•Sildenafil administrated mice showed lesser frequencies of MDSCs, Tregs and Th2 and higher ratio of Th1/Th2 in uterus.•In uterus the decreased Tregs and the elevated Th1/Th2 ratio are associated ...with the level of PMN-MDSCs.•The level of uterine PMN-MDSCs was positively correlated with the level of blood PMN-MDSCs
Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) as an important population of immune cells were found to restrain T cell function, polarize T-helper cells (Th) 1/Th2 toward Th2 response and induce regulatory T cells (Tregs), therefore enhancing the immunotolerance during pregnancy. Sildenafil has been applied for poor endometrial quality in implantation failure patients. Nevertheless, investigations have shown that sildenafil could reduce MDSCs-dependent immunosuppression. Whether sildenafil affects embryo implantation by suppressing MDSCs? To address this question, using the mice model, we investigated the amounts of immune cells in peripheral blood and endometrial cells from control group (CG), sildenafil low-dose group (LDG) and high-dose group (HDG). We found that both treatment groups displayed a marked deficiency in polymorphonuclear (PMN)-MDSCs and Th2 from mice blood and endometrium as compared to these from CG. The frequency of Tregs in endometrium from HDG was lower than those from CG. Th1/Th2 ratio in both periphery and uterus from study groups showed a significant increase as compared to those from CG. By relevance analysis, we found that the level of Tregs positively correlated with the level of PMN-MDSCs, whereas the Th1/Th2 ratio negatively correlated with the frequency of PMN-MDSCs in uterus. Moreover, there was a positive relationship between the amount of blood PMN-MDSCs and endometrial PMN-MDSCs. These results suggest that we should carefully weigh the pros and cons of using sildenafil when applied to patients with poor endometrial receptivity.
Opioid abuse is a rapidly growing public health crisis in the USA. Despite extensive research in the past decades, little is known about the etiology of opioid addiction or the neurobiological risk ...factors that increase vulnerability to opioid use and abuse. Recent studies suggest that the type 2 metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR2) is critically involved in substance abuse and addiction. In the present study, we evaluated whether low-mGluR2 expression may represent a risk factor for the development of opioid abuse and addiction using transgenic mGluR2-knockout (mGluR2-KO) rats. Compared to wild-type controls, mGluR2-KO rats exhibited higher nucleus accumbens (NAc) dopamine (DA) and locomotor responses to heroin, higher heroin self-administration and heroin intake, more potent morphine-induced analgesia and more severe naloxone-precipitated withdrawal symptoms. In contrast, mGluR2-KO rats displayed lower motivation for heroin self-administration under high price progressive-ratio (PR) reinforcement conditions. Taken together, these findings suggest that mGluR2 may play an inhibitory role in opioid action, such that deletion of this receptor results in an increase in brain DA responses to heroin and in acute opioid reward and analgesia. Low-mGluR2 expression in the brain may therefore be a risk factor for the initial development of opioid abuse and addiction.
Atmospheric particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <2.5 μm (PM2.5) was collected at Xujiahui and Baoshan in Shanghai, China in 2010 when the World Expo took place. Eight nitrated polycyclic ...aromatic hydrocarbons (NPAHs) were analyzed. Significant reductions in individual NPAH (69–324%) and the mean ΣNPAH (about 140%) concentrations were measured during the Expo period. In order to minimize the influence from the meteorological condition, individual NPAH concentrations of 2010 Expo period were compared with those in the same time period from 2008. Significant effects from the source control measures were revealed, i.e., the individual NPAH concentration reductions ranged between 31% and 477% at the mixed residential and industrial Baoshan site, and only 0–88% at the urban Xujiahui site. The relatively high 2-nitrofluoranthene/1-nitropyrene ratio values (11–31) suggested a predominance of photochemical formation of NPAHs in the atmosphere during the Expo period. It could be concluded that the air quality during the Shanghai World Expo 2010 was benefited from the following three factors; (1) source control measures during the Expo period, i.e., prohibition of open field biomass burning in surrounding areas, (2) the three-year plan implemented from October 1, 2009, including construction sites shut-down, flue-gas desulfurization/denitrification and the vehicle upgradation and (3) the Asian monsoon which brings in clean air from the ocean during spring and summer into Shanghai.
