Fluid pressures regulate endothelial cell (EC) tubulogenic activity involving fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2) and its receptor, FGF receptor 2 (FGFR2). Our lab has recently shown that sustained 20 mmHg hydrostatic pressure (HP) upregulates EC sprout formation in a FGF2-dependent fashion. This upregulation of sprout formation may be due to enhanced FGF-2 / FGFR2 interactions in the presence of 20 mmHg HP. We hypothesize that exposure of ECs to 20 mmHg sustained HP enhances FGF-2 binding kinetics. We used a custom hydrostatic pressure system, immunofluorescence, and FACS to quantify FGF-2 binding by ECs in the absence or presence of a range of HPs for 30 minutes. Relative to cells maintained under control pressure, ECs exposed to 20, but neither 5 nor 40 mmHg, displayed a significant increase in binding affinity to FGF-2. EC binding of VEGF-A, another angiogenic growth factor, was unaffected by similar pressure stimuli. Additional studies showed that pressure-selective FGF-2 binding was independent of FGFR2 surface expression. These results implicate the FGF-2 axis in the pressure-sensitive, magnitude-dependent angiogenic processes which we have previously described. The present study provides novel insight regarding the involvement of FGF-2 signaling and interstitial pressure changes in various microvascular physiological and pathobiological processes.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第23062号 / 医博第4689号 / 新制||医||1048(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 武藤 学, 教授 妹尾 浩, 教授 小川 誠司 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

Orientador: Sergio A.R. de Paiva / Resumo: A deficiência/insuficiência de vitamina D tem aumentado nos últimos anos e tornou-se problema mundial de saúde pública. Além do raquitismo, a deficiência de vitamina D também está associada com maior risco de desenvolver câncer, doenças imunológicas e, inclusive, doenças cardiovasculares. Estes fatores têm incentivado o uso indiscriminado da suplementação de vitamina D na população saudável. Suplementação de vitamina D, em altas doses, promove estresse oxidativo, inflamação, apoptose, altera o metabolismo energético, morfologia e função cardíaca. Adicionalmente, esta suplementação aumenta a concentração sérica de fósforo, que pode estimular a liberação do fator de crescimento de fibroblasto-23 (FGF-23). Esta maior concentração sérica de FGF-23 pode estar associada à remodelação cardíaca. Outros autores sugerem que a ação do FGF-23 no coração ocorre por meio da via de sinalização calcineurina/fator nuclear das células T ativadas (NFAT). Desta maneira, a menor fosfatemia, promovida pelo uso de sevelamer, poderia atenuar as alterações cardíacas provocadas pela suplementação de vitamina D. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho é verificar se o tratamento com sevelamer diminui a concentração de FGF-23 e, consequentemente, atenua a remodelação cardíaca, decorrente da suplementação de vitamina colecalciferol, em altas doses. Foram utilizados 169 ratos machos da raça Wistar alocados em seis grupos: 1) Grupo controle alimentado com ração padrão (C, n=27); 2) Grupo controle + 3% de sevelame... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency has increased in recent years and has become a worldwide public health problem. In addition to rickets, vitamin D deficiency is also associated with increased risk of developing cancer, immune diseases and even cardiovascular diseases. These factors have encouraged the indiscriminate use of vitamin D supplementation in the healthy population. High-dose of vitamin D supplementation promotes oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis, changes in energy metabolism, morphology and cardiac function. In addition, this supplementation increases the serum phosphorus concentration which can stimulate the release of fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-23). Higher serum concentration of FGF-23 can be associated with cardiac remodeling. Other authors suggest that the action of FGF-23 in heart occurs through the signaling pathway calcineurin/nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT). Thus, decrease in phosphatemia, promoted by the use of sevelamer, can attenuate the cardiac changes promoted by vitamin D supplementation. The aim of this study is to verify whether treatment with sevelamer decreases the concentration of FGF-23 and, consequently, attenuates cardiac remodeling, due to supplementation of cholecalciferol vitamin, in high doses. 169 male Wistar rats were allocated in six groups: 1) Control group fed standard chow (C, n=27); 2) Control group + 3% sevelamer (C+S, n=26); 3) Group supplemented with 3,000 IU cholecalciferol/kg of chow (VitD 3, n=29); 4)... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Dissertation wurde die prognostische Relevanz von Angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) und Fibroblast Growth Factor 23 (FGF-23) als Prädiktor der 30-Tages sowie Ein-Jahres Mortalität bei Patienten im infarktbedingten kardiogenen Schock (CS) untersucht und dargestellt. Das betrachtete Patientenkollektiv dieser Substudie rekrutierte sich dabei aus den 218, im Rahmen der IABP- SHOCK II Studie in Leipzig eingeschlossenen Patienten. Nach Hospitalisierung und Randomisierung in den jeweiligen Therapiearm (IABP, Nicht-IABP) erfolgte eine prospektiv geplante Blutentnahme an den Tagen eins bis drei. Zur laborchemischen Bestimmung der Serum-, beziehungsweise Plasma Proteinkonzentration mittels ELISA von Ang-2 standen 189, für das Phosphathormon FGF-23 182 Blutproben zur Verfügung. Die 30-Tages Mortalität der untersuchten Substudien-Kohorte betrug 40%, die Ein-Jahres Mortalität 57%. Die vorliegende Arbeit bestätigt Ang-2 als einen starken und unabhängigen negativen Prädiktor des Kurz- und Langzeitverlaufs bei Patienten im CS auf Grund eines akuten Myokardinfarks. Weiterhin zeigt die Auswertung, dass die prognostische Relevanz des betrachteten Biomarkers im zeitlichen Verlauf signifikant zunimmt und verschiedene klinische Parameter wie beispielsweise eine akut eingeschränkte Nierenfunktion oder Blutungskomplikationen unabhängig mit erhöhten Ang-2 Konzentrationen assoziiert sind. Somit sind im infarktbedingten CS hohe Werte von Ang-2 unabhängig mit einem schlechteren klinischen Verlauf des Patienten, sowie dem Reperfusionserfolg und weiteren Komplikationen assoziiert. Patienten der Substudien-Kohorte im infarktbedingten CS waren durch signifikant erhöhte Konzentrationen von FGF-23 charakterisiert. Weiterhin zeigte sich, dass diese signifikant erhöhten Werte unabhängig mit einer deutlich schlechteren Prognose der 30-Tages und Ein-Jahres Mortalität verbunden sind. Diese Assoziation konnte jedoch ausschließlich bei Patienten mit eingeschränkter Nierenfunktion nachgewiesen werden.

