International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Volume 16, Issue 10

Excess adiposity is associated with chronic inflammation, which takes part in the development of obesity-related complications. The aim of this study was to establish whether subcutaneous (SAT) or visceral (VAT) adipose tissue plays a major role in s...

The use of proteins as therapeutics has a long history and is becoming ever more common in modern medicine. While the number of protein-based drugs is growing every year, significant problems still remain with their use. Among these problems are rapi...

Aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is the first metabolite in the heme biosynthesis pathway in humans. In addition to the end product heme, this pathway also produces other porphyrin metabolites. Protoporphyrin (PpIX) is one heme precursor porphyrin with good...

Obesity is one of the major risk factors for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and NAFLD is highly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Scholars have suggested that certain probiotics may significantly impact car...

Biomedical data obtained during cell experiments, laboratory animal research, or human studies often display a complex distribution. Statistical identification of subgroups in research data poses an analytical challenge. Here were introduce an inte...

Non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is the most common form of cancer in the Caucasian population. Among NMSC types, basal cell carcinoma (BCC) has the highest incidence and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is less common although it can metastasize, accou...

Over the last decade the seroprevalence of immunoglobulin (IgG) anti hepatitis E virus (HEV) has been increasing in European countries and shows significant variability among different geographical areas. In this review, we describe the serological d...

Autophagy is associated with drug resistance which has been a threat in chemotherapy of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The interconnected molecular regulators between autophagy and apoptosis serve as switching points critical to the ultimate outcome...

Bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15) is secreted by the mammalian oocytes and is indispensable for ovarian follicular development, ovulation, and fertility. To determine the regulation mechanism of BMP15 gene, the regulatory sequence of porcine BMP1...

A leading cause of death in western countries is sudden cardiac death, and can be associated with genetic disease. Next-generation sequencing has allowed thorough analysis of genes associated with this entity, including, most recently, titin. We aime...

Insects, like other organisms, must deal with a wide variety of potentially challenging environmental factors during the course of their life. An important example of such a challenge is the phenomenon of oxidative stress. This review summarizes the...

Ship ballast water treatment methods face many technical challenges. The effectiveness of every treatment method usually is evaluated by using large scale equipment and a large volume of samples, which involves time-consuming, laborious, and complex...

Since air pollution has been linked to a plethora of human health problems, strategies to improve air quality are indispensable. Despite the complexity in composition of air pollution, phytoremediation was shown to be effective in cleaning air. Plant...

Brain waves resonate from the generators of electrical current and propagate across brain regions with oscillation frequencies ranging from 0.05 to 500 Hz. The commonly observed oscillatory waves recorded by an electroencephalogram (EEG) in normal ad...

Polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) are dioxins-like compounds and are formed along with polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) in thermal and combustion procedures. Chlorophenols (CPs) are the most import...

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.), an important traditional Chinese medicine, is cultured widely for its pharmacological effects, but little is known regarding the genes related to the metabolic regulation of the safflower’s yellow pigment. To inve...

Inflammatory responses are frequently associated with the expression of inflammatory cytokines and severe osteoclastogenesis, which significantly affect the efficacy of biomaterials. Recent findings have suggested that interferon (IFN)-γ and zoledron...

Identification of genes controlling shoot branching is crucial for improving plant architecture and increasing crop yield or biomass. A branching mutant of Chinese fir named “Dugansha” (Cunninghamia lanceolata var. dugan.) has been isolated in our la...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the main cause of liver disease worldwide. NAFLD is linked to circumstances such as type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, obesity, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension. Since the obesity figures and related com...

Cardiomyocyte progenitor cells play essential roles in early heart development, which requires highly controlled cellular organization. microRNAs (miRs) are involved in various cell behaviors by post-transcriptional regulation of target genes. Howeve...

Our previous studies revealed that graphene had anticancer properties in experiments in vitro with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cells and in tumors cultured in vivo. We hypothesized that the addition of arginine or proline to graphene solutions mig...

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). DM can lead to multiple cardiovascular complications, including coronary artery disease (CAD), cardiac hypertrophy, and heart fai...

The contributions of mechanisms by which chelators influence metal translocation to plant shoot tissues are analyzed using a combination of numerical modelling and physical experiments. The model distinguishes between apoplastic and symplastic pathwa...

We present a combined environmental epidemiologic, genomic, and bioinformatics approach to identify: exposure of environmental chemicals with estrogenic activity; epidemiologic association between endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) and health effect...

The membrane bilayer delimits the interior of individual cells and provides them with the ability to survive and function properly. However, the crossing of cellular membranes constitutes the principal impediment to gaining entry into cells, and t...

The unbalanced assignment problem (UAP) is to optimally resolve the problem of assigning n jobs to m individuals (m < n), such that minimum cost or maximum profit obtained. It is a vitally important Non-deterministic Polynomial (NP) complete probl...

Quantum chemical methods allow screening and prediction of peptide antioxidant activity on the basis of known experimental data. It can be used to design the selective proteolysis of protein sources in order to obtain products with antioxidant activi...

