Publications by authors named "Xiao-jiang Yu"

Objective: Phenotypic switching of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) plays a critical role in atherosclerosis, vascular restenosis, and hypertension. Choline exerts cardioprotective effects; however, little is known about its effects on VSMC phenotypic switching and vascular remodeling. Here, we investigated whether choline modulates VSMC phenotypic changes and explored the underlying mechanisms.

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  • Mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to heart changes caused by obesity, where cristae (the inner folds of mitochondria) play a key role in cell energy production.
  • The study found that palmitate caused alterations in the structure of cristae in heart cells from neonatal rats, leading to increased cell size and damaged mitochondrial function.
  • Acetylcholine (ACh) was shown to protect against these changes by enhancing mitofilin levels and activating AMPK, which helps maintain mitochondrial integrity and prevents heart cell enlargement caused by palmitate.
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  • * A study showed that diabetic mice experienced greater heart damage when exposed to isoproterenol, a drug that simulates stress, highlighting their vulnerability compared to normal mice.
  • * Pyridostigmine was found to enhance vagal activity and positively influence glucose transporter and enzyme expression, potentially protecting against heart damage in diabetic mice by targeting specific cellular pathways.
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Obesity is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, which can lead to a variety of cardiovascular diseases including myocardial remodeling. Obesity may induce myocardial dysfunction by affecting hemodynamics, inducing autonomic imbalance, adipose tissue dysfunction, and mitochondrial dyshomeostasis. The key necessary biochemical functions for metabolic homeostasis are performed in mitochondria, and mitochondrial homeostasis is considered as one of the key determinants for cell viability.

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Aims: Obesity is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. It is accompanied by augmented O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) modification of proteins via increasing hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP) flux. However, the changes and regulation of the O-GlcNAc levels induced by obesity are unclear.

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  • Insulin resistance and autonomic imbalance contribute to cardiac remodeling in metabolic syndrome, leading to issues like impaired insulin signaling and lipid metabolism.
  • A study found that a high-fat diet causes irregular mitochondrial cristae structure in the heart, decreasing ATP production and increasing oxidative stress, which worsens cardiac function.
  • Pyridostigmine (PYR) improves autonomic balance and mitochondrial health by enhancing vagal activity, improving mitochondrial cristae shape, and ultimately protecting against cardiac dysfunction and insulin resistance caused by a high-fat diet.
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Aims: Cardiac hypertrophy is characterized by a shift in metabolic substrate utilization, but the molecular events underlying the metabolic remodelling remain poorly understood. We explored metabolic remodelling and mitochondrial dysfunction in cardiac hypertrophy and investigated the cardioprotective effects of choline.

Methods And Results: The experiments were conducted using a model of ventricular hypertrophy by partially banding the abdominal aorta of Sprague Dawley rats.

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Along with an unexpected conducting interface between nonmagnetic insulating perovskites LaAlO and SrTiO (LaAlO/SrTiO), striking interfacial magnetisms have been observed in LaAlO/SrTiO heterostructures. Interestingly, the strength of the interfacial magnetic moment is found to be dependent on oxygen partial pressures during the growth process. This raises an important, fundamental question on the origin of these remarkable interfacial magnetic orderings.

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  • - Obesity leads to cardiovascular issues due to a shift in autonomic balance, marked by increased sympathetic activity and decreased vagal activity, which is crucial for heart function and weight management.
  • - This study tested the drug pyridostigmine on rats consuming a high-fat diet, revealing that it helps restore vagal function, reduces lipid buildup in the heart, and improves cardiac health.
  • - Pyridostigmine also promotes the browning of white adipose tissue and activates brown fat through the SIRT-1/AMPK/PGC-1α pathway, highlighting its potential benefits in obesity-related cardiac dysfunction.
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  • Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is a serious cardiovascular condition where mitochondria play a critical role in managing cell energy and signaling.
  • Mitochondrial health is maintained through processes like fission, fusion, and mitophagy, which are essential for proper cardiac function.
  • The review explores how disruptions in these mitochondrial processes are linked to ischemic heart conditions and discusses the potential protective effects of the vagal nerve on mitochondrial function.
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  • * A study investigated the effect of the α7nAChR agonist PNU282987 on isoproterenol-induced cardiac remodelling in mice, measuring cardiomyocyte size, fibrosis, and cardiac function.
  • * Results showed that PNU282987 reduced signs of cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis by inhibiting specific proteins involved in the TGF-β1/Smad3 pathway, suggesting it could be a potential treatment for various cardiovascular diseases.
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  • The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) forms important junctions with the plasma membrane (PM) that are crucial for calcium signaling during various cellular processes, such as bioenergetics, apoptosis, and autophagy.
  • This study investigates the effects of acetylcholine on the NCX1-TRPC3-IP3R1 complex, which helps regulate calcium levels during inflammatory injury, and finds that acetylcholine can inhibit the formation of this complex and maintain calcium homeostasis.
  • The research reveals that the beneficial effects of acetylcholine in protecting endothelial cells from injury related to TNF-α are mediated through the muscarinic 3 receptor/AMPK pathway, suggesting its potential as a therapeutic agent against calcium
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Cardiac hypertrophy is associated with autonomic imbalance, characterized by enhanced sympathetic activity and withdrawal of parasympathetic control. Increased parasympathetic function improves ventricular performance. However, whether pyridostigmine, a reversible acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, can offset cardiac hypertrophy induced by pressure overload remains unclear.

