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•This review summarized the updated studies on tea (Camellia sinensis L.) flower.•The genes involved in the development of tea flower are presented.•Numerous functional constituents ...with their various health benefits are summarized.•Tea flower aqueous extracts are safe to animals.•Possible food and medical uses of tea flowers is warranted.
The flower of tea (Camellia sinensis L.) plant has been paid an increasing attention in the last twenty years, since it was found that tea flowers contained representative constituents similar to those of tea leaves, such as catechins, caffeine and amino acids. Tea flower is theoretically valuable although it has been considered as an industrial waste over a long period of time. This review summarizes the research findings conducted until now on physiological genetics, chemical composition, health benefits and toxicology of tea flowers, aiming to foresee their future applications. A lot of genes are involved in flower development and the synthesis and transmission of various chemicals in tea flowers. The chemical composition of tea flower consists mainly of catechins, polysaccharides, proteins, amino acids and saponins and thus tea flower possesses various health benefits such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunostimulating, antitumor, hypoglycemic, anti-obesity and anti-allergic activities. Moreover, tea flower contains a protease that can elevate the free amino acids content in the tea infusion by almost two folds. More importantly, the enzymatic activity of the protease is much higher than that of the commercially available proteases. Additionally, aqueous extracts of tea flower are demonstrated to safe to animals. Thus, the potential uses of tea flowers in food and medical fields are warranted.
Hypochlorite (ClO−) and viscosity both affect the physiological state of mitochondria, and their abnormal levels are closely related to many common diseases. Therefore, it is vitally important to ...develop mitochondria-targeting fluorescent probes for the dual sensing of ClO− and viscosity. Herein, we have explored a new fluorescent probe, XTAP–Bn, which responds sensitively to ClO− and viscosity with off–on fluorescence changes at 558 and 765 nm, respectively. Because the emission wavelength gap is more than 200 nm, XTAP–Bn can effectively eliminate the signal crosstalk during the simultaneous detection of ClO− and viscosity. In addition, XTAP–Bn has several advantages, including high selectivity, rapid response, good water solubility, low cytotoxicity, and excellent mitochondrial-targeting ability. More importantly, probe XTAP–Bn is successfully employed to monitor the dynamic change in ClO− and viscosity levels in the mitochondria of living cells and zebrafish. This study not only provides a reliable tool for identifying mitochondrial dysfunction but also offers a potential approach for the early diagnosis of mitochondrial-related diseases.
Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is considered as a crucial mediator in tissue fibrosis and causes tissue scarring largely by activating its downstream small mother against decapentaplegic ...(Smad) signaling. Different TGF-β signalings play different roles in fibrogenesis. TGF-β1 directly activates Smad signaling which triggers pro-fibrotic gene overexpression. Excessive studies have demonstrated that dysregulation of TGF-β1/Smad pathway was an important pathogenic mechanism in tissue fibrosis. Smad2 and Smad3 are the two major downstream regulator that promote TGF-β1-mediated tissue fibrosis, while Smad7 serves as a negative feedback regulator of TGF-β1/Smad pathway thereby protects against TGF-β1-mediated fibrosis. This review presents an overview of the molecular mechanisms of TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway in renal, hepatic, pulmonary and cardiac fibrosis, followed by an in-depth discussion of their molecular mechanisms of intervention effects both in vitro and in vivo. The role of TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway in tumor or cancer is also discussed. Additionally, the current advances also highlight targeting TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway for the prevention of tissue fibrosis. The review reveals comprehensive pathophysiological mechanisms of tissue fibrosis. Particular challenges are presented and placed within the context of future applications against tissue fibrosis.
•TGF-β1 is considered as a crucial mediator in tissue fibrosis.•TGF-β1/Smad pathway is an important pathogenic mechanism in tissue fibrosis.•TGF-β/Smad pathway in cardiac, hepatic, pulmonary and renal fibrosis are discussed.•Targeting TGF-β/Smad pathway is an important therapeutic strategy for fibrosis.
•We conducted bibliometric analysis on emergy from 1996 to 2014.•Citespace software was used to visualize the literature data.•The trend and publication patterns of existing emergy literature were ...reported.•The intellectual core of emergy research was identified through citation analysis.
A bibliometric approach, along with Citespace software, was used to quantitatively and visually evaluate global scientific research on emergy from 1996 to 2014. 637 publications – in accordance with the search criteria from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) of the Web of Science database – were statistically analyzed. The assessments on document type and language, publication year, authorship, subject categories and journals, countries/territories and institutions, most-frequently cited publications and author keywords were conducted with respect to seven categories. The amount of emergy publications per year has sharply increased in recent years. The most productive author was S. Ulgiati with 50 articles, who was also one of the most frequently cited publication authors. China produced 35.95% of all pertinent publications followed by the USA with 25.59% and Italy with 21.66%. Ecological Modeling, Ecological Engineering and Ecological Indicators were the three most common journals in this field. By synthetically analyzing the keywords, the dominant hot spots of emergy research could be concluded as “energy”, “sustainability”, “transformity”, and “indicators”.
Most cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), as well as age-related cardiovascular alterations, are accompanied by increases in oxidative stress, usually due to increased generation and/or decreased ...metabolism of ROS (reactive oxygen species; for example superoxide radicals) and RNS (reactive nitrogen species; for example peroxynitrite). The superoxide anion is generated by several enzymatic reactions, including a variety of NADPH oxidases and uncoupled eNOS (endothelial NO synthase). To relieve the burden caused by this generation of free radicals, which also occurs as part of normal physiological processes, such as mitochondrial respiratory chain activity, mammalian systems have developed endogenous antioxidant enzymes. There is an increased usage of exogenous antioxidants such as vitamins C and E by many patients and the general public, ostensibly in an attempt to supplement intrinsic antioxidant activity. Unfortunately, the results of large-scale trails do not generate much enthusiasm for the continued use of antioxidants to mitigate free-radical-induced changes in the cardiovascular system. In the present paper, we review the clinical use of antioxidants by providing the rationale for their use and describe the outcomes of several large-scale trails that largely display negative outcomes. We also describe the emerging understanding of the detailed regulation of superoxide generation by an uncoupled eNOS and efforts to reverse eNOS uncoupling. SIRT1 (sirtuin 1), which regulates the expression and activity of multiple pro- and anti-oxidant enzymes, could be considered a candidate molecule for a 'molecular switch'.
