1.Lipid Droplet Biogenesis at the Endoplasmic Reticulum: Orchestrating Nucleation, Membrane Budding, and Expansion
Yue YU ; Wei-Ke JI ; Juan XIONG
Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics 2025;52(9):2189-2204
Lipid droplets (LDs) are dynamic organelles that are ubiquitous across most organisms, including animals, plants, protists, and microorganisms. Their core consists of neutral lipids, surrounded by a phospholipid monolayer adorned with a specific set of proteins. As critical intracellular hubs of metabolic regulation, lipid droplets play essential roles in maintaining physiological homeostasis and contributing to the progression of various pathological processes. They store neutral lipids for energy production during periods of starvation or for membrane biosynthesis, and they sequester fatty acids to mitigate lipotoxicity. Clinically, dysregulation of lipid droplet function is associated with a wide range of diseases, including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), neurodegenerative disorders, and cancer. Research into the biological functions of lipid droplets—as dynamic organelles and their links to multiple diseases—has emerged as a cutting-edge focus in cell biology. In recent years, significant advances have been made in understanding lipid droplet biogenesis. Researchers have developed a more refined framework that elucidates how LDs are assembled in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Triacylglycerols and sterol esters are synthesized between the inner and outer leaflets of the ER bilayer, and when they exceed the critical nucleation concentration (CNC), they coalesce to form neutral lipid lenses. These then bud from the ER under the coordinated action of key proteins such as Seipin, fat storage-inducing transmembrane protein 2 (FIT2), and the peroxisomal membrane protein Pex30. This budding process is driven by changes in membrane curvature and surface tension, induced by the asymmetric distribution of phospholipids. Nascent lipid droplets recruit lipid-synthesizing enzymes via ER-LD bridging structures, enabling localized lipid production and surface expansion, ultimately resulting in the formation of mature LDs. Biochemical and biophysical approaches have revealed important features of this process, underscoring the critical roles of ER membrane biophysical properties and specific phospholipids. Structural biology and proteomic studies have identified key regulators—particularly Seipin and FIT2—as central players in LD biogenesis. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in the molecular mechanisms of LD biogenesis. It delves into the processes of LD nucleation, membrane budding, and expansion in eukaryotic cells, with a special focus on how core factors such as Seipin and FIT2 dynamically regulate LD morphology. In addition, it examines the mechanisms and pathways by which class I and class II proteins are targeted to LDs, compares LD biogenesis involving different neutral lipid cores, and discusses the disease relevance of specific regulatory proteins. Finally, the review outlines critical unresolved questions in the field of LD biogenesis, offering clear directions for future research and providing a comprehensive framework for deepening our understanding of LD formation and its implications for disease intervention.
2.Associations between statins and all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events among peritoneal dialysis patients: A multi-center large-scale cohort study.
Shuang GAO ; Lei NAN ; Xinqiu LI ; Shaomei LI ; Huaying PEI ; Jinghong ZHAO ; Ying ZHANG ; Zibo XIONG ; Yumei LIAO ; Ying LI ; Qiongzhen LIN ; Wenbo HU ; Yulin LI ; Liping DUAN ; Zhaoxia ZHENG ; Gang FU ; Shanshan GUO ; Beiru ZHANG ; Rui YU ; Fuyun SUN ; Xiaoying MA ; Li HAO ; Guiling LIU ; Zhanzheng ZHAO ; Jing XIAO ; Yulan SHEN ; Yong ZHANG ; Xuanyi DU ; Tianrong JI ; Yingli YUE ; Shanshan CHEN ; Zhigang MA ; Yingping LI ; Li ZUO ; Huiping ZHAO ; Xianchao ZHANG ; Xuejian WANG ; Yirong LIU ; Xinying GAO ; Xiaoli CHEN ; Hongyi LI ; Shutong DU ; Cui ZHAO ; Zhonggao XU ; Li ZHANG ; Hongyu CHEN ; Li LI ; Lihua WANG ; Yan YAN ; Yingchun MA ; Yuanyuan WEI ; Jingwei ZHOU ; Yan LI ; Caili WANG ; Jie DONG
Chinese Medical Journal 2025;138(21):2856-2858
3.A Novel Mouse Model Unveils Protein Deficiency in Truncated CDKL5 Mutations.
Xue FENG ; Zi-Ai ZHU ; Hong-Tao WANG ; Hui-Wen ZHOU ; Ji-Wei LIU ; Ya SHEN ; Yu-Xian ZHANG ; Zhi-Qi XIONG
Neuroscience Bulletin 2025;41(5):805-820
Mutations in the cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 gene (CDKL5) cause a severe neurodevelopmental disorder, yet the impact of truncating mutations remains unclear. Here, we introduce the Cdkl5492stop mouse model, mimicking C-terminal truncating mutations in patients. 492stop/Y mice exhibit altered dendritic spine morphology and spontaneous seizure-like behaviors, alongside other behavioral deficits. After creating cell lines with various Cdkl5 truncating mutations, we found that these mutations are regulated by the nonsense-mediated RNA decay pathway. Most truncating mutations result in CDKL5 protein loss, leading to multiple disease phenotypes, and offering new insights into the pathogenesis of CDKL5 disorder.
