Ferroptosis plays a role in several diseases such as iron overload-induced liver diseases. Manipulation of ferroptosis has been explored as a potential therapeutic strategy to treat related diseases. ...Numerous antioxidants have been identified to control ferroptosis but the cell-autonomous mechanisms responsible for regulating ferroptosis remain elusive. In the present study, we found that iron overload promoted ferroptosis in hepatocytes by excessively inducing HO-1 expression, which contributed to the progression of liver injury and fibrosis, accompanied by the upregulation of the FGF21 protein level in vitro and in vivo. Interestingly, both recombinant FGF21 and Fgf21 overexpression significantly protected against iron overload-induced hepatocytes mitochondria damage, liver injury and fibrosis by inhibiting ferroptosis. In contrast, the loss of FGF21 aggravated iron overload-induced ferroptosis. Notably, FGF21-induced HO-1 inhibition (via the promotion of HO-1 ubiquitination and degradation) and NRF2 activation provide a mechanistic explanation for this phenomenon. Taken together, we identified FGF21 as a novel ferroptosis suppressor. Thus, FGF21 activation may provide an effective strategy for the potential treatment of iron overload-induced ferroptosis-related diseases, such as hereditary haemochromatosis (HH).
•Iron overload robustly induces hepatic FGF21 expression both in vitro and in vivo.•FGF21 suppresses iron overload-induced hepatocytes ferroptosis.•Constitutive HO-1 activation contributes to iron overload-induced ferroptosis in hepatocytes.•FGF21 protects hepatocytes from iron overload-induced ferroptosis by stimulating HO-1 ubiquitination and degradation.
Myopia is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children and young adults. Multiple epidemiological studies have confirmed a high prevalence of myopia in Asian countries. However, fewer ...longitudinal studies have been performed to evaluate the secular changes in the prevalence of myopia, especially high myopia in China. In the present study, we investigated trends in the prevalence of myopia among high school students in Fenghua city, eastern China, from 2001 to 2015.
This was a population-based, retrospective study. Data were collected among 43,858 third-year high school students. Noncycloplegic autorefraction was used to determine refractive error, which was defined as low myopia, moderate myopia, high myopia and very high myopia according to the spherical equivalent from the worse eye of each participant. The prevalence of myopia was calculated and the annual percentage change (APC) was used to quantify the time trends. All analyses were conducted using the SPSS, Stata and Graphpad Prism software.
From 2001 to 2015, the prevalence of overall myopia increased from 79.5% to 87.7% (APC =0.59%), with a significant increase of moderate myopia (38.8% to 45.7%, APC = 0.78%), high myopia (7.9% to 16.6%, APC = 5.48%) and very high myopia (0.08% to 0.92%, APC = 14.59%), while the prevalence of low myopia decreased from 32.7% to 24.4% (APC = - 1.73%). High myopia and very high myopia contributed the major part of the increasing trend of myopia prevalence (contribution rate 27.00% and 69.07%, respectively).
During the 15-year period, there was a remarkable increase in the prevalence of high and very high myopia among high school students, which might become a serious public health problem in China for the next few decades.
•A novel wet-mechanochemical pretreatment method was performed.•Small dosage dilute alkali assisted ball milling promoted biomass saccharification.•NaOH concentration showed significant positive ...correlation to reducing sugars yield.•Composition of lignocelluloses showed great impact on their saccharification.
Achieving the capacity to produce fermentable sugars from lignocelluloses via green and efficient approaches is of strategic significance to an environmentally sustainable society. In this work, a novel wet-mechanochemical pretreatment approach was proposed using small amount of dilute alkali-assisted ball milling and subsequently hydrothermal pretreatment at mild conditions to enhance the enzymatic saccharification efficiency of bagasse and pennisetum. Effects of pretreatment conditions, such as NaOH concentration, hydrothermal reaction temperature and time, on the reducing sugars production were systematically evaluated. Parameters were optimized by statistical analysis and response surface methodology. Results showed that the existence of small amount of dilute alkali during ball milling can greatly facilitate the subsequent saccharification of bagasse and pennisetum, which can reduce the alkali dosage in comparison with traditional biomass pretreatment approach. The highest reducing sugars yield of 40.75% could be obtained from bagasse after pretreated by final concentration of 0.4% alkali in hydrothermal pretreatment process at 100 °C for 40 min. 55.74% of reducing sugars could be obtained from pennisetum treated by final concentration of 0.4% alkali in hydrothermal pretreatment process at 80 °C for 60 min. Compared with pretreatment temperature and time, NaOH concentration had more impact on the reducing sugars yield. Chemical composition of lignocelluloses also showed great influences on their saccharification efficiency. This work provides feasible theoretical basis and method for the efficient utilization of lignocelluloses.
