Grooming reciprocity in female tibetan macaques macaca thibetana

Grooming among nonhuman primates is widespread and may represent an important service commodity that is exchanged within a biological marketplace. In this study, using focal animal sampling methods, we recorded grooming relationships among 12 adult females in a free-ranging group of Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) at Huangshan, China, to determine the influence of rank and kinship on grooming relationships, and whether females act as reciprocal traders (exchange grooming received for grooming given) or interchange traders (interchange grooming for social tolerance or other commodities). The results showed that: (1) grooming given was positively correlated with grooming received; (2) kinship did not exert a significant influence on grooming reciprocity; and (3) grooming reciprocity occurred principally between individuals of adjacent rank; however, when females of different rank groomed, females tended to groom up the hierarchy (lower ranking individuals groomed higher ranking individuals more than vice versa). Our results support the contention that both grooming reciprocity and the interchange of grooming for tolerance represent important social tactics used by female Tibetan macaques.     

Aspirin inhibits adipogenesis of tendon stem cells and lipids accumulation in rat injury tendon through regulating PTEN/PI3K/AKT signalling

Tendon injury repairs are big challenges in sports medicine, and fatty infiltration after tendon injury is very common and hampers tendon injury healing process. Tendon stem cells (TSCs), as precursors of tendon cells, have shown promising effect on injury tendon repair for their tenogenesis and tendon extracellular matrix formation. Adipocytes and lipids accumulation is a landmark event in pathological process of tendon injury, and this may induce tendon rupture in clinical practice. Based on this, it is important to inhibit TSCs adipogenesis and lipids infiltration to restore structure and function of injury tendon. Aspirin, as the representative of non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), has been widely used in tendon injury for its anti‐inflammatory and analgesic actions, but effect of aspirin on TSCs adipogenesis and fatty infiltration is still unclear. Under adipogenesis conditions, TSCs were treated with concentration gradient of aspirin. Oil red O staining was performed to observe changes of lipids accumulation. Next, we used RNA sequencing to compare profile changes of gene expression between induction group and aspirin‐treated group. Then, we verified the effect of filtrated signalling on TSCs adipogenesis. At last, we established rat tendon injury model and compared changes of biomechanical properties after aspirin treatment. The results showed that aspirin decreased lipids accumulation in injury tendon and inhibited TSCs adipogenesis. RNA sequencing filtrated PTEN/PI3K/AKT signalling as our target. After adding the signalling activators of VO‐Ohpic and IGF‐1, inhibited adipogenesis of TSCs was reversed. Still, aspirin promoted maximum loading, ultimate stress and breaking elongation of injury tendon. In conclusion, by down‐regulating PTEN/PI3K/AKT signalling, aspirin inhibited adipogenesis of TSCs and fatty infiltration in injury tendon, promoted biomechanical properties and decreased rupture risk of injury tendon. All these provided new therapeutic potential and medicine evidence of aspirin in treating tendon injury and tendinopathy.     

黄山野生短尾猴理毛发生部位的差异

理毛行为是指动物个体用双手或单手从自身或其他个体的毛发中检出颗粒物并放入嘴里咀嚼或直接用嘴进行清理的过程,在灵长类动物社会中普遍存在且频繁发生.本研究以栖息于安徽黄山的野生短尾猴(Macaca thibetana)为研究对象,于2019年7-12月采用目标动物取样法采集行为数据,通过比较自我理毛和社会理毛的发生部位和发...     

肿瘤坏死因子相关的凋亡诱导配体(TRAIL)cDNA的克隆与表达

肿瘤坏死因子相关凋亡诱导配体（ｔｕｍｏｒｎｅｃｒｏｓｉｓｆａｃｔｏｒｒｅｌａｔｅｄａｐｏｐｔｏｓｉｓｉｎｄｕｃｉｎｇｌｉｇａｎｄ,ＴＲＡＩＬ）是新近发现的肿瘤坏死因子家族成员,亦称凋亡素２配体（Ａｐｏ２ｌｉｇａｎｄ,Ａｐｏ２Ｌ）［１,２］．由于ＴＮＦ参与机体的免疫调节和炎症反应,并发挥细胞毒作用,因而为世人所瞩目［３,４］．研究表明,ＴＲＡＩＬ与ＴＮＦ和Ｆａｓ／Ａｐｏ１配体一样,为典型的Ⅱ型跨膜蛋白,Ｃ端细胞外区域形成同源三聚体的亚结构,而Ｎ端１５～４０氨基酸为疏水区域并形成跨膜结…     

季节和等级顺位对雄性黄山短尾猴粪样皮质醇水平的影响

在长期的进化选择压力下,灵长类动物大多数群居生活,群体中的动物个体也面临来自群内成员强度不一的社会压力,压力大小的重要生理指标通常用其体内的皮质醇水平的变化来衡量.季节性繁殖的黄山短尾猴(Macaca thibetana),群体内的个体有严格的社会等级,是研究等级顺位与社会压力水平之间关系的理想研究对象.我们采集13只...     

