Screening a Panel of Acid-producing Strains by Developing a High-throughput Method

Lijuan Zhu,Hui Zhang,Shiyuan Wang,Anqi Zhao,Lingbo Qu,Wenlong Xiong,Md. Asraful Alam,Wenlong Ma,Yongkun Lv,Jingliang Xu 한국생물공학회 2022 Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering Vol.27 No.5

Organic acids are natural cellular metabolites, which are widely used in food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries. Among them, L-lactic acid is of special interest, because it is widely used in food and pharmaceutical industries and its monopolymer (poly (lactic acid)) is a green, renewable, biodegradable, and biocompatible alternative to the petroleum-based polymers. Currently, organic acids are predominantly produced by microbial fermentation. Their productions have been substantially improved by genetic modifications, metabolic engineering, and fermentation optimizations. However, the commonly used microbial producers still suffer from low acidic tolerance. Screening higher tolerant acid-producing microorganisms from the nature is relatively less explored. The traditional fermented foods are good resources for the screening of acid-producing and probiotic microorganisms. However, they are relatively less explored, especially those foods in developing countries. To speed up the acid-producing microorganism screening, we developed and validated a high-throughput method in this study. By using this method, we screened 1,296 colonies in 4 days and obtained a panel of acid-producing microorganisms. Among them, a Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus showed the potential for organic acid production and probiotics applications.

Enhanced Stability Criteria for Discrete-time Systems with Time-varying Delay

Lijuan Zhu,Chengyun Zhu 제어·로봇·시스템학회 2021 International Journal of Control, Automation, and Vol.19 No.7

The stability problem of discrete-time linear systems with interval time-varying delays is investigated in this paper. According to the latest summation inequality technique, an improved free-matrix-based summation inequality is proposed in this paper. In order to make full use of the improved inequality to bound the upper bounds of the difference Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF), an augmented LKF with some extra status information is constructed. A new delay-range-dependent stability criterion is derived in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) via the modified LKF approach. The criterion is less conservative than some existing results. Finally, some standard numerical examples are presented the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Effect of Anhydride Grafting Agent on Trap Levels of Low-Density Polyethylene

Lijuan He,Zhenhua Yuan,Xiong Yang,Huiqing Niu,Chao Zhu,Dawei Li,Lei Zhao,Chuntian Chen 보안공학연구지원센터 2016 International Journal of Security and Its Applicat Vol.10 No.5

Trap distribution of the low-density polyethylene(LDPE) modified by anhydride grafting agent was studied and the effect of grafting agent on the trap levels was analyzed by the method of Photo-stimulated Discharge in this paper. Different concentrations and types of same concentration of LDPE modified by anhydride grafting agent were measured by using continuous UV scanning. The results showed that different concentrations and types of grafting agent had effect on trap levels distribution of LDPE. The trap depth would decrease with the anhydride grafting agent content increasing and increase with its damaged condition increasing when anhydride grafting agent was destroyed. Anhydride grafting agent are widely applied to the production and research of high pressure insulating polyethylene materials. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the effect of anhydride grafting agent on the insulating properties of polyethylene material and explain the strongest binding capacity of anhydride grafting agent to space charge.

Partial Purification and Quantification of Insulin-like Growth Factor-I from Red Deer Antler

LiJuan Gu,Eunkyoung Mo(모은경),ZheMing Fang,BaiShen Sun,XueMei Zhu,Changkeun Sung(성창근) 한국생명과학회 2007 생명과학회지 Vol.17 No.10

사슴 뿔은 동물세계에서 가장 빨리 성장하는 조직이다. 따라서 성장중인 사슴 뿔은 뼈 성장을 촉진하는 인자가 풍부하게 포함된 것으로 생각된다. 이들 성장인자들 중 IGF-1은 뼈를 자라게 하는 조골세포의 대사에 중요한 역할을 한다고 알려져 있어 이를 정제하고자 하였다. IGF-1의 정제는 상대라고 불리는 신선한 사슴 뿔을 유안침전, DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B 이온교환수지, CM-Sepharose CL-6B 양이온교환수지, Sephadex G-50의 순차적인 방법으로 할 수 있었다. 각 과정마다 IGF-1의 거동을 HPLC, SDS-PAGE, Dot blot, 그리고 western blot으로 분석하였다. IGF-1의 정량은 ELISA기술로 재조합 인간 IGF-1을 이용하여 계산되었으며, 최종 분별 액은 두 개의 단백질을 보였으나, Western-blot에서 작은 분자량인 12 kDa으로 최종 판명할 수 있었다. 정제된 단백질은 HPLC에서 retention 시간 8분만에 검출되었으며, 총 농도는 2910 ng/㎖ 이고 중량은 0.291 g 이었다. Deer antler tissue contains the most rapidly growing bone in the animal kingdom. Thus, it is likely that growing antler tissue is a rich source of local paracrine bone-stimulating factors. Growth factors, at least the insulin-like growth factor (IGF), control the bone-remodelling process. In this study, we tried to isolate and purify IGF-I from fresh antler tissue by the routine isolation and purification of protein. The purification involved ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B ion-exchange chromatography, CM-Sepharose CL-6B ion-exchange chromatography, and Sephadex G-50 chromatography. Purified fractions from each step were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), Dot-blot, and Western-blot methods. Furthermore, the quantification of partially purified IGF-I was calculated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) using antibody to human recombinant IGF-I. SDS-PAGE analysis of the final fraction yielded two molecular bands and the signal band was at 12 kDa on the Western-blot film. This purified IGF-I fraction showed a peak at retention time of eight min. The quantity of IGF-I in 20 g deer antler tissue as starting weight was calculated using a standard curve to be 2910 ng/㎖, and total IGF-I amount is 0.291 g. The results show that IGF-I, which can be found in deer antler, can be partially purified and quantified by classic protein isolation methods.