Animals
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Disease Models, Animal
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Mice
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Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases/deficiency*
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Mutation/genetics*
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Epileptic Syndromes/genetics*
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Humans
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Dendritic Spines/pathology*
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Spasms, Infantile/genetics*
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Male
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Seizures/genetics*
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Mice, Inbred C57BL
4.Combined Study of Behavior and Spike Discharges Associated with Negative Emotions in Mice.
Jinru XIN ; Xinmiao WANG ; Xuechun MENG ; Ling LIU ; Mingqing LIU ; Huangrui XIONG ; Aiping LIU ; Ji LIU
Neuroscience Bulletin 2025;41(10):1843-1860
In modern society, people are increasingly exposed to chronic stress, leading to various mental disorders. However, the activities of brain regions, especially neural firing patterns related to specific behaviors, remain unclear. In this study, we introduce a novel approach, NeuroSync, which integrates open-field behavioral testing with electrophysiological recordings from emotion-related brain regions, specifically the central amygdala and the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, to explore the mechanisms of negative emotions induced by chronic stress in mice. By applying machine vision techniques, we quantified behaviors in the open field, and signal processing algorithms elucidated the neural underpinnings of the observed behaviors. Synchronizing behavioral and electrophysiological data revealed significant correlations between neural firing patterns and stress-related behaviors, providing insights into real-time brain activity underlying behavioral responses. This research combines deep learning and machine learning to synchronize high-resolution video and electrophysiological data, offering new insights into neural-behavioral dynamics under chronic stress conditions.
Animals
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Mice
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Male
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Emotions/physiology*
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Stress, Psychological/physiopathology*
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Action Potentials/physiology*
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Mice, Inbred C57BL
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Behavior, Animal/physiology*
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Machine Learning
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Amygdala/physiopathology*
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Neurons/physiology*
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Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus/physiopathology*
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Brain/physiology*
5.Neuroepithelial tumors with embryogenesis dysplasia:a clinicopathological analysis of 33 cases
Yi XIA ; Shujing ZHENG ; Ji XIONG ; Zunguo DU ; Xiaomu HU ; Xing HU ; Ying ZHANG
Chinese Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pathology 2024;40(5):476-479
Purpose To investigate the clinical,imaging,pathological features,differential diagnosis and prognosis of em-bryonic dysplastic neuroepithelial tumor(DNT).Methods The clinical data of 33 DNT patients were collected.Immunohis-tochemical results of Olig2,NeuN,Syn,GFAP,IDH1,CD34,BRAF V600E,H3K27M and Ki67 were examined by EnVision method.Histopathological morphology and immunohistochemical features were retrospectively analyzed and relevant literature was reviewed synchronously.Results A total of 28 cases were fol-lowed up,including 10 females and 18 males.The age of onset was 4~57 years,with average 24.97 years.Refractory epilepsy was a common symptom.The lesions were mainly located in the supratentorial cortex,and most of them were well-defined,lobu-lated,cystic or cystic and solid.Microscopically,DNT was mainly composed of oligodendrocytes,neurons floating in the mucous matrix,and proliferative astrocytes.Calcification was rare,and no necrosis or microvascular hyperplasia was ob-served.Immunohistochemistry showed that neurons expressed NeuN and Syn,oligodendrocytes expressed Olig2,and prolifera-tive astrocytes expressed GFAP;p53 was mostly wild-type,and the proliferation index of Ki67 was low(mostly less than 4%).Conclusion DNT is a benign tumor with mixed glial and neu-ronal structures.Precise pathological diagnosis needs to be care-fully considered with imaging characteristics,microscopic mor-phology,immunohistochemistry and molecular test results if nec-essary.Prognosis after complete surgical resection is good.
