[A Review of Comparative Studies on Exposure Levels of Air Pollutants Among Different Modes of Transportation in China's Cities].

Urban traffic is closely related to the daily life of the public,and air pollution in the traffic microenvironment has become a public health problem that cannot be ignored.This paper reviews the comparative studies of air pollutant exposure levels among different modes of transportation in multiple cities in China.By comparing the exposure levels of pollutants among different modes of transportation,this paper provides a reference for protecting the health of the public in daily transportation and selecting targeted control measures.

Dynamic foraging strategy adaptation to heterogeneous environments contributes to social aggregation in snub-nosed monkeys.

The dynamics of animal social structures are heavily influenced by environmental patterns of competition and cooperation. In folivorous colobine primates, prevailing theories suggest that larger group sizes should be favored in rainforests with a year-round abundance of food, thereby reducing feeding competition. Yet, paradoxically, larger groups are frequently found in high-altitude or high-latitude montane ecosystems characterized by a seasonal scarcity of leaves. This contradiction is posited to arise from cooperative benefits in heterogeneous environments. To investigate this hypothesis, we carried out a six-year field study on two neighboring groups of golden snub-nosed monkey ( Rhinopithecus roxellana), a species representing the northernmost distribution of colobine primates. Results showed that the groups adjusted their movement and habitat selection in response to fluctuating climates and spatiotemporal variability of resources, indicative of a dynamic foraging strategy. Notably, during the cold, resource-scarce conditions in winter, the large group occupied food-rich habitats but did not exhibit significantly longer daily travel distances than the smaller neighboring group. Subsequently, we compiled an eco-behavioral dataset of 52 colobine species to explore their evolutionary trajectories. Analysis of this dataset suggested that the increase in group size may have evolved via home range expansion in response to the cold and heterogeneous climates found at higher altitudes or latitudes. Hence, we developed a multi-benefits framework to interpret the formation of larger groups by integrating environmental heterogeneity. In cold and diverse environments, even smaller groups require larger home ranges to meet their dynamic survival needs. The spatiotemporal distribution of high-quality resources within these expanded home ranges facilitates more frequent interactions between groups, thereby encouraging social aggregation into larger groups. This process enhances the benefits of collaborative actions and reproductive opportunities, while simultaneously optimizing travel costs through a dynamic foraging strategy.

Frequency-specific age-related changes in the amplitude of spontaneous fluctuations in autism.

Background: Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by atypical developmental changes during brain maturation, but regional brain functional changes that occur with age and across different frequency bands are unknown. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore potential age and frequency band-related changes in the regional brain activities in autism. Methods: A total of 65 participants who met the DSM-IV criteria for autistic disorder and 55 typically developed (TD) participants (both age 6-30 years) were recruited in the current study. The two groups were matched in age (t=-1.314, P=0.191) and gender (χ2=2.760, P=0.097). The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) was employed to explore the effect of development on spontaneous brain activity in individuals with autism and in TD participants across slow-5 (0.01-0.027 Hz), slow-4 (0.027-0.073 Hz), and slow-3 (0.073-0.1 Hz) frequency bands. The diagnosis-by-age interaction effect in the whole brain voxels in autism and TD groups was investigated. Results: Autism individuals showed significantly higher ALFF in the dorsal striatum in childhood (Caudate cluster: t=3.626, P=0.001; Putamen cluster: t=2.839, P=0.007) and remarkably lower ALFF in the dorsal striatum in adulthood (Caudate cluster: t=-2.198, P=0.038; Putamen cluster: t=-2.314, P=0.030) relative to TD, while no significant differences were observed in adolescence (all P>0.05). In addition, abnormal ALFF amplitudes were specific to the slow-4 (0.027-0.073 Hz) frequency band in the clusters above. Conclusions: The current study indicated abnormal development patterns in the spontaneous activity of the dorsal striatum in autism and highlighted the potential role of the slow-4 frequency band in the pathology of autism. Also, the potential brain mechanism of autism was revealed, suggesting that autism-related variations should be investigated in a specific frequency.

