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The scarcity of donor livers and the impracticality of hepatocyte transplantation represent the biggest obstacles for the treatment of liver failure. Adipose-derived stem cells, with their ability to differentiate into the hepatic lineage, provide a reliable alternative cell source with clear ethical and practical advantages. Moreover, adipose-derived stem cells can effectively repair liver damage by the dominant indirect pattern and increase the number of hepatocytes by the secondary direct pattern. In recent years, the development of the indirect pattern, which mainly includes immunomodulatory and trophic effects, has become a hot topic in the field of cell engineering. Therefore, adipose-derived stem cells are considered to be ideal therapeutic stem cells for human liver regeneration. In this article, we reviewed the advantages of adipose-derived stem cells in liver regeneration, and explore their underlying mechanisms.

Compared with coumarin, 7-hydroxycoumarin could serve as a better hit for developing CYP2A6 inhibitors. In this study, a series of 7-hydroxycoumarin and its structural analogues were collected to study their structure-activity relationship (SAR) and isoform selectivity for inhibiting CYP2A6. All tested coumarins except a C4 phenyl derivative (11) showed higher inhibitory activities for CYP2A6 over the other CYP isoforms, including CYP1A2, CYP2D6, CYP2E1, CYP3A4, CYP2C8, and CYP2C9. Of these coumarins, 6,7-dihydroxycoumarin (1) and 7,8-dihydroxycoumarin (9) were found to be potent inhibitors of CYP2A6 with IC50/Ki value of 0.39/0.25 and 4.61/3.02 μM, respectively, compared to methoxalen as positive control (IC50/Ki = 0.43/0.26 μM). In contrast, other coumarins showed low or decreased CYP2A6-inhibiting activities. SAR analysis showed that hydroxy groups might be important for CYP2A6 inhibition, and the rank order of sites for hydroxy substitution was C6 > C7 > C8. In addition, either hydrophobic or hydrophilic substituents introduced into C4, C6 and C8 led to a reduction in CYP2A6-inhibiting activity, and the degree of influence was dependent on the size and electrical charge of substituents. Furthermore, inhibition kinetic analysis and docking simulations demonstrated that the 8-O-glucosylated coumarin derivative (17) exhibited noncompetitive inhibition against CYP2A6, while competitive inhibition patterns were noted for the other tested coumarins. The mechanisms underlying the inhibitors binding to CYP2A6 were further investigated by molecular docking study. The findings presented herein are very helpful for developing highly selective and more potent CYP2A6 inhibitors.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori, Hp) colonizes the stomachs of approximately 20%–80% of humans throughout the world. The Word Healthy Organization (WHO) classified H. pylori as a group 1 carcinogenic factor in 1994. Recently, an increasing number of studies has shown an association between H. pylori infection and various extragastric diseases. Functional dyspepsia (FD) is considered a biopsychosocial disorder with multifactorial pathogenesis, and studies have shown that infection with CagA-positive H. pylori strains could explain some of the symptoms of functional dyspepsia. Moreover, CagA-positive H. pylori strains have been shown to affect the secretion of several hormones, including 5-HT, ghrelin, dopamine, and gastrin, and altered levels of these hormones might be the cause of the psychological disorders of functional dyspepsia patients. This review describes the mutual effects of H. pylori and hormones in functional dyspepsia and provides new insight into the pathogenesis of functional dyspepsia.

The Improved TD-RVoG model was combined with the classical forest inversion algorithm, three-stage inversion method, for the estimation of forest height by using single baseline spaceborne PolInSAR data. Previous research [6–7] has shown temporal decorrelation reduces the interferometric coherence and increases the deviation of the interferometric phase. The Improved TD-RVoG model considers the both sides of the temporal decorrelation and summarizes the complex temporal decorrelation as the ground and volume motion per day and introduces a temporal decorrelation function as an additional part for the RVoG model.

Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori, Hp) colonizes the stomachs of approximately 20%–80% of humans throughout the world. The Word Healthy Organization (WHO) classifiedH. pylorias a group 1 carcinogenic factor in 1994. Recently, an increasing number of studies has shown an association betweenH. pyloriinfection and various extragastric diseases. Functional dyspepsia (FD) is considered a biopsychosocial disorder with multifactorial pathogenesis, and studies have shown that infection with CagA-positiveH. pyloristrains could explain some of the symptoms of functional dyspepsia. Moreover, CagA-positiveH. pyloristrains have been shown to affect the secretion of several hormones, including 5-HT, ghrelin, dopamine, and gastrin, and altered levels of these hormones might be the cause of the psychological disorders of functional dyspepsia patients. This review describes the mutual effects ofH. pyloriand hormones in functional dyspepsia and provides new insight into the pathogenesis of functional dyspepsia.

