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The complex rheology and the phase behavior of thermally sensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) microgels have been investigated in both the swollen and collapsed states by using microrheology. To avoid the interactions between the tracer probes and the PNIPAM microgels, such as the adsorption or the depletion effect, the probes of silica (SiO2) particles have been grafted with PNIPAM chains (SiO2-PNIPAM) and characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The successful preparation of SiO2-PNIPAM has also been proved by the investigation of the particle size and morphology with dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) below and beyond the phase transition temperature of PNIPAM. The microrheology of the PNIPAM microgel suspension has been investigated by using the prepared SiO2-PNIPAM particles as microrheological probes, and the results show that the diffusive coefficient of the probes in the swollen state is one-fifth of that in the collapsed state, and the viscosity of the PNIPAM microgel suspension in the swollen state is four times higher than that in the collapsed state, indicating SiO2-PNIPAM is a good probe in the microrheological study of PNIPAM microgel suspensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at establishing a fast numerical algorithm for Bk(f), where f is any function in the Hardy space H2(Td) and k is the scale level. Here, Bk(f) is an approximation to f we recently constructed by applying the multiscale transform to the Cauchy kernel. We establish the matrix expression of Bk(f) and find that it has the structure of a multilevel Hankel matrix. Based on the structure, a fast numerical algorithm is established to compute Bk(f). The computational complexity is given. A numerical experiment is carried out to check the efficiency of our algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic inflammation can stimulate the formation and progression of atherosclerotic plaques and increase the vulnerability of plaques. However, there are few studies on the changes of carotid inflammatory plaques during treatment. Our study attempted to investigate the use of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle (SPION) ultrasound imaging to detect the expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) in patients with carotid plaques and analyze the effects of SPION ultrasound imaging in inflammatory plaque visualization effect. SPION microbubble contrast agents have good imaging effects both in vivo and in vitro. We conjugated the VCAM-1 protein to the microbubbles wrapped in SPIONs to form SPIONs carrying VCAM-1 antibodies. Observe the signal intensity of SPIONs carrying VCAM-1 antibody to arteritis plaque. The results showed that the SPION contrast agent carrying VCAM-1 antibody had higher peak gray-scale video intensity than the other two groups of contrast agents not carrying VCAM-1 antibody. It shows that SPIONs have excellent imaging effects in ultrasound imaging, can evaluate the inflammatory response of arterial plaque lesions, and are of great significance for the study of carotid inflammatory plaque changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. Dendrobium catenatum Lindl. (DH) is a Chinese herbal medicine, which is often used to make tea to improve immunity in China. Rumor has it that DH has a protective effect against cardiovascular disease. However, it is not clear how DH can prevent cardiovascular disease, such as atherosclerosis (AS). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to study whether DH can prevent AS and the underlying mechanisms. Methods. Zebrafish larvae were fed with high-cholesterol diet (HCD) to establish a zebrafish AS model. Then, we used DH water extracts (DHWE) to pretreat AS zebrafish. The plaque formation was detected by HE, EVG, and oil red O staining. Neutrophil and macrophage counts were calculated to evaluate the inflammation level. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in zebrafish were measured to reflect oxidative stress. The cholesterol accumulation and the levels of lipid, triglyceride (TG), and total cholesterol (TC) were measured to reflect lipid metabolism disorder. Then, parallel flow chamber was utilized to establish a low shear stress- (LSS-) induced endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction model. EA.hy926 cells were exposed to LSS (3 dyn/cm2) for 30 min and treated with DHWE. The levels of ROS, SOD, MDA, glutathione (GSH), and glutathiol (GSSG) in EA.hy926 cells were analysed to determine oxidative stress. The release of nitric oxide (NO), endothelin-1 (ET-1), and epoprostenol (PGI2) in EA.hy926 cells was measured to reflect EC dysfunction. The mRNA expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) in EA.hy926 cells was detected to reflect EC dysfunction inflammation. Results. The results showed that DHWE significantly reduced cholesterol accumulation and macrophage infiltration in early AS. Finally, DHWE significantly alleviate the lipid metabolism disorder, oxidative stress, and inflammation to reduce the plaque formation of AS zebrafish larval model. Meanwhile, we also found that DHWE significantly improved LSS-induced EC dysfunction and oxidative stress in vitro. Conclusion. Our results indicate that DHWE could be used as a prevention method to prevent AS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. Dendrobium catenatum Lindl. (DH) is a Chinese herbal medicine, which is often used to make tea to improve immunity in China. Rumor has it that DH has a protective effect against cardiovascular disease. However, it is not clear how DH can prevent cardiovascular disease, such as atherosclerosis (AS). