Tract Length Research Articles

Sinus laser therapy versus Karydakis flap procedure in the management of pilonidal sinus disease: a comparative analysis of intraoperative parameters and postoperative outcome.

This study aimed to investigate the utility of minimally invasive sinus laser therapy (SiLaT) versus flap surgery (Karydakis flap procedure) in terms of intraoperative parameters and postoperative outcome in patients with pilonidal sinus disease (PSD). A total of 106 patients with PSD (mean ± SD age: 26.4 ± 7.0years, 86.8% male) treated with Karydakis flap procedure (KF group; n = 63) or sinus laser therapy (SiLaT group; n = 43) were included in this retrospective study. Data on patient demographics, operative characteristics (number of openings, length of sinus tract, and operative time), and postoperative outcome including postoperative (day 1) pain intensity-visual analog scale (VAS) scores, time to return to work after surgery (days), complication rate, and recurrence rate were recorded in each patient and compared between KF and SiLaT groups. The SiLaT versus KF procedure was associated with significantly shorter operative time [median (min-max) 17 (12-28) versus 27 (20-44) min, p = 0.001], lower pain scores [3 (1-4) versus 5 (3-7), p = 0.001], and earlier return to work [1 (1-3) versus 10 (5-20) days, p = 0.001]. Although no significant difference was noted in complication and recurrence rates between the KF and SiLaT groups, 6.3% (wound infection only) and 3.2% of patients in the KF group but none of the patients in the SiLaT group developed complication and recurrence, respectively. SiLaT seems to be a promising minimally invasive technique for the management of PSD, being comparable to the KF procedure in terms of complications and recurrence, along with added advantages of shorter operative time, reduced postoperative pain, and earlier return to work.

Emotion Recognition from Spontaneous Tunisian Dialect Speech

Emotional expressions are a fundamental aspect of human communication, with speech being one of the most natural modes of interaction. Speech Emotion Recognition (SER) is a significant research topic in Natural Language Processing (NLP), aimed at identifying emotions such as satisfaction, frustration, and anger from speech audio using multiple classifiers. This paper presents a method to emotion recognition from spontaneous Tunisian Dialect (TD) speech, marking the first work in the SER field to utilize spontaneous speech for emotion recognition in this dialect. The dataset was created from freely available YouTube videos across multiple domains and labeled with four perceived emotions: anger, satisfaction, frustration, and neutral. To address the data scarcity issue, we implemented data augmentation techniques, specifically Vocal Tract Length Perturbation (VTLP). The preprocessing of the speech signals involved cleaning the data from ambient and unwanted noises. We extracted and selected various spectral features, including mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) and Linear Prediction Cepstral Coefficients (LPCC). Subsequently, we applied several classification methods: Support Vector Machine (SVM), Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), and Random Forest. Our experiments demonstrated that the Random Forest classifier achieved the highest F-score of 58.75%. The results were thoroughly discussed, analyzed, and compared across the five models using different feature extractions. This study provides valuable insights and advancements in the SER field, particularly for the TD, future research directions for improving emotion recognition systems.

Whole brain functional connectivity: Insights from next generation neural mass modelling incorporating electrical synapses.

The ready availability of brain connectome data has both inspired and facilitated the modelling of whole brain activity using networks of phenomenological neural mass models that can incorporate both interaction strength and tract length between brain regions. Recently, a new class of neural mass model has been developed from an exact mean field reduction of a network of spiking cortical cell models with a biophysically realistic model of the chemical synapse. Moreover, this new population dynamics model can naturally incorporate electrical synapses. Here we demonstrate the ability of this new modelling framework, when combined with data from the Human Connectome Project, to generate patterns of functional connectivity (FC) of the type observed in both magnetoencephalography and functional magnetic resonance neuroimaging. Some limited explanatory power is obtained via an eigenmode description of frequency-specific FC patterns, obtained via a linear stability analysis of the network steady state in the neigbourhood of a Hopf bifurcation. However, direct numerical simulations show that empirical data is more faithfully recapitulated in the nonlinear regime, and exposes a key role of gap junction coupling strength in generating empirically-observed neural activity, and associated FC patterns and their evolution. Thereby, we emphasise the importance of maintaining known links with biological reality when developing multi-scale models of brain dynamics. As a tool for the study of dynamic whole brain models of the type presented here we further provide a suite of C++ codes for the efficient, and user friendly, simulation of neural mass networks with multiple delayed interactions.

