALI), severe pneumonia and ARDS. This pathology can be accompanied by

(1) a reduction of alveolar liquid clearance capacity, caused by an inhibition of the expression of crucial sodium transporters, such as the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) and the Na+-K+-ATPase,
(2) an epithelial and endothelial hyperpermeability and
(3) a disruption of the epithelial and endothelial barriers, caused by increased apoptosis or necrosis.

Since, apart from ventilation strategies, no standard treatment exists for permeability edema, the following chapters will review a selection of novel approaches aiming to improve these parameters in the capillary endothelium and the alveolar epithelium.

Apoptosis is an essential physiological process for the selective elimination of cells. However, the dysregulation of apoptotic pathways is thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis of ALI. Both delayed neutrophil apoptosis and enhanced endothelial/epithelial cell apoptosis have been identified in ALI/ARDS. In the case of neutrophils, which contribute significantly to ALI/ ARDS, studies in both animals and ARDS patients suggest that apoptosis is inhibited during the early stages (<2 h) of inflammation.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are ligand-activated transcription factors belonging to the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily, that includes receptors for steroid hormones, thyroid hormones, retinoic acid, and fat-soluble vitamins. Since their discovery in 1990, increasing data has been published on the role of PPARs in diverse processes, including lipid and glucose metabolism, diabetes and obesity, atherosclerosis, cellular proliferation and differentiation, neurological diseases, inflammation and immunity. PPARs have both gene-dependent and gene-independent effects. Gene-dependent functions involve the formation of heterodimers with the retinoid X-receptor. Activation by PPAR ligands results in the binding of the heterodimer to peroxisome proliferator response elements, located in the promoter regions of PPAR-regulated genes. Gene independent effects involve the direct binding of PPARs to transcription factors, such as NF-kB, which then alters their binding to DNA promoter elements. PPARs can also bind and sequester various cofactors for transcription factors, and thus further alter gene expression. Importantly, the precise effects of PPARs vary greatly between cell types. To date, three subtypes of PPAR have been identified: α, β, and ϒ. There is increasing data suggesting that PPAR signaling may play an important role in the pathobiology of systemic vascular disease. However, there is less data implicating PPAR signaling in diseases of the lung.

A role for PPARs in the control of inflammation was first evidenced for PPARα, where mice deficient in PPARα exhibited an increased duration of ear-swelling in response to the proinflammatory mediator, LTB4. More recently, a number of studies in mice and in humans have shown that PPAR agonists exhibit anti-inflammatory effects under a wide range of conditions. There are two main mechanisms by which PPARs exert their anti-inflammatory effect. The first involves complex formation, and the inhibition of transcription factors that positively regulate the transcription of pro-inflammatory genes. These include nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB), signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs), nuclear factor of activated T cells (NF-AT), CAAT/enhancer binding protein (C/EBP) and activator protein 1 (AP-1). These transcription factors are the main mediators of the major proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and adhesion molecules involved in inflammation. The second PPAR-mediated anti-inflammatory pathway is mediated by the sequestration of rate limiting, but essential, co-activators or co-repressors.

Recent studies have shown that PPAR signaling can attenuate the airway inflammation induced by LPS in the mouse. It was shown that mice treated with the PPARα agonist, fenofibrate, had decreases in both inflammatory cell infiltration and inflammatory mediators. Conversely, PPARα -/- mice have been shown to have a greater number of neutrophils and macrophages, and increased levels of inflammatory mediators in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids (BALF). Other PPAR agonists, such as rosiglitazone or SB 21994 have also been shown to reduce LPS-mediated ALI in the mouse lung. PPARϒ signaling has also been shown to be protective in regulating pulmonary inflammation associated with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-induced lung injury, with the PPARϒ ligand pioglitazone decreasing neutrophil infiltration. Collectively, these data suggest that therapeutic agents that activate either or both PPARα and PPARϒ could be beneficial for the treatment of ALI.

Permeability edema is characterized by a reduced alveolar liquid clearance capacity, combined with an endothelial hyperpermeability. Various signaling pathways, such as those involving reactive oxygen species (ROS), Rho GTPases and tyrosine phosphorylation of junctional proteins, converge to regulate junctional permeability, either by affecting the stability of junctional proteins or by modulating their interactions. The regulation of junctional permeability is mainly mediated by dynamic interactions between the proteins of the adherens junctions and the actin cytoskeleton. Actin-mediated endothelial cell contraction is the result of myosin light chain (MLC) phosphorylation by MLC kinase (MLCK) in a Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent manner. RhoA additionally potentiates MLC phosphorylation, by inhibiting MLC phosphatase activity through its downstream effector Rho kinase (ROCK). As such, actin/myosin-driven contraction will generate a contractile force that pulls VE-cadherin inward. This contraction will force VE-cadherin to dissociate from its adjacent partner, as such producing interendothelial gaps.

Vascular endothelial cells can be regulated by nucleotides released from platelets. During vascular injury, broken cells are also the source of the extracellular nucleotides. Furthermore, endothelium may provide a local source of ATP within vascular beds. Primary cultures of human endothelial cells derived from multiple blood vessels release ATP constitutively and exclusively across the apical membrane under basal conditions. Hypotonic challenge or the calcium agonists (ionomycin and thapsigargin) stimulate ATP release in a reversible and regulated manner. Enhanced release of pharmacologically relevant amounts of ATP was observed in endothelial cells under such stimuli as shear stress, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and ATP itself. Pearson and Gordon demonstrated that incubation of aortic endothelial and smooth muscle cells with thrombin resulted in the specific release of ATP, which was converted to ADP by vascular hydrolases. Yang et al. showed that endothelial cells isolated from guinea pig heart release nucleotides in response to bradykinin, acetylcholine, serotonin and ADP. Nucleotide action is mediated by cell surface purinoreceptors. Once released from endothelial cells, ATP may act in the blood vessel lumen at P2 receptors on nearby endothelium downstream from the site of release. ATP is also degraded rapidly and its metabolites have also been recognized as signaling molecules, which can initiate additional receptor-mediated functions. These include ADP and the final hydrolysis product adenosine.

Signal transduction pathways implicated in ATP-mediated endothelial barrier enhancement

Signal transduction pathways implicated in ATP-mediated endothelial barrier enhancement

Signal transduction pathways implicated in ATP-mediated endothelial barrier enhancement

During the course of ALI, the alveolar space, as well as the interstitium, are sites of intense inflammation, leading to the local production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1β, TGF-β and TNF. The latter pleiotropic cytokine is a 51 kDa homotrimeric protein, binding to two types of receptors, i.e. TNF-R1 and TNF-R2 and which is mainly produced by activated macrophages and T cells. Soluble TNF, as well as the soluble TNF receptors 1 and 2, are generated upon cleavage of membrane TNF or of the membrane associated receptors, respectively, by the enzyme TNF-α convertase (TACE). TNF-R1, but not TNF-R2, contains a death domain, which signals apoptosis upon the formation of the Death Inducing Signaling Complex (DISC). In spite of its lack of a death domain, TNF-R2 can nevertheless be implicated in apoptosis induction, since its activation causes degradation of TNF Receptor Associated Factor 2 (TRAF2), an inhibitor of the TNF-R1-induced DISC formation. Moreover, apoptosis induction of lung microvascular endothelial cells by TNF was shown to require activation of both TNF receptors. TNF-R2 was also shown to be important for ICAM-1 upregulation in endothelial cells in vitro and in vivo, an activity important in the sequestration of leukocytes in the microvessels. Moreover, lung microvascular endothelial cells isolated from ARDS patients express significantly higher levels of TNF-R2 and of ICAM-1 than cells isolated from patients who had undergone a lobectomy for lung carcinoma, used as controls. These findings therefore suggest that ICAM-1 and TNF-R2 may have a particular involvement in the pathogenesis of acute lung injury.

Dichotomous activity of TNF in alveolar liquid clearance and barrier protection

Dichotomous activity of TNF in alveolar liquid clearance and barrier protection

Dichotomous activity of TNF in alveolar liquid clearance and barrier protection during ALI. TNF, which is induced during ALI, causes a downregulation of ENaC expression in type II alveolar epithelial cells, upon activating TNF-R1. Moreover, TNF increases permeability, by means of interfering with tight junctions (TJ) in both alveolar epithelial (AEC) and capillary endothelial cells (MVEC). ROS, the generation of which is frequently increased during ALI, were also shown to downregulate ENaC and Na+-K+-ATPase expression and moreover also lead to decreased endothelial barrier integrity. The TIP peptide, mimicking the lectin-like domain of TNF, is able to increase sodium uptake in alveolar epithelial cells and to restore endothelial barrier integrity, as such providing a significant protection against the development of permeability edema (red lines: inhibition, green arrows: activation).

Proposed mechanism of action for the anti-inflammatory and barrier-protective actions of hsp90 inhibitors.

Proposed mechanism of action for the anti-inflammatory and barrier-protective actions of hsp90 inhibitors.

Proposed mechanism of action for the anti-inflammatory and barrier-protective actions of hsp90 inhibitors.

Permeability edema represents a life-threatening complication of acute lung injury, severe pneumonia and ARDS, characterized by a combined dysregulation of pulmonary epithelial and endothelial apoptosis, endothelial barrier integrity and alveolar liquid clearance capacity. As such, it is likely that several of these parameters have to be targeted in order to obtain a successful therapy. This review focuses on a selection of recently discovered substances and mechanisms that might improve ALI therapy. As such, we have discussed the inhibition of apoptosis and necrosis occurring during ALI, by means of the restoration of Zn2+ homeostasis. PPARα and ϒ agonists can represent therapeutically  promising molecules, since they inhibit transcription factors as well as essential co-activators involved in the activation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and adhesion molecules, all of which are implicated in ALI. Apart from inducing a potent inhibition of inflammation upon interfering with NF-kB activation, hsp90 inhibitors were shown to prevent and restore endothelial barrier integrity. These agents are able to significantly improve survival and lung function during LPS-induced ALI. A restoration of endothelial barrier integrity during ALI can also be obtained upon increasing extracellular levels of ATP or adenosine, which activate the purinoreceptors P2Y and P1A2, respectively, leading to a decrease in myosin light chain phosphorylation and an increase in MLC phosphatase 1 activity. The pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF is involved in endothelial apoptosis and hyperpermeability, as well as in the reduction of alveolar liquid clearance, upon activating its receptors. However, apart from its receptor binding sites, TNF harbors a lectin-like domain, which can be mimicked by the TIP peptide. This peptide has been shown to increase alveolar liquid clearance and moreover induces endothelial barrier protection. As such, TNF can be considered as a moonlighting cytokine, combining both positive and negative activities for permeability edema generation within one molecule.

 

The protective effect of CDDO-Me on lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury in mice

Tong Chen, Yi Moua, Jiani Tan, LinlinWei, Yixue Qiao, Tingting Wei, et al.
International Immunopharmacology 25 (2015) 55–64
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intimp.2015.01.011

ALI is a clinical syndrome characterized by a disruption of epithelial integrity, neutrophil accumulation, noncardiogenic pulmonary edema, severe hypoxemia and an intense pulmonary inflammatory response with a wide array of increasing severity of lung parenchymal injury. Previous studies have shown that lots of pathogenesis contribute to ALI, such as oxidant/antioxidant dysfunction, dysregulation of inflammatory/anti-inflammatory pathway, upregulation of chemokine production and adhesion molecules. However, to date there is no effective medicine to control ALI. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a main component of the outer membrane of Gram negative bacteria. It has been reported to activate toll like receptors 4 (TLR4) and to stimulate the release of inflammatory mediators inducing ALI-like symptoms. Intratracheal administration of LPS has been used to construct animal models of ALI.

The biological importance of naturally occurring triterpenoids has long been recognized. Oleanolic acid, exhibiting modest biological activities, has been marketed in China as an oral drug for the treatment of liver disorders in humans. Among its derivatives, bardoxolonemethyl (2-cyano-3,12-dioxooleana-1,9(11)-dien-28-oic acid methylester) CDDO-Me, had completed a successful phase I clinical trial for the treatment of cancer and started a phase II trial for the treatment of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. For its broad spectrum antiproliferative and anti-tumorigenic activities, CDDO-Me has also been reported to possess a number of pharmacological activities such as antioxidant, anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory effects. However, the mechanisms by which CDDO-Me exerted its anti-inflammatory effects on macrophage were insufficiently elucidated. More importantly, there is no available report to evaluate its therapeutic effect on acute lung injury.

CDDO-Me, initiated in a phase II clinical trial, is a potential useful therapeutic agent for cancer and inflammatory dysfunctions, whereas the therapeutic efficacy of CDDO-Me on LPS-induced acute lung injury (ALI) has not been reported as yet. The purpose of the present study was to explore the protective effect of CDDO-Me on LPS-induced ALI in mice and to investigate its possible mechanism. BalB/c mice received CDDO-Me (0.5 mg/kg, 2 mg/kg) or dexamethasone (5 mg/kg) intraperitoneally 1 h before LPS stimulation and were sacrificed 6 h later. W/D ratio, lung MPO activity, number of total cells and neutrophils, pulmonary histopathology, IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α in the BALF were assessed. Furthermore, we estimated iNOS, IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α mRNA expression and NO production as well as the activation of the three main MAPKs, AkT, IκB-α and p65. Pretreatment with CDDO-Me significantly ameliorated W/D ratio, lung MPO activity, inflammatory cell infiltration, and inflammatory cytokine production in BALF from the in vivo study. Additionally, CDDO-Me had beneficial effects on the intervention for pathogenesis process at molecular, protein and transcriptional levels in vitro. These analytical results provided evidence that CDDO-Me could be a potential therapeutic candidate for treating LPS-induced ALI.

Effects of CDDO-Me on LPS-mediated lung changes

Effects of CDDO-Me on LPS-mediated lung histopathologic changes in lung tissues. (A) The lung section from the control mice; (B) the lung section from the mice administered with LPS (8 mg/kg); (C) the lung section from the mice administered with dexamethasone (5 mg/kg) and LPS (8 mg/kg); (D) the lung section from the mice administered with CDDO-Me (0.5mg/kg) and LPS (8mg/kg); (E) the lung section from the mice administered with CDDO-Me (2mg/kg) and LPS (8mg/kg); (hematoxylin and eosin staining, magnification 200×). Control group: the green arrow indicated alveolar wall, no hyperemia. All the other groups: The black arrow indicated the inflammatory cell infiltration; the green arrow indicated alveolar wall hyperemia.

 

The impact of cardiac dysfunction on acute respiratory distress syndrome and mortality in mechanically ventilated patients with severe sepsis and septic shock: An observational study

Brian M. Fuller, Nicholas M. Mohr, Thomas J. Graetz, et al.
Journal of Critical Care 30 (2015) 65–70
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrc.2014.07.027

Purpose: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is associated with significant mortality and morbidity in survivors. Treatment is only supportive, therefore elucidating modifiable factors that could prevent ARDS could have a profound impact on outcome. The impact that sepsis-associated cardiac dysfunction has on ARDS is not known. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective observational cohort study of mechanically ventilated patients with severe sepsis and septic shock, 122 patients were assessed for the impact of sepsis-associated cardiac dysfunction on incidence of ARDS (primary outcome) and mortality. Results: Sepsis-associated cardiac dysfunction occurred in 44 patients (36.1%). There was no association of sepsis-associated cardiac dysfunction with ARDS incidence (p= 0.59) or mortality, and no association with outcomes in patients that did progress to ARDS after admission. Multivariable logistic regression demonstrated that higher BMI was associated with progression to ARDS (adjusted OR 11.84, 95% CI 1.24 to 113.0, p= 0.02). Conclusions: Cardiac dysfunction in mechanically ventilated patients with sepsis did not impact ARDS incidence, clinical outcome in ARDS patients, or mortality. This contrasts against previous investigations demonstrating an influence of nonpulmonary organ dysfunction on outcome in ARDS. Given the frequency of ARDS as a sequela of sepsis, the impact of cardiac dysfunction on outcome should be further studied.

 

Suppression of NF-κβ pathway by crocetin contributes to attenuation of lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury in mice

Ruhui Yang, Lina Yang, Xiangchun Shen, Wenyuan Cheng, et al.
European Journal of Pharmacology 674 (2012) 391–396
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.ejphar.2011.08.029

Crocetin, a carotenoid compound, has been shown to reduce expression of inflammation and inhibit the production of reactive oxygen species. In the present study, the effect of crocetin on acute lung injury induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was investigated in vivo. In the mouse model, pretreatment with crocetin at dosages of 50 and 100 mg/kg reduced the LPS-induced lung edema and histological changes, increased LPS-impaired superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and decreased lung myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity. Furthermore, treatment with crocetin significantly attenuated LPS-induced mRNA and the protein expressions of interleukin-6 (IL-6), macrophage chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in lung tissue. In addition, crocetin at different dosages reduced phospho-IκB expression and NF-κB activity in LPS-induced lung tissue alteration. These results indicate that crocetin can provide protection against LPS-induced acute lung injury in mice.

 

Sauchinone, a lignan from Saururus chinensis, attenuates neutrophil pro-inflammatory activity and acute lung injury

Hui-Jing Han, Mei Li, Jong-Keun Son, Chang-Seob Seo, et al.
International Immunopharmacology 17 (2013) 471–477
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intimp.2013.07.011

Previous studies have shown that sauchinone modulates the expression of inflammatory mediators through mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways in various cell types. However, little information exists about the effect of sauchinone on neutrophils, which play a crucial role in inflammatory process such as acute lung injury (ALI). We found that sauchinone decreased the phosphorylation of p38 MAPK in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated murine bone marrow neutrophils, but not ERK1/2 and JNK. Exposure of LPS-stimulated neutrophils to sauchinone or SB203580, a p38 inhibitor, diminished production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-2 compared to neutrophils cultured with LPS. Treatment with sauchinone decreased the level of phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6 (rpS6) in LPS-stimulated neutrophils. Systemic administration of sauchinone to mice led to reduced levels of phosphorylation of p38 and rpS6 in mice lungs given LPS, decreased TNF-α and MIP-2 production in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and also diminished the severity of LPS-induced lung injury, as determined by reduced neutrophil accumulation in the lungs, wet/dry weight ratio, and histological analysis. These results suggest that sauchinone diminishes LPS-induced neutrophil activation and ALI.

In the present study, the systemic administration of sauchinone decreased the phosphorylation of p38 MAPK and rpS6 in mice lungs subjected to LPS and diminished the severity of LPS-induced ALI. Neutrophils play an important role in acute inflammatory processes, such as ALI, which was demonstrated by various experimental models. Previous reports suggested that p38 MAPK inhibition of murine neutrophils could lead to the loss of chemotaxis toward MIP-2, as well as the loss of TNF-αandMIP-2 production in response to LPS, and also attenuated neutrophil accumulation in LPS-induced ALI models. Therefore, the beneficial effects of sauchinone on LPS-induced ALI are likely associated with decreases in the production of pro-inflammatory mediators by neutrophils, consistent with our in vitro experiments. However, we cannot exclude that the effects of sauchinone on reducing the release of TNF-α and MIP-2 in mice lungs subjected to LPS, with the resultant prevention of ALI, could be affected by various pulmonary cell populations, such as alveolar macrophages. Also, the inhibitory effects of sauchinone on NF-κB activation through various pulmonary cell populations (Supplemental Fig. S2), in addition to p38MAPK activity in mouse lungs given LPS, might enhance the anti-inflammatory action of sauchinone in mouse lungs subjected to LPS. In conclusion, we found that sauchinone significantly diminished the release of inflammatory mediators in isolated neutrophils and lungs subjected to LPS. The anti-inflammatory action of sauchinone was associated with the prevention of p38 MAPK and rpS6 activation. These findings suggest that sauchinone may be an appropriate pharmacological candidate for the treatment of ALI as well as other neutrophil driven acute inflammatory diseases.
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intimp.2013.07.011

 

Protective effect of dexmedetomidine in a rat model of α-naphthylthiourea- induced acute lung injury

Volkan Hancı, Gamze Yurdakan, Serhan Yurtlu, et al.
J Surg Res 178 (2012):424-430
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.jss.2012.02.027

Background: We assessed the effects of dexmedetomidine in a rat model of a-naphthylthiourea (ANTU)einduced acute lung injury.  Methods: Forty Wistar Albino male rats weighing 200e240 g were divided into 5 groups (n = 8 each), including a control group. Thus, there were one ANTU group and three dexmedetomidine groups (10-, 50-, and 100-mg/kg treatment groups), plus a control group. The control group provided the normal base values. The rats in the ANTU group were given 10 mg/kg of ANTU intraperitoneally and the three treatment groups received 10, 50, or 100 mg/kg of dexmedetomidine intraperitoneally 30 min before ANTU application. The rat body weight (BW), pleural effusion (PE), and lung weight (LW) of each group were measured 4 h after ANTU administration. The histopathologic changes were evaluated using hematoxylin-eosin staining. Results: The mean PE, LW, LW/BW, and PE/BW measurements in the ANTU group were significantly greater than in the control groups and all dexmedeto-midine treatment groups (P < 0.05). There were also significant decreases in the mean PE, LW, LW/BW and PE/BW values in the dexmedetomidine 50-mg/kg group compared with those in the ANTU group (P < 0.01). The inflammation, hemorrhage, and edema scores in the ANTU group were significantly greater than those in the control or dexmedetomidine 50-mg/kg group (P < 0.01). Conclusion: Dexmedetomidine treatment has demonstrated  a potential benefit by preventing ANTU-induced acute lung injury in an experimental rat model. Dexmedetomidine could have a potential protective effect on acute lung injury in intensive care patients.

 

Protective effects of Isofraxidin against lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury in mice

Xiaofeng Niu, YuWang, Weifeng Li, Qingli Mu, et al.
International Immunopharmacology 24 (2015) 432–439
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intimp.2014.12.041

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a life-threatening disease characterized by serious lung inflammation and increased capillary permeability, which presents a high mortality worldwide. Isofraxidin (IF), a Coumarin compound isolated from the natural medicinal plants such as Sarcandra glabra and Acanthopanax senticosus, has been reported to have definite anti-bacterial, anti-oxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities. However, the effects of IF against lipopoly-saccharide-induced ALI have not been clarified. The aim of the present study is to explore the protective effects and potential mechanism of IF against LPS-induced ALI in mice. In this study, We found that pretreatment with IF significantly lowered LPS-induced mortality and lung wet-to-dry weight (W/D) ratio and reduced the levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). We also found that total cells, neutrophils and macrophages in BALF,MPO activity in lung tissues were markedly decreased. Besides, IF obviously inhibited lung histopathological changes and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) protein expression. These results suggest that IF has a protective effect against LPS induced ALI, and the protective effect of IF seems to result from the inhibition of COX-2 protein expression in the lung, which regulates the production of PGE2.

Ingestion of LPS stimulates vascular permeability, promotes inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) from blood into lung tissues and activates numerous inflammatory cells such as neutrophils and macrophages. In macrophages, LPS challenge induces the transcription of gene encoding pro-inflammatory protein, which leads to cytokine release and synthesis of enzymes, such as cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2). COX-2 usually can’t be found in normal tissues, but widely induced by pro-inflammatory stimuli, such as cytokines, endotoxins, and growth factors. COX-2 plays a vital role in the regulation of inflammatory process by modulating the production of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). PGE2, induced by cytokines and other initiator, is an inflammatory mediator which is produced in the regulation of COX-2. Previous researches demonstrated that inhibition of COX-2 produced a dramatically anti-inflammatory effect with little gastrointestinal toxicity. Therefore, inhibition of COX-2 protein expression has far-reaching significance in the treatment of ALI.

effects of IF on LPS-induced mortality in ALI mice

effects of IF on LPS-induced mortality in ALI mice

The effects of IF on LPS-induced mortality in ALI mice (n = 12/group). IF (5, 10, 15 mg/kg, i.p.) or DEX (5 mg/kg, i.p.) were given to mice 1 h prior to LPS challenge. The mortalities were observed at 0, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, and 72 h. ###P = 0.001 when compared with the control group; *P = 0.05, **P = 0.01, and ***P = 0.001 when compared with the LPS group.

 

Protective effects of intranasal curcumin on paraquot induced acute lung injury (ALI) in mice

Namitosh Tyagi, Asha Kumaria, D. Dash, Rashmi Singh
Environment  Toxicol  & Pharmacol  38 (2014) 913–921
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.etap.2014.10.003

Paraquot (PQ) is widely and commonly used as herbicide and has been reported to be hazardous as it causes lung injury. However, molecular mechanism underlying lung toxicity caused by PQ has not been elucidated. Curcumin, a known anti-inflammatory molecule derived from rhizomes of Curcuma longa has variety of pharmacological activities including free-radical scavenging properties but the protective effects of curcumin on PQ-induced acute lung injury (ALI) have not been studied. In this study, we aimed to study the effects of curcumin on ALI caused by PQ in male parke’s strain mice which were challenged acutely byPQ (50 mg/kg, i.p.) with or without curcumin an hour before (5 mg/kg, i.n.) PQ intoxication. Lung specimens and the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were isolated for pathological and biochemical analysis after 48 h of PQ exposure. Curcumin administration has significantly enhanced superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase activities. Lung wet/dry weight ratio, malondialdehyde (MDA) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) content, total cell number and myeloperoxidase (MPO) levels in BALF as well as neutrophil infiltration were attenuated by curcumin. Pathological studies also revealed that intranasal curcumin alleviate PQ-induced pulmonary damage and pro-inflammatory cytokine levels like tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and nitric oxide (NO). These results suggest that intranasal curcumin may directly target lungs and curcumin inhalers may prove to be effective in PQ-induced ALI treatment in near future.

 

Phillyrin attenuates LPS-induced pulmonary inflammation via suppression of MAPK and NF-κB activation in acute lung injury mice

Wei-ting Zhong, Yi-chun Wu, Xian-xing Xie, Xuan Zhou, et al.
Fitoterapia 90 (2013) 132–139
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fitote.2013.06.003

Phillyrin (Phil) is one of the main chemical constituents of Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.), which has shown to be an important traditional Chinese medicine. We tested the hypothesis that Phil modulates pulmonary inflammation in an ALI model induced by LPS. Male BALB/c mice were pretreated with or without Phil before respiratory administration with LPS, and pretreated with dexamethasone as a control. Cytokine release (TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6) and amounts of inflammatory cell in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were detected by ELISA and cell counting separately. Pathologic changes, including neutrophil infiltration, interstitial edema, hemorrhage, hyaline membrane formation, necrosis, and congestion during acute lung injury in mice were evaluated via pathological section with HE staining. To further investigate the mechanism of Phil anti-inflammatory effects, activation of MAPK and NF-κB pathways was tested by western blot assay. Phil pretreatment significantly attenuated LPS-induced pulmonary histopathologic changes, alveolar hemorrhage, and neutrophil infiltration. The lung wet-to-dry weight ratios, as the index of pulmonary edema, were markedly decreased by Phil retreatment. In addition, Phil decreased the production of the proinflammatory cytokines including (TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6) and the concentration of myeloperoxidase (MPO) in lung tissues. Phil pretreatment also significantly suppressed LPS-induced activation of MAPK and NF-κB pathways in lung tissues. Taken together, the results suggest that Phil may have a protective effect on LPS-induced ALI, and it potentially contributes to the suppression of the activation of MAPK and NF-κB pathways. Phil may be a new preventive agent of ALI in the clinical setting.

A mass of studies have been reported basically on alleviating LPS-induced acute lung injury in models. Phillyrin (Fig. 1), a lignin, is one of the main chemical constituents of Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.), which is an important traditional Chinese medicine (“Lianqiao” in Chinese), and has long been used for gonorrhea, erysipelas, inflammation, pyrexia and ulcer. Previous studies indicated that Phil significantly inhibited NO production in LPS-activated macrophage cells. But there is not much evidence showing the anti-inflammatory properties of phillyrin. In the present study, we sought to investigate the effects of phillyrin on LPS-induced pulmonary inflammation in mice.

Fig. not shown. A: Effects of Phil on histopathological changes in lung tissues in LPS-induced ALI mice. Mice were given an intragastric administration of Phil (10 and 20 mg/kg) or Dex (5 mg/kg) 1 h prior to an intranasal administration of LPS. Then mice were anesthetized and lung tissue samples were collected at 6 h after LPS challenge for histological evaluation. These representative histological changes of the lung were obtained from mice of different groups (hematoxylin and eosin staining, original magnification 200×, Scale bar: 50 μm). B: Effects of Phil on LPS-induced lung morphology. The slides were histopathologically evaluated using a semi-quantitative scoring method. Lung injury was graded from 0 (normal) to 4 (severe) in four categories: congestion, edema, interstitial inflammation and inflammatory cell infiltration. The total lung injury score was calculated by adding up the individual scores of each category. The values presented are the means ± S.E.M. (n = 4–6 in each group). ##P b 0.01 vs. the control group, **P b 0.01 vs. the LPS group. Cont: control group; LPS: LPS group; Phil + LPS: Phil + LPS group; Dex + LPS: Dex + LPS group.

In summary, the present study indicated that Phil has a protective effect on LPS-induced acute lung injury. Phil significantly attenuated histopathological changes initiated by LPS via reducing over inflammatory responses. We also demonstrated that MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways are the important targets of Phil to perform its actions. Phil acts by preventing NF-κB translocation to the nucleus or inhibiting the activation of MAPKs directly or indirectly, which is to be investigated in further studies. All these results suggest that Phil may be a new therapeutic agent for the prevention of inflammation during acute lung injury.

 

 

 

 

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The Reconstruction of Life Processes requires both Genomics and Metabolomics to explain Phenotypes and Phylogenetics

Posted in Amino acids, Ca2+ triggered activation, Cell Biology, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Chemical Biology and its relations to Metabolic Disease, Curation, Cytoskeleton, De novo synthesis, Developmental biology, Dialectic, Discovery process, Disease Biology, Embryology, Epigenetics and Cardiovascular Risks, Evolutionary cognition, Explanatory, Gene Regulation and Evolution, Genome Biology, Historical relevance, Innovations in Neurophysiology & Neuropsychology, Metabolism, Metabolomics, Mutant Gene Expression, Na-K-ATPase, Nitric Oxide in Health and Disease, Nutrition, Pentose monophosphate shunt, Proteins, Proteomics, RNA Biology, Signaling, Signaling & Cell Circuits, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

The Reconstruction of Life Processes requires both Genomics and Metabolomics to explain Phenotypes and Phylogenetics

Writer and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP 

 

phylogenetics

phylogenetics

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/CollapsedtreeLabels-simplified.svg/200px-CollapsedtreeLabels-simplified.svg.png

 

This discussion that completes and is an epicrisis (summary and critical evaluation) of the series of discussions that preceded it.

  1. Innervation of Heart and Heart Rate
  2. Action of hormones on the circulation
  3. Allogeneic Transfusion Reactions
  4. Graft-versus Host reaction
  5. Unique problems of perinatal period
  6. High altitude sickness
  7. Deep water adaptation
  8. Heart-Lung-and Kidney
  9. Acute Lung Injury

The concept inherent in this series is that the genetic code is an imprint that is translated into a message.  It is much the same as a blueprint, or a darkroom photographic image that has to be converted to a print. It is biologically an innovation of evolutionary nature because it establishes a simple and reproducible standard for the transcription of the message through the transcription of the message using strings of nucleotides (oligonucleotides) that systematically transfer the message through ribonucleotides that communicate in the cytoplasm with the cytoskeleton based endoplasmic reticulum (ER), composing a primary amino acid sequence.  This process is a quite simple and convenient method of biological activity.  However, the simplicity ends at this step.  The metabolic components of the cell are organelles consisting of lipoprotein membranes and a cytosol which have particularly aligned active proteins, as in the inner membrane of the mitochondrion, or as in the liposome or phagosome, or the structure of the  ER, each of which is critical for energy transduction and respiration, in particular, for the mitochondria, cellular remodeling or cell death, with respect to the phagosome, and construction of proteins with respect to the ER, and anaerobic glycolysis and the hexose monophosphate shunt in the cytoplasmic domain.  All of this refers to structure and function, not to leave out the membrane assigned transport of inorganic, and organic ions (electrolytes and metabolites).

I have identified a specific role of the ER, the organelles, and cellular transactions within and between cells that is orchestrated.  But what I have outlined is a somewhat limited and rigid model that does not reach into the dynamics of cellular transactions.  The DNA has expression that may be old, no longer used messages, and this is perhaps only part of a significant portion of “dark matter”.  There is also nuclear DNA that is enmeshed with protein, mRNA that is a copy of DNA, and mDNA  is copied to ribosomal RNA (rRNA).  There is also rDNA. The classic model is DNA to RNA to protein.  However, there is also noncoding RNA, which plays an important role in regulation of transcription.

This has been discussed in other articles.  But the important point is that proteins have secondary structure through disulfide bonds, which is determined by position of sulfur amino acids, and by van der Waal forces, attraction and repulsion. They have tertiary structure, which is critical for 3-D structure.  When like subunits associate, or dissimilar oligomers, then you have heterodimers and oligomers.  These constructs that have emerged over time interact with metabolites within the cell, and also have an important interaction with the extracellular environment.

When you take this into consideration then a more complete picture emerges. The primitive cell or the multicellular organism lives in an environment that has the following characteristics – air composition, water and salinity, natural habitat, temperature, exposure to radiation, availability of nutrients, and exposure to chemical toxins or to predators.  In addition, there is a time dimension that proceeds from embryonic stage to birth in mammals, a rapid growth phase, a tapering, and a decline.  The time span is determined by body size, fluidity of adaptation, and environmental factors.  This is covered in great detail in this work.  The last two pieces are in the writing stage that completes the series. Much content has already be presented in previous articles.

The function of the heart, kidneys and metabolism of stressful conditions have already been extensively covered in http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com  in the following and more:

The Amazing Structure and Adaptive Functioning of the Kidneys: Nitric Oxide – Part I

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/11/26/the-amazing-structure-and-adaptive-functioning-of-the-kidneys/

Nitric Oxide and iNOS have Key Roles in Kidney Diseases – Part II

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/11/26/nitric-oxide-and-inos-have-key-roles-in-kidney-diseases/

The pathological role of IL-18Rα in renal ischemia/reperfusion injury – Nature.com

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/10/24/the-pathological-role-of-il-18r%CE%B1-in-renal-ischemiareperfusion-injury-nature-com/

Summary, Metabolic Pathways

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/10/23/summary-metabolic-pathways/

 

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Depth Underwater and Underground

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Depth Underwater and Underground

Writer and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP 

 

Introduction

Deep diving for mammals is dangerous for humans and land based animals for too long, and it has dangerous consequences, most notable in nitrogen emboli  with very deep underwater diving. Other mammals live in water and have adapted to a water habitat.  This is another topic that needs further exploration.

Deep diving has different meanings depending on the context. Even in recreational diving the meaning may vary:

In recreational diving, a depth below about 30 metres (98 ft), where nitrogen narcosis becomes a significant hazard for most divers, may be considered a “deep dive”

In technical diving, a depth below about 60 metres (200 ft) where hypoxic breathing gas becomes necessary to avoid oxygen toxicity may be considered a “deep dive”.

Early experiments carried out by Comex S.A. (Compagnie maritime d’expertises) using hydrox and trimix attained far greater depths than any recreational technical diving. One example being the Comex Janus IV open-sea dive to 501 metres (1,644 ft) in 1977. The open-sea diving depth record was achieved in 1988 by a team of Comex divers who performed pipe line connection exercises at a depth of 534 metres (1,752 ft) in the Mediterranean Sea as part of the Hydra 8 program. These divers needed to breathe special gas mixtures because they were exposed to very high ambient pressure (more than 50 times atmospheric pressure).

Then there is the adaptation to the water habitat as a living environment. The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_diving

Marine ecosystems are part of the earth’s aquatic ecosystem. The habitats that make up this vast system range from the productive nearshore regions to the barren ocean floor. The marine waters may be fully saline, brackish or nearly fresh. The saline waters have a salinity of 35-50 ppt (= parts per thousand). The freshwater has a salinity of less than 0.5 ppt. The brackish water lies in between these 2. Marine habitats are situated from the coasts, over the continental shelf to the open ocean and deep sea. The ecosystems are sometimes linked with each other and are sometimes replacing each other in other geographical regions. The reason why habitats differ from another is because of the physical factors that influence the functioning and diversity of the habitats. These factors are temperature, salinity, tides, currents, wind, wave action, light and substrate.

Marine ecosystems are home to a host of different species ranging from planktonic organisms that form the base of the marine food web to large marine mammals. Many species rely on marine ecosystems for both food and shelter from predators. They are very important to the overall health of both marine and terrestrial environments. Coastal habitats are those above the spring high tide limit or above the mean water level in non-tidal waters.  They are close to the sea and include habitats such as coastal dunes and sandy shores, beaches , cliffs and supralittoral habitats. Coastal habitats alone account for approximately 30% of all marine biological productivity.

http://www.marbef.org/wiki/marine_habitats_and_ecosystems

All plant and animal life forms are included from the microscopic picoplankton all the way to the majestic blue whale, the largest creature in the sea—and for that matter in the world. It wasn’t until the writings of Aristotle from 384-322 BC that specific references to marine life were recorded. Aristotle identified a variety of species including crustaceans, echinoderms, mollusks, and fish.
Today’s classification system was developed by Carl Linnaeus external link as an important tool for use in the study of biology and for use in the protection of biodiversity. Without very specific classification information and a naming system to identify species’ relationships, scientists would be limited in attempts to accurately describe the relationships among species. Understanding these relationships helps predict how ecosystems can be altered by human or natural factors.

Preserving biodiversity is facilitated by taxonomy. Species data can be better analyzed to determine the number of different species in a community and to determine how they might be affected by environmental stresses. Family, or phylogenetic, trees for species help predict environmental impacts on individual species and their relatives.

http://marinebio.org/oceans/marine-taxonomy/

For generations, whales and other marine mammals have intrigued humans. 2,400 years ago, Aristotle, a Greek scientist and philosopher, recognized that whales are mammals, not fish, because they nurse their young and breathe air like other mammals. There are numerous myths and legends surrounding marine mammals. The Greeks believed that killing a dolphin was as bad as murdering a human. An Amazon legend said that river dolphins came to shore dressed as men to woo pretty girls during fiestas. During the Middle Ages, there were numerous legends surrounding the narwhals’ amazing tusk, which was thought to have come from the unicorn.

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Marine mammals evolved from their land dwelling ancestors over time by developing adaptations to life in the water. To aid swimming, the body has become streamlined and the number of body projections has been reduced. The ears have shrunk to small holes in size and shape. Mammary glands and sex organs are not part of the external physiology, and posterior (hind) limbs are no longer present.

Mechanisms to prevent heat loss have also been developed. The cylindrical body shape with small appendages reduces the surface area to volume ratio of the body, which reduces heat loss. Marine mammals also have a counter current heat exchange mechanism created by convergent evolution external link where the heat from the arteries is transferred to the veins as they pass each other before getting to extremities, thus reducing heat loss. Some marine mammals also have a thick layer of fur with a water repellent undercoat and/or a thick layer of blubber that can’t be compressed. The blubber provides insulation, a food reserve, and aids with buoyancy. These heat loss adaptations can also lead to overheating for animals that spend time out of the water. To prevent overheating, seals or sea lions will swim close to the surface with their front flippers waving in the air. They also flick sand onto themselves to keep the sun from directly hitting their skin. Blood vessels can also be expanded to act as a sort of radiator.

One of the major behavioral adaptations of marine mammals is their ability to swim and dive. Pinnipeds swim by paddling their flippers while sirenians and cetaceans move their tails or flukes up and down.

Some marine mammals can swim at relatively high speeds. Sea lions swim up to 35 kph and orcas can reach 50 kph. The fastest marine mammal, however, is the common dolphin, which reaches speeds up to 64 kph. While swimming, these animals take very quick breaths. For example, fin whales can empty and refill their huge lungs in less than 2 seconds. Marine mammals’ larynx and esophagus close automatically when they open their mouths to catch prey during dives. Oxygen is stored in hemoglobin in the blood and in myoglobin in the muscles. The lungs are also collapsible so that air is pushed into the windpipe preventing excess nitrogen from being absorbed into the tissues. Decreasing pressure can cause excess nitrogen to expand in the tissues as animals ascend to shallower depths, which can lead to decompression sickness,  aka “the bends.” Bradycardia, the reduction of heart rate by 10 to 20%, also takes place to aid with slowing respiration during dives and the blood flow to non-essential body parts. These adaptations allow sea otters to stay submerged for 4 to 5 minutes and dive to depths up to 55 m. Pinnipeds can often stay down for 30 minutes and reach average depths of 150-250 m. One marine mammal with exceptional diving skills is the Weddell seal, which can stay submerged for at least 73 minutes at a time at depths up to 600 m. The length and depth of whale dives depends on the species. Baleen whales feed on plankton near the surface of the water and have no need to dive deeply so they are rarely seen diving deeper than 100 m external link. Toothed whales seek larger prey at deeper depths and some can stay down for hours at depths of up to 2,250 m external link.

http://marinebio.org/oceans/marine-mammals/

Human Experience

Albert Behnke: Nitrogen Narcosis

Casey A. Grover and David H. Grover
The Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2014; 46(2):225–227
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jemermed.2013.08.080

As early as 1826, divers diving to great depths noted that descent often resulted in a phenomenon of intoxication and euphoria. In 1935, Albert Behnke discovered nitrogen as the cause of this clinical syndrome, a condition now known as nitrogen narcosis. Nitrogen narcosis consists of the development of euphoria, a false sense of security, and impaired judgment upon underwater descent using compressed air below 34 atmospheres (99 to 132 feet). At greater depths, symptoms can progress to loss of consciousness. The syndrome remains relatively unchanged in modern diving when compressed air is used. Behnke’s use of non-nitrogencontaining gas mixtures subsequent to his discovery during the 1939 rescue of the wrecked submarine USS Squalus pioneered the use of non-nitrogencontaining gas mixtures, which are used by modern divers when working at great depth to avoid the effects of nitrogen narcosis.

Behnke’s first duty station as a licensed physician was as assistant medical officer for Submarine Division 20 in San Diego, which was then commanded by one of the Navy’s rising stars, Captain Chester W. Nimitz of World War II fame.
In this setting, Dr. Behnke spent his free time constructively by learning to dive, using the traditional ‘‘hard-hat’’ gear aboard the USS Ortalon, a submarine rescue vessel to which he also rotated. Diving was not a notable specialty of the Navy at the time, and the service was slow in developing the infrastructure for it. Dr. Behnke devoted his efforts to research on the topic of diving medicine, as well as developing a more sound understanding of the biophysics of diving. In 1932, he wrote a letter to the Surgeon General describing some of his observations on arterial gas embolism, which earned him some accolades from the Navy and resulted in his transfer to Harvard’s School of Public Health as a graduate fellow. After 2 years at Harvard, the Navy assigned duty to Dr. Behnke at the Navy’s submarine escape training tower at Pearl Harbor. He worked extensively here on developing techniques for rescuing personnel from disabled submarines on the sea floor. In 1937, he was one of three Navy physicians assigned to the Navy’s Experimental Diving Unit. This team worked on improving the rescue system, plus updating the diving recompression tables originally developed by the British in 1908.

The intoxicating effects of diving were first described by a French physician named Colladon in 1826, who reported that descent in a diving bell resulted in his feeling a ‘‘state of excitement as though I had drunk some alcoholic liquor’’.
The etiology of this phenomenon remained largely unknown until the 1930s, when the British military researcher Damant again highlighted the issue, and reported very unpredictable behavior in his divers during descents as deep as 320 feet during the British Admiralty Deep Sea diving trials. Two initial theories arose as to the etiology for this effect, the first being from psychological causes by Hill and Phillip in 1932, and the second being from oxygen toxicity by Haldane in 1935.

Dr. Behnke and his colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health had another idea as to the etiology of this phenomenon. In 1935, based on observation of individuals in experiments with a pressure chamber, Dr. Behnke published an article in the American Journal of Physiology in which he posited that nitrogen was the etiology of the intoxicating effects of diving.

Nitrogen narcosis, described as ‘‘rapture of the deep’’ by Jacques Cousteau, still remains a relatively common occurrence in modern diving, despite major advances in diving technology since Behnke’s initial description of the pathophysiologic cause of the condition in 1935. The development of symptoms of this condition varies from diver to diver, but usually begins when a depth of 4 atmospheres (132 feet) is reached in divers using compressed air. More sensitive divers can develop symptoms at only 3 atmospheres (99 feet), and other divers may not be affected up to depths as high as 6 atmospheres (198 feet). Interestingly, tolerance to nitrogen narcosis can be developed by frequent diving and exposure to the effects of compressed air at depth.

  1. Acott C. A brief history of diving and decompression illness. SPUMS J 1999;29:98–109.
    2. Bornmann R. Dr. Behnke, founder of UHMS, dies. Pressure 1992; 21:14.
    3. Behnke AR, Thomson RM, Motley P. The psychologic effects from breathing air at 4 atmospheric pressures. Am J Physiol 1935; 112:554–8.
    4. Behnke AR, Johnson FS, Poppen JR, Motley P. The effect of oxygen on man at pressures from 1 to 4 atmospheres. AmJ Physiol 1934; 110:565–72.

Exhaled nitric oxide concentration and decompression-induced bubble formation: An index of decompression severity in humans?

J.-M. Pontier, Buzzacott, J. Nastorg, A.T. Dinh-Xuan, K. Lambrechts
Nitric Oxide 39 (2014) 29–34
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.niox.2014.04.005

Introduction: Previous studies have highlighted a decreased exhaled nitric oxide concentration (FE NO) in divers after hyperbaric exposure in a dry chamber or following a wet dive. The underlying mechanisms of this decrease remain however unknown. The aim of this study was to quantify the separate effects of submersion, hyperbaric hyperoxia exposure and decompression-induced bubble formation on FE NO after a wet dive.
Methods: Healthy experienced divers (n = 31) were assigned to either

  • a group making a scuba-air dive (Air dive),
  • a group with a shallow oxygen dive protocol (Oxygen dive) or

a group making a deep dive breathing a trimix gas mixture (deep-dive).
Bubble signals were graded with the KISS score. Before and after each dive FE NO values were measured using a hand-held electrochemical analyzer.
Results: There was no change in post-dive values of FE NO values (expressed in ppb = parts per billion) in the Air dive group (15.1 ± 3.6 ppb vs. 14.3 ± 4.7 ppb, n = 9, p = 0.32). There was a significant decrease in post-dive values of FE NO in the Oxygen dive group (15.6 ± 6 ppb vs. 11.7 ± 4.7 ppb, n = 9, p = 0.009). There was an even more pronounced decrease in the deep dive group (16.4 ± 6.6 ppb vs. 9.4 ± 3.5 ppb, n = 13, p < 0.001) and a significant correlation between KISS bubble score >0 (n = 13) and percentage decrease in post-dive FE NO values (r = -0.53, p = 0.03). Discussion: Submersion and hyperbaric hyperoxia exposure cannot account entirely for these results suggesting the possibility that, in combination, one effect magnifies the other. A main finding of the present study is a significant relationship between reduction in exhaled NO concentration and dive-induced bubble formation. We postulate that exhaled NO concentration could be a useful index of decompression severity in healthy human divers.

Brain Damage in Commercial Breath-Hold Divers

Kiyotaka Kohshi, H Tamaki, F Lemaıtre, T Okudera, T Ishitake, PJ Denoble
PLoS ONE 9(8): e105006 http://dx.doi.org:/10.1371/journal.pone.0105006

Background: Acute decompression illness (DCI) involving the brain (Cerebral DCI) is one of the most serious forms of diving related injuries which may leave residual brain damage. Cerebral DCI occurs in compressed air and in breath-hold divers, likewise. We conducted this study to investigate whether long-term breath-hold divers who may be exposed to repeated symptomatic and asymptomatic brain injuries, show brain damage on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Subjects and Methods: Our study subjects were 12 commercial breath-hold divers (Ama) with long histories of diving work in a district of Japan. We obtained information on their diving practices and the presence or absence of medical problems, especially DCI events. All participants were examined with MRI to determine the prevalence of brain lesions.
Results: Out of 12 Ama divers (mean age: 54.965.1 years), four had histories of cerebral DCI events, and 11 divers demonstrated ischemic lesions of the brain on MRI studies. The lesions were situated in the cortical and/or subcortical area (9 cases), white matters (4 cases), the basal ganglia (4 cases), and the thalamus (1 case). Subdural fluid collections were seen in 2 cases. Conclusion: These results suggest that commercial breath-hold divers are at a risk of clinical or subclinical brain injury which may affect the long-term neuropsychological health of divers.

Decompression illness

Richard D Vann, Frank K Butler, Simon J Mitchell, Richard E Moon
Lancet 2010; 377: 153–64

Decompression illness is caused by intravascular or extravascular bubbles that are formed as a result of reduction in environmental pressure (decompression). The term covers both arterial gas embolism, in which alveolar gas or venous gas emboli (via cardiac shunts or via pulmonary vessels) are introduced into the arterial circulation, and decompression sickness, which is caused by in-situ bubble formation from dissolved inert gas. Both syndromes can occur in divers, compressed air workers, aviators, and astronauts, but arterial gas embolism also arises from iatrogenic causes unrelated to decompression. Risk of decompression illness is
affected by immersion, exercise, and heat or cold. Manifestations range from itching and minor pain to neurological symptoms, cardiac collapse, and death. First aid treatment is 100% oxygen and definitive treatment is recompression to increased pressure, breathing 100% oxygen. Adjunctive treatment, including fluid administration and prophylaxis against venous thromboembolism in paralyzed patients, is also recommended. Treatment is, in most cases, effective although residual deficits can remain in serious cases, even after several recompressions.

Bubbles can have mechanical, embolic, and biochemical effects with manifestations ranging from trivial to fatal. Clinical manifestations can be caused by direct effects from extravascular (autochthonous) bubbles such as mechanical distortion of tissues causing pain, or vascular obstruction causing stroke-like signs and symptoms. Secondary effects can cause delayed symptom onset up to 24 h after surfacing. Endothelial damage by intravascular bubbles can cause capillary leak, extravasation of plasma, and haemoconcentration. Impaired endothelial function, as measured by decreased effects of vasoactive compounds, has been reported in animals and might occur in man. Hypotension can occur in severe cases. Other effects include platelet activation and deposition, leucocyte-endothelial adhesion, and possibly consequences of vascular occlusion believed to occur in thromboembolic stroke such as ischaemia-reperfusion injury, and apoptosis.

Classification of initial and of all eventual manifestations of decompression illness in 2346 recreational diving accidents reported to the Divers Alert Network from 1998 to 2004 For all instances of pain, 58% consisted of joint pain, 35% muscle pain, and 7% girdle pain. Girdle pain often portends spinal cord involvement. Constitutional symptoms included headache, lightheadedness, inappropriate fatigue, malaise, nausea or vomiting, and anorexia. Muscular discomfort included stiffness, pressure, cramps, and spasm but excluded pain. Pulmonary manifestations included dyspnoea and cough.

Other than depth and time, risk of decompression sickness is affected by other factors that affect inert gas exchange and bubble formation, such as immersion (vs dry hyperbaric chamber exposure), exercise, and temperature. Immersion decreases venous pooling and increases venous return and cardiac output. Warm environments improve peripheral perfusion by promoting vasodilation, whereas cool temperatures decrease perfusion through vasoconstriction. Exercise increases both peripheral perfusion and temperature. The effect of environmental conditions on risk of decompression sickness is dependent on the phase of the pressure exposure. Pressure, exercise, immersion, or a hot environment increase inert gas uptake and risk of decompression sickness. During decom-pression these factors increase inert gas elimination and therefore decrease the risk of decompression sickness. Conversely, uptake is reduced during rest or in a cold environment, hence a diver resting in a cold environment on the bottom has decreased risk of decompression sickness. Rest or low temperatures during decompression increase the risk. If exercise occurs after decompression when super-saturation is present, bubble formation increases and risk of decompression sickness rises.

Exercise at specific times before a dive can decrease the risk of serious decompression sickness in animals and incidence of venous gas emboli in both animals and man. The mechanisms of these effects are unknown but might involve modulation of nitric oxide production and effects on endothelium. Venous gas emboli and risk of decompression sickness increase slightly with age and body-mass index.

Arterial gas embolism should be suspected if a diver has a new onset of altered consciousness, confusion, focal cortical signs, or seizure during ascent or within a few minutes after surfacing from a compressed gas dive.

If the diver spends much time at depth and might have absorbed substantial inert gas before surfacing, arterial gas embolism and serious decompression sickness can coexist, and in such cases, spinal cord manifestations can predominate. Other organ systems, such as the heart, can also be affected, but the clinical diagnosis of gas embolism is not reliable without CNS manifestations. Arterial gas embolism is rare in altitude exposure; if cerebral symptoms occur after altitude exposure, the cause is usually decompression sickness.

Nondermatomal hypoaesthesia and truncal ataxia are common in neurological decompression sickness and can be missed by cursory examination. Pertinent information includes level of consciousness and mental status, cranial nerve function, and motor strength. Coordination can be affected disproportionately, and abnormalities can be detected by assessment of finger-nose movement, and, with eyes open and closed, ability to stand and walk and do heel-toe walking backwards and forwards. Many of these simple tests can be done on the scene by untrained companions.

Panel: Differential diagnosis of decompression illness
Inner-ear barotrauma
Middle-ear or maxillary sinus overinfl ation
Contaminated diving gas and oxygen toxic effects
Musculoskeletal strains or trauma sustained before, during, or after diving
Seafood toxin ingestion (ciguatera, pufferfish, paralytic shellfish poisoning)
Immersion pulmonary edema
Water aspiration
Decompression chamber

Decompression chamber

Decompression chamber. fluidic or pneumatic ventilator is shown at the left. The infusion pump is contained within a plastic cover, in which 100% nitrogen is used to decrease the fi re risk in the event of an electrical problem. The monitor screen is outside the chamber and can be seen through the viewing port. Photo from Duke University Medical Center, with permission.

Long-term outcomes of 69 divers with spinal cord decompressionsickness, by manifestation
n %
No residual symptoms 34 49·3
Any residual symptom 35 50·7
Mild paraesthesias, weakness, or pain 14 20·3
Some impairment of daily activities 21 30·4
Difficulty walking 11 15·9
Impaired micturition 13 18·8
Impaired defecation 15 21·7
Impaired sexual function 15 21·7

Decompression illness occurs in a small population but is an international problem that few physicians are trained to recognise or manage. Although its manifestations are often mild, the potential for permanent injury exists in severe cases, especially if unrecognised or inadequately treated. Emergency medical personnel should be aware of manifestations of decompression illness in the setting of a patient with a history of recent diving or other exposure to substantial pressure change, and should contact an appropriate consultation service for advice.

Diving Medicine: Contemporary Topics and Their Controversies

Michael B. Strauss and Robert C. Borer, Jr
Am J Emerg Med 2001; 19:232-238
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1053/ajem.2001.22654

SCUBA diving is a popular recreational sport. Although serious injuries occur infrequently, when they do knowledge of diving medicine and/or where to obtain appropriate consultation is essential. The emergency physician is likely to be the first physician contact the injured diver has. We discuss 8 subjects
in diving medicine which are contemporary, yet may have controversies associated with them. From this information the physician dealing primarily with the injured diver will have a basis for understanding and managing, as
well as where to find additional help, for his/her patients’ diving injuries.

Over the past 10 years, new knowledge and equipment improvements have made diving safer and more enjoyable. Estimates of actively participating sports divers show a striking increase over this time interval while the number of SCUBA diving deaths annually has remained nearly level at approximately 100. A further indicator of recreational diving safety is that reflected in the nearly constant number of diving injuries (1000 per annum) over the most recent 5 reported years, or approximately 0.53 to 3.4 incidents/10,000 dives.

Divers Alert Network.
The Divers Alert Network (DAN) is a nonprofit organization directed and staffed by experts in the specialty of diving medicine.6 DAN provides immediate consultation for both divers and physicians in the diagnosis and initial management of diving injuries. This 24-hour service is available free world-wide through a dedicated emergency telephone line: 1-919-684-4326. The DAN staff will also identify the nearest appropriate recompression treatment facility and knowledgeable physicians for an expedient referral. General diving medical inquiries can be answered during normal weekday hours either through an information telephone line: 1-919-684-2948 or through an interactive web site http://www.diversalertnetwork.org.

Use of 100% Oxygen for Initial, on the Scene, Management of Diving Accidents
The breathing of pure oxygen is crucial for the initial management of the diving related problems of arterial gas embolism (AGE), decompression sickness (DCS), pulmonary barotrauma (thoracic squeeze), aspiration pneumonitis, and hypoxic encephalopathy associated with near drowning. In 1985, Dick reported that in many cases the neurologic symptoms of AGE and DCS were resolved with the immediate breathing of pure oxygen on the surface. The breathing of pure oxygen reduces bubble size by increasing the differential pressure for the inert gas to diffuse out of the bubble and it also speeds the washout of inert gas from body tissues. The early elimination of the bubble prevents hypoxia and the interaction of the bubble with the blood vessel lining. This interaction leads to secondary problems of capillary leak, bleeding, inflammation, ischemia, and cell death. These secondary problems are the reasons not all DCS symptoms resolve with recompression chamber treatment. The immediate use of pure oxygen for the medical management of these diving problems is analogous to the use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation for the witnessed cardiac arrest; the sooner initiated the better the results.

Diving Education

Medical Fitness for Diving

Asthma has the potential risk for AGE. Neuman reviewed the subject of asthma and diving. He and his coauthors recommend that asthmatics who are asymptomatic, not on medications and have no exercised induced abnormality on pulmonary function studies be allowed to dive.

Conditions leading to loss of consciousness, such as insulin dependent diabetes and epilepsy, can result in drowning. Carefully controlled diving studies in diabetics, who are free from complications, are now defining the safe requirements for diving. Epilepsy remains as a disqualification except in individuals with a history of febrile seizures ending prior to 5 years of age.

Availability of Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Facilities

The availability of these chambers makes it possible for divers who become symptomatic after SCUBA diving to readily receive recompression treatment. This is important because the closer the initiation of recompression treatment to the onset of DCS (and AGE) signs and symptoms, the greater the likelihood of full recovery.

Improved Diving Equipment

Mixed and Rebreather Gas Diving
Mixed gas diving involves changing the breathing gas from air which has 20% oxygen to higher oxygen percentages (nitrox). As the amount of oxygen is increased in the gas mixture, the amount of the inert gas (nitrogen) is reduced. With oxygen enriched air there is less tissue deposition of inert gas per unit of time under water for any given depth. However, because of increased oxygen partial pressures, the seizure threshold for oxygen toxicity is lowered. For normal sports diving activities, oxygen toxicity with mixed gas diving is only a theoretical concern.

Decompression Illness is More Than Bubbles

When AGE occurs, DCS symptoms may be concurrent or appear during or after recompression treatment even though the decompression tables were not violated on the dive. When DCS occurs in this situation it appears resistant to recompression treatment (Neuman) perhaps because of the inflammatory reaction generated by the bubble-blood vessel interaction from the AGE. In cases of DCI where components of both DCS and AGE are suspected, the diver should be observed for a minimum of 24 hours after the recompression treatment is completed for the delayed onset of DCS.

No theory of DCS discounts the primary role of bubbles in this condition. However, new information suggests that there are precursors to bubble formation and post-bubbling events that occur as a consequence of the bubbles. As mentioned earlier, venous gas emboli are a common occurrence diving ascent and ordinarily are filtered out harmlessly by the lungs. Precursors to DCS include stasis, dehydration and too rapid of ascents. These conditions allow the ubiquitous VGE to enlarge, coalesce and occlude the venous side of the circulation. Massive venous bubbling to the lungs can cause pulmonary vessel obstruction described as the chokes. If right to left shunts occur in the heart, VGE can become AGE to the brain. If the arterial flow is slow enough and/or the gradients large enough, autochthonus (ie, spontaneous) bubbles can form in the arterial circulation and lead to any of the consequences of AGE. In such situations it could be difficult to determine whether the DCI event was from AGE or DCS even after careful analysis of the dive profile. Hollenbeck’s model for diving paraplegia includes the setting of venous stasis (Batson’s plexus of veins) in the spinal canal, bubble formation, bubble enlargement possibly from off gassing of the spinal cord, blood vessel occlusion, and venous side infarctions of the spinal cord.
Contemporary Management of DCS

Problem Intervention Effect
Bubble Recompression
with HBO		 Reduce bubble size
1. Washout inert gas.
2. Change bubble composition by diffusion.
Stasis and dehydration Hydration: oral fluids if alert, IV fluids otherwise. Improve blood flow.
InflammationCell Ischemia ? Anti-inflammatory medicationsHBO Reduce interaction between bubble and blood vessel endothelium.
Improve oxygen availability to hypoxic tissues, reduce edema and also reduces the interaction between bubble and blood vessel endothelium.

.

Conclusions

We anticipate that in the future there will be further improvements for the safety and enjoyment of the recreational SCUBA diver. For example, the dive computer of the future will be able to individualize dive profiles for different personal medical parameters such as age, body composition and fitness level. Diver locators could quickly target a missing diver and save time and gas consumption as well as prevent serious diving mishaps. Drugs may be developed that would minimize the effect of bubbles interacting with body tissues and prevent DCS and AGE.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy for pulmonary decompression illness

Yutaka Kondo, Masataka Fukami and Ichiro Kukita
Kondo et al. Critical Care 2014; 18:438 http://ccforum.com/content/18/3/438/10.1186/cc13935

Pulmonary decompression illness is rarely observed in clinical settings, and most patients die prior to hospitalization. We administered ECMO therapy to rescue a patient, even though this therapy has rarely been reported with good outcome in patients with decompression illness. In addition, we had to select venovenous ECMO even with the patient showing right ventricular failure. A lot of physicians may select venoarterial ECMO if the patient shows right ventricular failure, but the important physiological mechanism of pulmonary decompression illness is massive air embolism in the pulmonary arteries, and the bubbles diminish within the first 24 hours. The management of decompression illness therefore differs substantially from the usual right-sided heart failure.

Extremes of barometric pressure

Jane E Risdall, David P Gradwell
Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine 16:2
Ascent to elevated altitude, commonly achieved through flight, by climbing or by residence in highland regions, exposes the individual to reduced ambient pressure. Although there are physical manifestations of this exposure as a consequence of Boyle’s law, the primary physiological challenge is of hypobaric hypoxia. The acute physiological and longer-term adaptive responses of the cardiovascular, respiratory, hematological and neurological systems to altitude are described, together with an outline of the presentation and management of acute mountain sickness, high-altitude pulmonary edema and high-altitude cerebral edema. While many millions experience modest exposure to altitude as a result of flight in pressurized aircraft, fewer individuals are exposed to increased ambient pressure. The pressure changes during diving and hyperbaric exposures result in greater changes in gas load and gas toxicity. Physiological effects include the consequences of increased work of breathing and redistribution of circulating volume. Neurological manifestations may be the direct result of pressure or a consequence of gas toxicity at depth. Increased tissue gas loads may result in decompression illness on return to surface or subsequent ascent in flight.

  • understand the physical effects of changes in ambient pressure and the physiological consequences on the cardiovascular respiratory and neurological systems
  • gain an awareness that exposure to reduced ambient pressure produces both acute and more chronic effects, with differing signs, symptoms and time to onset at various altitudes
  • develop an awareness of the toxic effects of ‘inert’ gases at increased ambient pressures and the pathogenesis and management of decompression illness

Decompression illness According to Henry’s law, at a constant temperature the amount of gas which dissolves in a liquid is proportional to the pressure of that gas or its partial pressure, if it is part of a mixture of gases. Breathing gases at increased ambient pressure will increase the amount of each gas dissolved in the fluid phases of body tissues. On ascent this excess gas has to be given up. If the ascent is controlled at a sufficiently slow rate, elimination will be via the respiratory system. If the ascent is too fast, excess gas may come out of solution and form free bubbles in the tissues or circulation. Bubbles may contain any of the gases in the breathing mixture, but it is the presence of inert gas bubbles (nitrogen or helium) that are thought most likely to give rise to problems, since the elimination of excess oxygen is achieved by metabolism as well as ventilation. These bubbles may act as venous emboli or may trigger inflammatory tissue responses giving rise to symptoms of decompression illness (DCI). Signs and symptoms of DCI may appear up to 48 hours after exposure to increased ambient pressure and include joint pains, motor and sensory deficits, dyspnoea, cough and skin rashes.

Neurological effects of deep diving

Marit Grønning, Johan A. Aarli
Journal of the Neurological Sciences 304 (2011) 17–21
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.jns.2011.01.021

Deep diving is defined as diving to depths more than 50 m of seawater (msw), and is mainly used for occupational and military purposes. A deep dive is characterized by the compression phase, the bottom time and the decompression phase. Neurological and neurophysiologic effects are demonstrated in divers during the compression phase and the bottom time. Immediate and transient neurological effects after deep dives have been shown in some divers. However, the results from the epidemiological studies regarding long term neurological effects from deep diving are conflicting and still not conclusive.

Possible immediate neurological effects of deep diving
Syndrome Pressure
Hyperoxia/oxygen seizures >152 kPa (5 msw)
HypoxiaHypercapnia
Nitrogen narcosis >354 kPa (25 msw)
High pressure nervous syndrome >1.6 MPa (150 msw)
Neurological decompression sickness

Neurological effects have been demonstrated, both clinically and neurophysiologically in divers during the compression phase and the bottom time. Studies of divers before and after deep dives have shown immediate and transient neurological effects in some divers. However, the results from the epidemiological and clinical studies regarding long term neurological effects from deep diving are conflicting and still not conclusive. Prospective clinical studies with sufficient power and sensitivity are needed to solve this important issue.

Today deep diving to more than 100 msw is routinely performed globally in the oil- and gas industry. In the North Sea remote underwater intervention and maintenance is performed by the use of remotely operated vehicles (ROV), both in conjunction to and as an alternative to manned underwater operations. There will, however, always be a need for human divers in the technically more advanced underwater operations and for contingency repair operations.

P300 latency indexes nitrogen narcosis

Barry Fowler, Janice Pogue and Gerry Porlier
Electroencephalography, and clinical Neurophysiology, 1990, 75:221-229

This experiment investigated the effects of nitrogen narcosis on reaction time (RT) and P300 latency and amplitude, Ten subjects breathed either air or a non-narcotic 20% oxygen-80% helium (heliox) mixture in a hyperbaric chamber at 6.5, 8.3 and 10 atmospheres absolute (ATA), The subjects responded under controlled accuracy conditions to visually presented male or female names in an oddball paradigm. Single-trial analysis revealed a strong relationship between RT and P300 latency, both of which were slowed in a dose-related manner by hyperbaric air but not by heliox. A clear-cut dose-response relationship could not be established for P300 amplitude. These results indicate that P300 latency indexes nitrogen narcosis and are interpreted as support for the slowed processing model of inert gas narcosis.

Adaptation to Deep Water Habitat

Effects of hypoxia on ionic regulation, glycogen utilization and antioxidative ability in the gills and liver of the aquatic air-breathing fish Trichogaster microlepis

Chun-Yen Huang, Hui-Chen Lina, Cheng-Huang Lin
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part A 179 (2015) 25–34
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2014.09.001

We examined the hypothesis that Trichogaster microlepis, a fish with an accessory air-breathing organ, uses a compensatory strategy involving changes in both behavior and protein levels to enhance its gas exchange ability. This compensatory strategy enables the gill ion-regulatory metabolism to maintain homeostasis during exposure to hypoxia. The present study aimed to determinewhether ionic regulation, glycogen utilization and antioxidant activity differ in terms of expression under hypoxic stresses; fish were sampled after being subjected to 3 or 12 h of hypoxia and 12 h of recovery under normoxia. The air-breathing behavior of the fish increased under hypoxia. No morphological modification of the gills was observed. The expression of carbonic anhydrase II did not vary among the treatments. The Na+/K+-ATPase enzyme activity did not decrease, but increases in Na+/K+-ATPase protein expression and ionocyte levels were observed. The glycogen utilization increased under hypoxia as measured by glycogen phosphorylase protein expression and blood glucose level, whereas the glycogen content decreased. The enzyme activity of several components of the antioxidant system in the gills, including catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and superoxidase dismutase, increased in enzyme activity. Based on the above data, we concluded that T. microlepis is a hypoxia-tolerant species that does not exhibit ion-regulatory suppression but uses glycogen to maintain energy utilization in the gills under hypoxic stress. Components of the antioxidant system showed increased expression under the applied experimental treatments.

Divergence date estimation and a comprehensive molecular tree of extant cetaceans

Michael R. McGowen , Michelle Spaulding, John Gatesy
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 53 (2009) 891–906
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2009.08.018

Cetaceans are remarkable among mammals for their numerous adaptations to an entirely aquatic existence, yet many aspects of their phylogeny remain unresolved. Here we merged 37 new sequences from the nuclear genes RAG1 and PRM1 with most published molecular data for the group (45 nuclear loci, transposons, mitochondrial genomes), and generated a supermatrix consisting of 42,335 characters. The great majority of these data have never been combined. Model-based analyses of the supermatrix produced a solid, consistent phylogenetic hypothesis for 87 cetacean species. Bayesian analyses corroborated odontocete (toothed whale) monophyly, stabilized basal odontocete relationships, and completely resolved branching events within Mysticeti (baleen whales) as well as the problematic speciose clade Delphinidae (oceanic dolphins). Only limited conflicts relative to maximum likelihood results were recorded, and discrepancies found in parsimony trees were very weakly supported. We utilized the Bayesian supermatrix tree to estimate divergence dates among lineages using relaxed-clock methods. Divergence estimates revealed rapid branching of basal odontocete lineages near the Eocene–Oligocene boundary, the antiquity of river dolphin lineages, a Late Miocene radiation of balaenopteroid mysticetes, and a recent rapid radiation of Delphinidae beginning [1]10 million years ago. Our comprehensive,  time calibrated tree provides a powerful evolutionary tool for broad-scale comparative studies of Cetacea.

Mitogenomic analyses provide new insights into cetacean origin and evolution

Ulfur Arnason, Anette Gullberg, Axel Janke
Gene 333 (2004) 27–34
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.gene.2004.02.010

The evolution of the order Cetacea (whales, dolphins, porpoises) has, for a long time, attracted the attention of evolutionary biologists. Here we examine cetacean phylogenetic relationships on the basis of analyses of complete mitochondrial genomes that represent all extant cetacean families. The results suggest that the ancestors of recent cetaceans had an explosive evolutionary radiation 30–35 million years before present. During this period, extant cetaceans divided into the two primary groups, Mysticeti (baleen whales) and Odontoceti (toothed whales). Soon after this basal split, the Odontoceti diverged into the four extant lineages, sperm whales, beaked whales, Indian river dolphins and delphinoids (iniid river dolphins, narwhals/belugas, porpoises and true dolphins). The current data set has allowed test of two recent morphological hypotheses on cetacean origin. One of these hypotheses posits that Artiodactyla and Cetacea originated from the extinct group Mesonychia, and the other that Mesonychia/Cetacea constitutes a sister group to Artiodactyla. The current results are inconsistent with both these hypotheses. The findings suggest that the claimed morphological similarities between Mesonychia and Cetacea are the result of evolutionary convergence rather than common ancestry.

The order Cetacea traditionally includes three suborders: the extinct Archaeoceti and the recent Odontoceti and Mysticeti. It is commonly believed that the evolution of ancestral cetaceans from terrestrial to marine (aquatic) life was accompanied by a fast and radical morphological adaptation. Such a scenario may explain why it was, for a long time, difficult to morphologically establish the position of Cetacea in the mammalian tree and even to settle whether Cetacea constituted a monophyletic group.

