Discrimination of conspecific faecal chemicals and spatial decisions in juvenile Iberian rock lizards (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Lacerta monticola</Emphasis>)

Faeces play a role in intraspecific chemical communication in many vertebrates, including lizards. Here, we hypothesised that juvenile Iberian rock lizards (Lacerta (=Iberolacerta) monticola) use substrate-borne conspecific faecal chemicals to assess the social environment and base their spatial decisions. To test this hypothesis, we prepared chemical stimuli by dissolving faeces in an organic solvent (dichloromethane, DCM) and conducted chemosensory trials where we quantified latency to the first tongue flick (TF) and TF rates when young captive-borne juveniles were placed in an arena compartment whose substrate was labelled by (1) a control (DCM), (2) their own faecal chemicals, (3) faecal chemicals of another juvenile, (4) faecal chemicals of an adult female or (5) faecal chemicals of an adult male. Following TF observations, we removed a partition that separated the labelled compartment from a chemically unlabelled one, and recorded for 5 min when juveniles first crossed to the unlabelled compartment and total time spent in the labelled compartment. Each juvenile was tested with all stimuli in a randomised order. In addition, juveniles belonged to different families and were unrelated to and unfamiliar with faeces donors. Taken together, TF and spatial responses toward stimuli indicate that juveniles discriminated between faecal chemicals of conspecific juveniles, adult females and males, and that they avoided remaining in substrates labelled by adult male faecal chemicals. We suggest that juveniles assess the social environment based on conspecific faecal chemicals thus avoiding aggression and cannibalistic risks undertaken from encounters with adult males.     

Pax9 is required for filiform papilla development and suppresses skin-specific differentiation of the mammalian tongue epithelium

The epidermis is a derivative of the surface ectoderm. It forms a protective barrier and specific appendages including hair, nails, and different eccrine glands. The surface ectoderm also forms the epithelium of the oral cavity and tongue, which develop a slightly different barrier and form different appendages such as teeth, filiform papillae, taste papillae, and salivary glands. How this region-specific differentiation is genetically controlled is largely unknown. We show here that Pax9, which is expressed in the epithelium of the tongue but not in skin, regulates several aspects of tongue-specific epithelial differentiation. In Pax9-deficient mice filiform papillae lack the anterior-posterior polarity, a defect that is associated with temporal-spatial changes in Hoxc13 expression. Barrier formation is disturbed in the mutant tongue and genome-wide expression profiling revealed that the expression of specific keratins (Krt), keratin-associated proteins, and members of the epidermal differentiation complex is significantly down-regulated. In situ hybridization demonstrated that several 'hard' keratins, Krt1-5, Krt1-24, and Krt2-16, are not expressed in the absence of Pax9. Notably, specific 'soft' keratins, Krt2-1 and Krt2-17, normally weakly expressed in the tongue but present at high levels in skin and in orthokeratinized oral dysplasia are up-regulated in the mutant tongue epithelium. This result indicates a partial trans-differentiation to an epithelium with skin-specific characteristics. Together, our findings show that Pax9 regulates appendage formation in the mammalian tongue and identify Pax9 as an important factor for the region-specific differentiation of the surface ectoderm.     

Identification of tumor-associated proteins in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma by proteomics

Oral tongue carcinoma is an aggressive tumor that particularly affects chronic smokers, drinkers and betel squid chewers. Patients often present symptoms at a late stage, and there is a high recurrence rate after treatment. In this article, we report the first proteomic analysis of oral tongue carcinoma to globally search for tumor related proteins. Apart from helping us to understand the molecular pathogenesis of the carcinoma, these proteins may also have potential clinical applications as biomarkers, enabling the tumor to be identified at an early stage in high risk individuals, treatment response to be predicted, and residual or recurrent carcinoma to be detected sooner after treatment. The protein expression profiles of ten oral tongue squamous cell carcinomas and their matched normal mucosal resection margins were examined by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectroscopy. A number of tumor-associated proteins including heat shock protein (HSP)60, HSP27, alpha B-crystalline, ATP synthase beta, calgranulin B, myosin, tropomyosin and galectin 1 were consistently found to be significantly altered in their expression levels in tongue carcinoma tissues, compared with their paired normal mucosae. The expression profile portrays a global protein alteration that appears specific to oral tongue cancer. The potential of utilizing these tumor related proteins for screening cancer and monitoring recurrence warrants further investigation.     

