Chaihu-Longgu-Muli decoction improves sleep disorders by restoring orexin-A function in CKD mice.

Introduction: Chaihu-Longgu-Muli decoction (CLMD) is a well-used ancient formula originally recorded in the "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" written by the founding theorist of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Doctor Zhang Zhongjing. While it has been used extensively as a therapeutic treatment for neuropsychiatric disorders, such as insomnia, anxiety and dementia, its mechanisms remain unclear.

Methods: In order to analyze the therapeutic mechanism of CLMD in chronic renal failure and insomnia, An adenine diet-induced chronic kidney disease (CKD) model was established in mice, Furthermore, we analyzed the impact of CLMD on sleep behavior and cognitive function in CKD mice, as well as the production of insomnia related regulatory proteins and inflammatory factors.

Upregulation of ski in fibroblast is implicated in the peroxisome proliferator--activated receptor δ-mediated wound healing.

Background/aim: Both peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) δ and Ski are investigate the interaction of PPARδ and Ski and this interaction-associated effect in wound healing.

Methods: Effect of PPARδ activation on Ski expression was detected in rat skin fibroblasts by real-time PCR and western blot. Luciferase assay, electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay were performed to identify the binding site of PPARδ in the promoter region of rat Ski gene.

c-Ski inhibits the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells via suppressing Smad3 signaling but stimulating p38 pathway.

Proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) plays key roles in the progression of intimal hyperplasia, but the molecular mechanisms that trigger VSMC proliferation after vascular injury remain unclear. c-Ski, a co-repressor of transforming growth factor β (TGF-β)/Smad signaling, was detected to express in VSMC of rat artery. During the course of arterial VSMC proliferation induced by balloon injury in rat, the endogenous protein expressions of c-Ski decreased markedly in a time-dependent manner.

[PPARγ up-regulates TGFβ/smad signal pathway repressor c-Ski].

TGFβ/smad pathway is recognized as an important signal pathway to promote the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis (AS). Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) activation is considered to be important in modulating AS. Herein, we investigated the regulation of PPARγ on c-Ski, the repressor of TGFβ/smad pathway, in rat AS model and cultured vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs).

Adherent cells in granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor-induced bone marrow-derived dendritic cell culture system are qualified dendritic cells.

A widely-used method for generating dendritic cell (DC) is to culture bone marrow cells in granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)-containing medium for 6-10 days. Usually, non-adherent cells are used as qualified dendritic cells while the adherent ones are discarded as "non-dendritic cells" or macrophages. In this study, we show that the adherent cells are nearly identical to the non-adherent cells in both dendritic cell surface markers expression and main dendritic cell-related functions, hence to prove that these "junk cells" are actually qualified dendritic cells.

A single low dose of dendritic cells modified with lentivirus containing a truncated neu gene can effectively suppress neu-overexpressing tumors.

Background: Several types of viral-transduced HER2/neu-modified dendritic cells (DC(HER2/neu)) have been used for preventing and/or treating HER2/neu-overexpressing tumors. However, to date, lentivirus has not been used to generate HER2/neu-modified DCs.

Methods: In the present study, we used recombinant lentivirus containing a truncated neu gene (rLVneu) to transduce murine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells and investigated their preventive and therapeutic effects on HER2/neu-overexpressing tumors.

Gene delivery efficiency in bone marrow-derived dendritic cells: comparison of four methods and optimization for lentivirus transduction.

Many gene delivery methods have been used to transduce or transfect bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) for genetic engineered DC vaccine research. The present study, for the first time, evaluated the efficiencies of four methods (lipofection, DNA electroporation, recombinant adeno-associated virus type 2 (rAAV2) transduction, and recombinant lentivirus (rLV) transduction) using EGFP as a report gene in the same BMDC culture system. Our data demonstrate that rLV transduction is the most effective method; both lipofection and DNA electroporation transfect BMDCs at lower efficiencies; rAAV2 can hardly transduce BMDCs.