Bursicon homodimers induce the innate immunity via Relish in Procambarus clarkii.

Bursicon (burs) is a neuropeptide hormone consisting of two cystine-knot proteins (burs α and burs ß), and burs α-ß is responsible for cuticle tanning in insects. Further studies show that burs homodimers induce prophylactic immunity. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that burs homodimers act in regulating immunity in the red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii. We found that burs α and burs ß are expressed in neural system of crayfish. Treating crayfish with recombinant burs-homodimer proteins led to up-regulation of several anti-microbial peptide (AMP) genes, and RNAi-mediated knockdown of burs led to decreased expression of AMP genes. The burs proteins also facilitated bacterial clearance and decreased crayfish mortality upon bacterial infection. Furthermore, burs proteins activated the transcriptional factor Relish, and knockdown of Relish abolished the influence of recombinant burs homodimers on AMP induction. We infer the burs homodimers induce expression of AMP genes via Relish in crayfish and this study extends this immune signaling pathway from insects to crustaceans.

Congenital malformations are associated with secondhand smoke among nonsmoking women: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The association between active maternal smoking and congenital malformations is well established, but little is known about the association between secondhand smoke and congenital malformations. Moreover, studies regarding the association between congenital malformations and secondhand smoke have not yielded consistent results. METHODS: In July 2018, we searched PubMed, EMBASE, and China Biology Medicine databases for observational studies characterizing the relationship between secondhand smoke and congenital malformations of offspring in nonsmoking women. Two reviewers independently decided on whether a study should be included, did data extraction, and assessed study quality. Pooled risks with 95% confidence intervals were calculated using either the fixed-effects models or random-effects models. Further subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses were performed to explore the potential source of heterogeneity and to examine the robustness of risk estimates. RESULTS: Thirty-three studies with a total of 31 944 cases and 32 335 controls were included. Secondhand smoke exposure was associated with an increased risk of congenital malformations (odds ratio = 1.92; 95% confidence interval 1.61-2.30). Secondhand smoke was correlated with significantly increased risk for digestive system (1.17 [1.05-1.32]), nervous system (1.74 [1.33-2.29]), and cardiovascular system (2.10 [1.32-3.35]) malformations and for oral clefts (1.87 [1.47-2.39]). CONCLUSIONS: Secondhand smoke exposure increases the risk for overall and several organ-system malformations. These findings highlight the necessity of improving community awareness to prevent secondhand smoke exposure during the preconception and conception periods.

Health care and risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes among diabetic women: an updated meta-analysis.

PURPOSE: Diabetic women appear to have adverse pregnancy outcomes. Although there were two meta-analyzes that examined the association between health care and adverse pregnancy outcomes, their results were limited because they only included congenital anomaly and perinatal mortality, and they did not clarify the detailed situations of diabetes and health care. This meta-analysis aims to completely evaluate the effects of health care in improving adverse pregnancy outcomes among diabetic mothers. METHODS: CNKI, EMBASE, Web of Science, and PubMed databases were searched for eligible studies up to December 2017, without any restrictions. Relevant cohort studies characterizing the relationship between health care and adverse pregnancy outcomes were selected for inclusion in the meta-analysis. We also screened the reference list of relevant studies. The fixed-effect models or random-effect models were used to calculate the risk estimates. The potential sources of heterogeneity were explored by stratified and sensitivity analyzes. RESULTS: Twenty-one studies with 6685 cases were included in our analysis. Health care was associated with significantly decreased risk of congenital anomaly (RR 0.237; 95% CI 0.166-0.338), perinatal death (RR 0.457; 95% CI 0.294-0.712), large for gestational age (LGA) (RR 0.794; 95% CI 0.640-0.986), and neonatal hypoglycemia (RR 0.672; 95% CI 0.486-0.929). Publication bias was not found in most results, with the exception of congenital anomaly and small for gestational age (SGA). CONCLUSION: Health care is associated with decreased risk of congenital anomaly, perinatal death, LGA, neonatal hypoglycemia.

