人脐带血间充质干细胞体外分离培养及生物学特性研究

目的:探讨并建立稳定可靠的人脐带血间充质干细胞(human umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells,hUCBMSCs)体外分离和培养方法.方法:采用密度梯度离心法分离脐带血单个核细胞,利用MSC易黏附塑料贴壁生长的特性,分离MSC并进行体外扩增培养,观测其形态学特征,绘制不同代数hUCBMSC生长曲线,流式细胞技术检测细胞表面标志物CD29、CD34、CD105、HLA-DR等表达情况.结果:本法可成功、可靠地在体外自hUCB中分离培养出粘附细胞,该细胞在体外培养呈梭形或成纤维样,其指数生长倍增时问约为36h,其细胞表面表达β1整联蛋白CD29、CD105(endoglm),不表达造血细胞标志物CD34以及HLA-DR.结论:人脐带血中存在问充质干细胞,采用优化的实验方法可以提高培养成功率,稳定获得MSC并体外扩增培养.人脐带血可以作为获得间充质干细胞稳定充足的来源.     

衣原体感染不孕不育患者血清中自身抗体的检测

目的:探讨衣原体感染与血清中抗精子抗体(AsAb)、抗心磷脂抗体(ACA)、抗子宫内膜抗体(EMAb)之间的关系.方法:用ELISA法检测120例衣原体感染不育男性(男性衣原体感染组)和55例正常生育男性(男性正常时照组)的血清中AsAb、ACA;检测142例衣原体感染不孕女性(女性衣原体感染组)和60例正常生育女性(女性正常对照组)的血清中AsAb、ACA、EMAb.结果:男、女衣原体感染组AsAb、ACA检出率高于相应对照组,具有显著性差异(P值均＜0.05);女性衣原体感染组EMAb检出率高于女性对照组,具有显著性差异(P＜0.05).结论:生殖道衣原体感染和与不孕不育有着密切的相关性,且AsAb、ACA、EmAb的产生与衣原体感染有关.     

Reannotation of hypothetical ORFs in plant pathogen Erwinia carotovora subsp. atroseptica SCRI1043

Over-annotation of hypothetical ORFs is a common phenomenon in bacterial genomes, which necessitates confirming the coding reliability of hypothetical ORFs and then predicting their functions. The important plant pathogen Erwinia carotovora subsp. atroseptica SCRI1043 (Eca1043) is a typical case because more than a quarter of its annotated ORFs are hypothetical. Our analysis focuses on annotation of Eca1043 hypothetical ORFs, and comprises two efforts: (a) based on the Z-curve method, 49 originally annotated hypothetical ORFs are recognized as noncoding, this is further supported by principal components analysis and other evidence; and (b) using sequence-alignment tools and some functional resources, more than a half of the hypothetical genes were assigned functions. The potential functions of 427 hypothetical genes are summarized according to the cluster of orthologous groups functional category. Moreover, 114 and 86 hypothetical genes are recognized as putative 'membrane proteins' and 'exported proteins', respectively. Reannotation of Eca1043 hypothetical ORFs will benefit research into the lifestyle, metabolism and pathogenicity of the important plant pathogen. Also, our study proffers a model for the reannotation of hypothetical ORFs in microbial genomes.     

Rationally designed anti-HIV peptides containing multifunctional domains as molecule probes for studying the mechanisms of action of the first and second generation HIV fusion inhibitors