Biochemical analyses in the 1950s  and 1960s had shown a closer relationship between cetaceans and artiodactyls (even-toed hoofed mammals) than between cetaceans and any other eutherian order and karyological studies in the late 1960s and early 1970s unequivocally supported cetacean monophyly (Arnason, 1969, 1974). The nature of the relationship between cetaceans and artiodactyls was resolved in phylogenetic studies of mitochondrial (mt) cytochrome b (cytb) genes (Irwin and Arnason, 1994; Arnason and Gullberg, 1996) that placed Cetacea within the order Artiodactyla itself as the sister group of the Hippopotamidae (see also Sarich, 1993). The Hippopotamidae/ Cetacea relationship was subsequently supported in studies of nuclear data (Gatesy et al., 1996; Gatesy, 1997) and statistically established in analysis of complete mt genomes (Ursing and Arnason, 1998). The relationship has also been confirmed in analyses of combined nuclear and mt sequences (Gatesy et al., 1999; Cassens et al., 2000) and in studies of short interspersed repetitive elements (SINEs). Artiodactyla and Cetacea are now commonly referred to as Cetartiodactyla.

Previous analyses of the complete cytb gene of more than 30 cetacean species (Arnason and Gullberg, 1996) identified five primary lineages of recent cetaceans, viz., Mysticeti and the four odontocete lineages Physeteridae (sperm whales), Platanistidae (Indian river dolphins), Ziphiidae (beaked whales) and Delphinoidea (iniid river dolphins, porpoises, narwhals and dolphins). However, these studies left unresolved the relationships of the five lineages as well as those between the three delphinoid families Monodontidae (narwhals, belugas), Phocoenidae (porpoises) and Delphinidae (dolphins). Similarly, the relationships between the four mysticete families Balaenidae (right whales), Neobalaenidae (pygmy right whales), Eschrichtiidae (gray whales) and Balaenopteridae (rorquals) were not conclusively resolved in analyses of cytb genes.

Fig. (not shown). Cetartiodactyl relationships and the estimated times of their divergences. The tree was established on the basis of maximum likelihood analysis of the concatenated amino acid (aa) sequences of 12 mt protein-coding genes. Length of alignment 3610 aa. Support values for branches A–H are shown in the insert.
Cetruminantia (branch A) receives moderate support and Cetancodonta (B) strong support. Cetacea (C) splits into monophyletic Mysticeti (baleen whales) and monophyletic Odontoceti (toothed whales). Odontoceti has four basal lineages, Physeteridae (sperm whales: represented by the sperm and pygmy sperm whales), Ziphiidae (beaked whales: bottlenose and Baird’s beaked whales), Platanistidae (Indian river dolphins: Indian river dolphin) and Delphinoidea. Delphinoidea encompasses the families Iniidae (iniid river dolphins: Amazon river dolphin, La Plata dolphin), Monodontidae (narwhals/belugas: narwhal), Phocoenidae (porpoises: harbour porpoise) and Delphinidae (dolphins: white-beaked dolphin). The common odontocete branch and the branches separating the four cetacean lineages are short. These relationships are therefore somewhat unstable (cf. Section 3.1 and Table 1). Iniid river dolphins (F) are solidly nested within the Delphinoidea (E). Thus, traditional river dolphins (Platanistidae + Iniidae) do not form a monophyletic unit. Molecular estimates of divergence times (Sanderson 2002) were based on two calibration points, A/C-60 and O/M-35 (cf. Section 3.2). Due to the short lengths of internal branches, some estimates for these divergences overlap. NJ: neighbor joining; MP: maximum parsimony; LBP: local bootstrap probability; QP: quartet puzzling. The bar shows the number of aa substitutions per site.

The limited molecular resolution among basal cetacean lineages has been known for some time. Studies of hemoglobin and myoglobin (Goodman, 1989; Czelusniak et al., 1990) have either joined Physeteridae and Mysticeti to the exclusion of Delphinoidea (myoglobin data) or Mysticeti and Delphinoidea to the exclusion of Physeteridae (hemoglobin data). Thus, neither of the data sets identified monophyletic Odontoceti by joining the two odontocete lineages (Physeteridae and Delphinoidea) to the exclusion of Mysticeti. A similar instability was recognized and cautioned against in analyses of some mt data, notably, sequences of rRNA genes (Arnason et al., 1993b). The suggestion (Milinkovitch et al., 1993) of a sister group relationship between Physeteridae and the mysticete family Balaenopteridae (rorquals) was based on a myoglobin data set (which joins Physeteridae and Mysticeti to the exclusion of Delphinoidea) that was complemented with partial data of the mt 16S rRNA gene.

The cetancodont divergence times calculated using A/C-60 and O/M-35 as references have been included in Fig. 1. As a result of the short branches separating several cetacean lineages, the estimates of these divergences overlap. The same observation has been made in calculations based on SINE flanking sequences (Nikaido et al., 2001). There is a general consistency between the current and the flanking sequence datings, except for those involving the Balaenopteridae, which are somewhat younger in our analysis than in the SINEs study. The currently estimated age of the divergence between Hippopotamus and Cetacea (c53.5 MYBP) is consistent with the age (>50 MY) of the oldest archaeocete fossils identified so far (Bajpai and Gingerich, 1998). This suggests that the ages allocated to the two references, A/C-60 (the divergence between ruminant artiodactyls and cetancodonts) and O/M-35 (the divergence between odontocetes and mysticetes) are reasonably accurate.

The dating of the divergence between the blue and fin whales is of interest regarding hybridization between closely related mammalian species. Previous molecular analyses (Arnason et al., 1991b; Spilliaert et al., 1991) demonstrated the occurrence of hybridization between these two species. These studies, which were based on three hybrids (one female and two males), showed that either species could be the mother or father in these hybridizations. The two male hybrids had rudimentary testes, whereas the female hybrid was in her second pregnancy. This suggests that the blue and fin whales may be close to the limit for permissible species hybridization among mammals.

The current data set has allowed examination of the coherence between the molecular results and two prevalent morphological hypotheses related to cetacean evolution. The first hypothesis, which in essence originates from Van Valen (1966, 1968), postulates that monophyletic Artiodactyla and monophyletic Cetacea evolved separately from the extinct Palaeocene group Mesonychia. This hypothesis was recently reinforced in a morphological study (Thewissen et al., 2001) that included mesonychians, two archaeocete taxa (Ambuloocetus and Pakicetus) and some extant and fossil artiodactyls. The study of Thewissen et al. (2001) showed a sister group relationship between monophyletic Artiodactyla and monophyletic Cetacea, with Mesonychia as the basal sister group of Artiodactyla/Cetacea, a conclusion consistent with the palaeontological age of Mesonychia relative to that of Artiodactyla and Cetacea. The second hypothesis favours a sister group relationship between Mesonychia and Cetacea with the Mesonychia/Cetacea clade as the sister group of monophyletic Artiodactyla (O’Leary and Geisler, 1999; see also Gatesy and O’Leary, 2001).

Although the position of Mesonychia differs in the two morphological hypotheses, both correspond to a sister group relationship between Cetacea and monophyletic Artiodactyla among extant cetartiodactyls. Thus, both hypotheses can be tested against the current data set. The result of such a test has been included in Table 1, topology (m)(not shown). As evident, both these morphological hypotheses are incongruent with the mitogenomic findings.

Morphological studies have not provided an answer to the question whether mysticetes and odontocetes had separate origins among the archaeocetes (Fordyce and de Muizon, 2001). However, the long common cetacean branch and the short branches separating the five extant cetacean lineages strongly suggest an origin of modern cetaceans from the same archaeocete group (probably the Dorudontidae).

The limbs of Ambulocetus constitute somewhat of an evolutionary enigma. As evident in Thewissen et al.’s (1994) paper, Ambulocetus has very large hind limbs compared to its forelimbs, a difference that is less pronounced in later silhouette drawings of the animal. It is nevertheless evident that evolution from the powerful hindlimbs of Ambulocetus to their rudimentation in archaeocetes constitutes a remarkable morphological reversal if Ambulocetus is connected to the cetacean branch after the separation of the hippopotamid and cetacean lineages.

For natural reasons, systematic schemes have traditionally been based on external morphological characteristics. The rates of morphological and molecular evolution are rarely (if ever) strictly correlated, however, and this may give rise to inconsistency between traditional systematics and molecular findings. The emerging consensus that the order Cetacea resides within another traditional order, Artiodactyla, makes apparent the incongruity in cetartiodactyl nomenclature (Graur and Higgins, 1994). In this instance, a possible solution for maintaining reasonable consistency between nomenclature and phylogeny would be to recognize Cetartiodactyla as an order with three suborders: Suina, Tylopoda and Cetruminantia. According to such a scheme, Cetacea would (together with the Hippopotamidae) constitute a parvorder within the infraorder Cetancodonta.

Cytochrome b and Bayesian inference of whale phylogeny

Laura May-Collado, Ingi Agnarsson
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 38 (2006) 344–354
http://dx.doi.org//10.1016/j.ympev.2005.09.019

In the mid 1990s cytochrome b and other mitochondrial DNA data reinvigorated cetacean phylogenetics by proposing many novel

and provocative hypotheses of cetacean relationships. These results sparked a revision and reanalysis of morphological datasets, and the collection of new nuclear DNA data from numerous loci. Some of the most controversial mitochondrial hypotheses have now become benchmark clades, corroborated with nuclear DNA and morphological data; others have been resolved in favor of more traditional views. That major conflicts in cetacean phylogeny are disappearing is encouraging. However, most recent papers aim specifically to resolve higher-level conflicts by adding characters, at the cost of densely sampling taxa to resolve lower-level relationships. No molecular study to date has included more than 33 cetaceans. More detailed molecular phylogenies will provide better tools for evolutionary studies. Until more genes are available for a high number of taxa, can we rely on readily available single gene mitochondrial data? Here, we estimate the phylogeny of 66 cetacean taxa and 24 outgroups based on Cytb sequences. We judge the reliability of our phylogeny based on the recovery of several deep-level benchmark clades. A Bayesian phylogenetic analysis recovered all benchmark clades and for the Wrst time supported Odontoceti monophyly based exclusively on analysis of a single mitochondrial gene. The results recover the monophyly, with the exception of only one taxa within Cetacea, and the most recently proposed super- and subfamilies. In contrast, parsimony never recovered all benchmark clades and was sensitive to a priori weighting decisions. These results provide the most detailed phylogeny of Cetacea to date and highlight the utility of both Bayesian methodology in general, and of Cytb in cetacean phylogenetics. They furthermore suggest that dense taxon sampling, like dense character sampling, can overcome problems in phylogenetic reconstruction.

Some long standing debates are all but resolved: our understanding of deeper level cetacean phylogeny has grown strong. However, the strong focus of most recent studies, aiming specifically to resolve these higher level conflicts by adding mostly characters rather than taxa, has left our understanding of lower level relationships among whale species lagging behind. Mitogenomic data, for example, is available only for 16 cetacean species, and no molecular study to date has included more than 33 cetaceans. It seems timely to focus on more detailed (genus, and species level) molecular phylogenies. These will provide better tools for detailed evolutionary studies, and are necessary to test existing morphological phylogenetic hypotheses, and current cetacean classification.

We judge the reliability of our phylogeny based on the recovery of the previously mentioned benchmark clades, in addition to the less controversial clades Perissodactyla, Euungulata (sensu Waddell et al., 2001; Perissodactyla+ Cetartiodactyla), Cetacea, and Mysticeti. Because Cytb is thought to be most reliable at lower taxonomic levels (due to high substitution rates), recovering ‘known’ deeper clades gives credibility to these new findings which have not been addressed by studies using few taxa. We compare the performance of Bayesian analyses versus parsimony under four different models, and briefly examine the sensitivity of the results to taxon sampling. We use our results to discuss agreement and remaining conflict in cetacean phylogenetics, and provide comments on current classification.

The Bayesian analysis recovered all seven benchmark clades. Support for five of the benchmark clades is high (100 posterior probabilities) but rather low for Cetancodonta (79) and marginal for the monophyly of Odontoceti. The analysis also recovered all but one family level, and most sub- and superfamily level cetacean taxa. The results broadly corroborate current cetacean classiffcation, while also pointing to some lower-level groups that may need redefinition.

Many recent cetacean phylogenetic studies include relatively few taxa, in part due to a focus on generating more characters to resolve higher level phylogenetics. While addressing crucial questions and providing the backbone for lower level phylogenies, such studies have limited utility for classification, and for comparative evolutionary studies. In some cases sparse taxon sampling may also confound the results. Of course, taxon sampling is usually simply constrained by the availability of character data, but for some reason many studies have opted to include only one, or a few outgroup taxa, even if many are available.

We find that as long as outgroup taxon sampling was extensive, Bayesian analyses of Cytb recovered all the a priori identified benchmark clades. When only a few outgroups were chosen, however, the Bayesian analysis negated Odontoceti monophyly, as have many previous parsimony analyses of mitochondrial DNA. Furthermore, in almost every detailed comparison possible our results mirror the findings O’Leary et al. (2004), the most ‘character-complete’ (but including relatively few cetacean taxa) analysis to date (37,000 characters from morphology, SINE, and 51 gene fragments). This result gives credibility to our findings, including previously untested lower level clades.

  • Monophyly and placement of Mysticeti (baleen whales).
  • Monophyly of Odontoceti (toothed whales)
  • Delphinoids
  • River Dolphins
  • Beaked and sperm whales

A major goal of phylogenetics is a phylogeny of life (i.e., many taxa), based on multiple lines of evidence (many characters of many types). However, when phylogenies based on relatively few characters can be judged reliable based on external evidence (taxonomic congruence with other phylogenies using many characters, but few taxa), they seem like very promising and useful ‘first guess’ hypotheses. The evolution of sexual dimorphism, echolocation, social behavior, and whistles and other communicative signals, and major ecological shifts (e.g., transition to fresh water) are among the numerous interesting questions in cetacean biology that this phylogeny can help answer.

Deep-diving sea lions exhibit extreme bradycardia in long duration dives

Birgitte I. McDonald1, and Paul J. Ponganis
The Journal of Experimental Biology (2014) 217, 1525-1534 http://dx.doi.org:/10.1242/jeb.098558

Heart rate and peripheral blood flow distribution are the primary determinants of the rate and pattern of oxygen store utilization and ultimately breath-hold duration in marine endotherms. Despite this, little is known about how otariids (sea lions and fur seals) regulate heart rate (fH) while diving. We investigated dive fH in five adult female California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) during foraging trips by instrumenting them with digital electrocardiogram (ECG) loggers and time depth recorders. In all dives, dive fH (number of beats/duration; 50±9 beats min−1) decreased compared with surface rates (113±5 beats min−1), with all dives exhibiting an instantaneous fH below resting (<54 beats min−1) at some point during the dive. Both dive fH and minimum instantaneous fH significantly decreased with increasing dive duration. Typical instantaneous fH profiles of deep dives (>100 m) consisted of:

(1) an initial rapid decline in fH resulting in the lowest instantaneous fH of the dive at the end of descent, often below 10 beats min−1 in dives longer than 6 min in duration;
(2) a slight increase in fH to ~10–40 beats min−1 during the bottom portion of the dive; and
(3) a gradual increase in fH during ascent with a rapid increase prior to surfacing.

Thus, fH regulation in deep-diving sea lions is not simply a progressive bradycardia. Extreme bradycardia and the presumed associated reductions in pulmonary and peripheral blood flow during late descent of deep dives should

(a) contribute to preservation of the lung oxygen store,
(b) increase dependence of muscle on the myoglobin-bound oxygen store,
(c) conserve the blood oxygen store and
(d) help limit the absorption of nitrogen at depth.

This fH profile during deep dives of sea lions may be characteristic of deep-diving marine endotherms that dive on inspiration as similar fH profiles have been recently documented in the emperor penguin, another deep diver that dives on inspiration.

The resting ƒH measured in this study (54±6 beats min−1) was lower than predicted for an animal of similar size (~80 beats min−1 for an 80 kg mammal). In part, this may be due to the fact that the sea lions were probably sleeping. The resting ƒH in our study was also lower than previous measurements in captive juvenile California sea lions (87±17 beats min−1, average mass 30 kg)  and wild Antarctic fur seals (78±5 beats min−1, body mass 30–50 kg). However, we found a significant negative relationship between mass and resting ƒH even with our small sample size of five sea lions (resting ƒH = –0.58 Mb +100.26, r2=0.81, F1,3=12.37, P=0.039). For a 30 kg sea lion, this equation predicts a resting ƒH of 83 beats min−1, which is similar to what was measured previously in juvenile sea lions, suggesting this equation may be useful in estimating resting ƒH in sea lions.

The sea lions exhibited a distinct sinus arrhythmia fluctuating between a minimum of 42±9 and a maximum of 87±12 beats min−1, comparable to the sinus arrhythmias described in other diving birds and mammals, including sea lions. The minimum instantaneous ƒH during the sinus arrhythmia was similar to the mean minimum ƒH in dives less than 3 min (37±7 beats min−1), indicating that in dives less than 3 min (estimated cADL), ƒH only decreased to levels observed during exhalation at rest. This is consistent with observations in emperor penguins and elephant seals, where it was proposed that in dives shorter than the aerobic dive limit (ADL) the reduction in ƒH is regulated by a mechanism of cardiorespiratory control similar to that governing the respiratory sinus arrhythmia, with a further reduction only occurring in dives longer than the ADL.

Fig. 3. (not shown) Instantaneous fH and dive depth profiles of a California sea lion (CSL12_2). Data are from (A) a short, shallow dive (1.3 min, 45 m), (B) a mid-duration dive (4.8 min, 239 m) and (C) a long-duration dive (8.5 min, 305 m). Minimum instantaneous fH reached 37 beats min−1 in the short dive
(A) 19 beats min−1 in the mid-duration dive
(B) and 7 beats min−1 in the long duration dive
(C) Prominent features typical of mid- and long-duration dives include

  • a surface interval tachycardia (pre- and post-dive);
  • a steady rapid decrease in fH during initial descent;
  • a gradual decline in fH towards the end of descent with the lowest fH of the dive at the end of descent;
  • a slight increase and sometimes variable fH during the bottom portion of the dive; and
  • a slow increase in fH during ascent,
  • often ending in a rapid increase just before surfacing.

We obtained the first diving ƒH data from wild sea lions on natural foraging trips, demonstrating how they regulate ƒH over a range of dive durations. Sea lions always decreased dive ƒH from surface ƒH values; however, individual sea lions exhibited different dive ƒH, accounting for a significant amount of the variation in the relationship between dive duration and ƒH (intra-individual correlation: 75–81%)). The individual differences in dive ƒH exhibited in this study suggest that different dive capacities of individual sea lions may partially account for the range of dive strategies exhibited in a previous study (Villegas-Amtmann et al., 2011). Despite the individual differences in ƒH, the pattern of the dive ƒH response was similar in all the sea lions. As predicted, sea lions only consistently displayed a true bradycardia on mid- to long- duration dives (>4 min) (Fig. 5A). Additionally, as seen in freely diving phocids, dive ƒH and minimum ƒH were negatively related to dive duration, with the longest duration dives having the lowest dive ƒH and displaying the most intense bradycardia, often below 10 beats min−1 (Fig. 5A,B).

Profiles of mean fH at 10 s intervals of dives

Profiles of mean fH at 10 s intervals of dives

Fig 4.  Profiles of mean fH at 10 s intervals of dives for (A) six duration categories and (B) five depth categories. Standard error bars are shown. Data were pooled from 461 dives performed by five sea lions. The number of dives in each category and the number of sea lions performing the dives in each category are provided in the keys.

The mild bradycardia and the dive ƒH profiles observed in the shorter duration dives (<3 min) were similar to those observed in trained juvenile California sea lions and adult Stellar sea lions, but much more intense than ƒH observed in freely diving Antarctic fur seals. Surprisingly, although dive ƒH of trained Steller sea lions was similar, Steller sea lions regularly exhibited lower minimum ƒH, with minimum ƒH almost always less than 20 beats min−1 in dives less than 2 min in duration. In the wild, California sea lions rarely exhibited a minimum ƒH less than 20 beats min−1 in similar duration dives (Fig. 5B), suggesting greater blood oxygen transport during these natural short-duration dives.

Fig. 5. (not shown)  fH decreases with increasing dive duration. Dive duration versus (A) dive fH (total number of beats/dive duration), (B) minimum instantaneous fH and (C) bottom fH (total beats at bottom of dive/bottom time) for California sea lions (461 dives from five sea lions).

Although California sea lions are not usually considered exceptional divers, they exhibited extreme bradycardia, comparable to that of the best diving phocids, during their deep dives. In dives greater than 6 min in duration, minimum ƒH was usually less than 10 beats min−1 and sometimes as low as 6 beats mins−1 (Fig. 5B), which is similar to extreme divers such as emperor penguins (3 beats min−1), elephant seals (3 beats min−1), grey seals (2 beats min−1) and Weddell seals (<10 beats min−1), and even as low as what was observed in forced submersion studies. Thus, similar to phocids, the extreme bradycardia exhibited during forced submersions is also a routine component of the sea lion’s physiological repertoire, allowing them to perform long-duration dives.

While the degree of bradycardia observed in long dives of California sea lions was similar to the extreme bradycardia observed in phocids, the ƒH profiles were quite different. In general, phocid ƒH decreases abruptly upon submergence. The intensity of the initial phocid bradycardia either remains relatively stable or intensifies as the dive progresses, and does not start to increase until the seal begins its ascent. In contrast, the ƒH profiles of sea lions were more complex, showing a more gradual decrease during descent, with the minimum ƒH of the dive usually towards the end of descent (Figs 3, 6). There was often a slight increase in ƒH during the bottom portion of the dive, and as soon as the sea lions started to ascend, the ƒH slowly started to increase, often becoming irregular during the middle of ascent, before increasing rapidly as the sea lion approached the surface.

Fig. 6. (not shown) Instantaneous fH and dive depth profiles of the longest dive (10.0 min, 385 m) from a California sea lion (CSL12_1). During this dive, instantaneous fH reached 7 beats min−1 and was less than 20 beats min−1 for over 5.5 min. Post-dive fH was high in the first 0.5–1 min after surfacing, but then declined to ~100 beats min−1 towards the end of the surface interval.

Implications for pulmonary gas exchange

The moderate dive ƒH in short, shallow dives compared with the much slower ƒH of deep long-duration dives suggests more pulmonary blood flow and greater potential for reliance on lung O2. Most of these dives were to depths of less than 100 m (well below the estimated depth of lung collapse near 200 m), so maintenance of a moderate ƒH during these dives may allow sea lions to maximise use of the potentially significant lung O2 stores (~16% of total body O2 stores) throughout the dive. This is supported by venous blood O2 profiles, where, occasionally, there was no decrease in venous blood O2 between the beginning and end of the dive; this can only occur if pulmonary gas exchange continues throughout the dive. Greater utilization of the lung O2 store in sea lions is consistent with higher dive ƒH in other species that both dive on inspiration and typically perform shallow dives (dolphins, porpoises, some penguin species), and in deeper diving species when they perform shallow dives (emperor penguins).

In deeper dives of sea lions, although ƒH was lower and bradycardia more extreme, the diving ƒH profiles suggest that pulmonary gas exchange is also important. In long-duration dives, even though ƒH started to decrease upon or shortly after submergence, the decrease was not as abrupt as in phocids. Additionally, in long deep dives, despite having overall low dive ƒH, there were more heart beats before resting ƒH was reached compared with short, shallow dives. In dives less than 3 min in duration, there were ~10–15 beats until instantaneous ƒH reached resting values. In longer duration dives (>3 min), there were usually ~30–40 beats before instantaneous ƒH reached resting values. We suggest the greater number of heart beats early in these deeper dives enables more gas exchange and blood O2 uptake at shallow depths, thus allowing utilisation of the postulated larger respiratory O2 stores in deeper dives The less abrupt decline in ƒH we observed in sea lions is similar to the more gradual declines documented in emperor penguins and porpoises, where it has also been proposed that the gradual decrease in ƒH allows them to maximise pulmonary gas exchange at shallower depths. However, as sea lions swam deeper, ƒH decreased further (Figs 3, 6), and by 200 m depth (the approximate depth of lung collapse, instantaneous ƒH was 14 beats min−1. Such an extreme decline in ƒH in conjunction with increased pulmonary shunting due to lung compression at greater depths will result in minimization of both O2 and N2 uptake by blood, even before the depth of full lung collapse (100% pulmonary shunt) is reached.

Implications for blood flow

ƒH is often used as a proxy to estimate blood flow and perfusion during diving because of the relative ease of its measurement. This is based on the assumption that stroke volume does not change during diving in sea lions, and, hence, changes in ƒH directly reflect changes in cardiac output. As breath-hold divers maintain arterial pressure while diving, changes in cardiac output should be associated with changes in peripheral vascular resistance and changes in blood flow to tissues. In Weddell seals, a decrease in cardiac output of ~85% during forced submersions resulted in an 80–100% decrease in tissue perfusion in all tissues excluding the brain, adrenal glands and lung. Sea lions exhibited extremely low instantaneous ƒH values that often remained low for significant portions of the dive (Figs 4, 6), suggesting severe decreases in tissue perfusion in dives greater than 5 min in duration. In almost all dives greater than 6 min in duration, instantaneous ƒH reached 10 beats min−1, and stayed below 20 beats min−1 for more than a minute. At a ƒH of 20 beats min−1, cardiac output will be ~36% of resting cardiac output and only about 18% of average surface cardiac output. At these levels of cardiac suppression, most of this flow should be directed towards the brain and heart.

Conclusions

We successfully obtained diving ƒH profiles from a deep-diving otariid during natural foraging trips. We found that

(1) ƒH decreases during all dives, but true and more intense bradycardia only occurred in longer duration dives and
(2) in the longest duration dives, ƒH and presumed cardiac output were as low as 20% of resting values.

We conclude that, although initial high ƒH promotes gas exchange early in deep dives, the extremely low ƒH in late descent of deep dives (a) preserves lung O2, (b) conserves blood O2, (c) increases the dependence of muscle on myoglobin-bound O2 and (d) limits N2 absorption at depth. This ƒH profile, especially during the late descent/early bottom phase of deep dives is similar to that of deep-diving emperor penguins, and may be characteristic of deep diving endotherms that dive on inspiration.

Dive duration was the fixed effect in all models, and to account for the lack of independence caused by having many dives from the same individual, individual (sea lion ID) was included as a random effect. Covariance and random effect structures of the full models were evaluated using Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) and examination of residual plots. AICs from all the tested models are presented with the best model in bold.

Additionally, dives were classified as short-duration (less than 3 min, minimum cADL), mid-duration (3–5 min, range of cADLs) or long-duration (>5 min) dives. Differences in pre-dive ƒH, dive ƒH, minimum ƒH, post-dive ƒH, and heart beats to resting between the categories were investigated using mixed effects ANOVA, followed by post hoc Tukey tests. In all models, dive duration category was the fixed effect and individual (sea lion ID) was included as a random effect. Model fit was accessed by examination of the residuals. All means are expressed ±s.d. and results of the Tukey tests were considered significant at P<0.05. Statistical analysis was performed in R.

Investigating Annual Diving Behaviour by Hooded Seals (Cystophora cristata) within the Northwest Atlantic Ocean

Julie M. Andersen, Mette Skern-Mauritzen, Lars Boehme
PLoS ONE 8(11): e80438. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1371/journal.pone.0080438

With the exception of relatively brief periods when they reproduce and molt, hooded seals, Cystophora cristata, spend most of the year in the open ocean where they undergo feeding migrations to either recover or prepare for the next fasting period. Valuable insights into habitat use and diving behavior during these periods have been obtained by attaching Satellite Relay Data Loggers (SRDLs) to 51 Northwest (NW) Atlantic hooded seals (33 females and 18 males) during icebound fasting periods (200422008). Using General Additive Models (GAMs) we describe habitat use in terms of First Passage Time (FPT) and analyze how bathymetry, seasonality and FPT influence the hooded seals’ diving behavior described by maximum dive depth, dive duration and surface duration. Adult NW Atlantic hooded seals exhibit a change in diving activity in areas where they spend .20 h by increasing maximum dive depth, dive duration and surface duration, indicating a restricted search behavior. We found that male and female hooded seals are spatially segregated and that diving behavior varies between sexes in relation to habitat properties and seasonality. Migration periods are described by increased dive duration for both sexes with a peak in May, October and January. Males demonstrated an increase in dive depth and dive duration towards May (post-breeding/pre-molt) and August–October (post-molt/pre-breeding) but did not show any pronounced increase in surface duration. Females dived deepest and had the highest surface duration between December and January (post-molt/pre-breeding). Our results suggest that the smaller females may have a greater need to recover from dives than that of the larger males. Horizontal segregation could have evolved as a result of a resource partitioning strategy to avoid sexual competition or that the energy requirements of males and females are different due to different energy expenditure during fasting periods.

Novel locomotor muscle design in extreme deep-diving whales

P. Velten, R. M. Dillaman, S. T. Kinsey, W. A. McLellan and D. A. Pabst
The Journal of Experimental Biology 216, 1862-1871
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1242/jeb.081323

Most marine mammals are hypothesized to routinely dive within their aerobic dive limit (ADL). Mammals that regularly perform deep, long-duration dives have locomotor muscles with elevated myoglobin concentrations that are composed of predominantly large, slow-twitch (Type I) fibers with low mitochondrial volume densities (Vmt). These features contribute to extending ADL by increasing oxygen stores and decreasing metabolic rate. Recent tagging studies, however, have challenged the view that two groups of extreme deep-diving cetaceans dive within their ADLs. Beaked whales (including Ziphius cavirostris and Mesoplodon densirostris) routinely perform the deepest and longest average dives of any air-breathing vertebrate, and short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) perform high-speed sprints at depth. We investigated the locomotor muscle morphology and estimated total body oxygen stores of several species within these two groups of cetaceans to determine whether they

(1) shared muscle design features with other deep divers and
(2) performed dives within their calculated ADLs.

Muscle of both cetaceans displayed high myoglobin concentrations and large fibers, as predicted, but novel fiber profiles for diving mammals. Beaked whales possessed a sprinterʼs fiber-type profile, composed of ~80% fast-twitch (Type II) fibers with low Vmt. Approximately one-third of the muscle fibers of short-finned pilot whales were slow-twitch, oxidative, glycolytic fibers, a rare fiber type for any mammal. The muscle morphology of beaked whales likely decreases the energetic cost of diving, while that of short-finned pilot whales supports high activity events. Calculated ADLs indicate that, at low metabolic rates, both beaked and short-finned pilot whales carry sufficient onboard oxygen to aerobically support their dives.

Serial cross-sections of the m. longissimus dorsi of Mesoplodon densirostris

Serial cross-sections of the m. longissimus dorsi of Mesoplodon densirostris

Fig. Serial cross-sections of the m. longissimus dorsi of Mesoplodon densirostris (A–D) and Globicephala macrorhynchus (E–H). Scale bars, 50μm. Muscle sections stained for the alkaline (A,E) and acidic (B,F) preincubations of myosin ATPase were used to distinguish Type I and II fibers. Muscle sections stained for succinate dehydrogenase (C,G) and α-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase (D,H) were used to distinguish glycolytic (gl), oxidative (o) and intermediate (i) fibers.

Previous studies of the locomotor muscles of deep-diving marine mammals have demonstrated that these species share a suite of adaptations that increase onboard oxygen stores while slowing the rate at which these stores are utilized, thus extending ADL. Their locomotor muscles display elevated myoglobin concentrations and are composed predominantly of large Type I fibers. Vmt are also lower in deep divers than in shallow divers or athletic terrestrial species. The results of this study indicate that beaked whales and short-finned pilot whales do not uniformly display these characteristics and that each possesses a novel fiber profile compared with those of other deep divers.

The phylogeny of Cetartiodactyla: The importance of dense taxon sampling, missing data, and the remarkable promise of cytochrome b to provide reliable species-level phylogenies

Ingi Agnarsson, Laura J. May-Collado
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 48 (2008) 964–985
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.ympev.2008.05.046

We perform Bayesian phylogenetic analyses on cytochrome b sequences from 264 of the 290 extant cetartiodactyl mammals (whales plus even-toed ungulates) and two recently extinct species, the ‘Mouse Goat’ and the ‘Irish Elk’. Previous primary analyses have included only a small portion of the species diversity within Cetartiodactyla, while a complete supertree analysis lacks resolution and branch lengths limiting its utility for comparative studies. The benefits of using a single-gene approach include rapid phylogenetic estimates for a large number of species. However, single-gene phylogenies often differ dramatically from studies involving multiple datasets suggesting that they often are unreliable. However, based on recovery of benchmark clades—clades supported in prior studies based on multiple independent datasets—and recovery of undisputed traditional taxonomic groups, Cytb performs extraordinarily well in resolving cetartiodactyl phylogeny when taxon sampling is dense. Missing data, however, (taxa with partial sequences) can compromise phylogenetic accuracy, suggesting a tradeoff between the benefits of adding taxa and introducing question marks. In the full data, a few species with a short sequences appear misplaced, however, sequence length alone seems a poor predictor of this phenomenon as other taxa.

The mammalian superorder Cetartiodactyla (whales and eventoed ungulates) contains nearly 300 species including many of immense commercial importance (cow, pig, and sheep) and of conservation interest and aesthetic value (antelopes, deer, giraffe, dolphins, and whales) (MacDonald, 2006). Certain members of this superorder count among the best studied organisms on earth, whether speaking morphologically, behaviorally, physiologically or genetically. Understanding the interrelationships among cetartiodactyl species, therefore, is of obvious importance with equally short sequences were not conspicuously misplaced. Although we recommend awaiting a better supported phylogeny based on more character data to reconsider classification and taxonomy within Cetartiodactyla, the new phylogenetic hypotheses provided here represent the currently best available tool for comparative species-level studies within this group. Cytb has been sequenced for a large percentage of mammals and appears to be a reliable phylogenetic marker as long as taxon sampling is dense. Therefore, an opportunity exists now to reconstruct detailed phylogenies of most of the major mammalian clades to rapidly provide much needed tools for species-level comparative studies.

Our results support the following relationship among the four major cetartiodactylan lineages (((Tylopoda ((Cetancodonta (Ruminantia + Suina))), with variable support. This arrangement has not been suggested previously, to our knowledge (see review in O’Leary and Gatesy, 2008 and discussion).

Relationships among clades within Cetancodonta are identical to those found by May-Collado and Agnarsson (2006).

Within Ruminantia all our analyzes suggest the following relationships among families: (((((Tragulidae((((Antilocapridae(((Giraffidae(( Cervidae(Moschidae + Bovidae))))) with relatively high support, supporting the subdivision of Ruminantia into Tragulina and Pecora.
In the rare cases where our results are inconsistent with benchmark clades, ad hoc explanations seem reasonable. The placement of M. meminna (Tragulidae) within Bovidae is likely an artifact of missing data, although remarkably it is the only conspicuous misplacement of a species across the whole phylogeny at the family level (while three species appear to be misplaced at the subfamily level within Cervidae in the full analysis, see Fig. 5a). This is supported by the fact that the placement of Moschiola receives low support, and the removal of Moschiola prior to analysis increases dramatically the support for clades close to where it nested (not shown, analysis available from authors), suggesting it had a tendency to ‘jump around’. Two other possibilities cannot be ruled out, however. One, that possibly the available sequence in Genbank may be mislabeled. And second, it should be kept in mind that the validity of Tragulidae has never been tested with molecular data including more than two species.

Oxygen and carbon dioxide fluctuations in burrows of subterranean blind mole rats indicate tolerance to hypoxic–hypercapnic stresses

Imad Shams, Aaron Avivi, Eviatar Nevo
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part A 142 (2005) 376 – 382
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.cbpa.2005.09.003

The composition of oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and soil humidity in the underground burrows from three species of the Israeli subterranean mole rat Spalax ehrenbergi superspecies were studied in their natural habitat. Two geographically close populations of each species from contrasting soil types were probed. Maximal CO2 levels (6.1%) and minimal O2 levels (7.2%) were recorded in northern Israel in the breeding mounds of S. carmeli in a flooded, poor drained field of heavy clay soil with very high volumetric water content. The patterns of gas fluctuations during the measurement period among the different Spalax species studied were similar. The more significant differentiation in gas levels was not among species, but between neighboring populations inhabiting heavy soils or light soils: O2 was lower and CO2 was higher in the heavy soils (clay and basaltic) compared to the relatively light soils (terra rossa and rendzina). The extreme values of gas concentration, which occurred during the rainy season, seemed to fluctuate with partial flooding of the tunnels, animal digging activity, and over-crowded breeding mounds inhabited by a nursing female and her offspring. The gas composition and soil water content in neighboring sites with different soil types indicated large differences in the levels of hypoxic–hypercapnic stress in different populations of the same species. A growing number of genes associated with hypoxic stress have been shown to exhibit structural and functional differences between the subterranean Spalax and the aboveground rat (Rattus norvegicus), probably reflecting the molecular adaptations that Spalax went through during 40 million years of evolution to survive efficiently in the severe fluctuations in gas composition in the underground habitat.

map of the studied sites

map of the studied sites

Schematic map of the studied sites: S. galili (2n =52): 1— Rehania (chalk); 2— Dalton (basaltic); S. golani (2n =54): 3— Majdal Shams (terra tossa); 4—Masa’ada (basaltic soils); S. carmeli (2n =58): 5— Al-Maker (heavy clay); 6— Muhraqa (terra rossa).

Comparison of gas composition (O2 and CO2) and water content between light and heavy soils inhabited by S. carmeli

Comparison of gas composition (O2 and CO2) and water content between light and heavy soils inhabited by S. carmeli

Comparison of gas composition (O2 and CO2) and water content between light and heavy soils inhabited by S. carmeli, Al-Maker (heavy soil) and Muhraqa (light soil). AverageTSD of measurements in the burrows of approximately 10 animals at a given date is presented. **p <0.01, T-test and Mann– Whitney test).

Subterranean mammals, which live in closed underground burrow systems, experience an atmosphere that is different from the atmosphere above-ground. Gas exchange between these two atmospheres depends on diffusion through the soil, which in turn, depends on soil particle size, water content, and burrow depth. Heavy soils (clay and basaltic), hold water and have little air space for gas diffusion. A large deviation from external gas composition is found in the burrows of Spalax living in these soil types. The maximal measured concentration of CO2 was 6.1% in Spalax breeding mounds, which is one of the highest concentrations among studied mammals in natural conditions. At the same time 7.2% O2 was measured in water saturated heavy clay soil

seasonal variation from August to March in mean O2, CO2, and soil water content

seasonal variation from August to March in mean O2, CO2, and soil water content

Example of seasonal variation from August to March in mean O2, CO2, and soil water content (VWC) in the Al-Maker population (2n =58, heavy soil). Values are presented as mean TSD.

In this study new data were presented for a wild mammal that survives in an extreme hypoxic–hypercapnic environment. Interestingly, the very low concentrations of O2 experienced by Spalax are correlated with the expression pattern of hypoxia related genes.  So far, we have shown higher and longer-term mRNA expression of erythropoietin, the main factor that regulates the level of circulating red blood cells, in subterranean Spalax compared to the above-ground rat in response to hypoxic stress, as well as differences in the response of erythropoietin to hypoxia in different populations of Spalax experiencing different hypoxic stress in nature. We also demonstrated that erythropoietin pattern of expression is different in Spalax than in Rattus throughout development, a pattern suggesting more efficient hypoxic tolerance in Spalax starting as early as in the embryonic stages. Furthermore, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which is a critical angiogenic factor that responds to hypoxia, is constitutively expressed at maximal levels in Spalax muscles, the most energy consuming tissue during digging. This level is 1.6-fold higher than in Rattus muscles and is correlated with significantly higher blood vessel concentration in the Spalax muscles compared to the Rattus muscles. Likewise, myoglobin the globin involved in oxygen homeostasis in skeletal muscles, exhibits different expression pattern under normoxia and in response to hypoxia in Spalax muscles compared to rat muscles as well as between different populations of Spalax exposed to different hypoxic stress in nature (unpublished results). Similarly, neuroglobin, a brain-specific globin involved in reversible oxygen binding, i.e., presumably in cellular homeostasis, is expressed differently in the Spalax brain compared to Rattus brain. Like erythropoietin and myoglobin also neuroglobin is expressed differently in Spalax populations experiencing different oxygen supply (unpublished results). Furthermore, Spalax p53 harbors two amino acid substitutions in its binding domain, which are identical to mutations found in p53 of human cancer cells. These substitutions endow Spalax p53 with several-fold higher activation of cell arrest and DNA repair genes compared to human p53 and favor activation of DNA repair genes over apoptotic genes. The study of specific tumoral variants indicates that such preference of growth arrest over apoptosis possibly results as a response to the hypoxic environmental stress known in tumors. Differences in the structure of other molecules related to homeostasis, namely, hemoglobin, haptoglobin (Nevo, 1999), and cytoglobin (unpublished) were also observed in Spalax.

Stress, adaptation, and speciation in the evolution of the blind mole rat, Spalax, in Israel

Eviatar Nevo
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 66 (2013) 515–525
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2012.09.008

Environmental stress played a major role in the evolution of the blind mole rat superspecies Spalax ehrenbergi, affecting its adaptive evolution and ecological speciation underground. Spalax is safeguarded all of its life underground from aboveground climatic fluctuations and predators. However, it encounters multiple stresses in its underground burrows including darkness, energetics, hypoxia, hypercapnia, food scarcity, and pathogenicity. Consequently, it evolved adaptive genomic, proteomic, and phenomic complexes to cope with those stresses. Here I describe some of these adaptive complexes, and their theoretical and applied perspectives. Spalax mosaic molecular and organismal evolution involves reductions or regressions coupled with expansions or progressions caused by evolutionary tinkering and natural genetic engineering. Speciation of Spalax in Israel occurred in the Pleistocene, during the last 2.00–2.35 Mya, generating four species associated intimately with four climatic regimes with increasing aridity stress southwards and eastwards representing an ecological speciational adaptive trend: (Spalax golani, 2n = 54?S. galili, 2n = 52?S. carmeli, 2n = 58?S. judaei, 2n = 60). Darwinian ecological speciation occurred gradually with relatively little genetic change by Robertsonian chromosomal and genic mutations. Spalax genome sequencing has just been completed. It involves multiple adaptive complexes to life underground and is an evolutionary model to a few hundred underground mammals. It involves great promise in the future for medicine, space flight, and deep-sea diving.

Stress is a major driving force of evolution (Parsons, 2005; Nevo, 2011). Parsons defined stress as the ‘‘environmental factor causing potential injurious changes to biological systems with a potential for impacts on evolutionary processes’’. The global climatic transition from the middle Eocene to the early Oligocene (45–35 Ma = Million years ago) led to extensive convergent evolution underground of small subterranean mammals across the planet (Nevo, 1999; Lacey et al., 2000; Bennett and Faulkes, 2000; Begall et al., 2007). The subterranean ecotope provided small mammals with shelter from predators and extreme aboveground climatic stressful fluctuations of temperature and humidity. However, they had to evolve genomic adaptive complexes for the immense underground stresses of darkness, energy for burrowing in solid soil, low productivity and food scarcity, hypoxia, hypercapnia, and high infectivity. These stresses have been described in Nevo (1999, 2011) and Nevo et al. (2001); and Nevo list of Spalax publication at http://evolution.haifa.ac.il with many cited references relevant to these stresses).

blind subterranean mole rat of the Spalax ehrenbergi superspecies

blind subterranean mole rat of the Spalax ehrenbergi superspecies

The blind subterranean mole rat of the Spalax ehrenbergi superspecies in Israel. An extreme example of adaptation to life underground

Circadian rhythm and genes

adaptive circadian genes. We identified the circadian rhythm of Spalax
(Nevo et al., 1982) and described, cloned, sequenced, and expressed several circadian genes in Spalax. These include Clock, MOP3, three Period (Per), and cryptochromes (Avivi et al., 2001, 2002, 2003). The Spalax circadian genes are differentially conserved, yet characterized by a significant number of amino acid substitutions. The glutamine-rich area of Clock, which is assumed to function in circadian rhythmicity, is expanded in Spalax compared with that of mice and humans and is different in amino acid composition from that of rats. All three Per genes of Spalax oscillate with a periodicity of 24 h in the suprachaismatic nucleus, eye, and Harderian gland and are expressed in peripheral organs. Per genes are involved in clock resetting. Spalax Per 3 is unique in mammals though its function is still unresolved. The Spalax Per genes contribute to the unique adaptive circadian rhythm to life underground. The cryptochrome (Cry) genes, found in animals and plants, act both as photoreceptors and as ingredients of the negative feedback mechanism of the biological Clock. The CRY 1 protein is significantly closer to the human homolog than to that of mice, as was also shown in parts of the immunogenetic system. Both Cry 1 and Cry 2 mRNAs were found in the SCN, eye, harderian gland, and in peripheral tissues. Remarkably, the distinctly hypertrophied harderian gland is central in Spalax’s unique underground circadian rhythmicity (Pevet et al., 1984).

  • Spalax eye mosaic evolution
  • Gene expression in the eye of Spalax
  • Brain evolution in Spalax to underground stresses
  • Spalax: four species in Israel

The morphological, physiological, and behavioral Spalax eye patterns are underlain by gene expression representing regressive and progressive associated transcripts. Regressive transcripts involve B-2 microglobulin, transketolase, four keratins, alpha enolase, and different heat shock proteins. Several proteins may be involved in eye degeneration. These include heat shock protein 90alpha (hsp90alpha), found also in the blind fish Astyanax mexicanus, two transcripts of programmed cell death proteins, oculospanin, and peripherin 2, both belonging to the Tetraspanin family, in which 60 different mutations cause eye degeneration in humans. Several progressive transcripts in the Spalax eye are found in the retina of many mammals involving gluthatione, peroxidase 4, B spectrin, and Ankyrin; the last two characterize rod cells in the retina. Some transcripts are involved in metabolic processing of retinal, a vertebrate key component in phototransduction, and a relative of vitamin A.

cross section of the developing eye of the mole rat

cross section of the developing eye of the mole rat

Light micrographs showing cross section of the developing eye of the mole rat Spalax ehrenbergi. (A) Optic cup and lens vesicle initially develop normally (x100). (B) Eye at a later embryonic stage. Note appearance of iris-ciliary body rudiment (arrows), and development of the lens nucleus (L). ON, optic nerve (x100). (C) Eye at a still later fetal stage. Note massive growth of the iris-ciliary body complex colobomatous opening (arrow) (x100). (D) Early postnatal stage. The iris-ciliary body complex completely fills the chamber. The lens is vascularized and vacuolated (x100). (E) Adult eye. Eyelids are completely closed and pupil is absent. Note atrophic appearance of the optic disc region (arrow) (x65). (F) Higher magnification of the adult retina. The different retinal layers are retained: PE, pigment epithelium: RE, receptor layer; ON, outer nuclear layer: IN, inner nuclear layer; GC, ganglion cell layer (x500) (from Sanyal et al., 1990, Fig. 1).

The brains of subterranean mammals underwent dramatic evolution in accordance with underground stresses for digging and photoperiodic perception associated with vibrational, tactile, vocal, olfactory, and magnetic communication systems replacing sight, as is seen in Spalax. The brain of Spalax is twice as large as that of the laboratory rat of the same body size. The somatosensory region in the isocortex of Spalax is 1.7 times, the thalamic nuclei 1.3 times, and the motor cortex 3.1 times larger than in the sighted laboratory rat Rattus norvegicus matched to body size.

The ecological stress determinant in Spalax brain evolution is highlighted by the four species of the Spalax ehrenbergi superspecies in Israel. They differentiated chromosomally (by means of Robertsonian mutations and fission), allopatrically, and clinally southwards into four species associated with different climatic regimes, following the gradient of increasing aridity stress and decreasing predictability southwards towards the desert: Spalax galili (2n = 52) ->S. golani (2n = 54)->S. carmeli (2n = 58)->S. judaei (2n = 60), and eastwards S. galili ->S. golani (2n = 52–>54) (Fig. 2). This chromosomal speciation trend southwards is associated with the regional aridity stress southwards (and eastwards) in Israel, budding new species adapted genomically, proteomically, and phenomically (i.e., in morphology, physiology, and behavior) to increasing stresses of higher solar radiation, temperature, and drought southwards (Nevo, 1999; Nevo et al., 2001; Nevo
list of Spalax at http://evolution.haifa.ac.il). A uniquely recent discovery of incipient sympatric ecological speciation at a microscale in Spalax triggered by local stresses occurs within Spalax galili.

retinal input to primary visual structures in Spalax

retinal input to primary visual structures in Spalax

Relative degree of retinal input to primary visual structures in Spalax, hamster, rat, and Spalacopus cyanus (South American Octodontidae, ‘‘coruro’’). These rodents are of similar body size (120–140 g). B. Relative degree of change in the proportions of retinal input to different primary visual structures in Spalax compared with measures obtained in other rodents. A relative progressive development in Spalax is seen in structures involved in photoperiodic and neuroendocrine functions (SCN, BNST).The main regressive feature is the drastic relative reduction of retinal input to the superior colliculus. The main regressive feature is the drastic reduction of retinal input to the superior colliculus. The relative size of other visual structures in Spalax is modified compared to that of the other species. c. Comparison of the absolute size (volume, mm3 x 10-4) of visual structures in Spalax and other rodents. The size of the SCN is equivalent in all species. The vLGN and dLGN are reduced by 87–93% in Spalax. The retino-recipient layers of the superior colliculus are reduced by 97%. Abbreviations: SCN: suprachiasmatic nucleus; BNST: bed nucleus of the stria terminalis; dLGN: dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus; SC: superior colliculus [From Cooper et al., 1993 (Fig 3)].

Subterranean life has a high energetic cost if an animal has to burrow in order to obtain its food. For a 150 g Thomomys bottae, burrowing 1 m may be 360–3400 times more expensive energetically than moving the same distance on the surface (Vleck, 1979). Mean rates of oxygen consumption during burrowing at 22 oC are from 2.8 to 7.1 times the RMR. Vleck developed a model examining the energetics of foraging by burrowing and found that, in the desert, Thomomys adjusts the burrow segment length to minimize the cost of burrowing. Since burrowing becomes less economic as body size increases, Vleck (1981) predicted that the maximum possible body size that a subterranean mammal can attain depends on a balance between habitat productivity and the cost of burrowing in local soils. Vleck’s cost of burrowing hypothesis has been verified in multiple cases. Heth (1989) demonstrated longer burrows in the rendzina soil and shorter ones in the terra rossa soil, associating lower productivity in the former for Spalax.

Food is a limiting factor for subterranean mammals. The abundance and distribution of food explain some of the ecological, physiological, and behavioral characteristics of subterranean mammals. In a field test of Spalax foraging strategy, we concluded that Spalax was a generalist due to the constraints of the subterranean ecotope. Restricted foraging time primarily during the winter when soil is wet, and the high energetic investment of tunneling to get to food items is significantly reduced than in summertime.
We also identified a decrease in the basic metabolic rate towards the desert, i.e., economizing energetics. The maintenance of adequate O2 transport in a subterranean mammal confronting hypoxia requires adaptation along the O2 transport system, achieved by increasing the flow of O2 in the convection systems (ventilation and perfusion) and by reduction of oxygen pressure (PO2) gradients at the diffusion barriers (lung blood, blood-tissue (Arieli, 1990). The PO2 gradient between blood capillaries and respiring mitochondria capillaries is large, and any adaptation at this level could be significant for O2 transport. Reduction of diffusion distance in a muscle can be achieved, like in Spalax, by increasing the number of capillaries that surround muscle fiber or by reducing fiber areas.

Geographic distribution in Israel of the four chromosomal species belonging to the S. ehrenbergi superspecies

Geographic distribution in Israel of the four chromosomal species belonging to the S. ehrenbergi superspecies

Geographic distribution in Israel of the four chromosomal species belonging to the S. ehrenbergi superspecies that are separated by narrow hybrid zones (2n = 52, 54, 58, and 60, now named as S. galili, S. golani, S. carmeli, and S. judaei, respectively; see Nevo et al., 2001).

Spalacid evolution, based on mtDNA, is driven by climatic oscillations and stresses. The underground ecotope provided subterranean mammals with shelter from extreme climate (temperature and humidity) fluctuations, and predators. However, they had to extensively and intensively adapt to the multiple underground stresses (darkness, energetic, low productivity and
food scarcity, hypoxia, hypercapnia, and high infectivity). All subterranean mammals, including spalacids as an extreme case, share convergent molecular and organismal adaptations to their shared unique underground ecotope. Evolution underground, as exemplified here in spalacids, led to mosaic molecular and organismal evolutionary syndromes to cope with multiple stresses.

Speciation involves all rates – from gradual to rapid. Subterranean mammals, with the spalacid example discussed above, provide uniquely rich evolutionary global tests of speciation and adaptation, convergence, regression, progression, and mosaic evolutionary processes. Adaptation and speciation underground was one of the most dramatic natural experiments verifying Darwinian evolution.

The Spalax genome sequencing has just been completed. It is being analyzed and will soon be published in 2012. This will be a milestone in understanding how numerous mammals across the globe, who found underground shelter from climatic fluctuations and stresses above ground, cope with the new suite of stresses they encountered underground, demanding a new engineering overhaul on all organizational levels, selecting for adaptive complexes to cope with the new underground stresses. The main current and future challenges are to compare and contrast genome sequences and identify the genomic basis of adaptation and speciation.

This global Cenozoic experiment could answer the following open questions: How heterozygous is the whole genome? How prevalent are retrotransposons and what is their functional role? How many genes are involved in the Spalax genome and how are they regulated? What are the genic and regulatory networks resisting the multiple stresses underground? How much of the Spalax genome is conserved and how much is reorganized to cope with the underground stresses? How is the solitary blind mole rat, Spalax, different from the social naked mole rat Heterocephalus? How are the processes of reduction, expansion, and genetic tinkering and engineering reflected across the genome? How effective is copy number variation in regulation? Is there similarity in the transcriptomes of subterranean mammals? How could we harness the rich genome repertoire of Spalax to revolutionize medicine, especially in the realm of hypoxia tolerance and the related major diseases of the western world, e.g., cancer, stroke, and cardiovascular diseases? What is the phylogenetic origin of Spalax? How much of the Spalax genome represents its phylogenetic roots and how much of coding and noncoding genomic regions are shared with other subterranean mammals across the globe in adapting to life underground?

The Atmospheric Environment of the Fossorial Mole Rat (Spalax Ehrenbergi): Effects of Season, Soil Texture, Rain, Temperature and Activity

  1. Arieli
    Comp Biochen Physiol. 1978; 63A:569-5151. The fossorial mole rat (Spalax ehrenbergi) may inhabit heavy soil with low gas permeability.
  2. Air composition in burrows in heavy soil deviates from atmospheric air more than that of burrows in light soil.
  3. In winter and spring O2 and CO2 concentrations in breeding mounds were 16.5% O2 and 2.5-3x CO2 and the extreme values measured were 14.0% O2 and 4.8% Cot.
  4. Hypoxia and hypercapnia in the burrow develop shortly after rain and when ambient temperature drops.
  5. Composition of the burrows air is influenced by the solubility of CO2 in soil water and by faster penetration of oxygen than outflowing of CO2.

Hypo-osmotic stress-induced physiological and ion-osmoregulatory responses in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) are modulated differentially by nutritional status

Amit Kumar Sinha, AF Dasan, R Rasoloniriana, N Pipralia, R Blust, G De Boeck
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part A 181 (2015) 87–99
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2014.11.024

We investigated the impact of nutritional status on the physiological, metabolic and ion-osmoregulatory performance of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)when acclimated to seawater (32 ppt), brackishwater (20 and 10 ppt) and hyposaline water (2.5 ppt) for 2 weeks. Following acclimation to different salinities, fish were either fed or fasted (unfed for 14 days). Plasma osmolality, [Na+], [Cl−] and muscle water contentwere severely altered in fasted fish acclimated to 10 and 2.5 ppt in comparison to normal seawater-acclimated fish, suggesting ion regulation and acid–base balance disturbances. In contrast to feed-deprived fish, fed fish were able to avoid osmotic perturbation more effectively. This was accompanied by an increase in Na+/K+-ATPase expression and activity, transitory activation of H+-ATPase (only at 2.5 ppt) and down-regulation of Na+/K+/2Cl− gene expression. Ammonia excretion rate was inhibited to a larger extent in fasted fish acclimated to low salinities while fed fish were able to excrete efficiently. Consequently, the build-up of ammonia in the plasma of fed fish was relatively lower. Energy stores, especially glycogen and lipid, dropped in the fasted fish at low salinities and progression towards the anaerobic metabolic pathway became evident by an increase in plasma lactate level. Overall, the results indicate no osmotic stress in both feeding treatments within the salinity range of 32 to 20 ppt. However, at lower salinities (10–2.5 ppt) feed deprivation tends to reduce physiological, metabolic, ion-osmo-regulatory and molecular compensatory mechanisms and thus limits the fish’s abilities to adapt to a hypo-osmotic environment.

The absence of ion-regulatory suppression in the gills of the aquatic air-breathing fish Trichogaster lalius during oxygen stress

Chun-Yen Huang, Hsueh-Hsi Lin, Cheng-Huang Lin, Hui-Chen Lin
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part A 179 (2015) 7–16
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2014.08.017

The strategy for most teleost to survive in hypoxic or anoxic conditions is to conserve energy expenditure, which can be achieved by suppressing energy-consuming activities such as ion regulation. However, an air-breathing fish can cope with hypoxic stress using a similar adjustment or by enhancing gas exchange ability, both behaviorally and physiologically. This study examined Trichogaster lalius, an air-breathing fish without apparent gill modification, for their gill ion-regulatory abilities and glycogen utilization under a hypoxic  treatment. We recorded air-breathing frequency, branchial morphology, and the expression of ion-regulatory proteins (Na+/K+-ATPase and vacuolar-type H+-ATPase) in the 1st and 4th gills and labyrinth organ (LO), and the expression of glycogen utilization (GP, glycogen phosphorylase protein expression and glycogen content) and other protein responses (catalase, CAT; carbonic anhydrase II, CAII; heat shock protein 70, HSP70; hypoxia-inducible factor-1α, HIF-1α; proliferating cell nuclear antigen, PCNA; superoxidase dismutase, SOD) in the gills of T. lalius after 3 days in hypoxic and restricted conditions. No morphological modification of the 1st and 4th gills was observed. The air breathing behavior of the fish and CAII protein expression both increased under hypoxia. Ion-regulatory abilities were not suppressed in the hypoxic or restricted groups, but glycogen utilization was enhanced within the groups. The expression of HIF-1α, HSP70 and PCNA did not vary among the treatments. Regarding the antioxidant system, decreased CAT enzyme activity was observed among the groups. In conclusion, during hypoxic stress, T. lalius did not significantly reduce energy consumption but enhanced gas exchange ability and glycogen expenditure.

The combined effect of hypoxia and nutritional status on metabolic and ionoregulatory responses of common carp (Cyprinus carpio)

Sofie Moyson, HJ Liew, M Diricx, AK Sinha, R Blusta, G De Boeck
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part A 179 (2015) 133–143
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2014.09.017

In the present study, the combined effects of hypoxia and nutritional status were examined in common carp (Cyprinus carpio), a relatively hypoxia tolerant cyprinid. Fish were either fed or fasted and were exposed to hypoxia (1.5–1.8mgO2 L−1) at or slightly above their critical oxygen concentration during 1, 3 or 7 days followed by a 7 day recovery period. Ventilation initially increased during hypoxia, but fasted fish had lower ventilation frequencies than fed fish. In fed fish, ventilation returned to control levels during hypoxia, while in fasted fish recovery only occurred after reoxygenation. Due to this, C. carpio managed, at least in part, to maintain aerobic metabolism during hypoxia: muscle and plasma lactate levels remained relatively stable although they tended to be higher in fed fish (despite higher ventilation rates). However, during recovery, compensatory responses differed greatly between both feeding regimes: plasma lactate in fed fish increased with a simultaneous breakdown of liver glycogen indicating increased energy use, while fasted fish seemed to economize energy and recycle decreasing plasma lactate levels into increasing liver glycogen levels. Protein was used under both feeding regimes during hypoxia and subsequent recovery: protein levels reduced mainly in liver for fed fish and in muscle for fasted fish. Overall, nutritional status had a greater impact on energy reserves than the lack of oxygen with a lower hepatosomatic index and lower glycogen stores in fasted fish. Fasted fish transiently increased Na+/K+-ATPase activity under hypoxia, but in general ionoregulatory balance proved to be only slightly disturbed, showing that sufficient energy was left for ion regulation.

The effect of temperature and body size on metabolic scope of activity in juvenile Atlantic cod Gadus morhua L.

Bjørn Tirsgaard, Jane W. Behrens, John F. Steffensen
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part A 179 (2015) 89–94
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2014.09.033

Changes in ambient temperature affect the physiology and metabolism and thus the distribution of fish. In this study we used intermittent flow respirometry to determine the effect of temperature (2, 5, 10, 15 and 20 °C) and wet body mass (BM) (~30–460 g) on standard metabolic rate (SMR, mg O2 h−1), maximum metabolic rate (MMR, mg O2 h−1) and metabolic scope (MS, mg O2 h−1) of juvenile Atlantic cod. SMR increased with BM irrespectively of temperature, resulting in an average scaling exponent of 0.87 (0.82–0.92). Q10 values were 1.8–2.1 at temperatures between 5 and 15 °C but higher (2.6–4.3) between 2 and 5 °C and lower (1.6–1.4) between 15 and 20 °C in 200 and 450 g cod. MMR increased with temperature in the smallest cod (50 g) but in the larger cod MMR plateaued between 10, 15 and 20 °C. This resulted in a negative correlation between the optimal temperature for MS (Topt) and BM, Topt being respectively 14.5, 11.8 and 10.9 °C in a 50, 200 and 450 g cod. Irrespective of BM cold water temperatures resulted in a reduction (30–35%) of MS whereas the reduction of MS at warm temperatures was only evident for larger fish (200 and 450 g), caused by plateauing of MMR at 10 °C and above. Warm temperatures thus seem favorable for smaller (50 g) juvenile cod, but not for larger conspecifics (200 and 450 g).

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Altitude Adaptation

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Altitude Adaptation

Writer and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP 

 

Introduction

Land adapted animals depend on respiration for oxygen supply, but have adapted to altitudes that have difference oxygen contents.  In this discussion we explore how animals have adapted to oxygen supply in different terrestrial habitats, and also how humans adjust to short term changes in high and extreme altitudes.

High-altitude adaptation is an evolutionary modification in animals, most notably in birds and mammals, by which species are subjected to considerable physiological changes to survive in extremely high mountainous environments. As opposed to short-term adaptation, or more properly acclimatization (which is basically an immediate physiological response to changing environment), the term “high-altitude adaptation” has strictly developed into the description of an irreversible, long-term physiological responses to high-altitude environments, associated with heritable behavioral and genetic changes. Perhaps, the phenomenon is most conspicuous, at least best documented, in human populations such as the Tibetans, the South Americans and the Ethiopians, who live in the otherwise uninhabitable high mountains of the Himalayas, Andes and Ethiopia respectively; and this represents one of the finest examples of natural selection in action.

Oxygen, essential for animal life, is proportionally abundant in the atmosphere with height from the sea level; hence, the highest mountain ranges of the world are considered unsuitable for habitation. Surprisingly, some 140 million people live permanently at high altitudes (>2,500 m) in North, Central and South America, East Africa, and Asia, and flourish very well for millennia in the exceptionally high mountains, without any apparent complications. This has become a recognized instance of the process of Darwinian evolution in humans acting on favorable characters such as enhanced respiratory mechanisms. As a matter of fact, this adaptation is so far the fastest case of evolution in humans that is scientifically documented. Among animals only few mammals (such as yak, ibex, Tibetan gazelle, vicunas, llamas, mountain goats, etc.) and certain birds are known to have completely adapted to high-altitude environments.

These adaptations are an example of convergent evolution, with adaptations occurring simultaneously on three continents. Tibetan humans and Tibetan domestic dogs found the genetic mutation in both species, EPAS1. This mutation has not been seen in Andean humans, showing the effect of a shared environment on evolution.

At elevation higher than 8,000 metres (26,000 ft), which is called the “death zone” in mountaineering, the available oxygen in the air is so low that it is considered insufficient to support life. And higher than 7,600 m is seriously lethal. Yet, there are Tibetans, Ethiopians and Americans who habitually live at places higher than 2,500 m from the sea level. For normal human population, even a brief stay at these places means mountain sickness, which is a syndrome of hypoxia or severe lack of oxygen, with complications such as fatigue, dizziness, breathlessness, headaches, insomnia, malaise, nausea, vomiting, body pain, loss of appetite, ear-ringing, blistering and purpling and of the hands and feet, and dilated veins. Amazingly for the native highlanders, there are no adverse effects; in fact, they are perfectly normal in all respects. Basically, the physiological and genetic adaptations in these people involve massive modification in the oxygen transport system of the blood, especially molecular changes in the structure and functions hemoglobin, a protein for carrying oxygen in the body. This is to compensate for perpetual low oxygen environment. This adaptation is associated with better developmental patterns such as high birth weight, increased lung volumes, increased breathing, and higher resting metabolism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_adaptation

Acute Mountain Sickness: Pathophysiology, Prevention, and Treatment

Chris Imraya, Alex Wright, Andrew Subudhie,, Robert Roache
Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases 52 (2010) 467–484
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.pcad.2010.02.003

Barometric pressure falls with increasing altitude and consequently there is a reduction in the partial pressure of oxygen resulting in a hypoxic challenge to any individual ascending to altitude. A spectrum of high altitude illnesses can occur when the hypoxic stress outstrips the subject’s ability to acclimatize. Acute altitude-related problems consist of the common syndrome of acute mountain sickness, which is relatively benign and usually self-limiting, and the rarer, more serious syndromes of high-altitude cerebral edema and high-altitude pulmonary edema. A common feature of acute altitude illness is rapid ascent by otherwise fit individuals to altitudes above 3000 m without sufficient time to acclimatize. The susceptibility of an individual to high altitude syndromes is variable but generally reproducible. Prevention of altitude-related illness by slow ascent is the best approach, but this is not always practical. The immediate management of serious illness requires oxygen (if available) and descent of more than 300 m as soon as possible. In this article, we describe the setting and clinical features of acute mountain sickness and high altitude cerebral edema, including an overview of the known pathophysiology, and explain contemporary practices for both prevention and treatment exploring the comprehensive evidence base for the various interventions.

Acute mountain sickness (AMS) and high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE) strike people who travel too fast to high altitudes that lie beyond their current level of acclimatization. Understanding AMS and HACE is important because AMS can sharply limit recreation and work at high altitude. The syndromes can be identified early and reliably without sophisticated instruments, and when AMS and HACE are recognized early, most cases respond rapidly with complete recovery in a few hours (AMS) to days (HACE).

High-altitude headache (HAH) is the primary symptom of AMS. High-altitude headache in AMS usually occurs with some combination of other symptoms.
These are –  insomnia, fatigue (beyond that expected from the day’s activities), dizziness, anorexia, and nausea. The headache often worsens during the night and with exertion. Insomnia is the next most frequent complaint. Poor sleep can occur secondary to periodic breathing, severe headache, dizziness, and shortness of breath, among other causes. Anorexia and nausea are common, with vomiting reported less frequently in trekkers to 4243 m.

AMS is distinguished only by symptoms. The progression of AMS to HACE is marked by altered mental status, including impaired mental capacity, drowsiness, stupor, and ataxia. Coma may develop as soon as 24 hours after the onset of ataxia or change in mental status. The severity of AMS can be scored using the Lake Louise Questionnaire, or the more detailed Environmental Symptoms Questionnaire, or by the use of a simple analogue scale. Today, more than 100 years after the first clear clinical descriptions of AMS and HACE, we have advanced our understanding of the physiology of acclimatization to high altitude, and the pathophysiology of AMS and HACE.

As altitude increases, barometric pressure falls (see Fig ). This fall in barometric pressure causes a corresponding drop in the partial pressure of oxygen (21% of barometric pressure) resulting in hypobaric hypoxia. Hypoxia is the major challenge humans face at high altitude, and the primary cause of AMS and HACE. It follows that oxygen partial pressure is more important than
geographic altitude, as exemplified near the poles where the atmosphere is thinner and, thus, barometric pressure is lower. Lower barometric pressure at the poles can result in oxygen partial pressures that are physiologically equivalent to altitudes 100 to 200 m higher at more moderate latitudes. We define altitude regions as high altitude (1500-3500 m), very high altitude (3500-5500 m), and extreme altitude (>5500 m).

Neurological consequences of increasing altitude

Neurological consequences of increasing altitude

Neurological consequences of increasing altitude: The relation among altitude (classified as high [1500–3500 m], very high [3500-5500 m] and extreme [>5500 m]), the partial pressure of oxygen, and the neurological consequences of acute and gradual exposure to these pressure changes. Neurological consequences will vary greatly from person to person and with rate of ascent. HACE is far more common at higher altitudes, although there are case reports of HACE at 2500 m.

It is important for any discussion of AMS and HACE to have as a starting point an understanding of acclimatization. The process of acclimatization involves a series of adjustments by the body to meet the challenge of hypoxemia. While we have a general understanding of systemic changes associated with acclimatization, the underlying molecular and cellular processes are not yet fully described. Recent findings suggest that the process may be initiated by widespread molecular up-regulation of hypoxia inducible factor-1. Downstream processes ultimately act to offset hypoxemia, including elevated ventilation leading to a rise in arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2), a mild diuresis and contraction of plasma volume such that more oxygen is carried per unit of blood, elevated blood flow and oxygen delivery, and eventually a greater circulating hemoglobin mass. Acclimatization can be viewed as the end-stage process of how humans can best adjust to hypoxia. But optimal acclimatization takes from days to weeks, or perhaps even months.

The initial and immediate strategy to protect the body from hypoxia is to increase ventilation. This compensatory mechanism is triggered by stimulation of the carotid bodies, which sense hypoxemia (low arterial PO2), and increase central respiratory drive. This is a fast response, occurring within minutes of exposure to hypoxia persisting throughout high altitude exposure. This is why one cautions against the use of respiratory depressants such as alcohol and some sleeping medications, which can depress the hypoxic drive to breathe and may thus worsen hypoxemia. Pharmacological simulation of this natural process by acetazolamide, a respiratory stimulant and mild diuretic, largely protects from AMS and HACE by stimulating acclimatization. Circulatory responses are key to improving oxygen delivery, and are likely regulated by marked elevations in sympathetic activity. Field experience suggests that a marked elevation in early morning resting heart rate is a sign of challenges to acclimatization, perhaps secondary to increased hypoxemia, or dehydration. For the pathophysiology of AMS and HACE responses of the cerebral circulation are especially important. Maintenance of cerebral oxygen delivery is a critical factor for survival at high altitude. The balance between hypoxic vasodilation and hypocapnia-induced vasoconstriction determines overall cerebral blood flow (CBF). In a classic study, CBF increased 24% on abrupt ascent to 3810 m, and then returned to normal over 3 to 5 days. Recent studies, largely using regional transcranial Doppler measures of CBF velocity as a proxy for CBF, report discernible individual variation in the CBF response to hypoxia. All advanced brain imaging studies to date have shown both elevations in CBF in hypoxic humans and striking heterogeneity of CBF distribution in the hypoxic brain, with CBF rising up to 33% in the hypothalamus, and 20% in the thalamus with no other significant changes. Also, it is becoming clear that cerebral autoregulation, the process by which cerebral perfusion is maintained as blood pressure varies, is impaired in hypoxia. Thus, hypoxia modulates cerebral autoregulation and raises interesting questions about the importance of this process in AMS and acclimatization, since it appears to be a uniform response in all humans made hypoxemic. Further, hematocrit and hemoglobin concentration are elevated after 12 to 24 hours of hypoxic exposure due to a fall in plasma volume, but after several weeks,  plasma volume returns to near sea level values. Normalization of plasma volume coupled with an increase in red cell mass secondary to the hypoxia stimulated erythropoiesis leads to an increase in total blood volume after several weeks of acclimatization. Adequate iron stores are required for adequate hematologic acclimatization to high altitude. Acclimatization, then, is a series of physiological responses to hypoxia that serve to offset hypoxemia, improve systemic oxygen delivery, and avoid AMS and HACE. When acclimatization fails, or the challenge of hypoxia is too great, AMS and HACE can develop.

