Objective To investigate the clinical features and incidence of depression in patients with different lo-cations and pathological types of brain tumors. Methods Hamilton Depression Scale (HRSD) was used to assess the de-pression in 140 patients with brain tumor before and after operation. Results The preoperative mean depression rating score was 15.36 ± 6.52 and the prevalence rate of depression was 50 cases (35.7%) in 140 patients with brain tumor. The postoperative mean score of depression was 9.71 ± 5.55 and the prevalence rate of depression was 9 cases (6.4%) in 140 patients with brain tumor. The postoperative depression score and the prevalence rate was significantly decreased after op-eration (P<0.05)(χ2=36.10,P<0.05). The postoperative depression score in either benign or malignant brain tumors was significantly lower after than before operation(all P<0.05)The postoperative depression score in either the left or right or bilateral brain lesions were significantly decreased after than before operation(all P<0.05).Conclusion Pa-tients with brain tumors have different degrees of depression in perioperative. Depression may be associated with brain tu-mour pathological types and lesion sites in patients with brain tumors.

RNA splicing contributes to a broad spectrum of post-transcriptional gene regulation during normal development, as well as pathological manifestation of heart diseases. However, the functional role and regulation of splicing in heart failure remain poorly understood. RNA binding protein (RBP), a major component of the splicing machinery, is a critical factor in this process. RNA binding motif protein 24 (RBM24) is a tissue-specific RBP which is highly expressed in human and mouse heart. Previous studies demonstrated the functional role of RBM24 in the embryonic heart development. However, the role of RBM24 in postnatal heart development and heart disease has not been investigated. In this paper, using conditional RBM24 knockout mice, we demonstrated that ablation of RBM24 in postnatal heart led to rapidly progressive dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), heart failure, and postnatal lethality. Global splicing profiling revealed that RBM24 regulated a network of genes related to cardiac function and diseases. Knockout of RBM24 resulted in misregulation of these splicing transitions which contributed to the subsequent development of cardiomyopathy. Notably, our analysis identified RBM24 as a splice factor that determined the splicing switch of a subset of genes in the sacomeric Z-disc complex, including Titin, the major disease gene of DCM and heart failure. Together, this study identifies regulation of RNA splicing by RBM24 as a potent player in remodeling of heart during postnatal development, and provides novel mechanistic insights to the pathogenesis of DCM.

D-allulose-3-epimerase (DPEase) is the key enzyme for isomerization of D-fructose to D-allulose. In order to improve its thermal stability, short amphiphilic peptides (SAP) were fused to the N-terminal of DPEase. SDS-PAGE analysis showed that the heterologously expressed DPEase folded correctly in Bacillus subtilis, and the protein size was 33 kDa. After incubation at 40 °C for 48 h, the residual enzyme activity of SAP1-DSDPEase was 58%. To make the recombinant B. subtilis strain reusable, cells were immobilized with a composite carrier of sodium alginate (SA) and titanium dioxide (TiO2). The results showed that 2% SA, 2% CaCl2, 0.03% glutaraldehyde solution and a ratio of TiO2 to SA of 1:4 were optimal for immobilization. Under these conditions, up to 82% of the activity of immobilized cells could be retained. Compared with free cells, the optimal reaction temperature of immobilized cells remained unchanged at 80 °C but the thermal stability improved. After 10 consecutive cycles, the mechanical strength remained unchanged, while 58% of the enzyme activity could be retained, with a conversion rate of 28.8% achieved. This study demonstrated a simple approach for using SAPs to improve the thermal stability of recombinant enzymes. Moreover, addition of TiO2 into SA during immobilization was demonstrated to increase the mechanical strength and reduce cell leakage.
Bacillus subtilis/metabolism* ; Carbohydrate Epimerases/genetics* ; Enzyme Stability ; Enzymes, Immobilized/metabolism* ; Fructose ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Racemases and Epimerases ; Temperature