Modernizing metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease diagnostics: the progressive shift from liver biopsy to noninvasive techniques.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a growing public health concern worldwide. Liver biopsy is the gold standard for diagnosing and staging MASLD, but it is invasive and carries associated risks. In recent years, there has been significant progress in developing noninvasive techniques for evaluation.

A conserved SNP variation in the pre-miR396c flanking region in Oryza sativa indica landraces correlates with mature miRNA abundance.

Plant precursor miRNAs (pre-miRNA) have conserved evolutionary footprints that correlate with mode of miRNA biogenesis. In plants, base to loop and loop to base modes of biogenesis have been reported. Conserved structural element(s) in pre-miRNA play a major role in turn over and abundance of mature miRNA.

Distinct Evolutionary Origins of Intron Retention Splicing Events in Antiporter Transcripts Relate to Sequence Specific Distinctions in Species.

The genome of Asian cultivated rice ( L.) shows the presence of six organelle-specific and one plasma membrane () NHX-type cation proton antiporters. Of these, vacuolar-localized is extensively characterized.

Caveolin-1 regulation of Sp1 controls production of the antifibrotic protein follistatin in kidney mesangial cells.

Background: We previously showed that caveolin-1 (cav-1), an integral membrane protein, is required for the synthesis of matrix proteins by glomerular mesangial cells (MC). In a previous study to understand how cav-1 is involved in regulating matrix production, we had identified significant upregulation of the antifibrotic protein follistatin in cav-1 knockout MC. Follistatin inhibits the profibrotic effects of several members of the transforming growth factor beta superfamily, in particular the activins.

Inhibition of SREBP With Fatostatin Does Not Attenuate Early Diabetic Nephropathy in Male Mice.

Sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP) is an important potential mediator of kidney fibrosis and is known to be upregulated in diabetic nephropathy. We evaluated the effectiveness of SREBP inhibition as treatment of diabetic nephropathy. Type 1 diabetes was induced in uninephrectomized male CD1 mice with streptozotocin.

Upcoming biomarkers for the diagnosis of Kawasaki disease: A review.

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a major cause of acquired heart disease among children and increases the risk of myocardial infarction. While the biochemical basis of the disease is unclear, the evidence suggests interplay between a microbial infection and a genetic predisposition in the development of the disease. Diagnosis of KD based on clinical observation is not completely reliable and is problematic due to the time-sensitive nature of the disease.