Regulation of Key Immune-Related Genes in the Heart Following Burn Injury

Immune cascade is one of major factors leading to cardiac dysfunction after burn injury. TLRs are a class of pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) that initiate the innate immune response by sensing conserved molecular patterns for early immune recognition of a pathogen. The Rat Toll-Like Receptor (TLR) Signaling Pathway RT² Profiler PCR Array profiles the expression of 84 genes central to TLR-mediated signal transduction and innate immunity, and is a validated tool for identifying differentially expressed genes (DEGs). We employed the PCR array to identify burn-induced cardiac TLR-signaling-related DEGs. A total of 38 up-regulated DEGs and 19 down-regulated DEGs were identified. Network analysis determined that all DEGS had 10 clusters, while up-regulated DEGs had 6 clusters and down-regulated DEGs had 5 clusters. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis showed that DEGs were involved in TLR signaling, the RIG-I-Like receptor signaling pathway, the IL-17 signaling pathway, and the NFkB signaling pathway. Function analysis indicated that DEGs were associated with Toll-like receptor 2 binding, Lipopeptide binding, Toll-like receptor binding, and NAD(P)+ nucleosidase activity. The validation of 18 up-regulated DEGs (≥10-fold change) and 6 down-regulated DEGs (≤5-fold change) demonstrated that the PCR array is a trusted method for identifying DEGs. The analysis of validated DEG-derived protein–protein interaction networks will guide our future investigations. In summary, this study not only identified the TLR-signaling-pathway-related DEGs after burn injury, but also confirmed that the burn-induced cardiac cytokine cascade plays an important role in burn-induced heart dysfunction. The results will provide the novel therapeutic targets to protect the heart after burn injury

Upper critical field in borocarbides

Resistive measurement of superconducting transitions under externally applied magnetic fields in polycrystalline samples of YPd<SUB>5</SUB>B<SUB>3</SUB>C<SUB>0.3</SUB> and YNi<SUB>2</SUB>B<SUB>2</SUB>C has revealed a marked positive curvature in the temperature dependence of H<SUB>c2</SUB>, with the slope - dH<SUB>c2</SUB>/dT increasing monotonically from T<SUB>c</SUB> to 4.2 K. This observed positive curvature is in marked contrast with the predictions of the conventional theories of upper critical field. It is possible that a compensation mechanism may have to be invoked to account for the observed results