King's College London

About: King's College London is a education organization based out in London, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Mental health. The organization has 43107 authors who have published 113125 publications receiving 4498103 citations. The organization is also known as: King's & KCL.

Childhood maltreatment predicts adult inflammation in a life-course study

Abstract: Stress in early life has been associated with insufficient glucocorticoid signaling in adulthood, possibly affecting inflammation processes. Childhood maltreatment has been linked to increased risk of adult disease with potential inflammatory origin. However, the impact of early life stress on adult inflammation is not known in humans. We tested the life-course association between childhood maltreatment and adult inflammation in a birth cohort followed to age 32 years as part of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. Regression models were used to estimate the effect of maltreatment on inflammation, adjusting for co-occurring risk factors and potential mediating variables. Maltreated children showed a significant and graded increase in the risk for clinically relevant C-reactive protein levels 20 years later, in adulthood [risk ratio (RR) = 1.80, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.26–2.58]. The effect of childhood maltreatment on adult inflammation was independent of the influence of co-occurring early life risks (RR = 1.58, 95% CI = 1.08–2.31), stress in adulthood (RR = 1.64, 95% CI = 1.12–2.39), and adult health and health behavior (RR = 1.76, 95% CI = 1.23–2.51). More than 10% of cases of low-grade inflammation in the population, as indexed by high C-reactive protein, may be attributable to childhood maltreatment. The association between maltreatment and adult inflammation also generalizes to fibrinogen and white blood cell count. Childhood maltreatment is a previously undescribed, independent, and preventable risk factor for inflammation in adulthood. Inflammation may be an important developmental mediator linking adverse experiences in early life to poor adult health.

Characterization of human embryonic stem cell lines by the International Stem Cell Initiative

Abstract: The International Stem Cell Initiative characterized 59 human embryonic stem cell lines from 17 laboratories worldwide. Despite diverse genotypes and different techniques used for derivation and maintenance, all lines exhibited similar expression patterns for several markers of human embryonic stem cells. They expressed the glycolipid antigens SSEA3 and SSEA4, the keratan sulfate antigens TRA-1-60, TRA-1-81, GCTM2 and GCT343, and the protein antigens CD9, Thy1 (also known as CD90), tissue- nonspecific alkaline phosphatase and class 1 HLA, as well as the strongly developmentally regulated genes NANOG, POU5F1 (formerly known as OCT4), TDGF1, DNMT3B, GABRB3 and GDF3. Nevertheless, the lines were not identical: differences in expression of several lineage markers were evident, and several imprinted genes showed generally similar allele-specific expression patterns, but some gene-dependent variation was observed. Also, some female lines expressed readily detectable levels of XIST whereas others did not. No significant contamination of the lines with mycoplasma, bacteria or cytopathic viruses was detected.

A Deep Cascade of Convolutional Neural Networks for Dynamic MR Image Reconstruction

Abstract: Inspired by recent advances in deep learning, we propose a framework for reconstructing dynamic sequences of 2-D cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) images from undersampled data using a deep cascade of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to accelerate the data acquisition process. In particular, we address the case where data are acquired using aggressive Cartesian undersampling. First, we show that when each 2-D image frame is reconstructed independently, the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art 2-D compressed sensing approaches, such as dictionary learning-based MR image reconstruction, in terms of reconstruction error and reconstruction speed. Second, when reconstructing the frames of the sequences jointly, we demonstrate that CNNs can learn spatio-temporal correlations efficiently by combining convolution and data sharing approaches. We show that the proposed method consistently outperforms state-of-the-art methods and is capable of preserving anatomical structure more faithfully up to 11-fold undersampling. Moreover, reconstruction is very fast: each complete dynamic sequence can be reconstructed in less than 10 s and, for the 2-D case, each image frame can be reconstructed in 23 ms, enabling real-time applications.

Non-motor features of Parkinson disease.

Abstract: Many of the motor symptoms of Parkinson disease (PD) can be preceded, sometimes for several years, by non-motor symptoms that include hyposmia, sleep disorders, depression and constipation. These non-motor features appear across the spectrum of patients with PD, including individuals with genetic causes of PD. The neuroanatomical and neuropharmacological bases of non-motor abnormalities in PD remain largely undefined. Here, we discuss recent advances that have helped to establish the presence, severity and effect on the quality of life of non-motor symptoms in PD, and the neuroanatomical and neuropharmacological mechanisms involved. We also discuss the potential for the non-motor features to define a prodrome that may enable the early diagnosis of PD.