ABSTRACT
With the increasing incidence of hepatobiliary diseases, it is particularly important to understand the role of molecular, cellular and physiological factors in the clinical diagnosis and treatment with traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) in the development of liver disease. Appropriate animal models can help us identify the possible mechanisms of relevant diseases. Danio rerio(zebrafish) model was traditionally used to study embryonic development, and has been gradually used in screening and evaluation of liver diseases and relevant drug in recent years. Zebrafish embryos develop rapidly and the digestive organs of 5-day-old juvenile fish are all mature. At this stage, they may develop hepatobiliary diseases induced by developmental defects or compounds. Zebrafish liver is similar to human liver in cell composition, function, signal transduction, response to injury and cell process mediating liver disease. Furthermore, due to the high conservation of genes and proteins between humans and zebrafish, zebrafish becomes an alternative system for studying basic mechanisms of liver disease. Therefore, genetic screening could be performed to identify new genes involving specific disease processes, and chemical screening could be made for drugs in specific processes. This paper briefly introduced the experimental properties of zebrafish as model system, emphasized the study progress of zebrafish models for pathological mechanism of liver diseases, especially fatty liver, and drug screening and evaluation, so as to provide ideas and techniques for the future liver toxicity assessment of TCM.
Subject(s)
Animals , Humans , Drug Evaluation, Preclinical , Liver , Liver Diseases/genetics , Medicine, Chinese Traditional , Zebrafish/geneticsABSTRACT
Quality evaluation plays a vital role in ensuring safety and effectiveness of Chinese materia medica (CMM). Microscopic and morphological technologies can be used to distinguish CMM's characteristics, such as shape, size, texture, section, and smell, for authenticity and quality control of CMM. The microscopic and morphological applications of novel micro-technology, colorimeter, and texture analyzer for CMM identification are summarized and the future prospect is discussed in this paper. Various styles and complex sources of CMM are systemically reviewed, including cormophyte medicinal materials, fruit and seeds, pollen grain, and spore materials.
Subject(s)
Drugs, Chinese Herbal , Chemistry , Materia Medica , Chemistry , Microscopy , Methods , Plants, Medicinal , Chemistry , Quality ControlABSTRACT
ERα36 is a novel subtype of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) known to play an important role in breast cancer development and widely expressed in normal tissues and cells including nerve cells. However, the expression and function of ERα36 in nerve cells have not been well elucidated. To examine whether ERα36 is involved in differentiation of nerve cells, the differentiated and undifferentiated PC12 (PC12D and PC12unD) cells were used. Transfection of ERα36-shRNA plasmid into PC12 cells was performed to establish the ERα36 gene knock-down cells model. Immunocytofluorescence and Western blot were used to analyze the expression of Nestin, β-tubulinIII and Neu-N in the PC12 cells. The results showed that ERα36 was expressed in both cell types. Compared with PC12D cells, PC12unD cells showed higher expression of Nestin and lower expression of β-tubulinIII. ERα36-shRNA-mediated knock-down of ERα36 expression enhanced the expression of β-tubulinIII and Neu-N, but attenuated Nestin expressions in PC12unD cells; ERα36 knock-down in PC12D cells mediated Nestin, β-tubulinIII and Neu-N in a contrary manner. These results indicate that ERα36 knock-down appear to be associated with inhibiting differentiation in differentiated cells and promoting differentiation in undifferentiated cells, suggesting that ERα36 is a dual regulator in nerve differentiation.
Subject(s)
Animals , Rats , Antigens, Nuclear , Metabolism , Cell Differentiation , Estrogen Receptor alpha , Genetics , Metabolism , Gene Knockdown Techniques , Nerve Tissue Proteins , Metabolism , Nestin , Metabolism , Neurons , Cell Biology , Metabolism , PC12 Cells , Transfection , Tubulin , MetabolismABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effects of indomethacin on HL-60 cell proliferation and apoptosis, and elucidate partly the molecular mechanism about the anti-leukemia effect of indomethacin by studying beta-catenin signal transduction pathway.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>HL-60 cells were treated with indomethacin at different concentrations (0, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400 micro mol/L). Cells viability and proliferation were determined by Trypan blue staining and cell counting respectively. DNA ladder pattern and cell morphology were used to identify cell apoptosis. The expression and cleavage of caspase-3, beta-catenin, c-myc were detected by Western blot techniques.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Indomethacin could significantly inhibit HL-60 cells proliferation and induce cells apoptosis with a time and dose dependent manner. An up-regulating expression and cleavage of caspase-3 were observed. Indomethacin could inhibit beta-catenin expression and induce its degradation, c-myc protein exhibited a down-regulation with a concentration dependent manner.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Indomethacin could inhibit HL-60 cell proliferation and induce cells apoptosis. Anti-leukemia effect of indomethacin was associated with the inhibition of "beta-catenin --> c-myc" signal pathway.</p>