A mechanical refractory period of chondrocytes after dynamic hydrostatic pressure.

Purpose: Mechanical stimulation, a crucial factor for maintaining the cartilaginous phenotype and promoting the chondrogenesis, has been widely used in autologous chondrocyte transplantation. This study was designed to investigate a novel concept of mechanical refractory period of chondrocytes after dynamic hydrostatic pressure (dHP).

Materials And Methods: dHP protocols (0.

Evaluation of the impact of Polygonum capitatum, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, on rat hepatic cytochrome P450 enzymes by using a cocktail of probe drugs.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Polygonum capitatum is a well-known Miao medicinal plant that has been used for many years for its unique therapeutic effects on various urological disorders, including urinary calculus and urinary tract infections. To investigate the effect of Polygonum capitatum on cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoforms (CYP1A2, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2E1, and CYP3A4) in vivo using a "cocktail" approach by administering five probe drugs to rats. This study assessed the potential of Polygonum capitatum to interact with co-administered drugs.

Single-nucleotide polymorphism rs41736 located in MET was significantly associated with prognosis of small cell lung cancer patients.

MET has been suggested to have an intimate relationship with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and might be a promising therapeutic target. To date, relatively limited reports have been explored on MET mutational status in SCLC patients. To investigate the relationship between MET mutations and SCLC, 68 Chinese patients surgically treated for SCLC were enrolled.

Generation of isolated sub-10-attosecond pulses in spatially inhomogenous two-color fields.

We present a theoretical investigation of high-order harmonic generation in spatially inhomogeneous two-color laser fields by solving three dimensional time dependent Schrödinger equation. The cutoff in the harmonic spectra can be significantly extended by means of our proposed method (i.e.

Extrarenal nephroblastomatosis in children: a report of two cases.

Background: Extrarenal nephroblastomatosis is a rare entity which occurs in retroperitoneum and inguinal region predominantly. Here we report two cases of primary extrarenal nephroblastomatosis of Han Chinese in Asian in unusual locations, one is located in testis and paratestis, and the other is paraspinal cord.

Case Presentation: Patient 1 was a 19-month-old boy with a hard and nodular mass adherent to the left testis in inguinal region.

PDGF-BB secreted by preosteoclasts induces angiogenesis during coupling with osteogenesis.

Osteogenesis during bone modeling and remodeling is coupled with angiogenesis. A recent study showed that a specific vessel subtype, strongly positive for CD31 and endomucin (CD31(hi)Emcn(hi)), couples angiogenesis and osteogenesis. Here, we found that platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) secreted by preosteoclasts induces CD31(hi)Emcn(hi) vessel formation during bone modeling and remodeling.

[Absorption of extractive Polygonum orientale in rat everted gut sacs].

Using in vitro everted gut to investigate the intestinal absorption of the extracts from Polygonum orientale at different concentration. UPLC-MS/MS was used to detect the content of protocatechuic acid, isoorientin, orientin, vitexin, cynaroside, quercitrin, kaempferol-rhamnoside in different intestinal segments, then compared the results with the absorption of chemical components of extractive P. orientale in each intestinal segments, and calculated the absorption parameter.

PTH receptor signaling in osteoblasts regulates endochondral vascularization in maintenance of postnatal growth plate.

Longitudinal growth of postnatal bone requires precise control of growth plate cartilage chondrocytes and subsequent osteogenesis and bone formation. Little is known about the role of angiogenesis and bone remodeling in maintenance of cartilaginous growth plate. Parathyroid hormone (PTH) stimulates bone remodeling by activating PTH receptor (PTH1R).

Exome sequencing reveals mutation in GJA1 as a cause of keratoderma-hypotrichosis-leukonychia totalis syndrome.

Keratoderma-hypotrichosis-leukonychia totalis syndrome (KHLS) is an extremely rare, autosomal-dominant disorder characterized by severe skin hyperkeratosis, congenital alopecia and leukonychia totalis. The genetic defect underlying KHLS remained undetermined. By performing whole-exome sequencing in a family with KHLS, we identified a heterozygous mutation (c.

Beneficial effects of deferoxamine against astrocyte death induced by modified oxygen glucose deprivation.

The iron chelator deferoxamine (DFX) is efficacious in ameliorating hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. However, the effect of DFX worked in the ischemic and the mechanism is still unclear. Recent studies have shown that apoptosis and oncosis may be the pathways of cell death accountable for astrocytic death in the ischemic core.

Fast reconstruction of fluorescence molecular tomography via a permissible region extraction strategy.

In order to obtain precise reconstruction results in fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT), large-scale matrix equations would be solved in the inverse problem generally. Thus, much time and memory needs to be consumed. In this paper, a permissible region extraction strategy is proposed to solve this problem.

The use of transformed IMR90 cell model to identify the potential extra-telomeric effects of hTERT in cell migration and DNA damage response.

Background: Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), the catalytic subunit of telomesase, is responsible for telomere maintenance and its reactivation is implicated in almost 90% human cancers. Recent evidences show that hTERT is essential for neoplastic transformation independent of its canonical function. However, the roles of hTERT in the process remain elusive.

Activation of TRPV1 mediates thymic stromal lymphopoietin release via the Ca2+/NFAT pathway in airway epithelial cells.

