Microenvironmental Parameters Research Articles

A closed-loop modular multiorgan-on-chips platform for self-sustaining and tightly controlled oxygenation

To mimic physiological microenvironments in organ-on-a-chip systems, physiologically relevant parameters are required to precisely access drug metabolism. Oxygen level is a critical microenvironmental parameter to maintain cellular or tissue functions and modulate their behaviors. Current organ-on-a-chip setups are oftentimes subjected to the ambient incubator oxygen level at 21%, which is higher than most if not all physiological oxygen concentrations. Additionally, the physiological oxygen level in each tissue is different ranging from 0.5 to 13%. Here, a closed-loop modular multiorgan-on-chips platform is developed to enable not only real-time monitoring of the oxygen levels but, more importantly, tight control of them in the range of 4 to 20% across each connected microtissue-on-a-chip in the circulatory culture medium. This platform, which consists of microfluidic oxygen scavenger(s), an oxygen generator, a monitoring/controller system, and bioreactor(s), allows for independent, precise upregulation and downregulation of dissolved oxygen in the perfused culture medium to meet the physiological oxygen level in each modular microtissue compartment, as needed. Furthermore, drug studies using the platform demonstrate that the oxygen level affects drug metabolism in the parallelly connected liver, kidney, and arterial vessel microtissues without organ-organ interactions factored in. Overall, this platform can promote the performances of organ-on-a-chip devices in drug screening by providing more physiologically relevant and independently adjustable oxygen microenvironments for desired organ types on a single- or a multiorgan-on-chip(s) configuration.

Biodiversity associated with a coralligenous build-up off Sicily (Ionian Sea)

Coralligenous is one of the most important habitats of the Mediterranean Sea hosting a very high biodiversity that, however, has not been fully investigated yet. The paper addressed the study of the biodiversity of a coralligenous bioconstruction collected at a depth of 36.7 m off Marzamemi (SE Sicily, Ionian Sea). The species diversity, composition and structure of the main associated taxonomic groups were investigated in order to identify possible differences between the communities of the hard framework (mainly built by calcified corallinales) and the canopy cover. The examined build-up showed significant species diversity for almost all groups. Bryozoans were the most diversified group and, together with foraminifers, also the most abundant both on the canopy and the frame. Further groups showed high species diversity (except for serpulids) and total abundance (except for molluscs) on the canopy rather than on the frame. Due to their different nature and microenvironmental parameters, the canopy and the frame hosted different communities. Besides juvenile specimens, the canopy mostly hosted unmineralized and weakly mineralized, small-sized, short-lived species well adapted to living on ephemeral and flexible substrates. On the contrary, the rigid and persistent frame mostly hosted highly mineralized, large, long-lived species, which usually contributed to the building and strengthening of the bioconstruction. Unlike mapping and monitoring, a thorough description of coralligenous biodiversity requires accurate naked eye and microscopical analysis assisted by SEM investigation due to the small size and cryptic behaviour of several species.

A Monitoring Device and Grade Prediction System for Grain Mildew.

Mildew infestation is a significant cause of loss during grain storage. The growth and metabolism of mildew leads to changes in gas composition and temperature within granaries. Recent advances in sensor technology and machine learning enable the prediction of grain mildew during storage. Current research primarily focuses on predicting mildew occurrence or grading using simple machine learning methods, without in-depth exploration of the time series characteristics of mildew process data. A monitoring device was designed and developed to capture high-quality microenvironment parameters and image data during a simulated mildew process experiment. Using the "Yongyou 15" rice varieties from Zhejiang Province, five simulation experiments were conducted under varying temperature and humidity conditions between January and May 2023. Mildew grades were defined through manual analysis to construct a multimodal dataset for the rice mildew process. This study proposes a combined model (CNN-LSTM-A) that integrates convolutional neural networks (CNN), long short-term memory (LSTM) networks, and attention mechanisms to predict the mildew grade of stored rice. The proposed model was compared with LSTM, CNN-LSTM, and LSTM-Attention models. The results indicate that the proposed model outperforms the others, achieving a prediction accuracy of 98%. The model demonstrates superior accuracy and more stable performance. The generalization performance of the prediction model was evaluated using four experimental datasets with varying storage temperature and humidity conditions. The results show that the model achieves optimal prediction stability when the training set contains similar storage temperatures, with prediction accuracy exceeding 99.8%. This indicates that the model can effectively predict the mildew grades in rice under varying environmental conditions, demonstrating significant potential for grain mildew prediction and early warning systems.