•NPAHs were quantified in PM2.5 in Shanghai during 2010 World Expo.•Significant reductions of NPAHs during the Expo period were observed.•Air quality improved by the source control, planning in advance and monsoons action.•Photochemical formation of NPAHs was dominant during the Expo period.
A number of the indole-containing chiral oxazolidines possessing the
gem-di-
p-tolyl and
gem-di-
o-tolyl groups at C
5 were synthesized from abrine and the effects of the C
5 and C
2 substituents on ...the asymmetric induction in catalytic enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to benzaldehyde were examined. A working model is proposed to rationalize the asymmetric catalysis by these chiral oxazolidines.
Introduction
Many studies have shown that differences were observed between male and female lupus patients. Although systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) affects mostly females (female:male ratio 9:1), ...male SLE patients show higher mortality due to kidney and neurological disease. Currently there are limited epidemiological data concerning lupus in the Chinese population. As such, the Chinese SLE Treatment and Research group (CSTAR) developed the first online registry of Chinese lupus patients in 2009, and represents a multicenter observational study that attempts to describe and compile the major clinical characteristics of lupus in Chinese patients.
Objective
To investigate the effect of gender on the phenotypes of Chinese SLE patients.
Patients and methods
Data for 2104 SLE patients were prospectively collected and included in the CSTAR registry. Patients fulfilled the 1997 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) SLE classification criteria. We conducted a cross-sectional case-control study to analyze patient clinical and laboratory data at onset and at enrollment. SLE disease activity scores (SLEDAI) were also measured at enrollment.
Results
This study included 1914 women and 190 men. Males and females showed no differences in mean ages at onset, delay of diagnosis and disease duration. Males presented more frequently with fever (p = 0.003), while musculoskeletal involvement (p = 0.001) and cytopenia (p = 0.017) was more common in females as the initial manifestation at onset of SLE. For manifestations at enrollment, males presented more frequently with fever (p = 0.005), renal disease (p = 0.019), vasculitis (p = 0.032) and neuropsychiatric lupus (p = 0.007). For cumulative manifestations at enrollment, males presented more frequently with discoid rash (p < 0.001) and neuropsychiatric lupus (p = 0.036), while less frequently with arthritis (p = 0.011). However, the laboratory data showed no significant differences between the two groups at enrollment. Males also had higher SLEDAI scores at enrollment (p = 0.002).
Conclusions
Renal disease, vasculitis and neuropsychiatric lupus are more common in male SLE patients with higher SLEDAI scores compared to female SLE patients in China.
Using new flight hardware, a Chinese mission of space protein crystallization has been performed aboard the Chinese spacecraft SZ-3. Preliminary analyses of the experimental results have shown that a ...few proteins produced better crystals in space. At least, the crystals of cytochrome b5 mutant could diffract X-ray beyond the highest resolution reported so far for the same kind of crystals. In addition, some rules derived from our numerical studies of the liquid/liquid diffusion protein crystallization were proved by the crystallization of lysozyme as model protein in this space experiment, which also clearly showed the advantages and disadvantages of the gelation of the protein solution used in microgravity growth of protein crystals.
Learning points for clinicians PARN-like ribonuclease domain-containing exonuclease 1 (PNLDC1) forms a trimmer of piRNAs mediating 3'-splicing and plays an important role in meiosis and ...spermatogenesis. Here, we identified a novel nonsense PNLDC1 variant in a patient with Oligo-astheno-teratozoospermia (OAT) and poor clinical outcomes of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) from a consanguineous Chinese family.
