Association between Telomere Length and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Meta-Analysis

Background

Several epidemiological studies have examined the association between shortened telomere length and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), while the results remained conflicting. We conducted a meta-analysis to derive a more precise estimation of the relationship between them.

Methods

We systematically reviewed the databases of PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science for all studies on the association between telomere length and T2DM. We conducted this study assessed by STATA 11.0. Data were summarized using random-effects or fixed-effects meta-analysis. The heterogeneity and publication bias among studies were examined by using χ²-based Q statistic test and Egger’s test, respectively.

Results

Nine cohorts consisting of 5759 cases and 6518 controls were selected into the meta-analysis. The results indicated that shortened telomere length was significantly associated with T2DM risk (OR: 1.291; 95% CI: 1.112, 1.498; P<0.001) with heterogeneity (I² = 71.6%). When three cohorts responsible for the heterogeneity were excluded, the pooled OR for the remaining cohorts indicated a significant association between shortened telomere length and T2DM (OR: 1.117; 95% CI: 1.002, 1.246; P = 0.045) without heterogeneity.

Conclusion

We found a statistically significant association between shortened telomere length and T2DM.     

A Potential Relationship among Beta-Defensins Haplotype,SOX7 Duplication and Cardiac Defects

Objective

To determine the pathogenesis of a patient born with congenital heart defects, who had appeared normal in prenatal screening.

Methods

In routine prenatal screening, G-banding was performed to analyse the karyotypes of the family and fluorescence in situ hybridization was used to investigate the 22q11.2 deletion in the fetus. After birth, the child was found to be suffering from heart defects by transthoracic echocardiography. In the following study, sequencing was used to search for potential mutations in pivotal genes. SNP-array was employed for fine mapping of the aberrant region and quantitative real-time PCR was used to confirm the results. Furthermore, other patients with a similar phenotype were screened for the same genetic variations. To compare with a control, these variations were also assessed in the general population.

Results

The child and his mother each had a region that was deleted in the beta-defensin repeats, which are usually duplicated in the general population. Besides, the child carried a SOX7-gene duplication. While this duplication was not detected in his mother, it was found in two other patients with cardiac defects who also had the similar deletion in the beta-defensin repeats.

Conclusion

The congenital heart defects of the child were probably caused by a SOX7-gene duplication, which may be a consequence of the partial haplotype of beta-defensin regions at 8p23.1. To our knowledge, this is the first congenital heart defect case found to have the haplotype of beta-defensin and the duplication of SOX7.     

功能性包涵体的研究进展

利用原核系统表达外源重组蛋白的一个特点是表达蛋白多以包涵体形式存在。在过去人们一直认为包涵体是错误折叠、无生物活性的蛋白,需要经过变复性的过程重新获得有生物活性、可溶的蛋白,因而变复性条件的摸索迄今仍然是该领域的难点。但近几年的研究表明包涵体并非都是无生物活性的,功能性包涵体(或者称为非传统意义包涵体) 概念的提出是该领域的一个重大研究进展。由于功能性包涵体本身具有生物活性,可在非变性条件下提取,目前已经在生命科学的基础研究、生物制药、生物材料、生物催化等领域展现出良好的应用前景。重点从功能性包涵体的定义、形成机理、提取条件等近期研究进展进行综述,以期为原核细胞表达和工业生产重组蛋白药物提供新的思路。     

高龄老年心力衰竭患者临床特点分析

目的：通过对不同年龄组心力衰竭常见临床表现进行对比分析,寻找出老年心力衰竭的特点,为临床诊断和治疗老年特别是高龄老年（〉80岁）心力衰竭提供依据。方法：我院专职人员采取回顾性调查方法,记录所选病例相关的数据：一般临床资料、基础心脏疾病、诱发因素、伴随疾病、临床表现、相关实验室检验检查情况、药物治疗具体种类、转归情况等;根据年龄分为3组：246例60—69岁组,平均年龄（64．28±3．0）2V;215例70-79岁组,平均年龄（74．19±2．85）岁;71例〉80岁组,平均年龄（84±3．34）岁。运用计算机软件Excel建立老年心衰患者资料数据库,SPSS13．0for：windows软件包进行统计分析。结果：1）随着年龄增加,心衰典型的临床表现减少,特别是高龄心衰患者,其临床表现极不典型,心力衰竭程度较重,容易在短期内出现重要器官的严重并发症;2）高龄老年人心衰以冠心病、高血压病为主要病因,随年龄增加,多病因心衰比例在上升;3）我院高龄老年人心衰的治疗以利尿剂、洋地黄类、硝酸醋类药物为主。结论：高龄老年人心力衰竭具有明确病因、程度重,症状不典型,具有严重并发症,治疗相对规范的临床特点。     

