Potential of intestinal electrical stimulation for obesity: a preliminary canine study

Objective: The aims of this study were to investigate the therapeutic potential of intestinal electrical stimulation (IES) for obesity. Experiments were performed to investigate the effects of IES on food intake, gastric tone, gastric accommodation, and its possible pathway. Research Methods and Procedures: Ten normal dogs and six dogs with truncal vagotomy were used in this study. Each dog was equipped with a gastric cannula for the measurement of gastric tone and accommodation by barostat and one pair of duodenal serosal electrodes for IES. The experiment on food intake was composed of both control session without IES and IES session after a 28‐hour fast. The experiment on gastric tone and accommodation was performed in the fasting and fed states and composed of three sessions: control, IES, and IES with N^G‐nitro‐l ‐arginine. Results: IES significantly reduced food intake in the normal dogs (459.0 vs. 312.6 grams, p < 0.001). The food intake was negatively correlated with the fasting gastric volume during IES. IES significantly decreased fasting gastric tone in the normal dogs reflected as a decrease in gastric volume (89.1 vs. 261.3 mL, p < 0.01), which was abolished by vagotomy and N^G‐nitro‐l ‐arginine. Discussion: IES reduces food intake and inhibits gastric tone in the fasting state. The inhibitory effect of IES on gastric tone is mediated by both vagal and nitrergic pathway.     

A study of the antibacterial mechanism of pinocembrin against multidrug-resistant Aeromonas hydrophila

International Microbiology - Aeromonas hydrophila is a common pathogen in fish that has caused severe economic losses in aquaculture worldwide. With the emergence of bacterial resistance, it is...     

MicroRNA-375-3p inhibitor suppresses angiotensin II-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy by promoting lactate dehydrogenase B expression

Cardiac hypertrophy is a myocardial enlargement due to overload pressure, and the primary cause of heart failure. We investigated the function of miR-375-3p in cardiac hypertrophy and its regulating mechanisms. miR-375-3p was upregulated in hearts of the transverse aortic constriction rat model and angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced primary cardiomyocyte hypertrophy model; the opposite was observed for lactate dehydrogenase B (LDHB) protein expression. miR-375-3p knockdown reduced the surface area of primary cardiomyocytes increased by Ang II treatment and decreased the B-natriuretic peptide (BNP) and β-myosin heavy chain (β-MHC) messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels. miR-375-3p was also observed to directly target LDHB. LDHB knockdown increased the surface area of Ang II-treated primary cardiomyocytes and increased the BNP and β-MHC mRNA and protein levels. LDHB knockdown attenuated the effects of miR-375-3p on the surface area of primary cardiomyocytes and BNP and β-MHC levels. Therefore, miR-375-3p inhibitor suppresses Ang II-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy by promoting LDHB expression.     

Long noncoding RNA PTPRG-AS1 acts as a microRNA-194-3p sponge to regulate radiosensitivity and metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells via PRC1

Protein regulator of cytokinesis 1 (PRC1) has been reported in correlation with various malignancies. Functionality of PRC1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) was investigated, in perspective of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) regulatory circuitry. Aberrant expressed messenger RNA and lncRNA were screened out from the Gene Expression Omnibus microarray database. NPC cell line CNE-2 was adopted for in vitro study and transfected with mimic or short hairpin RNA of miR-194-3p and PTPRG-AS1. The radioactive sensitivity, cell viability, migration, invasion, and apoptosis were detected. PTPRG-AS1 and PRC1 were upregulated in NPC, whereas miR-194-3p was downregulated. PTPRG-AS1 was found to specifically bind to miR-194-3p as a competing endogenous RNA and miR-194-3p targets and negatively regulates PRC1. Overexpressed miR-194-3p or silenced PTPRG-AS1 resulted in enhanced sensitivity to radiotherapy and cell apoptosis along with suppressed cell migration, invasion and proliferation in NPC. Furthermore, impaired tumor formation was also caused by miR-194-3p overexpression or PTPRG-AS1 suppression through xenograft tumor in nude mice. In our study, PTPRG-AS1/miR-194-3p/PRC1 regulatory circuitry was revealed in NPC, the mechanism of which can be of clinical significance for treatment of NPC.     

Comprehensive metabolomic,proteomic and physiological analyses of grain yield reduction in rice under abrupt drought–flood alternation stress

Abrupt drought–flood alternation (T1) is a meteorological disaster that frequently occurs during summer in southern China and the Yangtze river basin, often causing a significant loss of rice production. In this study, the response mechanism of yield decline under abrupt drought–flood alternation stress at the panicle differentiation stage was analyzed by looking at the metabolome, proteome as well as yield and physiological and biochemical indexes. The results showed that drought and flood stress caused a decrease in the yield of rice at the panicle differentiation stage, and abrupt drought–flood alternation stress created a synergistic effect for the reduction of yield. The main reason for the decrease of yield per plant under abrupt drought–flood alternation was the decrease of seed setting rate. Compared with CK0 (no drought and no flood), the net photosynthetic rate and soluble sugar content of T1 decreased significantly and its hydrogen peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase activity increased significantly. The identified differential metabolites and differentially expressed proteins indicated that photosynthesis metabolism, energy metabolism pathway and reactive oxygen species response have changed strongly under abrupt drought–flood alteration stress, which are factors that leads to the rice grain yield reduction.     

The different dissipation behavior of chiral pesticide paclobutrazol in the brine during Chinese cabbage pickling process

Paclobutrazol (PBZ) is a kind of chiral pesticide, which is a plant growth regulator and has fungicidal activity. Because of the steric‐hindrance effect, there are two enantiomers (2S, 3S; 2R, 3R) in the production. This research studied on the dissipation behavior of chiral pesticide PBZ in the brine during the Chinese cabbage pickled process by phase column‐high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The result demonstrated the PBZ enantiomers had the different dissipation in the brine. The study on the behavior of chiral pesticide PBZ in food may provide more sufficient data and information for understanding the potential risk in food and evaluating the environmental pollution at the enantiomer level.