Multiple roles of PPAR alpha in brown adipose tissue under constitutive and cold conditions

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPAR alpha) is a member of the nuclear receptor family, regulating fatty acid degradation in many organs. Two-dimensional SDS-PAGE of brown adipose tissue (BAT) from PPAR alpha-null mice produced a higher-density spot. Proteomic analysis indicated that the protein was pyruvate dehydrogenase beta (PDH beta). To observe PDH beta regulation in BAT, the organ was stimulated by long-term cold exposure, and the activities of associated enzymes were investigated. Histological and biochemical analyses of BAT showed a significant decrease in the triglyceride content in wild-type mice and some degree of decrease in PPAR alpha-null mice on cold exposure. Analyses of molecules related to glucose metabolism showed that the expression of PDH beta is under PPAR alpha-specific regulation, and that glucose degradation ability may decrease on cold exposure. In contrast, analyses of molecules related to fatty acid metabolism showed that numerous PPAR alpha/gamma target molecules are induced on cold exposure, and that fatty acid degradation ability in wild-type mice is markedly enhanced and also increases to same degree in PPAR alpha-null mice on cold exposure. Thus, this study proposes novel and multiple roles of PPAR alpha in BAT.ArticleGENES TO CELLS. 15(2):91-100 (2010)journal articl

Morphological and genetical changes of endothelial progenitor cells afterin-vitroconversion into photoreceptors

Background Retinal degeneration is a condition ensued by various ocular disorders such as artery occlusion, diabetic retinopathy, retrolental fibroplasia and retinitis pigmentosa which cause abnormal loss of photoreceptor cells and lead to eventual vision impairment. No efficient treatment has yet been found, however, the use of stem cell therapy such as bone marrow and embryonic stem cells has opened a new treatment modality for retinal degenerative diseases. The major goal of this study is to analyze the potential of endothelial progenitor cells derived from bone marrow to differentiate into retinal neural cells for regenerative medicine purposes. Methods In this study, endothelial progenitor cells were induced in-vitro with photoreceptor growth factor (taurine) for 21 days. Subsequently, the morphology and gene expression of CRX and RHO of the photoreceptors-induced EPCs were examined through immunostaining assay. Findings The results indicated that the induced endothelial progenitor cells demonstrated positive gene expression of CRX and RHO. Our findings suggested that EPC cells may have a high advantage in cell replacement therapy for treating eye disease, in addition to other neural diseases, and may be a suitable cell source in regenerative medicine for eye disorders

Case report: Pathological complete response to perioperative treatment of radiotherapy combined with angiogenesis inhibitor in a patient with pleomorphic liposarcoma

BackgroundLiposarcomas (LPS) are mesenchymal malignancies with four principal subtypes presenting distinct molecular and clinical features. Pleomorphic liposarcoma (PLPS) is one of the rarest and most aggressive subtypes of LPS. Surgical resection is currently a preferred curative approach for localized PLPS. However, the prognosis of unresectable PLPS is extremely poor, and there is no standard treatment.Case presentationA 59-year-old Chinese woman was diagnosed with unresectable PLPS. The case was discussed and managed by specialists from a multidisciplinary team at Fudan Zhongshan Hospital. Preoperative radiotherapy (RT) of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) at 50 Gy/25 Fx concurrently with the angiogenesis inhibitor anlotinib (8 mg, days 1–14, every 3 weeks) was prescribed to the patient. The dosage of anlotinib was increased to 10 mg after RT. After 6 months of treatment, the tumor had significantly shrunk and was successfully resected. Examination of the surgical specimens showed a pathological complete response (pCR). Until the latest follow-up (April 2022), no recurrence was observed, and disease-free survival has exceeded 14 months.ConclusionThis case sheds light on the probability that perioperative RT combined with an angiogenesis inhibitor can be effectively used in PLPS, which is resistant to chemotherapy and usually considered to have a poor prognosis. Further studies with randomized controlled clinical trials will improve our knowledge of this preoperative treatment strategy

Mink is a highly susceptible host species to circulating human and avian influenza viruses

Pandemic influenza, typically caused by reassortment of human and avian influenza viruses, can result in severe or fatal infections in humans. Timely identification of potential pandemic viruses must be a priority in influenza virus surveillance. However, the range of host species responsible for the generation of novel pandemic influenza viruses remain unclear. In this study, we conducted serological surveys for avian and human influenza virus infections in farmed mink and determined the susceptibility of mink to prevailing avian and human virus subtypes. The results showed that farmed mink were commonly infected with human (H3N2 and H1N1/pdm) and avian (H7N9, H5N6, and H9N2) influenza A viruses. Correlational analysis indicated that transmission of human influenza viruses occurred from humans to mink, and that feed source was a probable route of avian influenza virus transmission to farmed mink. Animal experiments showed that mink were susceptible and permissive to circulating avian and human influenza viruses, and that human influenza viruses (H3N2 and H1N1/pdm), but not avian viruses, were capable of aerosol transmission among mink. These results indicate that farmed mink could be highly permissive “mixing vessels” for the reassortment of circulating human and avian influenza viruses. Therefore, to reduce the risk of emergence of novel pandemic viruses, feeding mink with raw poultry by-products should not be permitted, and epidemiological surveillance of influenza viruses in mink farms should be urgently implemented

Genetic and Functional Dissection of HTRA1 and LOC387715 in Age-Related Macular Degeneration

A common haplotype on 10q26 influences the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and encompasses two genes, LOC387715 and HTRA1. Recent data have suggested that loss of LOC387715, mediated by an insertion/deletion (in/del) that destabilizes its message, is causally related with the disorder. Here we show that loss of LOC387715 is insufficient to explain AMD susceptibility, since a nonsense mutation (R38X) in this gene that leads to loss of its message resides in a protective haplotype. At the same time, the common disease haplotype tagged by the in/del and rs11200638 has an effect on the transcriptional upregulation of the adjacent gene, HTRA1. These data implicate increased HTRA1 expression in the pathogenesis of AMD and highlight the importance of exploring multiple functional consequences of alleles in haplotypes that confer susceptibility to complex traits

A New Approach to Fracture Toughness Analysis and its Application to ABS Polymers

A new approach is proposed to analyze the fracture behavior with crack tip plasticity by the use of three independent measurements: E0 is the energy required per unit length of crack front to prepare the crack just before propagation; the Ef-curve is a plot of the energy required to produce a unit area of fractured surface versus the crack length; and the Ka-curve is a plot of the applied stress intensity factor KIapp versus the crack length. For ABS polymers, the prefracture energy E0 is 33 Jm-1; the Ef-curve is a horizontal line of 5.2 × 104 Jm-2; and the Ka curve has three different regions which depend on the development of the plastic zone during fracture

Detection and Classification of Small Traffic Signs Based on Cascade Network

Research on the traffic sign detection is significant for driverless technology, which provides useful navigation information. Existing object detection methods are only applicable to large-size objects or small-scale specific types of traffic signs, and the performance of detecting traffic signs in street views is not adequate. In this regard, we propose a method to detect and classify small traffic signs by constructing a cascaded network. Specifically, the RetinaNet network is adopted firstly to integrate multi-layer information to identify small traffic signs in traffic scene images. The focal loss function is used to balance the biased distribution of traffic sign categories. Then, a two-class network is cascaded after the RetinaNet, which helps identify valid traffic signs from the first-stage prediction results. Experiments show that our cascaded network structure could achieve the balance of different categories of predictions and an improvement in precision and recall