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Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become the most common chronic liver disease, along with the prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome. Non-alcoholic fatty liver will progress to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), NASH-related liver fibrosis and liver cirrhosis, and even hepatocellular carcinoma. Accurate assessment and early intervention are conducive to clinical burden reduction and disease control. Although being the "golden standard" for diagnosing NAFLD, the clinical application of liver biopsy is limited due to well-known limitations and significant complications. Serological testing, as a noninvasive method, has been well-recognized among researchers and clinicians. The understanding of the pros and cons and the application ranges of various methods and indexes is helpful for clinical applications, including providing more diagnosis approaches, improving diagnosis power, relieving pain of patients, and saving medical resources. This article reviews the advances in serological noninvasive diagnostic methods for NAFLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prunus cerasifera has a rich resource and a weak utilization rate and its biological functions have been investigated. We found that the contents of total phenol (TP) in leaves and branches of Prunus cerasifera were 117.8 ± 8.8 and 100.04 ± 0.9 mg/g, respectively; the contents of soluble condensed tannin (SCT) were 73.95 ± 0.9 and 78.65 ± 4.1 mg/g, respectively; the structure of SCT containing afzelechin/epiafzelechin, catechin/epicatechin, and atechin/epicatechin as the main units and the SCT from leaves and branches exhibited better anti-tyrosinase and antioxidant activities. This study could clarify Prunus cerasifera condensed tannin resource availability and lay a theoretical foundation for its development as a natural antioxidant and tyrosinase inhibitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Mitochondrial retrograde regulation (MRR) is the transduction of mitochondrial signals to mediate nuclear gene expression. It is not clear whether MRR is a common regulation mechanism in plant abiotic stress response. In this study, we analysed the early abiotic stress response of the rice OsAOX1 genes, and the induction of OsAOX1a and OsAOX1b ( OsAOX1a/b) was selected as a working model for the stress-induced MRR studies. We found that the induction mediated by the superoxide ion (O2·-)-generating chemical methyl viologen was stronger than that of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The addition of reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers demonstrated that the stress induction was reduced by eliminating O2·-. Furthermore, the stress induction did not rely on chloroplast- or cytosol-derived O2·-. Next, we generated transgenic plants overexpressing the superoxide dismutase (SOD) gene at different subcellular locations. The results suggest that only the mitochondrial SOD, OsMSD, attenuated the stress induction of OsAOX1a/b specifically. Therefore, our findings demonstrate that abiotic stress initiates the MRR on OsAOX1a/b and that mitochondrial O2·- is involved in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bladder cancer exhibits substantial heterogeneity encompassing genetic expressions and histological features. This heterogeneity is predominantly attributed to alternative splicing (AS) and AS-regulated splicing factors (SFs), which, in turn, influence bladder cancer development, progression, and response to treatment., Objective: This study aimed to explore the immune landscape of aberrant AS in bladder cancer and establish the prognostic signatures for survival prediction., Methods: Bladder cancer-related RNA-Seq, transcriptome, and corresponding clinical information were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to identify significantly enriched pathways of cancer-related AS events. The underlying interactions among differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and cancer-related AS events were assessed by a protein-protein interaction network. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to identify crucial prognostic DEGs that co-occurred with cancer-related AS events (DEGAS) for overall survival. The area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves was used to assess the efficiency of the prognostic signatures. The CIBERSORT algorithm was used to explore the abundance of immune infiltrating cells., Results: A total of 3755 cancer-related AS events and 3110 DEGs in bladder cancer were identified. Among them, 379 DEGs co-occurred with cancer-related AS events (DEGAS), of which 102 DEGAS were associated with 14 dysregulated SFs. GSEA and KEGG analysis showed that cancer-related AS events were predominantly enriched in pathways related to immunity, tumorigenesis, and treatment difficulties of bladder cancer. Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified 8 DEGAS (CABP1, KCNN2, TNFRSF13B, PCDH7, SNRPA1, APOLD1, CX3CL1, and DENND5A) significantly associated with OS, and they were further integrated into the prediction model with good AUCs at 3-year, 5-year and 7-year ROC curves (all>0.7). Immune infiltration analysis revealed the significant enrichment of three immune cell types (B cells naïve, dendritic cells resting, and dendritic cell activated) in high-risk bladder cancer patients., Conclusion: This study not only unveiled comprehensive prognostic signatures of AS events in bladder cancer but also established a robust prognostic model based on survival-related DEGAS. These aberrant AS events, dysregulated SFs, and the identified 8 DEGAS may have significant clinical potential as therapeutic targets for bladder cancer., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Objective: To clarify the significance of inflammasome NLRP3 in children with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) by detecting its changes before and after treatment., Methods: Twenty children with ITP diagnosed and treated in Xuzhou Children's Hospital were enrolled as observation group, and 10 healthy children as control group. The mRNA levels of NLRP3, ASC, and Caspase-1 were measured by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), the serum levels of IL-18, IL-1β, and high mobility group protein B1 (HMGB1) were detected by ELISA, and the protein level of NLRP3 was detected by Western blot., Results: In newly diagnosed ITP children, the serum levels of IL-18, IL-1β and HMGB1 significantly decreased after treatment (P<0.05). After treatment, NLRP3, ASC, and Caspase-1 mRNA levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells were significantly lower than those before treatment (P<0.05). NLRP3 protein expression decreased significantly after treatment., Conclusion: Expression of NLRP3 inflammasome and downstream inflammatory factors are decrease after treatment in children with ITP, which may be used as effective prognostic markers.

Objective: To explore the role and the mechanism of NLRP3 inflammasome in children's immune thrombocytopenia (ITP)., Methods: Twenty-one children suffered from ITP were enrolled in ITP group, 10 healthy children were selected in control group. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNC) were isolated from ITP children and healthy controls. The mRNA levels of NLRP3, ASC, and Caspase-1 in PBMNCs were measured by quantitative real-time PCR. Moreover, the protein level of NLRP3 in PBMNCs was detected by Western blot. The plasma IL-18 level was detected by ELISA., Results: The expression level of NLRP3, ASC and Caspase-1 mRNA in newly-diagnosed ITP children was dramatically higher than that in control. The plasma IL-18 level was higher than that in healthy control. Furthermore, the level of NLRP3 protein was up-regulated in ITP children., Conclusion: The NLRP3 inflammasome and up-regulated level of IL-18 have been found in newlydiagnosed ITP patients, and they may involve in the pathogenesis of ITP.

Objective: To screen for the optimal dose of benzene and cyclophosphamide using an orthogonal design for establishment of New Zealand rabbit models of aplastic anemia., Methods: Following an orthogonal experimental design, the effects of 3 levels of 4 factors, namely the dose of benzene (A), the dose of cyclophosphamide (B), the number of benzene injections (C), and the number of cyclophosphamide injections (D) were tested in the establishment of New Zealand rabbit models of aplastic anemia using a L 9 (3 4 ) orthogonal table, and the optimal protocol for the model establishment was selected from the 9 experimental groups. Each rabbit received subcutaneous injection of benzene on the back every other day, followed by daily cyclophosphamide injection via the ear vein for prescribed times. The blood routine was examined every 6 days, and before modeling and at 36 days after modeling, a small sample of the femoral bone was collected for bone marrow histopathological examination., Results: Comparison of the white blood cell, erythrocyte and platelet counts among the 9 groups showed successful modeling in Groups 4-9, and daily mean reduction rates of the cell counts in Groups 7, 8, and 9 differed significantly from those in the other groups (P<0.05). In Group 7, bone marrow sections showed low myelodysplasia, reduced hematopoietic tissue, reduced or even absence of megakaryocytes, and increased fat cells. Further observation found that the rabbits in Group 7 had sustained bone marrow suppression, consistent with the clinical characteristics of the disease., Conclusion: Stable models of aplastic anemia can be established efficiently in New Zealand rabbits by a combination of 8 subcutaneous injections of benzene at 1.5 mL/kg and 4 intravenous injections of cyclophosphamide at 10 mg/kg.