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Hypertension is a chronic disease with a high prevalence, and is associated with a high risk of vascular disease and premature death. Traditional Chinese medicine has been administered to treat hypertension for many years. In the present study, the effects of Yiqi Huaju formula (YQ; a compound used in traditional Chinese herbal medicine) were observed in salt-sensitive hypertension, which was induced by a high-salt and high-fat (HSF) diet and the potential mechanism was investigated. YQ was prepared from five plant extracts and was dissolved in normal sodium chloride prior to use. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups, and fed either a normal diet (control), an HSF diet or an HSF diet with YQ. At week eight, blood pressure was measured and 24-h urine samples were collected from all of the rats. The rats were subsequently sacrificed, and their blood was collected for biochemical analyses and kidney tissue samples were dissected for the immunohistochemical assay. YQ was observed to decrease the high arterial pressure and serum total cholesterol level, which had been induced by the HSF diet. It also enhanced the excretion of urinary angiotensinogen, Na+, and decreased the loss of urinary aldosterone, K+ and microalbuminuria. In addition, YQ inhibited the high mRNA expression level of renal renin, angiotensin II (Ang II), and Ang II receptor, type 1 (AT1R), and inhibited the protein expression of renal AT1R and Ang II receptor type 2, which had been induced by the HSF diet. These results indicate that YQ may reduce the arterial pressure in salt-sensitive hypertension via the inhibition of renin-angiotensin system activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an etiological cause of many human lymphocytic and epithelial malignancies. EBV expresses different genes that are associated with three latency types. To date, as many as 44 EBV-encoded miRNA species have been found, but their comprehensive profiles in the three types of latent infection that are associated with various types of tumors are not well documented. Methods In the present study, we utilized poly (A)-tailed quantitative real-time RT-PCR in combination with microarray analysis to measure the relative abundances of viral miRNA species in a subset of representative lymphoid and epithelial tumor cells with various EBV latency types. Results Our findings showed that the miR-BHRF1 and miR-BART families were expressed differentially in a tissue- and latency type-dependent manner. Specifically, in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) tissues and the EBV-positive cell line C666-1, the miR-BART family accounted for more than 10% of all detected miRNAs, suggesting that these miRNAs have important roles in maintaining latent EBV infections and in driving NPC tumorigenesis. In addition, EBV miRNA-based clustering analysis clearly distinguished between the three distinct EBV latency types, and our results suggested that a switch from type I to type III latency might occur in the Daudi BL cell line. Conclusions Our data provide a comprehensive profiling of the EBV miRNA transcriptome that is associated with specific tumor cells in the three types of latent EBV infection states. EBV miRNA species represent a cluster of non-encoding latency biomarkers that are differentially expressed in tumor cells and may help to distinguish between the different latency types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, metal-seeded growth has been the most widely used method for Si nanowire synthesis. However, preparation methods of metal catalysts mostly involve indirect, multi-step procedures and suffer from many processing limitations. In this study, we demonstrate that bulk metals can be directly used as catalysts for seeded Si nanowire growth. Eight metals which cover all three types of metals used for Si nanowire growth, such as Ag, Al, Au, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Ti, were explored as catalysts. Single crystalline Si nanowires were synthesized in the presence of bulk Ag, Al, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Ti at temperatures ranging from 450 to 550 °C at 10.3 MPa, whereas no wires were produced in the presence of bulk Au. The metals effective for seeded growth are cheap, easily obtained, and exhibit excellent catalytic reusability. In addition, as-grown Si nanowires exhibit superior field emission property due to their good electrical contact between the wire and metal interface. Various nanowire/metal substrate architectures could be achieved through the use of metals with different morphologies. Compared to the traditional seeded-growth protocol, bulk metal-catalyzed growth provides a more facile and flexible synthetic scheme and a direct route to grow Si nanowires on metal substrates for advanced nanowire applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]