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The fermented leaf of Ampelopsis grossedentata has been used as a beverage and folk medicine called “vine tea” in the southern region of China. In this paper, the optimum extraction conditions for the maximum recovery amounts of total flavonoids (TF), dihydromyricetin (DMY), myricitrin (MYG) and myricetin (MY) from natural Ampelopsis grossedentata leaves subjected to ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) were determined and optimized by using response surface methodology. The method was employed by the Box–Behnken design (BBD) and Derringer’s desirability function using methanol concentration, extraction time, liquid/solid ratio as factors and the contents of TF, DMY, MYG and MY as responses. The obtained optimum UAE conditions were as follows: a solvent of 80.87% methanol, an extraction time of 31.98 min and a liquid/solid ratio of 41.64:1 mL/g. Through analysis of the response surface, it implied that methanol concentration and the liquid/solid ratio had significant effects on TF, DMY, MYG and MY yields, whereas extraction time had relatively little effects. The established extraction and analytical methods were successfully applied to determine the contents of the total flavonoids and three individual flavonoids in 10 batches of the leaf samples of A. grossedentata from three counties in Fujian Province, China. The results suggested the variability in the quality of A. grossedentata leaves from different origins. In addition, high purities of dihydromyricetin and myricetin were simultaneously separated and purified from the extract subjected to optimized UAE, by high-speed counter-current chromatography using a solvent system of N-hexane–ethyl acetate–methanol–water (1:3:2:4; v/v/v/v). In a single operation, 200 mg of the extract were separated to yield 86.46 mg of dihydromyricetin and 3.61 mg of myricetin with the purity of 95.03% and 99.21%, respectively. The results would be beneficial for further exploiting the herbal products and controlling the quality of the herb and its derived products.

The PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway plays crucial roles in regulating both innate and adaptive immunity. However, the role of TSC1, a critical negative regulator of mTOR, in peripheral T cell homeostasis remains elusive. With T cell-specific Tsc1 conditional knockout (Tsc1 KO) mice, we found that peripheral naïve CD8(+) T cells but not CD4(+) T cells were severely reduced. Tsc1 KO naïve CD8(+) T cells showed profound survival defect in an adoptive transfer model and in culture with either stimulation of IL-7 or IL-15, despite comparable CD122 and CD127 expression between control and KO CD8(+) T cells. IL-7 stimulated phosphorylation of Akt(S473) was diminished in Tsc1 KO naïve CD8(+)T cells due to hyperactive mTOR-mediated feedback suppression on PI3K-AKT signaling. Furthermore, impaired Foxo1/Foxo3a phosphorylation and increased pro-apoptotic Bim expression in Tsc1 KO naïve CD8(+)T cells were observed upon stimulation of IL-7. Collectively, our study suggests that TSC1 plays an essential role in regulating peripheral naïve CD8(+) T cell homeostasis, possible via an mTOR-Akt-FoxO-Bim signaling pathway.

Although several Cre-loxP-based gene knockout mouse models have been generated for the study of gene function in alveolar epithelia in the lung, their applications are still limited. In this study, we developed a SPC-Cre-ER(T2) mouse model, in which a tamoxifen-inducible Cre recombinase (Cre-ER(T2)) is under the control of the human surfactant protein C (SPC) promoter. The specificity and efficiency of Cre-ER(T2) activity was first evaluated by crossing SPC-Cre-ER(T2) mouse with ROSA26R mouse, a β-galactosidase reporter strain. We found that Cre-ER(T2) was expressed in 30.7% type II alveolar epithelial cells of SPC-Cre-ER(T2)/ROSA26R mouse lung tissues in the presence of tamoxifen. We then tested the tamoxifen-inducible recombinase activity of Cre-ER(T2) in a mouse strain bearing TSC1 conditional knockout alleles (TSC1(fx/fx)). TSC1 deletion was detected in the lungs of tamoxifen treated SPC-Cre-ER(T2)/TSC1(fx/fx) mice. Therefore this SPC-Cre-ER(T2) mouse model may be a valuable tool to investigate functions of genes in lung development, physiology and disease.

Despite the growing understanding of pdgf signaling, studies of pdgf function have encountered two major obstacles: the functional redundancy of PDGFRalpha and PDGFRbeta in vitro and their distinct roles in vivo. Here we used wild-type mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF), MEF null for either PDGFRalpha, beta, or both to dissect PDGF-PDGFR signaling pathways. These four PDGFR genetically defined cells provided us a platform to study the relative contributions of the pathways triggered by the two PDGF receptors. They were treated with PDGF-BB and analyzed for differential gene expression, in vitro proliferation and differential response to pharmacological effects. No genes were differentially expressed in the double null cells, suggesting minimal receptor-independent signaling. Protean differentiation and proliferation pathways are commonly regulated by PDGFRalpha, PDGFRbeta and PDGFRalpha/beta while each receptor is also responsible for regulating unique signaling pathways. Furthermore, some signaling is solely modulated through heterodimeric PDGFRalpha/beta.

We generated a transgenic mouse model ( RIP-luc ) for the in vivo monitoring of pancreatic islet mass and function in response to metabolic disease. Using the rat insulin promoter fused to firefly luciferase, and noninvasive technology to detect luciferase activity, we tracked changes in reporter signal during metabolic disease states and correlated the changes in luciferase signal with metabolic status of the mouse. Transgene expression was found to be specific to the pancreatic islets in this transgenic model. Basal transgene expression was tracked in male and female mice fed either a chow or a high-fat diet and in response to treatment with streptozotocin. Pancreatic bioluminescent signal increased in mice fed a high-fat diet compared with chow-fed animals. In a model of chemically induced diabetes, the bioluminescent signal decreased in accordance with the onset of diabetes and reduction of islet β-cell number. Preliminary studies using islets transplanted from this transgenic model suggest that in vivo image analysis can also be used to monitor transplanted islet viability and survival in the host. This transgenic model is a useful tool for in vivo studies of pancreatic β-cells and as a donor for islet transplantation studies.

The implantation and growth of metal nanoparticles on graphene nanosheets (GNS) leads directly to severe damage to the regular structure of the graphene sheets, which disrupts the extended p conjugation, resulting in an impaired device performance. In this paper, we describe a facile approach for achieving the lossless formation of graphene composite decorated with tiny cadmium sulfide quantum dots (QDs) with excellent nonlinear optical properties by using benzyl mercaptan (BM) as the interlinker. The mercapto substituent of BM binds to the CdS QDs during their nucleation and growth process, and then the phenyl comes into contact with the GNS via the p-p stacking interaction. Using this strategy, CdS QDs with an average diameter of 3 nm are uniformly dispersed over the surface of graphene, and the resulting QD-graphene composite exhibits excellent optical limiting properties, mainly contributed by nonlinear scattering and nonlinear absorption, upon both 532 and 1064 nm excitations, in the nanosecond laser pulse regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]