Cross-Platform Comparison of Highly Sensitive Immunoassays for Inflammatory Markers in a COVID-19 Cohort.

A variety of commercial platforms are available for the simultaneous detection of multiple cytokines and associated proteins, often employing Ab pairs to capture and detect target proteins. In this study, we comprehensively evaluated the performance of three distinct platforms: the fluorescent bead-based Luminex assay, the proximity extension-based Olink assay, and a novel proximity ligation assay platform known as Alamar NULISAseq. These assessments were conducted on human serum samples from the National Institutes of Health IMPACC study, with a focus on three essential performance metrics: detectability, correlation, and differential expression. Our results reveal several key findings. First, the Alamar platform demonstrated the highest overall detectability, followed by Olink and then Luminex. Second, the correlation of protein measurements between the Alamar and Olink platforms tended to be stronger than the correlation of either of these platforms with Luminex. Third, we observed that detectability differences across the platforms often translated to differences in differential expression findings, although high detectability did not guarantee the ability to identify meaningful biological differences. Our study provides valuable insights into the comparative performance of these assays, enhancing our understanding of their strengths and limitations when assessing complex biological samples, as exemplified by the sera from this COVID-19 cohort.

Can natural environments enhance acute effects of rehabilitation exercise for older adults? A pilot randomized controlled trial.

The added value of natural environments in rehabilitation exercise is unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether there are more acute health benefits for older adults after a single rehabilitation exercise session performed in an outdoor natural environment compared with an indoor environment. Twenty-two nursing home residents were randomly assigned to the outdoor (n = 11, 79.5 ± 2.1 years) or indoor group (n = 11, 78.8 ± 5.2 years). Performance test outcomes were measured pre- and post-training session. The indoor group had a significantly higher blood pressure, greater increase in heart rate, higher perceived exercise intensity and physiological fatigue than the outdoor group. The combination of rehabilitation exercise with an outdoor natural environment may reduce exercise fatigue and improve cardiovascular health in older adults, with greater acute health benefits compared with an indoor environment. Rehabilitation exercise in the natural environments may be a highly valued environmental intervention for physiotherapy in older adults.

[Investigation and analysis of imported medicinal materials at Chinese border ports].

Imported medicinal materials are an important part of Chinese medicinal resources. To be specific, about 10% of the around 600 commonly used Chinese medicinal materials are from abroad, and the introduction of foreign medicinal materials has promoted the development of Chinese medicine. Amid the advancement of reform and opening up and the "Belt and Road" Initiative, major headway has been made in the cross-border trade in China, bringing opportunities for the import of medicinal materials from border ports. However, for a long time, there is a lack of systematic investigation on the types of exotic medicinal materials at border ports. In the fourth national census of traditional Chinese medicine resources, National Resource Center for Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, together with several organizations, investigated the nearly 40 border ports, Chinese medicinal material markets, and border trade markets in 6 provinces/autonomous regions in China for the first time and recorded the types, sources, circulation, and the transaction characteristics of imported medicinal materials. Moreover, they invited experts to identify the origins of the collected 237 medicinal materials. In addition, the status quo and the problems of the medicinal materials were summarized. This study is expected to lay a basis for clarifying the market and origins of imported medicinal materials as well as the scientific research on and supervision of them.

