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| 2. |
- Cao, Lin-Ying, et al.
(författare)
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Structure-dependent activity of polybrominated diphenyl ethers and their hydroxylated metabolites on estrogen related receptor gamma : in vitro and in silico study
- 2018
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Ingår i: Environmental Science and Technology. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0013-936X .- 1520-5851. ; 52:15, s. 8894-8902
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Estrogen-related receptor gamma (ERR gamma) is an orphan nuclear receptor having functional cross-talk with classical estrogen receptors. Here, we investigated whether ERR gamma is a potential target 8 of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and their hydroxylated metabolites (OH-PBDEs). By using a fluorescence competitive binding method established in our laboratory, the binding potencies of 30 PBDEs/OH-PBDEs with ERR gamma were determined for the first time. All of the tested OH-PBDEs and some PBDEs bound to ERR gamma with K-d values ranging from 0.13-13.61 mu M. The OH-PBDEs showed much higher binding potency than their parent PBDEs. A quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model was developed to analyze the chemical binding potencies in relation to their structural and chemical characteristics. The QSAR model indicated that the molecular size, relative ratios of aromatic atoms, and hydrogen bond donors and acceptors were crucial factors for PBDEs/OH-PBDEs binding. By using a reporter gene assay, we found that most of the low-brominated PBDEs/OH-PBDEs exerted agonistic activity toward ERR gamma, while high-brominated PBDEs/OH-PBDEs had no effect on the basal ERR gamma activity. The docking results showed that the low-brominated PBDEs/OH-PBDEs tended to take an agonistic binding mode while the high-brominated ones tended to take an antagonistic binding mode. Overall, our results suggest ERR gamma to be a potential novel target for PBDEs/OH-PBDEs.
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| 3. |
- Chen, Liangliang, et al.
(författare)
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User-Friendly Genetic Conditional Knockout Strategies by CRISPR/Cas9
- 2018
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Ingår i: STEM CELLS INTERNATIONAL. - : HINDAWI LTD. - 1687-966X .- 1687-9678.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Loss-of-function studies are critically important in gene functional analysis of model organisms and cells. However, conditional gene inactivation in diploid cells is difficult to achieve, as it involves laborious vector construction, multifold electroporation, and complicated genotyping. Here, a strategy is presented for generating biallelic conditional gene and DNA regulatory region knockouts in mouse embryonic stem cells by codelivery of CRISPR-Cas9 and short-homology-arm targeting vectors sequentially or simultaneously. Collectively, a simple and rapid method was presented to knock out any DNA element conditionally. This approach will facilitate the functional studies of essential genes and regulatory regions during development.
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| 4. |
- Kim, Jimi, et al.
(författare)
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Formate rescues neural tube defects caused by mutations in Slc25a32
- 2018
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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. ; 115:18, s. 4690-4695
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Periconceptional folic acid (FA) supplementation significantly reduces the prevalence of neural tube defects (NTDs). Unfortunately, some NTDs are FA resistant, and as such, NTDs remain a global public health concern. Previous studies have identified SLC25A32 as a mitochondrial folate transporter (MFT), which is capable of transferring tetrahydrofolate (THF) from cellular cytoplasm to the mitochondria in vitro. Herein, we show that gene trap inactivation of Slc25a32 (Mft) in mice induces NTDs that are folate (5-methyltetrahydrofolate, 5-mTHF) resistant yet are preventable by formate supplementation. Slc25a32gt/gt embryos die in utero with 100% penetrant cranial NTDs. 5-mTHF supplementation failed to promote normal neural tube closure (NTC) in mutant embryos, while formate supplementation enabled the majority (78%) of knockout embryos to complete NTC. A parallel genetic study in human subjects with NTDs identified biallelic loss of function SLC25A32 variants in a cranial NTD case. These data demonstrate that the loss of functional Slc25a32 results in cranial NTDs in mice and has also been observed in a human NTD patient.
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| 5. |
- Ren, Long Jun, et al.
