Klotho Suppresses Cardiomyocyte Apoptosis in Mice with Stress-Induced Cardiac Injury via Downregulation of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress

Cardiomyocyte apoptosis is a common pathological alteration in heart disease which results in systolic dysfunction or sudden death. Klotho is a novel anti-aging hormone. We tested the effects of klotho on cell apoptosis in isoproterenol-treated cardiomyocytes. In BALB/c mice, cardiac injury was induced by subcutaneous injection of isoproterenol (5mg/kg, for 9days, sc). Klotho (0.01 mg/kg, every other day for 4days, ip) was administered to determine the changes in isoproterenol-induced apoptosis. Mouse heart was harvested at day 2, day 5, and day 9 after isoproterenol injection. Isoproterenol induced cardiac apoptosis and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in a time-dependent manner. However, klotho partly reversed isoproterenol-induced cardiac apoptosis and ER stress. These same effects were observed in cultured cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, the results also showed that SB203580, a p38 inhibitor, and SP600125, a c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) inhibitor, reduced cardiomyocyte apoptosis and ER stress, however, klotho suppressed isoproterenol-induced activation of p38 and JNK. Taken together, these results indicated that cardioprotection by klotho was related to the attenuation of ER stress and ER stress-induced apoptosis, at least partly, through suppressing activation of the p38 and JNK pathway.     

DNA-COMPACT: DNA COMpression Based on a Pattern-Aware Contextual Modeling Technique

Genome data are becoming increasingly important for modern medicine. As the rate of increase in DNA sequencing outstrips the rate of increase in disk storage capacity, the storage and data transferring of large genome data are becoming important concerns for biomedical researchers. We propose a two-pass lossless genome compression algorithm, which highlights the synthesis of complementary contextual models, to improve the compression performance. The proposed framework could handle genome compression with and without reference sequences, and demonstrated performance advantages over best existing algorithms. The method for reference-free compression led to bit rates of 1.720 and 1.838 bits per base for bacteria and yeast, which were approximately 3.7% and 2.6% better than the state-of-the-art algorithms. Regarding performance with reference, we tested on the first Korean personal genome sequence data set, and our proposed method demonstrated a 189-fold compression rate, reducing the raw file size from 2986.8 MB to 15.8 MB at a comparable decompression cost with existing algorithms. DNAcompact is freely available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/dnacompact/for research purpose.     

Elevated Frequencies of Circulating Th22 Cell in Addition to Th17 Cell and Th17/Th1 Cell in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome

Background

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease mediated by immune cells. Th22 cells are CD4⁺ T cells that secret IL-22 but not IL-17 or IFN-γ and are implicated in the pathogenesis of inflammatory disease. The roles of Th22 cells in the pathophysiologic procedures of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remain unclear. The purpose of this study is to investigate the profile of Th22, Th17 and Th17/Th1 cells in ACS patients, including unstable angina (UA) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients.

Design and Methods

In this study, 26 AMI patients, 16 UA patients, 16 stable angina (SA) patients and 16 healthy controls were included. The frequencies of Th22, Th17 and Th17/Th1 cells in AMI, UA, SA patients and healthy controls were examined by flow cytometry. Plasma levels of IL-22, IL-17 and IFN-γ were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Results

Th22, Th17 and Th17/Th1 cells were significantly increased in AMI and UA patients compared with SA patients and healthy controls. Moreover, plasma IL-22 level was significantly elevated in AMI and UA patients. In addition, Th22 cells correlated positively with IL-22 as well as Th17 cells in AMI and UA patients.

Conclusion

Our findings showed increased frequencies of both Th22 and Th17 cells in ACS patients, which suggest that Th22 and Th17 cells may play a potential role in plaque destabilization and the development of ACS.     

The Effects of Postmenopausal Hormone Use on Cataract: A Meta-Analysis

Background

Cataract is the leading cause of blindness worldwide. Many observational studies assessed the relationship between postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and risk of cataract development, but the reported results were controversial. The aim of present meta-analysis was to evaluate the association of postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy with risk of cataract development.

Methods

The eligible observational studies, including cross-sectional, case–control and cohort studies, were identified by searching PubMed and Embase during March of 2013. Either a fixed- or a random-effects model was used to calculate the pooled odds ratio (OR) with its 95% confidence interval (95%CI). Subgroup analysis on cataract types was performed.

