Expression of periostin and its clinicopathological relevance in gastric cancer

AIM: To investigate the expression and localization of periostin in gastric cancer and its clinical relevance. METHODS: Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was used to measure periostin mRNA expression. Western blotting was carried out to detect periostin protein expression. Immunohistochemistry was performed to localize and quantify the expression of periostin in benign gastric diseases and gastric cancer, and immunostaining results were correlated with gastric cancer pathological stages. RESULTS: Periostin expression was low at both mRNA and protein levels in normal gastric tissues, but was overexpressed in gastric cancer tissues. Immunohistochemical staining revealed that periostin was overexpressed in primary gastric cancer, as well as in metastatic lymph nodes, but only faint staining was found in benign gastric ulcers. By quantitative analysis of the immunostaining results, periostin expression was increased 2.5-4-fold in gastric cancer, compared to that in benign gastric disease, and there was a trend toward increasing periostin expression with tumor stage. CONCLUSION: This observation demonstrated that periostin was overexpressed in gastric cancer and lymph node metastasis, which suggests that periostin plays an important role in the progression and metastasis of gastric cancer.

Projectile fragment emission in the fragmentation of 56Fe on Al,C,and CH2 targets

The emission angle distribution of projectile fragments(PFs)and the temperature of PF emission sources for fragmentation of 56Fe on polyethylene,carbon,and aluminum targets at the highest energy of 497 A MeV are investigated on the basis of corrected data,using a CR-39 plastic nuclear track detector.It is found that the average emission angle of PFs increases with the decrease in PF charge for the same target,and no obvious dependence of angular distribution on the mass of the target nucleus is found for the same PF.The cumulative squared transverse momentum distribution of PFs can be well represented by a single Rayleigh distribution.The temperature of PF emission sources is extracted from the distribution,and it is about 1.0-8.0 MeV and does not depend on the mass of the target for PFs with charges of 9≤Z≤25.

Genome-wide analysis of Nilaparvata lugens nymphal responses to high-density and low-quality rice hosts

The brown planthopper （BPH） Nilaparvata lugens is an economically impor- tant pest on rice plants. In this study, the higher population density and yellow-ripe stage of rice plants were used to construct adverse survival conditions （ASC） against BPH nymphs. Simultaneously, the low population density and tillering stage of rice plants were used to establish a suitable survival condition （SSC） as a control. Solexa/Illumina sequencing was used to identify genes of BPH nymphs responding to ASC. Significantly longer duration development of BPH nymphs and significantly lower brachypterous ratio of BPH adults were observed by ASC compared with SSC. A total of 2 544 differentially expressed genes （DEGs） were obtained and analyzed by BLASTx, Gene Ontology and KEGG Orthology. Gene ontology analysis revealed that the DEGs were mainly involved in categories of cell, cell part, cellular process, binding, catalytic, organelle and metabolic processes. 1138 DEGs having enzyme commission numbers were assigned to different metabolic pathways. The largest clusters were neurodegenerative diseases （137, 12.0%）, followed by carbohy- drate metabolism （113, 9.9%）, amino acid metabolism （94, 8.3%）, nucleotide metabolism （76, 6.7%）, energy metabolism （64, 5.6%）, translation （60, 5.3%）, lipid metabolism （58, 5.1%）, and folding, sorting and degradation （52, 4.6%）. Expressing profile of 11 DEGs during eight nymphal developmental stages of BPH were analyzed by quantitative real- time polymerase chain reaction. The 11 genes exhibited differential expression between ASC and SSC during at least one developmental stage. The DEGs identified in this study provide molecular proof of how BPH reconfigures its gene expression profile to adapt to overcrowding and low-quality hosts.

Effects of elevated CO2 on the interspecific competition between two sympatric species of Aphis gossypii and Bemisia tabaci fed on transgenic Bt cotton

Effects of elevated CO2 （twice ambient vs. ambient） and Bt CrylAc transgene （Bt cotton cv. 33B vs. its nontransgenic parental line cv. DP5415） on the interspecific competition between two ecologically similar species of cotton aphid Aphis gossypii and whitefly biotype-Q Bemisia tabaci were studied in open-top chambers. The results indicated that elevated CO2 and Bt cotton both affected the population abundances of A. gossypii and biotype-Q B. tabaci when introduced solely （i.e., without interspecific competition） or two species coexisted （i.e., with interspecific competition）. Compared with ambient CO2, elevated COe increased the population abundances ofA. gossypii and biotype-Q B. tabaci as fed on Bt and nontransgenic cotton on 45 （i.e., seedling stage） and 60 （i.e., flowering stage） days after planting （DAP）, but only significantly enhanced aphid abundance without interspecific competition on the 45-DAP nontransgenic cotton and 60-DAP Bt cotton, and significantly increased whitefly abundance with interspecific competition on the 45-DAP Bt cotton and 60-DAP nontransgenic cotton. In addition, compared with nontransgenic cotton at elevated CO2, Bt cotton significantly reduced biotype-Q B. tabaci abundances without and with interspecific competition during seedling and flowering stage, while only significantly decreasing A. gossypii abundances without interspecific competition during the seedling stage. When the two insect species coexisted, the proportions ofbiotype-Q B. tabaci were significantly higher than those ofA. gossypii on Bt and nontransgenic cotton at the same CO2 levels, and elevated CO2 only significantly increased the percentages of biotype-Q B. tabaci and significantly reduced the proportions of A. gossypii on seedling and flowering nontransgenic cotton. Therefore, the effects of elevated CO2 were favorable for biotype-Q B. tabaci to out-compete A. gossypii under the predicted global climate change.

Hierarchical ZrO_(2)@N-doped carbon nano-networks anchored ultrafine Pd nanoparticles for highly efficient catalytic hydrogenation

Carbon supported metal catalysts have received considerable interest due to their widespread applications in heterogeneous catalysis.However,the controllable synthesis of carbon support with defined morphology and composition still represents great challenging.Herein,we reported the synthesis of a well-defined hierarchically nanosized H-ZrO_(2)/NC(nitrogen-doped carbon)network via an inheritable carbonization strategy.When immobilizing the palladium clusters into the support,the N-doped sites and oxygen vacancy of the carbon composite can effectively stabilize and activate Pd through strong metal-support interaction which was also confirmed by density functional theory(DFT)calculations.Moreover,the hierarchically nanosized network can contribute to the exposure of active sites and facilitate the mass transfer during the catalytic process.As a result,benefiting from the hierarchical structure,composition and hydrolytic nature,Pd@H-ZrO_(2)/NC exhibited excellent catalytic activity and stability towards the hydrogenation of furfural in mild reaction conditions,as well as good universality toward the hydrogenation of a series of unsaturated hydrocarbons.