IRX1 ameliorates sepsis-induced acute kidney injury in mice by promoting CXCL14.

BACKGROUND: Sepsis-induced acute kidney injury is a general critical complication having high relevance to kidney inflammation. In spite of advances in clinical and critical care, the specific and effective therapies for acute kidney injury are still insufficient. The present study aimed to investigate the protective effect of Iroquois homeobox genes (IRX) on sepsis-induced kidney dysfunction in mice. METHODS: In order to gain insight into sepsis-related actions in acute kidney injury, the cecal puncture-induced kidney injury animal model was established. The hematoxylin and eosin staining was used to measure the pathology of kidney tissues. The kidney function-related biomarkers, including neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, creatinine, kidney injury molecule-1, blood urea nitrogen, and inflammatory cytokines, which included tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin 1ß (IL-1ß), IL-6, and monocyte chemotactic protein 1, were detected by automated biochemical analyzer or their corresponding test kits. The protein expression was measured using Western blot analysis, and the apoptotic rate of kidney tissue was measured by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling assay. RESULTS: The present study revealed the protective ability of IRX1 in sepsis-induced acute kidney injury. This study also determined the potential mechanism of IRX1 on sepsis-induced inflammatory response and cell apoptosis. Finally, it highlighted that IRX1 exerted a protective influence on CLP-induced acute kidney injury by suppressing the activation of chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 14 (CXCL14). CONCLUSION: To conclude, the results suggest that overexpression of IRX1 could promote survival rate and suppress the CLP-induced apoptosis, inflammatory response, and kidney dysfunction through the activation of CXCL14. IRX1 and CXCL14 are essential to elucidate the mechanism of acute kidney injury. These findings may help to identify the promising targets for clinical sepsis therapy.

Modeling the spatiotemporal dynamics of industrial sulfur dioxide emissions in China based on DMSP-OLS nighttime stable light data.

Due to the rapid economic growth and the heavy reliance on fossil fuels, China has become one of the countries with the highest sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, which pose a severe challenge to human health and the sustainable development of social economy. In order to cope with the serious problem of SO2 pollution, this study attempts to explore the spatial temporal variations of industrial SO2 emissions in China utilizing the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) nighttime stable light (NSL) data. We first explored the relationship between the NSL data and the statistical industrial SO2 emissions at the provincial level, and confirmed that there was a positive correlation between these two datasets. Consequently, 17 linear regression models were established based on the NSL data and the provincial statistical emissions to model the spatial-temporal dynamics of China's industrial SO2 emissions from 1997 to 2013. Next, the NSL-based estimated results were evaluated utilizing the prefectural statistical industrial SO2 emissions and emission inventory data, respectively. Finally, the distribution of China's industrial SO2 emissions at 1 km spatial resolution were estimated, and the temporal and spatial dynamics were explored from multiple scales (national scale, regional scale and scale of urban agglomeration). The results show that: (1) The NSL data can be successfully applied to estimate the dynamic changes of China's industrial SO2 emissions. The coefficient of determination (R2) values of the NSL-based estimation results in most years were greater than 0.6, and the relative error (RE) values were less than 10%, when validated by the prefectural statistical SO2 emissions. Moreover, compared with the inventory emissions, the adjusted coefficient of determination (Adj.R-Square) reached 0.61, with the significance at the 0.001 level. (2) During the observation period, the temporal and spatial dynamics of industrial SO2 emissions varied greatly in different regions. The high growth type was largely distributed in China's Western region, Central region, and Shandong Peninsula, while the no-obvious-growth type was concentrated in Western region, Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan and Middle south of Liaoning. The high grade of industrial SO2 emissions was mostly concentrated in China's Eastern region, Western region, Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou and Shandong Peninsula, while the low grade mainly concentrated in China's Western region, Middle south of Liaoning and Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan. These results of our research can not only enhance the understanding of the spatial-temporal dynamics of industrial SO2 emissions in China, but also offer some scientific references for formulating feasible industrial SO2 emission reduction policies.

Coupling coordination between environment, economy and tourism: A case study of China.

How to achieve the sustainable and coordinated development of the ecological environment, the economy and tourism has already received much attention. In this paper, a comprehensive evaluation index system of the ecological environment, the economy and tourism is established, and the coupling degrees and coordination degrees of the three subsystems of 31 provinces in China from 2003 to 2017 are calculated. The results show that the average coupling degree and average coordination degree have fluctuating upward trends during the period of 2003-2017. According to the spatial distribution of the coupling degrees and coordination degrees, the coastal provinces and Chongqing, with their high ecological environment pressure and good economic development, have low coupling and extremely high coordination levels. The vast central and western provinces with good ecological environment protection and economic backwardness have high coupling and low coordination development level. From the perspective of coordinated development, only seven of the western provinces and three middle-eastern provinces possess basic coordinated development of the ecological environment, the economy and tourism. The remaining 21 provinces are over-utilizing or sacrificing their ecological environments, among which eleven eastern provinces have an advanced economy or advanced tourism and five southwestern provinces with high tourism resource endowments have an advanced tourism.

[Effect of acetazolamide on AQP1 and AQP3 expressions in fibroblast-like synoviocytes of rheumatoid arthritis].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of acetazolamide (AZ) on the expressions of aquaporin 1 (AQP1) and AQP3 in fibroblast-like synoviocytes of rheumatoid arthritis (RAFLSs) and explore the roles of AQP1 and AQP3 in the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: The study included 12 RA with knee hydrarthrosis and 10 osteoarthritis (OA) with knee hydrarthrosis and collected their synovia. From the synovia, FLSs were separated and cultured in vitro. RAFLSs were treated with different concentrations of acetazolamide (10(-4), 10(-6), 10(-8) mol/L) for different time (24, 48, 72 hours). The expressions of AQP1 mRNA and AQP3 mRNA in RAFLSs and OAFLSs were measured by RT-PCR; the expression of AQP1 protein was detected by immunofluorescence in RAFLSs and OAFLSs treated with the same concentration of acetazolamide (10(-4) mol/L) for different time (24, 48, 72 hours). RESULTS: AQP1 mRNA and AQP3 mRNA were both expressed in RAFLSs. The level of AQP1 mRNA in RAFLSs was significantly higher than that in OAFLSs (P<0.05). Different concentrations of acetazolamide (10(-4), 10(-6), 10(-8) mol/L) were able to significantly decrease the expression level of AQP1 mRNA in RAFLSs (P<0.05) in a time- and dose-dependent manner. There was no significant difference in transcription level of AQP3 mRNA between RAFLSs and OAFLSs (P>0.05); Immunofluorescence showed that AQP1 protein was significantly distributed on cell membrane. AQP1 protein expression was very apparent without acetazolamide treatment, whereas the expression was significantly attenuated by acetazolamide in a time-dependent manner. CONCLUSION: Up-regulation of AQP1 expression in RA synovial membrane may be the one of mechanisms of arthroedema. Acetazolamide can reduce the expression of AQP1 rather than AQP3 in RAFLSs.