[Development and application of SSR markers of Saposhnikovia divaricata based on transcriptome].

Transcriptome sequencing was employed to mine the simple sequence repeat(SSR) locus information of Saposhnikovia divaricata and design specific primers, which aimed to provide a basis for the research on the genetic diversity of S. divaricata germplasm resources. The seed purity, 1 000-seed weight, germination rate, and seed vigor were determined. MISA was used to obtain the SSR locus information from 12 606 unigene longer than 1 kb in the transcriptome database. Forty-three pairs of SSR primers designed in Primer 3 were used to analyze the polymorphism of 28 S. divaricata samples of different sources. The results showed that there were differences in the seed purity, 1 000-seed weight, germination rate, vigor, and seed length and width among S. divaricata samples of different sources. Particularly, the germination rate and seed vigor had significant differences, and HB-ZJK1, NMG-CF4, NMG-BT, NMG-HLE1, and NMG-CF2 had significantly higher 1 000-seed weight, germination rate, and seed vigor than the samples of other sources. Among the 86 233 unigene, 12 606(14.62%) unigene contained 15 958 SSR loci, with one SSR locus every 5 009 bp on average. The SSR loci were mainly single nucleotide and dinucleotide repeats, which were dominated by G/C and TC/AG, respectively. All the primers were screened by using 28 S. divaricata sample from different habitats, and the primers corresponding to the amplification products with clear bands and stable polymorphism were obtained. The clustering results of the biological characteristics and genetic diversity of the 28 S. divaricata samples were basically consistent, and the samples of the same origin(HB-AG1, HB-AG2, HB-ZJK1, and HB-ZJK2) generally gathered together and had close genetic relationship. The SSRs in S. divaricata transcriptome has high frequency, rich types, and high polymorphism, which provides candidate molecular markers for the germplasm identification, genetic map construction, and molecular-assisted breeding.

Customized Microenvironments Spontaneously Facilitate Coupled Engineering of Real-Life Large-Scale Clean Water Capture and Pollution Remediation.

Harnessing abundant renewable resources and pollutants on a large scale to address environmental challenges, while providing sustainable freshwater, is a significant endeavour. This study presents the design of fully functional solar vaporization devices (SVD) based on organic-inorganic hybrid nanocomposites (CCMs-x). These devices exhibit efficient photothermal properties that facilitate multitargeted interfacial reactions, enabling simultaneous catalysis of sewage and desalination. The localized interfacial heating generated by the photothermal effect of CCMs-x triggers surface-dominated catalysis and steam generation. The CCMs-x SVD achieves a solar water-vapor generation rate of 1.41 kg m-2 h-1 (90.8%), and it achieves over 95% removal of pollutants within 60 min under one-sun for practical application. The exceptional photothermal conversion rate of wastewater for environmental remediation and water capture is attributed to customized microenvironments within the system. The integrated parallel reaction system in SVD ensures it is a real-life application in multiple scenarios such as municipal/medical wastewater and brine containing high concentrations. Additionally, the SVD exhibits long-term durability, antifouling functionality toward complex ionic contaminants. This study not only demonstrates a one-stone-two-birds strategy for large-scale direct production of potable water from polluted seawater, but also opens up exciting possibilities for parallel production of energy and water resources.

Role of pre-hospital emergency medical systems in the rescue of patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND: Myocardial infarction (MI) is a series of clinical syndromes caused by ischemic necrosis of myocardial cells that results from severe and persistent acute ischemia of the myocardium due to a dramatic reduction or interruption of coronary blood supply. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we analyzed the role of pre-hospital emergency services in the rescue of patients suffering from ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). METHODS: We enrolled 229 patients with STEMI who were transported to the Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University by Tianjin Emergency Center from January 2017 to June 2021. With the development of the pre-hospital emergency medical system in Tianjin (2019) as the time node, the patients were divided into three groups: A (87 cases), B (68 cases), and C (74 cases). The onset-to-call time, emergency response time, door-to-balloon (D-B) time, first medical contact to balloon dilation (FMC-B) time, symptom onset-to-balloon dilation (S-B) time, proportion of patients receiving prehospital administration of bispecific antibodies, number of days hospitalized, total hospitalization expenses, and in-hospital incidence and mortality of heart failure were compared between the three groups. RESULTS: Group C differed significantly from group A and group B in terms of emergency response time, D-B time, FMC-B time, S-B time, the proportion of patients who received prehospital administration of bispecific antibodies, and the number of days of hospitalization (P< 0.05), but there was no significant difference in the onset-to-call time (P> 0.05) and the decreasing trends in the in-hospital incidence and mortality of heart failure were not statistically significant (incidence: 9.50% vs. 13.23%, 12.64%; mortality: 4.10% vs. 5.90%, 4.60%). CONCLUSION: A reasonable pre-hospital emergency medical network layout and resource investment, as well as the strengthening of the interface between pre-hospital and in-hospital medical emergencies and pre-hospital standardized rescue, can shorten the emergency response time and the total ischemic time in patients with chest pain, which can improve patient prognosis to a certain extent.

