Heat Shock Protein 70 Expression is Increased in the Liver of Neonatal Intrauterine Growth Retardation Piglets

Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) leads to the dysfunction in digestive system, as well as the alteration in the expression of some functional proteins. Heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) could be induced by various stress factors, but whether Hsp70 expression is changed in neonatal IUGR infants has not been demonstrated. This study was conducted to explore the expression of Hsp70 in the liver by using the IUGR piglet model. Liver and plasma samples were obtained from IUGR and normal birth weight (NBW) piglets at birth. The neonatal IUGR piglets had significantly lower liver weight than their counterparts. The activities of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase in serum were enhanced significantly in IUGR indicating liver dysfunction. The activities of superoxide dismutase (p0.05) were lower and the level of malondialdehybe was higher (p<0.05) in IUGR liver compared with in NBW. According to the results of histological tests, fatty hepatic infiltrates and cytoplasmic vacuolization were present in the liver of IUGR piglets, but not in NBW liver. The expression of Hsp70 protein was significantly higher (p<0.05) in IUGR piglet liver than in NBW. Similar to where the hepatic injuries were observed, location of Hsp70 was mostly in the midzonal hepatic lobule indicating that oxidative stress might be responsible for the increased expression of Hsp70

Advances in Studies on Toxicity and Transformation of Zearalenone and Its Derivatives

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a mycotoxin produced by the Fusarium species, which has various toxic effects. The chemical structures of ZEN and its derivatives are similar to that of estrogen. When ingested by animals or humans, ZEN and its derivatives can lead to disturbance of estrogen balance, thereby harming the reproductive system. Moreover, they can alter gene structure and consequently affect gene expression, and can even cause damage to the immune system, thus weakening the immune response. ZEN is transformed and metabolized into ZEN derivatives during food processing or after absorption by animals and plants, and its toxicity is altered due to structural and physicochemical changes. Studying the toxicity of ZEN and its derivatives as well as their transformation and metabolism in various organisms is important for ensuring food security and mycotoxin toxicity risk assessment

The Stochastic Stability of Internal HIV Models with Gaussian White Noise and Gaussian Colored Noise

In this paper, the stochastic stability of internal HIV models driven by Gaussian white noise and Gaussian colored noise is analyzed. First, the stability of deterministic models is investigated. By analyzing the characteristic values of endemic equilibrium, we could obtain that internal HIV models reach a steady state under the influence of RTI and PI drugs. Then we discuss the stochastic stability of internal HIV models driven by Gaussian white noise and Gaussian colored noise, based on probability density functions. The functional methods are carried out to derive the approximate Fokker-Planck equation of stochastic internal HIV systems and further obtain the marginal probability density functions. Finally, numerical results show that the noise intensities have a great influence on uninfected cell, infected cell, and virus particles, for predicting the stability of stochastic dynamic systems subjected to Gaussian white noise and Gaussian colored noise

Global Stability of Switched HIV/AIDS Models with Drug Treatment Involving Caputo-Fractional Derivatives

In this paper, we formulate and investigate new switched HIV/AIDS models with drug treatment involving Caputo-fractional derivatives. Initially, due to the fractional derivative order related to the memory and hereditary effects and supposing that the model coefficients are time-varying parameters, we develop a Caputo-fractional order HIV/AIDS models with switching parameters and study their dynamics utilizing Lyapunov–Razumikhin technique. Furthermore, the results show that the fractional derivative α (0<α<1) and the switching parameters are related to the critical threshold value (R^ or R¯) which ensures disease eradication under the condition of R^<1 or R¯<1. Then, a treatment compartment is introduced into the above model from the asymptomatic infected individuals until the full blown AIDS individuals. Novel sufficient conditions on the threshold value are derived to verify that the disease is eventually cleared as the critical threshold parameter is below unity. Finally, some simulations are employed to support the main results and one future research direction is presented

Crucial genes at the onset of lactation revealed by transcriptome screening of Domestic Yak mammary gland

