Protective Effects of Lycium barbarum

To observe the effects of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP) on testis spermatogenic injuries induced by Bisphenol A (BPA) in mice. BPA was subcutaneously injected into mice at a dose of 20 mg/kg body weight (BW) for 7 consecutive days. LBP was administered simultaneously with BPA by gavage daily at the dose of 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg BW for 7 days. After treatment, the weight and the histopathology changes of testis and epididymis were examined; the contents of T, LH, GnRH, antioxidant enzyme, and malondialdehyde (MDA) in serum were detected; proapoptotic protein Bax and antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2 were also detected by immunohistochemical method. Results showed that the weights of testis and epididymis were all increased after supplement with different dosages of LBP compared with BPA group, and the activities of SOD and GSH-Px were significantly increased in LBP groups, while MDA contents were gradually decreased. Moreover, the levels of T, LH, and GnRH were significantly elevated in serum treated with 100 mg/kg LBP. LBP also shows significant positive effects on the expression of Bcl-2/Bax in BPA treated mice. It is concluded that LBP may be one of the potential ingredients protecting the adult male animals from BPA induced reproductive damage

Mutational Profile and Potential Molecular Therapeutic Targets of Pheochromocytoma

PurposePheochromocytoma/paraganglioma (PCC/PGL; collectively known as PPGL) can be driven by germline and somatic mutations in susceptibility genes. We aimed to investigate the mutation profile and clinical features of pathogenic genes in highly genetically heterogeneous PPGL and to preliminary explore molecular therapeutic targets in PPGL.MethodsWe established a panel of 260 genes, including susceptibility genes of PPGL and other important tumorigenic genes to sequence 107 PPGL tissues.ResultsOverall, 608 genomic mutations were identified in 107 PPGL tissues. Almost 57% of PPGL tissue samples exhibited pathogenic mutations, and the most frequently mutated gene was SDHB (15/107, 14%). SDHB and HRAS were the most commonly mutated genes in germline-mutated PPGL (25/107, 23%) and nongermline-mutated PPGL (36/107, 34%), respectively. In addition, novel pathogenic mutations were detected in sporadic PPGL. PPGL with mutations in the hypoxia pathway had an earlier onset and higher norepinephrine level than those in the kinase pathway. Receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK; 22%, 24/107), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK; 14%, 15/107), and tyrosine kinase (TK; 2%, 2/107) pathways were the most frequently mutated pathways in PPGL.ConclusionOur results provided the genetic mutation profile in PPGL tissues. Genetic mutations in PPGL were mainly concentrated in the RTK, TK, and MAPK pathways, suggesting potential molecular therapeutic targets for PPGL

Two new eigenvalue localization sets for tensors and theirs applications

A new eigenvalue localization set for tensors is given and proved to be tighter than those presented by Qi (J. Symbolic Comput., 2005, 40, 1302-1324) and Li et al. (Numer. Linear Algebra Appl., 2014, 21, 39-50). As an application, a weaker checkable sufficient condition for the positive (semi-)definiteness of an even-order real symmetric tensor is obtained. Meanwhile, an S-type E-eigenvalue localization set for tensors is given and proved to be tighter than that presented by Wang et al. (Discrete Cont. Dyn.-B, 2017, 22(1), 187-198). As an application, an S-type upper bound for the Z-spectral radius of weakly symmetric nonnegative tensors is obtained. Finally, numerical examples are given to verify the theoretical results

New bounds for the minimum eigenvalue of -tensors

A new lower bound and a new upper bound for the minimum eigenvalue of an -tensor are obtained. It is proved that the new lower and upper bounds improve the corresponding bounds provided by He and Huang (J. Inequal. Appl., 2014, 2014, 114) and Zhao and Sang (J. Inequal. Appl., 2016, 2016, 268). Finally, two numerical examples are given to verify the theoretical results

Eventually DSDD Matrices and Eigenvalue Localization

Firstly, the relationships among strictly diagonally dominant ( S D D ) matrices, doubly strictly diagonally dominant ( D S D D ) matrices, eventually S D D matrices and eventually D S D D matrices are considered. Secondly, by excluding some proper subsets of an existing eigenvalue inclusion set for matrices, which do not contain any eigenvalues of matrices, a tighter eigenvalue inclusion set of matrices is derived. As its application, a sufficient condition of determining non-singularity of matrices is obtained. Finally, the infinity norm estimation of the inverse of eventually D S D D matrices is derived