Research on the improvement effect of Saposhnikovia divaricata (Trucz.) Schischk on rheumatoid arthritis based on the "component-target-pathway" association.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the therapeutic effect and mechanism of the traditional Chinese medicine Saposhnikovia divaricata (Trucz.) Schischk in rats with complete Freund's adjuvant-induced rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: The chemical targets and RA targets of Saposhnikovia divaricata (Trucz.) Schischk were acquired by the network pharmacological method. The complete Freund's adjuvant-induced rat RA model was used to further explore the mechanism of Saposhnikovia divaricata (Trucz.) Schischk in improving RA. Pathological changes in the volume of toes, body weight and synovial tissues of joints as well as serum inflammatory factor levels before and after the intervention of Saposhnikovia divaricata (Trucz.) Schischk were investigated. The key metabolic pathways were screened by correlations between metabolites and key targets. Finally, a quantitative analysis of key targets and metabolites was experimentally validated. RESULTS: Saposhnikovia divaricata (Trucz.) Schischk administration increased body weight, mitigated foot swelling and downregulated inflammatory cytokine levels in model rats. The histopathology showed that treatment with Saposhnikovia divaricata (Trucz.) Schischk can induce inflammatory cell infiltration and synovial hyperplasia and obviously reduce cartilage injuries, thus improving arthritis symptoms in rats. According to the network pharmacology-metabonomics association analysis results, the purine metabolic signaling pathway might be the key pathway for RA intervention with Saposhnikovia divaricata (Trucz.) Schischk. Targeted metabonomics, Western blotting (WB) and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT‒PCR) assays showed that the recombinant adenosine deaminase (ADA) mRNA expression level and metabolic level of inosine in Saposhnikovia divaricata (Trucz.) Schischk administration group were lower than those of the model group. This reflected that Saposhnikovia divaricata (Trucz.) Schischk could improve RA by downregulating ADA mRNA expression levels and the metabolic level of inosine in the purine signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: Based on the "component-disease-target" association analysis, this study concludes that Saposhnikovia divaricata (Trucz.) Schischk improves complete Freund's adjuvant-induced RA symptoms in rats mainly by downregulating ADA mRNA expression levels in the purine metabolic signaling pathway, mitigating foot swelling, improving the levels of serum inflammatory factors (IL-1ß, IL-6 and TNF-α), and decreasing the ADA protein expression level to intervene in purine metabolism.

Combination of SVI/S' and diagnostic scores for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

The diagnosis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) remains a challenge. There are three methods proposed as diagnostic tools. H2 FPEF score was determined by six weighted clinical characteristics and echocardiographic variables. Heart Failure Association (HFA)-PEFF algorithm consists of various functional and morphological variables as well as natriuretic peptides. SVI/S' is a novel echocardiographic parameter calculated by stroke volume index and mitral annulus systolic peak velocity. This study aimed to compare the three approaches in patients with suspected HFpEF. Patients referred to right heart catheterization for suspected HFpEF were classified into low-, intermediate- and high-likelihood groups according to H2 FPEF or HFA-PEFF scores. A diagnosis of HFpEF was confirmed by pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) of ≥15 mm Hg according to the guidelines. In result, a total of 128 patients were included. Of these, 71 patients with PCWP ≥15 mm Hg and 57 patients with PCWP <15 mm Hg. Moderate correlations were observed between H2 FPEF score, HFA-PEFF score, SVI/S' and PCWP. The area under curve of SVI/S' was 0.82 for diagnosis of HFpEF, compared with 0.67 for H2 FPEF score and 0.75 for HFA-PEFF score by receiver-operating characteristics analysis. Combining SVI/S' with diagnostic scores showed higher Youden index and accuracy than each score alone. Kaplan-Meier analysis reported that the high-likelihood group showed poorer outcomes regardless the method used for diagnosis. Among the contemporary tools for identifying HFpEF in this study, the combination of SVI/S' with risk scores showed best diagnostic ability. Each of the strategies can determine rehospitalisation because of heart failure.

