Altered microRNA expression profiles of human spermatozoa in normal fertile men of different ages / 亚洲男科学杂志(英文版)

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are mediators of the aging process. The purpose of this work was to analyze the miRNA expression profiles of spermatozoa from men of different ages with normal fertility. Twenty-seven donors were divided into three groups by age (Group A, n = 8, age: 20-30 years; Group B, n = 10, age: 31-40 years; and Group C, n = 9, age: 41-55 years) for high-throughput sequencing analysis. Samples from 65 individuals (22, 22, and 21 in Groups A, B, and C, respectively) were used for validation by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). A total of 2160 miRNAs were detected: 1223 were known, 937 were newly discovered and unnamed, of which 191 were expressed in all donors. A total of 7, 5, and 17 differentially expressed microRNAs (DEMs) were found in Group A vs B, Group B vs C, and Group A vs C comparisons, respectively. Twenty-two miRNAs were statistically correlated with age. Twelve miRNAs were identified as age-associated miRNAs, including hsa-miR-127-3p, mmu-miR-5100_L+2R-1, efu-miR-9226_L-2_1ss22GA, cgr-miR-1260_L+1, hsa-miR-652-3p_R+1, pal-miR-9993a-3p_L+2R-1, hsa-miR-7977_1ss6AG, hsa-miR-106b-3p_R-1, hsa-miR-186-5p, PC-3p-59611_111, hsa-miR-93-3p_R+1, and aeca-mir-8986a-p5_1ss1GA. There were 9165 target genes of age-associated miRNAs. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis of the target genes identified revealed enrichment of protein binding, membrane, cell cycle, and so on. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis of age-related miRNAs for target genes revealed 139 enriched pathways, such as signaling pathways regulating stem cell pluripotency, metabolic pathways, and the Hippo signaling pathway. This suggests that miRNAs play a key role in male fertility changes with increasing age and provides new evidence for the study of the mechanism of age-related male fertility decline.

Quality Evaluation of Tremella fuciformis Polysaccharides from Different Sources / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Objective:To establish a method for the determination of polysaccharide and monosaccharide composition of Tremella fuciformis, and to analyze the difference of polysaccharide content in T. fuciformis from different sources and cultivation methods, so as to provide reference for the quality determination.Method:High performance size exclusion chromatography coupled with multi-angle laser light scattering and refractive index detection (HPSEC-MALLS-RID) was employed to determine the content and relative molecular weight distribution of T. fuciformis polysaccharides. The monosaccharide types and proportions of T. fuciformis polysaccharides were analyzed by 1-phenyl-3-methyl-5-pyrazolone (PMP) precolumn derivative high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).Result:The weight-average relative molecular weight (Mw) and the content of polysaccharides in T. fuciformis cultivated by cut-log from different sources were distributed in 2.618×106-3.503×106 Da and 307.12-609.06 g·kg-1, respectively. These two parameters of polysaccharides in T. fuciformis with substitute cultivation from different sources were 2.723×106-3.886×106 Da and 366.38-647.37 g·kg-1, respectively. The T. fuciformis polysaccharides mainly consisted of mannose, glucuronic acid, glucose, galactose, xylose and fucose, their ratios in samples with cut-log and substitute cultivation were 4.4∶0.7∶1.0∶0.2∶1.4∶1.6 and 4.4∶0.8∶1.0∶0.1∶1.5∶1.5, respectively. The contents of the above six monosaccharides in 39 batches of T. fuciformis from different sources were mannose of 36.71-191.31 g·kg-1, glucose of 10.46-76.10 g·kg-1, galactose of 1.00-6.72 g·kg-1, xylose of 16.73-70.54 g·kg-1, glucuronic acid of 9.74-32.12 g·kg-1, fucose of 17.16-68.20 g·kg-1.Conclusion:The content of polysaccharides in T. fuciformis from different sources has a certain difference, the developed method can be used as a routine method for the quality evaluation of polysaccharides in T. fuciformis.

Identification and characterization of a spermatogenesis-related gene Ube1 in rat testis / 生理学报

A gene that could be potentially involved in spermatogenesis was identified and characterized by using suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) with total RNA from type A spermatogonia and pachytene spermatocytes of rat. This gene consists of 3 433 base pairs (bp) with a complete open reading frame (ORF) of 3 171 bp and encodes a putative protein containing 1057 amino acids. The nucleotide sequence displays a 93% identity to mouse ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1, Chr Y 1 (Ube1y1) and an 82% identity to human ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1 (UBE1). The putative protein of this gene contains an ubiquitin-activating enzyme signature 1 and an ubiquitin-activating enzyme active site, which are also existed in mouse ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1, human ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1 et al. So we named this gene as Rattus norvegicus ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1 (Ube1). The sequence of Ube1 was submitted to GenBank and the accession number is EF690356. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis showed that Ube1 was specifically expressed in testis, while its expression was not detected in heart, brain, spleen, lung, liver, muscle, kidney and ovary. Comparison of the expression of Ube1 in different developmental stages of testis and Sertoli cells (real-time PCR) indicated that Ube1 was expressed more highly in spermatogonia than in spermatocytes, spermatids and Sertoli cells. In conclusion, Ube1 is a gene encoding rat ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1 and specifically expressed in testis, which might play a key role in ubiquitin system and influence spermatogenesis.

Screening differentially expressed genes in human bone marrow stromal cells at defined stage of differentiation / 生理学报

To screen differentially expressed genes involved in osteogenic differentiation of human bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) at defined stages, subtractive cDNA library was established by means of suppression subtractive hybridization. The BMSCs cultured for 12 and 21 d were used as driver and tester, respectively. A subtract library was successfully constructed and five positive clones were selected from the library. Sequencing analysis and homology comparison showed that the five clones differentially expressed in BMSCs cultured for 21 d were at least 90% homologous with the known genes in human GenBank. It was interestingly found that the osteogenic BMSCs cultured for 21 d differentially expressed decorin and Bax inhibitor 1. RT-PCR was performed to confirm the differentially expressed genes. The results showed that the expression of Bax inhibitor 1 was significantly higher in the cells of 21-day than that of 12-day, while the expression of decorin was only detected in the cells of 21-day.