Proanthocyanidins accelerate the germination of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) seeds

Li-jun Zhu,Xing-guang Deng,Li-juan Zou,Jun-qiang Wu,Da-wei Zhang,Honghui Lin 한국식물학회 2016 Journal of Plant Biology Vol.59 No.2

Proanthocyanidins (PAs) are the end products of the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway in many seeds, but their biological function is rarely unknown during seed germination. In the present study, we observed that PAs pretreatment accelerated cucumber seeds germination with maximum efficiency at 0.15% by measuring germination percentage and radical length. Using inhibitors of abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellins (GA) and alternative oxidase (AOX) and H2O2 scavenger pretreatment and gene expression analysis, we found that the accelerated effect of 0.15% PAs on seed germination was due to the decreased ABA biogenesis and enhanced GA production. ROS are induced by PAs pretreatment. Then, the enhanced ROS contributed to GA and ethylene accumulation and ABA decrease in seeds. Moreover, the improvement of GA was involved in the further induction of antioxidant enzymes activities. Therefore, our findings uncover a novel role of PAs in seed germination and clarify the relationships between ROS, ABA, GA and ethylene during seed germination.

Celastrol, produced by Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F. enhances defense response in cucumber seedlings against diverse environmental stresses

Li-jun Zhu,Xing-guang Deng,Li-juan Zou,Peng-xu Li,Jun-qiang Wu,Da-wei Zhang,Honghui Lin 한국식물학회 2017 Journal of Plant Biology Vol.60 No.1

Celastrol is an active triterpenoid compound isolated from Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F.. Many reports have highlighted that celastrol is an effective, safe and desirable approach to the treatment of cancers. However, their biological function during environmental stresses in plants is rarely reported. In the present study, the effects of celastrol on the tolerance against high light (HL), polyethylene glycol (PEG) and cold stress in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) were investigated. Celastrol pretreatment could enhance cucumber seedlings stress tolerance at a concentration of 1 μg ml–1. The results showed that pretreatment with 1 μg ml–1 celastrol clearly induced the activities of antioxidative enzymes, which subsequently alleviated stress-induced oxidative damage in plant cells. We also provided evidence that celastrol upregulated ABA biosynthetic gene NCED2 expression and ABA accumulation in cucumber seedlings, which resulted to the enhanced tolerance in response to environmental stresses. Furthermore, the celastrol-pretreated seedlings showed less photosystem damaged caused by the stress conditions, when compared with the control. Therefore, our findings provide a novel role of celastrol in plant against environmental stresses and indicate that the celastrol-induced activities of antioxidative enzymes and ABA content might contribute to the stress tolerance.

Aberrant Expression of CCAT1 Regulated by c-Myc Predicts the Prognosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Zhu, Hua-Qiang,Zhou, Xu,Chang, Hong,Li, Hong-Guang,Liu, Fang-Feng,Ma, Chao-Qun,Lu, Jun Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.13

Background: CCAT1 has been reported to be linked with pathogenesis of malignancies including colon cancer and gastric cancer. However, the regulatory effect of CCAT1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. The purpose of this research was to identify any role of CCAT1 in the progression of HCC. Materials and Methods: Real time-PCR was performed to test the relative expression of CCAT1 in HCC tissues. A computation screen of CCAT1 promoter was conducted to search for transcription-factor-binding sites. The association of c-Myc with CCAT1 promoter in vivo was tested by Pearson correlation analysis and chromatin immunoprecipitation assay. Additionally, Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards analyses were performed. Results: c-Myc directly binds to the E-box element in the promoter region of CCAT, and when ectopically expressed increases promoter activity and expression of CCAT1. Moreover, Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that the patients with low expression of CCAT1 demonstrated better overall and relapse-free survival compared with the high expression group. Cox proportional hazards analyses showed that CCAT1 expression was an independent prognostic factor for HCC patients. Conclusions: The findings demonstrated CCAT1, acting as a potential biomarker in predicting the prognosis of HCC, is regulated by c-Myc.

Prognostic Significance of Overexpression of EZH2 and H3k27me3 Proteins in Gastric Cancer

He, Long-Jun,Cai, Mu-Yan,Xu, Guo-Liang,Li, Jian-Jun,Weng, Zi-Jin,Xu, Da-Zhi,Luo, Guang-Yu,Zhu, Sen-Lin,Xie, Dan Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.7

The enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) methyl transferase and histone 3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3) protein can repress gene transcription, and their aberrant expression has been observed in various human cancers. This study determined their expression levels in gastric cancer tissues with reference to clinicopathological features and patient survival. We collected 117 gastric cancer and corresponding normal tissues for immunohistochemistry analysis. In gastric cancers, 82/117 (70.1%) were positive for EZH2 and 66/117 (56.4%) for H3K27me3 proteins in contrast to only 5.41% and 7.25% of normal gastric mucosa specimens, respectively. Kaplan-Meier survival data showed the average overall and disease-free survival of EZH2 high expression patients was 25.2 and 20.2 months, respectively, shorter than that with EZH2 low expression (40.5 and 35.9 months). The average overall survival and disease-free survival of high H3K27me3 expression patients was 23.4 and 17.4 months, shorter than without H3K27me3 expression (37.6 and 34.5 months). The average overall survival and disease-free survival of patients with both EZH2 and H3K27me3 expression was 18.8 and 12.9 months, respectively, shorter than that with either alone (34.7 and 31.2 months) or with low levels of both (43.9 and 39.9 months). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that H3K27me3 and EZH2 expression, tumor size differentiation and clinical stage were all independent prognostic factors for predicting patient survival. This study demonstrated that detection of both EZH2 and H3K27me3 proteins can predict poor survival of gastric cancer patients, superior to single protein detection. In addition, H3K27me3 and EZH2 protein expression could predict lymph node metastasis.

Electronic Structure, Phase Transition, and Elastic Properties of ScC under High Pressure

Yu-Xin Zhao,Jun Zhu,Yan-Jun Hao,Zi-Yuan Li,Long-Qing Chen,Guang-Fu Ji 한국물리학회 2015 THE JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Vol.67 No.12

The structural properties and the phase transition for scandium carbide (ScC) have been studied in NaCl (B1), CsCl (B2), ZB (B3), WZ (B4), NiAs (B81), WC (Bh), and Pmmn structures by using the pseudopotential plane-wave method in the framework of the density functional theory. Our theoretical results show that the most stable structure is the B1 phase, contrary to the result of Rahim et al. The phase transitions B1 ! Pmmn and Pmmn ! B2 are predicted at 83.7 and 109.7 GPa, respectively. At the same time, we find that the B3, B4, B81, and Bh phases are not stable over the whole pressure range considered. In particular, the elastic constants of Pmmn-ScC under high pressure are obtained successfully. The effects of pressure on the elastic properties of B1-ScC and Pmmn-ScC are also predicted. The Debye temperatures and the sound velocities of these two structures are estimated from the elastic constants, and by analyzing G/B, the brittle-ductile behavior of ScC is assessed. In addition, the density of states of B1-ScC at high pressures is also discussed.

A two-stage cascaded foreground seeds generation for parametric min-cuts

( Shao-mei Li ),( Jun-guang Zhu ),( Chao Gao ),( Chun-wei Li ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2016 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.10 No.11

Parametric min-cuts is an object proposal algorithm, which can be used for accurate image segmentation. In parametric min-cuts, foreground seeds generation plays an important role since the number and quality of foreground seeds have great effect on its efficiency and accuracy. To improve the performance of parametric min-cuts, this paper proposes a new framework for foreground seeds generation. First, to increase the odds of finding objects, saliency detection at multiple scales is used to generate a large set of diverse candidate seeds. Second, to further select good-quality seeds, a two-stage cascaded ranking classifier is used to filter and rank the candidates based on their appearance features. Experimental results show that parametric min-cuts using our seeding strategy can obtain a relative small pool of proposals with high accuracy.

Baicalin attenuates adriamycin-induced nephrotic syndrome by regulating fibrosis procession and inflammatory reaction

Tan Ning,Sun Chen-Xia,Zhu Hui-Jun,Li De-Yu,Huang Sheng-Guang,He Shou-Di 한국유전학회 2021 Genes & Genomics Vol.43 No.9

Background Baicalin has anti-infammatory, antibacterial, blood platelet aggregation-inhibiting, free oxygen radical-clearing, and endotoxin-decreasing properties. However, its molecular mechanism involved in the treatment of Adriamycin-induced nephrotic syndrome (NS) is still unclear. Objective This study aimed to explore the efects of baicalin on Adriamycin-induced nephrotic syndrome (NS) and to characterize the genes involved in this progression. Methods We established Adriamycin-induced NS model in 32 rats and used six rats in Sham group. Urinary total protein content and creatinine serum were assessed as physiological indicators. H&E staining was used to observe the pathological changes. We determined gene expression profles using transcriptome sequencing in the rat kidney tissues from Sham, Adriamycin, and Adriamycin+baicalin groups. KEGG was carried out to analyze the enriched pathways of diferentially expressed genes among these groups. Results Baicalin treatment relieved renal injury in NS rats. Expression of 363 genes was signifcantly diferent between the Adriamycin and Adriamycin+baicalin M groups. Most of the diferentially expressed genes were enriched in pathways involved in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), fbrosis, apoptosis, and infammation. Conclusions Overall, these data suggest that Adriamycin-induced NS can be attenuated by baicalin through the suppression of fbrosis-related genes and infammatory reactions. Baicalin is a potential drug candidate for the treatment of NS, and the identifed genes represent potential therapeutic targets.

