The Role of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-related Apoptosis in Vascular Endothelium Pathogenesis

Vascular endothelium refers to a single layer of endothelial cells that line the inner surface of blood vessels,serving as barriers and transducers between the circulating blood in the lumen and the rest of the vessel wall.Endothelial cells play essential roles in many aspects of vascular biology,such as barrier functions,thrombosis/fibrinolysis,inflammation,angiogenesis,vasoconstriction and vasodilation.

The future of plant conservation and the role of botanic gardens

The papers included in this special issue are mostly based on presentations made at the IABG international conference held at Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, China, November 2016, which addressed the roles that botanic gardens, both in China and elsewhere, can play in national biodiversity conservation stra- tegies, such as maintaining and conserving plant material ex situ and in contributing to the recovery of threatened plant species, reintroductions and other translocations. It also looked beyond bot- anic gardens and addressed how to work and plan much more closely with other practitioners.

The Role of Sciencein Codex Standards

The key principle in the development of Codex standards is to ensure that the decision making process is based on sound science. The approval for the use of food additives and other chemicals in foods should be made only when adequate scientific data is available. The same principle applies to the development of maximum tolerable (or residue) levels for contaminants in foods. Using the General Standards for Contaminants and Toxins in Foods as an example, the following criteria are considered, when developing recommendations and standards: Toxicological information; Analytical data; Intake data; Fair trade considerations; Technological considerations; and Risk assessment and risk management considerations. The Codex Alimentarius Commission has repeatedly emphasized the use of risk analysis approach, in particular the use of risk assessment in conducting the safety evaluation of food additives, agricultural and veterinary chemicals and environmental and industrial contaminants in foods. In this respect, the well known efforts of the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the FAO/WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) provide the much needed information and recommendations for the risk assessment of specific chemicals. The risk assessment approach is also used in the safety evaluation of foods derived from modern biotechnology as well as in the quantitative assessment of microbiological risks in foods.

Response to Comment on "The role of wildlife (wild birds) in the global transmission of antimicrobial resistance genes"

DEAR EDITOR,Since our first identification of plasmid-mediated colistin resistance gene mcr-1 in 2015 （Liu et al., 2016）, it has been described in human clinics, domestic animals, foods, and the environment worldwide （Schwarz ＆ Johnson, 2016）. Although it is still rare, the emergence of mcr-I in wild animals is of great concern. We summarized two previous reports on mcr-1 in wild birds from Lithuania and Argentina to describe its emergence and characteristics in wildlife and highlight the potentially important role of wild animals, particularly birds, in its global transmission （Wang et al., 2017）. The first detection of mcr-1 in wildlife in Asia was identified in an extended-spectrum β- lactamase-producing Escherichia coil strain isolated from Eurasian coot （Fulica atra）,

The role of DJ-1 complexes and catecholamine metabolism： relevance for familial and idiopathic Parkinson＇s disease

Autosomal recessive mutations in the PARK7 gene,which encodes for the protein DJ-1,result in a loss of function and are a cause of familial Parkinson’s disease（PD）,while increased wild-type DJ-1protein levels are associated with some forms of cancer.Several functions of DJ-1 have been described,with the greatest evidence indicating that DJ-1 is a redox-sensitive protein involved in the regulation of oxidative stress and cell survival.

Further Investigation on the Role of Selenium Deficiency in the Aetiology and Pathogenesis of Keshan Disease

Selenium supplements were not able to restore the ultrastructural changes in the myocardiurn of latent Keshan disease patients taken by using cardiac catheter endomyocardial biopsy. Observations on the changes of seleniurn status and the incidence of Keshan disease showed that new latent and naturally-occurring chronic cases were found in the endemic area even after selenium levels had been elevated in the residents to the levels typical in the non-endemic area. These results indicate that although selenium deficiency might be a primary pathogenetic geogen in the occurrence of Keshan disease, it is rather a conditional predisposing factor than a specific or initiative aetiologic factor for the occurrence of Keshan disease. Selenium supplmentation could apparently alleviate the higher platelet responsiveness of residents in the endemic area, which might contribute to eliminating the basis for the occurrence of the multifocal perivascular necroses in myocardium of acute and subacute Keshan disease

The role of lysyl oxidase-like 1 and fibulin-5 in the development of atherosclerosis and pelvic organ prolapse

Dear Editor： I would like to congratulate Zhou et al.[1] on their study of the correlation between expression of lysyl oxidase-like 1 （LOX-1） and fibulin-5 （F5） in the car- dinal ligament tissue and pelvic organ prolapse （POP）. In their elegant work, they evaluated the levels of LOX-1 and F5 in connective tissue of the cardinal ligament in order to demonstrate signs of elastinopa- thy in women with POP. They stress the concept that several environmental risk factors could cause qualitative and quantitative changes in the connective tissue promoting POP. The above authors conclude that the specific mechanism of LOXL1 and F5 involved in the development of POP is unclear.

