Signatures of Adaptation and Purifying Selection in Highland Populations of Dasiphora fruticosa.

High mountains harbor a considerable proportion of biodiversity, but we know little about how diverse plants adapt to the harsh environment. Here we finished a high-quality genome assembly for Dasiphora fruticosa, an ecologically important plant distributed in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and lowland of the Northern Hemisphere, and resequenced 592 natural individuals to address how this horticulture plant adapts to highland. Demographic analysis revealed D. fruticosa underwent a bottleneck after Naynayxungla Glaciation. Selective sweep analysis of two pairs of lowland and highland populations identified 63 shared genes related to cell wall organization or biogenesis, cellular component organization, and dwarfism, suggesting parallel adaptation to highland habitats. Most importantly, we found that stronger purging of estimated genetic load due to inbreeding in highland populations apparently contributed to their adaptation to the highest mountain. Our results revealed how plants could tolerate the extreme plateau, which could provide potential insights for species conservation and crop breeding.

Bogoliubov polaritons mediated strong indirect interaction between distant whispering-gallery-mode resonators.

We propose a method to achieve a strong indirect interaction between two distant whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonators in a hybrid quantum system at room temperature, even when the distance between them exceeds 40 wavelengths. By exploiting the quantum critical point, we can greatly enhance both the effective damping rate and the coupling strengths between a WGM resonator and a low-frequency polariton. We introduce a large effective frequency detuning to suppress the effective damping rate while maintaining the enhanced coupling strength. The strong indirect interaction between separated WGM resonators is mediated by a far-off-resonant low-frequency polariton through virtual excitations in a process similar to Raman process. This proposal provides a viable approach to building a quantum network based on strongly coupled WGM resonators.

Thermo-optomechanically induced optical frequency comb in a whispering-gallery-mode resonator.

We present a theoretical study that combines thermal and optomechanical effects to investigate their influences on the formation of the optical frequency comb (OFC) in whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microcavities. The results show that the cut-off order and center frequency of OFC affected by thermal effects exhibit an overall redshift by varying the power and detuning of the pump field, which provides the possibility of tuning the offset frequency of OFC. Our study demonstrates a method to characterize the effect on the generation of OFC and the tuning of its offset frequency in a WGM resonator with opto-thermo-mechanical properties and pave the way for the future development of OFC in thermo-optomechanical environments.

Both early and late maternal age at childbirth is associated with increasing odds of central obesity in offspring.

OBJECTIVE: Despite studies on offspring obesity and delayed parenthood, little attention has been paid to the central obesity of offspring. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that maternal age at childbirth (MAC) was associated with central obesity in offspring among the adult population, and fasting insulin may play a role in this association as a mediating factor. METHODS: A total of 423 adults (mean age 37.9 years, 37.1% female) were included. Information about maternal variables and other confounders was collected by face-to-face interview. Waist circumference and insulin were determined through physical measurements and biochemical examinations. Logistic regression model and restricted cubic spline model were used to analyze the relationship between MAC and central obesity of offspring. The mediating effect of fasting insulin levels on association between MAC and offspring waist circumference was also analyzed. RESULTS: There was a nonlinear relationship between MAC and central obesity in offspring. Compared with subjects with MAC 27-32 years, those with MAC 21-26 years (OR = 1.814, 95% CI: 1.129-2.915) and MAC ≥33 years (OR = 3.337, 95% CI: 1.638-6.798) had higher odds to develop central obesity. Offspring fasting insulin was also higher in MAC 21-26 years and MAC ≥33 years compared with those with MAC 27-32 years. Taking the group MAC 27-32 years as reference, the mediating effect of fasting insulin levels on the waist circumference was 20.6% and 12.4% for MAC 21-26 years and ≥ 33 years, respectively. CONCLUSION: MAC 27-32 years has the lowest odds of central obesity in offspring. Fasting insulin levels may have a partial mediating effect on the association between MAC and central obesity.

Genome of Hippophae rhamnoides provides insights into a conserved molecular mechanism in actinorhizal and rhizobial symbioses.

