国产萱草属夜间开花类群的分类研究

在《中国植物志》第14卷中,萱草属Hemerocallis夜间开花类群被处理为3个独立的物种,北黄花菜、黄花菜和小黄花菜。但是,它们之间因严重的性状重叠和交叉,用单个性状如花数、花被管长度、根的直径等区分它们极为困难。本文根据国产干标本和栽培材料,对9个常用检索性状以及核型做了定量分析。另外,这3个类群的地理分布式样表明,它们似乎是不同的地理宗,因为三者替代性分布在由暖湿到旱冷的气候梯度中。本文结论是,将三者处理为同一物种北黄花菜的3个亚种也许更令人信服,即原亚种北黄花菜,亚种黄花菜和亚种小黄花菜。     

Probenecid Protects Against Transient Focal Cerebral Ischemic Injury by Inhibiting HMGB1 Release and Attenuating AQP4 Expression in Mice

Stroke results in inflammation, brain edema, and neuronal death. However, effective neuroprotectants are not available. Recent studies have shown that high mobility group box-1 (HMGB1), a proinflammatory cytokine, contributes to ischemic brain injury. Aquaporin 4 (AQP4), a water channel protein, is considered to play a pivotal role in ischemia-induced brain edema. More recently, studies have shown that pannexin 1 channels are involved in cerebral ischemic injury and the cellular inflammatory response. Here, we examined whether the pannexin 1 channel inhibitor probenecid could reduce focal ischemic brain injury by inhibiting cerebral inflammation and edema. Transient focal ischemia was induced in C57BL/6J mice by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 1 h. Infarct volume, neurological score and cerebral water content were evaluated 48 h after MCAO. Immunostaining, western blot analysis and ELISA were used to assess the effects of probenecid on the cellular inflammatory response, HMGB1 release and AQP4 expression. Administration of probenecid reduced infarct size, decreased cerebral water content, inhibited neuronal death, and reduced inflammation in the brain 48 h after stroke. In addition, HMGB1 release from neurons was significantly diminished and serum HMGB1 levels were substantially reduced following probenecid treatment. Moreover, AQP4 protein expression was downregulated in the cortical penumbra following post-stroke treatment with probenecid. These results suggest that probenecid, a powerful pannexin 1 channel inhibitor, protects against ischemic brain injury by inhibiting cerebral inflammation and edema.     

Novel 2D supramolecular array based on antibacterial drug norfloxacin

Self-assembly reaction of Cd(ClO₄)₂ · 6H₂O with Norfloxacin (H-Norf) affords a novel 2D rectangular grid framework [Cd(Norf)(ClO₄)(H₂O)] (1) with strong blue luminescent emission (λ_em=425 nm), while Norf⁻ acts as a tetradentate bridging linker to connect three Cd centers and ClO₄ ⁻ completes Cd center octahedron coordination geometry. The compound 1 has crystallographic data of triclinic, space group , a=9.4577(1) Å, b=9.5012(2) Å, c=12.2805(1) Å, V=3624.4(3) ų, Z=2.     

小鼠胚泡黏附时子宫内膜nm23-M1/NDPK A的表达

nm23家族除与肿瘤转移抑制有关,它还参与调节正常细胞的发育、增殖、分化及凋亡等过程。运用RT-PCR、Western blot 和免疫组织化学技术,分析小鼠胚泡黏附时子宫内膜着床点和着床旁组织nm23-M1/NDPK A 的表达,以未交配鼠作对照,为进一步阐明胚泡着床的机制提供有意义的实验依据。RT-PCR 结果显示,小鼠胚泡黏附时子宫内膜nm23-M1/NDPK A mRNA 表达明显高于对照组,并且着床点明显高于着床旁,Western blot 和免疫组织化学分析nm23-M1/NDPK A 蛋白表达,也得到一致的结果。提示nm23-M1/NDPK A 参与胚泡着床这一重要生命活动过程。     

白花败酱染色体的核型分析

用去壁低渗染色体制片方法,对白花败酱(Patrinia villosa Juss)茎尖细胞染色体制片,研究其染色体组型.结果表明:白花败酱为二倍体、体细胞染色体数目为22;染色体组型公式为2n=2x=22=10m 4sm 4st 4t,第2、3、4、5、8号染色体为中间着丝点染色体,第6、11号染色体为近中着丝点染色体,第1、10号染色体为近端着丝点染色体,第7、9号染色体为端部着丝点染色体;染色体基数x=11,该染色体组内最长与最短染色体长度比值为3.037,臂比大于2:1的染色体共4条,占总数的36.4%,则白花败酱的核型类型为2B型.     

