2011. A study of morphology and histology of the alimentary tract of Glyptosternum maculatum (Sisoridae, Siluriformes). -Acta Zoologica (Stockholm) 92: 161-169.The structure of alimentary tract has been studied in a cold water fish Glyptosternum maculatum, an endemic teleost species of notable economic importance and with high potential for controlled rearing of the species in Tibet, by light and electron microscope. Glyptosternum maculatum has short oesophagus, large caecal-type stomach and short intestine, and the digestive tract with four layers: mucosa, submucosa, muscularis and serosa. Taste buds were found in the epithelium of lips, buccopharynx and oesophagus. The stratified epithelium of buccopharynx and oesophagus was located with numerous goblet cells. The U-shaped stomach has three parts, corresponding to mammalian cardiac, fundus and pyloric portion, lined with a single-layered columnar epithelium, and tubular gastric glands are present in cardiac and fundic portion, but absent in pyloric portion. No pyloric caeca was detected. The intestine is separated from the stomach by a loop valve. The intestine epithelium is composed of simple columnar cells with a distinct microvillus brush border and many goblet cells. Meanwhile, the intestinal coefficient was 0.898. At the ultrastuctural level, three type cells (mucous, glandular and endocrine cell) were found in the stomach, and glandular cell with a great amount of pepsinogen granules. The enterocytes of the intestinal mucosa display abundant endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria and well-developed microvilli.

This study investigated the effects of different stocking densities on growth and serum concentrations of thyroid hormones and cortisol in Amur sturgeon, Acipenser schrenckii. Fish were reared at low, medium, and high stocking densities (initial experimental densities were 0.30, 0.75, and 1.78 kg m(-2), respectively) for 70 days. The results showed that high stocking density had negative effects on growth and feeding efficiency, and altered serum levels of thyroid hormones and cortisol in Amur sturgeon. A significant decrease in specific growth rate was observed as stocking density was increased. The feeding rate decreased significantly in the medium and high density groups, indicating that high stocking density reduced the food consumption of sturgeon. Food conversion ratio increased with increasing stocking density, suggesting that high stocking density might inhibit fish growth through decreasing food conversion efficiency. Serum concentrations of total triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, and free triiodothyronine were inversely related to stocking densities, whereas serum total thyroxine level of sturgeon stocked at different densities remained stable. Also, higher stocking density resulted in an elevation of serum cortisol level, indicating that the sturgeon stocked at the higher density experienced density-dependent physiological stress. These results suggest growth suppression caused by high stocking density might be related to both crowding stress and the declines in peripheral circulating levels of thyroid hormones, as well as associated with the reductions in both food consumption and food conversion efficiency.

MicroRNAs have been suggested to play a vital role in regulate tumor progression and invasion. However, the expression of miR-335 in colorectal cancer (CRC) and its clinical significance are not known. Here, we report that miR-335 is a tumor suppressor by regulating expression of ZEB2. In this study, we showed that downregulated miR-335 levels in highly invasive CRC cell lines and tissues. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis indicated that patients with reduced miR-335 had a poor overall survival. Furthermore, enhancing the expression of miR-335 inhibited CRC cell migration and invasion in vitro and lung and liver metastasis in vivo, while silencing its expression resulted in increased migration and invasion. Additionally, we identified a novel miR-335 target, ZEB2, and the direct interaction between them was verified by 3'-untranslated region dual-luciferase reporter assay. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that miR-335 functions as a tumor suppressor and play a role in inhibiting metastasis of CRC cells through targeting ZEB2. These findings suggest that miR-335 may be useful as a new potential therapeutic target for CRC.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of Apelin-13 on cardiomyocyte autophagy and to determine the underlying mechanism of this effect. To establish an autophagic model system, the cardiomyocytes of Sprague Dawley rats (postnatal day 3) were cultured and divided into five groups: normal control (Co), glucose deprivation (GD), GD+Apelin-13, GD+Apelin-13 treated with the Akt-specific inhibitor triciribine (GD+Apelin-13+Triciribine) and triciribine alone (Triciribine). The intracellular autophagosomes were then observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the expression levels of cellular autophagy-related protein microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3), phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) protein were measured using western blotting. Compared with the Co group, the ratio of LC3-II/LC3-I increased significantly in all treatment groups, with the exception of the Triciribine group (P<0.05). Compared with the GD group, the ratio of LC3-II/LC3-I was significantly decreased, and the PI3K and mTOR expression was significantly enhanced in the GD+Apelin-13 and GD+Apelin-13+Triciribine groups (P<0.05). Compared with the GD+Apelin-13 group, the ratio of LC3-II/LC3-I increased significantly (P<0.05) and the PI3K expression remained unchanged in the GD+Apelin-13+Triciribine group (P>0.05), but mTOR expression was significantly reduced (P<0.05). GD led to increased numbers of autophagosomes and augmented the LC3-II/LC3-I ratio (P<0.05). Apelin-13 pretreatment attenuated GD-induced cardiomyocte injury, decreased the autophagosome number and the ratio of LC3-II/LC3-I (P<0.05), enhanced PI3K activity (P<0.05) and upregulated the phosphorylation levels of the Akt and mTOR proteins (P<0.05). The Akt-specific inhibitor triciribine weakened the protective role of Apelin-13 (P<0.05). To a certain extent, Apelin-13 inhibited GD-induced cardiomyocyte autophagy, which may be related in part to the activation of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.

