Project description:Sea spray aerosols (SSAs) have profound effects on our climate and ecosystems. They also contain microbiota and biogenic molecules which could affect human health. Yet the exposure and effects of SSAs on human health remain poorly studied. Here, we exposed human lung cancer cells to extracts of a natural sea spray aerosol collected at the seashore in Belgium, a laboratory-generated SSA, the marine algal toxin homoyessotoxin and a chemical inhibitor of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. We observed significant increased expression of genes related to the mTOR pathway and Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) after exposure to homoyessotoxin and the laboratory-generated SSA. In contrast, we observed a significant decrease in gene expression in the mTOR pathway and of PCSK9 after exposure to the natural SSA and the mTOR inhibitor, suggesting induction of apoptosis. Our results indicate that marine biogenics in SSAs interact with PCSK9 and the mTOR pathway and can be used in new potential pharmaceutical applications. Overall, our results provide a substantial molecular evidence base for potential beneficial health effects at environmentally relevant concentrations of natural SSAs.
Project description:<p>A transmission mode-direct analysis in real time-quadrupole time of flight-mass spectrometry (TM-DART-QTOF-MS)-based analytical method coupled to multivariate statistical analysis was developed to interrogate lipophilic compounds in seawater samples without the need of desalinization. An untargeted metabolomics approach addressed here as seaomics was successfully implemented to discriminate sea surface microlayer (SML) from underlying water (ULW) samples (n=22, 10 paired samples) collected during a field campaign at the Cape Verde islands in September-October 2017. A panel of 11 ionic species detected in all samples allowed sample class discrimination by means of supervised multivariate statistical models. Tentative identification of species enriched at SML samples suggests that fatty alcohols, halogenated compounds, and oxygenated boron-containing organic compounds are available at the surface for water-air transfer processes. A subset of SML samples (n=5) were subject to on-site experiments during the campaign using a lab-to-the-field approach to test their secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation potency. Results from these experiments and the analytical seaomics strategy provide a proof of concept for an approach to identifying organic molecules involved in aerosol formation processes at the water/air interface.</p>
Project description:Twenty microliter aliquots of BALF samples were dissolved in SDS-sample buffer and applied onto a 4-12% Nupage gel with MOPs running buffer. The run stopped after the samples migrated approximately ¼ distance into the gel. Each lane of the gel was sliced into smaller pieces, and subjected to destaining, reducing/alkylation, and in-gel trypsin digestion. The extracted peptides were applied for LC-MS/MS analysis using either a Thermo Orbitrap Fusion or a Thermo Orbitrap Fusion Lumos operated with an in-line Thermo nLC 1200 and an EASY-Spray ion source. Pepetides were separated using a 2 cm Pepmap 100 C18 trap column and a 25 cm Easy-spray Pepmap 100 C18 analytical column. MS/MS data acquisitions were operated at a 120,000 resolution (m/z 200) with a scan range of 350-1950 m/z and CID fragmentation.
Project description:Background: Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) have classically been cultured in media supplemented with 20% fetal bovine serum (FBS). As an alternative to FBS, pooled solvent detergent apheresis platelets, HPGF-C18, was evaluated for BMSC culture. Methods: A comparison of passage 2 BMSC growth revealed that 10% HPGF-C18 produced similar cell numbers as 20% FBS. Marrow aspirates from 5 healthy subjects were cultured for 4 passages in 10% HPGF-C18 or 20% FBS and were analyzed for proliferation, colony formation efficiency (CFE), surface marker expression, suppression of mixed lymphocyte reactions (MLRs), global gene and microRNA expression analysis. BMSC supernatant cytokine and growth factor concentrations were also compared. Results: Primary cultures of marrow aspirates in 10% HPGF-C18 and 20% FBS yielded similar numbers and CFE. After 4 passages, 10% HPGF-C18 and 20% FBS yielded similar numbers of BMSCs, surface marker expression patterns and immunosuppression effects. Gene and microRNA expression analysis revealed that BMSCs cultured under the two conditions had distinct expression profiles. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) revealed HPGF-C18-cultured BMSCs were enriched in metabolic processing and biosynthetic pathways; cell proliferation and cell cycle pathways; and immune response pathways. FBS-cultured BMSCs were enriched in MAPK signaling, TGF-beta signaling, cell adhesion and extracellular matrix pathways. Differently expressed microRNAs were related to the osteogenesis of BMSCs. Supernatant analysis found that HPGF-C18 BMSCs displayed higher levels of PEDF and TGFB1 and lower levels of IL6, VEGF, SDF1 and PLGF. Conclusions: Traditional measures; expansion, surface marker expression and inhibition of MLRs suggest that BMSC cultured in HPGF-C18 and FBS were similar, but analysis at the molecular level revealed many differences. BMSCs cultured in HPGF-C18 should be assessed in specific functional assays that reflect application-specific potency before substituting FBS with HPGF-C18.
Project description:In this study, we analyzed both together the epithelial tissue and the secreted mucus response using a holistic interactome-based multi-omics approach. The effect of the gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) skin mucosa to a dietary inclusion of spray-dried porcine plasma (SDPP) was evaluated.