Osteoarthritis, as a degenerative disease, is a common problem and results in high socioeconomic costs and rates of disability. The most commonly affected joint is the knee and characterized by ...progressive destruction of articular cartilage, loss of extracellular matrix, and progressive inflammation. Mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC)-based therapy has been explored as a new regenerative treatment for knee osteoarthritis in recent years. However, the detailed functions of MSC-based therapy and related mechanism, especially of cartilage regeneration, have not been explained. Hence, this review summarized how to choose, authenticate, and culture different origins of MSCs and derived exosomes. Moreover, clinical application and the latest mechanistical findings of MSC-based therapy in cartilage regeneration were also demonstrated.
Abstract
Background
In gut microbiome studies, the cultured gut microbial resource plays essential roles, such as helping to unravel gut microbial functions and host-microbe interactions. Although ...several major studies have been performed to elucidate the cultured human gut microbiota, up to 70% of the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome species have not been cultured to date. Large-scale gut microbial isolation and identification as well as availability to the public are imperative for gut microbial studies and further characterizing human gut microbial functions.
Results
In this study, we constructed a human Gut Microbial Biobank (hGMB; homepage:
hgmb.nmdc.cn
) through the cultivation of 10,558 isolates from 31 sample mixtures of 239 fresh fecal samples from healthy Chinese volunteers, and deposited 1170 strains representing 400 different species in culture collections of the International Depository Authority for long-term preservation and public access worldwide. Following the rules of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes, 102 new species were characterized and denominated, while 28 new genera and 3 new families were proposed. hGMB represented over 80% of the common and dominant human gut microbial genera and species characterized from global human gut 16S rRNA gene amplicon data (
n
= 11,647) and cultured 24 “most-wanted” and “medium priority” taxa proposed by the Human Microbiome Project. We in total sequenced 115 genomes representing 102 novel taxa and 13 previously known species. Further in silico analysis revealed that the newly sequenced hGMB genomes represented 22 previously uncultured species in the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome (UHGG) and contributed 24 representatives of potentially “dark taxa” that had not been discovered by UHGG. The nonredundant gene catalogs generated from the hGMB genomes covered over 50% of the functionally known genes (KEGG orthologs) in the largest global human gut gene catalogs and approximately 10% of the “most wanted” functionally unknown proteins in the FUnkFams database.
Conclusions
A publicly accessible human Gut Microbial Biobank (hGMB) was established that contained 1170 strains and represents 400 human gut microbial species. hGMB expands the gut microbial resources and genomic repository by adding 102 novel species, 28 new genera, 3 new families, and 115 new genomes of human gut microbes.
Numerous studies have been investigated the potential of biochar (BC) derived from various materials and crop straw (CS) to decrease the bioavailability of heavy metals in soil contaminated with ...cadmium (Cd), and thereby reduce their potential risk to human health and the ecological environment. However, little attention has been given to the comparison of heavy metal remediation efficiency using BC and CS such as peanut vine (PV) and rice straw (RS), especially in soil contaminated with Cd. Here, we explore if Cd bioavailability is affected in contaminated soil by BC and CS. Peanuts were grown in plastic pots, which contained BC or CS at 5% (dry weight, w/w) in controlled environment mesocosms. The bioavailability of Cd in contaminated soil was measured by Cd concentration in the plant and the concentrations of various forms of Cd in the soil. At the same plant age, growth with BC (compared with PV and RS) led to 13.56% and 8.28% lower rates of Cd content in the aboveground parts, 40.65% and 35.67% lower rates of Cd content in the seeds, yet 9.08% and 7.09% lower rates of Cd content in the roots, yet 35.80% and 28.48% lower rates of exchangeable Cd content in the soil. Moreover, BC amendment enhanced the biomass of peanut and physiological quality. Thus, BC had a greater impact on immobilizing Cd in the soil. The results imply that BC was more significantly (P < 0.05) remarkable in decreasing the Cd bioavailability and improving the biomass of peanut. BC has greater potential for enhancing soil quality and promoting peanut growth. In conclusion, this research demonstrates an understanding of employing BC as a promising inexpensive and eco-friendly amendment to remediate soil contaminated with Cd.
Ammonia (NH3) has potentially harmful effects on human health and has recently been found to be an important factor in the formation of haze; thus, its emission control is urgent, especially during ...haze pollution periods. In this work, two kinds of Ag/Al2O3 catalysts with different Al2O3 particle sizes (micro-Al2O3 and nano-Al2O3) were prepared and tested for the selective catalytic oxidation of ammonia (NH3-SCO). It was shown that Ag/nano-Al2O3 was much more active than Ag/micro-Al2O3 for NH3-SCO in the low-temperature range. The results of characterization by BET, TEM, NH3-TPD, XRD, H2-TPR, UV–vis, and XAFS revealed that Ag/nano-Al2O3 possesses much smaller Ag particles and more metallic Ag species (AgNPs) and also contains abundant acid sites, which facilitate the adsorption and dissociation of NH3, therefore resulting in much higher NH3-SCO activity. In addition, on the basis of in situ DRIFTS, kinetic measurements, and DFT calculation results, we discovered that the NH3-SCO reaction over Ag/nano-Al2O3 follows a reaction pathway we call the N2 – mechanism.
The Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) satellite detector announced its first result for measuring the cosmic-ray electron/positron (CRE) energy spectrum up to 4.6 TeV, including a tentative ...peak-like event excess at (1.3–1.5) TeV. In this work, we uncover a significant hidden excess in the DAMPE CRE spectrum over the energy range (0.6–1.1) TeV, which has a non-peak-like structure. We propose a new mechanism to explain this excess by a set of 1.5 TeV μ± events with subsequent decays into e± plus neutrinos. For explaining this new excess together with the peak excess around 1.4 TeV, we demonstrate that the flavor structure of the original lepton final-state produced by dark matter (DM) annihilations (or other mechanism) should have a composition ratio Ne:(Nμ+16Nτ)=1:y, with y≃2.6–10.8. For lepton portal DM models, this puts nontrivial constraint on the lepton-DM-mediator couplings λe:(λμ4+16λτ4)14=1:y14 with a narrow range y14≃1.3–1.8.
Restoring the compromised neurogenesis has been served as a potential strategy to rescue cognitive dysfunction of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we explored whether icarisid II (ICS II), a ...natural product possessing powerful neuroprotection, could recover the neurogenesis dysfunction of APP/PS1 mice, and investigated its underlying mechanisms. Our results showed that oral administration of ICS II could alleviate cognitive injuries of APP/PS1 mice, promote hippocampal neurogenesis, as well as stimulate Wnt/β‐catenin signal pathway confirmed by upregulated Wnt‐3a, phosphorylated glycogen synthase kinase‐3β (p‐GSK‐3β), and β‐catenin. ICS II also depressed mitochondrial fission evidenced by upregulated Mitofusin 1 (Mfn 1) and Mitofusin 2 (Mfn 2), and downregulated mitochondrial fission 1 protein (Fis 1), mitochondrial fission factor (Mff), and phosphorylated dynamin‐related protein 1 (p‐Drp 1). However, these effects of ICS II were blunted by XAV‐939, an inhibitor of Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway. In summary, our findings revealed that ICS II could improve neurogenesis and inhibit mitochondrial fission via activation of the Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway, which contributed to cognitive function restoration of APP/PS1 mice. This study discovered a novel mechanism involving neurogenesis regulation underlying the therapeutic effects of ICS II against AD.
Understanding the dynamics and underlying mechanism of carbon exchange between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere is one of the key issues in global change research. In this study, we ...quantified the carbon fluxes in different terrestrial ecosystems in China, and analyzed their spatial variation and environmental drivers based on the long‐term observation data of ChinaFLUX sites and the published data from other flux sites in China. The results indicate that gross ecosystem productivity (GEP), ecosystem respiration (ER), and net ecosystem productivity (NEP) of terrestrial ecosystems in China showed a significantly latitudinal pattern, declining linearly with the increase of latitude. However, GEP, ER, and NEP did not present a clear longitudinal pattern. The carbon sink functional areas of terrestrial ecosystems in China were mainly located in the subtropical and temperate forests, coastal wetlands in eastern China, the temperate meadow steppe in the northeast China, and the alpine meadow in eastern edge of Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau. The forest ecosystems had stronger carbon sink than grassland ecosystems. The spatial patterns of GEP and ER in China were mainly determined by mean annual precipitation (MAP) and mean annual temperature (MAT), whereas the spatial variation in NEP was largely explained by MAT. The combined effects of MAT and MAP explained 79%, 62%, and 66% of the spatial variations in GEP, ER, and NEP, respectively. The GEP, ER, and NEP in different ecosystems in China exhibited ‘positive coupling correlation’ in their spatial patterns. Both ER and NEP were significantly correlated with GEP, with 68% of the per‐unit GEP contributed to ER and 29% to NEP. MAT and MAP affected the spatial patterns of ER and NEP mainly by their direct effects on the spatial pattern of GEP.
The catalytic enantioselective diorganozinc additions to cyclic diketones including pyrazolin‐4,5‐diones and isatins have been developed. In the presence of morpholine‐containing chiral amino alcohol ...ligand, the corresponding chiral cyclic tertiary alcohols were produced in good to excellent yields (up to 97 %) and enantioselectivities (up to 95 % ee). The notable feature of this protocol includes its mild reaction conditions, Lewis acid additives free and broad functional group tolerance.
Asymmetric diorganozinc additions to cyclic α‐diketones including pyrazolin‐4,5‐diones and indolin‐2,3‐diones are described. A wide range of highly functionalized chiral tertiary alcohols has been obtained in high to excellent yields with excellent enantioselectivities. The success of this strategy relies on the multiple coordination of zinc aminoalkoxide species to cyclic α‐diketones which contain two carbonyl groups.
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