Sucrose Transporter StSUT2 Affects Potato Plants Growth, Flowering Time, and Tuber Yield.

BACKGROUND: Sucrose transporters (SUTs) mediate sucrose phloem loading in source tissue and sucrose unloading into sink tissue in potatoes and higher plants, thus playing a crucial role in plant growth and development. In potatoes, the physiological function of the sucrose transporters StSUT1 and StSUT4 has been clarified, whereas the physiological role of StSUT2 is not yet fully understood. METHODS AND RESULTS: This study analyzed the relative expression of StSUT2 compared to that of StSUT1 and StSUT4 in different tissues from potatoes and its impact on different physiological characteristics by using StSUT2-RNA interference lines. Here, we report a negative effect of StSUT2-RNA interference on plant height, fresh weight, internodes number, leaf area, flowering time, and tuber yield. However, our data indicate that StSUT2 is not involved in carbohydrate accumulation in potato leaves and tubers. In addition, the data of the RNA-seq between the StSUT2-RNA interference line and WT showed that 152 genes were differentially expressed, of which 128 genes were upregulated and 24 genes were downregulated, and the GO and KEGG analyses revealed that differentially expressed genes were mainly related to cell wall composition metabolism. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, StSUT2 functions in potato plant growth, flowering time, and tuber yield without affecting carbohydrate accumulation in the leaves and tubers but may be involved in cell wall composition metabolism.

Role of "Stiff Rim" sign obtained by shear wave elastography in diagnosis and guiding therapy of breast cancer.

Background: Because the halo around the tumor in shear wave elastography (SWE) is defined as the "stiff rim" sign, the diagnosis of breast lesions with the stiff rim sign is popular. However, only a few studies have described the stiff rim sign quantitatively. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the usefulness of the stiff rim sign in the diagnosis and tumor, node, metastasis stage of breast cancer. Methods: Two hundred and ten breast lesions were analyzed retrospectively. The maximum, mean, minimum Young's modulus (YM), and the YM standard deviation in the lesion, the peritumoral stiffness (shell), and the region containing lesion and shell were obtained. The suspicious SWE feature with the best diagnostic performance was chosen to downgrade or upgrade the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) classification. The coincidence rates of SWE and B-mode ultrasound in T staging and their positive predictive value (PPV) for T staging were compared. Results: The presence of "stiff rim" sign was selected to upgrade or downgrade the BI-RADS classification because of its best performance. In pathological benign lesions, 18.9% (25 of 132) of lesions should undergo biopsy if BI-RADS combined with the stiff rim sign were referred while it was 57.6% (76 of 132) if BI-RADS alone was referred. The coincidence rate of T2 staging evaluated by SWE was significantly higher than B-mode ultrasound (about 30% increase, P < 0.001). The PPVs of SWE for T1 and T2 staging were higher than B-mode ultrasound (P < 0.05). Conclusions: BI-RADS combined with "stiff rim" sign is expected to improve the diagnostic performance of breast lesions to avoid unnecessary biopsy. The maximum diameter of the lesion measured in SWE is more accurate than B-mode ultrasound in the estimation of T staging, which is beneficial to the treatment and prognosis of breast cancer.

Astragalosides attenuate learning and memory impairment in rats following ischemia­reperfusion injury.

Astragalosides (ASTs) have been traditionally used in the treatment of various cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The aim of the present study was to investigate the neuroprotective effects of AST on learning and memory following focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion in a rat model. A Morris water maze was used to measure the effect of AST on learning and memory impairments. A histological examination and Hoechst 33258 staining was used to observe the neuronal changes and apoptosis in the hippocampus. The activity of phospho-extracellular signal­regulated kinases (p­ERK), p­c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNK) and p­Akt was measured by western blotting. The data revealed that AST improved the rats learning and memory abilities, attenuated neuronal cells apoptosis, increased the expression of p­ERK and p­Akt, and decreased the expression of p­JNK. These findings indicated that AST has protective effects that may be correlated with the inhibition of neuronal cell apoptosis and the regulation of p­ERK, p­Akt and p­JNK expression.

[Study on bladder cancer tissues with Raman spectroscopy].

