Vascularization is fundamental for bone formation and bone tissue homeostasis. However, in human subjects, a direct molecular relationship has not been identified between angiogenesis and agents that promote bone disease or factors related to age. Osteopenia is a condition in which bone mineral density is lower than normal, and it represents a sign of normal aging. Here we tested whether the type H vessel, which was recently identified as strongly positive for CD31 and Endomucin (CD31hiEmcnhi) in mice, is an important indicator of aging and osteopenia in human subjects. We found that age-dependent losses of type H vessels in human bone sections conform to the observations in aged mice. The abundance of human type H vessels and osteoprogenitors may be relevant to changes in the skeletal microarchitecture and advanced osteopenia. Furthermore, ovariectomized mice, a widely used model for postmenopausal osteoporosis, exhibited significantly reduced type H vessels accompanied by reduced osteoprogenitors, which is consistent with impaired bone microarchitecture and osteoporosis, suggesting that this feature is an indicator of bone mass independent of aging. More importantly, administration of desferrioxamine led to significantly increased bone mass via enhanced angiogenesis and increased type H vessels in ovariectomized mice. Altogether, these data represent a novel finding that type H vessels are regulated in aged and osteopenia subjects. The abundance of human type H vessels is an early marker of bone loss and represents a potential target for improving bone quality via the induction of type H vessels.

Autoimmune disease encompasses an array of conditions with a variety of presentations and the involvement of multiple organs. Though the etiologies of many autoimmune conditions are unclear, uncontrolled inflammatory immune response is believed to be a major cause of disease development and progression. Progranulin (PGRN), an anti-inflammatory molecule with therapeutic effect in inflammatory arthritis, was identified as an endogenous antagonist of TNFα by competitively binding to TNFR. PGRN exerts its anti-inflammatory activity through multiple pathways, including induction of T differentiation and IL-10 expression and inhibition of chemokine release from macrophages. In addition, the protective role of PGRN has also been demonstrated in osteoarthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis. Intriguingly, PGRN was reported to contribute to development of insulin resistance in high-fat diet induced diabetes. Emerging evidences indicate that PGRN may also be associated with various autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematous, systemic sclerosis, multiple sclerosis and Sjogren's syndrome. This review summarizes recent studies of PGRN as a novel target molecule in the field of autoimmune disease, and provides updated information to inspire future studies.

Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) is a clinically common acute symptom in otolaryngology. Although the incidence of SSHL has increased around the world in recent years, the etiology of the disease is still unclear. It has been reported that infections, ototoxic drugs, membrane labyrinth rupture, carcinomas, circulatory system diseases, autoimmune diseases, brain lesions, mental diseases, congenital or inherited diseases, and so on, are all risk factors for SSHL. Here, we discuss the autoimmune mechanisms behind SSHL, which might be induced by type II–IV allergic reactions. We also introduce the main immunosuppressive medications that have been used to treat SSHL, which will help us to identify potential targets for immune therapy.

Neural progenitor cell (NPC) transplantation is a promising technique for central nervous system (CNS) reconstruction and regeneration. Biomaterial scaffolds, frameworks, and platforms can support NPC proliferation and differentiation in vitro as well as serve as a temporary extracellular matrix after transplantation. However, further applications of biomaterials require improved biological attributes. Silk fibroin (SF), which is produced by Bombyx mori , is a widely used and studied protein polymer for biomaterial application. Here, we prepared aligned and random eletrospun regenerated SF (RSF) scaffolds, and evaluated their impact on the growth of NPCs. First, we isolated NPCs and then cultured them on either laminin-coated RSF mats or conventional laminin-coated coverslips for cell assays. We found that aligned and random RSF led to increases in NPC proliferation of 143.8 ± 13.3% and 156.3 ± 14.7%, respectively, compared to controls. Next, we investigated neuron differentiation and found that the aligned and the random RSF led to increases in increase in neuron differentiation of about 93.2 ± 6.4%, and 3167.1 ± 4.8%, respectively, compared to controls. Furthermore, we measured the survival of NPCs and found that RSF promoted NPC survival, and found there was no difference among those three groups. Finally, signaling pathways in cells cultured on RSF mats were studied for their contributions in neural cell differentiation. Our results indicate that RSF mats provide a functional microenvironment and represent a useful scaffold for the development of new strategies in neural engineering research.

Postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) is a systemic bone metabolism disease, characterized by progressive bone loss following menopause and a subsequent increase in fracture risk. Estrogen deficiency as a result of menopause is known to increase bone resorption and accelerate bone loss. Furthermore, postmenopausal women may exhibit iron accumulation, in addition to estrogen deficiency. Elevated iron levels are a risk factor for PMOP in postmenopausal women, and reducing the iron overload has been demonstrated to benefit bone cell metabolism and improve the bone by normalizing osteoclastic bone resorption and formation. The identification of hepcidin was a key development in the field of iron metabolism in the previous decade. We hypothesize that hepcidin may aid in the prevention and treatment of PMOP due to its capacity to control body iron stores and its intrinsic effects on osteoblast function. The aim of the current review was to highlight the role of iron accumulation in the pathogenesis of PMOP and to evaluate the possible use of hepcidin as a potential therapy for this condition.

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Land cover classification that uses very high resolution (VHR) remote sensing images is a topic of considerable interest. Although many classification methods have been developed, the accuracy and usability of classification systems can still be improved. In this paper, a novel post-processing approach based on a dual-adaptive majority voting strategy (D-AMVS) is proposed to improve the performance of initial classification maps. D-AMVS defines a strategy for refining each label of a classified map that is obtained by different classification methods from the same original image, and fusing the different refined classification maps to generate a final classification result. The proposed D-AMVS contains three main blocks. (1) An adaptive region is generated by gradually extending the region around a central pixel based on two predefined parameters (T1 and T2) to utilize the spatial feature of ground targets in a VHR image. (2) For each classified map, the label of the central pixel is refined according to the majority voting rule within the adaptive region. This is defined as adaptive majority voting. Each initial classified map is refined in this manner pixel by pixel. (3) Finally, the refined classified maps are used to generate a final classification map, and the label of the central pixel in the final classification map is determined by applying AMV again. Each entire classified map is scanned and refined pixel by pixel based on the proposed D-AMVS. The accuracies of the proposed D-AMVS approach are investigated with two remote sensing images with high spatial resolutions of 1.0 m and 1.3 m. Compared with the classical majority voting method and a relatively new post-processing method called the general post-classification framework, the proposed D-AMVS can achieve a land cover classification map with less noise and higher classification accuracies.

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