Month: August 2020

Adipose tissue secretes a variety of adipokines that are directly involved in inflammation and insulin resistance. In this study, we investigated the association of MK with obesity and its actions on adipocytes. Notably, MK levels were increased in adipose tissue of obese mice and in serum of overweight/obese subjects as compared with their controls. In vitro experiments further revealed inhibitory effects of MK on insulin signaling in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, with activation of the STAT3-SOCS3 pathway. Our findings suggest a potential role of MK in obesity-induced insulin resistance. MK is expressed in multiple cell types, including various immune and cancer cells. Here, we found MK expression in both 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and mature adipocytes. In preadipocytes, MK expression increased immediately after differentiation and then declined progressively to the Ibrutinib Src-bcr-Abl inhibitor beginning levels, consistent with its essential role in promoting the mitotic clonal expansion of preadipocytes. In mature adipocytes, MK was regulated by inflammatory modulators. TNF-a treatment led to a marked increase in MK expression. Thus, in line with its inflammatory properties, MK seems closely associated with the inflammatory state of mature adipocytes. In addition to the adipocyte cell line in vitro, MK is also expressed in adipose tissue of mice. Importantly, MK expression was upregulated in epididymal adipose tissue of obese mice. Furthermore, overweight/obese humans had significantly increased serum MK levels compared with control subjects, with a positive correlation between serum MK and BMI. Collectively, MK is associated with obesity in both mice and humans. The mechanisms for MK upregulation in obese adipose tissue may be multiple and remain to be elucidated. TNF-a, which is increased in obesity, induces MK expression in adipocytes, and is therefore a potential candidate for the upregulation of MK. As MK is also expressed by macrophages, which are recruited into adipose tissue in obesity, they may be another source of MK in adipose tissue. In fact, we observed increased expression of MK in stromal cells, which are largely composed of macrophages, in adipose tissue of ob/ob mice compared with controls. Nevertheless, the relative contribution of adipocytes and macrophages to the elevated expression of MK in obese adipose tissue remains to be determined. In addition, as a secreted protein by adipose tissue, MK serum concentration in mice and its relationship with obesity warrant future study. Adipose tissue produces a range of adipokines that are directly involved in insulin resistance. Herein, we showed that MK suppressed insulin signaling in adipocytes, as indicated by reduced phosphorylation of Akt and IRS-1 in response to insulin stimulation. These findings provide the first evidence that MK may be a novel inducer of insulin resistance. Since MK expression was increased in adipose tissue of obese mice, it warrants further investigation whether MK induces insulin resistance in vivo.

We demonstrated that Themis constitutively associates with Grb2 in thymocytes. Themis2 also associates with Grb2, therefore Grb2-association must be an important feature of Themis family proteins. In the recent peptide inhibition study, the PRS motif of Themis was shown to directly ABT-263 interact with the C-terminal SH3 motif of Grb2. The result from immunoprecipitation experiments using our own anti-Themis monoclonal antibody also supported direct binding of Grb2 to the PRS motif of Themis. As has been recently reported, we also observed defective association of the DPRS mutant Themis with Grb2 in thymocytes. More surprisingly, not only DPRS, but also all other mutants lost the ability to associate with Grb2. These results suggest that the intra-molecular interaction of these domains is crucial to form the proper threedimensional structure to associate with Grb2. Moreover, all of the five mutants in the present study lost not only Grb2 binding, but also tyrosine-phosphorylation. It should be noted that these five mutants also lost weak basal phosphorylation of the protein in unstimulated thymocytes. From our sequential immunoprecipitation experiments, a half of Themis binds to Grb2, and about one tenth of Grb2 binds to Themis. A recent study with T cellspecific Grb2-deficient mice revealed that Grb2 is critical for positive selection. Although Grb2 has been reported to associate with several molecules other than Themis, deficiency of Shc or FAK does not inhibit positive selection. Involvement of Sos in positive selection was also recently shown to be nonobligatory because Sos1/Sos2 DKO exhibited normal positive selection. Therefore, Themis and Grb2 may be cooperatively required for positive selection. Further analysis of Themis/Grb2 DKO would clarify whether Themis and Grb2 are functionally complementary during positive selection. We demonstrated that the PRS, NLS, Core1, and Core2 motifs were all required for Grb2-association, tyrosine-phosphorylation, and positive selection, whereas NLS and CABIT1 are required for nuclear translocation. The CABIT1 domain might be important for the interaction of Themis with nuclear transporter proteins. So far, the causal relationship between positive selection, Grb2- association, and tyrosine-phosphorylation is not yet understood, however, our results demonstrated that all of these are tightly correlated to one another. On the contrary, the current study demonstrated that positive selection and nuclear translocation of Themis are not directly correlated. As a matter of fact, it should be noted that deletion of the NLS motif exhibited the least effect on positive selection compared to the deletion of other motifs, indicating that nuclear translocation of Themis may be less important for positive selection. Finally, this is the first report that describes the significance of the CABIT domain in cellular events.

