Comparative Transcriptomic Profiling in Ovarian Tissues of Lohmann Hens and Chengkou Mountain Chicken.

Background: As a crucial economic characteristic and a major indicator of reproductive performance in layers, egg production is controlled by a series of complex regulatory heredity basis. In particular, the interacting regulatory function between noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) and coding RNA plays important roles in regulating laying performance.

Methods: In this study, the RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of ovarian tissues from Lohmann hens (n = 3) and Chengkou Mountain chicken (n = 3) under the laying peak period was performed to identify RNA transcriptional differences among different laying-performance populations.

Effects of Traditional Chinese Herbal Feed Additive on Production Performance, Egg Quality, Antioxidant Capacity, Immunity and Intestinal Health of Laying Hens.

Chinese herbs have been used as feed additives in animal production. This study investigated the effects of a Chinese herbal feed-additive (TCM, which contained , , , and ) on the production performance, egg quality, antioxidant capacity, immunity, and intestinal health of Roman laying hens. A total of 720 28-week-old hens were randomly allotted to three groups with six replicates of forty hens each.

Responses to dietary levels of methionine in broilers medicated or vaccinated against coccidia under Eimeria tenella-challenged condition.

Background: Coccidiosis is a prevalent problem in chicken production. Dietary addition of coccidiostats and vaccination are two approaches used to suppress coccidia in the practical production. Methionine (Met) is usually the first limiting amino acid that plays important roles in protein metabolism and immune functions in chickens.

Effects of Levosimendan on Patients with Heart Failure Complicating Acute Coronary Syndrome: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Background: The prognosis for patients with heart failure (HF), including cardiogenic shock (CS), complicating acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains poor.

Objective: This study aimed to review the relevant literature and evaluate whether levosimendan was associated with better clinical outcomes in these patients.

Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane library databases for randomized controlled trials that investigated levosimendan compared with any control in patients with HF/CS complicating ACS.

Endothelial cells microparticle-associated protein disulfide isomerase promotes platelet activation in metabolic syndrome.

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a common challenge in the world, and the platelet activation is enhanced in MetS patients. However, the fundamental mechanism that underlies platelet activation in MetS remains incompletely understood. Endothelial cells are damaged seriously in MetS patients, then they release more endothelial microparticles (EMPs).

PAX6 downregulates miR-124 expression to promote cell migration during embryonic stem cell differentiation.

PAX6-null mice exhibit defects in multiple organs leading to neonatal lethality, but the mechanism by which this occurs has not yet fully elucidated. In this study, we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from Pax6-mutant mice and investigated the effect of PAX6 on cell fate during embryoid body (EB) formation. We found that PAX6 promotes cell migration by directly downregulating miR-124, which is important for the fate transition of migratory cells during gastrulation of embryonic stem (ES) cells.

Sox2 protects neural stem cells from apoptosis via up-regulating survivin expression.

The transcription factor Sox2 [SRY (sex-determining region Y)-box 2] is essential for the regulation of self-renewal and homoeostasis of NSCs (neural stem cells) during brain development. However, the downstream targets of Sox2 and its underlying molecular mechanism are largely unknown. In the present study, we found that Sox2 directly up-regulates the expression of survivin, which inhibits the mitochondria-dependent apoptotic pathway in NSCs.