Deletion of BTB and CNC homology 1 protects against Staphylococcus aureus-induced acute lung injury.

BTB and CNC homology 1 (BACH1) plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of acute lung injury (ALI) caused by gram-negative bacteria. However, its exact mechanisms and roles in Staphylococcus aureus (SA)-induced ALI, a gram-positive bacterial infection, remain incompletely understood. In this study, we generated a BACH1-knockout mouse model (BACH1-/-) to investigate the role of BACH1 and its underlying mechanisms in regulating the development of sepsis-induced acute lung injury (ALI). Elevated levels of BACH1 were observed in both serum samples from septic patients and mouse models. Deletion of BACH1 alleviated ALI symptoms induced by sepsis. In bone marrow-derived macrophages, BACH1 deletion or knockdown suppressed NF-κB p65 phosphorylation and the induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that BACH1 downregulated tumor necrosis factor-alpha-induced protein 3 (TNFAIP3) mRNA expression by binding to its promoter region. These findings uncover inhibiting BACH1 may be a promising therapeutic strategy for treating gram-positive bacteria-induced ALI.

BCL6 attenuates hyperoxia-induced lung injury by inhibiting NLRP3-mediated inflammation in fetal mouse.

BACKGROUND: The transcriptional repressor B-cell lymphoma 6 (BCL6) has been reported to inhibit inflammation. So far, experimental evidence for the role of BCL6 in bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is lacking. Our study investigated the roles of BCL6 in the progression of BPD and its downstream mechanisms. METHODS: Hyperoxia or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was used to mimic the BPD mouse model. To investigate the effects of BCL6 on BPD, recombination adeno-associated virus serotype 9 expressing BCL6 (rAAV9-BCL6) and BCL6 inhibitor FX1 were administered in mice. The pulmonary pathological changes, inflammatory chemokines and NLRP3-related protein were observed. Meanwhile, BCL6 overexpression plasmid was used in human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (HPMECs). Cell proliferation, apoptosis, and NLRP3-related protein were detected. RESULTS: Either hyperoxia or LPS suppressed pulmonary BCL6 mRNA expression. rAAV9-BCL6 administration significantly inhibited hyperoxia-induced NLRP3 upregulation and inflammation, attenuated alveolar simplification and dysregulated angiogenesis in BPD mice, which were characterized by decreased mean linear intercept, increased radical alveolar count and alveoli numbers, and the upregulated CD31 expression. Meanwhile, BCL6 overexpression promoted proliferation and angiogenesis, inhibited apoptosis and inflammation in hyperoxia-stimulated HPMECs. Moreover, administration of BCL6 inhibitor FX1 arrested growth and development. FX1-treated BPD mice exhibited exacerbation of alveolar pathological changes and pulmonary vessel permeability, with upregulated mRNA levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and pro-fibrogenic factors. Furthermore, both rAAV9-BCL6 and FX1 administration exerted a long-lasting effect on hyperoxia-induced lung injury (≥4 wk). CONCLUSIONS: BCL6 inhibits NLRP3-mediated inflammation, attenuates alveolar simplification and dysregulated pulmonary vessel development in hyperoxia-induced BPD mice. Hence, BCL6 may be a target in treating BPD and neonatal diseases.

Association between sleep quality, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation in college students.

Suicide among college students is a challenging problem globally. Yet, the association between sleep quality, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation remains unclear. This study aims to understand if depressive symptoms mediate the relationship between sleep quality and suicide ideation and whether the interaction between depressive symptoms and sleep quality on suicidal ideation is additive. A total of 1182 college students were recruited, and sleep quality, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation were assessed using questionnaires. Univariate analysis, logistic regression analysis, linear regression models, and the Sobel test were performed. The results showed that, among college students, poor sleep quality was positively associated with suicidal ideation, and the association was mediated through depressive symptoms. Moreover, there was a significant additive interaction between poor sleep quality and depressive symptoms on suicidal ideation. These findings suggest that, in the process of preventing and treating suicidal ideation in college students with sleep disorders, we should focus on the evaluation and intervention of depressive symptoms and adopt multidisciplinary team interventions for college students with sleep disorders and depression.

