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Microorganisms Dec 2021Microbiomes are transmitted between generations by a variety of different vertical and/or horizontal modes, including vegetative reproduction (vertical), via female germ... (Review)
Review
Microbiomes are transmitted between generations by a variety of different vertical and/or horizontal modes, including vegetative reproduction (vertical), via female germ cells (vertical), coprophagy and regurgitation (vertical and horizontal), physical contact starting at birth (vertical and horizontal), breast-feeding (vertical), and via the environment (horizontal). Analyses of vertical transmission can result in false negatives (failure to detect rare microbes) and false positives (strain variants). In humans, offspring receive most of their initial gut microbiota vertically from mothers during birth, via breast-feeding and close contact. Horizontal transmission is common in marine organisms and involves selectivity in determining which environmental microbes can colonize the organism's microbiome. The following arguments are put forth concerning accurate microbial transmission: First, the transmission may be of functions, not necessarily of species; second, horizontal transmission may be as accurate as vertical transmission; third, detection techniques may fail to detect rare microbes; lastly, microbiomes develop and reach maturity with their hosts. In spite of the great variation in means of transmission discussed in this paper, microbiomes and their functions are transferred from one generation of holobionts to the next with fidelity. This provides a strong basis for each holobiont to be considered a unique biological entity and a level of selection in evolution, largely maintaining the uniqueness of the entity and conserving the species from one generation to the next.
PubMed: 35056519
DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms10010070 -
Aging Aug 2023The evolutionarily conserved circadian system allows organisms to synchronize internal processes with 24-h cycling environmental timing cues, ensuring optimal...
The evolutionarily conserved circadian system allows organisms to synchronize internal processes with 24-h cycling environmental timing cues, ensuring optimal adaptation. Like other organs, the pancreas function is under circadian control. Recent evidence suggests that aging by itself is associated with altered circadian homeostasis in different tissues which could affect the organ's resiliency to aging-related pathologies. Pancreas pathologies of either endocrine or exocrine components are age-related. Whether pancreas circadian transcriptome output is affected by age is still unknown. To address this, here we profiled the impact of age on the pancreatic transcriptome over a full circadian cycle and elucidated a circadian transcriptome reorganization of pancreas by aging. Our study highlights gain of rhythms in the extrinsic cellular pathways in the aged pancreas and extends a potential role to fibroblast-associated mechanisms.
Topics: Transcriptome; Pancreas; Bicycling; Fibroblasts
PubMed: 37647013
DOI: 10.18632/aging.204929 -
Computational and Mathematical Methods... 2012Biological organisms have intrinsic control systems that act in response to internal and external stimuli maintaining homeostasis. Human heart rate is not regular and... (Review)
Review
Biological organisms have intrinsic control systems that act in response to internal and external stimuli maintaining homeostasis. Human heart rate is not regular and varies in time and such variability, also known as heart rate variability (HRV), is not random. HRV depends upon organism's physiologic and/or pathologic state. Physicians are always interested in predicting patient's risk of developing major and life-threatening complications. Understanding biological signals behavior helps to characterize patient's state and might represent a step toward a better care. The main advantage of signals such as HRV indexes is that it can be calculated in real time in noninvasive manner, while all current biomarkers used in clinical practice are discrete and imply blood sample analysis. In this paper HRV linear and nonlinear indexes are reviewed and data from real patients are provided to show how these indexes might be used in clinical practice.