Artificial neural network based on microenvironmental parameters for quality prediction of kiwifruit in storage and transportation

Artificial neural network based on microenvironmental parameters for quality prediction of kiwifruit in storage and transportation

Revealing the protective role of mitophagy for liver injury via a promising dual-channel activated fluorescent probe

As a highly active organelle in the regulation of hepatic cellular redox, the dysfunction of mitochondrial is tightly associated with both acute and chronic liver diseases. Mitophagy, the major pathway to maintenance of mitochondrial quality plays a vital role in the regulation of liver homeostasis by emerging evidence. Real time monitoring two or more mitochondrial microenvironment parameters alterations during mitophagy is more favorable for better elucidating the mitophagy process and its mechanism of action for liver disease. Here, we proposed a dual responsive probe named SP-DCN through effective crosslinking the fragments of spiropyrane and dicyanoisophorone for simultaneously monitoring of pH and viscosity. The mitophagy induced by different external stimulations all lead to the same changing trends of intracellular fluorescence signals in the two imaging channels. The enhancement of fluorescence ratio value in two channels were obtained in the tumor site and liver site of tumor bearing and liver injury mice, respectively. It was noted that the fluorescence ratio value could be served as a characteristic parameter to evaluate the intracellular mitophagy level. More importantly, the proposed dual-channel activated imaging method was successfully applied to confirm the protective effect of mitophagy against drug induced liver injury. This approach holds promise for further analysis the regulatory mechanisms of mitophagy in liver, and contributes to identify promising targets for the future treatment of liver diseases.

Tumor microenvironment parameters as a predictor of the duration of clinical effectiveness of immunotargeted therapy in advanced or metastatic endometrial cancer: A pilot multicenter observational study

Background. The inclusion of lenvatinib in the immunotherapy regimen for patients with MSS/pMMR endometrial cancer (EC) is due to its ability to modulate the tumor microenvironment, which allows the use of pembrolizumab in low-immunogenic tumors. However, only 30 % of patients with advanced or metastatic EC have a clinical response when treated with pembrolizumab and lenvatinib. In this regard, there is an obvious need to identify biomarkers that allow accurate selection of candidates for this type of therapy.Aim. To determine the predictive value of subpopulations of lymphocytes and macrophages, their expression of PD-1, expression of estrogen receptors, as well as vessel density in immunotargeted therapy for advanced or metastatic EC.Materials and methods. An open-label non-randomized observational association study was performed, involving a total of 22 patients with advanced or metastatic MSS/pMMR EC treated with pembrolizumab and lenvatinib. Duration of clinical effectiveness was used as a parameter to stratify patients. Using TSA-associated multiplex immunofluorescence, the proportions of CD8+ T lymphocytes, CD20+ B lymphocytes, FoxP3+ T regulatory lymphocytes and CD163+macrophages in tumor samples before the start of immunotargeted therapy were analyzed.Results. Three microenvironmental parameters were found to be associated with duration of clinical efficacy: the proportion of CD20+ B cells, the proportion of FoxP3+ T regulatory lymphocytes, and the ratio of CD8+/CD20+ lymphocytes in the tumor microenvironment. However, the CD8+/CD20+ lymphocyte ratio had the greatest predictive value; a value below 3.219 was associated with long clinical efficacy in patients with advanced or metastatic EC.Conclusion. The ratio of cytotoxic and B-lymphocytes in the microenvironment is a reliable predictor marker of the duration of the period of clinical effectiveness of immunotargeting therapy in advanced or metastatic EC.

