SNR of a combined mode-locked fiber laser generating conventional and dissipative solitons.

In this paper, we utilized a combined mode-locked fiber laser including a saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) and nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE) to generate conventional solitons (CSs) and dissipative solitons (DSs), respectively, in order to investigate the difference in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) between the outputs of these two types of solitons in artificial and natural saturators. Both simulation and experimental results demonstrated that, under the shared pump power, the DSs from the NPE-based mode-locked fiber output exhibited a higher SNR of approximately 60 dB, compared to the CSs from the SESAM-based mode-locked fiber output of 45 dB. Furthermore, we conducted theoretical analysis of these results. We believe that this work can provide new approaches for SNR improvement research in the fields of passively mode-locked fiber lasers.

Hepatocyte-derived MANF mitigates ethanol-induced liver steatosis in mice via enhancing ASS1 activity and activating AMPK pathway.

Hepatic steatosis plays a detrimental role in the onset and progression of alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD). Mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) is an evolutionarily conserved protein related to the unfolded protein response. Recent studies have demonstrated that MANF plays an important role in liver diseases. In this study, we investigated the role of MANF in ethanol-induced steatosis and the underlying mechanisms. We showed that the hepatic MANF expression was markedly upregulated in mouse model of ALD by chronic-plus-single-binge ethanol feeding. Moreover, after chronic-plus-binge ethanol feeding, hepatocyte-specific MANF knockout (HKO) mice displayed more severe hepatic steatosis and liver injury than wild-type (WT) control mice. Immunoprecipitation-coupled MS proteomic analysis revealed that arginosuccinate synthase 1 (ASS1), a rate-limiting enzyme in the urea cycle, resided in the same immunoprecipitated complex with MANF. Hepatocyte-specific MANF knockout led to decreased ASS1 activity, whereas overexpression of MANF contributed to enhanced ASS1 activity in vitro. In addition, HKO mice displayed unique urea cycle metabolite patterns in the liver with elevated ammonia accumulation after ethanol feeding. ASS1 is known to activate AMPK by generating an intracellular pool of AMP from the urea cycle. We also found that MANF supplementation significantly ameliorated ethanol-induced steatosis in vivo and in vitro by activating the AMPK signaling pathway, which was partly ASS1 dependent. This study demonstrates a new mechanism in which MANF acts as a key molecule in maintaining hepatic lipid homeostasis by enhancing ASS1 activity and uncovers an interesting link between lipid metabolism and the hepatic urea cycle under excessive alcohol exposure.

In vitro production and distribution of flavonoids in Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch.

Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch. is known as a common Chinese medicinal herb used to harmonize the effects of other ingredients in most Chinese herbal prescriptions. The rapid production of flavonoids in vitro remains unknown in G. uralensis Fisch. To investigate the in vitro adventitious root regeneration and flavonoid accumulation characteristics in G. uralensis for restrictions on collecting wild plants, suspension cultural and freezing microtomy with histochemical assays were carried out. We reported that multiple adventitious roots were initiated from hypocotyls and stems of G. uralensis. Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) was more conducive than NAA (1-naphthaleneacetic acid) in inducing G. uralensis adventitious roots, but the addition of 6-BA (6-benzylaminopurine) and KT (kinetin) suppressed the formation of adventitious roots. While the concentration of IBA was 1.0 mg L-1, the flavonoid content and yield were the highest at 19.96 mg g-1 and 1.23 mg g-1, respectively. The optimum medium for adventitious root induction was 1/4-strength Murashige and Skoog's medium containing 0.1 mg L-1 IBA. The content of flavonoids in adventitious roots and apicals cultured in vitro was higher than that in suspension callus, reaching 3.87 times the callus flavonoid content. The histochemical localization of flavonoids showed that G. uralensis flavonoids mainly distributed in the epidermal parenchyma cells of the callus outer layers and gradually accumulated in cell wall and cell gaps of the epidermis and endodermis of adventitious roots along with the primary growth of adventitious roots, indicating that there were no flavonoids in the roots at the early stage of adventitious roots formation. The results showed that calli inducing adventitious roots and apicals for 30 days obtained the highest yield of flavonoid, indicating effective production for flavonoids instead of wild culture. AlCl3 ethanol solution was better than NaOH aqueous solution in terms of chromogenic and localization effects. We concluded that the highest yield of flavonoid and effective production for flavonoid instead of wild culture could be obtained from calli inducing adventitious roots and apicals.