Atherosclerosis (AS) is an inflammatory disease linked to endothelial dysfunction. Melatonin is reported to possess substantial anti‐inflammatory properties, which has proven to be effective in AS. ...Emerging literature suggests that pyroptosis plays a critical role during AS progression. However, whether pyroptosis contributes to endothelial dysfunction and the underlying molecular mechanisms remained unexploited. This study was designed to investigate the antipyroptotic effects of melatonin in atherosclerotic endothelium and to elucidate the potential mechanisms. In this study, high‐fat diet (HFD)‐treated ApoE−/− mice were used as an atherosclerotic animal model. We found intragastric administration of melatonin for 12 weeks markedly reduced the atherosclerotic plaque in aorta. Meanwhile, melatonin also attenuated the expression of pyroptosis‐related genes, including NLRP3, ASC, cleaved caspase1, NF‐κB/GSDMD, GSDMD N‐termini, IL‐1β, and IL‐18 in aortic endothelium of melatonin‐treated animals. Consistent antipyroptotic effects were also observed in ox‐LDL‐treated human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs). We found that lncRNA MEG3 enhanced pyroptosis in HAECs. Moreover, MEG3 acted as an endogenous sponge by sequence complementarity to suppress the function of miR‐223 and to increase NLRP3 expression and enhance endothelial cell pyroptosis. Furthermore, knockdown of miR‐223 blocked the antipyroptotic actions of melatonin in ox‐LDL‐treated HAECs. Together, our results suggest that melatonin prevents endothelial cell pyroptosis via MEG3/miR‐223/NLRP3 axis in atherosclerosis, and therefore, melatonin replacement might be considered a new strategy for protecting endothelium against pyroptosis, thereby for the treatment of atherosclerosis associated with pyroptosis.
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DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases. Increasing evidence has demonstrated that nicotine impairs the cardiovascular system by targeting ...vascular endothelial cells, but the underlying mechanisms remain obscure. It is known that cell death and inflammation are crucial processes leading to atherosclerosis. We proposed that pyroptosis may be implicated in nicotine-induced atherosclerosis and therefore conducted the present study. We found that nicotine resulted in larger atherosclerotic plaques and secretion of inflammatory cytokines in ApoE
mice fed with a high-fat diet (HFD). Treatment of human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) with nicotine resulted in NLRP3-ASC inflammasome activation and pyroptosis, as evidenced by cleavage of caspase-1, production of downstream interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18, and elevation of LDH activity and increase of propidium iodide (PI) positive cells, which were all inhibited by caspase-1 inhibitor. Moreover, silencing NLRP3 or ASC by small interfering RNA efficiently suppressed nicotine-induced caspase-1 cleavage, IL-18 and IL-1β production, and pyroptosis in HAECs. Further experiments revealed that the nicotine-NLRP3-ASC-pyroptosis pathway was activated by reactive oxygen species (ROS), since ROS scavenger (N-acetyl-cysteine, NAC) prevented endothelial cell pyroptosis. We conclude that pyroptosis is likely a cellular mechanism for the pro-atherosclerotic property of nicotine and stimulation of ROS to activate NLRP3 inflammasome is a signaling mechanism for nicotine-induced pyroptosis.
Evaporation is a principal factor in the hydrological cycle and energy exchange; however, estimations of evaporation include large uncertainties. In this study, a modified estimation of evaporation ...based on empirical linearly simplified Penman evaporation (PES) is proposed, soil moisture and precipitation are used to correct the land surface evaporation estimation, and the temporal and spatial characteristics of the corrected evaporation (CE) are investigated globally. The results show that CE is strong at low latitudes and weak at high latitudes. CE has obvious seasonal variation, ranging from 0.2 to 4.0 mm day–1; CE is prominent in summer but feeble in winter. Compared to PES, CE is generally weaker in most regions, especially in arid regions, with differences of more than 9 mm day−1. CE agrees well with evaporation derived from FLUXNET-Model Tree Ensemble (FLUXNET-MTE), MERRA, and GLDAS. In general, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) between annual CE and FLUXNET-MTE is less than 0.2 mm day–1, and CE is about 5%–10% less than the evaporation of FLUXNET-MTE. In the arid regions, the maximum CE almost occurs in the month with the strongest precipitation; in the tropical regions, soil moisture enhances CE only when precipitation is less. In the context of global temperature rise, PES always shows an apparent increasing trend due to the water supply is not considered; however, CE decreases in western Asia, the western United States, the Amazon basin, and Central Africa, but weakly increases in the other study regions from 1984 to 2013. This study provides a method for estimating evaporation considering more restrictive factors on evaporation.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Porous oxygen‐doped carbon materials based on the copolymers of a diacetal‐type benzoxazine (ACE‐a) and melamine with different ratios are prepared by a facile template‐free method. The oxygen‐rich ...diacetal structure in ACE‐a allowed for a high oxygen content of 66.2% in surface in these porous carbon materials, and the degradation of the melamine at a high temperature gave an ideal pore structure with a specific surface area of 1383.9 m2 g−1 and a pore capacity of 0.748 cm3 g−1. The electrochemical performances are analyzed by Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and Galvanostatic charge‐discharge (GCD) tests, and the effects of melamine contents and electrolyte types are also investigated. The results suggested that this material possessed specific capacitance of 430 F g−1 in 0.5 M H2SO4 and 194 F g−1 in 6 M KOH (0.5 A g−1), respectively, and showed excellent charge‐discharge behavior and magnification characteristic. Moreover, the copolymerization reactions, crosslinking structures, and degradation process of the benzoxazine/melamine copolymers are studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis‐infrared spectrometry (TGA‐IR), respectively. This kind of oxygen‐enriched porous carbon material has a good applicative prospect in the field of supercapacitor.