Detecting viscosity changes in the limb ischemia-reperfusion in mice with a near-infrared fluorescence probe

BackgroundLimb ischemia-reperfusion is a common phenomenon in clinical surgery, which disrupts the balanced physiological response process and ultimately leads to changes in intracellular viscosity. Intracellular viscosity is an important microenvironmental parameter that affects the normal function of organisms, and its level is closely related to many diseases. In addition, oxidative stress in the lower limbs can impair body function, and changes in pressure can lead to changes in the viscosity of limb tissues. Therefore, it is necessary to develop effective tools to detect changes in intracellular viscosity and visualize the progression of hind limb ischemia-reperfusion injury. ResultsIn order to solve this problem, a near infrared viscometry sensitive fluorescence probe (PH-XQ) with long emission wavelength and stable luminescence performance was designed and synthesized by using oxanthracene derivatives and malononitrile. The fluorescence probe (PH-XQ) has excellent selectivity, high sensitivity, low toxicity, high biocompatibility and excellent detection performance. The fluorescence intensity of the PH-XQ probe at 667 nm is highly sensitive to the change of viscosity. With the increase of viscosity, the fluorescence intensity of probe PH-XQ was significantly enhanced, and the fluorescence enhancement ratio was about 14-fold. In addition, PH-XQ can detect not only changes in viscosity between normal cells and drug-induced inflammatory cells, but also changes in the viscosity of the hind limbs of normal mice and mice after ischemia reperfusion. SignificanceIn particular, we are the first to successfully detect changes in handlimb viscosity after ischemia-reperfusion in mice using a probe. This study clearly elucidates changes in viscosity during ischemia-reperfusion of mouse limbs, providing favorable support for the relationship between viscosity and related diseases, and further providing a potential tool for the diagnosis of viscosity-related diseases.

Three-channel fluorescent probe for real-time monitoring mitochondrial viscosity during mitophagy and visualizing ONOO-/SO2 in rheumatoid arthritis mice

ONOO- and SO2 are important microenvironment parameters in organisms, the intracellular levels of ONOO- and SO2 are abnormal in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) mice. Mitophagy plays a key role in maintaining mitochondrial quality and quantity, and viscosity monitoring is a crucial aspect of real-time visualization of mitophagy. Therefore, a mitochondria-targeting three-channel fluorescent probe HCPVP was first developed for the detection of ONOO-/SO2 and viscosity. HCPVP can sensitively detect ONOO- (514 nm) and SO2 (674 nm) change with different channels, meanwhile display turn-on fluorescence at 678 nm as the amount of glycerol increased. The fluorescence imaging of cells showed that HCPVP was able to better target mitochondria, monitor ONOO-/SO2 changes, and visualize the mitophagy process. HCPVP has been successfully used for monitoring ONOO- and SO2 in RA mice model, providing the early image of RA with the aid of the potential biomarkers ONOO- and SO2. More importantly, HCPVP could evaluate the response of the RA treatment with impressive results, which held the potential for assessing treatment and drug screening for RA.

A near-infrared fluorescent probe based FRET for ratiometric sensing of H2O2 and viscosity in live cells

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and viscosity play vital roles in the cellular environment as signaling molecule and microenvironment parameter, respectively, and are associated with many physiological and pathological processes in biological systems. We developed a near-infrared fluorescent probe, CQ, which performed colorimetric and ratiometric detection of H2O2 and viscosity based on the FRET mechanism, and was capable of monitoring changes in viscosity and H2O2 levels simultaneously through two different channels. Based on the specific reaction of H2O2 with borate ester, CQ exhibited a significant ratiometric response to H2O2 with a large Stokes shift of 221 nm, a detection limit of 0.87 μM, a near-infrared emission wavelength of 671 nm, a response time of 1 h, a wide detection ranges of 0.87–800 μM and a high energy transfer efficiency of 99.9 %. CQ could also recognize viscosity by the TICT mechanism, and efficiently detect viscosity changes caused by food thickeners. More importantly, CQ could successfully detect endogenous/exogenous H2O2 and viscosity in live HeLa cells, which was expected to be a practical tool for detecting H2O2 and viscosity in live cells.

