Vesicular glutamatergic transmission in noise-induced loss and repair of cochlear ribbon synapses

Noise-induced excitotoxicity is thought to depend on glutamate. However, the excitotoxic mechanisms are unknown, and the necessity of glutamate for synapse loss or regeneration is unclear. Despite absence of glutamatergic transmission from cochlear inner hair cells in mice lacking the vesicular glutamate transporter-3

The alleviative effect of salicylic acid on the physiological indices of the seedling leaves in six different wheat genotypes under lead stress

In this research, relevant physiological indices were measured in seedling leaves of six different wheat genotypes growing at three-leave stage. The seedlings were cultured under hydroponic cultivation and treated by different lead ion (Pb2+) treatments (namely 10, 50, 100, 200 mg L-1 Pb2+ stresses, respectively) and Pb2+-SA (salicylic acid) jointed-treatments (namely 200 mg L-1 SA-alleviated 10, 50, 100, 200 mg L-1 Pb2+ stresses, respectively). The results showed that stress induced by the application of Pb2+ triggered significant inhibitory effects on indices such as chlorophyll content, ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity, catalase (CAT) activity, malonic dialdehyde (MDA) content and proline content. Moreover, application of SA exerted certain alleviative effects on these indices in seedling leaves of all genotypes. Peroxidase (POD) activity, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and soluble sugar content were significantly affected by inhibitory effects of Pb2+ stress, while SA exerted limited alleviative effects on these parameters. For all physiological indices, SA had the most apparent alleviative effects on seedling leaves of all genotypes treated by the maximum Pb2+ concentration, namely, 200 mg L-1 Pb2+ stress. No significant differences were observed in response of all genotypes to stress, in terms of the change in physiological indices values, indicating that hydroponic cultivation at same nutrition conditions minimized the differences in stress tolerance or resistance of all genotypes. These data provide a basic study on physiological mechanism of wheat resistance (tolerance) to heavy metal stress.In this research, relevant physiological indices were measured in seedling leaves of six different wheat genotypes growing at three-leave stage. The seedlings were cultured under hydroponic cultivation and treated by different lead ion (Pb2+) treatments (namely 10, 50, 100, 200 mg L-1 Pb2+ stresses, respectively) and Pb2+-SA (salicylic acid) jointed-treatments (namely 200 mg L-1 SA-alleviated 10, 50, 100, 200 mg L-1 Pb2+ stresses, respectively). The results showed that stress induced by the application of Pb2+ triggered significant inhibitory effects on indices such as chlorophyll content, ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity, catalase (CAT) activity, malonic dialdehyde (MDA) content and proline content. Moreover, application of SA exerted certain alleviative effects on these indices in seedling leaves of all genotypes. Peroxidase (POD) activity, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and soluble sugar content were significantly affected by inhibitory effects of Pb2+ stress, while SA exerted limited alleviative effects on these parameters. For all physiological indices, SA had the most apparent alleviative effects on seedling leaves of all genotypes treated by the maximum Pb2+ concentration, namely, 200 mg L-1 Pb2+ stress. No significant differences were observed in response of all genotypes to stress, in terms of the change in physiological indices values, indicating that hydroponic cultivation at same nutrition conditions minimized the differences in stress tolerance or resistance of all genotypes. These data provide a basic study on physiological mechanism of wheat resistance (tolerance) to heavy metal stress

Optical properties of InGaAsBi/GaAs strained quantum wells studied by temperature-dependent photoluminescence

The effect of bismuth on the optical properties of InGaAsBi/GaAs quantum well structures is investigated using the temperature-dependent photoluminescence from 12 K to 450 K. The incorporation of bismuth in the InGaAsBi quantum well is confirmed and found to result in a red shift of photoluminescence wavelength of 27.3 meV at 300 K. The photoluminescence intensity is significantly enhanced by about 50 times at 12 K with respect to that of the InGaAs quantum well due to the surfactant effect of bismuth. The temperature-dependent integrated photoluminescence intensities of the two samples reveal different behaviors related to various non-radiative recombination processes. The incorporation of bismuth also induces alloy non-uniformity in the quantum well, leading to an increased photoluminescence linewidth

