Effects of mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 on autophagy-associated proteins in neonatal rat myocardial fibroblasts cultured in high glucose / 南方医科大学学报

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate whether autophagy mediates the effects of aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) on the proliferation of neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts cultured in high glucose.@*METHODS@#Cardiac fibroblasts were isolated from neonatal (within 3 days) SD rats and subcultured. The fibroblasts of the third passage, after identification with immunofluorescence staining for vimentin, were treated with 5.5 mmol/L glucose (control group), 30 mmol/L glucose (high glucose group), or 30 mmol/L glucose in the presence of Alda-1 (an ALDH2 agonist), daidzin (an ALDH2 2 inhibitor), or both. Western blotting was employed to detect ALDH2, microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3B subunit (LC3B) and Beclin-1 in the cells, and a hydroxyproline detection kit was used for determining hydroxyproline content in cell culture medium; CCK- 8 kit was used for assessing the proliferation ability of the cardiac fibroblasts after the treatments.@*RESULTS@#Compared with the control cells, the cells exposed to high glucose exhibited obviously decreased expressions of ALDH2, Beclin-1 and LC3B and increased cell number and hydroxyproline content in the culture medium. Treatment of the high glucose-exposed cells with Alda-1 significantly increased Beclin-1, LC3B, and ALDH2 protein expressions and lowered the cell number and intracellular hydroxyproline content, whereas the application of daidzin resulted in reverse changes in the expressions of ALDH2, Beclin-1 and LC3B, viable cell number and intracellular hydroxyproline content in high glucose-exposed cells.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Mitochondrial ALDH2 inhibits the proliferation of neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts induced by high glucose, and the effect is possibly mediated by the up-regulation of autophagy-related proteins Beclin-1 and LC3B.

A LONGITUDINAL STUDY ON THE PHYSICAL GROWTH OF INFANTS DURING THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF LIFE AND THEIR BREASTMILK, ENERGY AND PROTEIN INTAKES / 营养学报

A longitudinal study was carried out on fifty infants selected from both urban and rural areas of Beijing for their body weights, heights, head and mid-upper arm circumferences, tricep and abdomen skinfold thicknesses, and breatmilk and energy and protein intakes at the 1st, 3rd and 6th month of life. The results revealed that the breastmilk intakes of these infants were ranged from 600-800 g/day during this period of time, the breastmilk intakes of the rural infants were higher significantly than that of the urban infant throughout the study period (P