Proteoglycan neofunctions: regulation of inflammation and autophagy in cancer biology.

Inflammation and autophagy have emerged as prominent issues in the context of proteoglycan signaling. In particular, two small, leucine-rich proteoglycans, biglycan and decorin, play pivotal roles in the regulation of these vital cellular pathways and, as such, are intrinsically involved in cancer initiation and progression. In this minireview, we will address novel functions of biglycan and decorin in inflammation and autophagy, and analyze new emerging signaling events triggered by these proteoglycans, which directly or indirectly modulate these processes. We will critically discuss the dual role of proteoglycan-driven inflammation and autophagy in tumor biology, and delineate the potential mechanisms through which soluble extracellular matrix constituents affect the microenvironment associated with inflammatory and neoplastic diseases

Axial alignment of the lower extremity in Chinese adults

Background: The restoration of normal axial alignment of the lower extremity is important to surgeons who perform reconstructive surgery of the knee. However, data on the normal alignment of the lower extremity in Chinese adults are not available. Methods: The axial alignment of the lower extremity in twenty-five adult male and twenty-five adult female volunteers of southern Chinese origin was measured on weight-bearing radiographs of the entire lower limb. The mean age was twenty-four years for the male volunteers and twenty-three years for the female volunteers. The results were compared with those of two similar studies of white volunteers in the United States. Results: The medial inclination of the tibial plateau in the Chinese subjects (mean and standard deviation, 5.4 ± 2.5 degrees for women and 4.9 ± 2.3 degrees for men) was greater than the commonly reported 3 degrees. The extremities of the Chinese women were found to have a mean of 2.2 ± 2.5 degrees of varus alignment, and those of the Chinese men had a mean of 2.2 ± 2.7 degrees of varus alignment. Conclusions: Compared with the white subjects described in the studies by Moreland et al. and Hsu et al., the Chinese subjects had significantly larger medial inclination of the knee joint (knee-joint obliquity) (p < 0.005) and the female Chinese subjects had significantly more varus alignment of the lower extremity (p < 0.025). Clinical Relevance: Five degrees of external rotation of the femoral component, instead of the commonly reported 3 degrees, may be required to obtain a rectangular flexion gap in total knee arthroplasty in Chinese patients. The racial difference in the knee-joint obliquity may contribute to the racial difference in the ratio of knee osteoarthritis to hip osteoarthritis. Additional studies are necessary to confirm this relationship.published_or_final_versio

Asynchronous adaptive time step in quantitative cellular automata modeling

BACKGROUND: The behaviors of cells in metazoans are context dependent, thus large-scale multi-cellular modeling is often necessary, for which cellular automata are natural candidates. Two related issues are involved in cellular automata based multi-cellular modeling: how to introduce differential equation based quantitative computing to precisely describe cellular activity, and upon it, how to solve the heavy time consumption issue in simulation. RESULTS: Based on a modified, language based cellular automata system we extended that allows ordinary differential equations in models, we introduce a method implementing asynchronous adaptive time step in simulation that can considerably improve efficiency yet without a significant sacrifice of accuracy. An average speedup rate of 4–5 is achieved in the given example. CONCLUSIONS: Strategies for reducing time consumption in simulation are indispensable for large-scale, quantitative multi-cellular models, because even a small 100 × 100 × 100 tissue slab contains one million cells. Distributed and adaptive time step is a practical solution in cellular automata environment

Association between habenula dysfunction and motivational symptoms in unmedicated major depressive disorder

The lateral habenula plays a central role in reward and punishment processing and has been suggested to drive the cardinal symptom of anhedonia in depression. This hypothesis is largely based on observations of habenula hypermetabolism in animal models of depression, but the activity of habenula and its relationship with clinical symptoms in patients with depression remains unclear. High-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and computational modelling were used to investigate the activity of the habenula during a probabilistic reinforcement learning task with rewarding and punishing outcomes in 21 unmedicated patients with major depression and 17 healthy participants. High-resolution anatomical scans were also acquired to assess group differences in habenula volume. Healthy individuals displayed the expected activation in the left habenula during receipt of punishment and this pattern was confirmed in the computational analysis of prediction error processing. In depressed patients, there was a trend towards attenuated left habenula activation to punishment, while greater left habenula activation was associated with more severe depressive symptoms and anhedonia. We also identified greater habenula volume in patients with depression, which was associated with anhedonic symptoms. Habenula dysfunction may contribute to abnormal response to punishment in patients with depression, and symptoms such as anhedonia

Case study on user knowledge and design knowledge in product form design

2003-2004 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Screening of seven microsatellite markers for litter size in Xinong Saanen dairy goat

Seven microsatellite markers OarAE101, BM1329, OarHH55, BM143, BMS2508, OarAE129 and OarFCB11 closely associated with high reproduction trait in sheep were analyzed for polymorphisms in Xinong Saanen dairy goat. The results indicated that there were high genetic polymorphisms at six microsatellite loci. The number of effective alleles (Ne), polymorphism information content (PIC) and average heterozygosity (He) were the highest at OarFCB11 and the lowest at OarAE129 in Xinong Saanen dairy goat. The analysis of the effect of the six polymorphisms microsatellite loci on the litter size of Xinong Saanen dairy goat indicated that these polymorphisms microsatellite loci had positive effect on the litter size.Key words: Microsatellite markers, Xinong Saanen dairy goat, genetic polymorphism, litter size

Overexpression of ubiquitin specific peptidase 14 predicts unfavorable prognosis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

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High expression of biglycan is associated with poor prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

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ITPKA expression is a novel prognostic factor in hepatocellular carcinoma

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