SnS2 with high theoretical capacity has been impeded from practical applications as the anode of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries due to its large volume expansion and fast capacity decay. A ...nanostructure of the SnS2 semifilled carbon nanotube (SnS2@CNT) has been realized by plasma-assisted fabrication of Sn semifilled CNT (Sn@CNT) followed by post-sulfurization. When serving as the anode of a Li-ion battery, SnS2@CNT delivers an initial discharge capacity of 1258 mAh g–1 at 0.3 A g–1. Instead of capacity fading, SnS2@CNT shows inverse capacity growth to 2733 mAh g–1 after 470 cycles. The high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images show that the void in CNTs, after cycling, is fully filled with pulverized SnS2 grains which have a shortened Li-ion diffusion path and enhanced surface area for interfacial redox reactions. In addition, the CNTs, like a pocket, confine the pulverized SnS2, maintain the electric contact and structural integrity, and thus allow the electrodes to work safely under long cyclic loadings and extreme temperature conditions.
High performance refractive index sensors are of important significance in numerous sensing applications including chemical, air and biophotonics. Among them, the ones with high sensitivity and large ...quality factor are especially critical. Here, we propose a high sensitivity refractive index sensor based on a slotted silicon ring resonator, of which the inner and outer rings are made of a deformed subwavelength grating (SWG) waveguide of trapezoidal dielectric blocks and a standard SWG waveguide of rectangular ones, respectively. By optimizing the geometry of inner silicon blocks, the quality factor is improved by 3 times than traditional subwavelength slot micro-ring resonator. The sensitivity of the single trapezoidal subwavelength grating slot microring resonator (T-SWGSMRR) sensor reaches 823 nm/RIU, with the Q factor of 2.5×10 4 and the limit of detection of 7.53×10 −5 RIU are obtained. The sensitivity is further promoted by utilizing two cascaded T-SWGSMRRs on the basis of the Vernier effect, which reaches 12151 nm/RIU. The sensors presented in this work can be fabricated with commercial CMOS process, indicating that it has potential prospects in industrial applications.
Xylan, one of the most important structures and polysaccharides, plays critical roles in plant development, growth, and defense responses to pathogens. Glucuronic acid substitution of xylan (GUX) ...functions in xylan sidechain decoration, which is involved in a wide range of physiological processes in plants. However, the specifics of GUXs in trees remain unclear. In this study, the characterization and evolution of the GUX family genes in E. grandis, a fast-growing forest tree belonging to the Myrtaceae family, were performed. A total of 23 EgGUXs were identified from the E. grandis genome, of which all members contained motif 2, 3, 5, and 7. All GUX genes were phylogeneticly clustered into five distinct groups. Among them, EgGUX01~EgGUX05 genes were clustered into group III and IV, which were more closely related to the AtGUX1, AtGUX2, and AtGUX4 members of Arabidopsis thaliana known to possess glucuronyltransferase activity, while most other members were clustered into group I. The light-responsive elements, hormone-responsive elements, growth and development-responsive elements, and stress-responsive elements were found in the promoter cis-acting elements, suggesting the expression of GUX might also be regulated by abiotic factors. RNA-Seq data confirmed that EgGUX02, EgGUX03, and EgGUX10 are highly expressed in xylem, and EgGUX09, EgGUX10, and EgGUX14 were obviously responses to abiotic stresses. The results of this paper will provide a comprehensive determination of the functions of the EgGUX family members, which will further contribute to understanding E. grandis xylan formation.
