The involvement of Neuregulin-1 in the process of facial nerve injury repair through the utilization of dental pulp stem cells.

BACKGROUND: Facial nerve injury often results in poor prognosis due to the challenging process of nerve regeneration. Neuregulin-1, a human calmodulin, is under investigation in this study for its impact on the reparative capabilities of Dental Pulp Stem Cells (DPSCs) in facial nerve injury. METHODS: Lentivirus was used to transfect and construct Neuregulin-1 overexpressed DPSCs. Various techniques assessed the effects of Neuregulin-1: osteogenic induction, lipid induction, Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, Western Blot, Cell Counting Kit-8 assay, wound healing, immunofluorescence, Phalloidin staining, nerve stem action potential, Hematoxylin-eosin staining, transmission electron microscopy, and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Neuregulin-1 effectively enhanced the proliferation, migration, and cytoskeletal rearrangement of DPSCs, while simultaneously suppressing the expression of Ras homolog gene family member A (RhoA) and Microfilament actin (F-actin). These changes facilitated the neural differentiation of DPSCs. Additionally, in vivo experiments showed that Neuregulin-1 expedited the restoration of action potential in the facial nerve trunk, increased the thickness of the myelin sheath, and stimulated axon regeneration. CONCLUSION: Neuregulin-1 has the capability to facilitate the repair of facial nerve injuries by promoting the regenerative capacity of DPSCs. Thus, Neuregulin-1 is a significant potential gene in the reparative processes of nerve damage.

Fam20c regulates the calpain proteolysis system through phosphorylating Calpasatatin to maintain cell homeostasis.

BACKGROUND: The family with sequence similarity 20-member C (FAM20C) kinase, a Golgi casein kinase, which is responsible for phosphorylating the majority of the extracellular phosphoproteins within S-x-E/pS motifs, and is fundamentally associated with multiple biological processes to maintain cell proliferation, biomineralization, migration, adhesion, and phosphate homeostasis. In dissecting how FAM20C regulates downstream molecules and potential mechanisms, however, there are multiple target molecules of FAM20C, particularly many phenomena remain elusive, such as changes in cell-autonomous behaviors, incompatibility in genotypes and phenotypes, and others. METHODS: Here, assay for transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing (ATAC-seq), RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), proteomics, and phosphoproteomics were performed in Fam20c-dificient osteoblasts and to facilitate an integrated analysis and determine the impact of chromatin accessibility, genomic expression, protein alterations, signaling pathway, and post translational modifcations. RESULTS: By combining ATAC-seq and RNA-seq, we identified TCF4 and Wnt signaling pathway as the key regulators in Fam20c-dificient cells. Further, we showed Calpastatin/Calpain proteolysis system as a novel target axis for FAM20C to regulate cell migration and F-actin cytoskeleton by integrated analysis of proteomics and phosphoproteomics. Furthermore, Calpastatin/Calpain proteolysis system could negatively regulate the Wnt signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: These observations implied that Fam20c knockout osteoblasts would cause cell homeostatic imbalance, involving changes in multiple signaling pathways in the conduction system.

Dynamic Fluctuation and Niche Differentiation of Fungal Pathogens Infecting Bell Pepper Plants.