The airway epithelium is exposed to a range of irritants in the environment that are known to trigger inflammatory response such as asthma. Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) is a Ca(2+)-permeable cation channel critical for detecting noxious stimuli by sensory neurons. Recently increasing evidence suggests TRPV1 is also crucially involved in the pathophysiology of asthma on airway epithelium in human.

Modified forward model for eliminating the time-varying impact in fluorescence molecular tomography.

In conventional fluorescence molecular tomography, the distribution of fluorescent contrast agents is reconstructed with the assumption of constant concentration during data acquisition for each image frame. However, the concentration of fluorescent contrast target is usually time-varying in experiments or in-vivo studies. In this case, the reconstruction methods cannot be directly applied to the fluorescence measurements without considering the time-varying effects of concentration.

Targeting TGFβ signaling in subchondral bone and articular cartilage homeostasis.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common degenerative joint disease and no disease-modifying therapy for OA is currently available. Targeting articular cartilage alone may not be sufficient to halt this disease progression. Articular cartilage and subchondral bone act as a functional unit.

Functional effects of TGF-β1 on mesenchymal stem cell mobilization in cockroach allergen-induced asthma.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been suggested to participate in immune regulation and airway repair/remodeling. TGF-β1 is critical in the recruitment of stem/progenitor cells for tissue repair, remodeling, and cell differentiation. In this study, we sought to investigate the role of TGF-β1 in MSC migration in allergic asthma.

FGFR3 induces degradation of BMP type I receptor to regulate skeletal development.

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) and their receptors (FGFRs) play significant roles in vertebrate organogenesis and morphogenesis. FGFR3 is a negative regulator of chondrogenesis and multiple mutations with constitutive activity of FGFR3 result in achondroplasia, one of the most common dwarfisms in humans, but the molecular mechanism remains elusive. In this study, we found that chondrocyte-specific deletion of BMP type I receptor a (Bmpr1a) rescued the bone overgrowth phenotype observed in Fgfr3 deficient mice by reducing chondrocyte differentiation.

Inhibition of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus lytic replication by HIV-1 Nef and cellular microRNA hsa-miR-1258.

Unlabelled: Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is causally linked to several AIDS-related malignancies, including Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), and multicentric Castleman's disease. The interaction of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and KSHV has a central role in promoting the aggressive manifestations of AIDS-KS. We have previously shown that negative factor (Nef), a secreted HIV-1 protein, synergizes with KSHV viral interleukin-6 (vIL-6) to promote angiogenesis and tumorigenesis by activating the AKT pathway (X.

Subsurface fluorescence molecular tomography with prior information.

Subsurface fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) is an emerging technique determining fluorescence distribution by tomographic means in reflectance geometry. However, due to the highly diffusive nature of the photon propagation in biological tissues and the influence of nearer source-detector separations, stand-alone subsurface FMT could not accurately reflect the fluorophore distributions. To overcome this drawback, we propose a method to improve the performance of fluorescence imaging by coupling x-ray computed tomography (XCT) and subsurface FMT modalities.

Mesenchymal stem cells recruited by active TGFβ contribute to osteogenic vascular calcification.

Vascular calcification is an actively regulated process that culminates in organized extracellular matrix mineral deposition by osteoblast-like cells. The origins of the osteoblastic cells involved in this process and the underlying mechanisms remain to be defined. We previously revealed that active transforming growth factor (TGFβ) released from the injured arteries mobilizes mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to the blood stream and recruits the cells to the injured vessels for neointima formation.

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and TGF-β signaling in bone remodeling.

During bone resorption, abundant factors previously buried in the bone matrix are released into the bone marrow microenvironment, which results in recruitment and differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for subsequent bone formation, temporally and spatially coupling bone remodeling. Parathyroid hormone (PTH) orchestrates the signaling of many pathways that direct MSC fate. The spatiotemporal release and activation of matrix TGF-β during osteoclast bone resorption recruits MSCs to bone-resorptive sites.

LRP6 in mesenchymal stem cells is required for bone formation during bone growth and bone remodeling.

Lipoprotein receptor-related protein 6 (LRP6) plays a critical role in skeletal development and homeostasis in adults. However, the role of LRP6 in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), skeletal stem cells that give rise to osteoblastic lineage, is unknown. In this study, we generated mice lacking LRP6 expression specifically in nestin(+) MSCs by crossing nestin-Cre mice with LRP6(flox) mice and investigated the functional changes of bone marrow MSCs and skeletal alterations.

Divalent cations potentiate TRPV1 channel by lowering the heat activation threshold.

Transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) channel responds to a wide spectrum of physical and chemical stimuli. In doing so, it serves as a polymodal cellular sensor for temperature change and pain. Many chemicals are known to strongly potentiate TRPV1 activation, though how this is achieved remains unclear.

Divalent cations activate TRPV1 through promoting conformational change of the extracellular region.

Divalent cations Mg(2+) and Ba(2+) selectively and directly potentiate transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 heat activation by lowering the activation threshold into the room temperature range. We found that Mg(2+) potentiates channel activation only from the extracellular side; on the intracellular side, Mg(2+) inhibits channel current. By dividing the extracellularly accessible region of the channel protein into small segments and perturbing the structure of each segment with sequence replacement mutations, we observed that the S1-S2 linker, the S3-S4 linker, and the pore turret are all required for Mg(2+) potentiation.