Efficacy and safety of ambrisentan in Chinese patients with connective tissue disease-pulmonary arterial hypertension: a post-hoc analysis.

Background: The efficacy and safety of ambrisentan has been previously evaluated in Chinese patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). This post-hoc analysis assessed the efficacy and safety of ambrisentan in a subgroup of connective tissue disease (CTD) patients with PAH.

Methods: In this open-label, single-arm study, patients received ambrisentan 5 mg once daily for 12 weeks, followed by 12-week dose titration period (dose up to 10 mg).

[Establishment of Acquired Aplastic Anemia SD Rat Model].

Objective: To establish a stable and rapidly rat model acquired aplastic anemia.

Methods: The SD rats were exposed to Csγ-ray at 3.5 and 4.

Clinical features of Chinese patients in different age groups with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage based on multicenter inpatient information.

Background: Patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) have poor functional outcomes. This study investigated the status of hospitalized patients with ICH based on multicenter inpatient information.

Methods: We analyzed data from the hospital information systems (HISs) of 14 tertiary hospitals, including 6 Chinese medicine hospitals and 8 western hospitals from 7 provinces and 2 municipalities.

Evidence-based assessment on environmental mixture using a concentration-dependent transcriptomics approach.

Development of new approach methodologies is urgently needed to characterize the likelihood that complex mixtures of chemicals affect water quality. Omics advances in ecotoxicology allow assessment on a broadest coverage of disrupted biological pathway by mixtures. Here the usefulness of transcriptomic analyses for evaluation of combined effects and identification of main effect components are explored.

Multi-parameter characterization of atherosclerotic plaques based on optical coherence tomography, photoacoustic and viscoelasticity imaging.

Detection of atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability is the critical step in prevention of acute coronary events. Fibrous cap thickness, lipid core size, and inflammation extent are three key parameters for assessing plaque vulnerability. Here, we report on multimodality imaging of mice aortic plaques using a system that integrates optical coherence tomography (OCT), photoacoustic imaging (PAI), and photoacoustic viscoelasticity imaging (PAVEI).

Association of PTEN Gene SNPs rs2299939 With PFS in Patients With Small Cell Lung Cancer Treated With Early Radiotherapy.

Lung cancer has higher morbidity and mortality than most cancers. It is common that there are some phenomenons of secondary drug resistance, radiotherapy resistance and poor prognosis during the treatment of small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Recent studies revealed that the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are associated with the curative effect among patients with the same pathological type and stage.

Integrative Analysis for Elucidating Transcriptomics Landscapes of Glucocorticoid-Induced Osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is the most common bone metabolic disease, characterized by bone mass loss and bone microstructure changes due to unbalanced bone conversion, which increases bone fragility and fracture risk. Glucocorticoids are clinically used to treat a variety of diseases, including inflammation, cancer and autoimmune diseases. However, excess glucocorticoids can cause osteoporosis.

Overexpression of long noncoding RNA HOXA-AS2 predicts an adverse prognosis and promotes tumorigenesis via SOX4/PI3K/AKT pathway in acute myeloid leukemia.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in diverse cellular processes and carcinogenesis. Homeobox A cluster antisense RNA 2 (HOXA-AS2) is a 1,048-basepairs lncRNA located between human HOXA3 and HOXA4 genes, whose overactivation was previously found to promote the proliferation and invasion of solid tumors. However, its clinical and biological roles in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remain unclear.

Efficient removal of triclosan via peroxymonosulfate activated by a ppb level dosage of Co(II) in water: Reaction kinetics, mechanisms and detoxification.

Triclosan (TCS), an extensively used broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent, has raised significant environmental concerns regarding its widespread occurrence in waters. In this study, the removal of TCS in aqueous solution via peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activated by an extremely low-level Co (0.02 μM) was systematically investigated.

[Immunophenotypic Analysis of Patients with Adult Acute T-Lymphoblastic Leukemia].

Objective: To analyze the results of immunophenotyping in patients with acute T-lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) so as to improve the understanding of early T-cell precursor acute T-lymphoblastic leukemia (ETP-ALL) and near ETP-ALL with elevated CD5.

Methods: The results of immunophenotypes in 62 patients with newly diagnosed adult T-ALL in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed. According to the expression of CD5, CD1a, CD8 and My/S antigens, the patients were divided into 3 groups: ETP, near ETP and non-ETP.

A fast conformal predictive system with regularized extreme learning machine.

A conformal predictive system(CPS) is based on the learning framework of conformal prediction, which outputs cumulative distribution functions(CDFs) for labels in regression problems. The CDFs output by a CPS provide useful information for users, as they not only provide probability for the events related to the test labels, but also can be transformed to prediction intervals with the corresponding quantiles. Moreover, CPSs have the property of validity since the distributions and intervals they output have statistical compatibility with the realizations.

Induced pluripotent stem cells attenuate chronic allogeneic vasculopathy in an integrin beta-1-dependent manner.

This study aimed to determine the mechanism of isogeneic-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) homing to vascular transplants and their therapeutic effect on chronic allogeneic vasculopathy. We found that integrin β1 (Intgβ1) was the dominant integrin β unit in iPSCs that mediates the adhesion of circulatory and endothelial cells (ECs). Intgβ1 knockout or Intgβ1-siRNAs inhibit iPSC adhesion and migration across activated endothelial monolayers.

Comprehensive Analysis of the Genetic and Epigenetic Mechanisms of Osteoporosis and Bone Mineral Density.

