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Epidermal adult stem cells (EpiASCs) have the potential for unlimited proliferation and differentiation, however, the ability of these stem cells to activate corneal genetic programs in response to corneal stroma stimulation needs to be further validated. Herein, a feasible strategy was developed to reconstruct the damaged corneal surface in a goat model with total limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) by transplanting EpiASCs, which had been explanted and cultured from the skin of an adult ram goat and were then purified by selecting single cell-derived clones and cultivating them on a denuded human amniotic membrane (HAM). These artificial tissues were then successfully transplanted into ewe goats with total LSCD. Binding of EpiASCs to the base membrane of an EpiASCs-HAM-Sheet (EHS) indicated their proliferating status. After transplantation, the EpiASCs could survive in the host tissue and they reconstructed the damaged ocular surface of total LSCD. The crystal reconstructed corneal epithelium expressed CK3 and Pax-6 similar to normal corneal epithelium and expressed the Sry gene after transplantation. These results demonstrated that EpiASCs could be induced to differentiate into corneal epithelial cell types in a corneal microenvironment and had the ability to activate corneal genetic programs. This work offer a foundation for promoting tissue-engineered cornea into clinical application.

Although miR-101 is involved in the development and progression of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In this article, we report that miR-101 expression was inversely correlated with CX chemokine receptor 7 (CXCR7) level in T-ALL. Introducing miR-101 inhibited T-ALL cell proliferation and invasion in vitro and suppressed tumor growth and lung metastasis in vivo. CXCR7 was identified as a direct target of miR-101. The inhibitory effects of miR-101 were mimicked and counteracted by CXCR7 depletion and overexpression, respectively. Mechanistically, miR-101 targets CXCR7/STAT3 axis to reduce T-ALL growth and metastasis. Overall, these findings implied the potential application of miR-101 and CXCR7 in T-ALL treatment.

The severe anticancer situation as well as the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) cancer cells has created an urgent need for the development of novel anticancer drugs with different mechanisms of action. A large number of natural alkaloids, such as paclitaxel, vinblastine and camptothecin have already been successfully developed into chemotherapy agents. Following the success of these natural products, in this review, twenty-six types of isoquinoline alkaloids (a total of 379 alkaloids), including benzyltetrahydroisoquinoline, aporphine, oxoaporphine, isooxoaporphine, dimeric aporphine, bisbenzylisoquinoline, tetrahydroprotoberberine, protoberberine, protopine, dihydrobenzophenanthridine, benzophenanthridine, benzophenanthridine dimer, ipecac, simple isoquinoline, pavine, montanine, erythrina, chelidonine, tropoloisoquinoline, azafluoranthene, phthalideisoquinoline, naphthylisoquinoline, lycorine, crinane, narciclasine, and phenanthridone, were summarized based on their cytotoxic and MDR reversing activities against various cancer cells. Additionally, the structure-activity relationships of different types of isoquinoline alkaloid were also discussed. Interestingly, some aporphine, oxoaporphine, isooxoaporphine, bisbenzylisoquinoline, and protoberberine alkaloids display more potent anticancer activities or anti-MDR effects than positive control against the tested cancer cells and are regarded as attractive targets for discovery new anticancer drugs or lead compounds.

The fruits of Siraitia grosvenorii are considered to be health-promoting because of the diversity of their bioactive ingredients. In the present study, a screening method, using high-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-Q-TOF-MS) combined with a screening strategy, has been established. The technology was used to systematically screening the targeted metabolites, primarily from the complex matrix of S. grosvenorii. The compounds were then identified by their exact masses and characteristic fragment ions, in comparison with the fragmentation behaviors of 19 references. Finally, 122 compounds, including 53 flavonols and flavonol glycosides, 59 triterpene glycosides and 10 siraitic acid glycosides, were screened and identified in 10-, 50- and 80-day fruits, roots, stems and leaves of S. grosvenorii. 98 of them were reported for the first time. Additionally, the distribution of all identified components in different parts of the plant was determined and metabolic networks for flavonol and triterpene glycosides were proposed.

Two new alkaloids 6-hydroxyethyldihydrochelerythrine (1) and 6-hydroxymethyl-7,8-demethylenedihydrochelerythrine (2) together with two analogues named maclekarpine E (3) and 6-hydroxymethyldihydrosanguinarine (4) were detected primarily from the leaves of Macleaya cordata by their characteristic mass spectrometry (MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). And then isolation of four targeted-compounds was performed by column chromatography and preparation HPLC under the guiding of MS. Finally, their structures were determined by spectrum analysis. Alkaloids 3 and 4 were isolated from this plant medicine for the first time.

In part I of this study, we investigated the elastic Cherenkov effect (ECE) in an incompressible transversely isotropic (TI) soft solid using a combined theoretical and computational approach, based on which an inverse method has been proposed to measure both the anisotropic and hyperelastic parameters of TI soft tissues. In this part, experiments were carried out to validate the inverse method and demonstrate its usefulness in practical measurements. We first performed ex vivo experiments on bovine skeletal muscles. Not only the shear moduli along and perpendicular to the direction of muscle fibers but also the elastic modulus E L and hyperelastic parameter c 2 were determined. We next carried out tensile tests to determine E L , which was compared with the value obtained using the shear wave elastography method. Furthermore, we conducted in vivo experiments on the biceps brachii and gastrocnemius muscles of ten healthy volunteers. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to determine E L of human muscles using the dynamic elastography method and inverse analysis. The significance of our method and its potential for clinical use are discussed.

