RESUMO
Probucol has been utilized as a cholesterol-lowering drug with antioxidative properties. However, the impact and fundamental mechanisms of probucol in obesity-related cognitive decline are unclear. In this study, male C57BL/6J mice were allocated to a normal chow diet (NCD) group or a high-fat diet (HFD) group, followed by administration of probucol to half of the mice on the HFD regimen. Subsequently, the mice were subjected to a series of behavioral assessments, alongside the measurement of metabolic and redox parameters. Notably, probucol treatment effectively alleviates cognitive and social impairments induced by HFD in mice, while exhibiting no discernible influence on mood-related behaviors. Notably, the beneficial effects of probucol arise independently of rectifying obesity or restoring systemic glucose and lipid homeostasis, as evidenced by the lack of changes in body weight, serum cholesterol levels, blood glucose, hyperinsulinemia, systemic insulin resistance, and oxidative stress. Instead, probucol could regulate the levels of nitric oxide and superoxide-generating proteins, and it could specifically alleviate HFD-induced hippocampal insulin resistance. These findings shed light on the potential role of probucol in modulating obesity-related cognitive decline and urge reevaluation of the underlying mechanisms by which probucol exerts its beneficial effects.
RESUMO
Apolipoprotein H (APOH) is involved in lipid metabolism and functions as an acute-phase protein during hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Herein, we explored whether APOH acts on the development of fatty liver upon chronic HBV infection. Serum APOH level was significantly lower in cirrhosis patients than in healthy controls or patients with chronic infection. It showed sex bias, with elevated levels in female patients with chronic infection. Also, serum APOH levels were negatively correlated with HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) but positively correlated with albumin and triglyceride levels. In In vitro HBV infection model, HBV upregulated APOH expression in a non-temporal manner, and HBsAg levels were elevated by silencing APOH. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) demonstrated bidirectional expression of APOH, which impacted the immunoregulation upon infection or the metabolic regulation in HepG2.2.15 cells. Then, ApoH -/- mice with persistent HBV replication displayed steatohepatitis and gut microbiota dysbiosis with synergistic sex differences. Our study deciphers the roles of APOH in chronic liver diseases.
RESUMO
CdTe nanocrystal (NC) solar cells have received much attention in recent years due to their low cost and environmentally friendly fabrication process. Nowadays, the back contact is still the key issue for further improving device performance. It is well known that, in the case of CdTe thin-film solar cells prepared with the close-spaced sublimation (CSS) method, Cu-doped CdTe can drastically decrease the series resistance of CdTe solar cells and result in high device performance. However, there are still few reports on solution-processed CdTe NC solar cells with Cu-doped back contact. In this work, ZnTe:Cu or Cu:Au back contact layer (buffer layer) was deposited on the CdTe NC thin film by thermal evaporation and devices with inverted structure of ITO/ZnO/CdSe/CdTe/ZnTe:Cu (or Cu)/Au were fabricated and investigated. It was found that, comparing to an Au or Cu:Au device, the incorporation of ZnTe:Cu as a back contact layer can improve the open circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF) due to an optimized band alignment, which results in enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE). By carefully optimizing the treatment of the ZnTe:Cu film (altering the film thickness and annealing temperature), an excellent PCE of 6.38% was obtained, which showed a 21.06% improvement compared with a device without ZnTe:Cu layer (with a device structure of ITO/ZnO/CdSe/CdTe/Au).