Changes of gut microbiota and short chain fatty acids in patients with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome.

Peutz-Jeghers Syndromeis a rare autosomal dominant genetic disease characterized by gastrointestinal hamartomatous polyps and skin and mucous membrane pigmentation. The pathogenesis of PJS remains unclear; however, it may be associated with mutations in the STK11 gene, and there is currently no effective treatment available. The gut microbiota plays an important role in maintaining intestinal homeostasis in the human body, and an increasing number of studies have reported a relationship between gut microbiota and human health and disease. However, relatively few studies have been conducted on the gut microbiota characteristics of patients with PJS. In this study, we analyzed the characteristics of the gut microbiota of 79 patients with PJS using 16 S sequencing and measured the levels of short-chain fatty acids in the intestines. The results showed dysbiosis in the gut microbiota of patients with PJS, and decreased synthesis of short-chain fatty acids. Bacteroides was positively correlated with maximum polyp length, while Agathobacter was negatively correlated with age of onset. In addition, acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid were positively correlated with the age of onset but negatively correlated with the number of polyps. Furthermore, the butyric acid level was negatively correlated with the frequency of endoscopic surgeries. In contrast, we compared the gut microbiota of STK11-positive and STK11-negative patients with PJS for the first time, but 16 S sequencing analysis revealed no significant differences. Finally, we established a random forest prediction model based on the gut microbiota characteristics of patients to provide a basis for the targeted diagnosis and treatment of PJS in the future.

Carnosic acid improves porcine early embryonic development by inhibiting the accumulation of reactive oxygen species.

Carnosic acid (CA), a natural catechol rosin diterpene, is used as an additive in animal feeds and human foods. However, the effects of CA on mammalian reproductive processes, especially early embryonic development, are unclear. In this study, we added CA to parthenogenetically activated porcine embryos in an in vitro culture medium to explore the influence of CA on apoptosis, proliferation, blastocyst formation, reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, glutathione (GSH) levels, mitochondrial membrane potential, and embryonic development-related gene expression. The results showed that supplementation with 10 µM CA during in vitro culture significantly improved the cleavage rates, blastocyst formation rates, hatching rates, and total numbers of cells of parthenogenetically activated porcine embryos compared with no supplementation. More importantly, supplementation with CA also improved GSH levels and mitochondrial membrane potential, reduced natural ROS levels in blastomeres, upregulated Nanog, Sox2, Gata4, Cox2, Itga5, and Rictor expression, and downregulated Birc5 and Caspase3 expression. These results suggest that CA can improve early porcine embryonic development by regulating oxidative stress. This study elucidates the effects of CA on early embryonic development and their potential mechanisms, and provides new applications for improving the quality of in vitro-developed embryos.

Performances of the beam monitoring system and quality assurance equipment for the HIMM of carbon-ion therapy.

PURPOSE: The heavy-ion medical machine (HIMM), which is the first commercial medical accelerator designed and built independently by the institute of modern physics (IMP) in Wuwei, Gansu Province, China, had officially completed clinical trials at the time of this article's writing. Three types of detector systems were developed based on the ionization-chamber principle to monitor the beam parameters during treatment in real time, quickly verify the beam performance during a routine checkup, and ensure patient safety. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The above-mentioned detector systems were used for beam monitoring and quality assurance in the treatment system. The beam-monitoring system is composed of three integral ionization chambers (ICs) and two multistrip ionization chambers (MSICs) as a redundant design. The irradiation dose, beam position, and homogeneity of a lateral profile are monitored online by the beam-monitoring system, and safety interlocks are established to keep the test results under the predefined tolerance limitation. The quality-assurance equipment was composed of one MSIC and one IC stack. The IC stack was used for energy verification. RESULTS: The off-axis response of ICs is within a tolerance of 2%, and the dose interlock system (DIS) response time is less than 7 ms during the treatment process. The positioning resolution of MSICs reached 73 µm. The IC stack can verify the beam range within one spill and the measurement resolution is less than 0.2 mm. CONCLUSIONS: The beam-monitoring system (BMS) and quality-assurance equipment (QAE) have been installed and run successfully within HIMM for two years and are associated with the HIMM treatment system to deliver the right dose to the correct position precisely. Furthermore, the daily QA task is simplified by it. Above all, the system has passed the performance test of the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA).

