Induction of Murine Macrophage M2 Polarization by Cigarette Smoke Extract via the JAK2/STAT3 Pathway

Cigarette smoking is a major pathogenic factor in lung cancer. Macrophages play an important role in host defense and adaptive immunity. These cells display diverse phenotypes for performing different functions. M2 type macrophages usually exhibit immunosuppressive and tumor-promoting characteristics. Although macrophage polarization toward the M2 phenotype has been observed in the lungs of cigarette smokers, the molecular basis of the process remains unclear. In this study, we evaluated the possible mechanisms for the polarization of mouse macrophages that are induced by cigarette smoking (CS) or cigarette smoke extract (CSE). The results showed that exposure to CSE suppressed the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitric oxide (NO) and down-regulated the phagocytic ability of Ana-1 cells. The CD163 expressions on the surface of macrophages from different sources were significantly increased in in vivo and in vitro studies. The M1 macrophage cytokines TNF-α, IL-12p40 and enzyme iNOS decreased in the culture supernatant, and their mRNA levels decreased depending on the time and concentration of CSE. In contrast, the M2 phenotype macrophage cytokines IL-10, IL-6, TGF-β1 and TGF-β2 were up-regulated. Moreover, phosphorylation of JAK2 and STAT3 was observed after the Ana-1 cells were treated with CSE. In addition, pretreating the Ana-1 cells with the STAT3 phosphorylation inhibitor WP1066 inhibited the CSE-induced CD163 expression, increased the mRNA level of IL-10 and significantly decreased the mRNA level of IL-12. In conclusion, we demonstrated that the M2 polarization of macrophages induced by CS could be mediated through JAK2/STAT3 pathway activation.     

Potency of Phlebia species of white rot fungi for the aerobic degradation,transformation and mineralization of lindane

Journal of Microbiology - The widespread use of the organochlorine insecticide lindane in the world has caused serious environmental problems. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the...     

miR-129-5p improves cardiac function in rats with chronic heart failure through targeting HMGB1

Mammalian Genome - Increasing evidence shows that miRNAs play pivotal roles in cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure (HF). The aim of this study was to investigate the role of miR-129-5p...     

Polyhydroxylated fullerene C60(OH)44 suppresses intracellular lipid accumulation together with repression of intracellular superoxide anion radicals and subsequent PPARγ2 expression during spontaneous differentiation of OP9 preadipocytes into adipocytes

Reactive oxygen species has been suggested to be one of the key factors associated with the development of obesity. During spontaneous differentiation of mouse stromal preadipocytes OP9 into adipocytes, intracellular superoxide anion radicals (O (2) (-.) ) level markedly increases and is accompanied by a significant elevation of intracellular lipid accumulation. This differentiation-dependent increase in intracellular O (2) (-.) level positively correlated with the intracellular augmentation of the lipid level. Super-highly hydroxylated fullerene (SHH-F; C(60)(OH)(44)), a novel polyhydroxylated fullerene derivative, quenched intracellular O (2) (-.) , and lipid accumulation to 38.7 and 42.7 % of that in the control, respectively. By thin-layer chromatographic analysis of extracted cellular lipid components, SHH-F clearly decreased the triglycerides ratio in the whole lipid droplet fraction, but scarcely influenced other lipids components. PPARγ2 expression, which plays a key role in regulating adipogenic differentiation, was significantly suppressed by SHH-F at the late stage of differentiation, with unaltered PPARγ1 expression. The intracellular superoxide anion radical augmentation preceded expression of PPARγ2, strongly suggesting that the primary O (2) (-.) generation was closely associated with lipid accumulation and subsequent PPARγ2 induction. These results indicate that SHH-F suppresses intracellular lipid accumulation, particularly in lipid droplets, and decreases O (2) (-.) level and subsequent PPARγ2 upregulation during spontaneous differentiation of OP9 preadipocytes into adipocytes.     

Abundance, marker development and genetic mapping of microsatellites from unigenes in Brassica napus

Rapeseed (Brassica napus) is the second most important oil crop in the world after soybean. The repertoire of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers for rapeseed is limited and warrants a search for a larger number of polymorphic SSRs for germplasm characterization and breeding applications. In this study, a total of 5,310 SSR-containing unigenes were identified from a set of 46,038 B. napus unigenes with an average density of one SSR every 5.75?kb. A set of 1,000 expressed sequence tag (EST)-SSR markers with repeat length ??18?bp were developed and tested for their ability to detect polymorphism among a panel of six rapeseed varieties. Of these SSR markers, 776 markers detected clear amplification products, and 511 displayed polymorphisms among the six varieties. Of these polymorphic markers, 195 EST-SSR markers, corresponding to 233 loci, were integrated into an existing B. napus linkage map. These EST-SSRs were randomly distributed on the 19 linkage groups of B. napus. Of the mapped loci, 166 showed significant homology to Arabidopsis genes. Based on the homology, 44 conserved syntenic blocks were identified between B. napus and Arabidopsis genomes. Most of the syntenic blocks were consistent with the duplication and rearrangement events identified previously. In addition, we also identified three previously unreported blocks in B. napus. A subset of 40 SSRs was used to assess genetic diversity in a collection of 192 rapeseed accessions. The polymorphism information content of these markers ranged from 0.0357 to 0.6753 with an average value of 0.3373. These results indicated that the EST-SSR markers developed in this study are useful for genetic mapping, molecular marker-assisted selection and comparative genomics.     

Analysis of the neutral polysaccharide fraction of MCP and its inhibitory activity on galectin-3

The pH-modified citrus pectin (MCP) has been demonstrated to inhibit galectin-3 in cancer progression. The components and structures of MCP related to this inhibition remained unknown. In this paper, we fractionated MCP on DEAE-cellulose column into a homogenous neutral fraction MCP-N (about 20?kDa) and a pectin mixture fraction MCP-A (wide molecular distribution on Sepharose CL-6B chromatography). Both MCP-N and MCP-A inhibited hemagglutination mediated by galectin-3 with minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) 625 and 0.5?μg/ml, respectively. MCP-N was identified to be a type I arabinogalactan (AG-I) with a main chain of β-1→4-galactan. MCP-N was digested by α-L-arabinofuranosidase to give its main chain structure fraction (M-galactan, around 18?kDa), which was more active than the original molecule, MIC 50?μg/ml. The acidic degradation of M-galactan increased the inhibitory activity, MIC about 5 times lower than M-galactan. These results above showed that the functional motif of the β-1→4-galactan fragment might lie in the terminal residues rather than in the internal region of the chain. Therefore, MCP-N and its degraded products might be developed to new potential galectin-3 inhibitors. This is the first report concerning the fractionation of MCP and its components on galectin-3 inhibition. The information provided in this paper is valuable for screening more active galectin-3 inhibitors from natural polysaccharides.