Responses of the intestinal microbiota to exposure of okadaic acid in marine medaka Oryzias melastigma.

It is still limited that how the microalgal toxin okadaic acid (OA) affects the intestinal microbiota in marine fishes. In the present study, adult marine medaka Oryzias melastigma was exposed to the environmentally relevant concentration of OA (5 µg/L) for 10 days, and then recovered in fresh seawater for 10-days depuration. Analysis of taxonomic composition and diversity of the intestinal microbiota, as well as function prediction analysis and histology observation were carried out in this study. Functional prediction analysis indicated that OA potentially affected the development of colorectal cancer, protein and carbohydrate digestion and absorption functions, and development of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease, which may be associated with changes in Proteobacteria and Firmicutes in marine medaka. Significant increases of C-reactive protein (CRP) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) levels, as well as the changes of histology of intestinal tissue demonstrated that an intestinal inflammation was induced by OA exposure in marine medaka. This study showed that the environmental concentrations of OA could harm to the intestinal microbiota thus threatening the health of marine medaka, which hints that the chemical ecology of microalgal toxins should be paid attention to in future studies.

Effects of marine phycotoxin dinophysistoxin-1 on the growth and cell cycle of Isochrysis galbana.

The phycotoxin dinophysistoxins are widely distributed in the global marine environments and potentially threaten marine organisms and human health. The mechanism of the dinophysistoxin toxicity in inhibiting the growth of microalgae is less well understood. In this study, effects of the dissolved dinophysistoxin-1 (DTX1) on the growth, pigment contents, PSII photosynthetic efficiency, oxidative stress response and cell cycle of the marine microalga Isochrysis galbana were investigated. Growth of I. galbana was significantly inhibited by DTX1 with 0.6-1.5 µmol L-1 in a 96-h batch culture, corresponding the 96 h-EC50 of DTX1 at 0.835 µmol L-1. The maximum quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm), and light utilization efficiency (α) were obviously reduced by DTX1 at 1.5 µmol L-1 during 96-h exposure. Contents of most of pigments were generally reduced by DTX1 with a dose-depend pattern in microalgal cells except for diatoxanthin. The ROS levels were increased by DTX1 with 0.6-1.5 µmol L-1 after 72-h exposure, while the contents or activities of MDA, GSH, SOD and CAT were significantly increased by DTX1 at 1.5 µmol L-1 at 96 h. The inhibitory effect of DTX1 on the growth of I. galbana was mainly caused by the production of ROS in the cells. Cell cycle analysis showed that the I. galbana cell cycle was arrested by DTX1 at G2/M phase. This study enhances the understanding of the chemical ecology effects of DTX1 on marine microalgae and also provides fundamental data for deriving water quality criteria of DSTs for marine organisms.

Effects of lipophilic phycotoxin okadaic acid on the early development and transcriptional expression of marine medaka Oryzias melastigma.

The lipophilic okadaic acid (OA)-group toxins produced by some species of Dinophysis spp. and Prorocentrum spp. marine dinoflagellates have been frequently and widely detected in natural seawater environments, e.g. 2.1∼1780 ng/L in Spanish sea and 5.63∼27.29 ng/L in the Yellow Sea of China. The toxicological effects of these toxins dissolved in seawater on marine fish is still unclear. Effects of OA on the embryonic development and 1-month old larvae of marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) were explored and discussed in this study. Significantly increased mortality and decreased hatching rates occurred for the medaka embryos exposed to OA at 1.0 µg/mL. Diverse malformations including spinal curvature, dysplasia and tail curvature were also observed in the embryos exposed to OA and the heart rates significantly increased at 11 d post fertilization. The 96 h LC50 of OA for 1-month old larvae was calculated at 3.80 µg/mL. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) was significantly accumulated in medaka larvae. Catalase (CAT) enzyme activity was significantly increased in 1-month old larvae. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity significantly increased with a dose-dependent pattern in 1-month old larvae. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were enriched in 11 KEGG pathways with Q value < 0.05 in 1-month old medaka larvae exposed to OA at 0.38 µg/mL for 96 h, which were mainly related to cell division and proliferation, and nervous system. Most of DEGs involved in DNA replication, cell cycle, nucleotide excision repair, oocyte meiosis, and mismatch repair pathways were significantly up-regulated, while most of DEGs involved in synaptic vesicle cycle, glutamatergic synapse, and long-term potentiation pathways were markedly down-regulated. This transcriptome analysis demonstrated that a risk of cancer developing was possibly caused by OA due to DNA damage in marine medaka larvae. In addition, the neurotoxicity of OA was also testified for marine fish, which potentially cause major depressive disorder (MDD) via the up-regulated expression of NOS1 gene. The genotoxicity and neurotoxicity of OA to marine fish should be paid attention to and explored further in the future.