(författare)
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Effect of conventional physiotherapy on pain and muscle stiffness in patients with low back pain assessed by a wireless hand-held tissue ultrasound palpation system (TUPS)
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Journal of Physical Medicine Rehabilitation. - : Omics Publishing Group. - 2329-9096. ; 7:2, s. 1-5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Low back pain (LPB) is a common health problem. While physiotherapy can relieve pain and the muscle stiffness of patients with LBP was shown to be different from healthy people, few studies have investigated the effect of physiotherapy on back muscle stiffness in patients with LBP.Objective: To investigate the effect of a 5-day conventional physiotherapy treatment on muscle stiffness of patients with LBP using a newly developed wireless hand-held ultrasound probe.Methods: A total of ten patients with LBP participated in this study. They received customized conventional physiotherapy containing electrical therapy, traditional Chinese medicine, manipulation and wax therapy. The pain level was evaluated by the visual analogue scale, and the muscle stiffness was measured by a wireless hand-held tissue ultrasound palpation system. The muscle stiffness of left and right sides at L1 and L4 levels and pain level were evaluated in two conditions, including baseline and 5-day post treatments.Results and discussion: After receiving the treatment, the muscle stiffness of all tested low back regions increased significantly (p=0.040). The muscle stiffness at L4 level was significantly higher than that of L1 level (p=0.021). No significant difference of muscle stiffness between left and right sides was found. The correlation between the muscle stiffness and VAS score appeared to decrease after receiving the treatment (R2 changed from 0.3598 to 0.0533).Conclusion: A five-day conventional physiotherapy treatment could relieve the pain level and increase the muscle stiffness of patients with LBP as evaluated by a wireless hand-held ultrasound probe. The stiffness of back muscle at L4 level was significantly higher than that of L1 level in patients with LBP. The treatment may change the correlation between the muscle stiffness and VAS score at low back region.
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| 6. |
- Tang, Shengwen, et al.
(författare)
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Modeling on the hydration and leaching of eco-friendly magnesium oxychloride cement paste at the micro-scale
- 2019
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Ingår i: Construction and Building Materials. - : Elsevier BV. - 0950-0618. ; 204, s. 684-690
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Magnesium oxychloride cement (MOC) has been considered as a kind of eco-friendly cement in view of its significantly low calcination temperature and large capacity of carbon dioxide sequestration, compared with ordinary Portland cement (OPC). In this work, a computer model is established to simulate the hydration and leaching of MOC paste at the micro-scale. The composition of MOC paste in the ultimate hydration is investigated based on the thermodynamic method, and pore structure obtained from the computer simulation is compared with the one from experiments and literature, respectively. The simulated leaching results show that the original solid phase skeleton of MOC paste decomposes into magnesium hydroxide crystals. It is demonstrated that the simulation results are in good agreement with experimental data from literature and the proposed simulation can provide an effective method to reveal the hydration and leaching mechanism of MOC paste.
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| 7. |
- Wang, Xiaojiang, et al.
(författare)
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Electrochemical and Spectroscopic Study of Homo- and Hetero-Dimetallic Phthalocyanines as Catalysts for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Acidic Media
- 2018
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Ingår i: ChemElectroChem. - : WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH. - 2196-0216. ; 5:22, s. 3478-3485
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Metallophthalocyanines (MPc, M=Fe or Co) have been investigated extensively as a typical type of transition metal macrocyclic catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, the understanding about ORR catalyzed by binuclear even heterodimetallic phthalocyanines in acidic condition is still not sufficient. Herein we synthesized two homodimetallicphthalocyanine (FePc-PcFe and CoPc-PcCo) and a heterodimetallic phthalocyanine (FePc-PcCo). The electrocatalytic activity of as-synthesized compounds were characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and rotating disk electrode (RDE). Generally, the binuclear metallophthalocyanines show higher activity than their monomeric analogues including FePc and CoPc. Also, the Fe compounds exhibit better catalytic performance than the Co phthalocyanines. However, interestingly the heterodimetallic phthalocyanine FePc-PcCo shows similar half-wave potential and ORR activity with FePc-PcFe, rather than CoPc-PcCo. This may be explained by XPS and XAS, which reveal a similar square-planar structure existed in FePc-PcCo and FePc-PcFe and a non-planar structure in CoPc-PcCo. Furthermore, the increasing of the ORR activity among those five catalysts is well in agreement with the descending LUMO energies in DFT calculations. A lower LUMO energy indicates a favorable adsorption of O-2, which in turn affects the ORR performance.
