The effects of sympathetic neurotransmitters and adrenergic receptors on liver fibrosis in murine schistosomiasis / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effects of sympathetic neurotransmitters and adrenergic receptors on liver fibrosis in murine schistosomiasis.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Mice were infestated with schistosoma by means of pasting cercariae on their abdomens. Thirty mice were randomly divided into a control group and a model group. Hematoxylin eosin and Van Gieson staining were used to view the histopathology of their livers. Immunofluorescence histochemistry and laser scanning confocal fluorescence microscopy were used to measure the a1A and beta2 adrenergic receptors in livers of the two groups of mice. High performance liquid chromatography-electrochemical detector (HPLC-ECD) was used to determine the concentration of norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA) in the plasma of the mice.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Immunofluorescence histochemistry showed that a1A and beta2 receptors were present in hepatocytes and hepatic sinusoids of the livers of the mice of the two groups, but there were many more in the livers of the schistosoma infected mice (t=-2.888; t=-6.648) (P<0.05). The results of HPLC-ECD showed that the levels of NE and DA in the model group were higher than those of the control group (t=-3.372; t=-4.428) (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Sympathetic neurotransmitters and adrenergic receptors may participate in liver fibrogenesis in mice infected with schistosoma.</p>

Inhibition of proliferation, adhesion and invasion ability of human lung carcinoma cell A549 by tumor necrosis factor-alpha converting enzyme (TACE) / 生物工程学报

We constructed prokaryotic expression vectors for different domains of TACE gene and expressed the fusion proteins, so as to explore their effects on the proliferation, adhesion and invasion potential of tumor cells in vitro. The total RNA was isolated from THP1 cell. TACE cDNA was amplified by RT-PCR and subcloned into pMD18-T vector to construct pMD-18T-TACE vector. The different cDNA fragment of TACE were amplified from plasmid pMD-18T-TACE and then cloned into pET-28a( + ) to construct expression vector pET28a( + )- 300, pET28a( + )-T800, and pET28a( + )-T1300, which respectively transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3). The expression of His-tagged fusion proteins were induced with IPTG and purified through BBST NTA resin. The proliferation ability was examined by MTT assay. The adhesive and invasive ability were examined by plated adhesion model and Transwell assay. The protein pET28a( + )-T300 and pET28a( + )-T1300 can reduce the proliferation, adhesion and invasion ability of human lung carcinoma cell A549 in vitro, but otherwise the protein pET28a( + )-T800 had not shown the inhibitive function. The fusion protein of disintegrin domain of TACE have the similar biological function to other disintegrins, which can be used for further research on function of TACE in inflammation and tumor.

Effect of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase on intracellular gsh level in Raji cells during oxidative stress / 中国应用生理学杂志

<p><b>AIM</b>To explore a role of G6PD in replenishment of intracellular GSH during oxidative stress.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>In vitro Raji cell was cultured, intracellular GSH levels and G6PD, GR, GPX activities were determined at different time points after PMS treatment when G6PD activity was inhibited or not by DHEA.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Intracellular GR, GPX, G6PD activities elevated significantly combined with GSH level decreased dramatically before 30 minutes, replenished gradually after 30 minutes and restore normal levels about 6 h after PMS treatment when G6PD was not inhibited. No change in GR and significant increase in GPX activity were shown following depleted GSH after PMS treatment when G6PD was inhibited by DHEA.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>G6PD contributes to replenish intracellular GSH and is a critical factor regulating GSH levels during oxidative stress.</p>

Screening of TACE peptide inhibitors from a phage display random 15-peptide library by recombinant TACE ecotodomain / 生物工程学报

Tumour necrosis factor-alpha converting enzyme (TACE) is the major protease responsible for processing proTNF from membrane-anchored precursor into secreted TNF-alpha. It was validated that TACE is involved in many diseases such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimers, therefore it represents a novel and significant target for therapeutic intervention in a variety of inflammatory and neuroimmunological diseases. To obtain the recombinant TACE ectodomain and use it as a selective molecule for the screening of TACE peptide inhibitors, the cDNA coded for catalytic domain (T800) and full-length ectodomain (T1300) of TACE were amplified by RT-PCR, the expression plasmid was constructed by inserting T800/T1300 into plasmid pET-28a/pET-28c and transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3). SDS-PAGE and Western blotting analysis revealed that T800/T1300 was highly expressed in the form of inclusion body being induced by IPTG. After Ni2+ -NTA resin affinity chromatography, the purity of the recombinant T800/T1300 protein was more than 90%. T800 and T1300 protein were used in the screening of TACE-binding peptides from the phage display random 15-peptide library. After four rounds of biopanning, the positive phage clones were analyzed by ELISA, competitive inhibition assay and DNA sequencing. A common amino acid sequence-TRWLVYFSRPYLVAT was found and synthesized. The synthetic peptide was shown to bind to TACE and inhibit the TNF-alpha release from LPS-stimulated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) up to 60.3%. FACS analysis revealed that the peptide mediated the accumulation of TNF-alpha on LPS-stimulated PBMC surface. These results demonstrate that the TACE-binding peptide is an effective antagonist of TACE and the deduced motif might be applied to molecular design of anti-inflammation drugs.