有机污染物芘胁迫下白菜生理特性变化规律

为探究多环芳烃芘对白菜生理特性的影响,通过盆栽实验对华北地区常见的11种白菜进行不同浓度芘胁迫下的培养,研究白菜生理指标的变化规律。结果表明：白菜的种类和芘的浓度对白菜生理指标（生物量、丙二醛、叶绿素）均有显著影响,且随芘浓度变化,不同种类白菜的生理指标呈现不同的变化规律。白菜的生物量随芘的添加呈现两种变化：一是随芘添加浓度增加白菜生物量逐渐下降;二是在中低浓度芘（5、15、45 mg/kg）处理白菜生物量升高,高浓度（135、405 mg/kg）胁迫下生物量下降。白菜的丙二醛（MDA）含量随芘浓度的增加,表现出3种不同规律：各浓度之间均无显著性差异,MDA含量逐渐升高,以及显著低于对照组。叶绿素含量随芘浓度的增加,主要呈现出先下降后上升和逐渐上升2种变化趋势。京春白（JCB）和中白50（ZB-50）对芘的胁迫具有良好的耐受性,生理指标变化较小;中浓度芘胁迫下京翠60（JC-60）和京春绿（JCL）较为敏感,高浓度下京秋65（JQ-65）和吉红308（JH-308）生理指标变化显著,可以作为中低浓度和高浓度芘污染土壤指示作物。     

基于BEPS模型的云南省碳源/汇时空特征及其适用性分析

净初级生产力(NPP)和净生态系统生产力(NEP)是估算陆地生态系统碳源/汇的重要指标,云南为我国碳汇的主要区域之一,开展云南NPP和NEP时空变化特征分析对科学评估陆地生态系统碳源/汇功能,以及开展碳排放交易具有重要意义。基于BEPS模型1981—2019年NPP和NEP产品,采用线性趋势分析、文献对比等方法,研究云南NPP和NEP时空变化特征及其在云南的适用性。结果表明：(1)1981—1999年云南NPP和NEP呈水平波动,2000年后云南NPP和NEP呈明显波动上升趋势,2000—2019年云南NPP高值区域主要分布在西部和南部,而NEP高值区则主要分布在东部和西部局部地区;(2)2000—2019年云南NPP和NEP除西北部部分地区为下降趋势外,其余大部地区为上升趋势;(3)云南NPP峰值出现在7、8月,谷值出现在2月,NEP峰值出现月份与NPP基本相同,但谷值出现月份较NPP滞后1—3个月,6—10月是云南碳汇的主要月份;(4)BEPS模型估算的NPP与目前广泛应用的CASA和遥感模型结果较为一致,时空变化特征与云南生态恢复措施和气候特征吻合,其估算的NEP与陆地生物圈模型...     

农业面源氮污染控制措施滞后效应形成机理与评估方法研究进展

推广实施最佳管理措施(BMPs)被认为是防治农业面源污染的有效途径,然而许多流域实施BMPs后通常难以在预测的时间内实现水质改善目标,导致人们对BMPs的有效性提出质疑。受流域内养分遗留效应影响,BMPs实施后的环境质量改善效益可能不会立刻显现(也即“滞后期”),这是由于过去人为活动输入的过量营养物质在流域水文传输和生物地球化学转化过程中的积累所致,当来自外部的污染负荷减少时,这部分营养物质的汇集和释放可能掩盖治理措施对于水质改善的影响。鉴于遗留的营养物质在延迟水质改善方面的关键作用,滞后期的量化评估对于全面分析污染成因,科学配置BMPs,有效治理流域农业面源污染,提升水质改善效率非常重要。以农业面源氮控制措施的滞后效应形成机理和评估方法为主线,概述了流域尺度氮累积和滞后效应产生的主要机理,述评了氮污染滞后效应的量化评估方法,提出目前大多数流域模型尚不能很好的表述滞后效应以及缺乏解决水文和生物地球化学遗留效应的能力,并对未来BMPs优化配置研究提出建议：(1)摸清流域水文传输过程和生物地球化学转化过程对BMPs控氮效益滞后期的影响,分析污染负荷削减的时空响应规律;(2)构建包含土壤、浅...     

