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The “dry gets drier, wet gets wetter” (DGDWGW) paradigm is widely accepted in global moisture change. However, Greve et al.1 have declared that this paradigm has been overestimated. This controversy leaves a large gap in the understanding of the evolution of water-related processes. Here, we examine the global moisture trends using satellite soil moisture for the past 35 years (1979–2013). Our results support those of Greve et al., although there are quantitative differences. Generally, approximately 30% of global land has experienced robust moisture trends (22.16% have become drier, and 7.14% have become wetter). Only 15.12% of the land areas have followed the DGDWGW paradigm, whereas 7.77% have experienced the opposite trend. A new finding is that there is a significant “drier in dry, wetter in wet” (DIDWIW) trend paradigm; 52.69% of the drying trend occurred in arid regions, and 48.34% of the wetter trend occurred in the humid regions. Overall, 51.63% of the trends followed the DIDWIW paradigm, and 26.93% followed the opposite trend. We also identified the DGDWGW and DIDWIW paradigms in low precipitation-induced arid regions in which the dry soil led to an increasing sensible heat flux and temperature and subsequently potential evapotranspiration.

Accumulating evidence demonstrates that ferroptosis may be important in the pathophysiological process of traumatic brain injury (TBI). As a major hormone of the pineal gland, melatonin exerts many beneficial effects on TBI, but there is no information regarding the effects of melatonin on ferroptosis after TBI. As expected, TBI resulted in the time‐course changes of ferroptosis‐related molecules expression and iron accumulation in the ipsilateral cortex. Importantly, we found that treating with melatonin potently rescued TBI induced the changes mentioned above and improved functional deficits versus vehicle. Similar results were obtained with a ferroptosis inhibitor, liproxstatin‐1. Moreover, the protective effect of melatonin is likely dependent on melatonin receptor 1B (MT2). Although ferritin plays a vital role in iron metabolism by storing excess cellular iron, its precise function in the brain, and whether it involves melatonin's neuroprotection remain unexplored. Considering ferritin H (Fth) is expressed predominantly in the neurons and global loss of Fth in mice induces early embryonic lethality, we then generated neuron‐specific Fth conditional knockout (Fth‐KO) mice, which are viable and fertile but have altered iron metabolism. In addition, Fth‐KO mice were more susceptible to ferroptosis after TBI, and the neuroprotection by melatonin was largely abolished in Fth‐KO mice. In vitro siFth experiments further confirmed the results mentioned above. Taken together, these data indicate that melatonin produces cerebroprotection, at least partly by inhibiting neuronal Fth‐mediated ferroptosis following TBI, supporting the notion that melatonin is an excellent ferroptosis inhibitor and its anti‐ferroptosis provides a potential therapeutic target for treating TBI.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a novel gaseous mediator, has been recognized as an important neuromodulator and neuroprotective agent in the central nervous system. The present study was undertaken to study the effects of exogenous H2S on traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the underlying mechanisms. The effects of exogenous H2S on TBI were examined by using measurement of brain edema, behavior assessment, propidium iodide (PI) staining, and Western blotting, respectively. Compared to TBI groups, H2S pretreatment had reduced brain edema, improved motor performance and ameliorated performance in Morris water maze test after TBI. Immunoblotting results showed that H2S pretreatment reversed TBI-induced cleavage of caspase-3 and decline of Bcl-2, suppressed LC3-II, Beclin-1 and Vps34 activation and maintained p62 level in injured cortex and hippocampus post TBI. The results suggest a protective effect and therapeutic potential of H2S in the treatment of brain injury and the protective effect against TBI may be associated with regulating apoptosis and autophagy.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in neuronal apoptosis, autophagic cell death and necroptosis. Necroptosis is a newly discovered caspases-independent programmed necrosis pathway which can be triggered by activation of death receptor. Previous works identified that necrostatin-1 (NEC-1), a specific necroptosis inhibitor, could reduce tissue damage and functional impairment through inhibiting of necroptosis process following TBI. However, the role of NEC-1 on apoptosis and autophagy after TBI is still not very clear. In this study, the amount of TBI-induced neural cell deaths were counted by PI labeling method as previously described. The expression of autophagic pathway associated proteins (Beclin-1, LC3-II, and P62) and apoptotic pathway associated proteins (Bcl-2 and caspase-3) were also respectively assessed by immunoblotting. The data showed that mice pretreated with NEC-1 reduced the amount of PI-positive cells from 12 to 48 h after TBI. Immunoblotting results showed that NEC-1 suppressed TBI-induced Beclin-1 and LC3-II activation which maintained p62 at high level. NEC-1 pretreatment also reversed TBI-induced Bcl-2 expression and caspase-3 activation, as well as the ratio of Beclin-1/Bcl-2. Both 3-MA and NEC-1 suppressed TBI-induced caspase-3 activation and LC3-II formation, Z-VAD only inhibited caspase-3 activation but increased LC3-II expression at 24 h post-TBI. All these results revealed that multiple cell death pathways participated in the development of TBI, and NEC-1 inhibited apoptosis and autophagy simultaneously. These coactions may further explain how can NEC-1 reduce TBI-induced tissue damage and functional deficits and reflect the interrelationship among necrosis, apoptosis and autophagy.

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