[Equol and its enantiomers inhibited urethane-induced lung cancer in mice].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects and mechanisms of equol and its enantiomers on urethane-induced lung cancer in mice. METHODS: A total of 120 5-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into 8 groups: lung cancer tumor control group (CG), genistein control group (GCG), low dose racemic equol group (LEG), high dose racemic equol group (HEG), low dose R-equol group (LRE), high dose R-equol group (HRE), low dose S-equol group (LSE) and high dose S-equol group (HSE). Urethane was injected subcutaneously twice a week for 4 weeks to induce lung cancer and then the mice were fed for 4 months. The body weight and food intake of each group were measured and recorded weekly. After the mice were sacrificed, the blood, livers and lungs of the mice were collected. The incidence of lung cancer in each group was recorded. The concentration of serum superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA) and 8-hydroxydeoxygunosine (8-OHdG) were detected by the corresponding kits. Western blotting was used to detect the expression of nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) in the livers. Between-group differences in body weight and food intake of the mice were compared using repeated measures ANOVA, and ANOVA for the differences between non-repeated measurements, with post hoc analysis using Tukey's method if there were between-group differences. Comparisons of categorical data were performed by chi-square test, and if there were differences between the groups, the Bonferroni method was used for pairwise comparison. RESULTS: A total of 49 in the 120 mice developed lung cancer. The overall incidence of lung cancer was 40.8%. Compared with the control group, the incidence of lung cancers in each experimental group was lower, and the difference was statistically significant. The incidence of lung cancer in the high-dose experimental group was significantly lower than that in the low-dose experimental group. However, the incidence of lung cancer was similar in the three equol groups and the genistein group at the same dose. Compared with the control group, the high-dose experimental group had higher serum SOD concentration, lower MDA and 8-OHdG concentrations, and the differences were statistically significant. Western blotting analysis showed that the expression levels of Nrf2 protein in the experimental groups were higher than those in the control group except the low-dose racemic equol group, and the Nrf2 protein expression level in the high-dose equol groups was higher than that in the low-dose equol groups. CONCLUSION: Racemic equol and its enantiomers mayinhibit lung carcinogenesis through antioxidant effects.

Realization of a Townes Soliton in a Two-Component Planar Bose Gas.

Most experimental observations of solitons are limited to one-dimensional (1D) situations, where they are naturally stable. For instance, in 1D cold Bose gases, they exist for any attractive interaction strength g and particle number N. By contrast, in two dimensions, solitons appear only for discrete values of gN, the so-called Townes soliton being the most celebrated example. Here, we use a two-component Bose gas to prepare deterministically such a soliton: Starting from a uniform bath of atoms in a given internal state, we imprint the soliton wave function using an optical transfer to another state. We explore various interaction strengths, atom numbers, and sizes and confirm the existence of a solitonic behavior for a specific value of gN and arbitrary sizes, a hallmark of scale invariance.

Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and hypersensitive C-reaction protein are associated with miscarriage during the second trimester of pregnancy.

This study investigated whether biomarkers in the second trimester of pregnancy, including the white blood cell (WBC) count, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), hypersensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) concentration, and procalcitonin (PCT) concentration, were associated with miscarriage during the second trimester of pregnancy. Sixty-two asymptomatic patients in their second trimester of pregnancy were included in the control group (group A). Among 67 patients diagnosed with late threatened miscarriage, 46 patients with ongoing pregnancy were included in group B and 21 patients with subsequent miscarriage were included in group C. The serum of these patients was collected and the biomarkers were analyzed. A paired-samples t-test was used for the comparison between the groups before and after the miscarriage. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was performed to evaluate the predictive value of different biomarkers for miscarriage during the second trimester of pregnancy. WBC count, neutrophil percentage, and hs-CRP levels were significantly higher in group C than in groups A and B (p<0.05). Lymphocyte percentage and albumin levels decreased significantly from group A to group C (p<0.05). In contrast, NLR increased significantly from group A to group C (p<0.05). There was a significant decrease in the WBC count, neutrophil percentage, hemoglobin concentration, and post-miscarriage NLR among the cases with miscarriage (p<0.05). The area under the curve of WBC count, NLR, hs-CRP, and the combination of these three factors for the prediction of late miscarriage varied from 78.0% to 82.6%. The combination of these three factors had the highest specificity of 91.1%, while hs-CRP had the highest sensitivity of 88.9%. WBC count, NLR, and hs-CRP levels are strongly associated with miscarriage during the second trimester of pregnancy, indicating that they are potential predictive biomarkers.