Development of a GA-fuzzy-immune PID controller with incomplete derivation for robot dexterous hand.

In order to improve the performance of robot dexterous hand, a controller based on GA-fuzzy-immune PID was designed. The control system of a robot dexterous hand and mathematical model of an index finger were presented. Moreover, immune mechanism was applied to the controller design and an improved approach through integration of GA and fuzzy inference was proposed to realize parameters' optimization. Finally, a simulation example was provided and the designed controller was proved ideal.

Crosstalk of methylation and tamoxifen in breast cancer (Review).

Tamoxifen is a widely used anti­estrogen drug in the endocrine therapy of breast cancer (BC). It blocks estrogen signaling by competitively binding to estrogen receptor α (ERα), thereby inhibiting the growth of BC cells. However, with the long­term application of tamoxifen, a subset of patients with BC have shown resistance to tamoxifen, which leads to low overall survival and progression­free survival. The molecular mechanism of resistance is mainly due to downregulation of ERα expression and abnormal activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. Moreover, the downregulation of targeted gene expression mediated by DNA methylation is an important regulatory mode to control protein expression. In the present review, methylation and tamoxifen are briefly introduced, followed by a focus on the effect of methylation on tamoxifen resistance and sensitivity. Finally, the clinical application of methylation for tamoxifen is described, including its use as a prognostic indicator. Finally, it is hypothesized that when methylation is used in combination with tamoxifen, it could recover the resistance of tamoxifen.

Simulating land use change for sustainable land management in China's coal resource-based cities under different scenarios.

Land use competition among economic development, food security and ecological protection posed challenges for the sustainable development in resource-based cities, especially those represented by coal resource-based cities in China. Predicting future land use change under the coupled framework of shared socioeconomic pathways and representative concentration pathways (SSP-RCPs) was a crucial step in devising sustainable development strategies. In this study, the patch-generated land use simulation (PLUS) model coupled with SSP-RCP scenarios (SSP126, SSP245, SSP585) was used to predict land use changes from year 2020 to 2060, identify key management regions for balancing the goals of ecological protection and food security, and propose corresponding measures. The results showed that, (1) the selected driving factors and model parameters effectively simulated land use changes with an Overall accuracy of 0.95, a Kappa coefficient of 0.92, a Figure of Merit of 0.16, an Exchange error ≤5.69 %, a Shift error ≤1.04 %, and a Quantity error ≤0.67 %. (2) All the scenarios, it was observed that the grassland continued to decrease by 0.86 % to 7.34 %, and the forest and built-up land continued to increase, of which forest increased by 2.34 % to 4.03 %, and built-up land increased by 21.02 % to 61.08 %. Cropland only increased in SSP585 scenario, by 4.76 %, but declining by 2.93 % in SSP126 and SSP245 scenario. (3) In future scenarios, the expansion of built-up land has escalated the risk of cropland and grassland loss. Based on the distribution of key land use conversions, four categories of prioritized land management regions and corresponding measures have been proposed. This provided a potential pathway to mitigate risks associated with the protection of cropland and ecological land. Therefore, this study was instrumental in understanding the mechanisms of land use changes in coal resource-based cities, and provided a reference for land use planning.

