In the clinic, immune checkpoint immunotherapy (ICI) is used to re-activate reactions against tumor neoantigens, leading striking remission in cancer patients’ tumors. However, complete or durable responses ICI treatment only occur a minority of patients. While level mutational burden (TMB) can be as predictive marker for responsiveness, we questioned whether subcellular localization neoantigen...

PURPOSE Prolonged physical training leads to compensatory changes in cardiovascular system. One of the most important of them is cardiac hypertrophy. The knowledge, which factors contribute to cardiomyocyte hypertrophy caused by physical exercise is still incomplete. Interleukin 6 (IL6) secreted by contracting skeletal muscles may affect cardiac hypertrophy and remodeling. The aim of the study ...

Animal model Mice with cardiomyocyte-restricted low-level overexpression of long-chain acylCoA synthetase 1 (ACStg) and control littermates (WT) were originally on the FVB background1. We prepared a transgenic line on the C57BL6j background by backcrossing more than 8 generations. DRP1 floxed mice (Kind gift of Hiromi Sesaki, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD) were used to generate cardiom...

It has been well established that physical activity (exercise) by way of running wheel or treadmill activity improves motor and cognitive performance in (sedentary) mice [1,2,3]. This type of exercise, however, cannot be performed well by aging mice or mice with motor deficiencies. Notably the amount of voluntary exercise of old mice in running wheels decreases largely (up to 90% as compared to...

OBJECTIVES Arterial pressure induced vein graft injury can result in endothelial loss, accelerated atherosclerosis and vein graft failure. Inflammation, including complement activation, is assumed to play a pivotal role herein. Here, we analyzed the effects of C1-esterase inhibitor (C1inh) on early vein graft remodeling. METHODS Human saphenous vein graft segments (n=8) were perfused in vitro...

Introduction: Reconstructive options for peripheral nerve gaps are currently limited. Autogenous nerve grafts continue to be the gold standard, but are limited by the availability of graft material. All other methods of nerve grafting are either experimental or have limited clinical applicability. We propose developing a tissue engineered peripheral nerve allograft that is non-immunogenic but c...

Mice genetically deficient for the telomerase RNA (mTR) can be propagated for only a limited number of generations. In particular, mTR-/- mice of a mixed C57BL6/129Sv genetic background are infertile at the sixth generation and show serious hematopoietic defects. Here, we show that a percentage of mTR-/- embryos do not develop normally and fail to close the neural tube, preferentially at the fo...

This study evaluates the effects of anesthesia and fluid support on hemodynamic parameters of the mechanically ventilated mouse of four different strains. All experiments were performed at a similar surgical level of anesthesia, as indicated by the probing of the pedal withdrawal reflex. Three anesthetic regimens [fentanyl-fluanisone-midazolam (FFM), ketamine-medetomidine-atropine (KMA), and is...