Periostin Is a Novel Factor in Cardiac Remodeling After Experimental and Clinical Unloading of the Failing Heart

Maladaptive left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) remains a prevalent and highly morbid condition associated with end-stage heart disease. Originally evaluated in the context of bone development, periostin is important in endocardial cushion formation and has recently been implicated in heart failure. Because of its potential role in cardiovascular development, we sought to establish the role of periostin after relief of pressure overload in animal and human models

Effect of O 2

Cathodic vacuum arc deposition (CVAD) can obtain a good quality thin film with a low growth temperature and a high deposition rate, thus matching the requirement of film deposition on flexible electronics. This paper reported the room-temperature deposition of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films deposited by CVAD on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. Microstructure, optical, and electrical measurements of the deposited ZnO thin films were investigated with various O2/Ar gas flow ratios from 6 : 1 to 10 : 1. The films showed hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure. With increasing the O2/Ar gas flow ratios, the c-axis (002) oriented intensity decreased. The crystal sizes were around 16.03 nm to 23.42 nm. The average transmittance values in the visible range of all deposited ZnO films were higher than 83% and the calculated band gaps from the absorption data were found to be around 3.1 to 3.2 eV. The resistivity had a minimum value in the 3.65 × 10−3 Ω·cm under the O2/Ar gas flow ratio of 8 : 1. The luminescence mechanisms of the deposited film were also investigated to understand the defect types of room-temperature grown ZnO films

Recovery from decompensated heart failure is associated with a distinct, phase-dependent gene expression profile

Clinical and experimental studies have traditionally focused on understanding the mechanisms for why a heart fails. We hypothesize that the pathways involved with myocardial recovery are not simply the reverse of those that cause heart failure. However, determining when and how a decompensated heart can recover remains unknown

Inhibitory kappa B kinase-β is a target for specific nuclear factor kappa B-mediated delayed cardioprotection

Myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury remains a vexing problem. Translating experimental strategies that deliver protective agents before the ischemic insult limits clinical applicability. We targeted 2 proteins in the nuclear factor-κB pathway, inhibitory kappa B kinase-β, and 26S cardiac proteasome to determine their cardioprotective effects when delivered during reperfusion.C57BL/6 mice underwent left anterior descending artery occlusion for 30 minutes. An inhibitory kappa B kinase-β inhibitor (Compound A), a proteasome inhibitor (PS-519), or vehicle was administered at left anterior descending artery release or 2 hours afterward. Infarct size was analyzed 24 hours later. Pressure-volume loops were performed at 72 hours. Serum and left ventricular tissue were collected 1 hour after injury to examine protein expression by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blot.Inhibitory kappa B kinase-β and proteasome inhibition significantly attenuated infarct size and preserved ejection fraction compared with the vehicle groups. When delivered even 2 hours after reperfusion, Compound A, but not PS-519, still decreased infarct size in mice. Finally, when delivered at reperfusion, successful inhibition of phosphorylated-p65 and decreased interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α levels occurred in mice given the inhibitory kappa B kinase-β inhibitor, but not in mice with proteasome inhibition.Although inhibitory kappa B kinase-β and proteasome inhibition at reperfusion attenuated infarct size after acute ischemia/reperfusion, only inhibitory kappa B kinase-β inhibition provided cardioprotection through specific suppression of nuclear factor-κB signaling. This feature of highly targeted nuclear factor-κB inhibition might account for its delayed protective effects, providing a clinically relevant option for treating myocardial ischemia/reperfusion associated with unknown periods of ischemia and reperfusion as seen in cardiac surgery and acute coronary syndromes

Inhibitory kappa B kinase-β is a target for specific nuclear factor kappa B-mediated delayed cardioprotection

Myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury remains a vexing problem. Translating experimental strategies that deliver protective agents before the ischemic insult limits clinical applicability. We targeted 2 proteins in the nuclear factor-κB pathway, inhibitory kappa B kinase-β, and 26S cardiac proteasome to determine their cardioprotective effects when delivered during reperfusion.C57BL/6 mice underwent left anterior descending artery occlusion for 30 minutes. An inhibitory kappa B kinase-β inhibitor (Compound A), a proteasome inhibitor (PS-519), or vehicle was administered at left anterior descending artery release or 2 hours afterward. Infarct size was analyzed 24 hours later. Pressure-volume loops were performed at 72 hours. Serum and left ventricular tissue were collected 1 hour after injury to examine protein expression by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blot.Inhibitory kappa B kinase-β and proteasome inhibition significantly attenuated infarct size and preserved ejection fraction compared with the vehicle groups. When delivered even 2 hours after reperfusion, Compound A, but not PS-519, still decreased infarct size in mice. Finally, when delivered at reperfusion, successful inhibition of phosphorylated-p65 and decreased interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α levels occurred in mice given the inhibitory kappa B kinase-β inhibitor, but not in mice with proteasome inhibition.Although inhibitory kappa B kinase-β and proteasome inhibition at reperfusion attenuated infarct size after acute ischemia/reperfusion, only inhibitory kappa B kinase-β inhibition provided cardioprotection through specific suppression of nuclear factor-κB signaling. This feature of highly targeted nuclear factor-κB inhibition might account for its delayed protective effects, providing a clinically relevant option for treating myocardial ischemia/reperfusion associated with unknown periods of ischemia and reperfusion as seen in cardiac surgery and acute coronary syndromes

Regression of pressure-induced left ventricular hypertrophy is characterized by a distinct gene expression profile

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a highly prevalent and robust predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Existing studies have finely detailed mechanisms involved with its development, yet clinical translation of these findings remains unsatisfactory. We propose an alternative strategy focusing on mechanisms of LVH regression rather than its progression and hypothesize that LVH regression is associated with a distinct genomic profil

Overcoming Insulin Insufficiency by Forced Follistatin Expression in β -cells of db/db Mice

Diabetes poses a substantial burden to society as it can lead to serious complications and premature death. The number of cases continues to increase worldwide. Two major causes of diabetes are insulin resistance and insulin insufficiency. Currently, there are few antidiabetic drugs available that can preserve or protect β-cell function to overcome insulin insufficiency in diabetes. We describe a therapeutic strategy to preserve β-cell function by overexpression of follistatin (FST) using an AAV vector (AAV8-Ins-FST) in diabetic mouse model. Overexpression of FST in the pancreas of db/db mouse increased β-cell islet mass, decreased fasting glucose level, alleviated diabetic symptoms, and essentially doubled lifespan of the treated mice. The observed islet enlargement was attributed to β-cell proliferation as a result of bioneutralization of myostatin and activin by FST. Overall, our study indicates overexpression of FST in the diabetic pancreas preserves β-cell function by promoting β-cell proliferation, opening up a new therapeutic avenue for the treatment of diabetes

Enhancing Muscle Membrane Repair by Gene Delivery of MG53 Ameliorates Muscular Dystrophy and Heart Failure in δ-Sarcoglycan-deficient Hamsters

Muscular dystrophies (MDs) are caused by genetic mutations in over 30 different genes, many of which encode for proteins essential for the integrity of muscle cell structure and membrane. Their deficiencies cause the muscle vulnerable to mechanical and biochemical damages, leading to membrane leakage, dystrophic pathology, and eventual loss of muscle cells. Recent studies report that MG53, a muscle-specific TRIM-family protein, plays an essential role in sarcolemmal membrane repair. Here, we show that systemic delivery and muscle-specific overexpression of human MG53 gene by recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors enhanced membrane repair, ameliorated pathology, and improved muscle and heart functions in δ-sarcoglycan (δ-SG)-deficient TO-2 hamsters, an animal model of MD and congestive heart failure. In addition, MG53 overexpression increased dysferlin level and facilitated its trafficking to muscle membrane through participation of caveolin-3. MG53 also protected muscle cells by activating cell survival kinases, such as Akt, extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK1/2), and glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) and inhibiting proapoptotic protein Bax. Our results suggest that enhancing the muscle membrane repair machinery could be a novel therapeutic approach for MD and cardiomyopathy, as demonstrated here in the limb girdle MD (LGMD) 2F model

The histone methyltransferase Set7/9 promotes myoblast differentiation and myofibril assembly

Set7 associates with the MyoD transcription factor to enhance expression of genes required for muscle differentiation

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve