ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most representative diabetic microangiopathy complications. So far, there have been no satisfactory therapeutic strategies, and the injection of stem cells provides a target for DN therapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Urine-derived stem cells (USCs) were obtained from 9 healthy men. 24 mice were randomly and equally divided into control group, DN model group, DN+hUSC group (treated with USCs for 3 times). Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) and Masson staining were used to detect histological changes of kidney injury. Creatinine and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were measured to assess renal function. Besides, myofibroblast accumulation, macrophage infiltration, cell proliferation, and oxidative stress were detected by immunohistochemical analysis. RESULTS: Compared with DN model group, DN+hUSC group showed lower function loss, cell infiltration, and oxidative stress, as well as less renal fibrosis, histological damage, and cell proliferation. CONCLUSIONS: USC can alleviate inflammation and oxidative stress, reduce renal interstitial fibrosis, improve renal tissue structure and protect renal function through paracrine effect.
Subject(s)
Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental/therapy , Diabetic Nephropathies/therapy , Disease Models, Animal , Stem Cell Transplantation/methods , Urine/cytology , Animals , Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental/metabolism , Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental/pathology , Diabetic Nephropathies/metabolism , Diabetic Nephropathies/pathology , Female , Humans , Male , Mice , Mice, Inbred NOD , Mice, SCID , Stem Cells/metabolismABSTRACT
The flower developmental process, which is crucial to the whole lifecycle of higher plants, is influenced by both environmental and endogenous factors. The genus Oncidium is commercially important for cut flower and houseplant industry and is ideal for flower development studies. Using cDNA-amplified restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, we profiled transcripts that are differentially expressed during flower development of Oncidium Milliongolds. A total of 15,960 transcript-derived fragments were generated, with 114 primer sets. Of these, 1248 were sequenced, producing 993 readable sequences. BLASTX/N analysis showed that 833 of the 993 transcripts showed homology to genes in the NCBI databases, exhibiting functions involved in various processes, such as signal transduction, energy conversion, metabolism, and gene expression regulation. The full-length mRNAs of SUCROSE SYNTHASE 1 (SUS1) and LEAFY (LFY) were cloned, and their expression patterns were characterized. The results showed that the expression levels of SUS1 and LFY were similar during flower development. To confirm the function of SUS1 in flower buds, carbohydrate content and sucrose synthase activity were determined. The results showed that changes in sucrose content and sucrose synthase activity reflected SUS1 expression levels. Collectively, these results indicate that SUS1 influences flower development by regulating LFY expression levels through changing the sucrose content of flower buds.
