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Muscle atrophy is known to be one of the symptoms leading to sarcopenia, which significantly impacts the quality of life, mortality, and morbidity. Therefore, the development of therapeutics for muscle atrophy is essential. This study focuses on addressing muscle loss and atrophy using Ulmus macrocarpa extract and its marker compound, catechin 7-O-β-D-apiofuranoside, by investigating their effects on biomarkers associated with muscle cell apoptosis. Additionally, protein and gene expression in a muscle atrophy model were examined using Western blotting and RT-PCR. Ulmus macrocarpa has been used as food or medicine due to its safety, including its roots, barks, and fruit. Catechin 7-O-β-D apiofuranoside is an indicator substance of plants of the Ulmus genus and has been reported to have various effects such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. The experimental results demonstrated that catechin glycoside and Ulmus macrocarpa extract decreased the expression of the muscle-degradation-related proteins Atrogin-1 and Muscle RING-Finger protein-1 (MuRF1) while increasing the expression of the muscle-synthesis-related proteins Myoblast determination (MyoD) and Myogenin. Gene expression confirmation experiments validated a decrease in the expression of Atrogin and MuRF1 mRNA and an increase in the expression of MyoD and Myogenin mRNA. Furthermore, an examination of muscle protein expression associated with the protein kinase B (Akt)/forkhead box O (FoxO) signaling pathway confirmed a decrease in the expression of FoxO, a regulator of muscle protein degradation. These results confirm the potential of Ulmus macrocarpa extract to inhibit muscle apoptosis, prevent muscle decomposition, and promote the development of functional materials for muscle synthesis, health-functional foods, and natural-product-derived medicines.

Background/Objectives: Sarcopenia is characterized by the loss of muscle mass and function, increases in mortality rate, and risk of comorbidities in the elderly. This study evaluated the effects of Alnus japonica hot water extract (AJHW) and its active compound, oregonin, on muscle atrophy and apoptosis in vitro. Methods: AJHW underwent phytochemical analysis. C2C12 cells were subjected to H2O2 and dexamethasone to induce oxidative stress and muscle loss, after which AJHW and oregonin were administered to assess their impacts on cell viability, apoptosis, muscle protein synthesis stimulation, and muscle protein degradation inhibition. Cell viability was assessed via an MTT assay, and apoptosis was analyzed by measuring Bcl-2, Bax, cleaved caspase-3, and cleaved PARP through Western blotting. Western blotting and RT-PCR were utilized to analyze MyoD, Myogenin, Atrogin-1, and MuRF1 protein and gene expression in a muscle atrophy model, as well as the Akt/mTOR and FoxO3α pathways. Results: AJHW was confirmed to contain oregonin, an active compound. AJHW and oregonin significantly increased cell viability and reduced apoptosis by upregulating Bcl-2 and downregulating Bax, cleaved caspase-3, and cleaved PARP. They significantly enhanced muscle protein synthesis through the upregulation of MyoD and Myogenin, while diminishing muscle degradation by downregulating Atrogin-1 and MuRF1. The activation of the Akt/mTOR pathway and inhibition of the FoxO3α pathway were also observed. Conclusions: AJHW and oregonin effectively prevented muscle cell apoptosis, promoted muscle protein synthesis, and inhibited muscle protein degradation in vitro. These results suggest that AJHW and oregonin could serve as therapeutic agents to prevent and treat sarcopenia.

The present study was designed to explore whether Cydonia oblonga Miller extract (COME) had anti-obesity effects and the mechanism involved. COME reduced body weight, fat mass, adipose tissue weight, and serum levels of insulin, triglyceride, and leptin, but increased the serum levels of adiponectin and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese C57BL/6 mice. COME increased AMPK activation. COME suppressed adipogenesis by decreasing CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ, sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c, acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1, ATP-citrate lyase, fatty acid synthase, and adipocyte protein 2 mRNA expression and enhanced lipolysis by increasing carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1 and hormone sensitive lipase mRNA expression. These results suggest that COME is potentially beneficial in inhibiting HFD-induced obesity by inducing AMPK activation and thereby, regulating several pathways involved in inhibiting adipogenesis, and promoting lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation. Our results suggest that COM may be used as an anti-obesity agent.

This study investigated the typologies of teacher attitudes toward gifted students and gifted education, along with the predictors of such attitudes. For this purpose, surveys were administered to 339 teachers employed in a large faith-based school system in Australia. Analyses including factor analysis and latent profile analysis were performed on the data. In the end, four distinct profiles of teacher attitudes were identified. Two key predictors of these attitudes were found to be (a) school administrative support for gifted students and gifted education and (b) perceived knowledge of giftedness. The major contributions of the study to the literature are discussed.