Novel through-the-scope twin clip for the closure of GI wounds: the first experimental survival study in pigs (with videos).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: We developed a through-the-scope twin clip (TTS-TC) for closing GI wounds. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the TTS-TC in GI wound closure. METHODS: GI nonperforating and perforating wounds (≥2.5 cm) were created in live pigs. TTS-TCs were used to convert the large wounds into small wounds. The remaining small wounds were closed using conventional through-the-scope clips (TTSCs). The follow-up period was 1 month. Location and size of the wound, time of wound closure, intraoperative and postoperative adverse events, and conditions of wound healing were investigated. RESULTS: Thirteen wounds were created in 5 live pigs, including 2 gastric nonperforating and 3 perforating wounds and 5 large intestinal nonperforating and 3 perforating wounds. The mean long and short diameters of the wounds were 4.1 (± .9) cm and 3.4 (± .7) cm, respectively. All wounds were successfully closed using the TTS-TCs combined with TTSCs. The total mean time for wound closure was 9.2 (± 5.3) minutes, and the mean time for using the TTS-TCs was 3.9 (± 4.7) minutes. During the 1-month follow-up period, no bleeding, perforation, or death occurred; all wounds healed with scar formation; and all TTS-TCs detached spontaneously. CONCLUSIONS: The TTS-TC was successfully used to close large-sized GI wounds. The TTS-TC is a promising tool for large-size wound closure under flexible endoscopy.

Spectrochemical determination of effects on rat liver of binary exposure to benzo[a]pyrene and 2,2',4,4'-tetrabromodiphenyl ether.

Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are persistent environmental contaminants. The effects in organisms of exposures to binary mixtures of such contaminants remain obscure. Attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy is a label-free, non-destructive analytical technique allowing spectrochemical analysis of macromolecular components, and alterations thereof, within tissue samples. Herein, we employed ATR-FTIR spectroscopy to identify biomolecular changes in rat liver post-exposure to B[a]P and BDE-47 (2,2',4,4'-tetrabromodiphenyl ether) congener mixtures. Our results demonstrate that significant separation occurs between spectra of tissue samples derived from control versus exposure categories (accuracy = 87%; sensitivity = 95%; specificity = 79%). Additionally, there is significant spectral separation between exposed categories (accuracy = 91%; sensitivity = 98%; specificity = 90%). Segregation between control and all exposure categories were primarily associated with wavenumbers ranging from 1600 to 1700 cm-1 . B[a]P and BDE-47 alone, or in combination, induces liver damage in female rats. However, it is suggested that binary exposure apparently attenuates the toxic effects in rat liver of the individual contaminants. This is supported by morphological observations of liver tissue architecture on hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained liver sections. Such observations highlight the difficulties in predicting the endpoint effects in target tissues of exposures to mixtures of environmental contaminants.

Overexpression of GmNFYA5 confers drought tolerance to transgenic Arabidopsis and soybean plants.

BACKGROUND: Crop productivity is challenged by abiotic stresses, among which drought stress is the most common. NF-Y genes, especially NF-YA genes, regulate tolerance to abiotic stress. RESULTS: Soybean NF-Y gene GmNFYA5 was identified to have the highest transcript level among all 21 NF-YA genes in soybean (Glycine max L.) under drought stress. Drought-induced transcript of GmNFYA5 was suppressed by the ABA synthesis inhibitor naproxen (NAP). GmNFYA5 transcript was detected in various tissues at vegetative and reproductive growth stages with higher levels in roots and leaves than in other tissues, which was consist with the GmNFYA5 promoter: GUS fusion assay. Overexpression of GmNFYA5 in transgenic Arabidopsis plants caused enhanced drought tolerance in seedlings by decreasing stomatal aperture and water loss from leaves. Overexpression and suppression of GmNFYA5 in soybean resulted in increased and decreased drought tolerance, respectively, relative to plants with an empty vector (EV). Transcript levels of ABA-dependent genes (ABI2, ABI3, NCED3, LEA3, RD29A, P5CS1, GmWRKY46, GmNCED2 and GmbZIP1) and ABA-independent genes (DREB1A, DREB2A, DREB2B, GmDREB1, GmDREB2 and GmDREB3) in transgenic plants overexpressing GmNFYA5 were higher than those of wild-type plants under drought stress; suppression of GmNFYA5 transcript produced opposite results. GmNFYA5 probably regulated the transcript abundance of GmDREB2 and GmbZIP1 by binding to the promoters in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggested that overexpression of GmNFYA5 improved drought tolerance in soybean via both ABA-dependent and ABA-independent pathways.

