Overweight and obesity are important risk factors of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Clustering of metabolic risk factors in early pregnancy may be a potential pathogenesis between the link of ...overweight/obesity and GDM. Since it remains unexplored, we investigated if overweight and obesity are associated with clustering of metabolic risk factors in early pregnancy and the risk of GDM in this cohort study.
Total 527 women who visited National Taiwan University Hospital for prenatal care in between November 2013 to April 2018 were enrolled. Risk factors of GDM in the first prenatal visit (FPV) were recorded. Overweight/obesity was defined if body mass index ≥24 kg/m2. GDM was diagnosed from the result of a 75g oral glucose tolerance test in 24-28 gestational weeks.
Overweight/obesity was associated with clustering of metabolic risk factors of GDM, including high fasting plasma glucose, high HbA1c, insulin resistance, high plasma triglyceride and elevated blood pressure in FPV (p<0.05). There was a positive relationship between the number of metabolic risk factors and the incidence of GDM (p <0.05). The odds ratios of HbA1c and diastolic blood pressure were higher in overweight/obese women, compared with those in normal-weight women.
Overweight/obesity is associated with clustering of metabolic risk factors in early pregnancy, which is correlated with higher risk of GDM. Our findings suggest that metabolic risk factors during early pregnancy should be evaluated in overweight/obese women.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Mycorrhizal associations are essential for orchid germination and seedling establishment, and thus may constrain the distribution and abundance of orchids under natural conditions. Previous studies ...have shown that germination and seedling establishment in several orchids often decline with increasing distance from adult plants, resulting in non-random spatial patterns of seedling establishment. In contrast, individuals of the fully mycoheterotrophic orchid
often tend to have random aboveground spatial patterns of distribution within bamboo forests. Since
is parasitic on litter-decaying fungi, its random spatial patterns of distribution may be due to highly scattered patterns of litter-decaying fungi within bamboo forests. To test this hypothesis, we first identified the main mycorrhizal fungi associating with developing seeds and adult plants at a bamboo forest site in Taiwan using Miseq high-throughput DNA sequencing. Next, we combined seed germination experiments with quantitative PCR (qPCR) analyses to investigate to what extent the abundance of mycorrhizal fungi affected spatial patterns of seed germination. Our results show that seed germination and subsequent growth to an adult stage in
required a distinct switch in mycorrhizal partners, in which protocorms associated with a single
OTU, while adults mainly associated with an OTU from the genus
. A strong, positive relationship was observed between germination and
abundance in the litter, but not between germination and
abundance. Fungal abundance was not significantly related to the distance from the adult plants, and consequently germination was also not significantly related to the distance from adult plants. Our results provide the first evidence that the abundance of litter-decaying fungi varies randomly within the bamboo forest and independently from
adults.
The addition of maternal age to fasting plasma glucose (FPG) at 24-28 gestational weeks improves the performance of GDM screening as maternal age increases. However, this method delays the diagnosis ...of GDM. Since FPG at the first prenatal visit (FPV) is a screening option for pre-existing diabetes, we evaluated the performance of age plus FPG at the FPV to reduce the need for the OGTT. Pregnant women were recruited consecutively in 2013-2018 (the training cohort) and 2019 (the validation cohort). We excluded women with twin pregnancies, unavailable FPG at the FPV or OGTT data, pre-pregnancy diabetes, or a history of GDM. All participants underwent FPG and haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) at the FPV and received 75-g OGTT at 24-28 gestational weeks if FPG at the FPV was <92 mg/dL. GDM was diagnosed by the IADPSG criteria. Two algorithms were developed with the cutoffs determined when the percentage requiring OGTT (OGTT%) was the lowest and the sensitivity was greater than or equal to90%. The incidence of GDM increased with age. The "FPG at the FPV" algorithm reduced OGTT% to 68.8% with the FPG cutoff at 79 mg/dl. The "age plus FPG at the FPV" algorithm, with the cutoff of 114, further reduced OGTT% to 58.3%, with the sensitivity of 90.7% (9.3% GDM missed) and the specificity of 100%. These findings were replicated in the validation cohort. Screening GDM by maternal age plus FPG at the FPV can reduce OGTT%, especially in populations with a significant proportion of pregnant women with advanced ages.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Background
Seed dispersal allows plants to colonize new habitats that has an significant influence on plant distribution and population dynamics. Orchids produce numerous tiny seeds without ...endosperm, which are considered to be mainly wind-dispersed. Here, we report avian seed dispersal for an early diverging orchid species,
Neuwiedia singapureana
, which produces fleshy fruits with hard seed coats in the understory of tropical forests.