The role of Islet-1 in cell specification,differentiation,and maintenance of phenotypes in the vertebrate neural retina

Many blinding diseases,such as retinitis pigmentosa,age-related macular degeneration,and glaucoma involve the permanent loss of retinal neurons,especially photoreceptors or the centrally projecting retinal ganglion cells.Stem cells have been proposed as a potential source of cells for neuronal transplantation.

THE ROLE OF PSYCHOSOCIAL STRESSORS,PERSONALITY AND COPING IN THE MULTIFACTORIAL ORIGIN,INITIATION AND CLINICAL COURSE OF NEOPLASTIC DISEASE AND IN HOST-DEFENSE

Summary: Retrospective and prospective bio-behavioral cancer studies have revealed that psycho social stressors may play a pivotal role in the initiation and progression of malignant neoplasia. In recent research, a pattern has emerged, which in analogy to the coronary prone pattern (type A) has been labelled type C, encompassing suppression of emotional responses, such as anger and hostility, rationality and antiemotionality, as well as high social conformity and a lack of self-assertiveness. There is growing evidence in both infrahuman and human research that specific coping styles (repressive coping) with stress may be associated with specific biologic responses, including neuroendocrine, immunologic and other bodily functions. The application of this model appears to be of importance for further research, as well as for the detection of high risk individuals, but also in regard to therapy, rehabilitation, early detection and possibly also prevention of malignant disease. This concept suggests also new directions and modifications of stress research, as stressors are to be viewed not necessarily as pathological, but in some instances as quite possibly salutary, depending on the nature of the stres-sor, the psychophysiologic state of the individual and his or her ability to cope with adverse life situations. Quite naturally, the development of this concept is still in its initial stages, there remain anumber of open questions, and it needs hardly to be pointed out in this connection that further and painstaking clinical and laboratory work is warranted in order to clarify the role of stressors, life and coping styles and its biological concomitants in neo-plastic disease.

The Role of Vitamin A in Iron Deficiency Anemia and Implications for Interventions

This presentation will describe the various reports on the interdependence of vitamin A and Fe

The Role of Nutrition Education in the Promotion of Iron-Fortified Soy Sauce in China

Iron deficiency anemia （IDA） is one of the most important nutrition issues in China. Data from the 2002 National Nutrition and Health Survey showed that the average anemia prevalence in China was 20.1% and the prevalence in women of child-bearing age and of children in some poor regions reached more than 50%; it has been estimated that more than 200 million Chinese people are suffering from anemia. Anemia significantly affects physical and mental development in children, decreases productivity in adults, and reduces immune function among the population at large, which leads to a lower health status and limits social development.

The role of endoplasmic reticulum stress in angiotensinⅡinduced apoptosis in cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes

Background AngiotensinⅡ(AngⅡ) plays a critical role in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases. Recently,studies have shown that Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) stress was activated in failure hearts.This study was designed to examine whether ER stress participates in the pathologic process of AngⅡ-induced cardiomyocytes apoptosis. Methods Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were incubated with concentrations of AngⅡ(0,1,10,100 nmol/L) for 24 hours.Confocal fluorescence microscopy with double staining of TUNEL and CHOP detected the percentage of apoptotic cells.Levels of GRP78,JNK,p-JNK,CHOP and caspase-12 were analyzed by western blot.Telmisartan(10- ~6mol/L) was used to test the effects of ATI receptor on AngⅡ- induced cell apoptosis,ER stress chaperones and signaling molecules.Results Treatment with AngⅡat 1,10, and 100 nmol/L for 24 hours stimulated GRP78,JNK,p-JNK and CHOP protein production,and increased apoptosis of myocytes.The protein expression and the number of apoptotic cells were depedent on AngⅡconcentration.About 60%of apoptotic cells were CHOP positive at 10 and 100nmol/L AngⅡtreatment,while no CHOP positive apoptotic cells were found at myocytes under physiological condition and 1 nmo/L AngⅡtreatment.Telmisartan decreased signaling molecules expression and abolished ER stress-mediated apoptosis induced by 100 nmol/L AngⅡ.Conclusions These results indicate that ER stress may be involved in the mechanisms of AngⅡ-induced cardiomyocytes apoptosis.JNK, caspase12 and CHOP all participate in the pathologic process.