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Calcium overload is one of the important mechanisms of cardiovascular disease. Endoplasmic reticulum is an important organelle which regulates intracellular calcium homeostasis by uptake, storage and mobilization of calcium. So it plays a critical role in regulation of intracellular calcium homeostasis.

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  • - This study investigates how vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) protects against heart damage caused by isoproterenol (ISO) in rats by focusing on mitochondrial dynamics—specifically fission and fusion processes.
  • - Isoproterenol caused increased levels of proteins leading to mitochondrial fission and decreased fusion proteins, resulting in disrupted mitochondrial function and cardiac injury, while VNS restored balance and improved mitochondrial health.
  • - The protective effects of VNS were linked to the activation of a specific signaling pathway (M3 receptor/CaMKKβ/AMPK), suggesting that targeting mitochondrial dynamics could offer a new treatment approach for ischemic heart disease (IHD).
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Hypertension, which can cause a variety of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications, is a serious threat to human health. Currently, it is found that hypertension is related to immunoregulatory abnormality, which could lead to chronic inflammation. Then the chronic inflammation may impair vascular endothelial function and activate renin-angiotensin system, which cause vascular remodeling, angiosclerosis, dysfunctional vasoconstriction and vasodilatation, and exacerbate hypertension.

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Cardiac remodeling is characterized by overactivity of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and withdrawal of vagal activity. We hypothesized that improving vagal activity could attenuate cardiac fibrosis induced by angiotensin II (Ang II) in vivo and in vitro. Rats were subjected to abdominal aorta constriction (AAC) with or without pyridostigmine (PYR) (31 mg/kg/d).

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Acetylcholine (ACh) protected against cardiac injury via promoting autophagy and mitochondrial biogenesis, however, the involvement of mitophagy in ACh-elicited cardioprotection remains unknown. In the present study, H9c2 cardiomyocytes were subjected to hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) and ACh treatment during reoxygenation. Mitophagy markers PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1) and Parkin translocation were examined using western blot and confocal fluorescence microscopy.

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Background: Excessive activation of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) has been found in several inflammatory diseases. Previous studies have shown that acetylcholine (ACh) reduced the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and decreased tissue damage. Therefore, this study was designed to explore the potential effects and mechanisms of ACh on MMP-9 production and cell migration in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation in RAW264.

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Objective: We explored the role of endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-mitochondria Ca(2+) cross talk involving voltage-dependent anion channel-1 (VDAC1)/glucose-regulated protein 75/inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor 1 complex and mitofusin 2 in endothelial cells during hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R), and investigated the protective effects of acetylcholine.

Approach And Results: Acetylcholine treatment during reoxygenation prevented intracellular and mitochondrial Ca(2+) increases and alleviated ER Ca(2+) depletion during H/R in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Consequently, acetylcholine enhanced mitochondrial membrane potential and inhibited proapoptotic cascades, thereby reducing cell death and preserving endothelial ultrastructure.

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Background And Purpose: The activation of M3 cholinoceptors (M3 receptors) by choline reduces cardiovascular risk, but it is unclear whether these receptors can regulate ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R)-induced vascular injury. Thus, the primary goal of the present study was to explore the effects of choline on the function of mesenteric arteries following I/R, with a major focus on Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) regulation.

Experimental Approach: Rats were given choline (10 mg · kg(-1), i.

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The Ca(2+)-sensing receptor (CaSR) plays an important role in regulating vascular tone. In the present study, we investigated the positive effects of the vagal neurotransmitter acetylcholine by suppressing CaSR activation in mesenteric arteries exposed to hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R). The artery rings were exposed to a modified 'ischemia mimetic' solution and an anaerobic environment to simulate an H/R model.

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Background/aims: Acetylcholine (ACh) is known to modulate the cardiac redox environment and thereby suppress reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation during oxidative stress. However, there is little information about its regulation on ROS clearance. Here we investigate the beneficial effects of ACh on superoxide dismutase (SOD) as key ROS-detoxifying enzyme system in cultured rat cardiomyoblasts.

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Previous findings have shown that acetylcholine (ACh) decreased hypoxia-induced tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF α) production, thus protected against cardiomyocyte injury. However, whether and how ACh affects TNF α-induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and cell apoptosis remain poorly defined. This study was aimed at determining the effect of ACh in H9c2 cells after TNF α stimulation.

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Autonomic imbalance characterized by sympathetic predominance coinciding with diminished vagal activity is an independent risk factor in cardiovascular diseases. Several studies show that vagus nerve stimulation exerted beneficial effects on cardiac function and survival. In this study, we investigated the vagomimetic effect of pyridostigmine on left ventricular (LV) remodeling in rats after myocardial infarction.

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