High-j Proton h11/2 and g7/2 Intruder Bands in 113In

Ma Ke Yan,Lu Jing Bin,Ma Ying Jun,Li Jian,Yang Dong,Sun Wu Ji,Wang Hao,Pan Hao Nan,Wang Jia Qi,Yang Qing Yu,Zhang Da Ming,Zhu Li Hua,Wu Xiao Guang,Zheng Yun,Li Cong Bo 한국물리학회 2020 THE JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Vol.76 No.12

Excited states of 113In have been populated through the heavy-ion fusion evaporation reaction 110Pd(7Li, 4n)113In. A new band with the configuration of a proton d5/2 orbital is identified. Two ΔI = 2 intruder bands, built on the πh11/2 and the πg7/2 orbitals, have been extended to spins (63/2-)ħ and (55/2+)ħ, respectively. The negative-parity πh11/2 intruder band shows a smooth increase in aligned spin, which is attributed to a strong proton-neutron interaction. The properties of the positive-parity πg7/2 band are discussed based on tilted axis cranking model calculations, and the features of the antimagnetic rotation for this band are shown after backbend. Furthermore, the contributions of the two-shears-like mechanism, the neutron (gd)ν shell and the core rotation are investigated for the positive-parity πg7/2 band.

SPON2 Promotes M1-like Macrophage Recruitment and Inhibits Hepatocellular Carcinoma Metastasis by Distinct Integrin–Rho GTPase–Hippo Pathways

Zhang, Yan-Li,Li, Qing,Yang, Xiao-Mei,Fang, Fang,Li, Jun,Wang, Ya-Hui,Yang, Qin,Zhu, Lei,Nie, Hui-Zhen,Zhang, Xue-Li,Feng, Ming-Xuan,Jiang, Shu-Heng,Tian, Guang-Ang,Hu, Li-Peng,Lee, Ho-Young,Lee, Su-J American Association for Cancer Research 2018 Cancer research Vol.78 No.9

<P>Matricellular protein SPON2 acts as an HCC suppressor and utilizes distinct signaling events to perform dual functions in HCC microenvironment.</P><P>Tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) represent key regulators of the complex interplay between cancer and the immune microenvironment. Matricellular protein SPON2 is essential for recruiting lymphocytes and initiating immune responses. Recent studies have shown that SPON2 has complicated roles in cell migration and tumor progression. Here we report that, in the tumor microenvironment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), SPON2 not only promotes infiltration of M1-like macrophages but also inhibits tumor metastasis. SPON2-α4β1 integrin signaling activated RhoA and Rac1, increased F-actin reorganization, and promoted M1-like macrophage recruitment. F-Actin accumulation also activated the Hippo pathway by suppressing LATS1 phosphorylation, promoting YAP nuclear translocation, and initiating downstream gene expression. However, SPON2-α5β1 integrin signaling inactivated RhoA and prevented F-actin assembly, thereby inhibiting HCC cell migration; the Hippo pathway was not noticeably involved in SPON2-mediated HCC cell migration. In HCC patients, SPON2 levels correlated positively with prognosis. Overall, our findings provide evidence that SPON2 is a critical factor in mediating the immune response against tumor cell growth and migration in HCC.</P><P><B>Significance:</B> Matricellular protein SPON2 acts as an HCC suppressor and utilizes distinct signaling events to perform dual functions in HCC microenvironment.</P><P><B>Graphical Abstract:</B> http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/canres/78/9/2305/F1.large.jpg. <I>Cancer Res; 78(9); 2305–17. ©2018 AACR</I>.</P><P><B>Graphical Abstract</B></P><P> [Figure]</P>

Genetic Variants at 6p21.1 and 7p15.3 Identified by GWASs of Multiple Cancers and Ovarian Cancer Risk: a Case-control Study in Han Chinese Women

Li, Da-Ke,Han, Jing,Liu, Ji-Bin,Jin, Guang-Fu,Qu, Jun-Wei,Zhu, Meng,Wang, Yan-Ru,Jiang, Jie,Ma, Hong-Xia Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.1

A recent study summarized several published genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of cancer and reported two pleiotropic loci at 6p21.1 and 7p15.3 contributing to multiple cancers including lung cancer, noncardia gastric cancer (NCGC), and esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma (ESCC) in Han Chinese. However, it is not known whether such genetic variants have similar effects on the risk of gynecologic cancers, such as ovarian cancer. Hence, we explored associations between genetic variants in 6p21.1 and 7p15.3 and ovarian cancer risk in Han Chinese women. We performed an independent case-control study by genotyping the two loci (rs2494938 A > G at 6p21.1 and rs2285947 A > G at 7p15.3) in a total of 377 ovarian cancer cases and 1,034 cancer-free controls using TaqMan allelic discrimination assay. We found that rs2285947 at 7p15.3 was significantly associated with risk of ovarian cancer with per allele odds ratio (OR) of 1.33 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08-1.64, P=0.008]. However, no significant association was observed between rs2494938 and ovarian cancer risk. Our results showed that rs2285947 at 7p15.3 may also contribute to the development of ovarian cancer in Han Chinese women, further suggesting pleiotropy of 7p15.3 in multiple cancers.