High levels of SOX4 expression have been found in a variety of human cancers, such as lung, brain and breast cancers. However, the expression of SOX4 in gastric tissues remains unknown. The SOX4 ...expression was detected using immunohistochemical staining and semi-quantitative RT-PCR, and our results showed that SOX4 was up-regulated in gastric cancer compared to benign gastric tissues. To further elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying up-regulation of SOX4 in gastric cancers, we analyzed the expression of microRNA-129-2 (miR-129-2) gene, the epigenetic repression of which leads to overexpression of SOX4 in endometrial cancer. We found that up-regulation of SOX4 was inversely associated with the epigenetic silencing of miR-129-2 in gastric cancer, and restoration of miR-129-2 down-regulated SOX4 expression. We also found that inactivation of SOX4 by siRNA and restoration of miR-129-2 induced apoptosis in gastric cancer cells.
miR-155 plays critical roles in numerous physiological and pathological processes, however, its function in the regulation of blood glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity and underlying ...mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we reveal that miR-155 levels are downregulated in serum from type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients, suggesting that miR-155 might be involved in blood glucose control and diabetes. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function studies in mice demonstrate that miR-155 has no effects on the pancreatic β-cell proliferation and function. Global transgenic overexpression of miR-155 in mice leads to hypoglycaemia, improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. Conversely, miR-155 deficiency in mice causes hyperglycemia, impaired glucose tolerance and insulin resistance. In addition, consistent with a positive regulatory role of miR-155 in glucose metabolism, miR-155 positively modulates glucose uptake in all cell types examined, while mice overexpressing miR-155 transgene show enhanced glycolysis, and insulin-stimulated AKT and IRS-1 phosphorylation in liver, adipose tissue or skeletal muscle. Furthermore, we reveal these aforementioned phenomena occur, at least partially, through miR-155-mediated repression of important negative regulators (i.e. C/EBPβ, HDAC4 and SOCS1) of insulin signaling. Taken together, these findings demonstrate, for the first time, that miR-155 is a positive regulator of insulin sensitivity with potential applications for diabetes treatment.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
•A comparative model of information-sharing across genders is developed.•The effect of privacy risks on information sharing attitudes is stronger for women.•Women put more emphasize on social ties ...and commitment.
Information systems research provides increasing evidence that women and men differ in their use of information technology. However, research has not sufficiently explained why these differences exist. Using the theory of reasoned action and social role theory, this paper investigates gender differences in people’s decisions about information sharing in the context of social networking sites (SNSs). We developed a comparative model of the information-sharing decision process across genders and theoretically explained why these differences exist. Data was collected from an online survey taken by American SNS users. We found that privacy risks, social ties, and commitment were more important in the formation of attitudes toward information sharing for women than men. Gender significantly moderates the relationship between people’s perceptions of information sharing and their intention to share information. This paper provides an enhanced understanding of gender differences in people’s decisions about sharing information on SNSs. It advances gender differences research into the use of newly emerged information technology and provides researchers insightful views of the role that gender plays in the social media era. Being aware of the research findings, practitioners may better engage their targeted stakeholders on SNSs and collect more useful information for business purposes.
•Social media affordances facilitate social support in social media.•Social support can facilitate self-management of chronic diseases.•Informational support and experiential support promote ...self-care behavior;.•Informational support and emotional support are related to psychological health.•Self-care and psychological health can lead to physical health.
Due to the popularity of social media, patients are increasingly using social media for the social support exchange to improve health outcomes. To understand this phenomenon of social media-enabled healthcare, we propose a conceptual framework by integrating literature from three areas—social media affordance, online social support, and health behaviors and outcomes—with the goal of developing propositions on how social media can help patients improve self-management of chronic diseases. We identified and distinguished three social media affordances: affordance for community co-creation, affordance for social learning, and affordance for social relationships. We also distinguish three kinds of social support and tailored them to the healthcare domain and the social media context: informational support, emotional support, and experiential support. We posit the following: (a) social media affordances foster social support, where co-creation facilitates informational support, user interaction facilitates emotional support, and social learning facilitates experiential support; (b) informational support and experiential support are both linked to self-care; and (c) informational support and emotional support are both linked to psychological health. Our work advances the literature in the area of social media-enabled healthcare.
Social networking sites (SNS) have challenged ethical issues about users' information security and privacy. SNS users are concerned about their privacy and need to control the information they share ...and its use. This paper examines the security of SNS by taking a look at the influence of users' perceived control of information over their information-sharing behaviors. Employing an empirical study, this paper demonstrates the importance of perceived control in SNS users' information-sharing behaviors. Specifically, perceived control has been found to be negatively related to perceived privacy risk and attitude toward information sharing, which in turn has an impact on their information-sharing behaviors. In addition, gender has been shown to be an important factor that moderates the influences of both perceived control and perceived privacy risk on SNS users' attitudes toward information sharing. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Chondroitin polymerizing factor (CHPF) is an important glycosyltransferase involved in the biosynthesis of chondroitin sulfate. However, the relationship between CHPF and gastric cancer has not been ...fully investigated. CHPF expression in gastric cancer tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry and correlated with gastric cancer patient prognosis. Cultured gastric cancer cells and human gastric epithelial cell line GES1 were used to investigate the effects of shCHPF and shE2F1 on the development and progression of gastric cancer by MTT, western blotting, flow cytometry analysis of cell apoptosis, colony formation, transwell and gastric cancer xenograft mouse models, in vitro and in vivo. In gastric cancer tissues, CHPF was found to be significantly upregulated, and its expression correlated with tumor infiltration and advanced tumor stage and shorter patient survival in gastric cancer. CHPF may promote gastric cancer development by regulating cell proliferation, colony formation, cell apoptosis and cell migration, while knockdown induced the opposite effects. Moreover, the results from in vivo experiments demonstrated that tumor growth was suppressed by CHPF knockdown. Additionally, E2F1 was identified as a potential downstream target of CHPF in the regulation of gastric cancer, and its knockdown decreased the CHPF-induced promotion of gastric cancer. Mechanistic study revealed that CHPF may regulate E2F1 through affecting UBE2T-mediated E2F1 ubiquitination. This study showed, for the first time, that CHPF is a potential prognostic indicator and tumor promoter in gastric cancer whose function is likely carried out through the regulation of E2F1.