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to study whether DH can prevent AS and the underlying mechanisms. Methods. Zebrafish larvae were fed with high-cholesterol diet (HCD) to establish a zebrafish AS model. Then, we used DH water extracts (DHWE) to pretreat AS zebrafish. The plaque formation was detected by HE, EVG, and oil red O staining. Neutrophil and macrophage counts were calculated to evaluate the inflammation level. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in zebrafish were measured to reflect oxidative stress. The cholesterol accumulation and the levels of lipid, triglyceride (TG), and total cholesterol (TC) were measured to reflect lipid metabolism disorder. Then, parallel flow chamber was utilized to establish a low shear stress- (LSS-) induced endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction model. EA.hy926 cells were exposed to LSS (3 dyn/cm2) for 30 min and treated with DHWE. The levels of ROS, SOD, MDA, glutathione (GSH), and glutathiol (GSSG) in EA.hy926 cells were analysed to determine oxidative stress. The release of nitric oxide (NO), endothelin-1 (ET-1), and epoprostenol (PGI2) in EA.hy926 cells was measured to reflect EC dysfunction. The mRNA expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) in EA.hy926 cells was detected to reflect EC dysfunction inflammation. Results. The results showed that DHWE significantly reduced cholesterol accumulation and macrophage infiltration in early AS. Finally, DHWE significantly alleviate the lipid metabolism disorder, oxidative stress, and inflammation to reduce the plaque formation of AS zebrafish larval model. Meanwhile, we also found that DHWE significantly improved LSS-induced EC dysfunction and oxidative stress in vitro. Conclusion. Our results indicate that DHWE could be used as a prevention method to prevent AS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scorpions, named Mesobuthus martensii, commonly called Quanxie (全蝎) in Chinese, have been widely used as one of the animal medicines for more than 1,000 years because of the strong toxicity of their venoms. Meanwhile, scorpions are sexually dimorphic in appearance, and many exhibit traits associated with sex-biased gene expression, including maternal care, mating competition, female mating choices, ecology, and even venom composition and lethality. This study aims to explore the differences in composition of the venom of scorpions of different sex using the method of transcriptomics. Whole de novo transcriptomes were performed on the samples of M. martensii captured from Gansu Province to identify their sex-biased gene expression. The conserved CO-1 sequences of the captured samples matched that of M. martensii. A total of 8,444 (35.15%), 7,636 (31.78%), 8,510 (35.42%), 7,840 (32.63%), 9,980 (41.54%), and 11,829 (49.23%) unigenes were annotated with GO, KEGG, Pfam, Swissprot, eggNOG, and NR databases. Moreover, a total of 43 metalloproteases, 40 potassium channel toxins, 24 phospholipases, 12 defensins, 10 peroxiredoxins, 9 cysteine proteinase inhibitors, 7 serine protease inhibitors, 6 sodium channel toxins, 2 NDBPs, 1 calcium channel toxin, 1 waprin-like peptide, 1 antibacterial peptide, 1 antimicrobial peptide, and 1 anticoagulant peptide were screened out. With the fold change of 2 and 0.5, p value < 0.01, and q value < 0.05 as thresholds, a total of 41 out of 157 (26.11%) toxin-related unigenes had significant differential expression, and this ratio was much higher than the ratio of differentially expressed unigenes out of all annotated ones (8.84%). Of these differentially expressed toxins, 28 were upregulated and occupied the majority, up to 68.30%. The female scorpions showed more upregulated unigenes that annotated with toxins and had the potential to be used as more effective therapeutic drugs. In addition, this method of omics can be further used as a useful way to identify the difference between female and male toxic animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, systemic autoimmune disease that commonly causes kidney damage. Therefore, we measured plasma levels of cytokines that may be related to renal dysfunction in SLE patients.Methods: To explore the differences between SLE patients with renal dysfunction and