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Alkylresorcinols are phenolic lipids that mainly exist in the cortex of grains, and they exhibit anticancer activity against various cancer cells in vitro. However, the underlying action mechanisms are still unclear. In our study, the influence of alkylresorcinols C19:0 and C21:0 (ARs) upon migration, invasion, and autophagy in human hepatoblastoma HepG2 cells was evaluated. Results showed that ARs at 80 and 160 µg/mL significantly suppressed cells proliferation, migration, and invasion, downregulated the expression of proteins RhoA and MMP-7 associated with migration and invasion. ARs at 160 µg/mL, the rate of LC3 puncta was appreciably increased. After autophagy was blocked by 3-MA or CQ, the expression of LC3II was significantly increased in 3-MA+ARs group and p62 was significantly decreased in CQ+ARs group. The results indicate that ARs may promote autophagic flow. ARs (80, 160 µg/mL) significantly inhibited the expression of proteins p-mTOR, p-PI3K, and p-Akt related to the PI3K/Akt pathway. The results of the present study suggest that ARs can activate autophagy and suppresses the biological behaviors of HepG2 cells by inhibiting the activation of MMP-7, Rho/Rho-associated protein kinase, and activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt signaling pathway. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The anticancer mechanism of ARs in wheat bran was studied, which provided a basis for the development of anticancer functional auxiliary food with wheat bran as raw material. It is of great practical significance to promote the effective utilization of grain processing by-products and improve the economic benefits of the grain industry.

Secreted proteins provide crucial signals that have been implicated in the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in the bone marrow microenvironment. Here we identify aberrant expressions of inflammatory IL-17B and its receptor (IL-17RB) in human and mouse mixed lineage leukemia-rearranged AML cells, which were further increased after exposure to chemotherapy. Interestingly, silencing of IL-17B or IL-17RB led to significant suppression of leukemic cell survival and disease progression in vivo. Moreover, the IL-17B-IL-17RB axis protected leukemic cells from chemotherapeutic agent-induced apoptotic effects. Mechanistic studies revealed that IL-17B promoted AML cell survival by enhancing ERK, NF-κB phosphorylation, and the expression of antiapoptotic protein B-cell lymphoma 2, which were reversed by small-molecule inhibitors. Thus, the inhibition of the IL-17B-IL-17RB axis may be a valid strategy to enhance sensitivity and therapeutic benefit of AML chemotherapy.-Guo, H.-Z., Niu, L.-T., Qiang, W.-T., Chen, J., Wang, J., Yang, H., Zhang, W., Zhu, J., Yu, S.-H. Leukemic IL-17RB signaling regulates leukemic survival and chemoresistance.

Existing methods of spatial data clustering have focused on point data, whose similarity can be easily defined. Due to the complex shapes and alignments of polygons, the similarity between non-overlapping polygons is important to cluster polygons. This study attempts to present an efficient method to discover clustering patterns of polygons by incorporating spatial cognition principles and multilevel graph partition. Based on spatial cognition on spatial similarity of polygons, four new similarity criteria (i.e. the distance, connectivity, size and shape) are developed to measure the similarity between polygons, and used to visually distinguish those polygons belonging to the same clusters from those to different clusters. The clustering method with multilevel graph-partition first coarsens the graph of polygons at multiple levels, using the four defined similarities to find clusters with maximum similarity among polygons in the same clusters, then refines the obtained clusters by keeping minimum similarity between different clusters. The presented method is a general algorithm for discovering clustering patterns of polygons and can satisfy various demands by changing the weights of distance, connectivity, size and shape in spatial similarity. The presented method is tested by clustering residential areas and buildings, and the results demonstrate its usefulness and universality.