Tan's two-body contact across the superfluid transition of a planar Bose gas.

Tan's contact is a quantity that unifies many different properties of a low-temperature gas with short-range interactions, from its momentum distribution to its spatial two-body correlation function. Here, we use a Ramsey interferometric method to realize experimentally the thermodynamic definition of the two-body contact, i.e., the change of the internal energy in a small modification of the scattering length. Our measurements are performed on a uniform two-dimensional Bose gas of 87Rb atoms across the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless superfluid transition. They connect well to the theoretical predictions in the limiting cases of a strongly degenerate fluid and of a normal gas. They also provide the variation of this key quantity in the critical region, where further theoretical efforts are needed to account for our findings.

Magnetic Dipolar Interaction between Hyperfine Clock States in a Planar Alkali Bose Gas.

In atomic systems, clock states feature a zero projection of the total angular momentum and thus a low sensitivity to magnetic fields. This makes them widely used for metrological applications like atomic fountains or gravimeters. Here, we show that a mixture of two such nonmagnetic states still displays magnetic dipole-dipole interactions comparable to the one expected for the other Zeeman states of the same atomic species. Using high-resolution spectroscopy of a planar gas of ^{87}Rb atoms with a controlled in plane shape, we explore the effective isotropic and extensive character of these interactions and demonstrate their tunability. Our measurements set strong constraints on the relative values of the s-wave scattering lengths a_{ij} involving the two clock states.

[Clinical study on perinatal outcomes of 80 cases with unicornuate uterus pregnancy].

Objective: To analyze the perinatal outcomes of unicornuate uterus pregnancy. Methods: The clinical data of patients with unicornuate uterus pregnancy who delivered between January 2009 and December 2018 in Women's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, were reviewed retrospectively. Live birth was defined as the delivery of a baby after at least 28 weeks gestational age. Ninety-eight patients were diagnosed as unicornuate uterus, while 4 cases of stillbirth and 4 cases of twin pregnancy and 10 cases of incomplete data were excluded, and 80 patients with unicornuate uterus were included in the observation group. By matching the age, gestational age and delivery mode, 160 patients were randomly selected as the control group. The perinatal outcomes such as delivery mode, cesarean section indication sequence, postpartum hemorrhage, vaginal delivery time, newborn birth weight and Apgar score were analyzed retrospectively. Results: In the unicornuate uterus group, there were 10 cases of vaginal delivery and 70 cases of cesarean section, among which the primary indication of premature cesarean section and full-term cesarean section was abnormal fetal position, accounting for 7/18 and 50.0% (26/52), respectively. While in the control group, there were 20 cases of vagianl delivery and 140 cases of cesarean section, among which the main indications of premature cesarean section were placenta previa, intrahepatic cholestasis during pregnancy and scar uterus, accounting for 19.4% (7/36), and the primary indication of full-term cesarean section was abnormal fetal position, accounting for 23.1% (24/104). The postpartum hemorrhage of the vaginal delivery in the unicornuate uterus group and the control group was (319±161) and (261±152) ml, respectively, and the postpartum hemorrhage of the cesarean section delivery was (257±106) and (272±123) ml, respectively. There were no significant differences between the two groups statistically (all P>0.05). The time of the first stage of labor was (502±386) and (465±296) minutes in the unicornuate uterus group and the control group, and the time of the second stage was (74±73) and (47±30) minutes, respectively. There were no significant differences between the two groups statistically (all P>0.05). The neonatal birth weight in the unicornuate uterus group and the control group was (3 018±548) and (3 080±562) g, respectively, and there was no significant difference between the two groups statistically (P=0.42). According to preterm birth and different pre-pregnancy body mass index, the neonatal birth weight of the two groups were compared, and the differences were not statistically significant (all P>0.05). One-minute Apgar score of premature in the unicornuate uterus group and the control group were 10 (9.25-10) and 10 (10-10), 5-minute Apgar score were 10 (10-10) and 10 (10-10), respectively. One-minute Apgar score of full-term in the unicornuate uterus group and the control group were 10 (10-10) and 10 (10-10), 5-minute Apgar score were 10 (10-10) and 10 (10-10), respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups, respectively (all P>0.05). Conclusions: The patients with unicornuate uterus could give birth vaginally in the absence of other operation indications. The perinatal outcome of women with unicornuate uterus is similar to that of women with non-uterine abnormalities. It is found that the abnormal fetal position with unicornuate uterus is the main reason for cesarean section.

