Advances in the study of egg activation of higher plants.

Fertilization in higher plants induces many structural and physiological changes in the fertilized egg, and represents the transition from the haploid female gamete to the diploid zygote, the first cell of a sporophyte. Some changes are induced extremely rapidly following fusion with sperm cells and are the preclusions of egg activation. This review focuses on the early changes that occur in the egg after fusion with sperm cells, but before nuclear fusion. Reported changes include cell shrinkage, cell wall formation, polarity change, oscillation in Ca2+ concentration, and DNA synthesis. In addition, the current understanding of egg activation is summarized and the possible functional relevance of the changes is explored.

Long non-coding RNA PTENP1 inhibits proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells via AKT and MAPK signaling pathways.

We aimed to investigate the influence of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) PTEN pseudogene-1 (PTENP1) on the proliferation, migration and cycle of breast cancer cells and its mechanism. Lentiviral vectors expressing PTENP1 were synthesized and breast cancer cells MCF7 were transfected with LV003-GFP-PTENP1 and LV003-GFP, respectively. The proliferation capacities of breast cancer cells were detected using CCK-8 assay, and the migration capacities of breast cancer cells were detected using scratch assay; flow cytometry was used to detect the cell cycles and Western blot was used to detect the expression levels of cyclin A2, CDK2, p-p44/42 MAPK, t-p44/42 MAPK, p-p38 MAPK, t-p38 MAPK, p-AKT, t-AKT in AKT and MAPK pathways. The absorbance values (A450) of cells in experimental group at 48 and 72 h were 1.4±0.3 and 2.3±0.47, respectively, which were significantly lower than those in control group (3.2±0.39, 3.4±0.58) (P<0.05). The number of cell colonies in experimental group was (48±13), which was significantly lower than that in control group (159±16) (P<0.01). The cell migration rate in experimental group was 22.8±3.3%, which was significantly lower than that in control group 61.8±5.2% (P<0.01). Western blot detection showed that the expression levels of cyclin A2, CDK2, p-AKT, p-p44/42 MAPK and p-p38 MAPK in experimental group were significantly decreased compared with those in control group. LncRNA PTENP1 can inhibit the proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells via the AKT and MAPK signaling pathways.

[Analysis of the protein expression and gene amplification of HER2 in gastric cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical significance of protein expression and gene amplification of HER2 in gastric cancer. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH) method were used to detect protein expression and gene amplification of HER2 in 80 specimens of gastric cancer patients. RESULTS: Protein expression of HER2 was negative in 51 cases, (+) in 12 cases, (++) in 12 cases, (+++) in 5 cases, and the positive expression rate was 21.3% (17/80). Seven (8.8%) cases had gene amplification of HER2, including gene critical amplification in 3 (3.8%) cases. The result of IHC was positively correlated with CISH (P<0.05), and the coincidence rate was 85.0% (68/80). HER2 positive expression rate was higher in the gastroesophageal junction carcinoma, poorly differentiated and stage III-IIII gastric cancer (all P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The gastric cancer tissue has high positive rate of protein expression and gene amplification of HER2, which is closely correlated to the development of gastric cancer.

Effect of astragalus injection on serious abdominal traumatic patients' cellular immunity.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the change of serious abdominal traumatic patients' cellular immunity and the effect of Astragalus Injection (AI) on it. METHODS: Sixty-three serious abdominal traumatic patients were randomly assigned into two groups, the conventional group and the treated group, patients in the conventional group were given conventional treatment, while others in the treated group were given conventional treatment as the basis, with AI 20 ml was added into 250 ml of 5% glucose solution given through intravenous dripping, and then on the first day and 14th day, their T cell activated antigens as well as that of 10 healthy subjects were monitored. RESULTS: On the first day, in the conventional group and treated group, the levels of CD(3)(+), CD(4)(+), CD(4)(+)/CD(8)(+), CD(16)(+), CD(69)(+) and CD(3)(+)/homologous leucocytic antigen-DR (HLA-DR(+)) were apparently lower than those in the healthy group (P < 0.05), while the CD(8)(+) was significantly higher than that in the healthy group (P < 0.05), and there was no significant difference between the conventional group and the treated group (P > 0.05); on the 14th days, the levels of CD(3)(+), CD(4)(+), CD(4)(+)/CD(8)(+), CD(16)(+), CD(69)(+) and CD(3)(+)/HLA-DR(+) of the treated group got closed to healthy subject value, and got even higher than those of conventional group (P < 0.05); CD(8)(+) got close to that of healthy subjects, while obviously lower than that of conventional group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: After serious abdominal trauma, cellular immunity lowered, auxiliary use of AI was beneficial to the restoration of cellular immunity.