The association between soyfoods or soybean products consumption and executive functioning among Chinese adolescents: A cross-sectional multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: The association of soyfoods or soybean products with executive functions in the brain has been less well studied. In this study, we investigated the consumption of soyfoods or soybean products and its association with executive functions in Chinese adolescents. METHODS: A three-stage stratified whole group sampling method was used to investigate the consumption of soyfoods or soybean products and executive functions among 1643 Chinese adolescents aged 13-15 years. One-way ANOVA and chi-square test were used to compare the basic conditions and executive functions of adolescents with different soyfoods or soybean products consumption. Linear regression analysis and logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the association between soyfoods or soybean products and executive functions. RESULTS: The proportions of Chinese adolescents with soyfoods or soybean products consumption ≤0 time/week, 1-3 time/week, and ≥4 time/week were 41.14 %, 46.80 %, and 12.05 %, respectively. Logistic regression analysis showed that with adolescents with soyfoods or soybean products consumption ≥4 time/week as a reference, adolescents with ≤0 time/week were less likely to have executive dysfunction in inhibiting functional (OR = 17.523, 95 % CI: 7.501, 40.938), 2back (OR = 3.384, 95 % CI: 1.729, 6.623), and switching functional (OR = 7.846, 95 % CI: 3.300, 18.657), were at higher risk of executive dysfunction (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Chinese adolescents' consumption of soyfoods or soybean products is inadequate and has a positive association with executive functions. The consumption of soyfoods or soybean products among Chinese adolescents should be increased in the future.

Association between sugar-sweetened beverages and duration of physical exercise with psychological symptoms among Tibetan university students at high altitude.

Background: Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and duration of physical exercise are strongly associated with physical health. Unfortunately, there are few studies focused on the association with psychological symptoms, let alone Tibetan university students at high altitudes in China. Methods: A stratified cluster sampling method was used to include 8,268 Tibetan university students aged 19-22 years in Qinghai and Tibet, both of which are high-altitude regions of China. Self-assessment questionnaires on SSBs, duration of physical exercise, and psychological symptoms were administered. The chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the associations among them. Results: The detection rate of psychological symptoms among Tibetan university students in high-altitude areas of China was 16.7%, with in girls (18.2%) higher than that in boys (14.8%), and the difference was statistically significant (χ2 = 11.73, p < 0.01). The proportion of SSBs for university students ≤1 time/week, 2-5 times/week, and ≥ 6 times/week were 54.2, 24.3, and 21.5%, respectively. The proportion of duration of physical exercise for >60 min/d was only 5.4%. Logistic regression analysis showed that compared with the SSBs ≤1 time/week group of university students, SSBs 2-5 times/week (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.24-1.70) and ≥ 6 times/week (OR = 3.06, 95% CI: 2.62-3.57) had an increased risk of psychological symptoms (p < 0.001). In the reference group, the risk of psychological symptoms was also significantly increased in the group of university students with duration of physical exercise >60 min/d (OR = 2.08, 95% CI: 1.48-2.93), and the risk of psychological symptoms was also significantly increased in the group with duration of physical exercise <30 min/d (OR = 2.08, 95% CI: 1.48-2.93). The risk of psychological symptoms was also significantly increased in the university students with the duration of physical exercise <30 min/d (OR = 2.08, 95% CI: 1.48 ~ 2.93) group. Conclusion: SSBs and exercise time may be important influences on the psychological symptoms of Tibetan university students at high altitudes in China. This study has important implications for mental health planning in universities in highland areas and may also provide guidance for mental health interventions for Tibetan university students.

Pyrroloquinoline Quinone Alleviates Mitochondria Damage in Radiation-Induced Lung Injury in a MOTS-c-Dependent Manner.

Radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) is a prevalent complication of thoracic tumor radiotherapy and accidental radiation exposure. Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ), a novel vitamin B, plays a crucial role in delaying aging, antioxidation, anti-inflammation, and antiapoptosis. This study aims to investigate the protective effect and mechanisms of PQQ against RILI. C57BL/6 mice were exposed to a 20 Gy dose of X-ray radiation on the entire thorax with or without daily oral administration of PQQ for 2 weeks. PQQ effectively mitigated radiation-induced lung tissue damage, inflammation, oxidative stress, and epithelial cell apoptosis. Additionally, PQQ significantly inhibited oxidative stress and mitochondrial damage in MLE-12 cells. Mechanistically, PQQ upregulated the mRNA and protein levels of MOTS-c in irradiated lung tissue and MLE-12 cells. Knockdown of MOTS-c by siRNA substantially attenuated the protective effects of PQQ on oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis. In conclusion, PQQ alleviates RILI by preserving mitochondrial function through a MOTS-c-dependent mechanism, suggesting that PQQ may serve as a promising nutraceutical intervention against RILI.

