Effects of Panax notoginseng saponins on proliferation and differentiation of rat embryonic cortical neural stem cells

AbstractBackgroundWe aimed to study the effect of Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) on the proliferation, differentiation, self-renewal, and expressions of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in rat embryonic neural stem cells (NSCs).MethodsCortical stem cells were isolated from rat embryos on Embryonic Day 17 (E17) and identified by nestin expression. Subsequently, primary culture, subculturing, and single cell cloning were performed on the cells. After the first cell passage (P1), the cells were resuspended and divided into a control group and a treatment group. Control cells were cultured in serum-free basal culture medium with B27 and dulbecco's modified eagle medium (DMEM)/F12. The same medium supplemented with PNS (100 μg/mL) was used to culture cells in the treatment group. Both groups were incubated at 37°C in a 5% CO2 incubator. Immunocytochemistry was performed 4 days after incubation.ResultsPrimary, P1, and P2 cells in the treatment group formed neurospheres, as did single cell clones of the P1 cells in this group. After being cultured for 4 days, the number of nestin-, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)-, Tuj-1-, neurofilament (NF)-, vimentin-, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-, bFGF-, and BDNF-positive cells significantly increased in the treatment group in comparison to the control group. All positively stained cells could form clear clusters.ConclusionPNS can promote rat embryonic cortical NSC survival, self-renewal, proliferation, and differentiation through neurotrophic factors by autocrine or paracrine signaling

Ultrasound-guided platelet-rich plasma injection for traumatic painful neuroma of brachial plexus: a case report and literature review

Traumatic neuroma (TN) is a repair response of nerves to direct/indirect trauma or chronic inflammatory injury, commonly occurring after trauma or surgery. The authors report a rare case of a traumatic painful neuroma of the brachial plexus. Physical therapy and drug treatment failed to resolve the symptoms of allodynia and a palpable mass, which significantly reduced the patient’s quality. Ultrasound-guided injection of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has shown significant efficacy in repairing the nerve and relieving pain. However, there is a lack of research on treating TN with PRP injection. This case demonstrates that ultrasound-guided injection of PRP can alleviate neuropathic pain caused by a traumatic painful neuroma of brachial plexus and improve the upper limb function

YOLOv9-AAG: Distinguishing Birds and Drones in Infrared and Visible Light Scenarios

The ability to distinguish between birds and drones is essential for applications in wildlife preservation, aviation security, and defense operations. Reliable identification not only reduces the risk of bird strikes and monitors potential drone threats but also fosters the development of a secure and intelligent ecological environment. However, achieving high precision in recognition under complex and dynamic conditions remains a significant hurdle. To overcome this, we present an advanced detection framework, YOLOv9-AKConv-AFF-GSConv(YOLOv9-AAG), which substantially improves the accuracy of distinguishing birds from drones, even in varied poses, and enhances generalization capabilities in both infrared and visible light scenarios. The framework incorporates several key advancements. First, the GSConv is embedded into the head of the RepNSCPELAN4-AKConv module, enabling efficient extraction of edge and contour information without introducing additional computational cost. Second, the inclusion of the Attentional Feature Fusion (AFF) mechanism within AKConv amplifies the representation of shape features, particularly under challenging environments and multimodal scenarios. Lastly, the optimized AKConv module is effectively integrated with the original RepNSCPELAN4 model, facilitating more accurate and robust feature extraction for small targets, including birds and drones. Experimental evaluations underscore the effectiveness of the proposed framework. On an optical dataset containing multiple bird and drone targets, YOLOv9-AAG achieved recognition accuracy rates of 78.2%, while on an infrared dataset, it reached 86.1%. These results reflect improvements of 7.4% and 6.0%, respectively, over the baseline YOLOv9 model. Additionally, the F1 scores increased by 5.9% and 2.8%. On the publicly available CUB-200-2011 dataset and a combined dataset of visible and infrared images, the model attained mean Average Precision (mAP) scores of 81.9% and 81.6%, respectively, outperforming cutting-edge approaches, including YOLOv9, YOLOv10, and YOLOv11. Furthermore, It was also tested on two videos of drones and birds, the experimental resultsdemonstrated an average detection accuracy of approximately 72% for small bird targets and 80% for drones, highlighting the model’s practical capability to effectively distinguish between these two classes

CDC42EP3 is a key promoter involved in the development and progression of gastric cancer

Abstract Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most prevalent cancers and severely endangers human health. Due to the low rate of diagnosis, most patients with GC are diagnosed as advanced. CDC42 effector protein 3 (CDC42EP3) has been revealed to be involved in several types of human cancers’ development and progression. However, the function of CDC42EP3 in GC is not yet clear. CDC42EP3 expression was detected by immunohistochemistry, quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot assay in tumor tissues and cell lines of GC. CDC42EP3 knockdown cell models were constructed by lentivirus transfection. Cell proliferation was evaluated by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The wound-healing assay and the transwell assay were utilized to assess the cell migration. Also, the cell apoptosis and the cell cycle were evaluated by flow cytometry. Moreover, the mechanism was investigated by Human Apoptosis Antibody Array. The in vivo experiments were conducted to verify the effects of CDC42EP3 knockdown on the tumor growth of GC. The expression level of CDC42EP3 was up-regulated in tumor tissues. High CDC42EP3 expression was positively related to more advanced tumor grade. CDC42EP3 knockdown inhibited cell proliferation and migration, promoted cell apoptosis and suppressed the tumor growth. On the other hand, it was also found that the silencing of CDC42EP3 inhibited HSP27 and IGF-1sR expression as well as promoted Caspase3, p53, TNF-α, TNF-β, TRAILR-1 and TRAILR-2 expression. CDC42EP3 was revealed to work as a tumor promoter in the development and progression of GC, which could be a promising therapeutic target for the therapy of GC.</jats:p