However, for case ascertainment we considered only specific CKD codes and in presence of less specific codes, we considered these codes only if registered multiple times to ensure the disease was chronic. We cannot identify the exact date of onset of CKD as it was defined as the date of first registration of CKDrelated primary/secondary hospital discharge diagnosis, procedure or indication of use for drug prescription. Nonetheless, the frequency of use of nephrotoxic drugs after CKD diagnosis is very high and only slightly lower as compared to the year prior to the diagnosis, thus confirming poor awareness of prescribers about possible detrimental effects of these drugs in CKD patients. Some drugs are specifically contraindicated in patients with severe renal disease only. We could not identify the stage for most CKD patients due to lack of laboratory data and registration of CKD codes of unspecified stage. For this reason the rate of contraindicated nephrotoxic drug use may have been overestimated. However, CKD stage-specific codes were reported for 518 CKD patients and in a sensitivity analysis restricted to CKD stage IV and V patients, similar figures concerning contraindicated drug use were observed. We used outpatient prescription data and we had no information about actual filling of prescriptions and medication use. However, this study was primarily aimed at exploring the prescribing pattern of nephrotoxic drugs and it is unlikely that NSAIDs were not ultimately taken by the patient. Furthermore, the traceability of some nephrotoxic drug prescriptions was incomplete as being administered in the hospital or used as OTC drugs, as a consequence, the nephrotoxic drugs use could be underestimate. In addition, this study was carried out using outpatient data collected from a large general practice of Southern Italy. We therefore cannot exclude that these findings are not fully generalizable to the whole Italian general population. However, the applied methodology and the Arianna database have been shown to provide accurate and reliable information for pharmacoepidemiological research, as documented elsewhere. Hepatocellular carcinoma is a highly lethal cancer as its prognosis is typically poor in most patients. HCC is a lethal cancer, as it is the third leading cause of cancer ALK5 Inhibitor II company deaths in East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In China, it is far more lethal given the fact that it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in Chinese men. In recent times, its incidence is also increasing steadily in the United States and Europe. HCC is generally with poor prognosis, given the fact thatthe 5-year survival rate is as low as 25–39% after surgery in patients. In most cases, HCC is diagnosedat an advanced stage. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy have limited efficacy in dealing with patients diagnosed with HCC at an advanced stage.

