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Background The peritoneal solute transport rate (PSTR) tends to increase over time in some patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD), potentially leading to ultrafiltration (UF) failure. Previous case reports have shown a significant decrease in PSTR and subsequent recovery of UF after discontinuing PD for a while. Therefore, we conducted a randomized controlled crossover study to evaluate the impact of short-term peritoneal rest on PSTR. Methods The study involved 14 continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients with high/high-average transport rate. Two groups were randomly assigned different treatment sequences: one group underwent daily intermittent peritoneal dialysis (IPD) for 4 weeks followed by CAPD, while the other group initially received CAPD treatment for 4 weeks and then switched to IPD. Peritoneal equilibration tests were performed before and after each treatment to evaluate PSTR and paired t -tests were used to compare the changes. Volume load, serum potassium and other clinical indicators were monitored at the same time. Results Short-term peritoneal rest (daily IPD) significantly reduced PSTR, with a decrease in the dialysate:plasma creatinine ratio from 0.71 ± 0.05 to 0.65 ± 0.07 (P  < .001). Additionally, ultrafiltration significantly increased from 210 ± 165 ml to 407 ± 209 ml (P  = .001). But there were no significant changes in interleukin-6 and vascular endothelial growth factor of PD effluent. No serious adverse events such as hypotension or hyperkalaemia occurred. Conclusions In PD patients with high and high-average transport, a 4-week period of short-term peritoneal rest by switching from CAPD to IPD (without long dwell) can lead to reductions in PSTR and increases in UF volumes, while maintaining clinical safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought stress can reduce strawberry yield and quality and is one of the main abiotic factors restricting strawberry production in China. Nano-agricultural technology has significant regulatory effects in improving crop yield and quality and reducing agricultural environmental pollution. We performed a pot experiment using FenYu No. 1 strawberry and applied copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) and selenium NPs (SeNPs) to study their effects on the growth, quality, photosynthetic parameter indexes, and physiological characteristics of strawberry plants under drought stress. The growth and photosynthesis of strawberry plants were significant adversely affected by moderate drought stress (DS, 60% field capacity (FC)) and severe drought stress (SS, 25% FC). Compared with normal water-holding conditions, the application of CuNPs, SeNPs, and their combination effectively increased the agronomic traits of strawberry plants; improved fruit quality; and enhanced the content of photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and total chlorophyll), photosynthetic characteristic parameters, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, and water-use efficiency. In addition, the exogenous application of CuNPs and SeNPs improved the drought tolerance of plants by increasing the activities of antioxidant enzymes catalase, peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase, and decreasing the malondialdehyde content, with the following overall trend among the treatments: control < CuNPs < SeNPs < CuNPs + SeNPs. The results of the principal component analysis showed that the two extracted principal components could reflect 85.54% of the information of the original data, leaf photosynthetic pigments, photosynthetic characteristic parameters, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, and strawberry agronomic traits indexes and could be used as the primary indexes for evaluating the improvement of strawberry growth by nanofertilizers under drought-stress conditions. Taken together, our results indicate that nanofertilizers have potential for improving the growth, quality, and physiological characteristics of strawberries under drought stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Casein kinase II subunit alpha (CK2[alpha]) is highly expressed in many malignant tumor tissues, including lymphomas and leukemia. To investigate the role of CK2[alpha] in cell proliferation and apoptosis of malignant lymphomas and leukemia, 2 lymphoma cell lines and one leukemia cell line were infected with CK2[alpha] shRNA lentivirus or negative control shRNA lentivirus, and stably infected cell lines were established. Real-time PCR and Western blot results showed that the mRNA and protein levels of CK2[alpha] were significantly reduced in CK2[alpha] knockdown cells. The tetrazolium-based colorimetric (MTT) assay found that down-regulation of CK2[alpha] inhibited the proliferation of these cells. Flow cytometry analysis showed that inhibition of CK2[alpha] induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of lymphoma and leukemia cells. In accordance with these, down-regulation of CK2[alpha] also reduced the protein levels of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), cyclinD1, and bcl-2, and increased the protein expression of bax, cleaved caspase-3, cleaved caspase-9, and cleaved poly(ADP ribose) polymerase (PARP). Moreover, knockdown of CK2[alpha] impeded the growth of xenograft tumors in vivo. In summary, our study revealed that CK2[alpha] may contribute to the development of malignant lymphoma and leukemia, and serve as the therapeutic target of these malignant tumors.Key words: malignant lymphoma, CK2[alpha], proliferation, apoptosis, xenografts.La CK2[alpha] est fortement exprimee dans plusieurs tissus tumoraux, y compris dans les lymphomes et les leucemies. Afin d'examiner le role de la CK2[alpha] dans la proliferation et l'apoptose des lymphomes malins et des leucemies, deux lignees cellulaires de lymphome et une lignee de leucemie ont ete infectees avec un lentivirus comportant un ARNsh de la CK2[alpha] ou un lentivirus controle comprenant un ARNsh neutre. Des lignees cellulaires infectees de maniere stable ont ete etablies. Les resultats de la PCR en temps reel et du transfert de Western ont montre que les niveaux d'ARNm et proteiques de la CK2[alpha] etaient significativement reduits chez les cellules soumises au knockdown de la CK2[alpha]. Le dosage colorimetrique a base de tetrazolium (MTT) montrait que la regulation a la baisse de la CK2[alpha] inhibait la proliferation des cellules. L'analyse en cytometrie de flux revelait que l'inhibition de la CK2[alpha] provoquait un arret du cycle cellulaire et l'apoptose des cellules de lymphome et de leucemie. Conformement a ces resultats, la regulation a la baisse de la CK2[alpha] reduisait aussi les niveaux proteiques de l'antigene nucleaire de proliferation cellulaire PCNA, de la cycline D1 et de bcl-2, et elle augmentait l'expression proteique de bax, de la caspase-3 clivee, de la caspase-9 clivee et de la PARP clivee. Qui plus est, le knockdown de la CK2[alpha] ralentissait la croissance de xenogreffes tumorales in vivo.En resume, l'etude des auteurs a revele que la CK2[alpha] peut contribuer au developpement du lymphome malin et de la leucemie et servir de cible therapeutique dans ces tumeurs malignes. [Traduit par la Redaction]Mots-cles: lymphome malin, CK2[alpha], proliferation, apoptose, xenogreffe., IntroductionMalignant lymphoma is a group of immune cell tumors that arise from the lymph nodes or other lymphoid tissues. There are 25 000 new cases annually, and nearly 20 000 [...]