MiR-29b Inhibits Ventricular Remodeling By Activating Notch Signaling Pathway in the Rat Myocardial Infarction Model.

BACKGROUND: To study the effect of miR-29b on myocardial infarction via Notch signaling pathway in rats. METHODS: The rat acute myocardial infarction (AMI) models were established and were divided into AMI group, sham group and normal group (N = 10 in each group). HE (Hemotoxylin and eosin) staining was used to detect whether the model was constructed successfully. MiR-29b mimics, inhibitors, mimics negative control (NC) were transfected into H9c2 (2-1) cells. Then, cells were divided into a mimics group, inhibitor group, NC group, and blank group. The relative expression levels of miR-29b, Notch1, DII4 and Hesl were detected by qRT-PCR. The expression of NICD1 was detected by Western blotting. RESULTS: The rat AMI model was successfully constructed. Compared with normal and sham groups, the miR-29b expression was down-regulated, while the expression of Notch1, DII4 and Hesl was increased, and the NICD1 protein expression was increased in the myocardial infarction area of the AMI group (P < .05). Compared with the NC and blank groups, the relative expression of Notch1, DII4, Hesl and NICD1 were upregulated in the mimics group (P < .05), whereas the expression of Notch1, DII4, Hesl and NICD1 in the inhibitor group was decreased (P < .05). CONCLUSION: MiR-29b inhibited myocardial fibrosis and cardiac hypertrophy by activating the Notch signaling pathway and protected myocardium against myocardial infarction.

Dispersive liquid-phase microextraction in combination with HPLC for the enrichment and rapid determination of benzoylurea pesticides in environmental water samples.

Benzoylurea (BU) insecticides have contributed greatly to the output of crops. Their residue in the environment put serious threats on human health and environmental safety. In this study, we have established a new, rapid, and reliable method for the monitoring of typical BU insecticides such as diflubenzuron, flufenoxuron, triflumuron, and chlorfluazuron with dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction prior to HPLC. Chlorobenzene and ethanol were employed as the extraction solvent and disperser solvent, respectively. The possible parameters which would influence the extraction efficiency such as the kinds and volumes of extraction and disperser solvents, extraction time, sample pH, centrifuging time, and salting-out effect were optimized in detail. Under the optimal conditions, the linear range of proposed method was in the range of 1.0-70 µg/L. The detection limits varied from 0.24 to 0.82 µg/L and the precision of the method was <6.5% (RSD, n = 6). The proposed method was validated with real water samples and satisfactory spiked recoveries were achieved. All these results indicate that the proposed method is a low cost, easy to operate, efficient, and sensitive method for the analysis of BU insecticides in water samples.

Solid phase extraction with silicon dioxide microsphere adsorbents in combination with gas chromatography-electron capture detection for the determination of DDT and its metabolites in water samples.

The goal of the present study was to investigate the feasibility of silicon dioxide (SiO(2)) microspheres without special modification to enrich dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its main metabolites, p,p'-dichlorodiphenyl-2,2-dichloroethylene (p,p'-DDD) and p,p'-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) in combination with gas chromatography-electron-capture detection. The experimental results indicated that an excellent linear relationship between the recoveries and the concentrations of DDT and its main metabolites was obtained in the range of 0.2-30 ng mL(-1) and the correlation coefficients were in the range of 99.96-99.99%. The detection limits based on the ratio of signal to the baseline noise (S/N = 3) were 2.2, 2.9, 3.8 and 4.1 ng L(-1) for p,p'-DDD, p,p'-DDT, o,p'-DDT, and p,p'-DDE, respectively. The precisions of the proposed method were all below 10% (n = 6). Four real water samples were utilized for validation of the proposed method, and satisfactory spiked recoveries in the range of 72.4-112.9% were achieved. These results demonstrated that the developed method was a simple, sensitive, and robust analytical method for the monitoring of pollutants in the environment.

