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Benign prostatic hyperplasia ( BPH) is a prevalent disease globally, and accumulating evidence has indicated an association between BPH, insulin resistance ( IR) and diabetes. Exendin-4 is widely used in clinics, which could enhance the proliferation of pancreatic β cells. The ability of exendin-4 to promote tumorigenesis has been of concern, and whether exendin-4 would enhance the propagation of BPH is not fully understood. We aimed to determine whether glucagon-like peptide-1 receptors ( GLP-1 Rs) were expressed in rat prostate and to determine the effect of exendin-4 on prostate of BPH. Male Wistar rats were used and assigned to six groups: normal diet ( ND), high-fat diet ( HFD), HFD + exendin-4, HFD + BPH, HFD + BPH + exendin-4 and HFD + BPH + rosiglitazone group. After castration, steroids were injected subcutaneously for 4 weeks to induce BPH. Rats were kept on high-fat diet to induce IR. Treatment groups were treated with exendin-4 and rosiglitazone. Prostatic index and HOMA- IR index were used to evaluate the prostatic hyperplasia status and the degree of IR respectively. The expression of GLP-1 R was indicated not only by immunohistochemistry, but also by Western blot analysis. The expression of GLP-1 R was significantly higher, and HOMA-I R index and body weight significantly decreased after administration of exendin-4. However, no significant differences in the prostatic index were observed between exendin-4 treatment groups and non-exendin-4 treatment groups. Prostatic index was not influenced by exendin-4 maybe by improving IR and weight loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marek's disease (MD) is a neoplastic disease in chickens, caused by the Marek's disease virus (MDV). To investigate host genetic resistance to MD, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 67 MDV-infected chickens based on a case and control design, including 57 susceptible chickens in the case group and 10 resistant chickens as controls. After searching 38 655 valid genomic markers, two SNPs were found to be associated with host resistance to MD. One SNP, rs14527240, reaching chromosome-wide significance level ( P < 0.01) was located in the SPARC-related modular calcium-binding 1 ( SMOC1) gene on GGA5. The other one, GGaluGA156129, reaching genome-wide significance ( P < 0.05), was located in the protein tyrosine phosphatase, non-receptor type 3 ( PTPN3) gene on GGA2. In addition, expression patterns of these two genes in spleens were detected by qPCR. The expression of SMOC1 was significantly up-regulated ( P < 0.05), whereas the expression of PTNP3 did not show significance when the case group was compared with the control group. Up-regulation of SMOC1 in susceptible spleens suggests its important roles in MD tumorigenesis. This is the first study to investigate MD-resistant loci, and it demonstrates the power of GWASs for mapping genes associated with MD resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary To elucidate the origin and genetic structure of the domesticated duck in Eurasia and North America, we sequenced 114 duck D-loop sequences and retrieved 489 D-loop sequences from GenBank. In total, 603 ducks including 50 duck breeds/populations from eight countries (China, France, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Thailand and USA) were used in this study. One hundred and thirty-four haplotypes and 81 variable sites were detected. H49 was the predominant haplotype, which was considered to be the same dominant haplotype found in the previous studies, and was found in 309 birds. The smallest values for both genetic differentiation index ( FST, 0.04156) and the number of the net nucleotide substitutions between two populations ( DA, 0.00018) were observed between Eurasian domestic ducks and Eurasian mallards. No geography, breed or population clusters were observed in the Eurasian domestic ducks and mallards. Five haplotypes were shared by USA mallards and Eurasian domestic duck/Eurasian mallards. Only one haplotype (H49) was shared by Eurasian domestic ducks and China spot-billed ducks. By combining phylogenetic analyses, haplotype network profile, genetic distances and shared haplotypes, we can draw two major conclusions: (i) Eurasian and North American mallards show a clear geographic distribution pattern; (ii) Eurasian domestic ducks are derived from the Eurasian mallards, not from the spot-billed ducks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of mutations of basal core promoter (BCP) and precore (PreC) region of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and their association with hepatocellular carcinoma. A total of 341 untreated older HBV patients were divided into three groups: chronic hepatitis B (CHB, 185), cirrhotic hepatocellular carcinoma (LC-HCC, 113) and non-cirrhotic hepatocellular carcinoma (non-LC-HCC, 43). HBV BCP and PreC mutations and genotypes were determined by direct sequencing. Using univariate analysis, age (≥45 years), single mutations including A1896 and A1899 and multiple mutations T1762/A1764 + A1896, T1762/A1764 + A1899 and T1762/A1764 + A1896 + A1899 were more frequently detected in LC-HCC and non-LC-HCC patients than in CHB patients. BCP T1762/A1764 mutations were highly detected in LC-HCC patients than in CHB patients. Multivariate logistic regression analysis (adjusted for age and gender) revealed that among HBeAg-positive patients, BCP T1762/A1764 mutations (OR, 5.975; P = 0.05), PreC A1899 mutation (OR, 4.180; P = 0.013) and multiple mutations T1762/A1764 + A1899 (OR, 6.408; P = 0.006) were independently associated with the development of LC-HCC; PreC A1899 mutation (OR, 7.347; P = 0.034) was also independently associated with the development of non-LC-HCC. On the other hand, among HBeAg-negative patients, PreC A1896 mutation (OR, 5.176; P = 0.002) and multiple mutations T1762/A1764 + A1896 (OR, 4.149; P = 0.007) were independently associated with the development of non-LC-HCC. These results indicated that older age (≥45 years) was associated with LC-HCC and non-LC-HCC development. BCP T1762/A1764 mutations and PreC A1899 mutation were associated with the LC-HCC development in HBeAg-positive patients. PreC A1896 mutation was associated with the non-LC-HCC development in HBeAg-negative patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mixed-potential, spatial-domain integral equation approach is used to model the coupling and junction effects when microstrip structures in two different layers of a common substrate are crossing each other. A Galerkin method, together with the so-culled pseudo-mesh current distribution for the basis functions, is then applied to accurately characterize multiport junctions. As an example, a four-port crossover of two microstrip transmission lines is characterized in terms of the S-parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]