野生秀丽四照花种子生物学特性及萌发研究

对野生秀丽四照花(Cornus hongkongensis subsp. elegans)种子的生物学特性进行观察测定,比较变温、低温层积、化学处理对种子萌发的影响。结果表明,秀丽四照花种子千粒重76.91 g,长5.81 mm、宽5.10 mm、厚3.99 mm。种子在整个试验过程中吸水率低于8%,说明有吸水性障碍的坚硬种皮抑制了种子萌发。变温条件下,温差较大的30℃/15℃处理对秀丽四照花种子萌发有较好的促进作用,萌发时滞短,萌发率和发芽势较高。秀丽四照花种子经30%NaOH浸泡10 min,可明显缩短萌发时间,但4℃低温层积处理对种子萌发没有显著效果。     

经气管镜介入多方法联合治疗支气管结核临床应用探讨

目的:探讨多方法联合介入治疗支气管结核的有效性和安全性.方法:329例支气管结核患者根据镜下不同类型采取多种方法联合介入治疗.结果:329例强化阶段2个月结束时痰菌阴转289例(87.8.%),炎性浸润、溃疡及干酪坏死消除78/80例(97.5%),肉芽组织增生消除63/70例(90%),气道瘢痕狭窄明显改善26/32(81%),管壁软化明显好转7/15(46.6%),肺不张或肺膨胀不全总有效率82/105(78.1%).6个月后痰菌全部转阴(100%),6个月后炎性浸润、溃疡及干酪坏死肉芽组织增生消除达97.9%.管壁软化好转85.2%,肺不张治愈率95.8%,疗效确切.结论:通过电子支气管镜多方法联合介入治疗支气管结核是一种有效的方法、安全、并发症少、病人易接受等优点.     

入侵种喜旱莲子草——主要天敌昆虫

喜旱莲子草是一种水陆两栖的重要入侵杂草,中国首批16种重要入侵物种之一.本文介绍了生物防治喜旱莲子草的天敌昆虫莲草直胸跳甲Agasicles hygophila、Vogtia malli、Amynothrips andersoni、阿根廷跳甲Disonycha argentinensis、Systena nitentula和虾钳菜披龟甲Cassida piperata等天敌的分类地位、形态特征、生物学、生态学特性以及国内外寄主专一性研究、释放效果与评价.     

Image Corruption Detection in Diffusion Tensor Imaging for Post-Processing and Real-Time Monitoring

Due to the high sensitivity of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to physiological motion, clinical DTI scans often suffer a significant amount of artifacts. Tensor-fitting-based, post-processing outlier rejection is often used to reduce the influence of motion artifacts. Although it is an effective approach, when there are multiple corrupted data, this method may no longer correctly identify and reject the corrupted data. In this paper, we introduce a new criterion called “corrected Inter-Slice Intensity Discontinuity” (cISID) to detect motion-induced artifacts. We compared the performance of algorithms using cISID and other existing methods with regard to artifact detection. The experimental results show that the integration of cISID into fitting-based methods significantly improves the retrospective detection performance at post-processing analysis. The performance of the cISID criterion, if used alone, was inferior to the fitting-based methods, but cISID could effectively identify severely corrupted images with a rapid calculation time. In the second part of this paper, an outlier rejection scheme was implemented on a scanner for real-time monitoring of image quality and reacquisition of the corrupted data. The real-time monitoring, based on cISID and followed by post-processing, fitting-based outlier rejection, could provide a robust environment for routine DTI studies.     

Bmp2 regulates Serpinb6b expression via cAMP/PKA/Wnt4 pathway during uterine decidualization

Serpinb6b is a novel member of Serpinb family and found in germ and somatic cells of mouse gonads, but its physiological function in uterine decidualization remains unclear. The present study revealed that abundant Serpinb6b was noted in decidual cells, and advanced the proliferation and differentiation of stromal cells, indicating a creative role of Serpinb6b in uterine decidualization. Further analysis found that Serpinb6b modulated the expression of Mmp2 and Mmp9. Meanwhile, Serpinb6b was identified as a target of Bmp2 regulation in stromal differentiation. Treatment with rBmp2 resulted in an accumulation of intracellular cAMP level whose function in this differentiation program was mediated by Serpinb6b. Addition of PKA inhibitor H89 impeded the Bmp2 induction of Serpinb6b, whereas 8‐Br‐cAMP rescued the defect of Serpinb6b expression elicited by Bmp2 knock‐down. Attenuation of Serpinb6b greatly reduced the induction of constitutive Wnt4 activation on stromal cell differentiation. By contrast, overexpression of Serpinb6b prevented this inhibition of differentiation process by Wnt4 siRNA. Moreover, blockage of Wnt4 abrogated the up‐regulation of cAMP on Serpinb6b. Collectively, Serpinb6b mediates uterine decidualization via Mmp2/9 in response to Bmp2/cAMP/PKA/Wnt4 pathway.     