[Determination of 10 mycotoxins in Hippophae Fructus medicinal and edible products by ultra-performance liquid chromatography- tandem mass spectrometry].

An analytical method for 10 mycotoxins in Hippophae Fructus medicinal and edible products was established in this study, and the contamination of their mycotoxins was analyzed. First of all, the mixed reference solution of ten mycotoxins such as aflatoxin, ochratoxin, zearalenone, and dexoynivalenol was selected as the control, and the Hippophae Fructus medicinal and edible products were prepared. Secondly, based on the ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry(UPLC-MS/MS) technology, 10 mycotoxins in Hippophae Fructus medicinal and edible products were quantitatively investigated and their content was determined. Finally, the contamination of mycotoxins was analyzed and evaluated. The optimal analysis conditions were determined, and the methodological inspection results showed that the 10 mycotoxins established a good linear relationship(r>0.99). The method had good repeatability, test sample specificity, stability, and instrument precision. The average recovery rates of 10 mycotoxins in Hippophae Fructus medicinal products, edible solids, and edible liquids were 90.31%-109.4%, 87.86%-107.8%, and 85.61%-109.1%, respectively. Relative standard deviation(RSD) values were 0.22%-10%, 0.75%-13%, and 0.84%-8.5%, repsectively. Based on UPLC-MS/MS technology, the simultaneous determination method for the limits of 10 mycotoxins established in this study has fast detection speed, less matrix interference, high sensitivity, and accurate results, which is suitable for the limit examination of 10 mycoto-xins in Hippophae Fructus medicinal and edible products.

Field-tuned quantum effects in a triangular-lattice Ising magnet.

We report thermodynamic and neutron scattering measurements of the triangular-lattice quantum Ising magnet TmMgGaO4 in longitudinal magnetic fields. Our experiments reveal a quasi-plateau state induced by quantum fluctuations. This state exhibits an unconventional non-monotonic field and temperature dependence of the magnetic order and excitation gap. In the high field regime where the quantum fluctuations are largely suppressed, we observed a disordered state with coherent magnon-like excitations despite the suppression of the spin excitation intensity. Through detailed semi-classical calculations, we are able to understand these behaviors quantitatively from the subtle competition between quantum fluctuations and frustrated Ising interactions.

[Transcriptome profiling of Saposhnikovia divaricata growing for different years and mining of key genes in active ingredient biosynthesis].

Saposhnikovia divaricata is a commonly used bulk medicinal plant. To explore the key enzyme genes and their expression in the biosynthesis of chromone and coumarin, the key active components, we carried out transcriptome sequencing(Illumina HiSeq) and bioinformatics analysis for the 1-year-old(S1) and 2-year-old(S2) plants of S. divaricata. A total of 40.8 Gb data was obtained. After the sequence assembly via Trinity, 110 732 transcripts and 86 233 unigenes were obtained, which were aligned and annotated with NR, Swiss-Prot, GO, KEGG, and PFAM. Daucus carota and S. divaricata had the highest sequence homology. KEGG pathway enrichment showed that the differentially expressed genes were mainly enriched in plant hormone signal transduction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and flavonoid biosynthesis pathways. A total of 27 differentially expressed unigenes, including 13 enzyme genes, were identified in the pathways related to the synthesis of active ingredients in S. divaricata. Compared with S1 plant, S2 plant showed up-regulated expression of PAL, BGL, C4H, 4CL, CYP98A, CSE, REF, and CCoAOMT and down-regulated expression of CHS, CAD, and COMT. HCT and POD had both up-regulated and down-regulated unigenes. Among them, PAL, C4H, 4CL, BGL, and CHS can be used as candidate genes for the synthesis of the active ingredients in S. divaricata. The four key enzyme genes were verified by RT-qPCR, which showed the results consistent with transcriptome sequencing. This study enriches the genetic information of S. divaricata and provides support for the identification of candidate genes in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites.

Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor alleviated atrial remodeling in STZ-induced diabetic rats by targeting TLR4 pathway.