The role of ERK1/2 signaling pathway in coronary microembolization-induced rat myocardial inflammation and injury

Objectives In this work,we explore the effect of atorvastatin on myocardial apoptosis and caspase-8 acti- vation after coronary microembolization(CME) in rats. Methods Fifty rats were randomly divided into five groups; the coronary microembolization(CME) group,the sham-operated (sham) control group,the gastric lavage control group, the atorvastatin lavage group,and the caspasse-8 inhibitor (N-acetyl-Ile-Glu-Thr-Asp-CHO,abbreviated as CHO) group,with 10 rats for each group.A microembolization ball was injected through the left ventricle for constructing the CME model.Animals in the sham control group were given an injection of physiological saline instead of the microembolization ball.Seven days before the operation,the atorvastatin group underwent gastric lavage with 20 mg/kg of atorvastatin once a day.Gastric lavage control animals underwent gastric lavage with an equivalent dose of physiological saline instead of the atorvastatin.Animals in the CHO group were given an intraperitoneal injection of 10 mg/kg of CHO 30 min before the operation.Six hours after the operation,cardiac ultrasonic detection was conducted on each group to measure the cardiac function indexes.TUNEL(Terminal-deoxynucleoitidyl transferase mediated dUTP nick end labeling) assays were used to measure myocardial apoptosis,and western blots were used to quantify the expression levels of activated caspase-3 and -8.Results(1) The echocardiographic parameters showed that,compared to the sham control animals,the left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF) of the CME group was significantly decreased(P【0.05).In addition, cardiac sonography revealed a decrease in the left ventricular shortening fraction(FS) and cardiac output(CO), but an increase in the left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (LVEDd).Compared to the CME group,the atorvastatin and CHO groups exhibited significantly improved cardiac function (P【0.05).(2) When compared with the sham control,the myocardical apoptotic rate of the CME group,as well as the levels of activated caspase-3 and-8,increased significantly (P【0.05).The myocardial apoptotic rate,as well as the levels of activated caspase-3 and caspase-8 in the atorvastatin and CHO groups,decreased significandy(P【0.05) in comparison to the CME group.Conclusions The atorvastatin pretreatment clearly suppressed post-CME myocardial apoptosis and improved cardiac function.The most likely mechanism for these effects is the blockade of the myocardial death receptor -mediated apoptosis pathway.

The Role of Atrial Natriuretic Peptide (ANP) in Cardiopulmonary Diseases

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) is a peptide hormone that has potent natriuretic, diuretic, vasodilator, sympatholytic, and renin - and aldos-terone - suppressing activities and is involved in the regulation of volume and electrolyte balance and blood pressure. Further, ANP has also been shown to inhibit cellular growth, proliferation and induce apoptosis in a variety of cell lines, including vascular smooth muscle cells and cardiac myocytes. Recent studies have demonstrated that ANP is not only involved in blood pressure and volume homeostasis but also in the direct regulation of cardiac growth. We and other investigators have demonstrated the existence of natriuretic peptide receptors in the heart and cardiac cells, suggesting that ANP has direct actions on cardiac tissue. Several recent in vivo studies have suggested that statement of ANP is inversely related to cardiac growth/hypertrophy. Transgenic mice overexpressing ANP have lower heart weight and blood pressure than wild type mice. Conversely, we demonstrated that transgenic mice with homozygous disruption of the pro - ANP gene (Nppa) (ANP -/- mice) have no circulating or tissue ANP and exhibit significant cardiac hypertrophy and increased blood pressure. Further, transgenic mice lacking a functional natriuretic peptide receptor A (NPR-A) gene display elevated blood pressure and marked cardiac hypertrophy. The role of ANP in the development of cardiac hypertrophy in response to hemodynamic stress has not previously been studied. Our previous studies demonstrated that ANP - / -mice with hypoxia - induced pulmonary hypertension and high salt diet - induced systemic hypertension develop greater cardiac enlargement than their wild type controls under same experimental conditions, suggest-ing that cardiac enlargement in ANP -/- mice might, at least in part, be related to increased afterload. In a recent study, we used ANP -/- mice to further test the hypothesis that ANP plays an important role in protecting against the development of cardiac enlargement induced by volume overload stress. Adult (8-10 wk old) male ANP -/- and wild type ANP+/+ mice underwent an aorto - caval fistula (ACF) or sham surgery and were subjected to echocardiographic examination at 2 wks. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) and atrial, left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular (RV) mass were greater in sham - operated ANP-/-mice than in ANP+/+mice. MAP decreased following ACF to a similar extent in both genotypes. ACF induced significant concentric cardiac enlargement in both genotypes. Cardiac enlargement and lung weight increased to a greater extent in ANP - / - mice than in ANP+/ + mice, indicating that disrupted ANP statement worsens ACF- induced cardiac enlargement and pulmonary congestion. LV function (velocity of circumferential shortening [VCFr], circumferential stress, fraction shortening, fraction shortening, and e-jection time and fraction) assessed by echocardiography did not differ between sham - operated ANP + / + and ANP - / - mice and remained unchanged after ACF. These findings indicate that ANP deletion results in biventricular enlargement and an exaggerated response to the stress of volume overload. This support the hypothesis that ANP has direct antihypertrophic and car-dioprotective actions in heart. Further study is needed to dissect the contributions of increased afterload from those of removing the antihypertrophic effects of ANP to basal and stress induced cardiac enlargement in this animal model.

