4,506 research outputs found
FasL expression on human nucleus pulposus cells contributes to the immune privilege of intervertebral disc by interacting with immunocytes
The mechanisms of immune privilege in human nucleus pulposus (NP) remain unclear. Accumulating evidence indicates that Fas ligand (FasL) might play an important role in the immune privilege of the disc. We aimed for addressing the role of FasL expression in human intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) and immune privilege in terms of the interaction between NP cells and immunocytes via the FasL-Fas machinery. We collected NP specimens from 20 patients with IDD as degenerative group and 8 normal cadaveric donors as control. FasL expression was detected by qRT-PCR, western blotting and flow cytometry (FCM). We also collected macrophages and CD8(+) T cells from the peripheral blood of patients with IDD for co-cultures with NP cells. And macrophages and CD8(+) T cells were harvested for apoptosis analysis by FCM after 2 days of co-cultures. We found that FasL expression in mRNA, protein and cellular resolutions demonstrated a significant decrease in degenerative group compared with normal control (p<0.05). FCM analysis found that human NP cells with increased FasL expression resulted in significantly increased apoptosis ratio of macrophages and CD8(+) T cells. Our study demonstrated that FasL expression tends to decrease in degenerated discs and FasL plays an important role in human disc immune privilege, which might provide a novel target for the treatment strategies for IDD.published_or_final_versio
Down-regulated CK8 expression in human intervertebral disc degeneration
As an intermediate filament protein, cytokeratin 8 (CK8) exerts multiple cellular functions. Moreover, it has been identified as a marker of notochord cells, which play essential roles in human nucleus pulposus (NP). However, the distribution of CK8 positive cells in human NP and their relationship with intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) have not been clarified until now. Here, we found the percentage of CK8 positive cells in IDD (25.7+/-4.14%) was significantly lower than that in normal and scoliosis NP (51.9+/-9.73% and 47.8+/-5.51%, respectively, p<0.05). Western blotting and qRT-PCR results confirmed the down-regulation of CK8 expression in IDD on both of protein and mRNA levels. Furthermore, approximately 37.4% of cell clusters were CK8 positive in IDD. Taken together, this is the first study to show a down-regulated CK8 expression and the percentage of CK8 positive cell clusters in IDD based upon multiple lines of evidence. Consequently, CK8 positive cells might be considered as a potential option in the development of cellular treatment strategies for NP repair.published_or_final_versio
Study of constant-pressure production characteristics of class 1 methane hydrate reservoirs
Postnatal expression of myostain (MSTN) and myogenin (MYoG) genes in Hu sheep of China
The study of candidate genes is an important tool to identify genes associated with economic traits. Skeletal muscle development is an important physiological process in meat animals, and it directly affects meat production. The expression of myostain (MSTN) and myogenin (MYoG) genes in longissimus dorsi, during the early growth stage of Hu sheep, was studied by semi-quantitative Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The results demonstrate that age and gender were playing a very important role in the expression of sheep muscle. MSTN and MYOG genes showed similar variation pattern for the male and female. The expression level of the MSTN and MYoG genes all showed a positive correlation with live weight, carcass weight and meat percentage, but only showed a significant relationship with meat percentage. MSTN gene showed an extreme significant positive relationship with MYoG.Key words: Sheep, myostain (MSTN), myogenin (MYoG), gene expression, muscle trait
The Domestication Process and Domestication Rate in Rice: Spikelet Bases from the Lower Yangtze
The process of rice domestication occurred in the Lower Yangtze region of Zhejiang, China, between 6900 and 6600 years ago. Archaeobotanical evidence from the site of Tianluoshan shows that the proportion of nonshattering domesticated rice (Oryza sativa) spikelet bases increased over this period from 27% to 39%. Over the same period, rice remains increased from 8% to 24% of all plant remains, which suggests an increased consumption relative to wild gathered foods. In addition, an assemblage of annual grasses, sedges, and other herbaceous plants indicates the presence of arable weeds, typical of cultivated rice, that also increased over this period
Health-related quality of life as measured with EQ-5D among populations with and without specific chronic conditions: A population-based survey in Shaanxi province, China