Purpose: The mechanism of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor (SGLT-2i) reducing the incidence of atrial fibrillation remains unclear. We hypothesize that sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor alleviated atrial remodeling in STZ-induced diabetic rats by targeting TLR4 pathway. Methods: A total of 42 rats were randomly assigned into three groups: control group (CON group); diabetes group (DM group): diabetes mellitus rats were established by 65 mg/kg streptozotocin (STZ) intraperitoneal injection; and diabetes + dapagliflozin group (DM + DAPA group): diabetic rats were given DAPA gavage administration (DAPA 2mg/kg/d for 4 weeks by gavage administration), 14 rats in each group. Epicardial multiple-lead recording and intracardiac electrophysiology studies were performed to investigate the electrical remodeling in the heart and the atrial fibrillation inducibility in each group. Western blot analysis and real-time PCR were used to determine the protein and mRNA expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), interleukin receptor-associated kinase 1 (IRAK1), tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6), nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), and type I collagen (collagen I). Results: Compared with rats in CON group, rats in DM group showed marked myocardial fibrosis, ectopic pacing excitement, reduced conduction velocity, decreased cardiac function. TLR4/IRAK1/TRAF6/NF-κB, collagen I proteins expressions and incidence of atrial fibrillation (27.3%) were increased in DM group. Parts of these changes were reversed by treatment of DAPA. Incidence of atrial fibrillation was decreased in DM + DAPA group (2.8%). Conclusions: SGLT-2i dapagliflozin may prevent diabetic rats' atrial remodeling and reduce the inducibility of atrial fibrillation partly by targeting TLR4/IRAK1/TRAF6/NF-κB inflammatory pathway.

A Novel Three-Dimensional and Tissue Doppler Echocardiographic Index for Diagnosing and Prognosticating Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction.

INTRODUCTION: The diagnosis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) remains challenging. In this study, a novel echocardiography index based on three-dimensional and tissue Doppler echocardiography for diagnosing and estimating prognosis in HFpEF. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with symptoms and/or signs of heart failure and normal left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF ≥50%) who underwent right heart catheterization were screened. Patients were divided based on pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) of ≥15 mmHg and PCWP <15 mmHg. A diagnosis of HFpEF was confirmed by PCWP of ≥15 mmHg according to ESC guidelines. A novel index was calculated by the ratio between stroke volume standardized to body surface area (SVI) and tissue Doppler mitral annulus systolic peak velocity S' (SVI/S'). Its diagnostic and prognostic values were determined. RESULTS: A total of 104 patients (mean age 64 ± 12 years) were included. Of these, 63 had PCWP ≥15 mmHg and 41 patients had PCWP <15 mmHg. Compared to the PCWP <15 mmHg group, the ≥15 mmHg group had a significantly lower SVI/S' (P < 0.001). Logistic regression showed that SVI/S' was associated with high PCWP measured invasively. The SVI/S' had an area under the curve of 0.761 for diagnosing classifying between PCWP ≥15 mmHg and <15 mmHg. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the lower SVI/S' group showed a poorer prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: SVI/S' is a non-invasive index calculated by three-dimensional and tissue Doppler echocardiography. It is a surrogate measure of PCWP and can be used to diagnose and determine prognosis in HFpEF.

Time-Division Multiplexing Light Field Display with Learned Coded Aperture.

Conventional stereoscopic displays suffer from vergence-accommodation conflict and cause visual fatigue. Integral-imaging-based displays resolve the problem by directly projecting the sub-aperture views of a light field into the eyes using a microlens array or a similar structure. However, such displays have an inherent trade-off between angular and spatial resolutions. In this paper, we propose a novel coded time-division multiplexing technique that projects encoded sub-aperture views to the eyes of a viewer with correct cues for vergence-accommodation reflex. Given sparse light field sub-aperture views, our pipeline can provide a perception of high-resolution refocused images with minimal aliasing by jointly optimizing the sub-aperture views for display and the coded aperture pattern. This is achieved via deep learning in an end-to-end fashion by simulating light transport and image formation with Fourier optics. To our knowledge, this work is among the first that optimize the light field display pipeline with deep learning. We verify our idea with objective image quality metrics (PSNR, SSIM, and LPIPS) and perform an extensive study on various customizable design variables in our display pipeline. Experimental results show that light fields displayed using the proposed technique indeed have higher quality than that of baseline display designs.

