Publications by authors named "De-Rong Zhou"

Article Synopsis
  • Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that infects warm-blooded animals, with infected pigs being a major source of infection in humans, highlighting the need for effective diagnosis in swine.
  • A new PCR method targeting the GRA14 gene has been developed, which can detect T. gondii DNA during the acute infection phase with high specificity and sensitivity, even finding as few as 2.35 tachyzoites in various specimen types.
  • A study involving 5,462 blood samples from pigs in southern China revealed an 18.9% infection rate, with higher positive rates observed in specific regions and seasons, indicating the new PCR method's effectiveness for diagnosing swine toxoplasmosis in clinical settings.
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Double-stranded RNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR) is an important antiviral IFN-stimulated gene (ISGs) that recognizes double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and mediates inhibition of translation initiation and protein synthesis in various types of viral infection. In this study, the complete coding sequence (CDS) of goose PKR (goPKR) is identified and characterized. The open reading frame (ORF) of goPKR is 1668 bp, which encodes a polypeptide of 555 amino acids.

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Objective: To study the effect of gossypol on the expression of connexin 43 (CX43) in Sertoli cells.

Methods: TM4 Sertoli cells were cultured and treated with gossypol at the concentrations of 1.25, 2.

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Background: Unstable bladder is one of the common clinical dysfunctions of the lower urinary tract. Gap junctions (GJs) are the plaques of aqueous channels that facilitate electrical and metabolic communication between the intracellular compartments of adjacent cells, exchange of nutrients and ions between connected cells and transfer of electrical signals. In the present study we investigated the quantitative alterations of the GJ in the rat detrusor muscle and its functional changes related to the developing of unstable bladder (USB).

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Previous studies showed that gossypol could block the gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) between cultured cells. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of gossypol on the GJIC and the expression of connexin43 (Cx43) in the cultured cells. A Sertoli cell line, TM4, was treated with different concentrations of gossypol 1.

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