Quercetin alleviates hyperoxia-induced bronchopulmonary dysplasia by inhibiting ferroptosis through the MAPK/PTGS2 pathway: Insights from network pharmacology, molecular docking, and experimental evaluations.

Quercetin, a bioactive natural compound renowned for its potent anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiviral properties, has exhibited therapeutic potential in various diseases. Given that bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) development is closely linked to inflammation and oxidative stress, and quercetin, a robust antioxidant known to activate NRF2 and influence the ferroptosis pathway, offers promise for a wide range of age groups. Nonetheless, the specific role of quercetin in BPD remains largely unexplored. This study aims to uncover the target role of quercetin in BPD through a combination of network pharmacology, molecular docking, computer analyses, and experimental evaluations.

The Mitochondrial-Derived Peptide MOTS-c Alleviates Radiation Pneumonitis via an Nrf2-Dependent Mechanism.

Radiation pneumonitis (RP) is a prevalent and fatal complication of thoracic radiotherapy due to the lack of effective treatment options. RP primarily arises from mitochondrial injury in lung epithelial cells. The mitochondrial-derived peptide MOTS-c has demonstrated protective effects against various diseases by mitigating mitochondrial injury. C57BL/6 mice were exposed to 20 Gy of lung irradiation (IR) and received daily intraperitoneal injections of MOTS-c for 2 weeks. MOTS-c significantly ameliorated lung tissue damage, inflammation, and oxidative stress caused by radiation. Meanwhile, MOTS-c reversed the apoptosis and mitochondrial damage of alveolar epithelial cells in RP mice. Furthermore, MOTS-c significantly inhibited oxidative stress and mitochondrial damage in MLE-12 cells and primary mouse lung epithelial cells. Mechanistically, MOTS-c increased the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor (Nrf2) level and promoted its nuclear translocation. Notably, Nrf2 deficiency abolished the protective function of MOTS-c in mice with RP. In conclusion, MOTS-c alleviates RP by protecting mitochondrial function through an Nrf2-dependent mechanism, indicating that MOTS-c may be a novel potential protective agent against RP.

Nrf2 deficiency exacerbated pulmonary pyroptosis in maternal hypoxia-induced intrauterine growth restriction offspring mice.

Maternal prenatal hypoxia is an important contributor to intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), which impedes fetal lung maturation and leads to the development of chronic lung diseases. Although evidence suggests the involvement of pyroptosis in IUGR, the molecular mechanism of pyroptosis is still unclear. Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) has been found to potentially interact with gasdermin D (GSDMD), the key protein responsible for pyroptosis, indicating its crucial role in inhibiting pyroptosis. Therefore, we hypothesized that Nrf2 deficiency is a key molecular responsible for lung pyroptosis in maternal hypoxia-induced IUGR offspring mice. Pregnant WT and Nrf2-/- mice were exposed to hypoxia (10.5 % O2) to mimic IUGR model. We assessed body weight, lung histopathology, pulmonary angiogenesis, oxidative stress levels, as well as mRNA and protein expressions related to inflammation in the 2-week-old offspring. Additionally, we conducted a dual-luciferase reporter assay to confirm the targeting relationship between Nrf2 and GSDMD. Our findings revealed that offspring with maternal hypoxia-induced IUGR exhibited reduced birth weight, catch-up growth delay, and pulmonary dysplasia. Furthermore, we observed impaired nuclear translocation of Nrf2 and increased GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis in these offspring with IUGR. Moreover, the dual-luciferase reporter assay demonstrated that Nrf2 could directly inhibit GSDMD transcription; deficiency of Nrf2 exacerbated pyroptosis and pulmonary dysplasia in offspring with maternal hypoxia-induced IUGR. Collectively, our findings suggest that Nrf2 deficiency induces GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis and pulmonary dysplasia in offspring with maternal hypoxia-induced IUGR; thus highlighting the potential therapeutic approach of targeting Nrf2 for treating prenatal hypoxia-induced pulmonary dysplasia in offspring.

