Influence of artificial luminous environment and TCM intervention on development of myopia rabbits

Objective:To explore the influence of artificial luminous environment and preventive function of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) intervention based on "Theory of yin-yang clock" on myopia.Methods:A total of 45 New Zealand young rabbits were randomly divided into 5groups,9 for each group.Control group was exposed in natural light.Fluorescent group and full spectrum group were exposed in fluorescent light and full spectrum light,on which basis fluorescent TCM group and full spectrum TCM group were added with "Rizhong Yinyang Formulas",respectively.Optical parameters were measured and the influence of different lights on the serum and retinal dopamine(DA) levels as well as the retinal histopathological tissues was observed.Results:The spectrum of fluorescent light mainly focused at 420-490 nm with the peak value of wavelength near 450 nm,whereas that of full spectrum was wider(400-800 nm) with the peak value near 600 nm.After 4 and 12 weeks,fluorescent group was evidently lower in serum and retinal DA levels(P<0.01).and there was no significant difference among full spectrum group,fluorescent TCM group and full spectrum TCM group(P>0.05).Histopathological observation showed that there was significant difference in pigment epithelium layer,photoreceptor and nerve fiber layer between fluorescent group and control group,but the difference among the test groups was not significant.Conclusions:Fluorescent light has certain influence on retinal histological construction and visual performance.However,TCM intervention may have some degree of protective function on retina.

DUXAP8, a pseudogene derived lncRNA, promotes growth of pancreatic carcinoma cells by epigenetically silencing CDKN1A and KLF2

Background:Recent studies highlight pseudogene derived long non-coding RNAs(lncRNAs)as key regulators of cancer biology.However,few of them have been well characterized in pancreatic cancer.Here,we aimed to identify the association between pseudogene derived lncRNA DUXAP8 and growth of pancreatic cancer cells.Methods:We screened for pseudogene derived lncRNAs associated with human pancreatic cancer by compara-tive analysis of three independent datasets from GEO.Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to assess the relative expression of DUXAP8 in pancreatic cancer tissues and cells.Loss-of-function approaches were used to investigate the potential functional roles of DUXAP8 in pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis in vitro and in vivo.RNA immunoprecipitation,chromosome immunoprecipitation assay and rescue experiments were performed to analyze the association of DUXAP8 with target proteins and genes in pancreatic cancer cells.Results:Pancreatic cancer tissues had significantly higher DUXAP8 levels than paired adjacent normal tissues.High DUXAP8 expression was associated with a larger tumor size,advanced pathological stage and shorter overall survival of pancreatic cancer patients.Moreover,silencing DUXAP8 expression by siRNA or shRNA inhibited pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis in vitro and in vivo.Mechanistic analyses indicated that DUXAP8 regulates PC cell proliferation partly through downregulation of tumor suppressor CDKN1A and KLF2 expression.Conclusion:Our results suggest that tumor expression of pseudogene derived lncRNA DUXAP8 plays an important role in pancreatic cancer progression.DUXAP8 may serve as a candidate biomarker and represent a novel therapeutic target of pancreatic cancer.

Quantum dots enhanced Cerenkov luminescence imaging

Cerenkov luminescence imaging(CLI) has been widely investigated for biological imaging. However, the luminescence generated from Cerenkov effect is relatively weak and has poor penetration ability in biological tissues.These limitations consequently hindered the clinical translation of CLI. In this study, we proposed an in vitro experimental study for the demonstration of quantum dots(QDs) configurations affected by the improvement of the signal intensity of CLI. Results revealed that the optimal concentrations were 0.1 mg/mL and 0.25 mg/mL for the studied CdSe/ZnS QDs with fluorescence emission peaks of 580 nm and 660 nm, respectively. The detected optical signal intensity with long-wavelength emission QDs were stronger than those with short-wavelength emission QDs.This study illustrates an experiment to study the effects of concentrations and fluorescence emission peaks of QDs on an enhanced optical signal for the external detection of CLI.

Clinical Study on Zhenjian Granule (针箭颗粒) in Improving Essential Hypertension and Insulin Resistance

Objective: To observe the effect of Zhenjian Granule (ZJG) in improving essential hypertension and insulin resistance (IR). Methods: The 52 patients of hypertension were randomly divided into the ZJG group (n=32) and the control group (n=20), treated with ZJG and captopril respectively for 4 weeks. The changes of blood pressure, glucose, insulin, insulin sensitivity index (ISI) and blood lipid in them before and after treatment were determined and compared with those in normal group (17 healthy subjects). Results: Fasting insulin, blood glucose, and insulin 2 hrs after meal in hypertension patients before treatment were significantly higher but ISI was significantly lower than those in the normal control, indicating the existence of insulin resistance. After treatment, not only blood pressure in patients obviously lowered, but also levels of fasting insulin, blood glucose, and insulin 2 hrs after meal obviously lowered, while ISI markedly raised. IR was improved in both groups, and blood lipid were also improved in the ZJG group. Conclusion: ZJG was effective in reducing blood pressure, also it had significant effect in improving metabolic disorder, particularly on IR in patients of essential hypertension.