Neuroprotection of Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicle-Enclosed miR-410 Correlates with HDAC4 Knockdown in Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Damage

Neurochemical Research - Evidence exists reporting that miR-410 may rescue neurological deficits, neuronal injury, and neuronal apoptosis after experimental hypoxic ischemia. This study aimed to...     

Association study between of Tie2/Angiopoietin-2 and VEGF/KDR pathway gene polymorphisms and vascular malformations

Vascular malformations (VMs) are common congenital and neonatal dysmorphogenesis. VMs mostly occur sporadically with a few exceptions of inheritability. Tie2/angiopoietins-2 (Ang-2) and VEGF/KDR pathways are known to be involved in normal and pathogenic angiogenesis. Our study was aimed to test the contribution of these pathway gene variants to VMs. A total of 8 variants were found among 103 VM patients and 142 healthy controls. These variants comprised rs638203, rs639225, rs80338908 and rs80338909 in Tie2 gene, rs1870377 and rs2305949 in KDR gene, rs79337921 and rs34590960 in ANTXR1 gene. Our results indicated that rs638203 (p = 0.029) and rs639225 (p = 0.018) in Tie2 gene were associated with VM. A further bioinformatics analysis suggested the rs638203-G and rs639225-G might cause an abnormal splicing of Tie2 gene into to a defective protein. Our results identified two novel Tie2 gene polymorphisms with genetic susceptibility to VMs, although future functional validation of the two polymorphisms is warranted in the future.     

Synthesis of novel D-ring fused 7'-aryl-androstano[17,16-d][1,2,4] triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines

The preparation of novel steroidal heterocycles containing the 7-aryl-substituted 1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine moiety fused to the 16,17-positions of the steroid nucleus is described. The Aldol reaction of 4-aza-androst-3,17-dione (1a) and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA, 1b) with aromatic aldehydes was catalyzed by KF/Al(2)O(3) to give the corresponding 3-oxo-4-aza-5α- and 3β-hydroxy-5-en-16-arylidene-17-ketosteroids (2a-r). Subsequently, the intermediates 2a-r reacted with dinucleophilic 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole in presence of t-BuOK to afford the title compounds (3a-r). All the synthesized heterosteroids are new and are currently being evaluated for their biological activities.     

Clue to a New Deafness Gene: A Large Chinese Nonsyndromic Hearing Loss Family Linked to DFNA4

Hereditary hearing loss is one of the most common neurosensory defects in humans.Approximately 70％ of cases are nonsyndromic and could be inherited in autosomal dominant,autosomal recessive,mitochondrial,X-linked,and Y-linked manners (Wang et al.,2004;Alford,2011).The autosomal dominant type,comprising 15％-20％ of nonsyndromic hearing loss,is monogenic and genetically heterogeneous.Since the first dominant deafness locus (DFNA1) was identified in 1992,a total of 64 DFNA loci have been mapped (DFNA1-DFNA64),and 27 corresponding genes have been identified (http://hereditaryhearingloss.org).Previous studies have revealed that one deafness locus can be linked to more than one gene (Bayazit and Yilmaz,2006),and the question "one locus,how many genes?" was first raised about a decade ago (Van-Hauwe et al.,1999).So far,several loci,including DFNA2 and DFNA3,have been shown to be related to one or more genes,showing high genetic heterogeneity in hereditary hearing loss (Grifa et al.,1999;Goldstein and Lalwani,2002;Yan et al.,2011).     

Natural Killer Cells Are Characterized by the Concomitantly Increased Interferon-γ and Cytotoxicity in Acute Resolved Hepatitis B Patients

Natural killer (NK) cells are abundant in the liver and have been implicated in inducing hepatocellular damage in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. However, the role of NK cells in acute HBV infection remains to be elucidated. We comprehensively characterized NK cells and investigated their roles in HBV clearance and liver pathology in 19 chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and 21 acute hepatitis B (AHB) patients as well as 16 healthy subjects. It was found that NKp46⁺ NK cells were enriched in the livers of AHB and CHB patients. We further found that peripheral NK cells from AHB patients expressed higher levels of activation receptors and lower levels of inhibitory receptors than those from CHB patients and HC subjects, thus displaying the increased cytolytic activity and interferon-γ production. NK cell activation levels were also correlated positively with serum alanine aminotransferase levels and negatively with plasma HBV DNA levels in AHB patients, which is further confirmed by the longitudinal follow-up of AHB patients. Serum pro-inflammatory cytokine and chemokine levels were also increased in AHB patients as compared with CHB and HC subjects. Thus, the concomitantly increased interferon-γ and cytotoxicity of NK cells were associated with liver injury and viral clearance in AHB patients.     

磷高效基因型小麦对缺磷胁迫的根际适应性反应

采用奶箱分隔栽培试验法,进行了磷高效与磷低效小麦基因型根际土壤ＰＨ与有效磷变化的研究,结果表明：小麦根际土壤ＰＨ和有效磷含量皆明显低于外围土壤,表现出明显的根际效应特征;磷高效基因型小麦的根际ＰＨ和有效磷含量明显低于磷低效基因型,ＰＨ变异范围和磷素亏缺区也表现明显较大。为了进一步验证磷高效小麦基因型这的这一根际特征,同时进行了施用水溶性,枸溶性磷肥的试验研究,结果表明,以水溶性磷肥对根际ＰＨ和有效