A series of porous carbon materials based on copolymers of diacetal containing benzoxazine and melamine are prepared by a template‐free method. The diacetal structure improves the oxygen content of porous carbon materials. The characteristic of the oxygen enrichment makes porous carbon materials contain a large number of pseudocapacitance in the acid electrolyte.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Carotenoids are important phytonutrients with antioxidant properties, and are widely used in foods and feedstuffs as supplements. Astaxanthin, a red-colored ketocarotenoid, has strong antioxidant ...activity and thus can benefit human health. However, astaxanthin is not produced in most higher plants. Here we report the bioengineering of astaxanthin biosynthesis in rice endosperm by introducing four synthetic genes, sZmPSY1, sPaCrtI, sCrBKT, and sHpBHY, which encode the enzymes phytoene synthase, phytoene desaturase, β-carotene ketolase, and β-carotene hydroxylase, respectively. Transgneic overexpression of two (sZmPSY1 and sPaCrtI), three (sZmPSY1, sPaCrtI and sCrBKT), and all these four genes driven by rice endosperm-specific promoters established the carotenoid/ketocarotenoid/astaxanthin biosynthetic pathways in the endosperm and thus resulted in various types of germplasm, from the yellow-grained β-carotene-enriched Golden Rice to orange-red-grained Canthaxanthin Rice and Astaxanthin Rice, respectively. Grains of Astaxanthin Rice were enriched with astaxanthin in the endosperm and had higher antioxidant activity. These results proved that introduction of a minimal set of four transgenes enables de novo biosynthesis of astaxanthin in the rice endosperm. This work provides a successful example for synthetic biology in plants and biofortification in crops; the biofortified rice products generated by this study could be consumed as health-promoting foods and processed to produce dietary supplements.
The astaxanthin biosynthesis in rice endosperm was successfully bioengineered by introducing four synthetic genes encoding phytoene synthase, phytoene desaturase, β-carotene ketolase, and β-carotene hydroxylase, respectively. Grains of the astaxanthin rice, with red-orange color, were enriched with astaxanthin and had high antioxidant activity. This new biofortified rice could be beneficial for promoting human health.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This paper investigates the performance of massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) cellular systems with pilot contamination. We derive a closed-form approximation of the area spectral ...efficiency (ASE) for uplink multicell multiuser massive MIMO systems by using a uniformly distributed user location model. Considering a practical power consumption model, we obtain the area energy efficiency (AEE) in a cell. The theoretical results of ASE and AEE can be used to investigate some system parameters of massive MIMO cellular systems, such as the number of antennas at the base station, the number of users, and the number of symbols over which the channel remains constant. We also study the optimal pilot-to-data power ratio for both ASE maximization and AEE maximization.
Adult mammalian heart loses regeneration ability following ischemic injury due to the loss of cardiomyocyte mitosis. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the post-mitotic nature of ...cardiomyocytes remain largely unknown.
The purpose of this study was to define the essential role of long noncoding ribonucleic acids (lncRNAs) in heart regeneration during postnatal and adult injury.
Myh6-driving cardiomyocyte-specific lncRNA-CAREL transgenic mice and adenovirus-mediated in vivo silencing of endogenous CAREL were used in this study. The effect of CAREL on cardiomyocyte replication and heart regeneration after apical resection or myocardial infarction was assessed by detecting mitosis and cytokinesis.
An lncRNA CAREL was found significantly up-regulated in cardiomyocytes from neonatal mice (P7) in parallel with loss of regenerative capacity. Cardiac-specific overexpression of CAREL in mice reduced cardiomyocyte division and proliferation and blunted neonatal heart regeneration after injury. Conversely, silencing of CAREL in vivo markedly promoted cardiac regeneration and improved heart functions after myocardial infarction in neonatal and adult mice. CAREL acted as a competing endogenous ribonucleic acid for miR-296 to derepress the expression of Trp53inp1 and Itm2a, the target genes of miR-296. Consistently, overexpression of miR-296 significantly increased cardiomyocyte replication and cardiac regeneration after injury. Decline of cardiac regenerative ability in CAREL transgenic mice was also rescued by miR-296. A short fragment containing the conserved sequence of CAREL reduced the proliferation of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes as the full-length CAREL.
