| 1. |
- Klionsky, Daniel J., et al.
(författare)
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Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy
- 2012
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Ingår i: Autophagy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1554-8635 .- 1554-8627. ; 8:4, s. 445-544
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.
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| 2. |
- Shen, Guoyin, et al.
(författare)
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Effect of helium on structure and compression behavior of SiO2 glass
- 2011
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 108:15, s. 6004-6007
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The behavior of volatiles is crucial for understanding the evolution of the Earth's interior, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. Noble gases as neutral species can serve as probes and be used for examining gas solubility in silicate melts and structural responses to any gas inclusion. Here, we report experimental results that reveal a strong effect of helium on the intermediate range structural order of SiO2 glass and an unusually rigid behavior of the glass. The structure factor data show that the first sharp diffraction peak position of SiO2 glass in helium medium remains essentially the same under pressures up to 18.6 GPa, suggesting that helium may have entered in the voids in SiO2 glass under pressure. The dissolved helium makes the SiO2 glass much less compressible at high pressures. GeO2 glass and SiO2 glass with H-2 as pressure medium do not display this effect. These observations suggest that the effect of helium on the structure and compression of SiO2 glass is unique.
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| 3. |
- Shen, Yue, et al.
(författare)
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Mice deficient in urokinase-type plasminogen activator have delayed healing of tympanic membrane perforations
- 2012
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public library of science. - 1932-6203. ; 7:12, s. e51303-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mice deficient in plasminogen, the precursor of plasmin, show completely arrested healing of tympanic membrane (TM) perforations, indicating that plasmin plays an essential role in TM healing. The activation of plasminogen to plasmin is performed by two plasminogen activators (PAs), urokinase-type PA (uPA) and tissue-type PA (tPA). To elucidate the functional roles of PAs in the healing of TM perforations, we investigated the phenotypes of single gene-deficient mice lacking uPA (uPA(-/-)) or tPA (tPA(-/-)) after TM perforation. Delayed healing of TM perforations was observed in uPA(-/-) mice but not tPA(-/-) mice. The migration of keratinocytes was clearly delayed and seemed to be misoriented in uPA(-/-) mice. Furthermore, fibrin deposition and the inflammatory response were persistent in these mice. Our findings demonstrate that uPA plays a role in the healing of TM perforations. The observed phenotypes in uPA(-/-) mice are most likely due to the reduced generation of plasmin.
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| 4. |
- Shen, Yue, 1981-
(författare)
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Plasminogen : a novel inflammatory regulator that promotes wound healing
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The plasminogen activator (PA) system has been shown to be intimately involved in wound healing. However, the role of this system in the initiation and resolution of inflammation during healing process remained to be determined. The aims of this thesis were to investigate the molecular mechanism underlying the interaction between the PA system and the inflammatory system during wound healing and to explore the therapeutic potential of plasminogen in various wound-healing models.The role of plasminogen in the inflammatory phase of the healing process of acute and diabetic wounds was studied first. Our data showed that administration of additional plasminogen to wild-type mice accelerates the healing of acute wounds. After injury, both endogenous and exogenous plasminogen are bound to inflammatory cells and are transported to the wound site, which leads to activation of inflammatory cells. In diabetic db/db mice, wound-specific accumulation of plasminogen does not take place and the inflammatory response is impaired. However, when additional plasminogen is injected, plasminogen accumulates in the wound, the inflammatory response is enhanced, the signal transduction cascade is activated and the healing rate is significantly increased. These results indicate that administration of plasminogen may be a novel therapeutic strategy to treat different types of wounds, especially chronic wounds in diabetes.The role of plasminogen at the later stage of wound healing was also studied in plasminogen-deficient mice. Our data showed that even if re-epithelialization is achieved in these mice, a prolonged inflammatory phase with abundant neutrophil accumulation and persistent fibrin deposition is observed at the wound site. These results indicate that plasminogen is also essential for the later phases of wound healing by clearing fibrin and resolving inflammation.The functional role of two physiological PAs during wound healing was further studied in a tympanic membrane (TM) wound-healing model. Our data showed that the healing process was clearly delayed in urokinase-type PA (uPA)-deficient mice but not in tissue-type PA (tPA)-deficient mice. Less pronounced keratinocyte migration, abundant neutrophil accumulation and persistent fibrin deposition were observed in uPA-deficient mice. These results indicate that uPA plays a central role in the generation of plasmin during the healing of TM perforations.Finally the therapeutic potential of plasminogen in the TM wound-healing model was studied. Our data showed that local injection of plasminogen restores the ability to heal TM perforations in plasminogen-deficient mice in a dose-dependent manner. Plasminogen supplementation also potentiates healing of acute TM perforations in wild-type mice, independent of the administration method used. A single local injection of plasminogen in plasminogen-deficient mice can initiate healing of chronic TM perforations resulting in a closed TM with a continuous but rather thick outer keratinocyte layer. Three plasminogen injections lead to a completely healed TM with a thin keratinizing squamous epithelium covering a connective tissue layer that can start to reorganize and further mature to its normal appearance. In conclusion, our results suggest that plasminogen is a promising drug candidate for the treatment of chronic TM perforations in humans. Taken together, our data indicate that plasminogen is a novel inflammatory regulator that promotes wound healing.
