Highly efficient synergistic activity of an α-L-arabinofuranosidase for degradation of arabinoxylan in barley/wheat.

Here, an α-L-arabinofuranosidase (termed TtAbf62) from is described, which efficiently removes arabinofuranosyl side chains and facilitates arabinoxylan digestion. The specific activity of TtAbf62 (179.07 U/mg) toward wheat arabinoxylan was the highest among all characterized glycoside hydrolase family 62 enzymes.

Neutralizing serum amyloid a protects against sinusoidal endothelial cell damage and platelet aggregation during acetaminophen-induced liver injury.

Serum amyloid A (SAA) is an acute response protein that mainly produced by hepatocytes, and it can promote endothelial dysfunction via a pro-inflammatory and pro-thrombotic effect in atherosclerosis and renal disease. Overdose of Acetaminophen (APAP) will cause hepatotoxicity accompany with hepatocyte necrosis, liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) damage and thrombosis in liver. However, whether SAA plays a role in APAP-induced liver toxicity remains unclear.

SAA1/TLR2 axis directs chemotactic migration of hepatic stellate cells responding to injury.

Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are crucial for liver injury repair and cirrhosis. However, the mechanism of chemotactic recruitment of HSCs into injury loci is still largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that serum amyloid A1 (SAA1) acts as a chemokine recruiting HSCs toward injury loci signaling via TLR2, a finding proven by gene manipulation studies in cell and mice models.

Generation of WAe001-A-58 human embryonic stem cell line with inducible expression of the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein.

Excessive prostaglandin E (PGE) is the key pathological basis for COVID-19 and a Celebrex treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with comorbidities led to 100% discharged rate and zero death (Hong et al. 2020). It is also suggested that SARS-CoV-2 infected multiple organs and the SARS-CoV nucleocapsid (N) protein transcriptionally drives the expression of the host COX-2 gene.

Robust expansion and functional maturation of human hepatoblasts by chemical strategy.

Background: Chemically strategies to generate hepatic cells from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) for the potential clinical application have been improved. However, producing high quality and large quantities of hepatic cells remain challenging, especially in terms of step-wise efficacy and cost-effective production requires more improvements.

Methods: Here, we systematically evaluated chemical compounds for hepatoblast (HB) expansion and maturation to establish a robust, cost-effective, and reproducible methodology for self-renewal HBs and functional hepatocyte-like cell (HLC) production.

Icaritin ameliorates hepatic steatosis via promoting fatty acid β-oxidation and insulin sensitivity.

Aim: This study aimed to reveal the effects of icaritin (ICT) on lipotoxicity induced by palmitate (PA) in hepatic cells and steatosis in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice as well as exploring the potential mechanisms.

Main Methods: Primary mouse hepatocytes and human hepatoma Huh7 cells were used to evaluate ICT effect in vitro. HFD-fed mice were used to evaluate the ICT effect in vivo.

Celebrex Adjuvant Therapy on Coronavirus Disease 2019: An Experimental Study.

The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) resulted in grave morbidity and mortality worldwide. There is currently no effective drug to cure COVID-19. Based on analyses of available data, we deduced that excessive prostaglandin E (PGE) produced by cyclooxygenase-2 was a key pathological event of COVID-19.

Ascorbate protects liver from metabolic disorder through inhibition of lipogenesis and suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3).

Background: Fatty liver is a reversible status, but also an origin stage to develop to other metabolic syndromes, such as diabetes and heart disease that threatens public health worldwide. Ascorbate deficiency is reported to be correlated with increasing risks for metabolic syndromes, but whether ascorbate has a therapeutic effect is unknown. Here, we investigated if ascorbate treatment alone could work on protecting from the development of steatosis and mechanisms beyond.

Generation of a SMO homozygous knockout human embryonic stem cell line WAe001-A-16 by CRISPR/Cas9 editing.

The human SMO protein encoded by the smoothened (SMO) gene acts as a positive mediator for Hedgehog signaling. This pathway regulates many cellular activities, developmental morphogenesis, and tumorigenesis. Using CRISPR/Cas9 to edit human embryonic stem cell line WA01 (H1), we established a SMO mutant cell line (WAe001-A-16).