In-Plane Chemical Ordering (Mo2/3 R1/3 )2 AlB2 (R = Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, and Lu) i-MAB Phases and their Two-Dimensional Derivatives (MBene): Synthesis, Structure, Magnetic, and Supercapacitor Performance.

A family of hexagonal in-plane chemical ordering (Mo2/3 R1/3 )2 AlB2 (R = Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, and Lu) i-MAB phases are synthesized with R-3m hexagonal structure. The i-MAB phases with R = Tb to Tm are considered to have a nonlinear ferromagnetic-like coupling magnetic ground state with gradually weakened magnetocrystalline anisotropy due to variant R-R distances and 4f electrons. Their 2D derivatives (2D-MBene) with rare-earth (R) atom vacancies are obtained by chemical etching. The delamination solvent, surface functional terminations, and chemical bond of 2D-MBene can be modified by one-step nitridation in environment-friendly nitrogen instead of ammonia. A phase conversion is caused by nitridation at 973 K from 2D-MBene to Mo2 N, leading to the optimized specific capacitance of 229 F g-1 . Besides exploring more rare-earth-containing laminated boride systems, this work also demonstrates the promising application of their 2D derivatives with R vacancies in supercapacitors.

Smart-Polypeptide-Coated Mesoporous Fe3O4 Nanoparticles: Non-Interventional Target-Embolization/Thermal Ablation and Multimodal Imaging Combination Theranostics for Solid Tumors.

Tumor theranostics hold great potential for personalized medicine in the future, and transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) is an important clinical treatment for unresectable or hypervascular tumors. In order to break the limitation, simplify the procedure of TAE, and achieve ideal combinatorial theranostic capability, here, a kind of triblock-polypeptide-coated perfluoropentane-loaded mesoporous Fe3O4 nanocomposites (PFP-m-Fe3O4@PGTTCs) were prepared for non-interventional target-embolization, magnetic hyperthermia, and multimodal imaging combination theranostics of solid tumors. The results of systematic animal experiments by H22-tumor-bearing mice and VX2-tumor-bearing rabbits in vivo indicated that PFP-m-Fe3O4@PGTTC-6.3 has specific tumor accumulation and embolization effects. The tumors' growth has been inhibited and the tumors disappeared 4 weeks and ≤15 days post-injection with embolization and magnetic hyperthermia combination therapy, respectively. The results also showed an excellent effect of magnetic resonance/ultrasound/SPECT multimodal imaging. This pH-responsive non-interventional embolization combinatorial theranostics system provides a novel embolization and multifunctional theranostic candidate for solid tumors.

G6PD Deficiency Is Crucial for Insulin Signaling Activation in Skeletal Muscle.

Glucose 6-P dehydrogenase (G6PD) is the first rate-limiting enzyme in pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), and it is proverbial that G6PD is absent in skeletal muscle. However, how and why G6PD is down-regulated during skeletal muscle development is unclear. In this study, we confirmed the expression of G6PD was down-regulated during myogenesis in vitro and in vivo. G6PD was absolutely silent in adult skeletal muscle. Histone H3 acetylation and DNA methylation act together on the expression of G6PD. Neither knock-down of G6PD nor over-expression of G6PD affects myogenic differentiation. Knock-down of G6PD significantly promotes the sensitivity and response of skeletal muscle cells to insulin; over-expression of G6PD significantly injures the sensitivity and response of skeletal muscle cells to insulin. High-fat diet treatment impairs insulin signaling by up-regulating G6PD, and knock-down of G6PD rescues the impaired insulin signaling and glucose uptake caused by high-fat diet treatment. Taken together, this study explored the importance of G6PD deficiency during myogenic differentiation, which provides new sight to treat insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes.

The Defects of Epigenetic Reprogramming in Dox-Dependent Porcine-iPSCs.

