Estrogen receptor alpha-mediated mitochondrial damage in intrahepatic bile duct epithelial cells leading to the pathogenesis of primary biliary cholangitis.

This study investigated the effects of estrogen and estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) on the pathogenesis of primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) in human intrahepatic bile duct epithelial cells (HiBECs). The researchers measured serum levels of ERα, oxidative stress indicators, and cytokines in PBC patients and healthy controls. They examined the expression of ERα, pyruvate dehydrogenase complex E2-component (PDC-E2), and apoptosis-related proteins in the small bile ducts. In vitro experiments with HiBECs showed that estrogen had a dual effect on cell viability, increasing it at low concentrations but reducing it at higher concentrations. ERα activation led to mitochondrial damage, apoptosis, and upregulation of ERα and PDC-E2 expression. These findings suggest that the high expression of ERα in the bile ducts contributes to mitochondrial damage, inflammation, and apoptosis in PBC. The study highlights ERα as a potential target for understanding and treating estrogen-mediated PBC pathogenesis.

Hand-eye calibration for an unfocused light-field camera.

A calibration framework is established for an unfocused light-field camera and a robotic arm. With Gaussian optics and light-field imaging principles, the mapping relationship between a point light source and its corresponding plenoptic disc feature is established, and the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of the unfocused light-field camera are calculated through nonlinear optimization. Transformation matrices for eye-to-hand and eye-in-hand configurations are subsequently solved and are validated by applying them to an industrial light-field camera-robotic arm system. With the proposed calibration method, 3D reconstruction for calibration board in different poses is demonstrated and calibration uncertainty is discussed in detail.