Regulation of Nogo-B expression in the lesion of aortic aneurysms.

1. Our previous study showed that Nogo-B was highly expressed in endothelial cells and downregulated in endothelial cells following induction by lysophosphatidylcholine, which contributed to atherosclerotic lesions. However, the role of Nogo-B in the development of aortic aneurysms remains unclear.

Hemin modulates cytokine expressions in macrophage-derived foam cells via heme oxygenase-1 induction.

Lipid-laden foam cells were considered to be targets for therapeutic intervention in atherosclerosis. Several studies proposed new approaches to alter both lipid accumulation and inflammatory responses in macrophages. Finding anti-inflammatory signals during foam cell formation would provide new valid targets for anti-atherosclerotic treatment.

Refolding and structural characteristic of TRAIL/Apo2L inclusion bodies from different specific growth rates of recombinant Escherichia coli.

TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL/Apo2L) was produced mainly as inclusion bodies (IBs) by recombinant Escherichia coli with a temperature-inducible expression system. The yield of TRAIL type 2 IBs at higher preinduction specific growth rate (mu = 0.15 h-1) was higher than that of TRAIL type 1 IBs at lower preinduction specific growth rate (mu = 0.

Oridonin, a diterpenoid extracted from medicinal herbs, targets AML1-ETO fusion protein and shows potent antitumor activity with low adverse effects on t(8;21) leukemia in vitro and in vivo.

Studies have documented the potential antitumor activities of oridonin, a compound extracted from medicinal herbs. However, whether oridonin can be used in the selected setting of hematology/oncology remains obscure. Here, we reported that oridonin induced apoptosis of t(8;21) acute myeloid leukemic (AML) cells.

Genome-wide analysis of the MADS-box gene family in Populus trichocarpa.

Populus trichocarpa (poplar) is distinguished from its herbaceous counterparts Arabidopsis and rice by its woody structure, perennial life cycle, and dioecious, two-whorled flowers. MADS-box genes are known to be involved in many important processes during plant development. Investigation of the poplar genome revealed 105 putative functional MADS-box genes and 12 pseudogenes.

Different expressions of Nogo-B1 and Nogo-B2 in mouse heart microvascular endothelial cell dysfunction induced by lysophosphatidylcholine.

To investigate Nogo-B expression changes in mouse heart microvascular endothelial H5V cell line induced by lysophosphatidylcholine. Cells were incubated with different concentrations of lysoPC for the same incubation time and with 10 micromol/l lysoPC at different incubation times. Protein and mRNA expression levels of Nogo-B1 and Nogo-B2 were measured with Western blotting and semiquantitative RT-PCR, respectively.

Reduction of atherosclerosis in cholesterol-fed rabbits and decrease of expressions of intracellular adhesion molecule-1 and vascular endothelial growth factor in foam cells by a water-soluble fraction of Polygonum multiflorum.

Polygonum multiflorum stilbeneglycoside (PMS) is a water-soluble fraction of Polygonum multiflorum Thunb., one of the most famous tonic traditional Chinese medicines, that has protective effects on the cardiovascular system. The purpose of the present study is to elucidate the effects of PMS on macrophage-derived foam cell functions and the reduction of severity of atherosclerosis in hypercholesterolemic New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits.

Molecular evolution of the rice miR395 gene family.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are 20-22 nucleotide non-coding RNAs that play important roles in plant and animal development. They are usually processed from larger precursors that can form stem-loop structures. Among 20 miRNA families that are conserved between Arabidopsis and rice, the rice miR395 gene family was unique because it was organized into compact clusters that could be transcribed as one single transcript.

[The epidemiological survey of prevalence rate of hypertension in the countryside of Zhangwu county, Liaoning province].

Objective: To investigate the prevalence state of essential hypertension in the countryside of Zhangwu county, Liaoning province to confirm whether this county is the high prevalence region of essential hypertension.

Methods: Five thousand, two hundred and eight 15-year olds or older were sampled by means of whole population random sampling. Blood pressure was measured and the related risk factors were investigated with the uniform questionnaire.

The application of an artificial neural network in the identification of medicinal rhubarbs by near-infrared spectroscopy.

This paper describes a method to combine near-infrared spectroscopy and a three layer back-propagation artificial neural network in order to identify official and unofficial rhubarbs. Thirty-three samples were taken as the training set, and 62 samples as the test set. The effects of input node number, learning rate and momentum on the final error and recognition accuracy for the training set, and on prediction accuracy for the test set were determined.

Sequence and analysis of rice chromosome 4.

Rice is the principal food for over half of the population of the world. With its genome size of 430 megabase pairs (Mb), the cultivated rice species Oryza sativa is a model plant for genome research. Here we report the sequence analysis of chromosome 4 of O.