Serum leptin and soluble leptin receptor in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

AIM: To determine the role of leptin system in non-al- coholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) development by deli- neating the changes in serum levels of leptin and soluble leptin receptor (sOB-R). METHODS: Blood samples were collected from 30 consecutive patients with liver-biopsy-proven NAFLD and 30 patients with cholecystolithiasis (stationary phase) as controls. Serum leptin levels were determined by radio- immunoassay and concentration of sOB-R was measured by ELISA. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated for all subjects, and serum insulin, C-peptide, and lipoprotein levels were also detected. RESULTS: Mean serum leptin level and BMI in the NAFLD group were significantly higher than in the con- trols (both P < 0.001), but mean sOB-R level was lower in the NAFLD group when compared to the controls. Both men and women in the NAFLD group had higher mean serum leptin levels and lower sOB-R levels than did the men and women in the control group (all P < 0.001). The- re was a significant negative correlation between serum leptin and sOB-R levels (r = -0.725, P < 0.001). Multiva- riate analysis showed that the percentage of hepatocyte steatosis, sex, BMI, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA IR) were independently rela- ted to serum leptin levels. CONCLUSION: Elevated serum leptin seems to be afeature of steatosis, and serum leptin seems to increase as hepatocyte steatosis develops. An enhanced release of leptin is accompanied by an decrease in sOB-R con- centration, which suggests higher resistance of periphe- ral tissues towards the action of leptin.

Correlation of LSD1 and NDRG1 gene expression in ovarian cancer tissue with cancer cell migration and invasion

Objective: To study the correlation of LSD1 and NDRG1 gene expression in ovarian cancer tissue with cancer cell migration and invasion. Methods: Patients with ovarian cancer who underwent surgical resection in Fufeng County People's Hospital between March 2014 and July 2017 were selected as the research subjects, and the ovarian cancer tissue and adjacent tissue were collected after surgical resection to determine the expression of LSD1, NDRG1, migration genes and invasion genes. Results: LSD1, YKL40, COX2, Twist, IFITM1, CatL, CTHRC1, MMP2 and FUNDC1 mRNA expression in ovarian cancer tissue were significantly higher than those in adjacent tissue whereas NDRG1, E-cadherin and Wnt5a mRNA expression were significantly lower than those in adjacent tissue;YKL40, COX2, Twist, IFITM1, CatL, CTHRC1, MMP2 and FUNDC1 mRNA expression in ovarian cancer tissue with high LSD1 expression were significantly higher than those in ovarian tissue with low LSD1 expression whereas E-cadherin and Wnt5a gene mRNA expression were significantly lower than those in ovarian tissue with low LSD1 expression. Conclusion: The high LSD1 expression and low NDRG1 expression in ovarian cancer tissue can promote the migration and invasion of cancer cells.

Warming intensified the effects of nitrogen addition on N_(2)O emissions from alpine meadow in the northern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Warming and nitrogen(N)addition may impact soil nitrous oxide(N_(2)O)emissions,but the relationship between plant community composition and soil microbial activities remains unclear.For a two-year field study in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,open-top chambers were used to quantify the effects of warming,N-addition,and their interactions on N_(2)O emissions.We found that the N-addition greatly increased N_(2)O emissions by 77.4%in 2018 when compared to the control group.In contrast,warming showed little effect on N_(2)0 emissions but did increase the activity of enzymes associated with soil nitrification and denitrification.A combined effect of warming and N-addition of resulted in 208.6%(2018)and 90.8%(2019)increase in N_(2)0 emissions,respectively,compared to the individual treatments of warming or N-addition.Global warming in alpine meadows is causally linked to increased legume biomass which is further intensified with the N-addition.Intensified legume biomass(p<0.05),soil moisture(p<0.001)and enzyme activity(p<0.001)had a positive effect on N_(2)0 emissions,while diminished microbial carbon/nitrogen(MBC/MBN)(p<0.05)correlated with reduced N_(2)O emissions.Final results indicated that N-addition has a positive effect on N_(2)O emissions,and the addition of warming further intensifies this effect.The increased dominance of legumes and microbial N content contributes to this effect.These outcomes suggest that warming and atmospheric N deposition can stimulate N_(2)O emissions of alpine meadows inthefuture.

Stability of Weak Solutions for the Compressible Navier-Stokes-Poisson Equations

In this paper, we consider the isentropic compressible Navier-Stokes-Poisson equations arising from transport of charged particles or motion of gaseous stars in astrophysics. We are interested in the case that the viscosity coefficients depend on the density and shall degenerate in the appearance of （density） vacuum, and show the Ll-stability of weak solutions for arbitrarily large data on spatial multi-dimensional bounded or periodic domain or whole space.