Effects of sericin on oxidative stress and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signal pathway in cryopreserved mice ovarian tissue.

Ovarian tissue cryopreservation is an effective fertility protective strategy for preadolescent female cancer patients, whose tumor treatment cannot be delayed. In the present study, the effects of sericin, as an antioxidant, on mice ovarian tissue freezing and thawing were investigated. Mice ovarian tissues were cryopreserved and thawed in medium containing 0.5% or 1%sericin (w/v), and 0.1 mM melatonin. Then, the follicular morphology was observed. The levels of antioxidant enzymes were determined, including glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and catalase (CAT). Moreover, the levels of nitric oxide (NO), malondialdehyde (MDA) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were also tested. Besides, apoptosis-related proteins Bcl-2 and Bax were determined. Our results showed that 1% sericin maintained follicular morphology, inhibited apoptosis, decreased MDA and NO levels, and boosted endogenous antioxidant enzyme levels, while had no significant effect on LDH levels. Furthermore, these effects may be related with the activation of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT)/mammalian target of Rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, as demonstrated by increased PI3K, p-AKT and mTOR levels. These findings demonstrate that 1% sericin may reduce oxidative stress and protect ovarian tissues during freezing and thawing via PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.

An Efficient Dehazing Algorithm Based on the Fusion of Transformer and Convolutional Neural Network.

The purpose of image dehazing is to remove the interference from weather factors in degraded images and enhance the clarity and color saturation of images to maximize the restoration of useful features. Single image dehazing is one of the most important tasks in the field of image restoration. In recent years, due to the progress of deep learning, single image dehazing has made great progress. With the success of Transformer in advanced computer vision tasks, some research studies also began to apply Transformer to image dehazing tasks and obtained surprising results. However, both the deconvolution-neural-network-based dehazing algorithm and Transformer based dehazing algorithm magnify their advantages and disadvantages separately. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel Transformer-Convolution fusion dehazing network (TCFDN), which uses Transformer's global modeling ability and convolutional neural network's local modeling ability to improve the dehazing ability. In the Transformer-Convolution fusion dehazing network, the classic self-encoder structure is used. This paper proposes a Transformer-Convolution hybrid layer, which uses an adaptive fusion strategy to make full use of the Swin-Transformer and convolutional neural network to extract and reconstruct image features. On the basis of previous research, this layer further improves the ability of the network to remove haze. A series of contrast experiments and ablation experiments not only proved that the Transformer-Convolution fusion dehazing network proposed in this paper exceeded the more advanced dehazing algorithm, but also provided solid and powerful evidence for the basic theory on which it depends.

[Status and Influencing Factors of Hypertension in the Elderly Aged 60 and Above in Mianyang].

Objective To understand the prevalence and influencing factors of hypertension among the elderly aged 60 years and above in Mianyang City,Sichuan Province,so as to provide clues for targeted prevention and control of hypertension. Methods A total of 115 775 permanent residents aged 60 and above screened out from Mianyang demonstration sites from October 2017 to April 2019 were investigated by questionnaire and physical examination,and the data of personal basic information,lifestyle,body height,body weight,waist circumference,and blood pressure were collected.SPSS 22.0 was used for descriptive analysis,single factor analysis,and Logistic regression analysis. Results The prevalence rate of hypertension in the elderly aged 60 years and above in Mianyang was 50.60%.Specifically,the prevalence rates of hypertension in men and women were 50.27% and 50.85%,respectively.The prevalence rate of hypertension increased with the increase in age([Formula: see text]=370.199,P<0001).Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the independent risk factors of hypertension included age of 70-79 years(OR=1.327,95%CI=1.292-1.363,P<0.001),the age of 80 years and above(OR=1.455,95%CI=1.386-1.527,P<0.001),widowhood(OR=1.343,95%CI=1.296-1.392,P<0.001),divorce(OR=1.255,95%CI=1.033-1.525,P=0.022),overweight(OR=1.431,95%CI=1.391-1.473,P<0.001),obesity(OR=2.171,95%CI=2.076-2.270,P<0.001),waist-to-height ratio>0.5(OR=1.317,95%CI=1.281-1.354,P<0.001),history of diabetes(OR=1.865,95%CI=1.791-1.941,P<0.001),history of smoking(OR=1.107,95%CI=1.068-1.148,P<0.001),and history of drinking(OR=1.950,95%CI=1.894-2.009,P<0.001).Living in urban-rural fringe areas(OR=0.628,95%CI=0.594-0.664,P<0.001),education background of junior high school and above(OR=0.942,95%CI=0.912-0.974,P<0.001),and low body weight(OR=0.785,95%CI=0.742-0.830,P<0.001) were protective factors for hypertension. Conclusions More than 50% of the elderly aged 60 years and above in Mianyang suffer from hypertension.The elderly with advanced age,widowhood,divorce,overweight,obesity,waist-to-height ratio>0.5,diabetes history,smoking history,and drinking history are the high-risk groups of hypertension.

[Status and Influencing Factors of New Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Anzhou District,Mianyang City].