Osteoporosis is a skeletal disorder characterized by a systemic impairment of bone mineral density (BMD). Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of susceptibility loci for osteoporosis and BMD. However, the vast majority of susceptibility loci are located in non-coding regions of the genome and provide limited information about the genetic mechanisms of osteoporosis.

Mechano growth factor pretreatment yield mechanical stimuli induced cell stress responses in ligament fibroblasts of osteoarthritis via activating ATF-2.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether mechanical growth factor (MGF) promotes mechanical response to ligament fibroblasts in osteoarthritis knee cavity via activating transcription factor 2 (ATF-2).

Results: Osteoarthritis ligament fibroblasts (OA-LFs) were suffered from 12% static mechanical stretch to mimic mechanical force mediated ligament injury. Meanwhile, OA-LFs were treated with MGF before and during mechanical stretch.

A self-designed CpG ODN enhanced the anti-melanoma effect of pimozide.

Melanomas represent the deadliest form of skin cancers. Due to the intricacy of tumorigenesis, it is emergent to find effective therapies for melanomas. Researches have proved that pimozide inhibits the growth of melanoma, but the limited curing effect needs to be further improved.

Influence of the slight adjustment of oxides on the structural and physico-chemical properties of thin film transistor-liquid crystal display substrate glass.

By the slight adjustment of oxides constituting thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) substrate glass, including equal mole fraction substitution of AlO, GeO, BO, PO and ZrO for SiO, as well as the substitution of CaO for SrO with the total contents unchanged, the structural and physico-chemical properties of the glass was investigated by Raman spectroscopy and other measurements. The results showed that the short-range disorder brought by the substitution of GeO, BO and PO for SiO could weaken the stability and compactness of the glass network, and the physico-chemical properties deteriorated, while the process of glass melting would become easier accordingly. The short-range disorder by the substitution of ZrO for SiO with 1% mole fraction showed a little difference with other samples.

Autophagy: An Intracellular Degradation Pathway Regulating Plant Survival and Stress Response.

Autophagy is an intracellular process that facilitates the bulk degradation of cytoplasmic materials by the vacuole or lysosome in eukaryotes. This conserved process is achieved through the coordination of different genes (). Autophagy is essential for recycling cytoplasmic material and eliminating damaged or dysfunctional cell constituents, such as proteins, aggregates or even entire organelles.

Comprehensive Analysis of Copy Number Variations in Kidney Cancer by Single-Cell Exome Sequencing.

Clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common and lethal subtype of kidney cancer. and are the top two significantly mutated genes in ccRCC specimens, while the genetic mechanism of the -negative ccRCC remains to be elucidated. Here we carried out a comprehensive analysis of single-cell genomic copy number variations (CNVs) in -negative ccRCC.

Effect of Fructus Mori. bioactive polysaccharide conjugation on improving functional and antioxidant activity of whey protein.

Whey protein with high biological and technological values is an excellent source of nutrition. However, the limited functional properties prevent its widespread applications in food industry. In this study, the whey protein functionality was improved via glycation with mulberry fruit polysaccharide by Maillard reaction.

New Insights Into the Role of Seed Oil Body Proteins in Metabolism and Plant Development.

Oil bodies (OBs) are ubiquitous dynamic organelles found in plant seeds. They have attracted increasing attention recently because of their important roles in plant physiology. First, the neutral lipids stored within these organelles serve as an initial, essential source of energy and carbon for seed germination and post-germinative growth of the seedlings.

miR-657 Promotes Macrophage Polarization toward M1 by Targeting FAM46C in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.

MicroRNA (miRNA) has been widely suggested to play a vital role of in the pathogenesis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). We have previously demonstrated that miR-657 can regulate macrophage inflammatory response in GDM. However, the role of miR-657 on M1/M2 macrophage polarization in GDM pathogenesis is not clear yet.

BIN1 rs744373 variant shows different association with Alzheimer's disease in Caucasian and Asian populations.

Background: The association between BIN1 rs744373 variant and Alzheimer's disease (AD) had been identified by genome-wide association studies (GWASs) as well as candidate gene studies in Caucasian populations. But in East Asian populations, both positive and negative results had been identified by association studies. Considering the smaller sample sizes of the studies in East Asian, we believe that the results did not have enough statistical power.

Concentration-dependent transcriptome of zebrafish embryo for environmental chemical assessment.

Mechanistic information is essential to screen and predict the adverse effects of a large number of chemicals during early-life exposure. Concentration-dependent omics can capture the extent of perturbations of biological pathways or processes and provide information on the mechanism of toxicity. However, the application of concentration-dependent transcriptome to assess the developmental toxicity of environmental chemicals is still limited.

Early Life Stage Bioactivity Assessment of Short-Chain Chlorinated Paraffins at Environmentally Relevant Concentrations by Concentration-Dependent Transcriptomic Analysis of Zebrafish Embryos.

Short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs), a class of ubiquitous pollutants, are considered to be embryotoxic and teratogenic. However, little is known regarding the bioactivity and mechanisms at environmentally relevant concentrations at the embryonic period. Here, a concentration-dependent reduced transcriptomic approach was used to evaluate the environmental dose (<100 ppb) effects of nine SCCP congeners and eight commercial mixtures on zebrafish embryos at 8 hpf.

Characterization of peanut-shell biochar and the mechanisms underlying its sorption for atrazine and nicosulfuron in aqueous solution.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the sorption of atrazine and nicosulfuron onto several experimentally produced biochars, as well as to understand the influence of biochar structure on sorption mechanisms. Nine biochars were generated by pyrolyzing peanut shell at 300, 450, or 600 °C and exposing samples to each of the several deashing treatments: none, water or HCl. The sorption of atrazine and nicosulfuron by the nine biochars were evaluated.