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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of diosgenin on the D-galactose-induced cerebral cortical widely dispersed apoptosis. Male 12-week-old Wistar rats were divided into four groups: Control (1[Formula: see text]mg/kg/day of saline, i.p.), DD0 (150[Formula: see text]mg/kg/day of D-galactose, i.p.), DD10, and DD50 (D-galactose[Formula: see text] or 50[Formula: see text]mg/kg/day of diosgenin orally). After eight weeks, histopathological analysis, positive TUNEL and Western blotting assays were performed on the excised cerebral cortex from all four groups. The TUNEL-positive apoptotic cells, the components of Fas pathway (Fas, FADD, active caspase-8 and active caspase-3), and mitochondria pathway (t-Bid, Bax, cytochrome [Formula: see text], active caspase-9 and active caspase-3) were increased in the DD0 group compared with the control group, whereas they were decreased in the DD50 group. The components of survival pathway (p-Bad, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, IGF-1, p-PI3K and p-AKT) were increased in the DD50 group compared to the control group, whereas the levels of Bcl-xL, p-PI3K, and p-AKT were also compensatorily increased in the DD0 group compared to the control group. Taken together, diosgenin suppressed D-galactose-induced neuronal Fas-dependent and mitochondria-dependent apoptotic pathways and enhanced the Bcl-2 family associated pro-survival and IGF-1-PI3K-AKT survival pathways, which might provide neuroprotective effects of diosgenin for prevention of the D-galactose-induced aging brain.

Synthesis of Ⅱa industrial diamond with high quality at high temperature and high pressure (HTHP) was examined in this paper and Ⅱa industrial diamonds were synthesized successfully. The experimental results show that the lowest synthesis pressure of diamond changed significantly which goes down firstly, and then up with the increasing of Ti content. It is discovered by optical microscopy that the color of synthesizing diamond in nitrogen getter system is lighter than that in raw catalyst power system and most crystals are hexahedrons & octahedrons. The experiment results measured by IR analysis shows that nitrogen content in synthesizing diamond in nitrogen getter system is significantly lower than that in the raw catalyst power system. Surface morphology of diamond synthesized in two different systems is investigated by the aid of SEM.

Interleukin (IL)-15 is an important inflammatory cytokine and plays a key role in autoimmune disease. At present, IL-15 gene expression and regulation related to many innate immunity trigger signals have been clarified in some specific cell types, but the relationship of IL-6 and IL-15 in the human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT) is unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of IL-6 on the expression of IL-15 and selected signaling pathways in HaCaT cells. Results demonstrated that IL-6 up-regulated the expression of IL-15 both at the mRNA and protein levels. Meanwhile, IL-6 was able to activate MAPKs-ERK1/2 and PI3K-AKT signaling pathways. Furthermore, the high expression of IL-15 induced by IL-6 was down-regulated while MAPKs-ERK1/2 and PI3K-AKT signaling pathways were, respectively, blocked by PD98059 and LY294002. These findings indicate that the expression of IL-15 up-regulated by IL-6 is associated with MAPKs-ERK1/2 and PI3K-AKT signaling pathways in HaCaT cells.

A number of studies have shown that TiN film is correlated with corrosion resistance. In this study, we used a reactive direct current magnetron sputtering system to prepare TiN coating on Mg-Li alloys at low temperature. The intermediate TiN layer of thickness was about 1.6 μm from Ti target (99.99% purity). The structures of the resulting nanocatalysts were investigated, using X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). The surface morphology of the coating was observed by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). In the corrosive compare experiment the samples of Mg-Li alloys with and without titanium nitride film were put in solution with 5% NaCl respectively. We fund that the Mg-Li alloys with TiN coating has a lower rate of liberation of hydrogen, and the eroded surface morphology was examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), it prove that the TiN deposition on the surface of Mg-Li alloys has improved the corrosion resistance performance.

Interferons (IFNs) can activate the PI3K-AKT and Raf-MEK-ERK signal pathways and induce antiviral proteins (MxA, 2′,5′-OAS and PKR) expression in specific cell lines. However, the relationship between those antiviral proteins expression and signal pathways remains unknown at present. Thus our experiments were designed to determine the exact relationship in HepG2.2.15 cell line. The results demonstrated that IFN-α and IL-29 were both able to activate PI3K-AKT and Raf-MEK-ERK signal pathways, and IFN-α up-regulated the expression of MxA, 2′,5′-OAS and PKR whereas IL-29 increased mRNA expression of MxA and 2′,5′-OAS and had no influence on PKR. Furthermore, MxA, 2′,5′-OAS and PKR expression were down-regulated while PI3K-AKT signal pathway was blocked by LY294002. And MxA was up-regulated after Raf-MEK-ERK signal pathway being blocked by PD98059. These findings indicate that the expression of MxA, 2′,5′-OAS and PKR are up-regulate by PI3K-AKT signal pathway, and Raf-MEK-ERK signal pathway has a negative regulatory effect on the expression of MxA and no significant effect on 2′,5′-OAS and PKR.

Interleukin 29 (IL-29) is a class II cytokine and displays numerous immune functions other than its anti-viral and antiproliferation activities. This study is focused on the effect of IL-29 on human keratinocytes (KCs). Primary KCs were stimulated by various concentrations of IL-29 for different time periods, and antiviral proteins and TLR3 gene expression were then analyzed by real-time PCR. The signal pathways activated by IL-29 in KCs were detected by western blot. The antiviral activity of IL-29 was determined by methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide, and small interfering RNA knockdown was used to analyze the role of toll receptor 3 (TLR3) in the antiviral activity of IL-29. IL-29 was able to induce expression of antiviral proteins and TLR3 gene expression in KCs. IL-29 pretreatment strongly enhanced herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1)-induced expression of the interferon β (IFN-β) gene and protected the KCs from HSV-1 challenge. The IL-29 antiviral activity was partially dependent on TLR3 expression induced by this cytokine, and mechanistic studies demonstrated that the regulation of TLR3 expression by IL-29 might be partially dependent on Janus kinase /signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK–STATs) activation. IL-29-induced TLR3 expression is involved in antiviral activity of IL-29 in KCs, which suggests a feasible method to cure certain viral infections of the skin.