A negative feedback loop of H19/miR-675/VDR mediates therapeutic effect of cucurmin in the treatment of glioma.

Curcumin (CUR) shows a remarkable antitumor activity against a wide range of cancers such as glioma, but its underlying mechanism remains elusive. In this study, we aimed to explore the potential role of H19/miR-675/vitamin D receptor (VDR) in the effect of CUR against glioma. Real-time polymerase chain reaction and western-blot analysis were used to study the effect of CUR or 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2 D3 ) on the expression of H19, miR-675, and VDR. In addition, the effect of H19 on VDR expression was also studied. Furthermore, the expression of H19, miR-675, and VDR between CUR-loaded nanoparticles (NPs) and NP groups was compared, and the interaction among H19, miR-675, and VDR was analyzed by in-silicon and luciferase assays. In a dose-dependent manner, CUR and 1,25(OH)2 D3 both downregulated the expression of H19 and miR-675 but increased the expression of VDR. In addition, H19 evidently reduced the mRNA and protein levels of VDR. Furthermore, VDR was confirmed as a target gene of miR-675, which significantly reduced the expression of VDR. Finally, the administration of CUR evidently decreased tumor volume. CUR-loaded NP group exhibited lower levels of H19 and miR-675, while the NP group showed higher levels of VDR mRNA and protein. In summary, it is the first time that the involvement of a negative feedback loop of H19/miR-675/VDR has been demonstrated in the development of glioma. Therefore, H19 might serve as a new biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of glioma.

Functional recovery in acute traumatic spinal cord injury after transplantation of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells.

OBJECTIVE: Spinal cord injury results in loss of neurons, degeneration of axons, formation of glial scar, and severe functional impairment. Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells can be induced to form neural cells in vitro. Thus, these cells have a potential therapeutic role for treating spinal cord injury. DESIGN AND SETTING: Rats were randomly divided into three groups: sham operation group, control group, and human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell group. All groups were subjected to spinal cord injury by weight drop device except for sham group. SUBJECTS: Thirty-six female Sprague-Dawley rats. INTERVENTIONS: The control group received Dulbecco's modified essential media/nutrient mixture F-12 injections, whereas the human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell group undertook cells transplantation at the dorsal spinal cord 2 mm rostrally and 2 mm caudally to the injury site at 24 hrs after spinal cord injury. MEASUREMENTS: Rats from each group were examined for neurologic function and contents of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, and neurotrophin-3. Survival, migration, and differentiation of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells, regeneration of axons, and formation of glial scar were also explored by using immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence. MAIN RESULTS: Recovery of hindlimb locomotor function was significantly enhanced in the human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells grafted animals at 5 wks after transplantation. This recovery was accompanied by increased length of neurofilament-positive fibers and increased numbers of growth cone-like structures around the lesion site. Transplanted human umbilical cord-mesenchymal stem cells survived, migrated over short distances, and produced large amounts of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor and neurotrophin-3 in the host spinal cord. There were fewer reactive astrocytes in both the rostral and caudal stumps of the spinal cord in the human umbilical cord-mesenchymal stem cell group than in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells can facilitate functional recovery after traumatic spinal cord injury and may prove to be a useful therapeutic strategy to repair the injured spinal cord.

Traditional Chinese herb Dihuang Yinzi (DY) plays neuroprotective and anti-dementia role in rats of ischemic brain injury.

AIM OF THE STUDY: Traditional Chinese herb Dihuang Yinzi (DY) is well known to treat neurological diseases by traditional Chinese medical practitioners. This study is to elucidate its neuroprotective and anti-dementia role in ischemic brain injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The effects of DY on the pathohistological changes, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, Morris water maze task, expression of synaptophysin (SYP) and extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK) of hippocampi of rats with ischemic brain injury were investigated. RESULTS: This study showed that DY not only significantly decreased the number of TUNEL-positive cells but also reduced the LDH release of hippocampus of model rat. Morris water maze test showed that the ability of learning and memory of rats dramatically impaired after ischemic brain injury. However, DY ameliorated the impairment of learning and memory of ischemic rats. Furthermore, western blotting and immunohistochemical data showed that the expression of extracellular regulated protein and synaptophysin, which correlates with synaptic formation and function, decreased after ischemic insult. However, DY inhibited the reduction of ERK an SYP expression in a dose-dependent way. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that DY possesses neuroprotective and anti-dementia properties, at least in part, by preventing the loss of neural cells and synapses in ischemic brain injury.

The Chinese Visible Human (CVH) datasets incorporate technical and imaging advances on earlier digital humans.

We report the availability of a digitized Chinese male and a digitzed Chinese female typical of the population and with no obvious abnormalities. The embalming and milling procedures incorporate three technical improvements over earlier digitized cadavers. Vascular perfusion with coloured gelatin was performed to facilitate blood vessel identification. Embalmed cadavers were embedded in gelatin and cryosectioned whole so as to avoid section loss resulting from cutting the body into smaller pieces. Milling performed at -25 degrees C prevented small structures (e.g. teeth, concha nasalis and articular cartilage) from falling off from the milling surface. The male image set (.tiff images each of 36 Mb) has a section resolution of 3072 x 2048 pixels ( approximately 170 micro m, the accompanying magnetic resonance imaging and computer tomography data have a resolution of 512 x 512, i.e. approximately 440 micro m). The Chinese Visible Human male and female datasets are available at http://www.chinesevisiblehuman.com. (The male is 90.65 Gb and female 131.04 Gb). MPEG videos of direct records of real-time volume rendering are at: http://www.cse.cuhk.edu.hk/~crc

Creation of the Chinese visible human data set.

The United States Visible Human Project (VHP) created a digital image data set of complete human male (data acquisition finished in November 1994) and female (data acquisition finished in December 1995) cadavers in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), and anatomical (anatomic serial section) modes. VHP aroused worldwide enthusiasm for Visible Human Research (VHR), and the data set is being used in a variety of research and educational domains. The Visible Korean Human (VKH) male was produced in March 2001. To accelerate worldwide VHR and to promote virtual anatomy as a revolutionary break with conventional anatomy, more visible human data sets representative of different populations of the world are in demand. The Chinese Visible Human (CVH) male (created in October 2002) and female (created in February 2003) project achieved greater integrity of images, easier blood vessel identification, and were free of organic lesion (unlike the other visible human projects). We performed data acquisition, three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction, and visualization with improved technology to create CVH male and female. CVH is the first volumetric data representing a complete normal adult human male and female of an Asian population. This article presents the history of Chinese Visible Human cadavers and the methods and technology used to produce the data set.