UNASSIGNED: There is a paucity of data on the inflammatory response that takes place in the pericardial space after cardiac surgery. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the local postoperative inflammatory response.
UNASSIGNED: Forty-three patients underwent cardiotomy, where native pericardial fluid was aspirated and compared with postoperative pericardial effluent collected at 4, 24, and 48 hours\' postcardiopulmonary bypass. Flow cytometry was used to define the levels and proportions of specific immune cells. Samples were also probed for concentrations of inflammatory cytokines, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs).
UNASSIGNED: Preoperatively, the pericardial space mainly contains macrophages and T cells. However, the postsurgical pericardial space was populated predominately by neutrophils, which constituted almost 80% of immune cells present, and peaked at 24 hours. When surgical approaches were compared, minimally invasive surgery was associated with fewer neutrophils in the pericardial space at 4 hours\' postsurgery. Analysis of the intrapericardial concentrations of inflammatory mediators showed interleukin-6, MMP-9, and TIMP-1 to be highest postsurgery. Over time, MMP-9 concentrations decreased significantly, whereas TIMP-1 levels increased, resulting in a significant reduction of the ratio of MMP:TIMP after surgery, suggesting that active inflammatory processes may influence extracellular matrix remodeling.
UNASSIGNED: These results show that cardiac surgery elicits profound alterations in the immune cell profile in the pericardial space. Defining the cellular and molecular mediators that drive pericardial-specific postoperative inflammatory processes may allow for targeted therapies to reduce immune-mediated complications.

Moringa oleifera Lam. (M. oleifera Lam) is a perennial tropical deciduous tree that belongs to the Moringaceae family. Polysaccharides are one of the major bioactive compounds in M. oleifera Lam and show immunomodulatory, anticancer, antioxidant, intestinal health protection and antidiabetic activities. At present, the structure and functional activities of M. oleifera Lam polysaccharides (MOPs) have been widespread, but the research data are relatively scattered. Moreover, the relationship between the structure and biological activities of MOPs has not been summarized. In this review, the current research on the extraction, purification, structural characteristics and biological activities of polysaccharides from different sources of M. oleifera Lam were summarized, and the structural characteristics of purified polysaccharides were focused on this review. Meanwhile, the biological activities of MOPs were introduced, and some molecular mechanisms were listed. In addition, the relationship between the structure and biological activities of MOPs was discussed. Furthermore, new perspectives and some future research of M. oleifera Lam polysaccharides were proposed in this review.

Increased remodeling of the extracellular matrix in malignant tumors has been shown to correlate with tumor aggressiveness and a poor prognosis. This remodeling involves degradation of the original extracellular matrix (ECM) and deposition of a new tumor-supporting ECM. The main constituent of the ECM is collagen and collagen turnover mainly occurs in a sequential manner, where initial proteolytic cleavage of the insoluble fibers is followed by cellular internalization of large well-defined collagen fragments for lysosomal degradation. However, despite extensive research in the field, a lack of consensus on which cell types within the tumor microenvironment express the involved proteases still exists. Furthermore, the relative contribution of different cell types to collagen internalization is not well-established. Here, we developed quantitative ex vivo collagen degradation assays and show that the proteases responsible for the initial collagen cleavage in two murine syngeneic tumor models are matrix metalloproteinases produced by cancer-associated fibroblasts and that collagen degradation fragments are endocytosed primarily by tumor-associated macrophages and cancer-associated fibroblasts from the tumor stroma. Using tumors from mannose receptor-deficient mice, we show that this receptor is essential for collagen-internalization by tumor-associated macrophages. Together, these findings identify the cell types responsible for the entire collagen degradation pathway, from initial cleavage to endocytosis of fragments for intracellular degradation.

Revealing the landscape of epigenetic changes in cells during differentiation is important for understanding the development of organisms. In this study, to infer such epigenetic changes during human hematopoiesis, ancestral state estimation based on a phylogenetic tree was applied to map the epigenomic changes in six kinds of histone modifications onto the hierarchical cell differentiation process of hematopoiesis using epigenomes of eight types of differentiated hematopoietic cells. The histone modification changes inferred during hematopoiesis showed that changes that occurred on the branches separating different cell types reflected the characteristics of hematopoiesis in terms of genomic position and gene function. These results suggested that ancestral state estimation based on phylogenetic analysis of histone modifications in differentiated hematopoietic cells could reconstruct an appropriate landscape of histone modification changes during hematopoiesis. Since integration of the inferred changes of different histone modifications could reveal genes with specific histone marks such as active histone marks and bivalent histone marks on each internal branch of cell-type trees, this approach could provide valuable information for understanding the cell differentiation steps of each cell lineage.

In human tumors of distinct origin including renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the non-classical human leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G) is frequently expressed, thereby inhibiting the cytotoxic activity of T and natural killer (NK) cells. Recent studies demonstrated a strong post-transcriptional gene regulation of the HLA-G by miR-152, -148A, -148B and -133A. Standard methods were applied to characterize the expression and function of HLA-G, HLA-G-regulatory microRNAs (miRs) and the immune cell infiltration in 453 RCC lesions using a tissue microarray and five RCC cell lines linking these results to clinical parameters. Direct interactions with HLA-G regulatory miRs and the HLA-G 3\' untranslated region (UTR) were detected and the affinities of these different miRs to the HLA-G 3\'-UTR compared. qPCR analyses and immunohistochemical staining revealed an inverse expression of miR-148A and -133A with the HLA-G protein in situ and in vitro. Stable miR overexpression caused a downregulation of HLA-G protein enhancing the NK and LAK cell-mediated cytotoxicity in in vitro CD107a activation assays revealing a HLA-G-dependent cytotoxic activity of immune effector cells. A significant higher frequency of CD3+/CD8+ T cell lymphocytes, but no differences in the activation markers CD69, CD25 or in the presence of CD56+, FoxP3+ and CD4+ immune cells were detected in HLA-G+ compared to HLA-G- RCC lesions. This could be associated with higher WHO grade, but not with a disease-specific survival. These data suggest a miR-mediated control of HLA-G expression in RCC, which is associated with a distinct pattern of immune cell infiltration.