Effect of epigallocatechin-3-gallate on liver lipid metabolism in rats with intrauterine growth restriction and related mechanism / 中国当代儿科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To study the effect of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) on liver lipid metabolism in rats with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and related mechanism.@*METHODS@#A rat model of IUGR was established by food restriction during entire pregnancy, and then the rats were randomly divided into an IUGR group and an EGCG group (n=8 each). The rats in the EGCG group were fed with water containing EGCG from after weaning to 10 weeks. Eight pup rats born from the pregnant maternal rats without food restriction were used as the control group. At the age of 13 weeks, body weight was measured. Blood and liver tissue samples were collected to measure fasting total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), free fatty acid (FFA), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), fasting insulin (FINS), and liver lipids. Homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and adipose insulin resistance (adipo-IR) were calculated. Pathological sections of the liver were observed and quantitative real-time PCR was used to measure the mRNA expression of related genes in the liver.@*RESULTS@#At the age of 13 weeks, there was no significant difference in body weight between groups (P=0.067). There were significant differences between groups in FPG, FFA, FINS, HOMA-IR, and adipo-IR (P0.05), while the IUGR group had significantly higher levels of TC and TG in the liver than the EGCG group (P0.05).@*CONCLUSIONS@#Early EGCG intervention can down-regulate the de novo synthesis of fatty acids through the Ampk/Srebf1 signaling pathway and reduce hepatic lipid accumulation in IUGR rats by improving insulin resistance of hepatocytes.

The development of a rapid loop-mediated indirect PCR method for detection and differentiation of highly and lowly pathogenic porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus / 病毒学报

The aim of this study is to establish the method of loop-mediated indirect PCR assay for detection of Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) infection and differentiation of highly pathogenic PRRSV (HP-PRRSV) and lowly pathogenic PRRSV (LP-PRRSV). Based on the alignments of ORF2 gene sequences and ORFla gene sequences of PRRSV Chinese isolates deposited in GenBank, two pairs of specific probes were designed and labeled to both ends of the soybean Lectin gene fragment by PCR, respectively. The probe-labeled soybean Lectin genes were used to be reporter genes for detection and differentiation of PRRSV. After one round strand displacement reaction, the reporter genes were amplified by reverse PCR. The specific PCR products were 193bp, 355bp for HP-PRRSV and 193bp, 442bp for LP-PRRSV, respectively. The method could detect 5. 6 TCID50/mL LP-PRRSV RNA and 18 TCIDs0/ mL HP-PRRSV RNA, and co-infection did not affect detection sensitivity. No amplification was observed with other porcine originated pathogens including CSFV, PPV, PRV, PCV2, ETEC and Haemophilus parasui. Twenty clinical samples were used for comparative testing with conventional PCR. Fourteen samples were found positive for PRRSV by the loop-mediated indirect PCR, of which 4 were LP-PRRSV, 9 HP-PRRSV and 1 LP/HP-PRRSV co-infection, consistent with the conventional PCR test results. In conclusion, the loop-mediated indirect PCR is a simple, rapid, sensitive and specific etiologic diagnosis tool, and suitable for the differential diagnosis of HP/LP-PRRSV, especially for identification of mixed infection of HP/LP-PRRSV.