Assessment of the Clinical Interactions of GAA Repeat Expansions in FGF14 and FXN.

The number of GAA repeats in the FXN gene is a major but not sole determinant of the clinical presentation of Friedreich ataxia (FRDA). The objective of this study was to establish whether the length of the GAA repeat tract in the FGF14 gene, which is associated with another neurodegenerative disorder (SCA27B), affects the clinical presentation (age at onset, mFARS score) of patients with FRDA. The number of GAA repeats in the FXN and FGF14 genes was determined using PCR in a cohort of 221 patients with FRDA. Next, we compared absolute lengths of the FGF14 GAAs with FXN GAAs, followed by correlative analyses to determine potential effects of FGF14 GAA length on age at onset and clinical presentation (mFARS) of FRDA. We found no significant correlation between the size of the GAA repeats in FXN and FGF14 loci in our FRDA cohort. Moreover, the number of GAAs in FGF14 did not affect the clinical presentation of FRDA even in a small number of cases where a long FGF14 allele was present. Despite both molecular and clinical similarities between FRDA and SCA27B, the length of the GAA repeats in the FGF14 gene, including potentially pathogenic alleles, did not influence the clinical presentation of FRDA.

Perception of voice cues and speech-in-speech by children with prelingual single-sided deafness and a cochlear implant

Voice cues, such as fundamental frequency (F0) and vocal tract length (VTL), help listeners identify the speaker's gender, perceive the linguistic and emotional prosody, and segregate competing talkers. Postlingually implanted adult cochlear implant (CI) users seem to have difficulty in perceiving and making use of voice cues, especially of VTL. Early implanted child CI users, in contrast, perceive and make use of both voice cues better than CI adults, and in patterns similar to their peers with normal hearing (NH).In our study, we investigated the perception and use of voice cues in children with single-sided deafness (SSD) who received their CI at an early age (SSD+CI), in an attempt to bridge the gap between these two groups. The SSD+CI children have access to bilateral auditory information and often receive their CI at an early age, similar to CI children. They may also have dominant acoustic representations, similar to CI adults who acquired hearing loss at a later age. As such, the current study aimed to investigate the perception and use of voice cues by a group of nine early-implanted children with prelingual SSD. The study consisted of three experiments: F0 and VTL discrimination, voice gender categorization, and speech-in-speech perception. In each experiment, the results of the SSD group are compared to children and adults with CIs (for their CI ear) and with typical hearing (for their NH ear).Overall, the SSD+CI children had poorer VTL detection thresholds with their CI compared to their NH ear, while their F0 perception was similar across ears. Detection thresholds for both F0 and VTL with their CI ear was comparable to those of bilaterally implanted CI children, suggesting that SSD+CI children do not only rely on their NH ear, but actually make use of their CI. SSD+CI children relied more heavily on F0 cues than on VTL cues for voice gender categorization, with cue weighting patterns comparable to those of CI adults. In contrast to CI children, the SSD+CI children showed limited speech perception benefit based on F0 and VTL differences between the target and masker speaker, which again corresponded to the results of CI adults. Altogether, the SSD+CI children make good use of their CI, despite a good-hearing ear, however, the perceptual patterns seem to fall in-between those of CI children and CI adults. Perhaps a combination of childhood neuroplasticity, limited experience with relying only on the CI, and a dominant acoustic representation of voice gender explain these results.

Perioperative Outcomes of Branchial Cleft Sinus Tract Excision in Pediatric Patients Without the Use of Intraoperative Dye.

