Temperature adaptation patterns in Chinese cattle revealed by TRPM2 gene mutation analysis.

Cattle are sensitive to temperature fluctuations but adapt well to inclement weather conditions. When environmental temperatures exceed specific thresholds, heat stress becomes a critical concern for cattle. The TRPM2 gene, which resides on cattle chromosome 1 encodes a TRP channel protein, holding a unique capacity to sense temperature changes and facilitate rapid response to avoid heat stress. Here, we utilized the Bovine Genome Variation Database (BGVD) (http://animal.omics.pro/code/index.php/BosVar), and identified a missense mutation site, c.805A > G: p. Met269Val (rs527146862), within the TRPM2 gene. To elucidate the functional assessment of this mutation in temperature adaptation attributes of Chinese cattle, we genotyped 407 samples from 20 distinct breeds representing diverse climatic zones across China. The association analysis incorporates three temperature parameters and revealed compelling insights in terms of allele frequency. Interestingly, the prevalence of the wild-type allele A was notably higher among northern cattle breeds and this trend diminished gradually as observed in southern cattle populations. Conversely, the mutant-type allele G demonstrated a contrasting trend. Moreover, southern cattle exhibited markedly higher frequencies of GG and GA genotypes (P < 0.01). The presence of heterozygous and homozygous mutations appears to confer an enhanced capacity for adaptation to elevated temperatures. These results provide unequivocal correlation evidence between TRPM2 genotypes (AA, GA, GG) and environmental temperature parameters and comprehend the genetic mechanisms governing temperature adaptation in cattle. This provides valuable insights for strategic breed selection across diverse climatic regions, thereby aiding livestock production amid evolving climate challenges.

The TRPM2 gene encodes TRP channel protein that helps animals in combating heat stress. Twenty Chinese local cattle breeds were genotyped, and association analysis was performed. This investigation encompasses the distribution pattern of the missense mutation locus rs527146862 of the TRPM2 gene in southern, northern, and central cattle populations. The results demonstrated a significant relationship between rs527146862 locus and temperature adaptation attributes in Chinese cattle.

Differential proteomics of placentas reveals metabolic disturbance and oxidative damage participate yak spontaneous miscarriage during late pregnancy.

BACKGROUND: High spontaneous miscarriage rate in yak, especially during late pregnancy, have caused a great economic loss to herdsmen living in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. However, the mechanism underlying spontaneous miscarriage is still poorly understood. In the present study, placenta protein markers were identified to elucidate the pathological reasons for yak spontaneous miscarriage through isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) proteomic technology and bioinformatic approaches. RESULTS: Subsequently, a total of 415 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified between aborted and normal placentas. The up-regulated DEPs in the aborted placentas were significantly associated with "spinocerebellar ataxia", "sphingolipid signalling", "relaxin signalling", "protein export", "protein digestion and absorption" and "aldosterone synthesis and secretion" pathway. While the down-regulated DEPs in the aborted placentas mainly participated in "valine, leucine and isoleucine degradation", "PPAR signalling", "peroxisome", "oxidative phosphorylation", "galactose metabolism", "fatty acid degradation", "cysteine and methionine metabolism" and "citrate cycle" pathway. CONCLUSIONS: The results implied that the identified DEPs could be considered as placental protein markers for yak miscarriage during late pregnancy, and biomacromolecule metabolic abnormality and oxidative damage might be responsible for the high spontaneous miscarriage rate in yak. These findings provide an important theoretical basis for deciphering the pathologic mechanism of late spontaneous miscarriage in yak.

Differential proteomic analysis demonstrates follicle fluid participate immune reaction and protein translation in yak.

BACKGROUND: Ovarian follicle fluid (FF) as a microenvironment surrounding oocyte plays critical roles in physio-biochemical processes of follicle development and oocyte maturation. It is hypothesized that proteins in yak FF participate in the physio-biochemical pathways. The primary aims of this study were to find differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) between mature and immature FF, and to elucidating functions of the mature and immature FF in yak. RESULTS: The mature and immature FF samples were obtained from three healthy yaks that were nonpregnant, aged from four to five years, and free from any anatomical reproductive disorders. The FF samples were subjected to mass spectrometry with the isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ). The FF samples went through correlation analysis, principle component analysis, and expression pattern analysis based on quantification of the identified proteins. Four hundred sixty-three DEPs between mature and immature FF were identified. The DEPs between the mature and immature FF samples underwent gene ontology (GO), Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG), and protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis. The DEPs highly expressed in the mature FF mainly took parts in the complement and coagulation cascades, defense response, acute-phase response, response to other organism pathways to avoid invasion of exogenous microorganisms. The complement activation pathway contains eight DEPs, namely C2, C5, C6, C7, C9, C4BPA, CFH, and MBL2. The three DEPs, CATHL4, CHGA, and PGLYRP1, take parts in defense response pathway to prevent invasion of exogenetic microorganism. The coagulation cascades pathway involves many coagulation factors, such as F7, F13A1, FGA, FGB, FGG, KLKB1, KNG1, MASP1, SERPINA1, and SERPIND1. While the DEPs highly expressed in the immature FF participated in protein translation, peptide biosynthetic process, DNA conformation change, and DNA geometric change pathways to facilitate follicle development. The translation pathway contains many ribosomal proteins, such as RPL3, RPL5, RPS3, RPS6, and other translation factors, such as EIF3J, EIF4G2, ETF1, MOV10, and NARS. The DNA conformation change and DNA geometric change involve nine DEPs, DDX1, G3BP1, HMGB1, HMGB2, HMGB3, MCM3, MCM5, MCM6, and RUVBL2. Furthermore, the expressed levels of the main DEPs, C2 and SERPIND1, were confirmed by western blot. CONCLUSIONS: The differential proteomics revealed the up-regulated DEPs in mature FF take parts in immunoreaction to prevent invasion of microorganisms and the up-regulated DEPs in immature FF participate in protein synthesis, which may improve our knowledge of the follicular microenvironment and its biological roles for reproductive processes in yak. The DEPs, C2 and SERPIND1, can be considered as protein markers for mature yak follicle.

