Mitochondria homeostasis is essential to cell activities,while mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in the pathogenesis of many muscular diseases,such as congenital myopathy and muscular dystrophy.However,its detailed mechanism has not been clarified.Mitofusin-2 (Mfn2) is located in the outer mitochondrial membranes and endoplasmic reticulum(ER) mitochondrial contact sites.Recently,researchers have found that in addition to its participation in tethering mitochondiia to mitochondria and ER to mitochondria,Mfn2 regulates mitochondrial dynamics and multiple cellular processes including oxidative stress,Ca2 + signaling pathways,energy metabolism,and PINK1/Parkin induced mitophagy,playing an important role in maintaining the mitochondrial quality control.And abnormal expression of Mfn2 also related to many kinds of pathological states.Here we review its molecular structure and recent advances in the role of Mfn2 in maintaining mitochondrial homeostasis in skeletal muscle.

In this paper, Independent component analysis (ICA) was first adopted to isolate the epileptiform signals from the background Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Then, by using the phase space reconstruct techniques from a time series and the quantitative criterions and rules of system chaos, different phases of the epileptiform signals were analyzed and calculated. Through the comparative research with the analyses of the phase plots, the power spectra, the computation of the correlation dimensions and the Lyapunov exponents of the physiologyical and the epileptiform signals, the following conclusions were drawn: (1) The phase plots, the power spectra, the correlation dimensions and the Lyapunov exponents of the EEG independent components reflect the general dynamical characteristics of brains, which can be taken as a quantitative index to weigh the healthy states of brains. (2) Under normal physiological conditions, the EEG signals are chaotic, while under epilepsy conditions the signals approach regularity.
Algorithms ; Child ; Data Interpretation, Statistical ; Electroencephalography ; methods ; Epilepsy ; physiopathology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Nonlinear Dynamics ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted

Objective:To summarize the abnormalities in brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and clinical manifestations of children with infantile spasms (IS) in the course of Vigabatrin (VGB) treatment.Methods:The imaging features of children with IS who took VGB orally and presented with brain MRI changes in Peking University First Hospital between September 2016 and June 2018 were analyzed retrospectively.Their use of VGB and the imaging findings were followed up.Meanwhile, the imaging and clinical features of 83 cases described in literature were summarized.Results:(1) Ten children diagnosed as IS were included.The average duration of VGB treatment at the time of imaging changes was 4.1 months, the average age was 11.8 months, and the average maximum dose was 90.6 mg/(kg·d). Brain MRI showed hyperintensities in bilateral thalamus, brainstem, basal ganglia and dentate nucleus diffusion-weight imaging (DWI), with or without T2WI, and T2 fluid attenuated inversion recovery(FLAIR) or slight hyperintensities.Brain MRI repeated in 5 patients 7-12 months later revealed that the original abnormal signals completely disappeared.Among them, 4 patients stopped using VGB and 1 patient continued to take VGB.(2) Literature review: 83 cases with IS treated with VGB from 16 literatures were reviewed, and the incidence of abnormal brain MRI was 22%-32%.The average age at initial VGB treatment was 8.0 months, and the average dose of VGB was 157.1 mg/(kg·d) when the brain MRI abnormalities were found.The MRI imaging showed high DWI signals in bilateral symmetrical thalamus, brainstem, basal ganglia (mainly pallidum) and dentate nucleus.During the follow-up of the 41 cases, no imaging abnormality was observed in 36 cases, improvement in 4 cases, and no significant change in 1 case.When MRI abnormalities were identified, 12.0%(10/83 cases) of the patients presented new clinical symptoms mainly in the extrapyramidal system, and the clinical symptoms of all children disappeared during the follow-up.Conclusions:During the course of VGB treatment of infantile spasms, brain MRI may suggest hyperintensities of DWI in the thalamus, brainstem, basal ganglia and dentate nucleus, but most are reversible.

Objective To explore the effects of Humulus lupulus L. extract (HLE) and xanthohumol (XN) on preventing glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP). Methods The GIOP model was established by intraperitoneal injection of dexamethasone (DEX). Bone microstructure, bone mineral density and serum biochemical indexes were evaluated by Micro-CT and ELISA kits. The levels of cells proliferation and ALP activity, and the expression of bone formation related proteins were assayed with primary osteoblasts injured by DEX. Results HLE and XN significantly alleviated the bone microstructure damage, enhanced the bone mineral density, and improved the trabecular parameters in GIOP mice. In vitro experiments showed that HLE and XN can prevent bone loss not only by improving cell proliferation and ALP activity, but also through increasing the expression of bone γ-glutamic acid-containing proteins (BGP), bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) and runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx-2). Conclusion This study confirmed that HLE and XN had anti-GIOP effects for the first time. It provides a new resource for the development of anti-osteoporosis medications.

Acoustic resolution photoacoustic microscopy (ARPAM) combines the advantages of high optical contrast, and high ultrasonic spatial resolution and penetration. However, in photoacoustic microscopy (PAM), the information from deep regions can be greatly affected by the shallow targets, and most importantly, the irreconcilable conflict between the lateral resolution and depth of fields has always be a major factor that limits the imaging quality. In this work, an ARPAM system was developed, in which a non-coaxial arrangement of light illumination and acoustic detection was adopted to alleviate the influence of the tissue surface on the deep targets, and a novel focal zone integral algorithm was applied with multiple axial scanning to improve the lateral resolution. Phantom experiment results show that, the build system can maintain a consistent high lateral resolution of 0.6 mm over a large range in axial direction, which is close to the theoretical calculations. The following tumor imaging results on nude mice indicate that, the proposed method can provide more in-depth information compared with the conventional back detection ARPAM method. With the development of fast repetition lasers and image scanning technologies, the proposed method may play an important role in cerebral vascular imaging, cervical cancer photoacoustic endoscopic detection, and superficial tumor imaging.

Objective To explore the effects of Humulus lupulus L. extract (HLE) and its mechanism on improving bone formation of Aβ-injured osteoblasts. Methods Osteoblasts isolated from 24 h-old Wistar rats were injured by Aβ_1-42 oligomer and intervened with HLE. The proliferation, differentiation and bone mineralization of osteoblasts were determined by MTT assay, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity assay and alizarin red staining, respectively. The apoptosis of osteoblasts was detected by flow cytometer. The expression levels of bone formation related proteins, and proteins of Nrf2 and FoxO1 pathways were measured by Western blotting analysis. The intranuclear expression of FoxO1 protein was detected by immunofluorescence. Results HLE significantly improved the cell proliferation, ALP activity and bone mineralization, and inhibited the apoptosis of Aβ-injured osteoblasts. HLE also significantly promoted the expressions of collagen type Ι (COL-I) and osteopontin (OPN) in Aβ-injured osteoblasts. HLE notably activated the Nrf2 and FoxO1 signaling pathways in Aβ-injured osteoblasts by promoting the expressions of related proteins and maintained bone metabolism through relieving oxidative stress. Conclusion This study confirms that HLE can alleviate Aβ-injury to osteoblasts, and preliminarily clarifies the mechanism being related to antioxidation, which provides a new reference for the mechanism research and drugs development for anti-osteoporosis.