italic>Alangium chinense is a commonly used medicinal plant of Alangiaceae Alangium, one of the characteristic Miao medicines in Guizhou. The genus is strongly differentiated and has complex morphological variation, with significant differences in active ingredients and potency among herbs. In this paper, we sequenced the chloroplast genomes of Alangium chinense subsp. Pauciflorum, Alangium chinense subsp. Strigosum and Alangium kurzii Craib using Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology. The genomes of Alangium chinense subsp. Pauciflorum, Alangium chinense subsp. Strigosum and Alangium kurzii Craib chloroplasts were sequenced, their assembly annotation and structural characterization were completed, and the genomes of the congeners Alangium chinense and Alangium alpinum were downloaded from NCBI for comparative analysis. Finally, the phylogenetic tree was constructed by selecting published species with close affinity to Alangium chinense family from NCBI. The results were as follows: Alangium chinense subsp. Pauciflorum, Alangium chinense subsp. Strigosum and Alangium kurzii Craib chloroplast genomes were 156 670, 156 672 and 156 871 bp in length, with a typical four-segment structure, all containing one long single copy region (LSC), one short single copy region (SSC) and two inverted repeat regions (IRa and IRb). All of them were annotated to 133 genes, including 88 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes and 8 rRNA genes. Three types of long repeat sequences and SSR loci, forward repeats, palindrome repeats and reverse repeats, were found in all chloroplast genomes. Comparative genomic analysis showed that there was diversity in the boundary transition regions of the five species, no rearrangements or inversions were found in the chloroplast genome, and there were significant differences in the coding regions of ndhA, ycf1, rpl16, ycf2, and petD genes, which provided new loci for molecular identification of Patagonia. In the phylogenetic analysis, Alangium kurzii var. kurzii clustered as a single species, and Alangium chinense subsp. Pauciflorum and Alangium chinense subsp. Strigosum clustered as a single species, with a support rate of 93 and close affinity, indicating that the phylogenetic tree can be used for the species identification. This paper can provide a basis for the taxonomic identification of Alangium, ensure the safety of clinical use of anise herbs and regulate the market of Alangium chinense herbs.

Objective To determine the allelic frequency distribution and genetic parameters of nine non-CODIS DNA index systems of the short tandemrepeat (STR ) loci (D2S1772, D6S1043, D7S3048, D8S1132, D11S2368, D12S391, D13S325, D18S1364, and GATA198B05). Methods A total of 353 blood samples were collected, extracted, amplified, and analyzed fromunrelated healthy individuals of Han na-tionality in Hunan Province, China. Results O ne hundred and fourteen alleles were observed in the pop-ulation with corresponding allelic frequencies ranged from0.001 0 to 0.323 0. For all the nine non-CODIS STR loci, the observed genotypic data showed no significant deviations fromthe Hardy-W einberg equi-librium. The Ho, He, PIC, D P, and PE of the studied non-CODIS STR loci ranged from0.108 0 to 0.195 0, 0.805 0 to 0.892 0, 0.770 0 to 0.860 0, 0.925 0 to 0.966 0 and 0.607 0 to 0.780 0, respectively. Conclusion N ine non-CODIS STR loci have high degrees of polymorphisms, which may be useful in in-dividual forensic identification and parentage testing in forensic practice.

Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Diagnostic Errors ; Enteritis ; diagnosis ; Eosinophilia ; diagnosis ; Female ; Gastritis ; diagnosis ; Humans ; Male ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVE: To determine the allelic frequency distribution and genetic parameters of nine non-CODIS DNA index systems of the short tandem repeat (STR) loci (D2S1772, D6S1043, D7S3048, D8S1132, D11S2368, D12S391, D13S325, D18S1364, and GATA198B05). METHODS: A total of 353 blood samples were collected, extracted, amplified, and analyzed from unrelated healthy individuals of Han nationality in Hunan Province, China. RESULTS: One hundred and fourteen alleles were observed in the population with corresponding allelic frequencies ranged from 0.001 0 to 0.323 0. For all the nine non-CODIS STR loci, the observed genotypic data showed no significant deviations from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The Ho, He, PIC, DP, and PE of the studied non-CODIS STR loci ranged from 0.1080 to 0.1950, 0.8050 to 0.8920, 0.7700 to 0.8600, 0.9250 to 0.9660 and 0.6070 to 0.7800, respectively. CONCLUSION Nine non-CODIS STR loci have high degrees of polymorphisms, which may be useful in individual forensic identification and parentage testing in forensic practice.
Alleles ; Asian People/genetics* ; China ; Ethnicity/genetics* ; Gene Frequency ; Genetics, Population ; Genotype ; Humans ; Male ; Microsatellite Repeats/genetics* ; Polymorphism, Genetic

BACKGROUND: Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) has been widely applied in the treatment of anterior-medial osteoarthritis of the knee and is widely recognized as one of the most effective treatments.OBJECTIVE: To explore the short-term efficacy of UKA for anterior-medial unicompartmental knee osteoarthritis. METHODS: Clinical data of 42 patients (48 knees) with anterior-medial unicompartmental knee osteoarthritis undergoing UKA in Heping Hospital Affiliated to Changzhi Medical College from May 2014 to May 2016 were analyzed retrospectively. The preoperative and postoperative last follow-up Hospital for Special Surgery, the Knee Society Score, Western Ontario and Macmaster scores, as well as the range of motion of the knee were compared through clinic reexamination or telephones to evaluate the short-term efficacy. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) The follow-up time was 6-24 months. (2) The pain of the medial knee joint was relieved in different degrees, and there were significant differences in the Hospital for Special Surgery, the Knee Society Score, Western Ontario and Macmaster scores, as well as the range of motion of the knee between preoperation and postoperation (P < 0.05). (3) No lower limb deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, infection, meniscus dislocation or prosthesis loosening occurred. (4) To conclude, UKA exhibits less trauma, rapid recovery and less complications in the treatment of anterior-medial unicompartmental knee osteoarthritis, which obtains good short-term efficacy, and its long-term efficacy needs to be studied in depth.

Mammalian cells are prone to apoptosis when cultured in large scale for production of biopharmaceuticals. And this will reduce production duration and result in high cost of production. Apoptosis is triggered by various factors, and delicately regulated by a set of genes. Bcl-2, a component integrated in mitochondria membrane, is an important member of these genes. By maintaining the integrity of mitochondria membrane, Bcl-2 keeps cytochrome C from releasing into cytoplasm, and thus blocks the activation of caspases, and subsequent onset of apoptosis. Over-expression of Bcl-2 has proven to be useful in blocking apoptosis in various cell lines, including CHO, hybridoma, myeloma, lymphoma and insect cells. Ammonia, a metabolite of cultured cells, however, showed apparent pro-apoptosis activity. In living cells, ammonia can be utilized by glutamine synthetase (GS) to synthesize glutamine, and thus lower the concentration of ammonia in medium, and its negative effects. Glutamine is essential to living cells. If not added into medium, glutamine can only be synthesized by GS, which makes GS a qualified selection marker. This marker can be used for gene amplification by adding into medium increased concentration of MSX, an inhibitor of GS. In this study, we over-expressed Bcl-2 using GS amplification in a recombinant CHO cell line stably expressing human interferon-beta. The modified cell line, with higher expression of Bcl-2 and lower production of ammonia, exhibited good anti-apoptosis quality and higher interferon-beta production in continuous culture.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; genetics ; physiology ; Biopharmaceutics ; CHO Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; Cricetinae ; Cricetulus ; Glutamate-Ammonia Ligase ; genetics ; metabolism ; Interferon-beta ; metabolism ; Models, Genetic ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 ; genetics ; metabolism

