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Objective @#To investigate the effect of aluminum exposure on expression of miR-497-5p, wingless murine breast cancer virus integration site family member 3a (Wnt3a), β-catenin protein, glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) protein and tau protein in rat adrenal pheochromocytoma PC12 cells, so as to provide insight into unraveling the mechanisms underlying aluminum exposure-induced abnormal phosphorylation of tau protein.@* Methods@# PC12 cells were exposed to Al(mal)3 at concentrations of 0, 100, 200, 400 μmol/L for 24 h. The viability of PC12 cells was measured using cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. The relative expression of miR-497-5p and Wnt3a was detected using a real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) assay, and the expression of Wnt3a, β-catenin, GSK-3β, P-GSK-3β (Ser9), tau and p-tau (Ser396) proteins were determined using Western blotting. @*Results @#The viability of PC12 cells appeared a tendency towards a decline with the increase of aluminum dose (Ftrend=323.473, P=0.001). RT-qPCR assay detected that the relative miR-497-5p expression appeared a tendency towards a rise with the increase of aluminum dose (Ftrend=14.888, P=0.031), and the relative Wnt3a expression appeared a tendency towards a decline with the increase of aluminum dose (Ftrend=165.934, P<0.001). The miR-497-5p expression negatively correlated with the relative Wnt3a expression (r=-0.693, P=0.012). The expression of Wnt3a (Ftrend=357.656, P=0.001), β-catenin (Ftrend=208.750, P=0.001) and p-GSK-3β (Ser9) proteins (Ftrend=512.583, P<0.001) appeared a tendency towards a decline with the increase of aluminum dose, and the expression of GSK-3β (Ftrend=39.965, P<0.001), tau (Ftrend=277.929, P=0.006) and p-tau (Ser396) proteins (Ftrend=96.247, P=0.002) appeared a tendency towards a rise with the increase of aluminum dose. @*Conclusion@# Up-regulation of miR-497-5p and GSK-3β expression and down-regulation of Wnt3a and β-catenin expression may be a mechanism underlying aluminum exposure-induced abnormal phosphorylation of tau protein.
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AIM: To investigate the effect and mechanism of ginsenoside Rg1 on L-NAME-induced preeclampsia in rats. METHODS: All rats were divided into four groups: control group, model group, ginsenoside Rg1 low dose group (25 mg/kg) and high dose group (50 mg/kg). The rat model of preeclampsia was established by L-NAME induction. In the treatment group, the corresponding dose of ginsenoside Rg1 was given at the 5th day of pregnancy. On the 7th, 13th, 15th, 17th and 19th day, the systolic pressure, diastolic pressure and arterial pressure of the experimental rats in each group were examined, and 24-hour urine protein on the 20th day was measured. The experimental rats were killed on the 21st day and tissue samples were collected. The protein of GCM-1 was determined by immunohistochemistry, the activities of SOD and CAT, the levels of MDA, IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α in serum were determined by kit. Western blot was used to detect the expressions of Nrf2, HO-1, NF-κB, IκBα, Bcl-2, Bax, Caspase-3 and Cyt-c. RESULTS: The results showed that ginsenoside Rg1 could significantly improve the systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, arterial pressure and urinary protein (P<0.05), inhibit the expressions of GCM-1, Nrf2, HO-1, Bax, Caspase-3 and Cyt-c protein in placenta (P<0.05), increase the expressions of NF-κB, IκBα and Bcl-2 protein (P<0.05), and significantly promote the activities of SOD and CAT in serum and fetal tissue of model rats. The levels of MDA, IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α were inhibited (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Rg1 can significantly improve the blood pressure and urinary protein level of pre-eclampsia pregnant rats, promote the expression of GCM-1 protein in placenta, inhibit oxidative stress injury and inflammatory response, and reduce apoptosis of placenta.