Branchial cleft cysts are pediatric congenital anomalies that can present as sinus tracts to the neck. Intraoperative methylene blue dye with fibrin glue has been suggested as an effective tool for tracking the tract's depth to help definitively excise. In this large retrospective study of 118 patients spanning a decade, we aim to elucidate outcomes of branchial cleft anomaly excision without methylene blue dye. A retrospective review was conducted with patients who received branchial cleft anomaly (BCA) with sinus tract excision at Monroe Carrell Jr. Children's Hospital from June 2012 to June 2022. We collected demographic variables, BCA characteristics, perioperative care variables (ie, prior drainage, imaging, and concurrent procedure), and perioperative outcomes (ie, intra- and post-operative complications). Median and interquartile range (IQR) were calculated for continuous demographic variables, and average and standard deviation (SD) were calculated for sinus tract length. Two-tailed Chi-square or Fisher's exact tests were performed to compare categorical samples where applicable with a statistical significance threshold set a priori at P < .05, and multivariable logistic regression assessed significant associations. The sample included 118 patients with an average tract length of 3.3 cm (SD = 1.7 cm). Incision/drainage was performed before definitive excision in 16 (13.6%) patients and was associated with age above the median (aOR = 5.29, 95% CI = 1.39-20.09, P = .015) and female sex (aOR = 3.81, 95% CI = 1.12-13.01, P = .032). Most patients (N = 85, 72.0%) did not receive imaging. Among 118 cases, 2 (1.7%) required return to the operating room for surgical site complications. No patients experienced intra-operative complications or tract recurrence necessitating revision surgery. Patients with branchial cleft sinus tracts that were surgically excised without intraoperative dye achieved definitive resection with no recurrence and limited post-operative complications. While not a direct comparison, these results suggest that using intraoperative dye may be associated with unnecessary costs without benefit in outcomes.

Parasite-gut microbiota associations in wild wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus).

The mammalian gastrointestinal tract provides a habitat for multiple commensal and pathogenic organisms spanning all three domains of life. Both positive and negative interactions occur between gut inhabitants, with potential consequences for host health. Studies of parasite-microbiota associations in natural systems remain scarce, yet are important for understanding how parasite communities and commensal microbiota shape each other, and how these interactions influence host health. Here, we characterize associations between helminth and coccidial infections and gut microbiota profiles in a wild population of wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) over 3 years, using two complementary approaches. We first examined parasite-microbiota associations along the length of the gastrointestinal tract through destructive sampling. Then, in a larger non-invasive capture mark-recapture study, we assessed whether gut parasitic infections detected in feces predicted fecal microbiota diversity and composition. We found that while overall microbiota composition was not associated with infection by any common gut parasite species, microbiota richness was associated with gut parasitism in two ways: (i) infection by the trematode Corrigia vitta in the small intestine predicted higher microbiota diversity in the caecum; (ii) there was a negative relationship between gut parasite richness and fecal microbiota richness in the non-invasive study. As our results identified associations between gastrointestinal parasites and microbiota alpha diversity, a future experimental study in this tractable wild mammalian system would be valuable to definitively test the directionality of these interactions.

Tumor-Associated Tractography Derived from High-Angular-Resolution Q-Space MRI May Predict Patterns of Cellular Invasion in Glioblastoma.