舌苔菌群与中医病证诊断的文献研究与思考

摘要：人体与舌苔微生物相互依存,相互影响。现今对舌苔微生态系统的研究主要集中于舌苔菌群。体质、疾病等诸多因素都可对舌苔产生影响,此时舌苔中菌群会有怎样的变化？菌群变化是否具有疾病诊断意义？这些问题已经受到关注和研究。文献研究显示,目前有关舌苔菌群病证诊断研究主要围绕中医心系疾病、脾系疾病和肺系疾病等进行,诸多研究表明脾系疾病湿热证患者,舌苔存在菌群失调,舌苔中细菌总数较正常人群明显升高,心系、肺系疾病暂无较为一致的结论。文献研究表明舌苔菌群的变化与病证诊断密切相关,其可能成为中医病证诊断的一种新方法。     

Olfactory-like receptor cDNAs are present in human lingual cDNA libraries

Olfactory and pheromone receptors (ORs) constitute a large family of G-protein-coupled receptors involved in the detection and transduction of odorant signals. Using degenerated primers complementary to the highly conserved transmembrane domains II, III, VI, and VII within this protein family, Gaudin et al. have recently described the expression of several OR genes in foetal human tongue. Among the nine genes identified in human foetal tongue (HTPCR06, HGMP07I, JCG6, TPCR85, JCGI1, JCG2, JCG3, JCG5, and JCG9), only four (HTPCR06, HGMP07I, JCG3, and JCG5) were found to be expressed in adult tongue, suggesting that ORs might perform developmental functions in this organ. The objective of our work was to obtain additional information about the expression of olfactory-like genes in human tongue. In the present study, the synthesis and the screening of a cDNA library from epithelial cells of human adult tongue is reported. Two kinds of PCR analysis were performed. First, partial olfactory-like receptor cDNAs amplified with the degenerated primers used by Gaudin et al. were cloned and described. Second, a comparison of the expression profiles of the olfactory-like receptor genes previously identified before was carried out using specific primers. Among the genes studied we found that four genes (HTPCR06, JCG3, JCG5, and JCG6) are expressed in epithelial cells of the surface of the adult tongue. Additionally, we show that three olfactory-like receptor genes OR7A5/HTPCR2, OR6Q1, and OR7C1/TPCR86 are also expressed in these cells.     

慢性萎缩性胃炎患者舌苔菌群的 特异性菌属分析

目的通过对慢性萎缩性胃炎患者和正常人舌苔菌群的分析,寻找两者之间的差异菌属。方法研究分为两组:慢性萎缩性胃炎患者组(30例,CAG组,主要为薄白苔)和正常人舌苔组(30例,HC组,均为薄白苔),采用16S rRNA基因测序技术对舌苔的菌群进行研究。结果 (1)测序片段总长度约为253bp,片段有效率在90%左右。(2)正常组与慢性萎缩性胃炎组的群落组成在PCA图中各自汇聚成群,差异比较明显。(3)按照系统分类学的方法,采用LEfSe多级物种差异判别分析来寻找阶元系统(门、纲、目、科和属)上的差异菌,发现共有13种差异菌。慢性萎缩性胃炎在纤毛菌属、韦荣球菌属中的含量显著增加(P0.05);链球菌属的含量显著降低(P0.05)。(4)为了进一步寻找阶元系统中属水平的差异菌属,我们采用T-test统计分析法。结果表明慢性萎缩性胃炎组在韦荣球菌属、纤毛菌属、普氏菌属、罗思菌属、口腔杆菌属、口腔毛绒厌氧杆菌、Solobacterium和一种未确认种属的细菌其含量都显著增加(P0.05),而链球菌属的含量显著降低(P0.05)。结论从舌苔样本微生态测序中发现,慢性萎缩性胃炎患者的舌苔菌群发生变化,微生物的代谢产物可能与炎症相关,这些口腔微生物的变化可能成为某些全身疾病,尤其是消化系统疾病的微生物学指征。     