Overlapping community detection is a key approach to study the structure of network. Link community approach redefines the community into the collection of edges, which shows great advantages. But with the increasing number of edges in the network, the efficiency of link community algorithm is severely degraded, so that this algorithm lost scalability. In order to detect the large overlapping community efficiently, we proposed a method DLCH (detecting link communities based on Hadoop), mapping link communities method to MapReduce framework, an efficient detecting communities platform for large complex communities. It can successfully store and process massive data by HDFS, and divide the work to map and reduce tasks, which can detect the complex communities efficiently. According to the experiments on standard test data, this method is scalable and effective.

Osteoblasts are sensitive to altered gravity conditions, displaying changes in RNA and protein expression, proliferation, and differentiation; however, the effect of hypergravity on the mechanical properties of osteoblasts remains unclear. In this study, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to evaluate the effect of hypergravity on the elasticity of osteoblasts. We demonstrate that a continuous hypergravitational environment increased the elasticity of the cytoplasm, but not the nuclei zone, of MC3T3-E1 osteoblasts. Actin filaments, but not microtubules, dominated in the increased elasticity. These findings provide new insights on cellular gravity-sensing mechanisms.

Synthesis of Ag-doped magnetic composites with antibacterial properties is in the great interest in the development of new biomedical applications. Ag/γ-Fe2O3 composite microspheres have been successfully prepared via a simple solvothermal reduction method under mild conditions. The crystal phases and the shapes of the products were characterized by XRD and SEM. The results revealed that the composites are spherical with the diameter of 200-300 nm. Magnetic measurements showed that the mixed microspheres exhibit a typical ferromagnetic behavior, a specific saturation magnetization of 56 emu/g and an intrinsic coercivity of 38 Oe at room temperature. The strain of E. coli was used to evaluate the antibacterial activity of the Ag-doped γ-Fe2O3 composites which exhibited very high inhibition.

Layered manganese oxide nanostructures were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method, using KMnO4 and CH3CH2OH as the precursors. The structure, composition and morphology of the product are evaluated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Infrared (IR) techniques. The results showed that crystalline birnessite-based manganese oxide was formed and the hydrothermal time and temperature had great influence on nanostructures of the products. The electrochemical results showed that birnessite nanowires exhibit excellent cyclic stability performance in the potential application window of 1.5~4.8 V.

To clarify the origin of Chinese domestic donkeys, we investigated the mitochondrial Cytb gene from 244 animals from 13 native breeds. We found 55 variable sites in the Cytb gene sequence and subsequently defined 58 haplotypes. Analysis of haplotypes in combination with Cytb sequences revealed two mitochondrial origins in Chinese domestic donkeys, phenotypically expressed by the Somalian and Nubian lineages. The Somalian lineage predominated in Chinese domestic donkey breeds. Five specific Cytb gene SNPs diagnostic of each of the lineages were found in this study: 225(T-C), 237(C-T), 915(C-T), 1014(C-T), and 1134(A-G) mutations. They effectively distinguish the Nubian from the Somalian lineage in the mtDNA Cytb gene. Both lineages are from Africa and thus support the African maternal origins of Chinese domestic donkeys. No obvious geographic structure was found in Chinese domestic donkey breeds, but the population showed abundant genetic diversity.

Placental deficiencies are related to the developmental abnormalities of transgenic cattle produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer, but the concrete molecular mechanism is not very clear. Studies have shown that placental development can be regulated by microRNAs (miRNAs) in normal pregnancy. Thus, this study screened differentially expressed miRNAs by the next-generation sequencing technology to reveal the relationship between miRNAs expression and aberrant development of placentae produced by the transgenic-clone technology. Expressions of miRNAs and mRNAs in different placentae were compared, the placentae derived from one natural pregnancy counterpart (PNC), one natural pregnancy of a cloned offspring as a mother (PCM), and two transgenic (human beta-defensin-3) cloned pregnancy: one offspring was alive after birth (POL) and the other offspring was dead in 2 days after birth (POD). Further, signaling pathway analysis was conducted. The results indicated that 694 miRNAs were differentially expressed in four placental samples, such as miR-210, miR-155, miR-21, miR-128, miR-183, and miR-145. Signaling pathway analysis revealed that compared with PNC, significantly upregulated pathways in POL, POD, and PCM mainly included focal adhesion, extracellular matrix-receptor interaction, pathways in cancer, regulation of actin cytoskeleton, endosytosis, and adherens junction, and significantly downregulated pathways mainly included malaria, nucleotide binding oligomerization domain-like receptor signaling, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, Jak-STAT signaling pathway. In conclusion, this study confirmed alterations of the expression profile of miRNAs and signaling pathways in placentae from transgenic (hBD-3) cloned cattle (PTCC), which could lead to the morphologic and histologic deficiencies of PTCC. This information would be useful for the relative research in future.