Dysfunction and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Fracture Victims 50 Months after the Sichuan Earthquake

Background

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a rehabilitation intervention on physical dysfunction (PDF) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in fracture victims 50 months after the Sichuan earthquake of 2008 and to identify risk factors for PTSD.

Methods

This is a retrospective cohort study. Four hundred and fifty-nine earthquake-related fracture victims from Mianzhu city, Sichuan Province who did not qualify for disability pension participated. Two hundred and forty-five subjects received regular rehabilitation and 214 did not. Muscle strength, joint range of motion (ROM),sensory function, and sit-to-stand balance capacity were evaluated to assess PDF. The PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C) was administered to screen for PTSD. An ordinary least square regression was used to predict PTSD, and a logistic regression was used to predict PDF. In addition a Least Angle Regression (LARS) was carried out for PTSD to study the effects of rehabilitation and PDF at the same time.

Results

Unadjusted and adjusted group differences in physical dysfunction (p<0.01) and PTSD prevalence (p<0.05) were significant in favor of the rehabilitation group. In addition, being female, average or above family income, having witnessed death and fearfulness were found risk factors for PTSD symptoms 50 months after the earthquake. Both PDF and rehabilitation were selected predictors by LARS demonstrating opposite effects.

Conclusion

PDF and PTSD were significantly reduced by the rehabilitation intervention. Future medical intervention strategies should consider rehabilitation in order to assist survivors in dealing with both physical and psychological effects of natural disaster.     

Identification and Candidate Gene Analysis of a Novel Phytophthora Resistance Gene Rps10 in a Chinese Soybean Cultivar

Resistance to Phytophthora sojae isolate PsMC1 was evaluated in 102 F_2∶3 families derived from a cross between the resistant soybean cultivar Wandou 15 and the susceptible cultivar Williams and genotyped using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The segregation ratio of resistant, segregating, and susceptible phenotypes in the population suggested that the resistance in Wandou 15 was dominant and monogenic. Twenty-six polymorphic SSR markers were identified on soybean chromosome 17 (Molecular linkage group D2; MLG D2), which were linked to the resistance gene based on bulked segregation analysis (BSA). Markers Sattwd15-24/25 and Sattwd15-47 flanked the resistance gene at a distance of 0.5 cM and 0.8 cM, respectively. Two cosegregating markers, Sattwd15-28 and Sattwd15-32, were also screened in this region. This is the first Rps resistance gene mapped on chromosome 17, which is designated as Rps10. Eight putative genes were found in the mapped region between markers Sattwd15-24/25 and Sattwd15-47. Among them, two candidate genes encoding serine/threonine (Ser/Thr) protein kinases in Wandou 15 and Williams were identified and sequenced. And the differences in genomic sequence and the putative amino acid sequence, respectively, were identified within each candidate gene between Wandou 15 and Williams. This novel gene Rps10 and the linked markers should be useful in developing soybean cultivars with durable resistance to P. sojae.     

Phospholipid Metabolism in an Industry Microalga Chlorella sorokiniana: The Impact of Inoculum Sizes

Chlorella sorokiniana is an important industry microalga potential for biofuel production. Inoculum size is one of the important factors in algal large-scale culture, and has great effects on the growth, lipid accumulation and metabolism of microalgae. As the first barrier of cell contents, membrane plays a vital role in algal inoculum-related metabolism. The knowledge of phospholipids, the main membrane component and high accumulation of phospholipids as the major content of total lipids mass in some microalgae, is necessary to understand the role of membrane in cell growth and metabolism under different inoculum density. Profiling of C. sorokiniana phospholipids with LC-MS led to the identification of 119 phospholipid species. To discover the phospholipid molecules most related to change of inoculum sizes, Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) was employed and the results revealed that inoculum sizes significantly affected phospholipid profiling. Phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphatidyl- ethanolamine (PE) and several phosphatidylcholine (PC) species might play an important role under our experimental conditions. Further analysis of these biomarkers indicated that cell membrane status of C. sorokiniana might play an important role in the adaption to the inoculum sizes. And the culture with inoculum size of 1×10⁶ cells mL⁻¹ presented the best membrane status with the highest content of PC and PG, and the lowest content of PE. We discovered that the inoculum size of 1×10⁶ cells mL⁻¹ might provide the best growth condition for C. sorokiniana. Also we proposed that PG, PE and several PC may play an important role in inoculum-related metabolism in C. sorokiniana, which may work through thylakoid membrane and photosynthetic pathway. Thus this study would provide more potential targets for metabolic engineering to improve biofuel production and productivity in microalgae.     