The Role of L1 in Second Language Acquisition

The role of the native language in second language acquisition has long been a hotly debated issue in the area of SLA.Variousstudies on the subject are reviewed and controversial views are examined in the paper,referring to Behaviorism,Contrastive Analysis Hy-pothesis,Error Analysis Hypothesis,Creative Construction Hypothesis,Common Underlying Proficiency Hypothesis,and MarkednessTheory,etc.,so as to provide a more comprehensive and deeper analysis of the role L1 plays in L2 acquisition.

Broad-Band FMR Linewidth of Co_2MnSi Thin Films with Low Damping Factor:The Role of Two-Magnon Scattering

The low Gilbert damping factor, which is usually measured by ferromagnetic resonance, is crucial in spintronic applications. Two-magnon scattering occurs when the orthogonMity of the ferromagnetic resonance mode and other degenerate spin wave modes was broken by magnetic anisotropy, voids, second phase, surface defects, etc., which is important in analysis of ferromagnetic resonance linewidth. Direct fitting to linewidth with Gilbert damping is advisable only when the measured linewidth is a linear function of measuring frequency in a broad band measurement. We observe the nonlinear ferromagnetic resonance linewidth of Co2MnSi thin films with respect to measuring frequency in broad band measurement. Experimental data could be well fitted with the model including two-magnon scattering with no fixed parameters. The fitting results show that two-magnon scattering results in the nonlinear linewidth behavior, and the Gilbert damping factor is much smaller than reported ones, indicating that our Co2MnSi films are more suitable for the applications of spin transfer torque.

THE ROLE OF RARE EARTH CHLORIDES IN THE PACK-TiC COATING AGENT

If 1% rare earth chloride is added to the coating agent containing 5% AlCl_3,the coating efficiency of TiC will be increased greatly.A protective crust consisting of Al_2(SiO_3)_3 and SiO_2 will form on top of the coating agent in the temperature range of 850～1000℃ when SiO_2 powder of a thickness of 5～10 mm is spread on top of it.The protective crust can offer a good air-proof property and increase the denseness of the coating structure.

Comment on ＂The role of wildlife (wild birds)in the global transmission of antimicrobial resistance genes＂

DEAR EDITOR, We read with interest the article by Wang and colleagues regarding the role of wildlife in the transmission of antimicrobial resistance （AMR） （Wang et al., 2017）. Although we appreciate the efforts in reviewing this important topic, we would like to comment on some statements that we believe are not up-to- date or properly cited.

The role of B-type natriuretic peptide in the diagnosis and treatment of decompensated heart failure

Heart failure (HF) is a common disease associated with increasing age. B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), is a cardiac neurohormone, and is released as prepro BNP and then enzyrnatically cleaved to the Ntenninal-proBNP (NT-proBNP) and BNP upon ventricular myocyte stretch. Blood measurements of BNP have been used to identify patients with I-IF. The BNP assay is currently used as a diagnostic and prognostic aid in HF. In general, a BNP level below 100 pg/mL excludes acutely decompensated HF and levels ＞ 500 pg/ml indicate decompensation. Recombinant human BNP (hBNP, nesiritide) is an approved intravenous treatment for acute,decompensated -HF. Nesiritide given in supraphysiologic doses causes vasodilation, natriuresis, diuresis, and improved symptoms over the course of a 48-hour infusion. This paper will sort out the literature concerning the use of this peptide both as a diagnostic test and as an intravenous therapy.

Give Full Play the Role of Traditional Chinese Medicine to Prevent and Treat Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome with Integrative Chinese and Western Medicine Approach

Member of Political Bureau of Central Committee of CPC, Vice Premier of State Council concurrently Minister of Health, General Command of National Protecting and Treating Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ( SARS) Headquarters Vice premier WU Yi cordially met the well-known TCM specialists, and held a symposium with them. Sixteen specialists including WANG Yong-yan, CHEN Ke-ji, LI Fu-ren, JIAO Shu-de, HE Pu-ren, LIU