IL‐17A‐producing T cells exacerbate fine particulate matter‐induced lung inflammation and fibrosis by inhibiting PI3K/Akt/mTOR‐mediated autophagy

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is the primary air pollutant that is able to induce airway injury. Compelling evidence has shown the involvement of IL‐17A in lung injury, while its contribution to PM2.5‐induced lung injury remains largely unknown. Here, we probed into the possible role of IL‐17A in mouse models of PM2.5‐induced lung injury. Mice were instilled with PM2.5 to construct a lung injury model. Flow cytometry was carried out to isolate γδT and Th17 cells. ELISA was adopted to detect the expression of inflammatory factors in the supernatant of lavage fluid. Primary bronchial epithelial cells (mBECs) were extracted, and the expression of TGF signalling pathway‐, autophagy‐ and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signalling pathway‐related proteins in mBECs was detected by immunofluorescence assay and Western blot analysis. The mitochondrial function was also evaluated. PM2.5 aggravated the inflammatory response through enhancing the secretion of IL‐17A by γδT/Th17 cells. Meanwhile, PM2.5 activated the TGF signalling pathway and induced EMT progression in bronchial epithelial cells, thereby contributing to pulmonary fibrosis. Besides, PM2.5 suppressed autophagy of bronchial epithelial cells by up‐regulating IL‐17A, which in turn activated the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signalling pathway. Furthermore, IL‐17A impaired the energy metabolism of airway epithelial cells in the PM2.5‐induced models. This study suggested that PM2.5 could inhibit autophagy of bronchial epithelial cells and promote pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis by inducing the secretion of IL‐17A in γδT and Th17 cells and regulating the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signalling pathway.     

Metabolic phenotyping to monitor chronic enteritis canceration

Introduction

Untargeted metabolomics intends to objectively analyze a wide variety of compounds. Their diverse physicochemical properties make it difficult to choose an appropriate reconstitution solvent after sample evaporation without influencing the chromatography or hamper column sorbent integrity.

Objectives

The study aimed to identify the most appropriate reconstitution solvent for blood plasma samples in terms of feature recovery, four endogenous compounds, and one selected internal standard.

Methods

We investigated several reconstitution solvent mixtures containing acetonitrile and methanol to resolve human plasma extract and evaluated them concerning the peak areas of tryptophan-d₅, glucose, creatinine, palmitic acid, and the phophatidylcholine PC(P-16:0/P-16:0), as well as the total feature count

Results

Results indicated that acetonitrile containing 30% methanol was best suited to match all tested criteria at least for human blood plasma samples.

Conclusion

Despite identifying the mixture of acetonitrile and methanol being suitable as solvent for human blood plasma extracts, we recommend to systematically test for an appropriate reconstitution solvent for each analyzed biomatrix.

     

Emperipolesis mediated by CD8+ T cells correlates with biliary epithelia cell injury in primary biliary cholangitis

Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is an autoimmune disease characterized by chronic destruction of the bile ducts. A major unanswered question regarding the pathogenesis of PBC is the precise mechanisms of small bile duct injury. Emperipolesis is one of cell‐in‐cell structures that is a potential histological hallmark associated with chronic hepatitis B. This study aimed to clarify the pathogenesis and characteristics of emperipolesis in PBC liver injury. Sixty‐six PBC patients, diagnosed by liver biopsy combined with laboratory test, were divided into early‐stage PBC (stages I and II, n = 39) and late‐stage PBC (stages III and IV, n = 27). Emperipolesis was measured in liver sections stained with haematoxylin‐eosin. The expressions of CK19, CD3, CD4, CD8, CD20, Ki67 and apoptosis of BECs were evaluated by immunohistochemistry or immunofluorescence double labelling. Emperipolesis was observed in 62.1% of patients with PBC, and BECs were predominantly host cells. The number of infiltrating CD3⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells correlated with the advancement of emperipolesis (R² = 0.318, P < .001; R² = 0.060, P < .05). The cell numbers of TUNEL‐positive BECs and double staining for CK19 and Ki67 showed a significant positive correlation with emperipolesis degree (R² = 0.236, P < .001; R² = 0.267, P < .001). We conclude that emperipolesis mediated by CD8⁺ T cells appears to be relevant to apoptosis of BEC and thus may aggravate the further injury of interlobular bile ducts.