The association between serum uric acid (SUA) and tea consumption has been studied in previous work, and there were arguments among various population group employed as well as different statistical ...approaches. The aim of this work is to investigate the tea effect on SUA levels among older adults by comparing three large-scale populations with both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses.
We examined the relationship between intake and SUA levels among older adults using linear regression. All the studies include the parameters SUA levels, tea intake, age, sex, education level, smoking status, alcohol drinking status, body mass index (BMI), and health history (diabetes, hypertension, and fasting plasma glucose). The cross-sectional analyses were conducted with 4579 older adults in the Weitang Geriatric Diseases Study (WGDS, ≥60 years), 2440 in the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS, ≥60 years) and 1236 in the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS, ≥62 years); and the longitudinal analyses were performed with 3870 (84.5%) in the WGDS and 420 (34.0%) in the CLHLS. Multivariable linear regression analyses were performed in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.
Cross-sectional studies showed that tea consumers tended to have higher SUA levels than non-tea consumers in all the three datasets (P < 0.05). However, longitudinal associations of SUA levels with tea consumption had no statistical significance (P>0.05). The results of sex-stratified analyses were consistent with those of the whole datasets.
This work implied that any possible association between tea consumption and SUA levels could be very weak.
In the intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) era, great improvement has been made in survival of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The 7th edition of the International Union against Cancer/American ...Joint Committee on Cancer (UICC/AJCC) staging system seems "outdated " as it mainly based on the study in 2D/3D era, and thus the 8th edition has made some amendments according to recent studies. We aimed to compare and evaluate these two editions of staging system for NPC in patients treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy.
A total of 1317 patients with biopsy-proven, non-metastatic NPC treated with IMRT between 2009 and 2014 at two institutions were retrospectively assessed. All patients were assessed by magnetic resonance imaging and restaged according to the 7th and 8th editions. Prognostic factors for local relapse-free survival (LRFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed and compared using the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. The Cox proportional hazards model was also used to calculate the hazard ratio (HR).
In both 7th and 8th edition, insignificant difference could be observed between T2 and T3 disease, T2 and T4 disease (all P > 0.05) for LRFS, while the difference of LRFS between T3 and T4 disease was significant in the previous edition (P = 0.001) but insignificant (P = 0.279) after revision. For OS, highly similar survival curve could be seen between T2 and T3 disease in both edition (all P > 0.1). DMFS and OS were not significantly different between N3a and N1-3b categories of the 7th edition (all P > 0.05). In contrast, obvious segregation was observed between N3 and the other N categories after the revision and combination in the 8th edition (all P < 0.05). DFS and OS were not significantly different between stage IVA and IVB of the 7th edition (P = 0.057 and P = 0.365, respectively); therefore, combining these stages in the 8th edition was reasonable.
The overall stages and N categories of the 8th edition of the UICC/AJCC staging system provide better segregation of survival outcomes than the 7th edition. The 8th edition is also more clinically applicable as it has reduced ambiguity and revised out-of-date definitions. However, the T categories need further optimizing as the 8th edition failed to solve the problem of similar survival between adjacent T-classification, which has been exited since 7th edition.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Fractals are fascinating, not only for their aesthetic appeal but also for allowing the investigation of physical properties in non-integer dimensions. In these unconventional systems, many intrinsic ...features might come into play, including the fractal dimension and the fractal geometry. Despite abundant theoretical studies, experiments in fractal networks remain elusive. Here we experimentally investigate quantum transport in fractal networks by performing continuous-time quantum walks in fractal photonic lattices. We unveil the transport properties through the photon evolution patterns, the mean square displacement and the Pólya number. Contrarily to classical fractals, we observe anomalous transport governed solely by the fractal dimension. In addition, the critical point at which there is a transition from normal to anomalous transport depends on the fractal geometry. Our experiment allows the verification of physical laws in a quantitative manner and reveals the transport dynamics in great detail, thus opening a path to the understanding of more complex quantum phenomena governed by fractality.Quantum transport in fractal networks is experimentally investigated by performing continuous-time quantum walks in fractal photonic lattices. Contrarily to classical fractals, anomalous transport governed solely by the fractal dimension is observed.
Desulfovibrio (DSV) is frequently found in the human intestine but limited knowledge is available regarding the relationship between DSV and host health. In this study, we analyzed large-scale cohort ...data from the Guangdong Gut Microbiome Project to study the ecology of DSV and the associations of DSV and host health parameters. Phylogenetic analysis showed that Desulfovibrio piger might be the most common and abundant DSV species in the GGMP. Predominant sub-OTUs of DSV were positively associated with bacterial community diversity. The relative abundance of DSV was positively correlated with beneficial genera, including Oscillospira, Coprococcus,Ruminococcus,Akkermansia, Roseburia,Faecalibacterium, andBacteroides, and was negatively associated with harmful genera, such as Clostridium,Escherichia,Klebsiella, and Ralstonia. Moreover, the relative abundance of DSV was negatively correlated with body mass index, waist size, triglyceride levels, and uric acid levels. This suggests that DSV is associated with healthy hosts in some human populations.
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