AMS occurs in susceptible individuals when ascent to high altitude outpaces the ability to acclimatize. For example, most people ascending very rapidly to high altitude will get AMS. The symptoms, although often initially incapacitating, usually resolve in 24 to 48 hrs. The incidence and severity of AMS depend on the rate of ascent and the altitude attained, the length of time at altitude, the degree of physical exertion, and the individual’s physiological susceptibility. The chief significance of AMS is that planned activities may be impossible to complete during the first few days at a new altitude due to symptoms. In addition, in a few individuals, AMS may progress to life-threatening HACE or HAPE. At 4000 m and above, the incidence of AMS ranges from 50% to 65% depending on the rate and mode of ascent, altitude reached, and sleeping altitude. A survey of 3158 travelers visiting resorts in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado revealed that 25% developed AMS, and most decreased their daily activity because of their symptoms.

Singh et al. proposed that the high-altitude syndromes are secondary to the body’s responses to hypobaric hypoxia, not due simply to hypoxemia. They based this conclusion on 2 observations:

  • there is a delay between the onset of hypoxia and the onset of symptoms after ascent (from hours to days), and
  • not all symptoms are immediately reversed with oxygen.

On the other hand, scientists have long assumed that AMS and HACE are due solely to hypoxia, based largely on 2 reports:

  • the pioneering experiments of Paul Bert and
  • the Glass House experiment of Barcroft.

When these assumptions were tested in a laboratory setting to study symptom responses to hypobaric hypoxia (simulated high altitude), hypoxia alone, and hypobaric normoxia, AMS occurred soonest and with greater severity with simulated altitude, compared with either normobaric hypoxia or normoxic hypobaria.  In 2 studies, one in normobaric hypoxia found no MRI signs of vasogenic edema but suggested that AMS was associated with “cytotoxic edema”, whereas a comparable study in hypobaric hypoxia found combined vasogenic and intracellular edema. The conclusions from the 2 studies have very different implications for refining a theory of the pathophysiology of AMS. Although the studies were not designed for a direct comparison between hypobaria and hypoxia, the discrepancy points out an assumption about normobaric hypoxia and the pathophysiology of AMS that may warrant further investigation.

Our central hypothesis regarding the pathophysiology of AMS, and by extension of HACE, is that it is centered on dysfunction within the brain. This is not a new idea, but it is one of current intense interest thanks to advances in brain imaging and neuroscience techniques. Barcroft, writing in 1924, argued that the brain’s response to hypoxia was central to understanding the pathophysiology of mountain sickness.

A low ventilatory response to hypoxia coupled with increased symptoms of AMS led to intensive investigation of a link between the chemical control of ventilation and the pathogenesis of AMS. The results of these investigations suggest that for most people, the ventilatory response to hypoxia has little predictive value for AMS risk. Only if the extremes of ventilator responsiveness are contrasted can accurate predictions be made, where those with extremely low ventilatory drives being more likely to suffer AMS. At the extreme end of the distribution (i.e., for very high responses), the protective role of a brisk hypoxic ventilatory response may be due to increased arterial oxygen content and cerebral oxygen delivery despite mild hypocapnic cerebral vasoconstriction.

Hansen and Evans were the first to publish a comprehensive hypothesis of the pathophysiology of AMS centered on the brain. Their theory posited that compression of the brain, either by increased cerebral venous volume, reduced absorption of cerebral spinal fluid, or increased brain-tissue hydration (edema), initiates the development of the symptoms and signs of AMS and HACE. Ross built on these ideas with his “tight fit hypothesis,” published in 1985, and others have developed these ideas into a series of testable hypotheses congruent with today’s knowledge of AMS and HACE. The tight fit hypothesis states that expanded intracranial volume (due to the reasons put forth by Hansen and Evans, or other causes) plus the volume available for intracranial buffering of that expanded volume would predict who would get AMS. Greater buffering capacity leads to AMS resistance, lower buffering capacity, or a ‘tight fit’ of the brain in the cranial vault, would lead to greater AMS susceptibility. Overall, it is clear that brain volume increases in humans on exposure to hypoxia. It is less certain whether this elevation in brain volume plays a role in AMS.

Hackett’s pioneering MRI study in HACE, with marked white matter edema suggestive of a vasogenic origin, has led to a decade of studies looking for a similar finding in AMS. In moderate to severe AMS, all imaging studies have shown some degree of cerebral edema. But in mild to moderate AMS, admittedly an arbitrary and subjective distinction, brain edema is present in some MRI studies of AMS subjects, but not in all. It seems reasonable to conclude from the available data that the increase in brain volume observed is at least partially due to brain edema, and that earlier studies missed the edema more for technical than physiological reasons. It is less clear whether the brain edema is largely of intracellular or vasogenic origin, and what role if any it plays in the pathophysiology of AMS.

Although we support transcranial doppler for many investigations in integrative physiology, the complex interplay of hypoxia and hypocapnia that is present in acutely hypoxic humans may present a situation where whole brain imaging is a more reliable and accurate tool to discern the role of CBF in the onset of AMS. To date, no brain imaging studies have addressed global cerebral perfusion in AMS.

The management of AMS and HACE is based on our current understanding of the physiological and pathophysiological responses to hypoxia. Hypoxia itself, however, does not immediately lead to AMS as there is a delay of several hours after arrival at high altitude before symptoms develop. Increased knowledge of hypoxic inducible factor and cytokines that alter capillary permeability may lead to the discovery of new drugs for the prevention and alleviation of AMS and HACE.

Much work has focused on the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a potent permeability factor up-regulated by hypoxia. Some studies have found no evidence of an association of changes in plasma concentrations of VEGF and AMS, whereas others support the hypothesis that VEGF contributes to the pathogensis of AMS. Clearly a better understanding of the mechanisms of increased capillary permeability of cerebral capillaries will greatly enhance the management of AMS and HACE.

Flying high: A theoretical analysis of the factors limiting exercise performance in birds at altitude

Graham R. Scott, William K. Milsom
Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology 154 (2006) 284–301
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.resp.2006.02.012

The ability of some bird species to fly at extreme altitude has fascinated comparative respiratory physiologists for decades, yet there is still no consensus about what adaptations enable high altitude flight. Using a theoretical model of O2 transport, we performed a sensitivity analysis of the factors that might limit exercise performance in birds. We found that the influence of individual physiological traits on oxygen consumption (˙VO2 ) during exercise differed between sea level, moderate altitude, and extreme altitude. At extreme altitude, hemoglobin (Hb) O2 affinity, total ventilation, and tissue diffusion capacity for O2 (DTO2) had the greatest influences on VO2; increasing these variables should therefore have the greatest adaptive benefit for high altitude flight. There was a beneficial interaction between DTO2 and the P50 of Hb, such that increasing DTO2 had a greater influence on VO2 when P50 was low. Increases in the temperature effect on P50 could also be  beneficial for high flying birds, provided that cold inspired air at extreme altitude causes a substantial difference in temperature between blood in the lungs and in the tissues. Changes in lung diffusion capacity for O2, cardiac output, blood Hb concentration, the Bohr coefficient, or the Hill coefficient likely have less adaptive significance at high altitude. Our sensitivity analysis provides theoretical suggestions of the adaptations most likely to promote high altitude flight in birds and provides direction for future in vivo studies.

The bird lung is unique among the lungs of air-breathing vertebrates, with a blood flow that is crosscurrent to gas flow, and a gas flow that occurs unidirectionally through rigid parabronchioles. As such, bird lungs are inherently more efficient than the lungs of other air-breathing vertebrates (Piiper and Scheid, 1972, 1975). While this may partially account for the greater hypoxia tolerance of birds in general when compared to mammals (cf. Scheid, 1990), its presence in all birds excludes the crosscurrent lung as a possible adaptation specific to high altitude fliers. Similarly, an extremely small diffusion distance across the blood–gas interface compared to other air breathers seems to be a characteristic of all bird lungs, and not just those of high fliers (Maina and King, 1982; Powell and Mazzone, 1983; Shams and Scheid, 1989). Partly because of this small diffusion distance, the inherent O2 diffusion capacity across the gas–blood interface (DLO2) is generally high in birds. Interestingly, pulmonary vasoconstriction does not appear to increase during hypoxia in bar-headed geese (Faraci et al., 1984a). This may be a significant advantage during combined exercise and severe hypoxia, and suggests that regulation of lung blood flow could be important in high altitude birds. In addition, the CO2/pH sensitivity of ventilation is commonly assessed by comparing the isocapnic and poikilocapnic hypoxic ventilatory responses; however, the isocapnic ventilatory responses to hypoxia of both low and high altitude birds have not been compared. In this regard, the ventilator response in high altitude birds may also depend on their capacity to maintain intracellular pH during alkalosis, or to buffer changes in extracellular pH due to hyperventilation. It therefore remains to be conclusively determined whether high altitude fliers have a greater capacity to increase ventilation during severe hypoxia.

After diffusing into the blood in the lungs, oxygen is primarily circulated throughout the body bound to hemoglobin. A high cardiac output is therefore important for exercise at high altitude to supply the working muscle with adequate amounts of O2. Indeed, animals selectively bred for exercise performance have higher maximum cardiac outputs, as do species that have evolved for exercise performance. Whether cardiac output limits exercise performance per se, however, is less clear; other factors may limit intense exercise, and in more athletic species (or individuals) cardiac output may be higher simply out of necessity. Excessive cardiac output may even be detrimental if blood transit times in the lungs or tissues are substantially reduced. Unfortunately, very little is known about cardiac performance in high flying birds. Both the high altitude bar-headed goose and the low altitude pekin duck can increase cardiac output at least five-fold during hypoxia at rest (Black and Tenney, 1980), but no comparison of maximum cardiac performance has been made between high and low altitude birds.

Once oxygenated blood is circulated to the tissues, O2 moves to the tissue mitochondria, the site of oxidative phosphorylation and oxygen consumption. Transport of oxygen from the blood to the mitochondria involves several steps. Oxygen must first dissociate from Hb and diffuse through the various compartments of the blood, but in both birds and mammals the conductances of these steps are high, and are unlikely to impose much of a limitation to O2 transport. In contrast, diffusion across the vascular wall and through the extracellular spaces is thought to provide the most sizeable limitation to O2 transport. Consequently, the size of the capillary–muscle fiber interface is an extremely important determinant of a muscle’s aerobic capacity. Finally, oxygen diffuses across the muscle fiber membrane and moves through the cytoplasm until it associates with cytochrome c oxidase, the O2 acceptor in the mitochondrial electron transport chain. Myoglobin probably assists intracellular O2 transport, so diffusion through the muscle likely provides very little resistance to O2 flux.

It is obvious that the ability of some bird species to fly at extreme altitudes is poorly understood. The adaptive benefit of high hemoglobin oxygen affinity is well established, but its relative importance is unknown. Some evidence suggests that traits increasing oxygen diffusion capacity in flight muscle are adaptive in high fliers as well, but the adaptive significance of differences in the respiratory and cardiovascular systems of high altitude fliers is not clear. The remainder of this study assesses these possibilities using theoretical sensitivity analysis, and explores potential adaptations for high altitude flight in birds.

Oxygen transport in birds

Oxygen transport in birds

Oxygen transport in birds. The crosscurrent parabronchial lung is unidirectionally ventilated by air sacs, and oxygen diffuses into blood capillaries from air capillaries (not shown) all along the length of the parabronchi. Oxygen is then circulated in the blood, and diffuses to mitochondria in the tissues. The rate of oxygen transport at both the lungs and tissues can be calculated using the Fick equation, and the amount of O2 transferred from the lungs into the blood can be calculated using an oxygen conservation equation.

Oxygen tensions in the lung

Oxygen tensions in the lung

Oxygen tensions in the lung (A) and tissue (B) capillaries during normoxia. In the crosscurrent avian lung, PO2 varies in two dimensions: PO2 increases along the path of blood flow through the lungs, but does not increase by as much at the end of the parabronchi as at the start (gas PO2 decreases along the length of the parabronchi). In the tissues, blood PO2 decreases continuously along the capillary length as O2 diffuses to tissue mitochondria. To reach a solution, our model iterates between gas transport calculations in the lungs (A) and tissues (B) until a stable result is reached.

varying different biochemical features of hemoglobin (Hb) on oxygen consumption

varying different biochemical features of hemoglobin (Hb) on oxygen consumption

The effects of varying different biochemical features of hemoglobin (Hb) on oxygen consumption during exercise in normoxia (PIO2 of 150 Torr; red), moderate hypoxia (84 Torr; green dashed), and severe hypoxia (30 Torr; dark blue). (A) P50, the PO2 at 50% Hb saturation; (B and C) Bohr coefficient (φ); and (D and E) Hill coefficient (n) (see Section 2 for a mathematical description of each). In (B)–(E), the effects of each variable were assessed at the P50 of pekin ducks (40 Torr; B and D) as well as the P50 of bar-headed geese (25 Torr; C and E).

Unlike in vivo studies, theoretical sensitivity analyses allow individual physiological variables to be altered independently so their individual effects on oxygen consumption can be assessed. By applying this analysis to hypoxia in birds, we feel we can predict which factors most likely limit oxygen consumption and exercise performance. As a consequence, our analysis identifies which steps in the oxygen cascade can provide the basis for adaptive change in birds that evolved for high altitude flight, namely ventilation and tissue diffusion capacity.

Since our interest was in the factors limiting exercise performance at altitude, the starting data for our model were obtained from previous studies on pekin ducks near maximal oxygen consumption. These ducks were exercising on a treadmill, however, and were not flying. Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge only one previous study has made all the required measurements for this analysis during flight, and this was only done in normoxia (in pigeons, Butler et al., 1977). Pekin ducks are the only species for which we could find all the required measurements for our analysis during exercise in both normoxia and hypoxia. Only the lung and tissue diffusion capacities remained to be calculated in our analysis, but previous experimental determinations of DLO2 in pekin ducks were similar to the values calculated in this study (Scheid et al., 1977). Similar values for DTO2 are not available.

The physiological variables limiting exercise performance in birds during moderate hypoxia are similar to those limiting performance in normoxia. DTO2 continues to pose the greatest limitation, and limitations imposed by the circulation (˙Q and CHb) are still greater at a lower P50. Unlike normoxia, however, ˙VO2 in moderate hypoxia appears to be limited less by the circulation and more by respiratory variables, as is also the case in humans (Wagner, 1996). The most substantial difference between severe hypoxia and normoxia/moderate hypoxia is in the effects of altering ventilation. Ventilation appears to become a major limitation to exercise performance at extreme altitude. DTO2 also appears to limit ˙VO2 in severe hypoxia, but only at lower P50 values. This is not entirely unsurprising: in severe hypoxia the venous blood of pekin ducks (a species which has a higher P50) is almost completely deoxygenated in vivo, so there are no possible benefits of increasing DTO2 . At the lower P50, there is a substantially higher arterial oxygen content, so more oxygen can be removed, and increasing DTO2 can have a greater influence. In humans during severe hypoxia, DTO2, DLO2, and ˙V have the greatest influence on exercise performance.

Tissue diffusion capacity should also be adaptive in high altitude birds with a high hemoglobin O2 affinity. In the present study, a simultaneous decrease in P50 (from 40 to 25 Torr) and increase in DTO2 (twofold) increased ˙VO2 by 51%. Thus, in high flying birds that are known to have a low P50, such as the barheaded goose and Ruppell’s griffon (Gyps rueppellii), increases in flight muscle diffusion capacity should be of extreme importance. This suggestion is supported by research demonstrating greater muscle capillarization in bar-headed geese than in low altitude fliers, as the size of the capillary–muscle fiber interface is known to be the primary structural determinant of O2 flux into the muscle.

Our analysis suggests that an enhanced capacity to increase ventilation should also benefit birds significantly in severe hypoxia, and could therefore be an important source of adaptation for high altitude flight. This is likely true regardless of P50; although there is a small amount of interaction between P50 and ventilation, increasing ˙V always had a substantial effect on oxygen consumption. Data from the literature addressing this possibility have unfortunately been inconclusive. Both bar-headed geese and pekin ducks can effectively increase ventilation, thus reducing the inspired-arterial O2 difference, during severe poikilocapnic hypoxia at rest, as well as during moderate poikilocapnic hypoxia and running exercise.

oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve

oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve

In contrast to the Bohr effect and Hill coefficient, the temperature effect on Hb-O2 binding affinity may have a substantial effect on oxygen consumption, and may therefore be a source of adaptive change for high altitude flight. An effect of temperature on ˙VO2 may arise if hyperventilation during flight at extreme altitude cools the pulmonary blood. This would reduce the P50 of Hb in the lungs, and thus facilitate oxygen uptake. When this blood enters the exercising muscles it would then be rewarmed to body temperature, and oxygen would be released from Hb. Our modelling suggests that a temperature effect on Hb could significantly enhance ˙VO2 . The greater the difference in temperature between blood in the lungs and in the muscles, and the greater the temperature effect on Hb-O2 binding, the greater the increase in ˙VO2 . At normal levels of temperature sensitivity, the increase in ˙VO2 was approximately 5% for every 1 ◦C difference. It could be adaptive at high altitude to alter the magnitude of the temperature effect on Hb while allowing lung temperature to fall. At present, however, it is unknown whether the Hb of high altitude birds has a heightened sensitivity to temperature, or whether pulmonary blood is actually cooled during high altitude flight.

Using a theoretical sensitivity analysis that allows individual physiological variables to be altered independently, we have identified the factors most likely to limit oxygen consumption and exercise performance in birds, and by extension, the physiological changes that are likely adaptive for high altitude flight. The adaptive benefits of some of these changes, in particular hemoglobin oxygen affinity, are already well established for high flying birds. For other traits, such as an enhanced hypoxic ventilatory response or O2 diffusion capacity of flight muscle, adaptive differences have not been conclusively recognized in studies in vivo. Furthermore, the beneficial interaction between increasing DTO2 and decreasing hemoglobin P50 has not yet been demonstrated in vivo. Our theoretical analysis suggests that changes in these respiratory processes could also adapt birds to environmental extremes, and future studies should explore these findings.

Adaptation and Convergent Evolution within the Jamesonia-Eriosorus Complex in High-Elevation Biodiverse Andean Hotspots

Patricia Sanchez-Baracaldo, Gavin H. Thomas
PLoS ONE 9(10): e110618. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1371/journal.pone.0110618

The recent uplift of the tropical Andes (since the late Pliocene or early Pleistocene) provided extensive ecological opportunity for evolutionary radiations. We test for phylogenetic and morphological evidence of adaptive radiation and convergent evolution to novel habitats (exposed, high-altitude paramo habitats) in the Andean fern genera Jamesonia and Eriosorus. We construct time-calibrated phylogenies for the Jamesonia-Eriosorus clade. We then use recent phylogenetic comparative methods to test for evolutionary transitions among habitats, associations between habitat and leaf morphology, and ecologically driven variation in the rate of morphological evolution. Paramo species (Jamesonia) display morphological adaptations consistent with convergent evolution in response to the demands of a highly exposed environment but these adaptations are associated with microhabitat use rather than the paramo per se. Species that are associated with exposed microhabitats (including Jamesonia and Eriorsorus) are characterized by many but short pinnae per frond whereas species occupying sheltered microhabitats (primarily Eriosorus) have few but long pinnae per frond. Pinnae length declines more rapidly with altitude in sheltered species. Rates of speciation are significantly higher among paramo than non-paramo lineages supporting the hypothesis of adaptation and divergence in the unique Pa´ramo biodiversity hotspot.

AltitudeOmics: Rapid Hemoglobin Mass Alterations with Early Acclimatization to and De-Acclimatization from 5,260 m in Healthy Humans

Benjamin J. Ryan, NB Wachsmuth, WF Schmidt, WC Byrnes, et al.
PLoS ONE 9(10): e108788. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1371/journal.pone.0108788

It is classically thought that increases in hemoglobin mass (Hb mass) take several weeks to develop upon ascent to high altitude and are lost gradually following descent. However, the early time course of these erythropoietic adaptations has not been thoroughly investigated and data are lacking at elevations greater than 5,000 m, where the hypoxic stimulus is dramatically increased. As part of the AltitudeOmics project, we examined Hb mass in healthy men and women at sea level (SL) and 5,260 m following 1, 7, and 16 days of high altitude exposure (ALT1/ALT7/ALT16). Subjects were also studied upon return to 5,260 m following descent to 1,525 m for either 7 or 21 days. Compared to SL, absolute Hb mass was not different at ALT1 but increased by 3.7-5.8% (mean 6 SD; n = 20; p<0.01) at ALT7 and 7.6-6.6% (n = 21; p=0.001) at ALT16. Following descent to 1,525 m, Hb mass was reduced compared to ALT16 (-6.0+3.7%; n = 20; p = 0.001) and not different compared to SL, with no difference in the loss in Hb mass between groups that descended for 7 (-6.3+3.0%; n = 13) versus 21 days (-5.7+5.0; n = 7). The loss in Hb mass following 7 days at 1,525 m was correlated with an increase in serum ferritin
(r =20.64; n = 13; p,0.05), suggesting increased red blood cell destruction. Our novel findings demonstrate that Hb mass increases within 7 days of ascent to 5,260 m but that the altitude-induced Hb mass adaptation is lost within 7 days of descent to 1,525 m. The rapid time course of these adaptations contrasts with the classical dogma, suggesting the need to further examine mechanisms responsible for Hb mass adaptations in response to severe hypoxia.

Cardiovascular adjustments for life at high altitude

Roger Hainsworth, Mark J. Drinkhill
Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology 158 (2007) 204–211
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.resp.2007.05.006

The effects of hypobaric hypoxia in visitors depend not only on the actual elevation but also on the rate of ascent. There are increases in sympathetic activity resulting in increases in systemic vascular resistance, blood pressure and heart rate. Pulmonary vasoconstriction leads to pulmonary hypertension, particularly during exercise. The sympathetic excitation results from hypoxia, partly through chemoreceptor reflexes and partly through altered baroreceptor function. Systemic vasoconstriction may also occur as a reflex response to the high pulmonary arterial pressures. Many communities live permanently at high altitude and most dwellers show excellent adaptation although there are differences between populations in the extent of the ventilatory drive and the erythropoiesis. Despite living all their lives at altitude, some dwellers, particularly Andeans, may develop a maladaptation syndrome known as chronic mountain sickness. The most prominent characteristic of this is excessive polycythemia, the cause of which has been attributed to peripheral chemoreceptor dysfunction. The hyperviscous blood leads to pulmonary hypertension, symptoms of cerebral hypoperfusion, and eventually right heart failure and death.

High altitude places are not only destinations of adventurous travelers, many people are born, live their lives and die in these cold and hypoxic regions. According to WHO, in 1996 there were approximately 140 million people living at altitudes over 2,500m and there are several areas of permanent habitation at over 4,000 m. These are in three main regions of the world: the Andes of South America, the highlands of Eastern Africa, and the Himalayas of South-Central Asia. This review is concerned with the effects of exposure to high altitude on the cardiovascular system and its autonomic control, in visitors, and the means by which the permanent high altitude dwellers have adapted to their environment.

For visitors the period of initial adaptation, i.e. the first days and weeks following arrival at attitude, is a critical time since it is during this period that acute mountain sickness and/or pulmonary edema may occur. The processes of adaptation occurring during this initial period may well determine the individual’s ability to continue to function normally. Recent studies in animals and man have highlighted the role of the autonomic nervous system in adaptation and in particular the importance of sympathetic activation of the cardiovascular system following high altitude exposure.

An increase in resting heart rate in response to acute hypoxia has been
described in several species including man. Vogel and Harris (1967)
investigated the effects of simulated exposure to high altitude in man
at pressures equivalent to 600, 3,400 and 4,600m using a hypobaric
chamber. Each level of chamber pressure was developed over a 30 min
period andwas maintained for 48 h in an attempt to simulate expedition
conditions. After 10 h at the equivalent of 3,400 m resting
heart rate was significantly increased and by 40 h it had increased by
16% from the resting value at 600 m. At 4,600 m it increased by 34%.
Similar findings, an increase in heart rate of 18%, were shown following
ascent to 4,300 m for periods up to 5 weeks. However, this study also
demonstrated that the rate of ascent also influenced the magnitude of
the heart rate increase. A gradual increase in altitude over a period
of 2 weeks resulted in the resting heart rate increasing by 25%
compared with an abrupt ascent which resulted in an increase of
only 9%. As subjects acclimatize at altitudes up to about 4,500 m
much of the increase in heart rate is lost and resting heart rates
return towards their sea level values. Acute hypoxia also causes
increases in cardiac output both at rest and for given levels of
exercise compared with values during normoxia.

The effect of hypoxia on the pulmonary circulation is dramatic
resulting in pulmonary hypertension caused by an increase in
pulmonary vascular resistance. The onset has been shown in man
to be very rapid, reaching a maximum within 5 min. Zhao et al.
(2001) demonstrated that breathing 11% oxygen for 30 min
increased mean pulmonary artery pressure by 56%, from 16 to
25 mmHg. The effect of hypoxia on the pulmonary circulation is
even more pronounced during exercise, as demonstrated in studies
carried out on subjects of Operation Everest II. Resting pulmonary
artery pressure increased from 15 mmHg at sea level to 34 mmHg
at the equivalent of 8,840 m. During near maximal exercise at
8,840 m it increased from the sea level value of 33–54 mm Hg.
In the short term the mechanism of this pulmonary artery vaso-
constriction has been shown to involve inhibition of O2 sensitive
K+ channels leading to depolarization of pulmonary artery smooth
muscle cells and activation of voltage gated Ca2+ channels. This
causes Ca2+ influx and vasocon-striction. This process is
immediately reversed by breathing oxygen.

Healthy high altitude residents show excellent adaptation to their
environment. These adaptations are likely to be associated with
altered gene expression as the expression of genes associated with
vascular control and reactions to hypoxia have been found to be high
in altitude dwellers. Different communities, however, seem to adopt
different adaptation strategies. For example Andeans hyperventilate
to decrease end-tidal and arterial CO2 levels to as low as 25 mmHg
and have hemoglobin levels well above those in sea-level people.
Tibetans Hyperventilate but have normal hemoglobin levels below
4,000 m. Ethiopian highlanders, on the other hand, have CO2 and
hemoglobin levels similar to those of sea-level dwellers.

Blood volumes are larger in high altitude dwellers. In Andeans this
is due to large packed cell volumes whereas in Ethiopians it was the
plasma volumes that were large. Probably as the result of the large
blood volumes, tolerance to orthostatic stress was greater than that
in sea-level residents.

CMS is a condition frequently found in long term residents of high
altitudes, particularly in the Andes where it is a major public health
problem. It also occurs in residents on the Tibetan plateau, although
not in Ethiopians. Patients with CMS develop excessive polycythemia
and various clinical features including dyspnea, palpitations, insomnia,
dizziness, headaches, confusion, loss of appetite, lack of mental
concentration and memory alterations. Patients may also complain
of decreased exercise tolerance, bone pains, acral paresthesia and
occasionally hemoptysis. The impairment of mental function may
be reversed by phlebotomy. Physical examination reveals cyanosis,
due to the combination of polycythemia and low oxygen saturation,
and a marked pigmentation of the skin exposed to the sun.
Hyperemia of conjunctivae is characteristic and the retinal vessels
are also dilated and engorged. The second heart sound is frequently
accentuated and there is an increased cardiac size, mainly due to
right ventricular hypertrophy. As the condition progresses, overt
congestive heart failure becomes evident, characterized by dyspnea
at rest and during mild effort, peripheral edema, distension of
superficial veins, and progressive cardiac dilation.

The major mechanism for the control of blood pressure is through
regulation of peripheral vascular resistance, but most studies have
examined only the control of heart rate. We have recently studied
the responses of forearm vascular resistance to carotid baroreceptor
stimulation in high altitude residents with and without CMS, both at
their resident altitude and shortly after descent to sea level. Results
showed that baroreflex “set point” was higher in CMS, but only at
altitude. At sea level, values were similar.

The chronic hypoxia at high altitude stresses many of the body’s
homeostatic mechanisms. There have been many investigations
which have examined the effects on respiration. However, cardio-
vascular effects are no less important and it is largely through effects
on the cardiovascular system that both acute and chronic mountain
sickness are caused. The hypoxia exerts both direct and reflex effects.
In the lung it causes vasoconstriction and pulmonary hypertension.
The sympathetic nervous system is excited partly through a central
effect of the hypoxia, through stimulation of chemoreceptors and
possibly pulmonary arterial baroreceptors and altered systemic
baroreceptor function. In some individuals the excessive hemopoiesis
causes increased blood viscosity and tissue hypoperfusion leading
to the syndrome of chronic mountain sickness.

New Insights in the Pathogenesis of High-Altitude Pulmonary Edema

Urs Scherrer, Emrush Rexhaj, Pierre-Yves Jayet, et al.
Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases 52 (2010) 485–492
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.pcad.2010.02.004

High-altitude pulmonary edema is a life-threatening condition occurring in predisposed but otherwise healthy individuals. It therefore permits the study of underlying mechanisms of pulmonary edema in the absence of confounding factors such as coexisting cardiovascular or pulmonary disease, and/or drug therapy. There is evidence that some degree of asymptomatic alveolar fluid accumulation may represent a normal phenomenon in healthy humans shortly after arrival at high altitude. Two fundamental mechanisms then determine whether this fluid accumulation is cleared or whether it progresses to HAPE: the quantity of liquid escaping from the pulmonary vasculature and the rate of its clearance by the alveolar respiratory epithelium. The former is directly related to the degree of hypoxia induced pulmonary hypertension, whereas the latter is determined by the alveolar epithelial sodium transport. Here, we will review evidence that, in HAPE-prone subjects, impaired pulmonary endothelial and epithelial NO synthesis and/or bioavailability may represent a central underlying defect predisposing to exaggerated hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction and, in turn, capillary stress failure and alveolar fluid flooding. We will then demonstrate that exaggerated pulmonary hypertension, although possibly a condition sine qua non, may not always be sufficient to induce HAPE and how defective alveolar fluid clearance may represent a second important pathogenic mechanism.

Cerebral Blood Flow at High Altitude

Philip N. Ainslie and Andrew W. Subudhi
High Altitude Medicine & Biology 2014; 15(2): 133–140
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1089/ham.2013.1138

This brief review traces the last 50 years of research related to cerebral blood flow (CBF) in humans exposed to high altitude. The increase in CBF within the first 12 hours at high altitude and its return to near sea level values after 3–5 days of acclimatization was first documented with use of the Kety-Schmidt technique in 1964. The degree of change in CBF at high altitude is influenced by many variables, including arterial oxygen and carbon dioxide tensions, oxygen content, cerebral spinal fluid pH, and hematocrit, but can be collectively summarized in terms of the relative strengths of four key integrated reflexes:

  • hypoxic cerebral vasodilatation;
  • 2) hypocapnic cerebral vasoconstriction;
  • 3) hypoxic ventilatory response; and
  • 4) hypercapnic ventilatory response.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying these reflexes and their interactions with one another is critical to advance our understanding of global and regional CBF regulation. Whether high altitude populations exhibit cerebrovascular adaptations to chronic levels of hypoxia or if changes in CBF are related to the development of acute mountain sickness are currently unknown; yet overall, the integrated CBF response to high altitude appears to be sufficient to meet the brain’s large and consistent demand for oxygen.

Relative to its size, the brain is the most oxygen dependent organ in the body, but many pathophysiological and environmental processes may either cause or result in an interruption to its oxygen supply. As such, studying the brain at high altitude is an appropriate model to investigate both acute and chronic effects of hypoxemia on cerebrovascular function. The cerebrovascular responses to high altitude are complex, involving mechanistic interactions of physiological, metabolic, and biochemical processes.

This short review is organized as follows: An historical overview of the earliest CBF measurements collected at high altitude introduces a summary of reported CBF changes at altitude over the last 50 years in both lowlanders and high-altitude natives. The most tenable candidate mechanism(s) regulating CBF at altitude are summarized with a focus on available data in humans, and a role for these mechanisms in the pathophysiology of AMS is considered. Finally, suggestions for future directions are provided.

Angelo Mosso (1846–1910) is undoubtedly the forefather of high altitude cerebrovascular physiology. In order to pursue his principal curiosity of the physiological effects of hypobaria, Mosso built barometric chambers and was reported to expose himself pressures as low as 192 mmHg (equivalent to > 10,000 m). He was also responsible for the building of the Capanna Margherita laboratory on Monta Rosa at 4,559 m. In both settings, Mosso utilized his hydrosphygmomanometer to measure changes in ‘‘brain pulsations’’ in patients that had suffered removal of skull sections, due to illness or trauma. Indicative of changes in CBF, these recordings preceded the next estimates of CBF in humans by some 50 years.

At sea level, Kety and Schmidt (1945) were the first to quantify human CBF using an inert tracer (nitrous oxide, N2O) combined with arterial and jugular venous sampling. This method for the measurement of global CBF is based on the Fick principle, whereby the integrated difference of multiple arterial and venous blood samples during the first 10 or more minutes after the sudden introduction into the lung of a soluble gas tracer is inversely proportional to cerebral blood flow.  In 1948, they showed that breathing 10% oxygen increased CBF by 35%; however, it was not until 1964 that the first measurements of CBF were made in humans at high altitude. The motivation for these high altitude experiments was stimulated, in part, from the earlier discovery of the brain’s ventral medullary cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pH sensors in animals. Following the location of these central chemoreceptors, Severinghaus and colleagues examined in humans the role of CSF pH and bicarbonate in acclimatization to high altitude (3,810 m) at the White Mountain (California, USA) laboratories (Severinghaus et al., 1963). A year later, at the same location, John Severinghaus performed his seminal study of CBF at high altitude. He was joined by Tom Hornbein—shortly after his first ascent of Everest by the West Ridge—who was part of the research team and also volunteered for the study (Fig.). The results showed clear time dependent changes in CBF during acclimatization to high altitude (HA).

the Kety-Schmidt nitrous oxide method of measuring CBF

the Kety-Schmidt nitrous oxide method of measuring CBF

  • From left to right, Larry Saidman (administering the gas), Tom Hornbien (volunteer), Ed Munson (drawing jugular venous blood samples), and John Severinghaus. Here (1964) the Kety-Schmidt nitrous oxide method of measuring CBF is used. The subject breathed about 15% N2O for 15 min while arterial and jugular venous blood was frequently sampled. (B) Results from Severinghaus et al. (1966). Graphs shows that CBF as estimated by cerebral A-VO2 differences from sea level controls increased about 24% within hours of arrival at 3810 m, and fell over 4 days to about 13% above control. CBF by the N2O method was increased by 40% on day 1, and returned to 6% above control on day 4. However, the N2O method data had greater variance. Acute normoxia on day 1 and day 4 returned CBF to sea level values within 15 min. Photograph courtesy of Dr. John W Severinghaus.

Native Tibetan (or Himalayan) and Andean populations arrived approximately 25,000 and 11,000 years ago, suggesting that these populations either carried traits that allowed them to thrive at high altitude or were able to adapt to the environment. The physiological and genetic traits associated with native high-altitude populations have been elegantly reviewed (Beall, 2007; Erzurum et al., 2007; Frisancho, 2013). As such, this topic is briefly summarized here with the focus on CBF at altitude in context of Andean and Tibetan high-altitude residents.

In general, native Andeans have lower CBF values compared to sea level natives. The first evidence suggesting lower flow was reported in 8 Peruvian natives living at 4300m altitude in Cerro de Pasco (Milledge and Sørensen, 1972). The authors found the mean arterial–venous oxygen content difference across the brain was 7.9 – 1 vol%, about 20% higher than the published sea level mean of 6.5 vol%. They suggested that CBF probably was proportionately about 20% below sea level normal values, assuming that brain metabolic rate was normal, and postulated that the mechanism might be high blood viscosity given the high hematocrit (58 – 6%) in these subjects. However, since the cerebral metabolic rate for oxygen (CMRO2) is constant even in severe hypoxia (Kety and Schmidt 1948b; Ainslie et al. 2013), the inverse linear relationship between CBF and arterial–venous oxygen content differences could also explain the reduction in CBF, as less flow would be needed to match the oxygen demand of the brain when arterial content is elevated. A similar study (Sørensen et al., 1974), using arterio-venous differences combined (in a subgroup) with a modified version of Kety–Schmidt method (krypton instead of N2O,) conducted in high-altitude residents in La Paz in Bolivia at 3800 m, also reported a 15%–20% reduction in CBF (with a reported average hematocrit of 50%) compared to a sea level control group.

Percent changes in cerebral blood flow

Percent changes in cerebral blood flow

Percent changes in cerebral blood flow (D%CBF, graph A), arterial oxygen content (Cao2, graph B), and cerebral oxygen delivery (CDO2, graph C) with time at high-altitude from seven studies at various altitudes and durations. Severinghaus et al. (1966) studied CBF using the Kety-Schmidt technique in five subjects brought rapidly by car to 3810 m. Using the Xe133 method, Jensen et al. (1990) measured CBF in 12 subjects at 3475 m. Huang et al. (1987) measured ICA and VA blood velocities as a metric of CBF on Pikes Peak (4300 m). Baumgartner et al. (1994) studied 24 subjects who rapidly ascended to 3200m by cable car, slept one night at 3600 m, and ascended by foot to 4559m the next day. Cerebral blood flow was estimated by transcranial Doppler ultrasound. About two-thirds of the subjects developed symptoms of AMS, data included are the mean of all subjects. Lucas et al. (2011) employed an 8–9 day ascent to 5050m and estimated changes in CBF by transcranial Doppler ultrasound of the middle cerebral artery. Willie et al. (2013) following the same ascent measured flow (Duplex ultrasound; and TCCD) in the ICA and VA and estimated global flow from: 2*ICA + 2* VA. The same methodological approach was used time Subudhi upon rapid ascent via car and oxygen breathing to 5240 m (Subudhi et al. 2013). Cao2 was calculated from: (1.39 · [Hb] · SaO2) + Pao2 *0.003. In some studies [Hb] data were not available, and typical data from previous studies over comparable time at related elevation were used. In other studies, Pao2 was not always reported; therefore, Sao2 was used to estimate Pao2 via (Severinghaus, 1979).

Only two studies have measured serial changes in CBF during progressive ascent to high altitude, but the findings may help explain small discrepancies between studies. In 2011, Wilson et al. (2011) measured diameter and velocity in the MCA (using transcranial color-coded Duplex-ultrasound, TCCD) following partial acclimation to 5300m (n = 24), 6400 m (n = 14), and 7950m (n = 5). Remarkable elevations (200%) in flow in the MCA occurred at 7950 m. Notably, the authors estimated *24% dilation of the MCA occurred at 6400 m. Dilation of the MCA further increased to *90% at 7950m (Fig.) and was rapidly reversed with oxygen supplementation (Fig.). Cerebral oxygen delivery and oxygenation were maintained by commensurate elevations of CBF even at these extreme altitudes. In another recent study, CBF and MCA diameter were measured at 1338 m, 3440 m, 4371 m, and over time at 5050 m (Willie et al., 2013). Dilation of the MCA was observed upon arrival at 5050 m with subsequent normalization of CBF and MCA diameter by days 10–12. Such findings are consistent with unchanged diameter following 17 days at 5400m (Wilson et al., 2011). It is important to note that according to Poiseuille’s Law, flow is proportional to radius raised to the fourth power. Therefore, consistent with previous concerns about TCD (Giller, 2003), that the MCA dilates at such levels of hypoxemia indicates that previous studies using TCD at altitude may have underestimated flow (see previous Fig.) and thus may explain differences between studies. These findings are particularly important because they suggest regional regulation of CBF occurs in both large and small cerebral arteries.

Changes in blood flow in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) upon progressive ascent to 7950 m

Changes in blood flow in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) upon progressive ascent to 7950 m

Changes in blood flow in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) upon progressive ascent to 7950 m. Data were collected following partial acclimation to 5300 m (n = 24), at 6400 m (n = 14), and at 7950 m (n = 5). Remarkable elevations (200%) in flow in the MCA occurred at 7950 m following removal of breathing supplementary oxygen and breathing air for 20 min. Dilation (*24%) of the MCA occurred at 6400 m, which was further increased to 90% at 7950 m. Oxygen supplementation at this highest altitude rapidly reversed the observed MCA vessel dilation (denoted by blue triangle). Elevations in CBF via cerebral vasodilation were adequate to maintain oxygen delivery, even at these extreme altitudes. Modified from Wilson et al. (2011).

Summary of the major factors acting to increase ( plus) and decrease (minus) CBF during exposure to hypoxia

Summary of the major factors acting to increase ( plus) and decrease (minus) CBF during exposure to hypoxia

Summary of the major factors acting to increase ( plus) and decrease (minus) CBF during exposure to hypoxia. Cao2, arterial oxygen content; CBV, cerebral blood volume; EDHF, endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor; ET-1, endothelin-1; HCT, hematocrit; NO, nitric oxide; O2-, superoxide; PGE, prostaglandins; SNA, sympathetic nerve activity; VAH, ventilatory acclimatization to hypoxia/altitude. Modified from Ainslie and Ogoh (2010); Ainslie et al. (2014).

It is clear that many aspects of CBF regulation and brain function at high altitude warrant further investigation. Indeed, several questions remain. For example, over the period of ventilatory acclimatization (weeks to months), how do interactions between the hypoxic ventilatory response, hypercapnic ventilatoy response, hypoxic cerebral vasodilatation, and hypocapnic cerebral vasoconstriction interact to alter CBF? Furthermore, what is the role of NO and/or adenosine in mediating cerebral vasodilation at high altitude? And last, what is the time-course of recovery in CBF following descent to sea level?

 

Cognitive Impairments at High Altitudes and Adaptation

Xiaodan Yan
High Alt Med Biol. 15:141–145, 2014
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1089/ham.2014.1009

High altitude hypoxia has been shown to have significant impact on cognitive performance. This article reviews the aspects in which, and the conditions under which, decreased cognitive performance has been observed at high altitudes. Neural changes related to high altitude hypoxia are also reviewed with respect to their possible contributions to cognitive impairments. In addition, potential adaptation mechanisms are reviewed among indigenous high altitude residents and long-term immigrant residents, with discussions about methodological concerns related to these studies.

The amount of cognitive impairments at high altitudes is related to the chronicity of exposure. Acute exposure usually refers to a duration of several weeks, whereas chronic exposure usually refer to ‘‘extended permanence’’ in the high altitude environment (Virue´s-Ortega and others, 2004). The altitude of ascending or residence is another factor affecting the severity of impairments. This review will first summarize the cognitive impairments in acute exposure, then talk about impairments in chronic exposure, with discussions about the effect of altitudes in corresponding sections.

 

High altitude-related neurocognitive impairments with ascending altitudes

High altitude-related neurocognitive impairments with ascending altitudes

 

 

High altitude-related neurocognitive impairments with ascending altitudes in acute high altitude exposure (Wilson and others, 2009).

human brain consumes about 20% of the total oxygen intake

human brain consumes about 20% of the total oxygen intake

The human brain consumes about 20% of the total oxygen intake, which is disproportional to its size (about 2% of the total body weight). In this figure, oxygen consumption is reflected from glucose consumption in positron emission tomography (PET) (Alavi and Reivich, 2002).

The possibility of adaptation to high altitude hypoxia has always been an intriguing issue. In the acute cases, the human body does have some capacity for acclimatization, which varies significantly for different individuals. The question is, in chronic cases, for example, does growing up at high altitude regions guarantee sufficient adaption to occur to compensate for the risk of cognitive impairments? Existing research tends to suggest that, although some level of adaptation does occur, neural and cognitive impairments are still observed in these populations who are native or long-term residents at high altitude.

Although multiple studies have suggested that growing up at high altitudes is associated with cognitive impairments, it is not to say that adaptation does not happen with prolonged chronic exposure to high altitudes. One study has revealed that as a function of the length of low altitude residence (across the range of 1–5 years), some neuroimaging parameters of original highlanders who grew up at high altitude regions had shown the trend of converging towards the patterns of original low altitude residents, although such changes were not accompanied by statistically significant changes in cognitive performance (Yan and others, 2010). It is possible that, given sufficiently long time for normoxia adaptation, the neural and cognitive impairments associated with high altitude hypoxia may be alleviated to a certain extent.

In summary, various cognitive impairments associated with high altitude hypoxia have been reported from existing studies, which are accompanied by findings about neural impairments, suggesting that these cognitive impairments have legitimate neural basis. The specific relationships between physiological symptoms and cognitive impairments appear to be complicated and require further elucidation. There are cognitive impairments associated with both acute and chronic exposure to high altitudes; however, particular caution should be taken when interpreting the findings about cognitive impairments among native high altitude residents because of the differences
in cultural and socioeconomic factors. Existing studies have suggested that there can be some level of adaptation to high altitudes, in spite of the fact that some neuronal impairment may be irreversible.

Exercise Capacity and Selected Physiological Factors by Ancestry and Residential Altitude: Cross-Sectional Studies of 9–10-Year-Old Children in Tibet

Bianba, Sveinung Berntsen, Lars Bo Andersen, Hein Stigum, et al.
High Alt Med Biol. 2014; 15:162–169
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1089/ham.2013.1084

Aim: Several physiological compensatory mechanisms have enabled Tibetans to live and work at high altitude, including increased ventilation and pulmonary diffusion capacity, both of which serve to increase oxygen transport in the blood. The aim of the present study was to compare exercise capacity (maximal power output) and selected physiological factors (arterial oxygen saturation and heart rate at rest and during maximal exercise, resting hemoglobin concentration, and forced vital capacity) in groups of native Tibetan children living at different residential altitudes (3700 vs. 4300 m above sea level) and across ancestry (native Tibetan vs. Han Chinese children living at the same altitude of 3700 m). Methods: A total of 430 9–10-year-old native Tibetan children from Tingri (4300 m) and 406 native Tibetan and 406 Han Chinese immigrants (77% lowland-born and 33% highland-born) from Lhasa (3700 m) participated in two cross-sectional studies. The maximal power output (Wmax) was assessed using an ergometer cycle. Results: Lhasa Tibetan children had a 20% higher maximal power output (watts/kg) than Tingri Tibetan and 4% higher than Lhasa Han Chinese. Maximal heart rate, arterial oxygen saturation at rest, lung volume, and arterial oxygen saturation were significantly associated with exercise capacity at a given altitude, but could not fully account for the differences in exercise capacity observed between ancestry groups or altitudes. Conclusions: The superior exercise capacity in native Tibetans vs. Han Chinese may reflect a better adaptation to life at high altitude. Tibetans at the lower residential altitude of 3700 m demonstrated a better exercise capacity than residents at a higher altitude of 4300m when measured at their respective residential altitudes. Such altitude- or ancestry-related difference could not be fully attributed to the physiological factors measured.

Group size effects on foraging and vigilance in migratory Tibetan antelope

Xinming Lian, Tongzuo Zhang, Yifan Cao, Jianping Su, Simon Thirgood
Behavioural Processes 76 (2007) 192–197
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.beproc.2007.05.001

Large group sizes have been hypothesized to decrease predation risk and increase food competition. We investigated group size effects on vigilance and foraging behavior during the migratory period in female Tibetan antelope Pantholops hodgsoni, in the Kekexili Nature Reserve of Qinghai Province, China. During June to August, adult female antelope and yearling females gather in large migratory groups and cross the Qinghai–Tibet highway to calving grounds within the Nature Reserve and return to Qumalai county after calving. Large groups of antelope aggregate in the migratory corridor where they compete for limited food resources and attract the attention of mammalian and avian predators and scavengers. We restricted our sampling to groups of less than 30 antelopes and thus limit our inference accordingly. Focal-animal sampling was used to record the behavior of the free-ranging antelope except for those with lambs. Tibetan antelope spent more time foraging in larger groups but frequency of foraging bouts was not affected by group size. Conversely, the time spent vigilant and frequency of vigilance bouts decreased with increased group size. We suggest that these results are best explained by competition for food and risk of predation.

High altitude exposure alters gene expression levels of DNA repair enzymes, and modulates fatty acid metabolism by SIRT4 induction in human skeletal muscle

Zoltan Acsa, Zoltan Boria, Masaki Takedaa, Peter Osvatha, et al.
Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology 196 (2014) 33–37
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resp.2014.02.006

We hypothesized that high altitude exposure and physical activity associated with the attack to Mt Everest could alter mRNA levels of DNA repair and metabolic enzymes and cause oxidative stress-related challenges in human skeletal muscle. Therefore, we have tested eight male mountaineers (25–40 years old) before and after five weeks of exposure to high altitude, which included attacks to peaks above 8000 m. Data gained from biopsy samples from vastus lateralis revealed increased mRNA levels of both cytosolic and mitochondrial superoxide dismutase. On the other hand 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase(OGG1) mRNA levels tended to decrease while Ku70 mRNA levels and SIRT6 decreased with altitude exposure. The levels of SIRT1 and SIRT3 mRNA did not change significantly. But SIRT4 mRNA level increased significantly, which could indicate decreases in fatty acid metabolism, since SIRT4 is one of the important regulators of this process. Within the limitations of this human study, data suggest that combined effects of high altitude exposure and physical activity climbing to Mt. Everest, could jeopardize the integrity of the particular chromosome.

High-altitude adaptations in vertebrate hemoglobins

Roy E. Weber
Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology 158 (2007) 132–142
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.resp.2007.05.001

Vertebrates at high altitude are subjected to hypoxic conditions that challenge aerobic metabolism. O2 transport from the respiratory surfaces to tissues requires matching between theO2 loading and unloading tensions and theO2-affinity of blood, which is an integrated function of hemoglobin’s intrinsic O2-affinity and its allosteric interaction with cellular effectors (organic phosphates, protons and chloride). Whereas short-term altitudinal adaptations predominantly involve adjustments in allosteric interactions, long-term, genetically-coded adaptations typically involve changes in the structure of the hemoglobin molecules. The latter commonly comprise substitutions of amino acid residues at the effector binding sites, the heme protein contacts, or at inter-subunit contacts that stabilize either the low-affinity (‘Tense’) or the high-affinity (‘Relaxed’) structures of the molecules. Molecular heterogeneity (multiple iso-Hbs with differentiated oxygenation properties) can further broaden the range of physico-chemical conditions where Hb functions under altitudinal hypoxia. This treatise reviews the molecular and cellular mechanisms that adapt hemoglobin-oxygen affinities in mammals, birds and ectothermic vertebrates at high altitude.

Vertebrate animals display remarkable ability to tolerate high altitudes and cope with the concomitant decreases in O2 tension that potentially constrain aerobic life (Monge and Leon-Velarde, 1991;Weber, 1995; Samaja et al., 2003). Compared to an ambient PO2 of approximately 160 mm Hg at sea level, inspired tension approximates only 95 mm Hg for llamas and frogs from Andean habitats above 4000 m, 45 mm Hg for bar-headed geese that fly across the Himalayas, and 33 mm Hg for Ruppell’s griffon that soars at 11,300 m over Africa’s Ivory Coast. Apart from the distinct adaptations manifest in blood’s O2-transporting properties, tolerance to decreased O2 availability may entail reconfigurations at the organ and cellular levels that include a switch to partial anaerobiosis. Driven by needs to reduce aerobic metabolic rate and maintain functional integrity (Ramirez et al., 2007), these pertain to a core triad of adaptations:

  1. metabolic suppression,
  2. tolerance to metabolite (e.g. lactate) accumulation, and
  3. defenses against increased free radicals associated with return to high O2 tensions (Bickler and Buck, 2007).

The response to oxygen lack comprises two phases

  1. defense, which includes metabolic arrest (a suppression of ATP-demand and ATP-supply) and channel arrest (decreases cell membrane permeability), and
  2. rescue, which commonly involves preferential expression of proteins that are implicated in extending metabolic down-regulation (Hochachka et al., 1996).

These responses vary greatly in different species and different tissues. Thus, although mixed-venous lactate concentrations increase strongly in sea-level as well as high-altitude acclimated pigeons that are exposed to altitude (from 1–2 mM at sea level to 5–7 mM at 9000 m) (Weinstein et al., 1985), and humans performing submaximal work at high altitude show a transient ‘lactate paradox’ (lower peak lactate levels that humans living at sea level (Lundby et al., 2000)), many species do not exhibit altitude-related changes in anaerobic metabolism.

Organismic adaptations to survive and perform physical exercise at extreme altitudinal hypoxia are diverse. In birds the undisputed high-altitude champions, where flapping flight may raise the energy demand 10–20-fold compared to resting levels (Scott et al., 2006), a highly efficient “cross-current” ventilation perfusion arrangement in the lungs may increase arterial O2 tensions above the tensions in expired air (Scheid, 1979) and drastically reduce the difference between inhalant and arterial O2 tensions (to 1 mm Hg in bar-headed geese subjected to simulated altitude of 11580 m) (Black and Tenney, 1980). The Andean frog Telmatobius culeus has a highly ‘oversized’ (folded) and vascularized skin that is ventilated by ‘bobbing’ behavior to support water(=skin) breathing. Manifold organismic adaptations moreover include combinations of increased muscle Mb concentrations (Reynafarje and Morrison, 1962) increased muscle capillarization (manifest in mammals and birds (cf. Monge et al., 1991)) and decreased red cell size (seen in amphibians but not high-altitude reptiles (Ruiz et al., 1989; Ruiz et al., 1993)). Amphibians exhibit an interspecific correlation between erythrocyte count and the degree of vascularization of respiratory surfaces and muscle tissues (Hutchison and Szarski, 1965), that reflect differences in their ability to tolerate altitudinal hypoxia.

A sensitivity analysis of the factors that may limit exercise performance identifies high Hb-O2 affinity, together with high total ventilation and high tissue diffusion capacity as the physiological traits that have greatest adaptive benefit for bird flight at extreme high altitude (Scott and Milsom, 2006). Blood O2 affinity is a combination of the intrinsic O2 affinity of the ‘stripped’ (purified) Hb molecules and the interaction of allosteric effectors (like organic phosphates, protons and chloride ions) that decrease Hb-O2 affinity inside the rbcs (Weber and Fago, 2004). Short-term adaptations in O2 affinity are commonly mediated by changes in erythrocytic effectors such as organic phosphates (2,3-diphosphoglycerate, DPG, in mammals, inositol pentaphosphate, IPP, in birds, ATP in reptiles, and ATP and DPG in amphibians), whereas long-term adaptations (that include interspecific ones that are genetically determined) commonly involve changes in Hb structure (amino acid exchanges) that alter Hb’s intrinsic O2 affinity or its sensitivity to allosteric effectors.

Vertebrate Hbs are tetrameric molecules composed of two α (or α-like) chains and two β (or β-like) chains, which in humans consist of 141 and 146 amino acid residues, respectively. Each subunit exhibits a highly characteristic “globin fold” comprised of seven or eight α-helices (labelled A, B, C, etc.) linked by nonhelical (EF, FG) segments, and N- and C-terminal extensions termed NA and HC, respectively. Individual amino acid residues are identified by their sequential positions in chain or/and the helix; thus α1131(H14)-Ser refers to Serine that is the 131st residue of α1 chain and the 14th of the H. During (de-) oxygenation Hb switches between two major structural states:

  1. the high affinity oxygenated R (relaxed) state that prevails at the respiratory surfaces, and
  2. the low affinity, deoxygenated T (tense) state that occurs predominantly in the tissues and is constrained by additional hydrogen bonds and salt bridges.

The Hbs exhibit cooperative homotropic interactions between the O2 binding heme groups (that cause the S-shaped O2 equilibrium curves and increase O2 loading and unloading for a given change in O2 tension) as well as inhibitory, heterotropic interactions between the hemes and the binding sites of effectors that decrease O2 affinity (increase the half-saturation O2 loading tension, P50) and facilitate O2 unloading.

A comparison of Hbs from different species (cf. Perutz, 1983) reveals that variation in the sensitivities to effectors correlates generally with exchanges of very few of the approximately 287 amino acid residues that comprise each αβ dimer. Thus in adult human Hb (HbA) at physiological pH, the majority of the Bohr effect (pH dependence of Hb-O2 affinity that facilitates O2 release in relatively acid working muscles) results from proton binding at the C-terminal residues of the β-chains (β146-His) (cf. Lukin and Ho, 2004). Correspondingly DPG binds to only four β-chain residues (β1-Val, β2-His, β82-Lys and β143-His), CO2 binding (carbamate formation) occurs at the uncharged amino-termini of both chains (α1-Val and β1-Val), and monovalent anions like chloride are considered to bind at one α-chain site (between α1-Val and α131–Ser) and one β-chain site (between  β82-Lys and β1-Val) (cf. Riggs, 1988).

The small number of sites that primarily determine Hb-O2 affinity and its sensitivity to effectors aligns with the neutral theory of molecular evolution (Kimura, 1979), which holds that the majority of amino acid substitutions are non-adaptive and harmless—and facilitates identification of key molecular mechanisms implicated in adaptations at altitude.

The role of effectors in altitude adaptation is aptly illustrated in humans where Hb structure (intrinsic O2 affinity) remains unchanged. Newcomers and permanent residents at moderate altitude (e.g. 2000 m) show increased DPG levels, resulting in a decreased O2 affinity that positions arterial and mixed venous O2 tensions on the steep part of the O2 equilibrium curve, increasing O2 capacitance ([1]bO2) and O2 transport, without materially compromising O2 loading (Turek et al., 1973; Mairbaurl, 1994). The increased DPG correlates with erythropoietin-mediated formation of new rbcs that have higher glycolytic rates and higher DPG and ATP levels than old rbcs. However, faster increases in P50 than in DPG level indicate contributions from other factors, such as chloride and ATP, and Mg ions that neutralize the anionic effectors (Mairbaurl et al., 1993). At higher altitudes (4559 m) increased hyperventilation that drives off CO2 causes respiratory alkalosis (Mairbaurl, 1994). The higher pH increases O2 affinity via the Bohr effect and, offsetting the effect of increased DPG, leads to a similar O2 affinity and arterio-venous O2 saturation  difference as at sea level (Fig.). O2 unloading in the tissues is moreover enhanced by metabolic acidification of capillary blood (Fig.).

Obviously right-shifted curves (that favor O2 unloading) becomes counterproductive at extreme altitudes where O2 loading becomes compromised, predicting that decreased O2 affinity becomes maladaptive under severe hypoxic stress. This is consistent with the observation that a carbamylation-induced increase in blood O2 affinity of rats (that lowers P50 from 27 to 15 mm Hg), increases survival under hypobaric hypoxia equivalent to 9200 meters’ altitude (Eaton et al., 1974). The altitude limit where increased affinity rather than a decreased affinity optimizes tissue O2 supply < 5000 m in man (Samaja et al., 2003)] depends on organismic adaptations (e.g. efficiency of gas exchange) and thus will vary between species. Mammals that permanently inhabit high altitudes and show high blood O2 affinities include the Andean rodent Chinchilla brevicaudata living at 3000–5000 m (blood P50 = 23 mm Hg compared to 38 mm Hg in the rat) (Ostojic et al., 2002). The deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus that occurs continuously from sea level to altitudes above 4300 m shows a strong correlation between blood O2 affinity and native altitude (Snyder et al., 1988). That genetically based differences in cofactor levels may contribute to this relationship follows from lower DPG/Hb ratios found in specimens resident, and native to, high altitude than in those from low altitude, after long-term acclimation of both groups to low altitude (Snyder, 1982).

O2 equilibrium curves of human blood illustrating the effects of increases in red cell DPG and pH at high-altitude

O2 equilibrium curves of human blood illustrating the effects of increases in red cell DPG and pH at high-altitude

 

O2 equilibrium curves of human blood illustrating the effects of increases in red cell DPG and pH at high-altitude (4559 m). Solid curves refer to arterial blood (P50 = 26  mm,upper section) and cubical venous blood (P50 = 27.5 mm Hg, lower section); their displacement reflects the Bohr effect. The broken curves depict effects of increased DPG levels (↑DPG) at unchanged pH, increased pH (↑pH) at unchanged DPG, and of decreased tissue pH (↓pH) resulting from higher degrees of metabolic acidification in the tissues. Open and shaded vertical columns indicate O2 unloaded at sea level and 4559 m, respectively, for venous O2 tensions (PvO2) of 25 and 15 mm Hg,respectively [Modified after (Mairbaurl, 1994)].

Camelids. The high blood-O2 affinities in Andean camelids (llama, vicunia, alpaca and guanaco) whose natural habitats exceed 3000 m (Bartels et al., 1963) compared to those of similarly-sized lowland mammals are well-established. In the camelids a β2His→Asn substitution deletes two of the seven DPG contacts in the tetrameric Hb, which increases blood O2 affinity by reducing the DPG effect. Although the intrinsic Hb-O2 affinity is lower in llama than in the related, lowland camel (Bauer et al., 1980), llama blood has a higher O2 affinity due to a three-fold lower DPG-binding than in camel Hb that has the same DPG binding sites as humans (Bauer et al., 1980). In vicunia, a higher O2 affinity than in llama (that has identical β-chains), correlates with the α130Ala→Thr substitution, which introduces a hydroxyl polar group that predictably reduces the chloride binding at adjacent α131Asn residue .

Sheep and goats commonly express two isoforms, HbA and HbB. The heterogeneity is controlled by two autosomal alleles with codominant expression. Whereas individuals expressing HbA have higher blood-O2 affinity than those that express HbB, heterozygotes that express both forms at equimolar concentrations in the same erythrocytes show intermediate affinity. Anemic blood loss induces switching from HbA to HbC that has a similarly high affinity. Hbs A, B and C have identical α-chains but different β[1]-chains. It appears unknown whether altitudinal exposure (which like anemia, induces tissue hypoxia) modulates Hb heterogeneity via selective expression of specific β-chains.

Compared to most mammals that possess one major adult and one major fetal Hb, yak, Poephagus (=Bos) grunniens, a native to altitudes of 3000–6000 m in Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan, has two or four major adult Hbs and two major fetal Hbs. These Hbs exhibit higher intrinsic affinities than closely-related bovine Hb, marked DPG sensitivities and, exceptional amongst mammals, differentiated O2 affinities that indicates an extended range of ambient O2 tensions (and altitudes) in which the composite Hb functions.

(Not shown).  Representation of interchain contacts considered to underly differentiated O2 affinities in Rueppell’s griffon isoHbs A, A , D and D that have identical β- chains but different α- chains. Accordingly the van der Waal’s contact between β134Ile and β1125-Asp in Hbs A , D and D stabilizes the low-affinity, T-state less strongly than the H-bond between Thr 134 and β1125-Asp and thus increases O2 affinity in Hbs A, D and D. Analogously, the hydrogen bonds between α138-β297/99 that stabilize the high-affinity oxystructure (raising O2 affinity in isoHbs D and D) cannot form in HbA and HbA that have Pro at α138.

Ostriches, the largest extant birds, exhibit a β2His→Gln exchange (that reduces phosphate interaction). They moreover ‘use’ ITP (inositol phosphate) that carries fewer negative charges, and predictably has lesser allosteric effect, than IPP (Isaacks et al., 1977), predicting a high blood O2 affinity that is compatible with ‘scaling’ and (as in elephants) increases high altitude tolerance.

Whereas some adult birds express one major iso-Hb (HbA), the majority of species, reportedly all that fly at high altitudes (Hiebl et al., 1987), also express a less abundant HbD. HbD has the same β-chains as HbA but different α-chains (αD) and exhibits higher O2 affinities (Huisman et al., 1964). There is no consistent evidence for hypoxia-induced changes in HbD expression.

An example of how “molecular anatomy is just as key to understanding molecular adaptation as phylogeny and physiological ecology” (Golding and Dean, 1998) is Hb of the high-altitude tolerant bar-headed goose that has a sharply higher blood O2 affinity than that of the closely related graylag goose that is restricted to lower altitudes (P50 = 29.7 and 39.5mmHg at 37 ◦C and pH 7.4). The Hbs differ by only four (greylag→bar-headed) amino acid exchanges: α18Gly→Ser, α63Ala→Val, β125Glu→Asp and α119Pro→Ala. The last mentioned exchange that is unique in birds, predictably increases O2 affinity, by deleting a contact between α1119 and β155 that destabilizes the T-structure (Perutz, 1983). Moreover, Andean ‘goose’ Hb that also has high blood O2 affinity shows β55 Leu→Ser that deletes the same contact. Significantly, two human Hb mutants (α119Pro–Ala and β155Met→Ser) engineered by site-directed mutagenesis to mimic the mutations found in bar-headed and Andean geese possess markedly higher O2 affinities than native HbA.

Although “the study of molecular adaptation has long been fraught with difficulties not the least of which is identifying out the hundreds of amino acid replacements, those few directly responsible for major adaptations” Hb’s adaptations to high altitude are a prime example of how “an amino acid replacement of modest effect at the molecular level causes a dramatic expansion in an ecological niche” [quotations from (Golding et al., 1998)].

However, the pathway of molecular O2 from the respiratory medium to the cellular combustion sites via the Hb molecules is regulated by a symphony of supplementary adaptations that span different levels of biological organization, each of which (according to the principle of symmorphosis) may become maximally recruited in extreme cases (as in birds actively flying above 10,000 m). Apart from hyperventilation, that appears to occur ubiquitously (and increases blood O2 affinity via increased pH), different species subjected to less extreme hypoxic stress utilize different adaptations among the arsenal of organismic, cellular and molecular strategies that favor efficient aerobic utilization of the scarce O2 available at high altitude. No clear correlations exist between the adaptive strategies recruited by different animals on the one hand, and their phylogenetic position, mode of life or ecological niches on the other. An overall limitation is that short-term adaptive adjustments in O2 affinity (that may occur within individual animals) necessarily involves rapid adaptive responses, such as changes in the levels of erythrocytic effectors, whereas the long-term acclimations that have accumulated in permanent high-altitude dwellers during evolutionary development.

Genetic Diversity of Microsatellite DNA Loci of Tibetan Antelope (Chiru, Pantholops hodgsonii) in Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve, Qinghai, China

Hui Zhou, Diqiang Li, Yuguang Zhang, Tao Yang, Yi Liu
J Genetics and Genomics (Formerly Acta Genetica Sinica) 2007; 34(7): 600-607

The Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii), indigenous to China, became an endangered species because of considerable reduction both in number and distribution during the 20th century. Presently, it is listed as an AppendixⅠspecies by CITES and as CategoryⅠ by the Key Protected Wildlife List of China. Understanding the genetic diversity and population structure of the Tibetan antelope is significant for the development of effective conservation plans that will ensure the recovery and future persistence of this species. Twenty-five microsatellites were selected to obtain loci with sufficient levels of polymorphism that can provide in-formation for the analysis of population structure. Among the 25 loci that were examined, nine of them showed high levels of genetic diversity. The nine variable loci (MCM38, MNS64, IOBT395, MCMAI, TGLA68, BM1329, BMS1341, BM3501, and MB066) were used to examine the genetic diversity of the Tibetan antelope (n = 75) in Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve(HXNNR), Qinghai, China. The results obtained by estimating the number of population suggested that all the 75 Tibetan antelope samples were from the same population. The mean number of alleles per locus was 9.4 ± 0.5300 (range, 7–12) and the mean effective number of alleles was 6.519 ± 0.5271 (range, 4.676–9.169). The observed mean and expected heterozygosity were 0.844 ± 0.0133 (range, 0.791–0.897) and 0.838 ± 0.0132 (range, 0.786–0.891), respectively. Mean Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) was 0.818 ± 0.0158 (range, 0.753–0.881). The value of Fixation index (Fis) ranged from −0.269 to −0.097 with the mean of −0.163 ± 0.0197. Mean Shannon’s information index was 1.990 ± 0.0719 among nine loci (range, 1.660–2.315). These results provide baseline data for the evaluation of the level of genetic variation in Tibetan antelope, which will be important for the development of conservation strategies in future.

Expression profiling of abundant genes in pulmonary and cardiac muscle tissues of Tibetan Antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii)

Xiaomei Tong, Yingzhong Yang, Weiwei Wang, Zenzhong Bai, et al.
Gene 523 (2013) 187–191
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2013.03.011

The Tibetan Antelope (TA), which has lived at high altitude for millions of years, was selected as the model species of high hypoxia-tolerant adaptation. Here we constructed two cDNA libraries from lung and cardiac muscle tissues, obtained EST sequences from the libraries, and acquired extensive expression data related energy metabolism genes. Comparative analyses of synonymous (Ks) and nonsynonymous (Ka) substitution rates of nucleus-encoded mitochondrial unigenes among different species revealed that many antelope genes have undergone rapid evolution. Surfactant-associated protein A (SP-A) and surfactant-associated protein B (SP-B) genes in the AT lineage experienced accelerated evolution compared to goat and sheep, and these two genes are highly expressed in the lung tissue. This study suggests that many specific genes of lung and cardiac muscle tissues showed unique expression profiles and may undergo fast adaptive evolution in TA. These data provide useful information for studying on molecular adaptation to high-altitude in humans as well as other mammals.

Exogenous Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Boosts Acclimatization in Rats Exposed to Acute Hypobaric Hypoxia: Assessment of Haematological and Metabolic Effects

Sonam Chawla, Babita Rahar, Mrinalini Singh, Anju Bansal, et al.
PLoS ONE 9(6): e98025. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1371/journal.pone.0098025

Background: The physiological challenges posed by hypobaric hypoxia warrant exploration of pharmacological entities to improve acclimatization to hypoxia. The present study investigates the preclinical efficacy of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) to improve acclimatization to simulated hypobaric hypoxia. Experimental Approach: Efficacy of intravenously administered S1P in improving hematological and metabolic acclimatization was evaluated in rats exposed to simulated acute hypobaric hypoxia (7620 m for 6 hours) following S1P pre-treatment for three days. Major Findings: Altitude exposure of the control rats caused systemic hypoxia, hypocapnia (plausible sign of hyperventilation) and respiratory alkalosis due to suboptimal renal compensation indicated by an overt alkaline pH of the mixed venous blood. This was associated with pronounced energy deficit in the hepatic tissue along with systemic oxidative stress and inflammation. S1P pre-treatment improved blood oxygen-carrying-capacity by increasing hemoglobin, hematocrit, and RBC count, probably as an outcome of hypoxia inducible factor-1a mediated  erythropoiesis and renal S1P receptor 1 mediated hemoconcentation. The improved partial pressure of oxygen in the blood could further restore aerobic respiration and increase ATP content in the hepatic tissue of S1P treated animals. S1P could also protect the animals from hypoxia mediated oxidative stress and inflammation. Conclusion: The study findings highlight S1P’s merits as a preconditioning agent for improving acclimatization to acute hypobaric hypoxia exposure. The results may have long term clinical application for improving physiological acclimatization of subjects venturing into high altitude for occupational or recreational purposes.

S1P Stabilizes HIF-1a and Boosts HIF-1a Mediated Hypoxia Adaptive Responses

S1P pre-conditioning led to 1.9 fold higher HIF-1a level in the kidney tissue (p<0.001) and 1.3 fold higher HIF-1a level in the liver tissue (p<0.001) in 1 mg/kg b.w. S1P group than in hypoxia control group. However, the hypoxia control group also had 1.3 folds higher HIF-1a levels in both liver and kidney tissues than in normoxia control groups, indicating a non-hypoxic boost of HIF-1a in S1P treated animals (Figure 1a and b). Further, plasma Epo levels were also observed to be significantly higher following S1P pre-treatment compared to the hypoxia control groups (p=0.05) (Figure 1a). Epo being primarily secreted by the kidneys and its expression being under regulation of HIF-1a, the raised plasma Epo level could be attributed to higher HIF-1a level in the kidney.