The invasion of glioblastoma cells beyond the visible tumor margin depicted by conventional neuroimaging is believed to mediate recurrence and predict poor survival. Radiomic biomarkers that are associated with the direction and extent of tumor infiltration are, however, non-existent. Patients from a single center with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (n = 7) underwent preoperative Q-space magnetic resonance imaging (QSI; 3T, 64 gradient directions, b = 1000 s/mm2) between 2018 and 2019. Tumors were manually segmented, and patterns of inter-voxel coherence spatially intersecting each segmentation were generated to represent tumor-associated tractography. One patient additionally underwent regional biopsy of diffusion tract- versus non-tract-associated tissue during tumor resection for RNA sequencing. Imaging data from this cohort were compared with a historical cohort of n = 66 glioblastoma patients who underwent similar QSI scans. Associations of tractography-derived metrics with survival were assessed using t-tests, linear regression, and Kaplan-Meier statistics. Patient-derived glioblastoma xenograft (PDX) mice generated with the sub-hippocampal injection of human-derived glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) were scanned under high-field conditions (QSI, 7T, 512 gradient directions), and tumor-associated tractography was compared with the 3D microscopic reconstruction of immunostained GSCs. In the principal enrollment cohort of patients with glioblastoma, all cases displayed tractography patterns with tumor-intersecting tract bundles extending into brain parenchyma, a phenotype which was reproduced in PDX mice as well as in a larger comparison cohort of glioblastoma patients (n = 66), when applying similar methods. Reconstructed spatial patterns of GSCs in PDX mice closely mirrored tumor-associated tractography. On a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis of n = 66 patients, the calculated intra-tumoral mean diffusivity predicted the overall survival (p = 0.037), as did tractography-associated features including mean tract length (p = 0.039) and mean projecting tract length (p = 0.022). The RNA sequencing of human tissue samples (n = 13 tumor samples from a single patient) revealed the overexpression of transcripts which regulate cell motility in tract-associated samples. QSI discriminates tumor-specific patterns of inter-voxel coherence believed to represent white matter pathways which may be susceptible to glioblastoma invasion. These findings may lay the groundwork for future work on therapeutic targeting, patient stratification, and prognosis in glioblastoma.

Reproductive tract morphometry of Hyla rabbits fed diet containing graded levels of watermelon rind and wheat offal as absorbent

The evaluation of breeding and fertility potential of animals demands understanding of basic morphometric characteristics of their reproductive organs which, among other factors, may be affected by nutrition. This study was conducted to assess the effects of feeding graded levels of watermelon rind and wheat offal as absorbent on morphometric characteristics of the reproductive organs of Hyla rabbits. Forty-five Hyla rabbits of both sexes (15 bucks and 30 does) with nine animals per treatment (3 bucks and 6 does in each treatment) in a completely randomized design were randomly assigned to the dietary treatment containing 0 %, 10 %, 20 %, 30 %, and 40 % of watermelon rind and wheat offal. The data collected included weight and length of the reproductive tract of the rabbits. The morphometric characteristics of reproductive tract of the rabbits were not significantly affected by the dietary treatment, however, there were significant effect (p &gt; 0.05) of the dietary treatment on the weight of the left oviduct, paired oviduct, and the paired ovary of the rabbits. The experimental diets significantly affected (p &lt; 0.05) penis length and width, the right spermatic cord and the length of the right scrotal. The diets had no significant effect (p&lt;0.05) on the weight of reproductive tracts of buck except on the paired spermatic cord. The experimental diets can be a good alternative for the highly competitive and costly grains in the diet of Hyla rabbits without any adverse effect on the growth of reproductive organs and consequently on the fertility and other activities related to reproduction of Hyla rabbits. Keywords: morphology, rabbits, reproduction, watermelon rind, wheat offal

Fluctuations in Medium Viscosity May Affect the Stability of the CAG Tract in the ATXN2 Gene.

Background: Trinucleotide repeats are the cause of many neurodegenerative diseases that are currently incurable. In this regard, the question of the causes of occurrence and methods of prevention or treatment of diseases caused by the expansion of repeats in the CAG tract of the ATXN2 gene remains relevant. Previously, it was shown that the frequency of occurrence of additional OS (open states) zones increases with increasing length of the CAG tract, and the value inverse to the frequency correlates with the age of disease onset. Methods: In this work, the influence of the viscosity of the medium and the external torque on the stability of the CAG tract in the ATXN2 gene was studied using mathematical modeling methods. Results: It has been established that the probability of the appearance of additional OS zones of significant size increases with an increase in the CAG of the tract (k > 40 CAG repeats) for all viscosity values, however, at k ≤ 40, the change in viscosity does not significantly affect the probability of additional OS zones in the tract. Conclusions: It was found that under normal conditions (absence of pathology), viscosity does not have a reliable effect on the stability of the DNA molecule, but when pathology appears, an increase in viscosity contributes to an increase in DNA stability, and, accordingly, a decrease has a negative effect on the stabilization of the DNA molecule. In the zone of close to incomplete penetrance of the disease, viscosity does not have a reliable effect on the stability of the CAG tract.

