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Dickerson Rahbek posted an update 6 months, 3 weeks ago
Apoptotic molecules, p53, Bax, and cleaved caspase-3, were down-regulated by treatment of ginsenoside Rg3 and Rf. In addition, Lysotracker staining result showed that cellular lysosomal content was reduced by ginsenoside Rg3 and Rf. Given that ginsenoside Rg3 and Rf have the potential to reduce mHtt aggregation and cellular apoptosis, these ginsenosides can be possible therapeutic candidates for treating HD phenotypes.It is well-established that in vitro culture affects quality, gene expression, and epigenetic processes in bovine embryos and that trophectoderm cells are the most susceptible to abnormalities. These changes have been reported as the main factors responsible for losses observed after transfer of in vitro-produced embryos. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of an in vitro system on bovine embryo transcriptional profiles on D14 of development. Two groups were used-one with embryos produced in vitro until D7 (day 7; VT group) and another with embryos produced in vivo by hormonal stimulation, with embryos collected on D7 (VV group). D7 embryos at similar developmental stages from both treatments were transferred to recipient uteri and recollected on D14. From D14 embryos of both treatments, trophoblast samples were removed by biopsy for sexing and transcriptome analyses. Embryos were sexed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and only males were used for RNA sequencing. In total, 29,005 transcripts were expressed, from which 900 were differentially expressed, but only 29 genes were significantly differentially expressed. In addition, 20 genes were found uniquely for VV and 27 for VT. These findings suggested that although the uterine environment minimized transcriptional differences, it was not able to make trophoblasts from the in vitro embryos similar to the in vivo ones. The few genes exhibiting differences are in control of important events that may be responsible for embryonic losses occurring during the first period of gestation.In this article we extend the factor copula model to deal with right-censored event time data grouped in clusters. The new methodology allows for clusters to have variable sizes ranging from small to large and intracluster dependence to be flexibly modeled by any parametric family of bivariate copulas, thus encompassing a wide range of dependence structures. Incorporation of covariates (possibly time dependent) in the margins is also supported. Three estimation procedures are proposed both one- and two-stage parametric and a two-stage semiparametric method where marginal survival functions are estimated by using a Cox proportional hazards model. We prove that the estimators are consistent and asymptotically normally distributed, and assess their finite sample behavior with simulation studies. Furthermore, we illustrate the proposed methods on a data set containing the time to first insemination after calving in dairy cattle clustered in herds of different sizes.Coal spontaneous combustion is known to emit a variety of organic carcinogenic pollutants, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are the most prominent. The Wuda coalfield is a coal fire-prone region in northern China. Coal fire sponges (CFS), a sponge-like contaminated soil protrusion, occur widely in the Suhaitu mining area. PAHs concentrations in CFS were measured via GC × GC-TOFMS. The average total PAHs concentration in the central annulus (A) was 17,416 μg kg-1 and ranged from 292 to 218,251 μg kg-1. Moreover, the study exhibited a heavily contaminated level (1000 μg kg-1). Low molecular weight PAHs were dominant, accounting for more than 50% of the total PAHs. Among them, naphthalene (Nap) and phenanthrene (Phe) were the most prominent, and the correlation between Phe and Nap + Phe was highly significant (R2 > 0.9). Our findings indicated that Nap and Phe contents may constitute a novel indicator to identify coal fire emission sources. Cancer risk calculations indicated that all annulus is already at a potential risk stage (10-6-10-4) for child or adults. CFS is not only a coal fire-associated PAH sink but also an atmospheric PAH emission source and, therefore, warrants the attention of local authorities.Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain, and the stem cell transplantation method provides a promising strategy for the treatment. In these studies, tracking the biological behaviors of the transplanted cells in vivo is essential for a basic understanding of stem cell function and evaluation of clinical effectiveness. In the present study, we developed a novel ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles coating with the polyacrylic acid (PAA) and methoxypolyethylene glycol amine (PEG) by thermal decomposition method and a two-step modification. The USPIO-PAA/PEG NPs have a uniform diameter of 10.07 ± 0.55 nm and proper absorption peak of the corresponding ligands, as showed by TEM and FTIR. MTT showed that the survival of cells incubated with USPIO-PAA/PEG NPs remained above 96%. The synthesized USPIO-PAA/PEG had a good relaxation rate of 84.65 s-1 Mm-1, indicating that they could be efficiently uptake and traced by MRI. Furthermore, the primary human adipose-derived stem cells (HADSCs) were characterized, labeled with USPIO-PAA/PEG and transplanted into the striatum of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced PD rat models. PF4708671 The labeled cells could be traced by MRI for up to 3 weeks after the transplantation surgery; moreover, transplantation with the labeled HADSCs significantly attenuated apomorphine-induced rotations in PD models and increased the number of the dopaminergic neurons in the substania nigra. Overall, the development of USPIO-PAA/PEG NPs provides a promising tool for in vivo tracing technique of cell therapy and identifies a novel strategy to track stem cells with therapeutic potential in PD.3-Hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) represents an economically important platform compound from which a panel of bulk chemicals can be derived. Compared with petroleum-dependent chemical synthesis, bioproduction of 3-HP has attracted more attention due to utilization of renewable biomass. This review outlines bacterial production of 3-HP, covering aspects of host strains (e.g., Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae), metabolic pathways, key enzymes, and hurdles hindering high-level production. Inspired by the state-of-the-art advances in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, we come up with protocols to overcome the hurdles constraining 3-HP production. The protocols range from rewiring of metabolic networks, alleviation of metabolite toxicity, to dynamic control of cell size and density. Especially, this review highlights the substantial contribution of microbial growth to 3-HP production, as we recognize the synchronization between cell growth and 3-HP formation. Accordingly, we summarize the following growth-promoting strategies (i) optimization of fermentation conditions; (ii) construction of gene circuits to alleviate feedback inhibition; (iii) recruitment of RNA polymerases to overexpress key enzymes which in turn boost cell growth and 3-HP production.