Clinical Outcome and Factors with Dietary Behaviors in Pregnant Women with Listeria monocytogenes: A Hospital-Based Case-Control Study in Shanghai.

Listeriosis is a globally rare foodborne disease that causes fetal-placental infection, leading to adverse pregnancy outcome, while limited research among pregnant women is available in China. This study was therefore aimed at analyzing the incidence, clinical manifestations, and clinical outcome of listeriosis among pregnant women and its associated dietary behavior risk factors in prevention. A hospital-based case-control study had been conducted from January 2017 to December 2021. Clinical data, laboratory information, and questionnaires including dietary behaviors and personal hygiene were collected within 2 days after case diagnosis. There were 48 pregnant women, including 12 cases and 36 controls, with an average age of 31.19 ± 3.75 years. The incidence of admission-based listeriosis among pregnant women was 1.6058 per 10,000. The 12 strains were divided into 3 serotypes: 1/2a(83.33%), 1/2b(8.33%), and 4b(8.33%). Among the cases, 5 cases (41.67%) resulted in abortion, 3 cases (25%) induced preterm labor, and 4 cases (33.33%) had full-term deliveries after treatment. There were 7 live births in the case group, among which 6 were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), while 1 case had a healthy fetal outcome. All patients in the control group gave birth to live fetuses. Epidemiological investigation revealed that pregnant women dining at restaurants three or more times per week might increase the risk of having Listeria infection. There were no significant differences in dietary consumed behaviors, hand hygiene, and refrigerator usage behaviors between case and control groups. The study suggested that dining at restaurants might be associated with Listeria infection among pregnant women. Therefore, it is essential to enhance education on listeriosis serious consequences and promote healthy dietary and hygiene habits among pregnant women.

miR-125a-3p regulates the expression of FSTL1, a pro-inflammatory factor, during adipogenic differentiation, and inhibits adipogenesis in mice.

Adipogenesis is tightly regulated by various factors, including genes and microRNAs. Excessive fat deposition is the key feature of obesity, which is a low-grade chronic inflammatory disease. Follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1) has been reported to be an important mediator involved in various inflammatory diseases. However, the underlying mechanism of FSTL1 in preadipocyte differentiation and inflammatory response is still unclear. The current study was designed to explore the biological function and potential mechanism of FSTL1 in mouse subcutaneous preadipocyte differentiation. We found that FSTL1 was highly expressed in the early stage of differentiation and subsequently decreased sharply, suggesting that FSTL1 played a possible role in adipogenesis. Meanwhile, the gain- and loss-of-function assays showed that FSTL1 was not only involved in the inflammatory response by inducing the expression of pro-inflammatory factors IL-1ß and CCL2 but also significantly attenuated preadipocyte differentiation, as evidenced by the reduction of lipid accumulation and the levels of adipogenic genes, including PPARγ and FABP4. In addition, the target gene prediction and luciferase reporter assay validated that miR-125a-3p targeted the 3' UTR region of FSTL1. These results demonstrated that miR-125a-3p negatively regulated the expression of FSTL1 at the mRNA and protein levels. Furthermore, overexpressing miR-125a-3p in preadipocytes dramatically accelerated adipogenic differentiation and downregulated the levels of IL-1ß and CCL2, which were in accordance with the knockdown of FSTL1. On the contrary, treatment with miR-125a-3p inhibitors attenuated adipogenesis but induced the expression of inflammatory genes. In summary, this study suggests a positive function of FSTL1 in adipocyte-induced inflammation and negatively regulates preadipocyte differentiation. Further studies demonstrated that miR-125a-3p could reverse the effect by targeting FSTL1, which might provide a better understanding of treating obesity-related inflammatory diseases.

Oxytetracycline-induced oxidative liver damage by disturbed mitochondrial dynamics and impaired enzyme antioxidants in largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides).

