Ameliorative Effects of Neurolytic Celiac Plexus Block on Stress and Inflammation in Rats with Partial Hepatectomy

Purpose: To investigate effects of neurolytic celiac plexus block (NCPB) on stress and inflammation in rats with partial hepatectomy (PH).Methods: A model of PH rat was established, and serum C-reactive protein (CRP); corticosterone (GC); adrenocorticotropin (ACTH); noradrenaline (NA); adrenalin (AD); aspartate transaminase (AST); alanine transaminase (ALT); as well as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α); interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6; high mobility group box1 (HMGB1); and nitric oxide (NO) concentrations in serum assessed after PH. Additionally, Western blotting was performed to determine the effect of NCPB on expressions of glucocorticoid receptors (GR), inhibitor of nuclear factor kappa B (IκB), p65, c-Jun and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) of PH rats, as well as assay effects of NCPB on nuclear translocation of GR, c- Jun and p65. DNA binding activities of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and activator protein 1 (AP-1) were also determined.Results: NCPB reduced AST and ALT (P < 0.05), decreased secretion of inflammatory cytokines and NO (P < 0.05), as well as decreased CRP, GC, ACTH, NA and AD after PH (p < 0.05). NCPB increased expressions of GR and IκB, but expressions of p65, c-Jun, and iNOS (p < 0.05). Additionally, NCPB increased nuclear translocation of GR (p < 0.01), but decreased nuclear translocation of p65 and c-Jun after PH (p < 0.05). Additionally, DNA binding activity of NF-κB and AP-1 was decreased by NCPB (p < 0.05).Conclusion: The results indicate that NCPB treatment can significantly inhibit stress and inflammation in PH rats.Keywords: Neurolytic celiac plexus block, Cytokine, Nuclear translocation, Partial hepatectomy, Stress, Inflammatio

A Piezoelectric Immunosensor Using Hybrid Self-Assembled Monolayers for Detection of Schistosoma japonicum

BACKGROUND: The parasite Schistosoma japonicum causes schistosomiasis disease, which threatens human life and hampers economic and social development in some Asian countries. An important lesson learned from efforts to reduce the occurrence of schistosomiasis is that the diagnostic approach must be altered as further progress is made towards the control and ultimate elimination of the disease. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using mixed self-assembled monolayer membrane (mixed SAM) technology, a mixture of mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) and mercaptoethanol (ME) was self-assembled on the surface of quartz crystals by gold-sulphur-bonds. Soluble egg antigens (SEA) of S. japonicum were then cross-linked to the quartz crystal using a special coupling agent. As compared with the traditional single self-assembled monolayer immobilization method, S. japonicum antigen (SjAg) immobilization using mixed self-assembled monolayers exhibits much greater immunoreactivity. Under optimal experimental conditions, the detection range is 1:1500 to 1:60 (infected rabbit serum dilution ratios). We measured several infected rabbit serum samples with varying S. japonicum antibody (SjAb) concentrations using both immunosensor and ELISA techniques and then produced a correlation analysis. The correlation coefficients reached 0.973. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We have developed a new, simple, sensitive, and reusable piezoelectric immunosensor that directly detects SjAb in the serum. This method may represent an alternative to the current diagnostic methods for S. japonicum infection in the clinical laboratory or for analysis outside the laboratory

Overexpression of Akt1 Enhances Adipogenesis and Leads to Lipoma Formation in Zebrafish

