Mic60 is essential to maintain mitochondrial integrity and to prevent encephalomyopathy.

Mitochondrial encephalomyopathies (ME) are frequently associated with mutations of mitochondrial DNA, but the pathogenesis of a subset of ME (sME) remains elusive. Here we report that haploinsufficiency of a mitochondrial inner membrane protein, Mic60, causes progressive neurological abnormalities with insulted mitochondrial structure and neuronal loss in mice. In addition, haploinsufficiency of Mic60 reduces mitochondrial membrane potential and cellular ATP production, increases reactive oxygen species, and alters mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation complexes in neurons in an age-dependent manner.

8-Methoxypsoralen protects bovine mammary epithelial cells against lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory injury via suppressing JAK/STAT and NF-κB pathway.

Bovine mastitis is the most common disease in dairy cattle. Bacterial infections are the main cause of mastitis. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a major structural component of the cell wall of Escherichia coli, is a good inducer used to replicate inflammation models.

Facile synthesis of photo-cleavable polymers via Passerini reaction.

Passerini three-component reaction and multicomponent polymerization (MCP) were demonstrated to be facile methods for the preparation of photo-cleavable polymers, photo- and redox-dually cleavable polymers, as well as block copolymers.

Sequence Regulated Poly(ester-amide)s Based on Passerini Reaction.

Multicomponent polymerization based on Passerini reaction is described. Room temperature polymerization of dicarboxyl acid, monoaldehyde, and diisocyanide leads to the formation of a new type of sequence regulated poly(ester-amide)s in an efficient one-pot process. The polymerization was confirmed to be a stepwise mechanism, and the resulting polymers were characterized and determined to be linear polymers with a sequence regulated backbone repeating unit of ester-ester-amide-amide.

Survivin: a novel player in insulin cardioprotection against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Insulin inhibits ischemia/reperfusion-induced myocardial apoptosis through the activation of a survival signaling cascade including the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt pathway. However, the down-stream mechanism of PI3K remains elusive. This study is aimed at investigating whether survivin (SVV) plays a role in the insulin-induced anti-apoptotic effect in the ischemic/reperfused (I/R) hearts, and if so, further determining the signaling mechanism involved.

Impact of moderate or severe renal insufficiency on long-term outcomes in patients undergoing drug-eluting stent based coronary intervention.

Aims: We sought to examine the impact of moderate or severe renal insufficiency (RI) on long-term clinical outcomes after successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stent implantation.

Methods: All-cause mortality and major adverse cardiac events were prospectively determined for 1174 patients after successful PCI with drug-eluting stent implantation. Based on estimated creatinine clearance (CrCl) levels, long-term outcomes were compared between patients with CrCl<60 ml/min (RI group; n=460) and those with CrCl> or =60 ml/min (control group; n=714).