Publications by authors named "Piao Zhao"

Effective repair of large bone defects through bone tissue engineering (BTE) remains an unmet clinical challenge. Successful BTE requires optimal and synergistic interactions among biocompatible scaffolds, osteogenic factors, and osteoprogenitors to form a highly vascularized microenvironment for bone regeneration and osseointegration. We sought to develop a highly effective BTE system by using 3D printed citrate-based mPOC/hydroxyapatite (HA) composites laden with BMP9-stimulated human urine stem cells (USCs).

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Pancreatitis is an inflammatory disease of the pancreas that can arise due to various factors, including environmental risks such as diet, alcohol, and smoking, as well as genetic predispositions. In some cases, pancreatitis may progress and become chronic, leading to irreversible damage and impaired pancreatic function. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified polymorphisms at the X-linked locus as risk factors for both sporadic and alcohol-related chronic pancreatitis.

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Background: Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a toxin widely found in aquafeed ingredients, and hypoxia is a common problem in fish farming. In practice, aquatic animals tend to be more sensitive to hypoxia while feeds are contaminated with OTA, but no studies exist in this area. This research investigated the multiple biotoxicities of OTA and hypoxia combined on the liver of grass carp and explored the mitigating effect of curcumin (CUR).

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Ochratoxin A (OTA) is one of the most common pollutants in aquatic feed. As a first line of defense, intestinal barriers could be utilized against OTA in order to prevent disorders. Natural product supplementation is one of the most popular strategies to alleviate toxicity induced by mycotoxins, but there is a lack of knowledge about how it functions in the teleost intestine.

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Recombinant adenovirus (rAdV) is a commonly used vector system for gene transfer. Efficient initial packaging and subsequent production of rAdV remains time-consuming and labor-intensive, possibly attributable to rAdV infection-associated oxidative stress and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Here, we show that exogenous GAPDH expression mitigates adenovirus-induced ROS-associated apoptosis in HEK293 cells, and expedites adenovirus production.

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Article Synopsis
  • Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a harmful pollutant that affects aquafeeds, and this study focuses on curcumin (Cur) as a potential solution to mitigate its toxic effects on muscle cells (myoblasts).
  • The research involved 720 grass carp divided into four groups to test the effects of OTA and Cur over 60 days, revealing that Cur improved cell growth and protein development while countering the negative impacts of OTA.
  • The findings suggest that Cur not only enhances muscle development by activating certain signaling pathways and proteins but also inhibits gene expression related to protein degradation, highlighting its potential for alleviating OTA myotoxicity.
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Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a common mycotoxin in food and feed that seriously harms human and animal health. This study investigated the effect of OTA on the muscle growth of juvenile grass carp () and its possible mechanism in vitro. Our results have the following innovative findings: (1) Dietary OTA increased the expression of increasing phase I metabolic enzymes and absorbing transporters while reducing the expression of efflux transporters, thereby increasing their residue in muscles; (2) OTA inhibited the expressions of cell cycle and myogenic regulatory factors (MyoD, MyoG, and MyHC) and induced ferroptosis by decreasing the mRNA and protein expressions of FTH, TFR1, GPX4, and Nrf2 both in vivo and in vitro; and (3) the addition of DFO improved OTA-induced ferroptosis of grass carp primary myoblasts and promoted cell proliferation, while the addition of AKT improved OTA-inhibited myoblast differentiation and fusion, thus inhibiting muscle growth.

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The evolutionarily conserved Wnt signaling pathway plays a central role in development and adult tissue homeostasis across species. Wnt proteins are secreted, lipid-modified signaling molecules that activate the canonical (β-catenin dependent) and non-canonical (β-catenin independent) Wnt signaling pathways. Cellular behaviors such as proliferation, differentiation, maturation, and proper body-axis specification are carried out by the canonical pathway, which is the best characterized of the known Wnt signaling paths.

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Effective bone regeneration through tissue engineering requires a combination of osteogenic progenitors, osteoinductive biofactors and biocompatible scaffold materials. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represent the most promising seed cells for bone tissue engineering. As multipotent stem cells that can self-renew and differentiate into multiple lineages including bone and fat, MSCs can be isolated from numerous tissues and exhibit varied differentiation potential.

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Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a common fungal toxin that pollutes raw materials of aquatic feeds (such as corn, soybean meal, and wheat). This study explored the effects of OTA through diet on muscle toxicity in juvenile grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella). The following results were obtained for the muscle.