Hepatic expression profiling has revealed miRNA changes in liver diseases, while hepatic miR-155 expression was increased in murine non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, suggesting that miR-155 might ...regulate the biological process of lipid metabolism. To illustrate the effects of miR-155 gain of function in transgenic mouse liver on lipid metabolism, transgenic mice (i.e., Rm155LG mice) for the conditional overexpression of mouse miR-155 transgene mediated by Cre/lox P system were firstly generated around the world in this study. Rm155LG mice were further crossed to Alb-Cre mice to realize the liver-specific overexpression of miR-155 transgene in Rm155LG/Alb-Cre double transgenic mice which showed the unaltered body weight, liver weight, epididymal fat pad weight and gross morphology and appearance of liver. Furthermore, liver-specific overexpression of miR-155 transgene resulted in significantly reduced levels of serum total cholesterol, triglycerides (TG) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL), as well as remarkably decreased contents of hepatic lipid, TG, HDL and free fatty acid in Rm155LG/Alb-Cre transgenic mice. More importantly, microarray data revealed a general downward trend in the expression profile of hepatic genes with functions typically associated with fatty acid, cholesterol and triglyceride metabolism, which is likely at least partially responsible for serum cholesterol and triglyceride lowering observed in Rm155LG/Alb-Cre mice. In this study, we demonstrated that hepatic overexpression of miR-155 alleviated nonalcoholic fatty liver induced by a high-fat diet. Additionally, carboxylesterase 3/triacylglycerol hydrolase (Ces3/TGH) was identified as a direct miR-155 target gene that is potentially responsible for the partial liver phenotypes observed in Rm155LG/Alb-Cre mice. Taken together, these data from miR-155 gain of function study suggest, for what we believe is the first time, the altered lipid metabolism and provide new insights into the metabolic state of the liver in Rm155LG/Alb-Cre mice.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
BACKGROUND.Islet transplantation is a promising treatment in patients with complicated diabetes. The ideal transplant site that can extend islet graft survival and reduce the required number of ...engrafted islets remains to be established.
METHODS.Donor islets were isolated from red fluorescent protein (RFP) mice and transplanted into interscapular brown adipose tissue (BAT) or unilateral inguinal white adipose tissue of age-matched diabetic RFP mice. Blood glucose and body weight of the mice were monitored, and vitality and function of ectopic RFP islets were detected by fluorescence imaging, histological examination, and intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (GTT).
RESULTS.BAT enabled the marginal number of grafted islets (80 islets) to restore blood glucose, insulin level, and GTT to normal values in all diabetic recipient mice in the short term after graft, and maintained these values for 1 year at the end of the experiment. Importantly, in the short term after transplantation, abundant extra- and intraislet neovasculatures were observed in BAT, but not in white adipose tissue, which allowed the ectopic islets to retain typical architecture and morphology and contributed to the normal GTT. Moreover, the islet-engrafted BAT displayed normal structure and morphology without significant immunocyte infiltration, and the recipient mice also showed normal lipid levels in the blood.
CONCLUSIONS.BAT remarkably enhances the viability and biological function of the transplanted ectopic islets. Moreover, the anatomical location of BAT lends itself to biopsy, removal, and islet retransplantation, which strongly suggests the BAT as a potential desirable site for islet transplantation in basic and clinical research.
Neonatal cerebral hypoxia-ischemia (HI) is the leading cause of death and disability in newborns with the only current treatment being hypothermia. An increased understanding of the pathways that ...facilitate tissue repair after HI may aid the development of better treatments. Here, we study the role of lactate receptor HCAR1 in tissue repair after neonatal HI in mice. We show that HCAR1 knockout mice have reduced tissue regeneration compared with wildtype mice. Furthermore, proliferation of neural progenitor cells and glial cells, as well as microglial activation was impaired. Transcriptome analysis showed a strong transcriptional response to HI in the subventricular zone of wildtype mice involving about 7300 genes. In contrast, the HCAR1 knockout mice showed a modest response, involving about 750 genes. Notably, fundamental processes in tissue repair such as cell cycle and innate immunity were dysregulated in HCAR1 knockout. Our data suggest that HCAR1 is a key transcriptional regulator of pathways that promote tissue regeneration after HI. To investigate, Kennedy et al. compared newborn mice with and without the gene that codes for HCAR1 that had undergone a hypoxic-ischaemic brain injury. While HCAR1 did not protect the mice from the disease, it did help their brains to heal. Mice with the gene for HCAR1 partly recovered some of their damaged brain tissue six weeks after the injury. Their cells switched on thousands of genes involved in the immune system and cell cycle, resulting in new brain cells being formed that could repopulate the injured areas. In contrast, the brain tissue of mice lacking HCAR1 barely produced any new cells.