Objective To measure the level of platelet derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) in maintenance hemodialysis patients and investigate the significance of carotid atherosclerosis.Methods Thirty-six maintenance hemodialysis patients (test group) and 20 healthy controls (normal control group) were enrolled in this study.The level of PDGF-BB was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in two groups.Intima-media thickness (IMT) and atherosclerotic plaques of the extracranial common carotid artery were measured by echocardiography.Results The level of IMT and the positive rate of carotid atherosclerosis in test group were significantly higher than those in normal control group [(1991.8 ± 228.6) μ mol/L vs.(71.2± 15.9) μmol/L,(36.78 ±3.40) g/Lvs.(41.96±2.07) g/L,(4.97 ±0.57) mmol/Lvs.(4.48 ±0.84) mmol/L][(1.01 ±0.23) mm vs.(0.72 ±0.15) mm,69.4％(25/36) vs.10.0％(2/20)](P＜ 0.01).The level of plasma creatinine,albumin and total cholesterol in test group were significantly higher than those in normal control group (P ＜ 0.01 or ＜ 0.05).The level of PDGF-BB in test group was significantly higher than that in normal control group[(93.27 ± 31.58) ng/L vs.(31.71 ± 15.78) ng/L,P ＜ 0.01].In test group,age and the level of PDGF-BB and triacylglycerol in carotid atherosclerosis patients were significantly higher than those in non-carotid atherosclerosis patients [(48.04 ± 9.97) years vs.(34.54 ± 10.35) years,(102.60 ± 32.87) ng/L vs.(72.06 ± 13.67) ng/L,(1.51 ± 0.59) mmol/L vs.(1.01 ± 0.27) mmol/L] (P ＜ 0.01).Regression analysis showed that age (β =0.346,P ＜ 0.01) and PDGF-BB (β =0.594,P＜ 0.01) were the important impacting factors for IMT.Conclusion The level of PDGF-BB is increased in maintenance hemodialysis patients,and it may play an important role in carotid atherosclerosis.