Topics: Clinical Medicine; Electrocardiography; Female; Heart Rate; Homeostasis; Humans; Linear Models; Male; Nonlinear Dynamics
PubMed: 22400047
DOI: 10.1155/2012/219080 -
Alcohol Research : Current Reviews 2021Chronic, heavy alcohol consumption disrupts normal organ function and causes structural damage in virtually every tissue of the body. Current diagnostic terminology... (Review)
Review
Chronic, heavy alcohol consumption disrupts normal organ function and causes structural damage in virtually every tissue of the body. Current diagnostic terminology states that a person who drinks alcohol excessively has alcohol use disorder. The liver is especially susceptible to alcohol-induced damage. This review summarizes and describes the effects of chronic alcohol use not only on the liver, but also on other selected organs and systems affected by continual heavy drinking-including the gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, heart, and bone. Most significantly, the recovery process after cessation of alcohol consumption (abstinence) is explored. Depending on the organ and whether there is relapse, functional recovery is possible. Even after years of heavy alcohol use, the liver has a remarkable regenerative capacity and, following alcohol removal, can recover a significant portion of its original mass and function. Other organs show recovery after abstinence as well. Data on studies of both heavy alcohol use among humans and animal models of chronic ethanol feeding are discussed. This review describes how (or whether) each organ/tissue metabolizes ethanol, as metabolism influences the organ's degree of injury. Damage sustained by the organ/tissue is reviewed, and evidence for recovery during abstinence is presented.
Topics: Alcohol Abstinence; Alcohol Drinking; Alcoholism; Animals; Bone and Bones; Ethanol; Gastrointestinal Tract; Heart; Humans; Liver; Liver Diseases, Alcoholic; Mice; Pancreatitis, Alcoholic; Rats
PubMed: 33868869
DOI: 10.35946/arcr.v41.1.05 -
ELife Apr 2021The adaptive immune system provides a diverse set of molecules that can mount specific responses against a multitude of pathogens. Memory is a key feature of adaptive...
The adaptive immune system provides a diverse set of molecules that can mount specific responses against a multitude of pathogens. Memory is a key feature of adaptive immunity, which allows organisms to respond more readily upon re-infections. However, differentiation of memory cells is still one of the least understood cell fate decisions. Here, we introduce a mathematical framework to characterize optimal strategies to store memory to maximize the utility of immune response over an organism's lifetime. We show that memory production should be actively regulated to balance between affinity and cross-reactivity of immune receptors for an effective protection against evolving pathogens. Moreover, we predict that specificity of memory should depend on the organism's lifespan, and shorter lived organisms with fewer pathogenic encounters should store more cross-reactive memory. Our framework provides a baseline to gauge the efficacy of immune memory in light of an organism's coevolutionary history with pathogens.
Topics: Adaptive Immunity; Animals; Biological Evolution; Humans; Immunologic Memory; Models, Theoretical
PubMed: 33908347
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.61346 -
Ageing Research Reviews Apr 2024Aging is a complex multidimensional, progressive remodeling process affecting multiple organ systems. While many studies have focused on studying aging across multiple... (Review)
Review
Aging is a complex multidimensional, progressive remodeling process affecting multiple organ systems. While many studies have focused on studying aging across multiple organs, assessment of the contribution of individual organs to overall aging processes is a cutting-edge issue. An organ's biological age might influence the aging of other organs, revealing a multiorgan aging network. Recent data demonstrated a similar yet asynchronous inter-organs and inter-individuals progression of aging, thereby providing a foundation to track sources of declining health in old age. The integration of multiple omics with common clinical parameters through artificial intelligence has allowed the building of organ-specific aging clocks, which can predict the development of specific age-related diseases at high resolution. The peculiar individual aging-trajectory, referred to as ageotype, might provide a novel tool for a personalized anti-aging, preventive medicine. Here, we review data relative to biological aging clocks and omics-based data, suggesting different organ-specific aging rates. Additional research on longitudinal data, including young subjects and analyzing sex-related differences, should be encouraged to apply ageotyping analysis for preventive purposes in clinical practice.
Topics: Humans; Artificial Intelligence; Aging; Biological Clocks
PubMed: 38447609
DOI: 10.1016/j.arr.2024.102253 -
BioRxiv : the Preprint Server For... May 2023The evolutionarily conserved circadian system allows organisms to synchronize internal processes with 24-h cycling environmental timing cues, ensuring optimal...
