Human cytomegalovirus induces alteration of β-actin mRNA and microfilaments in human embryo fibroblast cells

INTRODUCTION It is known that human embryo fibroblast cellsare permissive for cytomegalovirus (CMV) repli-cation in vitro. Data have shown that CMV infec-tion causes a rapid, progressive disruption of thehost cell cytoskeleton (CSK); and that the disrup-tion correlates with actin depolymerization. Someexperts used whole-mount (3D) electron micros-copy to analyze the CSK of uninfected and CMV-infected human lung fibroblast cells; and foundwithin 2 min of CMV infection, localiz…     

On the application of calcium carbide slag as CO2 absorbent

Calcium carbide slag, generated in the hydrolysis process of calcium carbide, is an potential carbon capture reagent because its main ingredient is Ca(OH)2. Calcium carbide slag, a by-product of a resin factory was used as carbon capture reagent. The change of pH and electrical conductivity (EC) of the calcium carbide slag slurry with different solid-to-liquid ratios, as well as the capture efficiency and dynamics under different temperatures and flow rates of CO2 were studied. The properties of solid were characterized with XRD, TG-DTA, SEM and FT-IR before and after capturing carbon. The results show that the change of pH and EC were greater with low solid-to-liquid ratio than that with high solid-to-liquid ratio. The analysis of XRD and SEM show that the content of CaCO3 increased significantly, which improved that Ca(OH)2 and free CaO were reacted with CO2. The results of TG-DTA and FT-IR show that the physicochemical properties and microstructure of the slag changed after capturing CO2 because of the increase of CaCO3 content. All the results mentioned above improve the feasibility of utilizing calcium carbide slag to capture CO2 and offer a practical way for carbon emission reduction and disposal of wasted calcium carbide slag.     

Osteogenic effects of antihypertensive drug benidipine on mouse MC3T3-E1 cells in vitro

Hypertension is a prevalent systemic disease in the elderly, who can suffer from several pathological skeletal conditions simultaneously, including osteoporosis. Benidipine(BD), which is widely used to treat hypertension, has been proved to have a beneficial effect on bone metabolism. In order to confirm the osteogenic effects of BD, we investigated its osteogenic function using mouse MC3 T3-E1 preosteoblast cells in vitro. The proliferative ability of MC3 T3-E1 cells was significantly associated with the concentration of BD, as measured by methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide(MTT)assay and cell cycle assay. With BD treatment, the osteogenic differentiation and maturation of MC3 T3-E1 cells were increased,as established by the alkaline phosphatase(ALP) activity test, matrix mineralized nodules formation, osteogenic genetic test,and protein expression analyses. Moreover, our data showed that the BMP2/Smad pathway could be the partial mechanism for the promotion of osteogenesis by BD, while BD might suppress the possible function of osteoclasts through the OPG/RANKL/RANK(receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB(NF-κB)) pathway. The hypothesis that BD bears a considerable potential in further research on its dual therapeutic effect on hypertensive patients with poor skeletal conditions was proved within the limitations of the present study.     

Fabrication of hierarchical polycaprolactone/gel scaffolds via combined 3D bioprinting and electrospinning for tissue engineering

It is a severe challenge to construct 3D scaf- folds which hold controllable pore structure and similar morphology of the natural extracellular matrix （ECM）. In this study, a compound technology is proposed by com- bining the 3D bioprinting and electrospinning process to fabricate 3D scaffolds, which are composed by orthogonal array gel microfibers in a grid-like arrangement and inter- calated by a nonwoven structure with randomly distributed polycaprolactone （PCL） nanofibers. Human adipose- derived stem cells （hASCs） are seeded on the hierarchical scaffold and cultured 21 d for in vitro study. The results of cells culturing show that the microfibers structure with controlled pores can allow the easy entrance of cells and the efficient diffusion of nutrients, and the nanofiber webs layered in the scaffold can significantly improve initial cell attachment and proliferation. The present work demon- strates that the hierarchical PCL/gel scaffolds consisting of controllable 3D architecture with interconnected pores and biomimetic nanofiber structures resembling the ECM can be designed and fabricated by the combination of 3D bioprinting and electrospinning to improve biological per- formance in tissue engineering applications.     

Temperature Gradient Analyses of a Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Fueled by Methanol

Thermal management in solid oxide fuel cells(SOFC) is a critical issue due to non-uniform electrochemical reactions and convective flows within the cells.Therefore,a 2D mathematical model is established herein to investigate the thermal responses of a tubular methanol-fueled SOFC.Results show that unlike the low-temperature condition of 873 K,where the peak temperature gradient occurs at the cell center,it appears near the fuel inlet at 1073 K because of the rapid temperature rise induced by the...     

