Mitochondrial dynamics changes with age in an APPsw/PS1dE9 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

Increasing research suggests that mitochondrial defects play a major role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. We aimed to better understand changes in mitochondria with the development and progression of AD. We compared APPsw/PS1dE9 transgenic mice at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months old as an animal model of AD and age-matched C57BL/6 mice as controls. The learning ability and spatial memory ability of APPsw/PS1dE9 mice showed significant differences compared with controls until 9 and 12 months. Mitochondrial morphology was altered in hippocampus tissue of APPsw/PS1dE9 mice beginning from the third month. 'Medullary corpuscle', which is formed by the accumulation of a large amount of degenerative and fragmented mitochondria in neuropils, may be the characteristic change observed on electron microscopy at a late stage of AD. Moreover, levels of mitochondrial fusion proteins (optic atrophy 1 and mitofusin 2) and fission proteins (dynamin-related protein 1 and fission 1) were altered in transgenic mice compared with controls with progression of AD. We found increased levels of fission and fusion proteins in APP/PS1 mice at 3 months, indicating that the presence of abnormal mitochondrial dynamics may be events in early AD progression. Changes in mitochondrial preceded the onset of memory decline as measured by the modified Morris water maze test. Abnormal mitochondrial dynamics could be a marker for early diagnosis of AD and monitoring disease progression. Further research is needed to study the signaling pathways that govern mitochondrial fission/fusion in AD.

Dopamine agonist resistance-related endocan promotes angiogenesis and cells viability of prolactinomas.

Dopamine agonists (DAs) are the first-line treatment of prolactinomas. They function through the dopamine 2 receptor (D2R) in the tumor cells. Endocan, also called endothelial cell-specific molecule-1 (ESM1), has been described as a marker of neoangiogenesis. However, whether ESM1 promotes the resistance of prolactinomas to DA therapy is largely unknown. In our study, 25 patients with prolactinomas were divided into resistant- and sensitive- groups according to the clinical response to bromocriptine. We found that ESM1-microvessel density of resistant prolactinomas was significantly higher than that of sensitive prolactinomas (47.9 ± 11.6, n = 8, vs 13.1 ± 2.8, n = 17, p = 0.0006), indicating that ESM1 was a DA resistance-related gene. Immunostaining showed that ESM1 was expressed in tumor vessels and sporadic tumor cells, and ESM1 was overlapped with the Smooth Muscle Actin (SMA) and von Willebrand Factor (VWF) in the tumor vessels. Silencing of ESM1 markedly suppressed the viability of GH3 and MMQ cells in vitro, and furthermore, significantly increased the sensitivity of GH3 and MMQ cells to DA treatment. Additionally, silencing of ESM1 down-regulated the angiogenesis-associated genes, such as VEGFR2, FGF2, CD34, CD31, VWF, and EGFR. Knockdown of ESM1 decreased endothelial tube formation of HUVECs, and significantly increased the sensitivity of HUVECs to Avastin treatment. Therefore, we first demonstrate that DA resistance-related ESM1 promotes the angiogenesis and tumor cells growth of prolactinomas, suggesting that ESM1 may be a novel therapeutic target for prolactinomas.

Wharton's Jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells alleviate memory deficits and reduce amyloid-ß deposition in an APP/PS1 transgenic mouse model.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia in the elderly and is characterized by amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuronal loss. Cumulative evidence supports that neuroinflammation is an important factor for the pathogenesis of AD and contributes to amyloid beta (Aß) generation. However, there has been no effective treatment for AD. Wharton's Jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells (WJ-MSCs) have a potential therapeutic effect in the treatment for neurological diseases. In the present study, we evaluated the therapeutic effect of WJ-MSC transplantation on the neuropathology and memory deficits in amyloid precursor protein (APP) and presenilin-1 (PS1) double-transgenic mice and discussed the mechanism. WJ-MSCs were intravenously transplanted into the APP/PS1 mice. Four weeks after treatment, WJ-MSCs significantly improved the spatial learning and alleviated the memory decline in the APP/PS1 mice. Aß deposition and soluble Aß levels were significantly reduced after WJ-MSC treatment. Furthermore, WJ-MSCs significantly increased the expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10. Meanwhile, pro-inflammatory microglial activation and the expressions of pro-inflammatory cytokines, IL-1ß and TNFα, were significantly down-regulated by WJ-MSC treatment. Thus, our findings suggest that WJ-MSCs might produce beneficial effects on the prevention and treatment for AD through modulation of neuroinflammation.

[Change detection from high-resolution remote sensing image based on MSE model].

At present, most of the traditional change detection methods from high-resolution remote sensing image are based on a feature information, the information of multi-feature information cannot be extracted, so it is difficult to detect the complete information. In order to solve this problem, a change detection algorithm of high-resolution remote sensing image based on multiview spectral embedding is proposed in the present paper. Firstly, change image is obtained using traditional difference change detection method, and multi-feature information is extracted. The feature vector information is fused by a MSE model and the complete change information can be obtained. The experimental results show that the detection accuracy of the proposed method is better than the accuracy of traditional methods, and its stability is outstanding.