Skeletal muscle repair and regeneration after injury is a multi-stage process, involving a dynamic inflammatory microenvironment consisting of a complex network formed by the interaction of immune ...cells and their secreted cytokines. The homeostasis of the inflammatory microenvironment determines whether skeletal muscle repair tissues will ultimately form scar tissue or regenerative tissue. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) regulate homeostasis within the immune system and self-immune tolerance, and play a crucial role in skeletal muscle repair and regeneration. Dysregulated Tregs function leads to abnormal repair. In this review, we discuss the role and mechanisms of Tregs in skeletal muscle repair and regeneration after injury and provide new strategies for Treg immunotherapy in skeletal muscle diseases.
The present study examined the relationship between personality traits and the response to acute psychological stress induced by a standardized laboratory stress induction procedure (the Trier Social ...Stress Test, TSST). The stress response was measured with a combination of cardiovascular reactivity, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity, and subjective affect (including positive affect, negative affect and subjective controllability) in healthy individuals. The Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) approach was applied to account for the relationship between personality traits and stress responses. Results suggested that higher neuroticism predicted lower heart rate stress reactivity, lower cortisol stress response, more decline of positive affect and lower subjective controllability. Individuals higher in extraversion showed smaller cortisol activation to stress and less increase of negative affect. In addition, higher openness score was associated with lower cortisol stress response. These findings elucidate that neuroticism, extraversion and openness are important variables associated with the stress response and different dimensions of personality trait are associated with different aspects of the stress response.
Chronic stress exposure is associated with impaired cognitive function; however, the underlying mechanism is not yet clear. This study investigated the association between perceived chronic stress ...and anticipatory processing, measured by event-related potentials, and the moderating role of resilience on this relationship in healthy adults. Fifty-nine healthy volunteers (22.52 ± 1.75 years) underwent a continuous performance test, and anticipatory processing was indexed with the contingent negative variation (CNV) of event-related potentials, the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale, and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. The results showed that greater reports of perceived chronic stress were associated with more negative early CNVs; however, there was no significant relationship between perceived chronic stress and behavioral performance on the continuous performance test. More importantly, the relationship between perceived chronic stress and early CNV was moderated by resilience as the association between the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale score and early CNV amplitude was significant for low and average levels of resilience. These results not only suggest that chronic stress may lead to decreased cognitive efficiency in cortical anticipatory activity, but also underscore the role of resilience as a key protective factor in decreased cognitive efficiency.
Geosocial networking smartphone applications (apps) are popular tools for seeking sexual partners among men who have sex with men (MSM). We evaluated app use and risk of sexually transmitted ...infections (STIs) in app-using MSM (app-users) by a systematic review and meta-analysis.
A literature search for relevant studies was performed. We extracted date of STIs (ever being diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia) and sexual behavior (e.g., number of app-met partners, unprotected anal/oral sex, HIV testing) from the eligible studies. Pooled proportions and odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were estimated.
Twenty-five studies were included. The self-reported prevalence of prior diagnosis of HIV among app-users ranged from 2.2 to 37.7%, and the pooled prevalence of HIV infection was 6% (95% CI, 4-11%). Compared with non-users, app-users were more likely to have gonorrhea (OR = 2.36; 95% CI, 2.07-2.70) and chlamydia (OR = 2.22; 95% CI, 1.92-2.56). The two groups were similar in terms of diagnoses of HIV (OR = 0.89, 95% CI, 0.68-1.16) and syphilis (OR = 1.92; 95% CI, 0.91-4.03). However, when one study that caused substantial heterogeneity was omitted, the pooled OR for app-users to contract syphilis became 3.00 (95% CI, 1.84-4.91) .
MSM who seek sexual partners using apps may be more likely to have STIs as than are non-users.