Atypicalities in the developmental trajectory of cortico-striatal functional connectivity in autism spectrum disorder.

LAY ABSTRACT: Autism spectrum disorder has long been conceptualized as a disorder of "atypical development of functional brain connectivity (which refers to correlations in activity levels of distant brain regions)." However, most of the research has focused on the connectivity between cortical regions, and much remains unknown about the developmental changes of functional connectivity between subcortical and cortical areas in autism spectrum disorder. We used the technique of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the developmental characteristics of intrinsic functional connectivity (functional brain connectivity when people are asked not to do anything) between subcortical and cortical regions in individuals with and without autism spectrum disorder aged 6-30 years. We focused on one important subcortical structure called striatum, which has roles in motor, cognitive, and affective processes. We found that cortico-striatal intrinsic functional connectivities showed opposite developmental trajectories in autism spectrum disorder and typically developing individuals, with connectivity increasing with age in autism spectrum disorder and decreasing or constant in typically developing individuals. We also found significant negative behavioral correlations between those atypical cortico-striatal intrinsic functional connectivities and autistic symptoms, such as social-communication deficits, and restricted/repetitive behaviors and interests. Taken together, this work highlights that the atypical development of cortico-subcortical functional connectivity might be largely involved in the neuropathological mechanisms of autism spectrum disorder.

Real world effectiveness of PCSK-9 inhibitors combined with statins versus statins-based therapy among patients with very high risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in China (RWE-PCSK study).

BACKGROUND: The efficacy and safety of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK-9) inhibitors were confirmed by several clinical trials, but its effectiveness in routine clinical practice in China has not been evaluated. This study aims to describe the real world effectiveness of PCSK-9 inhibitors combined with statins compared with statins-based therapy among patients with very high risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). METHODS: This is a multi-center observational study, enrolled patients from 32 hospitals who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) from January to June in 2019. There are 453 patients treated with PCSK-9 inhibitors combined with statins in PCSK-9 inhibitor group and 2,610 patients treated with statins-based lipid lowering therapies in statins-based group. The lipid control rate and incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) over six months were compared between two groups. A propensity score-matched (PSM) analysis was used to balance two groups on confounding factors. Survival analysis using Kaplan-Meier methods was applied for MACE. RESULTS: In a total of 3,063 patients, 89.91% of patients had received moderate or high-intensity statins-based therapy before PCI, but only 9.47% of patients had low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels below 1.4 mmol/L at baseline. In the PSM selected patients, LDL-C level was reduced by 42.57% in PCSK-9 inhibitor group and 30.81% (P < 0.001) in statins-based group after six months. The proportion of LDL-C ≤ 1.0 mmol/L increased from 5.29% to 29.26% in PCSK-9 inhibitor group and 0.23% to 6.11% in statins-based group, and the proportion of LDL-C ≤ 1.4 mmol/L increased from 10.36% to 47.69% in PCSK-9 inhibitor group and 2.99% to 18.43% in statins-based group ( P < 0.001 for both). There was no significant difference between PCSK-9 inhibitor and statins-based treatment in reducing the risk of MACE (hazard ratio = 2.52, 95% CI: 0.49-12.97, P = 0.250). CONCLUSIONS: In the real world, PCSK-9 inhibitors combined with statins could significantly reduce LDL-C levels among patients with very high risk of ASCVD in China. The long-term clinical benefits for patients received PCSK-9 inhibitor to reduce the risk of MACE is still unclear and requires further study.

Joint statistics matching for camera model identification of recompressed images.

Source camera identification has been well studied in laboratory environment where the training and test samples are all original images without recompression. However, image compression is quite common in the real world, when the training and test images are double JPEG compressed with different quantization tables, the identification accuracy of existing methods decreases dramati- cally. To address this challenge, we propose a novel iterative algorithm namely joint first and second order statistics matching (JSM) to learn a feature projection that projects the training and test fea- tures into a low dimensional subspace to reduce the shift caused by image recompression. Inspired by transfer learning, JSM aims to learn a new feature representation from original feature space by simultaneously matching the first and second order statistics between training and test features in a principled dimensionality reduction procedure. After the feature projection, the divergence between training and test features caused by recompression is reduced while the discriminative properties are preserved. Extensive experiments on public Dresden Image Database verify that JSM significantly outperforms several state-of-the-art methods on camera model identification of recompressed images.