QTL Mapping and GWAS Reveal the Genetic Mechanism Controlling Soluble Solids Content in Brassica napus Shoots.

Oilseed-vegetable-dual-purpose (OVDP) rapeseed can effectively alleviate the land contradiction between crops and it supplements vegetable supplies in winter or spring. The soluble solids content (SSC) is an important index that is used to evaluate the quality and sugar content of fruits and vegetables. However, the genetic architecture underlying the SSC in Brassica napus shoots is still unclear. Here, quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for the SSC in B. napus shoots were investigated by performing linkage mapping using a recombinant inbred line population containing 189 lines. A germplasm set comprising 302 accessions was also used to conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS). The QTL mapping revealed six QTLs located on chromosomes A01, A04, A08, and A09 in two experiments. Among them, two major QTLs, qSSC/21GY.A04-1 and qSSC/21NJ.A08-1, accounted for 12.92% and 10.18% of the phenotypic variance, respectively. In addition, eight single-nucleotide polymorphisms with phenotypic variances between 5.62% and 10.18% were identified by the GWAS method. However, no locus was simultaneously identified by QTL mapping and GWAS. We identified AH174 (7.55 °Brix and 7.9 °Brix), L166 (8.9 °Brix and 8.38 °Brix), and L380 (8.9 °Brix and 7.74 °Brix) accessions can be used as superior parents. These results provide valuable information that increases our understanding of the genetic control of SSC and will facilitate the breeding of high-SSC B. napus shoots.

Variations of Flavone Glycosides Profile Underscore the Necessity of Quality Control of Prepared Microctis Folium Slices.

Microctis Folium (MF), the dried leaves of Microcos paniculata, is widely used as a medical and food dual-purpose herb in South-east Asia and China. However, the quality control of MF is not well studied. A simple and reliable quality control method was urgently needed for its growing usage. Herein, at first, its main active components were identified by UPLC-ESI-qTOF-MS, and a representative MF flavone glycosides profile consisting of ten compounds was illustrated, which is the most detailed one up to now. Successively, using vitexin as the reference substance, a novel QAMS method with HPLC for quantification of the ten identified flavone glycosides was developed and methodologically validated. Furthermore, making use of the abovementioned QAMS method, quantitative profiling of 21 batches of prepared MF slices collected from different hospital pharmacies were performed. As a result, the total contents of ten flavone glucosides and the content of specific compound showed obvious variations. Using the ten compounds' contents dataset, the 21 batches of samples were divided into two distinct clusters by HCA. In sum, our results indicated that it was of great importance to take quality control of prepared MF slices and we presented a robust and simple method for their quantitative determination, which should be beneficial for the quality control of MF and its derived products.

Light Field Synthesis by Training Deep Network in the Refocused Image Domain.

Light field imaging, which captures spatial-angular information of light incident on image sensors, enables many interesting applications such as image refocusing and augmented reality. However, due to the limited sensor resolution, a trade-off exists between the spatial and angular resolutions. To increase the angular resolution, view synthesis techniques have been adopted to generate new views from existing views. However, traditional learning-based view synthesis mainly considers the image quality of each view of the light field and neglects the quality of the refocused images. In this paper, we propose a new loss function called refocused image error (RIE) to address the issue. The main idea is that the image quality of the synthesized light field should be optimized in the refocused image domain because it is where the light field is viewed. We analyze the behavior of RIE in the spectral domain and test the performance of our approach against previous approaches on both real (INRIA) and software-rendered (HCI) light field datasets using objective assessment metrics such as MSE, MAE, PSNR, SSIM, and GMSD. Experimental results show that the light field generated by our method results in better refocused images than previous methods.

Experimental Identification of Electric Dipoles Induced by Magnetic Monopoles in Tb_{2}Ti_{2}O_{7}.

