Progesterone analogue protects stressed photoreceptors via bFGF-mediated calcium influx.

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a degenerative retinal disease leading to photoreceptor cell loss. In 2011, our group identified the synthetic progesterone ‘Norgestrel’ as a potential treatment for RP. Subsequent research showed Norgestrel to work through progesterone receptor membrane component 1 (PGRMC1) activation and upregulation of neuroprotective basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). Using trophic factor deprivation of 661W photoreceptor-like cells, we aimed to further elucidate the mechanism leading to Norgestrel-induced neuroprotection. In the present manuscript, we show by flow cytometry and live-cell immunofluorescence that Norgestrel induces an increase in cytosolic calcium in both healthy and stressed 661Ws over 24h. Specific PGRMC1 inhibition by AG205 (1 μM) showed this rise to be PGRMC1-dependent, primarily utilising calcium from extracellular sources, for blockade of L-type calcium channels by verapamil (50 μM) prevented a Norgestrel-induced calcium influx in stressed cells. Calcium influx was also shown to be bFGF-dependent, for siRNA knock down of bFGF prevented Norgestrel-PGRMC1 induced changes in cytosolic calcium. Notably, we demonstrate PGRMC1-activation is necessary for Norgestrel-induced bFGF upregulation. We propose that Norgestrel protects through the following pathway: binding to and activating PGRMC1 expressed on the surface of photoreceptor cells, PGRMC1 activation drives bFGF upregulation and subsequent calcium influx. Importantly, raised intracellular calcium is critical to Norgestrel's protective efficacy, for extracellular calcium chelation by EGTA abrogates the protective effects of Norgestrel on stressed 661W cells in vitro.

Ryanodine receptor expression in trophoblasts

Trophoblasts of the placenta are the frontline cells involved in communication and exchange of materials between the mother and fetus. Within trophoblasts, calcium signalling proteins are richly expressed. Intracellular free calcium ions are a key second messenger, regulating various cellular activities. Transcellular Ca2+ transport through trophoblasts is essential in fetal skeleton formation. Ryanodine receptors (RyRs) are high conductance cation channels that mediate Ca2+ release from intracellular stores to the cytoplasm. To date, the roles of RyRs in trophoblasts have not been reported. By use of reverse transcription PCR and western blotting, the current study revealed that RyRs are expressed in model trophoblast cell lines (BeWo and JEG-3) and in human first trimester and term placental villi. Immunohistochemistry of human placental sections indicated that both syncytiotrophoblast and cytotrophoblast cell layers were positively stained by antibodies recognising RyRs; likewise, expression of RyR isoforms was also revealed in BeWo and JEG-3 cells by immunofluorescence microscopy. In addition, changes in [Ca2+]i were observed in both BeWo and JEG-3 cells upon application of various RyR agonists and antagonists, using fura-2 fluorescent videomicroscopy. Furthermore, endogenous placental peptide hormones, namely angiotensin II, arginine vasopressin and endothelin 1, were demonstrated to increase [Ca2+]i in BeWo cells, and such increases were suppressed by RyR antagonists and by blockers of the corresponding peptide hormone receptors. These findings indicate that 1) multiple RyR subtypes are expressed in human trophoblasts; 2) functional RyRs in BeWo and JEG-3 cells response to both RyR agonists and antagonists; 3) RyRs in BeWo cells mediate Ca2+ release from intracellular store in response to the indirect stimulation by endogenous peptides. These observations suggest that RyR contributes to trophoblastic cellular Ca2+ homeostasis; trophoblastic RyRs are also involved in the functional regulation of human placenta by coupling to endogenous placental peptide-induced signalling pathways.

Simulation of multigate SOI transistors with silicon, germanium and III-V channels

In this work by employing numerical three-dimensional simulations we study the electrical performance and short channel behavior of several multi-gate transistors based on advanced SOI technology. These include FinFETs, triple-gate and gate-all-around nanowire FETs with different channel material, namely Si, Ge, and III-V compound semiconductors, all most promising candidates for future nanoscale CMOS technologies. Also, a new type of transistor called “junctionless nanowire transistor” is presented and extensive simulations are carried out to study its electrical characteristics and compare with the conventional inversion- and accumulation-mode transistors. We study the influence of device properties such as different channel material and orientation, dimensions, and doping concentration as well as quantum effects on the performance of multi-gate SOI transistors. For the modeled n-channel nanowire devices we found that at very small cross sections the nanowires with silicon channel are more immune to short channel effects. Interestingly, the mobility of the channel material is not as significant in determining the device performance in ultrashort channels as other material properties such as the dielectric constant and the effective mass. Better electrostatic control is achieved in materials with smaller dielectric constant and smaller source-to-drain tunneling currents are observed in channels with higher transport effective mass. This explains our results on Si-based devices. In addition to using the commercial TCAD software (Silvaco and Synopsys TCAD), we have developed a three-dimensional Schrödinger-Poisson solver based on the non-equilibrium Green’s functions formalism and in the framework of effective mass approximation. This allows studying the influence of quantum effects on electrical performance of ultra-scaled devices. We have implemented different mode-space methodologies in our 3D quantum-mechanical simulator and moreover introduced a new method to deal with discontinuities in the device structures which is much faster than the coupled-mode-space approach.