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The microstructure evolution of secondary austenite in 2507 duplex stainless steel was investigated by means of optical metallography, scanning electron microscopy and confocal scanning laser microscopy. Four types of secondary austenite (γ2) morphologies including partially transformed austenite, grain boundary austenite, Widmannstatten austenite (WA) and intragranular austenite could be formed during cooling after solution treatment. It was concluded that secondary austenite morphology was mainly dependent on cooling rates. Two mechanisms of WA formation were proposed. WA nucleated at grain boundary of ferrite or at the formed phase boundary. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis displayed that WA grew in parallel to the ferrite. The effects of Cr2N on secondary austenite precipitation were discussed in detail. Once Cr2N was involved, a mechanism was proposed that secondary austenite formed by element diffusion, leading to the migration of the austenite–ferrite interface. Cr2N acted as the nucleation sites for γ2 and provided the nitrogen for the transformation; meanwhile, the precipitation of Cr2N during the rapid cooling was captured by TEM. A process of nucleation followed by diffusion was concluded to be the formation of secondary austenite with no Cr2N precipitated. The decomposition of secondary austenite was also studied, which was found to be a diffusion mechanism followed by displacement in connection with the element distribution.

Magnaporthe oryzae is an important plant pathogen that causes rice blast. Hse1 and Vps27 are components of ESCRT-0 involved in the multivesicular body (MVB) sorting pathway and biogenesis. To date, the biological functions of ESCRT-0 in M. oryzae have not been determined. In this study, we identified and characterized Hse1 and Vps27 in M. oryzae. Disruption of MoHse1 and MoVps27 caused pleiotropic defects in growth, conidiation, sexual development, and pathogenicity, thereby resulting in loss of virulence in rice and barley leaves. Disruption of MoHse1 and MoVps27 triggered increased lipidation of MoAtg8 and degradation of GFP-MoAtg8, indicating that ESCRT-0 is involved in the regulation of autophagy. ESCRT-0 was determined to interact with coat protein complex II (COPII), a regulator functioning in homeostasis of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER homeostasis), and disruption of MoHse1 and MoVps27 also blocked activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) and autophagy of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER-phagy). Overall, our results indicate that ESCRT-0 plays critical roles in regulating fungal development, virulence, autophagy, and ER-phagy in M. oryzae. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

There have been many clinical trials, systematic reviews/Meta-analysis proving that Xingnaojing Injection has a good clinical efficacy in treatment of cerebral ischaemic stroke, but with fewer comprehensive descriptions. In this study, an overview of systematic reviews/Meta-analysis of Xingnaojing Injection in treating cerebral ischaemic stroke was performed to provide current situation of evidences and basis for clinical practice. CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CBM, EMbase, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science were retrieved through computers. A total of 6 literatures were included in this study. By AMSTAR-2 checklist and GRADE, the quality of included systematic reviews and the efficacy of Xingnaojing Injection were evaluated. The results of AMSTAR-2 checklist showed an extremely low quality for all of the 6 systematic reviews. According to the results of GRADE evaluation, among 55 outcomes, there were 2 outcomes with a medium quality, 4 outcomes with a low quality and 49 outcomes with an extremely low quality. The 6 systematic reviews reached a consistent conclusion that Xingnaojing Injection was effective in the treatment of cerebral ischaemic stroke. This therapy could improve the total efficacy, neurological deficit scores, hemodynamic and hemodynamic parameters. However, the methodolo-gical quality of all literatures was extremely low. The evidence levels of outcomes were between extremely low to medium. The effectiveness of Xingnaojing Injection in the treatment of cerebral ischaemic stroke still needs to be further verified by more high-quality studies. In the future, relevant clinical studies and systematic reviews/Meta-analysis shall be carried out in a strict accordance with relevant regulations.

