Recent Progress in Metal-Organic Framework Based Fluorescent Sensors for Hazardous Materials Detection.

Population growth and industrial development have exacerbated environmental pollution of both land and aquatic environments with toxic and harmful materials. Luminescence-based chemical sensors crafted for specific hazardous substances operate on host-guest interactions, leading to the detection of target molecules down to the nanomolar range. Particularly, the luminescence-based sensors constructed on the basis of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are of increasing interest, as they can not only compensate for the shortcomings of traditional detection techniques, but also can provide more sensitive detection for analytes. Recent years have seen MOFs-based fluorescent sensors show outstanding advantages in the field of hazardous substance identification and detection. Here, we critically discuss the application of MOFs for the detection of a broad scope of hazardous substances, including hazardous gases, heavy metal ions, radioactive ions, antibiotics, pesticides, nitro-explosives, and some harmful solvents as well as luminous and sensing mechanisms of MOF-based fluorescent sensors. The outlook and several crucial issues of this area are also discussed, with the expectation that it may help arouse widespread attention on exploring fluorescent MOFs (LMOFs) in potential sensing applications.

[Serum metabolomics of preterm and full-term infants based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry].

OBJECTIVE: To study the features of serum metabolites in preterm infants based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and to find differentially expressed metabolites in the serum of preterm infants. METHODS: Serum samples were collected from 19 preterm infants and 20 full-term infants before feeding. GC-MS was used to measure metabolic profiles, and the metabolic features of 397 serum metabolites in preterm infants were analyzed. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in serum metabolic features between the preterm and full-term infants before feeding. There were significant differences between the full-term and preterm infants in the levels of metabolites such as O-phosphonothreonine, digicitrin, tannic acid, and fructose-1,6-diphosphate (P<0.01), suggesting that the above differentially expressed metabolites were highly differentiated between the preterm and full-term infants. Most differentially expressed metabolites were involved in the metabolic pathways such as ABC transporters, ß-alanine and pyrimidines and were correlated with some clinical parameters (albumin and total bilirubin) (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: There is a significant difference in serum metabolites between preterm and full-term infants before feeding. Metabolomics plays an important role in improving metabolic disorders and exploring metabolism-related diseases in preterm infants.

Tauroursodeoxycholic acid enhances the development of porcine embryos derived from in vitro-matured oocytes and evaporatively dried spermatozoa.

Evaporative drying (ED) is an alternative technique for long-term preservation of mammalian sperm, which does not require liquid nitrogen or freeze-drying equipment, but offers advantages for storage and shipping at ambient temperature and low cost. However, the development of zygotes generated from these sperms was poor. Here, we demonstrated that the supplementation of tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), an endogenous bile acid, during embryo culture improved the developmental competency of embryos derived from in vitro matured pig oocytes injected intracytoplasmically with boar ED spermatozoa by reducing the production of reactive oxygen species, the DNA degradation and fragmentation, and the expression of apoptosis-related gene Bax and Bak, and by increasing the transcription of anti-apoptosis gene Bcl-XL and Bcl-2. Furthermore, TUDCA treatment promoted the blastocyst quality manifested by the total cell numbers and the ratio of inner cell mass. Taken together, our data suggest that evaporative drying would be a potentially useful method for the routine preservation of boar sperm in combination with further optimization of subsequently embryo culture conditions.

[Expression and functional analysis of CRT-E2-EGFP fusion protein in B16 cells].

AIM: To detect the expression of the Calreticulin and HPV E2 Fusion Protein in B16, and study the effects on proliferation and apoptosis of B16 cell lines in vivo. METHODS: To construct eukaryotic fluoresce expression vector pEGFP-CRT-E2, pEGFP-CRT and pEGFP-E2. Then the recombinant plasmids were transfected into B16 cells by Lipofectamine 2000. The expression of proteins was detected by Western blot. The location of different GFP fusion proteins in B16 was tested by inverted fluoresce microscope. Flow cytometry was applied to detect the effects of fusion proteins on the growing of B16 and then the apoptosis effects of B16 induced by different proteins were observed. RESULTS: The correctly constructed recombinant plasmid pEGFP-CRT-E2 and the expression of CRT-E2 gene could be detected in B16 cells. Apoptosis of B16 cells could be detected after the transient transfection. Meanwhile, the apoptosis rate of B16 cells transfected by pEGFP-CRT-E2 was much higher than that of control cells. And cell cycle G1/G0 arrest was also found (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: The eukaryotic expression plasmid pEGFP-CRT-E2 is successfully constructed and it could correctly express the fusion protein in B16 cells. And the B16 cells transfected by plasmid pEGFP-CRT-E2 could induce apoptosis.