High polymorphism at microsatellite loci in the Chinese donkey.

To reveal the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships between Chinese donkey breeds, 415 individuals representing ten breeds were investigated using ten microsatellite markers. The observed number of alleles, mean effective number of alleles (NE), mean expected heterozygosity (HE), and polymorphic information content (PIC) of each breed and polymorphic locus were analyzed. The results showed that seven (HTG7, HTG10, AHT4, HTG6, HMS6, HMS3, and HMS7) of ten microsatellite loci were polymorphic. The mean PIC, HE, and NE of seven polymorphic loci for the ten donkey breeds were 0.7679, 0.8072, and 6.0275, respectively. These results suggest that domestic Chinese donkey breeds possess higher levels of genetic diversity and heterozygosity than foreign donkeys. A neighbor-joining tree based on Nei's standard genetic distance showed that there was close genetic distance among Xinjiang, Qingyang, Xiji, and Guanzhong donkey breeds. In addition, Mongolia and Dezhou donkey breeds were placed in the same category. The phylogenetic tree revealed that the genetic relationships between Chinese donkey breeds are consistent with their geographic distribution and breeding history.

Gender difference in protein expression of vascular wall in mice exposed to chronic intermittent hypoxia: a preliminary study.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as systemic arterial hypertension, ischemic heart disease, stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and cardiac sudden death. The pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease in OSA is thought to be induced primarily by chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH), a specific pattern of change in oxygenation during sleep. However, the underlying mechanisms of CIH-induced vasculature injury and gender differences are not well documented. The iTRAQ Quantitative Proteomic method enables analysis of a number of different proteins among several groups. Thus, we explored gender differences in protein expression in the vascular walls of mice exposed to CIH. C57BL/6J mice of each gender were exposed to CIH with a fractional inspired O2 (FiO2) nadir of 5% or control, with a treatment time of 8 h/day for 28 days. Differential proteins related to CIH-induced vascular injury between genders were identified using iTRAQ proteomic technology. A total of 163 proteins were identified, of which 34 showed significant differences between genders, which may correlate with vascular injury by CIH. Twenty up-regulated proteins and 14 downregulated proteins were observed in female mice compared with male mice. We identified different vascular proteins expressed under CIH between genders, suggesting that these proteins may be biomarkers of vascular injury by CIH.