miR-10a Regulates Proliferation of Human Cardiomyocyte Progenitor Cells by Targeting GATA6

microRNAs (miRNAs) play essential roles in cardiogenesis. The altered expression of miRNAs can result in cardiac malformations by inducing abnormalities in the behavior of cardiac cells. However, the role of miR-10a in the regulation of cardiomyocyte progenitor cells (CMPCs) remains undetermined. In the present study, we found that up- or down-regulation of miR-10a inhibited or promoted the proliferation of human CMPCs, respectively, without affecting their differentiation toward cardiomyocytes. miR-10a bound to GATA6 directly and reduced GATA6 expression. Over-expression of GATA6 greatly attenuated the miR-10a-mediated inhibitory effect on the proliferation of human CMPCs. Thus, our results indicate that miR-10a could effectively modulate the proliferation of human CMPCs by targeting GATA6. The finding provides novel insights into the potency of miR-10a during heart development.     

银杏牛蒡混合发酵食品对小鼠衰老指标的影响

目的：研究一种以银杏叶、牛蒡提取物为主成分的发酵食品(GBF)对小鼠衰老指标的影响。方法：以D-半乳糖造衰老模型,以每只每天0．5ml剂量的GBF对小鼠灌胃,以不喂GBF的衰老模型小鼠为对照,以正常饲养的小鼠为空白对照(CK),42d后研究其对衰老相关指标组织单胺氧化酶、丙二醛含量、羟脯氨酸含量和腹腔巨噬细胞吞噬活性的影响。结果：喂食GBF的小鼠肝,脑组织中单胺氧化酶的活性比对照降低了36．7%和25．1%,丙二醛含量比对照降低了19%和44．6%。差异达到统计学显著水平(p＜0．05);而皮肤组织中羟脯氨酸含量和巨噬细胞吞噬活性分别高于对照28．6%和63．2%,显著高于对照(p＜0．05)。结论：GBF具有显著抗衰老活性。     

Top-down modulations from dorsal stream in lexical recognition: an effective connectivity FMRI study

Both the ventral and dorsal visual streams in the human brain are known to be involved in reading. However, the interaction of these two pathways and their responses to different cognitive demands remains unclear. In this study, activation of neural pathways during Chinese character reading was acquired by using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique. Visual-spatial analysis (mediated by the dorsal pathway) was disassociated from lexical recognition (mediated by the ventral pathway) via a spatial-based lexical decision task and effective connectivity analysis. Connectivity results revealed that, during spatial processing, the left superior parietal lobule (SPL) positively modulated the left fusiform gyrus (FG), while during lexical processing, the left SPL received positive modulatory input from the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and sent negative modulatory output to the left FG. These findings suggest that the dorsal stream is highly involved in lexical recognition and acts as a top-down modulator for lexical processing.     

黄芪甲苷促进心肌干细胞分化的作用研究

目的 探讨黄芪甲苷对心肌干细胞分化的促进作用。方法 采用磁珠分选法,分离小鼠Sca-1＋心肌干细胞,通过免疫组化方法观察黄芪甲甙处理后心肌细胞表面标志蛋白desmin、α-sarcomeric？actin和C-TnT表达的变化,以判断是否对心肌干细胞分化有促进作用。结果 250 mg/L的黄芪甲甙诱导4周后免疫组化染色显示心肌干细胞明显表达desmin、α-sarcomeric actin和C-TnT。而未诱导的细胞desmin、α-sarcomeric actin、C-TnT 均为阴性。因此黄芪甲甙可以促进小鼠Sca-1＋心肌干细胞分化为心肌样细胞,这些细胞表达心肌特异性的蛋白。结论 黄芪甲苷对心肌干细胞分化的促进作用表明其在心肌损伤性疾病的康复中有潜在的治疗价值,值得进一步研究。     

Cell death induced by Pteris semipinnata L. is associated with p53 and oxidant stress in gastric cancer cells

In this study, we demonstrated that Ent-11alpha-hydroxy-15-oxo-kaur-16-en-19-oic-acid (5F) had stronger cytotoxicity against MKN-45, a gastric cancer cell line bearing wild-type p53 than MKN-28, another gastric cancer cell line containing missense mutation in p53. The rapid increase of ROS level was involved in the mechanism of cytotoxicity. Classical features of apoptosis induced by 5F were observed in MKN-45 cells only or more significant in MKN-45 cells than MKN-28 cells. Translocation of Bax from cytosol to mitochondria, reduction of delta psi m and DNA fragmentation were induced by 5F in the p53-dependent manner. We conclude that the expression of Bax and its downstream molecules requires the presentation of a wild-type p53 in the cells treated by 5F.     