Genetic Variants in Meiotic Program Initiation Pathway Genes Are Associated with Spermatogenic Impairment in a Han Chinese Population

Background

The meiotic program initiation pathway genes (CYP26B1, NANOS1 and STRA8) have been proposed to play key roles in spermatogenesis.

Objective

To elucidate the exact role of the genetic variants of the meiosis initiation genes in spermatogenesis, we genotyped the potential functional genetic variants of CYP26B1, NANOS1 and STRA8 genes, and evaluated their effects on spermatogenesis in our study population.

Design, Setting, and Participants

In this study, all subjects were volunteers from the affiliated hospitals of Nanjing Medical University between March 2004 and July 2009 (NJMU Infertile Study). Total 719 idiopathic infertile cases were recruited and divided into three groups according to WHO semen parameters: 201 azoospermia patients (no sperm in the ejaculate even after centrifugation), 155 oligozoospermia patients (sperm counts <20×10⁶/ml) and 363 infertility/normozoospermia subjects (sperm counts >20×10⁶/ml). The control group consisted of 383 subjects with normal semen parameters, all of which had fathered at least one child without assisted reproductive technologies.

Measurements

Eight single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in CYP26B1, NANOS1 and STRA8 genes were determined by TaqMan allelic discrimination assay in 719 idiopathic infertile men and 383 healthy controls.

Results and Limitations

The genetic variant rs10269148 of STRA8 gene showed higher risk of spermatogenic impairment in the groups of abnormospermia (including azoospermia subgroup and oligozoospermia subgroup) and azoospermia than the controls with odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals of 2.52 (1.29–4.94) and 2.92 (1.41–6.06), respectively (P = 0.006, 0.002 respective). Notably, larger sample size studies and in vivo or in vitro functional studies are needed to substantiate the biological roles of these variants.

Conclusions

Our results provided epidemiological evidence supporting the involvement of genetic polymorphisms of the meiotic program initiation genes in modifying the risk of azoospermia and oligozoospermia in a Han-Chinese population.     

The Relationship between Endogenous Androgens and Body Fat Distribution in Early and Late Postmenopausal Women

Objectives

To investigate the relationship between endogenous androgens and body fat distribution in early and late postmenopausal women.

Materials and Methods

We enrolled postmenopausal women consisting of an early group (≤5 years since menopause, n = 105) and a late group (≥10 years since menopause, n = 107). Each group was subdivided into normal weight (BMI <24 kg/m²) group, overweight and obese (BMI ≥24 kg/m²) group. Fasting total testosterone (T), dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S) and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) levels were measured. Body fat distribution was evaluated by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA).

Results

Late postmenopausal women had a higher proportion of body fat than early postmenopausal women. The body fat of the overweight and obese women had a greater tendency to accumulate in the abdomen compared with the normal weight women both in early and late postmenopausal groups. The overweight and obese women had a higher free testosterone (FT) than the normal weight women in early postmenopausal women (P<0.05). In late postmenopausal women, the overweight and obese women had higher DHEA-S levels than normal weight women (P<0.05). No direct relationship was observed between the T levels and body fat distribution both in early and late postmenopausal groups (P>0.05).The FT in early postmenopausal women and the DHEA-S levels in late postmenopausal women correlated positively with the trunk/leg fat ratio (T/L) and the proportion of android fat whereas correlated negatively with the proportion of gynoid fat in the partial correlation and multiple linear regression analyses (all P<0.05).

Conclusions

Serum T levels do not correlate directly with body fat distribution, the FT in early postmenopausal women and DHEA-S levels in late postmenopausal women correlate positively with abdominal fat accumulation.     

Primulina elegans (Gesneriaceae), a new species from North Vietnam

Primulina elegans (Gesneriaceae), a new species from Vietnam is described. This species is similar to P. gemella and P. diffusa in having stolons and papillose-hispid leaves, but is easily distinguished from them by having 9–15 cymes and corollas with two brown stripes on the adaxial lip and nine purplish lines on the abaxial lip. Furthermore, Primulina elegans differs from P. gemmella by its broadly infundibuliform corollas with purplish glandular pubescent filaments, and from P. diffusa by having three slightly purplish glandular pubescent staminodes.     

