Construction and validation of a dual-luciferase reporter gene system for screening and evaluating anti-liver fibrosis drugs that inhibit transcription of the gene encoding collagen I, chain a1 / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To construct a dual-reporter gene system that will be applicable for use as a tool to screen and evaluate therapeutic drug compounds that inhibit transcription of the gene encoding collagen I, chain at1 (COL1A1).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The full-length eDNA of transforming growth factor beta1 (TGFbeta1) was cloned by RT-PCR and inserted into two vectors, pcDNA3.1 and pJW4303, for construction of two eukaryotic expression vectors, pcDNA3.1-TGFbeta1 and pJW4303-TGFbeta1.Next, the promoter region of COL1A1, cloned by PCR using human genome DNA as template, was inserted into the vector pGL4.29 to construct the reporter gene vector, pGL4.29-COL1A1 promoter.All three recombinant vectors were verified by restriction enzyme digestion and DNA sequencing.Either the pcDNA3.1-TGFbeta1 or pJW4303-TGFbeta1 vector along with the pGL4.29-COL1A1 promoter vector or a pRL-null, control reporter, vector were co-transfected into the LX-2 human hepatic stellate cells to establish the transcription-activated dualreporter gene system.This system was used as a cell model for screening anti-liver fibrosis compounds that inhibit the transcription of COL1A1.Dexamethasone, a model drug that is known to inhibit the expression of COL1A1, was used as a control to validate the dual-reporter gene system.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The two TGFbeta1-expressing vectors and the reporter gene vector containing the promoter region of COL1A1 were successfully constructed.The results of a dual-reporter gene assay showed that TGFbeta1 co-expression increased the activity of the COL1A1 promoter by above 200-fold (t =21.78, P =0.0001), whereas in the absence of TGF31 co-expression the activity was below 2-fold (t =3.396, P =0.0274).The transcriptionactivated dual-reporter gene system was successfully established.The model drug, dexamethasone, effectively inhibited the activity of the COL 1A1 promoter in dose-dependent manner; the activity decreased 29.6% with 10 mumol/L dexamethasone (t =4.140, P =0.0144) and 53.9% with 100 mumol/L (t =6.193, P =0.0035).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The dual-luciferase reporter system of TGFbeta1 and COL1A1 co-expression developed here can be used as a cell model to screen and evaluate anti-liver fibrosis compounds that inhibit activity of the COL1A1.</p>

Establishment of a mouse model of acute liver failure induced by LPS/D-GalN / 中国实验动物学报

Objective To establish a mouse model of acute liver failure induced by lipopolysaccharide /D-galac-tosamine ( LPS/D-GalN) .Methods The optimum dose of LPS/D-GalN was determined by i .p.injection of eight differ-ent doses of LPS and D-GalN into 40 female C57BL/6 mice and observation of their survival time .Then, 32 female C57BL/6 mice were i.p.injected with the optimal dose of LPS/D-GalN and sacrificed at 0, 1, 4, 8 hours after the injec-tion, 8 mice in each group.The control mice received saline injection .Hepatic changes were observed by pathology and se-rum ALT, IL-6, MCP-1 and TNF-αwere measured by biochemistry or flow cytometry .Results LPS (2.5 mg/kg) and D-GalN (0.3 g/kg) were determined as the optimal dose for the establishment of mouse model of acute liver injury .Com-pared with the control group , the hepatocellular damages were progressing in a positive correlation with the time course after LPS/D-GalN administration .The level of serum ALT was significantly increased after LPS/D-GalN administration ( P <0.001).The levels of inflammatory cytokines IL-6, MCP-1 and TNF-αwere increased and reached a peak at one hour after LPS/D-GalN administration and then decreased almost to that of the control group 8 hours later(P<0.001).Conclusions The mouse model of acute liver injury is successfully established by LPS /D-GalN administration , and provide an effective animal model for the study of pathogenic mechanisms of acute liver failure and evaluation of therapeutic drugs .

Comparison of pulmonary pathological changes in mice infected with H7N9 influenza virus and pandemic H1N1 influenza virus / 中国实验动物学报

Objective To analyze and compare the pathological changes of lung tissue in mice infected with the novel H7N9 influenza virus and 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus, respectively, and to preliminarily study the mecha-nisms of acute lung injury induced by those virus infection .Methods SPF 6-week old BALB/c mice ( body weight 18-20 g, male∶female=1∶1) (n=3 in each subgroup) were intranasally infected with H7N9 virus and H1N1 virus, respec-tively.The behavior and survival time of mice after virus infection were observed and the survival rates were analyzed .The heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, intestines, and brain were collected at indicated time points for histopathological exami-nation using H&E staining .The distribution of virus antigen was detected by immunohistochemistry .The neutrophil infiltra-tion was also observed .The correlation of lung injury with virus replication and host immune responses was analyzed .Re-sults The lung and spleen injury of mice infected with H 7N9 virus was slighter and their survival rate (100%) was high-er than those of mice infected with H1N1 virus.The damages of the lung and spleen in H1N1virus-infected mice were more severe than that in H7N9 virus-infected mice, and all the 10 mice in this group died within 9 days after virus inoculation . The distributions of both the virus antigens were mainly in the bronchial epithelial cells , a few stromal cells and alveolar ep-ithelial cells .The levels of virus replication in the two groups were not significantly different .There were more intense neu-trophil infiltration in the lung and inflammatory response in the H 1N1 virus-infected mice than those in the H7N9 virus-in-fected mice .Conclusions There are some differences of the pathological characteristics and extent of lung injury in the mice infected with H7N9 virus and H1N1 virus, respectively.The virus replication is a precipitating factor but not the deci-sive factor of the lung injury , and there is a close relationship between the host immune responses and acute lung injury .

Stable expression of targeting complement inhibitor CR2-CD59 in Chinese hamster ovary cells / 第三军医大学学报

Objective To obtain Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines that stably express a targeting complement inhibitor CR2-CD59.Methods The recombinant plasmid PEE14.1-CR2-CD59 was constru-cted by cloning the DNA fragment CR2-CD59 into plasmid PEE14.1,and the obtained plasmid was transfected into CHO cells by FuGENE 6.The clones with stable high expression of target fragment were selected by methionine sulfoximine (MSX),the expression of CR2-CD59 was analyzed by ELISA,SDS-PAGE and Western blotting analysis.Results Several stable expression clones were obtained,and CR2-CD59 was highly expressed in the secret form in CHO cells.SDS-PAGE analysis showed that the molecular weight of the recombined protein CR2-CD59 was consistent with the predicted one.ELISA and Western blotting results revealed that the CR2-CD59 could react with both anti-human CR2 and anti-human CD59 polyclonal antibodies.Compared with serum-containing medium,the protein was highly expressed in serum-free medium (P

Analysis on the Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndromes of 177 HIV/AIDS P atients / 中医杂志

Objective To study the rule of distribution and evol vement of TCM syn dromes in HIV/AIDS patients. Methods Totally 177 HIV/AI DS patients were investigated with questionnaire in the epide miological study to collect the data of diagnosis, and the rou tine test of CD4+T lymphocyte count was carried out. Results The young and mid dle-aged females were the most involved group with an increasing incidence in G u angdong Province and with a strong relation of sex and infection route. The main symptoms of the 177 HIV/AIDS patients were fatigue, cough and loss of appetite, the secondary ones were night sweating, skin itching, headache, and hair loss, and the most common sign was skin rash. The leading TCM syndromes were qi and yi n deficiency and lung and kidney deficiency. The distribution of symptoms and si gns, syndromes and various indices was significantly different in gender, age an d infection route (P