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Matrine is a component of the traditional Chinese medical herb Sophora flavescens Ait, which is widely used to treat diseases such as viral hepatitis, cardiac arrhythmia and skin inflammations. As indicated by previous reports, the molecular mechanism of matrine's anti-cancer effect has been poorly clarified. In this study, we used both in vitro and in vivo models to investigate matrine's antitumor effect and its possible molecular mechanisms. Murine hepatocellular carcinoma H22 cells were cultured in the presence of matrine at various concentrations (0.2 - 2.0 mg/mL). A dose-dependent antiproliferation effect was observed. The 50 % inhibitory concentration (IC (50)) was 0.6 mg/mL. Antiproliferation effects of matrine were associated with an increase in cells arrested in the G (1) phase of the cell cycle. Morphological changes, flow cytometric analysis and expression of the proapoptotic protein Bax indicated that this anticancer effect was mediated via apoptosis. In vivo antitumor efficacy was evaluated following S. C. inoculation of H22 cells in BALB/c mice. Matrine administrated I. P. resulted in strong in vivo anticancer activity. Our results showed that seven doses of matrine at 50 mg/kg/dose inhibited 60.7 % of tumor growth. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis and histoimmunochemical staining for Bcl-2 and Bax proteins also indicated induction of apoptosis in tumor tissues by matrine. Taken together, our results demonstrate that matrine possesses strong antitumor activities in vitro and in vivo. Inhibition of cell proliferation and induction of apoptosis are the likely mechanisms responsible for matrine's antitumor activities.

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The systemic fungal endophyte of the grass Achnatherum inebrians, Epichloë gansuensis, has important roles in enhancing resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. In this work, we first evaluated the effects of E. gansuensis on nitrogen metabolism, nitrogen use efficiency, and stoichiometry of A. inebrians under varying nitrogen concentrations. The results demonstrated that E. gansuensis significantly improved the growth of A. inebrians under low nitrogen conditions. The fresh and dry weights, nitrogen reductase, nitrite reductase, and glutamine synthetase activity, NO, NH, N, and P content, and also the total N accumulation, N utilization efficiency, and N uptake efficiency were all higher in leaves of A. inebrians with E. ganusensis (E+) plants than A. inebrians plants without this endophyte (E-) under low nitrogen availability. In conclusion, E. gansuensis has positive effects on improving the growth of A. inebrians under low-nitrogen conditions by modulating the enzymes of nitrogen metabolism and enhancing nitrogen use efficiency.

Accurately determining woody-to-total area ratio (WTA) is a key step to indirectly retrieve leaf area index (LAI) from terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data. In this work, we first collected both individual tree and forest plot point cloud data (PCD) from broadleaf-and coniferous tree species and leaf characteristics using both side-lateral and full field-of-view TLS field setups with scan distances between 2.5 to 28 meters. Using a local geometrical feature-based algorithm, the generated PCD were automatically classified into three different categories including photosynthetic canopy components, non-photosynthetic canopy components, and bare earth. To convert each classified point into a surface area, we then developed and validated a novel approach that considers sampling space, laser incidence angle, and leaf orientation information. The estimated surface areas from this approach showed strong agreements with validation datasets for single leaf (91.44 %), photosynthetic (95.64 %), and non-photosynthetic canopy components (89.60 %) of an artificial tree and stems of an old-growth coniferous tree (93.53 %), two individual broadleaf trees (98.31 % and 97.46 %) and a broadleaf forest plot (90.26 %). By doing this, we computed the parameter WTA for an individual artificial tree (10.90 %), an old-growth coniferous tree (29.97 %), two individual broadleaf tree (14.83 % and 4.27 %) and four natural forest stands ranging from 7.74 % − 15.57 %, respectively. The proposed method can effectively improve the accuracy of retrieving true LAI by removing the effects of woody components and converting each point into a surface area.

Matrine, alkaloid isolated from Sophora flavescens, is known to be pleiotropic by exerting anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidation, as well as anti-cancer effects. However, the precise molecular targets or pathways responsible for its activities still remain unclear. The present study aimed to determine the underlying mechanisms of matrine in inhibiting the chronic myeloid leukemia cells (CML). It was observed that matrine treatment significantly suppressed CML cells proliferation, induced apoptosis and resulted in the accumulation of cells in the G0/G1 phase, accompanied by a significant decrease in Bcl-xL, Cyclin D1, and c-Myc expression. Western blot analyses revealed that matrine treatment resulted in the down-regulation in phospho-STAT3 and phospho-JAK2 without significantly effects on STAT3 and JAK2 protein levels. Matrine significantly reduced the expression of IL-6, a potent upstream activating factor of STAT3. These results strongly suggested the IL-6/JAK/STAT3 pathway play an important role in matrine's anti-leukemia effects in K562 cells.

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