Potential antidepressant properties of Radix Polygalae (Yuan Zhi)

Radix Polygalae ("Yuan Zhi", the roots of Polygala tenuifolia Willd., YZ) is an important herb used in traditional Chinese medicine to mediate depression. The present study was designed to verify the antidepressant effects of the standardized YZ ethanol extract (YZE) and its four fractions YZ-30, YZ-50, YZ-70 and YZ-90 on the tail suspension (TST) and forced swimming test (FST). Furthermore, the standardization of the fractions obtained from the separation procedures was carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-fingerprint. The YZ-50 fraction (Oligosaccharide esters--enriched, oral (200 mg/kg) showed a significant anti-immobility like effects. The data of YZ-50 on the corticosterone-induced injure of SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cell indicated that YZ-50 may have biological effects on neuroprotection. Proliferation of cell lines was assessed by dimethylthiazoldiphenyltetrazoliumbromide (MTT) and 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation assays. It was found that YZ-50 and its two bioactive compounds, 3,6'-di-o-sinapoyl-sucrose (DISS) and tenuifoliside A(TEA) showed protection activities in SY5Y cells from the lesion. By using bioassay-screening methods, our results indicate that the presence of oligosaccharide esters such as DISS and TEA in this herb may be responsible for the cytoprotective activity effects.

Telmisartan alleviates rosiglitazone-induced bone loss in ovariectomized spontaneous hypertensive rats

In the present study, we systematically examined telmisartan, an angiotensin AT(1) receptor antagonist, on rosiglitazone-induced bone loss in ovariectomized spontaneously hypertensive rats. Telmisartan (5 mg/kg/d, 90 days) was found to be able to significantly alleviate rosiglitazone (10 mg/kg/d, 90 days)-induced decrease in BMD of femur and lumbar vertebrae. The BMD changes were associated with positive biomechanical changes of lumbar vertebrae, improvements in microarchitecture of tibial metaphysic and normalized serum osteocalcin (OC) levels and urinary deoxypyridinoline/creatinine (DPD/Cr) ratio. MicroCT analysis of the tibial metaphysis showed that telmisartan significantly prevented the decreases in bone volume/tissue volume (BV/TV), connect density (Conn. D.), trabecular number (Tb. N.) and trabecular thickness (Tb. Th.), and increase in trabecular separation (Tb. Sp.) induced by rosiglitazone. Histomorphometric analysis also showed that telmisartan had protective effects on rosiglitazone-reduced bone formation indices such as histomorphometric bone volume fraction (BV/TV-Histo), mineralizing surface/bone surface (MS/BS), mineral apposition rate (MAR) and bone formation rate (BFR/BS). Our study clearly showed that telmisartan alleviated rosiglitazone-induced bone loss in ovariectomized spontaneous hypertensive rats. The relief of bone loss provides a possible therapeutic application of telmisartan with rosiglitazone for the treatment of elderly women patients afflicted with metabolic syndrome.

Modeling nutrient flows in the food chain of China

Increasing nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) inputs have greatly contributed to the increasing food production in China during the last decades, but have also increased N and P losses to the environment. The pathways and magnitude of these losses are not well quantified. Here, we report on N and P use efficiencies and losses at a national scale in 2005, using the model NUFER (NUtrient flows in Food chains, Environment and Resources use). Total amount of "new" N imported to the food chain was 48.8 Tg in 2005. Only 4.4.Tg reached households as food. Average N use efficiencies in crop production, animal production, and the whole food chain were 26, 11, and 9%, respectively. Most of the imported N was lost to the environment, that is, 23 Tg N to atmosphere, as ammonia (57%), nitrous oxide (2%), dinitrogen (33%), and nitrogen oxides (8%), and 20 Tg to waters. The total P input into the food chain was 7.8 Tg. The average P use efficiencies in crop production, animal production, and the whole food chain were 36, 5, and 7%, respectively. This is the first comprehensive overview of N and P balances, losses, and use efficiencies of the food chain in China. It shows that the N and P costs of food are high (for N 11 kg kg(-1), for P 13 kg kg(-1)). Key measures for lowering the N and P costs of food production are (i) increasing crop and animal production, (ii) balanced fertilization, and (iii) improved manure management.