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Obesity is a complex, multifactorial disorder influenced by the interaction of genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors. Obesity increases the risk of contracting many chronic diseases or metabolic syndrome. Researchers have established several mammalian models of obesity to study its underlying mechanism. However, a lower vertebrate model for conveniently performing drug screening against obesity remains elusive. The specific aim of this study was to create a zebrafish obesity model by over expressing the insulin signaling hub of the <em>Akt1</em> gene.</p> <h3>Methodology/Principal Findings</h3><p><em>Skin oncogenic transformation screening shows that a stable zebrafish transgenic of Tg(krt4Hsa.myrAkt1</em>)^cy18 displays severely obese phenotypes at the adult stage. In Tg(<em>krt4:Hsa.myrAkt1</em>)^cy18, the expression of exogenous human constitutively active Akt1 (myrAkt1) can activate endogenous downstream targets of mTOR, GSK-3α/β, and 70S6K. During the embryonic to larval transitory phase, the specific over expression of myrAkt1 in skin can promote hypertrophic and hyperplastic growth. From 21 hour post-fertilization (hpf) onwards, myrAkt1 transgene was ectopically expressed in several mesenchymal derived tissues. This may be the result of the integration position effect. Tg(<em>krt4:Hsa.myrAkt1</em>)^cy18 caused a rapid increase of body weight, hyperplastic growth of adipocytes, abnormal accumulation of fat tissues, and blood glucose intolerance at the adult stage. Real-time RT-PCR analysis showed the majority of key genes on regulating adipogenesis, adipocytokine, and inflammation are highly upregulated in Tg(<em>krt4:Hsa.myrAkt1</em>)^cy18. In contrast, the myogenesis- and skeletogenesis-related gene transcripts are significantly downregulated in Tg(<em>krt4:Hsa.myrAkt1</em>)^cy18, suggesting that excess adipocyte differentiation occurs at the expense of other mesenchymal derived tissues.</p> <h3>Conclusion/Significance</h3><p>Collectively, the findings of this study provide direct evidence that Akt1 signaling plays an important role in balancing normal levels of fat tissue in vivo. The obese zebrafish examined in this study could be a new powerful model to screen novel drugs for the treatment of human obesity.</p> </div

Modeling East Asian Dust and Its RadiativeFeedbacks in CAM4-BAM

East Asian dust and its radiative feedbacks are analyzed by the use of the fourth version of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM4) with a bulk aerosol model parameterization (BAM) for the dust size distribution (CAM4‐BAM). Two numerical experiments are conducted and intercompared: one with (Active) and one without (Passive) the radiative effects of dust aerosols. This CAM4‐BAM captures the main spatial distribution of the dust aerosol optical depth (AOD) and the dust surface concentrations over East Asia, with positive correlations with the local observational data on annual and seasonal means. A comparative analysis of the Active and Passive experiments reveals that consideration of the dust‐radiation interaction can significantly reduce dust emissions, loading, transport, and dry and wet depositions over East Asia, which is opposite to the enhanced dust cycle over North Africa. Further analysis of the contrasting dust‐radiation feedbacks between North Africa and East Asia shows that over North Africa, the dust radiative forcing significantly increases the surface temperature and 10&nbsp;m wind speed, whereas it decreases the surface temperature and the surface wind speeds over East Asia. These contrasting radiative effects, in turn, result in distinct dust cycle changes over these two regions. Mechanistic analysis reveals that the radiative contrasts between East Asia and North Africa are mainly due to the differences in their regional surface albedo, dust vertical distribution, and size distribution

Radiative feedbacks of dust in snow over eastern Asia inCAM4-BAM

Dust in snow on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) could reduce the visible snow albedo by changing surface optical properties and removing the snow cover through increased snowmelt, which leads to a significant positive radiative forcing and remarkably alters the regional energy balance and the eastern Asian climate system. This study extends our previous investigation in dust–radiation interactions to investigate the dust-in-snow radiative forcing (SRF) and its feedbacks on the regional climate and the dust cycle over eastern Asia through the use of the Community Atmosphere Model version 4 with a Bulk Aerosol Model parameterizations of the dust size distribution (CAM4-BAM). Our results show that SRF increases the eastern Asian dust emissions significantly by 13.7 % in the spring, countering a 7.6 % decrease in the regional emissions by the dust direct radiative forcing (DRF). SRF also remarkably affects the whole dust cycle, including transport and deposition of dust aerosols over eastern Asia. The simulations indicate an increase in dust emissions of 5.1 %, due to the combined effect of DRF and SRF. Further analysis reveals that these results are mainly due to the regional climatic feedbacks induced by SRF over eastern Asia. By reducing the snow albedo over the TP, the dust in snow mainly warms the TP and influences its thermal effects by increasing the surface sensible and latent heat flux, which in turn increases the aridity and westerly winds over northwestern China and affects the regional dust cycle. Additionally, the dust in snow also accelerates the snow-melting process, reduces the snow cover and then expands the eastern Asian dust source region, which results in increasing the regional dust emissions. Hence, a significant feature of SRF on the TP is the creation of a positive feedback loop that affects the dust cycle over eastern Asia