Oxytetracycline (OTC), a commonly used tetracycline antibiotic in aquaculture, has been found to cause significant damage to the liver of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). This study revealed that OTC can lead to severe histopathological damage, structural changes at the cellular level, and increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in M. salmoides. Meanwhile, OTC impairs the activities of antioxidant enzyme (such as T-SOD, CAT, GST, GR) by suppressing the activation of MAPK/Nrf2 pathway. OTC disrupts mitochondrial dynamics and mitophagy through via PINK1/Parkin pathway. The accumulation of damaged mitochondria, combined with the inhibition of the antioxidant enzyme system, contributes to elevated ROS levels and oxidative liver damage in M. salmoides. Further investigations demonstrated that an enzyme-treated soy protein (ETSP) dietary supplement can help maintain mitochondrial dynamic balance by inhibiting the PINK1/Parkin pathway and activate the MAPK/Nrf2 pathway to counteract oxidative damage. In summary, these findings highlight that exposure to OTC disrupts mitochondrial dynamics and inhibits the antioxidant enzyme system, ultimately exacerbating oxidative liver damage in M. salmoides. We propose the use of a dietary supplement as a preventive measure against OTC-related side effects, providing valuable insights into the mechanisms of antibiotic toxicity in aquatic environments.

Profiling miRNAs of Teleost Fish in Responses to Environmental Stress: A Review.

miRNAs are a class of endogenous and evolutionarily conserved noncoding short RNA molecules that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression through sequence-specific interactions with mRNAs and are capable of controlling gene expression by binding to miRNA targets and interfering with the final protein output. The miRNAs of teleost were firstly reported in zebrafish development, but there are recent studies on the characteristics and functions of miRNAs in fish, especially when compared with mammals. Environmental factors including salinity, oxygen concentration, temperature, feed, pH, environmental chemicals and seawater metal elements may affect the transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulators of miRNAs, contributing to nearly all biological processes. The survival of aquatic fish is constantly challenged by the changes in these environmental factors. Environmental factors can influence miRNA expression, the functions of miRNAs and their target mRNAs. Progress of available information is reported on the environmental effects of the identified miRNAs, miRNA targets and the use of miRNAs in fish.

Shame on You! When and Why Failure-Induced Shame Impedes Employees' Learning From Failure in the Chinese Context.

The emotional experience brought about by failure, especially the important roles of negative emotions in learning behavior after failure, has received increasingly more attention from organization management scholars. Research on the impact of employees' sense of failure-induced shame is still controversial. Based on the Chinese context, according to the process model of emotion regulation theory, we have studied the influence of failure-induced shame on employees' learning from failure and the conditions that have boundary effects on this process. Through a questionnaire analysis of 776 samples from Chinese high-tech enterprises, the results show the following: (1) shame has a negative relationship with learning from failure (2) project commitment alleviates the negative relationship between shame and learning from failure, and (3) restoration orientation alleviates the negative relationship between shame and learning from failure while loss orientation cannot. Our results further enrich the research on negative emotions related to failure and provide a theoretical basis for the failure management of Chinese companies.

Multifunctional nanocomplex for surface-enhanced Raman scattering imaging and near-infrared photodynamic antimicrobial therapy of vancomycin-resistant bacteria.

Since vancomycin (Van)-resistant enterococci (VRE) strains first emerged as a serious threat to public health, extensive studies focused on optical imaging and antimicrobial therapy have been performed for monitoring and microbiological control. In this study, we developed silicon 2,3-naphthalocyanine dihydroxide (Nc) and Van functionalized silica-encapsulated, silver-coated gold nanoparticles (Au@AgNP@SiO2@Nc-Van) as a novel theranostic system for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection and antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) of VRE strains. The silver-coated gold nanoparticle, as the SERS-active core, exhibited excellent Raman enhancement efficacy. Results of in vitro bacterial SERS imaging revealed Van-enhanced specific binding affinity toward VRE. Meanwhile, Si(IV) naphthalocyanine, serving as a near-infrared (NIR) photosensitizer, was axially linked to the nanoparticle surface, yielding nanostructured hybrid materials that could photoinactivate VRE. Almost 4-5 logs of bacterial reduction were obtained upon in vitro photodynamic therapy of VRE treated with a nanomolar concentration of the nanocomplex. Mouse infection assays were applied for an in vivo evaluation of VRE lethality. Upon near-infrared light irradiation, this hybrid nanomaterial caused obvious infection regression and even complete eradication compared to the findings in the non-treated groups. Therefore, this novel nanosystem integrating SERS imaging and noninvasive aPDT has huge potential for applications in theranostics with regard to VRE management.

Re-Evaluation of Phylogenetic Relationships among Species of the Mangrove Genus Avicennia from Indo-West Pacific Based on Multilocus Analyses.