Figure 1. (not shown) Effect of S1P treatment on HIF-1a accumulation and downstream gene expression. a) Renal HIF-1a accumulation and Epo accumulation in plasma. HIF-1a accumulation in the renal tissue homogenate and build-up of erythropoietin in plasma was quantified. b) Hepatic HIF-1a accumulation. c) Effect S1P pre-treatment on circulatory VEGF. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was quantified in plasma of experimental animals. These estimations were carried out using sandwich ELISA, and were carried out in triplicates for each experimental animal. Values are representative of mean 6 SD (n = 6). Statistical significance was calculated using ANOVA/post hoc Bonferroni. NC: Normoxia control, HC: Hypoxia control, 1: 1 mg S1P/kg b.w., 10: 10 mg S1P/kg b.w., 100: 100 mg S1P/kg b.w.,  p<0.05 compared with the normoxic control, p<0.01 compared with the normoxic control, p<0.001 compared with the normoxic control,  p<0.05 compared with the hypoxic control,  p<0.01 compared with the hypoxic control,  p<0.001 compared with the hypoxic control. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1371/journal.pone.0098025.g001

Figure 2.(not shown)  Effect of S1P treatment on S1P1 expression in renal tissue. Representative immune-blot of S1P1. Densitometric analysis of blot normalized against the loading control (α-tubulin). Values are representative of mean 6 SD (n = 6). Statistical significance was calculated using ANOVA/post hoc Bonferroni. NC: Normoxia control, HC: Hypoxia control, 1: 1 mg S1P/kg b.w., 10: 10 mg S1P/kg b.w., 100: 100 mg S1P/kg b.w.,  p<0.05 compared with the normoxic control,  p<0.01 compared with the normoxic control, p<0.001 compared with the normoxic control, p< 0.05 compared with the hypoxic control, p<0.01 compared with the hypoxic control, p<0.001 compared with the hypoxic control. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1371/journal.pone.0098025.g002

Cloning of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α cDNA from a high hypoxia tolerant mammal—plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae)

T.B. Zhao, H.X. Ning, S.S. Zhu, P. Sun, S.X. Xu, Z.J. Chang, and X.Q. Zhao
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 316 (2004) 565–572
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.bbrc.2004.02.087

Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 is a transcription factor composed of HIF-1α and HIF-1β. It plays an important role in the signal transduction of cell response to hypoxia. Plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) is a high hypoxia-tolerant and cold adaptation species living only at 3000–5000m above sea level on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. In this study, HIF-1α cDNA of plateau pika was cloned and its expression in various tissues was studied. The results indicated that plateau pika HIF-1α cDNA was highly identical to those of the human (82%), bovine (89%), mouse (82%), and Norway rat (77%). The deduced amino acid sequence (822 bp) showed 90%, 92%, 86%, and 86% identities with those of the human, bovine, house mouse, and Norway rat, respectively. Northern blot analyses detected two isoforms named pLHIF-1α and pSHIF-1α. The HIF-1α mRNA was highly expressed in the brain and kidney, and much less in the heart, lung, liver, muscle, and spleen, which was quite different from the expression pattern of mouse mRNA. Meanwhile, a new variant of plateau pika HIF-1α mRNA was identified by RT-PCR and characterized. The deduced protein, composed of 536 amino acids, lacks a part of the oxygen-dependent degradation domain (ODD), both transactivation domains (TADs), and the nuclear localization signal motif (NLS). Our results suggest that HIF-1α may play an important role in the pika’s adaptation to hypoxia, especially in brain and kidney, and pika HIF-1α function pattern may be different from that of mouse HIF-1α. Furthermore, for the high ratio of HIF-1α homology among the animals, the HIF-1α gene may be a good phylogenetic performer in recovering the true phylogenetic relationships among taxa.

Comparative Proteomics Analyses of Kobresia pygmaea Adaptation to Environment along an Elevational Gradient on the Central Tibetan Plateau

Xiong Li, Yunqiang Yang, Lan Ma, Xudong Sun, et al.
PLoS ONE 9(6): e98410. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1371/journal.pone.0098410

Variations in elevation limit the growth and distribution of alpine plants because multiple environmental stresses impact plant growth, including sharp temperature shifts, strong ultraviolet radiation exposure, low oxygen content, etc. Alpine plants have developed special strategies to help survive the harsh environments of high mountains, but the internal mechanisms remain undefined. Kobresia pygmaea, the dominant species of alpine meadows, is widely distributed in the Southeastern Tibet Plateau, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. In this study, we mainly used comparative proteomics analyses to investigate the dynamic protein patterns for K. pygmaea located at four different elevations (4600, 4800, 4950 and 5100 m). A total of 58 differentially expressed proteins were successfully detected and functionally characterized. The proteins were divided into various functional categories, including material and energy metabolism, protein synthesis and degradation, redox process, defense response, photosynthesis, and protein kinase. Our study confirmed that increasing levels of antioxidant and heat shock proteins and the accumulation of primary metabolites, such as proline and abscisic acid, conferred K. pygmaea with tolerance to the alpine environment. In addition, the various methods K. pygmaea used to regulate material and energy metabolism played important roles in the development of tolerance to environmental stress. Our results also showed that the way in which K. pygmaea mediated stomatal characteristics and photosynthetic pigments constitutes an enhanced adaptation to alpine environmental stress. According to these findings, we concluded that K. pygmaea adapted to the high-elevation environment on the Tibetan Plateau by aggressively accumulating abiotic stress related metabolites and proteins and by the various life events mediated by proteins. Based on the species flexible physiological and biochemical processes, we surmised that environment change has only a slight impact on K. pygmaea except for possible impacts to populations on vulnerable edges of the species’ range
Altered mitochondrial biogenesis and its fusion gene expression is involved in the high-altitude adaptation of rat lung

Loganathan Chitra, Rathanam Boopathy
Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology 192 (2014) 74– 84
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resp.2013.12.007

Intermittent hypobaric hypoxia-induced preconditioning (IHH-PC) of rat favored the adaption of lungs to severe HH conditions, possibly through stabilization of mitochondrial function. This is based on the data generated on regulatory coordination of nuclear DNA-encoded mitochondrial biogenesis; dynamics,and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)-encoded oxidative phosphorylation (mt-OXPHOS) genes expression. At16th day after start of IHH-PC (equivalent to 5,000 m, 6 h/d, 2 w of treatment), rats were exposed to severe HH stimulation at 9142 m for 6 h. The IHH-PC significantly counteracted the HH-induced effect of increased lung: water content; tissue damage; and oxidant injury. Further, IHH-PC significantly increased the mitochondrial number, mtDNA content and mt- OXPHOS complex activity in the lung tissues. This observation is due to an increased expression of genes involved in mitochondrial biogenesis (PGC-1α,ERRα, NRF1, NRF2 and TFAM), fusion (Mfn1 and Mfn2) and mt OXPHOS. Thus, the regulatory pathway formed by PGC-1α/ERRα/Mfn2 axes is required for the mitochondrial adaptation provoked by IHH-PC regimen to counteract subsequent HH stress.

Molecular characteristics of Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii) mitochondrial DNA control region and phylogenetic inferences with related species

  1. Feng, B. Fan, K. Li, Q.D. Zhang, et al.
    Small Ruminant Research 75 (2008) 236–242
    http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.smallrumres.2007.06.011

Although Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii) is a distinctive wild species inhabiting the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau, its taxonomic classification within the Bovidae is still unclear and little molecular information has been reported to date. In this study of Tibetan antelope, the complete control regions of mtDNA were sequenced and compared to those of Tibetan sheep (Ovis aries) and goat (Capra hircus). The length of the control region in Tibetan antelope, sheep and goat is 1067, 1181/1106 and 1121 bp, respectively. A 75-bp repeat sequence was found near the 5’ end of the control region of Tibetan antelope and sheep, the repeat numbers of which were two in Tibetan antelope and three or four in sheep. Three major domain regions, including HVI, HVII and central domain, in Tibetan antelope, sheep and goat were outlined, as well as other less conserved blocks, such as CSB-1, CSB-2, ETAS-1 and ETAS-2. NJ cluster analysis of the three species revealed that Tibetan antelope was more closely related to Tibetan sheep than Tibetan goat. These results were further confirmed by phylogenetic analysis using the partial control region sequences of these and 13 other antelope species. Tibetan antelope is better assigned to the Caprinae rather than the Antilopinae subfamily of the Bovidae.

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Neonatal Pathophysiology

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Neonatal Pathophysiology

Writer and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP 

 

Introduction

This curation deals with a large and specialized branch of medicine that grew since the mid 20th century in concert with the developments in genetics and as a result of a growing population, with large urban populations, increasing problems of premature deliveries.  The problems of prematurity grew very preterm to very low birth weight babies with special problems.  While there were nurseries, the need for intensive care nurseries became evident in the 1960s, and the need for perinatal care of pregnant mothers also grew as a result of metabolic problems of the mother, intrauterine positioning of the fetus, and increasing numbers of teen age pregnancies as well as nutritional problems of the mother.  There was also a period when the manufacturers of nutritional products displaced the customary use of breast feeding, which was consequential.  This discussion is quite comprehensive, as it involves a consideration of the heart, the lungs, the brain, and the liver, to a large extent, and also the kidneys and skeletal development.

It is possible to outline, with a proportionate emphasis based on frequency and severity, this as follows:

  1. Genetic and metabolic diseases
  2. Nervous system
  3. Cardiovascular
  4. Pulmonary
  5. Skeletal – bone and muscle
  6. Hematological
  7. Liver
  8. Esophagus, stomach, and intestines
  9. Kidneys
  10. Immune system

Fetal Development

Gestation is the period of time between conception and birth when a baby grows and develops inside the mother’s womb. Because it’s impossible to know exactly when conception occurs, gestational age is measured from the first day of the mother’s last menstrual cycle to the current date. It is measured in weeks. A normal gestation lasts anywhere from 37 to 41 weeks.

Week 5 is the start of the “embryonic period.” This is when all the baby’s major systems and structures develop. The embryo’s cells multiply and start to take on specific functions. This is called differentiation. Blood cells, kidney cells, and nerve cells all develop. The embryo grows rapidly, and the baby’s external features begin to form.

Week 6-9:   Brain forms into five different areas. Some cranial nerves are visible. Eyes and ears begin to form. Tissue grows that will the baby’s spine and other bones. Baby’s heart continues to grow and now beats at a regular rhythm. Blood pumps through the main vessels. Your baby’s brain continues to grow. The lungs start to form. Limbs look like paddles. Essential organs begin to grow.

Weeks 11-18: Limbs extended. Baby makes sucking motion. Movement of limbs. Liver and pancreas produce secretions. Muscle and bones developing.

Week 19-21: Baby can hear. Mom feels baby – and quickening.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002398.htm

fetal-development

fetal-development

https://polination.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/abortion-new-research-into-fetal-development.jpg

Inherited Metabolic Disorders

The original cause of most genetic metabolic disorders is a gene mutation that occurred many, many generations ago. The gene mutation is passed along through the generations, ensuring its preservation.

Each inherited metabolic disorder is quite rare in the general population. Considered all together, inherited metabolic disorders may affect about 1 in 1,000 to 2,500 newborns. In certain ethnic populations, such as Ashkenazi Jews (Jews of central and eastern European ancestry), the rate of inherited metabolic disorders is higher.

Hundreds of inherited metabolic disorders have been identified, and new ones continue to be discovered. Some of the more common and important genetic metabolic disorders include:

Lysosomal storage disorders : Lysosomes are spaces inside cells that break down waste products of metabolism. Various enzyme deficiencies inside lysosomes can result in buildup of toxic substances, causing metabolic disorders including:

  • Hurler syndrome (abnormal bone structure and developmental delay)
  • Niemann-Pick disease (babies develop liver enlargement, difficulty feeding, and nerve damage)
  • Tay-Sachs disease (progressive weakness in a months-old child, progressing to severe nerve damage; the child usually lives only until age 4 or 5)
  • Gauchers disease and others

Galactosemia: Impaired breakdown of the sugar galactose leads to jaundice, vomiting, and liver enlargement after breast or formula feeding by a newborn.

Maple syrup urine disease: Deficiency of an enzyme called BCKD causes buildup of amino acids in the body. Nerve damage results, and the urine smells like syrup.

Phenylketonuria (PKU): Deficiency of the enzyme PAH results in high levels of phenylalanine in the blood. Mental retardation results if the condition is not recognized.

Glycogen storage diseases: Problems with sugar storage lead to low blood sugar levels, muscle pain, and weakness.

Metal metabolism disorders: Levels of trace metals in the blood are controlled by special proteins. Inherited metabolic disorders can result in protein malfunction and toxic accumulation of metal in the body:

Wilson disease (toxic copper levels accumulate in the liver, brain, and other organs)

Hemochromatosis (the intestines absorb excessive iron, which builds up in the liver, pancreas, joints, and heart, causing damage)

Organic acidemias: methylmalonic acidemia and propionic acidemia.

Urea cycle disorders: ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency and citrullinemia

Hemoglobinopathies – thalassemias, sickle cell disease

Red cell enzyme disorders – glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, pyruvate kinase

This list is by no means complete.

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/inherited-metabolic-disorder-types-and-treatments

New variations in the galactose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase (GALT) gene

Clinical and molecular spectra in galactosemic patients from neonatal screening in northeastern Italy: Structural and functional characterization of new variations in the galactose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase (GALT) gene

E Viggiano, A Marabotti, AP Burlina, C Cazzorla, MR D’Apice, et al.
Gene 559 (2015) 112–118
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2015.01.013
Galactosemia (OMIM 230400) is a rare autosomal recessive inherited disorder caused by deficiency of galactose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase (GALT; OMIM 606999) activity. The incidence of galactosemia is 1 in 30,000–60,000, with a prevalence of 1 in 47,000 in the white population. Neonates with galactosemia can present acute symptoms, such as severe hepatic and renal failure, cataract and sepsis after milk introduction. Dietary restriction of galactose determines the clinical improvement in these patients. However, despite early diagnosis by neonatal screening and dietary treatment, a high percentage of patients develop long-term complications such as cognitive disability, speech problems, neurological and/or movement disorders and, in females, ovarian dysfunction.

With the benefit of early diagnosis by neonatal screening and early therapy, the acute presentation of classical galactosemia can be prevented. The objectives of the current study were to report our experience with a group of galactosemic patients identified through the neonatal screening programs in northeastern Italy during the last 30 years.

No neonatal deaths due to galactosemia complications occurred after the introduction of the neonatal screening program. However, despite the early diagnosis and dietary treatment, the patients with classical galactosemia showed one or more long-term complications.

A total of 18 different variations in the GALT gene were found in the patient cohort: 12 missense, 2 frameshift, 1 nonsense, 1 deletion, 1 silent variation, and 1 intronic. Six (p.R33P, p.G83V, p.P244S, p.L267R, p.L267V, p.E271D) were new variations. The most common variation was p.Q188R (12 alleles, 31.5%), followed by p.K285N (6 alleles, 15.7%) and p.N314D (6 alleles, 15.7%). The other variations comprised 1 or 2 alleles. In the patients carrying a new mutation, the biochemical analysis of GALT activity in erythrocytes showed an activity of < 1%. In silico analysis (SIFT, PolyPhen-2 and the computational analysis on the static protein structure) showed potentially damaging effects of the six new variations on the GALT protein, thus expanding the genetic spectrum of GALT variations in Italy. The study emphasizes the difficulty in establishing a genotype–phenotype correlation in classical galactosemia and underlines the importance of molecular diagnostic testing prior to making any treatment.

Diagnosis and Management of Hereditary Hemochromatosis

Reena J. Salgia, Kimberly Brown
Clin Liver Dis 19 (2015) 187–198
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cld.2014.09.011

Hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) is a diagnosis most commonly made in patients with elevated iron indices (transferrin saturation and ferritin), and HFE genetic mutation testing showing C282Y homozygosity.

The HFE mutation is believed to result in clinical iron overload through altering hepcidin levels resulting in increased iron absorption.

The most common clinical complications of HH include cirrhosis, diabetes, nonischemic cardiomyopathy, and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Liver biopsy should be performed in patients with HH if the liver enzymes are elevated or serum ferritin is greater than 1000 mg/L. This is useful to determine the degree of iron overload and stage the fibrosis.

Treatment of HH with clinical iron overload involves a combination of phlebotomy and/or chelation therapy. Liver transplantation should be considered for patients with HH-related decompensated cirrhosis.

Health economic evaluation of plasma oxysterol screening in the diagnosis of Niemann–Pick Type C disease among intellectually disabled using discrete event simulation

CDM van Karnebeek, Tima Mohammadi, Nicole Tsaod, Graham Sinclair, et al.
Molecular Genetics and Metabolism 114 (2015) 226–232
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ymgme.2014.07.004

Background: Recently a less invasive method of screening and diagnosing Niemann–Pick C (NP-C) disease has emerged. This approach involves the use of a metabolic screening test (oxysterol assay) instead of the current practice of clinical assessment of patients suspected of NP-C (review of medical history, family history and clinical examination for the signs and symptoms). Our objective is to compare costs and outcomes of plasma oxysterol screening versus current practice in diagnosis of NP-C disease among intellectually disabled (ID) patients using decision-analytic methods.
Methods: A discrete event simulation model was conducted to follow ID patients through the diagnosis and treatment of NP-C, forecast the costs and effectiveness for a cohort of ID patients and compare the outcomes and costs in two different arms of the model: plasma oxysterol screening and routine diagnosis procedure (anno 2013) over 5 years of follow up. Data from published sources and clinical trials were used in simulation model. Unit costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were discounted at a 3% annual rate in the base case analysis. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted.
Results: The outcomes of the base case model showed that using plasma oxysterol screening for diagnosis of NP-C disease among ID patients is a dominant strategy. It would result in lower total cost and would slightly improve patients’ quality of life. The average amount of cost saving was $3642 CAD and the incremental QALYs per each individual ID patient in oxysterol screening arm versus current practice of diagnosis NP-C was 0.0022 QALYs. Results of sensitivity analysis demonstrated robustness of the outcomes over the wide range of changes in model inputs.
Conclusion: Whilst acknowledging the limitations of this study, we conclude that screening ID children and adolescents with oxysterol tests compared to current practice for the diagnosis of NP-C is a dominant strategy with clinical and economic benefits. The less costly, more sensitive and specific oxysterol test has potential to save costs to the healthcare system while improving patients’ quality of life and may be considered as a routine tool in the NP-C diagnosis armamentarium for ID. Further research is needed to elucidate its effectiveness in patients presenting characteristics other than ID in childhood and adolescence.

Neurological and Behavioral Disorders

Estrogen receptor signaling during vertebrate development

Maria Bondesson, Ruixin Hao, Chin-Yo Lin, Cecilia Williams, Jan-Åke Gustafsson
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1849 (2015) 142–151
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagrm.2014.06.005

Estrogen receptors are expressed and their cognate ligands produced in all vertebrates, indicative of important and conserved functions. Through evolution estrogen has been involved in controlling reproduction, affectingboth the development of reproductive organs and reproductive behavior. This review broadly describes the synthesis of estrogens and the expression patterns of aromatase and the estrogen receptors, in relation to estrogen functions in the developing fetus and child. We focus on the role of estrogens for the development of reproductive tissues, as well as non-reproductive effects on the developing brain. We collate data from human, rodent, bird and fish studies and highlight common and species-specific effects of estrogen signaling on fetal development. Morphological malformations originating from perturbed estrogen signaling in estrogen receptor and aromatase knockout mice are discussed, as well as the clinical manifestations of rare estrogen receptor alpha and aromatase gene mutations in humans. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Nuclear receptors in animal development.

 

Memory function and hippocampal volumes in preterm born very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) young adults

Synne Aanes, Knut Jørgen Bjuland, Jon Skranes, Gro C.C. Løhaugen
NeuroImage 105 (2015) 76–83
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.10.023

The hippocampi are regarded as core structures for learning and memory functions, which is important for daily functioning and educational achievements. Previous studies have linked reduction in hippocampal volume to working memory problems in very low birth weight (VLBW; ≤1500 g) children and reduced general cognitive ability in VLBW adolescents. However, the relationship between memory function and hippocampal volume has not been described in VLBW subjects reaching adulthood. The aim of the study was to investigate memory function and hippocampal volume in VLBW young adults, both in relation to perinatal risk factors and compared to term born controls, and to look for structure–function relationships. Using Wechsler Memory Scale-III and MRI, we included 42 non-disabled VLBW and 61 control individuals at age 19–20 years, and related our findings to perinatal risk factors in the VLBW-group. The VLBW young adults achieved lower scores on several subtests of the Wechsler Memory Scale-III, resulting in lower results in the immediate memory indices (visual and auditory), the working memory index, and in the visual delayed and general memory delayed indices, but not in the auditory delayed and auditory recognition delayed indices. The VLBW group had smaller absolute and relative hippocampal volumes than the controls. In the VLBW group inferior memory function, especially for the working memory index, was related to smaller hippocampal volume, and both correlated with lower birth weight and more days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Our results may indicate a structural–functional relationship in the VLBW group due to aberrant hippocampal development and functioning after preterm birth.

The relation of infant attachment to attachment and cognitive and behavioural outcomes in early childhood

Yan-hua Ding, Xiu Xua, Zheng-yan Wang, Hui-rong Li, Wei-ping Wang
Early Human Development 90 (2014) 459–464
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2014.06.004

Background: In China, research on the relation of mother–infant attachment to children’s development is scarce.
Aims: This study sought to investigate the relation of mother–infant attachment to attachment, cognitive and behavioral development in young children.                                                                                                                            Study design: This study used a longitudinal study design.
Subjects: The subjects included healthy infants (n=160) aged 12 to 18 months.
Outcome measures: Ainsworth’s “Strange Situation Procedure” was used to evaluate mother–infant attachment types. The attachment Q-set (AQS) was used to evaluate the attachment between young children and their mothers. The Bayley scale of infant development-second edition (BSID-II) was used to evaluate cognitive developmental level in early childhood. Achenbach’s child behavior checklist (CBCL) for 2- to 3-year-oldswas used to investigate behavioral problems.
Results: In total, 118 young children (73.8%) completed the follow-up; 89.7% of infants with secure attachment and 85.0% of infants with insecure attachment still demonstrated this type of attachment in early childhood (κ = 0.738, p b 0.05). Infants with insecure attachment collectively exhibited a significantly lower mental development index (MDI) in early childhood than did infants with secure attachment, especially the resistant type. In addition, resistant infants were reported to have greater social withdrawal, sleep problems and aggressive behavior in early childhood.
Conclusion: There is a high consistency in attachment development from infancy to early childhood. Secure mother–infant attachment predicts a better cognitive and behavioral outcome; whereas insecure attachment, especially the resistant attachment, may lead to a lower cognitive level and greater behavioral problems in early childhood.

representations of the HPA axis

representations of the HPA axis

representations of limbic stress-integrative pathways from the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus

representations of limbic stress-integrative pathways from the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus

Fetal programming of schizophrenia: Select mechanisms

Monojit Debnatha, Ganesan Venkatasubramanian, Michael Berk
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 49 (2015) 90–104
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.12.003

Mounting evidence indicates that schizophrenia is associated with adverse intrauterine experiences. An adverse or suboptimal fetal environment can cause irreversible changes in brain that can subsequently exert long-lasting effects through resetting a diverse array of biological systems including endocrine, immune and nervous. It is evident from animal and imaging studies that subtle variations in the intrauterine environment can cause recognizable differences in brain structure and cognitive functions in the offspring. A wide variety of environmental factors may play a role in precipitating the emergent developmental dysregulation and the consequent evolution of psychiatric traits in early adulthood by inducing inflammatory, oxidative and nitrosative stress (IO&NS) pathways, mitochondrial dysfunction, apoptosis, and epigenetic dysregulation. However, the precise mechanisms behind such relationships and the specificity of the risk factors for schizophrenia remain exploratory. Considering the paucity of knowledge on fetal programming of schizophrenia, it is timely to consolidate the recent advances in the field and put forward an integrated overview of the mechanisms associated with fetal origin of schizophrenia.

NMDA receptor dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders

Eun-Jae Lee, Su Yeon Choi and Eunjoon Kim
Current Opinion in Pharmacology 2015, 20:8–13
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.coph.2014.10.007

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) represent neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by two core symptoms;

(1)  impaired social interaction and communication, and
(2)  restricted and repetitive behaviors, interests, and activities.

ASDs affect ~ 1% of the population, and are considered to be highly genetic in nature. A large number (~600) of ASD-related genetic variations have been identified (sfari.org), and target gene functions are apparently quite diverse. However, some fall onto common pathways, including synaptic function and chromosome remodeling, suggesting that core mechanisms may exist.

Abnormalities and imbalances in neuronal excitatory and inhibitory synapses have been implicated in diverse neuropsychiatric disorders including autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Increasing evidence indicates that dysfunction of NMDA receptors (NMDARs) at excitatory synapses is associated with ASDs. In support of this, human ASD-associated genetic variations are found in genes encoding NMDAR subunits. Pharmacological enhancement or suppression of NMDAR function ameliorates ASD symptoms in humans. Animal models of ASD display bidirectional NMDAR dysfunction, and correcting this deficit rescues ASD-like behaviors. These findings suggest that deviation of NMDAR function in either direction contributes to the development of ASDs, and that correcting NMDAR dysfunction has therapeutic potential for ASDs.

Among known synaptic proteins implicated in ASD are metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). Functional enhancement and suppression of mGluR5 are associated with fragile X syndrome and tuberous sclerosis, respectively, which share autism as a common phenotype. More recently, ionotropic glutamate receptors, namely NMDA receptors (NMDARs) and AMPA receptors (AMPARs), have also been implicated in ASDs. In this review, we will focus on NMDA receptors and summarize evidence supporting the hypothesis that NMDAR dysfunction contributes to ASDs, and, by extension, that correcting NMDAR dysfunction has therapeutic potential for ASDs. ASD-related human NMDAR genetic variants.

Chemokines roles within the hippocampus

Chemokines roles within the hippocampus

IL-1 mediates stress-induced activation of the HPA axis

IL-1 mediates stress-induced activation of the HPA axis

A systemic model of the beneficial role of immune processes in behavioral and neural plasticity

A systemic model of the beneficial role of immune processes in behavioral and neural plasticity

Three Classes of Glutamate Receptors

Three Classes of Glutamate Receptors

Clinical studies on ASDs have identified genetic variants of NMDAR subunit genes. Specifically, de novo mutations have been identified in the GRIN2B gene, encoding the GluN2B subunit. In addition, SNP analyses have linked both GRIN2A (GluN2A subunit) and GRIN2B with ASDs. Because assembled NMDARs contain four subunits, each with distinct properties, ASD-related GRIN2A/ GRIN2B variants likely alter the functional properties of NMDARs and/or NMDAR-dependent plasticity.

Pharmacological modulation of NMDAR function can improve ASD symptoms. D-cycloserine (DCS), an NMDAR agonist, significantly ameliorates social withdrawal and repetitive behavior in individuals with ASD. These results suggest that reduced NMDAR function may contribute to the development of ASDs in humans.

We can divide animal studies into two groups. The first group consists of animals in which NMDAR modulators were shown to normalize both NMDAR dysfunction and ASD-like behaviors, establishing strong association between NMDARs and ASD phenotypes (Fig.). In the second group, NMDAR modulators were shown to rescue ASD-like behaviors, but NMDAR dysfunction and its correction have not been demonstrated.

ASD models with data showing rescue of both NMDAR dysfunction and ASD like behaviors Mice lacking neuroligin-1, an excitatory postsynaptic adhesion molecule, show reduced NMDAR function in the hippocampus and striatum, as evidenced by a decrease in NMDA/AMPA ratio and long-term potentiation (LTP). Neuroligin-1 is thought to enhance synaptic NMDAR function, by directly interacting with and promoting synaptic localization of NMDARs.

Fig not shown.

Bidirectional NMDAR dysfunction in animal models of ASD. Animal models of ASD with bidirectional NMDAR dysfunction can be positioned on either side of an NMDAR function curve. Model animals were divided into two groups.

Group 1: NMDAR modulators normalize both NMDAR dysfunction and ASD-like behaviors (green).

Group 2: NMDAR modulators rescue ASD-like behaviors, but NMDAR dysfunction and its rescue have not been demonstrated (orange). Note that Group 2 animals are tentatively placed on the left-hand side of the slope based on the observed DCS rescue of their ASD-like phenotypes, but the directions of their NMDAR dysfunctions remain to be experimentally determined.

ASD models with data showing rescue of ASD-like behaviors but no demonstrated NMDAR dysfunction

Tbr1 is a transcriptional regulator, one of whose targets is the gene encoding the GluN2B subunit of NMDARs. Mice haploinsufficient for Tbr1 (Tbr1+/-) show structural abnormalities in the amygdala and limited GluN2B induction upon behavioral stimulation. Both systemic injection and local amygdalar infusion of DCS rescue social deficits and impaired associative memory in Tbr1+/- mice. However, reduced NMDAR function and its DCS-dependent correction have not been demonstrated.

Spatial working memory and attention skills are predicted by maternal stress during pregnancy

André Plamondon, Emis Akbari, Leslie Atkinson, Meir Steiner
Early Human Development 91 (2015) 23–29
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2014.11.004

Introduction: Experimental evidence in rodents shows that maternal stress during pregnancy (MSDP) negatively impacts spatial learning and memory in the offspring. We aim to investigate the association between MSDP (i.e., life events) and spatial working memory, as well as attention skills (attention shifting and attention focusing), in humans. The moderating roles of child sex, maternal anxiety during pregnancy and postnatal care are also investigated.  Methods: Participants were 236mother–child dyads that were followed from the second trimester of pregnancy until 4 years postpartum. Measurements included questionnaires and independent observations.
Results: MSDP was negatively associated with attention shifting at 18monthswhen concurrent maternal anxiety was low. MSDP was associated with poorer spatial working memory at 4 years of age, but only for boys who experienced poorer postnatal care.
Conclusion: Consistent with results observed in rodents, MSDP was found to be associated with spatial working memory and attention skills. These results point to postnatal care and maternal anxiety during pregnancy as potential targets for interventions that aim to buffer children from the detrimental effects of MSDP.

Acute and massive bleeding from placenta previa and infants’ brain damage

Ken Furuta, Shuichi Tokunaga, Seishi Furukawa, Hiroshi Sameshima
Early Human Development 90 (2014) 455–458
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2014.06.002

Background: Among the causes of third trimester bleeding, the impact of placenta previa on cerebral palsy is not well known.
Aims: To clarify the effect ofmaternal bleeding fromplacenta previa on cerebral palsy, and in particular when and how it occurs.
Study design: A descriptive study.
Subjects: Sixty infants born to mothers with placenta previa in our regional population-based study of 160,000 deliveries from 1998 to 2012. Premature deliveries occurring atb26 weeks of gestation and placenta accrete were excluded.
Outcome measures: Prevalence of cystic periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) and cerebral palsy (CP).
Results: Five infants had PVL and 4 of these infants developed CP (1/40,000 deliveries). Acute and massive bleeding (>500 g) within 8 h) occurred at around 30–31 weeks of gestation, and was severe enough to deliver the fetus. None of the 5 infants with PVL underwent antenatal corticosteroid treatment, and 1 infant had mild neonatal hypocapnia with a PaCO2 < 25 mm Hg. However, none of the 5 PVL infants showed umbilical arterial academia with pH < 7.2, an abnormal fetal heart rate monitoring pattern, or neonatal hypotension.
Conclusions: Our descriptive study showed that acute and massive bleeding from placenta previa at around 30 weeks of gestation may be a risk factor for CP, and requires careful neonatal follow-up. The underlying process connecting massive placental bleeding and PVL requires further investigation.

Impact of bilirubin-induced neurologic dysfunction on neurodevelopmental outcomes

Courtney J. Wusthoff, Irene M. Loe
Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine 20 (2015) 52e57
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.siny.2014.12.003

Extreme neonatal hyperbilirubinemia has long been known to cause the clinical syndrome of kernicterus, or chronic bilirubin encephalopathy (CBE). Kernicterus most usually is characterized by choreoathetoid cerebral palsy (CP), impaired upward gaze, and sensorineural hearing loss, whereas cognition is relatively spared. The chronic condition of kernicterus may be, but is not always, preceded in the acute stage by acute bilirubin encephalopathy (ABE). This acute neonatal condition is also due to hyperbilirubinemia, and is characterized by lethargy and abnormal behavior, evolving to frank neonatal encephalopathy, opisthotonus, and seizures. Less completely defined is the syndrome of bilirubin-induced neurologic dysfunction (BIND).

Bilirubin-induced neurologic dysfunction (BIND) is the constellation of neurologic sequelae following milder degrees of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia than are associated with kernicterus. Clinically, BIND may manifest after the neonatal period as developmental delay, cognitive impairment, disordered executive function, and behavioral and psychiatric disorders. However, there is controversy regarding the relative contribution of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia versus other risk factors to the development of later neurodevelopmental disorders in children with BIND. In this review, we focus on the empiric data from the past 25 years regarding neurodevelopmental outcomes and BIND, including specific effects on developmental delay, cognition, speech and language development, executive function, and the neurobehavioral disorders, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism.

As noted in a technical report by the American Academy of Pediatrics Subcommittee on Hyperbilirubinemia, “it is apparent that the use of a single total serum bilirubin level to predict long-term outcomes is inadequate and will lead to conflicting results”. As described above, this has certainly been the case in research to date. To clarify how hyperbilirubinemia influences neurodevelopmental outcome, more sophisticated consideration is needed both of how to assess bilirubin exposure leading to neurotoxicity, and of those comorbid conditions which may lower the threshold for brain injury.

For example, premature infants are known to be especially susceptible to bilirubin neurotoxicity, with kernicterus reported following TB levels far lower than the threshold expected in term neonates. Similarly, among extremely preterm neonates, BBC is proportional to gestational age, meaning that the most premature infants have the highest UB, even for similar TB levels. Thus, future studies must be adequately powered to examine preterm infants separately from term infants, and should consider not just peak TB, but also BBC, as independent variables in neonates with hyperbilirubinemia. Similarly, an analysis by the NICHD NRN found that, among ELBW infants, higher UB levels were associated with a higher risk of death or NDI. However, increased TB levels were only associated with death or NDI in unstable infants. Again, UB or BBC appeared to be more useful than TB.

Are the neuromotor disabilities of bilirubin-induced neurologic dysfunction disorders related to the cerebellum and its connections?

Jon F. Watchko, Michael J. Painter, Ashok Panigrahy
Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine 20 (2015) 47e51
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.siny.2014.12.004

Investigators have hypothesized a range of subcortical neuropathology in the genesis of bilirubin induced neurologic dysfunction (BIND). The current review builds on this speculation with a specific focus on the cerebellum and its connections in the development of the subtle neuromotor disabilities of BIND. The focus on the cerebellum derives from the following observations:
(i) the cerebellum is vulnerable to bilirubin-induced injury; perhaps the most vulnerable region within the central nervous system;
(ii) infants with cerebellar injury exhibit a neuromotor phenotype similar to BIND; and                                                       (iii) the cerebellum has extensive bidirectional circuitry projections to motor and non-motor regions of the brain-stem and cerebral cortex that impact a variety of neurobehaviors.
Future study using advanced magnetic resonance neuroimaging techniques have the potential to shed new insights into bilirubin’s effect on neural network topology via both structural and functional brain connectivity measurements.

Bilirubin-induced neurologic damage is most often thought of in terms of severe adverse neuromotor (dystonia with or without athetosis) and auditory (hearing impairment or deafness) sequelae. Observed together, they comprise the classic neurodevelopmental phenotype of chronic bilirubin encephalopathy or kernicterus, and may also be seen individually as motor or auditory predominant subtypes. These injuries reflect both a predilection of bilirubin toxicity for neurons (relative to glial cells) and the regional topography of bilirubin-induced neuronal damage characterized by prominent involvement of the globus pallidus, subthalamic nucleus, VIII cranial nerve, and cochlear nucleus.

It is also asserted that bilirubin neurotoxicity may be associated with other less severe neurodevelopmental disabilities, a condition termed “subtle kernicterus” or “bilirubin-induced neurologic dysfunction” (BIND). BIND is defined by a constellation of “subtle neurodevelopmental disabilities without the classical findings of kernicterus that, after careful evaluation and exclusion of other possible etiologies, appear to be due to bilirubin neurotoxicity”. These purportedly include:

(i) mild-to-moderate disorders of movement (e.g., incoordination, clumsiness, gait abnormalities, disturbances in static and dynamic balance, impaired fine motor skills, and ataxia);                                                                                             (ii) disturbances in muscle tone; and
(iii) altered sensorimotor integration. Isolated disturbances of central auditory processing are also included in the spectrum of BIND.

  • Cerebellar vulnerability to bilirubin-induced injury
  • Cerebellar injury phenotypes and BIND
  • Cerebellar projections
Transverse section of cerebellum and brainstem

Transverse section of cerebellum and brainstem

Transverse section of cerebellum and brain-stem from a 34 gestational-week premature kernicteric infant formalin-fixed for two weeks. Yellow staining is evident in the cerebellar dentate nuclei (upper arrow) and vestibular nuclei at the pontomedullary junction (lower arrowhead). Photo is courtesy of Mahmdouha Ahdab-Barmada and reprinted with permission from Taylor-Francis Group (Ahdab Barmada M. The neuropathology of kernicterus: definitions and debate. In: Maisel MJ, Watchko JF editors. Neonatal jaundice. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers; 2000. p. 75e88

Whether cerebellar injury is primal or an integral part of disturbed neural circuitry in bilirubin-induced CNS damage is unclear. Movement disorders, however, are increasingly recognized to arise from abnormalities of neuronal circuitry rather than localized, circumscribed lesions. The cerebellum has extensive bidirectional circuitry projections to an array of brainstem nuclei and the cerebral cortex that modulate and refine motor activities. In this regard, the cerebellum is characteristically subdivided into three lobes based on neuroanatomic and phylogenetic criteria as well as by their primary afferent and efferent connections. They include:
(i) flocculonodular lobe (archicerebellum);
(ii) anterior lobe (paleocerebellum); and
(iii) posterior lobe (neocerebellum).

The archicerebellum, the oldest division phylogenically, receives extensive input from the vestibular system and is therefore also known as the vestibulocerebellum and is important for equilibrium control. The paleocerebellum, also a primitive region, receives extensive somatosensory input from the spinal cord, including the anterior and posterior spinocerebellar pathways that convey unconscious proprioception, and is therefore also known as the spinocerebellum. The neocerebellum is the most recently evolved region, receives most of the input from the cerebral cortex, and is thus termed the cerebrocerebellum. This area has greatly expanded in association with the extensive development of the cerebral cortex in mammals and especially primates. To cause serious longstanding dysfunction, cerebellar injury must typically involve the deep cerebellar nuclei and their projections.

Schematic of the bidirectional connectivity between the cerebellum and other

Schematic of the bidirectional connectivity between the cerebellum and other

Schematic of the bidirectional connectivity between the cerebellum and other brain regions including the cerebral cortex. Most cerebro-cerebellar afferent projections pass through the basal (anterior or ventral) pontine nuclei and intermediate cerebellar peduncle, whereas most cerebello-cerebral efferent projections pass through the dentate and ventrolateral thalamic nuclei. DCN, deep cerebellar nuclei; RN, red nucleus; ATN, anterior thalamic nucleus; PFC, prefrontal cortex; MC, motor cortex; PC, parietal cortex; TC, temporal cortex; STN, subthalamic nucleus; APN, anterior pontine nuclei. Reprinted under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License from D’Angelo E, Casali S. Seeking a unified framework for cerebellar function and dysfunction: from circuit to cognition. Front Neural Circuits 2013; 6:116.

Given the vulnerability of the cerebellum to bilirubin-induced injury, cerebellar involvement should also be evident in classic kernicterus, contributing to neuromotor deficits observed therein. It is of interest, therefore, that cerebellar damage may play a role in the genesis of bilirubin-induced dystonia, a prominent neuromotor feature of chronic bilirubin encephalopathy in preterm and term neonates alike. This complex movement disorder is characterized by involuntary sustained muscle contractions that result in abnormal position and posture. Moreover, dystonia that is brief in duration results in chorea, and, if brief and repetitive, leads to athetosis ‒ conditions also classically observed in kernicterus. Recent evidence suggests that dystonic movements may depend on disruption of both basal ganglia and cerebellar neuronal networks, rather than isolated dysfunction of only one motor system.

Dystonia is also a prominent feature in Gunn rat pups and neonatal Ugt1‒/‒-deficient mice both robust models of kernicterus. The former is used as an experimental model of dystonia. Although these models show basal ganglia injury, the sine qua non of bilirubin-induced murine neuropathology is cerebellar damage and resultant cerebellar hypoplasia.

Studies are needed to define more precisely the motor network abnormalities in kernicterus and BIND. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been widely used in evaluating infants at risk for bilirubin-induced brain injury using conventional structural T1-and T2-weighted imaging. Infants with chronic bilirubin encephalopathy often demonstrate abnormal bilateral, symmetric, high-signal intensity on T2-weighted MRI of the globus pallidus and subthalamic nucleus, consistent with the neuropathology of kernicterus. Early postnatal MRI of at-risk infants, although frequently showing increased T1-signal in these regions, may give false-positive findings due to the presence of myelin in these structures.

Diffusion tensor imaging and tractography could be used to delineate long-term changes involving specific white matter pathways, further elucidating the neural basis of long-term disability in infants and children with chronic bilirubin encephalopathy and BIND. It will be equally valuable to use blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) “resting state” functional MRI to study intrinsic connectivity in order to identify vulnerable brain networks in neonates with kernicterus and BIND. Structural networks of the CNS (connectome) and functional network topology can be characterized in infants with kernicterus and BIND to determine disease-related pattern(s) with respect to both long- and short-range connectivity. These findings have the potential to shed novel insights into the pathogenesis of these disorders and their impact on complex anatomical connections and resultant functional deficits.

Audiologic impairment associated with bilirubin-induced neurologic damage

Cristen Olds, John S. Oghalai
Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine 20 (2015) 42e46
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.siny.2014.12.006

Hyperbilirubinemia affects up to 84% of term and late preterm infants in the first week of life. The elevation of total serum/plasma bilirubin (TB) levels is generally mild, transitory, and, for most children, inconsequential. However, a subset of infants experiences lifelong neurological sequelae. Although the prevalence of classic kernicterus has fallen steadily in the USA in recent years, the incidence of jaundice in term and premature infants has increased, and kernicterus remains a significant problem in the global arena. Bilirubin-induced neurologic dysfunction (BIND) is a spectrum of neurological injury due to acute or sustained exposure of the central nervous system(CNS) to bilirubin. The BIND spectrum includes kernicterus, acute bilirubin encephalopathy, and isolated neural pathway dysfunction.

Animal studies have shown that unconjugated bilirubin passively diffuses across cell membranes and the blood‒brain barrier (BBB), and bilirubin not removed by organic anion efflux pumps accumulates within the cytoplasm and becomes toxic. Exposure of neurons to bilirubin results in increased oxidative stress and decreased neuronal proliferation and presynaptic neuro-degeneration at central glutaminergic synapses. Furthermore, bilirubin administration results in smaller spiral ganglion cell bodies, with decreased cellular density and selective loss of large cranial nerve VIII myelinated fibers. When exposed to bilirubin, neuronal supporting cells have been found to secrete inflammatory markers, which contribute to increased BBB permeability and bilirubin loading.

The jaundiced Gunn rat is the classic animal model of bilirubin toxicity. It is homozygous for a premature stop codon within the gene for UDP-glucuronosyltransferase family 1 (UGT1). The resultant gene product has reduced bilirubin-conjugating activity, leading to a state of hyperbilirubinemia. Studies with this rat model have led to the concept that impaired calcium homeostasis is an important mechanism of neuronal toxicity, with reduced expression of calcium-binding proteins in affected cells being a sensitive index of bilirubin-induced neurotoxicity. Similarly, application of bilirubin to cultured auditory neurons from brainstem cochlear nuclei results in hyperexcitability and excitotoxicity.

The auditory pathway and normal auditory brainstem response (ABR).

The auditory pathway and normal auditory brainstem response (ABR).

The auditory pathway and normal auditory brain-stem response (ABR). The ipsilateral (green) and contralateral (blue) auditory pathways are shown, with structures that are known to be affected by hyperbilirubinemia highlighted in red. Roman numerals in parentheses indicate corresponding waves in the normal human ABR (inset). Illustration adapted from the “Ear Anatomy” series by Robert Jackler and Christine Gralapp, with permission.

Bilirubin-induced neurologic dysfunction (BIND)

Vinod K. Bhutani, Ronald Wong
Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine 20 (2015) 1
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.siny.2014.12.010

Beyond the traditional recognized areas of fulminant injury to the globus pallidus as seen in infants with kernicterus, other vulnerable areas include the cerebellum, hippocampus, and subthalamic nuclear bodies as well as certain cranial nerves. The hippocampus is a brain region that is particularly affected by age related morphological changes. It is generally assumed that a loss in hippocampal volume results in functional deficits that contribute to age-related cognitive deficits. Lower grey matter volumes within the limbic-striato-thalamic circuitry are common to other etiological mechanisms of subtle neurologic injury. Lower grey matter volumes in the amygdala, caudate, frontal and medial gyrus are found in schizophrenia and in the putamen in autism. Thus, in terms of brain volumetrics, schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders have a clear degree of overlap that may reflect shared etiological mechanisms. Overlap with injuries observed in infants with BIND raises the question about how these lesions are arrived at in the context of the impact of common etiologies.

Stress-induced perinatal and transgenerational epigenetic programming of brain development and mental health

Olena Babenko, Igor Kovalchuk, Gerlinde A.S. Metz
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 48 (2015) 70–91
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.11.013

Research efforts during the past decades have provided intriguing evidence suggesting that stressful experiences during pregnancy exert long-term consequences on the future mental wellbeing of both the mother and her baby. Recent human epidemiological and animal studies indicate that stressful experiences in utero or during early life may increase the risk of neurological and psychiatric disorders, arguably via altered epigenetic regulation. Epigenetic mechanisms, such as miRNA expression, DNA methylation, and histone modifications are prone to changes in response to stressful experiences and hostile environmental factors. Altered epigenetic regulation may potentially influence fetal endocrine programming and brain development across several generations. Only recently, however, more attention has been paid to possible transgenerational effects of stress. In this review we discuss the evidence of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of stress exposure in human studies and animal models. We highlight the complex interplay between prenatal stress exposure, associated changes in miRNA expression and DNA methylation in placenta and brain and possible links to greater risks of schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, anxiety- or depression-related disorders later in life. Based on existing evidence, we propose that prenatal stress, through the generation of epigenetic alterations, becomes one of the most powerful influences on mental health in later life. The consideration of ancestral and prenatal stress effects on lifetime health trajectories is critical for improving strategies that support healthy development and successful aging.

Sensitive time-windows for susceptibility in neurodevelopmental disorders

Rhiannon M. Meredith, Julia Dawitz and Ioannis Kramvis
Trends in Neurosciences, June 2012; 35(6): 335-344
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.tins.2012.03.005

Many neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) are characterized by age-dependent symptom onset and regression, particularly during early postnatal periods of life. The neurobiological mechanisms preceding and underlying these developmental cognitive and behavioral impairments are, however, not clearly understood. Recent evidence using animal models for monogenic NDDs demonstrates the existence of time-regulated windows of neuronal and synaptic impairments. We propose that these developmentally-dependent impairments can be unified into a key concept: namely, time-restricted windows for impaired synaptic phenotypes exist in NDDs, akin to critical periods during normal sensory development in the brain. Existence of sensitive time-windows has significant implications for our understanding of early brain development underlying NDDs and may indicate vulnerable periods when the brain is more susceptible to current therapeutic treatments.

Fig (not shown)

Misregulated mechanisms underlying spine morphology in NDDs. Several proteins implicated in monogenic NDDs (highlighted in red) are linked to the regulation of the synaptic cytoskeleton via F-actin through different Rho-mediated signaling pathways (highlighted in green). Mutations in OPHN1, TSC1/2, FMRP, p21-activated kinase (PAK) are directly linked to human NDDs of intellectual disability. For instance, point mutations in OPHN1 and a PAK isoform are linked to non-syndromic mental retardation, whereas mutations or altered expression of TSC1/2 and FMRP are linked to TSC and FXS, respectively. Cytoplasmic interacting protein (CYFIP) and LIM-domain kinase 1 (LIMK1) are known to interact with FMRP and PAK, respectively [105]. LIMK1 is one of many dysregulated proteins contributing to the NDD Williams syndrome. Mouse models are available for all highlighted (red) proteins and reveal specific synaptic and behavioral deficits. Local protein synthesis in synapses, dendrites and glia is also regulated by proteins such as TSC1/2 and the FMRP/CYFIP complex. Abbreviations: 4EBP, 4E binding protein; eIF4E, eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E.

Fig (not shown)

Sensitive time-windows, synaptic phenotypes and NDD gene targets. Sensitive time-windows exist in neural circuits, during which gene targets implicated in NDDs are normally expressed. Misregulation of these genes can affect multiple synaptic phenotypes during a restricted developmental period. The effect upon synaptic phenotypes is dependent upon the temporal expression of these NDD genes and their targets. (a) Expression outside a critical period of development will have no effect upon synaptic phenotypes. (b,c) A temporal expression pattern that overlaps with the onset (b) or closure (c) of a known critical period can alter the synaptic phenotype during that developmental time-window.

Outstanding questions

(1) Can treatment at early presymptomatic stages in animal models for NDDs prevent or ease the later synaptic, neuronal, and behavioral impairments?

(2) Are all sensory critical periods equally misregulated in mouse models for a specific NDD? Are there different susceptibilities for auditory, visual and somatosensory neurocircuits that reflect the degree of impairments observed in patients?

(3) If one critical period is missed or delayed during formation of a layer-specific connection in a network, does the network overcome this misregulated connectivity or plasticity window?

(4) In monogenic NDDs, does the severity of misregulating one particular time-window for synaptic establishment during development correlate with the importance of that gene for that synaptic circuit?

(5) Why do critical periods close in brain development?

(6) What underlies the regression of some altered synaptic phenotypes in Fmr1-KO mice?

(7) Can the concept of susceptible time-windows be applied to other NDDs, including schizophrenia and Tourette’s syndrome?

Cardiovascular

Cardiac output monitoring in newborns

Willem-Pieter de Boode
Early Human Development 86 (2010) 143–148
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2010.01.032

There is an increased interest in methods of objective cardiac output measurement in critically ill patients. Several techniques are available for measurement of cardiac output in children, although this remains very complex in newborns. Cardiac output monitoring could provide essential information to guide hemodynamic management. An overview is given of various methods of cardiac output monitoring with advantages and major limitations of each technology together with a short explanation of the basic principles.

Fick principle

According to the Fick principle the volume of blood flow in a given period equals the amount of substance entering the blood stream in the same period divided by the difference in concentrations of the substrate upstream respectively downstream to the point of entry in the circulation. This substance can be oxygen (O2-Fick) or carbon dioxide (CO2-FICK), so cardiac output can be calculated by dividing measured pulmonary oxygen uptake by the arteriovenous oxygen concentration difference. The direct O2-Fick method is regarded as gold standard in cardiac output monitoring in a research setting, despite its limitations. When the Fick principle is applied for carbon dioxide (CO2 Fick), the pulmonary carbon dioxide exchange is divided by the venoarterial CO2 concentration difference to calculate cardiac output.

In the modified CO2 Fick method pulmonary CO2 exchange is measured at the endotracheal tube. Measurement of total CO2 concentration in blood is more complex and simultaneous sampling of arterial and central venous blood is required. However, frequent blood sampling will result in an unacceptable blood loss in the neonatal population.

Blood flow can be calculated if the change in concentration of a known quantity of injected indicator is measured in time distal to the point of injection, so an indicator dilution curve can be obtained. Cardiac output can then be calculated with the use of the Stewart–Hamilton equation. Several indicators are used, such as indocyanine green, Evans blue and brilliant red in dye dilution, cold solutions in thermodilution, lithium in lithium dilution, and isotonic saline in ultrasound dilution.

Cardiovascular adaptation to extra uterine life

Alice Lawford, Robert MR Tulloh
Paediatrics And Child Health 2014; 25(1): 1-6.

The adaptation to extra uterine life is of interest because of its complexity and the ability to cause significant health concerns. In this article we describe the normal changes that occur and the commoner abnormalities that are due to failure of normal development and the effect of congenital cardiac disease. Abnormal development may occur as a result of problems with the mother, or with the fetus before birth. After birth it is essential to determine whether there is an underlying abnormality of the fetal pulmonary or cardiac development and to determine the best course of management of pulmonary hypertension or congenital cardiac disease. Causes of underdevelopment, maldevelopment and maladaptation are described as are the causes of critical congenital heart disease. The methods of diagnosis and management are described to allow the neonatologist to successfully manage such newborns.

Fetal vascular structures that exist to direct blood flow

Fetal structure Function
Arterial duct Connects pulmonary artery to the aorta and shunts blood right to left; diverting flow away from fetal lungs
Foramen ovale Opening between the two atria thatdirects blood flow returning to right

atrium through the septal wall into the left atrium bypassing lungs
Ductus venosus Receives oxygenated blood fromumbilical vein and directs it to the

inferior vena cava and right atrium
Umbilical arteries Carrying deoxygenated blood fromthe fetus to the placenta
Umbilical vein Carrying oxygenated blood from theplacenta to the fetus

Maternal causes of congenital heart disease

Maternal disorders rubella, SLE, diabetes mellitus
Maternal drug use Warfarin, alcohol
Chromosomal abnormality Down, Edward, Patau, Turner, William, Noonan

 

Fetal and Neonatal Circulation  The fetal circulation is specifically adapted to efficiently exchange gases, nutrients, and wastes through placental circulation. Upon birth, the shunts (foramen ovale, ductus arteriosus, and ductus venosus) close and the placental circulation is disrupted, producing the series circulation of blood through the lungs, left atrium, left ventricle, systemic circulation, right heart, and back to the lungs.

Clinical monitoring of systemic hemodynamics in critically ill newborns

Willem-Pieter de Boode
Early Human Development 86 (2010) 137–141
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2010.01.031

Circulatory failure is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in critically ill newborn infants. Since objective measurement of systemic blood flow remains very challenging, neonatal hemodynamics is usually assessed by the interpretation of various clinical and biochemical parameters. An overview is given about the predictive value of the most used indicators of circulatory failure, which are blood pressure, heart rate, urine output, capillary refill time, serum lactate concentration, central–peripheral temperature difference, pH, standard base excess, central venous oxygen saturation and color.

Key guidelines

➢ The clinical assessment of cardiac output by the interpretation of indirect parameters of systemic blood flow is inaccurate, irrespective of the level of experience of the clinician

➢ Using blood pressure to diagnose low systemic blood flow will consequently mean that too many patients will potentially be undertreated or overtreated, both with substantial risk of adverse effects and iatrogenic damage.

➢ Combining different clinical hemodynamic parameters enhances the predictive value in the detection of circulatory failure, although accuracy is still limited.

➢ Variation in time (trend monitoring) might possibly be more informative than individual, static values of clinical and biochemical parameters to evaluate the adequacy of neonatal circulation.

Monitoring oxygen saturation and heart rate in the early neonatal period

J.A. Dawson, C.J. Morley
Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine 15 (2010) 203e207
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.siny.2010.03.004

Pulse oximetry is commonly used to assist clinicians in assessment and management of newly born infants in the delivery room (DR). In many DRs, pulse oximetry is now the standard of care for managing high risk infants, enabling immediate and dynamic assessment of oxygenation and heart rate. However, there is little evidence that using pulse oximetry in the DR improves short and long term outcomes. We review the current literature on using pulse oximetry to measure oxygen saturation and heart rate and how to apply current evidence to management in the DR.

Practice points

  • Understand how SpO2 changes in the first minutes after birth.
  • Apply a sensor to an infant’s right wrist as soon as possible after birth.
  • Attach sensor to infant then to oximeter cable.
  • Use two second averaging and maximum sensitivity.

Using pulse oximetry assists clinicians:

  1. Assess changes in HR in real time during transition.
  2. Assess oxygenation and titrate the administration of oxygen to maintain oxygenation within the appropriate range for SpO2 during the first minutes after birth.

Research directions

  • What are the appropriate centiles to target during the minutes after birth to prevent hypoxia and hyperoxia: 25th to 75th, or 10th to 90th, or just the 50th (median)?
  • Can the inspired oxygen be titrated against the SpO2 to keep the SpO2 in the ‘normal range’?
  • Does the use of centile charts in the DR for HR and oxygen saturation reduce the rate of hyperoxia when infants are treated with oxygen.
  • Does the use of pulse oximetry immediately after birth improve short term outcomes, e.g. efficacy of immediate respiratory support, intubation rates in the DR, percentage of inspired oxygen, rate of use of adrenalin or chest compressions, duration of hypoxia/hyperoxia and bradycardia.
  • Does the use of pulse oximetry in the DR improve short term respiratory and long term neurodevelopmental outcomes for preterm infants, e.g. rate of intubation, use of surfactant, and duration of ventilation, continuous positive airway pressure, or supplemental oxygen?
  • Can all modern pulse oximeters be used effectively in the DR or do some have a longer delay before giving an accurate signal and more movement artefact?
  • Would a longer averaging time result in more stable data?

Peripheral haemodynamics in newborns: Best practice guidelines

Michael Weindling, Fauzia Paize
Early Human Development 86 (2010) 159–165
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2010.01.033

Peripheral hemodynamics refers to blood flow, which determines oxygen and nutrient delivery to the tissues. Peripheral blood flow is affected by vascular resistance and blood pressure, which in turn varies with cardiac function. Arterial oxygen content depends on the blood hemoglobin concentration (Hb) and arterial pO2; tissue oxygen delivery depends on the position of the oxygen-dissociation curve, which is determined by temperature and the amount of adult or fetal hemoglobin. Methods available to study tissue perfusion include near-infrared spectroscopy, Doppler flowmetry, orthogonal polarization spectral imaging and the peripheral perfusion index. Cardiac function, blood gases, Hb, and peripheral temperature all affect blood flow and oxygen extraction. Blood pressure appears to be less important. Other factors likely to play a role are the administration of vasoactive medications and ventilation strategies, which affect blood gases and cardiac output by changing the intrathoracic pressure.

graphic

NIRS with partial venous occlusion to measure venous oxygen saturation

NIRS with partial venous occlusion to measure venous oxygen saturation

NIRS with partial venous occlusion to measure venous oxygen saturation. Taken from Yoxall and Weindling

Schematic representation of the biphasic relationship between oxygen delivery and oxygen consumption in tissue

Schematic representation of the biphasic relationship between oxygen delivery and oxygen consumption in tissue

graphic

Schematic representation of the biphasic relationship between oxygen delivery and oxygen consumption in tissue.  (a) oxygen delivery (DO2). (b) As DO2 decreases, VO2 is dependent on DO2. The slope of the line indicates the FOE, which in this case is about 0.50. (c) The slope of the line indicates the FOE in the normal situation where oxygenation is DO2 independent, usually < 0.35

The oxygen-dissociation curve

The oxygen-dissociation curve

graphic

The oxygen-dissociation curve

Considerable information about the response of the peripheral circulation has been obtained using NIRS with venous occlusion. Although these measurements were validated against blood co-oximetry in human adults and infants, they can only be made intermittently by a trained operator and are thus not appropriate for general clinical use. Further research is needed to find other better measures of peripheral perfusion and oxygenation which may be easily and continuously monitored, and which could be useful in a clinical setting.

Peripheral oxygenation and management in the perinatal period

Michael Weindling
Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine 15 (2010) 208e215
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.siny.2010.03.005

The mechanisms for the adequate provision of oxygen to the peripheral tissues are complex. They involve control of the microcirculation and peripheral blood flow, the position of the oxygen dissociation curve including the proportion of fetal and adult hemoglobin, blood gases and viscosity. Systemic blood pressure appears to have little effect, at least in the non-shocked state. The adequate delivery of oxygen (DO2) depends on consumption (VO2), which is variable. The balance between VO2 and DO2 is given by fractional oxygen extraction (FOE ¼ VO2/DO2). FOE varies from organ to organ and with levels of activity. Measurements of FOE for the whole body produce a range of about 0.15-0.33, i.e. the body consumes 15-33% of oxygen transported.

Fig (not shown)

Biphasic relationship between oxygen delivery (DO2) and oxygen consumption (VO2) in tissue. Dotted lines show fractional oxygen extraction (FOE). ‘A’ indicates the normal situation when VO2 is independent ofDO2 and FOE is about 0.30. AsDO2 decreases in the direction of the arrow, VO2 remains independent of DO2 until the critical point is reached at ‘B’; in this illustration, FOE is about 0.50. The slope of the dotted line indicates the FOE (¼ VO2/DO2), which increases progressively as DO2 decreases.

Relationship between haemoglobin F fraction (HbF) and peripheral fractional oxygen extraction

Relationship between haemoglobin F fraction (HbF) and peripheral fractional oxygen extraction

Graphic
(A)Relationship between haemoglobin F fraction (HbF) and peripheral fractional oxygen extraction in anaemic and control infants. (From Wardle et al.)  (B) HbF synthesis and concentration. (From Bard and Widness.) (C) Oxygen dissociation curve.

Peripheral fractional oxygen extraction in babies

Peripheral fractional oxygen extraction in babies

graphic

Peripheral fractional oxygen extraction in babies with asymptomatic or symptomatic anemia compared to controls. Bars represent the median for each group. (From Wardle et al.)

Practice points

  • Peripheral tissue DO2 is complex: cardiac function, blood gases, Hb concentration and the proportion of HbF, and peripheral temperature all play a part in determining blood flow and oxygen extraction in the sick, preterm infant. Blood pressure appears to be less important.
  • Other factors likely to play a role are the administration of vasoactive medications and ventilation strategies, which affect blood gases and cardiac output by changing intrathoracic pressure.
  • Central blood pressure is a poor surrogate measurement for the adequacy of DO2 to the periphery. Direct measurement, using NIRS, laser Doppler flowmetry or other means, may give more useful information.
  • Reasons for total hemoglobin concentration (Hb) being a relatively poor indicator of the adequacy of the provision of oxygen to the tissues:
  1. Hb is only indirectly related to red blood cell volume, which may be a better indicator of the body’s oxygen delivering capacity.
  2. Hb-dependent oxygen availability depends on the position of the oxygen-hemoglobin dissociation curve.
  3. An individual’s oxygen requirements vary with time and from organ to organ. This means that DO2 also needs to vary.
  4. It is possible to compensate for a low Hb by increasing cardiac output and ventilation, and so the ability to compensate for anemia depends on an individual’s cardio-respiratory reserve as well as Hb.
  5. The normal decrease of Hb during the first few weeks of life in both full-term and preterm babies usually occurs without symptoms or signs of anemia or clinical consequences.

The relationship between VO2 and DO2 is complex and various factors need to be taken into account, including the position of the oxygen dissociation curve, determined by the proportion of HbA and HbF, temperature and pH. Furthermore, diffusion of oxygen from capillaries to the cell depends on the oxygen tension gradient between erythrocytes and the mitochondria, which depends on microcirculatory conditions, e.g. capillary PO2, distance of the cell from the capillary (characterized by intercapillary distances) and the surface area of open capillaries. The latter can change rapidly, for example, in septic shock where arteriovenous shunting occurs associated with tissue hypoxia in spite of high DO2 and a low FOE.

Changes in local temperature deserve particular consideration. When the blood pressure is low, there may be peripheral vasoconstriction with decreased local perfusion and DO2. However, the fall in local tissue temperature would also be expected to be associated with a decreased metabolic rate and a consequent decrease in VO2. Thus a decreased DO2 may still be appropriate for tissue needs.

Pulmonary

Accurate Measurements of Oxygen Saturation in Neonates: Paired Arterial and Venous Blood Analyses

Shyang-Yun Pamela K. Shiao
Newborn and Infant Nurs Rev,  2005; 5(4): 170–178
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1053/j.nainr.2005.09.001

Oxygen saturation (So2) measurements (functional measurement, So2; and fractional measurement, oxyhemoglobin [Hbo2]) and monitoring are commonly investigated as a method of assessing oxygenation in neonates. Differences exist between the So2 and Hbo2 when blood tests are performed, and clinical monitors indicate So2 values. Oxyhemoglobin will decrease with the increased levels of carbon monoxide hemoglobin (Hbco) and methemo-globin (MetHb), and it is the most accurate measurements of oxygen (O2) association of hemoglobin (Hb). Pulse oximeter (for pulse oximetry saturation [Spo2] measurement) is commonly used in neonates. However, it will not detect the changes of Hb variations in the blood for accurate So2 measurements. Thus, the measurements from clinical oximeters should be used with caution. In neonates, fetal hemoglobin (HbF) accounts for most of the circulating Hb in their blood. Fetal hemoglobin has a high O2 affinity, thus releases less O2 to the body tissues, presenting a left-shifted Hbo2 dissociation curve.5,6 To date, however, limited data are available with HbF correction, for accurate arterial and venous (AV) So2 measurements (arterial oxygen saturation [Sao2] and venous oxygen saturation [Svo2]) in neonates, using paired AV blood samples.

In a study of critically ill adult patients, increased pulmonary CO production and elevation in arterial Hbco but not venous Hbco were documented by inflammatory stimuli inducing pulmonary heme oxygenase–1. In normal adults, venous Hbco level might be slightly higher than or equal to arterial Hbco because of production of CO by enzyme heme oxygenase–2, which is predominantly produced in the liver and spleen. However, hypoxia or pulmonary inflammation could induce heme oxygenase–1 to increase endogenous CO, thus elevating pulmonary arterial and systemic arterial Hbco levels in adults. Both endogenous and exogenous CO can suppress proliferation of pulmonary smooth muscles, a significant consideration for the prevention of chronic lung diseases in newborns. Despite these considerations, a later study in healthy adults indicated that the AV differences in Hbco were from technical artifacts and perhaps from inadequate control of different instruments. Thus, further studies are needed to provide more definitive answers for the AV differences of Hbco for adults and neonates with acute and chronic lung diseases.

Methemoglobin is an indicator of Hb oxidation and is essential for accurate measurement of Hbo2, So2, and oxygenation status. No evidence exists to show the AV MetHb difference, although this difference was elucidated with the potential changes of MetHb with different O2 levels.  Methemoglobin can be increased with nitric oxide (NO) therapy, used in respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) to reduce pulmonary hypertension and during heart surgery. Nitric oxide, in vitro, is an oxidant of Hb, with increased O2 during ischemia reperfusion. In hypoxemic conditions in vivo, nitrohemoglobin is a product generated by vessel responsiveness to nitrovasodilators. Nitro-hemoglobin can be spontaneously reversible in vivo, requiring no chemical agents or reductase. However, when O2 levels were increased experimentally in vitro following acidic conditions (pH 6.5) to simulate reperfusion conditions, MetHb levels were increased for the hemolysates (broken red cells). Nitrite-induced oxidation of Hb was associated with an increase in red blood cell membrane rigidity, thus contributing to Hb breakdown. A newer in vitro study of whole blood cells, however, concluded that MetHb formation is not dependent on increased O2 levels. Additional studies are needed to examine in vivo reperfusion of O2 and MetHb effects.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the accuracy of arterial oxygen saturation (Sao2) and venous oxygen saturation (Svo2) with paired arterial and venous (AV) blood in relation to pulse oximetry saturation (Spo2) and oxyhemoglobin (Hbo2) with fetal hemoglobin determination, and their Hbo2 dissociation curves. Method: Twelve preterm neonates with gestational ages ranging from 27 to 34 weeks at birth, who had umbilical AV lines inserted, were investigated. Analyses were performed with 37 pairs of AV blood samples by using a blood volume safety protocol. Results: The mean differences between Sao2 and Svo2, and AV Hbo2 were both 6 percent (F6.9 and F6.7 percent, respectively), with higher Svo2 than those reported for adults. Biases were 2.1 – 0.49 for Sao2, 2.0 – 0.44 for Svo2, and 3.1 – 0.45 for Spo2, compared against Hbo2. With left-shifted Hbo2 dissociation curves in neonates, for the critical values of oxygen tension values between 50 and 75 millimeters of mercury, Hbo2 ranged from 92 to 93.4 percent; Sao2 ranged from 94.5 to 95.7 percent; and Spo2 ranged from 93.7 to 96.3 percent (compared to 85–94 percent in healthy adults). Conclusions: In neonates, both left-shifted Hbo2 dissociation curve and lower AV differences of oxygen saturation measurements indicated low flow of oxygen to the body tissues. These findings demonstrate the importance of accurate assessment of oxygenation statues in neonates.

In these neonates, the mean AV blood differences for both So2 and Hbo2 were about 6 percent, which was much lower than those reported for healthy adults (23 percent) for O2 supply and demand. In addition, with very high levels of HbF releasing less O2 to the body tissue, the results of blood analyses are worrisome for these critically ill neonates for low systemic oxygen states.  O’Connor and Hall determined AV So2 in neonates without HbF determination. Much of the AV So2 difference is dependent on Svo2 measurement. The ranges of Svo2 spanned for 35 percent, and the ranges of Sao2 spanned 6 percent in these neonates. The greater intervals for Svo2 measurements contribute to greater sensitivity for the measurements (than Sao2 measurements) in responding to nursing care and changes of O2 demand. Thus, Svo2 measurement is essential for better assessment of oxygenation status in neonates.

The findings of this study on AV differences of So2 were limited with very small number of paired AV blood samples. However, critically ill neonates need accurate assessment of oxygenation status because of HbF, which releases less O2 to the tissues. Decreased differences of AV So2 measurements added further possibilities of lower flow of O2 to the body tissues and demonstrated the greater need to accurately assess the proper oxygenation in the neonates. The findings of this study continued to clarify the accuracy of So2 measurements for neonates. Additional studies are needed to examine So2 levels in neonates to further validate these findings by using larger sample sizes.

Neonatal ventilation strategies and long-term respiratory outcomes

Sandeep Shetty, Anne Greenough
Early Human Development 90 (2014) 735–739
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2014.08.020

Long-term respiratory morbidity is common, particularly in those born very prematurely and who have developed bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), but it does occur in those without BPD and in infants born at term. A variety of neonatal strategies have been developed, all with short-term advantages, but meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have demonstrated that only volume-targeted ventilation and prophylactic high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) may reduce BPD. Few RCTs have incorporated long-term follow-up, but one has demonstrated that prophylactic HFOV improves respiratory and functional outcomes at school age, despite not reducing BPD. Results from other neonatal interventions have demonstrated that any impact on BPD may not translate into changes in long-term outcomes. All future neonatal  ventilation RCTs should have long-term outcomes rather than BPD as their primary outcome if they are to impact on clinical practice.

A Model Analysis of Arterial Oxygen Desaturation during Apnea in Preterm Infants

Scott A. Sands, BA Edwards, VJ Kelly, MR Davidson, MH Wilkinson, PJ Berger
PLoS Comput Biol 5(12): e1000588
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000588

Rapid arterial O2 desaturation during apnea in the preterm infant has obvious clinical implications but to date no adequate explanation for why it exists. Understanding the factors influencing the rate of arterial O2 desaturation during apnea (_SSaO2 ) is complicated by the non-linear O2 dissociation curve, falling pulmonary O2 uptake, and by the fact that O2 desaturation is biphasic, exhibiting a rapid phase (stage 1) followed by a slower phase when severe desaturation develops (stage 2). Using a mathematical model incorporating pulmonary uptake dynamics, we found that elevated metabolic O2 consumption accelerates _SSaO2 throughout the entire desaturation process. By contrast, the remaining factors have a restricted temporal influence: low pre-apneic alveolar PO2 causes an early onset of desaturation, but thereafter has little impact; reduced lung volume, hemoglobin content or cardiac output, accelerates _SSaO2 during stage 1, and finally, total blood O2 capacity (blood volume and hemoglobin content) alone determines _SSaO2 during stage 2. Preterm infants with elevated metabolic rate, respiratory depression, low lung volume, impaired cardiac reserve, anemia, or hypovolemia, are at risk for rapid and profound apneic hypoxemia. Our insights provide a basic physiological framework that may guide clinical interpretation and design of interventions for preventing sudden apneic hypoxemia.

