Current situation and prospects of the studies of ecological industries and ecological products in eco-fragile areas.

The current industrial structure of eco-fragile areas fails to reverse the trend of the deterioration of the ecological environment and severely affects the sustainable development of eco-fragile areas, so conducting scientific and technological studies of ecological industries and ecological products helps eco-fragile areas recover their degraded ecosystem. The results of a statistical analysis of 159 related documents show: (1) the number of documents published rises wave upon wave in time series, which indicates that this area of study is still at the stage of rising; (2) research contents concentrate on five dimensions-theoretical research, technology research and development, model building, demonstration and promotion, and efficiency analysis, among which theoretical research chiefly discusses environmental costs and effects of ecological industries, regional organizational layout, industrial chain construction, market supply and demand of biological products, discrimination of the nature of biological products, and value assessment and realization of biological products; (3) study areas are largely distributed in the Loess Plateau area in the north and karst areas in the south in China, which suggests that studies of biological industries and biological products in eco-fragile areas concentrate on arid and semi-arid areas and engineered arid areas. Furthermore, from five aspects-theoretical study, technology research and development, model building, experiment and demonstration, and monitoring and evaluation, this study reveals cutting-edge theories about ecological industries and ecological products in eco-fragile areas.

Brain natriuretic peptide mitigates TIMP2 induction and reinstates extracellular matrix catabolic activity GSK3β inhibition in glomerular podocytes exposed to a profibrogenic milieu.

Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) has a demonstrable anti-fibrotic effect on diverse organ systems, including the kidney. To understand the molecular mechanism underlying this renoprotective effect, the efficacy of BNP was examined in an model of glomerular sclerosis by exposing glomerular podocytes to transforming growth factor (TGF)β1-containing media that recapitulates the profibrogenic milieu in chronic glomerular disease. BNP mitigates extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation in TGFβ1-treated podocytes, as evidenced by Sirius red assay and staining, concomitant with a restoration of the ECM catabolizing activity, as assessed by pulse chase analysis.

Effect of combination of vitamin E and umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells on inflammation in mice with acute kidney injury.

Background: The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of combination of umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cell (UC-MSC) and vitamin E (VitE) on inflammation in mice with acute kidney injury (AKI).

Methods: UC-MSCs were isolated from pregnant wistar mice and cultured. A total of 90 female wistar mice were randomly divided into control group, AKI group, AKI + VitE group, AKI + UC-MSC group, and AKI + VitE + UC-MSC group (18 mice in each group) which were given no treatment, normal saline, VitE, UC-MSC, and VitE + UC-MSC, respectively.