Hibiscus syriacus extract from an established cell culture stimulates skin wound healing

Higher plants are the source of a wide array of bioactive compounds that support skin integrity and health. Hibiscus syriacus, family Malvaceae, is a plant of Chinese origin known for its antipyretic, anthelmintic, and antifungal properties. The aim of the present study was to assess the healing and hydration properties of an H. syriacus ethanolic extract (HSEE). We established a cell suspension culture from Hibiscus syriacus leaves and obtained an ethanol soluble extract from the cultured cells. The properties of the extract were tested by gene expression and functional analyses on human keratinocytes, dermal fibroblasts and human skin explants. HSEE treatment increased the healing potential of fibroblasts and keratinocytes. Specifically, HSEE stimulated the synthesis of fibronectin and collagen in fibroblasts and enhanced their contractility. The obtained results were confirmed on skin explants, where HSEE accelerated the wound healing activity in terms of epithelium formation and fibronectin production. Moreover, HSEE increased the expression of aquaporin 3 and filaggrin genes, both involved in skin hydration and homeostasis. Our data show that HSEE contains compounds capable of stimulating expression of biomarkers which are relevant for skin regeneration and hydration thereby counteracting molecular pathways leading to skin damage and aging

De novo assembly and sex-specific transcriptome profiling in the sand fly Phlebotomus perniciosus (Diptera, Phlebotominae), a major Old World vector of Leishmania infantum

BACKGROUND: The phlebotomine sand fly Phlebotomus perniciosus (Diptera: Psychodidae, Phlebotominae) is a major Old World vector of the protozoan Leishmania infantum, the etiological agent of visceral and cutaneous leishmaniases in humans and dogs, a worldwide re-emerging diseases of great public health concern, affecting 101 countries. Despite the growing interest in the study of this sand fly species in the last years, the development of genomic resources has been limited so far. To increase the available sequence data for P. perniciosus and to start studying the molecular basis of the sexual differentiation in sand flies, we performed whole transcriptome Illumina RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of adult males and females and de novo transcriptome assembly. RESULTS: We assembled 55,393 high quality transcripts, of which 29,292 were unique, starting from adult whole body male and female pools. 11,736 transcripts had at least one functional annotation, including full-length low abundance salivary transcripts, 981 transcripts were classified as putative long non-coding RNAs and 244 transcripts encoded for putative novel proteins specific of the Phlebotominae sub-family. Differential expression analysis identified 8590 transcripts significantly biased between sexes. Among them, some show relaxation of selective constraints when compared to their orthologs of the New World sand fly species Lutzomyia longipalpis. CONCLUSIONS: In this paper, we present a comprehensive transcriptome resource for the sand fly species P. perniciosus built from short-read RNA-seq and we provide insights into sex-specific gene expression at adult stage. Our analysis represents a first step towards the identification of sex-specific genes and pathways and a foundation for forthcoming investigations into this important vector species, including the study of the evolution of sex-biased genes and of the sexual differentiation in phlebotomine sand flies

Additional file 18: Methods S1. of De novo assembly and sex-specific transcriptome profiling in the sand fly Phlebotomus perniciosus (Diptera, Phlebotominae), a major Old World vector of Leishmania infantum

List of primers utilized in the present paper. (PDF 120 kb

Additional file 16: Figure S5. of De novo assembly and sex-specific transcriptome profiling in the sand fly Phlebotomus perniciosus (Diptera, Phlebotominae), a major Old World vector of Leishmania infantum

Sex-specific alternative splicing isoforms of the validated sex-biased transcripts. Clustal-W alignments of the sex-specific isoforms of the validated transcripts are reported. The 5’ and 3’ sequenced consensus sequences are represented in underlined case. Nucleotides matching with the sequenced consensus sequences are in bold case. (PDF 90 kb