Effect of Football Shoe Collar Type on Ankle Biomechanics and Dynamic Stability During Anterior and Lateral Single-Leg Jump Landings

In this study, we investigated the effects of football shoes with different collar heights on ankle biomechanics and dynamic postural stability. Fifteen healthy college football players performed anterior and lateral single-leg jump landings when wearing high collar, elastic collar, or low collar football shoes. The kinematics of lower limbs and ground reaction forces were collected by simultaneously using a stereo-photogrammetric system with markers (Vicon) and a force plate (Kistler). During the anterior single-leg jump landing, a high collar shoe resulted in a significantly smaller ankle dorsiflexion range of motion (ROM), compared to both elastic (p = 0.031, dz = 0.511) and low collar (p = 0.043, dz = 0.446) types, while also presenting lower total ankle sagittal ROM, compared to the low collar type (p = 0.023, dz = 0.756). Ankle joint stiffness was significantly greater for the high collar, compared to the elastic collar (p = 0.003, dz = 0.629) and low collar (p = 0.030, dz = 1.040). Medial-lateral stability was significantly improved with the high collar, compared to the low collar (p = 0.001, dz = 1.232). During the lateral single-leg jump landing, ankle inversion ROM (p = 0.028, dz = 0.615) and total ankle frontal ROM (p = 0.019, dz = 0.873) were significantly smaller for the high collar, compared to the elastic collar. The high collar also resulted in a significantly smaller total ankle sagittal ROM, compared to the low collar (p = 0.001, dz = 0.634). Therefore, the high collar shoe should be effective in decreasing the amount of ROM and increasing the dynamic stability, leading to high ankle joint stiffness due to differences in design and material characteristics of the collar types

Cytoprotective Effects of Cell-Permeable Bifunctional Antioxidant Enzyme, GST-TAT-SOD, against Cisplatin-Induced Cell Damage

GST-TAT-SOD, a cell-permeable bifunctional antioxidant enzyme, is a potential selective radioprotector. This study aimed to investigate the cytoprotective activity of GST-TAT-SOD against cisplatin-induced damage. The current study showed that cisplatin induced the formation of reactive oxygen species in normal L-02 cells. GST-TAT-SOD (2000 U/mL) executed its antioxidant role by directly scavenging excess intracellular free radicals and augmenting cellular antioxidant defense such as reducing MDA level, enhancing the SOD activity, GST activity, and T-AOC. Thus, it suppressed the growth inhibition and apoptosis of cisplatin-treated normal cells. Meanwhile, the growth inhibition of tumor cells (SMMC-7721) caused by cisplatin was unaffected by GST-TAT-SOD pretreatment. GST-SOD, as a comparison, seemed to be powerless for related indicators as it could not enter into cells without cell-permeating peptide. These results suggest that GST-TAT-SOD might be a potential cytoprotective agent for cisplatin-induced side effects

In Vivo Radioprotective Activity of Cell-Permeable Bifunctional Antioxidant Enzyme GST-TAT-SOD against Whole-Body Ionizing Irradiation in Mice

GST-TAT-SOD was the fusion of superoxide dismutase (SOD), cell-permeable peptide TAT, and glutathione-S-transferase (GST). It was proved to be a potential selective radioprotector in vitro in our previous work. This study evaluated the in vivo radioprotective activity of GST-TAT-SOD against whole-body irradiation. We demonstrated that intraperitoneal injection of 0.5 ml GST-TAT-SOD (2 kU/ml) 2 h before the 6 Gy whole-body irradiation in mice almost completely prevented the splenic damage. It could significantly enhance the splenic antioxidant activity which kept the number of splenic white pulp and consequently resisted the shrinkage of the spleen. Moreover, the thymus index, hepatic antioxidant activity, and white blood cell (WBC) count of peripheral blood in irradiated mice pretreated with GST-TAT-SOD also remarkably increased. Although the treated and untreated irradiated mice showed no significant difference in the growth rate of animal body weight at 7 days postirradiation, the highest growth rate of body weight was observed in the GST-TAT-SOD-pretreated group. Furthermore, GST-TAT-SOD pretreatment increased resistance against 8 Gy whole-body irradiation and enhanced 30 d survival. The overall effect of GST-TAT-SOD seemed to be a bit more powerful than that of amifostine. In conclusion, GST-TAT-SOD would be a safe and potentially promising radioprotector