Drought drastically restricts wheat production, so to dissect allelic variations of drought tolerant genes without imposing trade-offs between tolerance and yield is essential to cope with the ...circumstance. Here, we identify a drought tolerant WD40 protein encoding gene TaWD40-4B.1 of wheat via the genome-wide association study. The full-length allele TaWD40-4B.1
but not the truncated allele TaWD40-4B.1
possessing a nonsense nucleotide variation enhances drought tolerance and grain yield of wheat under drought. TaWD40-4B.1
interacts with canonical catalases, promotes their oligomerization and activities, and reduces H
O
levels under drought. The knock-down of catalase genes erases the role of TaWD40-4B.1
in drought tolerance. TaWD40-4B.1
proportion in wheat accessions is negatively correlative with the annual rainfall, suggesting this allele may be selected during wheat breeding. The introgression of TaWD40-4B.1
enhances drought tolerance of the cultivar harboring TaWD40-4B.1
. Therefore, TaWD40-4B.1
could be useful for molecular breeding of drought tolerant wheat.
To examine the features of heavy metal pollution of PM2.5 （particulate matter less than 2.5 μm） in Tianjin, China, as well as the exposure risk of PM2.5 to human health, we analyzed ambient ...PM2.5samples collected from a campus of Nankai University in June, August, and October 2012. The concentrations of PM2.5 and heavy metals （Ni, Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, Cd, Hg, As and Mn） in PM2.5 were analyzed by gravimetric analysis and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, respectively. The results show that the heavy metals contained in PM2.5 were, in descending order, Cu, Zn, Pb, Mn, Cr, Ni, Cd, As, and Hg. The proportion of Cd exceeded the secondary level of National Ambient Air Quality Standard of China （GB 3095-2012） by 1.3 times, while others were within the limit. Enrichment factor analysis indicated that Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb, and Hg are mainly from anthropogenic sources. Principal component analysis indicated that the main sources of the heavy metals are vehicle exhaust, chemical waste, and coal-burning activities. The nine heavy metals which may cause health issues by exposure through the human respiratory system and should be further examined are Cr, Cd, As, Ni, Cu, Pb, Mn, Zn, and Hg, in the order of decreasing risk levels. With reference to the U.S. EPA standard the risk levels of all nine metals were below the acceptable level （10 6/year）.
The impairing effects of mental fatigue on visual sustained attention were assessed by event-related potentials (ERPs). Subjects performed a dual visual task, which includes a continuous tracking ...task (primary task) and a random signal detection task (secondary task), for 63 minutes nonstop in order to elicit ERPs. In this period, the data such as subjective levels of mental fatigue, behavioral performance measures, and electroencephalograms were recorded for each subject. Comparing data from the first interval (0-25 min) to that of the second, the following phenomena were observed: the subjective fatigue ratings increased with time, which indicates that performing the tasks leads to increase in mental fatigue levels; reaction times prolonged and accuracy rates decreased in the second interval, which indicates that subjects' sustained attention decreased.; In the ERP data, the P3 amplitudes elicited by the random signals decreased, while the P3 latencies increased in the second interval. These results suggest that mental fatigue can modulate the higher-level cognitive processes, in terms of less attentional resources allocated to the random stimuli, which leads to decreased speed in information evaluating and decision making against the stimuli. These findings provide new insights into the question that how mental fatigue affects visual sustained attention and, therefore, can help to design countermeasures to prevent accidents caused by low visual sustained attention.
Interferon-induced transmembrane protein 1 (IFITM1), a 17-kDa membrane protein, is generally known as a modulator in many cellular functions. Recent studies showed overexpression of IFITM1 in cancers ...and relationship between IFITM1 overexpression and tumor progression. However, the role of IFITM1 in lung cancer remains unclear. Here, we presented the overexpression of IFITM1 in lung cancer tissues and cell lines A549 and H460 using quantitative Real-Time RT-PCR. In vitro assay indicated IFITM1 silencing inhibited lung cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Further, in vivo assay showed that IFITM1 silencing markedly suppressed cell growth and metastasis of lung cancer in tumor-bearing BALB/c nude mice. Mechanistically, we found that IFITM1 silencing significantly alleviated the protein levels of β-catenin, cyclin D1, and c-Mycin lung cancer cells and tumor samples. Taken together, our study revealed the role of IFITM1 as a tumor promoter during lung cancer development and the possible molecular mechanism.
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