MicroRNA-18a-5p mitigates oxygen-glucose-deprivation/reoxygenation-induced injury through suppression of TLRs/NF-κB signaling by targeting TLR8 in PC12 cells.

This work aimed to assess the role of TLR8 in cerebral I/R injury and its in-depth pathogenesis. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that TLR8 was up-regulated in patients with ischemic stroke than that in healthy control, and miR-18a-5p was the upstream regulatory of TLR8. Then, the rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells were exposed in oxygen-glucose-deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) conditions to construct a model in vitro. The functional experiments indicated that OGD/R can decline the viability and elevate the apoptosis of PC12 cells, while up-regulation of miR-18a-5p can alleviate OGD/R-induced cell injury. Notably, overexpression of TLR8 reverses the miR-18a-5p-mediated protection on OGD/R-induced cells injury. Finally, we found that up-regulation of miR-18a-5p obviously declined the protein levels of TLR4 and TLR7 as well as the phosphorylation of NF-κB, while overexpression of TLR8 canceled the decrease caused by miR-18a-5p up-regulation. In summing, our results illustrated that miR-18a-5p/TLR8 axis can mitigate OGD/R-induced cells injury through TLRs and NF-κB pathway.

[Application and safety evaluation of plant growth regulators in traditional Chinese medicine].

Plant growth regulator is a kind of synthetic pesticide with similar physiological activity to plant hormones. It has been widely used in grain, vegetables, fruits, flowers and other crops, and become an important technical guarantee for high yield, stable yield, high quality and efficient production of crops. In recent years, plant growth regulator is widely used in Chinese herbal medicine production for regulating the growth and development and increasing production of traditional. However the crop is different from general Chinese medicinal materials, the use of plant growth regulator should not only consider the effect of Chinese herbal medicine production, and also pay special attention to the influence of Chinese traditional medicine efficacy and safety. This paper reviewed the application of plant growth regulator in the traditional Chinese medicine, the impact on the quality and safety of Chinese medicinal materials, as well as plant growth regulator of residue limits standards and testing technology, so as to the scientific use of plant growth regulator, to promote Chinese standardization planting, provide the scientific basis to protect the safety of herbal medicine. At present, the indiscriminate use and abuse of plant growth regulators such as Zhuanggenling and bulking element are common in the production of Chinese crude drugs, which has led to a significant decline in the quality of some Chinese crude drugs, and resulted in the dual residual harm to the Chinese crude drugs and the cultivation environment, causing serious safety risks to human health. In the future, it is necessary to strengthen the registration management, use norms and limit standards of plant growth regulators in traditional Chinese medicinal materials, and strengthen the supervision and regulations on the use of fertilizer instead of medicine to avoid pesticide registration and other disorders, so as to provide a basis for the quality and safety monitoring of traditional Chinese medicinal materials. Simultaneously, it is encouraged to reduction or non-application of plant growth regulators in the production of Chinese medicinal materials, especially for traditional Chinese medicine which contains a variety of active ingredients. Therefore, it is actively advocated to cultivate Chinese medicinal materials through organic or ecological method.

Molecular dynamics simulations on RORγt: insights into its functional agonism and inverse agonism.

The retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor (ROR) γt receptor is a member of nuclear receptors, which is indispensable for the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-17. RORγt has been established as a drug target to design and discover novel treatments for multiple inflammatory and immunological diseases. It is important to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of how RORγt is activated by an agonist, and how the transcription function of RORγt is interrupted by an inverse agonist. In this study we performed molecular dynamics simulations on four different RORγt systems, i.e., the apo protein, protein bound with agonist, protein bound with inverse agonist in the orthosteric-binding pocket, and protein bound with inverse agonist in the allosteric-binding pocket. We found that the orthosteric-binding pocket in the apo-form RORγt was mostly open, confirming that apo-form RORγt was constitutively active and could be readily activated (ca. tens of nanoseconds scale). The tracked data from MD simulations supported that RORγt could be activated by an agonist binding at the orthosteric-binding pocket, because the bound agonist helped to enhance the triplet His479-Tyr502-Phe506 interactions and stabilized H12 structure. The stabilized H12 helped RORγt to form the protein-binding site, and therefore made the receptor ready to recruit a coactivator molecule. We also showed that transcription function of RORγt could be interrupted by the binding of inverse agonist at the orthosteric-binding pocket or at the allosteric-binding site. After the inverse agonist was bound, H12 either structurally collapsed, or reorientated to a different position, at which the presumed protein-binding site was not able to be formed.

JIP3 knockout protects mice against high fat diet-induced liver injury.

Multiple pathways contribute to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in response to high fat diets (HFD). A homolog of mammalian JNK-interacting protein 3 (JIP3), also known as JSAP-1, activates different components in various signaling pathways to modulate cellular processes. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of JIP3 in obesity-related pathologies pathway. Wild-type (WT) C57BL/6 and JIP3-knockout (JIP3-/-) mice were randomized to chow or HFD. HFD-fed WT mice increased hepatic JIP3 expression. Mice lacking JIP3 exhibited reduced weight gain, hepatic steatosis, insulin resistance, lipid accumulation, oxidative stress and inflammatory response in mice fed a HFD, which were, importantly, dependent on various signaling pathways. Lipogenesis-linked pathway was inhibited in JIP3-/- mice after HFD, while PPARα/γ were increased. Additionally, JIP3-/- inhibited hepatic oxidative stress, evidenced by down-regulation of total reactive oxygen species (ROS), H2O2, O2.-, malondialdehyde (MDA), xanthine oxidase (XO), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and up-regulation of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in mice after HFD feeding, which might be related to nuclear respiratory factor 2 (Nrf-2) pathway activation. Further, inflammatory response was blocked in JIP3-/- mice fed with HFD. The process might be attributed to the suppression of toll-like receptors (TLRs), p-nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and p-c-Jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK). Thus, JIP3 absence is associated with decreased lipogenesis, oxidative stress and inflammation, supplying a new target for NAFLD treatment.

Ultrasensitive automated RNA in situ hybridization for kappa and lambda light chain mRNA detects B-cell clonality in tissue biopsies with performance comparable or superior to flow cytometry.

The assessment of B-cell clonality is a critical component of the evaluation of suspected lymphoproliferative disorders, but analysis from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues can be challenging if fresh tissue is not available for flow cytometry. Immunohistochemical and conventional bright field in situ hybridization stains for kappa and lambda are effective for evaluation of plasma cells but are often insufficiently sensitive to detect the much lower abundance of light chains present in B-cells. We describe an ultrasensitive RNA in situ hybridization assay that has been adapted for use on an automated immunohistochemistry platform and compare results with flow cytometry in 203 consecutive tissues and 104 consecutive bone marrows. Overall, in 203 tissue biopsies, RNA in situ hybridization identified light chain-restricted B-cells in 85 (42%) vs 58 (29%) by flow cytometry. Within 83 B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas, RNA in situ hybridization identified restricted B-cells in 74 (89%) vs 56 (67%) by flow cytometry. B-cell clonality could be evaluated in only 23/104 (22%) bone marrow cases owing to poor RNA preservation, but evaluable cases showed 91% concordance with flow cytometry. RNA in situ hybridization allowed for recognition of biclonal/composite lymphomas not identified by flow cytometry and highlighted unexpected findings, such as coexpression of kappa and lambda RNA in 2 cases and the presence of lambda light chain RNA in a T lymphoblastic lymphoma. Automated RNA in situ hybridization showed excellent interobserver reproducibility for manual evaluation (average K=0.92), and an automated image analysis system showed high concordance (97%) with manual evaluation. Automated RNA in situ hybridization staining, which can be adopted on commonly utilized immunohistochemistry instruments, allows for the interpretation of clonality in the context of the morphological features in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues with a clinical sensitivity similar or superior to flow cytometry.