Due to the development of modern techniques, in the recent years, electronic vehicles and autopilot systems have beensignificant emerged in automobile and IT industrial. This leads the electronics automotive systems and auto-control systems consistedof a lot of high performance Electronic Control Units(ECUs) connected by controller area network (CAN). For realizing morecomplicated design in ECUs, this work integrates real-time OS and network management function. The results improve the CANbusnodes' designing level to as a gateway to interconnect CANbus nodes. As the number of CANbus nodes increase, the verification processis more and more complicated and takes much time. For speeding up the verification process, this work uses CANoe package toprogram the testing script for automotive verification environment. Then the engineer can connect the testing device by CAN to theenvironment for automatic verification. The engineer can define the network messages of the CANbus nodes and tune the design asthe validating progress. The testing results present as XML format and can be transferred to HTML pages for readability. Hence, thiswork realizes an automatic verification environment for CANbus in-vehicle networks.

Background As an important cash crop, the yield of peanut is influenced by soil acidification and pathogen infection. Receptor-like protein kinases play important roles in plant growth, development and stress responses. However, little is known about the number, location, structure, molecular phylogeny, and expression of RLKs in peanut, and no comprehensive analysis of RLKs in the Al stress response in peanuts have been reported. Results A total of 1311 AhRLKs were identified from the peanut genome. The AhLRR-RLKs and AhLecRLKs were further divided into 24 and 35 subfamilies, respectively. The AhRLKs were randomly distributed across all 20 chromosomes in the peanut. Among these AhRLKs, 9.53% and 61.78% originated from tandem duplications and segmental duplications, respectively. The ka/ks ratios of 96.97% (96/99) of tandem duplication gene pairs and 98.78% (646/654) of segmental duplication gene pairs were less than 1. Among the tested tandem duplication clusters, there were 28 gene conversion events. Moreover, all total of 90 Al-responsive AhRLKs were identified by mining transcriptome data, and they were divided into 7 groups. Most of the Al-responsive AhRLKs that clustered together had similar motifs and evolutionarily conserved structures. The gene expression patterns of these genes in different tissues were further analysed, and tissue-specifically expressed genes, including 14 root-specific Al-responsive AhRLKs were found. In addition, all 90 Al-responsive AhRLKs which were distributed unevenly in the subfamilies of AhRLKs, showed different expression patterns between the two peanut varieties (Al-sensitive and Al-tolerant) under Al stress. Conclusions In this study, we analysed the RLK gene family in the peanut genome. Segmental duplication events were the main driving force for AhRLK evolution, and most AhRLKs subject to purifying selection. A total of 90 genes were identified as Al-responsive AhRLKs, and the classification, conserved motifs, structures, tissue expression patterns and predicted functions of Al-responsive AhRLKs were further analysed and discussed, revealing their putative roles. This study provides a better understanding of the structures and functions of AhRLKs and Al-responsive AhRLKs.

Background: As an important cash crop, the yield of peanut is influenced by soil acidification and pathogen infection. Receptor-like protein kinase plays important roles in plant growth, development and stress responses. However, little is known about the number, location, structure, molecular phylogenetic, and expression of the RLKs in peanut, and no comprehensive analysis of RLKs in Al stress response in peanut have been reported. Results: A total of 1311 AhRLKs were identified from the peanut genome. The AhLRR-RLKs and AhLec-RLKs were further divided into 24 subfamilies and 35 subfamilies, respectively. The AhRLKs are randomly distributed across all 20 chromosomes in peanut. Among them, 67.8% and 0.6% of the AhRLKs originated from tandem duplications and segmental duplications, respectively. The ka/ks ratios of 94.9% (1290/1360) of AhRLKs were less than 1. Moreover, totally 90 Al-responsive AhRLKs were identified by mining transcriptome data, and they were divided into 7 groups. Most of Al responsive AhRLKs clustered together had similar motifs and evolutionarily conserved structures. The gene expression patterns of these genes in different tissues were further analyzed, and tissue specific expression genes, including 14 root-specific Al responsive AhRLKs were found. Besides, all of the 90 Al responsive AhRLKs which distributed unevenly in the subfamilies of AhRLKs have different expression pattern between two peanut varieties (Al-sensitive and Al-tolerant) under Al stress.Conclusions: In this study, we analyzed the RLK gene family by the peanut genome. Tandem replication events were the main driving force for AhRLKs evolution, and most AhRLKs were selected for purification. A total of 90 genes were identified as Al responsive AhRLKs, and the classification, conservative motif, structure, tissue expression pattern and predicted function of Al responsive AhRLKs were further analyzed and discussed, revealing their putative roles. This study provides a better understanding of the structures and functions of AhRLKs as well as Al responsive AhRLKs.