Herbaspirillum robiniae sp. nov., isolated from root nodules of Robinia pseudoacacia in a lead-zinc mine.

A novel endophytic bacterium, designated strain HZ10T, was isolated from root nodules of Robinia pseudoacacia growing in a lead-zinc mine in Mianxian County, Shaanxi Province, China. The bacterium was Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, motile, slightly curved- and rod-shaped, methyl red-negative, catalase-positive, and did not produce H2S. Strain HZ10T grew at 4-45 °C (optimum, 25-30 °C), pH 5-9 (optimum, pH 7-8) and 0-1 % (w/v) NaCl. The major fatty acids were identified as C16 : 0, summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c) and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c), and the quinone type was Q-8. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. The DNA G+C content of the genomic DNA was 64.9 mol% based on the whole genome sequence. According to the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, the closest phylogenetic relative to strain HZ10T is Herbaspirillum chlorophenolicum CPW301T (98.72 % sequence identity). Genome relatedness of the type strains H. chlorophenolicum CPW301T, Herbaspirillum seropedicae Z67T and Herbaspirillum aquaticum IEH 4430T, was quantified by using the average nucleotide identity (86.9-88.0 %) and a genome-to-genome distance analysis (26.6 %-29.3 %), with both strongly supporting the notion that strain HZ10T belongs to the genus Herbaspirillum as a novel species. Based on the results from phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and physiological analyses, strain HZ10T represents a novel Herbaspirillum species, for which the name Herbaspirillum robiniae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HZ10T (=JCM 31754T=CCTCC AB 2014352T).

[Effects of water-potassium interaction on stalk structure and function of high-yield summer maize].

The effects of water-potassium interaction on stalk structure and function of high-yield summer maize were studied in the waterproof cultivation pools with Zhengdan 958 (ZD958) as the experimental material. The results showed that the quantity of bleeding sap in stalk was significantly improved by irrigation. Potassium (K) application could reduce the influence of drought stress on the quantity of bleeding sap in stalk to a certain extent. The quantity of bleeding sap in stalks during different growth periods were significantly improved in the treatment of 2250 m³ · hm⁻²2 irrigation amount with K application. The stalk rind penetration strength and stem diameter were significantly improved by water-potassium interactions. Under the irrigation amount of 2250 m³ · hm⁻², the stalk rind penetration strength and stem diameter with K application were respectively increased by 46.0% and 36.4% compared with no K application. Under K application, the stalk rind penetration strength and stem diameter in the irrigation amount 2250 m³ · hm⁻² were respectively increased by 30.7% and 8.6% compared with 450 m³ · hm⁻². The number, area of vascular bundle and the thickness of thick-walled cell, cortex and rind, were significantly improved by the irrigation amount 2250 m³ · hm⁻² with K application. In conclusion, application of 180 kg K2O · hm⁻² and increasing the irrigation amount properly could increase the lodging resistance and yield of summer maize in this field experiment condition.

Micromonospora nickelidurans sp. nov., isolated from soil from a nickel-mining site.

An actinomycete, strain K55T, was isolated from a composite soil sample from a nickel mine,collected from Yueyang, Shaanxi Province, PR China. Strain K55T showed 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 98.73 %­98.51 % to species of the genus Micromonospora, including Micromonospora haikouensis 232617T, Micromonospora coxensis 2-30-b(28)T, Micromonospora wenchangensis 2602GPT1-05T, Micromonospora matsumotoense IMSNU22003T, Micromonospora maoerensis NEAU-MES19T, and Micromonospora humi P0402T. This strain harboured meso-diaminopimelic acid, alanine and glycine as the major cell-wall amino acids, xylose and glucose as the characteristic whole-cell sugars, and iso-C15 : 0(20.53 %),iso-C17 : 0 (12.74 %), iso-C16 : 0 (12.15 %), anteiso-C17 : 0 (7.97 %), C17 : 1ω8c(7.49 %) and C17 : 0 (6.63 %) as the dominant fatty acids. The major menaquinones were MK-10(H4) and MK-10(H6). The phospholipid profile comprised phosphatidylethanolamine,diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylglycerol and unknown phosphoglycolipids. The DNA G+C content was 71.4 mol%. A comprehensive analysis ofseveral physiological and biochemical traits and DNA­DNA relatedness indicated that strainK55T was different from closely related species. These phenotypic, genotypic and chemotaxonomic data suggest that strain K55T represents a novel species of the genus Micromonospora, for which the name Micromonospora nickelidurans sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is K55T (5JCM 30559T5ACCC19713T).