Porcine-induced pluripotent stem cells (piPSCs) are of great significance to animal breeding and human medicine; however, an important problem is that the maintenance of piPSCs mainly depends on exogenous expression of pluripotent transcription factors (TFs), and germline transmission-competent piPSCs have not yet been successfully established. In this study, we explore the defect of epigenetic reprogramming during piPSCs formation, including chromatin accessibility, DNA methylation, and imprinted gene expression, with high-throughput sequencing (ATAC-seq, WGBS, RNA-seq, and Re-seq) methods. We found the somatic features were successfully silenced by connecting closed chromatin loci with downregulated genes, while DNA methylation has limited effects on somatic silence. However, the incomplete chromatin remodeling and DNA demethylation in pluripotency genes hinder pluripotent activation, resulting in the low expression of endogenous pluripotency genes. In addition, the expression of potential imprinted genes was abnormal, and many allelic-biased expressed genes in porcine embryonic fibroblasts (PEFs) were erased, accompanied by establishment of new allelic-biased expressed genes in piPSCs. This study reveals the aberrant epigenetic reprogramming during dox-dependent piPSCs formation, which lays the foundation for research of porcine-iPSC reprogramming and genome imprinting.

Plasma miR-1273g-3p acts as a potential biomarker for early Breast Ductal Cancer diagnosis.

Circulating miRNAs presenting in plasma in a stable manner have been demonstrated their potential role as a promising biomarkers in many human diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, melanoma and ovarian carcinoma. However, few circulating miRNAs could be used for breast ductal cancer diagnosis. Here, we identified miR-1273g-3p as a biomarker for detecting breast ductal cancer. We detected miR-1273g-3p levels in the plasma of 39 sporadic breast ductal cancer patients and 40 healthy donors by Stem-loop Quantitative Real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The results showed the plasma miR-1273g-3p level were significantly up-regulated in breast ductal cancer patients compared with healthy donors (p=0.0139). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve also revealed the significantly diagnostic ability of miR-1273g-3p in patients (p=0.0414). In addition, the plasma level of miR-1273g-3p was closely related to IIIB-IIIC TNM stage. We also confirmed the higher expression level of miR-1273g-3p in breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 (4.872±0.537) than normal breast cells (Hs 578Bst). Taken together, miR-1273g-3p could represent as a potential biomarker for early breast ductal cancer diagnosis.

Evaluation of the anti-cancer potential of Cedrus deodara total lignans by inducing apoptosis of A549 cells.

BACKGROUND: Cedrus deodara (Roxb.) Loud (normally called as deodar), one out of four species in the genus Cedrus, exhibits widely biological activities. The Cedrus deodara total lignans from the pine needles (CTL) were extracted. The aim of the study was to investigate the anticancer potential of the CTL on A549 cell line. METHODS: We extracted the CTL by ethanol and assessed the cytotoxicity by CCK-8 method. Cell cycle and apoptosis were detected by a FACS Verse Calibur flow cytometry. RESULTS: The CTL were extracted by means of ethanol hot refluxing and the content of total lignans in CTL was about 55.77%. By the CCK-8 assays, CTL inhibited the growth of A549 cells in a dose-dependent fashion, with the IC50 values of 39.82 ± 1.74 µg/mL. CTL also inhibited the growth to a less extent in HeLa, HepG2, MKN28 and HT-29 cells. CONCLUSION: At low doses, the CTL effectively inhibited the growth of A549 cells. By comparison of IC50 values, we found that A549 cells might be more sensitive to the treatment with CTL. In addition, CTL were also able to increase the population of A549 cells in G2/M phase and the percentage of apoptotic A549 cells. CTL may have therapeutic potential in lung adenocarcinoma cancer by regulating cell cycle and apoptosis.

Association of APEX1 and OGG1 gene polymorphisms with breast cancer risk among Han women in the Gansu Province of China.

BACKGROUND: Genetic variations in key DNA repair genes may influence DNA repair capacity, DNA damage and breast carcinogenesis. The current study aimed to estimate the association of APEX1 and OGG1 polymorphisms with the risk of breast cancer development. METHODS: A total of 518 patients with histopathologically confirmed breast cancer and 921 region- and age-matched cancer-free controls were genotyped for the APEX1 polymorphisms rs3136817 and rs1130409 and the OGG1 polymorphisms rs1052133 and rs2072668 using a QuantStudio™ 12 K Flex Real-Time PCR System. RESULTS: The rs3136817 heterozygous TC genotype along with the rs3136817 dominant model (TC + CC) was strongly associated with breast cancer susceptibility (odds ratio [OR] = 0.670, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 0.513 - 0.873, P = 0.003; OR = 0.682, 95% CI: 0.526 - 0.883, P = 0.004, respectively). No significant associations were observed among rs1130409, rs1052133, rs2072668 and breast cancer risk. Furthermore, an allele combination analysis revealed that APEX1 haplotypes containing C-T (alleles rs3136817 and rs1130409) conferred a significantly lower risk (corrected P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: This research is the latest report showing that an APEX1 rs3136817 heterozygous genotype may have a positive influence on DNA repair capacity in patients with breast cancer and thus may have a potential protective effect for Chinese Han women.