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Objective@#To investigate the clinical significance of combined examinations for neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and fecal occult blood (OB) in the differential diagnosis of Crohn′s disease and irritable bowel syndrome. @*Methods@#A total of 129 patients with Crohn′s disease and 120 patients with irritable bowel syndrome from October 2014 to October 2017 in Changhai Hospital were enrolled in this study. The results of NLR, CRP, ESR and OB were recorded. Logistic regression was used to study the association of the four indicators. The combined impact of the four indicators was explored with multivariable regression. ROC curve was used to compare the diagnostic value of the combined examinations with the four indicators for Crohn′s disease. The diagnosis was performed by substituting the data of individual patient into regression model. @*Results@#The levels of NLR, CRP, ESR and OB in Crohn′s disease group were higher than those in irritable bowel syndrome group (Z=-7.067--4.148, P＜0.01). The area under the curve of combined diagnostic indicator was 0.881, which was higher than that of single NLR, CRP, ESR or OB (0.759, 0.695, 0.652, 0.643) respectively (Z=3.19-5.60, P＜0.01). When the cutoff value was 0.498, the sensitivity was 79.1%, the specificity was 83.3% and the diagnostic accuracy was 81.1%. A patient who was not included within the statistical range of this experimental study was randomly assigned to the model and 0.831 of P value was obtained, which was higher than the cutoff value of 0.498, indicating that the patient suffered from Crohn′s disease with accuracy of 81.1%. @*Conclusion@#The logistic regression model established with the combined diagnostic indicators, which was formulated by examinations of NLR, CRP, ESR and OB, exhibited higher diagnostic value than any single indicator in the differential diagnosis of Crohn′s disease and irritable bowel syndrome.
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Objective To find out and compare the risk factors of the severe birth defects and mild birth defects,and make it more effective to prevent the severe birth defects.Methods Fetus diagnosed with severe birth defects in Shunde district,Foshan during 2016 were selected as case group 1,those who diagnosed with moderate/mild birth defects were selected as case group 2,and those healthy infants whose mother's last menstrual period was at the same time with the case groups were selected as control group.Their mothers' relative information was collected.A case-control study was conducted to analyze the risk factors of the two case groups respectively.We applied Chi-square analysis and multivariate Logistic regressions to find out the independent risk factors.Results Chi-square analysis showed that maternal age above 35 years(χ2=19.69,P<0.01) and gravidity 3 times or more(χ2=10.06,P<0.01) were the risk factors of severe birth defects,and twins was the risk factor of mild birth defects(χ2=4.05,P<0.05).The multivariate Logistic regressions showed that maternal age above 35 years was the independent risk factor of severe birth defects(OR=2.75,P<0.001),and twins was the independent risk factor of mild birth defects(OR=2.22,P=0.05).Conclusion The women with age above 35 years have higher risk to pregnant a baby with severe birth defects and they are worthy of more attention during pre-pregnancy and antenatal examinations.
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Aim To investigate the effects of saponin of sea cucumber ( SSC ) on the blood pressure in obese mice. Methods C57BL/KsJ(db/db) mice were ran-domized into 3 groups ( 8 mice each ): model group, low-dose SSC group and high-dose SSC group. Normal C57BL/KsJ mice were used as control. The low and high SSC groups were fed on basal diets incorporated with 0. 02% and 0. 04% SSC. Different treatments were administered for 6 weeks and arterial pressure was measured in the third and sixth weeks. The abundance of renal ACE, ACE2 and REN mRNA was detected by real time PCR . Results Compared with control group, the blood pressure of model group mice was ob-viously raised ( P<0. 01 ) . Low-dose SSC group mice showed lower blood pressure than model group without statistically significant differences, and the blood pres-sure of high-dose SSC group mice was similar to that of control group and significantly lower than model group. ( P<0. 05 ) There were no remarkable differences a-bout ACE and REN mRNA among the groups, howev-er, ACE2 mRNA level was significantly increased in high-dose SSC group. Conclusion SSC plays a vital role in decreasing blood pressure, which probably re-lates to the regulating function of renin-angiotensin sys-tem( RAS) .
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Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), a class of short proteins with a broad spectrum of antibacterial activities, are isolated from a wide variety of animals, both vertebrates and invertebrates, and plants as well as from bacteria and fungi. They are a key component of the innate immune response in most multicellular organisms. Owing to their potent, broad-spectrum antibacterial activities and uneasy developing of drug resistance, these peptides are of great clinical significance. However, preparation of AMPs at a large scale is a severe challenge to the development of the commercial products. Undoubtedly, construction of high-level biological expression systems for the production of AMPs is the key in its clinical application process. Herein, we summarize the progress in researches on heterogenous expression of AMPs in prokaryotic expression systems and eukaryotic expression systems.