大孔树脂提取链霉菌4903菌株除草活性物质的研究

化感活性物质的提取方法是研究化感作用的重要步骤,对化感链霉菌4903的前期研究证明其具有抑菌及除草活性。本文选用了4种大孔吸附树脂(X-5, NKA-II, AB-8和HP-20)对化感链霉菌4903发酵液的除草活性物质进行提取。实验结果显示:树脂AB-8对链霉菌4903菌株发酵液除草活性成分具有较好的吸附性能和较易被解吸的特性,树脂AB-8对链霉菌4903菌株发酵液的静态吸附量约可达到树脂体积的7倍。用树脂2-3倍体积的80%乙醇溶液则可以把吸附的除草活性物质全部从树脂中解吸出来。AB-8适合用于链霉菌4903菌株发酵液除草活性物质的提取和纯化。     

Human adipose tissue is a source of multipotent stem cells

Much of the work conducted on adult stem cells has focused on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) found within the bone marrow stroma. Adipose tissue, like bone marrow, is derived from the embryonic mesenchyme and contains a stroma that is easily isolated. Preliminary studies have recently identified a putative stem cell population within the adipose stromal compartment. This cell population, termed processed lipoaspirate (PLA) cells, can be isolated from human lipoaspirates and, like MSCs, differentiate toward the osteogenic, adipogenic, myogenic, and chondrogenic lineages. To confirm whether adipose tissue contains stem cells, the PLA population and multiple clonal isolates were analyzed using several molecular and biochemical approaches. PLA cells expressed multiple CD marker antigens similar to those observed on MSCs. Mesodermal lineage induction of PLA cells and clones resulted in the expression of multiple lineage-specific genes and proteins. Furthermore, biochemical analysis also confirmed lineage-specific activity. In addition to mesodermal capacity, PLA cells and clones differentiated into putative neurogenic cells, exhibiting a neuronal-like morphology and expressing several proteins consistent with the neuronal phenotype. Finally, PLA cells exhibited unique characteristics distinct from those seen in MSCs, including differences in CD marker profile and gene expression.     

用RAPD技术鉴定小麦属间不对称体细胞杂种

用随机引物扩增多态DNA(RAPD)技术对三种不同组合:小麦(Triticum aestivum)( )簇毛麦(Haynaldia villosa);小麦( )羊草(Leymus chinensis)和小麦( )高冰草(Agropyron elongatum)的属间不对称杂种进行分子鉴定,不同杂种植株的基因组经随机引物扩增后,均出现双亲的多态特异产物,证实它们含有双亲的基因组。将引物OPJ-12扩增的高冰草多态特异产物(分子量为0.77bp的DNA片段)分离纯化并标记作探针,用Southern杂交证明了小麦( )高冰草杂种经OPJ-12扩增的0.77kbp特异片段与高冰草这一片段具有同源性。本文结果证明,RAPD技术可作为小麦属间不对称体细胞杂种的一种快速、简便、有效的分子鉴定方法。     

Gene conjugation of molecular adjuvant C3d3 to hCGbeta increased the anti-hCGbeta Th2 and humoral immune response in DNA immunization

Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) has been used as an anti-fertility vaccine and as a target for cancer immunotherapy. We have explored the use of three copies of C3d in DNA vaccine as molecular adjuvant to improve the immunogenicity of this hormone in previous work and found that the immune response induced by pcDNA3-hCGbeta-C3d3 has been enhanced 243-fold compared with pcDNA3-hCGbeta following DNA immunization in BALB/c mice. In the present study, a new functionally active DNA vaccine of hCGbeta-C3d3 chimera based on pCMV4 vector has been described. We compared the expression efficiency of pCMV4 and pcDNA3 eukaryotic vectors for hCGbeta and hCGbeta-C3d3 fusion protein and the immune response of mice immunized with pcDNA3-hCGbeta, pCMV4-hCGbeta, pcDNA3-hCGbeta-C3d3 and pCMV4-hCGbeta-C3d3, respectively, at 25, 50 and 100 pmol dose, and further analyzed the levels of Th1 and Th2 cytokines produced by spleen lymphocytes of the immunized mice upon hCG restimulation in vitro. It was found that pCMV4 vector achieved 1.3-1.5-fold higher protein expression and raised 1.1-1.2 (primary) and 1.2-1.3 (booster) logs higher titer of anti-hCGbeta IgG than pcDNA3. Mice vaccinated with 50 pmol of hCGbeta-C3d3-DNAs elicited the highest titer of hCGbeta-specific antibody among the serial doses and the immune response induced by pCMV4-hCGbeta-C3d3 were, respectively, 1.3, 1.3 and 1.2 logs higher than that of pcDNA3-hCGbeta-C3d3 and 2.2, 2.9 and 2.4 logs higher than that of pCMV4-hCGbeta at week 2 following the booster immunization. Moreover, we observed that the production of IL-4 and IL-10 increased in mice vaccinated with hCGbeta-C3d3-DNAs and the ratio of IL-4/IFN-(gamma) showed a Th2 bias of immune response in the mice immunized with hCGbeta-C3d3-DNAs. These findings indicated that gene fusion of C3d3 to hCGbeta, as a means of harnessing the adjuvant potential of the innate immune system, may improve the antigen-specific Th2 humoral immune response of the hCGbeta DNA vaccine and the pCMV4 vector is a more ideal eukaryotic vector for DNA vaccine than pcDNA3.