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| 5. |
- Shen, Yue, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Plasminogen initiates and potentiates the healing of acute and chronic tympanic membrane perforations in mice
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Translational Medicine. - : BioMed Central. - 1479-5876 .- 1479-5876. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Most tympanic membrane (TM) perforations heal spontaneously, but approximately 10-20% remain open as chronic TM perforations. Chronic perforations can lead to an impaired hearing ability and recurrent middle ear infections. Traditionally, these perforations must be surgically closed, which is costly and time consuming. Therefore, there is a need for simpler therapeutic strategies. Previous studies by us have shown that plasminogen (plg) is a potent pro-inflammatory regulator that accelerates cutaneous wound healing in mice. We have also shown that the healing of TM perforations is completely arrested in plg-deficient (plg(-/-)) mice and that these mice develop chronic TM perforations. In the present study, we investigated the therapeutic potential of local plg injection in acute and chronic TM perforation mice models. Methods: Plg(-/-) mice and wild-type mice were subjected to standardized TM perforations followed by local injection of plg into the soft tissue surrounding the TM. TM perforations with chronic characteristics were induced by leaving TM perforations in plg(-/-) mice untreated for 9 days before treatment. The healing process was observed through otomicroscope and finally confirmed by immunostaining. The quality of TM healing was evaluated based on the morphology of the TM. Result: Daily local injections of plg into the soft tissue surrounding the TM restored the ability to heal TM perforations in plg(-/-) mice in a dose-dependent manner, and potentiated the healing rate and quality in wild-type mice. A single local injection of plg initiated the healing of the chronic-like TM perforations in these mice, resulting in a closed TM with a continuous but rather thick outer keratinocyte layer. However, three plg injections led to a completely healed TM with a thin keratinizing squamous epithelium covering a connective tissue layer. Conclusion: Our data suggests that plg is a promising drug candidate for the treatment of chronic TM perforations in humans.
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| 6. |
- Shen, Yue, et al.
(författare)
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Plasminogen is a key proinflammatory regulator that accelerates the healing of acute and diabetic wounds
- 2012
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Ingår i: Blood. - Washington, USA : American society of hematology. - 0006-4971 .- 1528-0020. ; 119:24, s. 5879-5887
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite decades of research on wound healing, effective biologic agents for the treatment of chronic wounds, especially diabetic wounds, are still lacking. In the present study, we report that the inert plasma protein plasminogen (plg) acts as a key regulatory molecule that potentiates wound healing in mice. Early in the healing process, plg bound to inflammatory cells is transported to the wound area, where the level of plg is increased locally, leading to the induction of cytokines and intracellular signaling events and to a potentiation of the early inflammatory response. Systemic administration of additional plg not only accelerates the healing of acute burn wounds in wild-type mice, but also improves the healing of chronic diabetic wounds in a mouse model of diabetes. Our results suggest that the administration of plg may be a novel therapeutic strategy to treat many different types of wounds, especially chronic wounds such as those caused by diabetes. (Blood. 2012; 119(24):5879-5887)
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| 7. |
- Wang, Z. B., et al.
