Exposing seeds to a high-voltage electrostatic field (HVEF) may influence the performance of herbivores and improve the germination rate by inducing biological and physiological changes in plants. In the current study, an age-stage, two-sex life table was established to evaluate the effects from directly exposing seeds to HVEFs on the performance of apterous Sitobion avenae (Fabricius) reared on winter wheat. We treated the wheat seeds by exposing them to an HVEF for 20 min at three intensities: 2, 4, or 6 KV/cm. Controls received no treatment (0 KV/cm). The results indicated that the parameters of the net reproductive rate (R0), the intrinsic rate of increase (r), and the mean generation span (T) of S. avenae were significantly reduced by HVEFs through multiple generations. In addition, the age-specific survival rate (lx) and comparison with the results of a Weibull equation analysis suggested that S. avenae had the shortest life span when seeds were exposed to an HVEF at 4 KV/cm. Overall, these findings indicated that direct exposure of wheat seeds to an HVEF at 4 KV/cm could adversely affect the performance of S. avenae.
A comprehensive elucidation of the unexpected adverse events that occur in skeletal myoblast transplantation is fundamental for the optimization of myocardial therapeutic effects. However, a well-defined method to study the interactions between skeletal myoblasts and cardiomyocytes during the healing process is out of reach. Here, we describe a microfluidic method for monitoring the interactions between skeletal myoblasts and hypoxia-injured cardiomyocytes in a spatiotemporally-controlled manner, mimicking the in vivo cell transplantation process. A myocardial hypoxia environment was created using an oxygen consumption blocking reagent, carbonyl cyanide 4-(trifluoromethoxy)phenylhydrazone. Meanwhile, the interactions between the skeletal L6 myoblasts and hypoxia-injured myocardium H9c2 cells were investigated, and the effects of a L6 conditional medium on H9c2 cells were comparatively analyzed by quantitatively measuring the morphological and pathophysiological dynamics of H9c2 cells. The results showed that skeletal myoblasts could repair hypoxia-injured H9c2 cells mainly through direct cell-to-cell interactions. This simple on-chip assay for investigating myocardial repair processes may provide avenues for the in vitro screening of drug-induced cardiotoxicity.
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