Effect of siRNA-mediated knockdown of eIF3c gene on survival of colon cancer cells

Eukaryotic initiation factor subunit c(eIF3c) has been identified as an oncogene that is over-expressed in tumor cells and,therefore,is a potential therapeutic target for gene-based cancer treatment.This study was focused on investigating the effect of small interfering RNA(siRNA)-mediated eIF3c gene knockdown on colon cancer cell survival.The eIF3c gene was observed to be highly expressed in colon cancer cell models.The expression levels of the gene in eIF3c siRNA infected and control siRNA infected cells were compared via real-time polymerase chain reaction(PCR) and western blotting analysis.Cell proliferation levels were analyzed employing 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol 2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide(MTT) and colony formation assays.Furthermore,the effects of eIF3c gene knockdown on the cell cycle and apoptosis were analyzed using flow cytometry.The results showed that suppression of eIF3c expression significantly(P<0.001) reduced cell proliferation and colony formation of RKO colon cancer cells.The cell cycle was arrested by decreasing the number of cells entering S phase.Further,apoptosis was induced as a result of eIF3c knockdown.Collectively,eIF3c deletion effectively reduced the survival of colon cancer cells and could be used as a therapeutic tool for colon cancer therapy.     

Gaussian particle filter based pose and motion estimation

Determination of relative three-dimensional (3D) position, orientation, and relative motion between two reference frames is an important problem in robotic guidance, manipulation, and assembly as well as in other fields such as photogrammetry. A solution to pose and motion estimation problem that uses two-dimensional (2D) intensity images from a single camera is de- sirable for real-time applications. The difficulty in performing this measurement is that the process of projecting 3D object features to 2D images is a nonlinear transformation. In this paper, the 3D transformation is modeled as a nonlinear stochastic system with the state estimation providing six degrees-of-freedom motion and position values, using line features in image plane as measuring inputs and dual quaternion to represent both rotation and translation in a unified notation. A filtering method called the Gaussian particle filter (GPF) based on the particle filtering concept is presented for 3D pose and motion estimation of a moving target from monocular image sequences. The method has been implemented with simulated data, and simulation results are provided along with comparisons to the extended Kalman filter (EKF) and the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) to show the relative advantages of the GPF. Simulation results showed that GPF is a superior alternative to EKF and UKF.     

Synergistic effects of tea polyphenols and ascorbic acid on human lung adenocarcinoma SPC-A-1 cells

Tea polyphenols have been shown to have anticancer activity in many studies.In the present study,we investigated effects of theaflavin-3-3'-digallate(TF3),one of the major theaflavin monomers in black tea,in combination with ascorbic acid(AA),a reducing agent,and(-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate(EGCG),the main polyphenol presented in green tea,in combination with AA on cellular viability and cell cycles of the human lung adenocarcinoma SPC-A-1 cells.The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide(MTT) assay showed that the 50% inhibition concentrations(IC50) of TF3,EGCG,and AA on SPC-A-1 cells were 4.78,4.90,and 30.62 μmol/L,respectively.The inhibitory rates of TF3 combined with AA(TF3+AA) and EGCG combined with AA(EGCG+AA) at a molar ratio of 1:6 on SPC-A-1 cells were 54.4% and 45.5%,respectively.Flow cytometry analysis showed that TF3+AA and EGCG+AA obviously increased the cell population in the G0/G1 phase of the SPC-A-1 cell cycle from 53.9% to 62.8% and 60.0%,respectively.TF3-treated cells exhibited 65.3% of the G0/G1 phase at the concentration of its IC50.Therefore,TF3+AA and EGCG+AA had synergistic inhibition effects on the proliferation of SPC-A-1 cells,and significantly held SPC-A-1 cells in G0/G1 phase.The results suggest that the combination of TF3 with AA or EGCG with AA enhances their anticancer activity.     

Science Letters:Assignment of CCR7 gene to chicken chromosome 27 by radiation hybrid panel mapping

The protein encoded by CC chemokine receptor 7 (CCR7) is a member of the G protein-coupled receptor family. This receptor was identified as a gene induced by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and is thought to be a mediator of EBV effects on B lymphocytes. This receptor is expressed in various lymphoid tissues and activates B and T lymphocytes. It has been shown to control the migration of memory T cells to inflamed tissues, as well as stimulate dendritic cell maturation. To map the CCR7 gene in chicken chromosome, a 6 000 rads chicken-hamster radiation hybrid panel (ChickRH6) was used. PCR of samples from ChickRH6 revealed that the location of CCR7 gene is linked to the maker SEQ0347 (6 cR away) with LOD score of 16.6 and that the marker SEQ0347 is located on chromosome 27 at 27 cR of RH (radiation hydrid) map. We compared the corresponding human mRNA sequence with the predicted coding sequence of chicken CCR7 gene, and found that the assembled contig shared a high percentage of similarity with that of the human gene.     