Nivolumab for mismatch-repair-deficient or hypermutated gynecologic cancers: a phase 2 trial with biomarker analyses

Programmed death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors are approved for therapy of gynecologic cancers with DNA mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR), although predictors of response remain elusive. We conducted a single-arm phase 2 study of nivolumab in 35 patients with dMMR uterine or ovarian cancers. Co-primary endpoints included objective response rate (ORR) and progression-free survival at 24 weeks (PFS24). Secondary endpoints included overall survival (OS), disease control rate (DCR), duration of response (DOR) and safety. Exploratory endpoints included biomarkers and molecular correlates of response. The ORR was 58.8% (97.5% confidence interval (CI): 40.7–100%), and the PFS24 rate was 64.7% (97.5% one-sided CI: 46.5–100%), meeting the pre-specified endpoints. The DCR was 73.5% (95% CI: 55.6–87.1%). At the median follow-up of 42.1 months (range, 8.9–59.8 months), median OS was not reached. One-year OS rate was 79% (95% CI: 60.9–89.4%). Thirty-two patients (91%) had a treatment-related adverse event (TRAE), including arthralgia (n = 10, 29%), fatigue (n = 10, 29%), pain (n = 10, 29%) and pruritis (n = 10, 29%); most were grade 1 or grade 2. Ten patients (29%) reported a grade 3 or grade 4 TRAE; no grade 5 events occurred. Exploratory analyses show that the presence of dysfunctional (CD8+PD-1+) or terminally dysfunctional (CD8+PD-1+TOX+) T cells and their interaction with programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1)+ cells were independently associated with PFS24. PFS24 was associated with presence of MEGF8 or SETD1B somatic mutations. This trial met its co-primary endpoints (ORR and PFS24) early, and our findings highlight several genetic and tumor microenvironment parameters associated with response to PD-1 blockade in dMMR cancers, generating rationale for their validation in larger cohorts.ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03241745.

Visualized Tracking and Multidimensional Assessing of Mitochondria-Associated Pyroptosis in Cancer Cells by a Small-Molecule Fluorescent Probe.

Pyroptosis is closely related to the development and treatment of various cancers; thus, comprehensive studies of the correlations between pyroptosis and its inductive or inhibitive factors can provide new ideas for the intervention and diagnosis of tumors. The dysfunction of mitochondria may induce pyroptosis in cancer cells, which can be reflected by the fluctuations of the microenvironmental parameters in mitochondria as well as the changes of mitochondrial DNA level and morphology, etc. To precisely track and assess the mitochondria-associated pyroptosis process, simultaneous visualization of changes in multiphysiological parameters in mitochondria is highly desirable. In this work, we reported a nonreaction-based, multifunctional small-molecule fluorescent probe Mito-DK with the capability of crosstalk-free response to polarity and mtDNA as well as mitochondrial morphology. Accurate assessment of mitochondria-associated pyroptosis induced by palmitic acid/H2O2 was achieved through monitoring changes in mitochondrial multiple parameters with the help of Mito-DK. In particular, the pyroptosis-inducing ability of an antibiotic doxorubicin and the pyroptosis-inhibiting capacity of an anticancer agent puerarin were evaluated by Mito-DK. These results provide new perspectives for visualizing mitochondria-associated pyroptosis and offer new approaches for screening pyroptosis-related anticancer agents.

Predicting Response to Immunotargeted Therapy in Endometrial Cancer via Tumor Immune Microenvironment: A Multicenter, Observational Study.

