Implications of lysyl oxidase-like protein 3 expression in the periodontium of diabetic rats

Objectives: Diabetes has been strongly associated with periodontal diseases. The periodontal ligament (PDL) has an abundant extracellular matrix (ECM). Lysyl oxidases (LOXs) are closely associated with various diseases caused by abnormal ECM functions, however, the role of LOXs in periodontal diseases induced by diabetes remains unclear. Methodology: In this study, 8-week-old Zucker diabetic fatty rats were used to establish a type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) model. After 9 and 16 weeks, hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), Masson’s trichrome, and immunohistochemical staining were performed. Results:After 9 weeks, loose collagen fibers were found in the interradicular area of the diabetic group, in opposition to the control group. There were no significant differences in LOX expression between the diabetic and control groups (p>0.05). However, after 16 weeks, the diabetic group presented a disordered arrangement of the PDL, showing decreased collagen content and significantly increased lysyl oxidase-like protein 3 (LOXL3) expression when compared with the control group (p<0.05). This suggests that LOXL3 plays a significant role in periodontal histopathological changes in diabetic rats. Conclusion:Our study showed elevated LOXL3 expression in the PDL of diabetic rats after 16 weeks, suggesting that LOXL3 may be involved in the occurrence and development of periodontal histopathological changes in diabetic rats. LOXL3 could be further used as an indicator for the early diagnosis of diabetic periodontitis in T2DM patients in clinical settings

Enormous lithium isotopic variations of abyssal peridotites reveal fast cooling and Melt/Fluid-rock interactions

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2020. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 125(9),(2020): e2020JB020393, doi:10.1029/2020JB020393.Fast diffusing Li isotopes provide important insights into the “recent” transient events or processes for both modern and ancient times, but questions remain concerning the large Li isotopic variations of mantle peridotites, which greatly hampers their usage as a geochemical tracer. This study investigates in situ Li content and isotopic profiles of the constituent minerals of abyssal peridotites from the Gakkel Ridge and Southwest Indian Ridge. The complicated and large variations of Li isotopic profiles in Clinopyroxene (Cpx) and Orthopyroxene (Opx) indicate Li isotopic disequilibrium at millimeter scale. The negative correlations of a wide range of Li contents (0.5 to 6.5 ppm) and δ7Li values (−10 to +20‰) of olivine, Opx and Cpx grains/relicts, trace element zoning of Cpx, the occurrence of plagioclase, olivine serpentinization along cracks, together with numerical modeling demonstrate the observed Li characteristics to be a manifestation of high‐temperature mineral‐melt Li diffusion during melt impregnation overprinted by low‐temperature mineral‐fluid Li diffusion during dissolution and serpentinization. The preservation of the Li isotopic diffusion profiles requires rapid cooling of 0.3–5°C/year after final‐stage melt impregnation at the Moho boundary, which is consistent with the low temperature at very slow spreadin g ridges caused by conductive cooling. Compared with the well‐studied melt‐rock interaction process, our study indicates that low‐temperature fluid‐rock interaction can induce Li diffusion even in the visibly unaltered mineral relicts of partially altered rocks.This study was financially supported by the National Science Foundation of China (grant no. 41872058) and the U.S. National Science Foundation grant.2021-03-0

Comparison of Apparent Diffusion Coefficient and T2 Relaxation Time Variation Patterns in Assessment of Age and Disc Level Related Intervertebral Disc Changes

Purpose To compare the variation patterns of ADC and T2 values in different age and intervertebral disc (IVD) levels, thus to identify their sensitivities in assessing age and disc level related IVDs changes. Materials and Methods The T2 and ADC values were recorded from 345 IVDs of 69 volunteers. Kendall's correlation analysis was used to identify the relationship between age and T2/ADC mean values respectively. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post hoc analysis was then applied to test the differences of T2 and ADC values among different IVD levels and age groups, followed by linear regression analysis between age (45 years) and T2/ADC mean values. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Results: Significant negative correlation was observed between age and T2/ADC mean values. The T2 and ADC values showed significant differences among IVD levels and among age groups except for T2 values in age group 1 (25–34 years) and group 2 (35–44 years), and for ADC values at L1–2 level. Both T2 and ADC values showed significant differences between young (age45 years) at each IVD level. A linear relationship was observed between age and T2/ADC mean values in the elderly group as well as in the young group for the ADC mean values, while no such tendency was identified in the young group for the T2 mean values. Conclusions: ADC values may be a more sensitive parameter than T2 in assessing age and disc level related intervertebral disc changes