Variants in ACAD10 are associated with type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance and lipid oxidation in Pima Indians

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS

A prior genome-wide association study in Pima Indians identified a variant within the ACAD10 gene that is associated with early-onset type 2 diabetes. Acylcoenzyme A dehydrogenase 10 (ACAD10) catalyses mitochondrial fatty acid beta-oxidation, which plays a pivotal role in developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Therefore, ACAD10 was analysed as a positional and biological candidate for type 2 diabetes.

METHODS

Twenty-three SNPs were genotyped in 1,500 Pima Indians to determine the linkage disequilibrium pattern across ACAD10. Association with type 2 diabetes was determined by genotyping four tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a population-based sample of 3,501 full-heritage Pima Indians; two associated SNPs were further genotyped in a second population-based sample of 3,723 American Indians. Associations with quantitative traits were assessed in 415 non-diabetic full heritage Pima individuals who had been metabolically phenotyped.

RESULTS

SNPs rs601663 and rs659964 were associated with type 2 diabetes in the full-heritage Pima Indian sample (p=0.04 and 0.0006, respectively), and rs659964 was further associated with type 2 diabetes in the second American Indian sample (p=0.04). Combination of these two samples provided the strongest evidence for association (p=0.009 and 0.00007, for rs601663 and rs659964, respectively). Quantitative trait analyses identified nominal associations with both lower lipid oxidation rate and larger subcutaneous abdominal adipocyte size, which is consistent with the known physiology of ACAD10, and also identified associations with increased insulin resistance.

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION

We propose that ACAD10 variation may increase type 2 diabetes susceptibility by impairing insulin sensitivity via abnormal lipid oxidation.

Absence of Epstein-Barr virus in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Aim-To identify the possible role of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), in Chinese patients, in the pathogenesis of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Methods-Formalin fixed, paraffin wax embedded tissues from 74 cases of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (28 with well differentiated, 27 with moderately differentiated and 18 with poorly differentiated carcinomas) were analysed for EBV using in situ hybridisation for EBV encoded small RNAs.Results-EBV was detected in only a few lymphocytes adjacent to the tumour epithelia in 14 (19%) cases of oesophageal carcinoma. The adjacent, non-pathological oesophageal tissue was EBV negative.Conclusions-EBV does not play a major role in the aetiology of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Antisense inhibition of amphiregulin expression reduces EGFR phosphorylation in transformed human breast epithelial cells

The activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) by its ligands constitutes an important step in the metastatic process but the clinical response to its inhibition in breast cancer patients has so far been very low. In this work, we investigated the role of the EGFR ligand amphiregulin (AR) in modulating EGFR activation. For this, transformed epithelial mammary tumor cells NS2T2A1 were used in which AR or EGFR expression was down-regulated by antisense cDNA technique. This down-regulation was associated with a significant inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase-9 production as well as cell proliferation, but this inhibition was only minimally reversed by exogenously added AR or EGF. EGFR protein levels were not affected but EGFR-tyrosine phosphorylation in response to EGF was markedly reduced. Thus, the inhibition of AR expression, which impairs EGFR response to its exogenously available ligands, may represent an alternative anti-EGFR therapeutic strategy in breast cancer.