LncRNA CAREL regulates cardiomyocyte proliferation and heart regeneration in postnatal and adult heart after injury by acting as a competing endogenous ribonucleic acid on miR-296 that targets Trp53inp1 and Itm2a.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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The inoculation of S. cerevisiae can address the excessive acidity in Suanyu, but its influence on the microbial community structure has not been documented. In this study, the ...microbiota succession, and metabolites of Suanyu with the inoculation of acid-reducing S. cerevisiae L7 were explored. The findings revealed that the addition of S. cerevisiae L7 elevated the pH, and decreased the microbial α-diversity. In Suanyu, the dominant bacterial genera were Lactiplantibacillus and Bacillus, while the dominant fungal genera were Meyerozyma and Saccharomyces. Following the inoculation of S. cerevisiae L7, the relative abundance of Lactiplantibacillus decreased from 21 % to 13 %. Meanwhile, the growth of fungi such as Meyerozyma and Candida was suppressed. The rise in Saccharomyces had a significant impact on various pathways related to amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism, causing the accumulation of flavor compounds. This study sheds more lights on the methods for manipulating microbial community structure in fermented food.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Abstract
Background
Painless gastrointestinal endoscopy is widely used for the diagnosis and treatment of digestive diseases. At present, propofol is commonly used to perform painless ...gastrointestinal endoscopy, but the high dose of propofol often leads to a higher incidence of cardiovascular and respiratory complications. Studies have shown that the application of propofol combined with ketamine in painless gastrointestinal endoscopy is beneficial to reduce the dosage of propofol and the incidence of related complications. Esketamine is dextrorotatory structure of ketamine with a twice as great anesthetic effect as normal ketamine but fewer side effects. We hypothesized that esketamine may reduce the consumption of propofol and to investigate the safety of coadministration during gastrointestinal endoscopy.
Methods
A total of 260 patients undergoing painless gastrointestinal endoscopy (gastroscope and colonoscopy) were randomly divided into P group (propofol + saline), PK1 group (propofol + esketamine 0.05 mg/kg), PK2 group (propofol + esketamine 0.1 mg/kg), and PK3 group (propofol + esketamine 0.2 mg/kg). Anesthesia was achieved by 1.5 mg/kg propofol with different doses of esketamine. Propofol consumption per minute was recorded. Hemodynamic index, pulse oxygen saturation, operative time, induction time, awakening status, orientation recovery time, adverse events, and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were also recorded during gastrointestinal endoscopy.
Results
Propofol consumption per minute was 11.78, 10.56, 10.14, and 9.57 (mg/min) in groups P, PK1, PK2, and PK3, respectively; compared with group P, groups PK2 and PK3 showed a decrease of 13.92% (
P
= 0.021) and 18.76% (
P
= 0.000), respectively. In all four groups, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), heart rate (HR), but not pulse oxygen saturation (SpO
2
) significantly decreased (
P
= 0.000) immediately after administration of induction, but there were no significant differences between the groups. The induction time of groups P, PK1, PK2, and PK3 was 68.52 ± 18.394, 64.83 ± 13.543, 62.23 ± 15.197, and 61.35 ± 14.470 s, respectively (
P
= 0.041). Adverse events and psychotomimetic effects were observed but without significant differences between the groups.
Conclusions
The combination of 0.2 mg/kg esketamine and propofol was effective and safe in painless gastrointestinal endoscopy as evidenced by less propofol consumption per minute, shorter induction time, and lower incidence of cough and body movement relative to propofol alone. The lack of significant differences in hemodynamic results, anesthesia-related indices, adverse events, and MMSE results showed the safety to apply this combination for painless gastrointestinal endoscopy.
Trial registration
This study was registered with China Clinical Trial Registration on 07/11/2020 (registration website: chictr.org.cn; registration numbers: ChiCTR
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/2000039750
).
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Due to the noncentered, self-organizing, and self-healing characteristics, mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) have been more and more widely used as an alternative access technology for regions having no ...fixed infrastructure. On-demand routing protocols (e.g., ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV)) are used to cope with the rapidly changing topology of MANET and reduce the network overhead. Taking delay, stability, and remaining energy of nodes into consideration, a fuzzy-logic-assisted AODV (FL-AODV) routing algorithm is proposed in this paper to further improve the reliability of the route in MANET. In the route discovery phase, the node with the highest reliability is selected as the relay node, and the route with the highest accumulated reliability is reserved for data transmission. Simulation results show that, compared with the traditional AODV protocol and the fuzzy logic routing algorithm (FLRA), the proposed routing protocol has higher reliability without increasing delay, i.e., better link connectivity and longer route life. The average routing reliability is about 18% higher than AODV while the average delay is the same low when the number of node greater than 70.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
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