The plant microbiome is shaped by plant development and microbial interaction. Fungal pathogens infecting bell pepper plants may fluctuate across the growing seasons. Dynamic fluctuation of the microbiome and fungal pathogens in bell pepper plants is poorly understood, and the origin of fungal pathogens causing fruit rot and leaf wilt has been barely investigated. In this study, we used amplicon sequencing (i.e., 16S rRNA and internal transcribed spacer [ITS] sequencing) to explore the compositional variations of the microbiome in bell pepper plants and studied the fluctuation of fungal pathogens across the growing seasons. Co-occurrence network analysis was applied to track the origin and dissemination route of fungal pathogens that infected bell pepper plants. ITS and 16S rRNA sequencing analyses demonstrated that fungal pathogens infecting fruits and leaves probably belonged to the Penicillium, Cladosporium, Fusarium, and unclassified_Sclerotiniaceae genera rather than one specific genus. The dominant fungal pathogens were different, along with the development of bell pepper plants. Both plant development and fungal pathogens shaped microbial communities in bell pepper plants across the growing seasons. Fungal pathogens decreased species richness and diversity of fungal communities in fungus-infected fruit and leaf tissues but not the uninfected stem tissues. Bacterial metabolic functions of xenobiotics increased in fungus-infected leaves at a mature developmental stage. Competitive interaction was present between fungal and bacterial communities in leaves. Co-occurrence network analysis revealed that the origins of fungal pathogens included the greenhouse, packing house, and storage room. Niche differentiation of microbes was discovered among these locations. IMPORTANCE Bell peppers are widely consumed worldwide. Fungal pathogen infections of bell peppers lead to enormous economic loss. To control fungal pathogens and increase economic benefit, it is essential to investigate the shifting patterns of the microbiome and fungal pathogens in bell pepper plants across the growing seasons. In this study, bell pepper plant diseases observed in fruits and leaves were caused by different fungal pathogens. Fungal pathogens originated from the greenhouse, packing house, and storage room, and niche differentiation existed among microbes. This study improves the understanding of dynamic fluctuation and source of fungal pathogens infecting bell pepper plants in the farming system. It also facilitates precise management of fungal pathogens in the greenhouse.

Electrical Dry Needling Plus Corticosteroid Injection for Osteoarthritis of the Knee: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of electrical dry needling (DN) plus corticosteroid injection (CSI) on pain, physical function, and global change in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee (KOA). DESIGN: A prospective, single-blinded, randomized controlled trial. SETTING: Pain treatment clinic. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty patients with KOA were randomly assigned to the electrical dry needling plus corticosteroid injection (electrical-DN+CSI) group or CSI group. INTERVENTIONS: The CSI group received glucocorticoid injection only once during the trial, and the electrical-DN+CSI group received glucocorticoid injection combined with 4 sessions of electrical-DN. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: The primary outcome was the numerical rating scale at 3 months. The secondary outcomes were the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index, the time to complete the Timed Up and Go test, and the score of the global rating of change scale at 3 months. A generalized linear mixed-effects model was used to analyze the repeated measurement data. RESULTS: Baseline characteristics and measurements were similar in the 2 groups. The group by time interaction effect was significant for all variables (P<.05). The electrical-DN+CSI group obtained a more significant reduction in pain intensity and more significant improvement in dysfunction than the CSI group at 3 months (P<.05). The median global rating of change score for the CSI group was +3 (somewhat better), and that for the electrical-DN+CSI group was +4 (moderately better). CONCLUSION: Electrical-DN therapy at myofascial trigger points combined with CSI is more effective at alleviating pain, improving dysfunction, and creating global change than CSI alone for patients with KOA. Electrical-DN may be an essential part of treatment for KOA rehabilitation.

Prevalence and multilocus sequence typing of Clostridium perfringens isolated from different stages of a duck production chain.

Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) is a zoonotic microorganism and rarely reported in duck production chain. This study aimed to investigate prevalence, serotype distribution, antibiotic resistance and genetic diversity of C. perfringens at different stages of a duck production chain. In total, 319 samples were collected from a large-scale rearing and slaughter one-stop enterprise in Weifang, China, of which 42.95% of samples were positive for C. perfringens. All isolates were genotype A. Cpe and cpb2 genes were found in 2.54% and 24.87% of the isolates, respectively. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that 55.47% of the isolates resistant to at least 5 classes of commonly used antibiotics. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) results showed that 65 representative isolates were divided into 47 sequences types (STs), 33.85% of them were included into four clonal complexes (CC). Some of isolates from breeding and slaughtering stages were distributed in the same CC or ST, indicating duck products may be contaminated by C. perfringens originated from the breeding stage. Part of duck isolates were distributed in the same CC as human isolates and systemically close with human isolates. The high contamination rates of duck products, the isolates with multi-drug antibiotic resistance or the cpe gene, and the close relationship between strains from human and ducks, indicated potential public health risks, not only control measures at slaughtering stage but also at rearing stage should be considered to reduce this risks.