Avicennia L. (Avicenniaceae), one of the most diverse mangrove genera, is distributed widely in tropical and subtropical intertidal zones worldwide. Five species of Avicennia in the Indo-West Pacific region have been previously described. However, their phylogenetic relationships were determined based on morphological and allozyme data. To enhance our understanding of evolutionary patterns in the clade, we carried out a molecular phylogenetic study using wide sampling and multiple loci. Our results support two monophyletic clades across all species worldwide in Avicennia: an Atlantic-East Pacific (AEP) lineage and an Indo-West Pacific (IWP) lineage. This split is in line with biogeographic distribution of the clade. Focusing on the IWP branch, we reconstructed a detailed phylogenetic tree based on sequences from 25 nuclear genes. The results identified three distinct subclades, (1) A. rumphiana and A. alba, (2) A. officinalis and A. integra, and (3) the A. marina complex, with high bootstrap support. The results strongly corresponded to two morphological traits in floral structure: stigma position in relation to the anthers and style length. Using Bayesian dating methods we estimated diversification of the IWP lineage was dated to late Miocene (c. 6.0 million years ago) and may have been driven largely by the fluctuating sea levels since that time.

Molecular evidence for natural hybridization in the mangrove fern genus Acrostichum.

BACKGROUND: Natural hybridization is prevalent in ferns, and plays an important role in fern evolution and speciation. In the Indo West-Pacific region, the mangrove fern genus Acrostichum consists of two largely sympatric species, A. aureum and A. speciosum. Although there has been no report of interspecific hybridization before, we found some individuals morphologically intermediate between them in Guangdong and Hainan, China, for the first time, which were suspected to be hybrids. In this study, we aimed to test the hypothesis of natural hybridization between A. aureum and A. speciosum in Guangdong and Hainan using three low-copy nuclear genes. A chloroplast intergenic spacer was used to infer the hybridization direction once the hybrid status was confirmed. In addition, we examined spore shapes and germination for these taxa. RESULTS: Both A. aureum and A. speciosum showed a low level of polymorphism at all three nuclear genes; however, they were well separated at these loci. At both locations, each individual of the putative hybrid showed additivity in chromatograms at all sites where the two species showed fixed differences. Haplotype analysis at all three nuclear genes indicated that each individual of the putative hybrid possessed two haplotypes, matching with those of A. aureum and A. speciosum, respectively. Sequencing of the chloroplast trnV-trnM regions showed that A. aureum differed from A. speciosum by eleven nucleotide substitutions and three indels (insertions/deletions), and all sampled individuals of the putative hybrid had the identical sequences with A. speciosum. Compared with A. aureum and A. speciosum, the putative hybrid had much reduced spore germination rate. CONCLUSIONS: Sequence data of the three nuclear genes provide compelling evidence for natural hybridization between A. aureum and A. speciosum, and all the hybrid individuals are likely F1s. The hybridization is unidirectional and A. speciosum is the maternal parent of the hybrid based on the assumption of maternal inheritance of chloroplast DNA. Human disturbance on mangrove habitats may facilitate the establishment of hybrids of Acrostichum.

[Influence of sperm from different sources on the clinical outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical outcomes of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with spermatozoa from different sources. METHODS: We retrospectively studied the rates of fertilization, clinical pregnancy, implantation, abortion, ectopic pregnancy and delivery in 682 patients treated by ICSI, who were divided according to the sperm sources into an ejaculated sperm group (ES, n = 598), a percutaneous epididymal sperm aspiration (PESA, n = 58) and a testicular sperm extraction (TSE, n = 26). RESULTS: The fertilization rate was significantly lower in the TSE than in the ES and PESA groups (81.06% vs 87.95% and 87.82%, P < 0.05). But no statistically significant differences were observed among the ES, PESA and TSE groups in the rates of clinical pregnancy (39.46%, 48.28% and 34.62%), implantation (19.80%, 23.80% and 18.34%), abortion (13.13%, 17.86% and 11.11%), ectopic pregnancy (5.51%, 7.14% and 11.11%) and delivery (32.11%, 36.21% and 26.92%) (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Although TSE-obtained sperm affect the rate of fertilization, those obtained by TSE and PESA do not obviously influence the outcome of clinical pregnancy.