Females drive postmating reproductive trait evolution across Drosophila species, but not via remating rate.

While traits that contribute to premating sexual interactions are known to be wildly diverse, much less is known about the diversity of postmating (especially female) reproductive traits and the mechanisms shaping this diversity. To assess the rate, pattern, and potential drivers of postmating reproductive trait evolution, we analyzed male and female traits across up to 30 Drosophila species within a phylogenetic comparative framework. In addition to postmating reproductive morphology (e.g., sperm length, reproductive tract length and mass), we also quantified mating behaviors including female remating rate-a common proxy for the strength of postmating sexual selection. We found evidence for strong coevolution between male and female postmating traits (specifically sperm length and sperm storage organ size). However, remating rate was not associated with the rate of evolution or exaggeration of either male or female postmating reproductive morphology, once phylogenetic relatedness was accounted for. We infer that female-mediated and intersexual selection predominantly drive the evolution of our postmating morphological traits, including via divergent male and female interests in controlling paternity. In comparison, remating rate has a complex and likely secondary role in shaping this evolution, in part because this trait can be both a driver and a product of postmating selection.

Current Overview of Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 7 in Mexican Population: Challenges in Specialized Care for a Rare Disease.

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) is a rare genetic disease characterized by progressive cerebellar syndrome and macular degeneration. In a previous study, we clinically and genetically characterized a group of Mexican patients, which represented one of the largest cohorts of SCA7 patients worldwide and demonstrated that all patients had a unique genetic origin. Our laboratory developed a program for the diagnosis, medical care, and long-term follow-up of these patients living in Veracruz State, and in this report, we present an update to this research, covering 2013 to 2024. So far, we identified 172 SCA7 carriers, with a few cases outside Veracruz, and our data support that the length of the CAG repeat tract mainly determines disease severity and life expectancy, and accordingly, we define three different phenotypes, early-onset (EO), classical-onset (CO), and late-onset (LO), with EO patients showing the lowest life expectancy. Furthermore, we found that parental transmission of mutant alleles leads to increased CAG repeat instability, compared to maternal ones. Interestingly, a haplotype analysis revealed that patients outside Veracruz may have different genetic origins. In conclusion, longitudinal observations of SCA7 patients provide insight into the natural history of SCA7 and help to design strategies for diagnosis, genetic counseling, physical rehabilitation, and therapeutic alternatives.

Challenges and advances for huntingtin detection in cerebrospinal fluid: in support of relative quantification.

Huntington disease (HD) is a progressive and devastating neurodegenerative disease caused by expansion of a glutamine-coding CAG tract in the huntingtin (HTT) gene above a critical threshold of ~35 repeats resulting in expression of mutant HTT (mHTT). A promising treatment approach being tested in clinical trials is HTT lowering, which aims to reduce levels of the mHTT protein. Target engagement of these therapies in the brain are inferred using antibody-based assays to measure mHTT levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which is frequently reported as absolute mHTT concentration based on a monomeric protein standard used to generate a standard curve. However, patient biofluids are a complex milieu of different mHTT protein species, suggesting that absolute quantitation is challenging, and a single, recombinant protein standard may not be sufficient to interpret assay signal as molar mHTT concentration. In this study, we used immunoprecipitation and flow cytometry (IP-FCM) to investigate different factors that influence mHTT detection assay signal. Our results show that HTT protein fragmentation, protein-protein interactions, affinity tag positioning, oligomerization and polyglutamine tract length affect assay signal intensity, indicating that absolute HTT quantitation in heterogeneous biological samples is not possible with current technologies using a single standard protein. We also explore the binding specificity of the MW1 anti-polyglutamine antibody, commonly used in these assays as a mHTT-selective reagent and demonstrate that mHTT binding is preferred but not specific. Furthermore, we find that MW1 depletion is not only incomplete, leaving residual mHTT, but also non-specific, resulting in pull down of some wildtype HTT protein. Based on these observations, we recommend that mHTT detection assays report only relative mHTT quantitation using normalized arbitrary units of assay signal intensity, rather than molar concentrations, in the assessment of central nervous system HTT lowering in ongoing clinical and preclinical studies, and that MW1-depletion not be used a method for quantifying wildtype HTT protein.

