It has been speculated that before vertebrates evolved somatic diversity-based adaptive immunity, the germline-encoded diversity of innate immunity may have been more developed. Amphioxus occupies the basal position of the chordate phylum and hence is an important reference to the evolution of vertebrate immunity. Here we report the first comprehensive genomic survey of the immune gene repertoire of the amphioxus Branchiostoma floridae. It has been reported that the purple sea urchin has a vastly expanded innate receptor repertoire not previously seen in other species, which includes 222 toll-like receptors (TLRs), 203 NOD/NALP-like receptors (NLRs), and 218 scavenger receptors (SRs). We discovered that the amphioxus genome contains comparable expansion with 71 TLR gene models, 118 NLR models, and 270 SR models. Amphioxus also expands other receptor-like families, including 1215 C-type lectin models, 240 LRR and IGcam-containing models, 1363 other LRR-containing models, 75 C1q-like models, 98 ficolin-like models, and hundreds of models containing complement-related domains. The expansion is not restricted to receptors but is likely to extend to intermediate signal transducers because there are 58 TIR adapter-like models, 36 TRAF models, 44 initiator caspase models, and 541 death-fold domain-containing models in the genome. Amphioxus also has a sophisticated TNF system and a complicated complement system not previously seen in other invertebrates. Besides the increase of gene number, domain combinations of immune proteins are also increased. Altogether, this survey suggests that the amphioxus, a species without vertebrate-type adaptive immunity, holds extraordinary innate complexity and diversity.

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Spontaneous rupture with bleeding is not an infrequent complication of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). From May, 1972 to January, 1987, 56 symptomatic patients with ruptured HCC were managed by plication of the lesion (2 patients), ligation of either the common hepatic artery, CHAL, (39 patients), or selectively, the arterial branch supplying the tumor-bearing lobe of liver, SHAL, (8 patients), and hepatic resection, HR, (7 patients). Effective hemostasis was achieved in 68.1% of patients with the use of hepatic artery ligation (HAL). SHAL provides a comparable control of bleeding but no demonstrable reduction of postoperative organ failure when compared with CHAL. The operative treatment employed had no influence on either the postoperative rates of morbidity, mortality, or survival. However, the rate of hospital mortality was high among the four patients who had emergency anatomical lobectomy, despite the absence of severe cirrhosis. Hepatic artery ligation, either CHAL or SHAL, is a satisfactory definitive hemostatic measure for unresectable HCC when it ruptured. SHAL is probably preferred to routine emergency HR for patients with potentially resectable lesions. Nonetheless, for selected patients with easily accessible lesions, segmentectomy or subsegmentectomy could still be contemplated in the absence of severe cirrhosis.

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Among five Toll/IL-1R resistance adaptors, sterile α and Toll/IL-1R resistance motif containing protein (SARM) is the only one conserved from Caenorhabditis elegans to human. However, its physiologic roles are hardly understood, and its involvement in TLR signaling remains debatable. In this study, we first demonstrated a predominant expression of amphioxus SARM (Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense SARM) in neural cells during embryogenesis and its predominant expression in the digestive system from larva to adult, suggesting its primitive role in neural development and a potential physiologic role in immunity. We further found that B. belcheri tsingtauense SARM was localized in mitochondria and could attenuate the TLR signaling via interacting with amphioxus MyD88 and tumor necrosis receptor associated factor 6. Thus, amphioxus SARM appears unique in that it may play dual functions in neural development and innate immunity by targeting amphioxus TLR signaling.

The solubility of 2, 2-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) in pure methanol, ethanol, acetone, benzene, ethyl acetate and a mixture of methanol and water was measured in the temperature range from 268.15 K to 325.15 K at atmospheric pressure. The AIBN solubility was sensitive to the temperature in all the pure solvents. The solubility in the binary mixture of methanol and water increased as the methanol fraction and temperature increased. The data were correlated with the modified Apelblat equation, Van't Hoff equation and Buchowski-Ksiazczak h equation. Other results showed two AIBN polymorphs formed after the crystallization, form I, in a monoclinic cell, and form II, in a triclinic cell, which confirmed the two AIBN crystal structures reported in the literature. Additionally, the initial concentration and cooling rate of the AIBN crystallization had dominant roles in affecting the polymorphic forms of the AIBN crystals. The crystallization conditions were optimized in a 2 L crystallizer to yield crystals with the desired morphology and polymorphs, which resolved the caking issue experienced in the industrial production of AIBN. The optimized conditions were tested in a 20 L crystallizer.

The solubility and solution thermodynamics of azacyclotridecan-2-one in different solvents are indispensable for the purification and performance improvement of crystalline products in industry. In this paper, the solid− liquid equilibrium of azacyclotridecan-2-one in 15 pure solvents (methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, isopropanol, nbutanol, isobutanol, n-pentanol, ethyl acetate, acetone, toluene, acetonitrile, dichloromethane, 1,2-dichlorobenzene, cyclohexanone, and tetrahydrofuran) from 273.15 to 323.15 K at atmospheric pressure was measured. The mole fraction solubility increased with the increase in temperature in all solvents studied. The modified Apelblat equation, Van't Hoff equation, Buchowski−Ksiazczak λh equation, and nonrandom two-liquid (NRTL) activity coefficient model were used to correlate the experimental data. Consequently, some association parameters were obtained. As a result, the NRTL model provided the best fitting. The solubility data provide the basic data for the design and optimization of the azacyclotridecan-2one crystallization process.

The TNF-associated factor (TRAF) family, the crucial adaptor group in innate immune signaling, increased to 24 in amphioxus, the oldest lineage of the Chordata. To address how these expanded molecules evolved to adapt to the changing TRAF mediated signaling pathways, here we conducted genomic and functional comparisons of four distinct amphioxus TRAF groups with their human counterparts. We showed that lineage-specific duplication and rearrangement were responsible for the expansion of amphioxus TRAF1/2 and 3 lineages, whereas TRAF4 and 6 maintained a relatively stable genome and protein structure. Amphioxus TRAF1/2 and 3 molecules displayed various expression patterns in response to microbial infection, and some of them can attenuate the NF-κB activation mediated by human TRAF2 and 6. Amphioxus TRAF4 presented two unique functions: activation of the NF-κB pathway and involvement in somite formation. Although amphioxus TRAF6 was conserved in activating NF-κB pathway for antibacterial defense, the mechanism was not the same as that observed in humans. In summary, our findings reveal the evolutionary uniqueness of the TRAF family in this basal chordate, and suggest that genomic duplication and functional divergence of the TRAF family are important for the current form of the TRAF-mediated signaling pathways in humans.