Search

Objective: To investigate the effects of acupuncture on learning and memory impairment, oxidative stress and autophagy induced by sleep depriv ation in rats, and to analyze the related mechanism., Methods: Thirty Wistar rats were randomly divided into a normal group, sleep deprivation group and acupuncture group. The rat model of sleep deprivation was established by a modified multiplatform sleep deprivation method. The Baihui (GV20), Shenmen (HT7) and Sanyinjiao (SP6) acupoints of rats were located to give electroacupuncture (density wave, frequency 20 Hz, intensity 1 mA) to maintain the needle feeling, and to keep the needle for 15 min and continuous acupuncture for 7 d. The spatial learning and memory abilities of the rats were detected by the water maze test. The content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) in the brain were detected by an assay kit, and the autophagy related proteins light chain 3 alpha (LC3A), light chain 3 beta (LC3B) and Beclin 1 and the activation of the protein kinase B (PKB/AKT) and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway in the rat's brain were detected by Western blotting., Results: Compared with the normal group, the time spent in the target quadrant ( P < 0.05) and the number of times entering the target quadrant ( P < 0.05) in the rats of sleep deprivation group were significantly reduced, and the content of MDA was significantly increased ( P < 0.01), while the activities of SOD and GPX ( P < 0.01) in the brain were significantly decreased, and LC3A Ⅱ/Ⅰ, LC3B Ⅱ/Ⅰ and Beclin 1 increased significantly ( P < 0.01), while p-AKT (ser473)/AKT, p-mTOR (ser2448)/mTOR and p-p70s6K (thr389)/p70S6 decreased significantly ( P < 0.01). Compared with the sleep deprivation group, the time spent in the target quadrant and the times of entering the target quadrant ( P < 0.05) in the rats of acupuncture group after 7 d of treatment were significantly increased, Additionally, the content of MDA was significantly decreased ( P < 0.05), while the activities of SOD and GPX ( P < 0.05) in the brain were significantly increased. Moreover, the levels of LC3A Ⅱ/Ⅰ, LC3BⅡ/Ⅰ and Beclin 1 decreased significantly ( P < 0.05), and that of p-AKT (ser473)/AKT, p-mTOR (ser2448)/mTOR and p-p70s6K (thr389)/p70s6k increased significantly ( P < 0.05)., Conclusion: Acupuncture can significantly improve the learning and memory damage caused by sleep deprivation and inhibit oxidative stress and autophagy, and its effect is related to the activation of AKT/mTOR signaling.

Background: In China, lotus is an important cultivated crop with multiple applications in ornaments, food, and environmental purification. Adventitious roots (ARs), a secondary root is necessary for the uptake of nutrition and water as the lotus principle root is underdeveloped. Therefore, AR formation in seedlings is very important for lotus breeding due to its effect on plant early growth. As lotus ARs formation was significantly affected by sucrose treatment, we analyzed the expression of genes and miRNAs upon treatment with differential concentrations of sucrose, and a crosstalk between sucrose and IAA was also identified., Results: Notably, 20 mg/L sucrose promoted the ARs development, whereas 60 mg/L sucrose inhibited the formation of ARs. To investigate the regulatory pathway during ARs formation, the expression of genes and miRNAs was evaluated by high-throughput tag-sequencing. We observed that the expression of 5438, 5184, and 5345 genes was enhanced in the GL20/CK0, GL60/CK0, and CK1/CK0 libraries, respectively. Further, the expression of 73, 78, and 71 miRNAs was upregulated in the ZT20/MCK0, ZT60/MCK0, and MCK1/MCK0 libraries, respectively. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis revealed that most of the differentially expressed genes and miRNAs in the GL20/GL60 and ZT20/ZT60 libraries were involved in signal transduction. A large number of these genes (29) and miRNAs (53) were associated with plant hormone metabolism. We observed an association between five miRNAs (miR160, miR156a-5p, miR397-5p&#95;1, miR396a and miR167d) and nine genes (auxin response factor, protein brassinosteroid insensitive 1, laccase, and peroxidase 27) in the ZT20/ ZT60 libraries during ARs formation. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to validate the high-throughput tag-sequencing data., Conclusions: We found that the expression of many critical genes involved in IAA synthesis and IAA transport was changed after treatment with various concentration of sucrose. Based on the change of these genes expression, IAA and sucrose content, we concluded that sucrose and IAA cooperatively regulated ARs formation. Sucrose affected ARs formation by improving IAA content at induction stage, and increased sucrose content might be also required for ARs development according to the changes tendency after application of exogenous IAA.