Prevalence and characterization of Clostridium perfringens isolated from different chicken farms in China.

Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) is a common pathogenic microorganism present in nature, which can cause animal and human diseases, such as necrotizing enteritis (NE) in poultry. Little is known about the current prevalence status of C. perfringens from poultry farms of different types and regions in China. From December 2018 to August 2019, we investigated the prevalence, genotype distribution and drug resistance of C. perfringens from Guangdong, Pingyin, Tai'an and Weifang. A total of 622 samples were collected and processed for C. perfringens isolation, among which 239 (38.42%) samples were determined to be positive for C. perfringens. A total of 312 isolates of C. perfringens were recovered (1-5 strains were isolated for each positive sample), and 98.72% of the isolates were identified as type A, while the others were type F. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that 47.71% of the isolates were resistant to at least five classes of commonly used antibiotics. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) showed that 74 representative isolates were divided into 63 sequence types (STs), and the Simpson's diversity index (Ds) of the STs for the five farms was 0.9799. 37.84% of the isolates were classified into seven clonal complexes (CC1-CC7), and the isolates from the same farm were more concentrated in the minimum spanning tree. In addition, some cloaca isolates and feed isolates were distributed in the same ST or CC; this result indicates that the C. perfringens in chicken can come from the environment (feed etc.).

Influence of incorporating beta zeolite nanoparticles on water permeability and ion selectivity of polyamide nanofiltration membranes.

A novel polyamide (PA) thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane modified with Beta (ß) zeolite was prepared by interfacial polymerization on a poly (ether sulfone) (PES) ultrafiltration membrane. Compared with the PA thin film composite (TFC) membrane, the introduction of ß zeolite with porous structure notably increased the water flux of TFN membrane. Because the ß zeolite with tiny-sized and well-defined inner-porous acted as prior flow channels for water molecules and a barrier for the sulfate ions. The successful introduction of ß zeolite into the (PA) selective layer and their dispersion in the corresponding layer were verified by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Water contact angle, zeta potential measurements were used to characterize the changes of membrane surface properties before and after incorporating the ß zeolite. With the ß zeolite introducing, the water contact angle of modified TFN membrane was decreased to 47.8°, which was benefited to improve the water flux. Meanwhile, the negative charges of the modified TFN membrane was increased, resulting in an enhancement of separation effect on SO42- and Cl-. In term of nanofiltration (NF) experiments, the highest pure water flux of the TFN membranes reached up to 81.22 L m-2 hr-1 under operating pressure of 0.2 MPa, which was 2.5 times as much as the pristine TFC membrane.

Natural variation in GmGBP1 promoter affects photoperiod control of flowering time and maturity in soybean.

The present study screened for polymorphisms in coding and non-coding regions of the GmGBP1 gene in 278 soybean accessions with variable maturity and growth habit characteristics under natural field conditions in three different latitudes in China. The results showed that the promoter region was highly diversified compared with the coding sequence of GmGBP1. Five polymorphisms and four haplotypes were closely related to soybean flowering time and maturity through association and linkage disequilibrium analyses. Varieties with the polymorphisms SNP_-796G, SNP_-770G, SNP_-307T, InDel_-242normal, SNP_353A, or haplotypes Hap-3 and Hap-4 showed earlier flowering time and maturity in different environments. The shorter growth period might be largely due to higher GmGBP1 expression levels in soybean that were caused by the TCT-motif with SNP_-796G in the promoter. In contrast, the lower expression level of GmGBP1 in soybean caused by RNAi interference of GmGBP1 resulted in a longer growth period under different day lengths. Furthermore, the gene interference of GmGBP1 also caused a reduction in photoperiod response sensitivity (PRS) before flowering in soybean. RNA-seq analysis on GmGBP1 underexpression in soybean showed that 94 and 30 predicted genes were significantly upregulated and downregulated, respectively. Of these, the diurnal photoperiod-specific expression pattern of three significant flowering time genes GmFT2a, GmFT5a, and GmFULc also showed constantly lower mRNA levels in GmGBP1-i soybean than in wild type, especially under short day conditions. Together, the results showed that GmGBP1 functioned as a positive regulator upstream of GmFT2a and GmFT5a to activate the expression of GmFULc to promote flowering on short days.