Enhanced piezoelectricity in 0.7BiFeO3-0.3BaTiO3 lead-free ceramics: Distinct effect of poling engineering

BiFeO3-BaTiO3 based ceramics are considered to be the most promising lead-free piezoelectric ceramics due to their large piezoelectric response and high Curie temperature. Since the piezoelectric response of piezoelectric ceramics just appears after poling engineering, in this work, the domain evolution and microscopic piezoresponse were observed in-situ using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) and switching spectroscopy piezoresponse force microscopy (SS-PFM), which can effectively study the local switching characteristics of ferroelectric materials especially at the nanoscale. The new domain nucleation preferentially forms at the boundary of the relative polarization region and expands laterally with the increase of bias voltage and temperature. The maximum piezoresponse (Rs), remnant piezoresponse (Rrem), maximum displacement (Dmax) and negative displacement (Dneg) at 45 V and 120 °C reach 122, 69, 127 pm and 75 pm, respectively. Due to the distinct effect of poling engineering in full domain switching, the corresponding d33 at 50 kV/cm and 120 °C reaches a maximum of 205 pC/N, which is nearly twice as high as that at room temperature. Studying the evolution of ferroelectric domains in the poling engineering of BiFeO3-BaTiO3 ceramics provides an insight into the relationship between domain structure and piezoelectric response, which has implications for other piezoelectric ceramics as well

Transcriptome Profiling of m6A mRNA Modification in Bovine Mammary Epithelial Cells Treated with Escherichia coli

Mastitis is a common disease in dairy cows that is mostly caused by E. coli, and it brings massive losses to the dairy industry. N6-Methyladenosine (m6A), a methylation at the N6 position of RNA adenine, is a type of modification strongly associated with many diseases. However, the role of m6A in mastitis has not been investigated. In this study, we used MeRIP-seq to sequence the RNA of bovine mammary epithelial cells treated with inactivated E. coli for 24 h. In this in vitro infection model, there were 16,691 m6A peaks within 7066 mRNA transcripts in the Con group and 10,029 peaks within 4891 transcripts in the E. coli group. Compared with the Con group, 474 mRNAs were hypermethylated and 2101 mRNAs were hypomethylated in the E. coli group. Biological function analyses revealed differential m6A-modified genes mainly enriched in the MAPK, NF-κB, and TGF-β signaling pathways. In order to explore the relationship between m6A and mRNA expression, combined MeRIP-seq and mRNA-seq analyses revealed 212 genes with concomitant changes in the mRNA expression and m6A modification. This study is the first to present a map of RNA m6A modification in mastitis treated with E. coli, providing a basis for future research

A Modified Chinese Herbal Decoction (Kai-Xin-San) Promotes NGF-Induced Neuronal Differentiation in PC12 Cells via Up-Regulating Trk A Signaling

Kai-Xin-San (KXS), a Chinese herbal decoction, has been applied to medical care of depression for thousands of years. It is composed of two functional paired-herbs: Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma (GR)-Polygalae Radix (PR) and Acori Tatarinowii Rhizoma (ATR)-Poria (PO). The compatibility of the paired-herbs has been frequently changed to meet the criteria of syndrome differentiation and treatment variation. Currently, a modified KXS (namely KXS2012) was prepared by optimizing the combinations of GR-PR and ATR-PO: the new herbal formula was shown to be very effective in animal studies. However, the cellular mechanism of KXS2012 against depression has not been fully investigated. Here, the study on KXS2012-induced neuronal differentiation in cultured PC12 cells was analyzed. In PC12 cultures, single application of KXS2012 showed no effect on the neuronal differentiation, but which showed robust effects in potentiating nerve growth factor (NGF)-induced neurite outgrowth and neurofilament expression. The potentiating effect of KXS2012 was mediated through NGF receptor, tropomyosin receptor kinase (Trk) A: because the receptor expression and activity was markedly up-regulated in the presence of KXS2012, and the potentiating effect was blocked by k252a, an inhibitor of Trk A. Our current results in cell cultures fully support the therapeutic efficacy of KXS2012 against depression