Objective To investigate the action of interlukin-2(IL-2),interlukin-6(IL-6) and its soluble receptors (sIL-2R,sIL-6R) in the first episode of depression in the patients of Uyghur nationality and the differences in IL-2,IL-6 and sIL-2R,sIL-6R levels between the responsive depressed patients and the refractory depressed patients treated with venlafaxine.Methods A case-control study design was conducted.57 first-episode patients with depression (patient group) and 55 healthy people matched with gender and age (control group) were recruited in the study.An intervention with sustained-releasing venlafaxine tablets at fixed dose of 150 mg/d was performed in the patient group.The severity of the illness was evaluated by using the Hamilton's depression scale (HAMD-17) before and after the therapy.And by calculating the reduction rate of HAMD-17 (≥ 50％ or ＜50％),the patients were divided into the responsive or refractory groups.The serum levels of IL-2,IL-6,sIL-2R and sIL-6R in patients and controls were tested by ELISA,and a re-test was done with the patients after treatment.Results There were statistical significant differences of the levels of serum IL-2,IL-6 and sIL-2R,sIL-6R between the patients and the control group (P ＜ 0.01).After treatment,the levels of serum IL-2,IL-6,sIL-2R and sIL-6R in responsive patients were significantly decreased when compared with those before the treatment(P＜ 0.01).The four indexes of refractory patients didn' t alter after venlafaxine treatment (P ＞ 0.05).There were positive correlations between HAMD,serum IL-2 (r =0.677 ; P =0.000) and IL-6 (r =0.197 ; P =0.033) before treatment in all patients.Conclusion Serum IL-2 and IL-6 may play a role in the onset of the depression.The efficacy of venlafaxine is negatively correlated with the levels of serum IL-2 and IL-6.Regulating the imbalanced inflammatory cytokines and the immune system may be one of the mechanisms of drug therapy of depression.

Objective To explore the distribution on-511C/T,-31T/C single nucleotide polymorphism of IL-1β gene among Uygur population in Xinjiang,and to analyze the correlation between IL-1β gene polymorphism and depressive disorders.Methods A total of 100 patients with depressive disorders and 120 control subjects were selected.Polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP-PCR),enzyme digestion and sequence reaction were used to detect the common-511C/T,-31T/C polymorphism of the IL-1β gene.The relationship between the polymorphism in the IL-1β gene and the severity of depressive disorders was analyzed.Results The frequencies of CC,CT,TT in-511 were 19.0％,58.0％ and 23.0％ in patient group,while those were 19.2％,55.0％,25.8％ in the control group,which did not show statistically significant differences (x2=0.266,P=0.875).The frequencies of CC,CT,TT in-31 were 24.0％,58.0％ and 18.0％ in the patient group,while those were 24.2％,58.3％,17.5％ in the control group,which did not show statistically significant differences (x2=0.0093,P=0.995).The frequencies of CC,CT,TT genotypes of the IL-1β gene polymorphism (-511 C/T,-31 T/C) were not statistically different between depressive patients and healthy controls.Conclusion The findings suggest no significant association between-511C/T,-31T/C polymorphism and depressive disorders in Uygur population of Xinjiang.

AIM To construct a non-normalized cDNA library from Agkistrodon acutus venom gland as an imtial step to develop new and more effective venom by genetic engineering technique for screening and expressing target genes. METHODS The total RNA was extracted from fresh venom gland using Trizol. mRNA was reversely transcripted to cDNA using superscriptⅡ reverse transcriptase. Second-strand synthesis was performed using DNA polymeraseⅠ. After adding EcoRⅠ adaptor, phosphorylating the end and digesting with XhoⅠ, the cDNA was collected in five fractions (<0.25 kb, 0.25-0.5 kb, 0.5-1 kb, 1-2 kb and >2 kb) using the QIAquick Gel Extraction kit and ligated to pBluescriptⅡ vectors. The five libraries obtained were plated by infecting E.coli DH10B, constructing a cDNA library of Agkistrodon acutus venom gland. Sequencing clones at random, 8696 high quality 5′ end expressed sequenced tags (ESTs) were obtained and analyzed. The initial sequences were assembled into 2855 clusters. Among which, one of the clusters (Agkihagin) consisting of 74 ESTs was identified as a novel metalloprtoteinase based on RT-PCR and sequence analysis. RESULTSThe titers of library were 2.048×106. The novel metalloproteinase belonged to PⅢ type metalloproteinase. Its open reading frame was composed of 1827 nucleotides and coded a pre-zymogen of 608 amino acid with zinc-binding domain for metalloproteinase and Asp-Glu-Cys-Asp(DECD) domain for disintegrin. CONCLUSION The capacity of cDNA library of venom gland is above the general level of cDNA library. It would be a helpful platform to construct a catalog for transcripts in the venom gland of the Agkistrodon acutus. The sequence analysis indicates that the deduced amino acid sequence of the identified gene for metalloproteinase share the highest 87% identity with the metalloproteinase genes of other snakes in the GenBank. It lays a good foundation for the study of structure-function relationships of snake venom metalloproteinases.

Since pig is an important livestock species worldwide, its gene expression has been investigated intensively, but rarely in brain. In order to study gene expression profiles in the pig central nervous system, we sequenced and analyzed 43,122 highquality 5′ end expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from porcine cerebellum, cortex cerebrum, and brain stem cDNA libraries, involving several different prenatal and postnatal developmental stages. The initial ESTs were assembled into 16,101 clusters and compared to protein and nucleic acid databases in GenBank. Of these sequences, 30.6% clusters matched protein databases and represented function known sequences; 75.1% had significant hits to nucleic acid databases and partial represented known function; 73.3% matched known porcine ESTs; and 21.5% had no matches to any known sequences in GenBank. We used the categories defined by the Gene Ontology to survey gene expression in the porcine brain.

