LncRNA625 modulates prostate cancer cells proliferation and apoptosis through regulating the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway by targeting miR-432.

OBJECTIVE: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second leading contributor to male malignancy-associated death in developed countries. The study aimed to evaluate the effects of lncRNA625/miR-432 on the prostate cancer cells and the underlying molecular mechanism. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The cell proliferation was detected using the MTT and colony formation, and cells apoptosis and cell cycle were analyzed with the flow cytometry. Luciferase reporter assay was carried out to detect the correlation between miR-432 and TRIM29 and PYGO2. Besides, reverse transcription-PCR and Western blot were performed to detect the mRNA and protein levels in prostate tissues and PC3 cells. RESULTS: lncRNA625 and miR-432 levels were consistently reduced in the PCa tissues compared with the healthy control and lncRNA625 levels significantly affect the miR-432 expression in PC3 cells, indicating that miR-432 is a direct target of lncRNA625. Besides, lncRNA625 overexpression could inhibit the cancer cells growth, arresting cell cycle progression at the G1/S phase, and significantly induce apoptosis of PC3 cells, but reversed by the miR-432 inhibitor. Most importantly, we further found that miR-432 could deactivate Wnt/ß-catenin pathway via suppressing TRIM29 and PYGO2 directly. CONCLUSIONS: lncRNA625 could functionally inhibit PC3 cells proliferation and promote cells apoptosis through regulating the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway by targeting miR-432.

On the importance of cavity-length and heat dissipation in GaN-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers.

Cavity-length dependence of the property of optically pumped GaN-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with two dielectric distributed Bragg reflectors was investigated. The cavity lengths were well controlled by employing etching with inductively coupled plasma and chemical mechanical polishing. It was found that the lasing characteristics including threshold, slope efficiency and spontaneous emission coupling factor were substantially improved with reducing the cavity length. In comparison with the device pumped by a 400 nm pulsed laser, the lasing spectrum was featured by a red shift and simultaneous broadening with increasing the pumping energy of a 355 nm pulsed laser. Moreover, the lasing threshold was much higher when pumped by a 355 nm pulsed laser. These were explained by taking into account of the significant heating effect under 355 nm pumping. Our results demonstrate that a short cavity length and good heat-dissipation are essential to GaN-based VCSELs.

X-ray radiation promotes the metastatic potential of tongue squamous cell carcinoma cells via modulation of biomechanical and cytoskeletal properties.

This study investigated the metastatic potential of tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) cells after X-ray irradiation as well as radiation-induced changes in the biomechanical properties and cytoskeletal structure that are relevant to metastasis. Tca-8113 TSCC cells were X-ray-irradiated at increasing doses (0, 1, 2, or 4 Gy), and 24 h later, migration was evaluated with the wound healing and transwell migration assays, while invasion was assessed with the Matrigel invasion assay. Confocal and atomic force microscopy were used to examine changes in the structure of the actin cytoskeleton and Young's modulus (cell stiffness), respectively. X-ray radiation induced dose-dependent increases in invasive and migratory potentials of cells relative to unirradiated control cells (p < 0.05). The Young's modulus of irradiated cells was decreased by radiation exposure (p < 0.05), which was accompanied by alterations in the integrity and organization of the cytoskeletal network, as evidenced by a decrease in the signal intensity of actin fibers (p < 0.05). X-ray irradiation enhanced migration and invasiveness in Tca-8113 TSCC cells by altering their biomechanical properties and the organization of the actin cytoskeleton. A biomechanics-based analysis can provide an additional platform for assessing tumor response to radiation and optimization of cancer therapies.

Improving the corrosion resistance of Mg-4.0Zn-0.2Ca alloy by micro-arc oxidation.

In this paper, corrosion resistance of the Mg-4.0Zn-0.2Ca alloy was modified by micro-arc oxidation (MAO) process. The microstructure and phase constituents of MAO layer were characterized by SEM, XRD and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The corrosion resistance of MAO treated Mg-4.0Zn-0.2Ca alloy in the simulated body fluid were characterized by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The microstructure results indicated that a kind of ceramic film was composed by MgO and MgF2 was formed on the surface of Mg-4.0Zn-0.2Ca alloy after MAO treatment. The electrochemical test reveals that the corrosion resistance of MAO treated samples increase 1 order of magnitude. The mechanical intensity test showed that the MAO treated samples has suitable mechanical properties.

Well-width dependence of exciton-longitudinal-optical-phonon coupling in MgZnO/ZnO single quantum wells.

The well-width dependence of the exciton-phonon interaction in Mg(0.1)Zn(0.9)O /ZnO single quantum wells (QWs) with a wedged structure was investigated by photoluminescence (PL) measurements at 4 K. Within the Frank-Condon approximation, the Huang-Rhys factor S, as a measure of the coupling strength between the exciton and the longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon, was extracted from the relative intensities between the first-order phonon replica and the zero-phonon peak. It was found that the value of S increased monotonically with the increase of the well width (L(W)). By studying the excitation-density-dependent PL spectra, this result was successfully explained by taking into account the internal electric field originating from the spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations. The electric field is expected to push electrons and holes to the opposite sides in the well, and consequently results in the increase of S with increasing L(W).

