Animal and Organoid Models of Liver Fibrosis.

Liver fibrosis refers to the process underlying the development of chronic liver diseases, wherein liver cells are repeatedly destroyed and regenerated, which leads to an excessive deposition and abnormal distribution of the extracellular matrix such as collagen, glycoprotein and proteoglycan in the liver. Liver fibrosis thus constitutes the pathological repair response of the liver to chronic injury. Hepatic fibrosis is a key step in the progression of chronic liver disease to cirrhosis and an important factor affecting the prognosis of chronic liver disease. Further development of liver fibrosis may lead to structural disorders of the liver, nodular regeneration of hepatocytes and the formation of cirrhosis. Hepatic fibrosis is histologically reversible if treated aggressively during this period, but when fibrosis progresses to the stage of cirrhosis, reversal is very difficult, resulting in a poor prognosis. There are many causes of liver fibrosis, including liver injury caused by drugs, viral hepatitis, alcoholic liver, fatty liver and autoimmune disease. The mechanism underlying hepatic fibrosis differs among etiologies. The establishment of an appropriate animal model of liver fibrosis is not only an important basis for the in-depth study of the pathogenesis of liver fibrosis but also an important means for clinical experts to select drugs for the prevention and treatment of liver fibrosis. The present study focused on the modeling methods and fibrosis characteristics of different animal models of liver fibrosis, such as a chemical-induced liver fibrosis model, autoimmune liver fibrosis model, cholestatic liver fibrosis model, alcoholic liver fibrosis model and non-alcoholic liver fibrosis model. In addition, we also summarize the research and application prospects concerning new organoids in liver fibrosis models proposed in recent years. A suitable animal model of liver fibrosis and organoid fibrosis model that closely resemble the physiological state of the human body will provide bases for the in-depth study of the pathogenesis of liver fibrosis and the development of therapeutic drugs.

[Regulatory effect of the pannexin1 channel on invasion and migration of testicular cancer Tcam-2 cells and its possible mechanism].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of the pannexin-1 (Panx1) protein in the invasion and migration of testicular cancer Tcam-2 cells and its possible action mechanism. METHODS: Tcam-2 cells were treated with carbenoxolone (CBX) at 100 µmol/L and probenecid (PBN) 200 µmol/L. Then the intercellular fluorescence transmission was assessed by real-time fluorescence assay, the extracellular ATP concentration measured by chemi-luminescence immunoassay, the invasive and migratory abilities of the Tcam-2 cells detected by Transwell assay, and the expressions of the proteins Panx1, p-ERK1/2, ERK1/2, vimentin, MMP-9 and E-cadherin in the TM3 Leydig cells and testicular cancer Tcam-2 cells determined by Western blot. RESULTS: Western blot showed that the expression of the Panx1 protein was significantly higher in the testicular cancer Tcam-2 cells than in the TM3 Leydig cells (2.79 ± 0.17 vs 1.00 ± 0.06, P<0.05). The rates of intercellular fluorescence transmission in the Tcam-2 cells treated with CBX and PBN were markedly decreased as compared with the blank control group (ï¼»61.54 ± 3.30ï¼½% and ï¼»68.06 ± 4.03ï¼½% vs ï¼»99.50 ± 3.12ï¼½%, P<0.01), and so were the extracellular ATP concentrations (ï¼»57.06 ± 5.80ï¼½% and ï¼»56.42 ± 7.70ï¼½% vs ï¼»110 ± 8.16ï¼½%, P<0.01). The numbers of migrated Tcam-2 cells in the CBX and PBN groups were significantly reduced in comparison with that in the control (11.5 ± 1.11 and 8.25 ± 1.23 vs 331.00 ± 30.80, P<0.05), and so were those of the invaded ones (11.75 ± 3.77 and 11.5 ± 3.5 vs 89.00 ± 13.09, P<0.01). CBX and PBN significantly down-regulated the expression of p-ERK1/2 as compared with that in the blank control group (0.538 ± 0.05 and 0.476 ± 0.02 vs 0.98 ± 0.03, P<0.05), as well as those of vimentin (0.541 ± 0.09 and 0.705 ± 0.07, P<0.01) and MMP-9 (0.439 ± 0.08 and 0.557 ± 0.065, P<0.01) but up-regulated that of E-cadherin (3.896 ± 0.06 and 3.551 ± 0.04, P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The Panx1 protein is highly expressed in testicular cancer Tcam-2 cells. CBX and PBN can inhibit the function of the panneixn1 channel and reduce the invasive and migratory abilities of the Tcam-2 cells, which is associated with the decreased expression of the p-ERK1/2 protein.

Uptake and Translocation of Styrene Maleic Anhydride Nanoparticles in Murraya exotica Plants As Revealed by Noninvasive, Real-Time Optical Bioimaging.

This work reports the in vivo uptake and translocation of PNPs in the one-year grown terrestrial plant, Murraya exotica ( M. exotica), as investigated by two-photon excitation and time-resolved (TPE-TR) optical imaging with a large field of view (FOV, 32 × 32 mm2) in a noninvasive and real-time manner. The PNPs (⟨ Rh⟩ = 12 ± 4.5 nm) synthesized from poly(styrene- co-maleic anhydride) (SMA) were Eu-luminescence labeled (λL ≈ 617 nm). On exposing the roots of living M. exotica plants to the colloidal suspension of SMA PNPs at different concentrations, the spatiotemporal evolution of SMA PNPs along plant stems (60 mm in length) were monitored by TPE-TR imaging, which rendered rich information on the uptake and translocation of PNPs without any interference from the autofluorescence of the plant tissues. The TPE-TR imaging combined with the high-resolution anatomy revealed an intercell-wall route in the lignified epidermis of M. exotica plants for SMA PNP uptake and translocation, as well as the similar accumulation kinetics at different positions along the plant stems. We modeled the accumulation kinetics with Gaussian distribution to account for the trapping probability of a SMA PNP by the lignified cell walls, allowing the statistical parameters, the average trapping time ( tm) and its variance (σ), to be derived for the quantification of the PNP accumulation in individual plants. The TPE-TR imaging and the analysis protocols established herein will be helpful in exploring the mechanism of plant-PNP interaction under physiological condition.