6.Neuroepithelial tumor with EWSR1 translocation of central nervous system:a clinicopathological analysis of six cases
Danmei ZHOU ; Xueling QI ; Shujing ZHENG ; Xingfu WANG ; Yin WANG ; Feng TANG ; Ji XIONG ; Zunguo DU
Chinese Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pathology 2024;40(5):503-508
Purpose To investigate the clinical,imaging,pathological,and genetic characteristics of neuroepithelial tumors with EWSR1 translocation.Methods The clinicopatho-logical data of 6 patients with EWSR1 translocation in neuroepi-thelial tumors were collected,routine HE and immunohistochem-ical staining were performed,the information of high-throughput sequencing was summarized,and the relevant literature was re-viewed.Results The median age of the 6 patients was 11.5 years(ranging from 1.9 to 17 years),including 1 male and 5 females.The tumors located in temporal lobe,frontal lobe,pari-etal lobe,suprasellar region,or lateral ventricle.The clinical manifestations mainly started with seizures.Brain MRI showed abnormal signal focus in the cerebral hemisphere near the cortex in 4 cases,and ventricle/periventricular regions in 2 cases,with an almost clear boundary in 5 cases.Microscopically,the histo-logical changes were diverse,including low-grade gliomas/gli-oneuronal tumors in 3 cases,high-grade gliomas in 2 cases,and glioneuronal tumor with high-grade feature in 1 case.Immuno-histochemically,tumor cells expressed GFAP,S-100,Syn,and Olig2 partially.2 cases exhibited slightly positive of NeuN and 1 case exhibited little dot-like staining of EMA.Next generation sequencing revealed EWSR1 rearrangement in all 6 cases,with chaperone genes including PATZ1 in 5 cases,and PLAGL1 in 1 case.3 cases were treated with chemotherapy after surgery,and no recurrence or progression was found during follow-up.Con-clusion The neuroepithelial tumors with the fusion of EWSR1 and non-ETS commonly occur in the cerebral hemisphere of teenagers and children.Most of the boundaries lesion are still clear,the histomorphological spectrum is diverse,and the bio-logical behavior is presented as a low to moderate malignancy,which provides the possibility for expanding the molecular classi-fication of CNS neuroepithelial tumor.
7.Adults Ischium Age Estimation Based on Deep Learning and 3D CT Reconstruction
Huai-Han ZHANG ; Yong-Jie CAO ; Ji ZHANG ; Jian XIONG ; Ji-Wei MA ; Xiao-Tong YANG ; Ping HUANG ; Yong-Gang MA
Journal of Forensic Medicine 2024;40(2):154-163
Objective To develop a deep learning model for automated age estimation based on 3D CT reconstructed images of Han population in western China,and evaluate its feasibility and reliability.Methods The retrospective pelvic CT imaging data of 1 200 samples(600 males and 600 females)aged 20.0 to 80.0 years in western China were collected and reconstructed into 3D virtual bone models.The images of the ischial tuberosity feature region were extracted to create sex-specific and left/right site-specific sample libraries.Using the ResNet34 model,500 samples of different sexes were randomly selected as training and verification set,the remaining samples were used as testing set.Initialization and transfer learning were used to train images that distinguish sex and left/right site.Mean absolute error(MAE)and root mean square error(RMSE)were used as primary indicators to evaluate the model.Results Prediction results varied between sexes,with bilateral models outperformed left/right unilateral ones,and transfer learning models showed superior performance over initial models.In the prediction results of bilateral transfer learning models,the male MAE was 7.74 years and RMSE was 9.73 years,the female MAE was 6.27 years and RMSE was 7.82 years,and the mixed sexes MAE was 6.64 years and RMSE was 8.43 years.Conclusion The skeletal age estimation model,utilizing is-chial tuberosity images of Han population in western China and employing the ResNet34 combined with transfer learning,can effectively estimate adult ischium age.
8.Bibliometric Analysis of Forensic Human Remains Identification Literature from 1991 to 2022
Ji-Wei MA ; Ping HUANG ; Ji ZHANG ; Hai-Xing YU ; Yong-Jie CAO ; Xiao-Tong YANG ; Jian XIONG ; Huai-Han ZHANG ; Yong CANG ; Ge-Fei SHI ; Li-Qin CHEN
Journal of Forensic Medicine 2024;40(3):245-253
Objective To describe the current state of research and future research hotspots through a metrological analysis of the literature in the field of forensic anthropological remains identification re-search.Methods The data retrieved and extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC),the core database of the Web of Science information service platform (hereinafter referred to as "WoS"),was used to analyze the trends and topic changes in research on forensic identification of human re-mains from 1991 to 2022.Network visualisation of publication trends,countries (regions),institutions,authors and topics related to the identification of remains in forensic anthropology was analysed using python 3.9.2 and Gephi 0.10.Results A total of 873 papers written in English in the field of forensic anthropological remains identification research were obtained.The journal with the largest number of publications was Forensic Science International (164 articles).The country (region) with the largest number of published papers was China (90 articles).Katholieke Univ Leuven (Netherlands,21 articles) was the institution with the largest number of publications.Topic analysis revealed that the focus of forensic anthropological remains identification research was sex estimation and age estimation,and the most commonly studied remains were teeth.Conclusion The volume of publications in the field of forensic anthropological remains identification research has a distinct phasing.However,the scope of both international and domestic collaborations remains limited.Traditionally,human remains identifica-tion has primarily relied on key areas such as the pelvis,skull,and teeth.Looking ahead,future re-search will likely focus on the more accurate and efficient identification of multiple skeletal remains through the use of machine learning and deep learning techniques.
