Comparison of immunoadjuvant activities of four bursal peptides combined with H9N2 avian influenza virus vaccine

The bursa of Fabricius (BF) is a central humoral immune organ unique to birds. Four bursal peptides (BP-I, BP-II, BP-III, and BP-IV) have been isolated and identified from the BF. In this study, the immunoadjuvant activities of BPs I to IV were examined in mice immunized with H9N2 avian influenza virus (AIV) vaccine. The results suggested that BP-I effectively enhanced cell-mediated immune responses, increased the secretion of Th1 (interferon gamma)- and Th2 (interleukin-4)-type cytokines, and induced an improved cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response to the H9N2 virus. BP-II mainly elevated specific antibody production, especially neutralizing antibodies, and increased Th1- and Th2-type cytokine secretion. BP-III had no significant effect on antibody production or cell-mediated immune responses compared to those in the control group. A strong immune response at both the humoral and cellular levels was induced by BP-IV. Furthermore, a virus challenge experiment followed by H&E staining revealed that BP-I and BP-II promoted removal of the virus and conferred protection in mouse lungs. BP-IV significantly reduced viral titers and histopathological changes and contributed to protection against H9N2 AIV challenge in mouse lungs. This study further elucidated the immunoadjuvant activities of BPs I to IV, providing a novel insight into immunoadjuvants for use in vaccine design.

Induce and differentiation of pig Müller cells into photoreceptors in vitro / 中华实验眼科杂志

Background Recent studies indicated that rat and mouse Müller cells can be induced and differentiated into photoreceptor-like cells in vitro, but it is not known whether this also happens to adult pig Müller cells nowadays.Objective This study was to test whether adult pig Müller cells can be differentiated to the retinal photoreceptors (the primary transmission neurons of the retina) in vitro.Methods Müller cells were isolated from the neural retina of adult pig eyes and cultured and passaged.The 3rd and 4th generation of cells were themonolayerly cultured,and the cells forced to form spheres in suspension in altra-low adherent dishes for 2-3 days first and then reseeded in normal adherent plates,and both of them were cultured in a specifically formulated medium to induce the differentiation of retinal photoreceptor.The cells was verified by immunocytochemistry.Cell morphology and immunofluorescence staining were utilized to measure the efficacy of the differentiation.Results The 2nd,3rd and 4th generation of Müller cells expressed glutamate synthetase (GS) , a specific maker of Müller cells.Inaddition, the 3rd generation of cells also expressed glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and another specific maker of Müller cells.Three visual fields under fluorescence-microscope were randomly chosen to calculate the average positive ratio of rhodopsin,a specific marker of mature photoreceptors.The photoreceptor differentiation ratios of the 2nd generation of cells for monolayer culture only and with additional sphere suspension culture were (27.99±6.53 (％ and (16.54±3.40) ％ , respectively.With passages, the number of rhodopsin positive cells gradually decreased, and the intensity of rhodopsin expression gradually weakened.The directed rhodopsin positive ratios of the 2nd,3rd and 4th generation of cells from sphere formation were (56.23±7.32)％ , (36.26 ±8.55)％ and (12.68 ±3.18)％ , respectively.Although the rhodopsin expression was weakened over passages,the differentiated cells were more slender and elongated.There was no statistic ally significant difference between different groups (F =2.618, P =0.099).Conclusions Adult pig Müller cells can be differentiated into retinal photoreceptors in vitro.The morphology of the differentiated cells appears moreslender and elongates if the sphere-induced differentiation method is used and/or the directed differentiation time is further extended.

Transcriptional analysis of normal human fibroblast responses to microgravity stress / 基因组蛋白质组与生物信息学报·英文版

To understand the molecular mechanism(s) of how spaceflight affects cellular signaling pathways, quiescent normal human WI-38 fibroblasts were flown on the STS-93 space shuttle mission. Subsequently, RNA samples from the space-flown and ground-control cells were used to construct two cDNA libraries, which were then processed for suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) to identify spaceflight-specific gene expression. The SSH data show that key genes related to oxidative stress, DNA repair, and fatty acid oxidation are activated by spaceflight, suggesting the induction of cellular oxidative stress. This is further substantiated by the up-regulation of neuregulin 1 and the calcium-binding protein calmodulin 2. Another obvious stress sign is that spaceflight evokes the Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase and phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase signaling pathways, along with up-regulating several G1-phase cell cycle traverse genes. Other genes showing up-regulation of expression are involved in protein synthesis and pro-apoptosis, as well as pro-survival. Interactome analysis of functionally related genes shows that c-Myc is the "hub" for those genes showing significant changes. Hence, our results suggest that microgravity travel may impact changes in gene expression mostly associated with cellular stress signaling, directing cells to either apoptotic death or premature senescence.

Screen and Identification of The Protein-protein Interactors in The Host Cell With The SARS Coronavirus Nucleocapsid Protein / 生物化学与生物物理进展

15 SARS-CoV N Protein Interacting Protein (NPIP) were selected from host cells using Yeast Two-hybrid system (Y2H). These are Angiogenin, acyglycerol kinase, cytochrome oxydase subunit I, CXC chemokine ligand 16, epidermal growth factor receptor pathway substrate 15, glutathione S-transferase kappa 1,integrin beta 1, jun oncogene, NIMA (never in mitosis gene a)-related kinase 10, protein tyrosine kinase 2 beta,homo sapiens SH3KBP1 binding protein 1 and ubiquitin specific peptidase 53. With the aid of immunological co-precipitation (CO-IP), it was confirmed that chemokine CXCL16 was the interactor with SARS-CoV N protein in host cells.

The Technological Application of Low Field MR Cholangiopancreatography / 实用放射学杂志

Objective To evaluate the images of MRCP acquired by adjusting 0.3 Tesla MR unit heavy T 2-weighted scanning parameters and altering scanning angle and diagnostic correctivity to biliary obstructive disease.Methods Routine MR T 1WI,T 2WI scanning were performed axial in 50 cases of patients with biliary obstruction.All of them were divided into two groups,20 cases of them were scanned coronal with FSE T 2-weighted fixed parameters,30 cases of them were scanned with altering scanning angle,increasing scanning slices,decreasing distance of two near slices,reducing signal collection times(NSA),shortening scanning time.Results The acquired images through adjusting FSE T 2-weighted scanning parameters were visualized clearly.The boundary of cholangiopancreatie ducts were showed clearly.The display rate of biliary and pancreatie ducts was elevaled from 20% to 83.3%.The accuracy of it for evaluating the causes of obstruction was increased from 88.9% to 93.3%.The accuracy of it in the detection of the location of bile duct obstruction was 100%.Conclusion Through adjusting scanning purameters low field MRCP is very helpful in improved images quality and reflecting veliable signs of biliary and pancreatie duct obstruction disease combined with MRI T 1-weighted T 2-weighted message.This method can increased the diagnostic accuracy of the causes of obseruction and supply the reliable ground for clinical treatment.