Background: Periodontitis, a persistent inflammatory condition, significantly impairs individuals' overall quality of life. Lymphocyte-to-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (LHR), monocyte-to-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (MHR), neutrophil-to-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (NHR), and platelet-to-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (PHR) are new convenient and economical biomarkers. However, whether the above high-density lipoprotein-related inflammatory biomarkers are associated with periodontitis has rarely been investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF() is a key pathogen of periodontitis. Increasing evidence shows that signals to mitochondria in periodontal cells, including gingival epithelial cells, gingival fibroblast cells, immune cells, etc. Mitochondrial dysfunction affects the cellular state and participates in periodontal inflammatory response through the aberrant release of mitochondrial contents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe demonstrate a thermoreflectance-based thermometry technique with an ultimate temperature resolution of 60 µK in a 2.6 mHz bandwidth. This temperature resolution was achieved using a 532 nm-wavelength probe laser and a ∼1 µm-thick silicon transducer film with a thermoreflectance coefficient of -4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith the increasing incidence of oral cancer in the world, it has become a hotspot to explore the pathogenesis and prevention of oral cancer. It has been proved there is a strong link between periodontal pathogens and oral cancer. However, the specific molecular and cellular pathogenic mechanisms remain to be further elucidated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPu-erh tea is believed to be a beneficial beverage for health due to its many kinds of pharmacological effects. Nevertheless, detailed information related to differences in metabolites of Pu-erh raw tea from different geographical origins remains scarce. In this study, 43 elements were found in water-soluble components of Pu-erh raw tea by highly sensitive ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (U-HPLC/Q-TOF-MS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe MEN1 gene, a tumor suppressor gene that encodes the protein menin, is mutated at high frequencies in neuroendocrine (NE) tumors; however, the biological importance of this gene in NE-type lung cancer in vivo remains unclear. Here, we established an ATII-specific Kras/Men1 driven genetically engineered mouse model and show that deficiency of menin results in the accumulation of DNA damage and antagonizes oncogenic Kras-induced senescence and the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition during lung tumorigenesis. The loss of menin expression in certain human primary lung cancers correlates with elevated NE profiles and reduced overall survival.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral brain tumors is closely related to the disorder of chromatin histone modification, whereas the epigenetic mechanisms of the incidence of highly malignant adult glioma is not yet deeply studied. Deletion or mutation of the MEN1 gene, which encodes the epigenetic regulator menin, specifically induces poorly differentiated neuroendocrine tumors; however, the biological and clinical importance of MEN1 in the nervous system remains poorly understood. Menin expression was robustly activated in 44.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochim Biophys Acta Gene Regul Mech
February 2018
The expression of insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2), a classical imprinting gene, didn't completely correlate with its imprinting profiles in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The mechanistic importance of promoter activity in regulation of IGF2 has not been fully clarified. Here we show that histone 3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) modified by menin-MLL complex of IGF2 promoter contributes to promoter activity of IGF2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSubset heterogeneity of the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS) is controlled by defined transcriptional networks and programs; however, the dynamic establishment of programs that control broad, orchestrated expression of transcription factors (TFs) during the progression of monocyte-into-phagocyte (MP) differentiation remains largely unexplored. By using chromatin immunoprecipitation assays, we show the extensive trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4me3) as well as histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3) occupancy with broad footprints at the promoters of MP differentiation-related TFs, such as HOXA and FOXO genes, KLF4, IRF8 and others. The rapid repression of HOXA genes was closely associated with the MP differentiation program.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiarylheptanoid A, 5-hydroxy-7-(4'-hydroxy-3'-methoxyphenyl)-1-phenyl-3-heptanone, is a naturally occurring phytochemical ingredient isolated from the rhizome of Alpinia officinarum. In order to confirm the anti-inflammatory activity of diphenylheptane A, we investigated its effects on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced pro-inflammatory mediators, such as nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), as well as upstream genes, including the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) p65, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2). Our results have proved the anti-inflammatory property of diphenylheptane A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most lethal brain tumors with a short survival time. EGFR amplification and mutation is the most significant genetic signature in GBM. About half of the GBMs with EGFR amplification express a constitutively autophosphorylated variant of EGFR, known as EGFRvIII.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Alterations of polycomb group (PcG) genes directly modulate the trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3) and may thus affect the epigenome of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which is crucial for controlling the HCC cell phenotype. However, the extent of downstream regulation by PcGs in HCC is not well defined. Using cDNA microarray analysis, we found that the target gene network of PcGs contains well-established genes, such as cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors (CDKN2A), and genes that were previously undescribed for their regulation by PcG, including E2F1, NOTCH2, and TP53.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: As a commonly mutated form of the epidermal growth factor receptor, EGFRvIII strongly promotes glioblastoma (GBM) tumor invasion and progression, but the mechanisms underlying this promotion are not fully understood.
Methods: Through gene manipulation, we established EGFRvIII-, wild-type EGFR-, and vector-expressing GBM cells. We used cDNA microarrays, bioinformatics analysis, target-blocking migration and invasion assays, Western blotting, and an orthotopic U87MG GBM model to examine the phenotypic shifts and treatment effects of EGFRvIII expression in vitro and in vivo.
Background & Aims: The alterations of histone modification may serve as a promising diagnostic biomarker of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the clinical and mechanistic relatedness of the histone H3 lysine 27 and 4 trimethylation (H3K27me3 and H3K4me3) in HCC remains poorly understood. Here we propose that the combination of H3K27me3 and H3K4me3 is a more precise predictive/prognostic value for outcome of HCC patients.
Methods: We used chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays and a ChIP-on-chip screen to analyse HCC.
The identification of human cancer-related microRNAs (miRNAs) is important for cancer biology research. Although several identification methods have achieved remarkable success, they have overlooked the functional information associated with miRNAs. We present a computational framework that can be used to prioritize human cancer miRNAs by measuring the association between cancer and miRNAs based on the functional consistency score (FCS) of the miRNA target genes and the cancer-related genes.
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