Objective To investigate the production and mechanism of chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 5 (CCL5) by macrophages in U14 cervical cancer-bearing mice during infection. Methods The U14 cervical cancer cells were injected in C57BL/6 mice to induce tumor-bearing condition. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was injected into C57BL/6 mice to induce infection. The protein expression of CCL5 in the serum and the CCL5 mRNA expression in inflammatory cells were measured by ELISA and fluorescence quantitative-PCR in four groups. Macrophages were induced in the tumor conditioned medium (TCM) which extracted from mice serum. The protein expression levels of CCL5, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) in the medium and CCL5, PGE2 and cAMP mRNA expression in the macrophages were detected in different groups. In order to determine whether the inhibition was related to PGE2, selective cyclooxygenase 2(COX-2) inhibitor NS398 was used to reverse this phenomenon and protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor H89 demonstrated the mechanism through blocking cAMP/PKA signaling pathway. Results (1) The protein and mRNA level of CCL5 in tumor-bearing mice were respectively (151±35) pg/ml and 1.0, which were lower than those in the tumor-free mice (691 ± 85) pg/ml and 4.5 ± 0.8, there were significant difference between them (all P<0.05). The protein and mRNA level of PGE2 in tumor-bearing mice were (1 198±83) pg/ml and 5.8±0.8, which were higher than those in the tumor-free mice (187±25) pg/ml and 1.0, the difference were significant (all P<0.05). The protein and mRNA level of CCL5 in tumor-free+LPS mice were (4 049±141) pg/ml and 31.5±2.0, which were higher than those in the tumor-bearing+LPS mice (1 951±71) pg/ml and 12.1±2.8, the difference were also significant (P<0.05). The protein and mRNA level of PGE2 in tumor-free+LPS mice were (676±70) pg/ml and 3.4±0.4, which were lower than those in tumor-bearing+LPS mice (2 550±382) pg/ml and 11.6±0.9, the difference were also significant (all P<0.05). (2) Macrophages were cultured in vitro using TCM derived from mice. The protein and mRNA level of CCL5 in tumor-bearing mice TCM were respectively (1 626 ± 177) pg/ml and 28.6 ± 1.2, which were higher than those in the tumor-free mice TCM [(27 ± 3) pg/ml and 1.0], there were significant difference (P<0.05). The protein and mRNA level of PGE2 in tumor-bearing mice TCM were (790 ± 156) pg/ml and 1.7 ± 0.3, which were higher than those in the tumor-free mice TCM [(448 ± 115) pg/ml, 1.0], the difference were significant (all P<0.05). The protein and mRNA level of cAMP in tumor-bearing mice TCM were (164 ± 30) pg/ml and 1.6 ± 0.3, which weres higher than those in the tumor-free mice TCM [(118 ± 25) pg/ml,1.0], the difference were significant (all P<0.05). The protein and mRNA level of CCL5 in tumor-free + LPS mice TCM were (10 475 ± 742) pg/ml and 212.0 ± 5.7, which were higher than those in the tumor-bearing+LPS mice TCM [(6 375±530) pg/ml, 142.3±2.5], the difference were significant (all P<0.05). The protein and mRNA level of PGE2 in tumor-free+LPS mice TCM were (2 438±95) pg/ml and 4.3±0.7, which weres lower than those in the tumor-bearing + LPS mice TCM [(3 441 ± 163) pg/ml, 5.9 ± 0.3], the difference were significant (all P<0.05). The protein and mRNA level of cAMP in tumor-free+LPS mice TCM were (340 ± 13) pg/ml and 4.1 ± 0.4, which were lower than those in the tumor-bearing + LPS mice TCM [(542 ± 42) pg/ml, 5.4 ± 0.5], the difference were significant (all P<0.05). (3) Using COX-2 inhibitor NS398 in the tumor-bearing+LPS mice, the protein and mRNA level of CCL5, PGE2 and cAMP were (7 691±269) pg/ml and 159.0±8.9, (2 820±152) pg/ml and 4.9 ± 0.3, (465 ± 8) pg/ml and 4.3 ± 0.4, respectively, and there were significant difference (all P<0.05), compared to before treatment. Using PKA inhibitor H89 in the tumor-bearing+LPS mice, the protein and mRNA level of CCL5, PGE2 and cAMP were (8 375±520) pg/ml and 177.0±8.8, (2 650±35) pg/ml and 4.7 ± 0.4, (368 ± 13) pg/ml and 3.1 ± 0.7, respectively, and there were significant difference (all P<0.05), compared to before treatment. Conclusion TCM of U14 cells activated macrophages to release PGE2 could inhibit the expression of CCL5 levels by cAMP/PKA signaling pathway.

Insufficient epigenetic reprogramming of donor nuclei is believed to be one of the most important causes of low development efficiency of mammalian somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Previous studies have shown that both the in vitro and in vivo development of mouse SCNT embryos could be increased significantly by treatment with various histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi), including Trichostatin A, Scriptaid, and m-carboxycinnamic acid bishydroxamide (CBHA), in which only the effect of CBHA has not yet been tested in other species. In this paper we examine the effect of CBHA treatment on the development of porcine SCNT embryos. We have discovered the optimum dosage and time for CBHA treatment: incubating SCNT embryos with 2 μmol/L CBHA for 24 h after activation could increase the blastocyst rate from 12.7% to 26.5%. Immunofluorescence results showed that the level of acetylation at histone 3 lysine 9 (AcH3K9), acetylation at histone 3 lysine 18 (AcH3K18), and acetylation at histone 4 lysine 16 (AcH4K16) was raised after CBHA treatment. Meanwhile, CBHA treatment improved the expression of development relating genes such as pou5f1, cdx2, and the imprinted genes like igf2. Despite these promising in vitro results and histone reprogramming, the full term development was not significantly increased after treatment. In conclusion, CBHA improves the in vitro development of pig SCNT embryos, increases the global histone acetylation and corrects the expression of some developmentally important genes at early stages. As in mouse SCNT, we have shown that nuclear epigenetic reprogramming in pig early SCNT embryos can be modified by CBHA treatment.
Acetylation ; Animals ; Blastocyst ; cytology ; Cell Nucleus ; metabolism ; Cinnamates ; pharmacology ; Embryo, Mammalian ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Embryonic Development ; drug effects ; Epigenesis, Genetic ; Female ; Gene Expression ; Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors ; pharmacology ; Histones ; metabolism ; Homeodomain Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; In Vitro Techniques ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor II ; genetics ; metabolism ; Nuclear Transfer Techniques ; Octamer Transcription Factor-3 ; genetics ; metabolism ; Swine