[Physiological effects of cadmium stress on Astragalus membranaceus seedlings and alleviative effects of attapulgite clay on cadmium stress].

In this study we investigate the effects of cadmium stress on Astragalus membranaceus seedlings and the alleviative effects of attapulgite clay in growth substrate on cadmium stress to A. membranaceus seedlings. The results showed that the Y (Ⅱ) (effective photochemical quantum yield of PSⅡ photosynthetic), qP(photochemical quenching coefficient), ETR(the rate of non-cyclic electrontransport through PSⅡ), and chlorophyll content of the leaves were significantly decreased with the increase of cadmium concentrations, while the cadmium content, non-photochemical quenching(NPQ, qN) of the leaves and cadmium content, MDA content, plasma membrane permeability, and the damage degree of root apical membrane of the roots were significantly increased. Simultaneously, the activities of APX(ascorbate peroxidase), SOD(superoxide dismutase), POD(peroxidase), CAT(catalase), soluble protein content, and soluble sugar content of roots were increased first but then decreased with the increasing cadmium concentration. Under the condition of without Cd stress, the attapulgite clay into the growth substrate did not significantly affect above physiological indexes of leaves, but significantly increased SOD activity and soluble sugar content of roots and decreased the MDA content, damage degree of root apical membrane of roots, while other physiological indexes did not significantly change. Under cadmium stress, the presence of attapulgite clay in the growth substrate significantly alleviated the cadmium-induced decreases Y (Ⅱ), qP, ETR and chlorophyll content of leaves, and the CAT activity, soluble protein content, and soluble sugar content of roots. Under condition with cadmium stress, the presence of attapulgite clay significantly alleviated the cadmium-induced increases of leaves cadmium content, qN and NPQ, and the cadmium content, MDA content, plasma membrane permeability, damage degree of root apical membrane, SOD, POD, and APX activity of the roots. And, the alleviative effects of attapulgite clay on cadmium stress to A. membranaceus roots were more obvious with the increase of cadmium stress time. The above results showed that the addition of attapulgite clay into the growth substrate has certain alleviative effect on the cadmium stress to A. membranaceus seedlings.

[Cloning and expression analysis of squalene epoxidase genes from Siraitia grosvenorii].

Siraitia grosvenorii, vine plant of Cucurbitaceae family, has been used as natural sweetener and folk medicine. The major components and sweet substances are both known as mogrosides which are cucurbitane-type tetra-triterpenoids. Squalene epoxidase (SQE) has been generally recognized as the common rate-limiting enzyme in triterpenes and phytosterols, catalyzing into their common precursor 2,3-oxidosqualene (OS); however, in the biosynthesis of mogrosides, the precursor was 2,3,22,23-dioxidosqualene (DOS) instead of OS. To explore the specific SQE in S. grosvenorii, we cloned two full-length SQEs (SgSQE1, SgSQE2), performed bioinformatic analysis, analyzed the expression patterns in different periods of fruits by Real-time PCR, and induced the prokaryotic expressions. Finally, the interactive sites between SQE and substrate were predicted by docking, which would provide evidence for SQE gene function study of mogrosides and also lay foundation for triterpene biosynthesis in other plants. SgSQE1 and SgSQE2 both encoded predicted proteins of 524 amino acids, and shared 84% identity to each other at residues level, but had high specificity at N-terminal region. They both accumulated in fruits, but with different patterns, SgSQE1 increased rapidly and reached the highest level at 15 d, which had identical co-expression pattern with cucurbitadienol synthase (CS). SgSQE2 had a relatively constant level. The docking results showed that predicted proteins of SgSQE1 and SgSQE2 can interact with OS, with different contact sites (R348 for SgSQE1, H349 for SgSQE2). The recombinant proteins had no activities by prokaryotic expression, which were caused by transmembrane regions. However, all the results strongly suggested that SgSQEs were both involved in secondary metabolites biosynthesis in S. grosvenorii. SgSQE1 might be involved in mogrosides biosynthesis and SgSQE2 might participate in other cucurbitane-type triterpenes or phytosterols biosynthesis.