Increased SPC24 in prostatic diseases and diagnostic value of SPC24 and its interacting partners in prostate cancer.

SPC24 is a crucial component of the mitotic checkpoint machinery in tumorigenesis. High levels of SPC24 have been found in various cancers, including breast cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, osteosarcoma and thyroid cancer. However, to the best of our knowledge, the impact of SPC24 on prostate cancer (PCa) and other prostate diseases remains unclear. In the present study expression of global SPC24 messenger RNA (mRNA) was assessed in a subset of patients with PCa included in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Increased levels of SPC24 expression were found in PCa patients >60 years old compared to patients <60 and increased SPC24 expression was also associated with higher levels of prostate specific antigen (P<0.05) and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). Higher levels of SPC24 expression were associated with negative outcomes in PCa patients (P<0.05). Furthermore, in Chinese patients with prostatitis, benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and PCa, SPC24 was expressed at significantly higher levels than that in adjacent/normal tissues, as assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemistry and western blotting. High expression of SPC24 was associated with high Gleason stages (IV and V; P<0.05). Further analysis, based on Gene Ontology and pathway functional enrichment analysis, suggested that nuclear division cycle 80 (NDC80), an SPC24 protein interaction partner, and mitotic spindle checkpoint serine/threonine-protein kinase BUB1 (BUB1), a core subunit of the spindle assembly checkpoint, may be associated with SPC24 in PCa development. Finally, using binary logistic regression, algorithms combining the receiver operating characteristic between SPC24 and BUB1 or NDC80 indicated that a combination of these markers may provide better PCa diagnosis ability than other PCa diagnosis markers. Taken together, these findings suggest that SPC24 may be a promising prostate disease biomarker.

Mitogenomic diversity and phylogeny analysis of yak (Bos grunniens).

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Mitochondrial genome has aseries of characteristics such as simple structure, no recombination, maternalinheritance, stable structure, fast evolution rate, and high copy number. Moreover, it is easy to be sequenced,contains high-resolution phylogenetic information, and exists in a wide rangeof taxa. Therefore, it is widely used in the study of biological phylogeny. Atpresent, phylogenetic studies focus mainly on D-loop region, cytochrome b gene,and protein-coding sequence. Phylogenetic studies using the mitochondrialcomplete sequence are rarely reported in yak. Therefore, the present studyaimed to construct phylogenetic tree using yak mitochondrial complete sequenceand compare the subsequent results with previous findings obtained usingpartial sequences. RESULTS: Complete mitochondrial sequences of five yakpopulations from Qinghai and Xinjiang were obtained. The mitotype diversity ofthe five populations was Xueduo yak (0.992 ± 0.015), Pamir yak (0.990 ± 0.014),Yushu yak (0.963 ± 0.033), Qilian yak (0.948 ± 0.036), and Huanhu yak (0.905 ±0.048), which showed a higher mitotype diversity compared with other breeds fromthe previous reports, including Jiulong yak, Maiwa yak, Zhongdian yak, andTianzhu yak. A total of 78 mitotypes were obtained from 111 individuals. Amongthese, Yushu yak, Huanhu yak, Xueduo yak, and Qilian yak all shared mitotypes,but the Pamir yak did not share mitotypes with these four populations.Phylogenetic analysis showed that yak populations were separable into threedistinct branches. The analysis identified a new phylogenetic branch containingboth wild and domestic yaks. The 155 mitotypes found in 206 individuals weredivided into 3 haplogroups by mitotype clustering. Thehaplogroup was not associated with the geographical distribution of yaks. Theyaks in the same population or the same ecological environment were distributedin different haplogroups. Among the threehaplogroups, haplogroup A and haplogroup B showed a star-shaped distribution ofmitotypes. The central mitotypes were widely distributed and had a highfrequency. CONCLUSIONS: Thegenetic diversity of yaks in Qinghai was high. Both domestic and wild yaks clusteredinto three branches.

