Prognostic Value of Platelet-to-Monocyte Ratio for Mortality in HBV-Related Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure.

Purpose: Hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) is a critical condition associated with unfavorable survival rates. Recent studies have indicated that the platelet-to-monocyte ratio (PMR) is considered an effective prognostic marker in several diseases. However, there has been no study to evaluate the prognostic value of PMR in HBV-ACLF patients.

AtERF13 and AtERF6 double knockout fine-tunes growth and the transcriptome to promote cadmium tolerance in Arabidopsis.

The toxic heavy metal cadmium (Cd) restricts plant growth. However, how plants fine-tune their growth to modulate Cd resistance has not been determined. Ethylene response factors (ERFs) are key regulators of Cd stress, and Arabidopsis thaliana ERF13 and ERF6 (AtERF13 and AtERF6) negatively regulate growth.

Tryptophan pretreatment adjusts transcriptome and metabolome profiles to alleviate cadmium toxicity in Arabidopsis.

Cadmium (Cd) is highly toxic to all organisms including plants, and recently tryptophan (Trp) pretreatment of plant seedlings is shown to improve Cd tolerance. But the underlying mechanism remains largely unknown. In this study, we used Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) to determine the physiological relevance of Trp pretreatment in alleviating Cd toxicity in plants and explore its molecular mechanism with a focus on the metabolic pathways.

Metal-responsive elements confer cadmium response in Arabidopsis.

Molecular, biochemical, and genetic experiments demonstrate that metal-responsive elements (MREs), initially identified in animals, confer the cadmium transcriptional response in Arabidopsis, thus providing deep functional insights of MREs in plants. Cadmium (Cd) is highly toxic to all organisms including plants. Cd-responsive gene transcription is a fundamental aspect of the Cd response, in which Cd stress regulatory cis-acting elements are essential.

High Transverse Thermoelectric Performance and Interfacial Stability of Co/BiSbTe Artificially Tilted Multilayer Thermoelectric Devices.

Artificially tilted multilayer thermoelectric devices (ATMTDs) have attracted extensive attention because of their numerous advantages, such as high integration, great structural freedom, and large transverse Seebeck coefficients. ATMTDs are composed of numerous alternating stackings of two types of materials with large differences in electrical and thermal transport. Therefore, it is of great interest to find ATMTDs with both high transverse thermoelectric performance and good interfacial stability to develop their practical application.

Peripheral Blood Cell Ratios as Prognostic Predictors of Mortality in Patients with Hepatitis B Virus-Related Decompensated Cirrhosis.

Background: We sought to determine the correlations between peripheral blood cell ratios (neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), mean platelet volume-to-lymphocyte ratio (MPVLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), platelet-to-neutrophil ratio (PNR), and platelet-to-white blood cell ratio (PWR)) and short-term prognosis in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated decompensated cirrhosis (HBV-DeCi).

Methods: A total of 144 HBV-DeCi patients were enrolled. Demographic characteristics and laboratory data for the patients were acquired from their medical records.

An AC-Rich Bean Element Serves as an Ethylene-Responsive Element in .

Ethylene-responsive elements (EREs), such as the GCC box, are critical for ethylene-regulated transcription in plants. Our previous work identified a 19-bp AC-rich element (ACE) in the promoter of bean () (). Ethylene response factor 15 (PvERF15) directly binds ACE to enhance expression.

Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte-to-Monocyte Ratio Predicts Mortality in Patients with HBV-Related Decompensated Cirrhosis.

Background: Recent reports suggest that the lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) is a potential biomarker for predicting clinical outcomes. In the present study, LMR in patients with hepatitis B virus-related decompensated cirrhosis (HBV-DeCi) was investigated to evaluate whether LMR may have utility as a new predictive marker for mortality in HBV-DeCi patients.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study that included 135 patients with HBV-DeCi.

TMD1 domain and CRAC motif determine the association and disassociation of MxIRT1 with detergent-resistant membranes.

Iron is essential for most living organisms. The iron-regulated transporter1 (IRT1) plays a major role in iron uptake in roots, and its trafficking from endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to plasma membrane (PM) is tightly coordinated with changes in iron environment. However, studies on the IRT1 response are limited.

Serum C-reactive protein predicts early mortality in hospitalized patients with HBV-related decompensated cirrhosis.

The serum C-reactive protein (CRP) is an inflammatory marker. The aim of the present study was to elucidate whether CRP could serve as a potential surrogate marker for 30-day mortality in hospitalized patients with HBV-related decompensated cirrhosis (HBV-DeCi).This was a retrospective cohort study that included 140 patients with HBV-DeCi.

Zea mays Fe deficiency-related 4 (ZmFDR4) functions as an iron transporter in the plastids of monocots.

Iron (Fe)-homeostasis in the plastids is closely associated with Fe transport proteins that prevent Fe from occurring in its toxic free ionic forms. However, the number of known protein families related to Fe transport in the plastids (about five) and the function of iron in non-green plastids is limited. In the present study, we report the functional characterization of Zea mays Fe deficiency-related 4 (ZmFDR4), which was isolated from a differentially expressed clone of a cDNA library of Fe deficiency-induced maize roots.

Transcription Factors PvERF15 and PvMTF-1 Form a Cadmium Stress Transcriptional Pathway.