Constructs employment and entrepreneurship ability model for graduates of science and engineering, analyzes present situation of soft ability and its training of graduates in science and engineering, studies the feasibility of building “soft ability training center” for employment and entrepreneurship training and setting up soft ability training course for graduates of science and engineering in colleges and universities, discusses teaching philosophy, teaching content, teaching methods, teaching mode and incentive mechanism of course construction, and then puts forward some countermeasures and suggestions for establishing cooperative program among industry, government, enterprises and universities and basic platform, so as to enhance training effect of “soft ability” of employment and entrepreneurship for graduate Students of science and engineering.

In bar rolling of S31803 duplex stainless steel, the surface crack is easy to appear. Through the observation on the microstructure, ferrite and austenite morphology and phase ratio were analyzed. The surface cracks of S31803 duplex stainless steel bar is mainly because of the dual phase microstructure softening mechanism of different in thermal processing, and the double phase stainless steel heat plasticity decrease. When the ferrite and austenite proportion close, and the heating temperature is too high, to reduce the binding force between the grains of billet surface, easy to cause the crack surface of a bar.

In this paper, based on the FPGA and with a PAL decoder chip, LVDS coding chip and large capacity SRAM, the design and implementation of a PAL system for analog signals to the LVDS conversion of the video signal interface board. First of all, convert the analog signal of PAL to RGB565 digital video signal, and transform the interlaced scan into progressive scan. Then, through the frame rate conversion, resolution expansion etc. algorithm method to handle. Finally, to achieve the interlaced scanning, a resolution of 720×576, 25Hz PAL analog video signal, is converted to a progressive scan, a resolution of 1024×768, 60Hz LVDS video signal transmission. After the measurement, the resolution and frame rate of the video signal conversion interface board are all meet the design requirements. It has been verified the effectiveness of scheme.

Summary Background and purpose Few reports concerned on recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) treatment in stroke patients with decreased consciousness. This study assesses the efficacy and safety of intravenous rt-PA administration within 4.5 h in stroke patients with decreased consciousness. Methods A total of 136 stroke patients with decreased consciousness, who received or not rt-PA intravenously within 4.5 h after stroke onset from Jiangsu province of China from 2009 to 2012, were reviewed retrospectively. Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), intracranial hemorrhage rate, and mortality were used to determine patient outcome when discharged. A 3-month outcome was calculated by modified Rankin Scale (mRS) with score 0 to 1 considered favorable outcome. Results Baseline characteristics of two groups were similar. When discharged, no significant differences were observed regarding NIHSS score (P = 0.994) or GCS score (P = 0.591) between groups. After 3 months, 22.8% patients in rt-PA group had favorable outcome as compared with 7.5% patients in control group (P = 0.014). Treatment with rt-PA did not significantly increase incidence of hemorrhage (P = 0.494) or mortality (P = 0.169). Conclusions Intravenous rt-PA administration within 4.5 h after onset of symptoms benefited stroke patients with abnormal consciousness.

A series of acrylate latexes for pigment printing binder were prepared by semi-continuous pre-emulsifying emulsion polymerization, using lipophilic glycidyl meth-acrylate (GMA), ethylene glycol dimethyl acrylate (EGDMA) and hydrophilic HA (containing hydroxyl, acylamino), N-methylol acrylamide (NMA) as cross-linking monomer. The influences of cross-linker type on the particle size, viscosity and film-forming rate of latex, cross-linking degree and tensile properties of latex film were studied. It was found that the latex particle size, viscosity and film-forming rate were closely related with the hydrophile-lipophile property of cross linkers. The acrylate latex synthesized with hydrophilic cross-linkers always exhibits the characteristics of larger particle size, lower film-forming rate, higher viscosity and pseudoplastic fluid. The cross-linking degree and tensile properties of latex film generally depend on the crosslinking groups of cross-linkers and their reactivity.

Modifier for heat transfer printing on cotton fabrics was prepared by semi-continuous emulsion polymerization process with butyl acrylate (BA), styrene (St), acrylonitrile (AN) and cross-linking monomer. FT-IR characterization of modifier groups showed that individual monomer well carried out polymerization. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) photos demonstrated that latex particles had regular spherical shape and uniform distribution. TGA curves indicated that thermal decomposition temperature of modifier was 439 oC. As for the transfer printing products had good colour fastness, high transfer rate and no formaldehyde.

Stress-induced birefringence and modal birefringence of single-mode specialty optical fibers with three stress regions are numerically analyzed by the vector finite element method. Stress distribution and stress-induced birefringence distribution of three kinds of optical fibers with different cross structures are presented and compared, and the influence on the stress-induced birefringence by temperature change are analyzed as well. The results show that the fibers with three-stress regions have a lower linear birefringence, which is very important for the fabrication of the circular polarization-maintaining fiber with high performance drawn from the same fiber preform by using the spinning method.

A special elasto-plastic dynamic finite element code named RingForm has been developed to analyze cold ring rolling process. Central difference method was introduced to solve the dynamic explicit finite element equations. Strain state was estimated by the value of yield function of the last and the present time step. To reduce the accumulative error caused by elasto-plastic constitutive relations, the radial return algorithm was employed. In comparison with the experimental results, the cold ring rolling process of a ring with rectangular section has been simulated to verify the accuracy and stability of the system solver.

In freeform surface modelling, developable surfaces have much application value. But, in 3D space, there is not always a regular developable surface which interpolates the given boundary of an arbitrary piecewise smooth closed curve. In this paper, tensor product Bezier surfaces interpolating the closed curves are determined and the resulting surface is a minimum of the functional defined by the L2-integral norm of the Gaussian curvature. The Gaussian curvature of the surfaces is minimized by the method of solving nonlinear optimization problems. An improved approach trust-region form method is proposed. A simple application example is also given.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma-associated gene 6 (NGX6) was shown to be a novel putative tumor suppressor gene in colon cancer. The purpose of this study is to investigate its role in regulation of miRNA expression for in the hopes of translating this data into a novel strategy in control of colon cancer. In this study colon cancer HT-29 cells were stably transfected with NGX6 or vector-only plasmid and then subjected to miRNA array analysis, and Q-RT-PCR was then used to verify miRNA array data. Then bioinformatic analyses using Sanger, Target Scan, and MicroRNA software were performed to obtain data on the target genes of each miRNA and define their function. Our results showed that 14 miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in NGX6-transfected cells compared to the control cells. In particular, miR-126, miR-142-3p, miR-155, miR-552, and miR-630 were all upregulated, whereas miR-146a, miR-152, miR-205, miR-365, miR-449, miR-518c, miR-584, miR-615, and miR-622 were downregulated after NGX6 transfection. Q-RT-PCR confirmed all of these miRNAs, and invalidated miR-552 and miR-630. Furthermore, bioinformatic analyses of these 12 miRNAs, among these miRNAs, target genes of miR-615 are unclear, another 11 miRNAs produced a total of 254 potential target genes and further study showed that these genes together formed a regulatory network that contributes to apoptosis, mobility/migration, hydrolysis activity, and molecular signaling through targeting JNK and Notch pathways. Taken together, these results have suggested that NGX6 plays an important role in regulation of apoptosis, mobility/migration, and hydrolase as well as activity of JNK and Notch pathways through NGX6-mediated miRNA expression. Further investigation will reveal the function of these differentially expressed miRNAs and verify expression of the miRNA-targeted genes for development of novel strategies for better control of colon cancer.