With the development of genomics and bioinformatics, especially the extensive applications of high-throughput sequencing technology, more transcriptional units with little or no protein-coding potential have been discovered. Such RNA molecules are called non-protein-coding RNAs (npcRNAs or ncRNAs). Among them, long npcRNAs or ncRNAs (lnpcRNAs or lncRNAs) represent diverse classes of transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides. In recent years, the lncRNAs have been considered as important regulators in many essential biological processes. In plants, although a large number of lncRNA transcripts have been predicted and identified in few species, our current knowledge of their biological functions is still limited. Here, we have summarized recent studies on their identification, characteristics, classification, bioinformatics, resources, and current exploration of their biological functions in plants.

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) deserves not only a dedicated field of biological research -- a discipline or branch of knowledge -- but also explicit definitions of its roles in cellular processes and molecular mechanisms. Ribogenomics is to study the biology of cellular RNAs, including their origin, biogenesis, structure and function. On the informational track, messenger RNAs (mRNAs) are the major component of ribogenomes, which encode proteins and serve as one of the four major components of the translation machinery and whose expression is regulated at multiple levels by other operational RNAs. On the operational track, there are several diverse types of RNAs--their length distribution is perhaps the most simplistic stratification--involving in major cellular activ-ities, such as chromosomal structure and organization, DNA replication and repair, transcriptional/post-transcriptional regulation, RNA processing and routing, translation and cellular energy/metabolism regulation. An all-out effort exceeding the magnitude of the Human Genome Project is of essence to construct just mammalian transcriptomes in multiple contexts including embryonic development, circadian and seasonal rhythms, defined life-span stages, pathological conditions and anatomy-driven tissue/organ/cell types.

Ovary development is a complex process involving numerous genes. A well-developed ovary is essential for females to keep fertility and reproduce offspring. In order to gain a better insight into the molecular mechanisms related to the process of mammalian ovary development, we performed a comparative transcriptomic analysis on ovaries isolated from infant and adult mice by using next-generation sequencing technology (SOLiD). We identified 15,454 and 16,646 trans-criptionally active genes at the infant and adult stage, respectively. Among these genes, we also identified 7021 differentially expressed genes. Our analysis suggests that, in general, the adult ovary has a higher level of transcriptomic activity. However, it appears that genes related to primordial follicle development, such as those encoding Figla and Nobox, are more active in the infant ovary, whereas expression of genes vital for follicle development, such as Gdf9, Bmp4 and Bmp15, is upreg-ulated in the adult. These data suggest a dynamic shift in gene expression during ovary development and it is apparent that these changes function to facilitate follicle maturation, when additional func-tional gene studies are considered. Furthermore, our investigation has also revealed several impor-tant functional pathways, such as apoptosis, MAPK and steroid biosynthesis, that appear to be much more active in the adult ovary compared to those of the infant. These findings will provide a solid foundation for future studies on ovary development in mice and other mammals and help to expand our understanding of the complex molecular and cellular events that occur during postnatal ovary development.

To obtain an initial overview of gene diversity and expression pattern in porcine thymus, 11,712 ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) from 100-day-old porcine thymus (FTY) were sequenced and 7,071 cleaned ESTs were used for gene expression analysis. Clustered by the PHRAP program, 959 contigs and 3,074 singlets were obtained. Blast search showed that 806 contigs and 1,669 singlets (totally 5,442 ESTs) had homologues in GenBank and 1,629 ESTs were novel. According to the Gene Ontology classification, 36.99% ESTs were cataloged into the gene expression group, indicating that although the functional gene (18.78% in defense group) of thymus is expressed in a certain degree, the 100-day-old porcine thymus still exists in a developmental stage. Comparative analysis showed that the gene expression pattern of the 100-day-old porcine thymus is similar to that of the human infant thymus.
Animals ; Computational Biology ; Expressed Sequence Tags ; Fetus ; metabolism ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Genetic Variation ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Sus scrofa ; genetics ; metabolism ; Thymus Gland ; metabolism

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of short,endogenously-initiated non-coding RNAs that post-transcriptionally control gene expression via either translational repression or mRNA degradation.It is becoming evident that miRNAs are play-ing significant roles in regulatory mechanisms operating in various organisms,including developmental timing and host-pathogen interactions as well as cell differentiation,proliferation,apoptosis and tumorigenesis.Likewise,as a regu-latory element,miRNA itself is coordinatively modulated by multifarious effectors when carrying out basic functions,such as SNP,miRNA editing,methylation and circadian clock.This mini-review summarized the current understanding of in-teractions between miRNAs and their targets,including recent advancements in deciphering the regulatory mechanisms that control the biogenesis and functional-ity of miRNAs in various cellular processes.

Amphioxus is an extant species closest to the ancestry of vertebrates.Observation of microRNA(miRNA)distribution of amphioxus would lend some hints for evolutionary research of vertebrates.In this study,using the publicly available scaffold data of the Florida amphioxus(Branchiostoma floridae)genome,we screened and characterized homologs of miRNAs that had been identified in other species.In total,68 pieces of such homologs were obtained and classified into 33 families.Most of these miRNAs were distributed as clusters in genome.Inter-species comparison showed that many miRNAs,which had been thought as vertebrate-or mammal-specific before,were also present in amphioxus,while some miRNAs that had been considered as protostome-specific before also existed in amphioxus.Compared with ciona,amphioxus had an apparent miRNA gene expansion,but phylogenetic analysis showed that the duplicated miRNAs or clusters of amphioxus had a higher homology level than those duplicated ones in vertebrates.