The importance of early life touch for psychosocial and moral development

One of the primary means of communicating with a baby is through touch. Nurturing physical touch promotes healthy physiological development in social mammals, including humans. Physiology influences wellbeing and psychosocial functioning. The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections among early life positive and negative touch and wellbeing and sociomoral development. In study 1, mothers of preschoolers (n = 156) reported their attitudes toward positive/negative touch and on their children's wellbeing and sociomoral outcomes, illustrating moderate to strong positive correlations between positive touch attitudes and children's sociomoral capacities and orientations and negative correlations with psychopathology. In study 2, we used an existing longitudinal dataset, with at-risk mothers (n = 682) and their children to test touch effects on moral capacities and social behaviors in early life. Results demonstrated moderate to strong relationships between positive/negative touch and concurrent child behavioral regulation and positive correlations between low corporal punishment and child sociomoral outcomes. In a third study with adults (n = 607), we found significant mediation processes connecting retrospective reports of childhood touch to adult moral orientation through attachment security, mental health, and moral capacities. In general across studies, more affectionate touch and less punishing touch were positively associated with wellbeing and development of moral capacities and engaged moral orientation. (AU)

Calpain-2 and calcineurin protein expression in right atrial appendages from patients underwent valve replacement with or without atrial fibrillation / 中华心血管病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the relationship between the protein expression of calpain-2 and calcineurin (CaN) and atrial fibrillation (AF) in patient with valvular heart disease (VHD).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 40 patients who underwent valve replacement surgery in our hospital from March 2013 to March 2014, right atrial appendages were excised during operation and patients were divided into sinus rhythm (SR) group (n = 17) and AF group (n = 23). The protein expression of calpain-2 and the α-isoform of CaN catalytic subunit (CnA) in the right atrial appendages were determined by Western blot.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The protein levels of the full-length CnAa (60,000), the 45,000 fragment of CnAa without autoinhibitory domain, and calpain-2 were significantly upregulated in the AF group compared to the SR group (1.25 ± 0.51 vs. 0.76 ± 0.37, 1.08 ± 0.37 vs. 0.76 ± 0.25, and 0.82 ± 0.44 vs. 0.51 ± 0.19, respectively, all P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Activated calpain-2-CaN signal pathway might be involved in the pathogenesis of AF.</p>

Integrins mediate the migration of HepG2 cells induced by low shear stress / 生物医学工程学杂志

Low shear stress is a component of the tumor microenvironment in vivo and plays a key role in regulating cancer cell migration and invasion. The integrin, as a mechano-sensors mediating and integrating mechanical and chemical signals, induce the adhesion between cells and extracellular matrix (ECM). The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of low shear stress (1.4 dyn/cm2)on the migration of HepG2 cells and the expression of integrin. Scratch wound migration assay was performed to examine the effect of low shear stress on the migration of HepG2 cells at 0 h, 1 h, 2 h and 4 h, respectively. F-actin staining was used to detect the expression of F-actin in HepG2 cells treated with low shear stress at 2 h and 4 h. Western blot analysis was carried out to determine the effect of low shear stress on the expression of integrin at different durations. The results showed that the migrated distance of HepG2 cells and the expression of F-actin increased significantly compared with the controls. The integrin alpha subunits showed a different time-dependent expression, suggesting that various subunits of integrin exhibit different effects in low shear stress regulating cancer cells migration.

MicroRNAs Indirectly Regulate Other MicroRNAs in Ovarian Cancer Cells.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of regulatory RNAs that control the expression of genes critical to cell function. Ectopic expression of miRNAs has been shown to result in genome-wide changes in patterns of gene expression. While the reasons for these global alterations in gene expression patterns have been attributed to the ability of miRNAs to target multiple genes, and/or to induce indirect effects downstream of target genes, the molecular basis of indirect effects of miRNA regulation remains poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrate the potential of miRNAs to regulate other miRNAs. Using miRNA microarray analysis, we show that over 70 different miRNAs are differentially expressed (≥1.4 fold, FDR≤5%) in human ovarian cancer cells after transfection with a single miRNA (miR-7). We present evidence that a major component of miR-7 induced changes in levels of miRNAs is the indirect consequence of miR-7 mediated alterations in levels of protein coding genes (e.g., transcription and splicing factors) that exert trans-regulatory control on miRNAs.

Mechanism governing reversal of multidrug resistance in human breast carcinoma cells by chelerythrine / 中国医学科学院学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the mechanism governing the reversal of multidrug resistance in human breast carcinoma cells by chelerythrine.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot were used to determine the expressions of protein kinase Cα (PKCα) and multidrug resistance-related genes ABCG2, ABCC1, MDR1, and P-glycoprotein (P-gp) in MCF-7Taxol cells after treatment with chelerythrine and phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA). Also, the antitumor effect of PMA or chelerythrine and effects of PKCα activator or inhibitor in combination with paclitaxel or adriamycin on multidrug resistance in MCF-7Taxol cells were evaluated by MTT.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>RT-PCR or Western blot showed that the expressions of MDR1 and P-gp were significantly higher in MCF-7Taxol cells exposed to PMA stimuli (both P0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>PKCα inhibitor chelerythrine can reverse multidrug resistance in breast carcinoma cells by inhibiting the expressions of MDR1 and P-gp expression in vitro.</p>

Clinical Study of PTAS Therapy for Patients with Ischemia Cerebrovascular Disease Caused by Artery Stenosis / 华中科技大学学报（医学）（英德文版）

The curative efficacy of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting (PTAS) in the treatment of patients with ischemia cerebrovascular disease caused by artery stenosis was explored.The clinical data of 111 patients with ischemia cerebrovascular disease receiving PTAS in Guangdong Province General Hospital from Aug.2007 to Nov.2009 were retrospectively analyzed.In total 132 stents were implanted in the 111 patients.The mortality and rate of neural and non-neural complications were assessed perioperatively.Outcomes [including the frequency of transient ischemic attack (TIA),stroke,or death from vascular diseases) were assessed after operation.NIHSS rating was performed in all cases before and at first week,6th month and 12th month after the operation.The PTAS success rate was 100％.The degree of stenosis was reduced after PTAS.The total complication rate during perioperative period was 15.3％ (the rate of neural complications was 3.6％).Sixty-seven patients were followed up.Three patients (4.48％) developed cerebrovascular events within 1 month,containing one case of TIA,one case of ipsilateral mild stroke and one case of contralateral mild stroke.No severe stroke or death was observed.During a follow-up period of 12 months 7 patients had cerebrovascular events (10.44％),including 2 cases of ipsilateral TIA (2.99％),2 cases of ipsilateral mild stroke and 2 cases of contralateral mild stroke (2.99％),one case of severe stroke (1.49％).In 13 patients receiving DSA re-examination one year after PTAS,2 patients (15.38％) had in-stent restenosis.NIHSS scores were obviously decreased during a follow-up period as compared with those pre-operation (P＜0.05).It was concluded that PTAS could significantly alleviate the neural function deficit of the patients with ischemia cerebrovascular disease.The success rate of PTAS was high,and the rate of complications was lower and the clinical outcomes were satisfactory.PTAS is a safe and effective therapeutic method,though the long-term outcomes need further study.