The development of peripheral cold neural circuits based on TRPM8 expression

Afferent nerve fibers of the somatosensory system are a molecularly diverse cell population that detects a varied range of environmental stimuli, converting these external cues ultimately into a sensory percept. Afferents mediating detection of thermal stimuli express a repertoire of temperature sensitive ion channels of the TRP family which endow these nerves with the ability to respond to the breadth of temperatures in the environment. The cold and menthol receptor TRPM8 is responsible for detection of cold and, unlike other thermosensors, detects both innocuous and noxious temperatures. How this single molecule can perform such diverse functions is currently unknown, but expression analyses in adult tissues shows that TRPM8 neurons are a molecularly diverse population and it is likely that this diversity underlies differential functionality. To determine how this phenotype is established, we examined the developmental time course of TRPM8 expression using a mouse transgenic line in which GFP expression is driven by the TRPM8 transcriptional promoter (Trpm8(GFP)). We find that Trpm8(GFP) expression begins prior to embryonic day 15.5 (E15.5) after which expression reaches levels observed in adult neurons. By E18.5, central axons of Trpm8(GFP) neurons reach the spinal cord dorsal horn, but anatomical localization and in vivo measurements of neural activity suggest that fully functional cold circuits are not established until after the first postnatal week. Additionally, Trpm8(GFP) neurons undergo a transition in neurochemical phenotype, ultimately reaching adult expression of markers such TRPV1, CGRP, peripherin, and NF200 by postnatal day 14. Thus, based on immunochemical, anatomical and functional criteria, active cold neural circuits are fully established by the second week postnatal, thereby suggesting that important extrinsic or intrinsic mechanisms are active prior to this developmental stage.

Two novel SNPs in the coding region of the bovine PRDM16 gene and its associations with growth traits

As a zinc-finger protein, PR domain containing 16 (PRDM16) controls brown fat determination by stimulating brown fat-selective genes expression while suppressing the expression of genes selective for white fat cells, whose mutations were associated with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and leukemogenesis in human and murine model of leukemia. To date, no polymorphisms of PRDM16 gene in bovine had been reported. Herein, PCR-SSCP and DNA sequencing methods were employed to screen the genetic variation within PRDM16 gene in 1031 Chinese indigenous bovine. The results revealed two novel silent mutations: XM_001788152: m.1641T>C (547aa), 1881G>A (627aa). Hence, we described the PvuII and HaeIII forced PCR-RFLP methods for detecting these mutations, respectively. In the forced PCR-RFLP analysis with PvuII, the frequencies of bovine PRDM16-C allele varied from 0.044 to 0.506 in four Chinese native breeds. In the forced PCR-RFLP analysis with HaeIII, the frequencies of bovine PRDM16-G allele were 0.474, 0.494, 0.576 and 0.906 for Jiaxian (JX), Nanyang (NY), Qinchuan (QC) and Chinese Holstein (CH) population. Significant statistical differences between genotypic frequencies implied that both of the polymorphic loci were significantly associated with cattle breeds by the chi square test (chi2 = 190.058, P < 0.001 and chi2 = 118.239, P < 0.001 for PvuII; chi2 = 209.842, P < 0.001 and chi2 = 108.711, P < 0.001 for HaeIII). The associations of the PvuII and HaeIII forced PCR-RFLPs of bovine PRDM16 loci with growth traits were analyzed in Nanyang breed. The two SNPs were associated with body weight and average daily gain in Nanyang aged 12 months, individuals with genotype TT and AA showed significantly better body weight (P < 0.05) and average daily gain (P < 0.01) at 12 months, respectively.

Gene expression levels as endophenotypes in genome-wide association studies of Alzheimer disease

BACKGROUND

Late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD) is a common disorder with a substantial genetic component. We postulate that many disease susceptibility variants act by altering gene expression levels.

METHODS

We measured messenger RNA (mRNA) expression levels of 12 LOAD candidate genes in the cerebella of 200 subjects with LOAD. Using the genotypes from our LOAD genome-wide association study for the cis-single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (n = 619) of these 12 LOAD candidate genes, we tested for associations with expression levels as endophenotypes. The strongest expression cis-SNP was tested for AD association in 7 independent case-control series (2,280 AD and 2,396 controls).

