The responses of mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion of municipal sludge to periodic fluctuation disturbance of organic loading rate.

Fluctuation disturbance of organic loading rate (OLR) is common in actual anaerobic digestion (AD), but its effects on AD of municipal sludge gets little attention. This study investigated the responses of reactor performance and active microbial community in mesophilic and thermophilic AD of municipal sludge before, during and after OLR periodic fluctuation disturbance. The performance of both reactors were similar before and after disturbance although some parameter values changed during the disturbance, which indicated their enough buffer capacity to OLR periodic fluctuation. Different microbial community at RNA level was observed in the two reactors. When the OLR disturbance commenced, the microbial community changed greatly in thermophilic AD. Error and attack tolerance of the microbial network was analyzed in order to learn the response mechanisms to OLR disturbance. The results assisted that the thermophilic microbial community was more vulnerable, but the reactor performance of which could be maintained using the functional redundancy strategy under OLR fluctuation disturbance.

The non-contact-based determination of the membrane permeability to water and dimethyl sulfoxide of cells virtually trapped in a self-induced micro-vortex.

The cell-membrane permeabilities of a cell type toward water (Lp) and cryoprotective agents (Ps) provide crucial cellular information for achieving optimal cryopreservation in the biobanking industry. In this work, cell membrane permeability was successfully determined via directly visualizing the transient profile of the cell volume change in response to a sudden osmotic gradient instantaneously applied between the intracellular and extracellular environments. A new micro-vortex system was developed to virtually trap the cells of interest in flow-driven hydrodynamic circulation passively formed at the expansion region in a microfluidic channel, where trapped cells remain in suspension and flow with the streamline of the localized vortex, involving no physical contact between cells and the device structure; furthermore, this supports a pragmatic assumption of 100% sphericity and allows for the calculation of the active surface area of the cell membrane for estimating the actual cell volume from two-dimensional images. For an acute T-cell lymphoma cell line (Jurkat), moderately higher values (Lp = 0.34 µm min-1 atm-1 for a binary system, and Lp = 0.16 µm min-1 atm-1 and Ps = 0.55 × 10-3 cm min-1 for a ternary system) were measured than those obtained from prior methods utilizing contact-based cell-trapping techniques, manifesting the influence of physical contact on accuracy during the determination of cell membrane permeability.

Inflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide advanced androgen receptor expression and epithelial-mesenchymal transition progress in prostatitis and prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: To explore the mechanism of prostatic inflammation on prostate cancer (PCa) by comparing the changes of prostate epithelial cells and PCa cells in an inflammatory environment. METHODS: First, immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to compare the level of expression of TNF-α, IL-1ß, IL-6, and TGF-ß between benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), prostatitis, and PCa. Then primary prostate epithelial cells were sampled from patients who were suspected of PCa and had histological prostatitis (HP) confirmed by pathological biopsy. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or BAY11-7082 were used to investigate the change of androgen receptor (AR) and AR-mediated transcription, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in primary prostate epithelial cells, and lymph node carcinoma of the prostate (LNCap) cells. RESULTS: TNF-α, IL-1ß, IL-6, and TGF-ß were significantly increased in HP and PCa compared with those in BPH patients. The proliferation of primary prostate epithelial cells and LNCap cells got the inflection point at LPS 10 µg/mL. In an inflammatory environment with 10 µg/mL LPS, both primary prostate epithelial cell and LNCap cell viability increased, and AR, AR-mediated transcription, and EMT processes were significantly increased. Inhibitors of NF-κB with 10 nM BAY11-7082 decreased AR, AR-mediated transcription, and EMT processes. CONCLUSIONS: NF-κB regulates AR expression and EMT in prostatitis and PCa, and NF-κB inhibitors may have potential therapeutic value.

A comparative study of mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion of municipal sludge with high-solids content: Reactor performance and microbial community.

