More and more evidence from over 50 years of researches on the effects of electromagnetic radiation on male reproduction show that a certain dose of electromagnetic radiation obviously damages male reproduction, particularly the structure and function of spermatogenic cells. The mechanisms of the injury may be associated with energy dysmetabolism, lipid peroxidation, abnormal expressions of apoptosis-related genes and proteins, and DNA damage.
Objective
To explore whether endothelial progenitor cells(EPCs)exerts therapeutic effects on rats with diabetic peripheral neuropathy(DPN).
Methods
Diabetes was induced by streptozotocin. Male SD rats were divided into normal control group(NC group), diabetic peripheral neuropathy group(DPN group), DPN+ saline group(DPN+ S group), and DPN+ EPCs group. Sciatic nerve motor nerve conduction velocity(MNCV)was measured by a electromyography and trigger potentiometer instrument. Pathological changes were observed under optical microscope and electron microscope.
Results
Compared with normal control group[(52.91±4.53)m/s], both DPN group and DPN+ S group had slower sciatic nerve MNCV[(36.51±6.30 and 25.37±5.48)m/s, P<0.01]. Compared with DPN group, the MNCV of sciatic nerve in DPN+ EPCs group had improved significantly[(36.51±6.30 vs 46.20±11.70)m/s, P<0.01]. Sciatic nerve pathological changes, characterized by demyelination and axonal degeneration under light microscope and electron microscope were observed in DPN group, DPN+ EPCs group, and DPN+ S group. Compared with DPN+ S group, the sciatic nerve pathological changes of DPN+ EPCs group were alleviated.
Conclusion
After fed for 12 weeks, diabetic rats could progress to DPN rats. Transplantation of EPCs could improve MNCV, demyelination and axonal degeneration changes of sciatic nerver of the DPN rats. (Chin J Endocrinol Metab, 2015, 31: 982-987)
Key words:
Endothelial progenitor cells; Diabetic rats; Peripheral neuropathy
Glycosylation was catalyzed by UDP-glycosyltransferase (UGT) and was important for enriching diversity of flavonoids. Chinese bayberry (Morella rubra) has significant nutritional and medical values because of diverse natural flavonoid glycosides. However, information of UGT gene family was quite limited in M. rubra. In the present study, a total of 152 MrUGT genes clustered into 13 groups were identified in M. rubra genome. Among them, 139 MrUGT genes were marked on eight chromosomes and 13 members located on unmapped scaffolds. Gene duplication analysis indicated that expansion of MrUGT gene family was mainly forced by tandem and proximal duplication events. Gene expression patterns in different tissues and under UV-B treatment were analyzed by transcriptome. Cyanidin 3-O-glucoside (C3Glc) and quercetin 3-O-glucoside (Q3Glc) were two main flavonoid glucosides accumulated in M. rubra. UV-B treatment significantly induced C3Glc and Q3Glc accumulation in fruit. Based on comprehensively analysis of transcriptomic data and phylogenetic homology together with flavonoid accumulation patterns, MrUFGT (MrUGT78A26) and MrUGT72B67 were identified as UDP-glucosyltransferases. MrUFGT was mainly involved in C3Glc and Q3Glc accumulation in fruit, while MrUGT72B67 was mainly involved in Q3Glc accumulation in leaves and flowers. Gln375 and Gln391 were identified as important amino acids for glucosyl transfer activity of MrUFGT and MrUGT72B67 by site-directed mutagenesis, respectively. Transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana tested the function of MrUFGT and MrUGT72B67 as glucosyltransferases. The present study provided valuable source for identification of functional UGTs involved in secondary metabolites biosynthesis in M. rubra.
Abstract Metastasis is the most important reason for the poor prognosis of gastric cancer (GC) patients, and the mechanism urgently needs to be clarified. Here, we explored a prognostic model for the estimation of tumor-associated mortality in GC patients and revealed the RNA-binding protein RBMS1 as a candidate promoter gene for GC metastasis by analyzing GOBO and Oncomine high-throughput sequencing datasets for 408 GC patients. Additionally, RBMS1 was observed with overexpression in 85 GC patient clinical specimens by IHC staining and further be verified its role in GC metastasis via inducing EMT process both in in vitro and in vivo experiments. Moreover, we identified that IL-6 was predicted to be one of the most significant upstream cytokines in the RBMS1 overexpression gene set based on the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) algorithm. Most importantly, we also revealed that RBMS1 could promote migration and invasion through IL6 transactivation and JAK2/STAT3 downstream signaling pathway activation by influencing histone modification in the promoter regions after binding with the transcription factor MYC in the HGC-27 and SGC-7901 GC cell lines. Hence, we shed light on the potential molecular mechanisms of RBMS1 in the promotion of GC metastasis, which suggests that RBMS1 may be a potential therapeutic target for GC patients.
Senescence refers to a state of permanent cell growth arrest and is regarded as a tumor suppressive mechanism, whereas accumulative evidence demonstrate that senescent cells play an adverse role during cancer progression. The scarcity of specific and reliable markers reflecting senescence level in cancer impede our understanding of this biological basis. Senescence-related genes (SRGs) were collected for integrative analysis to reveal the role of senescence in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Consensus clustering was used to subtype HCC based on SRGs. Several computational methods, including single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA), fuzzy c-means algorithm, were performed. Data of drug sensitivities were utilized to screen potential therapeutic agents for different senescence patients. Additionally, we developed a method called signature-related gene analysis (SRGA) for identification of markers relevant to phenotype of interest. Experimental strategies consisting quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), β-galactosidase assay, western blot, and tumor-T cell co-culture system were used to validate the findings in vitro. We identified three robust prognostic clusters of HCC patients with distinct survival outcome, mutational landscape, and immune features. We further extracted signature genes of senescence clusters to construct the senescence scoring system and profile senescence level in HCC at bulk and single-cell resolution. Senescence-induced stemness reprogramming was confirmed both in silico and in vitro. HCC patients with high senescence were immune suppressed and sensitive to Tozasertib and other drugs. We suggested that MAFG, PLIN3, and 4 other genes were pertinent to HCC senescence, and MAFG potentially mediated immune suppression, senescence, and stemness. Our findings provide insights into the role of SRGs in patients stratification and precision medicine.
In this paper, we designed a reliable and image configurable flight arena, RICA, for developing cyborg bumblebees. To meet the spatial and temporal requirements of bumblebees, the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus is adopted to interconnect the LED display modules to ensure the reliability and real-time performance of the arena system. Easily-configurable interfaces on a desktop computer implemented by python scripts are provided to transmit the visual patterns to the LED distributor online and configure RICA dynamically. The new arena system will be a power tool to investigate the quantitative relationship between the visual inputs and induced flight behaviors and also will be helpful to the visual-motor research in other related fields.