Infertility caused by male factors is routinely diagnosed by assessing the traditional semen parameters. Growing evidence has indicated that the tsRNAs carried in sperm act as epigenetic factors and potential biomarkers for the assessment of sperm quality. Notably, we recently demonstrated that tRNAGln-TTG derived small RNAs played roles in the first cleavage of porcine embryo. However, the function of human sperm tRNAGln-TTG derived small RNAs that could be as a diagnostic biomarker and play roles in the early embryo development remains unclear. In this study, we found that human sperm tRNAGln-TTG derived small RNAs were highly associated with sperm quality. By the microinjection of the antisense sequence into human tripronuclear (3PN) zygotes and following by the single-cell RNA-sequencing, we found that human sperm tRNAGln-TTG derived small RNAs participated in development of human embryo. Furthermore, Gln-TTGs might be through modulating noncoding RNA processing to influence the embryonic genome activation. These findings demonstrated that human sperm tRNAGln-TTG derived small RNAs could be the potential diagnostic biomarkers and be used as the clinical target for male infertility.

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Bismuth ferrite nano-and microcrystals were prepared by a facile molten salt technique in two kinds of molten-salt-based systems (NaCl-KCl and NaCl-Na 2 SO 4 ). In the NaCl-KCl salt system, a systematic study indicating the effects of process parameters (e.g., calcination temperature, holding time as well as the molten salt ratios) on the bismuth ferrite formation mechanism and structural characteristics is reported. The results show that almost pure phase BiFeO 3 powders with minimum impurity phase of Bi 2 Fe 4 O 9 were synthesized at temperatures of 700°C-800°C, whereas high calcination temperature (e.g., 900°C) resulted in the formation of almost pure phase Bi 2 Fe 4 O 9 powders. The prolonged holding time increased the particle size via the Ostwald ripening mechanism; however, there was little effect on the particle morphology. Similar phenomenon occurred as increasing the molten salt ratios. In the NaCl-Na 2 SO 4 salt systems, it is found that low NP-9 (nonylphenyl ether, NP-9) surfactant content (0-5 mL) led to the formation of almost pure phase BiFeO 3 powders, whereas high NP-9 surfactant content (e.g., 20 mL) resulted in pure phase Bi 2 Fe 4 O 9 powders. The average particle size of the BiFeO 3 powders was decreased as increasing the NP-9 surfactant content, whereas their morphologies did not change significantly. Because of the simplicity and versatility of the approach used, it is expected that this methodology can be generalized to the large-scale preparation of other important transitional metal oxides with controllable sizes and shapes.

Unbalanced and degraded mixtures (UDM) are frequently encountered during forensic DNA analysis. For example, forensic DNA units regularly encounter DNA mixture signal where the DNA signal from the alleged offender is masked or swamped by high quantities of DNA from the victim. Our previous data presented a new kind of DNA markers that composed of a deletion/insertion polymorphism (DIP) and a SNP and we termed this new kind of microhaplotypes DIP‐SNP (combination of DIP and SNP). Since such markers could be designed short enough for degraded DNA amplification, we hypothesized that DIP‐SNP markers are applicable for typing of UDM. In this study, we developed a new set of DIP‐SNPs with short amplicons which were complement to our prior developed system. The multiplex PCR and SNaPshot assay were established for 20 DIP‐SNPs in a Chinese Han population. The DIP‐SNPs were capable of detecting the minor contributor's allele in home‐made DNA mixture with sensitivities from 1:100 to 1:1000 with a total of 1 –10 ng input DNA. Moreover, this system successfully typed the degraded DNA whether it came from the single source or mixture samples. In Chinese population, the system showed an average informative value of 0.293 and combined informative value of 0.998363862. Our results demonstrated that DIP‐SNPs may serve as a valuable tool in detection of UDM in forensic medicine.