Baicalin administration could rescue high glucose-induced craniofacial skeleton malformation by regulating neural crest development.

Hyperglycemia in pregnancy can increase the risk of congenital disorders, but little is known about craniofacial skeleton malformation and its corresponding medication. Our study first used meta-analysis to review the previous findings. Second, baicalin, an antioxidant, was chosen to counteract high glucose-induced craniofacial skeleton malformation. Its effectiveness was then tested by exposing chicken embryos to a combination of high glucose (HG, 50 mM) and 6 µM baicalin. Third, whole-mount immunofluorescence staining and in situ hybridization revealed that baicalin administration could reverse HG-inhibited neural crest cells (NCC) delamination and migration through upregulating the expression of Pax7 and Foxd3, and mitigate the disordered epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process by regulating corresponding adhesion molecules and transcription factors (i.e., E-cadherin, N-cadherin, Cadherin 6B, Slug and Msx1). Finally, through bioinformatic analysis and cellular thermal shift assay, we identified the AKR1B1 gene as a potential target. In summary, these findings suggest that baicalin could be used as a therapeutic agent for high glucose-induced craniofacial skeleton malformation.

A novel hybrid scan approach enabling the ion-mobility separation and the alternate data-dependent and data-independent acquisitions (HDDIDDA): Its combination with off-line two-dimensional liquid chromatography for comprehensively characterizing the multicomponents from Compound Danshen Dripping Pill.

Data-dependent acquisition (DDA) and data-independent acquisition (DIA)-based MSn strategies are extensively applied in metabolites characterization. DDA gives accurate MSn information, but receives low coverage, while DIA covers the entire mass range, but the precursor-product ions matching often yields false positives. Currently available MS scan approaches rarely integrate DIA and DDA within a duty circle. Utilizing a Vion™ IM-QTOF (ion mobility-quadrupole time-of-flight) mass spectrometer, we report a novel hybrid scan approach, namely HDDIDDA, which involves three scan events: 1) IM-enabled full scan (MS1), 2) high-definition MSE (HDMSE) of all precursor ions (MS2); and 3) high-definition DDA (HDDDA) of top N precursors (MS2). As a proof-of-concept, the HDDIDDA approach combined with off-line two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) was applied to characterize the multiple ingredients from a reputable Chinese patent medicine, Compound Danshen Dripping Pill (CDDP) used for treating the cardiovascular diseases. An off-line 2D-LC system by configuring an XBridge Amide column and an HSS T3 column showed a measurable orthogonality of 0.92 and enhanced the separation of co-eluting components. A fit-for-purpose HDDIDDA methodology was developed in the negative mode to characterize saponins and salvianolic acids, while tanshinones in the positive mode. Computational workflows to efficiently process the acquired HDMSE and HDDDA data were established, and the searching of an in-house CDDP library (recording 712 compounds) eventually characterized 403 components from CDDP, indicating approximate 12-fold improvement compared with the previous report. The HDDIDDA approach can measure collision cross section of each component, and merges the merits of DIA and DDA in MS2 data acquisition.

[Study on the response of middle and trace elements in Humulus scandens leaves to atmospheric reactive nitrogen with ICP-AES].

Based on field measurements, the effects of atmospheric reactive nitrogen (ARN) on the middle/trace element concentrations in the leaves of wild plant humulus scandens were analyzed. Leaves of H. scandens were collected from six sites around Beijing in the North China Plain, and the concentrations of Ca, Mg, S, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, B, and Na in the leaves were determined with inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The results showed that element concentrations in leaves ranked as Ca (41 106) > S (8 370) > Mg (6 628) > Fe(476) > Na (92) > B (78) > Mn (49) > Zn (38) > Cu (15) mg x kg(-1) dry matter; There were no significant difference in any of the individual element in the H. scandens leaves along the gradient of ARN, suggesting that the increasing demand of H. scandens for middle/trace elements, induced by the enhanced nitrogen availability from ARN, was not yet beyond the nutrient-supply limits of the local soils. This study offers reference to scientific assessments of the middle/trace element status in terrestrial herbaceous plants under the global background of increasing nitrogen deposition.