Human baseline β-cell population and appropriate association with other islet cell types is established before 5 yr of age.

SUMMARY During obesity, adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) adopt a ‘metabolically-activated’ (MMe) phenotype. However, the functions of MMe macrophages are poorly understood. Here we combine proteomic and functional methods to demonstrate that in addition to potentiating inflammation, MMe macrophages also promote dead adipocyte clearance through lysosomal exocytosis. We identify NADPH-oxidase-2 (NOX2) as a driver of the inflammatory and adipocyte-clearing properties of MMe macrophages, and show that compared to wild-type, Nox2−/− mice exhibit a time-dependent metabolic phenotype during diet-induced obesity. After 8-weeks of high-fat feeding, Nox2−/− mice exhibit attenuated ATM inflammation and mildly improved glucose tolerance. After 16-weeks of high-fat feeding, Nox2−/− mice develop severe insulin resistance, hepatosteatosis, and visceral lipoatrophy characterized by dead adipocyte accumulation and defective ATM lysosomal exocytosis, a phenotype reproduced in myeloid cell-specific Nox2−/− mice. Collectively, our findings suggest that MMe macrophages perform detrimental and beneficial functions, whose contribution to metabolic phenotypes during obesity is determined by disease progression.

Purpose: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 10-20% of newly diagnosed invasive breast cancer. Finding effective targets for chemotherapy-resistant TNBC has proven difficult in part because of TNBC’s molecular heterogeneity. We have previously reported that, likely because of GR’s anti-apoptotic activity in ER-negative breast epithelial and cancer cells, high glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression/activity in early-stage TNBC significantly correlates with chemotherapy-resistance and increased recurrence. We hypothesized that pre-treatment with mifepristone, a (GR)-antagonist, would potentiate the efficacy of chemotherapy in GR+ TNBC by inhibiting GR’s anti-apoptotic signaling pathways and increasing the cytotoxic efficiency of chemotherapy. Experimental Design: TNBC cell apoptosis was examined in the context of physiological glucocorticoid concentrations, chemotherapy, and/or pharmacologic concentrations of mifepristone. We used high-throughput live microscopy with continuous recording to measure apoptotic cells stained with a fluorescent dye, and Western analysis to detect caspase-3 and PARP cleavage. The effect of mifepristone on GR-mediated gene expression was also measured. TNBC xenograft studies were performed in female severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice and tumors were measured following treatment with vehicle, paclitaxel or mifepristone/paclitaxel. Results: We found that although mifepristone treatment alone had no significant effect on TNBC cell viability or clonogenicity in the absence of chemotherapy, the addition of mifepristone to dexamethasone/paclitaxel treatment significantly increased cytotoxicity and caspase-3/PARP cleavage. Mifepristone also antagonized GR-induced SGK1 and MKP1/DUSP1 gene expression, while significantly augmenting paclitaxel-induced GR+ MDA-MB-231 xenograft tumor shrinkage in vivo. Conclusions: These results suggest that mifepristone pre-treatment could be a useful strategy for increasing tumor cell apoptosis in chemotherapy-resistant GR+ TNBC.

SUMMARY BYL719, which selectively inhibits the alpha isoform of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) catalytic subunit (p110α), is currently in clinical trials for the treatment of solid tumors, especially luminal breast cancers with PIK3CA mutations and/or HER2 amplification. This study reveals that, even among these sensitive cancers, the initial efficacy of p110α inhibition is mitigated by rapid re-accumulation of the PI3K product PIP3 produced by the p110β isoform. Importantly, the reactivation of PI3K mediated by p110β does not invariably restore AKT phosphorylation, demonstrating the limitations of using phospho-AKT as a surrogate to measure PI3K activation. Consistently, we show that the addition of the p110β inhibitor to BYL719 prevents the PIP3 rebound and induces greater antitumor efficacy in HER2-amplified and PIK3CA mutant cancers.

Digital imagery can help to quantify seasonal changes in desirable crop phenotypes that can be treated as quantitative traits. Because limitations in precise and functional phenotyping restrain genetic improvement in the postgenomic era, imagery-based phenomics could become the next breakthrough to accelerate genetic gains in field crops. Whereas many phenomic studies focus on exploratory analysis of spectral data without obvious interpretative value, we used field images to directly measure soybean canopy development from phenological stage V2 to R5. Over 3 years, we collected imagery using ground and aerial platforms of a large and diverse nested association panel comprising 5555 lines. Genome-wide association analysis of canopy coverage across sampling dates detected a large quantitative trait locus (QTL) on soybean (Glycine max, L. Merr.) chromosome 19. This QTL provided an increase in yield of 47.3 kg ha−1. Variance component analysis indicated that a parameter, described as average canopy coverage, is a highly heritable trait (h2 = 0.77) with a promising genetic correlation with grain yield (0.87), enabling indirect selection of yield via canopy development parameters. Our findings indicate that fast canopy coverage is an early season trait that is inexpensive to measure and has great potential for application in breeding programs focused on yield improvement. We recommend using the average canopy coverage in multiple trait schemes, especially for the early stages of the breeding pipeline (including progeny rows and preliminary yield trials), in which the large number of field plots makes collection of grain yield data challenging.