Alternative double strand break repair pathways shape the evolution of high recombination in the honey bee, Apis mellifera.

Social insects, particularly honey bees, have exceptionally high genomic frequencies of genetic recombination. This phenomenon and underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. To characterise the patterns of crossovers and gene conversion in the honey bee genome, a recombination map of 187 honey bee brothers was generated by whole-genome resequencing. Recombination events were heterogeneously distributed without many true hotspots. The tract lengths between phase shifts were bimodally distributed, indicating distinct crossover and gene conversion events. While crossovers predominantly occurred in G/C-rich regions and seemed to cause G/C enrichment, the gene conversions were found predominantly in A/T-rich regions. The nucleotide composition of sequences involved in gene conversions that were associated with or distant from crossovers corresponded to the differences between crossovers and gene conversions. These combined results suggest two types of DNA double-strand break repair during honey bee meiosis: non-canonical homologous recombination, leading to gene conversion and A/T enrichment of the genome, and the canonical homologous recombination based on completed double Holliday Junctions, which can result in gene conversion or crossover and is associated with G/C bias. This G/C bias may be selected for to balance the A/T-rich base composition of eusocial hymenopteran genomes. The lack of evidence for a preference of the canonical homologous recombination for double-strand break repair suggests that the high genomic recombination rate of honey bees is mainly the consequence of a high rate of double-strand breaks, which could in turn result from the life history of honey bees and their A/T-rich genome.

Conservation of mutation and recombination parameters between mammals and zebra finch.

Most of our understanding of the fundamental processes of mutation and recombination stems from a handful of disparate model organisms and pedigree studies of mammals, with little known about other vertebrates. To gain a broader comparative perspective, we focused on the zebra finch (Taeniopygia castanotis), which, like other birds, differs from mammals in its karyotype (which includes many micro-chromosomes), in the mechanism by which recombination is directed to the genome, and in aspects of ontogenesis. We collected genome sequences from three generation pedigrees that provide information about 80 meioses, inferring 202 single-point de novo mutations, 1,174 crossovers, and 275 non-crossovers. On that basis, we estimated a sex-averaged mutation rate of 5.0 × 10-9 per base pair per generation, on par with mammals that have a similar generation time. Also as in mammals, we found a paternal germline mutation bias at later stages of gametogenesis (of 1.7 to 1) but no discernible difference between sexes in early development. We also examined recombination patterns, and found that the sex-averaged crossover rate on macro-chromosomes (1.05 cM/Mb) is again similar to values observed in mammals, as is the spatial distribution of crossovers, with a pronounced enrichment near telomeres. In contrast, non-crossover rates are more uniformly distributed. On micro-chromosomes, sex-averaged crossover rates are substantially higher (4.21 cM/Mb), as expected from crossover homeostasis, and both crossover and non-crossover events are more uniformly distributed. At a finer scale, recombination events overlap CpG islands more often than expected by chance, as expected in the absence of PRDM9. Despite differences in the mechanism by which recombination events are specified and the presence of many micro-chromosomes, estimates of the degree of GC-biased gene conversion (59%), the mean non-crossover conversion tract length (~23 bp), and the non-crossover to crossover ratio (6.7:1) are all comparable to those reported in primates and mice. The conservation of mutation and recombination properties from zebra finch to mammals suggest that these processes have evolved under stabilizing selection.