The risk of atopic dermatitis may be affected by IL-1B +3954 C/T and IL-18 -137G/C polymorphisms: evidence from a meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Whether Th1-related cytokine polymorphisms influence the risk of atopic dermatitis (AD) remain inconclusive. AIM: The authors performed a meta-analysis to robustly explore relationships between Th1-related cytokine polymorphisms and the risk of AD by merging the results of eligible publications. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The authors strictly adhere to the PRISMA guidelines in study design and implementation. A thorough literature search in Medline, Embase, Wanfang, VIP and CNKI was performed by the authors to identify eligible publications. Relationships between TNF-α/IL-1/IL-6/IL-18 polymorphisms and the risk of AD were estimated with odds ratio and its 95% confidence interval. The statistically significant p value was set at 0.05. The quality of eligible publications was assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS). RESULTS: In total twenty-one publications with a NOS score of 7-8 were selected for merged quantitative analyses. We have noticed that genotypic frequencies of IL-1B +3954 C/T and IL-18 -137G/C polymorphisms among cases with AD and population-based controls differed significantly. Moreover, we have found that genotypic frequency of IL-1B +3954 C/T polymorphism among cases with AD and population-based controls of Caucasian origin differed significantly, and genotypic frequency of IL-18 -137G/C polymorphism among cases with AD and population-based controls of both Caucasian and Asian origins also differed significantly. However, we did not observe such genotypic distribution differences for TNF-α -238 G/A, TNF-α -308 G/A, IL-1A -889 C/T, IL-1B -511 C/T and IL6 -174 G/C polymorphisms. CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis shows that IL-1B +3954 C/T and IL-18 -137G/C polymorphisms may affect the risk of AD.

Angled abutments result in increased or decreased stress on surrounding bone of single-unit dental implants: a finite element analysis.

The influence of angled abutments on stress is a matter of debate. It is widely accepted that increased stress on implants and bone has been associated with the use of angled abutments. However, comparisons of clinical success rates of implants restored with angled and straight abutments indicate no significant differences. The aim of the present study was to determine whether angled abutments could result in decreased stress on surrounding bone of single-unit dental implants. By means of finite element analysis (FEA), four simplified models were designed to simulate clinical scenarios in which that implants were placed in an ideal axial position or at an angled position. Each implant was paired with a straight or angled abutment. A simulated occlusal load of 100 N was applied along the vertical axis of the jawbone. The von Mises stress and strain were recorded for each model. The numerical results showed that angled abutments resulted in decreased stresses when implants were not placed in ideal axial position. The present study identified by means of FEA that angled abutments could result in decreased stress on the supporting bone of implant system and may provide some clues to resolve the debate regarding the influence of angled abutments.

[Study on the reliability and validity of the Chinese Menopause Rating Scale (CMRS)].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility, reliability, validity and responsiveness of a Chinese Menopause Rating Scale (CMRS). METHODS: Cross-sectional survey and convenience sampling were adopted. PARTICIPANTS: women with menopause syndrome and those in menopause but without menopause syndrome were recruited. All participants were asked to complete the CMRS, Kupperman Index, WHOQOL-BREF and MENQOL. The Self-control observation design was adopted when the responsiveness was evaluated. Patients were treated with TCM for weeks. MRSTCM was evaluated before and after the treatment. RESULTS: (1) Feasibility: 3343 participants including 2320 patients and 1023 menopause women, were surveyed in 8 different settings. The recovery rate of CMRS was 100%, with a response rate as 99.7%. The completion of the CMRS took 10.30 minutes on average. (2)Reliability: Cronbach's alpha of CMRS, soma dimension, psychology dimension and community dimension of CMRS were 0.93, 0.87, 0.89 and 0.73 respectively, with the correlation coefficient of split half of the CMRS. Soma dimension, psychology dimension and community dimension were 0.92, 0.89, 0.86 and 0.73 respectively and the test-retest correlation coefficient of MRSTCM, the soma dimension, psychology dimension and community dimension were as 0.88, 0.91, 0.85 and 0.77 respectively. (3) VALIDITY: CMRS was established on the basis of connotation of menopause syndrome, and a series of steps were adopted to modify the scale. CMRS was applicable for patients with menopause syndrome. CMRS seemed to have had good content-related validity. The result of exploratory factor analysis was accorded with the theory frame of CMRS by and large. The correlations between CMRS and KI, CMRS and WHOQOL-BREF, CMRS and MENQOL seemed good. The CMRS was able to discriminate between groups of people with or without menopausal syndrome and had good discriminative validity. (4) Responsibility: The CMRS was measured based on 174 patients with menopausal syndrome before and after the TCM therapy. Our result showed that the CMRS having the ability to measure the clinically important differences. CONCLUSION: CMRS was suitable for outcome assessment of menopausal syndrome. This primary research proved that the CMRS had good feasibility, reliability, validity as well as responsiveness.