Results

A total of four cohort and five case-control or cross-sectional studies were finally included into this meta-analysis. Overall, a significant decreased risk of developing any type of cataract was found in ever HRT group as compared with non-HRT group among cohort studies (OR 0.83; 95%CI: 0.71,0.97) and case-control or cross-sectional studies (OR 0.74; 95%CI: 0.59,0.93). Subgroup analysis on cataract types determined that the significantly decreased risk of nuclear cataract in current HRT group (OR 0.72; 95%CI: 0.61,0.85) and also a critically reduced risk of nuclear cataract in ever HRT group (OR 0.80; 95% CI: 0.64,1.01) were found among case-control or cross-sectional studies, as compared with non-HRT group. No association of HRT with risk of cortical and posterior subcapsular cataract was observed.

Conclusions

The results of present meta-analysis indicate that postmenopausal hormone use may play a protective role in cataract development.     

Topic Structure Affects Semantic Integration: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

This study investigated whether semantic integration in discourse context could be influenced by topic structure using event-related brain potentials. Participants read discourses in which the last sentence contained a critical word that was either congruent or incongruent with the topic established in the first sentence. The intervening sentences between the first and the last sentence of the discourse either maintained or shifted the original topic. Results showed that incongruent words in topic-maintained discourses elicited an N400 effect that was broadly distributed over the scalp while those in topic-shifted discourses elicited an N400 effect that was lateralized to the right hemisphere and localized over central and posterior areas. Moreover, a late positivity effect was only elicited by incongruent words in topic-shifted discourses, but not in topic-maintained discourses. This suggests an important role for discourse structure in semantic integration, such that compared with topic-maintained discourses, the complexity of discourse structure in topic-shifted condition reduces the initial stage of semantic integration and enhances the later stage in which a mental representation is updated.     

重度妊娠期肝内胆汁淤积症对母婴结局影响的临床分析

目的：分析重度妊娠期肝内胆汁淤积症（intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy,ICP）对母婴结局的影响,以提高对ICP的认识与治疗水平。方法：选择ICP产妇58例,根据ICP分度标准分为轻度组（n=26例）和重度组（n=32例）,比较两组产妇的母婴结局。结果：与轻度组相比,重度组产妇剖宫产率、产后出血与平均产后出血量显著升高或增加,阴道分娩率显著降低,组间比较差异均具有统计学意义（P〈0.05）;重度组新生儿早产、胎儿窘迫、羊水污染和新生儿窒息的发生率均显著上升,新生儿平均出生体重显著降低,组间比较差异均具有统计学意义（P〈0.05）。结论：ICP对产妇及新生儿均有不良影响,对ICP严重程度进行划分,有利于临床处理。对于重度ICP产妇,应尽早采取剖宫产分娩的方式终止妊娠。     

Identification of NCAPH as a biomarker for prognosis of breast cancer

Molecular Biology Reports - Non-SMC condensin I complex subunit H (NCAPH) is a structural component of chromosomes during mitosis, which up-regulates in various cancers. However, the role of NCAPH...     

Midday stomatal conductance is more related to stem rather than leaf water status in subtropical deciduous and evergreen broadleaf trees

Midday depressions in stomatal conductance (g_s) and photosynthesis are common in plants. The aim of this study was to understand the hydraulic determinants of midday g_s, the coordination between leaf and stem hydraulics and whether regulation of midday g_s differed between deciduous and evergreen broadleaf tree species in a subtropical cloud forest of Southwest (SW) China. We investigated leaf and stem hydraulics, midday leaf and stem water potentials, as well as midday g_s of co‐occurring deciduous and evergreen tree species. Midday g_s was correlated positively with midday stem water potential across both groups of species, but not with midday leaf water potential. Species with higher stem hydraulic conductivity and greater daily reliance on stem hydraulic capacitance were able to maintain higher stem water potential and higher g_s at midday. Deciduous species exhibited significantly higher stem hydraulic conductivity, greater reliance on stem capacitance, higher stem water potential and g_s at midday than evergreen species. Our results suggest that midday g_s is more associated with midday stem than with leaf water status, and that the functional significance of stomatal regulation in these broadleaf tree species is probably for preventing stem xylem dysfunction.