The contemporary state of functional traits and species richness in plant communities depends on legacy effects of past disturbances. Whether temporal responses of community properties to current environmental changes are altered by such legacies is, however, unknown. We expect global environmental changes to interact with land-use legacies given different community trajectories initiated by prior management, and subsequent responses to altered resources and conditions. We tested this expectation for species richness and functional traits using 1814 survey-resurvey plot pairs of understorey communities from 40 European temperate forest datasets, syntheses of management transitions since the year 1800, and a trait database. We also examined how plant community indicators of resources and conditions changed in response to management legacies and environmental change. Community trajectories were clearly influenced by interactions between management legacies from over 200 years ago and environmental change. Importantly, higher rates of nitrogen deposition led to increased species richness and plant height in forests managed less intensively in 1800 (i.e., high forests), and to decreases in forests with a more intensive historical management in 1800 (i.e., coppiced forests). There was evidence that these declines in community variables in formerly coppiced forests were ameliorated by increased rates of temperature change between surveys. Responses were generally apparent regardless of sites' contemporary management classifications, although sometimes the management transition itself, rather than historic or contemporary management types, better explained understorey responses. Main effects of environmental change were rare, although higher rates of precipitation change increased plant height, accompanied by increases in fertility indicator values. Analysis of indicator values suggested the importance of directly characterising resources and conditions to better understand legacy and environmental change effects. Accounting for legacies of past disturbance can reconcile contradictory literature results and appears crucial to anticipating future responses to global environmental change.

Recent in vitro and in vivo studies suggested that the increased flux of glucose through the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway may contribute to glucose-induced insulin resistance and to the induction of the synthesis of growth factors. Because glutamine:fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase (GFAT) catalyzes the first and rate-limiting step in the formation of hexosamine products, this enzyme is the key regulator in this pathway and is therefore possibly also involved in the alterations occurring in preclinical or manifest diabetic patients. To study the expression of GFAT in human tissues, we produced and characterized a peptic antiserum specifically recognizing GFAT protein and a riboprobe for the detection of GFAT mRNA. Immunohistochemical and nonradioactive in situ hybridization analysis revealed high levels of expression of GFAT protein and mRNA in adipocytes and skeletal muscle. Furthermore, a marked GFAT expression was found in vascular smooth muscle cells with unexpectedly high variability and lower levels in other cells, e.g., peripheral nerve sheath cells or endocrine-active cells, including the pancreatic islet cell. GFAT protein expression was below detection level in endothelium, osteocytes, lymphocytes, granulocytes, and in most quiescent fibroblasts. In renal tissue, GFAT was expressed in tubular epithelial cells, while glomerular cells remained essentially unstained. Renal sections obtained from patients with diabetic nephropathy showed significant GFAT expression in some glomerular epithelial and mesangial cells, indicating that GFAT expression may be induced by manifest diabetes. Our data indicate that GFAT is expressed in most tissues involved in the development of diabetic late complications. Furthermore, the results suggest that GFAT gene expression is highly regulated.

Astemizole, a H1R antagonist shows high affinity to the histamine H1 receptor but only a moderate affinity to the histamine H4 receptor. This study aims to modify the astemizole to keep high affinity to the histamine H1 receptor and to increase affinity to the histamine H4 receptor. Therefore, 13 astemizole-derived compounds and astemizole-JNJ7777120-derived hybrid compounds were synthesized and pharmacologically characterized at the histamine H1 and H4 receptors. The new compounds show affinity to the histamine H1 receptor in the pK i range from 5.3 to 8.8, whereas the affinity of these compounds to the histamine H4 receptor was surprisingly rather low (pK i from 4.4 to 5.6). Three representative compounds were docked into the histamine H1 receptor and molecular dynamic studies were performed to explain the binding mode and the experimental results on a molecular level. Furthermore, taking into account the binding mode of compounds with high affinity to the histamine H4 receptor, a H1/H4-pharmacophore hypothesis was developed.

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