Proximal improvement and higher-order resting state network change after multidomain cognitive training intervention in healthy older adults

GeroScience - Prior randomized control trials have shown that cognitive training interventions resulted in improved proximal task performance, improved functioning of activities of daily living,...     

Brain age estimation reveals older adults’ accelerated senescence after traumatic brain injury

GeroScience - Adults aged 60 and over are most vulnerable to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Nevertheless, the extent to which chronological age (CA) at injury affects TBI-related brain aging...     

Risk of Postpartum Flare Hospitalizations in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease Persists After Six Months

Digestive Diseases and Sciences - Although patients with IBD are at higher risk for flares during the postpartum period, little is known about the risk factors, timeline, and healthcare-associated...     

Unsedated Transnasal Endoscopy: A Safe,Well-Tolerated and Accurate Alternative to Standard Diagnostic Peroral Endoscopy

Digestive Diseases and Sciences - Diagnostic unsedated transnasal endoscopy (uTNE) has been proven to be a safe and well-tolerated procedure. Although its utilization in the United Kingdom...     

Recently Graduated Medical Students Lack Exposure to and Comfort with Chronic Liver Diseases

Digestive Diseases and Sciences - The prevalence of chronic liver disease (CLD) is rising, but it remains unclear if medical school curricula are emphasizing CLD to reflect its growing...     

Exogenous and Endogenous Triggers Differentially Stimulate Pigr Expression and Antibacterial Secretory Immunity in the Murine Respiratory Tract

Purpose

Transport of secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) through the airway epithelial cell barrier into the mucosal lumen by the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR) is an important mechanism of respiratory mucosal host defense. Identification of immunomodulating substances that regulate secretory immunity might have therapeutic implications with regard to an improved immune exclusion.

Thus, we sought to analyze secretory immunity under homeostatic and immunomodulating conditions in different compartments of the murine upper and lower respiratory tract (URT&LRT).

Methods

Pigr gene expression in lung, trachea, and nasal-associated lymphoid tissue (NALT) of germ-free mice, specific pathogen-free mice, mice with an undefined microbiome, as well as LPS- and IFN-γ-treated mice was determined by quantitative real-time PCR. IgA levels in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), nasal lavage (NAL), and serum were determined by ELISA. LPS- and IFN-γ-treated mice were colonized with Streptococcus pneumoniae and bacterial CFUs were determined in URT and LRT.

Results

Respiratory Pigr expression and IgA levels were dependent on the degree of exposure to environmental microbial stimuli. While immunostimulation with LPS and IFN-γ differentially impacts respiratory Pigr expression and IgA in URT vs. LRT, only prophylactic IFN-γ treatment reduces nasal colonization with S. pneumoniae.

Conclusion

Airway-associated secretory immunity can be partly modulated by exposure to microbial ligands and proinflammatory stimuli. Prophylactic IFN-γ-treatment modestly improves antibacterial immunity in the URT, but this does not appear to be mediated by SIgA or pIgR.

     

Identifying Patients with Group 3 Pulmonary Hypertension Associated with COPD or ILD Using an Administrative Claims Database

Lung - Group 3 pulmonary hypertension (PH) describes a subpopulation of patients with PH due to chronic lung disease and/or hypoxia, with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and...     

Examination of anticoagulation prescription among elderly patients with atrial fibrillation after in-hospital fall

Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis - Mechanical fall is common among elders and has been associated with a lack of anticoagulant therapy among patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). However,...