脱氧核酶的研究进展

具有RNA裂解活性的DNA分子称为脱氧核酶。它是经过体外选择技术经多次筛选获得的。脱氧核酶在切割与其互补的RNA底物分子时具有极高的特异性和切割效率,有望成为新的RNA灭活工具。     

Late-acting self-incompatibility in tea plant (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Camellia sinensis</Emphasis>)

The self-incompatibility of tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) was studied with the methods of aniline blue fluorescence assay and paraffin sections. The characteristics of pollen tube elongation after hand pollination was analyzed in 4 tea cultivars, including ‘Keemenzhong’, ‘Longjing-changye’, ‘Fuding-dabaicha’ and ‘Yabukita’, under self-pollination and cross-pollination, respectively. Although there were some difference among cultivars, pollen tubes elongated through the style and reach the ovary successfully at 48 h after pollination for both cross- and self-pollen tubes in all the four cultivars of tea. Pollen tubes entered into the ovule micropyles, however, only for cross-pollination, but not for self-pollination. Pollen tubes of selfing plants, failed in fertilizing, seemed have some difficulties to enter the ovule. All of which indicated that the self-incompatibility of tea plant is a late-acting self-incompatibility system (LSI) or an ovarian sterility (OS), in which the self incompatibility was due to none self pollen tube penetrating into the ovule and no fertilization.     

Ultrasonic Elastography Research Based on a Multicenter Study: Adding Strain Ratio after 5-Point Scoring Evaluation or Not

Background

This study aimed to confirm whether strain ratio should be added after evaluation of lesions with 5-point elasticity scoring for differentiating benign and malignant breast lesions on ultrasonographic elastography(UE).

Materials and Methods

From June 2010 to March 2012, 1080 consecutive female patients with breast lesions were recruited into a multicenter retrospective study, which involved 8 centers across China. Each institutional ethic review board approved the study, and all the patients gave written informed consent. All the patients underwent the UE procedure and the strain ratios were calculated and the final diagnosis was made by histological findings. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV and NPV were calculated for each of the two evaluation systems and the areas under the ROC curve were compared.

Results

The strain ratios of benign lesions (mean, 2.6±2.0) and malignant lesions (mean,7.9±5.8) were significantly different (p <0.01). When the cutoff point was 3.01, strain ratio method had 79.8% sensitivity, 82.8% specificity, and 81.3% accuracy, while the 5-point scoring method had 93.1% sensitivity, 73.0% specificity, and 76.8% accuracy. The areas under the ROC curve with the strain ratio method and 5-point scoring method were 0.863 and 0.865, respectively(p>0.05). The strain ratio method shows better a diagnosis performance of the lesions with elasticity score 3 and 4.

Conclusions

Although the two UE methods have similar diagnostic performance, separate calculation of the strain ratios seems compulsory, especially for the large solid breast lesions and the lesions with elasticity score 3 and 4.     

Apoptotic Cell Death Induced by Resveratrol Is Partially Mediated by the Autophagy Pathway in Human Ovarian Cancer Cells

Resveratrol (trans-3,4,5’ –trihydroxystilbene) is an active compound in food, such as red grapes, peanuts, and berries. Resveratrol exhibits an anticancer effect on various human cancer cells. However, the mechanism of resveratrol-induced anti-cancer effect at the molecular level remains to be elucidated. In this study, the mechanism underlying the anti-cancer effect of resveratrol in human ovarian cancer cells (OVCAR-3 and Caov-3) was investigated using various molecular biology techniques, such as flow cytometry, western blotting, and RNA interference, with a major focus on the potential role of autophagy in resveratrol-induced apoptotic cell death. We demonstrated that resveratrol induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, which triggers autophagy and subsequent apoptotic cell death. Resveratrol induced ATG5 expression and promoted LC3 cleavage. The apoptotic cell death induced by resveratrol was attenuated by both pharmacological and genetic inhibition of autophagy. The autophagy inhibitor chloroquine, which functions at the late stage of autophagy, significantly reduced resveratrol-induced cell death and caspase 3 activity in human ovarian cancer cells. We also demonstrated that targeting ATG5 by siRNA also suppressed resveratrol-induced apoptotic cell death. Thus, we concluded that a common pathway between autophagy and apoptosis exists in resveratrol-induced cell death in OVCAR-3 human ovarian cancer cells.     

5-酮基-D-葡萄糖酸发酵生产的工艺条件优化

葡萄糖酸氧化杆菌可将葡萄糖转化为5-酮基-D-葡萄糖酸(5-KGA),而5-KGA是重要食品添加剂L(+)-酒石酸的合成前体。为提高5-KGA产量及其对葡萄糖的转化率,对5-KGA发酵生产的工艺条件进行优化。在摇瓶水平最适的培养基和培养条件下,5-KGA最高产量为19.7 g/L,较优化前提高43.8%。在5 L发酵罐上控制恒定pH值5.5、溶氧浓度15%条件下,5-KGA产量达到46.0 g/L,较摇瓶最高产量提高1.3倍,应用葡萄糖流加工艺,5-KGA最高产量达到75.5 g/L,转化率超过70%,与已见报道的最高水平相比提高了32.0%,为实现微生物发酵生产5-KGA、进而合成L(+)-酒石酸的工业化提供了切实有效的途径。