MicroRNA (miRNA)-regulated gene expression plays an important role in various plant metabolic processes. Although adventitious roots are critical to plant growth in lotus, the role of miRNA in AR formation remains unclear. Expression profiling of miRNAs was carried out during three different developmental stages of ARs in lotus: no induction of AR stage, initial stage of ARs, and maximum number of ARs. These data are referenced with the whole lotus genome as already identified through high-throughput tag-sequencing. 1.3 × 10 7 tags were achieved, of which 11,035,798, 11,436,062, and 12,542,392 clean tags were obtained from each stage, respectively. miRNA analysis revealed that miRNAs were less than 10% among all small RNAs. In total, 310 miRNAs (240 up-regulated and 70 down-regulated miRNAs) exhibited expression changes from the no induction stage to the initial stage. Moreover, expression of 140 miRNAs was increased and that of 123 miRNAs was decreased between the initial and maximum AR stages, mostly by ~ - 4-4-fold. miRNAs involved in metabolic pathways differed between the initial stage/no induction stage and the maximum number stage/initial stage. Several miRNAs in the initial stage/no induction stage were related to plant hormone metabolism and pyruvate and MAPK pathways, while major miRNAs in the maximum number stage/initial stage were involved in carbohydrate metabolism. All differentially expressed miRNAs associated with AR formation from the initial stage to maximum stage were also analyzed. The expression of 16 miRNAs was determined using qRT-PCR. This work provides a general insight into miRNA regulation during AR formation in lotus.

Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the third leading cause of blindness and the first one in the elderly. AMD usually causes central blindness due to loss of photoreceptor cell . In this paper, we propose to detect AMD caused vision impairment from gaze data. Compared with the current methods, e.g., Amsler grid, Microperimetry and Preferential Hyperacuity Perimetry, to detect vision impairments, the proposed method has several advantages. 1) It does not require the patient to stare at a fixed position throughout the test. 2) It does not require the patient to orally or manually report / mark out the vision impairment. 3) It is easy to operate thus a trained nurse is capable of operating the test. We collect gaze data while the patient is performing fixation and smooth pursuit. Features describing the gaze properties are extracted and SVM with linear kernel is trained to detect AMD impaired vision. To implement the proposed method, we collected gaze data of 74 eyes of 57 patients, who are diagnosed as AMD patient by clinicians. Nidek Microperimetry is adopted as gold standard. 57 eyes with normal vision and 17 eyes with impaired vision (blind at more than half test points in Nidek test) are used for test. The result verifies the effectiveness of detecting vision impairment from gaze data.

Visual impairment associated with Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) often results in a central scotoma which is an alteration in the central vision, leading to distortion or loss of vision. Current methods for assessing visual performance such as Amsler grid and Microperimetry are typically manual and have limitations as an indicator of visual field. In this paper, we present an automated system for detecting visual impairment through gaze tracking (AVIGA). Two types of assessments namely, Impulse Stimuli Response (ISR) test and Pursuit Stimuli Response (PSR) test were implemented in AVIGA system. A Support Vector Regression (SVR)-based approach is applied on the assessment results to differentiate the severity of visual impairment. The results show that AVIGA system is well-correlated to visual acuity test (VA) and performs better in identifying presence of visual impairments in eyes, compared to Microperimetry.

Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of blindness in the elderly. Visual loss associated with AMD often results in a central scotoma which is an alteration in the central vision, leading to distortion or loss of vision. Current methods of detecting AMD are typically manual, require holding fixation and an external response trigger. In this paper, we propose the use of eyegaze tracking to detect for the presence of AMD, using a simple set of test patterns. Experimental results show that the derived eyegaze measurements can help to identify individuals with AMD from healthy individuals. This could lead to the detection of AMD using eye tracking data, and could result in a potential system device for screening.