[Prospects of molecular breeding in medical plants].

The molecular-assisted breeding, transgenic breeding and molecular designing breeding are three development directions of plant molecular breeding. Base on these three development directions, this paper summarizes developing status and new tendency of research field of genetic linkage mapping, QTL mapping, association mapping, molecular-assisted selections, pollen-mediated transformations, agrobacterium-mediated transformations, particle gun-mediated transformations, genome editing technologies, whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome sequencing, proteome sequencing and varietal molecular designing. The objective and existing problem of medical plant molecular breeding were discussed the prospect of these three molecular breeding technologies application on medical plant molecular breeding was outlooked.

[Research advance of functional plant pharmaceutical cycloartenol about pharmacological and physiological activity].

Cycloartenol, a phytosterol compound, also one of the key precusor substances for biosynthesis of numerous sterol compounds, has a variety of pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, antioxidant, antibiosis and anti-alzheimer's disease. Furthermore, cycloartenol also plays an important role in the process of plant growth and development. This article reviewed the research progress on cycloartenol pharmacological activity in domestic and foreign articles, and summarized the effect of cycloartenol and "cycloartenol pathway" on the plant growth and development, laying foundation for the its further study, development and utilization.

[Endemic plants for medicine use in China].

Based on plant species databases, species lists and literature records, general situation of the Chinese medicinal endemic plant (vascular plant) has been systematically summarized, and its quantity and distribution characteristics of Chinese medicinal endemic plants are presented in this paper. The results showed that 3 150 endemic species are Chinese medicinal plants belonging to 785 genera in 153 families, which includes 38 species of 22 genera in 12 families of pteridophyta, 42 species of 14 genera in7 families of gymnosperms, and 3 070 species of 749 genara in 134 families of angiosperms. The top four families involving medicinal endemic species are Asteraceae (218 species), Ranunculaceae (182 species), Labiatae (151 species), and Liliaceae (133 species). The top four provincial administration distributed medicinal endemic species are Sichuan (1 568 species), Yunnan (1 533 species), Guizhou (955 species) and Hubei (930 species).On the regional scale, the most abundant one is the southwest region (2 465 species), followed by the central region (1 226 species) and the northwest region (949 species). Localization characteristics for domestication and artificial cultivation of medicinal endemic species are more prominent due to their narrower and limited distribution areas, indicating it is possible for these species acting as local potential resource for reasonable economic development.

[Industrialization condition and development strategy of Notopterygii Rhizoma et Radix].

Notopterygii Rhizoma et Radix, the underground part of Notopterygium incisum and N. franchetii, is used as a classical traditional Chinese medicine, and as raw materials for 262 Chinese patent drugs production in 694 pharmaceutical factories currently. It plays an important role in the whole Chinese medicine industry with irreplaceable important economic and social values. However, wild resource of was abruptly depleted, and large-scale artificial cultivation has been inapplicable. In this study, Utilization history and the industrialization status of Notopterygii Rhizoma et Radix were summarized. Resource distribution, ecological suitability of Notopterygii Rhizoma et Radix and core technologies for seeds production, seedling breeding, large-scale cultivation has been reported by current studies, and basic conditions are already available for industrialization production of Notopterygii Rhizoma et Radix. However, there still some key technical problems need to be solved in the further research, and some policy dimensions need to be focused on in the coming industrialization cultivation of Notopterygii Rhizoma et Radix.

Fully Automated RNAscope In Situ Hybridization Assays for Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded Cells and Tissues.