Phenotypic and functional characteristics of dendritic cells derived from human peripheral blood monocytes

INTRODUCTION Dendritic cells(DCs)are professional anti-gen-presenting cells(APC)that are responsible for the activation of undifferentiated T cells and the generation of primary T-cell responses(Cella et al.,1997).The specific role of DCs is to capture,process and present antigens to T cells.Immunogenic and inflammatory signals are responsible for the migra-tion of DCs from tissues to lymphoid organs where they initiate an immune response.These processes induce the maturation of DCs…     

Kinetics Modeling of Calcium Formate Synthesis by Calcium Hydroxide Carbonylation

The synthesis of calcium formate by Ca(OH)_2 carbonylation was studied in a semi-batch stirred tank.The reaction mechanism was analyzed theoretically and the rate of each step was compared.The influence ofreaction conditions on the formation of calcium formate was investigated.The results indicate that the rate-controlling step is the reaction between dissolved CO and dissolved Ca(OH)_2,and the gaseous diffusion resistance can be eliminated when the stirring speed reached 1000 r/min.Furthermore,the reaction kinetics was studied at a stirring speed of 1000 r/min,temperature of 423–453 K,pressure of 2.0–3.5 MPa and different initial concentrations of Ca(OH)_2.An effective method was proposed to measure the reaction rate of CO.A mathematical model was developed using the dual-film theory,and the parameters were obtained using regression of experimental data.The reaction rates calculated using the kinetics model were compared with experimental data.The results show that the deviations are within ±10%,proving that the established model is valid and can provide a basis for industrial amplification.     

Availability and toxicity of Fe(Ⅱ) and Fe(Ⅲ) in Caco-2 cells

The objective of the present study was to compare the toxicity and availability of Fe(Ⅱ) and Fe(Ⅲ) to Caco-2 cells.Cellular damage was studied by measuring cell proliferation and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release. The activities of two major antioxidative enzymes [superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx)] and differentiation marker (alkaline phosphatase) were determined after the cells were exposed to different levels of iron salts. The cellular iron concentration was investigated to evaluate iron bioavailability. The results show that iron uptake of the cells treated with Fe(Ⅱ) is significantly higher than that of the cells treated with Fe(Ⅲ) (P＜0.05). Fe(Ⅱ) at a concentration>1.5 mmol/L was found to be more effective in reducing cellular viability than Fe(Ⅲ). LDH release investigation suggests that Fe(Ⅱ) can reduce stability of the cell membrane. The activities of SOD and GPx of the cells treated with Fe(Ⅱ) were higher than those of the cells treated with Fe(Ⅲ), although both of them increased with raising iron supply levels. The results indicate that both Fe(Ⅱ) and Fe(Ⅲ) could reduce the cellular antioxidase gene expression at high levels.     

基于集群系统的3D格点Monte Carlo算法并行实现

This paper presents a new approach to parallelize 3D lattice Monte Carlo algorithms used in the numerical simulation of polymer on ZiQiang 2000-a cluster of symmetric multiprocessors(SMPs).The combined load for cell and energy calculations over the time step is balanced together to form a single spatial decomposition.Basic aspects and strategies of running Monte Carlo calculations on parallel computers are studied.Different steps involved in porting the software on a parallel architecture based on ZiQiang 2000 running under Linux and MPI are described briefly.It is found that parallelization becomes more advantageous when either the lattice is very large or the model contains many cells and chains.     

Antitumor effects of human interferon-alpha 2b secreted by recombinant bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine on bladder cancer cells

Objective:Our objective was to construct a recombinant bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine(rBCG) that secretes human interferon-alpha 2b(IFNα-2b) and to study its immunogenicity and in vitro antitumor activity against human bladder cancer cell lines T24 and T5637.Methods:The signal sequence BCG Ag85B and the gene IFNα-2b were amplified from the genome of BCG and human peripheral blood,respectively,by polymerase chain reaction(PCR).The two genes were cloned in Escherichia coli-BCG shuttle-vector pMV261 to obtain a new recombinant plasmid pMV261-Ag85B-IFNα-2b.BCG was transformed with the recombinant plasmid by electroporation and designated rBCG-IFNα-2b.Mononuclear cells were isolated from human peripheral blood(PBMCs) and stimulated with rBCG-IFNα-2b or wild type BCG for 3 d,and then cultured with human bladder cancer cell lines T24 and T5637.Their cytotoxicities were measured by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide(MTT) assay.Results:BCG was successfully transformed with the recombinant plasmid pMV261-Ag85B-IFNα-2b by electroporation and the recombinant BCG(rBCG-IFNα-2b) was capable of synthesizing and secreting cytokine IFNα-2b.PBMC proliferation was enhanced significantly by rBCG-IFNα-2b,and the cytotoxicity of PBMCs stimulated by rBCG-IFNα-2b to T24 and T5627 was significantly stronger in comparison to wild type BCG.Conclusions:A recombinant BCG,secreting human IFNα-2b(rBCG-IFNα-2b),was constructed successfully and was superior to control wild type BCG in inducing immune responses and enhancing cytotoxicity to human bladder cancer cell lines T24 and T5637.This suggests that rBCG-IFNα-2b could be a promising agent for bladder cancer patients in terms of possible reductions in both clinical dosage and side effects of BCG immunotherapy.