Objective To understand the status quo and analyze the influencing factors of new hepatitis B virus(HBV) infection in Anzhou district,Mianyang city,Sichuan province,so as to provide a scientific basis for the formulation of hepatitis B prevention and control measures.Methods This study enrolled 71 418 residents of Anzhou District,Mianyang City,who participated in the physical examination of "Mianyang Comprehensive Prevention and Control Demonstration Study of Major Infectious Diseases" in 2013 and were tested negative for the hepatitis B surface antigen.The residents were followed for 5 years and underwent serological test again in 2018.The new infection rate of HBV was calculated and the influencing factors were analyzed by multivariate Logistic regression analysis.Results In 2018,the new infection rate of HBV among 71 418 residents in Anzhou district was 1.61%.The new infection rate varied with the differences in gender,age,occupation,marital status,smoking status,drinking frequency,place of residence,family history of hepatitis B,and history of hepatitis B vaccination(P<0.001).Multivariate Logistic regression results showed that male(OR=1.29,95%CI=1.12-1.48,P<0.001),farmer(OR=2.01,95%CI=1.39-2.90,P<0.001),and family history of hepatitis B(OR=1.97,95%CI=1.44-2.70,P<0.001)were the independent risk factors for new HBV infection(P<0.001).Conclusions The new infection rate of HBV is high in Anzhou district of Mianyang city.Males,farmers,and those with family history of hepatitis B are high-risk groups of HBV infection.

Quantum dots-based immunofluorescent microfluidic chip for the analysis of glycan expression at single-cells.

Rich high-quality single-cell information from rare cell sample is very important for the quantitative systems biology description of cellular function. However, this type of data is often prohibited by the conventional analytical technology such as flow cytometry. In this paper, we described a microfluidic platform coupled with a quantum dots-based (QDs) immunofluorescence (IF) approach to measure the expression of glycans on the cell surface of single cells or cell population. Compared with conventional IF staining, the QDs-based IF probe exhibited higher brightness and stability against photobleaching. With the merits of the novel IF staining protocol and microfluidic platform, high-throughput IF staining was performed to measure the glycan expressions and the changes at single K562 cells after drug treatment. The protocol proposed here showed a high sensitivity on the glycan expression profile owing to the amplification of the signal in indirect IF staining. The size of cell sample was only 4 × 10(3) cells, which made the rare cell sample analysis accessible. This method may find widespread application for assessing cell-surface glycoprotein expression as well as analysis of the heterogeneity in cell populations in a high-throughput manner.

Clinical significance and expression of cyclin kinase subunits 1 and 2 in hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The mammalian cyclin kinase subunit (Cks) family has two members, Cks1 and Cks2, which were identified based on the protein sequence homology to yeast Cks. Overexpression of Cks1 and Cks2 has been reported to be associated with high aggressiveness and a poor prognosis in various malignancies, including gastric, breast and prostate carcinomas. Yet, whether Cks1 and Cks2 are overexpressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains uncharacterized. AIMS: To investigate whether overexpression of the Cks family is clinically relevant to HCC, and whether expression patterns of Cks1 and Cks2 in HCC have diagnostic and prognostic value. METHODS: Real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, immunostaining and Western blot analyses were used to detect the expression of Cks1 and Cks2 at the mRNA and protein levels respectively. The associations between Cks1 and Cks2 expressions and clinical features, as well as the association between Cks1 or Cks2 and p27(kip1) expressions in HCC, were analysed. RESULTS: Expressions of Cks1 and Cks2 at both mRNA and protein levels were significantly higher in HCC than those in the adjacent noncancerous tissues (including chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis) and normal liver tissues. Overexpressions of Cks1 and Cks2 in HCC were closely associated with poor differentiation features. The expressions of both Cks1 and Cks2 were negatively associated with p27(kip1) at the protein level. CONCLUSIONS: Overexpression of Cks1 and Cks2 is associated with the aggressive tumour behaviours of HCC, and thus has diagnostic and prognostic value. Further efforts are needed to develop novel biomarkers for HCC based on CKs1 and Cks2 expressions.

Self-assembled amphiphile-based nanoparticles for the inhibition of hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis via ICAM-1 mediated cell adhesion.

Nanosized drug delivery systems have emerged to improve the therapeutic performance of anticancer drugs. Here, an amphiphile-based nanoparticle consisting of amphiphilic prodrug N-[3b-acetoxy-urs-12-en-28-oyl]-amino-2-methylpiperazine was developed (UP12 NPs) with uniform sizes (~100 nm), which possessed the advantages of small molecules and nanomedicine. The positively charged UP12 NPs significantly enhanced the cellular drug uptake on HepG2 cells than negatively charged UA NPs. Meanwhile, UP12 and these therapeutic amphiphile-based nanoparticles could induce cell apoptosis more efficiently than that of UA and UA NPs. Moreover, molecular docking demonstrated that the UP12 and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) could dock well. UP12 and UP12 NPs significantly decreased the mRNA expression of ICAM-1 and inhibited the migration and adhesion of liver cancer cells (HepG2 cells), which indicated that UP12 might be one of the potential ICAM-1 inhibitors. In vivo, UP12 NPs enhanced tumor accumulation, inhibited tumor lung metastasis and showed good biocompatibility. Overall, UP12 or UP12 NPs could be developed as prospective drugs for cancer metastasis therapy via ICAM-1 mediated cell adhesion. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: In this study, we fabricated the therapeutic amphiphile-based nanoparticles by assembly of ursolic acid piperazine derivative N-[3b-acetoxy-urs-12-en-28-oyl]-amino-2-methylpiperazine (name as UP12 NPs) with low cytotoxicity. UP12 NPs exhibited spherical morphology and uniform sizes. Particularly, these therapeutic amphiphile-based nanoparticles significantly enhanced tumor accumulation and inhibited tumor lung metastases via intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) mediated cell adhesion.

