Effects of cholesterol concentration on matrix calcification and osteoblastic differentiation.

<p>Matrix calcium (A), ALP activity (B) and intracellular cholesterol (C) increased in a dose-dependent manner in HUVSMCs treated with CM with the addition of cell-permeable cholesterol for 72 h. *<i>P</i> < 0.05, ^#<i>P</i> < 0.01, compared with cholesterol 0 μmol/L.</p

Decreased expression of UBIAD1 increased matrix calcification, osteoblastic differentiation, and intracellular cholesterol levels and reduced MK-4 level.

<p>(A) Endogenous levels of UBIAD1 and β-actin after transfection with siControl or siUBIAD1. (B–E) Differences in matrix calcium (B), ALP activity (C), intracellular cholesterol (D) and MK-4 levels (E) after transfection with siControl or siUBIAD1 in HUVSMCs treated with CM for 72 h. *<i>P</i> < 0.05, ^#<i>P</i> < 0.01.</p

UBIAD1 localizes to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the Golgi in HUVSMCs.

<p>(A) UBIAD1 expressed in the cytoplasm of HUVSMCs: (a–b) HUVSMCs transfected with UBIAD1-EGFP plasmid; (c–d) HUVSMCs transfected with EGFP plasmid as control; (e–f) HUVSMCs stained with UBIAD1 antibody and the FITC-conjugated secondary antibody; and (g–h) HUVSMCs stained with the absent UBIAD1 antibody as the negative control. (B) UBIAD1 localized to the ER in HUVSMCs: (a) UBIAD1-EGFP expressed in HUVSMCs; (b and f) the ER marker, ER-tracker red; (c) merged image of a and b; (d) image c with nuclear DAPI staining; (e) HUVSMCs stained with UBIAD1 antibody and the FITC-conjugated secondary antibody; (g) merged image of e and f; (h) image g with nuclear DAPI staining. (C) UBIAD1 localized to the Golgi in HUVSMCs: (a) UBIAD1-EGFP expressed in HUVSMCs; (b and f) the Golgi marker, BODIPY-TR ceramide; (c) merged image of a and b; (d) image c with nuclear DAPI staining; (e) HUVSMCs stained with UBIAD1 antibody and the FITC-conjugated secondary antibody; (g) merged image of e and f; (h) image g with nuclear DAPI staining.</p

Exogenous MK-4 reduced intracellular cholesterol levels, matrix calcification and osteoblastic differentiation.

<p>Differences in matrix calcium (A), ALP activity (B), intracellular cholesterol (C) and MK-4 level (D) after addition of blank control or exogenous MK-4 (15 μmol /L) in HUVSMCs treated with CM for 72 h. *<i>P</i> < 0.05, ^#<i>P</i> < 0.01.</p

Effects of CM on matrix calcification, osteoblastic differentiation, intracellular cholesterol, UBIAD1 expression and MK-4 level.

<p>Increased matrix calcium (A), ALP activity (B), and intracellular cholesterol (C) levels, and reduced UBIAD1 expression (D), and MK-4 level (E) in HUVSMCs treated with CM for 3 d and 7 d, compared with levels in cells treated with GM.*<i>P</i> < 0.05, ^#<i>P</i> < 0.01.</p

Elevated expression of UBIAD1 reduced matrix calcification, ALP activity and intracellular cholesterol levels, and increased MK-4 level.

<p>(A) Endogenous levels of UBIAD1 and β-actin after transfection with pControl or pUBIAD1. (B–E) Differences in matrix calcium (B), ALP activity (C), intracellular cholesterol (D) and MK-4 level (E) after transfection with pControl or pUBIAD1 in HUVSMCs treated with CM for 72 h. *<i>P</i> < 0.05, ^#<i>P</i> < 0.01.</p

Effects of pUBIAD1 on matrix calcification and osteoblastic differentiation were attenuated by adding cell-permeable cholesterol.

<p>Matrix calcium (A) and ALP activity (B) in HUVSMCs after transfection with pControl or pUBIAD1, with the addition of blank control or cholesterol (CHOL) (25 μmol/L) in HUVSMCs treated with CM for 72 h. *<i>P</i> < 0.05, ^#<i>P</i> < 0.01.</p

Luminescence Anisotropy and Thermal Effect of Magnetic and Electric Dipole Transitions of Cr³⁺ Ions in Yb:YAG Transparent Ceramic

In this article, we present an in-depth optical study on luminescence spectral features and the thermal effect of the magnetic dipole (MD) transitions (e.g., the R lines of ²E → ⁴A₂) and the associated electric dipole transitions (e.g., phonon-induced sidebands of the R lines) of Cr³⁺ ions in ytterbium–yttrium aluminum garnet polycrystalline transparent ceramic. The doubly split R lines predominately due to the doublet splitting of the ²E level of the Cr³⁺ ion in an octahedral crystal field are found to show a very large anisotropy in both emission intensity and thermal broadening. The large departure from the intensity equality between them could be interpreted in terms of large difference in coupling strength with phonons for the doubly split states of the ²E level. For the large anisotropy in thermal broadening, very different effective Debye temperatures for the two split states may be responsible for it. Besides the ²E excited state, the higher excited states, for example, ⁴T₁ and ⁴T₂ of the Cr³⁺ ion, also exhibit a very large inequality in coupling strength with phonons at room temperature. By examining the Stokes phonon sidebands of the MD R lines at low temperatures with the existing ion–phonon coupling theory, we reveal that they indeed carry fundamental information of phonons. For example, their broad background primarily reflects Debye density of states of acoustic phonons. These new results significantly enrich our existing understanding on interesting but challenging luminescence mechanisms of ion–phonon coupling systems

Data_Sheet_1_Association between chronic diseases and depression in the middle-aged and older adult Chinese population—a seven-year follow-up study based on CHARLS.docx

BackgroundWith the aging of the Chinese population, the prevalence of depression and chronic diseases is continually growing among middle-aged and older adult people. This study aimed to investigate the association between chronic diseases and depression in this population.MethodsData from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2011–2018 longitudinal survey, a 7-years follow-up of 7,163 participants over 45 years old, with no depression at baseline (2011). The chronic disease status in our study was based on the self-report of the participants, and depression was defined by the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-10). The relationship between baseline chronic disease and depression was assessed by the Kaplan–Meier method and Cox proportional hazards regression models.ResultsAfter 7-years follow-up, 41.2% (2,951/7163, 95% CI:40.1, 42.3%) of the participants reported depression. The analysis showed that participants with chronic diseases at baseline had a higher risk of depression and that such risk increased significantly with the number of chronic diseases suffered (1 chronic disease: HR = 1.197; 2 chronic diseases: HR = 1.310; 3 and more chronic diseases: HR = 1.397). Diabetes or high blood sugar (HR = 1.185), kidney disease (HR = 1.252), stomach or other digestive diseases (HR = 1.128), and arthritis or rheumatism (HR = 1.221) all significantly increased the risk of depression in middle-aged and older adult Chinese.ConclusionThe present study found that suffering from different degrees of chronic diseases increased the risk of depression in middle-aged and older adult people, and these findings may benefit preventing depression and improving the quality of mental health in this group.</p

Effects of CM on matrix calcification identified by Alizarin Red S staining.

<p>Images of the Alizarin Red S staining to show the mineral deposition in matrix of HUVSMCs cultured in GM or CM for 14 d.</p