Highly efficient construction of oriented sandwich structures for surface-enhanced Raman scattering.

The purpose of this study is to solve the problem of low achievement in fabricating sandwich surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates. We demonstrated a highly efficient sandwich structure by the oriented assembly of metal nanoparticles (NPs) on a periodic hexagonal array of metal nanoprisms with 1,4-benzenedithiol (1,4-BDT) as linkers. The metal nanoprism array was prepared by vacuum deposition of metal on a close-packed polystyrene nanosphere pre-patterned substrate. The metal nanoprism array presents different surface properties from the pits left from the removal of polystyrene nanospheres, which causes linkers to selectively adsorb on the metal nanoprism array and sequentially leads to the oriented immobilization of the second-layer metal NPs, avoiding mismatched orientation. These sandwich SERS substrates were characterized by extinction spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy and their enhancement activity was evaluated under different excitation wavelengths. The sandwich structure greatly increases the achievement of 'hot spots' to almost 100% of all the metal nanoprisms and enables a large amplification of SERS signals by a factor of ten. This method has the advantages of simplicity, high efficiency, high throughput, controllability and high reproducibility. It has significance in both the study of SERS substrates and the development of plasmonic devices.

Microorganism viability influences internal phase droplet size changes during storage in water-in-oil emulsions.

Water-in-oil emulsions provide an alternative for long-term stabilization of microorganisms. Maintaining physical stability of the emulsion and cell viability is critical for large-scale application. Water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions were prepared with the biolarvacide Lagenidium giganteum and the green alga Chlorella vulgaris. Physical stability was measured via light scattering measurements of the internal phase droplets and cell viability was measured by plating and enumerating colony forming units. Emulsions were demonstrated to stabilize L. giganteum and C. vulgaris for more than 4 months without refrigeration. Introducing nutrients into the internal phase of W/O emulsions without cells had no significant effect on changes in aqueous phase droplet size dynamics. Internal phase droplet size changes that occurred over time were greater in the presence of cells. Increases in droplet size were correlated with cell death indicating measurement of internal phase droplet size changes may be an approach for monitoring declines in cell viability during storage.

Target Embolization Combined with Multimodal Thermal Ablation for Solid Tumors by Smart Poly(amino acid)s Nanocomposites.

Noninterventional embolization does not require the use of a catheter, and the treatment of solid tumors in combination with thermal ablation can avoid some of the risks of the surgical procedure. Therefore, we developed an efficient tumor microenvironment-gelled nanocomposites with poly [(l-glutamic acid-ran-l-tyrosine)-b-l-serine-b-l-cysteine] (PGTSCs) coated-nanoparticles (Fe3O4&Au@PGTSCs), from which the prepared PGTSCs were given possession of pH response to an acidic tumor microenvironment. Fe3O4&Au@PGTSC in noninterventional embolization treatment not only achieved the smart targeted medicine delivery but also meshed with noninvasive multimodal thermal ablation therapy and multimodal imaging of solid tumors via intravenous injection. It was worth noting that the results of animal experiments in vivo demonstrated that Fe3O4&Au@PGTSCs have specific tumor accumulation and embolization and thermal ablation effects; at 10 days postinjection, only scars were found at the tumor site. After 20 days, the tumors of model mice completely disappeared. This device is easier to treat solid tumors based on the slightly acidic tumor environment.

CoAl-LDHs@Fe3O4 decorated with cobalt nanowires and cobalt nanoparticles for a heterogeneous electro-Fenton process to degrade 1-hydroxyethane-1,1-diphosphonic acid and glyphosate.