Only one-third of patients with advanced MSS/pMMR endometrial cancer exhibit a lasting response to the combination treatment of Pembrolizumab and Lenvatinib. The combined administration of these two drugs is based on Lenvatinib's ability to modulate the tumor microenvironment, enabling Pembrolizumab to exert its effect. These findings underscore the importance of exploring tumor microenvironment parameters to identify markers that can accurately select candidates for this type of therapy. An open non-randomized observational association study was conducted at six clinical centers, involving a total of 28 patients with advanced MSS/pMMR endometrial cancer who received Pembrolizumab and Lenvatinib therapy. Using TSA-associated multiplex immunofluorescence, we analyzed the proportion of CD8+ T lymphocytes, CD20+ B lymphocytes, FoxP3+ T regulatory lymphocytes, and CD163+ macrophages in tumor samples prior to immunotargeted therapy. The percentage of CD20+ B lymphocytes and the CD8-to-CD20 lymphocytes ratio was significantly higher in patients who responded to treatment compared to non-responders (responders vs. non-responders: 0.24 (0.1-1.24)% vs. 0.08 (0.00-0.15)%, p = 0.0114; 1.44 (0.58-2.70) arb. unit vs. 19.00 (3.80-34.78) arb. unit, p = 0.0031). The sensitivity and specificity of these biomarkers were 85.71% and 70.59%, and 85.71% and 85.71%, respectively. The proportion of CD20+ B lymphocytes and the CD8-to-CD20 lymphocytes ratio in the stroma of endometrial cancer serves as both a prognostic marker of response to immunotargeted therapy and a prognostic factor for progression-free survival in patients.

Abstract 5219: Loss of chromosome Y is unrelated to the composition of the tumor microenvironment and patient prognosis in muscle-invasive urothelial bladder cancers

Abstract Background: Loss of chromosome Y (LOY) occurs commonly in cancers of male patients. It was recently proposed to be associated with cancer aggressiveness and altered T-cell function in bladder cancer and it was found to be linked to poor prognosis in a TCGA bladder cancer patient cohort of 300 patients based on a combined analysis of RNAs from Y-chromosome genes. In this study, we aimed to clarify the clinical relevance of LOY in a large cohort of urothelial bladder cancer patients by using fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH). Design: X and Y chromosomes were analyzed by FISH on a tissue microarray (TMA) containing 1,819 urothelial carcinomas of the urinary bladder from male patients including 487 patients who had undergone cystectomy for muscle-invasive disease and for which follow-up data were available. Data of tumor microenvironment parameters were obtained in a previous study. Results: LOY was found in 26.0% of 1,479 analyzable cancers. In the subset of non-invasive cancers, the frequency of LOY increased from pTaG2 (14.5%) to pTG3 (28.6%) but these differences were not significant (p=0.1015). In muscle-invasive cancers, the frequency of LOY increased slightly from pT2 (25.4%) to pT4 cancers (32.8%) but this association was again not significant (p=0.1868). Within pT2-4 cancers, LOY was associated with venous invasion (p=0.0010) but unrelated to pT, pN, and L-status, as well as to overall, recurrence-free, and cancer-specific survival. Muscle-invasive urothelial carcinomas with and without LOY did not show significant differences in the number of CD8 positive lymphocytes, the fraction of CD8 positive intraepithelial lymphocytes, the number of macrophages and dendritic cells, as well as the fraction of t helper and t regulatory cells. Conclusion: FISH is the gold standard for determining LOY. That LOY was neither associated with histopathological parameters of cancer aggressiveness and patient prognosis nor with any parameters describing the tumor microenvironment strongly argues against a driving role of LOY for bladder cancer progression and cancer associated immune reaction. The slight increase of LOY from pTaG2 to pT4 cancers is consistent with a continuous (but clinically irrelevant) loss of the dispensable Y chromosomes during tumor evolution over time. Citation Format: Martina Kluth, Henning Plage, Sebastian Hofbauer, Kira Furlano, Sarah Weinberg, Antonia Franz, Annika Fendler, Florian Roßner, Simon Schallenberg, Sefer Elezkurtaj, Niclas C. Blessin, Maximilian Lennartz, Andreas H. Marx, Henrik Samtleben, Margit Fisch, Michael Rink, Marcin Slojewski, Krystian Kaczmarek, Thorsten Ecke, Stefan Koch, Nico Adamini, Ronald Simon, Guido Sauter, Joachim Weischenfeldt, Tobias Klatte, Sarah Minner, David Horst, Thorsten Schlomm, Dr. med Henrik Zecha Zecha. Loss of chromosome Y is unrelated to the composition of the tumor microenvironment and patient prognosis in muscle-invasive urothelial bladder cancers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 5219.