Serum used widely in mammalian cell culture is also a potential source of bacterial, mycoplasmal and viral contaminations. In addition, the complex biological components in serum make harder the subsequent product recovery process. High cost, high batch variation and potential source limitation are among the other shortcomings. So serum-free or even protein-free medium are preferable for recombinant protein production. However, without serum to provide essential components such as hormones, growth factors and binding proteins, cells are easy to die. In this study, CHO-dhfr- cells were genetically engineered to make them adapted to IMEM, a protein-free medium, and resistant to apoptosis. The genes in choice are insulin-like factor (Igf-1), Bcl-2 and cyclin E. Bcl-2 is a mitochondrial membrane-integrated protein. It can block the release of cytochrome c by maintaining the integrity of mitochondrial membrane, and thus inhibit apoptosis. Igf-1 is similar both in structure and function to insulin, a growth factor added to serum-free medium to promote cell growth and is the only protein component in many currently used serum-free media. cyclin E is a cell cycle protein expressed continuously in G1 phase. When cyclin E accumulates to certain amount, cell cycle was driven to S phase. So cyclin E is a proliferation-promoting protein. By co-express Igf-1/Bcl-2 or Bcl-2/ cyclin E in CHO-dhfr- cells with a dicistronic expression vector, we constructed two cell lines: CHO-IB and CHO-BC. The high expression of each protein was confirmed by Western blot and flow cytometry. Apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry and DNA ladder detection, and the two cell lines were both found much more resistant to apoptosis induced by withdrawal of serum or addition of actinomycin D than the CHO-dhfr- parent cell. Cell proliferation assay by MTT method showed that the two cell lines proliferated much faster than CHO-dhfr- in IMDM medium without serum. Continuously culture assay proved that the two cell lines grow very well in IMEM protein-free medium supplemented with fibronectin and vitronectin to ease adherence. When compared to CHO-dhfr-, the two cell lines exhibited much more viable cell numbers and faster growth rate.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; CHO Cells ; Cloning, Molecular ; Cricetinae ; Cricetulus ; Culture Media ; Cyclin E ; genetics ; Genes, bcl-2 ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor I ; genetics

To clone porcine bone marrow stromal antigen-2 (BST-2) gene, construct its recombinant eukaryotic expression plasmid and induce the expression of the fusion antiviral protein, we amplified BST-2 gene by RT-PCR from the total RNA extracted from PK15 cells. The recombinant expression plasmid pcDNA-BST-2 was constructed and then was transfected into HEK293T cells to expresse the BST-2 fusion protein. Western blot and indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) were performed, and the biological activity was detected. The results showed that the construction of recombinant plasmid pcDNA-BST-2 was confirmed by restriction enzyme digestion and sequencing. The expressed product had antiviral activity against Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), Avian influenza virus (AIV) and Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). In conclusion, the research paves the way for further research on bioactivity assayand antiviral medication.
Animals ; Antigens, CD ; genetics ; immunology ; Cell Line ; Chickens ; Cloning, Molecular ; Gene Expression ; Humans ; Influenza in Birds ; immunology ; virology ; Orthomyxoviridae ; physiology ; Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome ; immunology ; virology ; Porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus ; physiology ; Swine ; Vesicular Stomatitis ; immunology ; virology ; Vesicular stomatitis Indiana virus ; physiology ; Virus Replication