A novel approach to study oxidative stress in neonatal respiratory distress syndrome

Reena Negi, D Pande, K Karki, A Kumar, RS Khanna, HD Khanna
BBA Clinical 3 (2015) 65–69
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbacli.2014.12.001

Oxidative stress is an imbalance between the systemic manifestation of reactive oxygen species and a biological system’s ability to readily detoxify the reactive intermediates or to repair the resulting damage. It is a physiological event in the fetal-to-neonatal transition, which is actually a great stress to the fetus. These physiological changes and processes greatly increase the production of free radicals, which must be controlled by the antioxidant defense system, the maturation of which follows the course of the gestation. This could lead to several functional alterations with important repercussions for the infants. Adequately mature and healthy infants are able to tolerate this drastic change in the oxygen concentration. A problem occurs when the intrauterine development is incomplete or abnormal. Preterm or intrauterine growth retarded (IUGR) and low birth weight neonates are typically of this kind. An oxidant/antioxidant imbalance in infants is implicated in the pathogenesis of the major complications of prematurity including respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), chronic lung disease, retinopathy of prematurity and intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH).

Background: Respiratory distress syndrome of the neonate (neonatal RDS) is still an important problem in treatment of preterm infants. It is accompanied by inflammatory processes with free radical generation and oxidative stress. The aim of study was to determine the role of oxidative stress in the development of neonatal RDS. Methods: Markers of oxidative stress and antioxidant activity in umbilical cord blood were studied in infants with neonatal respiratory distress syndrome with reference to healthy newborns. Results: Status of markers of oxidative stress (malondialdehyde, protein carbonyl and 8-hydroxy-2-deoxy guanosine) showed a significant increase with depleted levels of total antioxidant capacity in neonatal RDS when compared to healthy newborns. Conclusion: The study provides convincing evidence of oxidative damage and diminished antioxidant defenses in newborns with RDS. Neonatal RDS is characterized by damage of lipid, protein and DNA, which indicates the augmentation of oxidative stress. General significance: The identification of the potential biomarker of oxidative stress consists of a promising strategy to study the pathophysiology of neonatal RDS.

Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome represents the major lung complications of newborn babies. Preterm neonates suffer from respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) due to immature lungs and require assisted ventilation with high concentrations of oxygen. The pathogenesis of this disorder is based on the rapid formation of the oxygen reactive species, which surpasses the detoxification capacity of antioxidative defense system. The high chemical reactivity of free radical leads to damage to a variety of cellular macro molecules including proteins, lipids and nucleic acid. This results in cell injury and may induce respiratory cell death.

Malondialdehyde (MDA) is one of the final products of polyunsaturated fatty acids peroxidation. The present study showed increased concentration of MDA in neonates with respiratory disorders than that of control in consonance with the reported study.

Anemia, Apnea of Prematurity, and Blood Transfusions

Kelley Zagol, Douglas E. Lake, Brooke Vergales, Marion E. Moorman, et al
J Pediatr 2012;161:417-21
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.jpeds.2012.02.044

The etiology of apnea of prematurity is multifactorial; however, decreased oxygen carrying capacity may play a role. The respiratory neuronal network in neonates is immature, particularly in those born preterm, as demonstrated by their paradoxical response to hypoxemia. Although adults increase the minute ventilation in response to hypoxemia, newborns have a brief increase in ventilation followed by periodic breathing, respiratory depression, and occasionally cessation of respiratory effort. This phenomenon may be exacerbated by anemia in preterm newborns, where a decreased oxygen carrying capacity may result in decreased oxygen delivery to the central nervous system, a decreased efferent output of the respiratory neuronal network, and an increase in apnea.

Objective Compare the frequency and severity of apneic events in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants before and after blood transfusions using continuous electronic waveform analysis. Study design We continuously collected waveform, heart rate, and oxygen saturation data from patients in all 45 neonatal intensive care unit beds at the University of Virginia for 120 weeks. Central apneas were detected using continuous computer processing of chest impedance, electrocardiographic, and oximetry signals. Apnea was defined as respiratory pauses of >10, >20, and >30 seconds when accompanied by bradycardia (<100 beats per minute) and hypoxemia (<80% oxyhemoglobin saturation as detected by pulse oximetry). Times of packed red blood cell transfusions were determined from bedside charts. Two cohorts were analyzed. In the transfusion cohort, waveforms were analyzed for 3 days before and after the transfusion for all VLBW infants who received a blood transfusion while also breathing spontaneously. Mean apnea rates for the previous 12 hours were quantified and differences for 12 hours before and after transfusion were compared. In the hematocrit cohort, 1453 hematocrit values from all VLBW infants admitted and breathing spontaneously during the time period were retrieved, and the association of hematocrit and apnea in the next 12 hours was tested using logistic regression. Results Sixty-seven infants had 110 blood transfusions during times when complete monitoring data were available. Transfusion was associated with fewer computer-detected apneic events (P < .01). Probability of future apnea occurring within 12 hours increased with decreasing hematocrit values (P < .001). Conclusions Blood transfusions are associated with decreased apnea in VLBW infants, and apneas are less frequent at higher hematocrits.

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia: The earliest and perhaps the longest lasting obstructive lung disease in humans

Silvia Carraro, M Filippone, L Da Dalt, V Ferraro, M Maretti, S Bressan, et al.
Early Human Development 89 (2013) S3–S5
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2013.07.015

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is one of the most important sequelae of premature birth and the most common form of chronic lung disease of infancy, an umbrella term for a number of different diseases that evolve as a consequence of a neonatal respiratory disorder. BPD is defined as the need for supplemental oxygen for at least 28 days after birth, and its severity is graded according to the respiratory support required at 36 post-menstrual weeks.

BPD was initially described as a chronic respiratory disease occurring in premature infants exposed to mechanical ventilation and oxygen supplementation. This respiratory disease (later named “old BPD”) occurred in relatively large premature newborn and, from a pathological standpoint, it was characterized by intense airway inflammation, disruption of normal pulmonary structures and lung fibrosis.

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is one of the most important sequelae of premature birth and the most common form of chronic lung disease of infancy. From a clinical standpoint BPD subjects are characterized by recurrent respiratory symptoms, which are very frequent during the first years of life and, although becoming less severe as children grow up, they remain more common than in term-born controls throughout childhood, adolescence and into adulthood. From a functional point of view BPD subjects show a significant airflow limitation that persists during adolescence and adulthood and they may experience an earlier and steeper decline in lung function during adulthood. Interestingly, patients born prematurely but not developing BPD usually fare better, but they too have airflow limitations during childhood and later on, suggesting that also prematurity per se has life-long detrimental effects on pulmonary function. For the time being, little is known about the presence and nature of pathological mechanisms underlying the clinical and functional picture presented by BPD survivors. Nonetheless, recent data suggest the presence of persistent neutrophilic airway inflammation and oxidative stress and it has been suggested that BPD may be sustained in the long term by inflammatory pathogenic mechanisms similar to those underlying COPD. This hypothesis is intriguing but more pathological data are needed.  A better understanding of these pathogenetic mechanisms, in fact, may be able to orient the development of novel targeted therapies or prevention strategies to improve the overall respiratory health of BPD patients.

We have a limited understanding of the presence and nature of pathological mechanisms in the lung of BPD survivors. The possible role of asthma-like inflammation has been investigated because BPD subjects often present with recurrent wheezing and other symptoms resembling asthma during their childhood and adolescence. But BPD subjects have normal or lower than normal exhaled nitric oxide levels and exhaled air temperatures, whereas they are higher than normal in asthmatic patients.

Of all obstructive lung diseases in humans, BPD has the earliest onset and is possibly the longest lasting. Given its frequent association with other conditions related to preterm birth (e.g. growth retardation, pulmonary hypertension, neurodevelopmental delay, hearing defects, and retinopathy of prematurity), it often warrants a multidisciplinary management.

Effects of Sustained Lung Inflation, a lung recruitment maneuver in primary acute respiratory distress syndrome, in respiratory and cerebral outcomes in preterm infants

Chiara Grasso, Pietro Sciacca, Valentina Giacchi, Caterina Carpinato, et al.
Early Human Development 91 (2015) 71–75
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2014.12.002

Background: Sustained Lung Inflation (SLI) is a maneuver of lung recruitment in preterm newborns at birth that can facilitate the achieving of larger inflation volumes, leading to the clearance of lung fluid and formation of functional residual capacity (FRC). Aim: To investigate if Sustained Lung Inflation (SLI) reduces the need of invasive procedures and iatrogenic risks. Study design: 78 newborns (gestational age ≤ 34 weeks, weighing ≤ 2000 g) who didn’t breathe adequately at birth and needed to receive SLI in addition to other resuscitation maneuvers (2010 guidelines). Subjects: 78 preterm infants born one after the other in our department of Neonatology of Catania University from 2010 to 2012. Outcome measures: The need of intubation and surfactant, the ventilation required, radiological signs, the incidence of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), periventricular leukomalacia, retinopathy in prematurity from III to IV plus grades, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, patent ductus arteriosus, pneumothorax and necrotizing enterocolitis. Results: In the SLI group infants needed less intubation in the delivery room (6% vs 21%; p b 0.01), less invasive mechanical ventilation (14% vs 55%; p ≤ 0.001) and shorter duration of ventilation (9.1 days vs 13.8 days; p ≤ 0.001). There wasn’t any difference for nasal continuous positive airway pressure (82% vs 77%; p = 0.43); but there was less surfactant administration (54% vs 85%; p ≤ 0.001) and more infants received INSURE (40% vs 29%; p=0.17). We didn’t found any differences in the outcomes, except for more mild intraventricular hemorrhage in the SLI group (23% vs 14%; p = 0.15; OR= 1.83). Conclusion: SLI is easier to perform even with a single operator, it reduces the necessity of more complicated maneuvers and surfactant without statistically evident adverse effects.

Long-term respiratory consequences of premature birth at less than 32 weeks of gestation

Anne Greenough
Early Human Development 89 (2013) S25–S27
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2013.07.004

Chronic respiratory morbidity is a common adverse outcome of very premature birth, particularly in infants who had developed bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Prematurely born infants who had BPD may require supplementary oxygen at home for many months and affected infants have increased healthcare utilization until school age. Chest radiograph abnormalities are common; computed tomography of the chest gives predictive information in children with ongoing respiratory problems. Readmission to hospital is common, particularly for those who have BPD and suffer respiratory syncytial virus lower respiratory infections (RSV LRTIs). Recurrent respiratory symptoms requiring treatment are common and are associated with evidence of airways obstruction and gas trapping. Pulmonary function improves with increasing age, but children with BPD may have ongoing airflow limitation. Lung function abnormalities may be more severe in those who had RSV LRTIs, although this may partly be explained by worse premorbid lung function. Worryingly, lung function may deteriorate during the first year. Longitudinal studies are required to determine if there is catch up growth.

Long-term pulmonary outcomes of patients with bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Anita Bhandari and Sharon McGrath-Morrow
Seminars in Perinatology 37 (2013)132–137
http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/j.semperi.2013.01.010

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is the commonest cause of chronic lung disease in infancy. The incidence of BPD has remained unchanged despite many advances in neonatal care. BPD starts in the neonatal period but its effects can persist long term. Premature infants with BPD have a greater incidence of hospitalization, and continue to have a greater respiratory morbidity and need for respiratory medications, compared to those without BPD. Lung function abnormalities, especially small airway abnormalities, often persist. Even in the absence of clinical symptoms, BPD survivors have persistent radiological abnormalities and presence of emphysema has been reported on chest computed tomography scans. Concern regarding their exercise tolerance remains. Long-term effects of BPD are still unknown, but given reports of a more rapid decline in lung function and their susceptibility to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease phenotype with aging, it is imperative that lung function of survivors of BPD be closely monitored.

Neonatal ventilation strategies and long-term respiratory outcomes

Sandeep Shetty, Anne Greenough
Early Human Development 90 (2014) 735–739
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2014.08.020

Long-term respiratory morbidity is common, particularly in those born very prematurely and who have developed bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), but it does occur in those without BPD and in infants born at term. A variety of neonatal strategies have been developed, all with short-term advantages, but meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have demonstrated that only volume-targeted ventilation and prophylactic high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) may reduce BPD. Few RCTs have incorporated long-term follow-up, but one has demonstrated that prophylactic HFOV improves respiratory and functional outcomes at school age, despite not reducing BPD. Results from other neonatal interventions have demonstrated that any impact on BPD may not translate into changes in long-term outcomes. All future neonatal ventilation RCTs should have long-term outcomes rather than BPD as their primary outcome if they are to impact on clinical practice.

Prediction of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome in term pregnancies by assessment of fetal lung volume and pulmonary artery resistance index

Mohamed Laban, GM Mansour, MSE Elsafty, AS Hassanin, SS EzzElarab
International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 128 (2015) 246–250
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgo.2014.09.018

Objective: To develop reference cutoff values for mean fetal lung volume (FLV) and pulmonary artery resistance index (PA-RI) for prediction of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in low-risk term pregnancies. Methods: As part of a cross-sectional study, women aged 20–35 years were enrolled and admitted to a tertiary hospital in Cairo, Egypt, for elective repeat cesarean at 37–40 weeks of pregnancy between January 1, 2012, and July 31, 2013. FLV was calculated by virtual organ computer-aided analysis, and PA-RI was measured by Doppler ultrasonography before delivery. Results: A total of 80 women were enrolled. Neonatal RDS developed in 11 (13.8%) of the 80 newborns. Compared with neonates with RDS, healthy neonates had significantly higher FLVs (P b 0.001) and lower PA-RIs (P b 0.001). Neonatal RDS is less likely with FLV of at least 32 cm3 or PA-RI less than or equal to 0.74. Combining these two measures improved the accuracy of prediction. Conclusion: The use of either FLV or PA-RI predicted neonatal RDS. The predictive value increased when these two measures were combined

Pulmonary surfactant - a front line of lung host defense, 2003 JCI0318650.f2

Pulmonary surfactant – a front line of lung host defense, 2003 JCI0318650.f2

Pulmonary hypertension in bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Sara K.Berkelhamer, Karen K.Mestan, and Robin H. Steinhorn
Seminars In  Perinatology 37 (2013)124–131
http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/j.semperi.2013.01.009

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a common complication of neonatal respiratory diseases, including bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), and recent studies have increased aware- ness that PH worsens the clinical course, morbidity and mortality of BPD. Recent evidence indicates that up to 18% of all extremely low-birth-weight infants will develop some degree of PH during their hospitalization, and the incidence rises to 25–40% of the infants with established BPD. Risk factors are not yet well understood, but new evidence shows that fetal growth restriction is a significant predictor of PH. Echocardiography remains the primary method for evaluation of BPD-associated PH, and the development of standardized screening timelines and techniques for identification of infants with BPD-associated PH remains an important ongoing topic of investigation. The use of pulmonary vasodilator medications, such as nitric oxide, sildenafil, and others, in the BPD population is steadily growing, but additional studies are needed regarding their long-term safety and efficacy.
An update on pharmacologic approaches to bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Sailaja Ghanta, Kristen Tropea Leeman, and Helen Christou
Seminars In Perinatology 37 (2013)115–123
http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/j.semperi.2013.01.008

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is the most prevalent long-term morbidity in surviving extremely preterm infants and is linked to increased risk of reactive airways disease, pulmonary hypertension, post-neonatal mortality, and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. BPD affects approximately 20% of premature newborns, and up to 60% of premature infants born before completing 26 weeks of gestation. It is characterized by the need for assisted ventilation and/or supplemental oxygen at 36 weeks postmenstrual age. Approaches to prevention and treatment of BPD have evolved with improved understanding of its pathogenesis. This review will focus on recent advancements and detail current research in pharmacotherapy for BPD. The evidence for both current and potential future experimental therapies will be reviewed in detail. As our understanding of the complex and multifactorial pathophysiology of BPD changes, research into these current and future approaches must continue to evolve.

Methylxanthines
Diuretics and bronchodilators
Corticosteroids
Macrolide antibiotics
Recombinant human Clara cell 10-kilodalton protein(rhCC10)
Vitamin A
Surfactant
Leukotriene receptor antagonist
Pulmonary vasodilators

Skeletal and Muscle

Skeletal Stem Cells in Space and Time

Moustapha Kassem and Paolo Bianco
Cell  Jan 15, 2015; 160: 17-19
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.12.034

The nature, biological characteristics, and contribution to organ physiology of skeletal stem cells are not completely determined. Chan et al. and Worthley et al. demonstrate that a stem cell for skeletal tissues, and a system of more restricted, downstream progenitors, can be identified in mice and demonstrate its role in skeletal tissue maintenance and regeneration.

The groundbreaking concept that bone, cartilage, marrow adipocytes, and hematopoiesis-supporting stroma could originate from a common progenitor and putative stem cell was surprising at the time when it was formulated (Owen and Friedenstein, 1988). The putative stem cell, nonhematopoietic in nature, would be found in the postnatal bone marrow stroma, generate tissues previously thought of as foreign to each other, and support the turnover of tissues and organs that self-renew at a much slower rate compared to other tissues associated with stem cells (blood, epithelia). This concept also connected bone and bone marrow as parts of a single-organ system, implying their functional interplay. For many years, the evidence underpinning the concept has been incomplete.

While multipotency of stromal progenitors has been demonstrated by in vivo transplantation experiments, self-renewal, the defining property of a stem cell, has not been easily demonstrated until recently in humans (Sacchetti et al., 2007) and mice (Mendez-Ferrer et al., 2010). Meanwhile, a confusing and plethoric terminology has been introduced into the literature, which diverted and confounded the search for a skeletal stem cell and its physiological significance (Bianco et al., 2013).

Two studies in this issue of Cell (Chan et al., 2015; Worthley et al., 2015), using a combination of rigorous single-cell analyses and lineage tracing technologies, mark significant steps toward rectifying the course of skeletal stem cell discovery by making several important points, within and beyond skeletal physiology.

First, a stem cell for skeletal tissues, and a system of more restricted, downstream progenitors can in fact be identified and linked to defined phenotype(s) in the mouse. The system is framed conceptually, and approached experimentally, similar to the hematopoietic system.

Second, based on its assayable functions and potential, the stem cell at the top of the hierarchy is defined as a skeletal stem cell (SSC). As noted earlier (Sacchetti et al., 2007) (Bianco et al., 2013), this term clarifies, well beyond semantics, that the range of tissues that the self-renewing stromal progenitor (originally referred to as an ‘‘osteogenic’’ or ‘‘stromal’’ stem cell) (Owen and Friedenstein, 1988) can actually generate in vivo, overlaps with the range of tissues that make up the skeleton.

Third, these cells are spatially restricted, local residents of the bone/bone marrow organ. The systemic circulation is not a sizable contributor to their recruitment to locally deployed functions.

Fourth, a native skeletogenic potential is inherent to the system of progenitor/ stem cells found in the skeleton, and internally regulated by bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling. This is reflected in the expression of regulators and antagonists of BMP signaling within the system, highlighting potential feedback mechanisms modulating expansion or quiescence of specific cell compartments.

Fifth, in cells isolated from other tissues, an assayable skeletogenic potential is not inherent: it can only be induced de novo by BMP reprogramming. These two studies (Chan et al., 2015, Worthley et al., 2015) corroborate the classical concept of ‘‘determined’’ and ‘‘inducible’’ skeletal progenitors (Owen and Friedenstein, 1988): the former residing in the skeleton, the latter found in nonskeletal tissues; the former capable of generating skeletal tissues, in vivo and spontaneously, the latter requiring reprogramming signals in order to acquire a skeletogenic capacity; the former operating in physiological bone formation, the latter in unwanted, ectopic bone formation in diseases such as fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva.

To optimize our ability to obtain specific skeletal tissues for medical application, the study by Chan et al. offers a glimpse of another facet of the biology of SSC lineages and progenitors. Chan et al. show that a homogeneous cell population inherently committed to chondrogenesis can alter its output to generate bone if cotransplanted with multipotent progenitors. Conversely, osteogenic cells can be shifted to a chondrogenic fate by blockade of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor, consistent with the avascular and hypoxic milieu of cartilage. This has two important implications:

  • commitment is flexible in the system;
  • the choir is as important as the soloist and can modulate the solo tune.

Reversibility and population behavior thus emerge as two features that may be characteristic, albeit not unique, of the stromal system, resonating with conceptually comparable evidence in the human system.

The two studies by Chan et al. and Worthely et al. emphasize the relevance not only of their new data, but also of a proper concept of a skeletal stem cell per se, for proper clinical use. Confusion arising from improper conceptualization of skeletal stem cells has markedly limited clinical development of skeletal stem cell biology.

Gremlin 1 Identifies a Skeletal Stem Cell with Bone, Cartilage, and Reticular Stromal Potential

Daniel L. Worthley, Michael Churchill, Jocelyn T. Compton, Yagnesh Tailor, et al.
Cell, Jan 15, 2015; 160: 269–284
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.11.042

The stem cells that maintain and repair the postnatal skeleton remain undefined. One model suggests that perisinusoidal mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) give rise to osteoblasts, chondrocytes, marrow stromal cells, and adipocytes, although the existence of these cells has not been proven through fate-mapping experiments. We demonstrate here that expression of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) antagonist gremlin 1 defines a population of osteochondroreticular (OCR) stem cells in the bone marrow. OCR stem cells self-renew and generate osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and reticular marrow stromal cells, but not adipocytes. OCR stem cells are concentrated within the metaphysis of long bones not in the perisinusoidal space and are needed for bone development, bone remodeling, and fracture repair. Grem1 expression also identifies intestinal reticular stem cells (iRSCs) that are cells of origin for the periepithelial intestinal mesenchymal sheath. Grem1 expression identifies distinct connective tissue stem cells in both the bone (OCR stem cells) and the intestine (iRSCs).

Identification and Specification of the Mouse Skeletal Stem Cell

Charles K.F. Chan, Eun Young Seo, James Y. Chen, David Lo, A McArdle, et al.
Cell, Jan 15, 2015; 160: 285–298
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.12.002

How are skeletal tissues derived from skeletal stem cells? Here, we map bone, cartilage, and stromal development from a population of highly pure, postnatal skeletal stem cells (mouse skeletal stem cells, mSSCs) to their downstream progenitors of bone, cartilage, and stromal tissue. We then investigated the transcriptome of the stem/progenitor cells for unique gene-expression patterns that would indicate potential regulators of mSSC lineage commitment. We demonstrate that mSSC niche factors can be potent inducers of osteogenesis, and several specific combinations of recombinant mSSC niche factors can activate mSSC genetic programs in situ, even in nonskeletal tissues, resulting in de novo formation of cartilage or bone and bone marrow stroma. Inducing mSSC formation with soluble factors and subsequently regulating the mSSC niche to specify its differentiation toward bone, cartilage, or stromal cells could represent a paradigm shift in the therapeutic regeneration of skeletal tissues.

Bone mesenchymal development

Bone mesenchymal development

Bone mesenchymal development

The bone-remodeling cycle

The bone-remodeling cycle

Nuclear receptor modulation – Role of coregulators in selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) actions

Qin Feng, Bert W. O’Malley
Steroids 90 (2014) 39–43
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.steroids.2014.06.008

Selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) are a class of small-molecule chemical compounds that bind to estrogen receptor (ER) ligand binding domain (LBD) with high affinity and selectively modulate ER transcriptional activity in a cell- and tissue-dependent manner. The prototype of SERMs is tamoxifen, which has agonist activity in bone, but has antagonist activity in breast. Tamoxifen can reduce the risk of breast cancer and, at same time, prevent osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Tamoxifen is widely prescribed for treatment and prevention of breast cancer. Mechanistically the activity of SERMs is determined by the selective recruitment of coactivators and corepressors in different cell types and tissues. Therefore, understanding the coregulator function is the key to understanding the tissue selective activity of SERMs.

Hematopoietic

Hematopoietic Stem Cell Arrival Triggers Dynamic Remodeling of the Perivascular Niche

Owen J. Tamplin, Ellen M. Durand, Logan A. Carr, Sarah J. Childs, et al.
Cell, Jan 15, 2015; 160: 241–252
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.12.032

Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) can reconstitute and sustain the entire blood system. We generated a highly specific transgenic reporter of HSPCs in zebrafish. This allowed us to perform high resolution live imaging on endogenous HSPCs not currently possible in mammalian bone marrow. Using this system, we have uncovered distinct interactions between single HSPCs and their niche. When an HSPC arrives in the perivascular niche, a group of endothelial cells remodel to form a surrounding pocket. This structure appears conserved in mouse fetal liver. Correlative light and electron microscopy revealed that endothelial cells surround a single HSPC attached to a single mesenchymal stromal cell. Live imaging showed that mesenchymal stromal cells anchor HSPCs and orient their divisions. A chemical genetic screen found that the compound lycorine promotes HSPC-niche interactions during development and ultimately expands the stem cell pool into adulthood. Our studies provide evidence for dynamic niche interactions upon stem cell colonization.

Neonatal anemia

Sanjay Aher, Kedar Malwatkar, Sandeep Kadam
Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine (2008) 13, 239e247
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.siny.2008.02.009

Neonatal anemia and the need for red blood cell (RBC) transfusions are very common in neonatal intensive care units. Neonatal anemia can be due to blood loss, decreased RBC production, or increased destruction of erythrocytes. Physiologic anemia of the newborn and anemia of prematurity are the two most common causes of anemia in neonates. Phlebotomy losses result in much of the anemia seen in extremely low birthweight infants (ELBW). Accepting a lower threshold level for transfusion in ELBW infants can prevent these infants being exposed to multiple donors.

Management of anemia in the newborn

Naomi L.C. Luban
Early Human Development (2008) 84, 493–498
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2008.06.007

Red blood cell (RBC) transfusions are administered to neonates and premature infants using poorly defined indications that may result in unintentional adverse consequences. Blood products are often manipulated to limit potential adverse events, and meet the unique needs of neonates with specific diagnoses. Selection of RBCs for small volume (5–20 mL/kg) transfusions and for massive transfusion, defined as extracorporeal bypass and exchange transfusions, are of particular concern to neonatologists. Mechanisms and therapeutic treatments to avoid transfusion are another area of significant investigation. RBCs collected in anticoagulant additive solutions and administered in small aliquots to neonates over the shelf life of the product can decrease donor exposure and has supplanted the use of fresh RBCs where each transfusion resulted in a donor exposure. The safety of this practice has been documented and procedures established to aid transfusion services in ensuring that these products are available. Less well established are the indications for transfusion in this population; hemoglobin or hematocrit alone are insufficient indications unless clinical criteria (e.g. oxygen desaturation, apnea and bradycardia, poor weight gain) also augment the justification to transfuse. Comorbidities increase oxygen consumption demands in these infants and include bronchopulmonary dysplasia, rapid growth and cardiac dysfunction. Noninvasive methods or assays have been developed to measure tissue oxygenation; however, a true measure of peripheral oxygen offloading is needed to improve transfusion practice and determine the value of recombinant products that stimulate erythropoiesis. The development of such noninvasive methods is especially important since randomized, controlled clinical trials to support specific practices are often lacking, due at least in part, to the difficulty of performing such studies in tiny infants.
The Effect of Blood Transfusion on the Hemoglobin Oxygen Dissociation Curve of Very Early Preterm Infants During the First Week of Life

Virginie De HaUeux, Anita Truttmann, Carmen Gagnon, and Harry Bard
Seminars in Perinatology, 2002; 26(6): 411-415
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1053/sper.2002.37313

This study was conducted during the first week of life to determine the changes in Ps0 (PO2 required to achieve a saturation of 50% at pH 7.4 and 37~ and the proportions of fetal hemoglobin (I-IbF) and adult hemoglobin (HbA) prior to and after transfusion in very early preterm infants. Eleven infants with a gestational age <–27 weeks have been included in study. The hemoglobin dissociation curve and the Ps0 was determined by Hemox-analyser. Liquid chromatography was also performed to determine the proportions of HbF and HbA. The mean gestational age of the 11 infants was 25.1 weeks (-+1 weeks) and their mean birth weight was 736 g (-+125 g). They received 26.9 mL/kg of packed red cells. The mean Ps0 prior and after transfusion was 18.5 +- 0.8 and 21.0 + 1 mm Hg (P = .0003) while the mean percentage of HbF was 92.9 -+ 1.1 and 42.6 -+ 5.7%, respectively. The data of this study show a decrease of hemoglobin oxygen affinity as a result of blood transfusion in very early preterm infants prone to O 2 toxicity. The shift in HbO 2 curve after transfusion should be taken into consideration when oxygen therapy is being regulated for these infants.

Effect of neonatal hemoglobin concentration on long-term outcome of infants affected by fetomaternal hemorrhage

Mizuho Kadooka, H Katob, A Kato, S Ibara, H Minakami, Yuko Maruyama
Early Human Development 90 (2014) 431–434
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2014.05.010

Background: Fetomaternal hemorrhage (FMH) can cause severe morbidity. However, perinatal risk factors for long-term poor outcome due to FMH have not been extensively studied.                                                                                 Aims: To determine which FMH infants are likely to have neurological sequelae.
Study design: A single-center retrospective observational study. Perinatal factors, including demographic characteristics, Kleihauer–Betke test, blood gas analysis, and neonatal blood hemoglobin concentration ([Hb]), were analyzed in association with long-term outcomes.
Subjects: All 18 neonates referred to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Kagoshima City Hospital and diagnosed with FMH during a 15-year study period. All had a neonatal [Hb] b7.5 g/dL and 15 of 17 neonates tested had Kleihauer–Betke test result N4.0%.
Outcome measures: Poor long-term outcome was defined as any of the following determined at 12 month old or more: cerebral palsy, mental retardation, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and epilepsy.
Results: Nine of the 18 neonates exhibited poor outcomes. Among demographic characteristics and blood variables compared between two groups with poor and favorable outcomes, significant differences were observed in [Hb] (3.6 ± 1.4 vs. 5.4 ± 1.1 g/dL, P = 0.01), pH (7.09 ± 0.11 vs. 7.25 ± 0.13, P = 0.02) and base deficits (17.5 ± 5.4 vs. 10.4 ± 6.0 mmol/L, P = 0.02) in neonatal blood, and a number of infants with [Hb] ≤ 4.5 g/dL (78%[7/9] vs. 22%[2/9], P= 0.03), respectively. The base deficit in neonatal arterial blood increased significantly with decreasing neonatal [Hb].
Conclusions: Severe anemia causing severe base deficit is associated with neurological sequelae in FMH infants

Clinical and hematological presentation among Indian patients with common hemoglobin variants

Khushnooma Italia, Dipti Upadhye, Pooja Dabke, Harshada Kangane, et al.
Clinica Chimica Acta 431 (2014) 46–51
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2014.01.028

Background: Co-inheritance of structural hemoglobin variants like HbS, HbD Punjab and HbE can lead to a variable clinical presentation and only few cases have been described so far in the Indian population.
Methods: We present the varied clinical and hematological presentation of 22 cases (HbSD Punjab disease-15, HbSE disease-4, HbD Punjab E disease-3) referred to us for diagnosis.
Results: Two of the 15 HbSDPunjab disease patients had moderate crisis, one presented with mild hemolytic anemia; however, the other 12 patients had a severe clinical presentation with frequent blood transfusion requirements, vaso occlusive crisis, avascular necrosis of the femur and febrile illness. The 4 HbSE disease patients had a mild to moderate presentation. Two of the 3 HbD Punjab E patients were asymptomatic with one patient’s sibling having a mild presentation. The hemoglobin levels of the HbSD Punjab disease patients ranged from 2.3 to 8.5 g/dl and MCV from 76.3 to 111.6 fl. The hemoglobin levels of the HbD Punjab E and HbSE patients ranged from 10.8 to 11.9 and 9.8 to 10.0 g/dl whereas MCV ranged from 67.1 to 78.2 and 74.5 to 76.0 fl respectively.
Conclusions: HbSD Punjab disease patients should be identified during newborn screening programs and managed in a way similar to sickle cell disease. Couple at risk of having HbSD Punjab disease children may be given the option of prenatal diagnosis in subsequent pregnancies.

Sickle cell anemia is the most common hemoglobinopathy seen across the world. It is caused by a point mutation in the 6th codon of the beta (β) globin gene leading to the substitution of the amino acid glutamic acid to valine. The sickle gene is frequently seen in Africa, some Mediterranean countries, India, Middle East—Saudi Arabia and North America. In India the prevalence of hemoglobin S (HbS) carriers varies from 2 to 40% among different population groups and HbS is mainly seen among the scheduled tribe, scheduled caste and other backward class populations in the western, central and parts of eastern and southern India. Sickle cell anemia has a variable clinical presentation in India with the most severe clinical presentation seen in central India whereas patients in the western region show a mild to moderate clinical presentation.

Hemoglobin D Punjab (HbD Punjab) (also known as HbD Los-Angeles, HbD Portugal, HbD North Carolina, D Oak Ridge and D Chicago) is another hemoglobin variant due to a point mutation in codon 121 of the β globin gene resulting in the substitution of the amino acid glutamic acid to glycine. It is a widely distributed hemoglobin with a relatively low prevalence of 0.86% in the Indo-Pak subcontinent, 1–3% in north-western India, 1–3% in the Black population in the Caribbean and North America and has also been reported among the English. It accounts for 55.6% of all the Hb variants seen in the Xenjiang province of China.

Hemoglobin E (HbE) is the most common abnormal hemoglobin in Southeast Asia. In India, the frequency ranges from 4% to 51% in the north eastern region and 3% to 4% in West Bengal in the east. The HbE mutation (β26 GAG→AAG) creates an alternative splice site and the βE chain is insufficiently synthesized, hence the phenotype of this disorder is that of a mild form of β thalassemia.

Though these 3 structural variants are prevalent in different regions of India, their interaction is increasingly seen in all states of the country due to migration of people to different regions for a better livelihood. There are very few reports on interaction of these commonly seen Hb variants and the phenotypic–genotypic presentation of these cases is important for genetic counseling and management.

HbF of patients with HbSD Punjab disease with variable clinical severity. The HbF values of 4 patients are not included as they were post blood transfusion

The genotypes of the patients were confirmed by restriction enzyme digestion and ARMS (Fig). Patients 1 to 15 were characterized as compound heterozygous for HbS and HbD Punjab whereas patients 16 to 19 were characterized as compound heterozygous for HbS and HbE. Patient nos. 20 to 22 were characterized as compound heterozygous for HbE and HbD Punjab.

Molecular characterization of HbS and HbDPunjab by restriction enzyme digestion and of HbE by ARMS.

Molecular characterization of HbS and HbDPunjab by restriction enzyme digestion and of HbE by ARMS.

Molecular characterization of HbS and HbDPunjab by restriction enzyme digestion and of HbE by ARMS.

The 3 common β globin gene variants of hemoglobin, HbS, HbE and HbD Punjab are commonly seen in India, with HbS having a high prevalence in the central belt and some parts of western, eastern and southern India, HbE in the eastern and north eastern region whereas HbD is mostly seen in the north western part of India. These hemoglobin variants have been reported in different population groups. However, with migration and intermixing of the different populations from different geographic regions, occasional cases of HbSD Punjab and HbSE are being reported. There are several HbD variants like HbD Punjab, HbD Iran, HbD Ibadan. However, of these only HbD Punjab interacts with HbS to form a clinically significant condition as the glutamine residue facilitates polymerization of HbS. HbD Iran and HbD Ibadan are non-interacting and produce benign conditions like the sickle cell trait. The first case of HbSD Punjab disease was a brother and sister considered to have atypical sickle cell disease in 1934. This family was further reinvestigated and reported as the first case of HbD Los Angeles which has the same mutation as the HbD Punjab. Serjeant et al. reported HbD Punjab in an English parent in 6 out of 11 HbSD-Punjab disease cases. This has been suggested to be due to the stationing of nearly 50,000 British troops on the Indian continent for a period of 200 y and the introduction into Britain of their Anglo-Indian children.

HbSD Punjab disease shows a similar pattern to HbS homozygous on alkaline hemoglobin electrophoresis but can be differentiated on acid agar gel electrophoresis and on HPLC. In HbSD Punjab disease cases, the peripheral blood films show anisocytosis, poikilocytosis, target cells and irreversibly sickled cells. Values of HbF and HbA2 are similar to those in sickle homozygous cases. HbSD Punjab disease is characterized by a moderately severe hemolytic anemia.

Twenty-one cases of HbSDPunjab were reported by Serjeant of which 16 were reported by different workers among patients originating from Caucasian, Spanish, Australian, Irish, English, Portuguese, Black, American, Venezuelan, Caribbean, Mexican, Turkish and Jamaican backgrounds. Yavarian et al. 2009 reported a multi centric origin of HbD Punjab which in combination with HbS results in sickle cell disease. Patel et al. 2010 have also reported 12 cases of HbSD Punjab from the Orissa state of eastern India. Majority of these cases were symptomatic, presenting with chronic hemolytic anemia and frequent painful crises.

HbF levels >20% were seen in 4 out of our 11 clinically severe patients of HbSD-Punjab disease with the mean HbF levels of 16.8% in 8 clinically severe patients, while 3 clinically severe patients were post transfused. However, the 3 patients with a mild to moderate clinical presentation showed a mean HbF level of 8.6%. This is in contrast to the relatively milder clinical presentation associated with high HbF seen in patients with sickle cell anemia. This was also reported by Adekile et al. 2010 in 5 cases of HbS-DLos Angeles where high HbF did not ameliorate the severe clinical presentation seen in these patients.

These 15 cases of HbSDPunjab disease give us an overall idea of the severe clinical presentation of the disease in different regions of India. However the HbDPunjabE cases were milder or asymptomatic and the HbSE cases were moderately symptomatic. Since most of the cases of HbSDPunjab disease were clinically severe, it is important to pick up these cases during newborn screening and enroll them into a comprehensive care program with the other sickle cell disease patients with introduction of therapeutic interventions such as penicillin prophylaxis if required and pneumococcal immunization. In fact, 2 of our cases (No. 6 and 7) were identified during newborn screening for sickle cell disorders. The parents can be given information on home care and educated to detect symptoms that may lead to serious medical emergencies. The parents of these patients as well as the couples who are at risk of having a child with HbSDPunjab disease could also be counseled about the option of prenatal diagnosis in subsequent pregnancies. It is thus important to document the clinical and hematological presentation of compound heterozygotes with these common β globin chain variants.

Common Hematologic Problems in the Newborn Nursery

Jon F. Watchko
Pediatr Clin N Am – (2015) xxx-xxx
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pcl.2014.11.011

Common RBC disorders include hemolytic disease of the newborn, anemia, and polycythemia. Another clinically relevant hematologic issue in neonates to be covered herein is thrombocytopenia. Disorders of white blood cells will not be reviewed.

KEY POINTS

(1)               Early clinical jaundice or rapidly developing hyperbilirubinemia are often signs of hemolysis, the differential diagnosis of which commonly includes immune-mediated disorders, red-cell enzyme deficiencies, and red-cell membrane defects.

(2)             Knowledge of the maternal blood type and antibody screen is critical in identifying non-ABO alloantibodies in the maternal serum that may pose a risk for severe hemolytic disease in the newborn.

(3)             Moderate to severe thrombocytopenia in an otherwise well-appearing newborn strongly suggests immune-mediated (alloimmune or autoimmune) thrombocytopenia.

Hemolytic conditions in the neonate

1. Immune-mediated (positive direct Coombs test)  a. Rhesus blood group: Anti-D, -c, -C, -e, -E, CW, and several others

  b. Non-Rhesus blood groups: Kell, Duffy, Kidd, Xg, Lewis, MNS, and others

  c. ABO blood group: Anti-A, -B

2. Red blood cell (RBC) enzyme defects

  a. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency

  b. Pyruvate kinase deficiency

  c. Others

3. RBC membrane defects

  a. Hereditary spherocytosis

  b. Elliptocytosis

  c. Stomatocytosis

  d. Pyknocytosis

  e. Others

4. Hemoglobinopathies

  a. alpha-thalassemia

  b. gamma-thalassemia
Standard maternal antibody screeningAlloantibody                                 Blood Group

D, C, c, E, e, f, CW, V                     Rhesus

K, k, Kpa, Jsa                                  Kell

Fya, Fyb                                          Duffy

Jka, Jkb                                           Kidd

Xga                                                  Xg

Lea, Leb                                          Lewis

S, s, M, N                                        MNS

P1                                                    P

Lub                                                  Lutheran
Non-ABO alloantibodies reported to cause moderate to severe hemolytic disease of the newbornWithin Rh system: Anti-D, -c, -C, -Cw, -Cx, -e, -E, -Ew, -ce, -Ces, -Rh29, -Rh32, -Rh42, -f, -G, -Goa, -Bea, -Evans, -Rh17, -Hro, -Hr, -Tar, -Sec, -JAL, -STEM

Outside Rh system:  Anti-LW, -K, -k, -Kpa, -Kpb, -Jka, -Jsa, -Jsb, -Ku, -K11, -K22, -Fya, -M, -N, -S, -s, -U, -PP1 pk, -Dib, -Far, -MUT, -En3, -Hut, -Hil, -Vel, -MAM, -JONES, -HJK, -REIT

 

Red Blood Cell Enzymopathies

G6PD9 and pyruvate kinase (PK) deficiency are the 2 most common red-cell enzyme disorders associated with marked neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. Of these, G6PD deficiency is the more frequently encountered and it remains an important cause of kernicterus worldwide, including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, the prevalence in Western countries a reflection in part of immigration patterns and intermarriage. The risk of kernicterus in G6PD deficiency also relates to the potential for unexpected rapidly developing extreme hyperbilirubinemia in this disorder associated with acute severe hemolysis.

Red Blood Cell Membrane Defects

Establishing a diagnosis of RBC membrane defects is classically based on the development of Coombs-negative hyperbilirubinemia, a positive family history, and abnormal RBC smear, albeit it is often difficult because newborns normally exhibit a marked variation in red-cell membrane size and shape. Spherocytes, however, are not often seen on RBC smears of hematologically normal newborns and this morphologic abnormality, when prominent, may yield a diagnosis of hereditary spherocytosis (HS) in the immediate neonatal period. Given that approximately 75% of families affected with hereditary spherocytosis manifest an autosomal dominant phenotype, a positive family history can often be elicited and provide further support for this diagnosis. More recently, Christensen and Henry highlighted the use of an elevated mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) (>36.0 g/dL) and/or elevated ratio of MCHC to mean corpuscular volume, the latter they term the “neonatal HS index” (>0.36, likely >0.40) as screening tools for HS. An index of greater than 0.36 had 97% sensitivity, greater than 99% specificity, and greater than 99% negative predictive value for identifying HS in neonates. Christensen and colleagues also provided a concise update of morphologic RBC features that may be helpful in diagnosing this and other underlying hemolytic conditions in newborns.

The diagnosis of HS can be confirmed using the incubated osmotic fragility test when coupled with fetal red-cell controls or eosin-5-maleimide flow cytometry. One must rule out symptomatic ABO hemolytic disease by performing a direct Coombs test, as infants so affected also may manifest prominent micro-spherocytosis. Moreover, HS and symptomatic ABO hemolytic disease can occur in the same infant and result in severe hyperbilirubinemia and anemia.  Of other red-cell membrane defects, only hereditary elliptocytosis,  stomato-cytosis, and infantile pyknocytosis have been reported to exhibit significant hemolysis in the newborn period. Hereditary elliptocytosis and stomatocytosis are both rare. Infantile pyknocytosis, a transient red-cell membrane abnormality manifesting itself during the first few months of life, is more common.

Risk factors for bilirubin neurotoxicityIsoimmune hemolytic disease

G6PD deficiency

Asphyxia

Sepsis

Acidosis

Albumin less than 3.0 g/dL
Data from Maisels MJ, Bhutani VK, Bogen D, et al. Hyperbilirubinemia in the newborn infant > or 535 weeks’ gestation: an update with clarifications. Pediatrics 2009; 124:1193–8.

Polycythemia

Polycythemia (venous hematocrit 65%) in seen in infants across a range of conditions associated with active erythropoiesis or passive transfusion.76,77 They include, among others, placental insufficiency, the infant of a diabetic mother, recipient in twin-twin transfusion syndrome, and several aneuploidies, including trisomy. The clinical concern related to polycythemia is the risk for microcirculatory complications of hyperviscosity. However, determining which polycythemic infants are hyperviscous and when to intervene is a challenge.

 

 

Liver

Metabolic disorders presenting as liver disease

Germaine Pierre, Efstathia Chronopoulou
Paediatrics and Child Health 2013; 23(12): 509-514
The liver is a highly metabolically active organ and many inherited metabolic disorders have hepatic manifestations. The clinical presentation in these patients cannot usually be distinguished from liver disease due to acquired causes like infection, drugs or hematological disorders. Manifestations include acute and chronic liver failure, cholestasis and hepatomegaly. Metabolic causes of acute liver failure in childhood can be as high as 35%. Certain disorders like citrin deficiency and Niemann-Pick C disease may present in infancy with self-limiting cholestasis before presenting in later childhood or adulthood with irreversible disease. This article reviews important details from the history and clinical examination when evaluating the pediatric patient with suspected metabolic disease, the specialist and genetic tests when investigating, and also discusses specific disorders, their clinical course and treatment. The role of liver transplantation is also briefly discussed. Increased awareness of this group of disorders is important as in many cases, early diagnosis leads to early intervention with improved outcome. Diagnosis also allows genetic counselling and future family planning.

Adult liver disorders caused by inborn errors of metabolism: Review and update

Sirisak Chanprasert, Fernando Scaglia
Molecular Genetics and Metabolism 114 (2015) 1–10
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ymgme.2014.10.011

Inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs) are a group of genetic diseases that have protean clinical manifestations and can involve several organ systems. The age of onset is highly variable but IEMs afflict mostly the pediatric population. However, in the past decades, the advancement in management and new therapeutic approaches have led to the improvement in IEM patient care. As a result, many patients with IEMs are surviving into adulthood and developing their own set of complications. In addition, some IEMs will present in adulthood. It is important for internists to have the knowledge and be familiar with these conditions because it is predicted that more and more adult patients with IEMs will need continuity of care in the near future. The review will focus on Wilson disease, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, citrin deficiency, and HFE-associated hemochromatosis which are typically found in the adult population. Clinical manifestations and pathophysiology, particularly those that relate to hepatic disease as well as diagnosis and management will be discussed in detail.

Inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs) are a group of genetic diseases characterized by abnormal processing of biochemical reactions, resulting in accumulation of toxic substances that could interfere with normal organ functions, and failure to synthesize essential compounds. IEMs are individually rare, but collectively numerous. The clinical presentations cover a broad spectrum and can involve almost any organ system. The age of onset is highly variable but IEMs afflict mostly the pediatric population.

Wilson disease is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder of copper metabolism. It is characterized by an abnormal accumulation of inorganic copper in various tissues, most notably in the liver and the brain, especially in the basal ganglia. The disease was first described in 1912 by Kinnier Wilson, and affects between 1 in 30,000 and 1 in 100,000 individuals. Clinical features are variable and depend on the extent  and the severity of copper deposition. Typically, patients tend to develop hepatic disease at a younger age than the neuropsychiatric manifestations. Individuals withWilson disease eventually succumb to complications of end stage liver disease or become debilitated from neurological problems, if they are left untreated.

The clinical presentations of Wilson disease are varied affecting many organ systems. However, the overwhelming majority of cases display hepatic and neurologic symptoms. In general, patients with hepatic disease present between the first and second decades of life although patients as young as 3 years old or over 50 years old have also been reported. The most common modes of presentations are acute self-limited hepatitis and chronic active hepatitis that are indistinguishable from other hepatic disorders although liver aminotransferases are generally much lower than in autoimmune or viral hepatitis. Acute fulminant hepatic failure is less common but is observed in approximately 3% of all cases of acute liver failure. Symptoms of acute liver failure include jaundice, coagulopathy, and hepatic encephalopathy. Cirrhosis can develop over time and may be clinically silent. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is rarely associated with Wilson disease, but may occur in the setting of cirrhosis and chronic inflammation.

Copper is an essential element, and is required for the proper functioning of various proteins and enzymes. The total body content of copper in a healthy adult individual is approximately 70–100 mg, while the daily requirements are estimated to be between 1 and 5 mg. Absorption occurs in the small intestine. Copper is taken up to the hepatocytes via the copper transporter hTR1. Once inside the cell, copper is bound to various proteins including metallothionein and glutathione, however, it is the metal chaperone, ATOX1 that helps direct copper to the ATP7B protein for intracellular transport and excretion. At the steady state, copper will be bound to ATP7B and is then incorporated to ceruloplasmin and secreted into the systemic circulation. When the cellular copper concentration arises, ATP7B protein will be redistributed from the trans-Golgi network to the prelysosomal vesicles facilitating copper excretion into the bile. The molecular defects in ATP7B lead to a reduction of copper excretion. Excess copper is accumulated in the liver causing tissue injury. The rate of accumulation of copper varies among individuals, and it may depend on other factors such as alcohol consumption, or viral hepatitis infections. If the liver damage is not severe, patients will accumulate copper in various tissues including the brain, the kidney, the eyes, and the musculoskeletal system leading to clinical disease. A failure of copper to incorporate into ceruloplasmin leads to secretion of the unsteady protein that has a shorter half-life, resulting in the reduced concentrations of ceruloplasmin seen in most patients with Wilson disease.

Wilson disease used to be a progressive fatal condition during the first half of the 20th century because there was no effective treatment available at that time. Penicillamine was the first pharmacologic agent introduced in 1956 for treating this condition. Penicillamine is a sulfhydryl-bearing amino acid cysteine doubly substituted with methyl groups. This drug acts as a chelating agent that promotes the urinary excretion of copper. It is rapidly absorbed in the gastrointestinal track, and over 80% of circulating penicillamine is excreted via the kidneys. Although it is very effective, approximately 10%–50% of Wilson disease patients with neuropsychiatric presentations may experience worsening of their symptoms, and often times the worsening symptoms may not be reversible.

Alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency

Alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) is one of the most common genetic liver diseases in children and adults, affecting 1 in 2000 to 1 in 3000 live births worldwide. It is transmitted in an autosomal co-dominant fashion with variable expressivity. Alpha1 antitrypsin (A1AT) is a member of the serine protease inhibitor (SERPIN) family. Its function is to counteract the proteolytic effect of neutrophil elastase and other neutrophil proteases. Mutations in the SERPINA1, the gene encoding A1AT, result in changes in the protein structure with the PiZZ phenotype being the most common cause of liver and lung disease-associated AATDs. Although, it classically causes early onset chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in adults, liver disease characterized by chronic inflammation, hepatic fibrosis, and cirrhosis is not uncommon in the adult population. Decreased plasma concentration of A1AT predisposes lung tissue to be more susceptible to injury from protease enzymes. However, the underlying mechanism of liver injury is different, and is believed to be caused by accumulation of polymerized mutant A1AT in the hepatocyte endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Currently, there is no specific treatment for liver disease-associated AATD, but A1AT augmentation therapy is available for patients affected with pulmonary involvement.

A1AT is a single-chain, 52-kDa polypeptide of approximately 394 amino acids [56]. It is synthesized in the liver, circulates in the plasma, and functions as an inhibitor of neutrophil elastase and other proteases such as cathepsin G, and proteinase 3. A1AT has a globular shape composed of two central β sheets surrounded by a small β sheet and nine α helices. The pathophysiology underlying liver disease is thought to be a toxic gain-of-function mutation associated with the PiZZ phenotypes. This hypothesis has been supported by the fact that null alleles which produce no detectable plasma A1AT, are not associated with liver disease. In addition, the transgenic mouse model of AATD PiZZ developed periodic acid-Schiff-positive diastase-resistant intrahepatic globule early in life similar to AATD patients. The PiZZ phenotype results in the blockade of the final processing of A1AT in the liver, as only 15% of the A1AT reaches the circulation whereas 85% of non-secreted protein is accumulated in the hepatocytes.

Citrin deficiency

Citrin deficiency is a relatively newly-defined autosomal recessive disease. It encompasses two different sub-groups of patients, neonatal intrahepatic cholestasis caused by citrin deficiency (NICCD), and adult onset citrullinemia type 2 (CTLN 2).

AGC2 exports aspartate out of the mitochondrial matrix in exchange for glutamate and a proton. Thus, this protein has an important role in ureagenesis and gluconeogenesis. In CTLN2, a defect in this protein is believed to limit the supply of aspartate for the formation of argininosuccinate in the cytosol resulting in impairment of ureagenesis. Interestingly, the mouse model of citrin deficiency (Ctrn−/−) fails to develop symptoms of CTLN2 suggesting that the mitochondrial aspartate is not the only source of ureagenesis. However, it should be noted that the rodent liver expresses higher glycerol-phosphate shuttle activity than the human counterpart. With the intact glycerol-phosphate dehydrogenase, it can compensate for the deficiency of AGC2, as demonstrated by the AGC2 and glycerol-phosphate dehydrogenase double knock-out mice that exhibit similar features to those observed in human CTLN2.

HFE-associated hemochromatosis

HFE-associated hemochromatosis is an inborn error of iron metabolism characterized by excessive iron storage resulting in tissue and organ damage. It is the most common autosomal recessive disorder in the Caucasian population, affecting 0.3%–0.5% of individuals of Northern European descent. The term “hemochromatosis” was coined in 1889 by the German pathologist Friedrich Daniel Von Recklinghausen, who described it as bronze stain of organs caused by a blood borne pigment.

The classic clinical triad of cirrhosis, diabetes, and bronze skin pigmentation is rarely observed nowadays given the early recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of this condition. The most common presenting symptoms are nonspecific including weakness, lethargy, and arthralgia.

The liver is a major site of iron storage in healthy individuals and as such it is the organ that is universally affected in HFE-associated hemochromatosis. Elevation of liver aminotransferases indicative of hepatocyte injury is the most common mode of presentation and it can be indistinguishable from other causes of hepatitis. Approximately 15%–40% of patients with HFE-associated hemochromatosis have other liver conditions, including chronic viral hepatitis B or C infection, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and alcoholic liver disease.

 

The liver in haemochromatosis

Rune J. Ulvik
Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtemb.2014.08.005

The review deals with genetic, regulatory and clinical aspects of iron homeostasis and hereditary hemochromatosis. Hemochromatosis was first described in the second half of the 19th century as a clinical entity characterized by excessive iron overload in the liver. Later, increased absorption of iron from the diet was identified as the pathophysiological hallmark. In the 1970s genetic evidence emerged supporting the apparent inheritable feature of the disease. And finally in 1996 a new “hemochromato-sis gene” called HFE was described which was mutated in about 85% of the patients. From the year2000 onward remarkable progress was made in revealing the complex molecular regulation of iron trafficking in the human body and its disturbance in hemochromatosis. The discovery of hepcidin and ferroportin and their interaction in regulating the release of iron from enterocytes and macrophages to plasma were important milestones. The discovery of new, rare variants of non-HFE-hemochromatosis was explained by mutations in the multicomponent signal transduction pathway controlling hepcidin transcription. Inhibited transcription induced by the altered function of mutated gene products, results in low plasma levels of hepcidin which facilitate entry of iron from enterocytes into plasma. In time this leads to progressive accumulation of iron and subsequently development of disease in the liver and other parenchymatous organs. Being the major site of excess iron storage and hepcidin synthesis the liver is a cornerstone in maintaining normal systemic iron homeostasis. Its central pathophysiological role in HFE-hemochromatosis with downgraded hepcidin synthesis, was recently shown by the finding that liver transplantation normalized the hepcidin levels in plasma and there was no sign of iron accumulation in the new liver.

Gastrointestinal

Decoding the enigma of necrotizing enterocolitis in premature infants

Roberto Murgas Torrazza, Nan Li, Josef Neu
Pathophysiology 21 (2014) 21–27
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pathophys.2013.11.011

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is an enigmatic disease that affects primarily premature infants. It often occurs suddenly and when it occurs, treatment attempts at treatment often fail and results in death. If the infant survives, there is a significant risk of long term sequelae including neurodevelopmental delays. The pathophysiology of NEC is poorly understood and thus prevention has been difficult. In this review, we will provide an overview of why progress may be slow in our understanding of this disease, provide a brief review diagnosis, treatment and some of the current concepts about the pathophysiology of this disease.

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) has been reported since special care units began to house preterm infants .With the advent of modern neonatal intensive care approximately 40 years ago, the occurrence and recognition of the disease markedly increased. It is currently the most common and deadly gastro-intestinal illness seen in preterm infants. Despite major efforts to better understand, treat and prevent this devastating disease, little if any progress has been made during these 4 decades. Underlying this lack of progress is the fact that what is termed “NEC” is likely more than one disease, or mimicked by other diseases, each with a different etiopathogenesis.

Human gut microbiome

Human gut microbiome

Term or near term infants with “NEC” when compared to matched controls usually have occurrence of their disease in the first week after birth, have a significantly higher frequency of prolonged rupture of membranes, chorio-amnionitis, Apgar score <7 at 1 and 5 min, respiratory problems, congenital heart disease, hypoglycemia, and exchange transfusions. When a “NEC” like illness presents in term or near term infants, it should be noted that these are likely to be distinct in pathogenesis than the most common form of NEC and should be differentiated as such.

The infants who suffer primary ischemic necrosis are term or near term infants (although this can occur in preterms) who have concomitant congenital heart disease, often related to poor left ventricular output or obstruction. Other factors that have been associated with primary ischemia are maternal cocaine use, hyperviscosity caused by polycythemia or a severe antecedent hypoxic–ischemic event. Whether the dis-ease entity that results from this should be termed NEC can be debated on historical grounds, but the etiology is clearly different from the NEC seen in most preterm infants.

The pathogenesis of NEC is uncertain, and the etiology seems to be multifactorial. The “classic” form of NEC is highly associated with prematurity; intestinal barrier immaturity, immature immune response, and an immature regulation of intestinal blood flow (Fig.). Although genetics appears to play a role, the environment, especially a dysbiotic intestinal microbiota acting in concert with host immaturities predisposes the preterm infant to disruption of the intestinal epithelia, increased permeability of tight junctions, and release of inflammatory mediators that leads to intestinal mucosa injury and therefore development of necrotizing enterocolitis.

NEC is a multifactorial disease

NEC is a multifactorial disease

What causes NEC? NEC is a multifactorial disease with an interaction of several etiophathologies

It is clear from this review that there are several entities that have been described as NEC. What is also clear is that despite having some overlap in the final parts of the pathophysiologic cascade that lead to necrosis, the disease that is most commonly seen in the preterm infant is likely to have an origin that differs markedly from that seen in term infants with congenital heart disease or severe hypoxic–ischemic injury. Thus, epidemiologic studies will need to differentiate these entities, if the aim is to dissect common features that are most highly associated with development of the disease. At this juncture, we areleft with more of a population based preventative approach, where the use of human milk, evidence based feeding guide-lines, considerations for microbial therapy once these are proved safe and effective and approved as such by regulatory authorities, and perhaps even measures that prevent prematurity will have a major impact on this devastating disease.

Influenced by the microbiota, intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) elaborate cytokines

Influenced by the microbiota, intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) elaborate cytokines

Influenced by the microbiota, intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) elaborate cytokines, including thymic stromal lymphoprotein (TSLP), transforming growthfactor (TGF), and interleukin-10 (IL-10), that can influence pro-inflammatory cytokine production by dendritic cells (DC) and macrophages present in the laminapropria (GALT) and Peyer’s patches. Signals from commensal organisms may influence tissue-specific functions, resulting in T-cell expansion and regulation of the numbers of Th-1,
Th-2, and Th-3 cells. Also modulated by the microbiota, other IEC derived factors, including APRIL (a proliferation-inducing ligand),B-cell activating factor (BAFF), secretory leukocyte peptidase inhibitor (SLPI), prostaglandin E2(PGE2), and other metabolites, directly regulate functions ofboth antigen presenting cells and lymphocytes in the intestinal ecosystem. NK: natural killer cell; LN: lymph node; DC: dendritic cells.Modified from R. Sharma, C. Young, M. Mshvildadze, J. Neu, Intestinal microbiota does it play a role in diseases of the neonate? NeoReviews 10 (4) (2009)e166, with permission

Cross-talk between monocyte.macrophage cells and T.NK lymphocytes

Cross-talk between monocyte.macrophage cells and T.NK lymphocytes

Current Issues in the Management of Necrotizing Enterocolitis

Marion C. W. Henry and R. Lawrence Moss
Seminars in Perinatology, 2004; 28(3): 221-233
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1053/j.semperi.2004.03.010

Necrotizing enterocolitis is almost exclusively a disease of prematurity, with 90% of all cases occurring in premature infants and 90% of those infants weighing less than 2000 g. Prematurity is the only risk factor for necrotizing enterocolitis consistently identified in case control studies and the disease is rare in countries where prematurity is uncommon such as Japan and Sweden. When necrotizing enterocolitis does occur in full-term infants, it appears to by a somewhat different disease, typically associated with some predisposing condition.

NEC occurs in one to three in 1,000 live births and most commonly affects babies born between 30-32 weeks. It is most often diagnosed during the second week of life and occurs more often in previously fed infants. The mortality from NEC has been cited as 10% to 50% of all NEC cases. Surgical mortality has decreased over the last several decades from 70% to between 20 and 50%. The incremental cost per case of acute hospital care is estimated at $74 to 186 thousand compared to age matched controls, not including additional costs of long term care for the infants’ with lifelong morbidity. Survivors may develop short bowel syndrome, recurrent bouts of catheter-related sepsis, malabsorption, malnutrition, and TPN induced liver failure.

Although extensive research concerning the pathophysiology of necrotizing enterocolitis has occurred, a complete understanding has not been fully elucidated. The classic histologic finding is coagulation necrosis; present in over 90% of specimens. This finding suggests the importance of ischemia in the pathogenesis of NEC. Inflammation and bacterial overgrowth also are present. These findings support the assumptions by Kosloske that NEC occurs by the interaction of 3 events:

  • intestinal ischemia,
  • colonization by pathogenic bacteria and
  • excess protein substrate in the intestinal lumen.

Additionally, the immunologic immaturity of the neonatal gut has been implicated in the development of NEC. Reparative tissue changes including epithelial regeneration, formation of granulation tissue and fibrosis, and mixed areas of acute and chronic inflammatory changes suggest that the pathogenesis of NEC may involve a chronic process of injury and repair.

Premature newborns born prior to the 32nd week of gestational age may have compromised intestinal peristalsis and decreased motility. These motility problems may lead to poor clearance of bacteria, and subsequent bacterial overgrowth. Premature infants also have an immature intestinal tract in terms of immunologic immunity.

There are fewer functional B lymphocytes present and the ability to produce sufficient secretory IgA is reduced. Pepsin, gastric acid and mucus are also not produced as well in prematurity. All of these factors may contribute to the limited proliferation of intestinal flora and the decreased binding of these flora to mucosal cells (Fig).

Role of nitric oxide in the pathogenesis of NEC

Role of nitric oxide in the pathogenesis of NEC

Role of nitric oxide in the pathogenesis of NEC.

Characteristics of the immature gut leading to increased risk of necrotizing enterocolitis

Characteristics of the immature gut leading to increased risk of necrotizing enterocolitis

Characteristics of the immature gut leading to increased risk of necrotizing enterocolitis.

As understanding of the pathophysiology of necrotizing enterocolitis continues to evolve, a unifying concept is emerging. Initially, there is likely a subclinical insult leading to NEC. This may arise from a brief episode of hypoxia or infection. With colonization of the intestines, bacteria bind to the injured mucosa eliciting an inflammatory response which leads to further inflammation.

Intestinal Microbiota Development in Preterm Neonates and Effect of Perinatal Antibiotics

Silvia Arboleya, Borja Sanchez,, Christian Milani, Sabrina Duranti, et al.
Pediatr 2014;-:—).  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2014.09.041

Objectives Assess the establishment of the intestinal microbiota in very low birth-weight preterm infants and to evaluate the impact of perinatal factors, such as delivery mode and perinatal antibiotics.
Study design We used 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence-based microbiota analysis and quantitative polymerase chain reaction to evaluate the establishment of the intestinal microbiota. We also evaluated factors affecting the microbiota, during the first 3 months of life in preterm infants (n = 27) compared with full-term babies (n = 13).
Results Immaturity affects the microbiota as indicated by a reduced percentage of the family Bacteroidaceae during the first months of life and by a higher initial percentage of Lactobacillaceae in preterm infants compared with full term infants. Perinatal antibiotics, including intrapartum antimicrobial prophylaxis, affects the gut microbiota, as indicated by increased Enterobacteriaceae family organisms in the infants.

Human gut microbiome

Human gut microbiome

Conclusions Prematurity and perinatal antibiotic administration strongly affect the initial establishment of microbiota with potential consequences for later health.

Ischemia and necrotizing enterocolitis: where, when, and how

Philip T. Nowicki
Seminars in Pediatric Surgery (2005) 14, 152-158
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1053/j.sempedsurg.2005.05.003

While it is accepted that ischemia contributes to the pathogenesis of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), three important questions regarding this role subsist. First, where within the intestinal circulation does the vascular pathophysiology occur? It is most likely that this event begins within the intramural microcirculation, particularly the small arteries that pierce the gut wall and the submucosal arteriolar plexus insofar as these represent the principal sites of resistance regulation in the gut. Mucosal damage might also disrupt the integrity or function of downstream villous arterioles leading to damage thereto; thereafter, noxious stimuli might ascend into the submucosal vessels via downstream venules and lymphatics. Second, when during the course of pathogenesis does ischemia occur? Ischemia is unlikely to the sole initiating factor of NEC; instead, it is more likely that ischemia is triggered by other events, such as inflammation at the mucosal surface. In this context, it is likely that ischemia plays a secondary, albeit critical role in disease extension. Third, how does the ischemia occur? Regulation of vascular resistance within newborn intestine is principally determined by a balance between the endothelial production of the vasoconstrictor peptide endothelin-1 (ET-1) and endothelial production of the vasodilator free radical nitric oxide (NO). Under normal conditions, the balance heavily favors NO-induced vasodilation, leading to a low resting resistance and high rate of flow. However, factors that disrupt endothelial cell function, eg, ischemia-reperfusion, sustained low-flow perfusion, or proinflammatory mediators, alter the ET-1:NO balance in favor of constriction. The unique ET-1–NO interaction thereafter might facilitate rapid extension of this constriction, generating a viscous cascade wherein ischemia rapidly extends into larger portions of the intestine.

Schematic representation of the intestinal microcirculation

Schematic representation of the intestinal microcirculation

Schematic representation of the intestinal microcirculation. Small mesenteric arteries pierce the muscularis layers and terminate in the submucosa where they give rise to 1A (1st order) arterioles. 2A (2nd order) arterioles arise from the 1A. Although not shown here, these 2A arterioles connect merge with several 1A arterioles, thus generating an arteriolar plexus, or manifold that serves to pressurize the terminal downstream microvasculature. 3A (3rd order) arterioles arise from the 2A and proceed to the mucosa, giving off a 4A branch just before descent into the mucosa. This 4A vessel travels to the muscularis layers. Each 3A vessel becomes the single arteriole perfusing each villus.

Collectively, these studies indicate that disruption of endothelial cell function has the potential to disrupt the normal balance between NO and ET-1 within the newborn intestinal circulation, and that such an event can generate significant ischemia. In this context, it is important to note that NO and ET-1 each regulate the expression and activity of the other. An increased [NO] within the microvascular environment reduces ET-1 expression and compromises ligand binding to the ETA receptor (thus decreasing its contractile efficacy), while ET-1 compromises eNOS expression. Thus, factors that upset the balance between NO and ET-1 will have an immediate and direct effect on vascular tone, but also exert an additional indirect effect by extenuating the disruption of balance between these two factors.

It is not difficult to construct a hypothesis that links the perturbations of I/R and sustained low-flow perfusion with an initial inflammatory insult. Initiation of an inflammatory process at the mucosal–luminal interface could have a direct impact on villus and mucosal 3A arterioles, damaging arteriolar integrity and disrupting villus hemodynamics. Ascent of proinflammatory mediators to the submucosal 1A–2A arteriolar plexus could occur via draining venules and lymphatics, generating damage to vascular effector systems therein; these mediators might include cytokines and platelet activating factor, as these elements have been recovered from human infants with NEC. This event, coupled with a generalized loss of 3A flow throughout a large portion of the mucosal surface, could compromise flow rate within the submucosal arteriolar plexus.

Necrotizing enterocolitis: An update

Loren Berman, R. Lawrence Moss
Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine 16 (2011) 145e150
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.siny.2011.02.002

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a leading cause of death among patients in the neonatal intensive care unit, carrying a mortality rate of 15e30%. Its pathogenesis is multifactorial and involves an over reactive response of the immune system to an insult. This leads to increased intestinal permeability, bacterial translocation, and sepsis. There are many inflammatory mediators involved in this process, but thus far none has been shown to be a suitable target for preventive or therapeutic measures. NEC usually occurs in the second week of life after the initiation of enteral feeds, and the diagnosis is made based on physical examination findings, laboratory studies, and abdominal radiographs. Neonates with NEC are followed with serial abdominal examinations and radiographs, and may require surgery or primary peritoneal drainage for perforation or necrosis. Many survivors are plagued with long term complications including short bowel syndrome, abnormal growth, and neurodevelopmental delay. Several evidence-based strategies exist that may decrease the incidence of NEC including promotion of human breast milk feeding, careful feeding advancement, and prophylactic probiotic administration in at-risk patients. Prevention is likely to have the greatest impact on decreasing mortality and morbidity related to NEC, as little progress has been made with regard to improving outcomes for neonates once the disease process is underway.

Immune Deficiencies

Primary immunodeficiencies: A rapidly evolving story

Nima Parvaneh, Jean-Laurent Casanova,  LD Notarangelo, ME Conley
J Allergy Clin Immunol 2013;131:314-23.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2012.11.051

The characterization of primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs) in human subjects is crucial for a better understanding of the biology of the immune response. New achievements in this field have been possible in light of collaborative studies; attention paid to new phenotypes, infectious and otherwise; improved immunologic techniques; and use of exome sequencing technology. The International Union of Immunological Societies Expert Committee on PIDs recently reported on the updated classification of PIDs. However, new PIDs are being discovered at an ever-increasing rate. A series of 19 novel primary defects of immunity that have been discovered after release of the International Union of Immunological Societies report are discussed here. These new findings highlight the molecular pathways that are associated with clinical phenotypes and suggest potential therapies for affected patients.

Combined Immunodeficiencies

  • T-cell receptor a gene mutation: T-cell receptor ab1 T-cell depletion

T cells comprise 2 distinct lineages that express either ab or gd T-cell receptor (TCR) complexes that perform different tasks in immune responses. During T-cell maturation, the precise order and efficacy of TCR gene rearrangements determine the fate of the cells. Productive β-chain gene rearrangement produces a pre-TCR on the cell surface in association with pre-Tα invariant peptide (β-selection). Pre-TCR signals promote α-chain recombination and transition to a double-positive stage (CD41CD81). This is the prerequisite for central tolerance achieved through positive and negative selection of thymocytes.

  • Ras homolog gene family member H deficiency: Loss of naive T cells and persistent human papilloma virus infections
  • MST1 deficiency: Loss of naive T cells

New insight into the role of MST1 as a critical regulator of T-cell homing and function was provided by the characterization of 8 patients from 4 unrelated families who had homozygous nonsense mutations in STK4, the gene encoding MST1. MST1 was originally identified as an ubiquitously expressed kinase with structural homology to yeast Ste. MST1 is the mammalian homolog of the Drosophila Hippo protein, controlling cell growth, apoptosis, and tumorigenesis. It has both proapoptotic and antiapoptotic functions.