Association of Soyfoods or Soybean Products Consumption with Psychological Symptoms: Evidence from a Cross-Sectional Study of Chinese University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

There is a strong association between soyfoods or soybean product consumption and adolescent health, but there are few studies on the association between soyfoods or soybean product consumption and psychological symptoms among university students. To this end, this study investigated the association between soyfoods or soybean products consumption and psychological symptoms among Chinese university students and analyzed the association between them. A three-stage stratified whole-group sampling method was used to administer questionnaires on soyfoods or soybean products consumption and psychological symptoms to 7742 university students in China. Self-assessment questionnaires were also administered to confounding variables such as basic demographic information, family status, parental education, body mass index (BMI), and moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA). The chi-square test, one-way ANOVA, and logistic regression analysis were used to explore the association and differences between soyfoods or soybean products consumption and psychological symptoms. The proportion of Chinese university students' soyfoods or soybean products consumption in ≤one time/week, two-four times/week, and ≥five times/week were 38.81%, 40.24%, and 20.95%, respectively. University students' psychological symptoms problem detection rate was 16.22%. The detection rate of psychological symptoms was lower among university male students (14.75%) than female students (17.35%), and the difference was statistically significant (χ2 = 9.525, p < 0.01). After adjusting for relevant covariates, students with soyfoods or soybean products consumption ≤one time/week (OR = 1.83, 95% CI:1.52, 2.21) had a higher risk of psychological symptoms compared to university students with soyfoods or soybean products consumption ≥five time/week (p < 0.01). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese university students had lower consumption of soyfoods or soybean products and a higher detection rate of psychological symptoms. There was a negative association between soyfoods or soybean products consumption and psychological symptoms. Our study provides a scientific reference for the government and educational decision-making authorities and suggests that education on eating behavior and dietary guidance should be emphasized among university students in the future to maintain a reasonable consumption of soyfoods or soybean products for better physical and mental health development.

Selenium/sulfur-modified montmorillonite materials mitigate mercury pollution in farmland.

Selenium (Se) amendment could reduce mercury (Hg) bioaccumulation in crops, but sometimes it could cause excessive Se accumulation in crops and potential Se exposure risks for humans. In this study, we designed and synthesized selenium and sulfur-modified montmorillonite materials (Se/S-Mont) to effectively reduce mercury levels and avoid excessive Se enrichment in plants. The results of pot experiments (1 g Se/S-Mont/100 g soil) and field microplot trials (0.3 g Se/S-Mont/100 g soil, 8 t/ha) showed that Se/S-Mont amendments significantly reduced the Hg concentrations in water spinach and hybrid Pennisetum by 28-68% and 57%-92% (P < 0.05), respectively, while they did not lead to excessive Se bioaccumulation in the plants. Se/S-Mont was more efficient in mitigating soil Hg pollution than adding raw materials (e.g., NaSeO3) and their combinations, and they significantly reduced the available Se fraction in the soil and the Se levels in the plants (P < 0.05). The potential mechanisms revealed by X-ray absorption near-edge spectra (XANES) and pot experiments were the adsorption and slow release of Hg, S, and Se by Se/S-Mont, the high affinity between Hg and Se, competition between Se and S, and the formation of stable complexes containing Se-S-Hg. The Se/S-Mont immobilizer was easy to prepare and required the application of small amounts, and the remediation effect was relatively stable and exhibited few negative effects; therefore, the approach showed high environmental and economic potentials.

STNet: shape and texture joint learning through two-stream network for knowledge-guided image recognition.