(författare)
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Characteristics of regional new particle formation in urban and regional background environments in the North China Plain
- 2013
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Ingår i: Atmos. Chem. Phys.. - : Copernicus Publications. - 1680-7324. ; 13:24, s. 12495-12506
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Long-term measurements of particle number size distributions were carried out both at an urban background site (Peking University, PKU) and a regional Global Atmospheric Watch station (Shangdianzi, SDZ) from March to November in 2008. In total, 52 new particle formation (NPF) events were observed simultaneously at both sites, indicating that this is a regional phenomenon in the North China Plain. On average, the mean condensation sink value before the nucleation events started was 0.025 s−1 in the urban environment, which was 1.6 times higher than that at regional site. However, higher particle formation and growth rates were observed at PKU (10.8 cm−3 s−1 and 5.2 nm h−1) compared with those at SDZ (4.9 cm−3 s−1 and 4.0 nm h−1). These results implied that precursors were much more abundant in the polluted urban environment. Different from the observations in cleaner environments, the background conditions of the observed particle homogeneous nucleation events in the North China Plain could be characterized as the co-existing of a stronger source of precursor gases and a higher condensational sink of pre-existing aerosol particles. Secondary aerosol formation following nucleation events results in an increase of particle mass concentration, particle light scattering coefficient, and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration, with consequences on visibility, radiative effects, and air quality. Typical regional NPF events with significant particle nucleation rates and subsequent particle growth over a sufficiently long time period at both sites were chosen to investigate the influence of NPF on the number concentration of "potential" CCN. As a result, the NPF and the subsequent condensable growth increased the CCN number concentration in the North China Plain by factors in the range from 5.6 to 8.7. Moreover, the potential contribution of anthropogenic emissions to the CCN number concentration was more than 50%, to which more attention should be drawn in regional and global climate modeling, especially in the polluted urban areas.
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| 8. |
- Wu, Zhihong, et al.
(författare)
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Increased osteopontin expression is associated with progression from vulvar precancerous lesions to vulvar squamous cell carcinoma
- 2014
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Ingår i: Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics. - Berlin : Springer. - 0932-0067 .- 1432-0711. ; 289:3, s. 637-644
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC) contributes to about 3-5 % of all gynecological cancers. Vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN) and vulvar lichen sclerosus (VLS) are regarded as precancerous lesions. Early detection and treatment of precancerous lesions may prevent development of VSCC. Osteopontin (OPN) has been shown to be involved in many physiological and pathological processes, such as tumor progression, by promoting cancer cell invasion and metastasis. As a result of these findings, OPN has been described as a potential marker for tumor progression in some malignancies. In this study, we investigated the expression of OPN in vulvar tissue specimens and compared its expression between different histopathological grades. In the present study, the expression patterns of OPN in 80 paraffin-embedded tissue specimens, including 25 VSCC samples, 21 VIN lesions and 21 VLS, in addition to 13 normal vulvar samples, were examined by the immunohistochemical method and chromogenic in situ hybridization. The intensity of OPN expression steadily increased according to the pathological grades. In addition, OPN staining was found in the extracellular matrix in VSCC. Expression levels of OPN increased from VLS and VIN to VSCC, and steadily increased with the pathological stage of VSCC. Our results suggest that OPN may be associated with the progression of VSCC.
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| 9. |
- Zheng, Wenjing, et al.
(författare)
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Maternal phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase signalling is crucial for embryonic genome activation and preimplantation embryogenesis
- 2010
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Ingår i: EMBO Reports. - : EMBO. - 1469-221X .- 1469-3178. ; 11:11, s. 890-895
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Maternal effect factors derived from oocytes are important for sustaining early embryonic development before the major wave of embryonic genome activation (EGA). In this study, we report a two-cell-stage arrest of embryos lacking maternal 3-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase 1 as a result of suppressed EGA. Concurrent deletion of maternal Pten completely rescued the suppressed EGA and embryonic progression through restored AKT signalling, which fully restored the fertility of double-mutant females. Our study identifies maternal phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase signalling as a new maternal effect factor that regulates EGA and preimplantation embryogenesis in mice.
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