Glial cells: an important switch for the vascular function of the central nervous system.

In this review, we first describe the current understanding of glial-mediated vascular function affecting the role of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in central nervous system (CNS) disorders. BBB, mainly composed of glial and endothelial cells (ECs), is the protective structure that orchestrates the transport of substances, including ions, molecules, and cells from brain vessels into or out of the CNS. Then, we display the multiple communication between glial and vascular function based on angiogenesis, vascular wrapping, and blood perfusion in the brain. Glial can support microvascular ECs to form a blood network connecting to neurons. Astrocytes, microglia, and oligodendrocytes are the common types of glial surrounding the brain vessel. Glial-vessel interaction is required for the permeability and integrity of BBB. Glial cells surrounding the cerebral blood vessels can transmit communication signals to ECs and regulate the activity of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) or Wnt-dependent endothelial angiogenesis mechanism. In addition, these glial cells monitor the blood flow in the brain via Ca2+/K+-dependent pathways. Finally, we provide a potential research direction for the glial-vessel axis in CNS disorders. Microglial activation can trigger astrocyte activation, which suggests that microglia-astrocyte interaction may play a key role in monitoring cerebral blood flow. Thus, microglia-astrocyte interaction can be the key point of follow-up studies focusing on the microglia-blood mechanism. More investigations focus on the mechanism of how oligodendrocyte progenitor cells communicate and interact with ECs. The direct role of oligodendrocytes in modulating vascular function needs to be explored in the future.

The Role of miRNA in the Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Treatment of Osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma (OS) is one of the most common malignant tumors derived from mesenchymal tissue and is highly invasive, mainly in children and adolescents. Treatment of OS is mostly based on standard treatment options, including aggressive surgical resection, systemic chemotherapy, and targeted radiation therapy, but the 5-year survival rate is still low. MicroRNA (miRNA) is a highly conserved type of endogenous nonprotein-encoding RNA, about 19-25 nucleotides in length, whose transcription process is independent of other genes. Generally, miRNAs play a role in regulating cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and development by binding to the 3' untranslated region of target mRNAs, whereby they can degrade or induce translational silencing. Although miRNAs play a regulatory role in various metabolic processes, they are not translated into proteins. Several studies have shown that miRNAs play an important role in the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of OS. Herein, the authors describe new advances in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of miRNAs in OS.

[Separation with ion exchange fiber column and determination of La, Nd, Eu and Gd in high purity ytterbium oxide by ICP-AES].

In the present paper, trace La, Nd, Eu and Gd were separated and enriched with strong acid ion exchange fiber column from high purity Yb2 O3, and then determined by Optima 5 300 DV ICP-AES. The ion exchange fiber's breakthrough capacity for Yb was 134 mg x g(-1). The separation condition using 4.0 g fiber column was that after the test solution (pH = 3.0) was fed into the ion exchange fiber column at 1.0 mL x min(-1), the column was pre--leached by dilute nitric acid (pH = 3.00) of 80 mL at 1.5 mL x min(-1) at first, and then was eluted by 0.01 mol x L(-1) ammonium EDTA (pH = 5.00) at the same flow rate. The results showed that 10 mg Yb could reach the baseline separation with 0.100 microg of the four rare earth impurities, and after 100 mg Yb in feed solution had been separated, only 0.017 1 microg x mL(-1) Yb remained in the impurities enriched effluent. When the concentration of Yb2 O3 is less than 100 microg x mL(-1) (87.8 microg x mL(-1) Yb), the matrix interference from Yb on with determination of La, Nd, Eu and Gd can be neglected. The enrichment factors were 3.68 x 10(5) for La2 O3, 4.20 x 10(5) for Nds O3, 3.82 x 10(5) for Eu2 O3, and 4.01 x 10(5) for Gd2 O3, and the detection limits of the method were 0.005 0, 0.014, 0.001 8 and 0.008 2 pg x mL(-1) for La2 O3, Nd2 O3, Eu2 O3 and Gd2 O3 respectively. The proposed method was applied to the analysis of 99.99% Yb2 O3 with RSD (%, n = 5) of 6.2, 5.9, 7.3 and 2.5 for La2 O3, Nd2 O3, Eu2 O3 and Gd2 O3 respectively, and the average recoveries of standard addition were 94.2%, 107%, 97.8% and 102% for La2 O3, Nd2 O3, Eu2 O3 and Gd2 O3 respectively. The calibration curve did not need matrix matching with Yb, and the analysis period was within 4 hour.