Appropriate timing for the removal of urinary catheters in gastrointestinal surgery with epidural anesthesia: a randomized controlled trial.

The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to evaluate whether early urinary catheter removal is feasible during epidural anesthesia during gastrointestinal surgery in male patients at high risk for urinary retention. Male patients who underwent radical surgery for gastric or colon cancer were enrolled in this randomized controlled trial. Patients were randomized 1:1 into 2 groups: the early group, in which the urinary catheter was removed before removal of the epidural catheter on the second or third postoperative day, and the late group, in which the urinary catheter was removed after removal of the epidural catheter. The randomization adjustment factors were age (≥ 65 or < 65 years) and operative site (gastric or colon). The primary endpoint was urinary retention. The secondary endpoints were the incidence of urinary tract infection and length of postoperative hospital stay. Seventy-three patients were enrolled between March 2020 and February 2024 and assigned to the Early (n = 37) and Late (n = 36) groups. Four patients withdrew their consent after randomization. The intention-to-treat analysis showed that urinary retention occurred in 4 patients (11.1%) in the early group and 1 patient (3.0%) in the late group (P = 0.20). Urinary tract infection occurred in 1 patient (3.0%) in the late group. The median postoperative hospital stay was 9 days in both groups. Early urinary catheter removal in male patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery with epidural anesthesia could increase urinary retention within the expected acceptable range. UMIN000040468, Date of registration: May 21, 2020.

Biological variability of human intraepithelial lymphocytes throughout the human gastrointestinal tract in health and coeliac disease.

Intraepithelial lymphocytes are the first line of defence of the human intestinal immune system. Besides, their composition is altered on patients with coeliac disease (CD), so they are considered as biomarkers with utility on their diagnose and/or monitoring. Our aim is to address their variability through the human gastrointestinal tract in health and characterized them in further depth in the coeliac duodenum. Intraepithelial lymphocytes were isolated from human gastric, duodenal, ileal and colonic biopsies, then stained with specific antibodies and acquired by flow cytometry. Our results confirmed that the profile of Intraepithelial lymphocytes change through the length of the human gastrointestinal tract. Besides and given the central role that Interleukin-15 (IL-15) elicits on CD pathogenesis; we also assessed the expression of its receptor revealing that there was virtually no functional IL-15 receptor on duodenal Intraepithelial lymphocytes. Nevertheless and contrary to our expectations, the active IL-15 receptor was not increased either on Intraepithelial lymphocytes from CD patients. IL-15 might require additional stimulus to activate intraepithelial lymphocytes. These findings may provide novel tools to aid on a CD diagnosis and/or monitoring, at the time that provide the bases to perform functional studies in order of getting a deeper insight in the specific function that Intraepithelial lymphocytes elicit on CD pathogenesis.

Could DTI Unlock the Mystery of Subjective Tinnitus: It's Time for Parameters That Go A Little Out of the Routine.

In this study, it was aimed to assess the microstructural changes in the main central auditory pathway in cases with subjective tinnitus. In total, 101 subjects (52 cases with bilateral subjective non-pulsatile tinnitus and 49 healthy cases as the control group) were included in the study. Participants underwent pure tone audiogram and Diffusion Tensor Imaging-Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DTI-MRI) examination with a 3 Tesla MRI device. The number of tracts, tract length, volume, and quantitative anisotropy (QA) and normalized quantitative anisotropy' (nQA) values were calculated by plotting cochleocortical pathways from the cochlear nerve to ipsilateral and contralateral Heschl's gyrus (HG). In pure tone audiometry, the control group had lower hearing thresholds than cases with tinnitus. Fibres and nQA values from the right cochlear nerve to the right HG were significantly lower in the tinnitus group than in the control group. Cochlear nuclei voxel counts were significantly decreased in the tinnitus group. Both cochlear nucleus volumes were higher in the tinnitus group than in the control group. nQA values in both cochlear nuclei were decreased in the tinnitus group. This study showed that the most commonly affected part in subjective non-pulsatile tinnitus cases is the cochlear nucleus. Therefore, the cochlear nucleus should be evaluated more carefully in cases presenting with subjective tinnitus.