Retroperitoneal ectopic pregnancy: A case report and literature review.

Retroperitoneal ectopic pregnancy (REP) is a rare type of pregnancy with retroperitoneal implantation of the embryo. Herein, we report a case of a 29-year-old female with REP admitted in our department. Moreover, we review the literatures published previously reporting REP with the aim to improve the understanding of diagnosis and treatment of REP.

[Low-dose testosterone undecanoate capsules combined with tadalafil for late-onset hypogonadism accompanied with ED].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the clinical effect of low-dose testosterone undecanoate capsules combined with tadalafil on late-onset hypogonadism (LOH) accompanied with ED. METHODS: Ninety cases of LOH accompanied with ED who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into a control group and a combination therapy group, the former treated with tadalafil and the latter with low-dose testosterone undecanoate capsules combined with tadalafil. The LOH symptoms, IIEF-5 scores, sexual encounter profile (SEP) scores, prostate volumes, and the levels of total testosterone (TT), free testosterone (FT) and prostatic specific antigen (PSA) were recorded and compared between the two groups before and after treatment. RESULTS: The IIEF-5 and SEP scores and the TT and FT levels were 20.6 +/- 3.8, 4.02 +/- 1.08, (15.4 +/- 3.4) nmol/L and (0.391 +/- 0.062) nmol/L, respectively, in the combination therapy group after treatment, significantly higher both than 15.7 +/- 3.9, 1.49 +/- 0.82, (10.1 +/- 1.2) nmol/L and (0.200 +/- 0.045) nmol/L before treatment (P < 0.01) and than 8.6 +/- 3.6, 3.50 +/- 1.21, (10.2 +/- 1.2) nmol/L and (0.210 +/- 0.051) nmol/L in the control group after treatment (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Low-dose testosterone undecanoate capsules combined with tadalafil has a definite clinical effect and no obvious adverse reactions in the treatment of LOH accompanied with ED.

[Low-dose daily de-escalatory administration of tadalafil for psychological erectile dysfunction].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of low-dose daily de-escalatory administration of tadalafil on psychological erectile dysfunction (ED). METHODS: We randomized 84 psychological ED patients into an observation and a control group of equal number to receive low-dose daily de-escalatory administration and on-demand medication of tadalafil, respectively, both for 2 months. We compared the scores on IIEF-5 and erection hardness (EHS) between the two groups before and after the treatment. RESULTS: The treatment and follow-up were accomplished for 79 cases, with 5 withdrawals in the control group. The IIEF-5 and EHS scores were remarkably improved in both the observation and control groups after treatment. The rate of therapeutic effectiveness was significantly higher in the observation group than in the control (95.2% vs 86.5%, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Low-dose daily de-escalatory administration of tadalafil is highly effective and even better than on-demand medication of tadalafil for psychological ED.

[Combination of compound Xuanju capsule and tamoxifen citrate for idiopathic oligozoospermia].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical effects of Compound Xuanju Capsule combined with tamoxifen citrate on the seminal parameters of men with idiopathic oligozoospermia. METHODS: We equally assigned 120 men with idiopathic oligozoospermia to receive Compound Xuanju Capsule plus tamoxifen citrate (experiment group) or tamoxifen citrate alone (control group). After 3 months of medication, we compared the concentration and total number of sperm with the baseline, and analyzed the influence of the duration of natural infertility on the therapeutic effect. RESULTS: Both the concentration and total number of sperm were significantly increased in both the experiment and the control groups after 3 months of medication as compared with the baseline (P < 0.05), and the increases were even more significant in the former than in the latter group (P < 0.05). The therapeutic efficacy was remarkably better in the patients with natural infertility < or = years than in those > 3 years (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Compound Xuanju Capsule combined with tamoxifen citrate produces satisfactory results in the treatment of idiopathic oligozoospermia, and therefore can be used as a first-line therapy for this disease.

[Jinleng undershorts palliates varicocele].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of Jinleng undershorts on the elevated scrotal temperature induced by varicocele as well as on other clinical symptoms of the disease. METHODS: Fifty-one varicocele patients received the treatment of wearing Jinleng undershorts for 30 min twice a day for a course of 90 days. Comparisons were made between the scrotal temperatures and other clinical symptoms of varicocele before and after the treatment. RESULTS: After 90 days of treatment with Jinleng undershorts, the left scrotal temperature of the varicocele patients was significantly reduced from (32.16 +/- 0.79) degrees C to (31.53 +/- 0.77) degrees C (P < 0.01), and the right scrotal temperature decreased from (31.91 +/- 0.73) degrees C to (31.81 +/- 0.63) degrees C (P > 0.05). Compared with pretreatment, significant improvement was found in such symptoms as wetness, fever and swelling of the scrotum, backache, headache, dizziness, fatigue and anxiety (P < 0.05), as well as in testicular pain (P < 0.01) and IIEF-5 score, which was increased from 15.89 +/- 6.13 to 20.04 +/- 3.87 (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Jinleng undershorts can be used for the treatment of mild and moderate varicocele.