University of Los Andes

About: University of Los Andes is a education organization based out in Bogotá, Colombia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 17616 authors who have published 25555 publications receiving 413463 citations.

Gestational diabetes mellitus is associated with changes in the concentration and bioactivity of placenta-derived exosomes in maternal circulation across gestation

Abstract: Although there is significant interest in elucidating the role of placenta-derived exosomes (PdEs) during pregnancy, the exosomal profile in pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) remains to be established. The aim of this study was to compare the gestational-age profile of PdEs in maternal plasma of GDM with normal pregnancies and to determine the effect of exosomes on cytokine release from human umbilical vein endothelial cells. A prospective cohort of patients was sampled at three time points during pregnancy for each patient (i.e., 11-14, 22-24, and 32-36 weeks' gestation). A retrospective stratified study design was used to quantify exosomes present in maternal plasma of normal (n = 13) and GDM (n = 7) pregnancies. Gestational age and pregnancy status were identified as significant factors contributing to variation in plasma exosome concentration (ANOVA, P < 0.05). Post hoc analyses established that PdE concentration increased during gestation in both normal and GDM pregnancies; however, the increase was significantly greater in GDM (∼2.2-fold, ∼1.5-fold, and ∼1.8-fold greater at each gestational age compared with normal pregnancies). Exosomes isolated from GDM pregnancies significantly increased the release of proinflammatory cytokines from endothelial cells. Although the role of exosomes during GDM remains to be fully elucidated, exosome profiles may be of diagnostic utility for screening asymptomatic populations.

Placental Exosomes as Early Biomarker of Preeclampsia: Potential Role of Exosomal MicroRNAs Across Gestation.

Abstract: Context: There is a need to develop strategies for early prediction of patients who will develop preeclampsia (PE) to establish preventive strategies to reduce the prevalence and severity of the disease and their associated complications Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate whether exosomes and their microRNA cargo present in maternal circulation can be used as early biomarker for PE Design, Setting, Patients, and Interventions: A retrospective stratified study design was used to quantify total exosomes and placenta-derived exosomes present in maternal plasma of normal (n = 32 per time point) and PE (n = 15 per time point) pregnancies Exosomes present in maternal circulation were determined by nanoparticle tracking analysis An Illumina TruSeq® Small RNA Library Prep Kit was used to construct a small RNA library from exosomal RNA obtained from plasma samples Results: In presymptomatic women, who subsequently developed PE, the concentration of total exosomes and placenta-derived exosomes in maternal plasma was significantly greater than those observed in controls, throughout pregnancy The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves for total exosome and placenta-derived exosome concentrations were 0745 6 0094 and 0829 6 0077, respectively In total, over 300 microRNAs were identified in exosomes across gestation, where hsa-miR-486-1-5p and hsa-miR-486-2-5p were identified as the candidate microRNAs Conclusions: Although the role of exosomes during PE remains to be fully elucidated, we suggest that the concentration and content of exosomes may be of diagnostic utility for women at risk for developing PE

Indications of suppression of excited? States in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN2.76 TeV

Abstract: A comparison of the relative yields of Upsilon resonances in the mu(+) mu(-) decay channel in PbPb and pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 2.76 TeV, is performed with data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. Using muons of transverse momentum above 4 GeV/c and pseudorapidity below 2.4, the double ratio of the Upsilon(2S) and Upsilon(3S) excited states to the Upsilon(1S) ground state in PbPb and pp collisions,(Upsilon(2S+3S)/Upsilon(1S)[PbPb])/(Upsilon(2S+3S)/Upsilon(1S)[pp]), is found to be 0.31 - 0.15 + 0.19 (stat.) +/- 0.03 (syst.). The probability to obtain the measured value, or lower, if the true double ratio is unity, has been calculated to be less than 1%.