Temperature-controlled ionic liquid dispersive liquid-phase microextraction combined with HPLC with ultraviolet detector for the determination of fungicides.

Present study described a simple, environmental benign, easy to operate, and determination method for fungicides including thiram, metalaxyl, diethofencarb, myclobutanil, and tebuconazole. The method is based on temperature-controlled ionic liquid dispersive liquid phase microextraction coupled to HPLC with ultraviolet detector. In the enrichment procedure, ionic liquid 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate [C(8)MIM][PF(6)] was used as the extraction solvent. Variable affecting parameters such as the volume of [C(8)MIM][PF(6)], temperature, extraction time, centrifuging time, and salting-out effect have been optimized in detail. Under the optimal conditions, this method has been found to have good linear relationship in the concentration range of 1.0-100 µg/L and excellent detection sensitivity with LODs (S/N = 3) in the range of 0.32-0.79 µg/L. Precisions of proposed method were in the range of 3.7-5.9% for intraday and 7.8-11.0% for interday (RSDs, n = 6). The proposed method was used for the analysis of real water samples and good spiked recoveries at two different spiked levels were achieved in the range of 84.6-102%.

Preconcentration and determination of aromatic amines with temperature-controlled ionic liquid dispersive liquid phase microextraction in combination with high performance liquid chromatography.

This paper reports a new method for the determination of aromatic amines with temperature-controlled ionic liquid dispersive liquid-phase microextraction in combination with HPLC and results of investigation of the influence of anions in ionic liquids on the extraction performance. In these experiments, 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([C8MIM][PF6]), 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium bis (trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide ([C8MIM][NTf2]), and 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([C8MIM][BF4]) were used as the extraction solvents for the investigation of the effect of anions in ionic liquids. Other parameters affecting the microextraction performance were also investigated. Under the optimal conditions, the proposed method had good linearity over the concentration ranges of 1.0-100 microg/L for 2, 4-dimethylaniline, 2-chloroanline, and N,N-dimethylaniline, and 1.5-150 microg/L for N,N-dimethylaniline and alpha-naphthylamine, with excellent correlation coefficients (R2 > or = 0.999), excellent detection sensitivity with LODs (S/N = 3) in the range of 0.39-0.63 microg/L, and precision in the range of 3.2-5.4% RSD (n = 6). Real water samples were analyzed with the established method, and good spike recoveries in the range of 86.3 to 98.9% were obtained. These results indicated that this method would be useful in the routine analysis of such pollutants.

Degradation of 1-(2-chlorobenzoyl)-3-(4-chlorophenyl) urea by nanoscale zerovalent iron under aerobic and anaerobic conditions.

The goal of present study was to investigate the applicability of nanoscale zerovalent iron (NZVI) on the degradation of 1-(2-chlorobenzoyl)-3-(4-chlorophenyl) urea (CCU) under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, respectively. The experimental results showed that NZVI could effectively degrade CCU, but the removal efficiencies were different under these two different conditions. The best removal efficiencies for CCU were 90.2 and 75.8% under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, respectively. The highly oxidative hydroxyl radicals and reductively hydrogen would account for the rapid degradation of CCU under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, respectively. The experimental results also showed that surfactant Tween 20 significantly inhibited the degradation of CCU under aerobic conditions. However it markedly enhanced the degradation of CCU under anaerobic condition.

A comparative study of characteristics in diploid and tetraploid Anoectochilus roxburghii.

Artificial induction of polyploidy is an efficient technique for improving biological properties and developing new varieties of many plants. In this study, we analyzed and compared differences in characteristics (morphological and biological) of diploid and tetraploid Anoectochilus roxburghii plants. We found significant differences between tetraploid plants and their diploid counterparts. The tetraploid plants exhibited dwarfing and stockiness. They were also bigger and had more voluminous roots and larger stomata than the diploid plants. Moreover, the biochemical analyses showed that the contents of some amino acids and minerals elements were significantly higher in tetraploid plants. The chlorophyll content of the leaves exhibited no definitive changes, but the photosynthetic performance was higher in the tetraploid plants. In addition, contents of major bioactive compounds, such as kinsenoside and some flavonoids, were enhanced in tetraploids. This is the first detailed analysis of characteristics in diploid and tetraploid A. roxburghii plants. The results may facilitate breeding programs with the species.