Expression of annexin A2 in adenomyosis and dysmenorrhea.

PURPOSE: To investigate the expression of annexin A2 (ANXA2) in ectopic and eutopic endometrium and serum of women with adenomyosis, and their relationships with adenomyosis-associated dysmenorrhea. METHODS: The expression of ANXA2 was detected by immunohistochemical S-P method in ectopic and eutopic endometrium tissues from 30 patients with adenomyosis who underwent hysterectomy. The correlation between ANXA2 expression and dysmenorrhea degree was evaluated. The endometrium tissues from 15 patients with uterine fibroids which underwent hysterectomy were used as controls. The preoperative serum level of ANXA2 was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 30 patients with adenomyosis and 15 patients with hysteromyoma. RESULT: The expression of ANXA2 in eutopic and ectopic endometrium of adenomyosis was higher than in normal endometrium (P < 0.05), but no significant difference of ANXA2 expression was observed between the eutopic endometrium and the ectopic endometrium (P > 0.05). In the ectopic endometrium, but not in the eutopic endometrium, of women with adenomyosis, ANXA2 expression was positively correlated with the severity of dysmenorrhea (R = 0.831, P = 0.000). The preoperative serum level of ANXA2 was markedly higher in patients with adenomyosis compared with the patients with hysteromyoma (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The increased ANXA2 may contribute to the occurrence and development of adenomyosis, and may play a important role in the dysmenorrhea. The present study may provide a new idea of diagnosis and treatment to adenomyosis-associated dysmenorrhea.

Clinical and Neuroimaging Features of Acute Ischemic Stroke in Cancer Patients.

BACKGROUND: The occurrence of acute ischemic stroke in cancer patients is not unusual. In clinical practice, acute ischemic stroke with cancer usually cannot be diagnosed promptly due to lack of specific markers. But for cancer patients, advanced prevention, accurate diagnosis and proper treatment of acute ischemic stroke are very important. The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinical and neuroimaging features of acute ischemic stroke in patients with cancer. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of all cancer-associated acute ischemic stroke patients (n = 46) admitted to the Affiliated Hospital of Academy of Military Medical Sciences between October 2011 and March 2015. A group of non-cancer acute ischemic stroke patients (n = 50) at the same period were selected randomly as control. The clinical and neuroimaging data were collected and compared between the 2 groups. RESULTS: Patients with cancer-associated stroke (CS) had a lower body mass index (23.26 ± 3.70 vs. 24.88 ± 2.83, p = 0.021) compared to non-cancer stroke (NC) patients. A lower proportion of CS patients suffered from hypertension (45.7 vs. 68.0%, p = 0.039) and hyperlipidemia (10.9 vs. 72.0%, p = 0.000) than the NC group. A higher proportion of CS patients had deep vein catheter (24.0 vs. 0%) before the onset of stoke than that of the NC group. Levels of hemoglobin, albumin and triglyceride were lower in CS groups compared with that of the NC group (p < 0.05). The prothrombin time, international normalized ratio, D-dimer and fibrinogen levels were significantly higher in the CS group than in the NC group (p < 0.05). As to the neuroimaging patterns, disperse lesions (OR 7.01; 95% CI 1.17-42.12; p < 0.05) was independently associated with CS. CONCLUSIONS: Cancer-associated ischemic stroke was different form conventional ischemic stroke in the aspect of clinical and neuroimaging manifestation. This phenomenon might be because of the embolic etiology of CS. These features together could become a clue to CS.