An E3 ubiquitin-proteasome gene signature for predicting prognosis in patients with pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is the seventh leading cause of cancer death worldwide, which is demonstrated with remarkable resistance to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The identification of prognosis signature and novel prognostic markers will facilitate patient stratification and an individualized precision therapy strategy. In this study, TCGA-PAAD was used to screen prognostic E3 ubiquitin ligases and establish prognostic signatures, and GEO database was used to verify the accuracy of prognostic signatures. Functional analysis, in vitro experiments and clinical cohort studies were used to analyze the function and prognostic efficacy of the target gene. An E3 ligase-based signature of 9 genes and the nomogram were developed, and the signature was proved to accurately predict the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer. WDR37 might be the most prognostic E3 ubiquitin ligase in pancreatic cancer, and the clinical cohort analyses suggested a tumor‐suppressive role. The results of functional analysis and in vitro experiments indicated that WDR37 may promote the degradation of TCP1 complex to inhibit tumor and improve immune cell infiltration. The E3 ligase-based signature accurately predicted the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer, so it can be used as a decision-making tool to guide the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer. At the same time, WDR37, the main gene in E3PMP signature, can be used as the most prognostic E3 ubiquitin ligase in the treatment of pancreatic cancer

Carbon doping of hexagonal boron nitride porous materials toward CO2 capture

CO2 capture via solid adsorption technology relies on the development of low-cost and high-performance new solid adsorbents. The robust and large-scale produced hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) porous materials are an ideal candidate but present low CO2 adsorption properties. Here, we report that in situ carbon doping of BN materials (BCN) can be facilely controlled by thermal annealing of boric acid and melamine mixtures in various atmospheres. CO2 uptake of the BCN materials is in the range of 3.74-3.91 mmol CO2 g(-1) (165-172 mg CO2 g(-1)) at 298 K and ambient pressure, whereas it is only 1.16-1.66 mmol CO2 g(-1) (53.0-73.1 mg CO2 g(-1)) over the pure BN materials. The separation coefficient between CO2 and N-2 is up to 74 and no decrease in the adsorption performance was observed after nine adsorption/desorption cycles. The BCN material presents the best performance among known BN-based sorbents, which is comparable to many excellent carbon materials. Detailed characterization reveals that the incorporation of carbon into the BN matrix increases the density of ultramicropores (<0.7 nm) and chemical defects, consequently enhancing the CO2 adsorption capacity and the selectivity over N-2 molecules

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of the SOD-TAT fusion protein

Detail of the wall just north of the entry, west elevation; The Experience Music Project (EMP) is a museum of music history founded by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, located on the campus of the Seattle Center. It is sited near the Space Needle and is by one of the two stops on the Seattle Center Monorail, which runs through the building. Much of the building material is exposed in the building's interior. The central "Sky Church" room pays homage to Jimi Hendrix and other rock 'n' roll icons using a 40 foot high, 70 foot wide video screen and an 18-panel montage of images. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 12/30/2007

GST-TAT-SOD: Cell Permeable Bifunctional Antioxidant Enzyme—A Potential Selective Radioprotector

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) fusion of TAT was proved to be radioprotective in our previous work. On that basis, a bifunctional recombinant protein which was the fusion of glutathione S-transferase (GST), SOD, and TAT was constructed and named GST-TAT-SOD. Herein we report the investigation of the cytotoxicity, cell-penetrating activity, and in vitro radioprotective effect of GST-TAT-SOD compared with wild SOD, single-function recombinant protein SOD-TAT, and amifostine. We demonstrated that wild SOD had little radioprotective effect on irradiated L-02 and Hep G2 cells while amifostine was protective to both cell lines. SOD-TAT or GST-TAT-SOD pretreatment 3 h prior to radiation protects irradiated normal liver cells against radiation damage by eliminating intracellular excrescent superoxide, reducing cellular MDA level, enhancing cellular antioxidant ability and colony formation ability, and reducing apoptosis rate. Compared with SOD-TAT, GST-TAT-SOD was proved to have better protective effect on irradiated normal liver cells and minimal effect on irradiated hepatoma cells. Besides, GST-TAT-SOD was safe for normal cells and effectively transduced into different organs in mice, including the brain. The characteristics of this protein suggest that it may be a potential radioprotective agent in cancer therapy better than amifostine. Fusion of two antioxidant enzymes and cell-penetrating peptides is potentially valuable in the development of radioprotective agent