Buffering without considering power states in multiple supply voltage designs may result in infeasible signals. POSA is the first work to handle this issue. Our buffered tree guarantees feasibility all the times, even when some parts of the design shut down. This feature is one of the key techniques to fulfill power-aware design methodology.

To explore the effect of all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) on the growth inhibition and cellular differentiation of C6 glioma cells.Human glioma C6 cells were treated with 5 mg/L ATRA,and the inhibition of cell growth was assessed by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium assay. The differentiation of C6 cells was determined by flow cytometry, microscopy,transmission electron microscope, and immunohistochemical technique.Treatment of ATRA could result in the growth inhibition of C6 cells, and the cell density significantly decreased(P0.01). The cell cycle distribution was changed, G0/G1 phase was prolonged, and cells at S phase decreased(P0.01). The C6 glioma cells displayed normal fibroblast-like morphology under the microscope before the induction, and the ATRA-treated C6 cells became slightly long, turned into round in the middle, and had protrusions at both ends. The ATRA-treated C6 cells did not display obvious apoptosis by flow cytometry(P0.05).Whereas, early apoptosis was observed under the transmission electron microscope, the vacuoles increased, the mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum were abundant in the cytoplasm, and the cellular structures tended to be normal.The expression of glial fibrillaryacidic protein in C6 cells increased in the treatment group.ATRA can inhibit the proliferation, and induce the differentiation of C6 glioma cells.

There is obvious allele disequilibrium in nasopharyngeal carcinoma at chromosome 3p, 9p, 6q, 11q, 13q and 14q. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) susceptibility/suppressor gene candidates were obtained by molecular biology methods,such as cDNA representational difference ana-lysis. The functional research of NPC susceptibility/ suppressor gene candidates indicated: (1) The increased expression of Cx contributed to obstacles of gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC), and resulted an aberration of GJIC; (2) BRD7, a transcript factor, was associated with cell cycle regulation; (3) NAG7,an estrogen receptor repressor, inhibited the invasive potential of human NPC cells by regulating ERalpha expression and the H-ras/p-c-Raf and JNK/AP-1/MMP1 signaling pathways; (4) NGX6, a metastasis-associated protein, can negative-regulate EGF/Ras/MAPK signaling transduction pathway, and interact with ezrin protein to inhibit invasion and metastasis of NPC cells; (5) SPLUNC1, a secreted protein, can inhibit the bacterium clone formation, and is an innate immune molecule. These data will lay an important foundation for the NPC mechanism.

To explore the effect of LRRC4 on the mobility and invasion of glioblastomas U251 cells through the SDF-1alpha/CXCR4 axis.RT-PCR, transfilter cell invasion assay, adhesion assay, scraping test, scrape loading, and dye transfer assay were used to determine the effect of LRRC4 on U251 cells.SDF-1 alpha could increase the invasion in U251 which expressed CXCR4. The reintroduction of LRRC4 in U251 cells could inhibit the expression of CXCR4. LRRC4 also inhibited the adhesion ability of U251 to ECV304 as well as the mobility and invasion ability in vitro, which was mediated by the SDF-1alpha/CXCR4 axis. Furthermore, LRRC4 could greatly enhance the gap junctional intercellular communication of U251 cells.The reintroduction of LRRC4 in U251 cells can inhibit the expression of CXCR4 and the SDF-1alpha/CXCR4 axis-mediated cell invasion in vitro.

