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Diabetic nephropathy constitutes the leading cause for end‐stage kidney disease. Ginkgetin is a common natural non‐toxic biflavone and fulfills pleiotropic pharmacological characterizations, such as anti‐inflammation and kidney injury. Nevertheless, its efficacy in diabetic nephropathy remains elusive. Here, ginkgetin exhibited little cytotoxicity in glomerular mesangial cells. Of note, ginkgetin restrained high glucose (HG)‐induced mesangial cell proliferation and oxidative stress by inhibiting ROS and malonaldehyde levels, but enhancing antioxidant SOD activity. Additionally, ginkgetin suppressed HG‐evoked transcript and release of inflammatory cytokine TNF‐α, IL‐1β, and IL‐6. Concomitantly, the increased extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition in HG‐treated glomerular mesangial cells was attenuated by ginkgetin via decreasing expression of collagen IV, fibronectin, and laminin. Intriguingly, ginkgetin‐restored HG‐impaired autophagy; whereas blocking autophagy by its inhibitor 3‐MA overturned ginkgetin function against HG‐evoked mesangial cell dysfunction. Mechanistically, ginkgetin‐mediated AMPK/mTOR axis accounted for HG‐impaired autophagy. Importantly, blockage of AMPK signaling reversed ginkgetin‐restored autophagy and its protective efficacy against HG‐induced dysfunction in mesangial cells. Thus, these findings highlight that ginkgetin may attenuate HG‐evoked mesangial cell hyperplasia, oxidative stress, inflammation, and ECM accumulation by activating AMPk/mTOR‐mediated autophagy pathway. Therefore, ginkgetin may alleviate the progression of diabetic nephropathy by regulating glomerular mesangial cell dysfunction, supporting a promising therapeutic agent against diabetic nephropathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have shown that autophagy exhibits a renoprotective role in various models of acute kidney injury (AKI). However, its role in vancomycin (Van)-induced AKI remains largely unclarified. This study was the first to indicate that autophagy was rapidly activated in both human kidney-2 cells and renal tissues, and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) was inactivated via the suppression of ERK1/2 and mTOR during Van treatment. Interestingly, for both in vitro and in vivo experiments, the suppression of autophagy via chloroquine and PT-Atg7-KO significantly ameliorated Van-induced kidney injury and renal tubular cell apoptosis. Global gene expression analysis indicated that the expression levels of 6159 genes were induced by Van treatment in the kidney cortical tissues of PT-Atg7 wild-type mice, and 18 of them were notably suppressed in PT-Atg7-KO mice. These 18 genes were further classified as programmed cell death, protein binding, signal transduction, E3 ubiquitin ligase, nucleoside diphosphate kinase activity, and E1-like activating enzyme. Unexpectedly, following Van treatment, PKC-δ expression was found to be highest among the 4 genes related to cell death, which was remarkably suppressed in vitro and in PT-Atg7-KO mice. In addition, Atg7 could induce renal cell apoptosis during Van treatment via binding to PKC-δ. Likewise, the inhibition of PKCδ ameliorated Van-induced apoptosis in human kidney-2 cells and kidney tissues. Furthermore, the data showed that PT-Atg7-KO exerted a renoprotective effect against Van-induced nephrotoxicity, but this effect was lost after injection with myc-tagged PKCδ. Taken altogether, these results indicate that Van induces autophagy by suppressing the activation of the ERK1/2 and mTOR signaling pathway. In addition, Atg7 mediates Van-induced AKI through the activation of PKCδ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuroblastoma (NB) is an embryonic solid tumor derived from precursor cells of the sympathetic nervous system, and accounts for 11% of childhood cancers and around 15% of cancer deaths in children. SUMOylation and deSUMOylation are dynamic mechanisms regulating a spectrum of protein activities. The SUMO proteases (SENP) remove SUMO conjugate from proteins, and their expression is deregulated in diverse cancers. However, nothing is known about the role of SENPs in NBL. In the present study, we found that SENP1 expression was significantly high in metastatic NB tissues compared with primary NB tissues. Overexpression of SENP1 promoted NB cells migration and invasion. Inhibition of SENP1 could significantly suppress NB cell migration and invasion. Moreover, we found that SENP1 could regulate the expression of CDH1, MMP9, and MMP2. In summary, the data presented here indicate a significant role of SENP1 in the regulation of cell migration and invasion in NB and suppress SENP1 expression as promising candidates for novel treatment strategies of NB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a novel method of fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) anion exchange chromatography was developed for isolation of DNA from processed genetically modified (GM) oils. Four kinds of different GM edible oil had been chosen as model sample. Salmon DNA was used as the control sample to determine the pH values and NaCl in mobile phase buffer. Applying pH 8 and NaCl gradient 0.5–2 m were chosen for the DNA isolation. The quality and purity of isolated DNA were tested with agarose gel electrophoresis, scanned with UV absorbance spectra and amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The result indicated that the quantity of DNA isolated by FPLC was suitable for further PCR analyses. Furthermore, it is more effective and less time-consuming in comparison with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide method and High Pure GMO Sample Preparation Kit method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