Down-regulated expression of the protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) is associated with aggressive clinicopathologic features and poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma

The protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) is a classical non-transmembrane protein tyrosine phosphatase that plays a key role in metabolic signaling and can exert both tumor suppressing and tumor promoting effects in different cancers depending on the substrate involved and the cellular context. However, the expression level and function of PTP1B in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unclear. In this study, PTP1B expression was detected by immunohistochemistry in normal liver tissue (n=16) and hepatocellular carcinoma (n=169). The correlations between PTP1B expression level and clinicopathologic features and patient survival were also analyzed. One hundred and eleven of 169 HCC patients (65.7%) had negative or low PTP1B expression in tumorous tissues, whereas normal tissues always expressed strong PTP1B. Decreased PTP1B expression was significantly associated with aggressive clinicopathologic features and poor prognosis. Immunohistochemistry also showed that low PTP1B expression level was correlated with high percentage of OV6(+) tumor-initiating cells (T-ICs) and high frequency of nuclear β-Catenin expression in HCC specimens. Our findings demonstrate for the first time that the loss of inhibitory effect of PTP1B may contribute to progression and invasion of HCC through activation of Wnt/β-Catenin signaling and expansion of liver T-ICs. PTP1B may serve as a valuable prognostic biomarker and potential therapeutic target in HCC.     

Preparation and identification of anti-rabies virus monoclonal antibodies

To provide a foundation for the development of rapid and specific methods for the diagnosis of rabies virus infection,anti-rabies virus monoclonal antibodies were prepared and rabies virus nucleoprotei...     

Using pseudo-amino acid composition and support vector machine to predict protein structural class

As a result of genome and other sequencing projects, the gap between the number of known protein sequences and the number of known protein structural classes is widening rapidly. In order to narrow this gap, it is vitally important to develop a computational prediction method for fast and accurately determining the protein structural class. In this paper, a novel predictor is developed for predicting protein structural class. It is featured by employing a support vector machine learning system and using a different pseudo-amino acid composition (PseAA), which was introduced to, to some extent, take into account the sequence-order effects to represent protein samples. As a demonstration, the jackknife cross-validation test was performed on a working dataset that contains 204 non-homologous proteins. The predicted results are very encouraging, indicating that the current predictor featured with the PseAA may play an important complementary role to the elegant covariant discriminant predictor and other existing algorithms.     

The role of cytokines in the regulation of Leydig cell P450c17 gene expression

Cytokines produced by immune-activated testicular interstitial macrophages (TIMs) may play a fundamental role in the local control mechanisms of testosterone biosynthesis in Leydig cells. We investigated whether in vivo immune-activation of TIMs can modulate Leydig cell steroidogenesis. To immune activate TIMs in vivo, mice were injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) with lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 6 mg/kg). TIMs and Leydig cells were purified for RNA analysis. LPS treatment resulted in a 47-fold increase in interleukin-1β (IL-1β) mRNA in TIMs. P450c17 mRNA levels in the Leydig cells from the same animals, decreased to less than 10% compared to control. The effect of LPS on IL-1β and P450c17 mRNA levels was reversible on both TIMs and Leydig cells, respectively. To determine if the effect of LPS on P450c17 was mediated by a possible decrease in pituitary LH secretion, mice were co-injected with LPS and hCG. Treatment with hCG did not change the effect observed with LPS alone, in TIMs or in Leydig cells. In vitro, LPS treatment of TIMs resulted in marked induction of IL-1β mRNA expression. In parallel, in vitro treatment of Leydig cells with recombinant IL-1 resulted in a dose-dependent inhibition of P450c17 mRNA expression and testosterone production. These data demonstrate that LPS treatment, in vivo and in vitro, induced IL-1 gene expression in TIMs, and that IL-1 inhibits P450c17 mRNA in vitro. Therefore, we suggest that immune-activation of TIMs might have caused the observed inhibition of P450c17 gene expression in Leydig cells in vivo.