To prepare anti-LRRC4 polyclonal antibody and analyze the correlation between the expression of LRRC4 and pathological grades of gliomas in rabbits.Appropriate protein sequence with good hydrophilicity and antigenicity was chosen by analyzing with DS Gene 1.1 software. The corresponding nucleic acid sequence amplified by PCR was used to construct a recombinant pGEX-4T-2/276 bp. E.coli JM109 transformed with the recombinant was induced by IPTG to express GST-fusion protein, and the fusion protein expressed as insoluble inclusion bodies. Then the purified inclusion body was used to immunize rabbits. Once the titer of antiserum reached 1:10(8) by indirect ELISA, the serum was collected and purified. The expression-profile of LRRC4 in embryonic tissues and gliomas with various pathological grades were obtained by western blot and immunohistochemistry with the anti-LRRC4 polyclonal antibody.The highly specific anti-LRRC4 polyclonal antibody whose titer reached 1:10(8) was prepared. The relatively specific expression of LRRC4 was detected in the normal brain, but reduced expression or loss of expression in gliomas was also noticed by immunohistochemistry, and there was a correlation between the expression level of lrrc4 and the pathological grade of gliomas.The anti-LRRC4 polyclonal antibody with high titer and specificity has been obtained. A correlation between the expression level of LRRC4 and the pathological grade of gliomas is detected, which lays the foundation for advanced research of LRRC4.

To examine the expression absence of LRRC4 gene in glioblastoma cell lines.RT-PCR and Northern blot were used to detect the expression of LRRC4 gene in 6 glioblastomas cells lines. Polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing were used to screen the LRRC4 gene mutation, while bioinformation assay was used to search for the reason of LRRC4 gene absence in U251 cell lines.The expression of LRRC4 was absent in 6 malignant glioma cell lines (U251, U87, BT325, SF126, SF767 and M17), which were examined by Northern-blot and RT-PCR assay. All sequencing of PCR products from gDNA of SF126, SF767, and M17 cell lines contained the point mutation at the same position ( LRRC4 geneT977A) (3/5), which was a synonymous mutation. However, PCR products from gDNA of U251 and U87 cell lines (2/5) were not obtained. The expression absence of LRRC4 was ascribed to the loss of homozygosity of 7q32-ter in U251 cell lines.The expression of LRRC4 gene is absent in glioblastoma cell lines, and it offers the important experiment proof for LRRC4 to act as a new candidate of brain tumor suppressor gene from glioma. The loss of homozygosity of 7q32-ter contributed to the expression absence of LRRC4 in U251 cell lines.

Omics docking study for polygenic inheritance tumors has become an important strategy in oncology research. This review focuses on the conceptions and technologies of omics, and puts forward the central contents and omics docking for polygenic inheritance tumor to reveal the role of molecular changes at different stages of polygenic inheritance tumor at multidisciplinary and multilayer level. It is a new strategy to explore the mechanism of tumor carcinogenesis, and to regulate the network, key molecules, and drug target by combined biology effects.

Metabolomics is a new science and technology, which it refers to a holistic analytical approach to all the low molecular weight metabolites in an organism or a cell. In this paper, the definition and objective of metabolomics are provided, and the current application of metabolomic research in malignant tumors (diagnosis and therapy) are summarized.

To explore the effect of LRRC4, a glioma suppressive gene, on blocking U251 cells in G0/G1 by MAPK signaling pathway.LRRC4 was transfected into U251 cells, and at 24 hour of post-transfection, cells were split at a 1:3 dilution, challenged with 500 microg /mL G418 and formed a stable transfected clone pool. RT-PCR, Northern blot and Western blot were used to identify the stable transfectants. ERK, JNK and P38 expression changes were analyzed by Western blot. FACS analysis, Luciferase reporter gene assay and Western blot were used to detect the cell cycle and cyclin D1.LRRC4 down-regulated the expression of phosphorylated ERK2 and up-regulated the expression of total protein JNK2 (a key molecule of MAPK signaling pathway) and phosphorylated c-Jun. LRRC4 decreased the expression of mutation P53, cyclin D1 activation and its expression. U251 cells were blocked in G0/G1 by LRRC4.LRRC4 can decrease JNK2, up-regulate the phosphoralated c-Jun, down-regulate mutant P53 and cyclin D1, and therefore block U251 cells in G0/G1.

