Drawing on a survey of migrants in 12 cities across four major urbanising areas in China, this paper analyses rural migrants’ intention for permanent urban settlement. We focus on one sizeable but often overlooked group of rural migrants, that is, the self-employed. Our hypothesis is that the self-employed migrants tend to have stronger intention for permanent urban settlement since they are usually more ingrained in urban economy and society. The empirical evidence supports our hypothesis. Moreover, the social and economic choices made by the self-employed migrants are consistent with their expressed intentions: they are more likely to migrate with spouses and to live with their family members, more likely to have a plan for house purchase in cities; they are also more integrated into urban society in terms of learning local dialects and making friends with local permanent residents.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent progenitors and can differentiate into osteogenic, chondrogenic, and adipogenic lineages. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) play important roles in stem cell proliferation and differentiation. We recently demonstrated that BMP9 is a potent but less understood osteogenic factor. We previously found that BMP9-induced ectopic bone formation is not inhibited by BMP3. Here, we investigate the effect of BMP antagonist noggin on BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation. BMP antagonists noggin, chording, gremlin, follistatin, and BMP3 are highly expressed in MSCs, while noggin and follistatin are lowly expressed in more differentiated pre-osteoblast C2C12 cells. BMP9-induced osteogenic markers and matrix mineralization are not inhibited by noggin, while noggin blunts BMP2, BMP4, BMP6, and BMP7-induced osteogenic markers and mineralization. Likewise, ectopic bone formation by MSCs transduced with BMP9, but not the other four BMPs, is resistant to noggin inhibition. BMP9-induced nuclear translocation of Smad1/5/8 is not affected by noggin, while noggin blocks BMP2-induced activation of Smad1/5/8 in MSCs. Noggin fails to inhibit BMP9-induced expression of downstream targets in MSCs. Thus, our results strongly suggest that BMP9 may effectively overcome noggin inhibition, which should at least in part contribute to BMP9's potent osteogenic capability in MSCs. Keywords: BMP9; BMP signaling; mesenchymal stem cells; osteogenic differentiation; TGFb/BMP antagonist Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are members of the TGFb superfamily, which play an important role in regulating stem cell proliferation and differentiation during development. 1-3 Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are non-hematopoietic multipotent cells and have the capacity to differentiate into multiple tissues. [4][5][6] MSCs can differentiate into osteoblastic, chondrogenic, and adipogenic lineages, 4-6 although it has recently been reported that MSCs are also able to differentiate into other lineages, including neuronal 7-9 and cardiomyogenic 10 lineages. It has been well established that BMPs regulate osteoblast differentiation and subsequent bone formation, 2,3,11 and genetic disruptions of these factors have resulted in skeletal and extraskeletal abnormalities during development. 12 We have conducted a comprehensive analysis of the osteogenic capacity of 14 human BMPs and demonstrated that BMP9 is one of the most potent, yet least characterized BMPs promoting osteogenic differentiation of MSCs both in vitro and in vivo. 3,[13][14][15] We also demonstrated that BMP9 regulates a distinct set of downstream targets in MSCs. 3,[15][16][17][18][19][20] BMPs initiate their signaling by binding to the plasma membrane TGFb type I and type II receptors, leading to the nucleus gene regulation through both BMPR-Smad1/5/8-dependent and Smad-independent pathways. 2, 15 We have demonstrated that ALK1 and ALK2 are required type I receptors for BMP9-induced osteogenic signaling. 21 BMP9 (a.k.a., GDF2) was originally identif...
A five-year-old girl developed an acute encephalopathy after eating a piece of moldy sugarcane. Delayed symptomatic dystonia was the main effect; cranial CT scans revealed bilateral lenticular lucencies. This case is typical of moldy sugarcane poisoning cases previously reported only in China. 3-Nitropropionic acid produced by Arthrinium sp is the most likely etiologic agent.
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