In contrast to the well-recognized loss of adherens junctions in cancer progression, the role of desmosomal components in cancer development has not been well explored. We previously demonstrated that desmocollin-2 (DSC2), a desmosomal cadherin protein, is reduced in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and is associated with enhanced tumour metastasis and poor prognosis. Here, we report that restoration of DSC2 in ESCC cells impeded cell migration and invasion both in vitro and in vivo, whereas siRNA-mediated suppression of DSC2 expression increased cell motility. In E-cadherin-expressing ESCC cells, DSC2 restoration strengthened E-cadherin-mediated adherens junctions and promoted the localization of β-catenin at these junctions, which indirectly inhibited β-catenin-dependent transcription. These effects of DSC2 were not present in EC109 cells that lacked E-cadherin expression. ESCC patients with tumours that had reduced E-cadherin and negative DSC2 had poorer clinical outcomes than patients with tumours that lacked either E-cadherin or DSC2, implying that the invasive potential of ESCC cells was restricted by both DSC2 and E-cadherin-dependent junctions. Further studies revealed that DSC2 was a downstream target of miR-25. Enhanced miR-25 promoted ESCC cell invasiveness, whereas restoration of DSC2 abolished these effects. Collectively, our work suggests that miR-25-mediated down-regulation of DSC2 promotes ESCC cell aggressiveness through redistributing adherens junctions and activating beta-catenin signalling.

Objectives To explore the feasibility of using enhanced-flow (e-flow) imaging technology to identify fetal pulmonary veins and establish gestational age-specific reference values at 12–40 weeks' gestation. Methods The pulmonary venous internal diameter, peak systolic and diastolic flow velocities and visualization rate were analyzed in 332 normal fetuses at 12–40 weeks of gestation. Two-dimensional gray-scale (2D) ultrasound, color Doppler and e-flow imaging were used to detect the pulmonary veins in the four-chamber view by taking the lung as the penetration window. Results The pulmonary veins could be visualized as early as 12 weeks' gestational age by e-flow imaging. The right and left pulmonary venous internal diameters and peak systolic and diastolic flow velocities increased with increasing gestational age. Between 12 and 40 gestational weeks, the internal diameter and both the systolic and diastolic flow velocities of the fetal right pulmonary vein were significantly larger than were those of the left vein (P < 0.05). Of 118 fetuses at 12–22 gestational weeks, the visualization rate of the four pulmonary veins (left superior and inferior, right superior and inferior) was 5.9% (7/118) by 2D ultrasound, 41.5% (49/118) by color Doppler and 61.9% (73/118) by e-flow imaging. The visualization rate by e-flow imaging was significantly higher than that using the other two techniques (P < 0.001). Conclusion e-flow imaging is apparently a feasible and promising technology with which to identify the fetal pulmonary veins in the early stages of the second trimester. Copyright © 2011 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Natural structural materials (such as tendons and ligaments) are comprised of multiscale hierarchical architectures, with dimensions ranging from nano- to macroscale, which are difficult to mimic synthetically. Here a bioinspired, facile method to fabricate anisotropic hydrogels with perfectly aligned multiscale hierarchical fibrous structures similar to those of tendons and ligaments is reported. The method includes drying a diluted physical hydrogel in air by confining its length direction. During this process, sufficiently high tensile stress is built along the length direction to align the polymer chains and multiscale fibrous structures (from nano- to submicro- to microscale) are spontaneously formed in the bulk material, which are well-retained in the reswollen gel. The method is useful for relatively rigid polymers (such as alginate and cellulose), which are susceptible to mechanical signal. By controlling the drying with or without prestretching, the degree of alignment, size of superstructures, and the strength of supramolecular interactions can be tuned, which sensitively influence the strength and toughness of the hydrogels. The mechanical properties are comparable with those of natural ligaments. This study provides a general strategy for designing hydrogels with highly ordered hierarchical structures, which opens routes for the development of many functional biomimetic materials for biomedical applications.