The Research on the Effects of Electrical Aging on Trap Distribution in Polyethylene Doped with Nanoparticies

Lijuan He,Shan Wang,Chao Zhu,Haiping Xie,Dawei Li,Chuntian Chen 보안공학연구지원센터 2014 International Journal of Control and Automation Vol.7 No.5

5-Formylhonokiol exerts anti-angiogenesis activity $via$ inactivating the ERK signaling pathway

Zhu, Wei,Fu, Afu,Hu, Jia,Wang, Tianen,Luo, Youfu,Peng, Ming,Ma, Yinghua,Wei, Yuquan,Chen, Lijuan Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Bion 2011 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.43 No.3

Our previous report has demonstrated that 5-formylhonokiol (FH), a derivative of honokiol (HK), exerts more potent anti-proliferative activities than honokiol in several tumor cell lines. In present study, we first explored the antiangiogenic activities of 5-formylhonokiol on proliferation, migration and tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) for the first time $in$ $vitro$. Then we investigated the $in$ $vivo$ antiangiogenic effect of 5-formylhonokiol on zebrafish angiogenesis model. In order to clarify the underlying molecular mechanism of 5-formylhonokiol, we investigated the signaling pathway involved in controlling the angiogenesis process by western blotting assay. Wound-healing results showed that 5-formylhonokiol significantly and dose-dependently inhibited migration of cultured human umbilical vein enthothelial cells. The invasiveness of HUVEC cells was also effectively suppressed at a low concentration of 5-formylhonokiol in the transwell assay. Further F-actin imaging revealed that inhibitory effect of 5-formylhonokiol on invasion may partly contribute to the disruption of assembling stress fiber. Tube formation assay, which is associated with endothelial cells migration, further confirmed the anti-angiogenesis effect of 5-formylhonokiol. In $in$ $vivo$ zebrafish angiogenesis model, we found that 5-formylhonokiol dose-dependently inhibited angiogenesis. Furthermore, western blotting showed that 5-formylhonokiol significantly down-regulated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) expression and inhibited the phosphorylation of ERK but not affecting the total protein kinase B (Akt) expression and related phosphorylation, suggesting that 5-formylhonokiol might exert anti-angiogenesis capacity $via$ down-regulation of the ERK signal pathway. Taken together, these data suggested that 5-formylhonokiol might be a viable drug candidate in antiangiogenesis and anticancer therapies.

Dermoscopy for the Diagnosis of Creeping Hair Caused by Ingrowing Hair: A Case Report

Lijuan Xu,Xinhai Liu,Wei Zhu,Lingling Zheng 대한피부과학회 2023 Annals of Dermatology Vol.35 No.-

Creeping hair is a rare condition characterized by creeping eruption with a black line at the advancing end, mimicking cutaneous larva migrans. The condition is also referred to as cuta- neous pili migrans, migrating hair, and embedded hair. A total of 52 cases have been reported since 1957 and most cases were published in English. Herein, we report a case in which creep- ing hair occurred in the iliac region and review the literature from 1957 to February 2021. A 35-year-old Chinese female presented with a black moving linear eruption that had migrated from the lower abdomen to the iliac region without causing any symptoms during a 3-year period. Cutaneous examination showed a 6.5-cm-long black linear lesion beneath the skin that was revealed to be a hair shaft. After removal of the hair, the eruption diminished and no re- currence occurred in 3 months of follow-up. The creeping hair that had migrated with its lower end forward was confirmed by observation under dematoscopy and light microscopy. A review of the literature revealed that creeping hair occurs most frequently in young and middle-aged patients and the reported cases are mainly from Asia. The top locations involve the foot. The causative hair includes head hair, beard, pubic hair, body hair, and one case of dog hair. A close- up examination and dermoscopic inspection are helpful for the diagnosis of creeping hair.

