The Long Noncoding RNA 150Rik Promotes Mesangial Cell Proliferation via miR-451/IGF1R/p38 MAPK Signaling in Diabetic Nephropathy

Background/Aims: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) as the primary cause of end-stage kidney disease is a common complication of diabetes. However, the initiating molecular events triggering DN are unknown. Recently, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to play important roles in DN. Methods: The expression level of lncRNA 1500026H17Rik (150Rik for short) was measured by qRT-PCR (quantitative real-time PCR). Cell proliferation ability was detected by 5-Ethynyl-2’-deoxyuridine (EdU). The relationship between 150Rik and microRNA 451 (miR-451) was examined by luciferase assay and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay. Finally, the effect of 150Rik on cell proliferation through the miR-451/insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R)/mitogen-activated protein kinases (p38MAPK) pathway was detected by EdU, flow cytometry analysis, western blot. Results: We found that 150Rik, an evolutionarily conserved lncRNA, was significantly upregulated in renal tissue of db/db DN mice and in mesangial cells (MCs) cultured under a high glucose condition. Further, overexpression or knockdown of 150Rik was found to regulate cell proliferation in MCs. Moreover, 150Rik was found to interact with miR-451 in both a direct and argonaute-2 (Ago2)-dependent manner. Results also revealed that overexpression of 150Rik inhibited cell proliferation through the miR-451/IGF1R/p38MAPK pathway in MCs under the high glucose condition, while knockdown of 150Rik increased cell proliferation via the miR-451/IGF1R/p38MAPK pathway. Conclusion: Taken together, these results provide new insight into the association between 150Rik and the miR-451/IGF1R/p38MAPK signaling pathway during DN progression

Application of foam separation in production of β-glucanase in Pichia

β-glucanase is widely used in many fields and has great economic value and development space, but it faces the difficulties of separation and nutrient destruction in the process of industrial production. Foam separation is a simple, mild and efficient adsorption separation technique that enables efficient separation and extraction of β-glucanase. In this study, five single factors(loading volume, pH, separation gas velocity, fermentation loading concentration, surfactant concentration) of foam separation and harvest of β-glucanase produced by Pichia pastoris were studied. The best univariate condition was: 600 mL/min separation gas velocity, loading volume of 200 mL, initial enzyme concentration of 100 g/mL, surfactant concentration of 0.3 mg/mL and pH of 5. Based on the best univariate condition, the optimal separation conditions of β-glucanase were further explored, and the five-factor four-level orthogonal test was designed. From the experimental results, the best separation condition was: 600 mL/min, loading volume of 200 mL, initial enzyme concentration of 100 μg/mL, surfactant concentration of 0.5 mg/mL and pH of 5. Under this separation condition, the enrichment ratio (E) was 0.56 and the recovery rate (R) was 96.01%

An Improved Genetic Algorithm Based Robust Approach for Stochastic Dynamic Facility Layout Problem

This paper deals with stochastic dynamic facility layout problem under demand uncertainty in terms of material flow between facilities. A robust approach suggests a robust layout in each period as the most frequent one falling within a prespecified percentage of the optimal solution for multiple scenarios. Mont Carlo simulation method is used to randomly generate different scenarios. A mathematical model is established to describe the dynamic facility layout problem with the consideration of transport device assignment. As a solution procedure for the proposed model, an improved adaptive genetic algorithm with population initialization strategy is developed to reduce the search space and improve the solving efficiency. Different sized instances are compared with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to verify the effectiveness of the proposed genetic algorithm. The experiments calculating the cost deviation ratio under different fluctuation level show the good performance of the robust layout compared to the expected layout

An Environmentally Benign Antimicrobial Coating Based on a Protein Supramolecular Assembly

The use of antimicrobial materials, for example, silver nanoparticles, has been a cause for concern because they often exert an adverse effect on environmental and safety during their preparation and use. In this study, we report a class of green antimicrobial coating based on a supramolecular assembly of a protein extracted from daily food, without the addition of any other hazardous agents. It is found that a self-assembled nanofilm by mere hen egg white lysozyme has durable in vitro and in vivo broad-spectrum antimicrobial efficacy against Gram-positive/negative and fungi. Such enhanced antimicrobial capability over native lysozyme is attributed to a synergistic combination of positive charge and hydrophobic amino acid residues enriched on polymeric aggregates in the lysozyme nanofilm. Accompanied with high antimicrobial activity, this protein-based PTL material simultaneously exhibits the integration of multiple functions including antifouling, antibiofilm, blood compatibility, and low cytotoxicity due to the existence of surface hydration effect. Moreover, the bioinspired adhesion mediated by the amyloid structure contained in the nanofilm induces robust transfer and self-adhesion of the material onto virtually arbitrary substrates by a simple one-step aqueous coating or solvent-free printing in 1 min, thereby allowing an ultrafast route into practical implications for surface-functionalized commodity and biomedical devices. Our results demonstrate that the application of pure proteinaceous substance may afford a cost-effective green biomaterial that has high antimicrobial activity and low environmental impact