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides), a horticulturally multipurpose species in the family Elaeagnaceae, can build associations with Frankia actinomycetes to enable symbiotic nitrogen-fixing. Currently, no high-quality reference genome is available for an actinorhizal plant, which greatly hinders the study of actinorhizal symbiotic nodulation. Here, by combining short-read, long-read and Hi-C sequencing technologies, we generated a chromosome-level reference genome of H. rhamnoides (scaffold N50: 65 Mb, and genome size: 730 Mb) and predicted 30 812 protein-coding genes mainly on 12 pseudochromosomes. Hippophae rhamnoides was found to share a high proportion of symbiotic nodulation genes with Medicago truncatula, implying a shared molecular mechanism between actinorhizal and rhizobial symbioses. Phylogenetic analysis clustered the three paralogous NODULE INCEPTION (NIN) genes of H. rhamnoides with those of other nodulating species, forming the NIN group that most likely evolved from the ancestral NLP group. The genome of H. rhamnoides will help us to decipher the underlying genetic programming of actinorhizal symbiosis, and our high-quality genome and transcriptomic resources will make H. rhamnoides a new excellent model plant for actinorhizal symbiosis research.

Nomogram for Predicting Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting for Breast Cancer Patients.

Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) is a common side effect of cancer treatment. The factors influencing CINV in breast cancer patients remain unclear. In this study, we developed a nomogram for predicting the occurrence of CINV in this group using prospective clinical data. We pooled data from multiple studies which focused on the emetogenic chemotherapy. Then, we collected 334 breast cancer patients at Hunan Cancer Hospital (training set) to analyze the demographic and clinical variables. Using multivariate logistic regression, we identified the five significant factors that were associated with CINV: history of CINV, chemotherapy regimen, chemotherapy cycle, metastasis, and symptoms of distress. Then, we construct a prediction nomogram. The external validation set comprised an additional 66 patients. The reliability of the nomogram was assessed by bootstrap resampling. The C-index was 0.78 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73-0.85) for the training set and 0.74 (95% CI, 0.62-0.85) for the validation set. Calibration curves showed good concordance between predicted and actual occurrence of CINV. In conclusions, our nomogram model can reliably predict the occurrence of CINV in breast cancer patients based on five significant variables, which might be useful in clinical decision-making.

Tunable polarization beam splitter and broadband optical power sensor using hybrid microsphere resonators.

Based on silica microsphere resonators embedded with iron oxide nanoparticles, we proposed and fabricated an all-optical and continuously tunable polarization beam splitter (PBS), and a broadband optical power sensor (OPS) with high sensitivity. The PBS is realized since the effective refractive indexes of the transverse-electric and transverse-magnetic polarization modes in the microsphere resonator are different. Due to the excellent photothermal effect of iron oxide nanoparticles, we realized the all-optical and continuously tunable PBS based on the hybrid microsphere resonator. A maximum polarization splitting ratio of 20 dB and a tuning range of 5 nm are achieved. Based on this mechanism, the hybrid microsphere resonator can also be used as a broadband OPS. The sensitivity of the OPS is 0.487 nm/mW, 0.477 nm/mW, and 0.398 nm/mW when the probe wavelength is 690 nm, 980 nm, and 1550 nm, respectively. With such good performances, the tunable PBS and the broadband OPS have great potential in applications such as optical routers, switches and filters.

Improved polarization and energy density in boron nitride nanosheets/poly(vinylidene fluoride-chlorotrifluoroethylene) nanocomposite with trilayered architecture regulation.

A polymer film capacitor with high energy density has attracted great attention in recent decades to fulfil the requirements of miniaturization and light weight for electronics and energy storage systems. The multi-layered nanocomposite exhibits an effective route for developing polymer film with large energy capability due to the advantage of each layer. Here, two sandwich constructions of boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs)/poly(vinylidene fluoride-chlorotrifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-CTFE)) nanocomposite film were designed to investigate the effects of architecture regulation on energy storage performance, i.e. the nanocomposite serving as an inner layer with pristine films as outer layers, in which the nanocomposite film delivers a strongly polarized behavior and the pristine polymer provides a high breakdown strength. The BNNSs were liquid exfoliated from boron nitride bulk assisted with fluoro hyperbranched copolymer that was adsorbed on the surface of nanosheets via CH-π non-covalent interactions. The presence of fluoro segments improves the compatibility between the nanosheets and the P(VDF-CTFE) matrix. The maximum polarization of 7.9 µC cm-2 at 300 MV m-1 is achieved in the tailored sandwich film, and the discharged energy density of 9.1 J cm-3 is obtained in the current nanocomposite, which benefits from the barrier effect between adjacent layers induced by the redistribution of electric field and emerging charge traps at the interfaces. This sandwich BNNSs/P(VDF-CTFE) nanocomposite provides an insightful prospect for structural design with respect to the advanced application of the polymer film capacitor.