  • Lymphocyte-specific protein tyrosine kinase deficiency: T-cell deficiency with CD41 lymphopenia

Defects in pre-TCR– and TCR-mediated signaling lead to aberrant T-cell development and function (Fig). One of the earliest biochemical events occurring after engagement of the (pre)-TCR is the activation of lymphocyte-specific protein tyrosine kinase (LCK), a member of the SRC family of protein tyrosine kinases. This kinase then phosphorylates immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs of intracellular domains of CD3 subunits. Phosphorylated immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs recruit z-chain associated protein kinase of 70 kDa, which, after being phosphorylated by LCK, is responsible for activation of critical downstream events. Major consequences include activation of the membrane-associated enzyme phospholipase Cg1, activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase, nuclear translocation of nuclear factor kB (NFkB), and Ca21/Mg21 mobilization. Through these pathways, LCK controls T-cell development and activation. In mice lacking LCK, T-cell development in the thymus is profoundly blocked at an early double-negative stage.

TCR signaling

TCR signaling

TCR signaling. Multiple signal transduction pathways are stimulated through the TCR. These pathways collectively activate transcription factors that organize T-cell survival, proliferation, differentiation, homeostasis, and migration. Mutant molecules in patients with TCR-related defects are indicated in red.

  • Uncoordinated 119 deficiency: Idiopathic CD41 lymphopenia

Idiopathic CD41 lymphopenia (ICL) is a very heterogeneous clinical entity that is defined, by default, by persistent CD41 T-cell lymphopenia (<300 cells/mL or <20% of total T cells) in the absence of HIV infection or any other known cause of immunodeficiency.

Well-Defined Syndromes with Immunodeficiency

  • Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein–interacting protein deficiency: Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome-like phenotype

In hematopoietic cells Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP) is stabilized through forming a complex with WASP interacting protein (WIP).

  • Phospholipase Cg2 gain-of-function mutations: Cold urticaria, immunodeficiency, and autoimmunity/autoinflammatory

This is a unique phenotype, sharing features of antibody deficiency, autoinflammatory diseases, and immune dysregulatory disorders, making its classification difficult. Two recent studies validated the pleiotropy of genetic alterations in the same gene.

Predominantly Antibody Defects

  • Defect in the p85a subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase: Agammaglobulinemia and absent B cells
  • CD21 deficiency: Hypogammaglobulinemia
  • LPS-responsive beige-like anchor deficiency:
  • Hypogammaglobulinemia with autoimmunity and

early colitis

Defects Of Immune Dysregulation

  • Pallidin deficiency: Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome type 9
  • CD27 deficiency: Immune dysregulation and
  • persistent EBV infection

Congenital Defects Of Phagocyte Number, Function, Or Both

  • Interferon-stimulated gene 15 deficiency: Mendelian susceptibility to mycobacterial diseases

Defects In Innate Immunity

  • NKX2-5 deficiency: Isolated congenital asplenia
  • Toll/IL-1 receptor domain–containing adaptor inducing IFN-b and TANK-binding kinase 1 deficiencies: Herpes simplex encephalitis
  • Minichromosome maintenance complex component 4 deficiency: NK cell deficiency associated with growth retardation and adrenal insufficiency

Autoinflammatory Disorders

  • A disintegrin and metalloproteinase 17 deficiency: Inflammatory skin and bowel disease

 

Cross-talk between monocyte.macrophage cells and T.NK lymphocytes

Cross-talk between monocyte.macrophage cells and T.NK lymphocytes

Cross-talk between monocyte/macrophage cells and T/NK lymphocytes. Genes in the IL-12/IFN-g pathway are particularly important for protection against mycobacterial disease. IRF8 is an IFN-g–inducible transcription factor required for the induction of various target genes, including IL-12. The NF-kB essential modulator (NEMO) mutations in the LZ domain impair CD40-NEMO–dependent pathways. Some gp91phox mutations specifically abolish the respiratory burst in monocyte-derived macrophages. ISG15 is secreted by neutrophils and potentiates IFN-g production by NK/T cells. Genetic defects that preclude monocyte development (eg, GATA2) can also predispose to mycobacterial infections (not shown). Mutant molecules in patients with unusual susceptibility to infection are indicated in red.

The field of PIDs is advancing at full speed in 2 directions. New genetic causes of known PIDs are being discovered (eg, CD21 and TRIF). Moreover, new phenotypes qualify as PIDs with the identification of a first genetic cause (eg, generalized pustular psoriasis). Recent findings contribute fundamental knowledge about immune system biology and its perturbation in disease. They are also of considerable clinical benefit for the patients and their families. A priority is to further translate these new discoveries into improved diagnostic methods and more effective therapeutic strategies, promoting the well-being of patients with PIDs.

Primary immunodeficiencies

Luigi D. Notarangelo
J Allergy Clin Immunol 2010; 125(2): S182-194
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.jaci.2009.07.053

In the last years, advances in molecular genetics and immunology have resulted in the identification of a growing number of genes causing primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs) in human subjects and a better understanding of the pathophysiology of these disorders. Characterization of the molecular mechanisms of PIDs has also facilitated the development of novel diagnostic assays based on analysis of the expression of the protein encoded by the PID-specific gene. Pilot newborn screening programs for the identification of infants with severe combined immunodeficiency have been initiated. Finally, significant advances have been made in the treatment of PIDs based on the use of subcutaneous immunoglobulins, hematopoietic cell transplantation from unrelated donors and cord blood, and gene therapy. In this review we will discuss the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of PIDs, with special attention to recent advances in the field.

 

 

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Graft-versus-Host Disease

Posted in Acute lymphocytic leukemia, Acute myelocytic leukemia, Bone marrow derived cells, Cell Biology, Curation, Hematology, Hematopoiesis, Human Immune System in Health and in Disease, Immuno-Oncology & Genomics, Innovation in Immunology Diagnostics, Molecular Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Mutant Gene Expression, Pharmaceutical Analytics, Pharmaceutical Drug Discovery, Pharmacologic toxicities, Regenerative Biology and Medicine, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine, Translational Science, Umbilical cord cells, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Graft-versus-Host Disease

Writer and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP 

 

Introduction

This piece is a follow up to the article on allogeneic transfusion reactions, which extends into transplantation and transplantation outcomes for hematological diseases, both malignant and nonmalignant. The safety of transfusions in Western countries has improved substantially, and the causes for transfusion mishaps has been reduced to unexpected infectious sources, uncommon immune incompatibilities, and errors in processing the blood products.  The greatest risk is incurred in platelet transfusions because of the short shelf-life of the product, and the time needed for testing prior to release.  This portion of the review is concerned with Graft-versus-Host Disease, which is unique to transfusion and transplanting of blood. In other transplantation, there is graft failure because of host versus graft incompatibility or complications.  The reverse order applies to blood.  In this case, on the contrary, the transfused or grafted donor tissue becomes a pursuer after the recipients hematopoietic cells.

Peter Brian Medawar: Father of Transplantation

Thomas E. Starzl, M.D., PH.D., F.A.C.S.
J Am Coll Surg. 1995 Mar; 180(3): 332–336

Most of the surgical specialities can be tracked to the creative vision of a surgeon. Transplantation is an exception. Here, the father of the field is succinctly defined in the dictionary as: “Peter Brian Medawar: a Brazilian born British Zoologist who at the age of 45 shared a 1960 Nobel Prize for his work on acquired immunologic tolerance”. Medawar was mysteriously overwhelming to many colleagues and observers, even when he was young. He was the son of a Lebanese father and an English mother—tall, athletic, abnormally handsome, hypnotically articulate in public, and politely cordial in his personal relations. In September 1969, at the age of 54, he had the first of a series of strokes. These crippled him physically but not in spirit. Although I saw Medawar often professionally and privately over a 22 year period, before and after he was disabled, this sporadic exposure was not enough to understand him. My sense is that no one did, except perhaps Jean, his wife for nearly 50 years.

Medawar’s dazzling personality before and great courage after his strokes was inspirational, but his fame was based on the unique achievement in 1953 captured by the terse dictionary mention of “acquired immunologic tolerance.” The roots leading to this accomplishment had fed on the blood of war. More than 12 years earlier, the recently wed zoologist Medawar—24 years of age and fresh from graduate studies at Oxford University—was assigned to
the service of the British surgeon, Dr. Thomas Gibson, to determine if skin allografts could be used to treat casualties from the Battle of Britain. First,
in human studies with Gibson, and then with simple and logical rabbit experiments, Medawar showed that rejection of the skin was an immunologic phenomenon. This later was shown  to be analogous to the cell-mediated delayed hypersensitivity that confers immunity to diseases such as tuberculosis. The principal evidence in the early studies was that repetitive grafts from the same donor were rejected more rapidly with each successive attempt —the sensitization and donor specificity confirming an earlier clinical observations by Emil Holman of Stanford in skin-grafted burn victims. Once it was established that rejection was an immune reaction, strategies began to evolve to weaken the recipient immune system. By 1953, total body irradiation and adrenal cortical steroids had been shown to delay skin rejection. However, this immunosuppressive effect was either minor if the animals survived, or lethal to the recipient if the grafts were spared.

Bombshell

In the resulting atmosphere of nihilism about clinical applications, a three and one-half page article by Billingham, Brent, and Medawar in the October 3, 1953 issue of Nature describing acquired tolerance, came as a blinding beacon of hope. The three men had learned that donor splenocytes could be engrafted by their intravenous infusion into immunologically immature mice in utero or perinatally. When these inoculated recipients matured, they could accept skin and other tissues from the donor (but from no other) mouse strain. The immune system of the recipients had been populated by the immunocytes of the donor, meaning that they were now chimeras. The race was on to convert this principle to humans. However, the dark side of their accomplishment soon was revealed by the two younger members of Medawar’s team, Billingham and Brent and by the Dane, Simonsen. The engrafted donor cells could turn the tables and reject the defenseless recipient unless the tissue match was a good one. This was the dreaded graft versus host disease (GVHD) in which transplanted donor cells attacked the recipient skin, gastrointestinal tract, lungs, liver, and the bone marrow itself. Medawar’s dream of 1953 was suddenly a nightmare. Or was it?

On the contrary, the work took a straight line to clinical application, after the demonstration by Prehn and Main that similar tolerance could be induced in adult mice rendered immunologically defenseless by total body irradiation before splenocyte (or later bone marrow) infusion. The recipient conditioning, known as cytoablation, also could be accomplished with myelotoxic drugs. However, as Billingham, Brent, and Medawar had predicted, donor specific tolerance could be induced in humans without GVHD only if there was a good tissue (HLA) match. In 1968, 15 years after the epic Billingham, Brent and Medawar publication, Robert Good and Fritz Bach reported the first two successful human bone marrow transplants. Both recipients of well matched bone marrow from blood relatives are still alive. This was a triumph in which the principal clinicians were internists, as summarized 25 years later in the acceptance speech by the 1990 Nobel Laureate Donnall Thomas.

The growth of bone marrow and whole organ transplantation

The growth of bone marrow and whole organ transplantation

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2681237/bin/nihms-87975-f0001.gif

The growth of bone marrow (right) and whole organ transplantation (left) from the seed planted by Peter Medawar during World War II. GVHD, Graft versus host disease.

Immunological Tolerance: Medawar Nobel Acceptance Lecture

“Immunological tolerance” may be described as a state of indifference or non-reactivity towards a substance that would normally be expected to excite an immunological response. The term first came to be used in the context of tissue transplantation immunity, i.e. of the form of immunity that usually prohibits the grafting of tissues between individuals of different genetic make-up; and it was used to refer only to a non-reactivity caused by exposing animals to antigenic stimuli before they were old enough to undertake an immunological response. For example, if living cells from a mouse of strain CBA are injected into an adult mouse of strain A, the CBA cells will be destroyed by an immunological process, and the A-line mouse that received them will destroy any later graft of the same origin with the speed to be expected of an animal immunologically forearmed. But if the CBA cells are injected into a foetal or newborn A-line mouse, they are accepted; more than that, the A-line mouse, when it grows up, will accept any later graft from a CBA donor as if it were its own. I shall begin by using the term “immunological tolerance” in the rather restricted sense that is illustrated by this experiment, and shall discuss its more general usage later on.

The experiment I have just described can be thought of as an artificial reproduction of an astonishing natural curiosity, the phenomenon of red-cell chimerism in certain dizygotic twins. The blood systems of twin cattle before birth are not sharply distinct from each other, as they are in most other twins; instead, the blood systems make anastomoses with each other, with the effect that the twins can indulge in a prolonged exchange of blood before birth. In 1945, R.D. Owen2 made the remarkable discovery that most twin cattle are born with, and may retain throughout life, a stable mixture – not necessarily a fifty-fifty mixture – of each other’s red cells; it followed, then, that the twin cattle must have exchanged red-cell precursors and not merely red cells in their mutual transfusion before birth. This is the first example of the phenomenon we came to call immunological tolerance; the red cells could not have “adapted” themselves to their strange environment, because they were in fact identified as native or foreign by those very antigenie properties which, had an adaptation occurred, must necessarily have been transformed. A few years later R.E. Billingham and I3, with the help of three members of the scientific staff of the Agricultural Research Council, showed that most dizygotic cattle twins would accept skin grafts from each other, and that this mutual tolerance was specific, for skin transplanted from third parties was cast off in the expected fashion.

Some properties of the tolerant state

The main points that emerged from our analysis of the tolerant state were these. In the first place, tolerance must be due to an alteration of the host, not to an antigenic adaptation of the grafted cells, for grafts newly transplanted in adult life have no opportunity to adapt themselves, and the descendants of the cells injected into foetal or newborn animals can be shown by N.A. Mitcbison’s methods to retain their antigenic power10. Once established, the state of tolerance is systemic; if one part of the body will tolerate a foreign graft, so will another; we found no evidence that a tolerated graft builds up a privileged position for itself within its own lymphatic territory. The stimulus that is responsible for instating tolerance is an antigenic stimulus – one which, had it been applied to older animals, would have caused them to become sensitive or immune. A plural stimulus can induce plural tolerance; the donor will usually contain several important antigens that are lacking in the recipient, and long-lasting tolerance must imply tolerance of them all. The state of tolerance is specific in the sense that it will discriminate between one individual and another, for an animal made tolerant of grafts from one individual will not accept grafts from a second individual unrelated to the first; but it will not discriminate between one tissue and another from the same donor.

Tolerance and auto-immunity: 50 years after Burnet.

Martini A1, Burgio GR
Eur J Pediatr. 1999 Oct;158(10):769-75.

Fifty years ago Sir F. Macfarlane Burnet published his first fundamental contribution to the theory of immune tolerance he perfected 10 years later. Since then an impressive amount of new information on the function of the immune system has been gathered. As any original meaningful theory, Burnet’s hypothesis on the development of immune tolerance has undergone extensive modifications to take into account all these new findings. An improved understanding of the mechanisms of tolerance has led to new possibilities for the treatment of auto-immune diseases.

Clonal Selection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonal_selection

Clonal selection theory is a scientific theory in immunology that explains the functions of cells (lymphocytes) of the immune system in response to specific antigens invading the body. The concept was introduced by an Australian doctor Frank Macfarlane Burnet in 1957 in an attempt to explain the formation of a diversity of antibodies during initiation of the immune response. The theory has become a widely accepted model for how the immune system responds to infection and how certain types of B and T lymphocytes are selected for destruction of specific antigens.

The theory states that in a pre-existing group of lymphocytes (specifically B cells), a specific antigen only activates (i.e. selection) its counter-specific cell so that particular cell is induced to multiply (producing its clones) for antibody production. In short the theory is an explanation of the mechanism for the generation of diversity of antibody specificity. The first experimental evidence came in 1958, when Gustav Nossal and Joshua Lederberg showed that one B cell always produces only one antibody. The idea turned out to be the foundation of molecular immunology, especially in adaptive immunity.

The fundamental contribution of Robert A. Good to the discovery of the crucial role of thymus in mammalian immunity

Domenico Ribatti
Immunology. 2006 Nov; 119(3): 291–295.
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1111/j.1365-2567.2006.02484.x

Robert Alan Good was a pioneer in the field of immunodeficiency diseases. He and his colleagues defined the cellular basis and functional consequences of many of the inherited immunodeficiency diseases. His was one of the groups that discovered the pivotal role of the thymus in the immune system development and defined the separate development of the thymus-dependent and bursa-dependent lymphoid cell lineages and their responsibilities in cell-mediated and humoral immunity.  Keywords: bursa of Fabricius, history of medicine, immunology, thymus

Robert Alan Good (May 21, 1922 – June 13, 2003) was an American physician who performed the first successful human bone marrow transplant

Robert A. Good began his intellectual and experimental queries related to the thymus in 1952 at the University of Minnesota, initially with pediatric patients. However, his interest in the plasma cell, antibodies and the immune response began in 1944, while still in Medical School at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, with his first publication appearing in 1945.

Idiopathic Acquired Agammaglobulinemia Associated with Thymoma (1953)

  • a markedly deficient ability to produce antibodies and significant deficits of all or most of the cell-mediated immunities
  • in no instance did removal of the thymic tumour restore immunological function or correct the protein deficit

Good syndrome: thymoma with immunodeficiency

  • increased susceptibility to bacterial infections by encapsulated organisms and opportunistic viral and fungal infections
  • immunodeficiencies, leukopenia, lymphopenia and eosinophylopenia
  • severely hypogammaglobulinemic rather than agammaglobulinemic

Good and others found that the patients lacked all of the subsequently described immunoglobulins. These patients were found not to have plasma cells or germinal centers in their hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues. They possessed circulating lymphocytes in normal numbers.

Speculation on the reason for immunological failure following neonatal thymectomy has centered on the thymus as a source of cells or humoral factors essential to normal lymphoid development and immunological maturation.

The bursa of Fabricius and the thymus are ‘central lymphoid organs’ in the chicken, essential to the ontogenetic development of adaptive immunity in that species. Studies by Papermaster and co-workers in Good’s laboratory34,35 indicated that bursectomy in the newly hatched chicks did not completely abolish immunological potential in the adult animal but rather produced a striking quantitative reduction insufficient to eliminate the homograft reaction. The failure of thymectomy in newly hatched chicks to alter the immunological potential of the maturing animal probably only reflected the participation of the bursa of Fabricius in the development of full immunological capacity.

Bursectomized and irradiated birds were completely devoid of germinal centers, plasma cells and the capacity to make antibodies yet they had perfectly normal development of thymocytes and lymphocytes elsewhere in the body that mediated cellular immune reactions. On the other hand, thymectomized and irradiated animals were deficient in lymphocytes that mediated cellular immunity as assessed by skin graft rejection, delayed-type hypersensitivity and graft versus host assays, but they still produced germinal centers, plasma cells and circulating immunoglobulins.

 

Graft vs Host Disease

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a complication that can occur after a stem cell or bone marrow transplant. With GVHD, the newly transplanted donor cells attack the transplant recipient’s body.

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a common complication following an allogeneic tissue transplant. It is commonly associated with stem cell or bone marrow transplant but the term also applies to other forms of tissue graft. Immune cells (white blood cells) in the tissue (the graft) recognize the recipient (the host) as “foreign“. The transplanted immune cells then attack the host’s body cells. GVHD can also occur after a blood transfusion if the blood products used have not been irradiated or treated with an approved pathogen reduction system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graft-versus-host_disease

Causes

GVHD may occur after a bone marrow or stem cell transplant in which someone receives bone marrow tissue or cells from a donor. This type of transplant is called allogeneic. The new, transplanted cells regard the recipient’s body as foreign. When this happens, the newly transplanted cells attack the recipient’s body.

GVHD does not occur when someone receives his or her own cells during a transplant. This type of transplant is called autologous.

Before a transplant, tissue and cells from possible donors are checked to see how closely they match the person having the transplant. GVHD is less likely to occur, or symptoms will be milder, when the match is close. The chance of GVHD is:

  • Around 30 – 40% when the donor and recipient are related
  • Around 60 – 80% when the donor and recipient are not related

There are two types of GVHD: acute and chronic. Symptoms in both acute and chronic GVHD range from mild to severe.

  • Acute GVHD usually happens within the first 6 months after a transplant.
  • Chronic GVHD usually starts more than 3 months after a transplant, and can last a lifetime.

Bone marrow transplant

A bone marrow transplant is a procedure to replace damaged or destroyed bone marrow with healthy bone marrow stem cells.  Stem cells are immature cells in the bone marrow that give rise to all of your blood cells.

There are three kinds of bone marrow transplants:

  • Autologous bone marrow transplant: The term auto means self. Stem cells are removed from you before you receive high-dose chemotherapy or radiation treatment. The stem cells are stored in a freezer (cryopreservation). After high-dose chemotherapy or radiation treatments, your stems cells are put back in your body to make (regenerate) normal blood cells. This is called a rescue transplant.
  • Allogeneic bone marrow transplant: The term allo means other. Stem cells are removed from another person, called a donor. Most times, the donor’s genes must at least partly match your genes. Special blood tests are done to see if a donor is a good match for you. A brother or sister is most likely to be a good match. Sometimes parents, children, and other relatives are good matches. Donors who are not related to you may be found through national bone marrow registries.
  • Umbilical cord blood transplant: This is a type of allogeneic transplant. Stem cells are removed from a newborn baby’s umbilical cord right after birth. The stem cells are frozen and stored until they are needed for a transplant. Umbilical cord blood cells are very immature so there is less of a need for matching. But blood counts take much longer to recover.

Before the transplant, chemotherapy, radiation, or both may be given. This may be done in two ways:

  • Ablative (myeloablative) treatment: High-dose chemotherapy, radiation, or both are given to kill any cancer cells. This also kills all healthy bone marrow that remains, and allows new stem cells to grow in the bone marrow.
  • Reduced intensity treatment, also called a mini transplant: Patients receive lower doses of chemotherapy and radiation before a transplant. This allows older patients, and those with other health problems to have a transplant.

Histocompatibility antigen:

  • A histocompatibility antigen blood test looks at proteins called human leukocyte antigens (HLAs). These are found on the surface of almost all cells in the human body. HLAs are found in large amounts on the surface of white blood cells. They help the immune system tell the difference between body tissue and substances that are not from your own body.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001309.htm

Induction of transplantation tolerance in haploidenical transplantation under reduced intensity conditioning: The role of ex-vivo generated donor CD8+ T cells with central memory phenotype

Eran Ophir, Y Eidelstein, E Bachar-Lustig, D Hagin, N Or-Geva, A Lask, , Y Reisner
Best Practice & Research Clinical Haematology 24 (2011) 393–401
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.beha.2011.05.007

Haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) offers the advantage of readily available family member donors for nearly all patients. A ‘megadose’ of purified CD34þ hematopoietic stem cells is used to overcome the host’s residual immunity surviving the myeloablative conditioning, while avoiding severe GVHD. However, the number of CD34+ cells that can be harvested is insufficient for overcoming the large numbers of host T cells remaining after reduced intensity conditioning (RIC). Therefore, combining a ‘megadose’ of CD34+ HSCT with other tolerizing cells could potentially support and promote successful engraftment of haploidentical purified stem cell transplantation under a safer RIC. One approach to address this challenge
could be afforded by using Donor CD8 T cells directed against 3rd-party stimulators, bearing an ex-vivo induced central memory phenotype (Tcm). These Tcm cells, depleted of GVH reactivity, were shown to be highly
efficient in overcoming host T cells mediated rejection and in promoting
fully mismatched bone-marrow (BM) engraftment, in HSCT murine models.
This is likely due to the marked lymph node homing of the Tcm, their strong proliferative capacity and prolonged persistence in BM transplant recipients. Thus, combining anti 3rd-party Tcm cell therapy with a ‘megadose’ of purified CD34+ stem cells, could offer a safer RIC protocol for attaining hematopoietic chimerism in patients with hematological diseases and as a platform for organ transplantation or cell therapy in cancer patients.

Induction of tolerance in organ recipients by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Eran Ophir, Yair Reisner
International Immunopharmacology 9 (2009) 694–700
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.intimp.2008.12.009

The use of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for the establishment of mixed chimerism represents a viable and attractive approach for generating tolerance in transplantation biology, as it generally leads to durable immune tolerance, enabling the subsequent engraftment of organ transplants without the need for a deleterious continuous immunosuppressive therapy. However, in order to apply HSCT to patients in a manner that enables long term survival, transplant-related mortality must be minimized by eliminating the risk for graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) and by reducing the toxicity of the conditioning protocol. T-cell depleted bone marrow transplants (TDBMT) have been shown to adequately eliminate GVHD. However, even in leukemia patients undergoing supralethal conditioning, mismatched TDBMT are vigorously rejected. This barrier can be overcome through the modulatory activity of CD34 cells, which are endowed with veto activity, by the use of megadose stem cell transplants. In mice, megadoses of Sca+lin– hematopoietic stem cells can induce mixed chimerism following sub-lethal conditioning. Nevertheless, the number of human CD34 cells that can be harvested is not likely to be sufficient to overcome rejection under reduced intensity conditioning (RIC), which might be acceptable in recipients of organ transplantation. To address this challenge, we investigated a novel source of veto cells, namely anti 3rd-party cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) which are depleted of GVH reactivity, combined with megadoses of purified stem cells and a RIC protocol. This approach might provide a safer modality for the induction of durable chimerism.

Intrinsic unresponsiveness of Mertk/B cells to chronic graft-versus-host disease is associated with unmodulated CD1d expression

Wen-Hai Shao, Y Zhen, FD Finkelman, RA Eisenberg, PL Cohen
Journal of Autoimmunity 39 (2012) 412e419
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaut.2012.07.001

Activation and migration of marginal zone B (MZB) cells into follicular (FO) regions of the spleen has been proposed as one of the mechanisms that regulate the development of autoreactive B cells. The mer receptor tyrosine kinase (Mertk) mediates apoptotic cell clearance and regulates activation and cytokine secretion. In the well-studied class II chronic GVH model of bm12 cells into B6 hosts, we observed that Mertk deficient B6 mice did not generate autoantibodies in response to this allogeneic stimulus. We posited that Mertk is important in MHC-II-mediated B cell signaling. In the present study, we show that B cells from Mertk-/- mice but not WT B6 mice exhibited decreased calcium mobilization and tyrosine phosphorylation when stimulated by MHC-II cross-linking. The finding that Mertk was important for class II signaling in B cells was further supported by the preponderance of a-allotype autoantibodies in cGVH in RAG-KO mice reconstituted with a mixture of bone marrow from Mertk-/-mice (b-allotype) and C20 mice (a-allotype). MZB cells from Mertk-/-  mice were unable to down regulate surface CD1d expression and subsequent inclusion in the MZ, associated with significantly lower germinal center responses compared to MZB cells from WT. Moreover, Mertk-/- mice treated with an anti-CD1d down regulating antibody responded significantly to bm12 cells, while no response was observed in Mertk-/- mice treated with control antibodies. Taken together, these findings extend the role of Mertk to include CD1d down regulation on MZB cells, a potential mechanism limiting B cell activation in cGVH.

Galectin-9 ameliorates acute GVH disease through the induction of T-cell apoptosis

Kazuki Sakai, Eri Kawata, Eishi Ashihara, Yoko Nakagawa, et al.
Eur. J. Immunol. 2011. 41: 67–75 http://dx.doi.org:/10.1002/eji.200939931

Galectins comprise a family of animal lectins that differ in their affinity for β-galactosides. Galectin-9 (Gal-9) is a tandem-repeat-type galectin that was recently shown to function as a ligand for T-cell immunoglobin domain and mucin domain-3 (Tim-3) expressed on terminally differentiated CD41 Th1 cells. Gal-9 modulates immune reactions, including the induction of apoptosis in Th1 cells. In this study, we investigated the effects of Gal-9 in murine models of acute GVH disease (aGVHD). First, we demonstrated that recombinant human Gal-9 inhibit MLR in a dose-dependent manner, involving both Ca21 influx and apoptosis in T cells. Next, we revealed that recombinant human Gal-9 significantly inhibit the progression of aGVHD in murine BM transplantation models. In conclusion, Gal-9 ameliorates aGVHD, possibly by inducing T-cell apoptosis, suggesting that gal-9 may be an attractive candidate for the treatment of aGVHD.

 

GVHD Prevention: An Ounce Is Better Than a Pound

Pavan Reddy, Gerard Socie, Corey Cutler, Daniel Weisdorf
Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 18:S17-S26, 2012  http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.bbmt.2011.10.034

The pathophysiology of acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) is known to involve donor T cells responding to host histoincompatible allo-antigens presented by the host antigen presenting cells (APCs) and the subsequent induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines and cellular effectors that cause target organ damage. In a more general sense, GVHD can be considered as an immune response against foreign antigens that has gone awry. Similar to all immune responses, GVHD, can be understood as a process that consists of (A) triggers, (B) sensors, (C) mediators, and (D) effectors of GVHD.

Like all immune responses, certain triggers are critical for induction of acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD). These include: (1) Disparities between histocompatibility antigens: antigen disparity can be at the level of major histocompatibility complex (MHC), that is, MHC mismatched or at the level of minor histocompatibility antigens (miHA), that is, MHC matched but miHA mismatched. The severity of aGVHD is directly related to the degree of M HC mismatch. In bone marrow transplants (BMT) that are MHC matched but miHA disparate, donor T cells still recognize MHC-peptide derived from the products of recipient polymorphic genes, the miHAs.

Damage induced by conditioning regimens and underlying diseases: under most circumstances, the initiation of an adaptive immune response is triggered by the innate immune response. The innate immune system is triggered by certain exogenous and endogenous molecules. This is likely the case in the induction of aGVHD. Pattern recognition receptors such as Toll-like receptors (TLR), nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain containing 2 (NOD2) play an essential role in innate immunity and in initiating the cellular signaling pathways that activate cytokine secretion, such as NF-kB. Some of their ligands, such as lipopolysaccharide, CpG, and MDP2, which is recognized by TLR-4, TLR-9, and NOD2, respectively, are released by the preparative regimens and contribute to the induction and enhancement of allo-T cell responses. In this way, the conditioning regimens amplify the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines like interleukin (IL)-1, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α,  IL-6, and other interferon family members in a process described as a ‘‘cytokine storm.’’

The triggers that initiate an immune response have to be sensed and presented. APCs might be considered the sensors for aGVHD. The APCs sense the DAMPs, present the MHC disparate or miHA disparate protein, and provide the critical secondary (costimulatory) and tertiary (cytokine) signals for activation of the alloreactive T cells, the mediators of aGVHD. APCs sense allo-disparity through MHC and peptide complexes. Dendritic cells (DCs) are the most potent APCs and the primary sensors of allo-disparity.

APCs provide the critical costimulation signals for turning on the aGVHD process. The interaction between the MHC/allopeptide complex on APCs and the T cell receptor of donor T cells along with the signal via T cell costimulatory molecules and their ligands on APCs is required to achieve T cell activation, proliferation, differentiation, and survival and the in vivo blockade of positive costimulatory molecules (such as CD28, ICOS, CD40, CD30, etc.), or inhibitory signals (such as PD-1 and CTLA-4) mitigate or exacerbate aGVHD, respectively.

Evidence suggests that alloreactive donor T cells consist of several subsets with different stimuli responsiveness, activation thresholds, and effector functions.

The allo-antigen composition of the host determines which donor T cells subsets differentiate and proliferate. As mentioned previously, in the majority of HLA-matched HCT, aGVHD may be induced by either or both CD41 and CD81 subsets responses to miHAs. The repertoire and immunodominance of the GVHD-associated peptides presented by MHC class I and class II molecules has not been defined. Donor naive CD62L1 T cells are the primary alloreactive T cells that drive the GVHD reaction while the donor effector memory CD62L2 T cells do not. Interestingly, donor regulatory T cells (Tregs) expressing CD62L are also critical to the regulation of GVHD. We now know that it is possible to modulate the alloreactivity of na€ıve T cells by inducing anergy with costimulation blockade, deletion via cytokine modulation, or mixed chimerism. Donor effector memory T cells that are nonalloreactive do not induce GVHD, yet are able to transfer functional memory. In contrast, memory T cells that are alloreactive can cause severe GVHD.

The effector phase that leads to GVHD target organ damage is a complex cascade that involves cytolytic cellular effectors such as CD8 cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), CD4 T cells, natural killer cells, and inflammatory molecules such as IL-1β, TNF-α, IFN-ϒ, IL-6, and reactive oxygen species. The cellular effectors require cell-cell contact to kill the cells of the target tissues via activation of perforin granzyme, Fas-FasL (CD95-CD95L), or TNFR TRAIL pathways. Other CTLs killing mechanisms such as TWEAK, and LTβ/LIGHT pathways have also been implicated in GVHD. It is important to note that
CTL pathways are essential for GVL effects as well.

All of the above aspects of the biology of aGVHD have been summarized in the mold of a normal immune response. Although this allows for accessing the biology of GVHD, it is important to note that GVHD is a complicated systemic process with as yet still many unknowns and is not a simplified, linear, or cyclical process.

Kinetics of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell subsets in graft-versus-host reaction (GVHR) in ginbuna crucian carp Carassius auratus langsdorfii

Yasuhiro Shibasakia, H Todaa, Isao kobayashib, T Moritomoa, T Nakanishia
Developmental and Comparative Immunology 34 (2010) 1075–1081
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.dci.2010.05.009

We have previously demonstrated the presence of graft-versus-host reaction (GVHR) in fish employing a model system of clonal triploid ginbuna and tetraploid ginbuna-goldfish hybrids. To elucidate the role of CD8+ T cells in the induction of GVHR, we investigate the kinetics of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell subsets in GVHR along with the pathological changes associated with GVH disease (GVHD) in ginbuna. GVHR was not induced with a leukocyte fraction lacking CD8+ T cells separated by magnetic cell sorting. Ploidy and immunofluorescence analysis revealed that CD4+ and CD8+  T cells from sensitized donors greatly

increased in the host trunk kidney, constituting more than 80% of total cells 1–2 weeks after donor cell injection, while those from non-sensitized donors constituted less than 50% of cells present. The increase of CD4+ T cells was greater and more rapid than that of CD8+ T cells. The number of donor CD4+ and CD8+ T cells was highest in trunk kidney followed by spleen. Increases in donor CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were also found in liver and PBL, although the percentages were not as high. Pathologic changes similar to those in human and murine acute GVHD were observed in the lymphoid organs as well as target organs such as skin, liver and intestine, including the destruction of cells and tissues and massive leukocyte infiltration. The pathologic changes became more severe with the increase of CD8+ T cells. These results suggest that donor-derived CD8+ T cells play essential roles for the induction of acute GVHR/D in teleosts as in mammals.

Fludarabine and Exposure-Targeted Busulfan Compares Favorably with Busulfan/Cyclophosphamide-Based Regimens in Pediatric Hematopoietic
Cell Transplantation: Maintaining Efficacy with Less Toxicity

I.H. Bartelink, E.M.L. van Reij, C.E. Gerhardt, E.M. van Maarseveen, et al
Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 20 (2014) 345e353
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbmt.2013.11.027

Busulfan (Bu) is used as a myeloablative agent in conditioning regimens before allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT). In line with strategies explored in adults, patient outcomes may be optimized by replacing cyclophosphamide (Cy) with or without melphalan (Mel) with fludarabine (Flu). We compared outcomes in 2 consecutive cohorts of HCT recipients with a nonmalignant HCT indication, a myeloid malignancy, or a lymphoid malignancy with a contraindication for total body irradiation (TBI). Between 2009 and 2012, 64 children received Flu + Bu at a target dose of 80-95 mg-h/L, and between 2005 and 2008, 50 children received Bu targeted to 74-80 mg-h/L þ Cy. In the latter group, Mel was added for patients with myeloid malignancy (n = 12). Possible confounding effects of calendar time were studied in 69 patients receiving a myeloablative dose of TBI between 2005 and 2012. Estimated 2-year survival and event-free survival were 82% and 78%, respectively, in the FluBu arm and 78% and 72%, respectively, in the BuCy (Mel) arm (P,  not significant). Compared with the BuCy (Mel) arm, less toxicity was noted in the FluBu arm, with lower rates of acute (noninfectious) lung injury (16% versus 36%; P < .007), veno-occlusive disease (3% versus 28%; P < .003), chronic graft-versus-host disease (9% versus 26%; P < .047), adenovirus infection (3% versus 32%; P < .001), and human herpesvirus 6 infection reactivation (21% versus 44%; P < .005). Furthermore, the median duration of neutropenia was shorter in the FluBu arm (11 days versus 22 days; P < .001), and the patients in this arm required fewer transfusions. Our data indicate that Flu (160 mg/m2) with targeted myeloablative Bu (90 mg-h/L) is less toxic than and equally effective
as BuCy (Mel) in patients with similar indications for allo-HCT.

Fibrotic and Sclerotic Manifestations of Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease

Carrie L. Kitko, Eric S. White, Kristin Baird
Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 18:S46-S52, 2012
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.bbmt.2011.10.021

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is a common cause of morbidity
and mortality following allogeneic stem cell transplantation (HCT), with approximately 50% to 60% of long-term HCT survivors developing one or more manifestations of the disorder. Although acute GVHD is typically limited to skin, liver, and gastrointestinal involvement, virtually every organ is at risk for the development of cGVHD. Although the pathophysiology of cGVHD remains poorly understood, some of the most severe organ manifestations are linked by end-organ fibrosis. In particular, fibrotic cutaneous and bronchiolar changes, resulting in scleroderma-like changes and bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), respectively, are two of the most devastating outcomes for these patients. Both sclerotic GVHD (ScGVHD) and BOS have been reported in 5% to 15% of patients with cGVHD.

Many of the manifestations of cGVHD share clinical characteristics seen in nontransplant conditions, including systemic sclerosis or pulmonary fibrosis. Thus, understanding the pathophysiology underlying these related conditions may help identify potential mechanisms and ultimately new therapeutic options for patients with cGVHD.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have been shown to inhibit two different profibrotic pathways (transforming growth factor β [TGF-β] and platelet-derived growth factor [PDGF]) in various mouse models of fibrotic disease and offer a possible novel treatment approach for cGVHD patients suffering from severe sclerosis. Likewise, overexpression of TNF-α has been shown to induce fibrogenesis in experimental hepatocellular disease and has been linked with human scleroderma-associated interstitial pulmonary fibrosis and profibrotic responses in human osteoarthritic hip joint fibroblasts. The use of TNF antagonists has been examined in some clinical situations associated with fibrosis, suggesting they may also be of some benefit to patients with cGVHD; however, this must first be prospectively tested.

Table. Proposed Modifications to NIH BOS Clinical Definition

  • Absence of infection (no change)
  • Another cGVHD manifestation in another organ (no change)
  • FEV1 <75% predicted (no change) or >10% decline from pre-HCT value (modification)
  • Signs of Obstruction
  • FEV1/SVC ratio <0.7 (modification), or
  • RV >120% predicted (no change), or
  • RV/TLC >120% (modification), and
  • HRCT with evidence of air trapping (no change)

SVC indicates slow vital capacity; RV, residual volume; TLC, total lung capacity; HRCT, high-resolution computed tomography

Figure (not shown)
Effect of etanercept on survival in post-HCT patients with subacute lung injury. (A) Overall 5-year survival by pulmonary function testing defect. Patients with an obstructive defect (solid line) had a 5-year survival of 67% compared with 44% in those with a restrictive lung defect (dashed line) (P 5 .19). (B) Overall 5-year survival by response to therapy. Patients who responded to etanercept therapy (solid line) had a 5-year survival of 90% compared with 55% in patients who failed to respond (dashed line) (P 5.07). (Figures reprinted with permission, Biol Blood and Marrow Trans).

Extensive, sclerotic skin changes with superficial or deep subcutaneous or fascial involvement are seen in approximately 4% to 13% of patients with cGVHD and can be a life-threatening manifestation. ScGVHD of the skin includes several cutaneous presentations characterized by inflammation and progressive fibrosis of the dermis and subcutaneous tissues. These changes can resemble morphea, systemic sclerosis, or eosinophilic fasciitis and may or may not occur in the setting of concurrent overlying epidermal GVHD. When severe, ScGVHD can result in contractures, severe wasting, and chest wall restriction.

Development of clinical trials for patients with cGVHD is difficult because of the complexity and heterogeneity of disease, variable approaches to treatment, and the lack of standardized assessments of disease. In particular, the study of ScGVHD lacks universally accepted measures of disease burden and response. Investigators have used several measures to assess ScGVHD involvement including body surface area, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound, and range-of-motion measurements. Additionally, investigators have tried to apply the Rodnan score, the standardmeasure for skin involvement in scleroderma. Thus far, none of these measures has proven
to be completely reliable in the setting of ScGVHD, and it is likely that multiple measures will need to be integrated into the assessment of ScGVHD.

Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec in the US; Glivec in Europe, Australia, and Latin America, marketed by Novartis) is a TKI that has biological activity against both PDGF and TGF-β signaling pathways. Both cytokines have been implicated in the pathogenesis of several fibrosing diseases, including hepatic, renal, and lung, as well as in scleroderma, a disease that closely resembles ScGVHD. In addition, stimulatory antibodies specific for the PDGF receptor (PDGFR) were identified in a series of 39 patients with extensive cGVHD with higher levels detected in those patients with skin involvement. Similar stimulatory antibodies targeting PDGFR have been reported in patients with scleroderma, suggesting an important therapeutic target for these fibrosing conditions. Imatinib mesylate has particularly potent activity against PDGF and is FDA approved in the United States for the treatment of several disorders associated with aberrant PDGFR signaling. The side effect profile of the drug is well established in non-HCT patients, which is helpful in the setting of a therapy for allogenic HCT patients, many of whom have multiorgan system symptoms and possible dysfunction and who will require ongoing immunosuppressive therapy.

Through the efforts of the Chronic GVHD Consortium, led by Stephanie Lee at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, there is a multicenter, ongoing prospective evaluation of the NIH diagnostic and assessment tools. This effort has already resulted in several publications that have further refined essential criteria for cGVHD evaluation, including organ-specific manifestations such as BOS and ScGVHD. Currently, the Consortium is conducting a multicenter prospective clinical trial of fluticasone propionate, azithromycin, and montelukast for the treatment of BOS (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01307462); a separate trial of imatinib versus rituximab for treatment of ScGVHD is also enrolling subjects (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01309997).

Although cGVHD remains a significant problem for many long-term survivors of HCT, critical advances in cGVHD research and treatment can be achieved by cooperative group efforts such as those put forth by the Chronic GVHD Consortium and the Clinical Trials Network.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT): An approach to autoimmunity

Carmen Alaez, Mariana Loyola, Andrea Murguıa, Hilario Flores, et al.
Autoimmunity Reviews 5 (2006) 167– 179
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.autrev.2005.06.003

HSCT provides the opportunity to replace a damaged tissue. It is the most important treatment for high risk hematologic malignant and nonmalignant disorders. An important challenge in the identification of matched donors/patients is the HLA diversity. The Mexican Bone Marrow Registry (DONORMO) has nowadays N5000 donors. The prevalent alleles are Amerindian, Mediterranean (Semitic and Spanish genes) and African. In theory, it is possible to find 11% of 6/6 A–B–DR low resolution matches for 70% of patients with Mexican ancestry. We contributed with 39 unrelated, cord blood and autologous HSCT for patients with malignant, genetic and autoimmune disorders. Overall disease survival was 50% (2–7 years) depending on the initial diagnosis, conditioning, disease evolution or other factors. Clinical studies using autologous and unrelated HSC are performed on patients with refractory autoimmune diseases producing mixed results: mainly, T1D, RA, MS, SLE. Improvement has been observed in skin damage and quality of life in SLE and systemic sclerosis. Disease stabilization in 2/3 of MS patients. However, in RA and T1D, initial benefits have been followed by eventual relapse. With growing clinical experience and protocol improvement, treatment-related mortality is decreasing. Proof efficacy will be achieved by comparing HSCT with standard therapy in autoimmunity.

Monoclonal Antibody-Mediated Targeting of CD123, IL-3 Receptor α Chain, Eliminates Human Acute Myeloid Leukemic Stem Cells

Liqing Jin, Erwin M. Lee, Hayley S. Ramshaw, Samantha J. Busfield, et al.
Cell: Stem Cell 5, 31–42, July 2, 2009
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.stem.2009.04.018

Leukemia stem cells (LSCs) initiate and sustain the acute myeloid leukemia (AML) clonal hierarchy and possess biological properties rendering them resistant to conventional chemotherapy. The poor survival of AML patients raises expectations that LSC-targeted therapies might achieve durable remissions. We report that an anti-interleukin-3 (IL-3) receptor α chain (CD123)-neutralizing antibody (7G3) targeted AML-LSCs, impairing homing
to bone marrow (BM) and activating innate immunity of nonobese diabetic/ severe-combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice. 7G3 treatment profoundly reduced AML-LSC engraftment and improved mouse survival.
Mice with preestablished disease showed reduced AML burden in the BM
and periphery and impaired secondary transplantation upon treatment, establishing that AMLLSCs were directly targeted. 7G3 inhibited IL-3-mediated intracellular signaling of isolated AML CD34+ CD38[1] cells in vitro and reduced their survival. These results provide clear validation for therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb) targeting of AML-LSCs and for translation of in vivo preclinical research findings toward a clinical application.

Many Days at Home during Neutropenia after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Correlates with Low Incidence of Acute Graft-versus-Host Disease

Olle Ringdén, Mats Remberger, Katarina Holmberg, Charlotta Edeskog, et al.
Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 19 (2013) 314e320
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbmt.2012.10.011

Patients are isolated in the hospital during the neutropenic phase after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. We challenged this by allowing patients to be treated at home. A nurse from the unit visited and checked the patient. One hundred forty-six patients treated at home were compared with matched hospital control subjects. Oral intake was intensified from September 2006 and improved (P < .002). We compared 4 groups: home care and control subjects before and after September 2006. The cumulative incidence of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) of grades II to IV was 15% in the “old” home care group, which was significantly lower than that of 32% to 44% in the other groups (P <.03). Transplantation-related mortality, chronic GVHD, and relapse were similar in the groups. The “new” home care patients spent fewer days at home (P < .002). In multivariate analysis, GVHD of grades 0 to I was associated with home care (hazard ratio [HR], 2.46; P <.02) and with days spent at home (HR, .92; P < .005) but not with oral nutrition (HR, .98; P = .13). Five year survival was 61% in the home care group as compared with 49% in the control subjects (P < .07). Home care is safe. Home care and many days spent at home were correlated with a low risk of acute GVHD.

Impact on Outcomes of Human Leukocyte Antigen Matching by Allele-Level Typing in Adults with Acute Myeloid Leukemia Undergoing Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation

Jaime Sanz, Francisco J. Jaramillo, Dolores Planelles, Pau Montesinos, et al.
Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 20 (2014) 106e110
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbmt.2013.10.016

This retrospective study analyzed the impact of directional donor-recipient human leukocyte antigen (HLA) disparity using allele-level typing at HLA-A, -B, -C, and -DRB1 in 79 adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who received single-unit umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplant at a single institution. With extended high resolution HLA typing, the donor-recipient compatibility ranged from 2/8 to 8/8. HLA disparity showed no negative impact on nonrelapse mortality (NRM), graft-versus-host (GVH) disease or engraftment. Considering disparities in the GVH direction, the 5-year cumulative incidence of relapse was 44% and 22% for patients receiving an UCB unit matched > 6/8 and < 6/8, respectively (P <.04). In multivariable analysis, a higher HLA disparity in the GVH direction using extended high-resolution typing (Risk ratio [RR] 2.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.5 to 5.1; P ¼.0009) and first complete remission at time of transplantation (RR 2.1; 95% CI, 1.2 to 3.8; P < .01) were the only variables significantly associated with an improved disease-free survival. In conclusion, we found that in adults with AML undergoing single-unit UCBT, an increased number of HLA disparities at allele-level typing improved disease-free survival by decreasing the relapse rate without a negative effect on NRM.

HLA mismatch direction in cord blood transplantation: impact on outcome and implications for cord blood unit selection
Cladd E. Stevens, C Carrier, C Carpenter, D Sung, and A Scaradavou

Blood. 2011; 118(14):3969-3978
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1182/blood-2010-11-317271

Donor-recipient human leukocyte antigen mismatch level affects the outcome of unrelated cord blood (CB) transplantation. To identify possible “permissive” mismatches, we examined the relationship between  direction of human leukocyte antigen mismatch (“vector”) and transplantation outcomes in 1202 recipients of single CB units from the New York Blood Center National Cord Blood Program treated in United States Centers from 1993-2006. Altogether, 98 donor/patient pairs had only unidirectional mismatches: 58 in the graft-versus-host (GVH) direction only (GVH-O) and 40 in the host-versus-graft or rejection direction only (R-O). Engraftment was faster in patients with GVH-O mismatches compared with those with 1 bidirectional mismatch (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.6, P < .003). In addition, patients with hematologic malignancies given GVH-O grafts had lower transplantation-related mortality (HR = 0.5, P < .062), overall mortality (HR = 0.5, P < .019), and treatment failure (HR = 0.5, P < .016), resulting in outcomes similar to those of matched CB grafts. In contrast, R-O mismatches had slower engraftment, higher graft failure, and higher relapse rates (HR = 2.4, P < .010). Based on our findings, CB search algorithms should be modified to identify unidirectional mismatches. We recommend that transplant centers give priority to GVH-O-mismatched units over other mismatches and avoid selecting R-O mismatches, if possible.

Mutation of the NPM1 gene contributes to the development of donor cell–derived acute myeloid leukemia after unrelated cord blood transplantation
for acute lymphoblastic leukemia

G Rodríguez-Macías, C Martínez-Laperche, J Gayoso, V Noriega, .., Ismael Buño
Human Pathology (2013) 44, 1696–1699
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.humpath.2013.01.001

Donor cell leukemia (DCL) is a rare but severe complication after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Its true incidence is unknown because of a lack of correct recognition and reporting, although improvements in molecular analysis of donor-host chimerism are contributing to a better diagnosis of this complication. The mechanisms of leukemogenesis are unclear, and multiple factors can contribute to the development of DCL. In recent years, cord blood has emerged as an alternative source of hematopoietic progenitor cells, and at least 12 cases of DCL have been reported after unrelated cord blood transplantation. We report a new case of DCL after unrelated cord blood transplantation in a 44-year-old woman diagnosed as having acute lymphoblastic leukemia with t(1;19) that developed acute myeloid leukemia with normal karyotype and nucleophosmin (NPM1) mutation in donor cells. To our knowledge, this is the first report of NPM1 mutation contributing to DCL development.

Graft-versus-leukemia in the bone marrow
Blood, 23 JAN 2014; 123(4)
http://imagebank.hematology.org.

63-year-old female with relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) after allogeneic stem cell transplantation reached CR2 after re-induction therapy followed by consolidation with donor lymphocyte infusions: 3 x 107/kg and 3 x 108/kg after 1 and 2.5 months, respectively. No signs of graft-versus-host disease were observed at this time. At 5 months follow-up, her blood count deteriorated: hemoglobin: 6.9 mmol/L, thrombocytes: 58 x 109/L and leukocytes: 1.37 x 109/L. Bone marrow aspirate was not evaluable. Bone marrow trephine biopsy showed relapse AML with hypercellularity in the H&E staining (340 objective lens, panel A) and 20% CD341 blast cells without any signs of maturation (panel B). Also, a high number of CD3 positive T cells (panel C) was noted, intermingling with the CD34 positive blasts, both staining positively with CD43 (panel D). Only supportive care was given. However, normalization of the blood count was observed in the following months and she developed graft-versus-host disease of the lung, which was treated with ciclosporin and prednisone. A bone marrow aspirate performed 3 months after relapse showed a third remission with 0.8% myeloid blasts. In retrospect, one could therefore consider the picture of the bone marrow trephine biopsy at the second relapse as graft-versus-leukemia in the bone marrow.

GVL- panel A

GVL- panel A

GVL - panel B

GVL – panel B

GVL - panel C

GVL – panel C

GVL - panel D

Long-Term Outcomes of Alemtuzumab-Based Reduced-Intensity Conditioned Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Myelodysplastic Syndrome and Acute Myelogenous Leukemia Secondary to Myelodysplastic Syndrome

Victoria T. Potter, Pramila Krishnamurthy, Linda D. Barber, ZiYi Lim, et al.
Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 20 (2014) 111e117
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbmt.2013.10.021

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) with reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) offers a potential cure for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) who are ineligible for standard-intensity regimens. Previously published data from our institution suggest excellent outcomes at 1 yr using a uniform fludarabine, busulfan, and alemtuzumab-based regimen. Here we report long-term follow-up of 192 patients with MDS and acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) secondary to MDS (MDS-AML) transplanted with this protocol, using sibling (n = 45) or matched unrelated (n = 147) donors. The median age of the cohort was 57 yr (range, 21 to 72 yr), and median follow-up was 4.5 yr (range, 0.1 to 10.6 yr). The 5-yr overall survival (OS), event-free survival, and nonrelapse mortality were 44%, 33%, and 26% respectively. The incidence of de novo chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) was low at 19%, illustrating the efficacy of alemtuzumab for GVHD prophylaxis. Conversely, the 5-yr relapse rate was 51%. For younger patients (age <50 yr), the 5-yr OS and relapse rates were 58% and 39%, respectively. On multivariate analysis, advanced age predicted significantly worse outcomes, with patients age >60 yr having a 5-yr OS of 15% and relapse rate of 66%. Patients receiving preemptive donor lymphocyte infusions had an impressive 5-yr OS of 67%, suggesting that this protocol may lend itself to the incorporation of immunotherapeutic strategies. Overall, these data demonstrate good 5-yr OS for patients with MDS and MDS-AML undergoing alemtuzumab-based RIC-HSCT. The low rate of chronic GVHD is encouraging, and comparative studies with other RIC protocols are warranted.

Natural killer cell activity influences outcome after T cell depleted stem cell transplantation from matched unrelated and haploidentical donors

Peter Lang, Matthias Pfeiffer,  Heiko-Manuel Teltschik, Patrick Schlegel, et al.
Best Practice & Research Clinical Haematology 24 (2011) 403–411
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.beha.2011.04.009

Lytic activity and recovery of natural killer (NK) cells was monitored in pediatric patients with leukemias (ALL, AML, CML, JMML) and myelodysplastic syndromes after transplantation of T cell depleted stem cells from matched unrelated (n = 18) and mismatched related (haploidentical, n = 29) donors. CD34+ selection with magnetic microbeads resulted in 8 x 103/kg residual T cells. No post-transplant immune suppression was given. NK cells recovered rapidly after transplantation (300 CD56+/mL at day 30, median), whereas T cell recovery was delayed (median: 12 CD3+/mL at day 90). NK activity was measured as specific lysis of K 562 targets several times (mean: 3 assays per patient). Four temporal patterns of lytic activity could be differentiated: consistently low, consistently high, decreasing and increasing activity. Patients with consistently high or increasing activity had significantly lower relapse probability than patients with consistently low or decreasing levels (0.18 vs 0.73 at 2 years, p < 0.05). The subgroup of patients with ALL showed similar results (0.75 vs 0.14 at 2 years, p < 0.05). Speed of T cell recovery had no influence. These data suggest that both achieving and maintaining a high level of NK activity may contribute to prevent relapse. Since NK activity could be markedly increased by in vitro stimulation with Interleukin 2 (IL-2), in vivo administration should be considered.

Graft-versus-host disease: Pathogenesis and clinical manifestations of graft-versus-host disease

Sharon R. Hymes, Amin M. Alousi,  and Edward W. Cowen
J Am Acad Dermatol  2012; 66: 515.e1-18.

  • Graft-versus-host disease is the primary cause of morbidity and nonerelapse related mortality in patients who undergo allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.
  • Acute graft-versus-host disease manifests as a skin exanthem, liver dysfunction, and gastrointestinal involvement.
  • Chronic graft-versus-host disease of the skin is remarkably variable in its clinical presentation.
  • Chronic graft-versus-host disease is a multisystem disorder that may affect nearly any organ; the most common sites are the skin, oral mucosa, and eyes.

Key points

  • Allogeneic transplantation is in widespread use for hematologic malignancies, but is also increasingly used for marrow failure syndromes, immunodeficiencies, and other life-threatening conditions
  • Graft-versus-host disease is the primary cause of morbidity and nonerelapse related mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation
  • Minimizing graft-versus-host disease without losing the graft-versus-tumor effect is an area of active research
  • The skin is the most common organ affected in patients with graft-versus-host disease

Outcomes of Thalassemia Patients Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation by Using a Standard Myeloablative versus a Novel Reduced-Toxicity Conditioning Regimen According to a New Risk Stratification

Usanarat Anurathapan, S Pakakasama, P Mekjaruskul, N Sirachainan, et al.
Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 20 (2014) 2056e2075
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbmt.2014.07.016

Improving outcomes among class 3 thalassemia patients receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantations (HSCT) remains a challenge. Before HSCT, patients who were > 7 years old and had a liver size > 5 cm constitute what the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research defined as a very high risk subset of a conventional high-risk class 3 group (here referred to as class 3 HR). We performed HSCT in 98 patients with related and unrelated donor stem cells. Seventy-six of the patients with age < 10 years received the more conventional myeloablative conditioning (MAC) regimen (cyclophos-phamide, busulfan,  + fludarabine); the remaining 22 patients with age > 10 years and hepatomegaly (class 3 HR), and in several instances additional comorbidity problems, underwent HSCT with a novel reduced-toxicity conditioning (RTC) regimen (fludarabine and busulfan). We then compared the outcomes between these 2 groups (MAC versus RTC). Event-free survival (86% versus 90%) and overall survival (95% versus 90%) were not significantly different between the respective groups; however, there was a higher incidence of serious treatment-related complications in the MAC group, and although we experienced 6 graft failures in the MAC group (8%), there were none in the RTC group. Based on these results, we suggest that (1) class 3HRthalassemia patients can safely receive HSCT with our novel RTC regimen and achieve the same excellent outcome as low/standard-risk thalassemia patients who received the standard MAC regimen, and further, (2) that this novel RTC approach should be tested in the low/standard-risk patient population.

Pharmacological Immunosuppression Reduces But Does Not Eliminate the Need for Total-Body Irradiation in Nonmyeloablative Conditioning Regimens for Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

Marco Mielcarek, Beverly Torok-Storb, Rainer Storb
Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 17: 1255-1260 (2011)
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.bbmt.2011.01.003

In the dog leukocyte antigen (DLA)-identical hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) model, stable marrow engraftment can be achieved with total-body irradiation (TBI) of 200 cGy when used in combination with postgrafting immunosuppression. The TBI dose can be reduced to 100 cGy without compromising engraftment rates if granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-mobilized peripheral blood mononuclear cells (G-PBMC) are infused with the marrow. T cell-depleting the G-PBMC product abrogates this effect. These results were interpreted to suggest that the additional T cells provided with G-PBMC facilitated engraftment by overcoming host resistance.We therefore hypothesized that the TBI dose may be further reduced to 50 cGy by augmenting immunosupression either by (1) tolerizing or killing recipient T cells, or (2) enhancing the graft-versus-host (GVH) activity of donor T cells. To test the first hypothesis, recipient T cells were activated before HCT by repetitive donor-specific PBMC infusions followed by administration of methotrexate (MTX) (n 5 5), CTLA4-Ig (n = 4), denileukin diftitox (Ontak; n = 4), CTLA4-Ig 1 MTX (n = 8), or 5c8 antibody (anti-CD154) 1 MTX (n = 3). To test the second hypothesis, recipient dendritic cells were expanded in vivo by infusion of Flt3 ligand given either pre-HCT (n = 4) or pre- and post-HCT (n = 5) to augment GVH reactions. Although all dogs showed initial allogeneic engraftment, sustained engraftment was seen in only 6 of 42 dogs (14% of all dogs treated in 9 experimental groups). Hence, unless more innovative pharmacotherapy can be developed that more forcefully shifts the immunologic balance in favor of the donor, noncytotoxic immunosuppressive drug therapy as the sole component of HCT preparative regimens may not suffice to ensure sustained engraftment.

Pretransplant Immunosuppression followed by Reduced-Toxicity Conditioning and Stem Cell Transplantation in High-Risk Thalassemia: A Safe Approach to Disease Control

Usanarat Anurathapan, S Pakakasama, P Rujkijyanont, N Sirachainan, et al.
Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 19 (2013) 1254e1270
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbmt.2013.04.023

Patients with class 3 thalassemia with high-risk features for adverse events after high-dose chemotherapy with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) are difficult to treat, tending to either suffer serious toxicity or fail to establish stable graft function. We performed HSCT in 18 such patients age 7 years and hepatomegaly using a novel approach with pretransplant immunosuppression followed by a myeloablative reduced-toxicity conditioning regimen (fludarabine and i.v. busulfan [Flu-IV Bu]) and then HSCT. The median patient age was 14 years (range, 10 to 18 years). Before the Flu-IV Bu þ antithymocyte globulin conditioning regimen, all patients received 1 to 2 cycles of pretransplant immunosuppression with fludarabine and dexamethasone. Thirteen patients received a related donor graft, and 5 received an unrelated donor graft. An initial prompt engraftment of donor cells with full donor chimerism was observed in all 18 patients, but 2 patients developed secondary mixed chimerism that necessitated withdrawal of immunosuppression to achieve full donor chimerism. Two patients (11%) had acute grade III-IV graft-versus-host disease, and 5 patients had limited chronic graft-versus-host disease. The only treatment-related mortality was from infection, and with a median follow-up of 42 months (range, 4 to 75), the 5-year overall survival and thalassemia-free survival were 89%. We conclude that this novel sequential immunoablative pretransplant-ation conditioning program is safe and effective for patients with high-risk class 3 thalassemia exhibiting additional comorbidities.

Profiling antibodies to class II HLA in transplant patient sera

Curtis McMurtrey, D Lowe, R Buchli, S Daga, D Royer, A Humphrey, et al.
Human Immunology 75 (2014) 261–270
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.humimm.2013.11.015

Immunizing events including pregnancy, transfusions, and transplantation promote strong alloantibody responses to HLA. Such alloantibodies to HLA preclude organ transplantation, foster hyperacute rejection, and contribute to chronic transplant failure. Diagnostic antibody-screening assays detect alloreactive antibodies, yet key attributes including antibody concentration and isotype remain largely unexplored. The goal here was to provide a detailed profile of allogeneic antibodies to class II HLA. Methodologically, alloantibodies were purified from sensitized patient sera using an HLA-DR11 immunoaffinity column and subsequently categorized. Antibodies to DR11 were found to fix complement, exist at a median serum concentration of 2.3 lg/mL, consist of all isotypes, and isotypes IgG2, IgM, and IgE were elevated. Because multimeric isotypes can confound diagnostic determinations of antibody concentration, IgM and IgA isotypes were removed and DR11-IgG tested alone. Despite removal of multimeric isotypes, patient-to patient antibody concentra-tions did not correlate with MFI values. In conclusion, allogeneic antibody responses to DR11 are comprised of all antibody isotypes at differing proportions, these combined isotypes fix complement at nominal serum concentrations, and enhancements other than the removal of IgM and IgA multimeric isotypes may be required if MFI is to be used as a means of determining anti-HLA serum antibody concentrations in diagnostic clinical assays.

Reduced-intensity conditioning and HLA-matched hemopoietic stem-cell transplantation in patients with chronic granulomatous disease: a prospective multicenter study

Tayfun Güngör, P Teira, M Slatter, G Stussi, P Stepensky, D Moshous, et al.
Lancet 2014; 383: 436–48
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62069-3

Background In chronic granulomatous disease allogeneic hemopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) in adolescents and young adults and patients with high-risk disease is complicated by graft-failure, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), and transplant-related mortality. We examined the effect of a reduced-intensity conditioning regimen designed to enhance myeloid engraftment and reduce organ toxicity in these patients.       Methods This prospective study was done at 16 centers in ten countries worldwide. Patients aged 0–40 years with chronic granulomatous disease were assessed and enrolled at the discretion of individual centers. Reduced-intensity conditioning consisted of high-dose fludarabine (30 mg/m² [infants <9 kg 1∙2 mg/kg]; one dose per day on days –8 to –3), serotherapy (anti-thymocyte globulin [10 mg/kg, one dose per day on days –4 to –1; or thymoglobulin 2·5 mg/kg, one dose per day on days –5 to –3]; or low-dose alemtuzumab [<1 mg/kg on days –8 to –6]), and low-dose (50–72% of myeloablative dose) or targeted busulfan administration (recommended cumulative area under the curve: 45–65 mg/L × h). Busulfan was administered mainly intravenously and exceptionally orally from days –5 to –3. Intravenous busulfan was dosed according to weight-based recommendations and was administered in most centers (ten) twice daily over 4 h. Unmanipulated bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells from HLA-matched related donors or HLA-9/10 or HLA-10/10 matched unrelated-donors were infused. The primary endpoints were overall survival and event-free survival (EFS), probabilities of overall survival and EFS at 2 years, incidence of acute and chronic GVHD, achievement of at least 90% myeloid donor chimerism, and incidence of graft failure after at least 6 months of follow-up. Findings 56 patients (median age 12∙7 years; IQR 6·8–17·3) with chronic granulomatous disease were enrolled from June 15, 2003, to Dec 15, 2012. 42 patients (75%) had high-risk features (ie, intractable infections and autoinflammation), 25 (45%) were adolescents and young adults (age 14–39 years). 21 HLA-matched related-donor and 35 HLA-matched unrelated-donor transplants were done. Median time to engraftment was 19 days (IQR 16–22) for neutrophils and 21 days (IQR 16–25) for platelets. At median follow-up of 21 months (IQR 13–35) overall survival was 93% (52 of 56) and EFS was 89% (50 of 56). The 2-year probability of overall survival was 96% (95% CI 86∙46–99∙09) and of EFS was 91% (79∙78–96∙17). Graft-failure occurred in 5% (three of 56) of patients. The cumulative incidence of acute GVHD of grade III–IV was 4% (two of 56) and of chronic graft-versus-host disease was 7% (four of 56). Stable (≥90%) myeloid donor chimerism was documented in 52 (93%) surviving patients. Interpretation This reduced-intensity conditioning regimen is safe and efficacious in high-risk patients with chronic granulomatous disease.

Refinement of the Definition of Permissible HLA-DPB1 Mismatches with Predicted Indirectly ReCognizable HLA-DPB1 Epitopes

Kirsten A. Thus, MTA Ruizendaal, TA de Hoop, Eric Borst, et al.
Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 20 (2014) 1705e1710
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbmt.2014.06.026

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with HLA-DPB1emismatched donors leads to an increased risk of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Studies have indicated a prognostic value for classifying HLA-DPB1 mismatches based on T cell epitope (TCE) groups. The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of indirect recognition of HLA-DPe derived epitopes, as determined with the Predicted Indirectly ReCognizable HLA Epitopes (PIRCHE) method. We therefore conducted a retrospective single-center analysis on 80 patients transplanted with a 10/10 matched unrelated donor that was HLA-DPB1 mismatched. HLADPB1 mismatches that were classified as GVH nonpermissive by the TCE algorithm correlated to higher numbers of HLA class I as well as HLA class II presented PIRCHE (PIRCHE-I and -II) compared with permissive or host-versus-graft nonpermissive mismatches. Patients with acute GVHD grades II to IV presented significantly higher numbers of PIRCHE-I compared with patients without acute GVHD (P < .05). Patients were divided into 2 groups based on the presence or absence of PIRCHE. Patients with PIRCHE-I or -II have an increased hazard of acute GVHD when compared with patients without PIRCHE-I or -II (hazard ratio [HR], 3.19; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10 to 9.19; P <.05; and HR, 4.07; 95% CI, .97 to 17.19; P < .06, respectively). Patients classified as having an HLA-DPB1 permissive mismatch by the TCE model had an increased risk of acute GVHD when comparing presence of PIRCHE-I with absence of PIRCHE-I (HR, 2.96; 95% CI, .84 to 10.39; P < .09). We therefore conclude that the data presented in this study describe an attractive and feasible possibility to better select permissible HLA-DPB1 mismatches by including both a direct and an indirect recognition model.

Treosulfan-Thiotepa-FludarabineeBased Conditioning Regimen for
Allogeneic Transplantation in Patients with Thalassemia Major: A
Single-Center Experience from North India

Dharma Choudhary, SK Sharma, N Gupta,…, Satyendra Katewa
Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 19 (2013) 492e503
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbmt.2012.11.007

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the definite treatment
for patients with thalassemia major. A busulfan (Bu) and cyclophosphamide
(Cy)ebased regimen has been the standard myeloablative chemotherapy,
but it is associated with higher treatment-related toxicity, particularly in
patients classified as high risk by the Pesaro criteria. Treosulfan-based
conditioning regimens have been found to be equally effective and less
toxic. Consequently, we analyzed the safety and efficacy of treosulfan/
thiotepa/fludarabine (treo/thio/flu)-based conditioning regimens for
allogeneic HSCT in patients with thalassemia major between February
2010 and September 2012. We compared those results retrospectively
with results in patients who underwent previous HSCT with a Bu/Cy/
antithymocyte globulin (ATG)ebased conditioning regimen. A treo/thio/
flu-based conditioning regimen was used in 28 consecutive patients with
thalassemia major. The median patient age was 9.7 years (range, 2-18
years), and the mean CD34+ stem cell dose was 6.18 x 106/kg. Neutrophil
and platelet engraftment occurred at a median of 15 days (range, 12-23
days) and 21 days (range, 14-34 days), respectively. Three patients
developed veno-occlusive disease, 4 patients developed acute graft
versus-host disease (GVHD), and 2 patients had chronic GVHD. Treatment-
related mortality (TRM) was 21.4%. Two patients experienced secondary
graft rejection. We compared these results with results in patients who
underwent previous HSCT using a Bu/Cy/ATG-based conditioning regimen.
Twelve patients were treated with this protocol, at a median age of 7.2
years (range, 2-11 years). One patient had moderate veno-occlusive disease,
2 patients developed acute GVHD, 2 patients had chronic GVHD, and 2
patients experienced graft rejection. There was no TRM in this group. We
found no significant differences between the 2 groups (treo/thio/flu vs Bu/
Cy/ATG) in terms of the incidence of acute GVHD, chronic GVHD, TRM,
and graft failure, although a trend toward higher TRM was seen with the
treo/thio/flu regimen.

Graft-versus-Host Disease
James L.M. Ferrara, John E. Levine, Pavan Reddy, and Ernst Holler
Lancet. 2009 May 2; 373(9674): 1550–1561
http:dx.doi.org:/10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60237-3

The number of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantations (HCT)
continues to increase with more than 25,000 allogeneic transplantations
performed annually. The graft-versus leukemia/ tumor (GVL) effect during
allogeneic HCT effectively eradicates many hematological malignancies.
The development of novel strategies that use donor leukocyte infusions,
non-myeloablative conditioning and umbilical cord blood (UCB)
transplantation have helped expand the indications for allogeneic HCT
over the last several years, especially among older patients. Improvements
in infectious prophylaxis, immunosuppressive medications, supportive care
and DNA-based tissue typing have also contributed to improved outcomes
after allogeneic HCT. Yet the major complication of allogeneic HCT, graft-
versus-host disease (GVHD), remains lethal and limits the use of this
important therapy. Given current trends, the number of transplants from
unrelated donors is expected to double within the next five years,
significantly increasing the population of patients with GVHD. In this
seminar we review advances made in identifying the genetic risk
factors and pathophysiology of this major HCT complication, as well
as its prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Non-HLA Genetics—Despite HLA identity between a patient and donor,
approximately 40% of patients receiving HLA-identical grafts develop
acute GVHD due to genetic differences that lie outside the HLA loci,
or “minor” histocompatibility antigens (HA). Some minor HAs, such as HY
and HA-3, are expressed on all tissues and are targets for both GVHD
and GVL. Other minor HAs, such as HA-1 and HA-2, are expressed most
abundantly on hematopoietic cells (including leukemic cells) and may
therefore induce a greater GVL effect with less GVHD. Polymorphisms
in both donors and recipients for cytokines that are involved in the
classical `cytokine storm’ of GVHD have been implicated as risk factors
for GVHD. Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF)-α, Interleukin 10 (IL-10),
Interferon-γ (IFNγ) variants have correlated with GVHD in some, but
not all, studies. Genetic polymorphisms of proteins involved in innate
immunity, such as nucleotide oligomerization domain 2 and Keratin 18
receptors, have also been associated with GVHD.