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| 8. |
- Wang, Ying, et al.
(författare)
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Preliminary exploration of hsa_circ_0032131 levels in peripheral blood as a potential diagnostic biomarker of osteoarthritis
- 2019
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Ingår i: Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers. - : Mary Ann Liebert. - 1945-0265 .- 1945-0257. ; 23:10, s. 717-721
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common chronic degenerative joint disease characterized by articular cartilage degeneration and synovitis. CircRNAs are increasingly being recognized as functional endogenous RNAs with a stable structure and high tissue specificity. Recent studies have shown that some circRNAs may be involved in the initiation and progression of OA and that there is differential expression of circRNAs in chondrocytes in vitro isolated from patients with OA.Purposes: In this study, we aimed to determine if circRNA levels in the peripheral blood of Chinese Han patients with OA would be diagnostic based on the previous in vitro studies.Methods: We collected peripheral blood samples from 25 patients suffering from OA and 25 healthy controls and measured hsa_circ_0032131_CBC1 RNA levels through quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). The statistical basis for evaluating the diagnostic value was to calculate the area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve.Results: The results of the qRT-PCR for hsa_circ_0032131_CBC1 were consistent with those of the microarray analysis. The ROC curve shows that hsa_circ_0032131 holds diagnostic value for OA (0.8455, p < 0.01).Conclusions: Our research indicates that differentially expressed circRNAs may be involved in the development of OA and could be used diagnostically.
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| 9. |
- Wang, Ying, et al.
(författare)
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Screening for Differentially Expressed Circular RNAs in the Cartilage of Osteoarthritis Patients for Their Diagnostic Value
- 2019
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Ingår i: Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers. - : Mary Ann Liebert. - 1945-0265 .- 1945-0257. ; 23:10, s. 706-716
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent osteoarticular disease, which typically involves chronic cartilage degeneration and synovitis. The latest research shows that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play a role in the development of a variety of diseases, including osteoarthrosis.Purposes: The aim of this study was to explore the expression of circRNAs in OA chondrocytes and predict biomarkers for diagnosis.Materials and Methods: The circRNA expression profile was analyzed through use of the Gene Spring software V13.0; differentially expressed circRNAs were screened by comparing OA chondrocytes and normal articular chondrocytes. We validated the microarray data by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analyses of OA chondrocytes and chondrocytes from normal controls. TargetScan software and miRanda software were used to predict networks of circRNA–miRNA interactions in cartilage. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway and Gene Ontology (GO) analyses were applied to predict the functions of differentially expressed circRNAs.Results: Overall, 1380 circRNAs were differentially expressed between OA chondrocytes and normal articular chondrocytes (fold-change ≥2, p ≤ 0.05), including 215 that were upregulated and 1165 that were downregulated circRNAs. After analyzing the differentially expressed circRNA genes, the top 20 enriched GO entries and KEGG pathways were annotated. The hsa_circrna_0032131 was identified for further analysis. A circRNA–miRNA network was constructed to represent the 10 most likely target genes associated with the validated circRNA.Conclusions: Our research suggests that some of the differentially expressed circRNAs in OA chondrocytes compared to normal chondrocytes are etiologically associated with the pathological process of OA. It was found that hsa_circRNA_0032131 likely participates in the initiation and progression of OA and has potential as a diagnostic marker.Clinical Relevance: To analyze the difference of circRNA expression profiles between OA and normal controls and explore biomarkers for diagnosis.
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