To express the recombinant SPLUNC1 protein in HNE1 cells and to study its function of bactericidal and binding to lipopolysaccharide (LPS).Full length of SPLUNC1 gene was cloned into pCMV-tag4A vector and stably transfected into HNE1 cell lines, the supernatant of cell cultures was collected. After being treated with the supernatant, the Pseudomonas aeruginosa was seeded to LB soft agar plate, and the bacteria clones were counted and analyzed. For in vitro LPS binding assay, LPS was coated to 96-well plates. We incubated in the plate with SPLUNC1 protein, and detected the binded SPLUNC1 protein by ELISA. Incubating the FITC-LPS with the SPLUNC1 stably transfected or control cells, the intracellular intensity of fluorescence was observed under the fluorescence microscope.SPLUNC1 inhibited the bacteria clone formation obviously. Although the binding efficiency of LPS and SPLUNC1 in vitro was very low, more FITC-LPS entered into the SPLUNC1 stably transfected cells.SPLUNC1 can inhibit the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and bind LPS, and play an important defensive role in innate immunity of the upper airway.

Our previous study has shown that LRRC4 is a novel member of the leucine-rich repeat (LRR) superfamily and has the potential to suppress brain tumor growth. In order to further analyze the functions of LRRC4 on the maintenance of normal function and suppression of tumorigenesis in the central nervous system, we investigated alterations in gene expression related to neurobiology by the Atlas array in two inducible dual-stable LRRC4-overexpressing cell lines. Seventeen of 588 genes spotted on the Atlas membrane showed altered expression levels in LRRC4 transfected U251MG Tet-on cells, which are involved in cell proliferation and cell cycle progression, tumor invasion and metastasis, and neurotransmitter synthesis and release. In addition, cell invasion assay results showed that LRRC4 can inhibit the U251MG cell migration. These studies represent the first cDNA array analysis of the effects of LRRC4 on the involvement of different neurobiological genes in U251MG glioblastoma cells and provide new insights into the function of LRRC4 in glioma.

Green tea catechins, especially (−)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), have been proposed as a chemopreventative for obesity, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. However, relatively little is known about the mechanism of the action of EGCG on fat cell function. This study was designed to investigate the pathways of EGCG's modulation of the mitogenesis of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Preadipocyte proliferation as indicated by an increased number of cells and greater incorporation of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) was inhibited by EGCG in dose-, time-, and growth phase-dependent manners. Also, EGCG dose and time dependently decreased levels of phospho-ERK1/2, Cdk2, and cyclin D1 proteins, reduced Cdk2 activity, and increased levels of G0/G1 growth arrest, p21waf/cip, and p27kip1, but not p18ink, proteins and their associations to Cdk2. However, neither MEK1, ERK1/2, p38 MAPK, phospho-p38, JNK, nor phospho-JNK was changed. Increased phospho-ERK1/2 content and Cdk2 activity, respectively, via the transfection of MEK1 and Cdk2 cDNA into preadipocytes prevented EGCG from reducing cell numbers. These data demonstrate the ERK- and Cdk2-dependent antimitogenic effects of EGCG. Moreover, EGCG was more effective than epicatechin, epicatechin gallate, and epigallocatechin in changing the mitogenic signals. The signal of EGCG in reducing growth of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes differed from that of 3T3 fibroblasts. Results of this study may relate to the mechanism by which EGCG modulates body weight.