丹酚酸B对大鼠离体工作心脏血流动力学的影响

目的 研究丹酚酸B对离体大鼠工作心脏血流动力学的影响.方法 采用Langendorff离体心脏灌流的方法,以左室内压( LVSP)、左室舒末压(LVEDP)、室内压最大上升速率(+dp/dtmax)、室内压最大下降速率(- dp/dtmax)、心率(HR)等血流动力学参数为指标,观察丹酚酸B对心肌收缩性能的影响.结果 不同剂量(10、5、2.5 mg/L)的丹酚酸B可使LVSP、±dp/dtmax明显升高,同时使HR减慢,并呈剂量依赖性,但对LVEDP无明显作用.结论 丹酚酸B对离体工作心脏有剂量依赖性正性肌力作用.     

MRI metrics at the epicenter of spinal cord injury are correlated with the stepping process in rhesus monkeys

Clinical evaluations of long-term outcomes in the early-stage spinal cord injury (SCI) focus on macroscopic motor performance and are limited in their prognostic precision. This study was designed to investigate the sensitivity of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) indexes to the data-driven gait process after SCI. Ten adult female rhesus monkeys were subjected to thoracic SCI. Kinematics-based gait examinations were performed at 1 (early stage) and 12 (chronic stage) months post-SCI. The proportion of stepping (PS) and gait stability (GS) were calculated as the outcome measures. MRI metrics, which were derived from structural imaging (spinal cord cross-sectional area, SCA) and diffusion tensor imaging (fractional anisotropy, FA; axial diffusivity, λ_//), were acquired in the early stage and compared with functional outcomes by using correlation analysis and stepwise multivariable linear regression. Residual tissue SCA at the injury epicenter and residual tissue FA/remote normal-like tissue FA were correlated with the early-stage PS and GS. The extent of lesion site λ_///residual tissue λ_// in the early stage after SCI was correlated with the chronic-stage GS. The ratios of lesion site λ_// to residual tissue λ_// and early-stage GS were predictive of the improvement in the PS at follow-up. Similarly, the ratios of lesion site λ_// to residual tissue λ_// and early-stage PS best predicted chronic GS recovery. Our findings demonstrate the predictive power of MRI combined with the early data-driven gait indexes for long-term outcomes. Such an approach may help clinicians to predict functional recovery accurately.     

Hepatic overexpression of methionine sulfoxide reductase A reduces atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice

Methionine sulfoxide reductase A (MsrA), a specific enzyme that converts methionine-S-sulfoxide to methionine, plays an important role in the regulation of protein function and the maintenance of redox homeostasis. In this study, we examined the impact of hepatic MsrA overexpression on lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis in apoE-deficient (apoE^−/−) mice. In vitro study showed that in HepG2 cells, lentivirus-mediated human MsrA (hMsrA) overexpression upregulated the expression levels of several key lipoprotein-metabolism-related genes such as liver X receptor α, scavenger receptor class B type I, and ABCA1. ApoE^−/− mice were intravenously injected with lentivirus to achieve high-level hMsrA expression predominantly in the liver. We found that hepatic hMsrA expression significantly reduced plasma VLDL/LDL levels, improved plasma superoxide dismutase, and paraoxonase-1 activities, and decreased plasma serum amyloid A level in apoE^−/− mice fed a Western diet, by significantly altering the expression of several genes in the liver involving cholesterol selective uptake, conversion and excretion into bile, TG biosynthesis, and inflammation. Moreover, overexpression of hMsrA resulted in reduced hepatic steatosis and aortic atherosclerosis. These results suggest that hepatic MsrA may be an effective therapeutic target for ameliorating dyslipidemia and reducing atherosclerosis-related cardiovascular diseases.     

Coherent modeling of longitudinal causal effects on binary outcomes

Analyses of biomedical studies often necessitate modeling longitudinal causal effects. The current focus on personalized medicine and effect heterogeneity makes this task even more challenging. Toward this end, structural nested mean models (SNMMs) are fundamental tools for studying heterogeneous treatment effects in longitudinal studies. However, when outcomes are binary, current methods for estimating multiplicative and additive SNMM parameters suffer from variation dependence between the causal parameters and the noncausal nuisance parameters. This leads to a series of difficulties in interpretation, estimation, and computation. These difficulties have hindered the uptake of SNMMs in biomedical practice, where binary outcomes are very common. We solve the variation dependence problem for the binary multiplicative SNMM via a reparameterization of the noncausal nuisance parameters. Our novel nuisance parameters are variation independent of the causal parameters, and hence allow for coherent modeling of heterogeneous effects from longitudinal studies with binary outcomes. Our parameterization also provides a key building block for flexible doubly robust estimation of the causal parameters. Along the way, we prove that an additive SNMM with binary outcomes does not admit a variation independent parameterization, thereby justifying the restriction to multiplicative SNMMs.     