Numerous findings indicate that ApoEe4 has potential proZelboraf inflammatory functions or reduced anti-inflammatory activity in AD. Our study showed that the AA genotype of rs57095329 could increase the expression level of miR146a and was positively correlated with the expression of inflammatory cytokines, also presenting a stimulatory effect on the inflammatory response. However, no significantly synergistic effect was found between the miR146a polymorphism and the APOE e4 allele in this case-control study. Nevertheless, due to the relatively small number of ApoE subgroups and the less clear relationships between the ApoE allele, miR146a and neuroinflammation in AD, whether there is a correlation between miR146a and ApoE in the pathology of AD will require further study. In another association analysis of the EOAD/LOAD subgroups, our results showed that the AA genotype was associated with an increased risk of AD in the EOAD subgroups. It is well known that mutations in the APP, PS1 and PS2 genes have been mainly discovered in patients with EOAD. APP encodes the amyloid precursor protein found in plaques, and PS1 and PS2 are fundamental components of the csecretase complex involved in the cleavage of APP. All three of these genes contribute to the production of Ab. As mentioned previously, miR146a may play a role in the production of Ab through the miR146a-TSPAN12-ADAM10 pathway. We hypothesized that in addition to the regulating role of miR146a polymorphisms on the neuroinflammation, rs57095329 may also influence the metabolism of APP and eventually increase the generation of Ab42, thus contributing to the risk of EOAD. Numerous reports have associated neuroinflammation with cognitive decline in AD. A clinical study recently reported that AD individuals with a high inflammatory score had a more accelerated decline in their MMSE score over a 3-year period than those with a low inflammatory score. The elevated concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL1b and IL-6, were also associated with impaired cognitive performance. Notably, as the positive regulator of inflammation in AD, the elevated levels of miR146a may increase the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in AD patients. Therefore, it is possible that the functional polymorphism in miR146a may contribute to the cognitive degeneration in AD patients by influencing the inflammatory process in the brain. Our data showed a positive association between the risk-associated AA genotype of rs57095329 and the cognitive deterioration of AD patients, in agreement with the phenomenon that higher levels of IL-1b and IL-6 were produced individuals with the AA genotype as a result of the stimulation. Although the mechanisms underlying this association cannot be directly inferred from this study.

Wounding responses have been demonstrated in species throughout the plant kingdom, and previous (+)-JQ1 research has focused on identifying systemic wound signals and the mechanisms by which they are generated, transported, and perceived. Leaf wounding is a well-characterized stimulus for the rapid activation of jasmonate synthesis through distinct autonomous and nonautonomous cellular pathways. Defoliation not only induces serious wounding but also removes a large fraction of photosynthetically active leaves from grass plants. Therefore, plant photosynthesis is reduced; carbohydrate reserves stored in the plant are mobilized; and the transcript levels of photosynthesis-related and carbohydrate metabolism-related genes, such as genes encoding the small subunits of Rubisco, Rubisco activase, light harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding proteins, fructan exohydrolase, sucrose transporter, invertase, b-amylase, and starch synthase, are changed. We previously identified 466 genes that responded to simulated grazing using the Affymetrix Rice GeneChips. These genes encode proteins that participate in signal transduction, miRNA regulation, cell wall modification, hormone synthesis, and molecular transport. However, it is unclear whether the responses were due to wounding, defoliation, or other factors. Currently, the genes that specify defoliation and mechanical wounding remain unknown, and little is understood about how expression of these genes influences plant regrowth after defoliation. In this study, the transcriptomes of sheepgrass stubble tissues collected from defoliated and mechanically wounded plants were compared using the Solexa sequencing system. By comparing the differentially expressed gene responses to defoliation and wounding, the common and distinct pathways and genes between defoliation and wounding were identified. These sequencing datasets allowed us to elucidate the common and distinct mechanisms of the plant response to defoliation and wounding, and the distinct DEGs represent a valuable resource for novel gene discovery that may improve plant tolerance toward defoliation caused by herbivores, insects, pathogens, or mechanical stress. In this study, a transcriptome profiling analysis was performed to identify genes that are differentially expressed in wounding- and defoliation-treated plants. A sequencing depth of 4.8 to 6.4 million reads per library was reached. The results of the saturation sequencing analyzed in the seven libraries indicated that the sequencing depth was sufficient to cover the transcriptome. We identified 1,836 and 3,238 wounding-responsive and defoliation-responsive DEGs, respectively, which suggested that defoliation led to nearly twice as many DEGs as wounding. Among these DEGs, 954 were uniquely expressed under defoliation and thus represent candidate genes that merit further study.