This study sought to determine the factors that motivate teachers to differentiate curriculum for gifted students in a case study school in Victoria, Australia. For this purpose, 10 teachers from Year 7-9 mixed ability classes at the school were engaged in interviews about their practice of differentiation specifically for gifted students and the factors that either motivated or demotivated them to differentiate. Thematic analysis was conducted on the collected data. The resulting themes provided useful insights into the challenges that teachers face to cater for gifted students and their need for more support. The key findings of the study indicated the presence of many barriers to differentiating curriculum for gifted students including misconceptions, negative attitudes, gaps in support and competing interests. By comparison, the most significant motivator to differentiate curriculum for gifted students was around delivering 'good teaching', otherwise known as best practice teaching in the education sector. Findings suggest that a general lack of training in gifted education was evident in this context and suggest that greater school support and professional development is needed to assist teachers to provide appropriate differentiation for gifted students.

The purpose of the study was to investigate how knowledge of giftedness impacts self-concept of gifted adolescents. Guided by Sirgy's (1997) Self Congruity Theory and Shavelson et al.'s (1976) multidimensional hierarchical self-concept model, data collection was undertaken using semi-structured interviews with 11 Australian gifted adolescents and their parents. The collected data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Four key themes emerged: (a) expectations from self and others, (b) the source and solutions to challenges, (c) the stigma of giftedness, and (d) parental involvement. In the findings, advanced knowledge of giftedness was associated with a more intense experience of stigma and a more internal locus of control. In addition, understanding giftedness was found to empower the parents of gifted students for more efficacious advocacy and support to cater to the needs of their gifted children.

Toxicodendron vernicifluum Stokes has long been used as a food supplement and traditional herbal medicine in East Asia. We applied a new extraction method to produce Toxicodendron vernicifluum Stokes extract (TVSE), that doesn't contain urushiol (an allergenic toxin) but dose have higher levels of some flavonoids such as fustin and fisetin. This study was conducted to investigate the anticancer effects of TVSE in an in vivo system. Fifty BALB/c mice were acclimated for one week and then injected with 4T1 murine mammary carcinoma cells in mammary fat pads. After 7 days, the mice were randomly divided into 5 groups, and orally administered with 0, 50, 100, 200 or 400 mg of TVSE/kg body weight (BW)/day for 20 days. TVSE reduced tumor volume and weight dose-dependently. The expression of Ki67 was significantly reduced and the number of TUNEL-positive apoptotic cells was significantly increased in the TVSE-treated group over 100 mg/kg BW/day. While tumor nodules were not found in the liver, but only in lungs, the number of tumor nodules was reduced in a dose-dependent manner in the TVSE treated groups compared to the control group. In breast tumors, expression of platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule (PECAM-1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was reduced by TVSE treatment. TVSE treatment significantly suppressed mRNA expression in tumors of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1, urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1, and vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 while increasing plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1. These results suggest that TVSE is potentially beneficial for the suppression of breast cancer growth and its-associated lung metastasis.

Bioluminescence imaging has proven to be a highly sensitive technique for assessing in vitro transcriptional activity toward understanding gene regulation patterns; however, application of this technique is limited for brain research. In particular, the poor spatiotemporal resolution is a major hurdle for monitoring the dynamic changes of transcriptional activity in specific regions of the brain during longitudinal analysis of living animals. To overcome this limitation, in this study, we modified a lentivirus-based luciferase glucocorticoid receptor (GR) reporter by inserting destabilizing sequence genes, and then the reporter was stereotaxically injected in the mouse infralimbic prefrontal cortex (IL-PFC). Using this strategy, we could successfully pin-point and monitor the dynamic changes in GR activity in IL-PFC during normal stress adaptation. The modified reporter showed a 1.5-fold increase in temporal resolution for monitoring GR activity compared to the control, with respect to the intra-individual coefficients of variation. This novel in vivo method has broad applications, as it is readily adaptable to different types of transcription factor arrays as well spanning wide target regions of the brain to other organs and tissues.

Human infections with Campylobacter are primarily associated with the consumption of contaminated poultry meat. In this study, we isolated Campylobacter jejuni from retail raw chicken and duck meat in Korea and compared their aerotolerance, antibiotic resistance, and virulence gene prevalence. Whereas C. jejuni isolates from chicken dominantly belonged to multilocus sequence typing (MLST) clonal complex (CC)-21, CC-45 is the common MLST sequence type in duck meat isolates. C. jejuni strains from both chicken and duck meat were highly tolerant to aerobic stress. The prevalence of virulence genes was higher in C. jejuni strains from chicken than those from duck meat. However, antibiotic resistance was higher in duck meat isolates than chicken isolates. Based on the prevalence of virulence genes and antibiotic resistance, fluoroquinolone-resistant C. jejuni strains harboring all tested virulence genes except virB11 were predominant on retail poultry. Fluoroquinolone-resistant C. jejuni strains carrying most virulence genes were more frequently isolated in summer than in winter. The comparative profiling analysis in this study successfully demonstrated that antibiotic-resistant and pathogenic strains of C. jejuni are highly prevalent on retail poultry and that retail duck meat is an important vehicle potentially transmitting C. jejuni to humans in Korea.