Micro-solid phase equilibrium extraction with highly ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays: a new approach for the enrichment and measurement of organochlorine pesticides at trace level in environmental water samples.

Ordered TiO(2) nanotube arrays have been widely used in many fields such as photocatalysis, self-cleaning, solar cells, gas sensing, and catalysis. This present study exploited a new functional application of the ordered TiO(2) nanotube arrays. A micro-solid phase equilibrium extraction using ordered TiO(2) nanotube arrays was developed for the enrichment and measurement of organochlorine pesticides prior to gas chromatography-electron capture detection. Ordered TiO(2) nanotube arrays exhibited excellent merits on the pre-concentration of organochlorine pesticides and lower detection limits of 0.10, 0.10, 0.10, 0.098, 0.0076, 0.0097, 0.016, and 0.023 µg L(-1) for α-HCH, ß-HCH, γ-HCH, δ-HCH, p,p'-DDE, p,p'-DDD, o,p'-DDT, and p,p'-DDT, respectively, were achieved. Four real water samples were used for validation, and the spiked recoveries were in the range of 78-102.8%. These results demonstrated that the developed micro-solid phase equilibrium extraction using ordered TiO(2) nanotube arrays would be very constructive and have a great beginning with a brand new prospect in the analysis of environmental pollutants.

Uses of ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate as a good separation electrolyte for direct electrophoretic separation of quaternary ammonium herbicides.

This paper describes a new method for the direct separation of paraquat and diquat by CZE with ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate employed as reliable electrolyte. Several factors that affect the separation efficiency were investigated in detail. The experimental results indicated that the optimal running buffer consisted of 50 mM 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate and 10% ethanol (pH 5.0), applied voltage was 15 kV, and temperature was kept at 30 degrees C and baseline-separation was achieved within 18 min for the analytes. The proposed method would be very useful and have wide use to monitor the residual level of such pollutants when combined with high-sensitive detector and an excellent sample preconcentration technique with high enrichment factor in the future.

Determination of trace organophosphorus pesticides in water samples with TiO2 nanotubes cartridge prior to GC-flame photometric detection.

This article described a new method for the sensitive determination of organophosphorus pesticides in water samples using SPE in combination with GC-flame photometric detection. In the procedure of method development, TiO(2) nanotubes were used as SPE adsorbents for the enrichment of organophosphorus pesticides from water samples. Several factors, such as eluent and its volume, sample pH, sample volume, sample flow rate, and concentration of humic acid, were optimized. Under the optimal conditions, the proposed method had good linear ranges as 0.1-40 microg/L for each of them, LOD of 0.11, 0.014, and 0.0025 microg/L, and LOQs of 0.37, 0.047, and 0.0083 microg/L for chlorpyrifos, phorate, and methyl parathion, respectively. The proposed method was validated with real environmental water samples and the spiked recoveries were over the range of 86.5-115.1%. All these results indicated that TiO(2) nanotubes, as a new SPE adsorbent, would be used widespread for the preconcentration and determination of environmental pollutants in the future.

Temperature-controlled ionic liquid-dispersive liquid-phase microextraction for preconcentration of chlorotoluron, diethofencarb and chlorbenzuron in water samples.