This study involved a comparison between mesophilic (MAD) and thermophilic anaerobic digestion (TAD) of municipal sludge with high (10%) solids content; the reactor performance and the response of total and active microbial communities to changes in sludge properties were monitored. Both TAD and MAD were stably maintained. TAD performed better than MAD in biogas production and volatile total solids reduction upon feeding sludge 1. TAD was slightly inhibited by ammonia, whereas the performance of MAD was improved when sludge 2 was used as the feedstock. Alpha- and beta-diversity analyses revealed significant differences in the microbial community based on DNA and RNA datasets, indicating that not all microbes function in AD. The active microbial community diversity and composition in MAD and TAD were also driven by sludge properties. Moreover, MAD showed significantly higher richness and diversity of the active microbial community compared with TAD, regardless of changes in sludge properties.

Influence of immune inflammation on androgen receptor expression in benign prostatic hyperplasia tissue.

This study was designed to investigate the association between immune inflammation and androgen receptor (AR) expression in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). We retrospectively analyzed 105 prostatectomy specimens. An immune inflammation score for each specimen was defined by combining three immunohistochemical markers (CD4, CD8 and CD20). The immunohistochemical markers were CD4 and CD8 for T lymphocytes, CD20 for B lymphocytes and AR antibody for the AR in BPH samples. Rates of CD4, CD8, CD20 and AR expression in BPH were 20 (19.0%), 21 (20.0%), 101 (96.2%) and 48 (45.7%), respectively. Total prostate volume (TPV) was higher in the immune inflammation group than in the non-immune inflammation group (62.7 ml vs. 49.2 ml, t=2.482, P<0.05). Patients in the immune inflammation group had a higher serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) than those in the non-inflammation group (7.5 ng ml(-1 )vs. 5.4 ng ml(-1), t=2.771, P<0.05). Specifically, the immune inflammation group showed a higher rate of AR expression than the non-inflammation group (56.1% vs. 28.2%, χ(2)=7.665, P<0.05). Our study revealed a strong association between immune inflammation and TPV, serum PSA and AR expression in BPH tissue. Prostate hyperplasia caused by an immune inflammatory process may contribute to BPH progression over time. Therefore, the inflammatory response involved in BPH may be a prime therapeutic target.

[Combination of tolterodine and tamsulosin for benign prostatic hyperplasia].

OBJECTIVE: Overactive bladder may coexist with bladder outlet obstruction induced by benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the combined use of tolterodine and tamsulosin in the treatment of BPH accompanied by overactive bladder. METHODS: We selected 53 cases of clinically diagnosed BPH, and randomly assigned them to a tamsulosin group (n = 25) to receive 0.2 mg of tamsulosin once a day and a tamsulosin + tolterodine group (n = 28) to be treated with 0.2 mg of tamsulosin once a day plus 2 mg of tolterodine twice a day, both for 12 weeks. Before and after the treatment, we obtained the International Prostate Symptoms Score (IPSS), quality of life (QOL) score and Qmax, and recorded the adverse events. RESULTS: All the patients accomplished the 12-week treatment. The tamsulosin group showed a significant decrease in IPSS and QOL from 21.50 +/- 5.42 and 4.58 +/- 0.94 before the treatment to 14.80 +/- 4.21 and 2.78 +/- 0.91 after it (P < 0.05), but a significant increase in Qmax from (12.20 +/- 6.60) ml/s to (16.40 +/- 5.13) ml/s (P < 0.05). In the tamsulosin + tolterodine group, IPSS and QOL were decreased from 20.90 +/- 5.15 and 4.61 +/- 0.86 at the baseline to 14.90 +/- 5.32 and 2.12 +/- 0.87 after the medication (P < 0.05), Qmax was increased from (13.30 +/- 7.80) ml/s to (16.70 +/- 6.32) ml/s (P < 0.05), and the score on the urinary storage phase symptoms was reduced from 10.12 +/- 3.10 to 4.77 +/- 0.75 (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Tamsulosin could quickly relieve BPH-induced lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) , while the combined use of tolterodine and tamsulosin could even better alleviate the LUTS and improve the QOL of BPH patients.