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Background: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a severe chronic lung disease in preterm infants. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are key regulators of various biological processes. The present study aimed to explore the biological roles of circRNAs in BPD pathogenesis. Methods: A newborn BPD rat model was developed to construct a circRNA library; Illumina deep sequencing (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA) was used to reveal differential expression of circRNAs in the hyperoxia‐induced BPD rat models. Sanger sequencing and a reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction were performed to confirm circRNAs that may be related to BPD. After miRNA binding‐site prediction, we constructed a network diagram of circRNA‐competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) related to transforming growth factor (TGF)‐β and p53 pathways using Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis. Results: In total, 256 differentially expressed circRNAs were detected between the hyperoxia group and the normoxia group. Of these circRNAs, 195 were up‐regulated and 61 were down‐regulated. The differences of circRNA distribution between the two groups were analyzed and six circRNAs were validated in the tissue samples. GO analysis indicated that 6519 target genes were enriched in cell location and biological processes. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that circRNAs involved in 242 KEGG pathways. A network diagram of circRNA‐ceRNA related to TGF‐β and p53 pathways was constructed. Conclusions: CircRNAs are differentially expressed between the BPD model and control group. Many target genes of circRNAs are involved in the developmental process, which suggests that BPD may be associated with pathways including extracellular matrix–receptor interaction, vascular endothelial growth factor signaling and vascular smooth muscle contraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Camellia kucha, a wild tea plant with potent antioxidant potential, has been consumed as local beverage for a long history. It is featured for the presence of theacrine and low content of caffeine. Interestingly, compared with caffeine showed strong stimulant effect, theacrine showed sedation, hypnoses and promoting memory function. In this study, the anti-adipogenic ability of Kucha tea ( KT) and its main components were evaluated in mouse 3T3-L1 cells. The results indicated that KT acted significantly to decrease lipid droplet accumulation. Moreover, KT decreased the expression of major transcription factors of adipogenesis pathway, such as PPAR γ and C/ EBP α. KT also decreased the mRNA and protein levels of fatty acid synthase, fatty acid translocase, steroylcoenzyme A desaturase-1, lipoprotein lipase and acetyl-CoA carboxylase-1. Furthermore, KT suppressed the activation of ERK, p38 and JNK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amorphous selenium (a-Se) film is a promising photoconductive material for X-ray flat-panel detectors (FPD) application. However, a-Se tends to be crystalline Se at near room temperature. This remarkable temperature sensitivity limits its practical application. To prevent the near-room-temperature crystallization of a-Se film, we fabricate antimony (Sb)-doped a-Se films using a vacuum evaporation technique equipped with an in situ cooling trap. We experimentally demonstrate that the Sb doping improves the thermal stability of a-Se film while possessing a similar X-ray photoelectric conversion efficiency as the pure a-Se film. After air annealing at 50 °C for 90 min, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) results of the 4.1 at.% Sb-doped a-Se film shows no detectable crystallization diffraction peak. Upon applying an electric field of 10 V µm−1, such Sb-doped a-Se film exhibits dark current density below 1 nA cm−2, while under an X-ray dosage of about 4 mGy, the annealed Sb-doped a-Se film shows a photocurrent density of more than 100 nA cm−2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]