This article describes a new, rapid and sensitive method for the determination of chlorotoluron, diethofencarb and chlorbenzuron from water samples with temperature-controlled ionic liquid-dispersive liquid-phase microextraction. In the preconcentration procedure, ionic liquid 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate [C(6)MIM] [PF(6)] was employed as the extraction solvent. The parameters, such as volume of [C(6)MIM] [PF(6)], sample pH, extraction time, centrifuging time, temperature and salting-out effect, were investigated in detail. Under the optimal extraction conditions, it has been found that three analytes had excellent LODs (S/N=3) in the range of 0.04-0.43 microg/L. The RSDs (n=6) were in the range of 1.3-4.7%. The proposed method was evaluated with lake water, tap water and melted snow water samples. The experimental results indicated that the proposed method had excellent prospect and would be widely used in the future.

Trajectories of Self-Rated Health of Chinese Elders: A Piecewise Growth Model Analysis.

This study used piecewise growth modeling to describe the developmental trajectories of self-rated health (SRH) in the elderly and longitudinal associations with activities of daily living (ADL), educational level, economic status, age, and gender. Data were drawn from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS), collected over 12 years (from 2002 to 2014) at five waves. A total of 16,064 Chinese elders (57.4% females) were analyzed. Results showed two phases of development for SRH; specifically, the decreasing trend of SRH was from slow (in the first phase, waves 1 to 3) to fast (in the second phase, waves 3 to 5). Descriptives showed that the turning point age was at the age of 83.69 (range = 68 to 116, median age = 82 years old). ADL were positively associated with SRH within each time point (wave of data). Female elders had a higher initial state (i.e., worse) of SRH than did male elders, and poorer economic status was associated with worse initial status of SRH.

Involvement of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha in the upregulation of P-glycoprotein in refractory epilepsy.

To explore the involvement of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α) in the upregulation of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) in refractory epilepsy. Brain tissue specimens were collected and analyzed for expression of HIF-1α and P-gp using an immunohistochemical (IHC) staining method in both refractory epilepsy group and control group. Correlation between HIF-1α and P-gp expression level in refractory epilepsy group was analyzed. Then, a hypoxia cell model was established by simulating the nerve cell hypoxic microenvironment in the human U251 cell line using cobalt chloride (CoCl2). Western blot analysis was used to detect expression levels of HIF-1α and P-gp in the hypoxic cell model. Finally, expression of HIF-1α and P-gp was detected using real-time quantitative PCR and Western blot, respectively, after U251 hypoxic model cells were infected with HIF-1α siRNA. IHC scores of HIF-1α and P-gp in refractory epilepsy group were significantly higher than that in control group. In addition, the expression of HIF-1α was positively correlated with the expression of P-gp in refractory epilepsy group. Expression levels of HIF-1α and P-gp in U251 cells cultured with 250 µmol/L CoCl2 for 48 hours were significantly higher than that in controls. After transfection with siRNA targeting HIF-1α, expressions of HIF-1α and P-gp at mRNA and protein level were decreased, respectively, in the hypoxia cell model. HIF-1α may be involved in the upregulation of P-gp in refractory epilepsy through inducement of P-gp expression. Therefore, activation of the HIF-1α/P-gp pathway is one hypothesis proposed to explain the pathogenesis of refractory epilepsy.

Trace determination of organophosphorus pesticides in environmental samples by temperature-controlled ionic liquid dispersive liquid-phase microextraction.

This paper described a new approach for the determination of organophosphorus pesticides by temperature-controlled ionic liquid dispersive liquid-phase microextraction prior to high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. Methylparathion and phoxim, two of the typical organophosphorus pesticides, were used as the model analytes for the investigation of the development and application of the new microextraction method. 1-Hexyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate [C6MIM][PF6] was used as the extraction solvent and the factors affecting the extraction efficiency such as the volume of [C6MIM][PF6], pH of working solutions, extraction time, centrifuging time, dissoluble temperature and salt effect were optimized. Under the optimal extraction conditions, methylparathion and phoxim exhibited good linear relationship in the concentration range of 1-100 ng mL(-1). The detection limits were 0.17 ng mL(-1) and 0.29 ng mL(-1), respectively. Precisions of proposed method (RSDs, n=6) were 2.5% and 2.7%, respectively. This proposed method was successfully applied in the analysis of four real environmental water samples and good spiked recoveries over the range of 88.2-103.6% were obtained. These results indicated that temperature-controlled ionic liquid dispersive liquid-phase microextraction had excellent application prospect in environmental field.