RESULTS

We identified 3 SNPs that associated significantly with IDE (insulin degrading enzyme) expression levels. A single copy of the minor allele for each significant SNP was associated with approximately twofold higher IDE expression levels. The most significant SNP, rs7910977, is 4.2 kb beyond the 3' end of IDE. The association observed with this SNP was significant even at the genome-wide level (p = 2.7 x 10(-8)). Furthermore, the minor allele of rs7910977 associated significantly (p = 0.0046) with reduced LOAD risk (OR = 0.81 with a 95% CI of 0.70-0.94), as expected biologically from its association with elevated IDE expression.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide strong evidence that IDE is a late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD) gene with variants that modify risk of LOAD by influencing IDE expression. They also suggest that the use of expression levels as endophenotypes in genome-wide association studies may provide a powerful approach for the identification of disease susceptibility alleles.

Propofol has anti-inflammatory effects on alveolar type II epithelial cells

BACKGROUND

We investigated whether lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced inflammation in alveolar epithelial type II (ATII) cells is through cluster of differentiation 14 (CD14) and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and the effect of different dosages of propofol on the inflammation in primary cultured rat ATII cells.

METHODS

Cultured ATII cells were randomly assigned to one of the following five groups: Group C: untreated group (control) cultured in the absence of propofol and LPS; Group LPS: treated with 1 microg/ml LPS; Group P1: treated with 1 microg/ml LPS and 25 microM propofol; Group P2: treated with 1 microg/ml LPS and 50 microM propofol; Group P3: treated with 1 microg/ml LPS and 100 microM propofol. ATII cells in all groups were cultured at 37 degrees C for 3 h. CD14 and TLR4 mRNA was detected using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Western blot was used to detect CD14 and TLR4 protein expression. CD14 and TLR4 expression on the ATII cells was imaged using immunofluorescence. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) production was determined using an ELISA kit.

RESULTS

LPS stimulation resulted in an increased CD14 and TLR4 expression and increased TNF-alpha production in ATII cells. Propofol, at concentrations > or = 50 microM, significantly (P<0.05) and dose-dependently decreased CD14 and TLR4 mRNA expression and protein expression in ATII cells. This was accompanied by a decrease in TNF-alpha production (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that propofol, at clinically relevant concentrations, can reduce inflammatory responses in LPS-induced ATII cells injury through downregulation of CD14 and TLR4 expression.

Agricultural ammonia emissions inventory and spatial distribution in the North China Plain

An agricultural ammonia (NH(3)) emission inventory in the North China Plain (NCP) on a prefecture level for the year 2004, and a 5 x 5 km(2) resolution spatial distribution map, has been calculated for the first time. The census database from China's statistics datasets, and emission factors re-calculated by the RAINS model supported total emissions of 3071 kt NH(3)-N yr(-1) for the NCP, accounting for 27% of the total emissions in China. NH(3) emission from mineral fertilizer application contributed 1620 kt NH(3)-N yr(-1), 54% of the total emission, while livestock emissions accounted for the remaining 46% of the total emissions, including 7%, 27%, 7% and 5% from cattle, pigs, sheep and goats, and poultry, respectively. A high-resolution spatial NH(3) emissions map was developed based on 1 x 1 km land use database and aggregated to a 5 x 5 km grid resolution. The highest emission density value was 198 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1).

Generalized reticulated hyperpigmentation induced by lichen planus

A 68-year-old Chinese woman presented with generalized reticulated dark-brown hyperpigmentation on the trunk, face and limbs, oral Wickham's striae, sparse scalp hair and dark-red reticulated streaks on the occiput of the head and on the neck, some dark-red to violaceous papules on the face, scalp and flanks, light-yellow, deep-seated papules on the palms and soles, and small porcelain-white papules on the dorsal and lateral fingers. The histological features were consistent with the diagnosis of lichen planus (LP). To our knowledge, LP-induced generalized reticulated hyperpigmentation is very rare and this is the first report of the clinical features on the fingers, palms and soles.