Cyclizine-induced proinflammatory responses through Akt-NFκB pathway in macrophages.

Cyclizine exhibits sedation and treatment of nausea, vomiting, and motion sickness due to antihistaminic and antimuscarinic effects. Cyclizine has the potential for abuse due to the hallucinogenic and euphoric effect. The response of overdose and illegal abuse of cyclizine includes confusion, tremors, chest pain, ataxia, seizures, and lead to suicide. Macrophage plays the important role in the innate immunity. However, over activation of macrophages results in pro-inflammatory responses in peripheral tissues. In the present study, cyclizine was found to enhanced the generation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1ß, and IL-6. We further found that secretion of nitrogen oxide (NO) induced by cyclizine via expression of inducible nitric oxide synthases (iNOS). Cyclizine exhibited parallel stimulation of phosphorylation of nuclear factor-κB (NFκB) p65, and its up-stream factor Akt. These results indicated that the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, pro-inflammatory mediators, and adhesion molecules would be induced by cyclizine via activation of Akt-NFκB pathway in macrophages.

Automatic Counterfeit Currency Detection Using a Novel Snapshot Hyperspectral Imaging Algorithm.

In this study, a snapshot-based hyperspectral imaging (HSI) algorithm that converts RGB images to HSI images is designed using the Raspberry Pi environment. A Windows-based Python application is also developed to control the Raspberry Pi camera and processor. The mean gray values (MGVs) of two distinct regions of interest (ROIs) are selected from three samples of 100 NTD Taiwanese currency notes and compared with three samples of counterfeit 100 NTD notes. Results suggest that the currency notes can be easily differentiated on the basis of MGV values within shorter wavelengths, between 400 nm and 500 nm. However, the MGV values are similar in longer wavelengths. Moreover, if an ROI has a security feature, then the classification method is considerably more efficient. The key features of the module include portability, lower cost, a lack of moving parts, and no processing of images required.

Effects of disulfide bond reducing agents on sperm chromatin structural integrity and developmental competence of in vitro matured oocytes after intracytoplasmic sperm injection in pigs.

We recently reported that electrical activation followed by secondary chemical activation greatly enhanced the developmental competence of in vitro matured porcine oocytes fertilized by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). We hypothesized that sperm treatment with disulfide bond reducing agents will enhance the development competence of porcine embryos produced by this ICSI procedure. We examined the effects of glutathione (GSH), dithiothreitol (DTT), GSH or DTT in combination with heparin on sperm DNA structure, paternal chromosomal integrity, pronuclear formation, and developmental competence of in vitro matured porcine oocytes after ICSI. Acridine orange staining and flow cytometry based sperm chromatin structure assay were used to determine sperm DNA integrity by calculating the cells outside the main population (COMP alphaT). No differences were observed in COMP alphaT values among GSH-treated and control groups. COMP alphaT values in GSH-treated groups were significantly lower than that in DTT-treated groups. Following ICSI, GSH treatments did not significantly alter paternal chromosomal integrity. Paternal chromosomal integrity in sperm treated with DTT plus or minus heparin was also the lowest among all groups. GSH-treated sperm yielded the highest rates of normal fertilization and blastocyst formation, which were significantly higher than that of control and DTT-treated groups. The majority of blastocysts derived from control and GSH-treated spermatozoa were diploid, whereas blastocysts derived from DTT-treated spermatozoa were haploid. In conclusion, sperm treatment with GSH enhanced the developmental capacity of porcine embryos produced by our optimized ICSI procedure.

Effect of different parthenogenetic activation methods on the developmental competence of in vitro matured porcine oocytes.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of electrical pulse, ethanol, and ionomycin combined with cycloheximide (CHX), cytochalasin B (CB), and 6-dimethylaminopurine (6-DMAP) on parthenogenetic developmental competence of in vitro matured porcine oocytes. In experiment 1, oocytes were treated with direct current electrical pulse (DC pulse) and then incubated in the NCSU-23 medium supplemented with CHX, 6-DMAP, CB + CHX, and CB + 6-DMAP for 6 h, respectively. The rate of blastocyst development in DC pulse + CB + 6-DMAP group was significantly higher than those in other groups (42.4% vs 23.9% approximately 35.8%; P < 0.05); however, there were no differences in both of the cleavage rate and the cell number of blastocysts among four groups. In experiment 2, oocytes were treated with NCSU-23 medium containing 20 muM ionomycin for 40 min and then incubated in the NCSU-23 medium supplemented with CHX, 6-DMAP, CB + CHX and CB + 6-DMAP for 6 h, respectively. The rates of cleavage and blastocyst development in ionomycin + 6-DMAP group were higher than those obtained in other groups (66.2% vs 46.3% approximately 57.3%; 22.3% vs 7.4% approximately 16.1%; P < 0.05). In experiment 3, the activation effects of ethanol combined with 6-DMAP, CHX, CB + 6-DMAP and CB + CHX were investigated. The rates of cleavage and blastocyst development in ethanol + CB + 6-DMAP group were significantly higher than those in other groups (55.5% vs 42% approximately 46.2%; 18.0% vs 7.1% approximately 11.9%; P < 0.05). In experiment 4, the optimal activation protocols in each group plus DC pulse + ionomycin + 6-DMAP were compared. The results showed the rates of cleavage in DC pulse + CB + 6-DMAP group and ionomycin + 6-DMAP were higher than those in ethanol + CB + 6-DMAP and DC pulse + ionomycin + 6-DMAP (73.8-74.4% vs 56.5-57.5%; P < 0.05), but the blastocyst development only in DC pulse + CB + 6-DMAP group was significantly higher than that in other groups (34.1% vs 13.4% approximately 22.3%; P < 0.05). Total cell number of blastocysts in the group of DC pulse + ionomycin + 6-DMAP was higher than that in other groups (34.1 vs 25.3-27.2; P < 0.05). In conclusion, DC pulse, ethanol, CB, and 6-DMAP all affected the parthenogenesis of porcine oocytes matured in vitro, but their combination of DC pulse + CB + 6-DMAP showed the best result in both of cleavage and blastocyst development.