Temperature-controlled ionic liquid dispersive liquid phase micro-extraction.

The present study reports a novel, green and environmental benign sample enrichment method termed temperature-controlled ionic liquid dispersive liquid phase micro-extraction. An ionic liquid [C6MIM][PF6], was used as the extraction solvent and pyrethroid pesticides as the model compounds. The ionic liquid was dispersed completely into the aqueous solution under the drive of temperature, and the analytes will more easily migrate into the ionic liquid phase because of the much larger contact area than that of conventional single drop liquid micro-extraction. Results obtained indicated that this system could be tuned to a great extent because ionic liquids can be designable and the method does not suffer from the limitations of that in conventional solvent micro-extraction. Analytical parameters of the proposed method were investigated and good linear range (1.5-100 microg L(-1)), detection limits (0.28-0.6 microg L(-1)), and precision (RSD of 2.7-9.3%, n=6) was obtained. Good spiked recoveries from six real water samples proved that this method was competitive in practical applications. Considering the large variety of ionic liquids and the tunable amounts of used ionic liquids in different experiments, the proposed method earns many merits and will have a wide application perspective in the future.

[Clinical observation on treatment of albuminuria in patients with pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome in puerperium by Xiaobai Decoction].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of Xiaobai Decoction (XBD) in reducing albuminuria and shortening the duration of albuminuria in patients with pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome (PIH) in puerperium. METHODS: Eighty-five patients were given the conventional treatment with magnesium sulfate for relieving convulsion and lowering hypertension, at the same time, the treated group was given XBD additionally with the modification according to the symptoms. The treatment course for both groups was 14 days. Routine test of midstream urine was performed every three days, and 24 h-urinary protein was measured every week. RESULTS: The therapeutic effect on the 43 patients of the treated group was markedly effective in 11 (25.6 % ), effective in 26 (60.4%) and ineffective in 6 cases (14.0%), the total effective rate being 86.0%; while in the 42 patients of the control group, the corresponding numbers were 5 (11.9%), 21 (50.0%), 16 (38.1%) and 61.9%, respectively, the efficacy of the former was significantly better (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: XBD is a simple, safe and effective drug for reducing albuminuria and shortening the duration of albuminuria in puerperium of PIH patients.

Products of aqueous chlorination of 4-nonylphenol and their estrogenic activity.

Seven reaction products (2-chloro-4-nonylphenol [NP], 2,6-dichloro-4-NP, trichlorophenol, 4-propyl-2'-hydroxyphenol, 4-isobutyl-2'-hydroxyphenol, 4-isoamyl-2'-hydroxyphenol, and 4-isopentyl-2'-hydroxyphenol) were identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) in order to assess the estrogenic activity originated from 4-nonylphenol (4-NP) in drinking water. The estrogenic activities of the aqueous chlorinated 4-NP solution at 10, 60, and 120 min chlorination time were assessed by a yeast two-hybrid system based on the ligand-dependent interaction of two proteins, a human estrogen receptor (ER), and a coactivator. It was found that all three solutions inhibited transcriptional activation induction by 4-NP. Further experiments showed that these solutions also inhibited beta-galactosidase induction by 17beta-estradiol. For the solution at 10 min, the inhibition was found to be due to its toxicity, with an inhibition concentration (IC50) of about 10-fold of concentration of chlorinated 4-NP solution, suggesting the existence of some products with higher yeast toxicity than that of the parent 4-NP. Similar inhibition trends were also found in the dose response of the two solutions at 60 and 120 min, with an IC50 of 10-fold concentration. In these cases, the effects were considered to result from their antagonist action because the two solutions show lower yeast toxicity of which IC50 is 45-fold concentration. This suggests that some products in the chlorinated 4-NP solution elicit the antiestrogenic activities.