Heterogeneous electro-Fenton is one of the promising technologies to degrade refractory organic phosphonates. In this work, CoNWs@CoAl-LDHs/Fe3O4 and CoNPs@CoAl-LDHs/Fe3O4 were successfully synthesized by a co-precipitation method and applied to degrade 1-hydroxyethane-1,1-diphosphonic acid (HEDP) and glyphosate (PMG) via an electro-Fenton process. The results indicated that the removal rate of HEDP (100 mg L-1) and PMG (100 mg L-1) by CoNWs@CoAl-LDHs/Fe3O4 increased from 62.09% and 95.31% to 82.45% and 100%, respectively. The CoNPs@CoAl-LDHs/Fe3O4 electro-Fenton system could remove 70.03% of HEDP and nearly 100% of PMG within 2 hours at a pH of 3. Moreover, we compared the SEM, EDS, XRD and BET results of CoNWs@CoAl-LDHs/Fe3O4 with those of CoNPs@CoAl-LDHs/Fe3O4. The effects of initial pH, CoNW dosage and reaction time on the degradation of HEDP and PMG were discussed. CoNWs@CoAl-LDHs@Fe3O4 could even remove 71.03% of HEDP at a neutral pH. After four cycles of repeated use at a pH of 3, the removal rate of HEDP by CoNWs@CoAl-LDHs/Fe3O4 was still higher than 70%. Radical quenching experiments revealed that ˙OH is the dominant active species participating in the heterogeneous electro-Fenton process. Finally, we would talk about the mechanism of the CoNWs@CoAl-LDHs/Fe3O4-based electro-Fenton system.

Free Fatty Acid Impairs Myogenic Differentiation through the AMPKα-MicroRNA 206 Pathway.

The activity of AMP-activated protein kinase α (AMPKα) is reduced in type 2 diabetes, and type 2 diabetes is associated with muscular atrophy. To date, there is little known about the mechanism by which free fatty acid (FFA) participates in muscular impairment. The purpose of the present study was to explore whether FFA damages myogenesis through the AMPKα-histone deacetylase 4 (HDAC4)-microRNA 206 (miR-206) pathway. The results showed that 1 mM FFA produced lipid accumulation, significantly impaired the insulin signaling pathway, and decreased the myogenic differentiation of C2C12 myoblast cells. FFA reduced the LKB1-AMPKα pathway, and the activation of AMPKα rescued the myogenic impairment caused by FFA (P < 0.05). AMPKα promoted myogenesis by regulating the expression of miR-206 through HDAC4 (P < 0.05) and affected the cell cycle and cell proliferation to promote myogenesis by regulating miR-206 and miR-206's target cyclin D1 gene. In addition, AICAR (5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide 1-ß-d-ribofuranoside) and HDAC4 small interfering RNA (siRNA) promoted myogenic differentiation compared with the FFA group; however, this positive effect was significantly downregulated after transfection with the miR-206 inhibitor. In summary, AMPKα plays positive roles in myogenic differentiation and myogenesis, and FFA decreased myogenic differentiation and myotube formation through the AMPKα-HDAC4-miR-206 pathway.

Differential Inhibite Effect of Xanthohumol on HepG2 Cells and Primary Hepatocytes.

Xanthohumol (XN) is the major prenylated chalcone of the female inflorescences (cone) of the hop plant (Humulus lupulus). It is also a constituent of beer, the major dietary source of prenylated flavonoids. It has shown strong antitumorigenic activity towards various types of cancer cells. In the present study, we show the impact on human hepatocarcinoma cell line HepG2 cell and potential adverse effects on rat primary hepatocytes. Cell growth/viability assay (MTT) demonstrated that HepG2 cells are highly sensitive to XN at a concentration range of 25-100 µM. The primary mode of tumor cell destruction was apoptosis as demonstrated by the binding of Annexin Ⅴ-FITC, we show that XN at a concentration of 25 µM induced apoptosis in HepG2. Further evidence that XN kills HepG2 by inducing apoptosis was provided by the impact of XN on the cleavage of PARP-1 and caspases-3. In contrast, XN concentrations up to 100 µM did not affect viability of primary rat hepatocytes in vitro, meanwhile, XN did not induce the apoptosis of primary rat hepatocytes in vitro. In summary, our data provide a rationale for clinical evaluation of XN for the treatment of liver cancer.

A Simple and Efficient Embolization-Combined Therapy for Solid Tumors by Smart Poly(amino acid)s Nanocomposites.