HIV-1整合酶链转移反应抑制剂的荧光筛选方法

整合酶被认为是抗HIV-1药物研究的理想靶点之一。为了建立便捷高效的整合酶链转移反应抑制剂筛选方法,首先将HIV-1整合酶原核表达载体pNL-IN转化入大肠杆菌感受态细胞BL21(DE3)进行原核表达,并用镍琼脂糖凝胶进行亲和纯化,获得了纯度和活性均较高的整合酶重组蛋白;然后设计了生物素标记的供体DNA和FITC标记的靶DNA,用链霉亲和素磁珠捕获反应体系中的DNA产物;最后用荧光分析仪检测DNA产物的荧光信号,并计算待测样品的抑制率。用已知整合酶抑制剂S-1360和MK-0518对筛选方法进行了验证,测定结果与已有实验数据相当,表明本筛选方法能够有效应用于HIV-1整合酶链转移反应抑制剂的筛选。与现有的整合酶链转移反应抑制剂筛选方法相比,本筛选方法步骤更为简化、耗时更短、成本更低。     

ITS-RFLP在白灵菇种质资源鉴定中的应用

为快速鉴别白灵菇种质资源的真伪,对58个供试菌株进行ITS特异性扩增,根据遗传差异选择菌株进行ITS克隆测序,经ITS-RFLP分析和ITS序列分析得知:58个供试菌株中,Pl.n0010、Pl.n0020、Pl.n0025、Pl.n0041这4个菌株为杏鲍菇;菌株Pl.n0037是糙皮侧耳;余下53个菌株为白灵菇。结果表明:ITS-RFLP可应用于白灵菇与杏鲍菇菌株间的鉴定。     

Overexpression of sema3a in myocardial infarction border zone decreases vulnerability of ventricular tachycardia post‐myocardial infarction in rats

The expression of the chemorepellent Sema3a is inversely related to sympathetic innervation. We investigated whether overexpression of Sema3a in the myocardial infarction (MI) border zone could attenuate sympathetic hyper‐innervation and decrease the vulnerability to malignant ventricular tachyarrhythmia (VT) in rats. Survived MI rats were randomized to phosphate buffered saline (PBS, n = 12); mock lentivirus (MLV, n = 13) and lentivirus‐mediated overexpression of Sema3a (SLV, n = 13) groups. Sham‐operated rats served as control group (CON, n = 20). Cardiac function and electrophysiological study (PES) were performed at 1 week later. Blood and tissue samples were collected for histological analysis, epinephrine (EPI), growth‐associated factor 43 (GAP43) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) measurements. QTc intervals were significantly shorter in SLV group than in PBS and MLV groups (168.6 ± 7.8 vs. 178.1 ± 9.5 and 180.9 ± 8.2 ms, all P < 0.01). Inducibility of VT by PES was significantly lower in the SLV group [30.8% (4/13)] than in PBS [66.7% (8/12)] and MLV [61.5% (8/13)] groups (P < 0.05). mRNA and protein expressions of Sema3a were significantly higher and the protein expression of GAP43 and TH was significantly lower at 7 days after transduction in SLV group compared with PBS, MLV and CON groups. Myocardial EPI in the border zone was also significantly lower in SLV group than in PBS and MLV group (8.73 ± 1.30 vs. 11.94 ± 1.71 and 12.24 ± 1.54 μg/g protein, P < 0.001). Overexpression of Sema3a in MI border zone could reduce the inducibility of ventricular arrhythmias by reducing sympathetic hyper‐reinnervation after infarction.     

Proteomic analysis reveals tanshinone IIA enhances apoptosis of advanced cervix carcinoma CaSki cells through mitochondria intrinsic and endoplasmic reticulum stress pathways

Cervix cancer is the second most common cancer among women worldwide, whereas paclitaxel, the first line chemotherapeutic drug used to treat cervical cancer, shows low chemosensitivity on the advanced cervical cancer cell line. Tanshinone IIA (Tan IIA) exhibited strong growth inhibitory effect on CaSki cells (IC₅₀ = 5.51 μM) through promoting caspase cascades with concomitant upregulating the phosphorylation of p38 and JNK signaling. Comprehensive proteomics revealed the global protein changes and the network analysis implied that Tan IIA treatment would activate ER stress pathways that finally lead to apoptotic cell death. Moreover, ER stress inhibitor could alleviate Tan IIA caused cell growth inhibition and ameliorate C/EBP‐homologous protein as well as apoptosis signal‐regulating kinase 1 mediated cell death. The therapeutic interventions targeting the mitochondrial‐related apoptosis and ER stress responses might be promising strategies to conquer paclitaxel resistance.     

Amino‐functionalized macroporous silica for efficient tryptic digestion in acidic solutions

Amino‐functionalized macroporous silica foam (NH₂‐MOSF) has been developed as a host reactor to realize highly efficient proteolysis in acidic solutions where normal tryptic reactions cannot occur. The digestion protocol consists simply of adding the functionalized NH₂‐MOSF into the protein and trypsin solutions without altering the bulk pH or preloading the enzymes on the materials. With this protocol, digestion of sample fractions from LC can be efficiently realized in the acidic solutions directly. Digestion of a protein fraction extracted from rat liver tissue after LC separation was performed to illustrate this principle, where 103 proteins were successfully identified at pH 3 after 1.5 h of tryptic digestion.