The fundamental principles of electrodynamics allow an electron carrying both electric monopole (charge) and magnetic dipole (spin) but prohibit its magnetic counterpart. Recently, it was predicted that the magnetic "monopoles" carrying emergent magnetic charges in spin ice systems can induce electric dipoles. The inspiring prediction offers a novel way to study magnetic monopole excitations and magnetoelectric coupling. However, no clear example has been identified up to now. Here, we report the experimental evidence for electric dipoles induced by magnetic monopoles in spin frustrated Tb_{2}Ti_{2}O_{7}. The magnetic field applied to pyrochlore Tb_{2}Ti_{2}O_{7} along the [111] direction, brings out a "3-in-1-out" magnetic monopole configuration, and then induces a subtle structural phase transition at H_{c}∼2.3 T. The transition is made evident by the nonlinear phonon splitting under magnetic fields and the anomalous crystal-field excitations of Tb^{3+} ions. The observations consistently point to the displacement of the oxygen O^{''} anions along the [111] axis which gives rise to the formation of electric dipoles. The finding demonstrates that the scenario of magnetic monopole having both magnetic charge and electric dipole is realized in Tb_{2}Ti_{2}O_{7} and sheds light into the coupling between electricity and magnetism of magnetic monopoles in spin frustrated systems.

Role of NLRP3-Inflammasome/Caspase-1/Galectin-3 Pathway on Atrial Remodeling in Diabetic Rabbits.

Both diabetes mellitus (DM) and atrial fibrillation (AF) are usually associated with enhanced inflammatory response. The effect of the "NACHT, LRR and PYD domain containing protein 3" (NLRP3)-inflammasome/caspase-1/galectin-3 pathway and the potential benefits of NLRP3-inflammasome inhibitor glibenclamide (GLB) on atrial remodeling in the DM state are still unknown. Here, we demonstrated that higher AF inducibility and conduction inhomogeneity, slower epicardial conduction velocity, and increased amount of fibrosis in diabetic rabbits as against normal ones were markedly reduced by GLB. Atrial caspase-1 activity as well as serum IL-1ß and IL-18 levels were elevated in diabetic animals but suppressed by GLB. Moreover, GLB decreased the DM-induced protein expression enhancement of NLRP3, Gal-3, TGF-ß1, and CaV1.2 according to western blot analysis. Summarily, our findings indicate that the NLRP3-inflammasome/caspase-1/Gal-3 signaling pathway is related to the pathogenesis of AF in the diabetic state. NLRP3-inflammasome inhibitor GLB prevents AF inducibility and moderates atrial structural remodeling in DM.

Intertwined dipolar and multipolar order in the triangular-lattice magnet TmMgGaO4.

A phase transition is often accompanied by the appearance of an order parameter and symmetry breaking. Certain magnetic materials exhibit exotic hidden-order phases, in which the order parameters are not directly accessible to conventional magnetic measurements. Thus, experimental identification and theoretical understanding of a hidden order are difficult. Here we combine neutron scattering and thermodynamic probes to study the newly discovered rare-earth triangular-lattice magnet TmMgGaO4. Clear magnetic Bragg peaks at K points are observed in the elastic neutron diffraction measurements. More interesting, however, is the observation of sharp and highly dispersive spin excitations that cannot be explained by a magnetic dipolar order, but instead is the direct consequence of the underlying multipolar order that is "hidden" in the neutron diffraction experiments. We demonstrate that the observed unusual spin correlations and thermodynamics can be accurately described by a transverse field Ising model on the triangular lattice with an intertwined dipolar and ferro-multipolar order.

Chlamydia pneumoniae infection promotes vascular smooth muscle cell migration via c-Fos/interleukin-17C signaling.

Chlamydia pneumoniae (C. pneumoniae) infection is associated with the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. The migration of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) from the media to the intima is a key event in the development of atherosclerosis. Interleukin-17C (IL-17C) could enhance cell migration ability. The aim of our study is to investigate the role of IL-17C in C. pneumoniae infection-promoted VSMC migration, thereby possibly accelerating atherosclerosis. We firstly demonstrated that C. pneumoniae infection significantly increased IL-17C expression in VSMCs in the atherosclerotic lesion area from ApoE deficient mice. Our in vitro study further showed that IL-17C is required for C. pneumoniae infection-promoted VSMC migration, and its expression could be regulated by c-Fos through phosphorylating extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). Unexpectedly, in the present study, we also found that IL-17C is critical for C. pneumoniae infection-induced c-Fos activation. c-Fos expression and activation induced by the exposure to recombinant IL-17C were markedly suppressed in the presence of the ERK inhibitor PD98059. These results suggest a possible positive feedback between c-Fos and IL-17C after C. pneumoniae infection. Taken together, our results indicate that C. pneumoniae infection promotes VSMC migration via c-Fos/IL-17C signaling.