Objective Diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) severely affects the life of women and the estrogen replacement therapy for it has obvious adverse effects. This article aimed to study the effect of polygoni multiflori radix preparata (PMRP) on DOR in rats and provide a therapeutic option for clinical medication. Methods Sixty female SD rats were randomly divided into six groups of equal number,normal control,DOR model control,high-dose PMRP (4 g/kg),medium-dose PMRP (2 g/kg),low-dose PMRP (1 g/kg),and positive control. The DOR model was established by gavage of tripterygium glycosides as 75 mg/kg every morning,followed by administration of PMRP in the PMRP groups,Estradiol valerate at 0.18 mg/kg in the positive control group and distilled water in the model control group in the afternoon,all for 30 consecutive days. The estrous cycle of the rats was observed,the levels of serum estradiol (E2),follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH),luteinizing hor-mone (LH),anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) and inhibin-B (INH- B) were determined by ELISA,the ovarian and uterine indexes were obtained,and the ovarian morphology was observed by HE stai-ning,and the counts of follicles at different stages were recorded. Results Compared with the normal controls,the DOR model rats showed modeling time-related lengthening,irregularity and even disorder of the estrous cycle,with a few epithelial cells or keratino-cytes and leucocytes on the vaginal smear at 11-30 days. The estrous cycle was normal in the PMRP and positive control groups at 1-10 days and relatively prolonged at 11-30 days. In comparison with the normal control group,the DOR model rats exhibited a signifi-cantly decreased levels of serum E2 ([302.6±42.9] vs [155.7±46.8] pg/mL,P<0.05) and INH-B ([494.5±84.1] vs [299.2± 106.8] pg/mL,P<0.05) but increased levels of FSH ([7.2±0.5] vs [21.7±1.2] mIU/mL,P<0.05) and LH ([17.4±1.2] vs [25.0±1.0] mU/mL,P<0.05). The INH-B level was markedly elevated in the PMRP and positive control groups as compared with that in the DOR models (P<0.05). The counts of follicles and corpora lutea were remarkably lower in the DOR model rats (P<0.05) while that of developing follicles markedly higher in the PMRP and positive control groups than in the normal control group (P<0.05). The numbers of atretic follicles+corpora lutea were significantly increased in the high-dose PMRP group but decreased in the low-dose PMRP group (P<0.05) and positive controls (P<0.05). The counts of primordial and developing follicles were dramatically higher in the PMRP and positive control groups than in the DOR model controls (P<0.01) and so were the numbers of atretic follicles+corpora lutea in the high-and medium-dose PMRP groups (P<0.05). Conclusion Polygoni multiflori radix preparata can effectively protect the reproductive function of female rats by inhibiting tripterygium glycosides-induced toxicity to the ovary.

Objective To investigate the effects of dominant-negative truncation mutant?NTCF4, lacking the N-terminal form of TCF4 gene,on biological characteristics of renal cancer cell line GRC-I and explore the molecular mechanisms.Methods GRC-I cell was transfected with pCDNA3-?NTCF4 eukary- otie expression plasmid,pCDNA3 empty vector to construct the stable cell line GRC-I/?NTCF4 and GRC-I/ Mock respectively.The morphological changes of stable cells were observed and the cells growth curve was detected through light microscope.The cellular proliferation activities were determined using the MTT assay. The protein expression of Wnt pathway downstream target gene C-Myc and Cox-2 was evaluated by immuno- cytoehemieal method and Western Blot analysis.Results After the dominant-negative?NTCF4 gene was permanently expressed,the GRC-I/?NTCF4 stable cells morphologically showed that appearance changed from circular to long-spindle shape,growth rate decreased with less karyosehisis found,malignant pheno- types reversed to normal renal tubular cells.MTT assay revealed that the proliferation activities of GRC-1/?NTCF4 cells were inhibited by 11.2%-35.5% compared with GRC-I cells (P＜0.05),while the GRC- I/Mock cells have no difference with the control cells.Immunocytochemical analysis and Western Blot showed that the C-Myc and Cox-2 protein expression level of GRC-I/?ANTCF4 cells were significantly sup- pressed in comparison with that of GRC-I/Mock and GRC-I cells.Conclusions The dominant-negative truncation mutant?NTCF4 could partially inhibit the growth of renal cancer cells and down-regulate the pro- tein expression of Wnt pathway target gene C-Myc and Cox-2.These findings provide a experimental founda- tion for applying cell signal therapy to renal cell cancer by blocking the Wnt signaling pathway.