Rhodopsin Molecular Evolution in Mammals Inhabiting Low Light Environments

The ecological radiation of mammals to inhabit a variety of light environments is largely attributed to adaptive changes in their visual systems. Visual capabilities are conferred by anatomical features of the eyes as well as the combination and properties of their constituent light sensitive pigments. To test whether evolutionary switches to different niches characterized by dim-light conditions coincided with molecular adaptation of the rod pigment rhodopsin, we sequenced the rhodopsin gene in twenty-two mammals including several bats and subterranean mole-rats. We compared these to thirty-seven published mammal rhodopsin sequences, from species with divergent visual ecologies, including nocturnal, diurnal and aquatic groups. All taxa possessed an intact functional rhodopsin; however, phylogenetic tree reconstruction recovered a gene tree in which rodents were not monophyletic, and also in which echolocating bats formed a monophyletic group. These conflicts with the species tree appear to stem from accelerated evolution in these groups, both of which inhabit low light environments. Selection tests confirmed divergent selection pressures in the clades of subterranean rodents and bats, as well as in marine mammals that live in turbid conditions. We also found evidence of divergent selection pressures among groups of bats with different sensory modalities based on vision and echolocation. Sliding window analyses suggest most changes occur in transmembrane domains, particularly obvious within the pinnipeds; however, we found no obvious pattern between photopic niche and predicted spectral sensitivity based on known critical amino acids. This study indicates that the independent evolution of rhodopsin vision in ecologically specialised groups of mammals has involved molecular evolution at the sequence level, though such changes might not mediate spectral sensitivity directly.     

Expression of P2X receptors on immune cells in the rat liver during postnatal development

Single and double-labeling immunofluorescence and RT-PCR expression of P2X receptor proteins and mRNAs were used in a study of the liver of postnatal rats. OX62 and ED1 were used as markers for dendritic and macrophage (Kupffer) cells respectively. The results showed that the P2X₆ receptor subunit was up-regulated by 15-fold on hepatic sinusoid cells during postnatal days P1 to P60. Subpopulations of Kupffer cells co-expressed P2X₄ and P2X₆ receptor subunits and dendritic cells co-expressed P2X₄ and P2X₇ receptor subunits. Lipopolysaccharide (endotoxin) injected into the peritoneal cavity led to increased expression of the P2X₆ receptor on Kupffer cells, suggesting that the P2X₆ receptor subunit may be up-regulated by endotoxin. This study presents the first evidence that P2X receptors are widely distributed in the rat liver immune system and that activation of Kupffer and dendritic cells in the rat liver might be regulated by extracellular ATP.     

Lithospermic acid as a novel xanthine oxidase inhibitor has anti-inflammatory and hypouricemic effects in rats

Lithospermic acid (LSA) was originally isolated from the roots of Salvia mitiorrhiza, a common herb of oriental medicine. Previous studies demonstrated that LSA has antioxidant effects. In this study, we investigated the in vitro xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibitory activity, and in vivo hypouricemic and anti-inflammatory effects of rats. XO activity was detected by measuring the formation of uric acid or superoxide radicals in the xanthine/xanthine oxidase system. The results showed that LSA inhibited the formation of uric acid and superoxide radicals significantly with an IC50 5.2 and 1.08 microg/ml, respectively, and exhibited competitive inhibition. It was also found that LSA scavenged superoxide radicals directly in the system beta-NADH/PMS and inhibited the production of superoxide in human neutrophils stimulated by PMA and fMLP. LSA was also found to have hypouricemic activity on oxonate-pretreated rats in vivo and have anti-inflammatory effects in a model of gouty arthritis. These results suggested that LSA is a competitive inhibitor of XO, able to directly scavenge superoxide and inhibit superoxide production in vitro, and presents hypouricemic and anti-inflammatory actions in vivo.