Binding Patterns of Rotavirus Genotypes P[4], P[6], and P[8] in China with Histo-Blood Group Antigens.

Rotaviruses (RVs) are an important cause of severe gastroenteritis in children. It has been found that RV may recognize the histo-blood group antigens (HBGAs) as ligands or receptors and bind HBGAs in a type-dependent manner. In this study, we investigated the binding specificity of VP8* proteins from human rotaviruses (RV) that are prevalent in China including genotypes P[4], P[6], and P[8]. Through the saliva- and oligosaccharide-based binding assays, we found that the VP8* proteins of P[4] and P[8] RV showed similar reactivity with the Leb and H type 1 antigens, while P[6] RV weakly bound the Leb antigen. These findings may facilitate further research into RV host specificity and vaccine development.

Effects of ß(3)-adrenoceptor activation on expression of pancreatic adrenoceptors and angiotensin II receptors in ApoE(-/-) mice.

Hyperlipidemia can be harmful to the pancreas and ß3-adrenoceptor agonist can improve lipid metabolism disorder. We aimed to study the effects of ß3-adrenoceptor activation on glucose, insulin and the expression of pancreatic adrenoceptors and angiotensin II receptors. Ten C57BL/6J mice at the age of 10 weeks served as normal control, and forty age-matched apolipoprotein E knockout (ApoE(-/-)) mice were randomly divided into hyperlipidaemia model group, low-dose and high-dose ß3-adrenoceptor agonist group and ß3-adrenoceptor antagonist group. After 26 weeks of high-fat diet, treatments were given for 12 weeks. Serum glucose and insulin levels in 48 weeks old mice were measured using an automatic biochemical detector. Quantitative rt-PCR and Western blot were used to analyze the mRNA and protein expression of α1A-, α2A-, ß2-, ß3-adrenoceptors and angiotensin II type 1 and type 2 receptors in pancreas. We found that ß3-adrenoceptor agonist could decrease serum glucose and insulin levels in aged ApoE(-/-) mice (P<0.01) and down-regulate the expression of α1A-adrenoceptor and angiotensin II type 1 receptor which were significantly increased in model mice (P<0.05, P<0.01). Compared with the model mice, α2A-, ß2-, ß3-adrenoceptor and angiotensin II type 2 receptor expression were up-regulated in ß3-adrenoceptor agonist treat mice (P<0.05, P<0.01). These results suggest that chronic ß3-adrenoceptor activation regulated the expression of adrenoceptors and angiontensin II receptors towards contrary direction, which indicates that there are interactions between ß3-adrenoceptor and subtypes of adrenoceptor and angiotensin II receptor, and these interactions may play a protective role in pancreas and improve glucose metabolism disorders.

[Etiological study of human bocavirus 1-4 in children with acute diarrhea in Lanzhou, China].