“Three-key-and-lock” near-infrared fluorescent probe for dual-channel tracking ONOO− in mitochondria and viscosity in lysosomes in ferroptosis and drug-induced liver injury

The processes of ferroptosis and drug-induced liver injury (DILI) correlate closely to oxidative stress in mitochondria which will affect intracellular microenvironmental parameters such as lysosomal viscosity. Therefore, it is of great significance to dynamically monitor ONOO− in mitochondria and viscosity in lysosomes for understanding redox signal transduction but remains challenging. Here we report a near-infrared fluorescent probe, HCy-OH-mito, which has the dual-organelle targeting ability for the detection of ONOO− in mitochondria and viscosity in lysosomes via a “three-key-and-lock” strategy. HCy-OH-mito has been successfully applied to independently and simultaneously label mitochondria and lysosomes in live cells, and monitor the fluctuations of ONOO− in mitochondria and viscosity in lysosomes during ferroptosis and APAP-induced liver injury and in live zebrafish.

Prediction of soil moisture using machine learning techniques: A case study of an IoT‐based irrigation system in a naturally ventilated polyhouse

AbstractThe agricultural sector faces a massive challenge in enhancing food production for the growing population with limited water resources. For effective and optimum utilization of fresh water, developing smart irrigation systems based on the internet of things (IoT) is essential for scheduling irrigation based on crop water requirements. In this study, an IoT‐based irrigation system was developed and evaluated inside a greenhouse located in the experimental fields of Indian Council of Agricultural Research‐Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (ICAR‐CIAE), Bhopal, India. Data on microenvironmental parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, light intensity, soil temperature and soil moisture were collected from the sensors developed inside the greenhouse. Soil moisture was predicted based on the field data collected via different machine learning techniques, such as the decision tree (DT), random forest (RF), multiple linear regression (MLR), extreme gradient boosting (XGB), K‐nearest neighbour (KNN) and artificial neural network (ANN) methods, with three input combinations. The ANN (coefficient of determination [R2] = 0.942, 0.939) models performed well but were found to be less effective than the RF (R2 = 0.991, 0.951) and XGB (R2 = 0.997, 0.941) models in the training and testing phases, respectively. The RF and XGB models outperformed the other models, while the MLR (R2 = 0.955, 0.875) technique underperformed. With respect to both the testing and training datasets, the models trained with all four inputs outperformed the models trained with two or three inputs.

Arthropod diversity in the alpine tundra using metabarcoding: Spatial and temporal differences in alpha- and beta-diversity.

All ecosystems face ecological challenges in this century. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the ecology and degree of local adaptation of functionally important Arctic-alpine biomes by looking at the most diverse taxon of metazoans: the Arthropoda. This is the first study to utilize metabarcoding in the Alpine tundra, providing insights into the effects of micro-environmental parameters on alpha- and beta-diversity of arthropods in such unique environments. To characterize arthropod diversity, pitfall traps were set at three middle-alpine sampling sites in the Scandinavian mountain range in Norway during the snow-free season in 2015. A metabarcoding approach was then used to determine the small-scale biodiversity patterns of arthropods in the Alpine tundra. All DNA was extracted directly from the preservative EtOH from 27 pitfall traps. In order to identify the controlling environmental conditions, all sampling locations were equipped with automatic data loggers for permanent measurement of the microenvironmental conditions. The variables measured were: air temperature [°C] at 15 cm height, soil temperature [°C] at 15 cm depth, and soil moisture [vol.%] at 15 cm depth. A total of 233 Arthropoda OTUs were identified. The number of unique OTUs found per sampling location (ridge, south-facing slope, and depression) was generally higher than the OTUs shared between the sampling locations, demonstrating that niche features greatly impact arthropod community structure. Our findings emphasize the fine-scale heterogeneity of arctic-alpine ecosystems and provide evidence for trait-based and niche-driven adaptation. The spatial and temporal differences in arthropod diversity were best explained by soil moisture and soil temperature at the respective locations. Furthermore, our results show that arthropod diversity is underestimated in alpine-tundra ecosystems using classical approaches and highlight the importance of integrating long-term functional environmental data and modern taxonomic techniques into biodiversity research to expand our ecological understanding of fine- and meso-scale biogeographical patterns.