( Cancer Sci 2010; 101: 686–692) The lymphatic endothelial cell (LEC) is an interactive surface for cancer cells. This article aims to explore cancer cell-induced changes of LEC, and study the tumor–lymphatic endothelium interaction. Here, LECs were co-cultured with highly and poorly metastatic tongue cancer cells. The differences in biologic behaviors and gene expression profiles between them were examined. The results showed that LECs induced by highly metastatic cancer cells displayed abnormal biologic behaviors, and could secrete chemokines to promote the migration of cancer cells. Therefore, biologic properties and functional status of LECs in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) might be a positive factor in lymphatic dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

J Oral Pathol Med (2010) 39 168–175 Objective: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) often spreads from the primary tumor to regional lymph nodes in the early stage. Better understanding of the biology of lymphatic spread of oral cancer cells is important for improving the survival rate of cancer patients. Methods: We established the cell line LNMTca8113 by repeated injections in foot pads of nude mice, which had a much higher lymphatic metastasis rate than its parental cell line Tca8113. Then, we compared the biologic behaviors of cancer cells between them. Moreover, microarray-based expression profiles between them were also compared, and a panel of differential genes was validated using real-time-PCR. Results: In contrast to Tca8113 cells, LNMTca8113 cells were more proliferative and resistant to apoptosis in the absence of serum, and had enhanced ability of inducing capillary-like structures. Moreover, microarray-based expression profiles between them identified 1341 genes involved in cell cycle, cell adhesion, lymphangiogenesis, regulation of apoptosis, and so on. Some genes dedicating to the metastatic potential, including JAM2, TNC, CTSC, LAMB1, VEGFC, HAPLN1, ACPP, GDF9 and FGF11, were upregulated in LNMTca8113 cells. Conclusion: These results suggested that LNMTca8113 and Tca8113 cells were proper models for lymphatic metastasis study because there were differences in biologic behaviors and metastasis-related genes between them. Additionally, the differentially expressed gene profiles in cancer progression may be helpful in exploring therapeutic targets and provide the foundation for further functional validation of these specific candidate genes for OSCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loss due to coupling between two parallel microstrip lines is investigated in this paper. It is found that the transmission characteristic of the aggressor line was impaired by coupling. Most energy would be coupled to the victim line at resonant frequencies determined by the space between traces and the coupled length, which seriously affects the transmitted signals with high data rate. Two coupled microstrip lines are analyzed in terms of even and odd modes to explain this additional loss mechanism. Several design parameters are simulated. It is clearly shown that resonant frequencies increase with the space between traces and decrease with the coupled length. Electromagnetic simulations are also performed to illustrate this extra loss mechanism. Good agreement is seen between analytical and experimental analyses. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 197–202, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23041 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the DR3/DQ2-restricted T cell response to wild-type human Laminin (hLa) and a truncated form of mutant La. The researchers identified multiple DR3-restricted epitopes of hLa. The results indicate that truncation of La produced by somatic mutation or possibly granzyme B-mediated cleavage alters the immunodominance hierarchy of T cell responsiveness to hLa and may be a factor in the initiation or maintenance of anti-La autoimmunity.

The problem of recovering a sparse signal buried in noise from a linear observing system has been studied, via utilising statistic prior information of noise and signal, a fast matching pursuit revised maximum a posterior (MP-RMAP) estimation method is proposed. The proposed method overcomes the none-robust estimation problem that fast Bayesian matching pursuit has in high signal-to-noise ratio cases. Compared with other methods, the MP-RMAP method is able to improve the estimation accuracy with low complexity. Experimental results verify the validity of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title compound, [Fe(C(5)H(5))(C(14)H(11)O)], exists as the E isomer, and the substituent is fully conjugated with the attached five-membered ring. In the ferrocene unit, the substituted cyclo-penta-dienyl ring (Cps) plane and unsubstituted cyclo-penta-dienyl ring (Cp) plane are almost parallel, and the C atoms in Cp and Cps are in an eclipsed conformation. In the crystal structure, mol-ecules are linked into C(5) chains via inter-molecular C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, and neighbouring chains are assembled into sheets by inter-molecular C-H⋯π(arene) hydrogen bonds along the c axis.