Changes in tension regulates proliferation and migration of fibroblasts by remodeling expression of ECM proteins

Wound healing is a complicated but highly organized process in which cell migration and proliferation are actively involved. However, the process by which mechanical stretch regulates the proliferation and migration of human skin fibroblasts (HFs) and keratinocytes is poorly understood. Using a house built mechanical stretch device, we examined the HFs extracellular matrix (ECM) components changes under non-stretch, static stretch or cyclic stretch conditions. We further investigated the changes in ECM component protein expression levels in keratinocytes and analyzed the effects of individual ECM component on keratinocyte proliferation and migration. Particularly, the roles of calcium/calmodulin-dependent serine protein kinase (CASK) in the HF proliferation under cyclic stretch were investigated. Cyclic stretch suppressed HF proliferation compared with HFs without stretch or with static stretch. Cyclic stretch also led to a significant reduction in the levels of collagen I and a marked increase of fibronectin in HFs ECM. By contrast, collagen I levels increased and fibronectin levels decreased in response to non-stretch and static stretch conditions. After cyclic stretch, the proliferation of keratinocytes was inhibited by the cyclic stretch-induced ECM in HFs. The inoculation of keratinocytes with single ECM component suggested that collagen I was more capable of inducing cell proliferation than fibronectin, while it had less impact on cell migration compared with fibronectin. Furthermore, cyclic stretch induced by proliferation inhibition was associated with altered integrin 1-CASK signal pathway. The present results demonstrated the existence of HF-ECM-keratinocyte cross-talk' in cutaneous tissues. Thus, the integrin 1-CASK signal pathway in HFs may be involved in the outside-in signal transduction of extracellular stretch and the altered ECM component expression

Changes in tension regulates proliferation and migration of fibroblasts by remodeling expression of ECM proteins

Wound healing is a complicated but highly organized process in which cell migration and proliferation are actively involved. However, the process by which mechanical stretch regulates the proliferation and migration of human skin fibroblasts (HFs) and keratinocytes is poorly understood. Using a house built mechanical stretch device, we examined the HFs extracellular matrix (ECM) components changes under non-stretch, static stretch or cyclic stretch conditions. We further investigated the changes in ECM component protein expression levels in keratinocytes and analyzed the effects of individual ECM component on keratinocyte proliferation and migration. Particularly, the roles of calcium/calmodulin-dependent serine protein kinase (CASK) in the HF proliferation under cyclic stretch were investigated. Cyclic stretch suppressed HF proliferation compared with HFs without stretch or with static stretch. Cyclic stretch also led to a significant reduction in the levels of collagen I and a marked increase of fibronectin in HFs ECM. By contrast, collagen I levels increased and fibronectin levels decreased in response to non-stretch and static stretch conditions. After cyclic stretch, the proliferation of keratinocytes was inhibited by the cyclic stretch-induced ECM in HFs. The inoculation of keratinocytes with single ECM component suggested that collagen I was more capable of inducing cell proliferation than fibronectin, while it had less impact on cell migration compared with fibronectin. Furthermore, cyclic stretch induced by proliferation inhibition was associated with altered integrin 1-CASK signal pathway. The present results demonstrated the existence of HF-ECM-keratinocyte cross-talk' in cutaneous tissues. Thus, the integrin 1-CASK signal pathway in HFs may be involved in the outside-in signal transduction of extracellular stretch and the altered ECM component expression