Influence of Different Colored Shade Nets on Micro Environmental Parameters and Pest Incidence of Various Ornamental Plants

A field experiment was carried out at Floriculture and Landscaping Block, College of Horticulture, Anantharajupeta during 2022 and 2023. to study the Influence of different colored shade nets on microenvironmental parameters of various ornamental plants. The experiment consists of 25 treatments with three replications which were laid out in FRBD. The treatments were formed with two factors viz. Factor I (Colour shade nets, Green (C1), White (C2), Black (C3), Red nets (C4) and Open (C5) condition and Factor II plants (Pandanus veitchii (P1), Epipremnum aureum (P2), Sansevieria trifasciata (P3), Aglaonema commutatum var. Redgold (P4), Rhoeo spathacea (P5) were taken. The results shown that the maximum temperature was under black net (32.43, 34.10 0C in first and second year respectively), maximum RH was under black net (88.09, 83.11 % in first and second year respectively), lowest canopy temperature was under shade nets than open. Maximum light intensity (653.21, 669.4 lux in first and second year respectively), average PAR values were maximum under white net (718.05 µmol m-2 s-1) in both years. Mealy bug incidence was maximum under black net in both years during the period of study

Activity of enzymes in the follicular fluid and outcome of in vitro fertilization.

Defining certain parameters of the oocyte microenvironment that can be simply and quickly detected and that enable differentiation of oocytes that have better or worse quality could potentially increase the efficacy of the in vitro fertilization (IVF) method. Follicular fluid represents the microenvironment for the development of oocytes during different stages of maturation. Enzymes present in the follicular fluid may affect the quality of oocytes. There are inconsistencies in the literature concerning enzyme concentration in follicular fluid. The main aim of this study was to examine whether the concentration of enzymes aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase, and lactate dehydrogenase in follicular fluid can influence the outcome of IVF. The study included 120 patients who were involved in the process of IVF. We used the follicular fluid obtained after follicular aspiration in the ovaries as biological material for the analysis. The values of enzymes LDL (method-kinetic UV test), aspartate aminotransferase (method-kinetic UV test), ALT (method-kinetic UV test) and alkaline phosphatase (method-colorimetric kinetic test) in the follicular fluid were determined on the analyzer АU 680, Becman Coulter. The criteria of the Istanbul consensus of clinical embryologists were used for the embryo assessment. The software package SPSS 20 was used for the statistical processing of data. The results of follicular fluid sample analysis showed a correlation between ALT concentration in the follicular fluid and IVF outcome. Based on our results, we can conclude that ALT concentration affects the outcome of IVF.