Spatial distribution of impurities in ZnO nanotubes characterized by cathodoluminescence.

Low-energy cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging and spectroscopy technique was employed to study the impurity distribution in individual ZnO hexagonal nanotubes fabricated by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on the sapphire (0001) substrate. The CL spectra at 10 K show that acceptor and donor impurities are incorporated in the ZnO nanotubes. CL monochromatic images indicate that the concentration of donor is higher at the bottom part and the distribution of acceptors is more inhomogeneous at the surface of the nanotubes. The non-uniform defects and impurities distributions are explained by unstable growth conditions and contamination from the environment. These results indicate that the low-energy CL is a very powerful method to investigate the inhomogeneity of luminescence properties in the individual nanostructures.

Interchange of the quantum states of confined excitons caused by radiative corrections in CuCl films.

The energy states of a particle confined in a narrow space are discrete and lined up in the order of n=1,2,3,.... However, if the particle interacts with a radiation field, modification of the energy, referred to radiative correction, will occur and quantum states are expected to interchange. We investigated the center-of-mass confinement of excitons in CuCl films by a new method based on "nondegenerate two-photon excitation scattering." The energies of confined excitons in a 19.3 nm thick film are found to be lined up in the order of n=1,3,5, because the radiative correction is very weak. On the other hand, in a 35.3 nm thick film, in which the radiative correction becomes large, the energies of quantum states are ordered n=2,3,4,1,5,7. This interchange is confirmed by comparing the calculated scattering spectra, in which radiative correction is taken into account, with the measured ones.

Potential artifacts in interpretation of differential breakthrough of colloids and dissolved tracers in the context of transport in a zero-valent iron permeable reactive barrier.

Many published studies have used visual comparison of the timing of peak breakthrough of colloids versus conservative dissolved tracers (hereafter referred to as dissolved tracers or tracers) in subsurface media to determine whether they are advected differently, and to elucidate the mechanisms of differential advection. This purely visual approach of determining differential advection may have artifacts, however, due to the attachment of colloids to subsurface media. The attachment of colloids to subsurface media may shift the colloidal peak breakthrough to earlier times, causing an apparent "faster" peak breakthrough of colloids relative to dissolve tracers even though the transport velocities for the colloids and the dissolved tracers may actually be equivalent. In this paper, a peak shift analysis was presented to illustrate the artifacts associated with the purely visual approach in determining differential advection, and to quantify the peak shift due to colloid attachment. This peak shift analysis was described within the context of microsphere and bromide transport within a zero-valent iron (ZVI) permeable reactive barrier (PRB) located in Fry Canyon, Utah. Application of the peak shift analysis to the field microsphere and bromide breakthrough data indicated that differential advection of the microspheres relative to the bromide occurred in the monitoring wells closest to the injection well in the PRB. It was hypothesized that the physical heterogeneity at the grain scale, presumably arising from differences in inter- versus intra-particle porosity, contributed to the differential advection of the microspheres versus the bromide in the PRB. The relative breakthrough (RB) of microspheres at different wells was inversely related to the ionic strength of ground water at these wells, in agreement with numerous studies showing that colloid attachment is directly related to solution ionic strength.

Peptide nucleic acid-DNA duplexes containing the universal base 3-nitropyrrole.

A peptide nucleic acid (PNA) monomer containing the universal base 3-nitropyrrole was synthesized by coupling 1-carboxymethyl-3-nitropyrrole to ethyl N-[2-(tert-butoxycarbonylamino)ethyl]glycinate. The PNA sequence H-TGTACGTXACAACTA-NH2 (X = 3-nitropyrrole and C) and DNA sequence 5'-TGTACGTXACAACTA-3' were synthesized and thermal melting studies with the complementary DNA sequence 5'-TAGTTGTYACGTACA-3' (Y = A,C, G, T) compared. The T(m) data show that 3-nitropyrrole pairs indiscriminately with all four natural nucleobases as a constituent of either DNA or PNA. However, 3-nitropyrrole-containing PNA-DNA (average T(m) value = 51.1 degrees C) is significantly more thermally stable than 3-nitropyrrole-containing DNA-DNA (average T(m) value = 39.6 degrees C). From circular dichroism measurements, it is apparent that 3-nitropyrrole in the PNA strand causes a significant change in duplex structure.

Probing single quantum dots by micro-photoluminescence.

Using micro-photoluminescence, emissions from single CdSe quantum dots were observed from the cleaved (110) facets of ZnSe/CdSe/ZnSe heterostructures grown on GaAs (001) substrates. The emission intensity of a single quantum dot was linearly proportional to the excitation intensity, demonstrating excitonic features. Emissions from these single quantum dots were found to polarize within the (001) plane, providing information on the shapes of the quantum dots.

Electrochemical therapy (ECT) for thyroid adenoma during acupuncture anaesthesia: analysis of 46 patients.

Between February 1989 and April 1993, 46 patients with thyroid adenoma were treated by electrochemical treatment (ECT) during acupuncture anaesthesia. After three months to four years follow up period, the cure rate was 97.8%. ECT is a new technique which provides simple, effective and safe treatment of thyroid adenoma. Treatment of benign tumours with ECT represents a new application.