Publications by authors named "Xiuli Mao"

Background: Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play a pivotal role in shaping the microenvironment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the mechanisms through which CAFs influence the progression of HCC remain incompletely understood.

Methods: Single-cell RNA sequencing datasets (GSE158723 and GSE112271) were retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and analyzed using R software.

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The infiltration and deposition of cholesterol in the arterial wall play an important role in the initiation and development of atherosclerosis. Smooth muscle cells (SMCs) are the major cell type in the intima. Upon exposure to cholesterol, SMCs may undergo a phenotype switching into foam cells.

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Article Synopsis
  • Antioxidant proteins are crucial for various organisms and are linked to anti-aging and disease prevention, but traditional methods to identify them are costly and slow.
  • A new predictor called ANOX was developed to improve the identification process by extracting multiple features and optimizing them using the Max-Relevance-Max-Distance (MRMD) algorithm.
  • ANOX outperformed existing methods in predicting antioxidant proteins, achieving higher accuracy in tests, with significant improvements in performance metrics compared to the previously established predictor, AOPs-SVM.
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As one of the most important post-transcriptional modifications, the N7-methylguanosine (m7G) plays a key role in many RNA processing events. The accurate identification of m7G is crucial for elucidating its biological significance and future application in the medical field. In this study, a machine learning-based model was developed for the prediction of internal m7G sites, and five different feature extraction methods (Pseudo dinucleotide composition, Pseudo k-tuple composition, K monomeric units, Ksnpf frequency, and Nucleotide chemical property) were used in the feature extraction.

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Vascular inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis and the development of cardiovascular diseases such as arteriosclerosis and restenosis, and the dysfunction of endothelial cells (ECs) may result in the activation of monocytes and other inflammatory cells. ECs exhibit an elongated morphology in the straight part of arteries but a cobblestone shape near the pro-atherogenic region such as branch bifurcation. Although the effects of hemodynamic forces on ECs have been widely studied, it is not clear whether the EC morphology affects its own function and thus the inflammatory response of monocytes.

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Background: Cadmium (Cd) is a ubiquitous environmental toxicant for aquatic animals. The freshwater crab, (), is a useful model for monitoring Cd exposure since it is widely distributed in sediments whereby it tends to accumulate several toxicants, including Cd. In the recent years, the toxic effects of Cd in the hepatopancreas of have been demonstrated by a series of biochemical analysis and ultrastructural observations as well as the deep sequencing approaches and gene expression profile analysis.

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Sensory trigeminal growth cones innervate the cornea in a coordinated fashion during embryonic development. Polysialic acid (polySia) is known for its important roles during nerve development and regeneration. The purpose of this work is to determine whether polySia, present in developing eyefronts and on the surface of sensory nerves, may provide guidance cues to nerves during corneal innervation.

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Purpose: Extracellular matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are thought to play a crucial role in corneal degradation associated with the pathological progression of keratoconus. Currently, corneal cross-linking by riboflavin and ultraviolet A (RFUVA) has received significant attention for treatment of keratoconus. However, the extent to which MMPs digest cross-linked collagen and small leucine-rich proteoglycans (SLRPs) remains unknown.

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Purpose: To assay for expression and localization of neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and polysialic acid (polySia) in the chick cornea during embryonic and postnatal development.

Methods: Real time quantitative PCR and Western blot analyses were used to determine NCAM expression and polysiaylation in embryonic, hatchling, and adult chick corneas. Immunofluorescence staining for NCAM and polySia was conducted on cryosections of embryonic and adult corneas, whole embryonic corneas, and trigeminal neurons.

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A glass microfluidic device is presented in which a microchannel is split into two regions with different electric fields by a nanochannel intermediate electrode junction formed by dielectric breakdown. The objective is to sink current through the nanochannel junction without sample loss or broadening of the band as it passes the junction. This type of performance is desired in many microfluidic applications, including the coupling of microchannel/CE with ESI-MS, electrochemical detection, and electric field gradient focusing.

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We have developed a novel system for coupling reverse-phase (RP) and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) online in a micro-flow scheme. In this approach, the inherent solvent incompatibility between RP and HILIC is overcome through the use of constant-pressure online solvent mixing, which allows our system to perform efficient separations of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds for mass spectrometry-based proteomics applications. When analyzing the tryptic digests of bovine serum albumin, ribonuclease B, and horseradish peroxidase, we observed near-identical coverage of peptides and glycopeptides when using online RP-HILIC--with only a single sample injection event--as we did from two separate RP and HILIC analyses.

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Background: It is widely recognised that take of grafts is strongly influenced by tissue viability. Although porcine skin is currently the most widely used xenograft, the viability change of pigskin in vitro has not been extensively studied. The purpose of this study was to assess the change of the viability of Bama miniature pigskin after harvest and cryopreservation, and to set up a guideline for pigskin preservation and storage that would allow the skin to retain the highest viability after treatment and still be used in the clinical applications.

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Background: We sought to establish a transgenic animal line skin-specifically overexpressing cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4-immunoglobulin (CTLA4Ig) as a reproducible source of xenogeneic skin grafts with extended survival for wound coverage. We tested this strategy in mice based on a previously established transgenic mouse line that stably and skin-specifically expresses CTLA4Ig for lifetimes and generations.

Methods: CTLA4Ig expression was examined by immunohistochemical assay, and its bio-activity was tested by mixed lymphocyte reaction.

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Microchip was coupled with MS through a stable, sensitive, and controllable sheath-flow nanoelectrospray (nES) interface for glycoprotein and glycopeptide analysis. The nano-ESI (nESI) was made with a delivery capillary, a commercial nES capillary, and a stainless steel (SS) tube which were connected together through a tee unit. High voltage for nES was applied on the SS tube and the commercial nES capillary was used as nES emitter.

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Lectin affinity chromatography was miniaturized into a microfluidic format, which results in improvement of performance, as compared to the conventional method. A lectin affinity monolith column was prepared in the microchannel of a microfluidic chip. The porous monolith was fabricated by UV-initiated polymerization of ethylene dimethacrylate (EDMA) and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) in the presence of porogeneities, followed by immobilization of pisum sativum agglutinin (PSA) on the monolith matrix.

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The polypeptide and carbohydrate patterns of two glycoproteins, chicken ovalbumin (CO) and turkey ovalbumin (TO), were analyzed by microchip electrophoresis (ME), following digestion with proteases and exoglycosidases. Glycopeptides derived from ovalbumin were obtained by digestion with Pronase, followed by dialysis, and then separated by ME. Using CO as model, the method was developed to deduce the structure of glycans from glycoproteins by comparing the electropherograms of glycopeptides with and without digestion of exolycosidases.

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Article Synopsis
  • UV labeling detection usually focuses on labeled carbohydrates, but this study introduces a new method to directly detect underivatized saccharides interacting with lectins, specifically glucose and its derivatives.
  • A capillary zone electrophoretic method, using a silica capillary and specific buffer conditions, successfully separates underivatized sugars like glucose and glucosamine within 11 minutes under applied voltage.
  • This method features on-column UV monitoring for detecting and quantifying these sugars at low concentrations, highlighting its simplicity, speed, and reproducibility for analyzing saccharide and lectin interactions.
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