Circadian rhythm disorder: a potential inducer of vascular calcification?

Journal of Physiology and Biochemistry - Over the past decades, circadian rhythm has drawn a great attention in cardiovascular diseases. The expressions of rhythm genes fluctuate in accordance with...     

Inhibition of exosomal miR‐24‐3p in diabetes restores angiogenesis and facilitates wound repair via targeting PIK3R3

Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is one of the common ailments of elderly people suffering from diabetes. Exosomes containing various active regulators have been found to play a significant role in apoptosis, cell proliferation and other biological processes. However, the effect and the underlying mechanism of action of diabetes patients derived from circulating exosomes (Dia‐Exos) on DFU remain unclear. Herein, we aim to explore the potential regulatory role of Dia‐Exos. First, we attempted to demonstrate the harmful effect of Dia‐Exos both in vivo and in vitro. miRNA‐24‐3p (miR‐24‐3p) was found enriched with Dia‐Exos. Hence, inhibition of this miRNA could partially reverse the negative effect of Dia‐Exos, thus, in ture, accelerates wound repair. Luciferase assay further verified the binding of miR‐24‐3p to the 3′‐UTR of phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase regulatory subunit gamma (PIK3R3) mRNA and the PIK3R3 expression enhanced human umbilical vein endothelial cells functionality in vitro. Hence, the findings of this study reveal the regulatory role of Dia‐Exos in the process of wound healing and provide experimental evidence for the therapeutic effects of knocking down miR‐24‐3p in DFU treatment.     

de novo Design and Synthesis of Candida antarctica Lipase B Gene and α-Factor Leads to High-Level Expression in Pichia pastoris

Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) is one of the most widely used and studied enzymes in the world. In order to achieve the high-level expression of CALB in Pichia, we optimized the codons of CALB gene and α-factor by using a de novo design and synthesis strategy. Through comparative analysis of a series of recombinants with different expression components, we found that the methanol-inducible expression recombinant carrying the codon-optimized α-factor and mature CALB gene (pPIC9KαM-CalBM) has the highest lipase production capacity. After fermentation parameters optimization, the lipase activity and protein content of the recombinant pPIC9KαM-CalBM reached 6,100 U/mL and 3.0 g/L, respectively, in a 5-L fermentor. We believe this strategy could be of special interest due to its capacity to improve the expression level of target gene, and the Pichia transformants carrying the codon-optimized gene had great potential for the industrial-scale production of CALB lipase.     

Pituitary Stalk Interruption Syndrome in Chinese People: Clinical Characteristic Analysis of 55 Cases

Objective

Pituitary stalk interruption syndrome (PSIS) is characterized by the absence of pituitary stalk, pituitary hypoplasia, and ectopic posterior pituitary. Due to the rarity of PSIS, clinical data are limited, especially in Chinese people. Herein, we analyzed the clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with PSIS from our center over 10 years.

Patients and Methods

We retrospectively analyzed the clinical manifestations and laboratory and MRI findings in 55 patients with PSIS.

Results

Of the 55 patients with PSIS, 48 (87.3%) were male. The average age was 19.7±6.7 years and there was no familial case. A history of breech delivery was documented in 40 of 45 patients (88.9%) and 19 of 55 patients (34.5%) had a history of dystocia. Short stature was found in 47 of 55 patients (85.5%) and bone age delayed 7.26±5.37 years. Secondary sex characteristics were poor or undeveloped in most patients. The prevalence of deficiencies in growth hormone, gonadotropins, corticotropin, and thyrotropin were 100%, 95.8%, 81.8%, 76.3%, respectively. Hyperprolactinemia was found in 36.4% of patients. Three or more pituitary hormone deficiencies were found in 92.7% of the patients. All patients had normal posterior pituitary function and absent pituitary stalk on imaging. The average height of anterior pituitary was 28 mm, documented anterior pituitary hypoplasia. Midline abnormalities were presented in 9.1% of patients.

Conclusions

The clinical features of our Chinese PSIS patients seem to be different from other reported patients in regarding to the higher degree of hypopituitarism and lower prevalence of midline defects. In addition, our patients were older at the time of case detection and the bone age was markedly delayed. We also had no cases of familial PSIS.     

Ultrasonic pretreatment and acid hydrolysis of sugarcane bagasse for succinic acid production using Actinobacillus succinogenes

Immense interest has been devoted to the production of bulk chemicals from lignocellulose biomass. Diluted sulfuric acid treatment is currently one of the main pretreatment methods. However, the low total sugar concentration obtained via such pretreatment limits industrial fermentation systems that use lignocellulosic hydrolysate. Sugarcane bagasse hemicellulose hydrolysate is used as the carbon and nitrogen sources to achieve a green and economical production of succinic acid in this study. Sugarcane bagasse was ultrasonically pretreated for 40 min, with 43.9 g/L total sugar obtained after dilute acid hydrolysis. The total sugar concentration increased by 29.5 %. In a 3-L fermentor, using 30 g/L non-detoxified total sugar as the carbon source, succinic acid production increased to 23.7 g/L with a succinic acid yield of 79.0 % and a productivity of 0.99 g/L/h, and 60 % yeast extract in the medium could be reduced. Compared with the detoxified sugar preparation method, succinic acid production and yield were improved by 20.9 and 20.2 %, respectively.     

