Advanced glycation end product (AGE)-induced hepatic stellate cell activation via autophagy contributes to hepatitis C-related fibrosis.

Aims: Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) have been implicated in pulmonary and renal fibrosis. Herein, we investigated whether AGEs are associated with liver fibrosis and examined the underlying mechanism by focusing on hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation and autophagy induction.

Methods: Liver fibrosis was assessed by transient elastography (FibroScan).

Growth and antioxidant responses in Jatropha curcas seedling exposed to mercury toxicity.

Jatropha curcas seedlings were exposed to varying concentrations of mercury in order to investigate mercury accumulation, and the changes in growth and antioxidant enzyme activities using in vitro embryo germination and culture. Our results showed that mercury is readily accumulated by germinating embryos and growing seedlings, and its content was greater in the radicles than those of in the cotyledons and hypocotyls. This accumulation was directly correlated with an increase in tested mercury concentrations in the medium.

Cloning and expression analysis of carboxyltransferase of acetyl-coA carboxylase from Jatropha curcas.

A full-length cDNA of the carboxyltransferase (accA) gene of acetyl-coenzym A (acetyl-CoA) carboxylase from Jatropha curcas was cloned and sequenced. The gene with an open reading frame (ORF) of 1149 bp encodes a polypeptide of 383 amino acids, with a molecular mass of 41.9 kDa.