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The mucous layer that covers the intestinal absorptive surface acts as a diffusive barrier between the intestinal lumen and absorptive cells. In this report, we studied the effect of changing the body weight, intestinal mucin2 gene expression and number of goblet cells by feeding 1-d-old chicks a control diet or a diet containing either an antibiotic growth promoter or dietary essential oils (clove, coriondrum, artemisia sieberi and myrtle) at three levels. On day 42 of age two birds from each replicate were randomly selected, weight and then slaughtered. Goblet cell number was analyzed from each preparation. Mucin2 mRNA expression in intestinal jejunum tissue was quantitated using real-time quantitative PCR. We found that body weights were increased in chicks fed antibiotic and essential oil treatments compared with those fed control diet at 42 days of age (P<0.01). Dietary essential oils increased the mucin2 gene expression in the jejunum compared with the control treatment (P<0.05). In dietary essential oils fed chicks, the number of goblet cells was decreased in the small intestine compared with control treatment (P<0.05). These results indicate that essential oils altered processes of mucin biosynthesis via changes in the intestinal mucin2 gene expression and number of goblet cells. These modifications in mucin dynamics influence gut function and health and may change nutrient uptake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Drought stress is one of the most important abiotic stresses and the main constraint to rice agriculture. MicroRNA-mediated post-transcriptional gene regulation is one of the ways to establish drought stress tolerance in plants. MiRNAs are 20–24-nt regulatory RNAs that play an important role in regulating plant gene expression upon exposure to biotic and abiotic stresses. Methodology/Principal Findings: In this study, we applied a partial root drying system as well as a complete root drying system to identify miRNAs involved in conditions of drought stress, drought signaling and wet signaling using high-throughput sequencing. To this end, we produced four small RNA libraries: (1) fully-watered (WW), (2) fully-droughted (WD), and split-root systems where (3) one-half was well watered (SpWW) and (4) the other half was water-deprived (SpWD). Our analysis revealed 10,671 and 783 unique known and novel miRNA reads in all libraries, respectively. We identified, 65 (52 known + 13 novel), 72 (61 known + 11 novel) and 51 (38 known + 13 novel) miRNAs that showed differential expression under conditions of drought stress, drought signaling and wet signaling, respectively. The results of quantitative real-time PCR showed expression patterns similar to the high-throughput sequencing results. Furthermore, our target prediction led to the identification of 244, 341 and 239 unique target genes for drought-stress-, drought-signaling- and wet-signaling-responsive miRNAs, respectively. Conclusions/Significance: Our results suggest that miRNAs that are responsive under different conditions could play different roles in the regulation of abscisic acid signaling, calcium signaling, detoxification and lateral root formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Pterygium is the human eye lesion whose prevalence in the general population is estimated about 2%. The disease, in extreme phase, can lead to visual disturbance and eventually causes complete loss of vision due to the lesion growth over the papillary axis. Pterygium invasive tissue is a tumor-like tissue that is initially identified and then is attacked by cytotoxic T cells. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte associated antigen 4 (CTLA4), as a modulator molecule of the adaptive immune system, plays a critical role in maintaining peripheral T cell tolerance by diminishing its responsiveness and increasing its activation threshold. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between some epigenetic changes of the CTLA4 gene, such as promoter methylation and gene expression, and pathogenesis of pterygia. Materials and methods Genomic DNA was extracted from 75 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues of pterygia and 70 specimens of normal conjunctiva from eyes without pterygium as the control group, collected from Sistan and Baluchestan population. CTLA4 gene promoter methylation was carried out by methylation-specific PCR technique. The gene expression analysis was done on extracted total RNA from 20 healthy and 23 pterygium tissue samples using Real-Time PCR technique. Results Promoter methylation changes of CTLA4 gene were not statistically different in patients with pterygium in comparison with healthy controls (OR = 1.614; 95% CI = 0.57–4.75; P value = 0.37). However, gene expression level of CTLA4 was remarkably different in patients and healthy controls (Mean ± SD: 1.343 ± 0.133 and 2.027 ± 0.219, respectively; P value = 0.009). Conclusion This is a credible evidence of CTLA4 gene expression in human eye tissue. This first hand attempt of investigating the association of epigenetic changes of the CTLA4 gene and pathogenesis of pterygia, indicated a significant intensification of the gene expression of CTLA4 in patients with pterygia. We suggest that increasing CTLA4 gene expression can be a trigger which promotes pterygium enlargement. However, further studies on more populations with larger sample sizes need to be done to verify this hypothesis in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cDNA clone for factor 10 (FX) isolated from chicken embryo inserted into the mammalian cell expression vector pCDNA3.1 was transfected into the baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) cell line. The generated BHK-21 cells with inducible expression of FX were used to investigate the efficacy of the serine transmembrane protease to proteolytic activation of influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) with monobasic cleavage site. Data showed that the BHK-21/FX stably expressed FX after ten serial passages. The cells could proteolytically cleave the HA of low pathogenic avian influenza virus at multiplicity of infection 0.01. Growth kinetics of the virus on BHK-21/FX, BHK-21, and MDCK cells were evaluated by titrations of virus particles in each culture supernatant. Efficient multicycle viral replication was markedly detected in the cell at subsequent passages. Virus titration demonstrated that BHK-21/FX cell supported high-titer growth of the virus in which the viral titer is comparable to the virus grown in BHK-21 or MDCK cells with TPCK-trypsin. The results indicate potential application for the BHK-21/FX in influenza virus replication procedure and related studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]