Shijiuyang Constructed Wetland (110 hm(2)) is a drinking water source treatment wetland with primary structural units of ponds and plant-bed/ditch systems. The wetland can process about 250,000 tonnes of source water in the Xincheng River every day and supplies raw water for Shijiuyang Drinking Water Plant. Daily data for 28 months indicated that the major water quality indexes of source water had been improved by one grade. The percentage increase for dissolved oxygen and the removal rates of ammonia nitrogen, iron and manganese were 73.63%, 38.86%, 35.64%, and 22.14% respectively. The treatment performance weight of ponds and plant-bed/ditch systems was roughly equal but they treated different pollutants preferentially. Most water quality indexes had better treatment efficacy with increasing temperature and inlet concentrations. These results revealed that the pond-wetland complexes exhibited strong buffering capacity for source water quality improvement. The treatment cost of Shijiuyang Drinking Water Plant was reduced by about 30.3%. Regional rainfall significantly determined the external river water levels and adversely deteriorated the inlet water quality, thus suggesting that the "hidden" diffuse pollution in the multitudinous stream branches as well as their catchments should be the controlling emphases for river source water protection in the future. The combination of pond and plant-bed/ditch systems provides a successful paradigm for drinking water source pretreatment. Three other drinking water source treatment wetlands with ponds and plant-bed/ditch systems are in operation or construction in the stream networks of the Yangtze River Delta and more people will be benefited.

Shijiuyang constructed wetland (SJY-CW) in Jiaxing City adopted plant-bed/ditch systems originated from the natural landscape as its major functioning unit. The constructed root channel technology (CRCT) is the core technique applied within the plant-bed/ditch systems. Monitoring results demonstrated that the wetland had the capability of improving water quality indexes by one rank grade according to the national environmental quality standards for surface water (GB 3838-2002). In order to optimize the water quality improvement function of plant-bed/ditch systems and CRCT, a pilot project in SJY-CW was constructed from May to October, 2010. The project contained 16 independent experimental cells. Orthogonal test design was applied to probe into the effects of constructed root channel layers, plant species combination, and reinforced physical substrates on promoting the water quality amelioration efficiency of the plant-bed/ditch systems. Comprehensively considering water treatment effects, construction difficulty, and construction and maintenance cost, the recommended optimal ways are as follows. Plant straws were preferably paved under subsurface zones by two layers with a gap of 20-30 cm. The preferable plant combination was reed (Phragmites australis) plus wild rice (Zizania caduciflora). Calcite might be applied as alternative reinforced media in some suitable sites of plant-bed/ditch systems. Water treatment effects were compared between pilot project and the whole wetland area of SJY-CW. The results showed that the reinforced pilot project exhibited higher treatment efficiency for nutrients than SJY-CW itself. The removal rates of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and ammonia nitrogen were increased by about 20% - 40% in the pilot project. This suggested that SJY-CW could release its vast water treatment potential by means of increasing water flux through the subsurface root channel zones of plant beds. Therefore, some adjustment and control measures could be proposed to maintain the tradeoff balance between the potential release and maximization of wetland treatment efficiency and the treated water amount, such as constructing or modifying the hydraulic structures to regulate flow amount through large ditch, redistributing water flow and increasing the water head difference between the two sides of alternate small ditches.

The development characteristics and improvement measures of aquatic plants were studied in Shijiuyang Constructed Wetland (SCW) at its initial operation stage. SCW was a large-scale wetland aiming to help relieve the source water pollution in Jiaxing City. A checklist of vascular plants in SCW was built, and species composition, life forms, biomass and association distributions were examined. Our objectives were to examine the diversity and community structure of aquatic plants in SCW at its initial operation stage, and to find out the possible hydrophyte improvement measures. The survey results showed that there were 49 vascular plant species belonging to 41 genera, 25 families in SCW, which greatly exceeded the artificially transplanted 13 species. The life forms of present aquatic plants in SCW were dominated by hygrophilous plants (20 species) and emerged plants (17 species), which accounted for 75.5% of the total number of aquatic plants. The aquatic plants transplanted artificially were dominated by emerged plants (accounted for 69.2%), while those naturally developed were predominated by hygrophilous plants (accounted for 47.2%). The horizontal distribution of aquatic plant community in SCW was mixed in the form of mosaics, which made up typical association complex. Except association Aeschynomene indica L., the dominant species of other associations were all those transplanted artificially. The naturally grown species scattered throughout the SCW and only occupied a small percentage. A marked difference was detected on the species and species richness of aquatic plants in different regions of SCW. Biomass of aquatic plant associations in SCW was 167.7 t. SCW has shown a trend of succession heading for quick increase of plant diversity at the primary operation stage. This trend provides a good material base for the future stable community of aquatic plants in SCW. According to the current status of aquatic plants, some suggestions were put forward on the further optimization and utilization of aquatic plant systems in SCW.