Elevated CpG island methylation of GCK gene predicts the risk of type 2 diabetes in Chinese males

Background

The GCK gene encodes hexokinase 4, which catalyzes the first step in most glucose metabolism pathways. The purpose of our study is to assess the contribution of GCK methylation to type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Methods and results

GCK methylation was evaluated in 48 T2D cases and 48 age- and gender-matched controls using the bisulphite pyrosequencing technology. Among the four CpG sites in the methylation assay, CpG4 and the other three CpGs (CpG1-3) were not in high correlation (r < 0.5). Significantly elevated methylation levels of GCK CpG4 methylation were observed in T2D patients than in the healthy controls (P = 0.004). A breakdown analysis by gender indicated that the association between CpG4 methylation and T2D was specific to males (P = 0.002). It is intriguing that another significant male-specific association was also found between GCK CpG4 methylation and total cholesterol (TC) concentration (r = 0.304, P = 0.036).

Conclusion

Our results showed that elevated GCK CpG4 methylation might suggest a risk of T2D in Chinese males. Gender disparity in GCK CpG4 methylation might provide a clue to elaborate the pathogenesis of T2D.     

Sphingomyelin synthase as a potential target for D609-induced apoptosis in U937 human monocytic leukemia cells

Tricyclodecan-9-yl-xanthogenate (D609) is a selective tumor cytotoxic agent. However, the mechanisms of action of D609 against tumor cells have not been well established. Using U937 human monocytic leukemia cells, we examined the ability of D609 to inhibit sphingomyelin synthase (SMS), since inhibition of SMS may contribute to D609-induced tumor cell cytotoxicity via modulating the cellular levels of ceramide and diacylglycerol (DAG). The results showed that D609 is capable of inducing U937 cell death by apoptosis in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The induction of U937 cell apoptosis was associated with an inhibition of SMS activity and a significant increase in the intracellular level of ceramide and decrease in that of sphingomyelin (SM) and DAG, which resulted in an elevation of the ratio between ceramide and DAG favoring the induction of apoptosis. In addition, incubation of U937 cells with C(6)-ceramide and/or H7 (a selective PKC inhibitor) reduced U937 cell viability; whereas pretreatment of the cells with a PKC activator, PMA or 1-oleoyl-2-acetylglycerol (OAG), attenuated D609-induced U937 cell apoptosis. These results suggest that SMS is a potential target of D609 and inhibition of SMS may contribute to D609-induced tumor cell death via modulation of the cellular levels of ceramide and DAG.     

Investigating seed dormancy in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.): understanding the physiological changes in embryo during after‐ripening and germination

• The dormancy of seeds of upland cotton can be broken during dry after‐ripening, but the mechanism of its dormancy release remains unclear.
• Freshly harvested cotton seeds were subjected to after‐ripening for 180 days. Cotton seeds from different days of after‐ripening (DAR) were sampled for dynamic physiological determination and germination tests. The intact seeds and isolated embryos were germinated to assess effects of the seed coat on embryo germination. Content of H₂O₂ and phytohormones and activities of antioxidant enzymes and glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase were measured during after‐ripening and germination.
• Germination of intact seeds increased from 7% upon harvest to 96% at 30 DAR, while embryo germination improved from an initial rate of 82% to 100% after 14 DAR. Based on T₅₀ (time when 50% of seeds germinate) and germination index, the intact seed and isolated embryo needed 30 and 21 DAR, respectively, to acquire relatively stable germination. The content of H₂O₂ increased during after‐ripening and continued to increase within the first few hours of imbibition, along with a decrease in abscisic acid (ABA) content. A noticeable increase was observed in gibberellic acid content during germination when ABA content decreased to a lower level. Coat removal treatment accelerated embryo absorption of water, which further improved the accumulation of H₂O₂ and changed peroxidase content during germination.
• For cotton seed, the alleviation of coat‐imposed dormancy required 30 days of after‐ripening, accompanied by rapid dormancy release (within 21 DAR) in naked embryos. H₂O₂ acted as a core link between the response to environmental changes and induction of other physiological changes for breaking seed dormancy.