Enhanced interfacial polarization in poly(vinylidene fluoride-chlorotrifluoroethylene) nanocomposite with parallel boron nitride nanosheets.

The miniaturization of electronics provides an opportunity for the polymer film capacitor due to its lightweight and flexibility. In order to improve energy density and charge-discharge efficiency of the film capacitor, the development of a polymer nanocomposite is one of the effective strategies, in which the distribution of the fillers plays a key role in the enhancement of the electrical energy capability. In this work, the few-layer boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) was exfoliated with assistance of the fluoro hyperbranched polyethylene-graft-poly(trifluoroethyl methacrylate) (HBPE-g-PTFEMA) copolymer as stabilizer, which was adsorbed on the surface of the nanosheets via a CH-π non-covalent interaction. The morphological results confirm the lateral size of ∼0.4 µm for resultant nanosheets with the intact crystal structure. The loading of 0.5 vol% BNNSs was embedded into poly(vinylidene fluoride-chlorotrifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-CTFE)) matrix by solution casting method, and then the nanocomposite film was uniaxial stretched to achieve the orientation of nanosheets in polymer host. The dielectric constant of stretching nanocomposite with ratio of 4 at 50 mm min-1 reaches 51.1 at 100 Hz with low loss as 0.016, while the energy density of 7.0 J cm-3 at 250 MV m-1 with charge-discharge efficiency of 56% is obtained in current nanocomposite film, which is attributed to the interfacial polarization as well as parallel nanosheets blocking the growth of electrical treeing branches. This strategy of the aligned nanosheets/polymer nanocomposite establishes a simple route to construct heterogeneity in polymer films with enhanced electrical energy capability for flexible capacitors.

Nanocomposites Inhibit the Formation, Mitigate the Neurotoxicity, and Facilitate the Removal of ß-Amyloid Aggregates in Alzheimer's Disease Mice.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive and irreversible brain disorder. Recent studies revealed the pivotal role of ß-amyloid (Aß) in AD. However, there is no conclusive indication that the existing therapeutic strategies exerted any effect on the mitigation of Aß-induced neurotoxicity and the elimination of Aß aggregates simultaneously in vivo. Herein, we developed a novel nanocomposite that can eliminate toxic Aß aggregates and mitigate Aß-induced neurotoxicity in AD mice. This nanocomposite was designed to be a small-sized particle (14 ± 4 nm) with Aß-binding peptides (KLVFF) integrated on the surface. The nanocomposite was prepared by wrapping a protein molecule with a cross-linked KLVFF-containing polymer layer synthesized by in situ polymerization. The presence of the nanocomposite remarkably changed the morphology of Aß aggregates, which led to the formation of Aß/nanocomposite coassembled nanoclusters instead of Aß oligomers. With the reduction of the pathological Aß oligomers, the nanocomposites attenuated the Aß-induced neuron damages, regained endocranial microglia's capability to phagocytose Aß, and eventually protected hippocampal neurons against apoptosis. Thus, we anticipate that the small-sized nanocomposite will potentially offer a feasible strategy in the development of novel AD treatments.

