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Background: The dietary proteins are one of the most important factors determining health conditions in humans. The sufficient digestion and absorption of dietary proteins in the digestive tract has positive effects on performance and recovery in sportspeople and athletes. Improving protein digestibility is a strategy for maintaining health status and optimal performance in sport and exercise activities. Objectives: The aim of the present study is to verify whether Weizmannia coagulans BC 99 (BC99) can increase muscle mass and strength. Methods: This randomized double-blind, controlled trial assigned 72 male college students to receive probiotics (n = 36, 20.25 ± 1.03 years; 179.00 ± 5.94 cm; 73.55 ± 8.73 kg, protein powder with BC99) or the placebo (n = 36, 20.19 ± 0.79 years; 179.25 ± 5.16 cm; 73.61 ± 8.24 kg, protein powder) for 12 weeks. At the baseline and final stages of the study, strength tests and body composition assessment were performed. Blood and stool samples were taken at the end of the 12-week intervention, and digestive enzymatic activity of stool samples, biochemical parameters, amino acids and hormone level of plasma were analyzed. Results: BC99 administration significantly improved strength performance, skeletal muscle mass, activity of pepsin and trypsin, the concentrations of branched chain amino acids and essential amino acids, reduced activities of creatine kinase and lactic dehydrogenase and urea nitrogen (BUN) level and increased testosterone and glucagon-like peptide-1 level in male college students. Conclusions: Therefore, BC99 supplementation can be an important nutritional strategy to improve strength performance, body composition, protein digestion and body metabolism in healthy young males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the effect of hepatitis B virus (HBV) on the expression of type I interferon and its possible mechanism. Methods: HepG2 cells and HBV stably transfected HepG2.2.15 cells were used as the model, cells were transfected with pEGFP-HBx plasmid or HBx-siRNA, the levels of IFN-α and IFN-β mRNA in cells were detected by fluorescence quantitative PCR, and the expression of pEGFP-HBx plasmid in HepG2 cells was observed by fluorescence microscope, the changes of HBx and p-IRF3 protein in cells were analyzed by Western blot, to investigate the effect of HBV on the expression of type I interferon. Results: The levels of IFN-α and IFN-β mRNA in HepG2.2.15 cells were slightly higher than those in HepG2 cells, there was no significant difference (P>0.05); after silencing HBx expression by using RNA interference in HepG2.2.15 cells, the levels of IFN- α and IFN-β mRNA were significantly increased. Moreover, the levels of type I interferon genes expression and p-IRF3 protein expression in HepG2 cells transfected with pEGFP-HBx were both decreased. Conclusion: HBV inhibits the expression of type I interferon by regulating the activation of IRF3 protein through HBx protein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic values of red blood cell distribution width-coefficient of variation (RDW-CV) and red blood cell distribution width-standard deviation (RDW-SD) in mid-pregnancy women with iron deficiency anemia (IDA). To obtain the results, 115 mid-pregnancy women with IDA, defined as the IDA group, and 142 healthy mid-pregnancy women, selected as the control group, were enrolled in this study. Hematological parameters and ferritin concentrations in the serum were analyzed. The efficiency of RDW-CV and RDW-SD to distinguish IDA from mid-pregnancy women was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The RDW-SD value in the IDA group was significantly higher than that in the control group (p < 0.05), while the RDW-CV value did not differ between them (p = 0.84). Significantly negative correlations were found between RDW-CV (r = −0.297, p = 0.001), RDW-SD (r = −0.404, p = 0.000), and serum ferritin in the IDA group but not in the control group. For the diagnosis of IDA, RDW-CV and RDW-SD produced areas under the ROC curves of 0.58 and 0.84. To conclude, our results suggest that RDW-SD, but not RDW-CV, can be used as a diagnostic index of IDA for mid-pregnancy women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addition of Tb3+ salts to a solution of a (YbLD) complex in D2O resulted in the formation of [(YbLD)2Tbx] (x = 1 to 3) complexes that, upon NIR excitation at 980 nm, showed an unprecedented Yb to Tb upconversion sensitization phenomenon resulting in the observation of the typical green emission of Tb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ceramide synthase-4 orchestrates the cell proliferation and tumor growth of liver cancer in vitro and in vivo through the nuclear factor- B signaling pathway Oncol Lett 14: 1477-1483, 2017; DOI: 10.3892/ol.2017.6365 Subsequently to the publication of the above article, an interested reader drew to the authors' attention that, on p. 1480, the data shown in Fig. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay to detect the knockdown efficiency of CERS4 in (C) HepG2 and (D) Huh7 cells (n=3). [Extracted from the article]

Objective To investigate the relationship between the expression and distribution of interferon-stimulating gene/transmembrane protein 173(STING/TMEM173) in liver tissue and the grade of liver inflammation in patients with chronic hepatitis B, and to explore the underlying mechanisms in vitro. Methods The expression of STING/TMEM173 protein in liver tissue of 62 naive patients with chronic hepatitis B was detected by immunohistochemistry. Rank sum test and spearman correlation coefficient were used to analyze the correlation between hepatic STING/TMEM173 expression and liver inflammation grades as well as serum ALT levels. After transient or stable transfection by HBV whole genome plasmid, the expression of STING/TMEM173 in HepG2 cells was determined by Western blot analysis. The peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were stimulated by supernatant of HepG2.2.15 cells containing intact HBV virions, and the expression STING/TMEM173 gene was detected by real-time PCR. Results The results of immunohistochemical showed that STING/TMEM173 protein was higher in liver tissues of CHB patients and mainly expressed in inflammatory cells of liver tissue, and the expression of STING/TMEM173 protein was positively correlated with liver inflammation grade as well as serum ALT level. After transient and stable transfection by HBV whole genome plasmid, the STING/TMEM173 protein decreased significantly in HepG2 cells. In addition, HepG2.2.15 cell supernatant containing intact HBV virions promoted the expression of STING/TMEM173 in PBMC in a dose-dependent manner at RNA level. Conclusion HBV can up-regulate the expression of STING/TMEM173 protein in inflammatory cells of liver tissue, and the number of liver inflammatory cells expressing STING/TMEM173 may reflect the severity of liver inflammation.