Update to ttprocessing: the R-package to handle the TreeTalker monitoring data

Managing forest ecosystems at global scale is a pressing challenge for resource managers and it needs to address important questions on continuous monitoring. Advance in information technology and in the use of multifunctional devices based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology, for real time observation of biological and physical variable of trees is getting more and more common in modern forestry. Among the different smart sensor networks, the Tree Talkers® devices are modular multiparameter devices designed to monitor tree physiological parameters (e.g. sap flux, growth) and surrounding microenvironmental parameters (e.g. temperature, humidity). There is a dedicated R package for handling the data produced by this monitoring system: ttprocessing, that has been recently updated, with several improvements in the data processing pipelines, the implementation of the soil water content equations of the TT-soil monitoring device and the inclusion of some basic outlier detection functionalities. In this Technical note, after a summary of the structure of the ttprocessing R package, we describe the new and update version. The updates include: a refinement of the methodology to compute the sap-flux, code for compatibility TT+ devices of version 2.0 and 3.4, that previously were not covered, code for processing the TT-soil data, a device of the Tree Talker system that monitors soil moisture and temperature. Finally, several utility functions have been added: outlier removal and functions for the technical management of the system, thus increasing its usability and making it a more comprehensive tool.

Abstract A010: Insights into the Impact of Fanconi Anemia Repair Genes on Immunotherapy Response in Solid Tumors

Abstract Title: Insights into the Impact of Fanconi Anemia Repair Genes on Immunotherapy Response in Solid Tumors Background: Fanconi anemia repair (FAR) genes have crucial involvement in determining immunogenicity of solid tumors due to their substantial involvement in DNA damage repair (DDR). Previous work has alluded to the significance of DDR pathways such as mismatch repair and homologous recombination genes in treatment guidance. Herein, we study the potential impact of FAR genes mutations on immunotherapy parameters in solid tumors. Methods: We used the MSK immunotherapy and Tumor Mutational Burden (TMB) dataset was used in our analysis, which includes mutational and clinical data for 1661 patients on immune checkpoint inhibitors (anti-PD-1/L1, anti-CTLA-4, or combinational therapy) from ten cancer types (bladder, breast, colorectal, esophagogastric, glioma, head and neck, melanoma, non- small cell lung, renal cell, and unknown primary cancer). All clinical ang genomic data was retrieved through the cBioPortal database. Patients were categorized into the FAR mutated group if they harbored a mutation in at least one of the FAR genes (FANCA, FANCC, BRCA2, BRIP1, PALB2, RAD51C, SLX4) included in the MSK-IMPACT targeted next-generation sequencing panel. The log rank test and the Wilcoxon test, Chi-squared test were used to compare overall survival (OS), continuous and categorical data between FAR mutated and wildtype groups. Results: The MSK TMB cohort included 220 (13%) patients with FAR mutations, of which melanoma comprised the highest percentage (26.4%) followed by non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC; 19.6%). The most common altered FAR gene was BRCA2 (6%), followed by SLX4 (5%), while the least altered gene was RAD51C (0.7%). FAR mutated patients had significantly higher OS compared to the wildtype group (median OS (mOS): 29 vs 17 months, log rank p < 0.001). Among melanoma patients (n = 320), there was no significant difference in OS between the mutated and FAR groups, whereas the NSCLC (n = 350) and colorectal cancer (CRC, n = 110) subgroups had significantly higher OS in the FAR mutated groups (NSCLC - mOS: 19 vs 10 months, p = 0.0256, CRC – mOS: not reached vs 13 months, p &l; 0.001). TMB was significantly higher in the FAR mutated group (median TMB: 22.3 vs 5.2, p < 0.001). Notably, the most frequent co-mutations in the FAR mutated group included CTLA4, STK19, E2F3, CD276, MYCL. Conclusion: Our analysis highlights the potential role of FAR genes mutations in predisposing solid tumor patients to ICI benefit, specifically in NSCLC and CRC patients. Insights into the potential interactions between FAR genes and other DDR pathways as well as their impact on tumor immune microenvironment parameters are needed in future research to understand the drivers of ICI benefit in this subset of patients. Citation Format: Ahmed M. Ashour, Amro M. Al-Omari, Mohammad S. Bani Amer, Zaid R. Kamal. Insights into the Impact of Fanconi Anemia Repair Genes on Immunotherapy Response in Solid Tumors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: DNA Damage Repair: From Basic Science to Future Clinical Application; 2024 Jan 9-11; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(1 Suppl):Abstract nr A010.