We have previously shown that the first generation human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) fusion inhibitor T20 (Fuzeon) contains a critical lipid-binding domain (LBD), whereas C34, another anti-HIV peptide derived from the gp41 C-terminal heptad repeat, consists of an important pocket-binding domain (PBD), and both share a common 4-3 heptad repeat (HR) sequence (Liu, S., Jing, W., Cheung, B., Lu, H., Sun, J., Yan, X., Niu, J., Farmar, J., Wu, S., and Jiang, S. (2007) J. Biol. Chem. 282, 9612-9620). T1249, the second generation HIV fusion inhibitor, has both LBD and PBD but a different HR sequence, suggesting that these three anti-HIV peptides may have distinct mechanisms of action. Here we rationally designed a set of peptides that contain multiple copies of a predicted HR sequence (5HR) or the HR sequence plus either LBD (4HR-LBD) or PBD (PBD-4HR) or both (PBD-3HR-LBD), and we compared their anti-HIV-1 activity and biophysical properties. We found that the peptide 5HR exhibited low-to-moderate inhibitory activity on HIV-1-mediated cell-cell fusion, whereas addition of LBD and/or PBD to the HR sequence resulted in a significant increase of the anti-HIV-1 activity. The peptides containing PBD, including PBD-4HR and PBD-3HR-LBD, could form a stable six-helix bundle with the N-peptide N46 and effectively blocked the gp41 core formation, whereas the peptides containing LBD, e.g. 4HR-LBD and PBD-3HR-LBD, could interact with the lipid vehicles. These results suggest that the HR sequence in these anti-HIV peptides acts as a structure domain and is responsible for its interaction with the HR sequence in N-terminal heptad repeat, whereas PBD and LBD are critical for interactions with their corresponding targets. T20, C34, and T1249 may function like 4HR-LBD, PBD-4HR, and PBD-3HR-LBD, respectively, to interact with different target sites for inhibiting HIV fusion and entry. Therefore, this study provides important information for understanding the mechanisms of action of the peptic HIV-1 fusion inhibitors and for rational design of novel antiviral peptides against HIV and other viruses with class I fusion proteins.     

Bovine hemoglobin: an attractive source of antibacterial peptides

A peptic hemoglobin hydrolysate was fractioned by a semi-preparative reversed-phase HPLC and some fractions have an antibacterial activity against four bacteria strains: Micrococcus luteus A270, Listeria innocua, Escherichia coli and Salmonella enteritidis. These fractions were analyzed by ESI/MS and ESI/MS/MS, in order to characterize the peptides in these fractions. Each fraction contains at least three peptides and some fractions contain five peptides. All these fractions were purified several times by HPLC to obtain pure peptides. Thirty antibacterial peptides were identified. From the isolated antibacterial peptides, 24 peptides were derived from the chains of hemoglobin and 6 peptides were derived from the β chains of hemoglobin. The lowest concentration of these peptides (minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC)) necessary to completely inhibit the growth of four bacteria strain was determined. The cell population of all of the tested bacteria species decreased by at least 97% after a 24-h incubation with any of the peptides at the minimum inhibitory concentration.     

草鱼CNBP的分子特征及其进化分析

从草鱼(Ctenopharyngodon idella)肝肾cDNA文库中克隆到细胞核酸结合蛋白基因CNBP的完整开放阅读框序列.分析表明草鱼CNBP由163个氨基酸残基组成,含有7个保守CCHC型锌指结构、核定位信号区和RGG框,与其他鱼类的同源性很高.与人及其他脊椎动物的相比,草鱼细胞核酸结合蛋白在第3个锌指中的第5个氨基酸残基由Gly变成His,另外在第1锌指和第2锌指结构间,缺失6～14个氨基酸残基.虽然如此,适应性进化分析显示细胞核酸结合蛋白没有经历正达尔文选择(ω≤1),即这种结构的差异还不足以产生新的功能.这表明CNBP处于中性进化中.     

农田林网条件下大斑啄木鸟夏季和冬季日间行为模式

2005年7月至2008年1月,利用目标动物取样法对内蒙古乌拉特前旗地区农田林网中大斑啄木鸟(Picoides major)夏季和冬季的日间行为模式进行了分析.结果发现,大斑啄木鸟不同行为的活动次数差异极为显著,主要活动是觅食啄食;夏季具午间休息习性,日间行为节律明显,而冬季没有午休习性,日问行为节律不明显;不同性别大斑啄木鸟之间的日间行为差异不显著,但大斑啄木鸟在不同季节的日间行为差异极为显著,夏季活动时间明显长于冬季.     

横断山脉地区青藏雪灵芝核形态学

对横断山脉地区青藏雪灵芝(Arenaria roborowskii)进行了核形态学研究。核型公式为2n=2x=22=22m,核型不对称性为1A型。间期核为复杂染色体型,前期染色体为中间型。