蟾蜍伸舌肌和缩舌肌运动神经元的双侧投射──荧光染料逆行标记

本实验将荧光染料固兰（ＦａｓｔＢｌｕｅ,ＦＢ）和核黄（ＮｕｃｌｅａｒＹｅｌｌｏｗ,ＮＹ）分别注入蟾蜍颏舌肌（Ｍ．ｇｅｎｉｏｇｌｏｓｓｕｓ）和舌骨舌肌（Ｍ．ｈｙｐｏｇｌｏｓｓｕｓ）,通过边行标记技术研究了伸舌肌和缩舌肌运动神经元（ＰＭＮＳ和ＲＭＮｓ）在延髓舌下核内的分布,结果表明ＰＭＮｓ和ＲＭＮｓ均位于延髓舌下核的背内侧核（ＤＭＮ）内,并发出侧投射支配舌肌,且其部分神经元为双标神经元。     

内蒙古三个民族舌运动类型的遗传学研究

调查了内蒙古汉、蒙古、回族舌运动类型(卷舌、翻舌、叠舌、三叶舌与尖舌),共716例。研究结果显示:各种舌运动类型出现率性别间均无显著性差异;卷舌基因分别与叠、翻、尖、三叶舌基因间存在着互相作用关系,卷舌基因对叠舌基因是隐性上位基因,对翻舌、尖舌、三叶舌基因是修饰基因;内蒙古3个民族间卷、叠、尖舌出现率接近。本文首次调查并研究了尖舌性状。尖舌在过去国内外文献中未见报道。 Abstract:The tongue moving types(including tongue rolling,tongue twisting,tongue folding,clover-leaf tongue and pointed tongue)of 716 cases of Han,Mongol and Hui nationalities in Inner Mongolia were investigated.The results showed that no difference in the frequencies of various tongue moving types between male and female and that the frequencies of rolling,folding and pointed tongue were close to each other among the three nationalities of Inner Mongolia.However,some interactions between genes were revealed,that the rolling gene is a recessive epistatic gene to folding gene and a modifier gene to twisting,pointed and clover-leaf gene respectively.The research on pointed tongue in this paper has never been reported in China and abroad.     

舌鳞癌层粘连蛋白的表达及意义

采用免疫组织化学技术,研究了正常、异常增生组织、舌癌及舌癌淋巴结转移灶中层粘连蛋白的表达、分布及意义。结果发现：正常舌粘膜、轻度异常增生组织的基底膜处层粘连蛋白呈连续线状分布,中度和重度异常增生组织基底膜层粘连蛋白的分布有局部断裂。舌癌中层粘连蛋白的分布呈多种形式,分化好的舌癌层粘连蛋白呈线状,但明显不连续,分化差的舌癌中的层粘连蛋白常呈碎片状,而舌癌的淋巴结转移灶中层粘连蛋白的分布与原发灶相似。统计分析表明,层粘连蛋白的表达与舌癌的分化程度相关,而与舌癌的转移无关。观察结果表明：舌癌分化程度愈低,层粘连蛋白的缺损愈严重,层粘连蛋白的表达、分布特点可以作为判断癌恶性程度的指标,但不能判断舌癌的转移     

Assessing occurrence and habitat of Ophioglossum vulgatum L. and other Ophioglossaceae in European forests. Significance for nature conservation

Ophioglossum vulgatum has been discovered in several Lorraine forests with numerous populations on Keuper clay substrata. In all these forests, it occurs in the same plant community type, a hygrophilic oak-ash forest belonging to the Carpinion alliance. O. vulgatum is present in all stages of the forest cycle, but it is most abundant in young succession stages. This misrecognized forest habitat of O. vulgatum represents a primary habitat for this species and also a refuge, in which it is much less threatened than in wet grassland ecosystems. A review is given of all published data related to this Ophioglossum in European forests and comparisons are made with the occurrence of other European Ophioglossaceae in forest communities, in particular Botrychium virginianum in boreal and subalpine forests and B. matricariifolium in montane and lowland forests.