Impact of long-term feeding a high level of Spirulina combined with enzymes on growth performance, carcass traits and meat quality in broiler chickens.

This study evaluates the effect of prolonged feeding with a high inclusion level of Spirulina, combined with peptidases, on broiler chicken's growth performance, digesta viscosity, carcass attributes and meat quality. The experiment involved 120 male broilers divided into 40 battery brooders, each housing 3 birds. Post 7-day acclimatisation with a corn and soybean-based diet, the birds were provided with one of four diets: a corn and soybean meal-based diet (CON), a mix incorporating 15% Spirulina (SP), a Spirulina-rich mix supplemented with 0.025% of commercial VemoZyme® P (SPV), or a Spirulina-rich mix supplemented with 0.10% of porcine pancreatin (SPP). The CON group had higher body weight and weight gain (p < 0.001) and a lower feed conversion ratio (p < 0.001) from day 7-21, compared to the Spirulina-fed groups. Spirulina-fed chickens significantly increased ileum viscosity (p < 0.05). Spirulina also elevated the weight (p < 0.05) of the duodenum and the length (p < 0.001) of the entire gastrointestinal tract compared to CON. Breast and thigh muscles from Spirulina-fed broilers displayed higher values of yellowness (b*) (p < 0.001), pigments (p < 0.05), and n-3 PUFA (p < 0.01), while n-6/n-3 ratio (p < 0.001) and α-tocopherol (p < 0.001) decreased relative to the CON. In conclusion, the introduction of a high level of Spirulina into broiler diets for an extended duration, has the potential to diminish birds' growth performance, possibly due to increased digesta viscosity. However, it does enhance the nutritional quality of the meat.

Asymmetry of the Frontal Aslant Tract Depends on Handedness.

The human brain displays structural and functional disparities between its hemispheres, with such asymmetry extending to the frontal aslant tract. This plays a role in a variety of cognitive functions, including speech production, language processing, and executive functions. However, the factors influencing the laterality of the frontal aslant tract remain incompletely understood. Handedness is hypothesized to impact frontal aslant tract laterality, given its involvement in both language and motor control. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between handedness and frontal aslant tract lateralization, providing insight into this aspect of brain organization. The Automated Tractography Pipeline was used to generate the frontal aslant tract for both right and left hemispheres in a cohort of 720 subjects sourced from the publicly available Human Connectome Project in Aging database. Subsequently, macrostructural and microstructural parameters of the right and left frontal aslant tract were extracted for each individual in the study population. The Edinburgh Handedness Inventory scores were used for the classification of handedness, and a comparative analysis across various handedness groups was performed. An age-related decline in both macrostructural parameters and microstructural integrity was noted within the studied population. The frontal aslant tract demonstrated a greater volume and larger diameter in male subjects compared with female participants. Additionally, a left-side laterality of the frontal aslant tract was observed within the general population. In the right-handed group, the volume (P < .001), length (P < .001), and diameter (P = .004) of the left frontal aslant tract were found to be higher than those of the right frontal aslant tract. Conversely, in the left-handed group, the volume (P = .040) and diameter (P = .032) of the left frontal aslant tract were lower than those of the right frontal aslant tract. Furthermore, in the right-handed group, the volume and diameter of the frontal aslant tract showed left-sided lateralization, while in the left-handed group, a right-sided lateralization was evident. The laterality of the frontal aslant tract appears to differ with handedness. This finding highlights the complex interaction between brain lateralization and handedness, emphasizing the importance of considering handedness as a factor in evaluating brain structure and function.