Effects of GST variants on the risk odds of hematological malignancy: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Whether glutathione S-transferases (GST) polymorphisms influence the risk odds of hematological malignancy remains controversial. Therefore, we performed this meta-analysis to better analyze correlations between GST polymorphisms and hematological malignancy. METHODS: Literature retrieve was conducted in PubMed, MEDLINE, and Embase. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. RESULTS: Sixty-two studies were enrolled for analyses. Significant associations with hematological malignancy were observed for GSTM1 (P < 0.0001, OR = 1.25, 95% CI, 1.14-1.38), GSTP1 (P = 0.002, OR = 1.20, 95% CI, 1.07-1.34), and GSTT1 (P < 0.0001, OR = 1.57, 95% CI, 1.39-1.76) polymorphisms in overall analyses. Further subgroup analyses by ethnicity revealed that GSTM1 and GSTT1 polymorphisms were both significantly correlated with hematological malignancy in Caucasians, East Asians, and West Asians, whereas GSTP1 polymorphism was only significantly correlated with hematological malignancy in Caucasians and West Asians. When we stratified data according to type of disease, positive results were found for all investigated polymorphisms in patients with certain types of acute leukemia. Moreover, GSTP1 polymorphism was also found to be significantly associated with chronic leukemia and lymphoma. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicated that GSTM1, GSTT1, and GSTP1 polymorphisms may serve as potential genetic biomarkers of hematological malignancy in certain ethnicities.

Discrete ultra-slow optical solitons based on optomechanical effect.

We demonstrate that discrete solitons are possible in a micro-fabricated optomechanical structure, which consists of N identical cells. Analyses illustrate that these states originate from photon-phonon interaction or optomechanical effect. In principle, the self-localized entities are capable of exhibiting very slow velocities, depending on the photon hopping rate and phase difference among successive optomechanical cells. The theoretical results pave the way for a new type of on-chip system to observe discrete optical solitons behaviors and may have potential application in on-chip manipulation of photonic information processing.

Poly(dimethylsiloxane)/graphene oxide composite sponge: a robust and reusable adsorbent for efficient oil/water separation.

The development of polymer sponges with large adsorption capacity, high oil/water selectivity and mechanical stability is an effective strategy for the separation of oil from oil-polluted water. The improvement in the adsorption performance for polymer sponges should not be accompanied by the sacrifice of mechanical properties and recycling stability, which are fundamental to their long-term operation in the cleanup of oil-spill accidents. In this work, we synthesized a robust and reusable sponge based on a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) frame coated stereoscopically with graphene oxide (GO) via the amidation between PDMS and GO. The combination of the PDMS skeleton with the robust macroporous structure and GO nanosheets acting as mechanical fortifiers contributes to the nanocomposite sponge with great integrity and durability. The resultant PDMS/GO nanocomposite sponge exhibited a high compressive strength of 42.7 kPa with a strain of 60% after 50 cycles. The high adsorption capacity for various oils and organic solvents was obtained in the nanocomposite sponge, and the maximum capacity of 14.6 g g-1 was achieved for chloroform, which is ascribed to the large porosity and hydrophobicity caused by the rough PDMS skeleton covered by the GO nanosheets. Furthermore, a vacuum device with the nanocomposite sponge demonstrated effective separation for a large amount of oil/water mixture, with the maximum separation of 724 times the sponge weight during adsorption. This work provides a productive approach to develop porous polymer nanocomposites with high absorption properties and mechanical cycling stability and paves the path for the application of polymer sponges in oil pollution.

The liquid-exfoliation of graphene assisted with hyperbranched polyethylene-g-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane copolymer and its thermal property in polydimethylsiloxane nanocomposite.

Thermal interface materials with high thermal conductivity are essential to transfer the redundant heat and improve the reliability of integrated circuits. Here we reported high thermal conductivity in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) nanocomposite incorporated with few-layer graphene, which was exfoliated in chloroform with assistance of hyperbranched polyethylene-g-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane copolymer (HBPE@POSS) as the stabilizer. In order to improve the compatibility and enhance the thermal property, the HBPE@POSS copolymer was synthesized via the unique chain walking polymerization mechanism, which subsequently was applied to exfoliate natural graphite into few-layer graphene in low-boiling-point solvents. The majority of resultant nanosheets with low defects was verified with lateral dimension of ~400 nm and the thickness of ~1.6 nm, which is attributed to the presence of CH-π noncovalent interaction between graphene and HBPE@POSS copolymer. The graphene nanoplates (GNPs)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) nanocomposites were prepared by solution casting, in which graphene nanofillers were dispersed uniformly in the matrix due to good compatibility between PDMS and oligomeric silsesquioxane segments adsorbed on the nanosheets. The thermal conductivity of 4.0 wt% GNPs/PDMS nanocomposite reaches 0.93 W m-1  K-1, which is 400% higher than that of pure PDMS. The PDMS nanocomposite incorporated with few-layer graphene exhibits a promising prospect in thermal interface for thermal management of electronic devices, and sheds a light on the interfacial improvement mechanism of thermal conductivity for polymer composite.

