Spermidine activates adipose tissue thermogenesis through autophagy and fibroblast growth factor 21.

Spermidine exerts protective roles in obesity, while the mechanism of spermidine in adipose tissue thermogenesis remains unclear. The present study first investigated the effect of spermidine on cold-stimulation and ß3-adrenoceptor agonist-induced thermogenesis in lean and high-fat diet-induced obese mice. Next, the role of spermidine on glucose and lipid metabolism in different types of adipose tissue was determined. Here, we found that spermidine supplementation did not affect cold-stimulated thermogenesis in lean mice, while significantly promoting the activation of adipose tissue thermogenesis under cold stimulation and ß3-adrenergic receptor agonist treatment in obese mice. Spermidine treatment markedly enhanced glucose and lipid metabolism in adipose tissues, and these results were associated with the activated autophagy pathway. Moreover, spermidine up-regulated fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) signaling and its downstream pathway, including PI3K/AKT and AMPK pathways in vivo and in vitro. Knockdown of Fgf21 or inhibition of PI3K/AKT and AMPK pathways in brown adipocytes abolished the thermogenesis-promoting effect of spermidine, suggesting that the effect of spermidine on adipose tissue thermogenesis might be regulated by FGF21 signaling via the PI3K/AKT and AMPK pathways. The present study provides new insight into the mechanism of spermidine on obesity and its metabolic complications, thereby laying a theoretical basis for the clinical application of spermidine.

To investigate the role of rutin on bisphenol-A induced female infertility in rats.

AIM: The aim of this study is to see how rutin affects female infertility in rats after exposure to bisphenol-A (BA). BACKGROUND: Now a day, infertility is a major issue in the health care system. Currently, various chemicals and toxins are exposed to our biological system. Moreover, globally the improvement in reproductive health is alarming in developing and developed countries. The complete understanding and full therapeutic spectrum of natural medicines like citrus fruit-derived phytoconstituent i.e., rutin is not explored yet. However, rutin is contributed to the improvement of vascular health and smooth muscle tissue functions. OBJECTIVE: The proposed research work is designed to explore the role of rutin on bisphenol-A (BA) induced female infertility in rats. MATERIALS/METHODS: BA is a potent endocrine disruptor and it causes female infertility in the rat. The inducer of oocyte maturation with nitric oxide donor i.e., sodium nitroprusside (SNP) was used for female infertility in the rat. The test compound rutin was administered with variable doses for 60 minutes per day for 21 days for this study. RESULTS: The female infertility of rats was assessed by male-female interaction behaviours, and anxiety behaviours were tested on 0, 7, 14, and 21st days. The biomarkers levels i.e., estradiol-17b (E2), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and antimullerian tubulin hormone (AMH), reduced glutathione (GSH), and lipid peroxidation (MDA) levels were estimated at the end of the experimental protocol. CONCLUSION: The treatment of rutin is ameliorated the BA-associated female reproductive behaviours and biomarkers level. Hence, it may be useful to improve female reproductive health due to its potential multi-targeted actions like hormonal regulation, anti-oxidant, and anti-peroxidative actions.

Photonic crystals for controlling strong coupling in van der Waals materials.

The design of photonic structures plays a crucial role in the engineering of light-matter interactions. Planar microcavities have been widely used to establish strong light-matter coupling in semiconductor quantum wells, leading to intense research on exciton-polariton systems in the past few decades. However, planar cavities are limited in material compatibility, inflexible for mode engineering, and bulky for integration. Here we demonstrate dielectric slab photonic crystals as a flexible and compact platform for polaritons, where excitons are strongly coupled to photons confined in the leaky modes of the slab. We show our structure is well-suited for van der Waals materials, features unusual adjustable dispersions, and allows for multi-wavelength operation on a single chip.

A retrospective pilot study of high-quality nursing care for cervical cancer.

This retrospective pilot study investigated the feasible effect of high-quality nursing care (HQNC) for patients with cervical cancer (CC). A total of 58 patients with CC were included in this study. All patients were treated with routine care, and were divided into a treatment group and a control group, according to the different interventions they received. In addition, patients in the treatment group also received HQNC. The primary outcome of anxiety was measured by Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The secondary outcomes were rumination, as measured by ruminative responses scale (RRS); and emotion, as measured by the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). All outcomes were measured before and after 4-week treatment. After treatment, patients in the treatment group showed better outcomes in anxiety, as evaluated by BAI scale (minimal, P = .04), rumination, as measured by RRS (P < .01), and emotion, as assessed by ERQ (P < .01), compared with patients in the control group. The results of this study demonstrated that HQNC might have positive effect in patients with CC after 4-week treatment.

Dispersion engineering for vertical microcavities using subwavelength gratings.

We show that the energy-momentum dispersion of a vertical semiconductor microcavity can be modified by design using a high-index-contrast subwavelength grating (SWG) as a cavity mirror. We analyze the angular dependence of the reflection phase of the SWG to illustrate the principles of dispersion engineering. We show examples of engineered dispersions such as ones with much reduced or increased energy density of states and one with a double-well-shaped dispersion. This method of dispersion engineering is compatible with maintaining a high cavity quality factor and incorporating fully protected active media inside the cavity, thus enabling the creation of new types of cavity quantum electrodynamics systems.