Rotective effect of Fengliao-Changweikang extracts, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine formula,on mucosa in rat with chronic gastritis

Background: Fengliao-Changwei-Kang(FCK), the Chinese patent drug, is a famous traditional Chinese herbal medicine formula. It has a significant effect on the clinic treatment of gastrointestinal diseases  including gastritis, enteritis and diarrhea for many years. However, there is few research on the  protective effects of FCK on the gastric mucosa of chronic gastritis (CG) model rat. Objective: The present study aimed to explore the effects of FCK extract on mucosa in rats with Chronic Gastritis.Materials and Methods: 50 SD mice were randomly divided into 5 groups with 10 in each group（five per sex). The groups are respectively control group, model group, low, middle and high FCK extracts (FCK I, II and III) group. The CG rat model was induced by synthetic methods. FCK I, II and III group were  administrated with FCK extracts at 2.16g• kg, 4.32g• kg, 8.94g• kg once per day for 21 consecutive  days, and the control group and model group were administrated the same volume of distilled water at 10mL/kg once per day. 16 hours after the last administration, the rats were anesthetized and their blood and stomach were drawn from vena cava and abdominal cavity. The serum levels of EGF was measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) method, the expression of growth factor receptor (EGFR) in gastric mucosa was detected by immunohistochemical method, and the mRNA expressions of NF-κB p65 was detected in-situ hybridization.Results: The inflammation grades and the expressions of NF-κB p65 mRNA in gastric mucosa of the model group were markedly higher than those of the control group (P<0.05). The inflammation grades of gastric mucosa and the expressions of NF-κB p65 mRNA in gastric mucosa the FCK extract group are significantly lower than those of the model group, and the FCK extract group at 8.64g/kg could greatly increase the serum levels of EGF and the expressions of EGFR in gastric mucosa. High EGF level was found in FCK extract group at 4.32g/kg, but low in FCK extract groups at 2.16g/kg. There were no marked differences among the rats from control group, model group and FCK extract group on ratio of Ll/L2 (P>0.05).Conclusions: FCK extract could alleviate mucosal inflammation by down regulating the expressions of NF-κB p65 mRNA and promote tissue repair by up regulating EGFR expression in gastric mucosa cell.Keywords: chronic gastritis; fengliao-changwei-kang extract; epidermal growth factor receptor; nuclear factor kappa B

Malignant phyllodes tumors display mesenchymal stem cell features and aldehyde dehydrogenase/disialoganglioside identify their tumor stem cells.

IntroductionAlthough breast phyllodes tumors are rare, there is no effective therapy other than surgery. Little is known about their tumor biology. A malignant phyllodes tumor contains heterologous stromal elements, and can transform into rhabdomyosarcoma, liposarcoma and osteosarcoma. These versatile properties prompted us to explore their possible relationship to mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and to search for the presence of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in phyllodes tumors.MethodsParaffin sections of malignant phyllodes tumors were examined for various markers by immunohistochemical staining. Xenografts of human primary phyllodes tumors were established by injecting freshly isolated tumor cells into the mammary fat pad of non-obese diabetic-severe combined immunodeficient (NOD-SCID) mice. To search for CSCs, xenografted tumor cells were sorted into various subpopulations by flow cytometry and examined for their in vitro mammosphere forming capacity, in vivo tumorigenicity in NOD-SCID mice and their ability to undergo differentiation.ResultsImmunohistochemical analysis revealed the expression of the following 10 markers: CD44, CD29, CD106, CD166, CD105, CD90, disialoganglioside (GD2), CD117, Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH), and Oct-4, and 7 clinically relevant markers (CD10, CD34, p53, p63, Ki-67, Bcl-2, vimentin, and Globo H) in all 51 malignant phyllodes tumors examined, albeit to different extents. Four xenografts were successfully established from human primary phyllodes tumors. In vitro, ALDH+ cells sorted from xenografts displayed approximately 10-fold greater mammosphere-forming capacity than ALDH- cells. GD2+ cells showed a 3.9-fold greater capacity than GD2- cells. ALDH+/GD2+cells displayed 12.8-fold greater mammosphere forming ability than ALDH-/GD2- cells. In vivo, the tumor-initiating frequency of ALDH+/GD2+ cells were up to 33-fold higher than that of ALDH+ cells, with as few as 50 ALDH+/GD2+ cells being sufficient for engraftment. Moreover, we provided the first evidence for the induction of ALDH+/GD2+ cells to differentiate into neural cells of various lineages, along with the observation of neural differentiation in clinical specimens and xenografts of malignant phyllodes tumors. ALDH+ or ALDH+/GD2+ cells could also be induced to differentiate into adipocytes, osteocytes or chondrocytes.ConclusionsOur findings revealed that malignant phyllodes tumors possessed many characteristics of MSC, and their CSCs were enriched in ALDH+ and ALDH+/GD2+ subpopulations