Interventional embolization and minimally invasive thermal ablation are common clinical methods for treatment of unresectable solid tumors, but they both have many insurmountable disadvantages. Inspired by pH-responsive drug delivery systems, we report the tumor microenvironment-gelled nanocomposites with poly[(l-glutamic acid-ran-l-tyrosine)-b-l-threonine-b-l-cysteine]s (PGTTCs) coating nanoparticles (NPs, Au or Fe3O4) for noninterventional targeted embolization combined with noninvasive thermal ablation therapy of solid tumors by intravenous injection without catheter use. The results of the animal trial in vivo with tumor-bearing mice and rabbits showed superior targeted embolization and therapy and fluorescence/single-photon emission computed tomography/magnetic resonance multimodal imaging effects. Tumors treated with NPs@PGTTCs were shrunken and necrotized within 30 days, the long-term survival rate was more than 80%, and the same effects can be achieved within 15 days when combined with thermal ablation. The method is so simple and efficient for many hard-to-treat tumors within an acidic microenvironment, which is not only a great improvement and innovation in tumor theranostics but also an important development in nanomedicine.

Influence of moisture content on microbial activity and silage quality during ensilage of food processing residues.

Seasonally produced biomass such as sugar beet pulp (SBP) and tomato pomace (TP) needs to be stored properly to meet the demand of sustainable biofuel production industries. Ensilage was used to preserve the feedstock. The effect of moisture content (MC) on the performance of ensilage and the relationship between microorganism activities and MC were investigated. For SBP, MC levels investigated were 80, 55, 30, and 10% on a wet basis. For TP, MC levels investigated were 60, 45, 30, and 10%. Organic acids, ethanol, ammonia, pH and water soluble carbohydrates (WSC) were measured to evaluate the silage quality. Ensilage improved as the MC decreased from 80 to 55% for SBP and from 60 to 45% for TP. When the MC decreased to 30%, a little microbial activity was detected for both feedstocks. Storage at 10% MC prevented all the microbial activity. The naturally occurring microorganisms in TP were found to preserve TP during silage and were isolated and determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The results suggest that partial drying followed by ensilage may be a good approach for stabilization of food processing residues for biofuels production.

The Crosstalk between Autophagy and Apoptosis Is Necessary for Myogenic Differentiation.

Skeletal muscle is a major organ in animals, which constitutes over 40% of livestock body weight, and plays a critical role in metabolism and homeostasis in an organism. Autophagy and apoptosis are two major processes to determine cell fate. Recently, the importance of autophagy and apoptosis in myogenesis has been identified; however, their crosstalk is not well defined. In this study, we aimed to explore the relationship between apoptosis and autophagy during myogenic differentiation. The results showed that the level of autophagy was consistent with apoptosis during myogenic differentiation. The increased apoptosis activated autophagy, and then autophagy inhibited apoptosis in turn to prevent excessive apoptosis and maintain the stability of cells. The interaction between autophagy and apoptosis determines the balance of cell death and cell survival, allowing the skeletal muscle cells to differentiate normally.

The role of Se content in improving anti-tumor activities and its potential mechanism for selenized Artemisia sphaerocephala polysaccharides.

Drawing an instructive point on the correlation between Se content and anti-tumor effects is helpful to develop Se-polysaccharides with potential anti-tumor activities. In this work, Se content-related anti-tumor activities are assessed in vitro by multiple comparisons among Na2SeO3, Artemisia sphaerocephala polysaccharide (ASP), and selenized ASP (SeASPs, Se contents 4344-13 030 µg g-1) synthesized by a chemical modification method. The results suggest that SeASPs exhibit potent anti-proliferation activities against three kinds of tumor cells by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest, which is positively correlated to Se content. Meanwhile, SeASPs display low cytotoxicity against normal cells as compared with Na2SeO3 and 5-FU. A mitochondrial membrane potential assay and western blotting analysis suggest that the SeASPs induce HepG2 cell apoptosis via mitochondrial and death receptor pathways, which is confirmed by the reduced mitochondrial membrane potential, upregulated Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, promoted Cyt C release, and increased expression level of caspase-3/-9/-8. In an in vivo anti-tumor assay, SeASP with a high Se content (13 030 µg g-1) also obviously inhibits H22 tumor growth in a dose-dependent manner, and a tumor suppression rate of 45.10% is observed. In addition, the results of ELISA analysis suggest that SeASPs obviously increase the concentration of serum NO, cytokines (IL-1ß, IL-6, TNF-α), and Ig-G in a dose-dependent manner as compared with the control and ASP group. It could be concluded that adjusting the Se content might be an effective approach to improve the anti-tumor activities of Se-polysaccharides.