Enhancing isomaltulose production by recombinant Escherichia coli producing sucrose isomerase: culture medium optimization containing agricultural wastes and cell immobilization

Isomaltulose is a structural isomer of sucrose commercially used in food industries. In this work, recombinant Escherichia coli producing sucrose isomerase (SIase) was used to convert sucrose into isomaltulose. To develop an economical industrial medium, untreated cane molasses (10.63 g l^?1), yeast extract (25.93 g l^?1), and corn steep liquor (10.45 g l^?1) were used as main culture compositions for SIase production. The relatively high SIase activity (14.50 ± 0.11 U mg DCW^?1) was obtained by the recombinant cells. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first investigation on SIase production by engineered E. coli using untreated cane molasses. The recombinant E. coli cells expressing the SIase gene were immobilized in calcium alginate gel in order to improve the efficiency of recycling. The immobilization was most effective with 2 % (w/v) sodium alginate and 3 % (w/v) calcium chloride. The optimal initial biomass for immobilization was 20 % (w/v, wet wt.), with a hardening time of 8 h for cell immobilization. The immobilized E. coli cells exhibited good stability for 30 batches with the productivity of 0.45 g isomaltulose g pellet^?1 h^?1. A continuous isomaltulose formation process using a column reactor remained stable for 40 days with 83 ± 2 % isomaltulose yield, which would be beneficial for economical production of isomaltulose.     

Characterization and Fine Mapping of GLABROUS RICE 2 in Rice

Glabrous rice exhibits glabrous leaves and hulls because neither of these structures have trichomes on their surfaces. Glabrous rice varieties have become an important germplasm resource in the rice industry because they have considerable packaging efficiency and can reduce skin itching and dust during harvesting, drying, and packing （Shim et al., 2012; Zhang et al., 2012）.     

Effects of crop species richness on pest-natural enemy systems based on an experimental model system using a microlandscape

The relationship between crop richness and predator-prey interactions as they relate to pest-natural enemy systems is a very important topic in ecology and greatly affects biological control services. The effects of crop arrangement on predator-prey interactions have received much attention as the basis for pest population management. To explore the internal mechanisms and factors driving the relationship between crop richness and pest population management, we designed an experimental model system of a microlandscape that included 50 plots and five treatments. Each treatment had 10 repetitions in each year from 2007 to 2010. The results showed that the biomass of pests and their natural enemies increased with increasing crop biomass and decreased with decreasing crop biomass; however, the effects of plant biomass on the pest and natural enemy biomass were not significant. The relationship between adjacent trophic levels was significant (such as pests and their natural enemies or crops and pests), whereas non-adjacent trophic levels (crops and natural enemies) did not significantly interact with each other. The ratio of natural enemy/pest biomass was the highest in the areas of four crop species that had the best biological control service. Having either low or high crop species richness did not enhance the pest population management service and lead to loss of biological control. Although the resource concentration hypothesis was not well supported by our results, high crop species richness could suppress the pest population, indicating that crop species richness could enhance biological control services. These results could be applied in habitat management aimed at biological control, provide the theoretical basis for agricultural landscape design, and also suggest new methods for integrated pest management.     

Expression of pim-1 in Tumors,Tumor Stroma and Tumor-Adjacent Mucosa Co-Determines the Prognosis of Colon Cancer Patients

Provirus integration site for Moloney murine leukemia virus (pim-1) is a proto-oncogene that is linked to the development and progression of several cancers. In this study, we evaluated pim-1 expression in tumors, tumor stroma and tumor-adjacent mucosa together as an independent prognostic factor for colon cancer patients. The study included 343 colon cancer patients. Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect pim-1. Multivariate cox regression for disease-free survival (DFS) were used to identify independent prognostic factors. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to calculate the weight of pim-1 in tumors, tumor stroma and tumor-adjacent mucosa in order to obtain a Pim-1 total score (PTS) for recurrence and survival. Kaplan–Meier DFS curves and OS curves for patients with different pim-1 expression levels were compared using the log-rank test. In this study, four independent prognostic factors were identified for colon cancer patients: pim-1 expression in tumors, tumor stroma, tumor-adjacent mucosa, as well as tumor stage. It has been established that clinical stage is an important prognostic factor for colon cancer patients. However, PTS can identify the patients who are likely to recur not only in the whole radical excision group but also within each stage of this group. Based on the results of this study we can conclude that the PTS combined with clinical staging system may be a better predictor of colon cancer patients’ prognosis than using the clinical stage system alone. Clinical Trials Gov. Number: ChiCTR-PRCH-12002842