Study of the relationship between AGEs and oxidative stress damage to trophoblast cell mitochondria

Objectives: To study the influence of AGEs on placental trophoblast mitochondria oxidative stress, and to explore the possible pathogenesis which may participate in pre-eclampsia. Material and methods: Human trophoblast cells from early pregnancy were cultured by an enzyme-digestion method. When trophoblast cells reached approximately 70–80% after passages, they were incubated with pre-eclampsia serum for 24 hours. A fluorescent dye assay was applied to measure the mitochondrial membrane potential; ELISA was used to measure the activity of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore. mtDNA was detected by Real-time fluorescence quantitative Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). We continued to culture one group of cells with pre-eclampsia maternal serum, and other cells were pulsed with 600 mg/L AGEs. Cells were incubated for 16 hours before assaying the levels of mitochondrial oxidative stress damage. Results: The levels of mitochondria oxidative stress damage in the AGEs group were higher than in the pre-eclampsia group 1 and pre-eclampsia group 2. There was no statistically significant difference in mitochondrial oxidative stress damage between the pre-eclampsia group 1 and group 2. Conclusions: The AGEs are involved in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia, possibly through the enhancement of mito­chondrial oxidative stress damage

Bis(μ-N,N′,N′′-tri-3-pyridylpyridine-1,3,5-tricarboxamide-κ2 N:N′)bis­[di­chloridomercury(II)] methanol disolvate

The title dinuclear centrosymmetric complex, [Hg2Cl4(C24H18N6O3)2]·2CH3OH, comprises HgII atoms coordinated by two Cl atoms and two N atoms from ligands in a distorted tetra­hedral geometry. The solvent mol­ecules are linked by hydrogen bonds

Power-Law Properties of Human View and Reply Behavior in Online Society

Statistical properties of the human comment behavior are studied using data from “Tianya” and “Tieba” which are very popular online social systems (or forums) in China. We find that both the reply number R and the view number V of a thread in a subforum obey the power-law distributions P(R)=Rα and P(V)∝Vβ, respectively, which indicates that there exists a kind of highly popular topics. These topics should be specially paid much attention, because they play an important role in the public opinion formation and the public opinion control. In addition, the relationship between R and V also obeys the power-law function R∝Vγ. Based on the human comment habit, a model is introduced to explain the human view and reply behaviors in the forum. Numerical simulations of the model fit well with the empirical results. Our findings are helpful for discovering collective patterns of human behaviors and the evolution of public opinions on the virtual society as well as the real one

High-dimensional orbital angular momentum entanglement concentration based on Laguerre-Gaussian mode selection

Twisted photons enable the definition of a Hilbert space beyond two dimensions by orbital angular momentum (OAM) eigenstates. Here we propose a feasible entanglement concentration experiment, to enhance the quality of high-dimensional entanglement shared by twisted photon pairs. Our approach is started from the full characterization of entangled spiral bandwidth, and is then based on the careful selection of the Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) modes with specific radial and azimuthal indices p and `. In particular, we demonstrate the possibility of high-dimensional entanglement concentration residing in the OAM subspace of up to 21 dimensions. By means of LabVIEW simulations with spatial light modulators, we show that the Shannon dimensionality could be employed to quantify the quality of the present concentration. Our scheme holds promise in quantum information applications defined in high-dimensional Hilbert space