[Effects of equol on colon cancer cell proliferation].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of equol on the proliferation of colom cancer cells and to explore the mechanisms. METHODS: Colon cancer cells (DLD1,HCT15,COLO205,LOVO,SW480) were incubated, the cell proliferation was identified by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide cell proliferation assay. Reverse transcription PCR and Western blot were used to measure the mRNA and the protein expression of estrogen receptor and nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2)in the colon cancer cells, respectively. Moreover, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide cell proliferation assay was used to investigate the effect of estrogen receptor(ER) inhibitor,ERα agonist, and estrogen receptor ERßagonist on the cell proliferation. RESULTS: ERα was faintly expressed in the DLD-1 and HCT-15 cells. However, ERß expression in DLD1, HCT15, COLO205, LOVO, and SW480 colon cancer cells. Different concentrations of equol (0, 0.5, 1, 5, 10 µmol/L) significantly inhibited the growth of HCT-15 cell with the expression of ERα and ERß.More-over, different concentrations of equol (0, 0.5, 1, 5, 10 µmol/L) significantly inhibited the growth of LOVO, and SW480 cells with the ERß expression in a dose-dependent manner as demonstrated with a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide cell proliferation assay. mRNA expressions of ERα and ERß in HCT-15 were stimulated significantly. Western blotting proved that the protein expressions of ERα and ERß increased with the increasing of equol dose. Moreover we found significant difference of Nrf2 protein expression in HCT-15 cell stimulated by different concentrationss of equol. After the similation of estrogen receptor inhibitor, ERα agonist, or ERß agonist, we found that only dif-ferent concentrations of ERß agonist(0, 1, 10, 100, 1 000, 10 000 nmol/L) significantly inhibited the growth of HCT-15, LOVO, and SW480 in adose-dependent manner. Estrogen receptor inhibitor and ERα agonistdid not present significant effect on the cell proliferation of HCT-15, LOVO, and SW480. CONCLUSION: Equol inhibited the colon cancer cell proliferation by its estrogenic activities and antioxidant activities.

Tetrakis(mu-2,3-dimethoxybenzoato)bis[(2,2'-bipyridine)(2,3-dimethoxybenzoato)lanthanum(III)].

The title compound, tetrakis(mu-2,3-dimethoxybenzoato)-kappa(4)O:O';kappa(6)O,O':O'-bis[(2,2'-bipyridine-N,N')(2,3-dimethoxybenzoato-O,O')lanthanum(III)], [La(2)(2,3-DMOBA)(6)(2,2'-bpy)(2)], where 2,3-DMOBA is 2,3-dimethoxybenzoate (C(9)H(9)O(4)) and 2,2'-bpy is 2,2'-bipyridine (C(10)H(8)N(2)), is a dimer with a centre of inversion between the La atoms bridged by four carboxylate ligands. The central La atom is ennea-coordinated and has a distorted monocapped square-antiprism geometry.

catena-Poly[europium-tri-mu-4-methyl-benzoato].

Each Eu3+ ion in the title compound, catena-poly[europium(III)-tri-mu-4-methylbenzoato-O:O,O';O:O,O';O,O':O'], [[Eu(C8H7O2)3]3]n, is coordinated by nine O atoms, and three Eu atoms form a trimeric unit. These trimeric units are linked by bridging-chelating carboxylates to form an infinite one-dimensional polymer chain.

Generation of monoclonal antibodies to bovine follicle-stimulating hormone and application in an enzyme immunoassay.

Twenty monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to bovine follicle-stimulating hormone (bFSH) were generated by using the hybridoma technique. Twelve of the MAbs have been shown to bind specifically to bFSH and seven of them were purified from the respective ascitic fluids with the methods of caprylic acid precipitation and hydroxylapatite column chromatography. The purity of the MAbs was in the range of 86-95%. Three of the purified MAbs have been coupled to horseradish peroxidase (HRP). By using a matrix cross-matching procedure, two MAbs reacted with discrete antigenic determinants are selected for a double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA). The designed ELISA procedure could be performed within 60 min in a two-stage incubation and has a minimum sensitivity of 1ngFSH/ml. For serum samples, its mean intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were 3.4% and 7.3% respectively. The DAS-ELISA can be used to establish a complete FSH profile in the field of in vitro diagnosis.