Regulation of Osteoclastogenesis and Bone Resorption by miRNAs

Osteoclasts are specialized bone-resorbing cells that contribute to physiological bone development and remodeling in bone metabolism throughout life. Abnormal production and activation of osteoclasts lead to excessive bone resorption in pathological conditions, such as in osteoporosis and in arthritic diseases with bone destruction. Recent epigenetic studies have shed novel insight into the dogma of the regulation of gene expression. microRNAs belong to a category of epigenetic regulators, which post-transcriptionally regulate and silence target gene expression, and thereby control a variety of biological events. In this review, we discuss miRNA biogenesis, the mechanisms utilized by miRNAs, several miRNAs that play important roles in osteoclast differentiation, function, survival and osteoblast-to-osteoclast communication, and their translational potential and challenges in bone biology and skeletal diseases

Experimental Study on Layered Ice Bonded Abrasive Polishing of Glass-ceramics

Layered ice bonded abrasive tools (LIBAT) is a new kind of one which not only has the ability of lapping and polishing but also has the effect of self-dressing. In this paper, two kinds of layered ice bonded abrasive tools were designed and manufactured. Experimental studies on layered ice bonded abrasive (LIBA) polishing of glass-ceramics were conducted. The results show that the surface topography of glass-ceramics polished by micro α-Al2O3-nano α-Al2O3 LIBAT is better than that of polished by micro α-Al2O3-nano SiO2 LIBAT. The surface roughness Sa of glass-ceramics polished by the two kinds of LIBAT is at the nanometer scale. The reasons of this phenomenon were analyzed. The experimental results illustrate that the LIBAT shows good effect and can be used in production practice. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.20.4.6149</p

OsTIR1 and OsAFB2 Downregulation via OsmiR393 Overexpression Leads to More Tillers, Early Flowering and Less Tolerance to Salt and Drought in Rice

The microRNA miR393 has been shown to play a role in plant development and in the stress response by targeting mRNAs that code for the auxin receptors in Arabidopsis. In this study, we verified that two rice auxin receptor gene homologs (OsTIR1 and OsAFB2) could be targeted by OsmiR393 (Os for Oryza sativa). Two new phenotypes (increased tillers and early flowering) and two previously observed phenotypes (reduced tolerance to salt and drought and hyposensitivity to auxin) were observed in the OsmiR393-overexpressing rice plants. The OsmiR393-overexpressing rice demonstrated hyposensitivity to synthetic auxin-analog treatments. These data indicated that the phenotypes of OsmiR393-overexpressing rice may be caused through hyposensitivity to the auxin signal by reduced expression of two auxin receptor genes (OsTIR1 and OsAFB2). The expression of an auxin transporter (OsAUX1) and a tillering inhibitor (OsTB1) were downregulated by overexpression of OsmiR393, which suggested that a gene chain from OsmiR393 to rice tillering may be from OsTIR1 and OsAFB2 to OsAUX1, which affected the transportation of auxin, then to OsTB1, which finally controlled tillering. The positive phenotypes (increased tillers and early flowering) and negative phenotypes (reduced tolerance to salt and hyposensitivity to auxin) of OsmiR393-overexpressing rice present a dilemma for molecular breeding

A Combined Approach of High-Throughput Sequencing and Degradome Analysis Reveals Tissue Specific Expression of MicroRNAs and Their Targets in Cucumber

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small RNAs playing an important regulatory function in plant development and stress responses. Among them, some are evolutionally conserved in plant and others are only expressed in certain species, tissue or developmental stages. Cucumber is among the most important greenhouse species in the world, but only a limited number of miRNAs from cucumber have been identified and the experimental validation of the related miRNA targets is still lacking. In this study, two independent small RNA libraries from cucumber leaves and roots were constructed, respectively, and sequenced with the high-throughput Illumina Solexa system. Based on sequence similarity and hairpin structure prediction, a total of 29 known miRNA families and 2 novel miRNA families containing a total of 64 miRNA were identified. QRT-PCR analysis revealed that some of the cucumber miRNAs were preferentially expressed in certain tissues. With the recently developed ‘high throughput degradome sequencing’ approach, 21 target mRNAs of known miRNAs were identified for the first time in cucumber. These targets were associated with development, reactive oxygen species scavenging, signaling transduction and transcriptional regulation. Our study provides an overview of miRNA expression profile and interaction between miRNA and target, which will help further understanding of the important roles of miRNAs in cucumber plants

Formation and Transformation Behavior of Sodium Dehydroacetate Hydrates

The effect of various controlling factors on the polymorphic outcome of sodium dehydroacetate crystallization was investigated in this study. Cooling crystallization experiments of sodium dehydroacetate in water were conducted at different concentrations. The results revealed that the rate of supersaturation generation played a key role in the formation of the hydrates. At a high supersaturation generation rate, a new sodium dehydroacetate dihydrate needle form was obtained; on the contrary, a sodium dehydroacetate plate monohydrate was formed at a low supersaturation generation rate. Furthermore, the characterization and transformation behavior of these two hydrated forms were investigated with the combined use of microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and dynamic vapor sorption (DVS). It was found that the new needle crystals were dihydrated and hollow, and they eventually transformed into sodium dehydroacetate monohydrate. In addition, the mechanism of formation of sodium dehydroacetate hydrates was discussed, and a process growth model of hollow crystals in cooling crystallization was proposed

Phase Transformation between Anhydrate and Monohydrate of Sodium Dehydroacetate

The crystal structures of monohydrate and anhydrous substance were determined from the single crystals for the first time. The phase transformation between anhydrate and monohydrate of sodium dehydroacetate was in situ investigated by using Raman spectroscopy. The mechanism of the phase transformation was proposed. The results showed that the monohydrate crystalline phase of sodium dehydroacetate can transform to anhydrous phase through solid–solid transformation upon heating or solution-mediated phase transformation. From powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) patterns and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) data, it was found that the anhydrous crystals obtained by these two methods are the same in structure. However, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results revealed that the surface of the anhydrous sodium dehydroacetate crystals obtained by high-temperature dehydration was much rougher than that obtained by solution-mediated phase transformation. Furthermore, the dynamic vapor sorption (DVS) results showed that the anhydrous crystals with rough surface had faster hydration rate than the anhydrous crystals with smooth surface when increasing humidity. The reasons behind these phenomena were discussed

Phase Transformation between Anhydrate and Monohydrate of Sodium Dehydroacetate

The crystal structures of monohydrate and anhydrous substance were determined from the single crystals for the first time. The phase transformation between anhydrate and monohydrate of sodium dehydroacetate was in situ investigated by using Raman spectroscopy. The mechanism of the phase transformation was proposed. The results showed that the monohydrate crystalline phase of sodium dehydroacetate can transform to anhydrous phase through solid–solid transformation upon heating or solution-mediated phase transformation. From powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) patterns and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) data, it was found that the anhydrous crystals obtained by these two methods are the same in structure. However, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results revealed that the surface of the anhydrous sodium dehydroacetate crystals obtained by high-temperature dehydration was much rougher than that obtained by solution-mediated phase transformation. Furthermore, the dynamic vapor sorption (DVS) results showed that the anhydrous crystals with rough surface had faster hydration rate than the anhydrous crystals with smooth surface when increasing humidity. The reasons behind these phenomena were discussed