Several studies have suggested that the balance of T helper 17 (Th17) and natural regulatory T (nTreg) cells in the Th17‑mediated immune response are critical in the pathogenesis of viral hepatitis. The aim of the present study was to examine the role of circulating Th17 and nTreg cells in the disease progression of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. A total of 40 patients with chronic HBV (CHB), 27 patients with HBV‑associated cirrhosis, 20 patients with HBV‑associated liver failure and 20 healthy controls were enrolled in the present study. The frequencies of Th17 and nTreg cells in the peripheral blood were examined using flow cytometry. Th17‑associated serum cytokine levels were measured using an enzyme‑linked immunosorbent assay. The results revealed a significantly higher frequency of circulating Th17 cells in the patients with CHB, cirrhosis and liver failure compared, with the normal controls, particularly in the patients with liver failure. The same trend was observed in the serum levels of interleukin (IL)‑17. The frequency of Th17 cells and the serum levels of IL‑17 were positively correlated with the levels of alanine aminotransferase and the prothrombin times. There was a significantly higher frequency of circulating nTreg cells in the patients with CHB, compared with the normal controls. The nTreg cell frequencies were significantly and positively correlated with plasma HBV DNA load, and were negatively correlated with Th17 frequencies in the cohort of patients with HBV. Taken together, the results suggested that Th17 cell‑mediated inflammation is associated with progression from CHB to cirrhosis, and to liver failure. Peripheral Th17 cell frequency and serum levels of IL‑17 may assisting in predicting the severity of liver damage and fibrosis.

The rapid expansion of exotic plants has caused serious damage to the structure and function of invaded ecosystems and has resulted in enormous social and economic losses (Richardson & Ricciardi, 2013;Vilà et al., 2010). Determining why invasive plants succeed in their introduced range has been a major goal of invasion ecology. Plant-fungal associations are frequently key drivers of plant invasion success; a fungal species can act as a mutualist by enhancing plant defense, growth and stress tolerance or as a pathogen to cause establishment failure

Organic electronics carry several prominent advantages over inorganic semiconductors, including light weight, flexibility, low cost, being environmentally friendly and transparent. After two decades of development, organic light emitting diode (OLED) [1] devices have started to be an industry [2]. Polymer solar cell (PSC) research has achieved several breakthroughs [3][4][5][6] in the first few years of the 21st century. These fast improvements in performance have distinguished this technology as a promising costeffective alternative or complimentary technology to inorganic solar cells. The regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (RR-P3HT) [7,8] and [6,6]-phenyl C 60 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) [9] bulk heterojunction (BHJ) structure [10, 11] is a representative system for high efficiency PSCs [4][5][6]. While an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of over 70% [4-6, 12, 13] has been achieved in these PSCs, approaching that of their inorganic semiconductor counterparts, limited absorption in the solar spectrum remains a major limitation to achieving high efficiency. For example, only $ 40% of the solar energy is in the wavelength range shorter than 650 nm -the cut-off wavelength of RR-P3HT. While pursuing high efficiency is important, PSCs can provide other useful applications with their intrinsic properties like flexibility and transparency. Transparent or more precisely translucent solar cells could transfer the disadvantages of PSCs into advantages and will enable energy generation in various applications such as window and portable electronics. In addition, transparent solar cells provide an approach to further enhance PSC efficiency.