The success rate of glaucoma filtration surgery is closely related to conjunctival inflammation, and the main mechanism of dry eye disease (DED) is inflammation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of DED on bleb scar formation after rabbit glaucoma filtration surgery. Sixteen New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into control and DED groups. A DED model was induced by twice-daily topical administration of 0.1% benzalkonium chloride (BAC) drops for three weeks. Ocular examinations were performed to verify the DED model. Surgical effects were assessed, and histologic assessments were performed on the 28th postoperative day. Higher fluorescein staining scores, lower basal tear secretion levels and goblet cell counts, and increased interleukin 1β (IL-1β) levels were observed in the DED group. The DED eyes displayed significantly higher intraocular pressure (IOP)% on the 14th postoperative day; a smaller bleb area on days 14, 21 and 28; and a shorter bleb survival time. Moreover, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) levels were significantly increased in the DED group. These results demonstrate that DED promotes filtering bleb scar formation and shortens bleb survival time; these effects may be mediated via IL-1β. Full article

Microcystins (MCs) are a major group of cyanotoxins with side effects in many organisms; thus, compounds in this group are recognized as potent stressors and health hazards in aquatic ecosystems. In order to assess the toxicity of MCs and detoxification mechanism of freshwater shrimp Macrobrachium nipponense, the full-length cDNAs of the glutathione S-transferase (gst) and catalase (cat) genes were isolated from the hepatopancreas. The transcription level and activity changes in the biotransformation enzyme (glutathione S-transferase (GST)) and antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx)) in the hepatopancreas of M. nipponense exposed to MC-LR (0.2, 1, 5, and 25 μg/L) for 12, 24, 72 and 96 h were analyzed. The results showed that the isolated full-length cDNAs of cat and gst genes from M. nipponense displayed a high similarity to other crustaceans, and their mRNAs were mainly expressed in the hepatopancreas. MC-LR caused significant increase of GST activity following 48–96 h (p < 0.05) and an increase in SOD activity especially in 24- and 48-h exposures. CAT activity was activated when exposed to MC-LR in 12-, 24- and 48-h exposures and then it was inhibited at 96-h exposure. There was no significant effect on GPx activity after the 12- and 24-h exposures, whereas it was significantly stimulated after the 72- and 96-h exposures (p < 0.05). The transcription was altered similarly to enzyme activity, but the transcriptional response was generally more immediate and had greater amplitude than enzymatic response, particularly for GST. All of the results suggested that MC-LR can induce antioxidative modulation variations in M. nipponense hepatopancreas in order to eliminate oxidative damage. Full article

The objective of the study was to explore the effects of galectin-9 on myeloid suppressor cells in Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3)-induced myocarditis and the possible mechanisms involved. For this purpose, BALB/c male mice were infected with CVB3 on day 0 and then received intraperitoneal (IP) administration of recombinant galectin-9 or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) daily from day 3 to day 7. The phenotypes and functions of myeloid suppressor cells were evaluated. The role and mechanism of myeloid suppressor cells and subsets in CVB3-induced myocarditis in vitro were explored. We found that galectin-9 remarkably increased the frequencies of CD11b⁺Gr-1⁺ cells in the cardiac tissue and spleen with myocarditis. Ly-6G⁺ cells were decreased and Ly-6C⁺ cells were increased in galectin-9-treated mice. In addition, CD11b⁺Gr-1⁺ cells were highly effective in suppressing CD4⁺ T cells. Moreover, our data demonstrate that CD11b⁺Gr-1⁺ cells are capable of expanding regulatory T cells (Tregs) from a preexisting population of natural Tregs, which depends on IL-10 but not TGF-β. Our results indicate that galectin-9 therapy may represent a useful approach to ameliorate CVB3-induced myocarditis. Full article

DNA methylation is a major form of epigenetic modification and plays essential roles in physiology and disease processes. In the human genome, about 80% of cytosines in the 56 million CpG sites are methylated to 5-methylcytosines. The methylation pattern of DNA is highly variable among cells types and developmental stages and influenced by disease processes and genetic factors, which brings considerable theoretical and technological challenges for its comprehensive mapping. Recently various high-throughput approaches based on bisulfite conversion combined with next generation sequencing have been developed and applied for the genome wide analysis of DNA methylation. These methods provide single base pair resolution, quantitative DNA methylation data with genome wide coverage. We review these methods here and discuss some technical points of special interest like the sequence depth necessary to reach conclusions, the identification of clonal DNA amplification after bisulfite conversion and the detection of non-CpG methylation. Future application of these methods will greatly facilitate the profiling of the DNA methylation in the genomes of different species, individuals and cell types under healthy and disease states. Full article