Future strategies to identify the best possible transplant donor will
probably incorporate both HLA and non-HLA genetic factors. Skin is most
commonly affected and is usually the first organ involved, often coinciding
with engraftment of donor cells. The characteristic maculopapular rash is
pruritic and can spread throughout the body, sparing the scalp. In severe
cases the skin may blister and ulcerate. Apoptosis at the base of epidermal
rete pegs is a characteristic pathologic finding. Other features include
dyskeratosis, exocytosis of lymphocytes, satellite lymphocytes adjacent
to dyskeratotic epidermal keratinocytes, and a perivascular lymphocytic
infiltration in the dermis.

Gastrointestinal tract involvement of acute GVHD usually presents as
diarrhea but may also include vomiting, anorexia, and/or abdominal pain
when severe. The diarrhea of GVHD is secretory and often voluminous
(greater than two liters per day). Bleeding, which carries a poor prognosis,
occurs as a result of mucosal ulceration but patchy involvement of the
mucosa often leads to a normal appearance on endoscopy.

The incidence of the severity of acute GVHD is determined by the extent
of involvement of  three principal target organs. The overall grades are
classified as I (mild), II (moderate), III (severe) and IV (very severe). Severe
GVHD carries a poor prognosis, with 25% long term survival for grade III and
5% for grade IV. The incidence of acute GVHD is directly related to the
degree of mismatch between HLA proteins and ranges from 35-45% in
recipients of full matched sibling donor grafts to 60-80% in recipients of
one-antigen HLA mismatched unrelated donor grafts. The same degree
of mismatch causes less GVHD using UCB grafts and incidence of acute
GVHD is lower following the transplant of partially matched UCB units
and ranges from 35-65%.

Two important principles are important to consider regarding the
pathophysiology of acute GVHD. First, acute GVHD reflects exaggerated
but normal inflammatory mechanisms mediated by donor lymphocytes infused
into the recipient where they function appropriately, given the foreign
environment they encounter. Second, the recipient tissues that stimulate
donor lymphocytes have usually been damaged by underlying disease,
prior infections, and the transplant conditioning regimen. As
a result, these tissues produce molecules (sometimes referred to as
“danger” signals) that promote the activation and proliferation of donor
immune cells.  Based largely on experimental models, the development
of acute GVHD can be conceptualized in three sequential steps or phases:
(1) activation of the APCs; (2) donor T cell activation, proliferation,
differentiation and migration; and (3) target tissue destruction.

Alemtuzumab is a monoclonal antibody that binds CD52, a protein
expressed on a broad spectrum of leukocytes including lymphocytes,
monocytes, and dendritic cells. Its use in GVHD prophylaxis in a
Phase II trial decreased the incidence of acute and chronic GVHD
following reduced intensity transplant.98 In two prospective studies,
patients who received alemtuzumab rather than methotrexate showed
significantly lower rates of acute and chronic GVHD, but experienced
more infectious complications and higher rates of relapse, so that there
was no overall survival benefit. Alemtuzumab may also contribute to
graft failure when used with minimal intensity conditioning regimens.

An alternative strategy to TCD attempted to induce anergy in donor
T cells by ex vivo antibody blockade of co-stimulatory pathways prior
to transplantation. A small study using this approach in haploidentical
HCT recipients was quite encouraging, but has not yet been replicated.
Thus the focus of most prevention strategies remains  pharmacological
manipulation of T cells after transplant.

Administration of anti-T cell antibodies in vivo as GVHD prophylaxis
has also been extensively tested. The best studied drugs are anti-
thymocyte globulin (ATG) or antilymphocyte globulin (ALG) preparations.
These sera, which have high titers of polyclonal antibodies, are made
by immunizing animals (horses or rabbits) to thymocytes or lymphocytes,
respectively. A complicating factor in determining the role of these
polyclonal sera in transplantation is the observation that even different
brands of the same class of sera exert different biologic effects. However,
the side effects of ATG/ALG infusions are common across different
preparations and include fever, chills, headache, thrombocytopenia
(from cross-reactivity to platelets), and, infrequently, anaphylaxis. In
retrospective studies, rabbit ATG reduced the incidence of GVHD in
related donor HSCT recipients without appearing to improve survival.
In recipients of unrelated donor HSCT, addition of ALG to standard
GVHD prophylaxis effectively prevented severe GVHD, but did not
result in improved survival because of increased infections. In a long
term follow-up study, however, pretransplant ATG provided significant
protection against extensive chronic GVHD and chronic lung dysfunction.

As allogeneic transplantation becomes an increasingly attractive therapeutic
option, the need for novel approaches to GVHD has accelerated. The
number of patients receiving transplants from unrelated donors is
expected to double in the next five years, significantly increasing
the population of patients with GVHD. The advent of RIC regimens
has reduced transplant-related mortality and lengthened the period
during which acute GVHD may develop (many new cases present up
to day 200) and the need for close monitoring of patients in this period
has increased. Patients have often returned to the care of their primary
hematologists by this time, increasing the need for these physicians to
collaborate with transplant specialists in the management of GVHD and
its complications.

Identification of biomarkers for GVHD with diagnostic (and possibly
prognostic) significance may eventually make the treatment of GVHD
preemptive rather than prophylactic. The use of cellular component therapy,
such as regulatory T cells that have been expanded ex vivo. will also
enter clinical trials in the near future, but the extensive infrastructure
required for such cellular approaches will likely limit their use initially.

Immunomodulatory Effects of Palifermin (Recombinant Human
Keratinocyte Growth Factor) in an SLE-Like Model of Chronic
Graft-Versus-Host Disease

C. A. Ellison, Y. V. Lissitsyn, I. Gheorghiu & J. G. Gartner
Scandinavian Journal of Immunology 2011; 75, 69–76
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1111/j.1365-3083.2011.02628.x

Keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) promotes epithelial cell proliferation
and survival. Recombinant human KGF, also known as palifermin, protects
epithelial cells from injury induced by chemicals, irradiation and acute murine
graft versus-host disease (GVHD). Findings from our studies and others
have shown that palifermin also has immunomodulatory properties. In a
model of acute GVHD, we showed that it shifts the immune response
from one in which Th1 cytokines dominate to mixed Th1 and Th2 cytokine
profile. Using the DBA⁄ 2 fi (C57BL ⁄ 6 · DBA⁄ 2)F1-hybrid model of chronic,
systemic lupus erythematosus-like GVHD, we showed that palifermin
treatment is associated with higher levels of Th2 cytokines, the production
of anti-nuclear antibodies, cryoglobulinemia and the development of more
severe pathological changes in the kidney. The aim of our current study
was to gain a better understanding of the immunobiology of KGF by
further characterizing the palifermin-mediated effects in this model of
chronic GVHD. Because the pathological changes we observed resemble
those seen in thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) transgenic mice, we
had originally hypothesized that palifermin might augment TSLP levels.
Surprisingly, we did not observe an increase in thymic

TSLP mRNA expression in palifermin-treated recipients. We did, however,
observe some differences in the percentages of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+
regulatory T cells in the spleen at some time points in palifermin-treated
recipients. Most importantly, we found that TGFβ levels were higher in
palifermin-treated recipients early in the GVH reaction, raising the
possibility that KGF might indirectly induce the development of fibrosis
and glomerulonephritis through a pathway involving TGFβ.

Keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) is an epithelial cell growth factor that is
produced by both mesenchymal cells and intraepithelial cdT cells. It is
also known as fibroblast growth factor 7. Its receptor, (KGFR⁄FGF7R), an
alternatively spliced form of FGFR2 ⁄ bek, is found on epithelial cells in
the intestine, mammary glands, ovaries and urinary tract, and on
hepatocytes, keratinocytes and alveolar type II cells. Previously, it
was shown that recombinant human KGF, also known as palifermin,
can protect the lung, bladder or intestine from chemical- or irradiation-
induced injury. This has been attributed to the ability of KGF to reduce
oxidative damage and enhance DNA repair.

Our own studies have provided a better understanding of the immuno-
biological properties of KGF in pathologically distinct models of systemic
disease driven by intense immunological and inflammatory responses.
The acute GVHD that develops in the C57BL ⁄ 6 fi (C57BL ⁄ 6 · DBA⁄ 2)F1-
hybrid model is characterized by the activation of alloreactive donor T cells,
the production of Th1 cytokines and tissue injury in the skin, gastrointestinal
tract, liver, thymus and lung, where epithelia are present. Injury to the
intestinal mucosa permits the translocation of endotoxin into the system,
which, if untreated, leads to the development of endotoxemic shock. We
showed that palifermin treatment protects recipients from epithelial
cell injury, endotoxemia and morbidity in GVH mice. Palifermin also
shifts the immune response away from one that is predominated by Th1
cytokines towards a profile of mixed Th1 and Th2 cytokines, with a
preponderance of Th2 cytokines. The DBA⁄ 2 fi (C57BL ⁄ 6 · DBA⁄ 2)F1-
hybrid model of chronic GVHD is characterized by pathological changes
resembling those seen in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Using this
model, we showed that palifermin treatment augments the production of Th2
cytokines such as IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13 and obviates IFN-c production. Both
untreated and palifermin-treated recipients developed pathological changes
in the kidney, but these changes were more severe in palifermin-treated
recipients. Some of the changes that developed in the palifermin-treated
recipients resemble those seen in thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP)
transgenic mice. These similarities include the presence of ANA in the
sera, the development of cryoglobulinemia and the development of
glomerulonephritis featuring the deposition of immune complexes
consisting of IgG, IgA, IgM and C3 in the mesangium and the glomerular
capillaries. This led us to hypothesize that treating the recipient mice with
palifermin might induce TSLP expression in this model.

In this study, we were interested in determining whether palifermin
treatment was indeed associated with increased TSLP expression.
We were also interested in knowing whether palifermin treatment
changes the percentage of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ cells in the spleen,
because palifermin treatment has been associated with increased
percentages of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ cells in other studies including
our own. Lastly, we wished to study the effect of palifermin treatment
on TGFb levels, because this cytokine is known to play a pivotal role
in the development of glomerulonephritis.

We studied the histopathological changes to confirm that the pathological
changes seen in the kidney in this study were the same as those reported
by us previously.We examined kidney sections from both untreated and
palifermin-treated recipients. In these experiments, we were able to
reproduce findings from an earlier study that showed that palifermin-
treated recipients mice in this model of chronic GVHD develop a severe,
extracapillary proliferative glomerular nephritis characterized by epithelial
crescents and hyaline thrombi. These changes were associated with higher
levels of protein in the urine and the development of ascites, presumably
related to the development of nephrotic syndrome, as a consequence
of glomerular injury.

Pathological changes in the kidney

Pathological changes in the kidney. (A) shows a section from a BDF1-hybrid control
mouse that did not receive a graft. (B) shows increased epithelial cellularity within a
glomerulus from an untreated recipient with chronic graft-versus-host disease, on
day 50. No crescents were observed in sections from this group of recipients.
(C and D) show examples of pathological changes observed in kidneys from
palifermin-treated recipients on day 50. Arrows indicate examples of crescentic
glomerulonephritis and the development of protein casts within tubular lumena.
(E and F) show examples of the hyaline thrombi (arrows) seen in the glomeruli
in kidney sections from palifermin-treated recipients on day 50. All sections
were stained with haematoxylin and eosin except for that shown in (F), which
was stained with Masson Trichrome. The concentration of protein measured in
the urine is shown in the lower left corner of each photomicrograph. Original
magnification: ·200 (B–E) and ·400 (A and F).

TGFβ is a highly pleiotropic cytokine with three isoforms, TGFβ1, TGFβ2 and
TGFβ3 . Nearly, all cells have receptors for at least one of these isoforms,
but cells of the immune system primarily express TGFβ1. This cytokine
was implicated in the development of experimental glomerulonephritis in
experiments in which rats were treated with antiserum directed against
TGFβ1. The ability of palifermin to induce TGFβ release and reverse
limited airflow was demonstrated in a mouse model of emphysema. The
authors further showed that palifermin induced the release of TGFβ1
from primary cultures of mouse alveolar type 2 cells. Our results show
that palifermin treatment is associated with a rise in splenic TGFβ levels
during the first month of the GVH reaction. It is possible that by inducing
TGFβ production shortly after transplantation, palifermin treatment is able
to promote the development of the severe, crescentic glomerulonephritis
that we observed at later time points. As such, our findings raise the
possibility that endogenous KGF might play a role in the development
of glomerulonephritis and ⁄ or other autoimmune phenomena associated
with chronic GVHD and ⁄ or SLE.

T cells, murine chronic graft-versus-host disease and autoimmunity

Robert A. Eisenberg, Charles S. Via
Journal of Autoimmunity 39 (2012) 240e247
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.jaut.2012.05.017

The chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) in mice is characterized by
the production of autoantibodies and immunopathology characteristic of
systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus). The basic pathogenesis involves
the cognate recognition of foreign MHC class II of host B cells by alloreactive
CD4 T cells from the donor. CD4 T cells of the host are also necessary for
the full maturation of host B cells before the transfer of donor T cells.
CD8 T cells play critical roles as well. Donor CD8 T cells that are highly
cytotoxic can ablate or prevent the lupus syndrome, in part by killing
recipient B cells. Host CD8 T cells can reciprocally downregulate donor
CD8 T cells, and thus prevent them from suppressing the autoimmune
process. Thus, when the donor inoculum contains both CD4 T cells and
CD8 T cells, the resultant syndrome depends on the balance of activities
of these various cell populations. For example, in one cGVHD model
(DBA/2 (C57BL/6xDBA/2)F1, the disease is more severe in females, as
it is in several of the spontaneous mouse models of lupus, as well as in
human disease. The mechanism of this female skewing of disease
appears to depend on the relative inability of CD8 cells of the female host
to downregulate the donor CD4 T cells that drive the autoantibody response.
In general, then, the abnormal CD4 T cell help and the modulating roles
of CD8 T cells seen in cGVHD parallel the participation of T cells in
genetic lupus in mice and human lupus, although these spontaneous
syndromes are presumably not driven by overt alloreactivity.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is characterized by a spectrum of auto-
antibodies that targets multiple normal cellular components, particularly
nucleic acids or proteins that are physiologically bound to nucleic acids.
Although SLE is highly diverse in its manifestations, a common theme
is the loss of B cell tolerance to these cellular autoantigens. More than
for any other human condition, several spontaneously arising mouse
models for SLE have been described, beginning with the New Zealand
strains in 1959. These models are largely genetic. In some cases, an
individual gene such as fas or Yaa plays a major role in driving the loss
of tolerance. However, in general the genetic contribution is complex and
involves multiple loci, which are not yet fully defined.

Despite extensive investigations, the failures in immunoregulation that
underlie the genetic SLE models remain poorly understood. It is not known
for sure which B cell tolerance checkpoints are breached in a given model,
and why. The autoantibody response to DNA, Sm, and other autoantigens
resembles the normal response to exogenous antigens: it involves clonal
expansion, somatic mutation, and a pattern of isotype use characteristic of
a T-cell dependent immunization. Thus the cellular dynamics of the response
may be basically normal. Yet the B-cell repertoire is abnormally autoreactive.

In this review we wish to focus more on the role of the T cell in SLE. As
stated above, the loss of B cell tolerance in SLE does appear in general
to require the participation of T cells. Multiple T cells abnormalities have
been described in human and in murine SLE, although in most cases it is
not clear if these are primary or secondary manifestations. Nevertheless,
it is striking how difficult it has been to demonstrate definitively the specificity
of the T cells that provide help for autoantibody production.

The key cellular mechanism in the cGVHD that results in the loss of B cell
tolerance and the production of the autoantibodies typical of SLE is the
cognate interaction of CD4 T cells with an MHC class II determinant on
the B cell surface. A variety of protocols have achieved this interaction.
In general, either the donor/recipient strains are paired in such away
that they only differ at the MHC class II loci, or the CD4 cells are isolated
free of CD8 cells that would recognize MHC class I. If the allorecognition
involves both CD4 T cell interaction with MHC II and CD8 interaction with
MHC I, an acute GVHD occurs, which is immunosuppressive, rather than
immunostimulatory. The DBA/2 (C57BL/6 DBA/2)F1 (B6D2F1) and the
BALB/c (BALB/c A/J)F1 models are exceptions to this rule. The former
has been investigated extensively for a deficiency in CD8 cytotoxic
lymphocytes.

The MHC class II recognition may be at either the I-A or the I-E locus.
However, the autoantibody specificities seen and the degree of immuno-
pathology differ depending on the locus targeted. In one set of experiments,
F1 mice were bred between either B6 or coisogenic bm12 mice and
B10.A(2R) or B10.A(4R) MHC recombinant congenics. The MHC class II
of B6 is I-Ab, while that of bm12 is I-Abm12. These two alleles differ by
only three amino acids, which is sufficient for a full strength MLR (mixed
lymphocyte reaction) between the two strains. Otherwise B6 and bm12
are identical. B10.A(2R) and B10.A(4R) differ only by the expression of
I-E in the former strain, but not in the latter strain. Thus, donor/recipient
combinations could be employed that provided for allogeneic differs only
at I-A, only at I-E, or at both loci.

Results from Busser et al. delineate requirements for this MHC class II
recognition. Utilizing several transgenic mouse strains that express a
more or less constricted CD4 autoreactive repertoire, they showed that
a diverse repertoire was essential to the production of SLE autoantibodies
by MHC II recognition. On the other hand, the non-specific, early polyclonal
B cell activation phase of cGVHD occurred even with a limited CD4 repertoire.

Figure not shown. Chronic GVHD in bm12 C57BL/6 mice. The MHC of the
bm12 donor differs from the MHC of the C57BL/6 recipient just in three
amino acids in the I-A class II molecule. Thus donor CD4 T cells recognize
MHC IIþ B cells as foreign. Donor CD8 T cells see only self MHC I. All T
cells do not express MHC II. Polyclonal activation and specific lupus
autoantibody responses ensue..

Lupus can result from unchecked CD4 T cell cognate help to a polyclonal
population of B cells. CD8 T cells can downregulate this CD4 driven B-cell
hyperactivity through CD8 CTL effectors and can maintain remission,
possibly through memory CD8 T cells. Whether CD8 CTL actually prevent
lupus in normals and fail in lupus prone individuals is not known; however,
data from the P F1 model suggest that therapeutic induction of CD8 CTL
and possibly long term memory cells may be beneficial in preventing or
limiting disease expression. The potential major role played by either
IFNa and IL-21 in both lupus expression and CD8 CTL function remains
to be further defined, but already these cytokines are being targeted in
human or murine lupus.

It is not surprising that the T cells have been shown to have diverse roles in
the autoimmune cGVHD in mice. Donor CD4 T cells drive the host B cell
activation, while host CD4 T cells are required to mature these B cells prior
to their encounter with donor T cells. Donor CD4 T cells also help activate
donor CD8 T cells, which in turn can downregulate or even ablate the
autoimmune response. Donor CD4 T cells license host DC cells, which in
turn can interact with donor CD8 T cells. Host CD8 T cells can suppress
the activity of donor CD8 T cells, and thereby favor the development of
the lupus syndrome. Although the precise mechanisms of T cell participation
in spontaneous lupus are still being defined, it seems reasonable to probe
these syndromes in humans and in mice for T cell mechanism that have
been shown to participate in cGVHD, CD4-B cell interactions almost
certainly are central to the pathogenesis of spontaneous lupus, and they
have been a target of investigation for several decades. If we understood
the peptide specificity of the alloreactive CD4 T cells that drive the formation
of the characteristic lupus autoantibodies, we would have a much clearer
idea where to look for such epitopes in spontaneous disease. Much less
is known about the other T cell activities defined in cGVHD, particularly
those that involve CD8 T cells. This area should invite further detailed
investigation. For example, the striking role of CD8 T cells in the stronger
female disease in the DBA BDF1 model clearly demands that similar
mechanisms be sought for in spontaneous disease.

Understanding Chronic GVHD from Different Angles

Bruce Blazar, Eric S. White, Daniel Couriel
Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 18:S184-S188, 2012
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.bbmt.2011.10.025

Whereas acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) rates have decreased
with more intensive GVHD preventive agents and use of single and double
umbilical cord blood units as a source of donor cells in adult recipients,
significant chronic GVHD (cGVHD) rates unexpectedly have remained high.
Moreover, granulocyte colony stimulating factor mobilized peripheral blood
stem cell grafts have been associated with an increased overall risk of
cGVHD. As such, cGVHD has emerged as a primary cause of morbidity
and mortality following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Progress in developing cGVHD interventional strategies has been hampered
by variable onset and clinical and pathological manifestations of cGVHD, now
better defined by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) consensus conference,
and a dearth of preclinical models that closely mimic the conditions in which
cGVHD is generated and manifested. Although the exact causes of cGVHD
remain unknown, higher antibody levels have been associated with auto-
immunity and implicated in cGVHD. Newly diagnosed patients with
extensive cGVHD had elevated soluble B cell activating factor levels and
anti-double-strand DNA antibodies were found, which was associated with
higher circulating levels of pregerminal center (GC) B cells and post-GC
plasmablasts. B cells from cGVHD patients were hyperresponsive to Toll-like
receptor-9 signaling and have up-regulated CD86 levels.

By using a Cy and low doses of donor T cells, aGVHD was avoided and
cGVHD with BO favored. Histologic changes were similar to the findings in
human cGVHD with peribronchiolar and perivascular cuffing and infiltration
of the airway epithelium. The liver had inflammation and lymphocytic
infiltration, along with collagen deposition. The parotid and submandibular
salivary glands displayed lymphocytic infiltrates in both the bone marrow
and cGVHD groups, likely because of transplantation conditioning.

Treatment of steroid refractory cGVHD patients with rituximab, a B cell–
depleting anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, has shown a beneficial role in
resolution of the autoimmune disorders such as systemic lupus erythmatosus
and rheumatoid arthritis, andcGVHD, with overall response rates of 29%
to 36% for oral, hepatic, gastrointestinal, and lung cGVHD, and 60% for
cutaneous cGVHD in aggregate data from multiple trials. Thus, we recently
undertook studies to identify the presence of CD41 T helper cells and B2201
B cells in the airways of mice that had BO, tissue-specific antibodies from sera,
and alloantibody deposition in the lung and liver of cGVHD recipients. cGVHD
development was associated with IgG2c deposition in the lung and liver,
abrogated if the donor bone marrow was deficient in mature B cells or
incapable of producing antihost reactive IgG. Robust GC formation was
seen in mice with cGVHD. Alleviation of symptoms in mice that received
B cell–deficient bone marrow confirms the requirement of B cells for lung
dysfunction and inflammation and fibrosis in the lung and liver.

Given a role for IgG antibodies, allo- or auto-Ab binding to the cGVHD organs
could enable tissue destruction or the pathology could be defined by the
specific function of these secreted antibodies. Pathogenic antibody production
therefore is likely to be an important inducer of cGVHD, and targeting this
specific function of the B cells is an attractive strategy for cGVHD. Because
GC B cells display lower susceptibility to rituximab-mediated clearance, probably
because they reside in a nonoptimal environment for antibody-based depletion,
our observation that GC B cells are critical to the development of cGVHD
suggests that agents that are more effective at disrupting the GC might be
more clinically useful. Treatment with LTbR-Ig, a fusion protein that blocks
interactions between LTbR and its ligands, had a direct effect on the
symptoms of cGVHD, at least in part by blocking GC formation and suggest
that LTbR-Ig could be a potential clinical interventional strategy for prevention
and therapy of cGVHD.

Fibrosis is the end result of a number of inflammatory and other injurious events,
resulting in replacement of normal tissue with a dense extracellular matrix (ECM)
scar composed primarily of collagens. While some degree of tissue fibrosis is
considered protective (e.g. in the setting of cutaneous wound healing),
exaggerated or unrelenting ECM deposition with replacement of the normal
tissue architecture is considered pathologic. Fibroproliferative disorders as
a class involving multiple organs (e.g. cGVHD following hematopoietic stem
cell transplant [affecting up to 30% of recipients surviving more than 100 days,
scleroderma [estimated to affect 70,000 in the US], idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
[estimated to affect 200,000 in the US], hepatic cirrhosis [estimated to affect
up to 400,000 in the US], and renal fibrosis due to diabetic nephropathy and
other causes [estimated to affect over 400,000 in the US]) are a major cause
of morbidity and mortality. Combined, these disorders alone are conservatively
estimated to affect approximately 1 in 300 persons in the United States. When
coupled with a host of other disorders in which tissue fibrosis contributes to
morbidity (e.g. fibroproliferative acute respiratory distress syndrome,
hypersensitivity pneumonitis, solid organ transplant rejection), that estimate
is likely to be much greater.

Wound healing occurs by a highly orchestrated, complex process that has
been well defined. In general, wound repair occurs in 4 stages which overlap
considerably: clotting/coagulation, inflammation, fibroproliferation, and tissue
remodeling. The initial injury leads to a local disruption of epithelial and
endothelial barriers resulting in the elaboration of inflammatory mediators and
extravasation of cells and plasma proteins that serve to achieve hemostasis
and provide a provisional fibrin-rich matrix for the influx of inflammatory and
other reparative cells. Simultaneously, platelet degranulation provides a local
“boost” of vasodilators, growth factors, and ECM proteins that aid in the wound
healing response. Inflammatory cell influx occurs next, with polymorphonuclear
leukocytes (PMNs) arriving first. Following PMN degranulation, mononuclear
cells (macrophages and lymphocytes) arrive next and, along with PMN derived
products, sterilize and remove foreign materials from the wound. This process
also results in the elaboration of cytokines and chemokines designed to
augment the inflammatory response, to promote angiogenesis (allowing for
enhanced nutrient and oxygen delivery to the wound bed), and to recruit
fibroblasts to the wound bed. Fibroblast recruitment and transdifferentiation to
myofibroblasts (or recruitment of already-differentiated myofibroblasts or
fibroblast precursors; this point is still controversial) marks the fibroproliferative
stage, with the result being the elaboration of ECM proteins (collagens,
fibronectins) to repair the tissue defect.

Vorinostat plus tacrolimus and mycophenolate to prevent graft-versus-host
disease after related-donor reduced-intensity conditioning allogeneic
hemopoietic stem-cell transplantation: a phase 1/2 trial

Sung Won Choi, T Braun, L Chang, JLM Ferrara, A Pawarode, et al.
Lancet Oncol 2014; 15: 87–95
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(13)70512-6

Background Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) remains a barrier to more
widespread application of allogeneic hemopoietic stem-cell transplantation.
Vorinostat is an inhibitor of histone deacetylases and was shown to attenuate
GVHD in preclinical models. We aimed to study the safety and activity of
vorinostat, in combination with standard immunoprophylaxis, for prevention of
GVHD in patients undergoing related-donor reduced-intensity conditioning
hemopoietic stem-cell transplantation. Methods Between March 31, 2009,
and Feb 8, 2013, we did a prospective, single-arm, phase 1/2 study at two
centers in the USA. We recruited adults (aged ≥18 years) with high-risk
hematological malignant diseases who were candidates for reduced-intensity
conditioning hemopoietic stem-cell transplantation and had an available 8/8
or 7/8 HLA matched related donor. All patients received a conditioning regimen
of fl udarabine (40 mg/m² daily for 4 days) and busulfan (3·2 mg/kg daily for
2 days) and GVHD immunoprophylaxis of mycophenolate mofetil (1 g three
times a day, days 0–28) and tacrolimus (0·03 mg/kg a day, titrated to a goal
level of 8–12 ng/mL, starting day –3 until day 180). Vorinostat (either 100 mg
or 200 mg, twice a day) was initiated 10 days before haemopoietic stem-cell
transplantation until day 100. The primary endpoint was the cumulative
incidence of grade 2–4 acute GVHD by day 100. This trial is registered with
ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00810602.
Findings 50 patients were assessable for both toxic effects and response;
eight additional patients were included in the analysis of toxic effects. All
patients engrafted neutrophils and platelets at expected times after
hemopoietic stem-cell transplantation. The cumulative incidence of grade
2–4 acute GVHD by day 100 was 22% (95% CI 13–36). The most common
non-hematological adverse events included electrolyte disturbances (n=15),
hyperglycemia (11), infections (six), mucositis (four), and increased activity
of liver enzymes (three). Non-symptomatic thrombocytopenia after
engraftment was the most common hematological grade 3–4 adverse
event (nine) but was transient and all cases resolved swiftly.
Interpretation Administration of vorinostat in combination with standard
GVHD prophylaxis after related-donor reduced-intensity conditioning
hemopoietic stem-cell transplantation is safe and is associated with a
lower than expected incidence of severe acute GVHD. Future studies
are needed to assess the effect of vorinostat for prevention of GVHD in
broader settings of hemopoietic stem-cell transplantation.

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Inevitability of Curation: Scientific Publishing moves to embrace Open Data, Libraries and Researchers are trying to keep up

Posted in Academic Publishing, Curation on February 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Inevitability of Curation: Scientific Publishing moves to embrace Open Data, Libraries and Researchers are trying to keep up

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

From nature.com – Nature 495, 430–432 (28 March 2013) doi:10.1038/495430a

 

 

 

 

SOURCE

http://www.nature.com/news/publishing-frontiers-the-library-reboot-1.12664#/related-links

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Action of Hormones on the Circulation

Posted in Ca2+ triggered activation, Calcium Signaling, Calmodulin, Calmodulin Kinase and Contraction, Cardiovascular Pharmacogenomics, Cardiovascular Research, Cell Biology, Curation, Cytoskeleton, Disease Biology, Frontiers in Cardiology and Cardiovascular Disorders, Gene Regulation, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Genomic Endocrinology, Innovations, Metabolism, Metabolomics, Molecular Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Myocardial Ischemia, Myocardial Metabolism, Nephrology, Neurohumoral Transmission, Nitric Oxide in Health and Disease, Pharmaceutical Discovery, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Small Molecules in Development of Therapeutic Drugs, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 17, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Action of Hormones on the Circulation

Writer and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP 

 

 

Introduction

This is perhaps the most difficult piece to write, unexpectedly. I have done a careful search for related material using different search phrases.  It is perhaps because of the great complexity of the topic, which is inextricably linked to sepsis, the Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome SIRS), and is poised differently than the neural innervation of the hormonal response and circulation, as in the previous piece.  In the SIRS mechanism, we find a very large factor in glucocorticoids, the cytokine shower (IL-1, IL-6, TNF-α), and gluconeogenesis, with circulatory changes.  In this sequence, it appears that we are focused on the arteriolar and bronchial smooth muscle architecture, the adrenal medulla, vasoconstriction and vasodilation, and another set of peptide interactions.  This may be concurrent with the other effects described.

Related articles in Pharmaceutical Intelligence Journal:

Endothelial Function and Cardiovascular Disease

Pathologist and Author: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/25/endothelial-function-and-cardiovascular-disease/

Clinical Trials Results for Endothelin System: Pathophysiological role in Chronic Heart Failure, Acute Coronary Syndromes and MI – Marker of Disease Severity or Genetic Determination?

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/19/clinical-trials-results-for-endothelin-system-pathophysiological-role-in-chronic-heart-failure-acute-coronary-syndromes-and-mi-marker-of-disease-severity-or-genetic-determination/

Endothelin Receptors in Cardiovascular Diseases: The Role of eNOS Stimulation

Author and Curator of an Investigator Initiated Study: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/04/endothelin-receptors-in-cardiovascular-diseases-the-role-of-enos-stimulation/

Inhibition of ET-1, ETA and ETA-ETB, Induction of NO production, stimulation of eNOS and Treatment Regime with PPAR-gamma agonists (TZD): cEPCs Endogenous Augmentation for Cardiovascular Risk Reduction – A Bibliography

Curator of an Investigator Initiated Study: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/04/inhibition-of-et-1-eta-and-eta-etb-induction-of-no-production-and-stimulation-of-enos-and-treatment-regime-with-ppar-gamma-agonists-tzd-cepcs-endogenous-augmentation-for-cardiovascular-risk-reduc/

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and the Role of Agent Alternatives in endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase (eNOS) Activation and Nitric Oxide Production

Curator and Investigator Initiated Study: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/07/19/cardiovascular-disease-cvd-and-the-role-of-agent-alternatives-in-endothelial-nitric-oxide-synthase-enos-activation-and-nitric-oxide-production/

Innervation of Heart and Heart Rate

Writer and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/02/15/innervation-of-heart-and-heart-rate/

αllbβ3 Antagonists As An Example of Translational Medicine Therapeutics

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Reporter and curator

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/10/12/%CE%B1llb%CE%B23-antagonists-as-an-example-of-translational-medicine-therapeutics/

Cardiac Contractility & Myocardium Performance: Therapeutic Implications for Ryanopathy (Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction) and Catecholamine Responses

Author, and Content Consultant to e-SERIES A: Cardiovascular Diseases: Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/28/cardiac-contractility-myocardium-performance-ventricular-arrhythmias-and-non-ischemic-heart-failure-therapeutic-implications-for-cardiomyocyte-ryanopathy-calcium-release-related-contractile/

The Centrality of Ca(2+) Signaling and Cytoskeleton Involving Calmodulin Kinases and Ryanodine Receptors in Cardiac Failure, Arterial Smooth Muscle, Post-ischemic Arrhythmia, Similarities and Differences, and Pharmaceutical Targets

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/08/the-centrality-of-ca2-signaling-and-cytoskeleton-involving-calmodulin-kinases-and-ryanodine-receptors-in-cardiac-failure-arterial-smooth-muscle-post-ischemic-arrhythmia-similarities-and-differences/

Ca2+-Stimulated Exocytosis:  The Role of Calmodulin and Protein Kinase C in Ca2+ Regulation of Hormone and Neurotransmitter

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
and
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/12/23/calmodulin-and-protein-kinase-c-drive-the-ca2-regulation-of-hormone-and-neurotransmitter-release-that-triggers-ca2-stimulated-exocytosis/

Cardiac Contractility & Myocardium Performance: Ventricular Arrhythmias and Non-ischemic Heart Failure – Therapeutic Implications for Cardiomyocyte Ryanopathy (Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction) and Catecholamine Responses

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/28/cardiac-contractility-myocardium-performance-ventricular-arrhythmias-and-non-ischemic-heart-failure-therapeutic-implications-for-cardiomyocyte-ryanopathy-calcium-release-related-contractile/

Disruption of Calcium Homeostasis: Cardiomyocytes and Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells: The Cardiac and Cardiovascular Calcium Signaling Mechanism

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/12/disruption-of-calcium-homeostasis-cardiomyocytes-and-vascular-smooth-muscle-cells-the-cardiac-and-cardiovascular-calcium-signaling-mechanism/

Calcium-Channel Blockers, Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction (Ryanopathy) and Calcium as Neurotransmitter Sensor

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/16/calcium-channel-blocker-calcium-as-neurotransmitter-sensor-and-calcium-release-related-contractile-dysfunction-ryanopathy/

Synaptotagmin functions as a Calcium Sensor: How Calcium Ions Regulate the fusion of vesicles with cell membranes during Neurotransmission

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/10/synaptotagmin-functions-as-a-calcium-sensor-how-calcium-ions-regulate-the-fusion-of-vesicles-with-cell-membranes-during-neurotransmission/

Advanced Topics in Sepsis and the Cardiovascular System at its End Stage

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/18/advanced-topics-in-sepsis-and-the-cardiovascular-system-at-its-end-stage/

For most comprehensive Bibliography on the Ryanodine receptor calcium release channel complex and for FIGURES illustrating the phenomenon, see

Pharmacol Ther. 2009 August; 123(2): 151–177.

http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2009.03.006

PMCID: PMC2704947

Ryanodine receptor-mediated arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death

Lynda M. Blayney[low asterisk] and F. Anthony Lai

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2704947/

Oxidized Calcium Calmodulin Kinase and Atrial Fibrillation

Author: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/10/26/oxidized-calcium-calmodulin-kinase-and-atrial-fibrillation/

Contributions to cardiomyocyte interactions and signaling

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP  and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/10/21/contributions-to-cardiomyocyte-interactions-and-signaling/

Cardiac Contractility & Myocardium Performance: Therapeutic Implications for Ryanopathy (Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction) and Catecholamine Responses

Editor: Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, and Article Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/28/cardiac-contractility-myocardium-performance-ventricular-arrhythmias-and-non-ischemic-heart-failure-therapeutic-implications-for-cardiomyocyte-ryanopathy-calcium-release-related-contractile/

The Centrality of Ca(2+) Signaling and Cytoskeleton Involving Calmodulin Kinases and Ryanodine Receptors in Cardiac Failure, Arterial Smooth Muscle, Post-ischemic Arrhythmia, Similarities and Differences, and Pharmaceutical Targets

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/08/the-centrality-of-ca2-signaling-and-cytoskeleton-involving-calmodulin-kinases-and-ryanodine-receptors-in-cardiac-failure-arterial-smooth-muscle-post-ischemic-arrhythmia-similarities-and-differen/

 Action of hormones on the circulation

Limbic system mechanisms of stress regulation: Hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical axis

James P. Herman, Michelle M. Ostrander, Nancy K. Muelle, Helmer Figueiredo
Prog in Neuro-Psychopharmacol & Biol Psychiatry 29 (2005) 1201 – 1213
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2005.08.006

Limbic dysfunction and hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis dysregulation are key features of affective disorders. The following review summarizes our current understanding of the relationship between limbic structures and control of ACTH and glucocorticoid release, focusing on the hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala. In general, the hippocampus and anterior cingulate/prelimbic cortex inhibit stress-induced HPA activation, whereas the amygdala and perhaps the infralimbic cortex may enhance glucocorticoid secretion. Several characteristics of limbic–HPA interaction are notable: first, in all cases, the role of given limbic structures is both region- and stimulus-specific. Second, limbic sites have minimal direct projections to HPA effector neurons of the paraventricular nucleus (PVN); hippocampal, cortical and amygdalar efferents apparently relay with neurons in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, hypothalamus and brainstem to access corticotropin releasing hormone neurons. Third, hippocampal, cortical and amygdalar projection pathways show extensive overlap in regions such as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, hypothalamus and perhaps brainstem, implying that limbic information may be integrated at subcortical relay sites prior to accessing the PVN. Fourth, these limbic sites also show divergent projections, with the various structures having distinct subcortical targets. Finally, all regions express both glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors, allowing for glucocorticoid modulation of limbic signaling patterns. Overall, the influence of the limbic system on the HPA axis is likely the end result of the overall patterning of responses to given stimuli and glucocorticoids, with the magnitude of the secretory response determined with respect to the relative contributions of the various structures.

representations of the HPA axis

representations of the HPA axis

Diagrammatic representations of the HPA axis of the rat. HPA responses are initiated by neurosecretory neurons of medial parvocellular paraventricular nucleus (mpPVN), which secretes ACTH secretagogues such as corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) in the hypophysial portal circulation at the level of the median eminence. These secretagogues promote release of ACTH into the systemic circulation, whereby it promotes synthesis and release of glucocorticoids at the adrenal cortex.

When exposed to chronic stress, the HPA axis can show both response Fhabituation_ and response Ffacilitation_. FHabituation_ occurs when the same (homotypic) stressor is delivered repeatedly, and is characterized by progressive diminution of glucocorticoid responses to the stimulus. Systemic administration of a mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist is sufficient to block habituation, implying a role for MR signaling in this process. It should be noted that HPA axis habituation is highly dependent on both the intensity and predictability of the stressful stimulus. FFacilitation_ is observed when animals repeatedly exposed to one stimulus are presented with a novel (heterotypic). In chronically stressed animals, exposure to a novel stimulus results in rise in glucocorticoids that is as large as or greater than that seen in a chronic stress naıve animal. Importantly, facilitation can occur in the context of chronic stress-induced elevations in resting glucocorticoids levels, suggesting that this process involves a bypass or override of negative feedback signals.

Hippocampal regulation of the HPA axis appears to be both region- and stressor-specific. Using a sequential lesion approach, our group has noted that the inhibitory effects of the hippocampus on stress-induced corticosterone release and CRH/AVP mRNA expression are likely subserved by neurons resident in the ventral subiculum-caudotemporal CA1. In addition to spatial specificity, hippocampal regulation of the HPA axis also appears to be specific to certain stress modalities; our studies indicate that ventral subiculum lesions cause elevated glucocorticoid secretion following restraint, open field or elevated plus maze exposure, but not to ether inhalation or hypoxia.

The research posits an intricate topographical organization of prefrontal cortex output to HPA regulatory circuits. The anatomy of medial prefrontal cortex efferents may illuminate this issue. The infralimbic cortex projects extensively to the anterior bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, medial and central amygdala and the nucleus of the solitary tract, all of which are implicated in stress excitation. In contrast, the prelimbic cortex has minimal input to these structures, but projects to the ventrolateral preoptic area, dorsomedial hypothalamus and peri-PVN region, areas implicated in stress inhibition. Thus, the infralimbic and prelimbic/anterior cingulate components of the prefrontal cortex may play very different roles in HPA axis regulation. Like other limbic regions, the influence of the amygdala on the HPA axis is stressor- and region-specific. The medial amygdala shows intense c-fos induction following stressors such as restraint, swimming, predator exposure and social interaction.

Despite the prominent involvement of the hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala in HPA axis regulation, there is limited evidence of direct innervation of the PVN by these structures. Rather, these regions appear to project to a number of basal forebrain, hypothalamic and brainstem cell populations that in turn innervate the medial parvocellular PVN. Thus, in order to access principle stress effector neurons, information from the limbic system requires an intermediary synapse. In the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and hypothalamus, the majority of these intermediary neurons are GABAergic. For example, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, ventrolateral preoptic area, dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus and peri-PVN region all contain rich populations of neurons expressing the GABA marker glutamatic acid decarboxylase (GAD) 65/67.

The organization of the peri-PVN cell groups is particularly interesting. In the case of the ventral subiculum and to a lesser extent, the medial prefrontal cortex, terminal fields can be observed in the immediate surround of the PVN, corresponding to areas containing substantial numbers of GABA neurons. Importantly, dendrites of PVN neurons are largely confined within the nucleus proper, indicating that limbic afferents are unlikely to interact directly with the PVN neurons themselves. The peri-PVN GABA neurons are activated by glutamate, and likely express glutamate receptor subunits. These neurons also up-regulate GAD65 mRNA following chronic stress, commensurate with involvement in long-term HPA regulation. Injections of a general ionotroptic glutamate receptor antagonist into the PVN surround potentiates glucocorticoid responses to restraint, consistent with blockade of glutamate excitation of these GABA neurons. The data are consistent with an interaction between the excitatory limbic structures and inhibitory PVN-regulatory cells at the level of the PVN surround.

Brainstem stress-modulatory pathways likely relay excitatory information to the PVN. For example, the nucleus of the solitary tract provides both catecholaminergic (norepinephrine) and non-catecholaminergic (e.g., glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) input to the medial parvocellular. Norepinephrine is released into the PVN following stress and is believed to activate CRH neurons via alpha-1 adrenergic receptors. The role of this pathway is thought to be associated with systemic stressors, as selective destruction of PVN norepinephrine input using anti-dopamine beta hydroxylase-saporin conjugate blocks responses to 2-deoxy-glucose but not restraint.  In contrast, blockade of central GLP-1 receptors using exendin 9–36 markedly inhibits responsiveness to both lithium chloride and novelty, suggesting that this non-catecholaminergic cell population may play a more general role in stress integration.

The existence of these putative two-neuron circuits lends important insight into the nature of stress information processing. Anatomical data support the hypothesis that the vast majority of medial prefrontal cortex and ventral subicular inputs to subcortical stress relays are glutamate-containing. As can be appreciated, pyramidal cells of the medial prefrontal cortex and subiculum richly express mRNA encoding vesicular glutamate transporter-1 (VGlut1), a specific marker of glutamate neurons. Combined retrograde tracing/in situ hybridization studies performed in our lab indicate that the vast majority of cortical and hippocampal afferents to PVN-projecting regions (e.g., bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, dorsomedial hypothalamus, ventrolateral medial preoptic area) indeed contain VGlut1, verifying a glutamatergic input to these areas. In contrast, the majority of amygdalar areas implicated in stress regulation express glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) 65 or 67 mRNA, suggesting a GABAergic phenotype; indeed, the vast majority of medial and central amygdaloid projections to PVN relays are GABAergic.

representations of limbic stress-integrative pathways from the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus

representations of limbic stress-integrative pathways from the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus

Diagrammatic representations of limbic stress-integrative pathways from the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) subsumes neurons of the prelimbic (pl), anterior cingulate (ac) and infralimbic cortices (il), which appear to have different actions on the HPA axis stress response. The pl/ac send excitatory projections (designated as dark circles, filled line with arrows) to regions such as the peri-PVN zone and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST), both of which send direct GABAergic projections to the medial parvocellular PVN (delineated as open circles, dotted lines ending in squares). This two-neuron chain is likely to be inhibitory in nature. In contrast, the infralimbic cortex projects to regions such as the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), which sends excitatory projections to the PVN, implying a means of PVN excitation from this cortical region. The ventral subiculum (vSUB) sends excitatory projections to numerous subcortical regions, including the posterior BST, peri-PVN region, ventrolateral region of the medial preoptic area (vlPOA) and ventrolateral region of the dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus (vlDMH), all of which send GABAergic projections to the PVN and are likely to communicate transsynaptic inhibition. The medial amygdaloid nucleus (MeA) sends inhibitory projections to GABAergic PVN-projecting populations, such as the BST, vlPOA and peri-PVN, eliciting a transsynaptic disinhibition. A similar arrangement likely exists for the central amygdaloid nucleus (CeA), which sends GABAergic outflow to the ventrolateral BST and to a lesser extent, the vlDMH. The CeA also projects to GABAergic neurons in the NTS, which may disinhibit ascending projections to the PVN.

Inotropes and vasopressors: more than haemodynamics!

Hendrik Bracht, E Calzia, M Georgieff,  J Singer, P Radermacher and JA Russell
British Journal of Pharmacology (2012) 165 2009–2011
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1111/j.1476-5381.2011.01776.x

Circulatory shock is characterized by arterial hypotension requiring fluid resuscitation combined with inotropes and/or vasopressors to correct the otherwise life-threatening impairment of oxygen supply to peripheral tissues. Catecholamines represent the current therapeutic choice, but this standard is only based on empirical clinical experience. Although there is evidence that some catecholamines may be better than others, it is a matter of debate which one may be the most effective and/or the safest for the different situations. In their review in this issue of the British Journal of Pharmacology, Bangash et al. provide an overview of the pharmacology as well as the available clinical data on the therapeutic use of endogenous catecholamines, their synthetic derivatives and a range of other agents (vasopressin and its analogues, PDE inhibitors and levosimendan). The authors point out that, despite well-established receptor pharmacology, the clinical effects of these treatments are poorly understood. Hence, further investigations are essential to determine which catecholamine, or, in a broader sense, which alternative vasopressor and/or inotrope is the most appropriate for a particular clinical condition.

LINKED ARTICLES   This article is a commentary on Bangash et al., pp. 2015–2033 of this issue and is commented on by De Backer and Scolletta, pp. 2012–2014 of this issue. To view Bangash et al. visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1476-5381.2011.01588.x   and to view De Backer and Scolletta visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1476-5381.2011.01746.x

In the present issue of the British Journal of Pharmacology, Bangash et al. (2012) review the pharmacology as well as the available clinical data on the therapeutic use of various inotropes and vasopressor agents used for the hemodynamic management of (septic) shock. By definition, circulatory shock is characterized by arterial hypotension that necessitates immediate intervention to maintain the balance of tissue oxygen supply and demand. In practice, the longer and the more frequent periods of hypotension are present in a patient, the less likely is survival, and early aggressive resuscitation is associated with improved outcome. Besides fluid administration to increase the circulating blood volume, in most cases, vasoactive drugs are required to restore an adequate perfusion pressure, and up to now, catecholamines represent the current therapeutic choice. According to their pharmacological profile, catecholamines are traditionally used for their predominant inotropic, vasodilating or constrictor effects.

Clinicians should not forget two fundamental aspects of catecholamine action. First, because of the ubiquitous presence of adrenoceptors, endogenous catecholamines. as well as their synthetic derivatives, have pronounced effects on virtually all tissues (many of which were described several years ago), in particular on the immune system (van der Poll et al., 1996; Flierl et al., 2008), on energy metabolism (Cori and Cori, 1928; Bearn et al., 1951) and on gastrointestinal motility (McDougal and West, 1954). Second, the adrenoceptor density and responsiveness to catecholamines are markedly altered by both the underlying disease and the ongoing catecholamine. Bangash et al. (2012) have to be commended that they not only describe the various endogenous catecholamines and their synthetic derivatives but also thoroughly discuss possible alternatives, such as vasopressin and its analogues, PDE inhibitors and levosimendan.

Inhibitory effects of cortisone and hydrocortisone on human Kv1.5 channel currents

Jing Yu, Mi-Hyeong Park, Su-Hyun Jo
Eur J Pharmacol 746 (2015) 158–166  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejphar.2014.11.007

Glucocorticoids are the primary hormones that respond to stress and protect organisms from dangerous situations. The glucocorticoids hydrocortisone and its dormant form, cortisone, affect the cardiovascular system with changes such as increased blood pressure and cardioprotection. Kv1.5 channels play a critical role in the maintenance of cellular membrane potential and are widely expressed in pancreatic β-cells, neurons, myocytes, and smooth muscle cells of the pulmonary vasculature. We examined the electrophysiological effects of both cortisone and hydrocortisone on human Kv1.5 channels expressed in Xenopus oocytes using a two-microelectrode voltage clamp technique. Both cortisone and hydrocortisone rapidly and irreversibly suppressed the amplitude of Kv1.5 channel current with IC50 values of 50.2 + 74.2 μM and 33.4 + 73.2 μM, respectively, while sustained the current trace shape of Kv1.5 current. The inhibitory effect of cortisone on Kv1.5 decreased progressively from – 10mV to +30 mV, while hydrocortisone’s inhibition of the channel did not change across the same voltage range. Both cortisone and hydrocortisone blocked Kv1.5 channel currents in a non-use-dependent manner and neither altered the channel’s steady-state activation or inactivation curves. These results show that cortisone and hydrocortisone inhibited Kv1.5 channel currents differently. Kv1.5 channels were more sensitive to hydrocortisone than to cortisone.

In conclusion, cortisone and hydrocortisones rapidly and irreversibly blocked human Kv1.5 channels expressed in Xenopus oocytes in a closed state without altering activation and inactivation gating. These data provide a possible mechanism for GC effects on the cardiovascular system. The detailed mechanism of the interaction between GCs and human Kv1.5 channels merits further exploration.

Inflammasome and cytokine blocking strategies in autoinflammatory disorders

Monika Moll, Jasmin B. Kuemmerle-Deschner
Clinical Immunology (2013) 147, 242–275 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clim.2013.04.008

Autoinflammatory disorders are characterized by usually unprovoked recurrent episodes of features of inflammation caused by activation of the innate immune system. Many autoinflammatory disorders – the monogenetic defects in particular – are associated with alterations of inflammasomes. Inflammasomes are complex multimolecular structures, which respond to “danger” signals by activation of cytokines. Among these, IL-1 is the key player of the innate immune response and inflammation. Consequently, IL-1 blocking strategies are specific pathway targeting therapies in autoinflammatory diseases and applied in CAPS, colchicine-resistant FMF, TRAPS, HIDS and DIRA. A number of rare genetic disorders involve inflammasome malfunction resulting in enhanced inflammatory response. IL-1 inhibition to date is the most successful specific therapy in autoinflammatory disorders. Here, current treatment strategies in autoinflammatory disorders are reviewed with a focus on inflammasome and cytokine inhibition.

Autoinflammatory disorders have been defined as “clinical disorders marked by abnormally increased inflammation, mediated predominantly by the cells and molecules of the innate immune system.”  This means that in autoinflammatory disorders autoantibodies or antigen related T-cells are usually absent. These are features of the adaptive immune system and found in autoimmune diseases.
In general, autoinflammatory disorders are characterized by a large spectrum of rather non-specific systemic and organ-specific signs and symptoms of inflammation. In some diseases specific symptoms are observed like hearing loss in Muckle–Wells syndrome or CNS-disease in NOMID/CINCA. Most autoinflammatory disorders are associated with high levels of serum amyloid A (SAA) during inflammatory attacks and high risk of life-threatening amyloidosis. In most cases the disease will start in infancy and childhood. Only rarely primary manifestations in adulthood are reported.
Because recurrent fevers have been the most prominent feature of this group of diseases, historically they have been summarized under the term “hereditary periodic fever syndromes”.  With the deeper understanding of the underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms on the genetic and cellular level, the more comprehensive term “autoinflammatory syndromes”.
Along with the detection of the genetic origin of the autoinflammatory disorders, the cellular pathomechanism leading to the resulting inflammation has been described. A number of genes, which are affected by mutations in autoinflammatory disorders, encode proteins forming intracellular complexes called inflammasomes. External and endogenous “dangers” are recognized by these “danger sensors” and are able to induce an inflammatory reaction. Microbial components from infectious agents such as LPS, flagellin, lipoteichoic acid from bacteria, peptidoglycan or double-stranded DNA from viruses, or inorganic crystalline structures such as uric acid crystals, display pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). These and endogenous damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) like heat-shock proteins, the chromatin-associated protein high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), hyaluronan fragments, ATP, uric acid, and DNA which are released with cellular waste and injury stimulate the inflammasome. Also, the myeloid related proteins MRP8 and 14 (also known as S100A8 and S100A9) which are used as biomarkers, belong to the group of DAMPs. In addition to PAMPs and DAMPs, the inflammasome may interact with and be stimulated by proteins such as pyrin, proline–serine–threonine phosphatase interacting protein 1 (PSTPIP1), mevalonate kinase (MK) and NLRP7. All of these may also be altered in structure and function by monogenetic mutations.
As a consequence of inflammasome activation, a large variety of cytokines are produced and released by cells of the innate immune system (monocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells). They include the IL-1 family (IL-1, IL-18, IL-33), the TNF family (TNF-α, LT-α), the IL-6 family (IL-6, IL-11), the IL-17 family (IL-17A, IL-25), and type 1 IFNs (IFN-α, IFN-β). These cytokines play redundant roles depending on the cause and pathway of inflammation in the respective disease. Therefore, therapeutic strategies targeting only one cytokine should be expected to be inadequate to treat inflammatory disorders. However, improvement observed in diabetes mellitus Type 2 after blockade of IL-1 indicates that targeting one cytokine, even in a polygenic, complex inflammatory disorder, may cause beneficial effects. Regarding the inflammatory pathogenesis involved in the disease, Goldbach–Mansky and co-workers have classified the monogenetic autoinflammatory disorders as IL-1 mediated (CAPS and DIRA), partially IL-1 mediated (FMF, HIDS, PAPA) and mediated by other pathways (TRAPS, Blau-syndrome, Majeed’s syndrome, cherubism and IL-10 receptor deficiency).

Intracellular signaling pathways and therapeutic targets in autoinflammatory diseases. In autoinflammatory diseases, complex intracellular pathways lead to activation of the inflammatory response, particularly IL-1β activation and release, but also induction of NFκB and TNFα. Several mechanisms may activate the inflammasome, one crucial step in the IL-1 pathway. These include DAMPs (1), K+-efflux (2), activation of ROS (3) by ATP, anorganic crystals, membrane perturbation and proteases which are released from lysosomes damaged by β-amyloid, and heat shock proteins (4). NFκB may be induced by PAMPs via toll like receptors (5), IL-1β-signaling (6) or UPR (7). Activated NFκB eventually leads to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines like IL-1, IL-6 and TNFα (8). Most of these steps to activation have been identified as targets for anti-inflammatory therapies, which are either already used in clinical practice or still experimental. IL-1- (a), TNF- (b), and IL-6 (c) inhibition are established safe and effective treatment strategies in many autoinflammatory diseases. Thalidomide (d) probably inhibits activation of IκB and is also part of routine treatment. Still experimental strategies include inhibition of PAMPs (e), DAMPs (f), potassium efflux (g), ROS by antioxidants (h), heat shock proteins (i), or caspase-1 (k). Caspase-inhibitors have entered clinical trials.

Colchicine has been used for the treatment of inflammatory disorders for centuries. Colchicine is effective in gout, but also in Behcet’s disease and FMF, where it is able to prevent amyloidosis. The drug affects many cell types and accumulates preferentially in neutrophils. Although its mode of action is still unclear it has microtubule destabilizing properties which may be part of its effects. Additional effects such as alteration of adhesion molecule expression, chemotaxis, and ROS generation also impact inflammation. Colchicine is generally tolerated well. However gastrointestinal, hematologic, and neuromuscular side-effects occur, when the administered dose is too high.

Inflammasome activation by heat shock proteins may be prevented by direct inhibition of HSP. HSP90 inhibition was effective in reducing gout-like arthritis in an animal model. Targeting caspase-1 (caspase-1-inhibitors) may be a strategy which has even greater potential in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and autoinflammatory disorders. IL-1 converting enzyme/caspase inhibitor VX-765 was able to inhibit IL-β-secretion in LPS-stimulated cells from FCAS and control subjects. A new IL-1 inhibitor, gevokizumab or Xoma 052 has entered clinical pilot trials. Therapeutic targets particularly for the protein-misfolding autoinflammatory diseases could be chemical chaperones and drugs that stimulate autophagy. Also inhibiting the signaling molecules that mediate the UPR activation which causes activation of the innate immune system and exacerbate inflammation could be a target.

To date IL-1 blockade is the most effective therapy in most monogenetic autoinflammatory diseases — in intrinsic and in extrinsic inflammasom-opathies. The most favorable effects are seen in the treatment of cryopyrin associated periodic syndromes like FACS, MWS and CINCA. But IL-1-blockade is also effective in other diseases like DIRA, TRAPS, PFAPA, colchicine-resistant FMF etc. IL-1 inhibition also has a role in multifactorial and common autoinflammatory diseases like diabetes, gout and artherosclerosis.

Endothelin—Biology and disease

Al-karim Khimji, Don C. Rockey
Cellular Signalling 22 (2010) 1615–1625
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.cellsig.2010.05.002

Endothelins are important mediators of physiological and pathophysiologic processes including cardiovascular disorders, pulmonary disease, renal diseases and many others. Additionally, endothelins are involved in many other important processes such as development, cancer biology, wound healing, and even neurotransmission. Here, we review the cell and molecular biology as well as the prominent pathophysiological aspects of the endothelin system.

Endothelin-1 (ET-1) was originally isolated from porcine aortic endothelial cells  and is a 21 amino acid cyclic peptide, with two disulphide bridges joining the cysteine amino acids (positions 1–15 and 3–11) at the N-terminal end and hydrophobic amino acids at the c-terminal end of the peptide (Fig. 1). The C-terminal end contains the amino acids that bind to the receptor, the N-terminal end determines the peptide’s binding affinity to the receptor (see Fig. 1). There appear to be at least 2 other endothelin isoforms including endothelin-2 (ET-2) and endothelin-3 (ET-3), which differ from ET-1 in two and six amino acid residues, respectively.

Endothelin (ET) structure

Endothelin (ET) structure

Endothelin (ET) structure. Endothelin is a 21 amino acid cyclic peptide, with two disulphide bridges joining the cysteine residues at positions 1–15 and 3–11. The C-terminal end containsamino acids that appear tomediate receptor binding,while the N-terminal residues determine the peptide’s binding affinity to the receptor. The amino acids highlighted in black in panels (b) and (c) show differences in ET-2 and ET-3 compared to ET-1. As can be seen, the remainder of the primary sequence of the different family members is identical.

Endothelin-1 biosynthetic pathway

Endothelin-1 biosynthetic pathway

Endothelin-1 biosynthetic pathway. Preproendothelin mRNA is synthesized via transcriptional activation of the preproendothelin gene. The translational product is a 203-amino acid peptide known as preproendothelin, which is cleaved at dibasic sites by furin-like endopeptidases to form big endothelins. These biologically inactive, 37- to 41-amino acid intermediates, are cleaved at Trp21–Val 22 by a family of endothelin-converting enzymes (ECE) to produce mature ET-1. The pathway for endothelin-2 and -3 is presumed to be similar.

The endothelin peptides are produced through a set of complex molecular processes. Preproendothelins are synthesized via transcriptional activation of the preproendothelin gene, which is regulated by c-fos and c-jun, nuclear factor-1, AP-1 and GATA-2. The translational product is a 203-amino acid peptide known as preproendothelin which is cleaved at dibasic sites by furin-like endopeptidases to form big endothelins. These biologically inactive 37- to 41-amino acid intermediates are cleaved at Trp21–Val 22 by a family of endothelin-converting enzymes (ECE) to produce mature ET-1.

Three isoforms of ECE have been reported, namely ECE-1, ECE-2 and ECE-3; ECE-1 and ECE-2 are most prominent. (Endothelin receptors are widely distributed in many different tissues and cells, there is a marked difference in cell and tissue distribution patterns between the two receptor subtypes i.e. ETA and ETB. [ET Receptors: Endothelial cells -ETB Vascular tone, clearance of circulating ET-1]).  ECEs belong to the M13 group of proteins—which is a family that includes neutral endopeptidases, kell blood group antigens (Kell), a peptide from phosphate regulating gene (PEX), X-converting enzyme (XCE), “secreted” endopeptidases, and the ECEs. M13 family members contain type II integral membrane proteins with zinc metalloprotease activity, and their function is inhibited by phosphoramidon. Four variants of ECE-1 have been reported in humans, namely ECE-1a, ECE-1b, ECE-1c and ECE-1d which are a result of alternate splicing of ECE-1mRNA. ECE-1 appears to be localized in the plasma cell membrane and its optimal activity is atpH7; it processes big ETs both intracellularly and on the cell surface. It is distributed predominantly in smooth muscle cells. ECE-1 can also hydrolyze other proteins including bradykinin, substance P, and insulin. ECE-2 is localized to the trans-Golgi network and is expressed abundantly in neural tissues and endothelial cells. Its optimal activity is at pH5; the acidic activity marks ECE-2 as an intracellular enzyme. Substrate selectivity experiments indicate that both ECE-1 and ECE-2 show preference for big ET-1 over big ET-2 or big ET-3.

Although there has been controversy about the precise repertoire of endothelin receptors, it appears that the endothelins exert their actions through two major receptor subtypes known as ETA and ETB receptors. ETA and ETB receptors belong to the superfamily of G-protein coupled receptors and contain seven transmembrane domains of 22–26 hydrophobic amino acids among approximately 400 total amino acids. The ETA receptor is found predominantly in smooth muscle cells and cardiac muscles, whereas the ETB receptor is abundantly expressed in endothelial cells.

ET-1 signaling is extremely complicated and ET receptor activation leads to diverse cellular responses through interaction in a chain of pathways that includes the G-protein-activated cell surface receptor, coupling G-proteins and phospholipase (PLC) pathway and other G protein-activated effectors. In one of the canonical signaling pathways, ETA induced activation of phospholipase C leads to the formation of inositol triphosphate and diacylglcerol from phosphatidylinositol. Inositol 1,4,5 triphosphate (IP3) then diffuses to specific receptors on the endoplasmic reticulum and releases stored Ca2+ into the cytosol. This causes a rapid elevation in intracellular Ca2+, which in turn causes cellular contraction and then vasoconstriction; the vasoconstrictive effects of ET persist despite dissociation of ET-1 from the receptor, perhaps because the levels of intracellular calcium remain elevated or because endothelin signaling pathways remain activated for prolonged time periods.

Endothelin signaling – smooth muscle cells

Endothelin signaling – smooth muscle cells

Endothelin signaling – smooth muscle cells. ET receptor stimulation leads to diverse cellular responses in a chain of pathways that include the G protein bg activation. This is followed by activation of a variety of different downstream cascades. For example, shown on the left, ETA induced activation of phosphatidyl inositol specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) leads to the formation of inositol triphosphate (IP3) and diacylglcerol (DAG) from phosphoinositol 4,5 bisphosphate (PIP2). Inositol 1, 4, 5 triphosphate (IP3) then diffuses to specific receptors on the endoplasmic reticulum and releases stored Ca2+ into the cytosol. This causes a rapid elevation in intracellular Ca2+, which in turn causes cellular contraction

Endothelin signaling – endothelial cells.

Endothelin signaling – endothelial cells.

Endothelin signaling – endothelial cells. ET-1 stimulates NO production in endothelial cells by activation of endothelial cell NO synthase (eNOS). This occurs via ET-1’s activation of the ET-B receptor and the PI3-K/Akt pathway, which in turn stimulates phosphorylation of eNOS, with subequent conversion of L-arginine to L-citrulline and at the same time, generating NO. In addition shear stress, G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR), transient receptor potential channel (TRPC) and receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) are also activators of eNOS. As a result, NO diffuses to stellate cell, where it directly activates the heme moiety of soluble guanylate cyclase, leading to the production of cyclic GMP. Intracellular cyclic GMP leads to activation of protein kinase G (PKG) resulting in relaxation of stellate cells – offsetting ET’s contractile effect on stellate cells.

The plasma levels of endothelin do not correlate with either the presence of essential hypertension or its severity, presumably, due to the fact that endothelin appears to be biologically active in a paracrine or autocrine fashion (i.e., rather than in an endocrine fashion. Systemic administration of ET-1 in low doses produces a modest increase in blood pressure which is normalized by selective ETA receptor blockade. In experimental models, long-term infusion with ET-1 leads to stroke and renal injury, which can be prevented with long-term administration of selective ETA receptor antagonists. Apart from its direct vasoconstrictor effects, mediated by smooth muscle cell contraction in the arterial system, ET-1 also indirectly enhances the vasoconstrictor effects of other neurohumoral and endocrine factors and may potentiate essential hypertension via this mechanism. For example, ET-1 induces conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II in in vitro models and stimulates adrenal synthesis of epinephrine and aldosterone. Thus there is cross-talk between the endothelin and renin–angiotensin–aldosterone systems—to synergistically act to facilitate vasoconstriction. In aggregate, the data suggest that dysregulation of the endothelin system contributes to multisystem complications of hypertension such as progressive renal disease, cerebrovascular diseases, atherosclerosis, and cardiac disease.

ET-1 in the renal system is synthesized in vascular endothelial cells and epithelial cells of the collecting ducts. Both ET receptors are present in renal vasculature and epithelial cells where ETB is the predominant receptor type. Renal vasculature is relatively more sensitive to the vasoconstrictive effects of ET-1 than any other vasculature and it causes constriction of both afferent and efferent renal arterioles.

ET-1 administration in humans significantly reduces renal blood flow, glomerular filtration rate and urine volume. In addition to its hemodynamic effects, ET-1 system is also involved in salt and water reabsorption, acid-base balance, promotion of mesangial cell growth and activation of inflammatory cells. ET-1 has been implicated in the pathophysiology of acute renal injury, chronic renal failure as well as renal remodeling. Transgenic mice overexpressing ET-1 develop glomerulosclerosis, interstitial fibrosis and reduced renal function. Increased ET-1 and ET receptor upregulation has been described in various animal models of acute renal injury and also in patients with chronic renal failure. Additionally, plasma ET-1 levels have been shown to correlate with the severity of chronic renal failure.

ET-1 is produced and released by airway epithelial cells, macrophages, and pulmonary vascular endothelial cells. Endothelin receptors are similarly widely distributed in airway smooth muscle cells, the pulmonary vasculature, and in the autonomic neuronal network lining tracheal muscles. ET-1 has a potent bronchoconstrictor effect.  In animal models, intravenous ET-1 injection led to a dose-dependent increase in airway resistance. The increase in airway resistance is in part due to enhanced production of thromboxanes with subsequent activation of thromboxane receptors and smooth muscle cell proliferation. The ET system has been emphasized in a number of pulmonary disorders, including asthma, cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis, and pulmonary hypertension. Increased lung vasculature ET-1 immunoreactivity has been reported in both animals and patients with pulmonary hypertension and increases in ET-1 immunoreactivity correlate with the degree of pulmonary vascular resistance, disorders such as pulmonary hypertension, myocardial infarction, heart failure, neoplasia, vascular disorders, wound healing, and many others.

Endothelin and endothelin antagonism: Roles in cardiovascular health and disease

Praveen Tamirisa, William H. Frishman, and Anil Kumar
Am Heart J 1995;130:601-10

Endothelin is a naturally occurring polypeptide substance with potent vasoconstrictive actions. It was originally described as endotensin or endothelial contracting factor in 1985 by Hickey et al., who reported on the finding of a potent stable vasoconstricting substance produced by cultured endothelial cells. Subsequently, Yanagisawa et al. isolated and purified the substance from the supernatant of cultured porcine aortic and endothelial
cells and then went on to prepare its complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA). This substance was renamed endothelin.

Endothelin is the most potent vasoconstrictor known to date. Its chemical structure is closely related to certain neurotoxins (sarafotoxins) produced by scorpions and the burrowing asp (Atractaspis engaddensis).  Endothelins have now been isolated in various cell lines from several organisms. They are now considered to be autocoids or cytokines 4 because of their wide distribution, their expression during ontogeny and adult life, their primary role as intracellular factors, and the complexity of their biologic effects.

The superfamily of endothelins and sarafotoxins have two main branches with four members each. Endothelin is a polypeptide consisting of 21 amino acids. There are three closely related isoforms endothelin-1, endothelin-2, and endothelin-3 (ET1, ET2, and ET3, respectively), which differ in a few of the amino acid constituents. The fourth member, called ET4 or vasoactive intestinal constrictor, is considered to be the murine form ofET2. The endothelin molecules have several conserved amino acids, including the last six carboxyl (C)-terminal amino acids and four cysteine residues, which form two intrachain disulfide bonds between residues 1 and 15 and 3 and 11. These residues may have biologic implications particularly in relation to three dimensional structure and function. The main differences in the endothelin isopeptides reside in their amino (N)-terminal segments. There is a very high degree of sequence similarity between the two branches (approximately 60%) and within the constituent members of a branch (71% to 95%).

Endothelin has been demonstrated to be produced from endothelial and nonendothelial cells. The synthesis of endothelins parallels that of the various peptide hormones in that a precursor polypeptide is sequentially cleaved to generate the active form. Recently, endothelin-converting enzyme (ECE) was cloned. ECE acts at an essential step in the production of active forms of endothelins. The fully formed molecule is then broken down into inactive peptides by as yet uncharacterized proteases. Some candidates are the lysosomal protective protein (deamidase) and enkephalinase (neutral endopeptidase EC 24.11). The regulation of endothelin production occurs predominantly at the levels of transcription and translation. No storage
vesicles containing endothelin have been identified. The genes for the various endothelin isoforms have been sequenced and are found to be scattered in different chromosomes. Current evidence suggests that they arose from a common ancestor by exon duplication.

Factors known to release endothelinThrombinTransforming growth factor-~Arginine vasopressinHypoxia

Phorbol ester

Glucose

Angiotensin II

Cyclosporin

Insulinlike growth factor

Bombesin

Cortisol

Low-density lipeprotein cholesterol

Hypercholesterolemia

Changes in shear stress on vascular wall
Receptor affinities
Receptor Affinity
ETA ET1 > ET2 > ET3
ETB ET1 = ET2 = ET3
ETC ET3 > ET1
Intracellular signal transduction pathways activated by endothelins (ETs)

Intracellular signal transduction pathways activated by endothelins (ETs)

Intracellular signal transduction pathways activated by endothelins (ETs). Activated ET receptor stimulates phospholipase C (PLC) and phospholipase A2 (PLA2). Activated ET receptor also stimulates voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDC) and probably receptor-operated calcium channel (ROC). Inositol triphosphate (IP3) elicits release of calcium ion from caffeine-sensitive calcium store. Protein kinase C (PKC) activated by diacylglycerol (DG) sensitizes contractile apparatus. Increased concentration of intracellular free calcium ion ([Ca2+]i induces contraction. Cyclooxygenase products (prostacyclin [PGI2], prostaglandin E2 [PGE2], and thromboxane A2 [TXA2]) modify contraction. G, G protein; IP2, inositol biphosphate; IP3, inositol triphosphate; PIP2, phosphatidyl inositol biphosphate. (From Masaki T et al. Circulation 1991;84: 1460.)

