Engrailed: Pathological and physiological effects of a multifunctional developmental gene.

Engrailed-1 (EN1) is a developmental gene that encodes En1, a highly conserved transcription factor involved in regionalization during early embryogenesis and in the later maintenance of normal neurons. After birth, EN1 still plays a role in the development and physiology of the body; for example, it exerts a protective effect on midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neurons, and loss of EN1 causes mDA neurons in the ventral midbrain to gradually die approximately 6 weeks after birth, resulting in motor and nonmotor symptoms similar to those observed in Parkinson's disease. Notably, EN1 has been identified as a possible susceptibility gene for idiopathic Parkinson's disease in humans. EN1 is involved in the processes of wound-healing scar production and tissue and organ fibrosis. Additionally, EN1 can lead to tumorigenesis and thus provides a target for the treatment of some tumors. In this review, we summarize the effects of EN1 on embryonic organ development, describe the consequences of the deletion or overexpression of the EN1 gene, and discuss the pathways in which EN1 is involved. We hope to clarify the role of EN1 as a developmental gene and present potential therapeutic targets for diseases involving the EN1 gene.

The cGMP-dependent protein kinase gene can regulate trail-following behaviour and locomotion in the termite Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder.

Social behaviours in termites are closely related to the chemical communication between individuals. It is well known that foraging worker termites can use trail pheromones to orient and locomote along trails so as to take food resources back to the nest. However, it is still unclear how termites recognize trail pheromones. Here, we cloned and sequenced the cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) gene from the termite Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder, and then examined the response of termites to trail pheromones after silencing PKG through RNA interference. We found that PKG knockdown impaired termite ability to follow trail pheromones accurately and exhibited irregular behavioural trajectories in response to the trail pheromone in the termite R. chinensis. Our locomotion assays further showed that PKG knockdown significantly increased the turn angle and angular velocity in the termite R. chinensis. These findings help us better understanding the molecular regulatory mechanism of foraging communications in termites.

Eculizumab exposure in children and young adults: indications, practice patterns, and outcomes-a Pediatric Nephrology Research Consortium study.

BACKGROUND: Eculizumab is approved for the treatment of atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS). Its use off-label is frequently reported. The aim of this study was to describe the broader use and outcomes of a cohort of pediatric patients exposed to eculizumab. METHODS: A retrospective, cohort analysis was performed on the clinical and biomarker characteristics of eculizumab-exposed patients < 25 years of age seen across 21 centers of the Pediatric Nephrology Research Consortium. Patients were included if they received at least one dose of eculizumab between 2008 and 2015. Traditional summary statistics were applied to demographic and clinical data. RESULTS: A total of 152 patients were identified, mean age 9.1 (+/-6.8) years. Eculizumab was used "off-label" in 44% of cases. The most common diagnoses were aHUS (47.4%), Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli HUS (12%), unspecified thrombotic microangiopathies (9%), and glomerulonephritis (9%). Genetic testing was available for 60% of patients; 20% had gene variants. Dosing regimens were variable. Kidney outcomes tended to vary according to diagnosis. Infectious adverse events were the most common adverse event (33.5%). No cases of meningitis were reported. Nine patients died of noninfectious causes while on therapy. CONCLUSIONS: This multi-center retrospective cohort analysis indicates that a significant number of children and young adults are being exposed to C5 blockade for off-label indications. Dosing schedules were highly variable, limiting outcome conclusions. Attributable adverse events appeared to be low. Cohort mortality (6.6%) was not insignificant. Prospective studies in homogenous disease cohorts are needed to support the role of C5 blockade in kidney outcomes.

Outcomes of infants receiving chronic peritoneal dialysis: an analysis of the USRDS registry.

BACKGROUND: Outcome data for infants on chronic peritoneal dialysis (CPD) is limited and has been based primarily on the analyses of voluntary entry registry data. In contrast, the United States Renal Data Systems (USRDS) collects data on all infants with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) on chronic dialysis in the USA. We aimed to describe the clinical characteristics of this population and to determine the associated patient mortality. METHODS: The USRDS database was reviewed retrospectively for data on infants who initiated CPD at ≤ 12 months of age from 1990 to 2014. Infants were categorized into four groups, CPD initiation age (≤ 1 month of age or neonates and > 1-12 months of age or older infants) and initiation era (1990-1999 and 2000-2014). RESULTS: A total of 1723 infants (574 neonates and 1149 older infants) were identified. Overall, 20.9% of infants (147 neonates and 213 older infants) died on dialysis during the follow-up. The most commonly identified causes of death on dialysis were cardiorespiratory disease (25.8%) and infection (22.8%). There was an increased risk for mortality in all infants who initiated CPD in the earlier initiation era (1990-1999) vs the later era (2000-2014) (aHR of 1.95), for females vs males (aHR 1.43), and for those with a primary diagnosis of cystic kidney diseases vs congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) (aHR 1.84). In 2000-2014, patient survival at 1 and 5 years was 86.8% and 74.6% for those who initiated CPD as neonates and 89.6% and 79.3% for those who did so as older infants. CONCLUSIONS: In this large cohort of infants who received chronic peritoneal dialysis over more than two decades, the probability of survival after initiating CPD in the first year of life has significantly improved. There is no difference in the probability of death for neonates compared to older infants. However, the mortality rate remains substantial in association with multiple risk factors.

