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miRNAs are a class of small non-coding RNAs that are involved in various biological processes. In the preliminary work of the laboratory, found that miR-383-5p was down-regulated in the liver tissue of acute cold stress rats and has been shown to be an important regulatory factor in tumour proliferation, but there are very few studies involving the mediation of cold stress in rat liver tissues. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of miR-383-5p on the livers of cold stress rats by simulating the cold stress state of rat liver tissues in vitro using H 2 O 2 to induce rat hepatocyte oxidative stress. The results showed that MDA content, Caspase 3 and Cyto C protein levels increased significantly; GPx activity and SOD1 protein levels decreased significantly and miR-383-5p expression was significantly down-regulated in rat liver tissues after cold stress. Different concentrations of H 2 O 2 was added to rat hepatocytes, and the results showed that the expression of miR-383-5p, the ROS level, and the apoptosis rate in rat hepatocytes was increased significantly in a concentration-dependent fashion. Transfection of miR-383-5p inhibitor revealed that the apoptosis rate of rat hepatocytes, and the protein level of apoptosis-related protein Caspase 3 were reduced; the results of the dual-luciferase reporter gene assay showed that miR-383-5p targeted regulation of Bcl2. The results suggested that the expression of miR-383-5p was up-regulated in oxidative stress rat hepatocytes and may aggravate the apoptosis of rat hepatocytes induced by targeting inhibition of Bcl2 translation., (© 2020 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.)

Objective: To study the effects of prenatal cold stress on the behavior and mood of offspring in pregnant rats., Methods: Six SPF-class Wister pregnant rats were randomly divided into normal temperature control group and cold stress group with 3 rats in each group. The pregnant female rats in the normal temperature control group were kept in the environment of (22 ±2)℃, and the pregnant female rats in the cold stress group were placed in the artificial intelligence climate chamber at(4 ±0.1)℃ for 7 days before the birth, and the young rats were divided into normal temperature after the young rats were born. After the young rats were born, they were divided into normal temperature control group of male rats (MR, 22), normal temperature control group of mother rats (FR, 15), cold stress group of male rats (MC, 15), and cold stress group of female rats (FC, 15) .In the fourth generation of the offspring, the open field experiment and the elevated cross maze test were carried out., Results: In the open field experiment, there was no significant difference in spontaneous activity and exploration behavior between the normal temperature control group and the cold stress group (P＞0.05). In the elevated plus maze experiment, the retention time of the open arms, the number of open arms and the distance of the male and female rats in the cold stress group were significantly higher than those in the normal temperature control group (P＜0.05)., Conclusion: Prenatal maternal cold stress has no significant effect on spontaneous activity, exploration behavior and activity level of offspring, but the offspring have obvious abnormal behaviors with reduced anxiety behavior.

Stress induces many different sex-specific physiological and psychological responses during adolescence. Although the impact of certain brain stressors has been reported in the literature, the influence of cold stress on the mechanisms underlying hippocampal neurotransmitter disorder and neuroinflammation remain unstudied. Adolescent male and female C57BL/6 mice were exposed to 4 °C temperatures, 3 h per day for 1 week. Serum CORT and blood gas analysis was then used to assess body status. Using western blotting, immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry we also assessed glial cell number and microglial activation, as well as inflammatory cytokine levels and related protein expression levels. The phenomena of excessive CORT, microglial activation, increased acetylate-HMGB1 levels, NF-κB signaling pathway activation, pro-inflammatory cytokine release, neuronal apoptosis and neurotransmitter disorder were demonstrated in mouse hippocampal tissue following cold exposure. We believe that these phenomena are mediated by the HMGB1/TLR4/NFκB pathway. Finally, the male inflammatory response in hippocampal tissue was more severe and the influence of cold exposure on neurotransmitter was greater in females., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Many studies concerning gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGTP) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have suggested that changes in hepatic GGTP expression may be closely related to the development of HCC. However, its mechanisms are not well known, and genomic analysis of the specific GGTP to HCC is also lacking. Recently, the human GGTP complementary DNA (cDNA) sequences from fetal liver, placenta, and HepG2 cells have been published. In the present study, we sought to clarify the distribution of the GGTP messenger RNA (mRNA) molecular species in human liver and determine whether alterations in GGTP mRNA expression occur upon the development of HCC. The specific primer sets for reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) corresponding to the 5'-noncoding human GGTP mRNA of fetal liver (type A), HepG2 cells (type B), and placenta (type C) were prepared. Oligonucleotide probes specific for each type of mRNA were also synthesized. Liver tissues were obtained from patients with or without HCC, and total RNA was extracted. Total RNA was also extracted from various organs obtained from one male patient upon autopsy. Types of GGTP mRNAs were analyzed using type-specific primer sets and oligonucleotide probes. The types of GGTP mRNA varied in different organs. In normal liver and diseased liver without HCC, the main type of GGTP mRNA was type A. The expression was monogenic in most cases but was polygenic in some cases. In the polygenic cases, type C was common, but type B was found occasionally. On the other hand, type B was predominant in cancerous tissues with HCC. In noncancerous tissues of livers with HCC, the main types were types A and B. The prevalence of type B was significantly higher in both cancerous and noncancerous tissues of livers with HCC than in livers without HCC. The prevalence of type A in cancerous tissue, but not in noncancerous tissue, was significantly lower than in livers without HCC. These results strongly suggested that the GGTP mRNA expression in human liver may shift from type A to type B during the development of HCC. The high prevalence of type B in noncancerous tissues suggested that the shift of the GGTP mRNA may occur from the preneoplastic stage of hepatocytes.