Results
Neuwiedia singapureana
produced fleshy fruits that turned red in autumn, and birds were confirmed to be the primary seed dispersers. As compared to its sister species,
N. veratrifolia
with dehiscent capsular fruits, embryos of
N. singapureana
were larger and enclosed by thickened and lignified seed coats. After passing through the digestive tracts of birds, the seeds still stayed alive, and the walls of seed coat contained several cracks. The germination percentage increased significantly for digested seeds as compared with seeds from intact fruits.
Conclusion
The thickened and lignified seed coat may protect seeds as they passed through the digestive tracts of birds. Taken together with a recent report of insect-mediated seed dispersal system in the subfamily Apostasioideae, the animal-mediated seed dispersal may be an adaptive mechanism promoting the success of colonization in dark understory habitats.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Although emerging evidence suggests a potential role of calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CaMKII) in prostate cancer, its role in prostate cancer tumorigenesis is largely unknown. Here, we ...examine whether the acetyl CoA-CaMKII pathway, first described in frog oocytes, promotes prostate cancer tumorigenesis. In human prostate cancer specimens, metastatic prostate cancer expressed higher levels of active CaMKII compared with localized prostate cancer. Correspondingly, basal CaMKII activity was significantly higher in the more tumorigenic PC3 and PC3-mm2 cells relative to the less tumorigenic LNCaP and C4-2B4 cells. Deletion of CaMKII by CRISPR/Cas9 in PC3-mm2 cells abrogated cell survival under low-serum conditions, anchorage-independent growth and cell migration; overexpression of constitutively active CaMKII in C4-2B4 cells promoted these phenotypes. In an animal model of prostate cancer metastasis, genetic ablation of CaMKII reduced PC3-mm2 cell metastasis from the prostate to the lymph nodes. Knockdown of the acetyl-CoA transporter carnitine acetyltransferase abolished CaMKII activation, providing evidence that acetyl-CoA generated from organelles is a major activator of CaMKII. Genetic deletion of the β-oxidation rate-limiting enzyme ACOX family proteins decreased CaMKII activation, whereas overexpression of ACOXI increased CaMKII activation. Overall, our studies identify active CaMKII as a novel connection between organelle β-oxidation and acetyl-CoA transport with cell survival, migration, and prostate cancer metastasis.
This study identifies a cell metabolic pathway that promotes prostate cancer metastasis and suggests prostate cancer may be susceptible to β-oxidation inhibitors.
.
In this study, the carboxy silane 4-(triethoxysilyl)butanoic acid (TESBA) was used to modify titanium dioxide (TiO
2
) to create a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) and then directionally immobilize a ...capture antibody using protein A. We selected the amino silane (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) to perform a comparative analysis with TESBA, and employed glutaraldehyde (GA) as the control. The modification and detection effects and the limit of detection (LOD) were evaluated by detecting human immunoglobulin G (IgG). The average normalized sensitivity of the dual-grating coupler waveguide biosensor was 49.63 ± 0.27 RIU
−1
and the optimum resolution was 1.30 × 10
−6
RIU. When the SAM was prepared using TESBA and APTES followed by GA, the LOD was 4.59 × 10
−7
g mL
−1
and 5.29 × 10
−7
g mL
−1
, respectively. We analyzed the modification and detection effects by the
t
-test and concluded that the differences in the modification effects using TESBA and APTES followed by GA were significant and the differences in the detection effects using TESBA and APTES followed by GA were insignificant. The use of TESBA as the SAM led to the modification effect being superior to that obtained using APTES followed by GA. The detection effect using TESBA was as outstanding as that using APTES followed by GA. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of using TESBA as the SAM to carboxylate the surface of TiO
2
, thereby enabling immobilization of biomolecules for human IgG detection.
4-(Triethoxysilyl)butanoic acid was used to modify TiO
2
to create a self-assembled monolayer and then directionally immobilize a capture antibody using protein A.