The scope of this research lies in diagnosis of bladder cancer through Raman spectra. The spectra of bladder cancer and normal bladder were measured by using laser confocal Raman micro-spectroscopy. Principal component analysis/support vector machines was applied to the spectral dataset to construct diagnostic algorithms, then to detect the accuracy of these algorithms to determine histological diagnosis by leave-one-out cross validation from its Raman spectrum. It was showed that the peak intensity of nucleic acid (782, 1 583 cm(-1)) in bladder cancer and protein (1 061, 1 295, 2 849, 2 881 cm(-1)) in normal bladder increased significantly. Additionally, Principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machines (SVM) provided an effective tool for differentiating the bladder cancer from normal bladder tissue. Excellent sensitivity (86.7%), specificity (87.5%), positive predictive value (92.9%), and negative predictive value (72. 8%) for the diagnosis of bladder cancer were obtained by leave-one-out cross validation. It was concluded that Raman spectroscopy can be used to accurately identify bladder cancer in vitro, and it suggests the promising potential application of PCA/SVM-based Raman spectroscopy for the diagnosis of bladder cancer.

Protective effect of astragaloside on focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats.

This study was to observe the neurological protective effects of astragalosides (AST) on focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in rats and to explore its possible mechanism. Male SD rats received right middle cerebral artery occlusion for 120 min and AST (40 mg/kg) was orally administered. The rats were decapitated 1, 3, 7, and 14 days after reperfusion. The neurological deficit score, infarct volume and water content of brain were measured; the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and nitric oxide synthase (NOS), and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA), lactate (LD) and nitric oxide (NO) of brain tissue were detected too. The expression of inducible nitric synthase (iNOS), nerve growth factor (NGF) and tropomyosin receptor kinase A (TrkA) mRNA were measured by RT-PCR or real-time PCR. AST could significantly reduce the neurological deficit score; infract volume and water content, increase SOD and LDH activities, decrease NOS activity and MDA, LD and NO content. AST treatment could down-regulate expression of iNOS mRNA, while, NGF and TrkA mRNA were up-regulated. Our data suggest that AST have the protective effects on focal cerebral ischemia in rats at the different reperfusion time points, the mechanism may be related to the antioxidation, regulated the expressions of iNOS, NGF and TrkA mRNA.

Glucocorticoids increase impairments in learning and memory due to elevated amyloid precursor protein expression and neuronal apoptosis in 12-month old mice.

Alzheimer's disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder marked by a progressive loss of memory and cognitive function. Stress level glucocorticoids are correlated with dementia progression in patients with Alzheimer's disease. In this study, twelve month old male mice were chronically treated for 21 days with stress-level dexamethasone (5mg/kg). We investigated the pathological consequences of dexamethasone administration on learning and memory impairments, amyloid precursor protein processing and neuronal cell apoptosis in 12-month old male mice. Our results indicate that dexamethasone can induce learning and memory impairments, neuronal cell apoptosis, and mRNA levels of the amyloid precursor protein, beta-secretase and caspase-3 are selectively increased after dexamethasone administration. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated that amyloid precursor protein, caspase-3 and cytochrome c in the cortex and CA1, CA3 regions of the hippocampus are significantly increased in 12-month old male mice. Furthermore, dexamethasone treatment induced cortex and hippocampus neuron apoptosis as well as increasing the activity of caspase-9 and caspase-3. These findings suggest that high levels of glucocorticoids, found in Alzheimer's disease, are not merely a consequence of the disease process but rather play a central role in the development and progression of Alzheimer's disease. Stress management or pharmacological reduction of glucocorticoids warrant additional consideration of the regimen used in Alzheimer's disease therapies.

[Determination of trace barium in mineral water with oxygen enriched air-acetylene flame in atomic absorption spectrometry].

In this paper, the determination of Ba using oxygen enriched air-acetylene flame in AAS has been studied and the effect of acetylene flow, oxygen flow and the ratio of O2/C2H2 on the absorbance have been compared. When the amount of oxygen is 52% in mixed gas and the ratio of O2/C2H2 is about 0.72, higher sensitivity for Ba can be obtained. In this flame acids and most of elements did not interfere. By adding 1,000 mg.L-1 K the interference can be minimized and the sensitivity for the determination of Ba can be increased. The sensitivity of the method is 0.16 mg.L-1/1%, the detection limit is 0.034 mg.L-1, and the relative standard deviation is 2.5%. The analytical results of the standard reference material (GBW08301 and GSD-6) by this method are consistent with the certified values, and it was proved that this method are reliable and is suitable for the determination of Ba in mineral water.