Nonvolatile compact on-chip optical filters with a tunable spectral response are required in low-power optical communication systems and applications. By capping phase change materials (PCMs) films ...on a phase-shifted Bragg grating (PSBG), the key parameters of a filter such as center wavelength and extinction ratio can be tuned simultaneously for filtering or processing purposes. A 9 nm wavelength shift, and amplitude modulations of 16.1 dB in the transmission channel and 42.5 dB in the reflection channel while keeping the center wavelength unchanged are achieved in this filter at 1550 nm. Moreover, the device has a compact size of 500 nm × 31.9 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu</tex-math></inline-formula>m and an insertion loss as low as -0.76 dB, making it ideal for large-scale integration. The advent of such compact, reconfigurable, nonvolatile optical filters opens up new avenues for next-generation low-power general-purpose photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and has potential applications in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems, spectral shaping, and on-chip signal processors.
Abstract
Intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is a major cause of low back pain (LBP), and excessive senescence and apoptosis of nucleus pulposus (NP) cells are major pathological changes in IVDD. ...Physical exercise could effectively delay the process of intervertebral disc degeneration; however, its mechanism is still largely unknown. Irisin is an exercise-induced myokine released upon cleavage of the membrane-bound precursor protein fibronectin type III domain-containing protein 5 (FNDC5), and its levels increase after physical exercise. Here, we show that after physical exercise, FNDC5/irisin levels increase in the circulation and NP, senescence and apoptosis are reduced, autophagy is activated in NP tissue, and the progression of IVDD is delayed. Conversely, after knocking out FNDC5, the benefits of physical exercise are compromised. Moreover, the overexpression of FNDC5 in NP tissue effectively alleviated the degeneration of the intervertebral disc (IVD) in rats. By showing that FNDC5/irisin is an important mediator of the beneficial effects of physical exercise in the IVDD model, the study proposes FNDC5/irisin as a novel agent capable of activating autophagy and protecting NP from senescence and apoptosis.
The node of the first fruiting branch (NFFB) is an important precocious trait in cotton. Many studies have been conducted on the localization of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and genes related to ...fiber quality and yield, but there has been little attention to traits related to early maturity, especially the NFFB, in cotton.
To identify the QTL associated with the NFFB in cotton, a BC
F
population comprising 278 individual plants was constructed. The parents and two DNA bulks for high and low NFFB were whole genome sequenced, and 243.8 Gb of clean nucleotide data were generated. A total of 449,302 polymorphic SNPs and 135,353 Indels between two bulks were identified for QTL-seq. Seventeen QTLs were detected and localized on 11 chromosomes in the cotton genome, among which two QTLs (qNFFB-Dt2-1 and qNFFB-Dt3-3) were located in hotspots. Two candidate genes (GhAPL and GhHDA5) related to the NFFB were identified using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) experiments in this study. Both genes exhibited higher expression levels in the early-maturing cotton material RIL182 during flower bud differentiation, and the silencing of GhAPL and GhHDA5 delayed the flowering time and increased the NFFB compared to those of VA plants in cotton.
Our study preliminarily found that GhAPL and GhHDA5 are related to the early maturity in cotton. The findings provide a basis for the further functional verification of candidate genes related to the NFFB and contribute to the study of early maturity in cotton.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The pathophysiology of spinal cord injury (SCI) involves primary injury and secondary injury. Secondary injury is a major target for SCI therapy, whereas microglia play an important role in secondary ...injury. The immunoresponsive gene 1 (Irg-1) has been recorded as one of the most significantly upregulated genes in SCI tissues in gene chip data; however, its role in SCI remains unclear. This study aims to illustrate the role of Irg-1 as well as its regulated metabolite itaconate in SCI. It was demonstrated that the expression of Irg-1 was increased in spinal cord tissues in mice as well as in microglia stimulated by lipopolysaccharides (LPS). It was also shown that overexpression of Irg-1 may suppress LPS-induced inflammation in microglia, while these protective effects were attenuated by Nrf2 silencing. In vivo, overexpression of Irg-1 was shown to suppress neuroinflammation and improve motor function recovery. Furthermore, treatment of microglia with itaconate demonstrated similar inflammation suppressive effects as Irg-1 overexpression in vitro and improved motor function recovery in vivo. In conclusion, the current study shows that Irg-1 and itaconate are involved in the recovery process of SCI, either Irg-1 overexpression or itaconate treatment may provide a promising strategy for the treatment of SCI.
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