© 2013 Tan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Introduction: The aim of this study was to examine health-related quality of life (HRQoL) as measured by EQ-5D and to investigate the influence of chronic conditions and other risk factors on HRQoL based on a distributed sample located in Shaanxi Province, China. Methods: A multi-stage stratified cluster sampling method was performed to select subjects. EQ-5D was employed to measure the HRQoL. The likelihood that individuals with selected chronic diseases would report any problem in the EQ-5D dimensions was calculated and tested relative to that of each of the two reference groups. Multivariable linear regression models were used to investigate factors associated with EQ VAS. Results: The most frequently reported problems involved pain/discomfort (8.8%) and anxiety/depression (7.6%). Nearly half of the respondents who reported problems in any of the five dimensions were chronic patients. Higher EQ VAS scores were associated with the male gender, higher level of education, employment, younger age, an urban area of residence, access to free medical service and higher levels of physical activity. Except for anemia, all the selected chronic diseases were indicative of a negative EQ VAS score. The three leading risk factors were cerebrovascular disease, cancer and mental disease. Increases in age, number of chronic conditions and frequency of physical activity were found to have a gradient effect. Conclusion: The results of the present work add to the volume of knowledge regarding population health status in this area, apart from the known health status using mortality and morbidity data. Medical, policy, social and individual attention should be given to the management of chronic diseases and improvement of HRQoL. Longitudinal studies must be performed to monitor changes in HRQoL and to permit evaluation of the outcomes of chronic disease intervention programs. © 2013 Tan et al.National Nature Science Foundation (No. 8107239
Quantum phase transition and destruction of Kondo effect in pressurized SmB6
SmB6 is a promising candidate material that promises to elucidate the
connection between strong correlations and topological electronic states, which
is a major challenge in condensed matter physics. The electron correlations are
responsible for the development of multiple gaps in SmB6, whose elucidation is
sorely needed. Here we do so by studying the evolutions of the gaps and other
corresponding behaviors under pressure. Our measurements of the valence, Hall
effect and electrical resistivity clearly identify the gap which is associated
with the bulk Kondo hybridization and, moreover, uncover a pressure-induced
quantum phase transition from the putative topological Kondo insulating state
to a Fermi-liquid state at ~4 GPa. We provide the evidences for the transition
by a jump of inverse Hall coefficient, a diverging tendency of the
electron-electron scattering coefficient and, thereby, a destruction of the
Kondo entanglement in the ground state. These effects take place in a
mixed-valence background. Our results raise the new prospect for studying
topological electronic states in quantum critical materials settings.Comment: 18 pages and 3 figure
Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay
The decay channel
is studied using a sample of events collected
by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is
observed in the invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit
with an -wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of
and a
narrow width that is at the 90% confidence level.
These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width
values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics
The Classical Harmonic Vibrations of the Atomic Centers of Mass with Micro Amplitudes and Low Frequencies Monitored by the Entanglement between the Two Two-level Atoms in a Single mode Cavity
We study the entanglement dynamics of the two two-level atoms coupling with a
single-mode polarized cavity field after incorporating the atomic centers of
mass classical harmonic vibrations with micro amplitudes and low frequencies.
We propose a quantitative vibrant factor to modify the concurrence of the two
atoms states. When the vibrant frequencies are very low, we obtain that: (i)
the factor depends on the relative vibrant displacements and the initial phases
rather than the absolute amplitudes, and reduces the concurrence to three
orders of magnitude; (ii) the concurrence increases with the increase of the
initial phases; (iii) the frequency of the harmonic vibration can be obtained
by measuring the maximal value of the concurrence during a small time. These
results indicate that even the extremely weak classical harmonic vibrations can
be monitored by the entanglement of quantum states.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
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