Influence of a repump laser on a nearly degenerate four-wave-mixing spectrum in atomic vapors

The influence of a repump laser on a nearly degenerate four-wave-mixing (NDFWM) spectrum was investigated. We found the amplitude and line shape of the NDFWM depended strongly on the detuning of the repump field. A five-peak structure was observed. And at some certain repump detuning a dip appeared at the central peak. A rough analysis was proposed to explain this effect

Probing the R-parity violating supersymmetric effects in the exclusive c→d/sℓνℓc\to d/s\ell\nu_\ell decays

A lot of branching ratios of the exclusive $c \to d/s\ell\nu_\ell$ ($\ell=e,\mu$) decays have been quite accurately measured by CLEO-c, BELLE, BABAR, BES(I,II,III), ALEPH and MARKIII collaborations. We probe the R-parity violating supersymmetric effects in the exclusive $c \to d/s\ell\nu_\ell$ decays. From the latest experimental measurements, we obtain new upper limits on the relevant R-parity violating coupling parameters within the decays, and many upper limits are obtained for the first time. Using the constrained new parameter spaces, we predict the R-parity violating effects on the observables, which have not been measured or have not been well measured yet. We find that the R-parity violating effects due to slepton exchange could be large on the branching ratios of $D_{d/s}\to e\nu_e$ decays and the normalized forward-backward asymmetries of $D_{u/d}\to \pi/K \ell\nu_\ell$ as well as $D_s\to K \ell\nu_\ell$ decays, and all branching ratios of the relevant semileptonic $D$ decays are sensitive to squark exchange couplings. Our results in this work could be used to probe new physics effects in the leptonic decays as well as the semileptonic decays, and will correlate with searches for direct supersymmetric signals at LHC and BESIII.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figure

Analysis of genetic diversity and construction of core collection of local mulberry varieties from Shanxi Province based on ISSR marker

Genetic diversity of 73 local mulberry varieties from Shanxi Province were screened using ISSR markers, with l5 primers combinations selected for their reproducibility and polymorphism. 129 bands were amplified, of which 115 bands showed polymorphism and the ratio of polymorphism bands was 89.15%. Nei’s genetic similarity coefficients ranged from 0.5891 to 0.9457 with an average of 0.7674. The observed number of alleles of each loci, effective number of alleles of each loci, Nei’s gene diversity, Shannon’s information index were 1.8915, 1.4771, 0.2780 and 0.4197, respectively. Clustering results showed that the 73 varieties could be divided into three different groups and nine subgroups. By using stepwise clustering and random methods and the modified heuristic algorithm, 21 core collections were constructed and the ratio of core collection was 28.77%. The result of t-test to the parameters (the number effective of alleles, Nei's genetic diversity index and Shannon's information index) showed that there was not significant difference between the core collection and initial sample with the exception of the number of observed alleles, that is, the core collection could well represent the initial sample.Key words: Mulberry, germplasm resource, genetic diversity, ISSR, cluster analysis, core collection