There is a certain relationship between chemotherapy and stroke in cancer patients. Its mechanism may be associated with the increase of the prevalence of traditional vascular factors, the promotion of coagulation dysfunction, the induction of anemia, the impairment of cardiac function, and vascular inflammation. The pathophysiological mechanism of chemotherapy-associated stroke is still in the exploratory stage. This article reviews the pathophysiological mechanism, monitoring indicators, and diagnosis and treatment progress of stroke in cancer patients during chemotherapy.

With the advancements of stem cells and regenerative medicine, interspecies chimera has become a hot topic and will pave a new way of providing donor sources in organ transplantation. However, the interspecies chimera is confronted with a number of scientific questions and technical obstacles, including selections of appropriate embryonic stage and appropriate culture medium; those factors will deeply influence the developmental balance between donor cells and receptor embryos. Due to its relatively rapid reproductive cycle and similar organ size to human's, porcine is a very potential donor candidate to study these questions. To compare the development and chimeric efficiency of interspecies embryos, we tested and evaluated three different culture systems, PZM-3 (Porcine zygotic medium), culture medium for iPSCs (N2B27) and 3.5 h of N2B27 before PZM-3 (N2B27(3.5 h)), and two different embryonic stages, 8-cell and blastocyst in mouse-porcine chimeric embryos using parthenogenetically activated porcine embryos and mouse induced pluripotent stem cells (miPS). The results showed that, PZM-3 was beneficial for both development of chimeric embryos and miPSCs proliferation in porcine embryos in the 8-cell injection group. After early blastocyst injection, the chimeric efficiency did not appear significantly different among the three culture systems but was lower than 8-cell injection. In summary, the results suggest that 8-cell injection and PZM-3 culture medium are more beneficial to the in vitro development and chimeric efficiency of mouse-porcine chimeric embryos.
Animals ; Blastocyst ; Chimera ; Culture Media ; Embryo Culture Techniques ; veterinary ; Embryo, Mammalian ; Embryonic Development ; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells ; cytology ; Mice ; Swine

RAS, a member of the small GTPase family, functions as a binary switch by shifting between inactive GDP-loaded and active GTP-loaded state. RAS gain-of-function mutations are one of the leading causes in human oncogenesis, accounting for ∼19% of the global cancer burden. As a well-recognized target in malignancy, RAS has been intensively studied in the past decades. Despite the sustained efforts, many failures occurred in the earlier exploration and resulted in an 'undruggable' feature of RAS proteins. Phosphorylation at several residues has been recently determined as regulators for wild-type and mutated RAS proteins. Therefore, the development of RAS inhibitors directly targeting the RAS mutants or towards upstream regulatory kinases supplies a novel direction for tackling the anti-RAS difficulties. A better understanding of RAS phosphorylation can contribute to future therapeutic strategies. In this review, we comprehensively summarized the current advances in RAS phosphorylation and provided mechanistic insights into the signaling transduction of associated pathways. Importantly, the preclinical and clinical success in developing anti-RAS drugs targeting the upstream kinases and potential directions of harnessing allostery to target RAS phosphorylation sites were also discussed.