The Lower Triassic Jialingjiang Formation reservoirs are distributed widely in the East Sichuan Basin, which are composed mainly of fractured reservoirs. However, natural gas with high concentration of H2S, ranging from 4% to 7%, was discovered in the Wolonghe Gas pool consisting primarily of porous reservoirs, while the other over 20 fractured gas reservoirs have comparatively low, tiny and even no H2S within natural gases. Researches have proved the H2S of the above reservoirs are all from the TSR origin. Most of the Jialingjiang Formation natural gases are mainly generated from Lower Permian carbonate rocks, the Wolonghe gas pool's natural gases are from the Upper Permian Longtan Formation, and the natural gases of the Huangcaoxia and Fuchengzhai gas pools are all from Lower Silurian mudstone. The formation of H2S is controlled by the characteristics and temperature of reservoirs, and is not necessarily related with gas sources. The Jialingjiang Formation in East Sichuan is buried deeply and its reservoir temperature has ever attained the condition of the TSR reaction. Due to poor reservoir potential, most of the gas pools do not have enough room for hydrocarbon reaction except for the Wolonghe gas pool, and thus natural gases with high H2S concentration are difficult to be generated abundantly. The south part of East Sichuan did not generate natural gases with high H2S concentration because the reservoir was buried relatively shallow, and did not suffer high temperature. Hence, while predicting the distribution of H2S, the characteristics and temperature of reservoirs are the necessary factors to be considerd besides the existence of anhydrite.

The GATA family of transcription factors promotes the normal development of the gastrointestinal tract during embryogenesis and determines tissue differentiation in adult gut epithelium. Loss of GATA-4 and GATA-5 has been reported in human gastric and colon cancer. We examined GATA-4,-5 and -6 gene expression in established esophageal squamous cancer cell lines and the relationship to DNA methylation in the promoter region of these genes. GATA-4 and GATA-5 expression was absent in most esophageal cancer cell lines, but was restored upon treatment with the demethylating agent 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine. For each of the cell lines without detectable GATA gene expression, aberrant methylation of the promoter region CpG-island was detected by methylation specific PCR. We confirmed these results with genomic bisulfite sequencing. GATA-6 expression was found in each of the cell lines. GATA-4/-5 promoter methylation was not detected in normal esophageal mucosa, but GATA-4 methylation was present in 27 of 44 (61%) squamous carcinomas and 31 of 44 (71%) adenocarcinoma of the esophagus, while GATA-5 methylation was present in 14 of 44 (32%) squamous carcinomas and 24 of 44 (55%) adenocarcinoma of the esophagus. Our studies demonstrate frequent silencing of GATA-4 and GATA-5, but not GATA-6, in human esophageal neoplasia associated with gene promoter hypermethylation.

The three new full-length cDNA sequences including the complete 5′-and 3′- untranslated regions (UTR) coding for cytochrome P450s from Aedes albopictus have been obtained. The P450 proteins deduced from the nucleotide sequences shared 58.6% - 62.4% amino acid identity with CYP6N1 and CYP6N2 from Anopheles gambiae, and 99% with each other. The three new complete sequences have been submitted and named as CYP6N3v1, CYP6N3v2 and CYP6N3v3 by the P450 Nomenclature Committee. The original cDNAs were obtained by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) approach with several pairs of gene specific primers based on the cDNA fragment previously obtained from deltamethrin-resistant strain of Ae. albopictus. Further analysis showed that the three new sequences are present in both resistant strain and susceptible strain and might be effectively translated. In addition, the 5′- and 3′-UTRs were compared between the CYP6N3vl-v3 and other known insect P450s. The multiplicity of trans-lational control of insect P450 genes was discussed.

Several pairs of specific primers according to the obtained cDNA sequence fragment from deltamethrin-resistant Aedes albopktus were designed to amplify new CYP6 genes from total RNA of Aedes albopictus by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) technique. The products of RACE were cloned and selected for sequencing. The deduced amino acid sequences were subjected to homologous analysis. The results indicated that the identities of clone GZS331 sequence from 5′-RACE products and clone GZG033 sequence from 3′-RACE products to CYP6N3vl - v3 are 83.9% - 84.3% and 98.2% - 99.1% respectively; while the identities of the others from 3′-RACE products to CYP6N3v1 - v3 are 84.3% - 85.6%. All of these obtained cDNA sequences have a higher homology to CYP3A1 in mouse and CYP9A1 in moth. The dendrogram constructed by PC/GENE software showed similar results to homologous analysis. These obtained sequences were submitted and named by the P450 Nomenclature Committee. The diversity of cytochrome P450 genes in Culicidae species was discussed.