This study aimed to study the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of human bocavirus 1-4 (HBoV1-4) in children with acute diarrhea in Lanzhou and to investigate the association between HBoV and acute gastroenteritis. A total of 331 stool samples were collected from children aged under 5 years with acute diarrhea at the Department of Pediatrics, the First Hospital, Lanzhou University, between July 2012 and June 2013. Nested PCR was used to screen for HBoV and a general PCR was employed to screen other common diarrhea viruses. We found human bocavirus 1, 2, 3 and 4 in 26, 15, 7 and 1 cases, respectively. There was no specific seasonal distribution of HBoV, with infections occurring throughout the year. HBoV was mostly found in children aged between 7 and 12 months, with a mean age of 11.04 months (+/- 6.92 months), and 93.88% of affected children were aged under 2 years. Overall, 71.3% of mixed infections were mixed and the majority of other infections were caused by rotavirus. There was no statistical difference in the incidence of fever and vomiting associated with HBoV infection. A rare virus strain, HBoV4 (LZFB086), was identified, which showed highest levels of nucleotide sequence identity (99.0%) with a single Thai HBoV strain (JQ267789). No case of HBoV2B was found. In conclusion, HBoV1 was a major etiological pathogen of HBoV in pediatric cases in Lanzhou. HBoV4 was detected in feces for the first time in China. The rate of mixed infections was high and rotavirus was dominant. The data presented suggests that HBoV is not a major causative agent of gastroenteritis.

[Evolutionary relationships of G3 GARV isolated from pigs and humans in Lulong County, Hebei Province, China].

This study aimed to amplify major genome segments (VP7, VP4, VP6, VP2 and NSP2-5) of porcine G3 group A rotavirus (GARV) LLZ212 isolated in our laboratory, determine their genotypes, and explore the evolutionary relationships between G3 GARV strains isolated from humans and pigs in Lulong County, Hebei Province, China. Major genome segments of seven GARV strains were amplified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and the segments were sequenced. The genome segments of seven GARV strains were determined by the online RotaC genotyping tool (RotaC v2.0). The reference sequences of each GARV genome segment were downloaded from GenBank. Homology and phylogenetic evolutionary analyses were conducted using the MEGA 5.0 and DNAStar software packages. LLZ212 isolated from pigs in Lulong had the following genotype: G3-P[8]-I5-C1-N1-T1-E1-H1. All human GARV strains had the following genotype: G3-P[8]-I1-C1-N1-T1-E1-H1. The VP7, VP4, NSP4 and NSP5 genes of the LLZ212 strain had the highest nucleotide identities with the human GARV E885, CMH014/07, Wa and RMC321 strains, respectively, and these clustered together in a sublineage. The VP6, NSP4 and NSP5 genes of the LLZ212 strain shared the highest nucleotide identities with the porcine GARV PRG921 strain, while VP2 associated most closely with porcine GARV OSU strain, and these also clustered in a sublineage. A rare porcine G3-P[8]-I5-C1-N1-T1-E1-H1 GARV strain was identified, which may represent a reassortment between porcine and human viruses. In conclusion, the VP7, VP4, NSP4 and NSP5 genes of LLZ212 share high levels of sequence identity with human GARV, while VP2, VP6, NSP2 and NSP3 cluster with porcine GARV.

Effects of beta3-adrenoceptor activation on the interaction between adrenoceptors and angiotensin II receptors in apolipoprotein E knockout mouse lung.

Hyperlipidemia can be harmful to the lung and ß3-adrenoceptor agonist can improve lipid metabolism disorders. In this study, we aim to investigate the effects of ß3-adrenoceptor activation on the interactions of adrenoceptors and angiotensin II receptors in aged apolipoprotein E gene knockout (ApoE(-/-)) mouse lung. Ten wild type C57BL/6J mice were included as normal control, 40 ApoE(-/-) mice were randomly divided into hyperlipidemia model (saline), low dose and high dose ß3-adrenoceptor agonist and ß3-adrenoceptor antagonist groups. After 26 weeks of high-fat diet, treatments were given for 12 weeks. Total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were examined by an automatic biochemical analyzer. Quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot were used to analyze the mRNA and protein expression of α1A-, α1B-, α2A-, ß1-, ß2-, ß3-adrenoceptors and angiotensin II type 1 and type 2 receptors in lung. We found that ß3-adrenoceptor agonist could decrease TG, TC and LDL-C in aged ApoE(-/-) mice (P<0.01) and down-regulate the expressions of α1A-, α2A-adrenoceptors and angiotensin II type 1 receptor which were significantly increased in model mice (P<0.01, P<0.05). Compared with model mice, α1B-, ß1-, ß2-, ß3-adrenoceptors and angiotensin II type 2 receptor expressions were increased in ß3-adrenoceptor agonist-treat mice (P<0.01, P<0.05). These findings suggest that the expressions of adrenoceptors and angiotensin II receptors in lung are regulated towards adverse directions after taking ß3-adrenoceptor agonist, which shows there are interactions between ß3-adrenoceptor and other adrenoceptor subtypes and angiotensin II receptors. These interactions may play a protective role in lung under condition of hyperlipidemia.