healthy volunteers, the levels of cytokines in plasma were screened using a human cytokine antibody array. Then, we chose fourteen of the elevated cytokines for verification with an expanded sample size by a human magnetic Luminex assay. Plasma samples were isolated from SLE patients (n = 72) and healthy volunteers (n = 8).Results: Cytokine antibody array data showed elevated plasma cytokines in SLE patients with renal dysfunction compared with healthy volunteers. By using the human magnetic Luminex assay, we found that plasma levels of CHI3L1, GDF-15, IGFBP-2, MIF, ST2, TFF3, and uPAR were significantly higher in SLE patients than in healthy volunteers. Plasma levels of CXCL4 were significantly lower in the active group than in the inactive group, and plasma levels of CHI3L1, IGFBP-2, MIF, and MPO were significantly higher in the active group than in the inactive group. We also analyzed the correlation between plasma cytokine levels and the SLEDAI-2K, and our results showed that the plasma levels of the fourteen selected cytokines were weakly correlated or not correlated with the SLEDAI-2K. We further analyzed the correlation between cytokines and renal dysfunction. Plasma levels of GDF-15 and TFF3 were highly positively correlated with serum creatinine levels and 24-hour urine protein levels.Conclusion: Our data suggest that plasma levels of GDF-15 and TFF3 are potential renal dysfunction markers in SLE patients, but plasma levels of these cytokines are not correlated with the SLEDAI-2K. Further study is warranted to determine how these cytokines regulate inflammatory responses and renal dysfunction in SLE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common degenerative disease in orthopedics. However, the cause and underlying molecular mechanisms are not clear. This study aims to identify the hub genes and pathways involved in the occurrence of osteoarthritis. Methods. The raw data of GSE89408 were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, and the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by R software. The DAVID database was used for pathway and gene ontology analysis, and p<0.05 and gene count >2 were set as the cut-off point. Moreover, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction was applied for exploring the hub genes in osteoarthritis. The expression levels of the top ten hub genes in knee osteoarthritis synovial membranes and controls were detected by quantitative real-time PCR system. Results. A total of 229 DEGs were identified in osteoarthritis synovial membranes compared with normal synovial membranes, including 145 upregulated and 84 downregulated differentially expressed genes. The KEGG pathway analysis results showed that up-DEGs were enriched in proteoglycans in cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, chemokine signaling pathway, rheumatoid arthritis, and TNF signaling pathway, whereas down-DEGs were enriched in the PPAR signaling pathway and AMPK signaling pathway. The qRT-PCR results showed that the expression levels of ADIPOQ, IL6, and CXCR1 in the synovium of osteoarthritis were significantly increased (p <0.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The effects of n-propyl gallate ( nPG) on postharvest ripening of tomato have been studied. Mature green (MG) stage tomatoes were harvest and treated with 0.5 mM nPG at 25 ± 1C for 12 h. Following the nPG treatment, fruit ripening was delayed by at least 7 days. Cyanide-resistant respiration and ethylene production were suppressed significantly at the first 7 days. nPG treatment decreased levels of H2O2 and increased activities of antioxidant enzymes and chemicals, particularly for superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) and ascorbic acid (AsA). The decreases of flesh firmness and total chlorophylls were inhibited, and the production of soluble sugars and lycopene were suppressed by nPG either. Alternative oxidase (AOX) and cyanide-resistant respiration play important roles in fruit climacteric and may be correlated with system 2 ethylene production. nPG could be used as an efficient inhibitor to tomato fruit ripening. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Control of fruit ripening is of enormous commercial importance. Generally, tomato fruit ripening is controlled through the use of gas, temperature and humidity control. This research has focused on the application of n-propyl gallate ( nPG) on postharvest ripening of tomato fruit. The results of the study have implied that nPG treatment could obviously prolong the shelf life and keep the postharvest quality of tomato fruits, and the firmness loss, respiration rate and ethylene production could be better suppressed compared with the control fruits, which shows that nPG is a potentially effective and safe inhibitor for climacteric fruits ripening, such as tomato. Utilization of the results of this research is likely to benefit for the storage technological improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]