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Objective: To review the research progress of miRNA regulation in the differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs)., Methods: The recent literature associated with miRNAs and differentiation of ADSCs was reviewed. The regulatory mechanism was analyzed in detail and summarized., Results: The results indicate that the expression of miRNAs changes during differentiation of ADSCs. In addition, miRNAs regulate the differentiation of ADSCs into adipocytes, osteoblasts, chondrocytes, neurons, and hepatocytes by regulating the signaling pathways involved in cell differentiation., Conclusion: Through controlling the differentiation of ADSCs by miRNAs, the suitable seed cell for tissue engineering can be established. The review will provide a theoretical basis for molecular targeted therapy and stem cell therapy in clinic.

Background: Surgical resection remains the mainstay of treatment for patients with early-staged thymic tumors, while chemotherapy is most commonly used in stage IV cases. As for locally advanced thymic tumors, especially those unsuitable for surgery, the optimal therapy is still controversial. Thus, we conducted this retrospective study by comparing three nonsurgical treatment modalities to find some clues., Methods: Three treatment modalities were used in 42 patients from October 2000 to December 2010, including radiotherapy (RT) alone, sequential chemoradiation (SCRT) and concurrent chemoradiation (CCRT). Objective response rate (ORR), overall survival (OS) and toxicity of the three regimens were compared accordingly., Results: The ORR in all 42 patients was 61.9%, and 5-year OS was 46%. The ORR of RT, SCRT and CCRT were 43.8%, 50% and 87.5%, respectively (RT vs SCRT, P=0.692; RT vs CCRT, P=0.009; SCRT vs CCRT, P=0.051). The 5-year OS of RT, SCRT and CCRT were 30%, 50% and 61.9%, respectively (RT vs SCRT, P=0.230; RT vs CCRT, P=0.011; SCRT vs CCRT, P=0.282). Eleven patients developed neutropenia of grade 3-4, with 7 in CCRT group and 4 in SCRT, respectively. Nine patients experienced esophagitis of grade 3 with 2 in RT, 3 in SCRT and 4 in CCRT. There were also two cases of grade 3 radiation induced pneumonitis in CCRT group. No life-threatening side effects were noted., Conclusions: When used to treat locally advanced thymic tumors unsuitable for surgery, CCRT performed more favorably than RT alone or SCRT in both tumor response and long time survival, but probably with the increasing risk of pulmonary damage. CCRT may offer the best chance of disease control in the management of locally advanced disease.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder(ADHD)is one of the most common neuro-developmental disorders occurring in childhood,characterized by symptoms of age-inappropriate inattention,hyperactivity/impulsivity,and the prevalence is higher in boys.Although gray matter volume deficits have been frequently reported for ADHD children via structural magnetic resonance imaging,few of them had specifically focused on male patients.The present study aimed to explore the alterations of gray matter volumes in medicated-naive boys with ADHD via a relatively new voxel-based morphometry technique.According to the criteria of DSM-IV-TR,43medicated-naive ADHD boys and 44age-matched healthy boys were recruited.The magnetic resonance image(MRI)scan was performed via a 3T MRI system with three-dimensional(3D)spoiled gradient recalled echo(SPGR)sequence.Voxel-based morphometry with diffeomorphic anatomical registration through exponentiated lie algebra in SPM8 was used to preprocess the3DT1-weighted images.To identify gray matter volume differences between the ADHD and the controls,voxelbased analysis of whole brain gray matter volumes between two groups were done via two sample t-test in SPM8 with age as covariate,threshold at P<0.001.Finally,compared to the controls,significantly reduced gray matter volumes were identified in the right orbitofrontal cortex(peak coordinates[-2,52,-25],t=4.01),and bilateral hippocampus(Left:peak coordinates[14,0,-18],t=3.61;Right:peak coordinates[-14,15,-28],t=3.64)of ADHD boys.Our results demonstrated obvious reduction of whole brain gray matter volumes in right orbitofrontal cortex and bilateral hippocampus in boys with ADHD.This suggests that the abnormalities of prefrontal-hippocampus circuit may be the underlying cause of the cognitive dysfunction and abnormal behavioral inhibition in medicatednaive boys with ADHD.

The heterochronic genes regulate cell proliferation and switch development stage transitions. Heterochronic genes might also play important roles in regulating the development of silkworm, but very few of their expression profiles, functions and their relationship with microRNAs are available so far. Firstly, in this work, the primers for cloning Bmlin-41 were designed based on the homologous sequence of known Drosophila melanogaster lin-41, which was used as the query to blast against SilkDB. The obtained full CDS (2 166 bp) of Bmlin-41 encodes 721 amino acids and contains B-box and NHL domains. Then, the spatiotemporal expression patterns of Bmlin-41 were characterized by RT-PCR, quantitative real time PCR as well as our lab's previous silkworm genome microarray data. Bmlin-41 was increasingly expressed from embryonic to adult stage. In diverse tissues of day-3 fifth instar, Bmlin-41 showed the highest accumulation in ovary, secondly in testis and midgut, but very low expression was observed in other tissues. Finally, 3'UTR of Bmlin-41 1 434 bp was cloned by rapid-amplification of cDNA ends (3'RACE) and was predicted to bare two binding sites of bmo-let-7 by using online RNAhybrid. To verify the binding effect, 3'UTR was cloned into psi-CHECK-2 vector and submitted to dual luciferase assay in the S2 cells in vitro. The dual luciferase assay demonstrated that Bmlin-41 was down-regulated by bmo-let-7 mimics and upregulated by bmo-let-7 antagomir, thus confirming the Bmlin-41 is negatively regulated by bmo-let-7. Our work might help further study on the roles of Bmlin-41 and bmo-let-7 and their regulation relationship involved in controlling metamorphosis of silkworm.