9.Correct the Mistake of Attributing the Authorship of Wenbing Zhinan and Yixue Zhenchuan to GAO Bingjun
Yuanye GU ; Weixuan JI ; Yiliang XIONG
Journal of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University 2024;48(5):642-648
[Objective]To sort out and correct the transmission context of the mistaken authorship of Wenbing Zhinan(Guide to Warm Diseases)and Yixue Zhenchuan(Medical Secrets)as being by GAO Bingjun.[Methods]Through the method of character verification,a literature verification and sorting is conducted on the individuals and events of GAO Bingjun,LOU Jie and GAO Shishi.Through the method of literature retrieval,academic papers and monographs with errors in Wenbing Zhinan and Yixue Zhenchuan are retrieved from China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI)and Duxiu databases.Through the method of bibliometrics,the CNKI literature co-citation network analysis tool is used to analyze the citation network of erroneous references in Yixue Zhenchuan.[Results]Based on the biographical information of GAO Bingjun,LOU Jie and GAO Shishi,it was known that they specialized in different fields and their birth-death dates did not overlap.According to the research papers and monographs indicating errors in transmission context,it was suggested that the source upstream of errors in Wenbing Zhinan and Yixue Zhenchuan should be attributed to the 2002 edition electronic book Zhonghua Yidian(Chinese Medical Records).The results from network analysis indicated that a paper titled"Theoretical Study on Warming and Dredging Function of Moxibustion"published in 2011,played a significant role in promoting the spread of errors regarding authors'mistakes in Yixue Zhenchuan.[Conclusion]The author of Wenbing Zhinan was LOU Jie and the author of Yixue Zhenchuan was GAO Shishi respectively.These two books were mistakenly attributed to GAO Bingjun due to scholars'failure to carefully verify original documents during citations.This suggests that researchers must exercise caution when citing sources to avoid perpetuating errors.
10.Study on initial weight-bearing stability after internal fixation of femoral intertrochanteric fracture
Xiaomeng ZHANG ; Yanhua WANG ; Yun JI ; Yichong ZHANG ; Zhentao DING ; Xiaofeng CHEN ; Chen XIONG ; Yilin WANG ; Miaotian TANG ; Dianying ZHANG
Chinese Journal of Orthopaedics 2024;44(7):492-498
Objective:To investigate the effect of internal fixation of medial support and lateral wall on initial weight-bearing stability of femoral intertrochanteric fracture after reconstruction of intertrochanteric fracture.Methods:Based on the digital model of Sawbones femur, intertrochanteric fracture models with different medial support and lateral wall states were constructed. Combined with various intramedullary and extramedullary fixation methods, the mechanical models after fixation were simplified, and seven mechanical simplified models were obtained. The individual body weight load (70 kg) was simulated by applying concentrated force (700 N) to the end nodes of the femoral head. Through the analysis and calculation of each model in StrucMaster software, the axial force, shear force, bending moment, displacement deformation, and support reaction force of each bar in each mechanical model were obtained, and the results were output through the supporting SMConsole.Results:The median bending moment of model 1 was 11.55(5.57, 18.00) N·m, and the median bending moment was 2.89(2.81, 2.94) rad. The median bending moment of model 2 was 13.72(9.30, 20.05) N·m, and the median bending moment was 2.93(2.77, 3.05) rad. The median bending moment of model 3 was 19.65(10.23, 26.11) N·m, and the median bending moment was 2.93 (2.77, 3.05) rad. The median bending moment of model 4 was 25.95(25.14, 36.70) N·m, and the median bending moment was 4.38(3.16, 5.15) rad. The median bending moment of model 5 was 13.66(7.99, 25.62) N·m, and the median bending moment was 3.50(3.32, 3.56) rad. The median bending moment of model 6 was 24.60(9.33, 29.37) N·m, and the median bending moment was 3.90(3.69, 4.10) rad. The median bending moment of model 7 was 41.14(0.16, 41.30) N·m, and the median bending moment was 5.50(5.50, 7.05) rad. The mechanical properties of model 1 were better than those of the other six models.Conclusion:The simplified mechanical model and its mechanical calculation analysis based on the lever reconstruction balance theory can be used to preliminarily reveal the mechanical characteristics of femoral intertrochanteric fractures after internal fixation. The internal fixation methods of the medial support and lateral wall of femoral intertrochanteric fracture reconstruction can improve the initial stability of the weight bearing after internal fixation of femoral intertrochanteric fractures and have guiding significance for the functional rehabilitation of early postoperative weight bearing.

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