Multiple facilitated glucose transporters SLC2As are required for normal mouse preimplantation embryo development.

Background: Glucose metabolism is an essential energy source for mammalian preimplantation embryonic development. Therefore, we aimed to analyze the expression of all 12 known glucose transporters (facilitated solute carrier family 2, Slc2a) during early mouse embryo development.

Methods: Gene and protein expression of Slc2a transporters in oocytes and embryos were assessed by the TaqMan gene expression assay and confocal immunofluorescence, respectively.

Current knowledge and development of hederagenin as a promising medicinal agent: a comprehensive review.

Hederagenin (HG) is a pentacyclic triterpenoid that exists in many plants in the form(s) of sapogenin or saponins. This review highlights the pharmacokinetics, pharmacological activities, mechanisms of action, and safety of HG using literature and patents from the last 50 years to collate information on this compound as a promising medicinal agent. This review also looks at the development of related derivatives of HG with increased efficacy and lower toxicity.

Differential diagnosis between hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis by serum amino acids and acylcarnitines.

The routine biochemical parameters for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosis are all protein markers. Serum concentrations of these markers can be affected by some benign diseases. Most of the occurrence of HCC has a background of cirrhosis, posing a great challenge to differential diagnosis of HCC from cirrhosis using traditional biochemical parameters.

Blocking IL-22, a potential treatment strategy for adenomyosis by inhibiting crosstalk between vascular endothelial and endometrial stromal cells.

Our previous work has demonstrated that interleukin-22 (IL-22) enhances the invasiveness of endometrial stromal cells (ESCs) of adenomyosis in an autocrine manner. In the present study, we further investigated whether IL-22 mediated crosstalk between vascular endothelial cells (VECs) and ESCs in vitro. Here we found that VECs in ectopic lesion from women with adenomyosis highly expressed IL-22 receptors IL-22R1 and IL-10R2.