In plants, cadmium (Cd)-responsive transcription factors are key downstream effectors of Cd stress transcriptional pathways, which are capable of converging Cd stress signals through triggering the expression of Cd detoxification genes. However, the upstream transcriptional regulatory pathways that modulate their responses to Cd are less clear. Previously, we identified the bean () METAL RESPONSE ELEMENT-BINDING TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR1 (PvMTF-1) that responds to Cd and confers Cd tolerance in planta.

Lymphocyte-monocyte ratio at admission predicts possible outcomes in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure.

Background: The lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR) in the peripheral blood is suggested to be a potential biomarker for predicting the clinical outcomes of several diseases. We aimed to evaluate the relative efficiency of LMR for predicting 3-month mortality in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (AoCLF).

Patients And Methods: In this study, 74 chronic hepatitis B patients, 90 AoCLF patients, and 70 healthy controls were followed up for 4 months.

CSN6, a subunit of the COP9 signalosome, is involved in early response to iron deficiency in Oryza sativa.

The COP9 signalosome (CSN) plays an important role in proteasome-mediated degradation by regulating CUL1 rubylation of the SCF ligase and is involved in many crucial biological processes. Here, we demonstrate a link between IDEF1 accumulation and the decline in COP9 derubylation activity in response to iron deficiency (-Fe) in rice (Oryza sativa). CSN6 expression is rapidly down-regulated during Fe depletion, contributing to reduced CSN activity, as judged by CSN5 and CUL1 expression, indicating CSN6 is involved in the early stage response of -Fe.

Intronic promoter-mediated feedback loop regulates bean PvSR2 gene expression.

Intronic promoter usage is a widespread regulatory mechanism for increasing the diversity of gene expression regulation. However, its trans-acting mechanisms that modulate host gene expression are poorly characterized. We previously showed that bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) stress-related gene 2 (PvSR2) produces a metal-responsive element (MRE)-binding transcription factor (PvMTF-1) by using an intronic promoter.

Bean metal-responsive element-binding transcription factor confers cadmium resistance in tobacco.

Cadmium (Cd) is highly toxic to plants. Modulation of Cd-responsive transcription is an important way for Cd detoxification in plants. Metal-responsive element (MRE) is originally described in animal metallothionein genes.

Splicing factor SR34b mutation reduces cadmium tolerance in Arabidopsis by regulating iron-regulated transporter 1 gene.

Serine/arginine-rich (SR) proteins are important splicing factors. However, the biological functions of plant SR proteins remain unclear especially in abiotic stresses. Cadmium (Cd) is a non-essential element that negatively affects plant growth and development.

An autoregulatory loop controlling Arabidopsis HsfA2 expression: role of heat shock-induced alternative splicing.

Heat shock transcription factorA2 (HsfA2) is a key regulator in response to heat stress in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), and its heat shock (HS)-induced transcription regulation has been extensively studied. Recently, alternative splicing, a critical posttranscriptional event, has been shown to regulate HS-inducible expression of HsfA2; however, the molecular mechanism remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate a new heat stress-induced splice variant, HsfA2-III, is involved in the self-regulation of HsfA2 transcription in Arabidopsis.

Zn stress-induced inhibition of bean PvSR2-GUS fusion gene splicing is gene-specific in transgenic tobacco.

The stress-related gene no. 2 of Phaseolus vulgaris (PvSR2) is metal inducible and contains a single intron. Here, we report that Zn stress inhibited the splicing of the PvSR2-beta-glucuronidase (GUS) fusion gene in a concentration- and time-dependent manner in tobacco seedlings.

An improved primer extension method for detection of mRNA start-points using non-radioactive digoxigenin-labeling primers.

An improved primer extension method using non-radioactive digoxigenin (DIG)-labeling primers is described which uses a commercially-available DIG-labeling and detection system to perform alternative hybridization-based "labeling" procedure of DNA markers and DIG chemiluminescent detection assay. The time-consuming annealing step and relatively low specificity of conventional protocol are also improved considerably by an application of one-step primer/mRNA annealing procedure and subsequent high-temperature reverse transcription reaction. This new protocol is convenient, simple, cost-effective and safe, and can allow the detection of even low abundance mRNA start-points in enriched poly(A)(+) RNA samples.

The bean PvSR2 gene produces two transcripts by alternative promoter usage.

The bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) stress-related gene number 2 (PvSR2) is heavy metal-inducible. Here, the intron of PvSR2 (I-PvSR) within the coding sequence was isolated and characterized. I-PvSR exhibited a weak and constitutive promoter activity and enhanced the PvSR2 promoter activity in transiently transformed tobacco protoplasts.

Characterization of a novel plant promoter specifically induced by heavy metal and identification of the promoter regions conferring heavy metal responsiveness.

The bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) stress-related gene number 2 (PvSR2) gene responds to heavy metals but not to other forms of environmental stresses. To elucidate its heavy metal-regulatory mechanism at the transcriptional level, we isolated and characterized the promoter region (-1623/+48) of PvSR2. Deletions from the 5' end revealed that a sequence between -222 and -147 relative to the transcriptional start site was sufficient for heavy metal-specific induction of the promoter region of PvSR2.

[A new method for EMSA by modifying DIG high prime DNA labeling and detection starter Kit II].

Gel retardation, also named electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), is a useful tool for identifying protein-DNA interactions. Typically, 32P-labeled DNA probes used in EMSA are sensitive. However, it relies on the handling of hazardous radioisotopes, and is not easily quantified.