lncRNA H19 mediates BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) through Notch signaling.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent progenitor cells that can undergo self-renewal and differentiate into multiple lineages. Osteogenic differentiation from MSCs is a well-orchestrated process and regulated by multiple signaling pathways. We previously demonstrated that BMP9 is one of the most potent osteogenic factors. However, molecular mechanism through which BMP9 governs osteoblastic differentiation remains to be fully understood. Increasing evidence indicates noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) may play important regulatory roles in many physiological and/or pathologic processes. In this study, we investigate the role of lncRNA H19 in BMP9-regulated osteogenic differentiation of MSCs. We demonstrated that H19 was sharply upregulated at the early stage of BMP9 stimulation of MSCs, followed by a rapid decease and gradual return to basal level. This process was correlated with BMP9-induced expression of osteogenic markers. Interestingly, either constitutive H19 expression or silencing H19 expression in MSCs significantly impaired BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation in vitro and in vivo, which was effectively rescued by the activation of Notch signaling. Either constitutive H19 expression or silencing H19 expression led to the increased expression of a group of miRNAs that are predicted to target Notch ligands and receptors. Thus, these results indicate that lncRNA H19 functions as an important mediator of BMP9 signaling by modulating Notch signaling-targeting miRNAs. Our findings suggest that the well-coordinated biphasic expression of lncRNA H19 may be essential in BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation of MSCs, and that dysregulated H19 expression may impair normal osteogenesis, leading to pathogenic processes, such as bone tumor development.

BMP9 induces osteogenesis and adipogenesis in the immortalized human cranial suture progenitors from the patent sutures of craniosynostosis patients.

The cranial suture complex is a heterogeneous tissue consisting of osteogenic progenitor cells and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from bone marrow and suture mesenchyme. The fusion of cranial sutures is a highly coordinated and tightly regulated process during development. Craniosynostosis is a congenital malformation caused by premature fusion of cranial sutures. While the progenitor cells derived from the cranial suture complex should prove valuable for studying the molecular mechanisms underlying suture development and pathogenic premature suture fusion, primary human cranial suture progenitors (SuPs) have limited life span and gradually lose osteoblastic ability over passages. To overcome technical challenges in maintaining sufficient and long-term culture of SuPs for suture biology studies, we establish and characterize the reversibly immortalized human cranial suture progenitors (iSuPs). Using a reversible immortalization system expressing SV40 T flanked with FRT sites, we demonstrate that primary human suture progenitor cells derived from the patent sutures of craniosynostosis patients can be efficiently immortalized. The iSuPs maintain long-term proliferative activity, express most of the consensus MSC markers and can differentiate into osteogenic and adipogenic lineages upon BMP9 stimulation in vitro and in vivo. The removal of SV40 T antigen by FLP recombinase results in a decrease in cell proliferation and an increase in the endogenous osteogenic and adipogenic capability in the iSuPs. Therefore, the iSuPs should be a valuable resource to study suture development, intramembranous ossification and the pathogenesis of craniosynostosis, as well as to explore cranial bone tissue engineering.

Engineering the Rapid Adenovirus Production and Amplification (RAPA) Cell Line to Expedite the Generation of Recombinant Adenoviruses.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: While recombinant adenoviruses are among the most widely-used gene delivery vectors and usually propagated in HEK-293 cells, generating recombinant adenoviruses remains time-consuming and labor-intense. We sought to develop a rapid adenovirus production and amplification (RAPA) line by assessing human Ad5 genes (E1A, E1B19K/55K, pTP, DBP, and DNA Pol) and OCT1 for their contributions to adenovirus production. METHODS: Stable transgene expression in 293T cells was accomplished by using piggyBac system. Transgene expression was determined by qPCR. Adenoviral production was assessed with titering, fluorescent markers and/or luciferase activity. Osteogenic activity was assessed by measuring alkaline phosphatase activity. RESULTS: Overexpression of both E1A and pTP led to a significant increase in adenovirus amplification, whereas other transgene combinations did not significantly affect adenovirus amplification. When E1A and pTP were stably expressed in 293T cells, the resultant RAPA line showed high efficiency in adenovirus amplification and production. The produced AdBMP9 infected mesenchymal stem cells with highest efficiency and induced most effective osteogenic differentiation. Furthermore, adenovirus production efficiency in RAPA cells was dependent on the amount of transfected DNA. Under optimal transfection conditions high-titer adenoviruses were obtained within 5 days of transfection. CONCLUSION: The RAPA cells are highly efficient for adenovirus production and amplification.

