Search

Previous work showed that miR-145 is downregulated in human serous epithelia ovarian carcinoma (SEOC) tissue and SKOV3 cells. However, the molecular mechanisms of miR-145 used to regulate ovarian proliferation and chemotherapy sensitivity remain to be determined. The present research demonstrate that miR-145 inhibit SKOV3 cells proliferation and promote chemotherapy sensitivity to paclitaxel according to MTT assay. MiR-145 inhibits Mucin1 (MUC1) post-transcriptional expression by binding to its 3'-untranslated region (UTR). The epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) marker E-cadherin (E-cad), which is downstream molecule of MUC1, is promoted by miR-145 overexpression. Furthermore, the E-cad protein level is inversely correlated with the expression of MUC1 in SKOV3 cells. It showed that promotion of E-cad signaling induced by miR-145 was released by MUC1 inhibition. Taken together, miR-145 serves as a tumor suppressor which can upregulate E-cad expression by targeting MUC1, leading to the inhibition of tumor proliferation and chemotherapy sensitivity. The miR-145 could be a rationale for therapeutic applications in ovarian carcinoma in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two additives (bacterial inoculants and fibrolytic enzymes) were tested for their effects on fermentation characteristics, in vitro digestibility, mold counts and aflatoxin (B1, B2, G1 and G2) content in corn silages. Whole-plant corn was harvested with one-half milk line stage and ensiled after the following treatments: (i) untreated ( CON); (ii) bacterial inoculants at 105 CFU g−1 of fresh forage (B); (iii) fibrolytic enzymes at 100 U g−1 of fresh forage (E); and (iv) mixture of bacterial inoculants and enzymes at 105 CFU g−1 and 100 U g−1 of fresh forage, respectively (B+E). All the additives increased the lactic acid content and in vitro dry matter digestibility ( P < 0.05), decreased ammonia nitrogen content ( P < 0.05). E and B+E decreased the neutral detergent fiber content and increased the crude protein, in vitro digestibility of neutral detergent fiber and crude protein ( P < 0.05). Aflatoxins content and mold counts for treated silage were lower than untreated silage ( P < 0.05) throughout the air exposure stages (0, 1, 5, and 10 days). Additionally, the aflatoxins were not detected in B treated silage after 0 day exposure to air and in B+E throughout the air exposure stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary understanding of brain functions provides a way to probe into the mystery of creativity. However, the prior evidence regarding the relationship between creativity and brain wave patterns reveals inconsistent conclusions. One possible reason might be that the means of selecting creative individuals in the past has varied in each study. By distinguishing creative potential as open-ended versus closed-ended based on theoretical views, this study examined different brain wave patterns and cortical control abilities in relation to different creative potentials by using electroencephalogram (EEG) biofeedback equipment. The results demonstrated that participants’ performance on the open-ended creative problem was positively related to EEG alpha frequencies, whereas performance on the closed-ended creative problem was related to larger variability in EEG dynamics between alpha and beta waves when performing either open-ended or closed-ended creativity tasks. Further, better control in changing states of brain wave activities according to the EEG biofeedback signals could predict closed-ended creativity performance. Open-ended creativity was related only to the enhancement of alpha signals. These results help clarify previous inconsistent findings, reveal different natures of distinct creativities, and further suggest ways to improve different aspects of creativity with modified biofeedback procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (CCRCC) is the most frequent primary malignancy in the adult kidney. Most patients with advanced CCRCC have poor prognosis as CCRCC remains resistant to chemotherapy. The present study explored the possible mechanism underlying CCRCC resistance to chemotherapy and found that loss of PTEN in CCRCC may be involved. Knockdown of PTEN in the CCRCC cell line ACHN blocked etoposide-induced apoptosis and etoposide-impaired cell proliferation was also inhibited. It has been demonstrated that most chemotherapy drugs exert their anti-cancer effects via p53-mediated apoptosis, and in accordance, with this, the present study showed that treatment with etoposide significantly increased p53 levels. Silencing of PTEN in ACHN inhibited the Akt/HDM2 signaling cascade and depressed p53 expression, and the interaction between HDM2 and p53 was also enhanced. This was further verified in CCRCC tissue specimens from patients The results of the present study suggested that loss of PTEN, which deactivated Akt/HDM2 signaling followed by degradation of p53, may contribute to the development of etoposide resistance in CCRCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The control of spontaneous emission is one of important characteristics of a planar microcavity. The integrals in the spherical coordinate for TE and TM modes spontaneous emission spectra of a quantum well (QW) embedded in a planar microcavity are derived with new variables dependent on wavelength and Taylor series including the two polarizations of the vacuum field. The approximate expressions of spontaneous emission in QW planar microcavities are obtained. The approximate results show that spontaneous emission spectra agree well with that in the numerical integral for planar semiconductor microcavities, in which Fermi-Dirac distribution functions of electrons and holes are considered. The main contribution to the spontaneous emission, radiated into all direction, has been found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]