Development of an optical sensor for chlortetracycline detection based on the fluorescence quenching of l-tryptophan.

A simple and selective spectrofluorimetric method for the detection of chlortetracycline (CTC) was studied. In pH 7.4 buffer medium l-tryptophan (l-Trp), applied as the fluorescence probe, interacted with CTC resulting in fluorescence quenching of the probe. CTC was detected with maximum excitation and emission wavelengths at λex /λem  = 275/350 nm. Notably, quenching of fluorescence intensities was positively proportional to the CTC concentration over the range of 0.65-30 µmol L-1 and the limit of detection was 0.2 µmol L-1 . Effect of temperature shown in Stern-Volmer plots, absorption spectra and fluorescence lifetime determination, indicated that fluorescence quenching of l-Trp by CTC was mainly by static quenching. The proposed study used practical samples analysis satisfactorily.

Construction of a novel turn-on-off fluorescence sensor used for highly selective detection of thiamine via its quenching effect on o-phen-Zn2+ complex.

In this work, a simple and selective fluorescence sensor approach called 'turn-on-off' for the determination of thiamine (TM) has been developed. As known, the o-phenanthroline (o-phen) has inner fluorescence, though when reacted with zinc ions to form the o-phen-Zn2+ complex the fluorescence intensity was enhanced effectively, while upon addition of TM into the o-phen-Zn2+ complex solution, the intensity of the system was gently quenched, which was termed the 'turn-on-off' probe. Notably, the method possessed highly selective, sensitive determination for TM with a detection limit of 0.25 µmol L-1 and the reduced fluorescence intensity was proportional to the concentration of TM in the range 0.84-80.0 µmol L-1 . Besides, the proposed mechanism was also investigated through exploring the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Furthermore, this manner was successfully applied into practical samples for TM detection with satisfactory results.

[Effect of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell transplantation on CCl4-induced liver injury in rats and intervention effects of Yiguanjian].

The aim of this paper was to observe the function of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) transplantation in process of liver injury induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) in vivo and the intervention effect of Yiguanjian (YGJ), a compound of Chinese herbal medicine. Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups: normal group, model group, cell transplantation (CT) group, YGJ group and cell transplantation plus Yiguanjian (CTY) group. Liver injury was induced through subcutaneous injection with CCl4 at a dose of 3 mL·kg⁻¹ body weight for 4 weeks, twice a week. They were injected for a total of 9 times. After the first injection with CCl4, rats in the CT group and CTY group were injected with the third-generation BMSCs at dose 1×106 (suspended in 1 mL saline solution) via tail vein. Rats in the YGJ and CTY groups were also intragastrically administered with Yiguanjian once a day. Rat serum ALT and AST activities were increased significantly on the second day after injection with CCl4, while BMSC transplantation and Yiguanjian decreased their activities. After 4 weeks of injection with CCl4, serum ALT, AST and γ-GT activities, and serum TNF-α and IL-6 expressions were increased, while TBIL were decreased in model rats compared with normal rats. Meanwhile, liver cells edema, plasmatic loose, and numerous lipid droplets were observed in rats of the model group. BMSC transplantation aggravated liver injury compared with model rats, which was manifested by decreasing SOD activity, increased MDA, TG, TNF-α and IL-6 levels, and aggravated necrosis level of hepatocytes, fusion of lipid droplets, and collagen deposition in liver tissue. Yiguanjian decreased liver injury induced by CCl4 alone and CCl4 plus BMSC transplantation. SRY gene in situ hybridization method was used to detect the positive SRY expressions in heart, liver, spleen, lung and kidney, especially in liver, while Yiguangjian decreased liver SRY expression. Wnt and ß-catenin showed high expressions in rats of normal group, which were decreased significantly in rats of models group, while Yiguanjian increased their expressions. In conclusion, BMSC transplantation could exacerbate liver injury, while Yiguanjian could protect liver injury induced by CCl4 and BMSC transplantation, which was related to decreasing the homing of BMSCs to liver and up-regulating Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway.