We conducted a comprehensive field campaign to explore the optical characteristics of mineral dust in Dunhuang farmland near the Gobi Desert of northwest China during spring of 2012. The day-to-day ...and diurnal variations of dust aerosol showed prominent features throughout the experiment, primarily attributable to frequent dust events and local anthropogenic emissions. The overall average mass concentrations of the particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 µm (PM10), light scattering coefficient (σsp, 670), absorption coefficient (σap, 670), and single-scattering albedo (SSA670) were 113 ± 169 µg m−3, 53.3 ± 74.8 Mm−1, 3.2 ± 2.4 Mm−1, and 0.913 ± 0.05, respectively, which were comparable to the background levels in the southern United States but smaller than those in the eastern and other northwestern Chinese cities. The anthropogenic dust produced by agricultural cultivations (e.g., land planning, plowing, and disking) exerted a significant superimposed effect on high dust concentrations in Dunhuang farmland prior to the growing season (i.e., from 1 April to 10 May). Strong south valley wind and vertical mixing in daytime scavenged the pollution, and the weak northeast mountain wind and stable inversion layer at night favorably accumulated the air pollutants near the surface. In the afternoon (13:00–18:00 LT, local time), mean SSA670 was 0.945 ± 0.04 predominantly from dust particles, whereas finer particles and lower SSA670 values ( ∼ 0.90–0.92) were measured at night, suggesting the potential influence by the mixed dust pollutants. During a typical biomass burning event on 4 April 2012, σap, 670 increased from ∼ 2.0 to 4.75 Mm−1 and SSA670 changed from ∼ 0.90 to ∼ 0.83, implying remarkable modification of aerosol absorptive properties induced by human activities. The findings of this study would help to advance an in-depth understanding of the interaction among dust aerosol, atmospheric chemistry, and climate change in a desert source region.
The spatiotemporal distribution of source areas for the early immigration of the whitebacked planthopper, Sogatella furcifera (Horvth), at Xiushan in the middle reach of Yangtze River of China, was ...analyzed with HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) and Arc-GIS 10.0. The analysis was based on light trap data collected during April–July in 2000–2012. The synoptic meteorology backgrounds during the immigration periods were analyzed by GrADS (Grid Analysis and Display System). The light trap catches of S. furcifera varied monthly and annually. S. furcifera started immigration in Xiushan in early April to early May, whereas the main immigration period was in July. The distribution of the source areas varied monthly, and the core was moved from the south to the north gradually. The main source areas of S. furcifera in May were in southwestern Guangxi and northern Vietnam. The source areas of S. furcifera in June were located in southwestern Guangxi and western Hunan. Additionally, some of the pests were from southeastern Yunnan. The source areas in July were in northwestern Guangxi, southwestern Guizhou, eastern Yunnan, and the transitional parts of Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan. The sum frequencies of southwest and south winds on the 850 hPa isobaric surface of Xiushan of May-July in heavy occurrence years were more than the light occurrence years. The key meteorological factors were suggested to be vertical perturbation, precipitation, and wind shear during S. furcifera immigration periods.
Peptidyl arginine deiminase 6 (PADI6) is a member of the subcortical maternal complex, and PADI6 biallelic mutations have been reported to be cause female infertility via abnormalities in embryonic ...development.
This study examined a consanguineous Chinese family in which two sisters had infertility caused by early embryonic arrest. Whole exome sequencing was performed on the affected sisters and their parents to identify the potential causative mutated genes. A novel missense variant in PADI6 (NM_207421:exon16:c.G1864A:p.V622M) was identified as the pathogenic cause of female infertility caused by early embryonic arrest. Subsequent experiments confirmed the segregation pattern of this PADI6 variant with a recessive mode of inheritance. This variant has not been reported in public databases. Furthermore, in silico analysis predicted that the missense variant was detrimental to the function of PADI6, and the mutated site was highly conserved among several species.
In conclusion, our study identified a novel mutation in PADI6, further expanding the spectrum of mutations of this gene.
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