An obesity-associated gut microbiome with increased capacity for energy harvest

The worldwide obesity epidemic is stimulating efforts to identify host and environmental factors that affect energy balance. Comparisons of the distal gut microbiota of genetically obese mice and their lean littermates, as well as those of obese and lean human volunteers have revealed that obesity is associated with changes in the relative abundance of the two dominant bacterial divisions, the Bacteroidetes and the Firmicutes. Here we demonstrate through metagenomic and biochemical analyses that these changes affect the metabolic potential of the mouse gut microbiota. Our results indicate that the obese microbiome has an increased capacity to harvest energy from the diet. Furthermore, this trait is transmissible: colonization of germ-free mice with an 'obese microbiota' results in a significantly greater increase in total body fat than colonization with a 'lean microbiota'. These results identify the gut microbiota as an additional contributing factor to the pathophysiology of obesity.     

Potentiation of neuroblastoma metastasis by loss of caspase-8

Neuroblastoma, the most common paediatric solid tumour, arises from defective neural crest cells. Genetic alterations occur frequently in the most aggressive neuroblastomas. In particular, deletion or suppression of the proapoptotic enzyme caspase-8 is common in malignant, disseminated disease, although the effect of this loss on disease progression is unclear. Here we show that suppression of caspase-8 expression occurs during the establishment of neuroblastoma metastases in vivo, and that reconstitution of caspase-8 expression in deficient neuroblastoma cells suppressed their metastases. Caspase-8 status was not a predictor of primary tumour growth; rather, caspase-8 selectively potentiated apoptosis in neuroblastoma cells invading the collagenous stroma at the tumour margin. Apoptosis was initiated by unligated integrins by means of a process known as integrin-mediated death. Loss of caspase-8 or integrin rendered these cells refractory to integrin-mediated death, allowed cellular survival in the stromal microenvironment, and promoted metastases. These findings define caspase-8 as a metastasis suppressor gene that, together with integrins, regulates the survival and invasive capacity of neuroblastoma cells.     

三维血管介入手术模拟方法

针对血管内介入手术模拟建模与碰撞消除方法存在的不足,提出了一种多体-双层的导管/导丝组合体模型及基于几何分析和旋转角传播的快速碰撞消除方法,并开发了一个实时的三维介入手术模拟系统,模拟导管/导丝在实际血管中的运动行为.该多体-双层模型由若干分段组成,每一分段代表了一段导丝、导管或两者兼有的组合体,导丝和导管的半径定义不同,材料属性不同,但每一分段长度相同.模型的运动通过碰撞检测和消除加以引导,抵达目标位置后对该模型施加松弛过程使其状态与实际状态更加吻合.实验结果表明,导管/导丝模型的运动状态与给定的材料参数密切相关,模拟可以达到实时的要求,方法可靠有效,有望应用于临床.