Loss of rice PARAQUAT TOLERANCE 3 confers enhanced resistance to abiotic stresses and increases grain yield in field

Plants frequently suffer from environmental stresses in nature and have evolved sophisticated and efficient mechanisms to cope with the stresses. To balance between growth and stress response, plants are equipped with efficient means to switch off the activated stress responses when stresses diminish. We previously revealed such an off-switch mechanism conferred by Arabidopsis PARAQUAT TOLERANCE 3 (AtPQT3) encoding an E3 ubiquitin ligase, knockout of which significantly enhances resistance to abiotic stresses. To explore whether the rice homologue OsPQT3 is functionally conserved, we generated three knockout mutants with CRISPR-Cas9 technology. The OsPQT3 knockout mutants (ospqt3) display enhanced resistance to oxidative and salt stress with elevated expression of OsGPX1, OsAPX1 and OsSOD1. More importantly, the ospqt3 mutants show significantly enhanced agronomic performance with higher yield compared with the wild type under salt stress in greenhouse as well as in field conditions. We further showed that OsPQT3 expression rapidly decreased in response to oxidative and other abiotic stresses as AtPQT3 does. Taken together, these results show that OsPQT3 is functionally well conserved in rice as an off-switch in stress response as AtPQT3 in Arabidopsis. Therefore, PQT3 locus provides a promising candidate for crop improvement with enhanced stress resistance by gene editing technology.     

Glycosaminoglycan remodeling during chondrogenic differentiation of human bone marrow−/synovial-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells under normoxia and hypoxia

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are major components of cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM), which play an important role in tissue homeostasis not only by providing mechanical load resistance, but also as signaling mediators of key cellular processes such as adhesion, migration, proliferation and differentiation. Specific GAG types as well as their disaccharide sulfation patterns can be predictive of the tissue maturation level but also of disease states such as osteoarthritis. In this work, we used a highly sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method to perform a comparative study in terms of temporal changes in GAG and disaccharide composition between tissues generated from human bone marrow- and synovial-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (hBMSC/hSMSC) after chondrogenic differentiation under normoxic (21% O₂) and hypoxic (5% O₂) micromass cultures. The chondrogenic differentiation of hBMSC/hSMSC cultured under different oxygen tensions was assessed through aggregate size measurement, chondrogenic gene expression analysis and histological/immunofluorescence staining in comparison to human chondrocytes. For all the studied conditions, the compositional analysis demonstrated a notable increase in the average relative percentage of chondroitin sulfate (CS), the main GAG in cartilage composition, throughout MSC chondrogenic differentiation. Additionally, hypoxic culture conditions resulted in significantly different average GAG and CS disaccharide percentage compositions compared to the normoxic ones. However, such effect was considerably more evident for hBMSC-derived chondrogenic aggregates. In summary, the GAG profiles described here may provide new insights for the prediction of cartilage tissue differentiation/disease states and to characterize the quality of MSC-generated chondrocytes obtained under different oxygen tension culture conditions.

     

Functional analysis of Dicer-2 gene in Bombyx mori resistance to BmNPV virus

Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) is a primary pathogen in silkworm, and the molecular mechanism of B. mori defense to BmNPV infection is still unclear. RNA interference (RNAi) is well-known as an intracellular conserved mechanism that is critical in gene regulation and cell defense. The antiviral RNAi pathway processes viral double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) into viral small interfering RNAs that guide the recognition and cleavage of complementary viral target RNAs. In this study, a Dicer-2 (Dcr2) gene was identified in B. mori and its antiviral function was explored. Dcr2 messenger RNA (mRNA) expression was the highest in hemocytes and expressed in all stages of silkworm growth. After infection with BmNPV, the expression of Dcr2 mRNA was significantly increased after infection in midgut and hemocytes. The expression of Dcr2 was significantly upregulated by injecting dsRNA (dsBmSPH-1) into silkworm after 48 hr. Knocking down the expression level of Dcr2 using specific dsRNA in silkworm, which modestly enhanced the production of viral genomic DNA. Our results suggested that the Dcr2 gene in B. mori plays an important role in against BmNPV invasion.