Wrist-ankle Acupuncture Increases Pain Thresholds in Healthy Adults.

Context • Wrist-ankle acupuncture (WAA) has been used to relieve both chronic and acute pain in China. Some research has shown that WAA can increase the pain thresholds in pain patients, but the ability of WAA to affect the pain thresholds in healthy adults is unknown. Objective • The study intended to assess the influence of WAA on the pain thresholds of healthy adults. Design • This is an observational study. Setting • This study was conducted in the School of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the Second Military Medical University (Shanghai, China). Participants • Participants were 50 healthy university students aged 19-23 y. Intervention • In the theory of WAA, each side of the body and each limb are longitudinally divided into 6 regions, with 1 needling point defined for each region at the wrist or ankle. The theory indicates that needling a point should relieve pain in a point's corresponding region. For the study, a needle was inserted and retained for 30 min in the Upper 2 point of the left wrist of each participant. Outcome Measures • The pressure pain threshold was measured by a handheld algometer at a position in the left Upper 2 region corresponding to the site of the needling and at positions in the right Upper 2 region as well as the left and right Upper 3 regions not corresponding to the site of the needling. The measurements were taken at 40 min before needling, 5 min after needling, 30 min after needling when the needles were removed, and 70 min after needling. Results • The immediate influence of the WAA on the pain threshold was not significant at 5 min after needling (P > .05). However, at 30 min after needling when the needles were removed, the increases in the pain thresholds were statistically significant when compared to those at 40 min before needling, which were the measurements at baseline (P ≤ .01). At 70 min after needling, the pain thresholds remained higher than those at 40 min before needling (P < .05). From 40 min before needling to 70 min after needling, the pain thresholds in the different positions showed a continuous increase. Conclusions • The WAA had an analgesic effect on pressure-induced pain not only in the corresponding but also in the noncorresponding regions of the needling point in healthy adults. The immediate analgesic effect of the WAA at 5 min after needling was not obvious, but the effects at 30 min and 70 min after needling were statistically significant.

[Effects of plant fermentation extract (PFE) on biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa].

Objective: We studied the effects of a plant fermentation extract on destroying biofilms of P. aeruginosa, to provide basic information for treatment of P. aeruginosa related infection diseases. Methods: Strains of P. aeruginosa in clinical specimens were isolated by streaking plate method and identified by PCR and sequencing. Virulence factors were examined using reporter strains, and biofilms were measured by test tube method and a confocal laser scanning microscopy. Results: A total of 16 strains of P. aeruginosa were isolated from clinical specimens from a local hospital, among them PA007 strain showed a maximum response when treated with plant fermentation extract. It shows that 1% plant fermentation extract significantly reduced the production of biofilm, pyocyanine and 3-oxo-C12-HSL (P<0.05). Besides, 1% plant fermentation extract also deceased the bioactivity of LasA protease and survival rate of persisters (P<0.05). The qRT-PCR result indicated that the expressions of lasI and pqsA genes were also markedly inhibited at the presence of 1% plant fermentation extract (P<0.05). Conclusion: The studied plant fermentation extract has anti-infection effect against some P. aeruginosa strains, suggesting a great potential to work as natural antibiotics.

[Study on inhibitory effect of calycosin on hepatic stellate cell activation in rats by up-regulating peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ].

To observe the effect of calycosin on the proliferation and activation of primary hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) in rats, and prove calycosin shows the effects through peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ(PPARγ) and farnesoid X receptor (FXR). The results indicated that calycosin could inhibit HSC proliferation and expressions of activation marker smooth muscle actin-α and type I collagen. With the increase in HSC activation time, FXR expression reduced, but with no notable impact from calycosin. Calycosin could up-regulate PPARγ expression and its nuclear transition in a concentration-dependent manner. Its prohibitory effect on HSC activation could be blocked by PPARγ antagonist. In conclusion, calycosin could inhibit HSC activation and proliferation, which may be related with the up-regulation of PPARγ signal pathway.