Prevalence of Depression in Ankylosing Spondylitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Lijuan Zhang,Yaping Wu,Shiguang Liu,Weiyi Zhu 대한신경정신의학회 2019 PSYCHIATRY INVESTIGATION Vol.16 No.8

The aim of this study was to provide a summary estimate of depression prevalence among people with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in comparison to those without AS. A systematic literature search was conducted using PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, the Cochrane database library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang Database from their inception to December 2016. The results showed that thirty-one eligible studies involving 8,106 patients were analyzed. Fifteen methods of defining depression were reported. The overall pooled prevalence of depression was 35% (95% CI, 28–43%), with high between-study heterogeneity (I2=98.8%, p<0.001). The relative risk of depression among people with AS was 1.76 (95% CI: 1.21–2.55, eight studies, n=3,006) compared with people without AS. The depression score [standardized mean difference (SMD)=0.43, 95% CI: 0.19–0.67, seven studies, n=549] was higher in AS patients than in controls. The main influence on depression prevalence was the sample size and country of origin. In conclusion, one-third of people with AS experience symptoms of depression. Depression was more prevalent in AS patients than in controls. Further research is needed to identify effective strategies for preventing and treating depression among AS patients.

CRISPR/Cas9‑mediated editing of CsWRKY22 reduces susceptibility to Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri in Wanjincheng orange (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck)

Lijuan Wang,Shanchun Chen,Aihong Peng,Zhu Xie,Yongrui He,Xiuping Zou 한국식물생명공학회 2019 Plant biotechnology reports Vol.13 No.5

Key message CRISPR/Cas9-mediated editing of CsWRKY22 repressed canker development in Wanjincheng orange. Abstract Citrus canker, a destructive disease of citrus, is threatening the citrus industry worldwide. Breeding resistant cultivars is the most economical and effective approach to control citrus canker. Recently, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing was demonstrated to be a powerful tool for the improvement of citrus resistance to the disease. In our previous works, we confirmed that CsWRKY22 is involved in the plant immunity response to citrus canker in Wanjincheng orange (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck). In this study, we targeted this gene to improve the resistance of Wanjincheng orange against citrus canker by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated editing. Sanger sequencing confirmed that CsWRKY22 in Wanjincheng orange contains CsWRKY22G and CsWRKY22C alleles, and the ratio of CsWRKY22G to CsWRKY22C is approximately 2:1. Four sgRNAs, which targeted the first exon of CsWRKY22, were selected for testing. In vitro cleavage activity analysis showed that two (W1 and W2) of the four sgRNAs displayed robust cleavage activities using PCR amplicons from the Wanjincheng orange genome as template. Subsequently, two constructs, pCas9/WRKY22sgRNA-W1 and pCas9/WRKY22sgRNA-W2, were used to modify the CsWRKY22. Three mutant plants were identified from seven independent transgenic plants. Based on Sanger sequencing, the W1-1, W2-2, and W2-3 mutant lines displayed 85.7%, 79.2%, and 68.2% mutation rates, respectively. Resistance evaluation indicated that the mutant plants showed decreased susceptibility to citrus canker. These results indicate that CRISPR/Cas9-targeted gene modification is an efficient approach for enhancing disease resistance in citrus.

Effects of Red Deer Antlers on Cutaneous Wound Healing in Full-thickness Rat Models

Gu, LiJuan,Mo, EunKyoung,Yang, ZhiHong,Fang, ZheMing,Sun, BaiShen,Wang, ChunYan,Zhu, XueMei,Bao, JianFeng,Sung, ChangKeun Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2008 Animal Bioscience Vol.21 No.2

The process of wound repair involves an ordered sequence of events such as overlapping biochemical and cellular events that, in the best of circumstances, result in the restoration of both the structural and functional integrity of the damaged tissue. An important event during wound healing is the contraction of newly formed connective tissues by fibroblasts. The polypeptide growth factors, like transforming growth factor-${\beta}$(TGF-${\beta}$, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF- I) and epidermal growth factor (EGF), play very important mediator roles in the process of wound contraction. Deer antlers, as models of mammalian regeneration, are cranial appendages that develop after birth as extensions of a permanent protuberance (pedicle) on the frontal bone. Antlers contain various growth factors which stimulate dermal fibroblast growth. They are involved in digestion and respiration and are necessary for normal wound healing and skin health. In order to investigate and evaluate the effects of red deer antlers on skin wound site, the speed of full-thickness skin wound healing and the expression of IGF-I, TGF-${\beta}$ and EGF in skin wounds, three groups of skin full-thickness rat models with a high concentration of antler ointment, a low concentration of antler ointment and without antler ointment were compared. At post-injury days 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 20, 32, 40 and 60, the skin wound area was measured, the expressions of IGF-I, TGF- ${\beta}$ and EGF mRNA were detected by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and collagen formation by sirius red dye and the localization of IGF-I, TGF-${\beta}$ and EGF peptides were inspected by histological immunohistochemical techniques. Wound healing was significantly more rapid in antler treated skins. In addition, the wound treated with a high concentration antler ointment, a low concentration antler ointment, and the control closed completely at post-injury day 40, day 44 and day 60, respectively. Via RT-PCR, the expressions of IGF-I (day 8 and day 16), TGF-${\beta}$(day 8, day 16 and day 20) and EGF (day 4, day 8, day 16, and day 32) were obviously up-regulated in high concentration antler-treated skins compared to control skins. Similar results could be seen in the histological detection of collagen dye and immunohistochemical methods using the corresponding polyclone antibodies of IGF-I, TGF-${\beta}$ and EGF. These results illustrate that antlers stimulate and accelerate the repair of cutaneous wounds.