Genipin Reverses HFD-Induced Liver Damage and Inhibits UCP2-Mediated Pyroptosis in Mice

Background/Aims: Liver damage is a typical manifestation of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). It originates from excessive fat accumulation, leading to hepatocyte death, inflammation, and fibrosis. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a type of NAFLD with a prevalence of 49% in morbidly obese patients. Pyroptosis plays an important role in the development of NASH; thus, it is important to elucidate the effect of lipid accumulation on pyroptosis. Genipin (GNP), a natural water-soluble cross-linking agent, has hepatoprotective effects and decreases lipid accumulation in the liver; however, the mechanisms underlying these effects are unknown. Methods: In this study, qPCR and Western blot were used to examine pyroptotic gene expression in high-fat diet (HFD) induced obese mice and free fatty acids (FFAs) treated hepatocytes. At the same time, relative lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release and Hoechst & propidium iodide (PI) staining were done to verify cell death. To explore the molecular mechanism, cell transfection were constructed with siRNA or plasmid to obtain knockdown or overexpression hepatocytes. Results: We found that HFD-fed mice and FFAs-treated hepatocytes had obvious pyroptosis, and addition of GNP reversed liver damage and inhibited pyroptosis both in vitro and in vivo. Besides, UCP2 knockdown cells showed suppressed FFAs-mediated pyroptosis, as determined by decreased pyroptotic gene expression, reduced lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, and reduced cell death. Consistent with this, cells transfected with UCP2 had upregulated pyroptotic gene expression, increased LDH release, and increased cell death. Conclusion: GNP reverses HFD-induced liver damage and inhibits UCP2-mediated pyroptosis. Thus, GNP may serve as a potential therapeutic candidate for NAFLD

Search for light dark matter from atmosphere in PandaX-4T

We report a search for light dark matter produced through the cascading decay of $\eta$ mesons, which are created as a result of inelastic collisions between cosmic rays and Earth's atmosphere. We introduce a new and general framework, publicly accessible, designed to address boosted dark matter specifically, with which a full and dedicated simulation including both elastic and quasi-elastic processes of Earth attenuation effect on the dark matter particles arriving at the detector is performed. In the PandaX-4T commissioning data of 0.63 tonne$\cdot$year exposure, no significant excess over background is observed. The first constraints on the interaction between light dark matter generated in the atmosphere and nucleus through a light scalar mediator are obtained. The lowest excluded cross-section is set at $5.9 \times 10^{-37}{\rm cm^2}$ for dark matter mass of $0.1$ MeV$/c^2$ and mediator mass of 300 MeV$/c^2$. The lowest upper limit of $\eta$ to dark matter decay branching ratio is $1.6 \times 10^{-7}$

A Search for Light Fermionic Dark Matter Absorption on Electrons in PandaX-4T

We report a search on a sub-MeV fermionic dark matter absorbed by electrons with an outgoing active neutrino using the 0.63 tonne-year exposure collected by PandaX-4T liquid xenon experiment. No significant signals are observed over the expected background. The data are interpreted into limits to the effective couplings between such dark matter and electrons. For axial-vector or vector interactions, our sensitivity is competitive in comparison to existing astrophysical bounds on the decay of such dark matter into photon final states. In particular, we present the first direct detection limits for an axial-vector (vector) interaction which are the strongest in the mass range from 25 to 45 (35 to 50) keV/c$^2$

Determinants of Agricultural Infrastructure Construction in China: Based on the “Participation of Beneficiary Groups” Perspective

Agricultural infrastructure is a typical public good, and it plays an important role in rural development. The “participation of beneficiary groups (PBG)” system is encouraged by government to supply village level public goods in China. Based on micro survey data from the village level in Jiangsu Province, this study analyzes the status of agricultural infrastructure construction and the promotion of PBG model and quantitatively analyzes the impact of different factors using an econometric model. The results found that the PBG model of agricultural infrastructure construction only accounted for 22.8% of projects, and the bottleneck was the challenge in raising funds at the village level; the total number of projects and the number of projects in the PBG model significantly increased with collective irrigation, and the farmland lease was found to hinder the promotion of the PBG model. The government should take measures to enhance farmers’ awareness of social trust, continuously improve the governance capacity of the village collectives, improve the role of village self-governance and social forces in agricultural infrastructure construction, and actively guide farmers and private enterprises to participate in agricultural infrastructure construction so that farmers can obtain more practical benefits

A Small RO and MCDI Coupled Seawater Desalination Plant and Its Performance Simulation Analysis and Optimization

To solve the problems of high specific energy consumption and excessive harmful ions in the water production of a small reverse osmosis (RO) plant, a desalination system coupling RO and membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) is proposed in this study. Aiming at producing two cubic meters per day of fresh water with a salt concentration of less than 280 mg L−1, parameter matching optimization was carried out on two desalination system schemes of one-stage two-section RO and one-stage three-section RO coupled with MCDI. The results were compared with the parameter matching optimization results of the one-stage one-section RO and the one-stage two-section pure RO desalination system. The results show that compared with the pure RO desalination mode, the seawater desalination mode coupled with RO and MCDI reduces the specific energy consumption under the same effluent salt concentration. Moreover, it decreases the feed water pressure in front of the RO membrane, which can reduce the standard of high-pressure pump in a small seawater desalination plant. The energy consumption of the one-stage three-section RO and MCDI coupling system is lower than that of the one- stage two-section RO and MCDI coupling system, and the feed water pressure is also lower