microRNAs (miRNAs) are an extensive class of -22-nucleotide (nt) endogenous noncoding RNAs regulating life activities ofmetazoans through binding to 3'-untranslated regions (3'-UTRs) of their target genes. This work aimed to identify yan gene in the silkworm, reveal its expression profile and confirm if it is one target of bmo-miR-7 and, as such, have potential for contributing to better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the metamorphosis of silkworm. Based on homolog searching and PCR amplification, we cloned the coding sequence (CDS) of Bmyan, which encodes 476 amino acid residues and contains SAM-PNT and ETs domains. Quantitative PCR (q-PCR), RT-PCR and microarray data revealed high expression of Bmyan in the head, body wall and ovary of day-3 fifth instar larval silkworm, low or no expression in other tissues. It was lowly expressed in the early larval stages, but highly expressed from late spinning to day 4 pupa. The 3'-UTR of Bmyan was obtained by rapid-amplification of cDNA ends (3'RACE) and predicted to contain two potential recognition sites of bmo-miR-7. The luciferase reporter vector containing the 3'-UTR of Bmyan was constructed and co-transfected into BmE cell line with the mimic of bmo-miR-7 and the decreased relative activity of luciferase showed that Bmyan is one target of bmo-miR-7. This work helps further functional analysis of bmo-miR-7 and Bmyan in the silkworm.

It is the intent of this paper to locate the activation point in Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) efficiently. The schemes of coil array in torus shape is presented to get the electromagnetic field distribution with ideal focusing capability. Then an improved adaptive genetic algorithm (AGA) is applied to the optimization of both value and phase of the current infused in each coil. Based on the calculated results of the optimized current configurations, ideal focusing capability is drawn as contour lines and 3-D mesh charts of magnitude of both magnetic and electric field within the calculation area. It is shown that the coil array has good capability to establish focused shape of electromagnetic distribution. In addition, it is also demonstrated that the coil array has the capability to focus on two or more targets simultaneously.

The gene encoding PLA2(PLA2-9) from Lapemis hardwickii Gray venom was cloned to the 3' and of the thioredoxin gene (HP-trxA and trxA) in plasmid pthioHisC and pTRX to construct the pThioHisC-PLA2, and pTRX-PLA2 fusion expression vector. The fusion protein of PLA2 can be expressed in the two different systems induced by IPTG at 25 degrees C, but the expression level and the solubility of the fusion protein in pTRX were better than that in pThioHisC. The expressed product in the two systems were purified by immobilized metal-chelate affinity chromatography. The Trx-PLA2 fusion protein with over 85% purity was obtained and HP-Trx-PLA2 fusion protein can not be purified since it dose not exhibit affinity to the medium. So, the pTRX-PLA2 vector system was established for the large-scale expression and purification.

Objective: To investigate whether DRD4 exon III48 bp variant number tandem repeat(VNTR) polymorphism is associated with tic disorder., Methods: One hundred and twenty-two nucleus families were collected using Structured clinical interview for genetic study of Tourette syndrome and related disorders for family-based association analysis of tic disorder and DRD4 exon III 48bp VNTR polymorphism. One hundred and twenty-two trios were divided into two groups: tic disorder group (82 trios of Tourette syndrome or chronic tic disorder, TS&CT) and tic disorder accompanied with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) group (40 trios of Tourette syndrome or chronic tic disorder accompanied with ADHD, TS&ADHD). Transmission disequilibrium test (TDT), in addition to polymerase chain reaction and VNTR technique were conducted in 122 trios., Results: There exist 5 alleles at this polymorphic locus in this sample including DRD4 exon III 48bp 2-6 repeats. No transmission disequilibrium was found between DRD4 exon III 48 bp VNTR and tic disorder (chi square=7.44, P 0.12); however, when the sample was divided into two groups, transmission disequilibrium was noticed between the cases of TS&ADHD and this locus by overall allele-wise analysis (chi square=11.74, P 0.02), and there exists transmission disequilibrium exclusively between 5 or 6 repeats of 48bp VNTR(longer alleles) by allele-wise analysis (chi square=10.57, P 0.032, chi square=6.13, P 0.01). No transmission disequilibrium was seen between TS&CT and DRD4 exon III 48bp VNTR(chi square=3.38, P 0.50)., Conclusion: The results of this study have revealed an association between the longer alleles of DRD4 exon III 48bp VNTR polymorphism and tic disorder accompanied with ADHD, thus suggesting a possible genetic risk factor of tic disorder accompanied with ADHD in Chinese.

Objective: To investigate the influence factors for social adaptive behavior of children., Methods: Six hundred children of 6 to 12 years old were investigated with the adaptive behavior assessment form of American children (AAMD-ABS revised edition). The influence factors for social adaptability of children were analyzed by stepwise regression., Results: It was found that preschool fostering type, parents' relation, social mood of living area, and mother's age and health state enforced a remarkable influence on the social adaptive behavior of children., Conclusion: A good fostering type, parents' harmonious relationship, health children's social environment and good health of mother would help improve children's social adaptability.