Introduction: The human brain processes shape and texture information separately through different neurons in the visual system. In intelligent computer-aided imaging diagnosis, pre-trained feature extractors are commonly used in various medical image recognition methods, common pre-training datasets such as ImageNet tend to improve the texture representation of the model but make it ignore many shape features. Weak shape feature representation is disadvantageous for some tasks that focus on shape features in medical image analysis. Methods: Inspired by the function of neurons in the human brain, in this paper, we proposed a shape-and-texture-biased two-stream network to enhance the shape feature representation in knowledge-guided medical image analysis. First, the two-stream network shape-biased stream and a texture-biased stream are constructed through classification and segmentation multi-task joint learning. Second, we propose pyramid-grouped convolution to enhance the texture feature representation and introduce deformable convolution to enhance the shape feature extraction. Third, we used a channel-attention-based feature selection module in shape and texture feature fusion to focus on the key features and eliminate information redundancy caused by feature fusion. Finally, aiming at the problem of model optimization difficulty caused by the imbalance in the number of benign and malignant samples in medical images, an asymmetric loss function was introduced to improve the robustness of the model. Results and conclusion: We applied our method to the melanoma recognition task on ISIC-2019 and XJTU-MM datasets, which focus on both the texture and shape of the lesions. The experimental results on dermoscopic image recognition and pathological image recognition datasets show the proposed method outperforms the compared algorithms and prove the effectiveness of our method.

MiR-155-5p Attenuates Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Oxidative Stress and Migration via Inhibiting BACH1 Expression.

The malfunction of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is an initiating factor in the pathogenesis of pathological vascular remodeling, including hypertension-related vascular lesions. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of VSMC proliferation and migration in numerous cases of cardiovascular remodeling. The evidence for the regulatory role of miR-155-5p in the development of the cardiovascular system has been emerging. However, it was previously unclear whether miR-155-5p participated in the migration of VSMCs under hypertensive conditions. Thus, we aimed to define the exact role and action of miR-155-5p in VSMC migration by hypertension. Here, we detected that the level of miR-155-5p was lower in primary VSMCs from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Its overexpression attenuated, while its depletion accelerated, the migration and oxidative damage of VSMCs from SHRs. Our dual-luciferase reporter assay showed that miRNA-155-5p directly targeted the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of BTB and CNC homology 1 (BACH1). The miR-155-5p mimic inhibited BACH1 upregulation in SHR VSMCs. By contrast, the deletion of miR-155-5p further elevated the upregulation of BACH1 in SHR-derived VSMCs. Importantly, the overexpression of miR-155-5p and knockdown of BACH1 had synergistic effects on the inhibition of VSMCs in hypertension. Collectively, miR-155-5p attenuates VSMC migration and ameliorates vascular remodeling in SHRs, via suppressing BACH1 expression.

TBX2 affects proliferation, apoptosis and cholesterol generation by regulating mitochondrial function and autophagy in bovine cumulus cell.

BACKGROUND: T-box transcription factor 2 (TBX2) is a member of T-box gene family whose members are highly conserved in evolution and encoding genes and are involved in the regulation of developmental processes. The encoding genes play an important role in growth and development. Although TBX2 has been widely studied in cancer cell growth and development, its biological functions in bovine cumulus cells remain unclear. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the regulatory effects of TBX2 in bovine cumulus cells. METHODS: TBX2 gene was knockdown with siRNA to clarify the function in cellular physiological processes. Cell proliferation and cycle changes were determined by xCELLigence cell function analyzer and flow cytometry. Mitochondrial membrane potential and autophagy were detected by fluorescent dye staining and immunofluorescence techniques. Western blot and quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) were used to detect the expression changes of proliferation and autophagy-related proteins. Aadenosine triphosphate (ATP) production, glucose metabolism, and cholesterol synthesis of cumulus cells were measured by optical density and chemiluminescence analysis. RESULTS: After inhibition of TBX2, the cell cycle was disrupted. The levels of apoptosis, ratio of light chain 3 beta II/I, and reactive oxygen species were increased. The proliferation, expansion ability, ATP production, and the amount of cholesterol secreted by cumulus cells were significantly decreased. CONCLUSIONS: TBX2 plays important roles in regulating the cells' proliferation, expansion, apoptosis, and autophagy; maintaining the mitochondrial function and cholesterol generation of bovine cumulus cells.