At the onset of lactation, there are three distinct stages of mammary tissue development and function including mammogenesis, colostrogenesis, and lactogenesis. The mechanism of the transition from colostrogenesis to lactogenesis of Maiwa Yak is still unknown. In this study, mammary tissues from three Maiwa yaks were collected at 1 and 30 d after parturition for transcriptome exploring using Affymetrix Bovine Genome Arrays. Comparing with the 30 d a total of 517 annotated differentially expressed genes (DEG) were identified at the criteria of a p-value ≤ 0.05. The ratio of up-regulated genes to the down-regulated ones was around 1:2 (more specifically, 164:353). To depict the profile of DEG, a Dynamic Impact Approach (DIA) was used to analyse the microarray data based on Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases. GO terms ‘fatty acid transport’ and ‘monocarboxylic acid transport’ were significantly induced at colostrum period. The strongly impacted KEGG pathways were ‘Chondroitin sulfate biosynthesis’, ‘Glycosphingolipid biosynthesis’ and ’Glycerolipid metabolism’. These data may provide candidate genes with a high probability of having functional roles in regulating the transition from the colostrum to the normal milk in domestic yak mammary gland.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Dietary supplementation of ferulic acid improves performance and alleviates oxidative stress of lambs in a cold environment

Ferulic acid (FA) has been regarded as an antioxidant in domestic animals’ feed. This study was to investigate whether dietary FA supplementation could improve growth performance by decreasing oxidative stress of lambs in cold environment. Thirty-two 3-mo-old crossbred male lambs (Dorper × Small-tail Han sheep; 30.49 ± 0.46 kg) were randomly assigned into one of the following dietary treatments: CON (control, no FA), FA80 (80 mg FA kg−1 of diet), FA400 (400 mg FA kg−1 of diet), and FA2000 (2000 mg FA kg−1 of diet). Lambs fed the FA80 had higher (P < 0.05) average daily gain and lower (P < 0.05) feed efficiency than those fed CON and FA2000. The dry matter, organic matter, and neutral detergent fiber apparent digestibility was lower (P < 0.05) for FA2000 lambs than for lambs from other treatments. Serum total protein and albumin concentrations were greater (P < 0.05) for FA80 group than other groups. Lambs fed FA80 had higher (P < 0.05) plasma glutathione peroxidase and catalase activities and lower (P < 0.05) malondialdehyde (MDA) content than lambs fed CON. However, FA2000 group showed higher (P < 0.05) plasma MDA content than CON group. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of 80 mg FA kg−1 diet could improve growth performance by decreasing oxidative stress of lambs in cold environment.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

An Optogenetic‐Controlled Cell Reprogramming System for Driving Cell Fate and Light‐Responsive Chimeric Mice

Abstract Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) hold great promise for cell‐based therapies, disease modeling, and drug discovery. Classic somatic cell reprogramming to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is often achieved based on overexpression of transcription factors (TFs). However, this process is limited by side effect of overexpressed TFs and unpredicted targeting of TFs. Pinpoint control over endogenous TFs expression can provide the ability to reprogram cell fate and tissue function. Here, a light‐inducible cell reprogramming (LIRE) system is developed based on a photoreceptor protein cryptochrome system and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/nuclease‐deficient CRISPR‐associated protein 9 for induced PSCs reprogramming. This system enables remote, non‐invasive optogenetical regulation of endogenous Sox2 and Oct4 loci to reprogram mouse embryonic fibroblasts into iPSCs (iPSCLIRE) under light‐emitting diode‐based illumination. iPSCLIRE cells can be efficiently differentiated into different cells by upregulating a corresponding TF. iPSCLIRE cells are used for blastocyst injection and optogenetic chimeric mice are successfully generated, which enables non‐invasive control of user‐defined endogenous genes in vivo, providing a valuable tool for facile and traceless controlled gene expression studies and genetic screens in mice. This LIRE system offers a remote, traceless, and non‐invasive approach for cellular reprogramming and modeling of complex human diseases in basic biological research and regenerative medicine applications