Systemic hypertension. Endothelin is the most potent vasoconstrictor known to date and has an exceptionally long duration of physiologic action. The influence of endothelin in maintaining normal blood pressure and its role in the cause of systemic hypertension remain unclear. Intravenous injections of endothelin in animals cause a transient decrease in systolic blood pressure (ETB) followed by a prolonged pressor response (ETA). The vasoconstrictor action is mediated by ETA receptors in the vascular smooth muscle, whereas the predominant vasodilation effect is mediated by the ETB receptors on the endothelial cells that cause release of prostacyclin and nitric oxide. Therefore the overall predominant hemodynamic effect of endothelin in a given organ depends on the receptor type being stimulated, its location, and its relative abundance.

Angiotensin II has been found to increase endothelin concentrations in vitro from endo thelial cells, suggesting one mechanism by which angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibition could function in vivo. ACE inhibitors also can indirectly interfere with endothelin: increased concentrations of bradykinin decrease endothelin release (by acting through bradykinin 2 receptors, stimulation of which cause increased nitric oxide release). ACE inhibitors can cause regression of intimal hyperplasia, whereas other antihypertensive drugs are ineffective in this regard.

Myocardial ischemia. Myocardial ischemia can enhance the release of endothelin by cardiomyocytes and increase its vasoactive effects. Infusion of the ET1 isoform directly into the coronary circulation of animals results in the development of myocardial infarction, with impaired ventricular functioning and the development of arrhythmias. Endothelin has been shown to lower the threshold for ventricular fibrillation in dogs. An increase in ET1 has been observed in cardiac tissue after experimental myocardial infarction in rats, and pretreatment with an antiendothelin ϒ-globulin in this model can reduce infarct size by as much as 40%. Infusion of ETA receptor antagonist drugs before an ischemic insult can also reduce infarct size in animals.

Plasma endothelin concentrations can predict hemodynamic complications in patients with myocardial infarction. Patients with the highest plasma endothelin concentrations after myocardial infarction have the highest creatine phosphokinase (CPK) and CPK MB-isoenzyme concentrations and the lowest angiographically determined ejection fractions.

Left ventricular function and congestive heart failure. Endothelin exhibits potent inotropic activity in isolated hearts, cardiac muscle strips, isolated cells, and instrumented intact animals. High-affinity receptors for endothelin have been demonstrated in the atria and the ventricles. Intravenous administration of the ET1 isoform produces delayed prolonged augmentation of left ventricular performance in addition to its biphasic vasoactive effects of transient vasodilation followed by sustained vasocontraction.

Endothelin is a potent secretogogue of atrial natriuretic factor, which is a naturally occurring antagonist of endothelin. The ETA receptor appears to mediate endothelin’s actions of vasoconstriction and the stimulation of atrial natriuretic factor secretion, and the ETB receptor mediates endothelin-induced vasodilation and activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. Urinary water excretion is mediated through both receptors, but sodium excretion is mediated through the ETA receptor.

Increased concentrations of endothelin described in patients with congestive heart failure are predictive of increased mortality risk. It also has been suggested that increased concentrations of endothelin may play an important role in the increased systemic vascular resistance observed in congestive heart failure.

There is early clinical evidence that treatment with ETA receptor antagonists and ECE inhibitors can influence favorably the course of human heart failure.  ACE inhibitors may also benefit patients with heart failure because of their antiendothelin actions.

Pulmonary hypertension. Expression of ET1 in the lung has been studied by immunocytochemistry and hybridization in situ in specimens from patients with pulmonary hypertension of primary or secondary causes. In contrast to normal lung, specimens from patients with pulmonary hypertension exhibit abundant ET2 immunostaining, particularly over endothelium of markedly hypertrophied muscular pulmonary arteries and plexogenic lesions. Endothelin has been suggested as a potent vasoconstrictor and growth-promoting factor in the pathophysiologic pathophysiologic mechanisms of pulmonary hypertension.

Ventricular and vascular hypertrophy. Endothelin increases DNA synthesis in vascular smooth-muscle ceils, cardiomyocytes, fibroblasts, glial cells, mesangial cells, and other cells; causes expression of protooncogenes; causes cell proliferation; and causes hypertrophy. It acts in synergy with various factors such as transforming growth factor, epidermal growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, basic fibroblast growth factor and insulin to potentiate cellular transformation and replication. This synergy suggests that all of these factors act through common pathways involving PKC and cyclic adenosine monophosphate. Endothelin per se may not be a direct mediator of angiogenesis but may function as a comitogenic factor.

Neointima formation after vascular wall trauma. The efficacy of coronary angioplasty is limited by the high incidence of restenosis. ET1 induces cultured vascular smooth-muscle cell proliferation by activation of the ETA-receptor subtype, a response that normally is attenuated by an intact, functional endothelium. In addition, ET1 also induces the expression and release of several protooncogenes and growth factors that modulate smooth-muscle cell migration, proliferation, and matrix formulation. In addition to inhibiting smooth-muscle cell proliferation in vitro, endothelin-receptor antagonism with SB 209670 ameliorates the degree of neointima formation observed after rat carotid artery angioplasty. The observations raise the possibility that ET1 antagonists will serve as novel therapeutic agents in the control of restenosis.

Nonspecific endothelin antagonists
ECE inhibitorsAngiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitorsAngiotensin II receptor blocking agentsCalcium-entry blocking agentsPotassium-channel opening agentsAdenosineNitroglycerin

 

 

 

 

SUMMARY

Endothelin is the most potent mammalian vasoconstrictor yet discovered. Its three isoforms play leading roles in regulating vascular tone and causing mitogenesis. The isoforms bind to two major receptor subtypes (ETA and ETB), which mediate a wide variety of physiologic actions in several organ systems. Endothelin may also be a disease marker or an etiologic factor in ischemic heart disease, atherosclerosis, congestive heart failure, renal failure, myocardial and vascular wall hypertrophy, systemic hypertension, pulmonary hypertension, and subarachnoid hemorrhage. Specific and nonspecific receptor antagonists and ECE inhibitors that have been developed interfere with endothelin’s function. Many available cardiovascular therapeutic agents, such as angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors, calcium-entry blocking drugs, and nitroglycerin, also may interfere with endothelin release or may modify its activity. The endothelin antagonists have great potential as agents for use in the treatment of a wide spectrum of disease entities and as biologic probes for understanding the actions of endothelin in human beings.

Endothelin receptor antagonists

Sophie Motte, Kathleen McEntee, Robert Naeije
Pharmacology & Therapeutics 110 (2006) 386 – 414
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2005.08.012

Endothelin receptor antagonists (ERAs) have been developed to block the effects of endothelin-1 (ET-1) in a variety of cardiovascular conditions. ET-1 is a powerful vasoconstrictor with mitogenic or co-mitogenic properties, which acts through the stimulation of 2 subtypes of receptors [endothelin receptor subtype A (ETA) and endothelin receptor subtype B (ETB) receptors]. Endogenous ET-1 is involved in a variety of conditions including systemic and pulmonary hypertension (PH), congestive heart failure (CHF), vascular remodeling (restenosis, atherosclerosis), renal failure, cancer, and cerebrovascular disease. The first dual ETA/ETB receptor blocker, bosentan, has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Trials of endothelin receptor antagonists in heart failure have been completed with mixed results so far. Studies are ongoing on the effects of selective ETA antagonists or dual ETA/ETB antagonists in lung fibrosis, cancer, and subarachnoid hemorrhage. While non-peptidic ET-1 receptor antagonists suitable for oral intake with excellent bioavailability have become available, proven efficacy is limited to pulmonary hypertension, but it is possible that these agents might find a place in the treatment of several cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular diseases in the coming future.

Proposed mechanism by which ET-1 triggers vasoconstriction and vascular remodeling. Activation of G-protein-coupled endothelin receptors leads to stimulation of phospholipase C (PLC) which hydrolyses phosphatidyl inositol  biphosphate (PIP2) into inositol triphosphate (IP3) and diacylglycerol (DAG). DAG opens receptor-operated Ca++ channels (ROC) while IP3 induces Ca++ mobilization from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) and opens store-operated Ca++ channels (SOC) directly or indirectly by store depletion to further increase cytosolic Ca++. This Ca++ increase may also trigger Ca++ release from the SR through ryanodine receptors. Depolarization induced by the opening of non-selective cationic channels (NSCC) via ET-1 and Ca++-activated Cl[1] channels as well as by the inhibition of voltage-gated K+ channels (Kv), opens voltage-dependent Ca++ channels (VDCC) to further increase the Ca++ entry across the plasma membrane. The cytosolic Ca++ increase may also activate Na/H exchangers resulting in alkalinization of the cells and promoting Ca++ influx by activating the Na/Ca exchanger. In addition, the elevated cytosolic Ca++ concentrations and DAG activate the protein kinase C and thus promote cell cycle progression by the Ca++/calmodulin complex (Ca++/CaM) and induction of proto-oncogenes. The intracellular signaling cascade induced by activation of ETB receptor is similar to the ETA receptor one, in stimulating the activation of PLC, generating IP3 and DAG and mobilizing of calcium. However, the PLA2 is also activated via ETB receptors to release prostaglandins (PG) and thromboxane A2 (TXA2).

Endothelin-1 increases isoprenaline-enhanced cyclic AMP levels in cerebral cortex

Marıa J. Perez-Alvareza, MC Calcerrada, F Hernandez, RE Catalan, AM Martınez
Regulatory Peptides 88 (2000) 41–46  PII: S0167-0115(99)00118-4

We examined the effect of ET-1 on cyclic AMP levels in rat cerebral cortex. The peptide caused a concentration-dependent increase of [3 H] cyclic AMP accumulation after 10 min of treatment. This effect was due to adenosine accumulation since it was inhibited by the treatment with adenosine deaminase. ET-1, apart from being able to increase cyclic AMP, also potentiated the cyclic AMP generated by isoprenaline in the presence of adenosine deaminase. Experiments performed in the presence of BQ-123 or BQ-788, specific ETA or ETB receptor antagonists respectively indicated that ET was the receptor involved. This effect was dependent on extracellular and B intracellular calcium concentration. These findings suggest that ET-1 plays a modulatory role in cyclic AMP generation systems in cerebral cortex.

Endothelins And Asthma

Roy G. Goldie and Peter J. Henry
Life Sciences I999; 65(1), pp. I-15, PI1 SOO24-3205(98)00614-6

In the decade since endothelin-1 (ET-l) and related endogenous peptides were first identified as vascular endothelium-derived spasmogens, with potential pathophysiological roles in vascular diseases, there has been a significant accumulation of evidence pointing to mediator roles in obstructive respiratory diseases such as asthma. Critical pieces of evidence for this concept include the fact that ET-l is an extremely potent spasmogen in human and animal airway smooth muscle and that it is synthesised in and released from the bronchial epithelium. Importantly, symptomatic asthma involves a marked enhancement of these processes, whereas asthmatics treated with anti-inflammatory glucocorticoids exhibit reductions in these previously elevated indices. Despite this profile, a causal link between ET-l and asthma has not been definitively established. This review attempts to bring together some of the evidence suggesting the potential mediator roles for ET-l in this disease.

Endothelial Cell Peroxisome Proliferator–Activated Receptor ϒ Reduces Endotoxemic Pulmonary Inflammation and Injury

Aravind T. Reddy, SP Lakshmi, JM Kleinhenz, RL Sutliff, CM Hart, and R. Reddy
J Immunol 2012; 189:5411-5420
http://www.jimmunol.org/content/189/11/5411

Bacterial endotoxin (LPS)-mediated sepsis involves severe, dysregulated inflammation that injures the lungs and other organs Bacterial endotoxin (LPS)-mediated sepsis involves severe, dysregulated inflammation that injures the lungs and other organs, often fatally. Vascular endothelial cells are both key mediators and targets of LPS-induced inflammatory responses. The nuclear hormone receptor peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor ϒ (PPARϒ) exerts anti-inflammatory actions in various cells, but it is unknown whether it modulates inflammation through actions within endothelial cells. To determine whether PPARϒ acts within endothelial cells to diminish endotoxemic lung inflammation and injury, we measured inflammatory responses and mediators in mice with endothelial-targeted deletion of PPARϒ. Endothelial cell PPARϒ (ePPARϒ) knockout exacerbated LPS-induced pulmonary inflammation and injury as shown by several measures, including infiltration of inflammatory cells, edema, and production of reactive oxygen species and proinflammatory cytokines, along with upregulation of the LPS receptor TLR4 in lung tissue and increased activation of its downstream signaling pathways. In isolated LPS-stimulated endothelial cells in vitro, absence of PPARϒ enhanced the production of numerous inflammatory markers. We hypothesized that the observed in vivo activity of the ligand-activated ePPARϒ may arise, in part, from nitrated fatty acids (NFAs), a novel class of endogenous PPARϒ ligands.
Supporting this idea, we found that treating isolated endothelial cells with physiologically relevant concentrations of the endogenous NFA 10-nitro-oleate reduced LPS-induced expression of a wide range of inflammatory markers in the presence of PPARϒ, but not in its absence, and also inhibited neutrophil mobility in a PPARϒ-dependent manner. Our results demonstrate a key protective role of ePPARϒ against endotoxemic injury and a potential ePPARϒ-mediated anti-inflammatory role for NFAs.

Endothelins in health and disease

Rahman Shah
European Journal of Internal Medicine 18 (2007) 272–282
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.ejim.2007.04.002

Endothelins are powerful vasoconstrictor peptides that also play numerous other roles. The endothelin (ET) family consists of three peptides produced by a variety of tissues. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is the principal isoform produced by the endothelium in the human cardiovascular system, and it exerts its actions through binding to specific receptors, the so-called type A (ETA) and type B (ETB) receptors. ET-1 is primarily a locally acting paracrine substance that appears to contribute to the maintenance of basal vascular tone. It is also activated in several diseases, including congestive heart failure, arterial hypertension, atherosclerosis, endothelial dysfunction, coronary artery diseases, renal failure, cerebrovascular disease, pulmonary arterial hypertension, and sepsis. Thus, ET-1 antagonists are promising new agents. They have been shown to be effective in the management of primary pulmonary hypertension, but disappointing in heart failure. Clinical trials are needed to determine whether manipulation of the ET system will be beneficial in other diseases.

The production of ET receptors is affected by several factors. Hypoxia, cyclosporine, epidermal growth factor, basic fibroblast growth factor, cyclic AMP, and estrogen upregulate ETA receptors in some tissues, and C-type natriuretic hormone, angiotensin II, and perhaps basic fibroblast growth factor up-regulate ETB receptors. In contrast, the endothelins, angiotensin II, platelet-derived growth factor, and transforming growth factor down-regulate ETA receptors, whereas cyclic AMP and catecholamines down-regulate ETB receptors.

The ETA receptor contains 427 amino acids and binds with the following affinity: ET-1N>T-2>ET-3. It is predominantly expressed in vascular smooth muscle cells and cardiac myocytes. Its interaction with ET-1 results in vasoconstriction and cell proliferation. In contrast, the ETB receptor contains 442 amino acids and binds all endothelins with equal affinity. It is predominantly expressed on vascular endothelial cells and is linked to an inhibitory G protein. Activation of ETB receptors stimulates the release of NO and prostacyclin, prevents apoptosis, and inhibits ECE-1 expression in endothelial cells. ETB receptors also mediate the pulmonary clearance of circulating ET-1 and the re-uptake of ET-1 by endothelial cells.

All three endothelins cause transient endothelium dependent vasodilatation before the development of constriction, though this is most apparent for ET-1. Endothelins induce vasodilatation via the endothelial cell ETB receptors through generation of endothelium-derived dilator substances (Fig. 3), including nitric oxide (NO), which perhaps acts by physiologically antagonizing ETA receptor mediated vasoconstriction. The transient early vasodilator actions of the endothelins are attenuated by NO synthase inhibitors.  Additionally, ET-1 increases generation of prostacyclin by cultured endothelial cells, whereas cyclo-oxygenase inhibitors potentiate ET-1-induced constriction, suggesting that vasodilator prostaglandins play a similar modulatory role.

It has been proposed that ET-1 can affect vascular tone indirectly through its effect on the sympathetic nervous system, and it has been shown that that ET-1 may increase peripheral sympathetic activity through postsynaptic potentiation of the effects of norepinephrine. While in vitro low concentrations of ET-1 potentiate the effects of other vasoconstrictor hormones, including norepinephrine and serotonin, these findings have not been confirmed in vivo in the forearm resistance bed of healthy subjects.  In addition to its action on vascular vasomotion, ET-1 is thought to be a mediator in the vascular remodeling process. It seems that ET-1 interactions with the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system play a significant role in this remodeling process.

Vascular actions of endothelin-1

Vascular actions of endothelin-1

Vascular actions of endothelin-1. Modified from – Galie N, Manes A, Branzi A; The endothelin system in pulmonary arterial hypertension. Cardiovasc Res 2004;61:227–37.

ET-1 appears to have a diverse role as a modulator of vascular tone and growth and as a mediator in many cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular diseases. To date, no disease entity, however, has been attributed solely to an abnormality in ET-1. Yet, ET-1 receptor antagonists have been studied in clinical trials involving a wide spectrum of cardiovascular diseases, though the only proven efficacy has been in patients with PAH.

Learning points

  • Endothelins are powerful vasoconstrictors and major regulators of vascular tone.
  • The endothelin (ET) family consists of three peptides (ET-1 ∼60%, ET-2 ∼30%, and ET-3 ∼10%) produced by a variety of tissues.
  • ET-1 is the principal isoform produced by the endothelium in the human cardiovascular system and appears to be foremost a locally acting paracrine substance rather than a circulating endocrine hormone.
  • Several human studies suggest that circulating ET-1 levels, which are elevated in heart failure and pulmonary hypertension, correlate with the prognosis of the disease.
  • ET-1 antagonists have been shown to be effective in the management of primary pulmonary hypertension, but disappointing in heart failure.
  • Clinical trials are needed to investigate the role of ET-1 receptor antagonists for other conditions, as ET-1 levels have been shown to be elevated in arterial hypertension, atherosclerosis, endothelial dysfunction, coronary artery disease, renal failure, cerebrovascular disease, and sepsis.

In Vitro Stability and Intestinal Absorption Characteristics of Hexapeptide Endothelin Receptor Antagonists

Hyo-kyung Han, BH Stewart, AM Doherty, WL Cody and GL Amidon
Life Sciences. I998; 63(18), pp. 1599-1609. PI1 SOO24-3205(98)00429-9

Endothelins are potent vasoconstrictor peptides which have a wide range of tissue distribution and three receptor subtypes (ETA ETB and ETC). Among the linear hexapeptide ETA / ETB receptor antagonists, PD 145065 (Ac-D-Bhg-L-Leu-L-Asp-L-Ile-L-Ile-L-Trp,  Bhg = (10,ll -dihydro-5H-dibenzo[a,d]cyclohepten-5-yl)-Gly) and PD 156252 (Ac-o-Bhg-L-Leu-L-Asp-L-Ile-(N-methyl)-L-Ile-L-Trp) were selected to evaluate the metabolic stability and intestinal absorption in the absence and/or in the presence of protease inhibitors. In vitro stability of both compounds was investigated in fresh plasma, lumenal perfusate, intestinal and liver homogenates. PD 156252 was more stable than PD 145065 in intestinal tissue homogenate (63.4% vs. 20.5% remaining) and liver homogenate (74.4% vs. 35.5 % remaining), while both compounds showed relatively good stability in the fresh plasma (94.5% vs. 86.7% remaining) and lumenal perfusate (85.8% vs. 72.3% remaining). The effect of protease inhibitors on the degradation of PD 145065 and PD 156252 was also investigated. Amastatin, thiorphan, chymostatin and the mixture of these three inhibitors were effective in reducing the degradation of both compounds. The pharmacokinetic parameters of PD 156252, calculated by using a non-compartmental model, were 6.95 min (terminal half-life), 191 mL (Vss), and 25.5 mL/min (Cltot) after intravenous administration in rats. The intestinal absorption of PD 156252 in rats was evaluated in the absence and/or in the presence of protease inhibitors. The results indicate that the major elimination pathway of PD 156252 appears to be the biliary excretion and protease inhibitors increase the intestinal absorption of PD 156252 through increasing metabolic stability.

Inhibitory and facilitatory presynaptic effects of endothelin on sympathetic cotransmission in the rat isolated tail artery

Violeta N. Mutafova-Yambolieva & David P. Westfall
British Journal of Pharmacology (1998) 123, 136 – 142

1 The present study was undertaken to determine the modulatory effects of the endothelin peptides on the neurogenically-induced release of endogenous noradrenaline (NA) and the cotransmitter adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP) from the sympathetic nerves of endothelium-free segments of the rat isolated tail artery. The electrical field stimulation (EFS, 8 Hz, 0.5 ms, 3 min) evoked over¯ow of NA and ATP, in the absence of endothelins, was 0.035+0.002 pmol mg71 tissue and 0.026+0.002 pmol mg71 tissue, respectively.

2 Endothelin-1 (ET-1; 1 ± 30 nM) significantly reduced the EFS evoked overflow of both NA and ATP.  The maximum inhibitory effect was produced by a peptide concentration of 10 nM, the amount of NA overflow being 0.020+0.002 pmol mg71 and that of ATP overflow 0.015+0.001 pmol mg71. Higher peptide concentrations (100 and 300 nM) reversed the EFS-evoked overflow of NA to control levels and that of ATP to above control levels. The inhibitory effect of ET-1 (10 nM) was resistant to the selective ETA receptor antagonist cyclo-D-Trp-D-Asp(ONa)-Pro-D-Val-Leu (BQ-123) but was prevented by ETB receptor desensitization with sarafotoxin S6c (StxS6c) or by ETB receptor blockade with N, cis-2,6-dimethyl-piperidinocarbonyl-L-gmethylleucyl-D-1-methoxycarbonyl-tryptophanyl-D-norleucine (BQ-788).

3 StxS6c, upon acute application, exerted a dual effect on transmitter release. At concentrations of 0.001 ± 0.3 nM the peptide significantly reduced the EFS-evoked NA overflow, whereas at concentrations of 1 ± 10 nM it caused a significant increase in the evoked overflow of both ATP and NA. Both the maximum inhibitory effect of StxS6c at a concentration of 0.003 nM approximately 85% reduction of NA overflow and 40% of ATP overflow) and the maximum facilitatory effect of the peptide at a concentration of 3 nM (approximately 400% increase of ATP overflow and 200% of NA overflow) were completely antagonized by either BQ-788 or by StxS6c-induced ETB receptor desensitization.

4 ET-3 (10 ± 100 nM) did not a€ect the EFS evoked overflow of either ATP or NA, but at a concentration of 300 nM significantly potentiated the release of both transmitters (0.118+ 0.02 pmol mg71 tissue ATP overflow and .077+0.004 pmol mg71 NA overflow). This effect was prevented either by BQ-123 or by BQ-788.

5 In summary, the endothelin peptides exerted both facilitatory and inhibitory effects on the neurogenically-induced release of the sympathetic cotransmitters ATP and NA in the rat tail artery. Both transmitters were modulated in parallel indicating that the endothelins do not differentially modulate the release of NA and ATP in this tissue.

Involvement of the central adrenomedullin peptides in the baroreflex

Meghan M. Taylo, Cynthia A. Keown, Willis K. Samson
Regulatory Peptides 112 (2003) 87– 93
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/S0167-0115(03)00026-0

The peptides derived from post-translational processing of preproadreno-medullin are produced in and act on areas of the autonomic nervous system important for blood pressure regulation. We examined the role of endogenous, brain-derived adrenomedullin (AM) and proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP) in the central nervous system arm of the baroreflex by using passive immunoneutralization to block the actions of the endogenous peptides. Our results indicate that the preproadrenomedullin-derived peptides do not play a role in sensing changes in blood pressure (baroreflex sensitivity), but the adrenomedullin peptides do regulate the speed with which an animal returns to a normal, stable blood pressure. These findings suggest that endogenous, brain-derived AM and PAMP participate in the regulation of autonomic activity in response to baroreceptor activation and inactivation.

Pharmacological characterization of cardiovascular responses induced by endothelin-1 in the perfused rat heart

Keiji Kusumoto, A Fujiwara, S Ikeda, T Watanabe, M Fujino
Eur J Pharmacology 296 (1996) 65-74 SSDI 0014-2999(95)00680-X

The effects of the endothelin receptor antagonist TAK-044 (cyclo[D-α-aspartyl-3-[(4-phenylpiperazin-l-yl)carbonyl]-L-alanyl-L-α-aspartyl-D-2-(2-thienyl)-glycyl-L-leucyl-D-tryptophyl] disodium salt) and BQ-123 (cyclo[D-Asp-Pro-D-VaI-Leu-D-Trp]) were studied in the rat heart to characterize the receptor subtypes responsible for the cardiovascular actions of endothelin-1. Endothelin-1 induced a transient decrease and subsequent increase in perfusion pressure in perfused rat hearts, and increased left ventricular developed pressure. TAK-044 diminished these endothelin-l-induced responses (100 pmol/heart) with IC50 values of 140, 57 and 1.3 nM, respectively. BQ-123 (1-30/µM) partially inhibited the endothelin-l-induced hypertension (30-40%) in the rat heart, and failed to inhibit the hypotension. The positive inotropic effect of endothelin-1 was abolished by BQ-123. Neither indomethacin (10/µM) nor N’°-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (100/pM) attenuated the  endothelin-l-induced hypotension. TAK-044 and BQ-123 attenuated the positive inotropic effect of endothelin-1 in rat papillary muscles. In rat cardiac membrane fractions, TAK-044 and BQ-123 inhibited [125I]endothelin-1 binding to endothelin ET A receptors with IC50 values of 0.39 + 0.6 and 36 + 9 nM, respectively, whereas only TAK-044 potently blocked the endothelin ET B receptor subtype (IC50 value: 370 + 180 nM). These results suggest that endothelin-1 modulates cardiovascular functions in the rat heart by activating both endothelin ET A and endothelin ET B receptors, all of which are sensitive to TAK-044.

Molecular Pharmacology and Pathophysiological Significance of Endothelin

Katsutoshi Goto, Hiroshi Hama and Yoshitoshi Kasuya
Jp J Pharmacol 1996; 72: 261-290

Since the discovery of the most potent vasoconstrictor peptide, endothelin, in 1988, explosive investigations have rapidly clarified much of the basic pharmacological, biochemical and molecular biological features of endothelin, including the presence and structure of isopeptides and their genes (endothelin- 1, -2 and -3), regulation of gene expression, intracellular processing, specific endothelia converting enzyme (ECE), receptor subtypes (ETA and ETB), intracellular signal transduction following receptor activation, etc. ECE was recently cloned, and its structure was shown to be a single transmembrane protein with a short intracellular N-terminal and a long extracellular C-terminal that contains the catalytic domain and numerous N-glycosylation sites. In addition to acute contractile or secretory actions, endothelin has been shown to exert long-term proliferative actions on many cell types. In this case, intracellular signal transduction appears to converge to activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase. As a recent dramatic advance, a number of non-peptide and orally active receptor antagonists have been developed. They, as well as current peptide antagonists, markedly accelerated the pace of investigations into the true pathophysiological roles of endogenous endothelin-1 in mature animals.

The discovery of endothelin in 1988 soon triggered explosive investigations of a worldwide scale, presumably due to its unusual characteristics; i.e., marked potency and long-lasting pressor actions. As a result, most of the basic problems concerned with the science of endothelin have rapidly been solved; e.g., features and regulations of the expression of endothelin genes,  biosynthetic pathways including characterization and cloning of endothelin converting enzyme, pharmacological, biochemical and molecular-biological identification of endothelin receptor subtypes, intracellular signal transduction following receptor activation, and discovery of various receptor agonists and antagonists. In addition to its potent cardiovascular actions, endothelin-1 shows a wide variety of biological effects, including contraction of nonvascular smooth muscle (intestinal, tracheal, broncheal, mesangial, bladder, uterine and prostatic smooth muscle), stimulation of neuropeptides, pituitary hormone and atrial natriuretic peptide release and aldosterone biosynthesis, modulation of neurotransmitter release, and increase of bone resorption. Furthermore, endothelin-1 has mitogenic properties and causes proliferation and hypertrophy of a number of cell types, including vascular smooth muscle cells, cardiac myocytes, mesangial cells, bronchial smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts. Endothelin-1 also induces the expression of several protooncogenes (c fos, C -Jun, c-myc, etc.).

These actions, whereby endothelin- 1 might influence the development of cellular hypertrophy/hyperplasia, are of potential significance in pathophysiological conditions associated with long-term changes in cardiovascular tissues, e.g., hypertension, myocardial infarction, chronic heart failure, vascular restenosis following balloon angioplasty, and atherosclerosis. These pathophysiological conditions are usually associated with increased plasma levels of endothelin-1, although the correlation is relatively poor. Nevertheless, a considerable increase in the tissue content of endothelin-1 has been gradually uncovered in many cases of these conditions. Even if the concentration of endothelin-1 at the cell surface is not high enough to induce contraction, it is well known that subthreshold concentrations of endothelin will enhance or potentiate the contraction produced by other vasoconstrictors (e.g., norepinephrine, serotonin, angiotensin II), indicating the existence of cross-talk among various vasoactive substances. Another important cross-talk among these substances may be mutual enhancement or inhibition of their expression in various tissues. In addition to these interactions, the true physiological and/or pathophysiological roles of each of the endothelin family peptide and receptor subtypes remain to be investigated.

Hydrogen Sulfide and Endothelium-Dependent Vasorelaxation

Jerzy Bełtowski, and Anna Jamroz-Wiśniewska
Molecules 2014, 19, 21183-21199; http://dx.doi.org:/10.3390/molecules191221183

In addition to nitric oxide and carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), synthesized enzymatically from L-cysteine or L-homocysteine, is the third gasotransmitter in mammals. Endogenous H2S is involved in the regulation of many physiological processes, including vascular tone. Although initially it was suggested that in the vascular wall H2S is synthesized only by smooth muscle cells and relaxes them by activating ATP-sensitive potassium channels, more recent studies indicate that H2S is synthesized in endothelial cells as well. Endothelial H2S production is stimulated by many factors, including acetylcholine, shear stress, adipose tissue hormone leptin, estrogens and plant flavonoids. In some vascular preparations H2S plays a role of endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor by activating small and intermediate-conductance calcium-activated potassium channels. Endothelial H2S signaling is up-regulated in some pathologies, such as obesity and cerebral ischemia-reperfusion. In addition, H2S activates endothelial NO synthase and inhibits cGMP degradation by phosphodiesterase thus potentiating the effect of NO-cGMP pathway. Moreover, H2S-derived polysulfides directly activate protein kinase G. Finally, H2S interacts with NO to form nitroxyl (HNO)—a potent vasorelaxant. H2S appears to play an important and multidimensional role in endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation.

GPCR modulation by RAMPs

Debbie L. Hay, David R. Poyner, Patrick M. Sexton
Pharmacology & Therapeutics 109 (2006) 173 – 197
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2005.06.015

Our conceptual understanding of the molecular architecture of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) has transformed over the last decade. Once considered as largely independent functional units (aside from their interaction with the G-protein itself), it is now clear that a single GPCR is but part of a multifaceted signaling complex, each component providing an additional layer of sophistication. Receptor activity modifying proteins (RAMPs) provide a notable example of proteins that interact with GPCRs to modify their function. They act as pharmacological switches, modifying GPCR pharmacology for a particular subset of receptors. However, there is accumulating evidence that these ubiquitous proteins have a broader role, regulating signaling and receptor trafficking. This article aims to provide the reader with a comprehensive appraisal of RAMP literature and perhaps some insight into
the impact that their discovery has had on those who study GPCRs.

RAMPs were first identified during attempts to expression clone a receptor for the neuropeptide calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP; McLatchie et al., 1998). Historical evidence had suggested that CGRP acted through a GPCR, as its binding had proven sensitive to GTP analogues and stimulation of various tissues and cells led to the accumulation of cAMP, suggesting activation of a Gs-coupled GPCR. However, attempts to clone such a receptor proved difficult. A putative canine CGRP receptor, RDC-1, was identified in 1995, but the original findings have not been replicated and current IUPHAR guidelines do not consider this receptor a genuine CGRP receptor (Kapas & Clark, 1995; Poyner et al., 2002). Shortly afterward, a further orphan receptor (CL, a close homologue of the calcitonin receptor) was shown to be activated by CGRP when transfected into HEK293 cells (Aiyar et al., 1996). This finding posed something of a conundrum since earlier attempts to examine the function of this receptor (or its rat homologue) in Cos 7 cells had not given positive results with CGRP.
Given the apparent functionality of the human CL receptor in HEK293 cells, the rat homologue was also transfected into this cell type and now responded to CGRP (Han et al., 1997). The authors speculated that there was a factor present in HEK293 cells that conferred high affinity for CGRP on the receptor.

In 1998, McLatchie and colleagues confirmed this speculation and provided new insights into the way that GPCRs and their pharmacology can be regulated (McLatchie et al., 1998). It was discovered that a novel family of single transmembrane domain proteins, termed RAMPs, was required for functional expression of CL at the cell surface, explaining why it had been so difficult to observe CGRP binding or function when CL was transfected into cells lacking RAMP expression (Fluhmann et al., 1995; Han et al., 1997; McLatchie et al., 1998). RAMPs were first identified from a library derived from SK-N-MC cells, cells known to express CGRP receptors. An expression-cloning strategy was utilized, whereby an SK-N-MC cDNA library was transcribed and the corresponding cRNA was used for injection into Xenopus oocytes. Cystic
fibrosis transmembrane regulator chloride conductance, a reporter for cAMP formation, was strongly potentiated by a single cRNA pool (in the presence of CGRP). Subsequently, a single cDNA encoding a 148-amino-acid protein comprising RAMP1 was isolated. The structure of the protein was unexpected, as it was not a GPCR and it did not respond to CGRP in mammalian cells. Thus, it was postulated that RAMP1 might potentiate CGRP receptors. A CL/RAMP1 co-transfection experiment supported this hypothesis.

CGRP/AM on the outside of the cell and did not simply act as anchoring/chaperone proteins for CL. RAMPs therefore provide a novel mechanism for modulating receptor–ligand specificity. The unique pharmacological profiles supported by RAMPs are discussed in later sections.

Fig. (not shown).  CGRP1 receptor-specific small molecule antagonists. The small molecule antagonist BIBN4096 BS (brown) is a specific antagonist of the CGRP1 receptor, acting at the interface between RAMP1 and the CL receptor to inhibit CGRP action. At least part of the binding affinity for BIBN4096 BS arises from interaction with Trp74 (red) of RAMP1. In contrast, antagonists that bind principally to the CL component of the complex will not discriminate between different CL/RAMP complexes.

The classic function attributed to RAMPs is their ability to switch the pharmacology of CL, thus providing a novel mechanism for modulating receptor specificity. Thus, the CL/RAMP1 complex is a high affinity CGRP receptor, but in the presence of RAMP2, CL specificity is radically altered, the related peptide AM being recognized with the highest affinity and the affinity for CGRP being reduced ¨100-fold. While AM is the highest affinity peptide, CGRP is recognized with moderate, rather than low affinity. Indeed, depending on the species and the form of CGRP (h vs. a), the separation between the 2 peptides can be as little as 10-fold (Hay et al., 2003a). This may particularly be true if receptor components of mixed species are used. The detailed pharmacology of the CGRP and AM receptors formed by RAMP interaction with CL has recently been reviewed (Born et al., 2002; Poyner et al., 2002; Hay et al., 2004; Kuwasako et al., 2004).

Fig. (not shown). The broadening spectrum of RAMP–receptor interactions. RAMPs can interact with multiple receptor partners. All RAMPs interact with the calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CL-R), the calcitonin receptor (CTR), and the VPAC1 receptor, while the glucagon and PTH1 receptors interact with RAMP2, the PTH2 receptor with RAMP3, and the calcium sensing receptor (CalS-R) with RAMP1 or RAMP3. The consequence of RAMP interaction varies. For the CL and CalS receptors, RAMPs play a chaperone role, allowing cell surface expression. For the CL and calcitonin receptors, RAMP interaction leads to novel receptor binding phenotypes . There is also evidence that RAMP interaction will modify signaling, and this has been seen for the VPAC1–RAMP2 heterodimer and for calcitonin receptor/RAMP complexes. In many instances, however, the consequence of RAMP interaction has yet to be defined.

Overall, the distribution data presented so far are supportive of the hypothesis that RAMP and CL or calcitonin receptor combinations are able to account for the observed CGRP, AM, and AMY pharmacology. A salient point for CGRP receptors relates to the cerebellum, where the lack of CL mRNA in some studies despite abundant CGRP binding has prompted speculation of alternative CGRP receptors (Oliver et al., 2001; Chauhan et al., 2003). Nevertheless, this apparent lack is study dependent and CL has been identified in cerebellum in other studies.

Some consideration has been given to the potential role that RAMPs may have in modifying receptor behaviors other than ligand binding pharmacology. An additional functional consequence might be that of alteration of receptor signaling characteristics.

While there is currently little evidence for signaling modifications of CL-based receptors in association with RAMPs, a completely different paradigm is evident for the VPAC1 receptor. This receptor has strong interactions with all 3 RAMPs, but its pharmacology, in terms of agonist binding, does not appear to be modified by their presence. On the other hand, there was a clear functional consequence of RAMP2 overexpression with the VPAC1 receptor where PI hydrolysis was specifically augmented relative to cAMP, which did not change. The potency of the response (EC50 of vasoactive intestinal peptide) was not altered, but the maximal PI hydrolysis response was elevated in the presence of RAMP2 . It has been suggested that this may reflect a change in compartmentalization of the receptor signaling complex. Such augmentation was not evident for the interaction of the VPAC1 receptor with RAMP1 or RAMP3; in these cases, the outcome of heterodimerization may be more subtle or involve the modification of different receptor parameters such as trafficking.

RAMPs transformed our understanding of how receptor pharmacology can be modulated and provided a novel mechanism for generating receptor subtypes within a subset of family B GPCRs. Their role has now broadened and they have been shown to interact with several other family B GPCRs, in 1 case modifying signaling parameters. There is now evidence to suggest that their interactions also reach into family C, and possibly family A, GPCRs, indicating that their function may not be restricted to modulation of a highly specific subset of receptors. Indeed, many aspects of RAMP function remain poorly understood, and the full extent of their action remains to be explored.

Receptor activity modifying proteins

Patrick M. Sexton, Anthony Albiston, Maria Morfis, Nanda Tilakaratne
Cellular Signalling 13 (2001) 73-83  PII: S0898-6568(00)00143-1

Our understanding of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) function has recently expanded to encompass novel protein interactions that underlie both cell-surface receptor expression and the exhibited phenotype. The most notable examples are those involving receptor activity modifying proteins (RAMPs). RAMP association with the calcitonin (CT) receptor-like receptor (CRLR) traffics this receptor to the cell surface where individual RAMPs dictate the expression of unique phenotypes. A similar function has been ascribed to RAMP interaction with the CT receptor (CTR) gene product. This review examines
our current state of knowledge of the mechanisms underlying RAMP function.

It is now evident that RAMPs can interact with receptors other than CRLR. Expression of amylin receptor phenotypes requires the coexpression of
RAMPs with the CTR gene product. However, as seen in CRLR, the phenotype engendered by individual RAMPs was distinct. In COS-7 or rabbit aortic endothelial cells (RAECs), RAMP1 and RAMP3 induced amylin receptors that differ in their affinity for CGRP, while RAMP2 was relatively ineffective in inducing amylin receptor phenotype. RAMP2 can also induce an amylin receptor phenotype, which is distinct from either the RAMP1- or RAMP3-induced receptors. However, the efficacy of RAMP2 was highly dependent upon the cellular background and the isoform of CTR used in the study.

In humans, the major CTR variants differ by the presence or absence of a 16 amino acid insert in the first intracellular domain, with the insert negative isoform (hCTRI1ÿ) being the most commonly expressed form and the variant used for initial studies with RAMPs. Unlike hCTRI1ÿ, cotransfection of the hCTRI1+ variant with any of the RAMPs into COS-7 cells caused strong induction of amylin receptor phenotype. The hCTR isoforms differ in their ability to activate signaling pathways (presumably due to an effect on G protein coupling) and to internalize in response to agonist treatment, which may suggest a role for G proteins in the ability of RAMPs to alter receptor phenotype.

There are at least three potential consequences of RAMP interaction with its associating receptors. The first is trafficking of receptor protein from an intracellular compartment to the cell surface. The second is an alteration in
the terminal glycosylation of the receptor, and the third is alteration of receptor phenotype, presumably through a direct or indirect effect on the ligand-binding site.

potential actions of RAMPs

potential actions of RAMPs

Schematic diagram illustrating potential actions of RAMPs. (A) RAMPs facilitate the trafficking of CRLR from an intracellular compartment to the cell surface. (B) RAMP1 (but not RAMP2 or RAMP3) modifies the terminal glycosylation
of CRLR. (C) The cell surface RAMP1±CRLR complex is a Type 1 CGRP receptor, which displays a 1:1 stoichiometry. (D,E) Cell surface RAMP2±CRLR and  RAMP3±CRLR complexes are adrenomedullin receptors. (F,G) For at least RAMP1 and RAMP3, RAMPs form stable homodimers, although the function
of these complexes is unknown. (H) Unlike CRLR, the CTR gene product is trafficked to the cell surface in the absence of RAMPs, where it displays classical CTR phenotype. (I,J) RAMP1± and RAMP3±CTR complexes form distinct amylin receptors. RAMP2 can also generate a separate amylin receptor phenotype (not illustrated). (C ±E,I,J) RAMPs are trafficked with either receptor to the plasma membrane. (K) For all three RAMP±CRLR complexes, agonist treatment causes clathrin-mediated internalization of both CRLR and RAMP.
(L) The majority of the internalized complex is targeted to the lysosomal-degradation pathway.

The data from Zumpe et al. suggest that RAMP2 interacts more weakly with the hCTRI1ÿ than RAMP1, and that the affinity of this interaction derives principally from the transmembrane domain/C-terminus (Ct) of the RAMPs. As RAMP3 induces an amylin receptor phenotype in COS-7 cells where RAMP2 is relatively weak, it is inferred that RAMP3 interaction with the hCTRI1ÿ is probably greater than that of RAMP2. Nonetheless, this has not been examined empirically. Given the recent data suggesting a potential role for G protein coupling in expression of RAMP-induced phenotype, it is also possible that the strength of RAMP interaction is, at least partially, dictated by receptor-G protein or RAMP-G protein interaction.

The discovery of RAMPs has led to a greater understanding of the nature of receptor diversity. However, although much progress has been made into elucidating the molecular mechanism of RAMP action, emerging data continue to open up new areas for investigation. These include identification of other RAMP-interacting receptors, understanding of the role of specific G proteins in RAMP-receptor function and the potential importance of RAMP regulation in disease progression. It also seems likely that the RAMP-receptor interface can provide a useful target for future drug development.

Cardiovascular endothelins: Essential regulators of cardiovascular homeostasis

Friedrich Brunner, C Bras-Silva, AS Cerdeira, AF Leite-Moreira
Pharmacology & Therapeutics 111 (2006) 508 – 531
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2005.11.001

The endothelin (ET) system consists of 3 ET isopeptides, several isoforms of activating peptidases, and 2 G-protein-coupled receptors, ETA and ETB, that are linked to multiple signaling pathways. In the cardiovascular system, the components of the ET family are expressed in several tissues, notably the vascular endothelium, smooth muscle cells, and cardiomyocytes. There is general agreement that ETs play important physiological roles in the regulation of normal cardiovascular function, and excessive generation of ET isopeptides has been linked to major cardiovascular pathologies, including hypertension and heart failure. However, several recent clinical trials with ET receptor antagonists were disappointing.

In the present review, the authors take the stance that ETs are mainly and foremost essential regulators of cardiovascular function, hence that antagonizing normal ET actions, even in patients, will potentially do more harm than good. To support this notion, we describe the predominant roles of ETs in blood vessels, which are (indirect) vasodilatation and ET clearance from plasma and interstitial spaces, against the background of the subcellular mechanisms mediating these effects. Furthermore, important roles of ETs in regulating and adapting heart functions to different needs are addressed, including recent progress in understanding the effects of ETs on diastolic function, adaptations to changes in preload, and the interactions between endocardial-derived ET-1 and myocardial pump function. Finally, the potential dangers (and gains) resulting from the suppression of excessive generation or activity of ETs occurring in some cardiovascular pathological states, such as hypertension, myocardial ischemia, and heart failure, are discussed.

Figure (not shown):  Synthesis of ET and its regulation. The release of active ET-1 is controlled via regulation of gene transcription and/or endothelin converting enzyme activity. ET-1 synthesis is stimulated by several factors, of which hypoxia seems to be the most potent in humans (see text). ET-1 formation is down-regulated by activators of the NO/cGMP pathway and other factors.

Figure (not shown): Vascular actions of ET. In healthy blood vessels, the main action of ET-1 is indirect vasodilatation mediated by ETB receptors located on endothelial cells. Their activation generates a Ca2+ signal via PLC that turns on the generation of NO, prostacyclin, adrenomedullin, and other mediators that are powerful relaxants of smooth muscle. On the other hand, binding of ET-1 to ETA receptors located on smooth muscle cells will lead to vascular contraction (physiological effect) and/or wall thickening, inflammation, and tissue remodeling (pathological effects). These latter effects may partly be mediated by vascular ETB2 receptors in certain disease states. Smooth muscle cell signaling involves DAG formation, PKC activation, and extracellular Ca2+ recruited via different cation channels. The specificity of the cellular response resides at the level of G proteins, that is, G-as or G-aq in the case of ETA, G-ai or G-aq for ETB.

signal transduction mechanisms involved in ET-1-mediated positive (left) and negative (right) inotropic effects

signal transduction mechanisms involved in ET-1-mediated positive (left) and negative (right) inotropic effects

Summary of proposed signal transduction mechanisms involved in ET-1-mediated positive (left) and negative (right) inotropic effects. Left: Stimulation of ETA receptors causes Gq protein-directed activation of PLC, formation of IP3 and DAG, and activation of NHE-1. Increased contractile force is the result of (i) Ca2+ release from the sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum, (ii) sensitization of cardiac myofilaments to Ca2+ due to cellular alkalosis, and (iii) increased Ca2+ influx through the NCX operating in reverse mode. The contribution of voltage-gated L-type Ca2+ channels to the systolic Ca2+ transient is unknown, as is the role of myocyte ETB2 receptors. Right: The ET receptor subtypes mediating negative inotropic effects are poorly known. Two main signaling mechanisms involve (i) inhibition of adenylyl cyclase (AC), guided by a G protein, of unknown binding preference, which results in decreased levels of cAMP; (ii) cGMP-mediated activation of phosphatases that dephosphorylate putative targets resulting from cAMP/protein kinase A (PKA) activation. Other kinases like PKC and PKG have also been implicated in accentuated force antagonism.

Adrenomedullin (11–26): a novel endogenous hypertensive peptide isolated from bovine adrenal medulla

Kazuo Kitamuraa,*, Eizaburo Matsuia, Jhoji Katoa, Fumi Katoha
Peptides 22 (2001) 1713–1718 PII: S0196-9781(01)00529-0

Adrenomedullin (AM) is a potent hypotensive peptide originally isolated from pheochromocytoma tissue. Both the ring structure and the C-terminal amide structure of AM are essential for its hypotensive activity. We have developed an RIA which recognizes the ring structure of human AM. Using this RIA, we have characterized the molecular form of AM in bovine adrenal medulla. Gel filtration chromatography revealed that three major peaks of immunoreactive AM existed in the adrenal medulla. The peptide corresponding to Mr 1500 Da was further purified to homogeneity. The peptide was determined to be AM (11–26) which has one intramolecular disulfide bond. Amino acid sequences of bovine AM and its precursor were deduced from the analyses of cDNA encoding bovine AM precursor. The synthetic AM (11–26) produced dose-dependent strong pressor responses in unanesthetized rats in vivo. The hypertensive activity lasted about one minute, and a dose dependent increase in heart rate was also observed. The present data indicate that AM (11–26) is a major component of immunoreactive AM in bovine adrenal medulla and shows pressor activity.

The pressor effect of AM(11–26) was examined by methods similar to those reported for Neuropeptide Y.

We have established a sensitive RIA system using a monoclonal antibody which recognizes the ring structure of human AM. Human AM antiserum recognized the peptide with high affinity at a final dilution of 1:2,800,000. The half maximal inhibition of radioiodinated ligand binding by human AM was observed at 10 fmol/tube. From 1 to 128 fmol/tube of AM was measurable by this RIA system. The intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variance were less than 6% and 9%, respectively. This RIA had 100% cross-reactivity with human AM(13–31), (1–25), (1–52)Gly and AM(1–52)CONH2, but less than 1% cross-reactivity with rat AM.

Sephadex G-50 gel-filtration of strongly basic peptide extract (SP-III) in bovine adrenal medulla identified three major peaks of immunoreactive AM. One emerged at the identical position of authentic AM, the other two unknown peaks were eluted later at molecular weights estimated to be 3000 and 1500 Da, respectively. The peptide corresponding to Mr 1500 Da was further purified.

The purified peptide (20 pmol) was subjected to a gas phase sequencer, and the amino acid sequence was determined up to the 16th residue, which was found to be C terminus . It was found that the purified peptide was AM (11–26). The structure of AM (11–26) was confirmed by chromatographic comparison with native AM (11–26) as well as a synthetic AM (11–26), which has one intramolecular disulfide bond.

3 clones were isolated, and the clone designated pBAM-2, which harbored the longest insert of 1,438 base, was used for sequencing. The bovine AM cDNA contained a single open reading frame encoding a putative 188 amino acid polypeptide. The first 21-residue peptide is thought to be a signal peptide. The bovine AM propeptide contains three signals of dibasic amino acid sequences, Lys-Arg or Arg-Arg. The first Lys-Arg followed proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP) sequences. AM is located between the second signal of Lys-Arg and the third signal of Arg-Arg. Gly residues, which are donors of C-terminal amide structure of PAMP and AM, are found before the first and third signal of Lys-Arg and Arg-Arg. Bovine AM consists of 52 amino acids and is identical to human AM with exception of four amino acids. Bovine PAMP consists of 20 amino acids and is identical to human PAMP with exception of one amino acid. The present cDNA sequence encoding bovine AM precursor is almost identical to those of the reported AM cDNA sequences from bovine aortic endothelial cells. However, a difference in one amino acid was found in the sequences of signal peptide. In addition, three different residues of nucleotides were found in the noncoding region of cDNA encoding bovine preproadreno-medullin.

AM(11–26) elicited a potent hypertensive effects in unanesthetized rats.
When AM(11–26) at 20 nmol/kg was injected i.v., the maximum increase of mean blood pressure was 50  7.1 mmHg. Similarly, the synthetic AM(11–26) produced dose-dependent strong pressor responses in unanesthetized rats in vivo. (Blood pressure increase; F(3, 20 = 13.845, P < 0.0001). Injection of saline did not affects blood pressure and heart rate. The hypertensive activity lasted about 70 s, and a dose dependent increase of heart rate was also observed (Heart rate increase; F(3, 20) = 6.151, P = 0.0039).

We have isolated and characterized bovine AM(11–26) from bovine adrenal medulla as an endogenous peptide. The hallmark biological effects of AM are vasodilation and hypotensive effects in the vascular systems of most species. The mature form of AM has one ring structure formed by an intramolecular disulfide bond and a C terminal amide structure, both of which are essential for the hypotensive and other biological activities of AM. Watanabe et al. reported that the synthetic N-terminal fragment of human AM, AM (1–25)COOH and other related peptides, show vasopressor activity in anesthetized rats. The present purification and characterization of AM(11–26) indicate that the ring structure of AM may function as a biologically active endogenous peptide. The peptide corresponding to Mr 1,500 Da was further purified to homogeneity.

The purified peptide was found to be AM(11–26) which has one intramolecular disulfide bond. The structure of AM(11–26) was confirmed by chromatographic comparison with native AM(11–26) as well as a synthetic specimen which was prepared according to the determined sequence. The structure of bovine AM and related peptides were determined by cDNA analysis encoding bovine AM. Bovine AM consists of 52 amino acids whose sequence is identical to the human sequences with the exception of four amino acids. Furthermore, according to the cDNA analysis and chromatographic comparison of the synthetic AM(11–26) and purified AM, is now determined to be cystine. It should be noted that the structure of bovine AM(11–26) is identical to human AM(11–26).

It is well known that many peptide hormones and neuropeptides are processed from larger, biologically inactive precursors by the specific processing enzyme. It usually recognizes pairs of basic amino acids, processing signals, such as primarily Lys-Arg and Arg-Arg. AM (11–26) is not flanked by such a processing signal, but it was reproducibly observed in bovine adrenal medulla peptide extract. The molar ratio of AM(11–26)/AM was estimated to be 40%. The ratio varied from 5% to 50% according to the individual specimen, but the minor peak corresponding to 1,500 Da was reproducibly observed, suggesting that AM(11–26) is an endogenous peptide. It is likely that AM(11–26) is biosynthesized from AM or AM precursor by a specific enzyme.

In contrast to AM, synthetic bovine AM(11–26) caused potent hypertensive effects in unanesthetized rats. The hypertensive activity of AM(11–26) seems to be comparable to that of AM(1–25) as reported by Watanabe et al.  It was unexpected that AM(11–26) would cause a dose dependent increase of heart rate in unanesthetized rats because vasopressor activity normally causes bradycardia through baroreceptor activation. The hypertensive mechanism is not fully understood, but it has been reported that the vasopressor effect of AM(1–25) might be caused by the release of endogenous catecholamine. We speculate that the released catecholamine counters the baroreceptor function resulting in an increased heart rate and blood pressure. It is possible that AM(11–26) participates in blood pressure control as an endogenous peptide.

A review of the biological properties and clinical implications of adrenomedullin and proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP), hypotensive and vasodilating peptides.

Tanenao Eto
Peptides 22 (2001) 1693–1711 PII: S0196-9781(01)00513-7

Adrenomedullin (AM), identified from pheochromocytoma and having 52 amino acids, elicits a long-lasting vasodilatation and diuresis. AM is mainly mediated by the intracellular adenylate cyclase coupled with cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and nitric oxide (NO) -cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) pathway through its specific receptor. The calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CLCR) and receptor-activity modifying protein (RAMP) 2 or RAMP3 models have been proposed as the candidate receptor. AM is produced mainly in cardiovascular tissues in response to stimuli such as shear stress and stretch, hormonal factors and cytokines. Recently established AM knockout mice lines revealed that AM is essential for development of vitelline vessels of embryo. Plasma AM levels elevate in cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure, hypertension and septic shock, where AM may play protective roles through its characteristic biological activities. Human AM gene delivery improves hypertension, renal function, cardiac hypertrophy and nephrosclerosis in the hypertensive rats. AM decreases cardiac preload and afterload and improves cardiac contractility and diuresis in patients with heart failure and hypertension. Advances in gene engineering and receptor studies may contribute to further understandings of biological implication and therapeutic availability of AM.

AM acts as a circulating hormone as well as elicits multiple biological activities in a paracrine or autocrine manner. Among them the most characteristic biological activity of AM is a very powerful hypotensive activity caused by dilatation of resistance vessels. A sensitive and specific radioimmunoassay demonstrated that AM circulates in blood and occurs in a variety of tissues. Plasma AM levels elevate in various diseases including cardiovascular and renal disorders or septic shock. Thus, AM may be involved in pathophysiological processes in these diseases, especially in disorders controlling circulation and body fluid. In this short review, the history of AM and proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP) will be reviewed with special references to biological properties and function, receptors, gene engineering and clinical viewpoints. This review includes oral presentations from the aforementioned symposium; some of which have not yet been published. These unpublished oral presentations are quoted in this paper from the abstracts of this symposium.

Preproadrenomedullin, which consists of 185 amino acids and contains a 21-amino acid signal peptide, is processed to synthesize proadrenomedullin and finally AM. In the proadrenomedullin, a unique twenty amino acid sequence followed by a typical amidation signal known as Gly-Lys-Arg, is included in the N-terminal region. This novel 20 residues peptide with carboxyl terminus of Arg-CONH2 is also present in vivo and is termed “proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP).” PAMP elicits a potent hypotensive activity in anesthetized rats.

Although widely distributed in the adenophypophysis and the neural lobe of pituitary glands, AM and PAMP occur in cell-specific, but not overlapping, patterns in the anterior pituitary. This cell-specific expression of each peptide may be explained by differences in posttranslational processing of AM gene. As such, potential pituitary specific transcription factor binding sites, gonadotropic-specific element (GSE) and a binding site for steroidogenic factor-l (SF-1) are found in the 5flanking region of human and mouse AM gene.  SF-1 is a member of the steroid receptor superfamily that has been shown necessary for gonadotrope differentiation within the pituitary. In addition, one putative binding sequence of Pit-1 has been reported in mouse AM gene promoter position.

A specific AM binding protein (AMBP-1) in human plasma was isolated and the purified protein was identified as human complement factor H. AM and factor H interaction may interfere with the radioimmunoassay quantification of circulating AM. Factor H enhances AM-mediated induction of cAMP in fibroblast; augments the AM-mediated growth of a cancer cell line; and suppresses the bactericidal capability of AM on Escherichia coli. Conversely, AM influences the complement regulatory function of factor H by enhancing the cleavage of C3b via factor I. The augmentation of AM actions indicates that AMBP may facilitate the binding of AM to its receptor. In addition, the existence of AMBP suggests that large amounts of AM may circulate bound to this plasma protein.

In rat vascular smooth muscle cells, the CGRP, CGRP1 receptor antagonist, competitively inhibits the intracellular accumulation of cAMP induced by AM. Vasodilation of the rat mesenteric vascular bed elicited by AM and CGRP is also blocked by CGRP. Similar effects of CGRP are observed in the isolated rat heart and its microvasculature. Thus, CGRP1 receptor can mediate some effects of AM, but AM has a low affinity at CGRP2 receptor. Two distinct AM labeled bands with a molecular weight of 120 and 70 kDa was reported in the cultured rat vascular smooth muscle cell membrane. Therefore, the binding specificity and characteristics of the AM receptor may differ regionally by organ or tissue.

Two more RAMP proteins, RAMP2 and RAMP3, were discovered from database searches. These proteins share approximately 30% homology with RAMP1. Co-expression of RAMP2 or RAMP3 with CRLR appears to constitute AM receptor. RAMP2 and RAMP3 are indistinguishable in terms of AM binding. The RAMPs are required to transport CRLR to the plasma membrane. RAMP1 presents CRLR as a mature glycoprotein at the cell surface to form a CGRP receptor. However, receptors transported by RAMP2 or RAMP3 are core glycosylated and then become AM receptors. Three putative N-glycosylation sites Asn 60, Asn 112 and Asn 117 are present in the amino-terminal extracellular domain of the human CRLR. When the glycosylation of a myc-tagged CRLR was inhibited, specific 125I-CGRP and -AM binding were blocked in parallel. Substitution of the Asn 117 by threonine abolished CGRP and AM binding in the face of intact N-glycosylation and cell surface expression. RAMPs are accessory proteins of CTR and CRLR at the cell surface where they define AM, amylin, calcitonin and CGRP specificity.

The receptor component protein (RCP) was cloned on the basis of its ability to potentiate the endogenous Xenopus oocyte CGRP receptor. RCP is a cytosolic protein with no similarity to RAMPs, consists of a hydrophobic 146 amino acids and is obtained from the Corti organ of guinea pig. RCF plays an essential role for signal-transduction of CGRP and AM, and interacts with CRLR directly within the cells. Thus, a functional AM or CGRP receptor seems to consist of at least three proteins: CRLR, RAMP and RCP, coupling the receptor to the intracellular signal-transduction pathway.

By using a chimera of the CRLR and green fluorescent protein (GFP), the study demonstrated that CRLR-GFP failed to generate responses to CGRP or AM without RAMP2 or RAMP3 in HEK 293 cells. When coexpressed with RAMP2 or RAMP3, CRLR-GFP appeared on the cell membrane and activated an intracellular cAMP production and calcium mobilization. Agonist-mediated internalization of CRLR-GFP was observed in RAMP1/CGRP or AM, RAMP2/AM, and RAMP3/AM, which occurred with similar kinetics, indicating the existence of ligand-specific regulation of CRLR internalization by RAMPs.

The discovery of RAMPs has promoted our understandingthat some of the biological activities of AM are blocked by CGRP receptor antagonist, whereas other biological activities are blocked only by AM receptor antagonist, which indicates the possible existence of AM receptor in dual nature. RAMP association with CRLR traffics this receptor to the cell surface where individual RAMPs dictate the expression of unique phenotypes such as CGRP receptor or AM receptors. Apart from receptor trafficking and glycosylation, the RAMPs may interact directly with the receptors in the cell surface modifying their affinities for the ligands.

Since AM was discovered by monitoring the elevating activity of cAMP in rat platelets, cAMP appears to be its major second messenger. Dose-dependent intracellular production of cAMP induced by AM has been confirmed in various tissues and cells. Moreover, information on the role of NO in alternative signal-transduction pathways for AM is available.

The vasodilating effect of AM is reduced by the blockade of NO synthetase activity with NG-nitro-L-arginine methylester (L-NAME), indicating that NO may at least partly contribute to the AM-induced vasodilation. However, the degree of NO contribution to vasodilation varies depending upon the organ or tissue and the species. NO synthetase inhibitor in the pulmonary vascular beds of rat significantly attenuates the AM-induced vasodilation, but it does not occur in cats. Thus, NO seems to be an important AM mediator despite regional and interspecies variation.

In bovine aortic endothelial cells, AM increases intracellular ionic calcium (Ca2+) and causes the accumulation of cAMP. This increase in intracellular Ca2+ may be involved in the activation of phospholipase C, thereby producing inducible NO synthetase and subsequently NO. NO transferred to medial smooth muscle cells may activate cGMP-mediating smooth muscle cells vasodilatation. In contrast, AM lowers both cytosolic Ca2+ and Ca2+ sensitivity in smooth muscle cells of pig coronary arteries and intracellular Ca2+ in rat renal arterial smooth muscle cells.

Among the multi-functional properties of AM, the most characteristic one is an intensive, long-lasting hypotension that is dose-dependent in humans, rats, rabbits, dogs, cats and sheep. AM dilates resistance vessels in the kidneys, brain, lung, hindlimbs in animals as well as in the mesentery. Moreover, AM elicits relaxation of ring preparations of the aorta and cerebral arteries. An i.v. injection of human AM to conscious sheep causes a dose dependent fall of blood pressure, an increase in heart rate and cardiac output with a small reduction in stroke volume, as well as a marked decrease in total peripheral resistance. Coronary blood flow increases in parallel with the increase in coronary conductance. These cardiovascular responses return to the control level by 40 min after the injection.

The low-dose infusion of AM administered to conscious sheep on a low-salt diet antagonizes the vasopressor actions of administered angiotensin II while stimulating cardiac output and heart rate. AM may control cardiovascular homeostasis in part through antagonism of the vasopressor action of angiotensin II. AM inhibits the secretion of endothelin-1 from the vascular endothelial cells and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells. In the cultured cardiomyocytes as well as cardiac fibroblasts, AM inhibits protein synthesis in these cells in an autocrine or a paracrine manner, which may result in modulating the cardiac growth. AM inhibits bronchial constriction induced by acetylcholine or histamine in a dose-dependent  manner, indicating the important role of AM on airway function and its usefulness for the management of bronchial asthma. AM inhibits secretion of aldosterone from the adrenal cortex. When infused directly into the adrenal arterial supply of conscious sheep, AM directly inhibits the acute stimulation of aldosterone by angiotensin II,  KCl and ACTH while not affecting basal or chronic aldosterone secretion or cortisol secretion stimulated by ACTH. AM co-exists in insulin-producing cells and it inhibits insulin secretion dose-dependently in isolated rat islets.

The N-terminal region of preproadrenomedullin, the precursor of AM, contains a unique 20-residue sequence followed by Gly-Lys-Arg, a typical amidation signal, which was termed as proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP). PAMP was purified from porcine adrenal medulla and human pheochromo-cytoma by using radioimmunoassay for the peptide and its complete amino acid sequence was determined. In addition to the original form of PAMP [1–20], PAMP [9–20] has recently been purified from the bovine adrenal medulla. The amino acid sequences of both forms of PAMP are identical to amino acid sequences deduced by cDNA analysis and their carboxyl terminus of Arg is amidated. The distribution of PAMP is similar to that of human AM, due to the fact that PAMP as well as human AM is biosynthesized from an AM precursor.

AM is processed from its precursor, proadrenomedullin, as the intermediate or immature form, AM-glycine (AM[1–52]-COOH, immature AM). Subsequently, immature AM is converted to the biologically active mature form, AM [1–52]-CONH2 (mature AM) by enzymatic amidation. The AM circulating in the human blood stream (total AM), thus, consists of both mature AM and immature AM. In earlier studies, plasma AM levels were measured by using radioimmunoassay recognizing the entire AM molecule (AM [1–52]), which reflects plasma total AM levels, as previously described.

In healthy volunteers severe exercise elevates the plasma AM levels with an increase in plasma norepinephrine and exaggerated sympathetic nerve activity. In heart transplant recipients, maximal exercise induces an increase in plasma AM that is inversely related to mean blood pressure. AM, therefore, may participate in blood pressure regulation during exercise even after heart transplantation.

When compared with healthy controls, the plasma AM levels are increased in patients with a variety of diseases: congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, renal diseases, hypertensive diseases, diabetes mellitus, acute phase of stroke, and septic shock.

Adrenomedullin and central cardiovascular regulation

Meghan M. Taylor, Willis K. Samson
Peptides 22 (2001) 1803–1807 PII: S0196-9781(01)00522-8

Adrenomedullin gene products have been localized to neurons in brain that innervate sites known to be important in the regulation of cardiovascular function. Those sites also have been demonstrated to possess receptors for the peptide and central administrations of adrenomedullin (AM) and proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP) elevate blood pressure and heart rate in both conscious and anesthetized animals. The accumulated evidence points to a role of the sympathetic nervous system in these cardiovascular effects. These sympathostimulatory actions of AM and PAMP have been hypothesized to be cardioprotective in nature and to reflect the central nervous system (CNS) equivalent of the direct cardiostimulatory effects of the peptides in the periphery. This review summarizes the most recent data on the CNS actions of the adrenomedullin gene-derived peptides and suggests future strategies for the elucidation of the physiologic relevance of the already demonstrated, pharmacologic actions of these peptides.

Adrenomedullin and related peptides: receptors and accessory proteins

Roman Muff, Walter Born, Jan A. Fischer
Peptides 22 (2001) 1765–1772  PII: S0196-9781(01)00515-0
Adrenomedullin (AM), α- and β-calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), amylin and calcitonin (CT) are structurally and functionally related peptides. The structure of a receptor for CT (CTR) was elucidated in 1991 through molecular cloning, but the structures of the receptors for the other three peptides had yet to be elucidated. The discovery of receptor-activity-modifying proteins (RAMP) 1 and -2 and their co-expression with an orphan receptor, calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CRLR) has led to the elucidation of functional CGRP and AM receptors, respectively. RAMP1 and -3 which are co-expressed with CTR revealed two amylin receptor isotypes. Molecular interactions between CRLR and RAMPs are involved in their transport to the cell surface. Heterodimeric complexes between CRLR or CTR and RAMPs are required for ligand recognition.

Pharmacological profiles of receptors of the adrenomedullin peptidefamily
AMR AM>CGRP>>amylin=CT
CTR CT>amylin>>CGRP=AM
CGRPR CGRP>AM>>amylin=CT
AmylinR AmylinsCT­CGRP>>hCT>AM

Specific AM binding sites have been identified in many tissues including the heart, blood vessels, lung and spleen. Based on pharmacological evidence two receptor isotypes have been distinguished, for instance in rat astrocytes and NG108–15 cells. One AM receptor isotype recognizes CGRP and CGRP(8–37). The other receptor isotype specific for the AM ligand and antagonized by AM(22–52) does not recognize CGRP to any great extent. Both isotypes of the receptors have been shown to interact poorly with amylin and CT (Table). Biological actions of AM include vaso- and bronchodilation, and CNS transmitted inhibition of water intake.

CGRP receptors are widely distributed in the nervous and cardiovascular systems. To date, two isotypes have been described. On pharmacological evidence, CGRP1 receptors, such as those identified in human SK-N-MC neuroblastoma cells, recognize intact CGRP and CGRP(8–37) with similar potency, unlike a linear analog lacking the disulfide bridge. CGRP2 receptors,
on the other hand, interact with the linear analog but not with CGRP(8–37). These CGRP receptor isotypes cross-react with AM to some extent, but only minimally with amylin and CT. CGRP shares potent vasodilatory actions with AM, and has chronotropic and inotropic actions in the heart. The ionotropic actions are indirectly brought about via activation of the sympathetic nervous system. There is evidence to suggest the existence of α- or β-CGRP preferring receptor isotypes in both the central nervous system and peripheral tissues.

RAMP1, -2 and -3 are widely expressed, suggesting that RAMPs may have
important functions beyond those of the adrenomedullin family of receptors. To this end, RAMP1 and -3 are thought to reduce cell surface expression of angiotensin (AT) AT1 and AT2 receptors.

RAMP2 and CRLR are expressed in vascular smooth muscle cells, and RAMP1 expression was increased by dexamethasone. Moreover, increased levels of RAMP2 and CRLR were observed in the kidney and heart of rats with obstructive nephropathy and congestive heart failure, respectively. RAMP2
and CRLR levels were reduced, and RAMP3 levels were increased during lipopolysaccharide induced sepsis in rats.

The GABAB receptor 1 is retained as an immature glycoprotein in the cytosol unless co-expressed with GABAB receptor 2 isotype. Heterodimers of fully functional opioid receptors δ and κ result in a novel receptor displaying binding and functional properties distinct from those of the δ or κ receptors alone. Heterodimerization therefore facilitates receptor expression and defines ligand specificity also in G protein-coupled receptor families A and C. Moreover, heterodimers of metabotropic glutamate 1receptor (family C) and adenosine A1 receptors (family A) have been observed. As yet there is no evidence for homo or heterodimerization of family B receptors. Cysteines conserved in the extracellular N-terminal domain in all the receptors of family B and RAMPs suggest that RAMPs are truncated forms of receptors that interact as heterodimers with CRLR and CTR.

The discovery of RAMPs in combination with CRLR and CTR has led to the molecular identification of CGRP1, CGRP/amylin, AM and amylin receptor complexes. The physiological advantage of heterodimers between seven transmembrane domain receptors and the RAMPs required for the functional expression of the adrenomedullin, CGRP and amylin receptors remains to be demonstrated.

Angiotensin II, From Vasoconstrictor to Growth Factor: A Paradigm Shift

Sasa Vukelic, Kathy K. Griendling
Circ Res. 2014;114:754-757
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.114.303045

Angiotensin II (Ang II) is today considered as one of the essential factors in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease, producing acute hemodynamic and chronic pleiotropic effects. Although now it is widely accepted that these chronic effects are important, Ang II was initially considered only a short-acting, vasoactive hormone. This view was modified a quarter of a century ago when Dr Owens and his group published an article in Circulation Research with initial evidence that Ang II can act as a growth factor that regulates cell hypertrophy. They showed in a series of elegant experiments that Ang II promotes hypertrophy and hyperploidy of cultured rat aortic smooth muscle cells. However, Ang II had no effect on hyperplasia. These findings led to a paradigm shift in our understanding of the roles of growth factors and vasoactive substances in cardiovascular pathology and helped to redirect basic and clinical renin–angiotensin system research during the next 25 years. Ang II is now known to be a pleiotropic hormone that uses multiple signaling pathways to influence most processes that contribute to the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases, ranging from hypertrophy, endothelial dysfunction, cardiac remodeling, fibrosis, and inflammation to oxidative stress.

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