Noncanonical Wnt signaling plays an important role in modulating canonical Wnt-regulated stemness, proliferation and terminal differentiation of hepatic progenitors.

The liver provides vital metabolic, exocrine and endocrine functions in the body as such pathological conditions of the liver lead to high morbidity and mortality. The liver is highly regenerative and contains facultative stem cells that become activated during injury to replicate to fully recover mass and function. Canonical Wnt/ß-catenin signaling plays an important role in regulating the proliferation and differentiation of liver progenitor cells during liver regeneration. However, possible roles of noncanonical Wnts in liver development and regeneration remain undefined. We previously established a reversibly-immortalized hepatic progenitor cell line (iHPx), which retains hepatic differentiation potential. Here, we analyze the expression pattern of the essential components of both canonical and noncanonical Wnt signaling pathways at different postnatal stages of mouse liver tissues and iHPx cells. We find that noncanonical Wnt4, Wnt5a, Wnt9b, Wnt10a and Wnt10b, are highly expressed concordantly with the high levels of canonical Wnts in late stages of liver tissues. Wnt5a, Wnt9b, Wnt10a and Wnt10b are able to antagonize Wnt3a-induced ß-catenin/TCF activity, reduce the stemness of iHPx cells, and promote hepatic differentiation of liver progenitors. Stem cell implantation assay demonstrates that Wnt5a, Wnt9b, Wnt10a and Wnt10b can inhibit cell proliferation and promote hepatic differentiation of the iHPx progenitor cells. Our results strongly suggest that noncanonical Wnts may play an important role in fine-tuning Wnt/ß-catenin functions during liver development and liver regeneration. Thus, understanding regulatory mechanisms governing proliferation and differentiation of liver progenitor cells may hold great promise to facilitate liver regeneration and/or progenitor cell-based therapies for liver diseases.

Study on occupational safety and health strategy for Taiwan.

The aim of this study was to establish a set of occupational safety and health (OSH) issues and development policies suitable for adoption in Taiwan. A survey was conducted on a sample of 102 experts and 235 industrial work safety personnel in Taiwan for statistical analysis of the general consensus, with the results showing such consensus in 104 individual policy indicators. Our results reveal that the most appropriate targets were considered to be annual 10% reductions in the 'occupational accident disability rate', 'occupational accident injury rate' and 'occupational diseases before 2010'. Responding to the specific question of the appropriate method of achieving a reduction in the number of accidents in Taiwan, the primary consideration for 13.4% of the experts and 10.6% of the industry personnel was 'promoting OSH awareness and enhancing the overall safety culture'. As regards the current OSH policy focus, 11.2% of the experts considered 'improving OSH legislation, standards and systems' to be the most important, whilst 8.9% of the industry personnel felt that 'recognizing work stress, overwork and emerging OSH issues' were the most important.

Identification of flurbiprofen and its photoproducts in methanol by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

A sample of 10 mM flurbiprofen in methanol (or ethanol) was photoirradiated with sixteen 8 W low-pressure quartz mercury lamps irradiated at 306 nm in a Panchum PR-2000 photochemical reactor. In total, four major photoproducts derived from each sample were observed from the HPLC chromatogram. The photoproducts were separated and their structures elucidated by various spectroscopic methods. Alternatively, using GC-MS, 11 major photoproducts were observed. A reaction scheme of flurbiprofen in methanol is proposed: the photochemical reaction routes occur mainly via esterification and decarboxylation, followed by oxidation with singlet oxygen to produce a ketone, alcohols and other derivatives.

Bladder cancer screening and monitoring of 4,4'-methylenebis(2-chloroaniline) exposure among workers in Taiwan.

OBJECTIVES: Transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder is associated with occupational exposure to 4,4'-methylenebis(2-chloroaniline) (MBOCA). A program to monitor MBOCA levels in the work environment and to screen for bladder cancer was performed at four MBOCA manufacturing factories. METHODS: The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration analytic method No. 24 was adopted in this study to measure air MBOCA concentrations. A total of 70 MBOCA-exposed workers and another 92 nonexposed workers were recruited for screening. Urine occult blood tests, urine cytology, tests for the urine tumor marker nuclear matrix protein, and abdominal ultrasonography were performed in all patients. Intravenous urography and cystoscopy were used to confirm the presence of bladder cancer. RESULTS: The air concentration of MBOCA was greatest in the purification area (0.23 to 0.41 mg/m3), followed by the washing area (less than 0.02 to 0.08 mg/m3) and neutralization area (less than 0.05 to 0.06 mg/m3). This study identified a current worker with proved bladder cancer. In addition, we also identified 1 worker with suspected malignant cells on urine cytology and 1 worker with atypical cytology combined with gross hematuria. Although the prevalence of atypical urinary cells and the nuclear matrix protein 22 tumor marker was not significantly different between the MBOCA-exposed workers and nonexposed workers as a whole or when grouped by sex, the prevalence of positive occult blood was marginally significantly (P = 0.055) greater in male exposed workers (18%) than in male nonexposed workers (7%). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study support the conclusions from other studies that MBOCA is potentially carcinogenic to humans. Control measures are needed to prevent overexposure from inhalation and skin absorption.

