Alanine and arginine rich domain containing protein, Aard, is directly regulated by androgen receptor in mouse Sertoli cells.

Alanine and arginine rich domain containing protein (Aard) is specifically expressed in Sertoli cells (SCs) of mouse testis and the expression increases in an age­dependent manner. A number of previous studies have indicated that androgen and androgen receptor (AR) signaling pathways are particularly important for spermatogenesis in mouse SCs, however, the association between Aard and AR remain to be elucidated. The present study identified Aard as a gene that is directly regulated by AR in mouse SCs, which is important in spermatogenesis. The expression of AARD was significantly downregulated in the testes of Sertoli cell­selective AR knockout mice compared with wild­type mice as analyzed by western blotting and immunofluorescence analyses. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting indicated that AARD was predominantly expressed in adult mouse testis and its expression was increased in an age-dependent manner. In addition, AARD expression was upregulated by testosterone in primary SCs in vitro, which was confirmed by bioinformatics analysis and a dual­luciferase reporter assay. Finally, chromatin immunoprecipitation and electrophoretic mobility shift assays indicated that the ligand­bound AR activated Aard transcription via directly binding to the androgen­responsive element of the Aard promoter. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to document that Aard is directly regulated by AR in mouse Sertoli cells.

Acupuncture intervention in ischemic stroke: a randomized controlled prospective study.

Stroke is one of the most common causes of death and few pharmacological therapies show benefits in ischemic stroke. In this study, 290 patients aged 40-75 years old with first onset of acute ischemic stroke (more than 24 hours but within 14 days) were treated with standard treatments, and then were randomly allocated into an intervention group (treated with resuscitating acupuncture) and a control group (treated using sham-acupoints). Primary outcome measures included Barthel Index (BI), relapse and death up to six months. For the 290 patients in both groups, one case in the intervention group died, and two cases in the control group died from the disease (p = 0.558). Six patients of the 144 cases in the intervention group had relapse, whereas 34 of 143 patients had relapse in the control group (p < 0.001). The mean values for BI at six months were 70.25 ± 20.37 and 57.43 ± 19.61 for the two groups, respectively (p < 0.01). Acupuncture resulted in a significant difference between the two groups for the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), not at two weeks (7.03 ± 3.201 vs. 8.13 ± 3.634; p = 0.067), but at four weeks (4.15 ± 2.032 vs. 6.35 ± 3.131, p < 0.01). The Chinese Stroke Scale (CSS) at four weeks showed more improvement in the intervention group than that in the control group (9.40 ± 4.51 vs. 13.09 ± 5.80, p < 0.001). Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale (SS-QOL) at six months was higher in the intervention group (166.63 ± 45.70) than the control group (143.60 ± 50.24; p < 0.01). The results of this clinical trial showed a clinically relevant decrease of relapse in patients treated with resuscitating acupuncture intervention by the end of six months, compared with needling at the sham-acupoints. The resuscitating acupuncture intervention could also improve self-care ability and quality of life, evaluated with BI, NIHSS, CSS, Oxford Handicap Scale (OHS), and SS-QOL.

4-[4-(1H-Tetra-zol-5-yl)phen-oxy]benzaldehyde.

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C(14)H(10)N(4)O(2), contains two independent mol-ecules with similar structures. In one mol-ecule, the tetra-zole ring is oriented at dihedral angles of 17.71 (16) and 57.13 (17)°, respectively, to the central benzene ring and the terminal benzene ring; in the other mol-ecule, the corresponding dihedral angles are 16.46 (18) and 75.87 (18)°. Inter-molecular N-H⋯N hydrogen bonds and weak C-H⋯O and C-H⋯N hydrogen bonds occur in the crystal structure.