BRI1 EMS SUPPRESSOR1 genes regulate abiotic stress and anther development in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

BRI1 EMS SUPPRESSOR1 (BES1) family members are crucial downstream regulators that positively mediate brassinosteroid signaling, playing vital roles in the regulation of plant stress responses and anther development in Arabidopsis. Importantly, the expression profiles of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) BES1 genes have not been analyzed comprehensively and systematically in response to abiotic stress or during anther development. In this study, we identified 23 BES1-like genes in common wheat, which were unevenly distributed on 17 out of 21 wheat chromosomes. Phylogenetic analysis clustered the BES1 genes into four major clades; moreover, TaBES1-3A2, TaBES1-3B2 and TaBES1-3D2 belonged to the same clade as Arabidopsis BES1/BZR1 HOMOLOG3 (BEH3) and BEH4, which participate in anther development. The expression levels of 23 wheat BES1 genes were assessed using real-time quantitative PCR under various abiotic stress conditions (drought, salt, heat, and cold), and we found that most TaBES1-like genes were downregulated under abiotic stress, particularly during drought stress. We therefore used drought-tolerant and drought-sensitive wheat cultivars to explore TaBES1 expression patterns under drought stress. TaBES1-3B2 and TaBES1-3D2 expression was high in drought-tolerant cultivars but substantially repressed in drought-sensitive cultivars, while TaBES1-6D presented an opposite pattern. Among genes preferentially expressed in anthers, TaBES1-3B2 and TaBES1-3D2 expression was substantially downregulated in thermosensitive genic male-sterile wheat lines compared to common wheat cultivar under sterile conditions, while we detected no obvious differences under fertile conditions. This result suggests that TaBES1-3B2 and TaBES1-3D2 might not only play roles in regulating drought tolerance, but also participate in low temperature-induced male sterility

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Joint analysis of three genome-wide association studies of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in Chinese populations

We conducted a joint (pooled) analysis of three genome-wide association studies (GWAS) 1-3 of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in ethnic Chinese (5,337 ESCC cases and 5,787 controls) with 9,654 ESCC cases and 10,058 controls for follow-up. In a logistic regression model adjusted for age, sex, study, and two eigenvectors, two new loci achieved genome-wide significance, marked by rs7447927 at 5q31.2 (per-allele odds ratio (OR) = 0.85, 95% CI 0.82-0.88; P=7.72x10−20) and rs1642764 at 17p13.1 (per-allele OR= 0.88, 95% CI 0.85-0.91; P=3.10x10−13). rs7447927 is a synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TMEM173 and rs1642764 is an intronic SNP in ATP1B2, near TP53. Furthermore, a locus in the HLA class II region at 6p21.32 (rs35597309) achieved genome-wide significance in the two populations at highest risk for ESSC (OR=1.33, 95% CI 1.22-1.46; P=1.99x10−10). Our joint analysis identified new ESCC susceptibility loci overall as well as a new locus unique to the ESCC high risk Taihang Mountain region

Highly sensitive trivalent copper chelateâluminol chemiluminescence system for capillary electrophoresis chiral separation and determination of ofloxacin enantiomers in urine samples

A simple, fast and sensitive capillary electrophoresis (CE) strategy combined with chemiluminescence (CL) detection for analysis of ofloxacin (OF) enantiomers was established in the present work. Sulfonated β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) was used as the chiral additive being added into the running buffer of luminolâdiperiodatocuprate (III) (K5[Cu(HIO6)2], DPC) chemiluminescence system. Under the optimum conditions, the proposed method was successfully applied to separation and analysis of OF enantiomers with the detection limits (S/N=3) of 8.0 nM and 7.0 nM for levofloxacin and dextrofloxacin, respectively. The linear ranges were both 0.010â100 μM. The method was utilized for analyzing OF in urine; the results obtained were satisfactory and recoveries were 89.5â110.8%, which demonstrated the reliability of this method. This approach can also be further extended to analyze different commercial OF medicines. Keywords: Ofloxacin, Chiral analysis, Sulfonated-β-CD, Capillary electrophoresis, Chemiluminescenc