Occupational bladder cancer in a 4,4 -methylenebis(2-chloroaniline) (MBOCA)-exposed worker.

A 52-year-old male chemical worker was admitted to the hospital with a history of paroxysmal microscopic hematuria for about 2 years and nocturia with gross hematuria about five times per night for 2 months. He was a nonsmoker and denied a history of any other bladder carcinogen exposure except for occasional pesticide application during agricultural work. Intravenous urogram imaging showed a mass occupying half of the bladder capacity. Cystoscopy revealed a mass over the left dome of the bladder. Cystoscopic biopsy revealed a grade 3 invasive transitional cell carcinoma with marked necrosis. From 1987 until hospital admission in 2001, the patient had worked in a company that produced the 4,4 -methylenebis(2-chloroaniline) (MBOCA) curing agent. He did not wear any personal protective equipment during work. Ambient air MBOCA levels in the purification process area (0.23-0.41 mg/m3) exceeded the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration's permissible exposure level. Urinary MBOCA levels (267.9-15701.1 microg/g creatinine) far exceeded the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration's reference value of 100 microg/L. This patient worked in the purification process with occupational exposure to MBOCA for 14 years. According to the environmental and biologic monitoring data and latency period, and excluding other potential bladder carcinogen exposure, this worker was diagnosed as having occupational bladder cancer due to high exposure to MBOCA through inhalation or dermal absorption in the purification area. This case finding supports that MBOCA is a potential human carcinogen. Safe use of skin-protective equipment and respirators is required to prevent workers from MBOCA exposure.

An integrated approach for improving occupational health and safety management: the voluntary protection program in Taiwan.

A voluntary compliance program for occupational health and safety management, Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), was implemented with a strategy of cooperation and encouragement in Taiwan. Due to limitations on increasing the human forces of inspection, a regulatory-based guideline addressing the essence of Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) was promulgated, which combined the resources of third parties and insurance providers to accredit a self-improving worksite with the benefits of waived general inspection and a merit contributing to insurance premium payment reduction. A designated institute accepts enterprise's applications, performs document review and organizes the onsite inspection. A final review committee of Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) confers a two-year certificate on an approved site. After ten years, the efforts have shown a dramatic reduction of occupational injuries and illness in the total number of 724 worksites granted certification. VPP worksites, in comparison with all industries, had 49% lower frequency rate in the past three years. The severity rate reduction was 80% in the same period. The characteristics of Taiwan VPP program and international occupational safety and health management programs are provided. A Plan-Do-Check-Act management cycle was employed for pursuing continual improvements to the culture fostered. The use of a quantitative measurement for assessing the performance of enterprises' occupational safety and health management showed the efficiency of the rating. The results demonstrate that an employer voluntary protection program is a promising strategy for a developing country.

The effects of simultaneous exposure to methyl ethyl ketone and toluene on urinary biomarkers of occupational N,N-dimethylformamide exposure.

General regulations and risk assessment regarding toxicants are single-compound oriented even though humans are exposed to multi-chemicals in the general environment. This study investigated the effects of different levels of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and co-exposure levels of methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and toluene (TOL) on two biomarkers of DMF exposure: non-metabolized urinary (U-)DMF and the DMF metabolite urinary N-methylformamide (NMF). Thirty-five workers were selected from a two-stage field investigation strategy and were classified into four groups based on DMF exposure and co-exposure levels. Breathing-zone air concentrations of DMF, MEK, and TOL as well as dermal DMF exposure were determined. Post-shift U-DMF and U-NMF levels were determined for each individual. U-DMF concentrations were significantly higher in high-DMF groups than in low-DMF groups, but U-NMF concentrations were significantly (P<0.05) lower in the high-DMF-high-co-exposure group than in the high-DMF-low-co-exposure group; there were no significant differences between two low-DMF groups. The ratio of U-NMF to U-DMF showed the biotransformation from DMF to NMF was significantly suppressed at high co-exposure (P<0.001) for high-DMF exposure groups, possibly because of competitive inhibition of CYP2E1, the responsible enzyme involved. Due to the ubiquity of MEK/TOL in DMF-exposed occupational settings, the biological exposure index for occupational DMF exposure should be re-evaluated at high co-exposure levels.