Containing the largest number of species, the orchid family provides not only materials for studying plant evolution and environmental adaptation, but economically and culturally important ornamental ...plants for human society. Previously, we collected genome and transcriptome information of Dendrobium catenatum, Phalaenopsis equestris, and Apostasia shenzhenica which belong to two different subfamilies of Orchidaceae, and developed user-friendly tools to explore the orchid genetic sequences in the OrchidBase 4.0. The OrchidBase 4.0 offers the opportunity for plant science community to compare orchid genomes and transcriptomes and retrieve orchid sequences for further study.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Purpose of Review
Prostate cancer bone metastasis is the lethal progression of the disease. The disease frequently presents with osteoblastic lesions in bone. The tumor-induced bone can cause ...complications that significantly hamper the quality of life of patients. A better understanding of how prostate cancer induces aberrant bone formation and how the aberrant bone affects the progression and treatment of the disease may improve the therapies for this disease.
Recent Findings
Prostate cancer-induced bone was shown to enhance tumor growth and confer therapeutic resistance in bone metastasis. Clinically, Radium-223, an alpha emitter that selectively targets bone, was shown to improve overall survival in patients, supporting a role of tumor-induced bone in prostate cancer progression in bone. Recently, it was discovered that PCa-induced aberrant bone formation is due, in part, from tumor-associated endothelial cells that were converted into osteoblasts through endothelial-to-osteoblast (EC-to-OSB) conversion by tumor-secreted BMP4.
Summary
The unique bone-forming phenotype of prostate cancer bone metastasis plays a role in prostate cancer progression in bone and therapy resistance. Therapies that incorporate targeting the tumor-induced osteoblasts or EC-to-OSB conversion mechanism may reduce tumor-induced bone formation and improve therapy outcomes.
Many female carriers of Fabry disease are likely to develop severe morbidity and mortality. However, by our own estimation, around 80% of female newborns are missed by our current enzyme-based ...screening approach. Our team's aim was to develop an improved cost-effective screening method that is able to detect Fabry disease among female newborns. In Taiwan, based on a database of 916,000 newborns, ~98% of Fabry patients carry mutations out of a pool of only 21 pathogenic mutations. An Agena iPLEX platform was designed to detect these 21 pathogenic mutations using only a single-assay panel. A total of 54,791 female infants were screened and 136 female newborns with the IVS4 + 919G > A mutation and one female newborn with the c.656T > C mutation were identified. Using the current enzyme-based newborn screening approach as baseline, around 83% of female newborns are being missed. Through a family study of the IVS4 female newborns, 30 IVS4 adult family members were found to have left ventricular hypertrophy. Ten patients received endomyocardial biopsy and all were found to have significant globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) accumulation in their cardiomyocytes. All of these individuals now receive enzyme replacement therapy. We have demonstrated that the Agena iPLEX assay is a powerful tool for detecting females with Fabry disease. Furthermore, through this screening, we also have been able to identify many disease-onset adult family members who were originally undiagnosed for Fabry disease. This screening helps them to receive treatment in time before severe and irreversible cardiac damage has occurred.
A subset of IgA nephropathy (IgAN) patients exhibiting minimal change disease (MCD) like features present with nephrotic-range proteinuria and warrants immunosuppressive therapy (IST). However, the ...diagnosis of MCD-like IgAN varied by reports. We aimed to identify the key pathological features of MCD-like IgAN.
In this cohort, 228 patients had biopsy-proven IgAN from 2009 to 2021, of which 44 without segmental sclerosis were enrolled. Patients were classified into segmental (< 50% glomerular capillary loop involvement) or global (> 50%) foot process effacement (FPE) groups. We further stratified them according to the usage of immunosuppressant therapy after biopsy. Clinical manifestations, treatment response, and renal outcome were compared.
26 cases (59.1%) were classified as segmental FPE group and 18 cases (40.9%) as global FPE group. The global FPE group had more severe proteinuria (11.48 2.60, 15.29 vs. 0.97 0.14, 1.67 g/g, p = 0.001) and had a higher proportion of complete remission (81.8% vs. 20%, p = 0.018). In the global FPE group, patients without IST experienced more rapid downward eGFR change than the IST-treated population (-0.38 -1.24, 0.06 vs. 1.26 -0.17, 3.20mL/min/1.73 m2/month, p = 0.004).
The absence of segmental sclerosis and the presence of global FPE are valuable pathological features that assist in identifying MCD-like IgAN.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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