The evolutionarily conserved circadian system allows organisms to synchronize internal processes with 24-h cycling environmental timing cues, ensuring optimal adaptation. Like other organs, the pancreas function is under circadian control. Recent evidence suggests that aging by itself is associated with altered circadian homeostasis in different tissues which could affect the organ's resiliency to aging-related pathologies. Pancreas pathologies of either endocrine or exocrine components are age-related. Whether pancreas circadian transcriptome output is affected by age is still unknown. To address this, here we profiled the impact of age on the pancreatic transcriptome over a full circadian cycle and elucidated a circadian transcriptome reorganization of pancreas by aging. Our study highlights gain of rhythms in the extrinsic cellular pathways in the aged pancreas and extends a potential role to fibroblast-associated mechanisms.
PubMed: 37292612
DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.17.541196 -
International Journal of Molecular... Apr 2021Photosynthetic carbon converted to sucrose is vital for plant growth. Sucrose acts as a signaling molecule and a primary energy source that coordinates the source and... (Review)
Review
Photosynthetic carbon converted to sucrose is vital for plant growth. Sucrose acts as a signaling molecule and a primary energy source that coordinates the source and sink development. Alteration in source-sink balance halts the physiological and developmental processes of plants, since plant growth is mostly triggered when the primary assimilates in the source leaf balance with the metabolic needs of the heterotrophic sinks. To measure up with the sink organ's metabolic needs, the improvement of photosynthetic carbon to synthesis sucrose, its remobilization, and utilization at the sink level becomes imperative. However, environmental cues that influence sucrose balance within these plant organs, limiting positive yield prospects, have also been a rising issue over the past few decades. Thus, this review discusses strategies to improve photosynthetic carbon assimilation, the pathways actively involved in the transport of sucrose from source to sink organs, and their utilization at the sink organ. We further emphasize the impact of various environmental cues on sucrose transport and utilization, and the strategic yield improvement approaches under such conditions.
Topics: Biological Transport, Active; Carbon; Crop Production; Crops, Agricultural; Global Warming; Phloem; Photosynthesis; Plant Leaves; Plant Roots; Sucrose; Sustainable Development
PubMed: 33946791
DOI: 10.3390/ijms22094704 -
Nature Jan 2012The mouse genetic revolution has shown repeatedly that most organs have more functions than expected. This has led to the realization that, in addition to a molecular... (Review)
Review
The mouse genetic revolution has shown repeatedly that most organs have more functions than expected. This has led to the realization that, in addition to a molecular and cellular approach, there is a need for a whole-organism study of physiology. The skeleton is an example of how a whole-organism approach to physiology can broaden the functions of a given organ, reveal connections of this organ with others such as the brain, pancreas and gut, and shed new light on the pathogenesis of degenerative diseases affecting multiple organs.
Topics: Animals; Appetite; Bone Diseases; Bone and Bones; Energy Metabolism; Humans; Leptin; Organ Specificity; Osteocalcin; Physiological Phenomena
PubMed: 22258610
DOI: 10.1038/nature10763 -
Trends in Cell Biology Jul 2012Stem cell (SC) activity fluctuates throughout an organism's lifetime to maintain homeostatic conditions in all tissues. As animals develop and age, their organs must... (Review)
Review
Stem cell (SC) activity fluctuates throughout an organism's lifetime to maintain homeostatic conditions in all tissues. As animals develop and age, their organs must remodel and regenerate themselves in response to environmental and physiological demands. Recently, the highly conserved Hippo signaling pathway, discovered in Drosophila melanogaster, has been implicated as a key regulator of organ size control across species. Deregulation is associated with substantial overgrowth phenotypes and eventual onset of cancer in various tissues. Importantly, emerging evidence suggests that the Hippo pathway can modulate its effects on tissue size by the direct regulation of SC proliferation and maintenance. These findings provide an attractive model for how this pathway might communicate physiological needs for growth to tissue-specific SC pools. In this review, we summarize the current and emerging data linking Hippo signaling to SC function.
Topics: Animals; Cell Proliferation; Drosophila Proteins; Drosophila melanogaster; Humans; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; Signal Transduction; Stem Cells
PubMed: 22658639
DOI: 10.1016/j.tcb.2012.04.006