Effect of beta-3 adrenoceptor stimulation on the levels of ApoA-I, PPARα, and PPARγ in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice.

The beta-3 adrenoceptor (ß3-AR) protects against the progression of atherosclerosis. However, the specific mechanism of this antiatherosclerotic effect is still not clear. Thus, the aim of this study was to understand the antiatherosclerotic effects of ß3-AR. Thirty-six male homozygous apolipoprotein E-deficient mice and wild-type C57BL/6J mice were randomized into 6 treatment groups: wild-type, atherosclerotic model, atorvastatin, low-dose ß3-AR agonist, high-dose ß3-AR agonist, and ß3-AR antagonist groups. The serum lipids, aortic-free cholesterol (FC), and cholesteryl ester (CE) concentrations were measured at the end of the treatments. The mRNA expression levels of liver apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα), and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) were detected by quantitative real-time PCR. Protein expression levels of apoA1, PPARα, and PPARγ in the liver were determined by western blot analysis. Treatment with ß3-AR significantly increased the plasma levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apoA-I, whereas the levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol decreased. The ß3-AR agonist treatment markedly decreased both the FC and the CE concentrations in the aorta compared with the atherosclerotic model mice. The ß3-AR agonist increased the mRNA and protein expression levels of apoA-I, PPARα, and PPARγ in the liver. This study demonstrates that long-term ß3-AR activation can regulate lipid metabolic disorders and reduces the aortic FC and the CE concentrations. These effects may be related to apoA-I, PPARα, and PPARγ.

[Whole genome analysis of human group A rotavirus G9p[8] strains in Hebei lulong region, 2009-2011].

Abstract:This study aims to investigate the genetic characteristics of group A rotavirus (GARV) G9P[8] strains from infantile diarrhea samples in Hebei Lulong region from 2009 to 2011. We randomly selected five GARV G9P[8] strains in Hebei Lulong region from 2009 to 2011, amplified the 11 gene fragments of GARVs by RT-PCR, and analyz their full-genome sequences by homology and phylogenetic analysis with DNAStar and MEGA. The nucleotide homology between strains LL11131077 and LL11131083 in 2011 was significantly higher than hat etween them and the other three strains in 2009 and 2010. The G9P[8] GARVs circulating in Hebei Lulong region from 2009 to 2011 elenged to the same genotype as the prevalent G9P[8] GARVs in other parts of the world. However,the two strains in 2011, compared with those in 2009 and 2010, were located in a different sub-branch of the phylogenetic tree and had amino acid mutations at many sites.

[The epidemiological characteristics of group C rotavirus in Lulong area and the analysis of diversity of VP6 gene].

OBJECTIVE: To study the epdimiology characteristics and the diversity of VP6 gene of GCRV in Lulong, and to provide the basis for GCRV in-depth research. METHODS: 793 stool specimens from porcine with diarrhea or not from Lulong in 2007 and 2008. GCRV was detected by nested multiple reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction (nested RT-PCR) , and analyzed the identity and conducted phylogenetic tree by the seqences. RESULTS: The positive rate of GCRV was 16.65%. Porcine GCRV strains of Lulong had significant homology differences. Phylogenetic analysis indicated porcine GCRVs were with significant diversity. Amino acid analysis showed GCRV strains with the same host shared the nearest kinship. CONCLUSION: The infection rate of GCRV was high from 2007 to 2008 in Lulong. Homology and phylogenetic analysis showed that VP6 gene diversity was widespread. The experimental data provided basis for molecular characteristics of porcine GCRVs.

