Anti-breast cancer activity of resveratrol encapsulated in liposomes.

Resveratrol (RES) is a naturally occurring and effective drug for tumor prevention and treatment. However, its low levels of aqueous solubility, stability, and poor bioavailability limit its application, especially when used as a free drug. In this study, RES was loaded into peptide and sucrose liposomes (PSL) to enhance the physico-chemical properties of RES and exploit RES delivery mediated by liposomes to effectively treat breast cancer. RES loaded PSL (the complex: PSL@RES) were stable, had a good RES encapsulation efficiency, and prolonged RES-release in vitro. PSL@RES was exceptionally efficient for inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, as the IC50 of PSL@RES in MCF-7 cells was found to be only 20.89 µmol L-1. The therapeutic efficacy of PSL@RES was evaluated in mice bearing breast cancer. The results showed that PSL@RES at a dosage of 5 mg kg-1 was more effective than 10 mg kg-1 free RES, and PSL@RES inhibited tumor growth completely at a dosage of 10 mg kg-1. PSL@RES induced apoptosis in breast tumor by upregulation of p53 expression. This then downregulated Bcl-2 and upregulated Bax, thereby inducing Caspase-3 activation. More importantly, encapsulation of RES within peptide liposomes greatly reduced the toxicity of free RES to mice. Overall, the simple formulation of liposomal nanocarriers of RES developed in this study produces satisfactory outcomes to encourage further applications of liposomal carriers for the treatment of breast cancer.

[Modulation of umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells on Treg cells in the patients with aplastic anemia].

Objective: To research the modulation of Umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells on the number and function of Treg cells in the patients with aplastic anemia, as well as the expression of LFA-1 on Treg cells. Methods: A total of 20 newly diagnosed NSAA patients were collected from May 2015 to Jun 2016 in Department of Hematopathy, General Hospital of Jinan Military, and 10 healthy volunteers were recruited as controls. Separation of the patients and controls with peripheral blood mononuclear cells were divided into two groups, including PBMCs culture alone, PBMCs co-culture with UC-MSCs, application of flow cytometry detect respectively the proportion of the Treg cells and the expression of LFA-1 on Treg cells under different culture conditions. The Treg cells and CD4(+) CD25(-)T lymphocyte were separated by magnetic cell sorting (MACS) system, CFSE label CD4(+) CD25(-)T lymphocyte, comparing the inhibitive function of Treg cells on CD4(+) CD25(-)T lymphocyte with or without co-culture with UC-MSCs. Results: The intensity of fluorescence expression of LFA-1 on T lymphocyte in aplastic anemia increased obviously((71.4±10.1)vs(52.5±8.7) , P=0.002), but the LFA-1 expressed on Treg cells had no significant difference(P=0.199). After co-cultured with UC-MSCs, the proportion of LFA-1 on Treg cells in aplastic anemia reduced greatly ((20.96±1.76)% vs(44.26±1.19)%, P=0.012), at the same time, UC-MSCs increased the proportion of Treg cells obviously ((5.33±1.14)%vs(1.94±0.65)%, P=0.003), but the effect of Treg cells on the mean frquency of dividing CD4(+) CD25(-)T lymphocyte had no significant difference with or without co-culture with UC-MSCs(P=0.290). Conclusions: The intensity of fluorescence expression of LFA-1 on lymphocyte in aplastic anemia increases obviously, indicating the possible pathogenesis of AA. UC-MSCs inhibit the expression of LFA-1 on Treg cells and enhance the proportion of Treg cells, but UC-MSCs doesn't directly improve the immunosuppression of single Treg cells.

A comparative study on genetic effects of artificial and natural habitat fragmentation on Loropetalum chinense (Hamamelidaceae) in Southeast China.

Elucidating the demographic and landscape features that determine the genetic effects of habitat fragmentation has become fundamental to research in conservation and evolutionary biology. Land-bridge islands provide ideal study areas for investigating the genetic effects of habitat fragmentation at different temporal and spatial scales. In this context, we compared patterns of nuclear microsatellite variation between insular populations of a shrub of evergreen broad-leaved forest, Loropetalum chinense, from the artificially created Thousand-Island Lake (TIL) and the Holocene-dated Zhoushan Archipelago of Southeast China. Populations from the TIL region harboured higher levels of genetic diversity than those from the Zhoushan Archipelago, but these differences were not significant. There was no correlation between genetic diversity and most island features, excepting a negative effect of mainland-island distance on allelic richness and expected heterozygosity in the Zhoushan Archipelago. In general, levels of gene flow among island populations were moderate to high, and tests of alternative models of population history strongly favoured a gene flow-drift model over a pure drift model in each region. In sum, our results showed no obvious genetic effects of habitat fragmentation due to recent (artificial) or past (natural) island formation. Rather, they highlight the importance of gene flow (most likely via seed) in maintaining genetic variation and preventing inter-population differentiation in the face of habitat 'insularization' at different temporal and spatial scales.