[Analysis of Gene Mutation Types of Thalassemia in Quanzhou Area of Fujian Province in China].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the gene mutation types and gene carrying rate of common thalassemia in patients with thalassemia in Quanzhou, and to analyze its molecular epidemiological characteristics in Quanzhou. METHODS: 546 patients with thalassemia diagnosed at the first hospital of Quanzhou from January 2017 to October 2018 were collected and retrospectively analyzed for their types of mutations and carrier rates. RESULTS: Among the 4226 samples submitted, 546 positive samples were detected, the total carrying rate of the thalassaemia genes was 12.92%; the carrier rate of α-thalassemia was 8.16%; the carrier rate of ß-thalassemia was 4.76%; There were more α-thalassemia missing patients than non-deleted patients. The Southeast Asian deletion type (--SEA /αα) was the most common one, with a composition ratio of 68.98%, which was followed by 22.61% (-α3.7/αα), 2.61% (αWSα/αα), and 2.32% (ααCS/αα), 2.32% (αQSα/αα), 1.16% (-α4.2/αα); 9 types of ß-thalassemia gene mutations were detected. The most common three mutations were IVSII-654 (C→T, 42.29%), CD41-42 (-TTCT, 33.83%), CD17 (A→T, 12.94%). 2 cases of --THAI/αα , 1 case of αα/αααanti3.7 and 1 case of HKαα were detected. CONCLUSION: This study shows that the gene carrying rate of thalassemia in Quanzhou is high and has diversity, which can provide some reference for the prevention and control of thalassemia in Quanzhou.

[Epidemiological Survey of Thalassemia in Women of childbearing age in Quanzhou Area of Fujian Province in China].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the gene prevalence and spectrum of thalassemia in the women of childbearing age in quanzhou area. METHODS: Venous blood of the women were collected for study, all subjects were registered in each county of quanzhou area by using cluster sampling. Both the mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) were used for screening thalassemia．Genotyping of the screened positive samples was performed by gap single polymerase chain reaction (gap-PCR) and reverse dot blot (RDB) hybridization．Unknown positive samples were analyzed with DNA sequencing. RESULTS: Out of all 7 082 samples, Three hundred and eighty four were identified as thalassemia gene carriers with a carrying rate of 5.42 %. The α and ß thalassemia were 3.21% and 2.15% respectively. --SEA /αα was the most common genotype with 68.72 % in mutation types of α thalassemia, In addition gene, 2 cases of --THAI/αα and 1 case of αα/αααanti3.7 were also detected. IVS-Ⅱ-654/N and CD41-42/N were the most common gentypes with 75.00 % in mutation types of ß thalassemia gene, 5 cases were found to be α ß compogite thalassemia. CONCLUSION: The carrying rate of thalassemia gene in quanzhou area is higher, and with the most common gentypes including --SEA /αα、IVSⅡ-654(C→T)/N and CD41-42(-TTCT)/N. The study results are beneficial for the screening of thalassemia in the genetic consultation and the prenatal gene diagnosis.

Sleeping Beauty transposon-based system for rapid generation of HBV-replicating stable cell lines.

The stable HBV-replicating cell lines, which carry replication-competent HBV genome stably integrated into the genome of host cell, are widely used to evaluate the effects of antiviral agents. However, current methods to generate HBV-replicating cell lines, which are mostly dependent on random integration of foreign DNA via plasmid transfection, are less-efficient and time-consuming. To address this issue, we constructed an all-in-one Sleeping Beauty transposon system (denoted pTSMP-HBV vector) for robust generation of stable cell lines carrying replication-competent HBV genome of different genotype. This vector contains a Sleeping Beauty transposon containing HBV 1.3-copy genome with an expression cassette of the SV40 promoter driving red fluorescent protein (mCherry) and self-cleaving P2A peptide linked puromycin resistance gene (PuroR). In addition, a PGK promoter-driven SB100X hyperactive transposase cassette is placed in the outside of the transposon in the same plasmid.The HBV-replicating stable cells could be obtained from pTSMP-HBV transfected HepG2 cells by red fluorescence-activated cell sorting and puromycin resistant cell selection within 4-week. Using this system, we successfully constructed four cell lines carrying replication-competent HBV genome of genotypes A-D. The replication and viral protein expression profiles of these cells were systematically characterized. In conclusion, our study provides a high-efficiency strategy to generate HBV-replicating stable cell lines, which may facilitate HBV-related virological study.