Malignant endothelial proliferative diseases including human angiosarcoma (AS) and canine hemangiosarcoma (HSA) are serious diseases with a grave prognosis. Establishing liquid biopsy-based biomarkers for screening has definite clinical utility; howe...

Most organisms experience changes in regenerative abilities through their lifespan. During aging, numerous tissues exhibit a progressive decline in homeostasis and regeneration that results in tissue degeneration, malfunction and pathology. The mecha...

Immune cells (IC) play a crucial role in murine stroke pathophysiology. However, data are limited on the role of these cells in ischemic stroke in humans. We therefore aimed to characterize and compare peripheral IC subsets in patients with acute isc...

Tumor protein 53-induced nuclear protein-1 (TP53inp1) is expressed by activation via p53 and p73. The purpose of our study was to investigate the role of TP53inp1 in response of fibroblasts to ionizing radiation. γ-Ray radiation dose-dependently indu...

Intractable advanced lung cancer can be treated palliatively with photodynamic therapy (PDT) combined with chemotherapy to remove central and peripheral (lobar or segmental bronchi) bronchial stenosis and obstruction. We present data for 12 (eight me...

The skin is the largest organ of the body and has an array of functions. Skin compartments, epidermis, and hair follicles house stem cells that are indispensable for skin homeostasis and regeneration. These stem cells also contribute to wound repair,...

Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) can induce acute inflammation, sepsis, or chronic inflammatory disorders through the Toll receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling pathway. The TLR4/MD2 (myeloid differentiation protein 2) complex plays a major role in the immune respon...

1-Deoxy-d-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase (DXS) and 1-deoxy-d-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase (DXR) genes are the key enzyme genes of terpenoid biosynthesis but still unknown in Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. Here, three full-length cDNA encodin...

Hypoxia, which is common during tumor progression, plays important roles in tumor biology. Failure in cell death in response to hypoxia contributes to progression and metastasis of tumors. On the one hand, the metabolic and oxidative stress following...

The aim was to investigate the prevalence of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and risk factors for hepatic fibrosis in morbidly obese patients submitted to bariatric surgery. This retrospective study recruited all patients submitted to bariatric...

Internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) sequencing is the most extensively used technology for accurate molecular identification of fungal pathogens in clinical microbiology laboratories. Intra-genomic ITS sequence heterogeneity, which makes fungal...

The gene ABK52392 from the thermophilic bacterium Acidothermus cellulolyticus 11B was predicted to be endoglucanase and classified into glycoside hydrolase family 12. ABK52392 encodes a protein containing a catalytic domain and a carbohydrate binding...

Excessive exposure to solar UV (sUV) is associated with numerous human skin disorders, such as carcinogenesis, skin photoaging and skin inflammation. Silkworm Thorn (Cudraniatricuspidata, SW) is a plant belonging to the Moraceae family and widely pre...

Ozonated water is easier to handle than ozone gas. However, there have been no previous reports on the biological effects of ozonated water. We conducted a study on the safety of ozonated water and its anti-tumor effects using a tumor-bearing mouse...

Verticillium wilt is threatening cotton productivity globally. This disease is caused by soil-borne Verticillium dahliae which directly infects cotton roots, and exclusively colonizes and occludes xylem vessels, finally resulting in necrosis, defoli...

Lactobacillus plantarum 2035 and Lactobacillus plantarum ACA-DC 2640 are two lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains that have been isolated from Feta cheese. Both display significant potential for the production of novel probiotic food products. The aim...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multifactorial autoimmune disease characterized by the generation of immune responses to self-antigens. Lupus nephritis is one of the most common and severe complications in SLE patients. Though the pathogenesi...

Mutations in the SPG7 gene are the most frequent cause of autosomal recessive hereditary spastic paraplegias and spastic ataxias. Ala510Val is the most common SPG7 mutation, with a frequency of up to 1% in the general population. Here we report the c...

Fusarium graminearum is the causal agent of Fusarium head blight (FHB) and Gibberella ear rot (GER), two devastating diseases of wheat, barley, and maize. Furthermore, F. graminearum species can produce type B trichothecene mycotoxins that accumulate...

Analogs of 1,25-dihydroxyergocalciferol, modified in the side-chain and in the A-ring, were tested for their antiproliferative activity against a series of human cancer cell lines in vitro and in vivo toxicity. The proliferation inhibition caused b...

Cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury involves multiple independently fatal terminal pathways in the mitochondria. These pathways include the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation caused by changes in mitochondrial membrane potential and calcium ov...

Over the last three decades, protein engineering has established itself as an important tool for the development of enzymes and (therapeutic) proteins with improved characteristics. New mutagenesis techniques and computational design tools have great...

A plastic and biodegradable bone substitute consists of poly (l-lactic-co-glycolic) acid and 30 wt % β-tricalcium phosphate has been previously fabricated, but its osteogenic capability required further improvement. We investigated the use of globula...