Effects of ß3-adrenoceptor on scavenger receptor class B type 1 and its signal transduction pathway in apolipoprotein E knockout mice.

It is clear that activated ß3-adrenoceptor can improve disorders of lipid metabolism, however there are few reports concerning the anti-atherosclerotic effects of ß3-adrenoceptor in the artery of apolipoprotein E knockout (Apoe(-/-)) mice. In the present study, we aimed at investigating the effects of ß3-adrenoceptor on lipids, atherosclerosis plaques, scavenger receptor class B type 1 and its signal transduction in Apoe(-/-) mice. Ten C57BL/6J mice were used as a control, and fifty age-matched Apoe(-/-) mice were randomly divided into five groups: atherosclerotic model (saline), positive control (atorvastatin), low-dose ß3-adrenoceptor agonist, high-dose ß3-adrenoceptor agonist and ß3-adrenoceptor antagonist groups. After 26 weeks on the high-fat diet, the mice received the above treatments for 12 weeks. Thoracic aortas, serum lipids, SR-B1, P-MeK1/2, P-ErK1/2 and protein kinase Cα(PKCα) activity were detected. We found that the levels of serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, very low-density lipoprotein/low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and the area of atherosclerotic plaques were significantly decreased in ß3-adrenoceptor agonist-treated mice (P<0.01), while the levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, thoracic aortic lumen area, activity of liver PKCα, the protein expression of SR-B1, P-MeK1/2 and P-ErK1/2 were significantly increased (P<0.01), compared with the atherosclerotic model mice. Effects of the high-dose agonist were superior to those of the low-dose (P<0.01). These findings suggest that activation of ß3-adrenoceptor reduce the plaque area in the thoracic aorta and play an important anti-atherosclerotic role by regulating lipid metabolism disorders and the SR-B1 signal transduction pathway.

ß3-Adrenoceptor activation attenuates atherosclerotic plaque formation in ApoE(-/-) mice through lowering blood lipids and glucose.

AIM: To examine the effects of ß3-adrenoceptor (ß3-AR) activation on atherosclerotic plaque development in ApoE(-/-) mice. METHODS: Thirty six week-old male ApoE(-/-) mice on a high-fat diet were treated with atorvastatin (10 mg·kg(-1)·d(-1), po), BRL37344 (ß3-AR agonist, 1.65 or 3.30 µg/kg, ip, twice a week) or SR52390A (ß3-AR antagonist, 50 µg/kg, ip, twice a week) for 12 weeks. Wild-type C57BL/6J mice receiving a normal diet were taken as healthy controls. At the end of the treatments, serum levels of triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol (nHDL-C), glucose and insulin were measured. The thoracic aortas were dissected out, the area of atherosclerotic plaques and extent of fibrosis in the plaques were examined using HE and Masson's trichome staining, respectively. RESULTS: Compared to wild-type mice, ApoE(-/-) mice fed on a high-fat diet exhibited prominent hyperlipidemia and insulin resistance, associated with large area of atherosclerotic plaques and great extent of fibrosis in aortas. Atorvastatin significantly decreased the serum levels of TC and nHDL-C, and reduced the plaque area and collagen content in aortas. BRL37344 significantly decreased the serum levels of TG, TC, nHDL-C, glucose and insulin, and increased HDL-C and the insulin sensitivity, and dose-dependently reduced the plaque area and collagen content in aortas. SR52390A treatment did not affect any parameters studied. CONCLUSION: The ß3-AR agonist impedes the progression of atherosclerosis in ApoE(-/-) mice, through improvement of the lipid and glucose profiles.

[Research progress of real-time quantitative PCR method for group A rotavirus detection].

Group A rotavirus is one of the most significant etiological agents which causes acute gastroenteritis among infants and young children worldwide. So far, several method which includes electron microscopy (EM), enzyme immunoassay (EIA), reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)and Real-time Quantitative PCR has been established for the detection of rotavirus. Compared with other methods, Real-time quantitative PCR have advantages in specificity, sensitivity, genotyping and quantitative accuracy. This article shows a overview of the application of real-time quantitative PCR technique to detecte group A rotavirus.