GDF15 Promotes Cardiac Fibrosis and Proliferation of Cardiac Fibroblasts via the MAPK/ERK1/2 Pathway after Irradiation in Rats.

Ionizing radiation exposure is associated with a risk of cardiac fibrosis; however, the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. Growth/differentiation factor-15 (GDF15), a fibroblast factor, is a divergent member of the transforming growth factor ß superfamily. Next-generation sequencing analyses has revealed that Gdf15 is increased in cardiac fibroblasts during radiation-induced fibrosis. However, the role of Gdf15 in cardiac fibrosis remains unclear. In this study, we demonstrated that the upregulated expression of GDF15 in newborn rat cardiac fibroblasts and adult rats after irradiation could induce fibrosis, which was confirmed by the increased cell proliferation rate and the increased expression of fibrosis markers (Col1α and αSMA) in newborn rat cardiac fibroblasts after transfection with Gdf15 in vitro. Conversely, the downregulation of GDF15 inhibited cardiac fibrosis, as confirmed by G2/M-cell cycle arrest, suppression of cell proliferation, and low levels of Col1α and αSMA expression. We also found that suppressing the expression of Gdf15 in cardiac fibroblasts could lead to a decrease in CDK1 and inhibit phosphorylation of ERK1/2. Thus, GDF15 might promote cardiac fibroblast fibrosis through the MAPK/ERK1/2 pathway and thus contribute to the pathogenesis of radiation-induced heart disease.

[HNMP]HSO4 catalyzed synthesis of selenized polysaccharide and its immunomodulatory effect on RAW264.7 cells via MAPKs pathway.

In this paper, selenized Artemisia sphaerocephala polysaccharides (SePAS) were obtained through employing N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone hydrosulfate as catalyst, which showed a maximum Se content enhanced to 8744 µg/g. FT-IR, 1D/2D NMR, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and size-exclusion chromatograph analysis exhibited that Se had been successfully introduced into PAS and existed in the form of selenate group (Se4+) with the substitution position at C-6. Furthermore, immunostimulating assays indicated that SePAS with high Se content exhibited stronger immunomodulatory activities by upregulated the phosphorylation level of ERK, JNK and p38, thus enhancing RAW264.7 cells proliferation, phagocytosis, levels of interleukin-6, nitric oxide, tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-1ß. The current outcome suggested that Se content might be a critical factor affecting the immunomodulatory effects of selenized PAS on macrophage RAW264.7.

miR-21 is upregulated, promoting fibrosis and blocking G2/M in irradiated rat cardiac fibroblasts.

BACKGROUND: Radiation exposure of the thorax is associated with a greatly increased risk of cardiac morbidity and mortality even after several decades of advancement in the field. Although many studies have demonstrated the damaging influence of ionizing radiation on cardiac fibroblast (CF) structure and function, myocardial fibrosis, the molecular mechanism behind this damage is not well understood. miR-21, a small microRNA, promotes the activation of CFs, leading to cardiac fibrosis. miR-21 is overexpressed after irradiation; however, the relationship between increased miR-21 and myocardial fibrosis after irradiation is unclear. This study was conducted to investigate gene expression after radiation-induced CF damage and the role of miR-21 in this process in rats. METHODS: We sequenced irradiated rat CFs and performed weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) combined with differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis to observe the effect on the expression profile of CF genes after radiation. RESULTS: DEG analysis showed that the degree of gene changes increased with the radiation dose. WGCNA revealed three module eigengenes (MEs) associated with 8.5-Gy-radiation-the Yellow, Brown, Blue modules. The three module eigengenes were related to apoptosis, G2/M phase, and cell death and S phase, respectively. By blocking with the cardiac fibrosis miRNA miR-21, we found that miR-21 was associated with G2/M blockade in the cell cycle and was mainly involved in regulating extracellular matrix-related genes, including Grem1, Clu, Gdf15, Ccl7, and Cxcl1. Stem-loop quantitative real-time PCR was performed to verify the expression of these genes. Five genes showed higher expression after 8.5 Gy-radiation in CFs. The target genes of miR-21 predicted online were Gdf15 and Rsad2, which showed much higher expression after treatment with antagomir-miR-21 in 8.5-Gy-irradiated CFs. Thus, miR-21 may play the role of fibrosis and G2/M blockade in regulating Grem1, Clu, Gdf15, Ccl7, Cxcl1, and Rsad2 post-irradiation.