Wounds in the mouth, occurring after oral surgery, take time to heal. No ointment can be added to help with the healing process because mouth saliva will constantly wash it away. In order to combat this problem, we propose engineering a normal flora microbe to grow at the site of injury and secrete a recombinant growth factor to promote healing of the damaged tissue. Our goal is to have the yeast Pichia pastoris produce human basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), which aids in cellular proliferation. P. pastoris is a good choice for this application because not only is it considered generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the FDA, but it is a eukaryote that is able to perform posttranslational modifications and secrete large amounts of recombinant protein. Previous studies have shown that a strain of P. pastoris can be engineered to express bFGF from a methanol-sensitive promoter. The study also showed that the bFGF, which was purified from the yeast’s extracellular medium, was able to promote the growth of NIH/3T3 cells (mice fibroblasts). Because we needed the P. pastoris to express the bFGF in glucose –based tissue culture medium in the presence of mammalian cells, we expressed the bFGF from the constitutive promoter GAP promoter. Along with optimizing and characterizing expression of bFGF, we also investigated the effect of the recombinant protein on mammalian cell growth using both scratch ad MTS assays. In addition, the effects of the yeast being co-cultured with mammalian cells was studied. Our results provide a basis for how a recombinant protein can be clinically used to improve wound healing in the mouth using a yeast strain to produce and secrete a growth factor at the site of injury.

Hartsfield syndrome is a rare clinical entity characterized by holoprosencephaly and ectrodactyly with the variable feature of cleft lip/palate. In addition to these symptoms patients with Hartsfield syndrome can show developmental delay of variable severity, isolated hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, central diabetes insipidus, vertebral anomalies, eye anomalies, and cardiac malformations. Pathogenic variants in FGFR1 have been described to cause phenotypically different FGFR1-related disorders such as Hartsfield syndrome, hypogonadotropic hypogonadism with or without anosmia, Jackson–Weiss syndrome, osteoglophonic dysplasia, Pfeiffer syndrome, and trigonocephaly Type 1. Here, we report three patients with Hartsfield syndrome from two unrelated families. Exome sequencing revealed two siblings harboring a novel de novo heterozygous synonymous variant c.1029G>A, p.Ala343Ala causing a cryptic splice donor site in exon 8 of FGFR1 likely due to gonadal mosaicism in one parent. The third case was a sporadic patient with a novel de novo heterozygous missense variant c.1868A>G, p.(Asp623Gly).

No description available.

No description available.

The angiogenic and cardioprotective effects of basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the ischemic myocardium have been studied, but expression and release of endogenous FGF-2 and VEGF during myocardial ischemia are poorly understood. In addition, nitric oxide synthase isoforms eNOS and iNOS may play a role in myocardial ischemia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the release of FGF-2 and expression of FGF-2, VEGF, eNOS, and iNOS in the normal and ischemic heart. In Phase I, serum FGF-2 levels in patients undergoing treadmill stress test were measured to investigate correlation between serum FGF-2 levels and presence of ischemic heart disease. The study found that serum FGF-2 in ischemia-positive and ischemia-negative patients was not significantly elevated after treadmill stress test, and serum FGF-2 levels did not differ significantly between ischemia-positive and ischemia-negative patients. In Phase II, FGF-2 levels in coronary effluent from isolated perfused rabbit hearts subjected to low-flow ischemia was measured. Results suggest that FGF-2 is released into the coronary effluent of isolated perfused hearts over time and that this release may be elevated in ischemic (50% flow) hearts. Furthermore, the present study indicates that FGF-2 is released immediately after surgical isolation and instrumentation of the isolated heart. A linear model was developed to describe the release of FGF-2 from the isolated heart as a function of the coronary flow rate Q : [special characters omitted]where t = time and Q = 1 and 3.01 for normal and 50% flow rates respectively. In Phase III, effect of acute low-flow ischemia on FGF-2, VEGF, eNOS, and iNOS mRNA expression was measured in isolated perfused hearts using RT/PCR. Preliminary results indicate that FGF-2, VEGF, and iNOS mRNA expression is upregulated and eNOS expression is decreased in ischemic hearts suggesting that these growth factors play a role in short-term response of the myocardium to ischemia. The results of this study suggest that FGF-2, VEGF, and iNOS mRNA expression are increased, eNOS expression is decreased, and FGF-2 is released in response to low-flow ischemia in the isolated perfused heart.

No description available.