Biomarkers such as DNA, RNA, and protein are powerful tools in clinical diagnostics and therapeutic development for many diseases. Identifying RNA expression at the single cell level within the morphological context by RNA in situ hybridization provides a great deal of information on gene expression changes over conventional techniques that analyze bulk tissue, yet widespread use of this technique in the clinical setting has been hampered by the dearth of automated RNA ISH assays. Here we present an automated version of the RNA ISH technology RNAscope that is adaptable to multiple automation platforms. The automated RNAscope assay yields a high signal-to-noise ratio with little to no background staining and results comparable to the manual assay. In addition, the automated duplex RNAscope assay was able to detect two biomarkers simultaneously. Lastly, assay consistency and reproducibility were confirmed by quantification of TATA-box binding protein (TBP) mRNA signals across multiple lots and multiple experiments. Taken together, the data presented in this study demonstrate that the automated RNAscope technology is a high performance RNA ISH assay with broad applicability in biomarker research and diagnostic assay development. J. Cell. Biochem. 117: 2201-2208, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Mesenchymal stem cells enhance the metastasis of 3D-cultured hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

BACKGROUND: Accumulating evidences have demonstrated that mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) could be recruited to the tumor microenvironment. Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSC) were attractive vehicles for delivering therapeutic agents against cancer. Nevertheless, the safety of UCMSC in the treatment of tumors including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was still undetermined. METHODS: In this study, an in vitro co-culture system was established to evaluate the effect of UCMSC on the cell growth, cancer stem cell (CSC) characteristics, drug resistance, metastasis of 3D-cultured HCC cells, and the underlying mechanism was also investigated. RESULTS: It was found that after co-cultured with UCMSC, the metastatic ability of 3D-cultured HCC cells was significantly enhanced as indicated by up-regulation of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related genes, and migration ability. However, cell growth, drug resistance and CSC-related gene expression of HCC cells were not affected by UCMSC. Moreover, EMT was reversed, MMP-2 expression was down-regulated, and migration ability of HCC cell was significantly inhibited when TGF-ß receptor inhibitor SB431542 was added into the co-culture system. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, these data indicated that UCMSC could significantly enhance the tumor cell metastasis, which was due to the EMT of HCC cells induced by TGF-ß.

Sirtuin-3 (SIRT3) protects pancreatic ß-cells from endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-induced apoptosis and dysfunction.

Insufficient insulin produced by pancreatic ß-cells in the control of blood sugar is a central feature of the etiology of diabetes. Reports have shown that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is fundamentally involved in ß-cell dysfunction. In this study, we hypothesized that NAD-dependent deacetylase sirtuin-3 (SIRT3), an important regulator of cell metabolism, protects pancreatic ß-cells from ER stress-mediated apoptosis. To validate our hypothesis, a rat diabetic model was established by a high-fat diet (HFD). We found that SIRT3 expression was markedly decreased in NIT1 and INS1 cells incubated with palmitate. Palmitate treatment significantly decreased ß-cell viability and insulin secretion, and promoted malondialdehyde (MDA) formation. However, SIRT3 overexpression in NIT1 and INS1 cells reversed these effects, resulting in higher insulin secretion, decreased ß-cell apoptosis, and downregulation of the expression of ER stress-associated genes. Moreover, SIRT3 overexpression also inhibited calcium influx and the hyperacetylation of glucose-regulated protein of 78 kDa (GRP78). SIRT3 knockdown effectively enhanced the upregulation of phospho-extracellular regulated protein kinases (pERK), inositol-requiring enzyme-1 (IRE1), activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6), and C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) induced by palmitate, and promoted palmitate-induced ß-cell apoptosis and dysfunction. Taken together, our results suggest that SIRT3 is an integral regulator of ER function and that its depletion might result in the hyperacetylation of critical ER proteins that protect against islet lipotoxicity under conditions of nutrient excess.