Endometrial P2X3 expression in women with and without endometriosis.

<p>Endometrial P2X3 expression in women with and without endometriosis.</p

Correlation of VAS score and P2X3 expression IHC score in endometriosis endometrium and endometriotic lesions.

<p>A. endometriosis endometrium; B. endometriotic lesions. (VAS), Visual analog scale; (IHC), Immunohistochemical staining. The IHC scores of P2X3 expression in endometriosis endometrium and endometriotic lesions were both correlated with VAS score in women with endometriosis (<i>P</i><0.05).</p

ATP concentrations in ESCs after treated with IL-1ß.

<p>(ATP), Adenosine triphosphate; (ESCs), Endometriotic stromal cells. ATP concentrations (nM) in ESCs after treated with IL-1 ß (10ng/ml) were quickly increased at 1 min, continued to increase at 2 min, reached the peak value at 3 min, and then gradually decreased at 4min. Compared with the initiate level, the significant difference was observed at 2 and 3 minute. (*<i>P</i><0.05.)</p

The changed levels of p-ERK, p-CREB, and P2X3 expression in ESCs after treated with ATP and ERK inhibitor.

<p>(A, B, C and D), The ESCs were treated with ATP alone; (E, F, G and H), The ESCs were pretreated with ERK inhibitor for 45min, and then treated with ATP. ESCs: Endometriotic stromal cells. <b>A.</b> The levels of P2X3 mRNA expression in ESCS increased at 15min, 30 min and 1h after treated with ATP. <b>B.</b> Western blot showed a specific band (47 kDa) for P2X3, and the levels of P2X3 expression in ESCs increased at 15min, continued to increase at 30min, reached the peak value at 1h, and then gradually decreased at 2h. <b>C.</b> Western blot showed two bands (42/44 kDa) for p-ERK, and the levels of p-ERK expression in ESCs reached the peak value at 15min, and then gradually decreased at 30min. <b>D.</b> Western blot showed a specific band (45 kDa) for p-CREB, and the levels of p-CREB expression in ESCs increased at 15min, reached the peak value at 30min, and then gradually decreased at 1h. <b>E.</b> The elevated levels of P2X3 mRNA induced by ATP were totally blocked by ERK1/2 inhibitor. <b>F.</b> The levels of P2X3 protein expression in ESCs did not increase at any time points. <b>G.</b> The levels of p-ERK expression in ESCs significantly decreased at any time points. <b>H.</b> The levels of p-CREB expression in ESCs at any time points except at 1h did not increase. (* <i>P</i><0.05. **P<0.01. ***<i>P</i><0.00001.)</p

Probabilistic inference of binary Markov random fields in spiking neural networks through mean-field approximation

Recent studies have suggested that the cognitive process of the human brain is realized as probabilistic inference and can be further modeled by probabilistic graphical models like Markov random fields. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how probabilistic inference can be implemented by a network of spiking neurons in the brain. Previous studies have tried to relate the inference equation of binary Markov random fields to the dynamic equation of spiking neural networks through belief propagation algorithm and reparameterization, but they are valid only for Markov random fields with limited network structure. In this paper, we propose a spiking neural network model that can implement inference of arbitrary binary Markov random fields. Specifically, we design a spiking recurrent neural network and prove that its neuronal dynamics are mathematically equivalent to the inference process of Markov random fields by adopting mean-field theory. Furthermore, our mean-field approach unifies previous works. Theoretical analysis and experimental results, together with the application to image denoising, demonstrate that our proposed spiking neural network can get comparable results to that of mean-field inference

The changed levels of p-ERK, p-CREB, and P2X3 expressions in ESCs after treated with IL-1β and ERK inhibitor.

<p>(A, B, C and D), The ESCs were treated with IL-1β alone; (E, F, G and H), The ESCs were pretreated with ERK inhibitor for 45min, and then treated with IL-1β. <b>A.</b> Real time PCR analysis showed that the levels of P2X3 mRNA were significantly higher at 15min, 2h and 24h after IL-1β treatment. <b>B.</b> Western blot showed a specific band (47 kDa) for P2X3, and the levels of P2X3 expression in ESCs increased at 15min, continued increasing at 30min, reached the peak value at 1h, and then gradually decreased at 2h. <b>C.</b> Western blot showed two bands (42/44 kDa) for p-ERK, and the levels of p-ERK expression in ESCs reached the peak value at 15min, and then gradually decreased at 30min. <b>D.</b> Western blot showed a specific band (45 kDa) for p-CREB, and the levels of p-CREB expression in ESCs increased at 15min, reached the peak value at 30min, and then gradually decreased at 1h. <b>E.</b> ERK inhibitor blocked the elevation of P2X3 mRNA levels in ESCs after IL-1β treatment. <b>F.</b> The levels of P2X3 expression in ESCs did not increase at any time points. <b>G.</b> The levels of p-ERK expression in ESCs were significantly decreased at any time points. <b>H.</b> The levels of p-CREB expression in ESCs at 15min, 30min and 1h but not at 2h and 24h were significantly increased. (ESCs), Endometriotic stromal cells. (* <i>P</i><0.05. **<i>P</i><0.01. ***<i>P</i><0.00001.)</p

Comparisons of P2X3 protein levels among different endometrial tissues.

<p>A. Western blot showed a specific band (55 kDa) for P2X3 in ectopic, eutopic and control endometrium. B. The levels of P2X3 protein expression in the eutopic and ectopic endometrium of women with endometriosis were both significantly higher as compared with control endometrium from women without endometriosis. C. Both in ectopic and eutopic endometrium, the levels of P2X3 protein expression significantly increased from endometriosis patients with pain than those without pain. D. There was a positive correlation between P2X3 expression levels in ectopic or eutopic endometrium which were isolated from the same patient. As an endogenous control protein, GAPDH protein expression levels showed similar among ectopic, eutopic or control endometrium. (Ec), Ectopic endometrium; (Eu), Eutopic endometrium; (Con), Control endometrium. (*<i>P</i><0.05. **<i>P</i><0.01.)</p

Double-labelling immunofluorescence staining for P2X3 and CGRP in endometriotic lesions.

<p>(A), P2X3 expression; (B), CGRP expression; (C), Co-expression of P2X3 and CGRP. An arrow indicating the expressions of P2X3 and/or CGRP. (C: Merge. Original magnification 400×; Bar = 50 μm).</p

P2X3-immunoreactive staining in endometriosis endometrium and endometriotic lesions as compared with control endometrium.

<p>(A), Control endometrium from a woman without endometriosis; (B), Endometriosis endometrium from a woman with ovarian endometriosis; (C), Ovarian endometriotic lesions from a woman with ovarian endometriosis. The immunohistochemistry (IHC) score of P2X3 expression in endometriosis endometrium and endometriotic lesions were both significantly higher as compared with control endometrium (<i>P</i><0.05; Original magnification 400×; Bar = 50 μm).</p

Subject’s characteristics in women with and without endometriosis.

<p>Subject’s characteristics in women with and without endometriosis.</p