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The proton-activated chloride (PAC) channel plays critical roles in ischemic neuron death, but its activation mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we investigated the gating of PAC channels using its novel bifunctional modulator C77304. C77304 acted as a weak activator of the PAC channel, causing moderate activation by acting on its proton gating.

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Excessive nitrogen can lead to eutrophication of water bodies. However, the removal of nitrogen from low carbon source wastewater has always been challenging due to the limited availability of carbon sources as electron donors. Biological nitrogen removal technology can be classified into three categories: heterotrophic biological technology (HBT) that utilizes organic matter as electron donors, autotrophic biological technology (ABT) that relies on inorganic electrons as electron donors, and heterotrophic-autotrophic coupling technology (CBT) that combines multiple electron donors.

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Wnt signaling plays a major role in regulating cell proliferation and differentiation. The Wnt ligands are a family of 19 secreted glycoproteins that mediate their signaling effects via binding to Frizzled receptors and LRP5/6 coreceptors and transducing the signal either through β-catenin in the canonical pathway or through a series of other proteins in the noncanonical pathway. Many of the individual components of both canonical and noncanonical Wnt signaling have additional functions throughout the body, establishing the complex interplay between Wnt signaling and other signaling pathways.

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Background: Excessive hepatic glycogen accumulation benefits tumorigenesis and cancer cell survival. We previously reported that BMP4 has the strongest ability to promote glycogenesis among the 14 BMPs in hepatocytes and augmented hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell survival under hypoxia and hypoglycemia conditions by promoting the glycolysis pathway. However, the mechanism underlying BMP4's effect on glycogenesis in HCC remains elusive.

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Article Synopsis
  • * LncRNAs, such as a specific one referred to as 9, play significant regulatory roles in various biological processes like embryogenesis and cancer progression, functioning through mechanisms like acting as competing endogenous RNAs (CeRNAs) and interacting with other RNA molecules.
  • * This text summarizes current knowledge on the regulatory roles of lncRNA 9 in several areas, including development and disease, while suggesting that further research is needed to fully understand its
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Ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the most lethal malignancies of the female reproductive system. OC patients are usually diagnosed at advanced stages due to the lack of early diagnosis. The standard treatment for OC includes a combination of debulking surgery and platinum-taxane chemotherapy, while several targeted therapies have recently been approved for maintenance treatment.

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Ochratoxin A (OTA), a notorious pollutant widely present worldwide, seriously pollutes aquafeeds. This paper aims to explore the toxicity effects of OTA by the way of diet on the skin barrier in grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella). Results were shown as follows in the skin: (1) OTA increased the mRNA abundances of uptake transporter proteins (e.

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Glycogen storage disease type I (GSDI) is an inherited metabolic disorder characterized by a deficiency of enzymes or proteins involved in glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis, resulting in excessive intracellular glycogen accumulation. While GSDI is classified into four different subtypes based on molecular genetic variants, GSDIa accounts for approximately 80%. GSDIa and GSDIb are autosomal recessive disorders caused by deficiencies in glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase-α) and glucose-6-phosphate-transporter (G6PT), respectively.

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Effective and safe liver-directed gene therapy has great promise in treating a broad range of liver diseases. While adenoviral (Ad) vectors have been widely used for efficacious in vivo gene delivery, their translational utilities are severely limited due to the short duration of transgene expression and solicitation of host immune response. Used as a promising polymeric vehicle for drug release and nucleic acid delivery, carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) is biocompatible, biodegradable, anti-microbial, inexpensive, and easy accessible.

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Cutaneous melanoma is a common cancer and cases have steadily increased since the mid 70s. For some patients, early diagnosis and surgical removal of melanomas is lifesaving, while other patients typically turn to molecular targeted therapies and immunotherapies as treatment options. Easy sampling of melanomas allows the scientific community to identify the most prevalent mutations that initiate melanoma such as the BRAF, NRAS, and TERT genes, some of which can be therapeutically targeted.

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Background: A healthy alveolar epithelium is critical to the gas exchange function of the lungs. As the major cell type of alveolar epithelium, alveolar type 2 (AT2) cells play a critical role in maintaining pulmonary homeostasis by serving as alveolar progenitors during lung injury, inflammation, and repair. Dysregulation of AT2 cells may lead to the development of acute and chronic lung diseases and cancer.

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