Morphological and ultrastructural changes in tobacco BY-2 cells exposed to microcystin-RR

Tobacco BY-2 cells were exposed to microcystin-RR (MC-RR) at two concentrations, 60 mu g mL(-1) and 120 mu g mL(-1), to study the changes in morphology and ultrastructure of cells as a result of the exposure. Exposure to the lower concentration for 5 d led to typical apoptotic morphological changes including condensation of nuclear chromatin, creation of a characteristic 'half moon' structure, and cytoplasm shrinkage and decreased cell volume, as revealed through light microscopy. fluorescence microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy, respectively. Exposure to the higher concentration, on the other hand, led to morphological and ultrastructural changes typical of necrosis, such as rupture of the plasma membrane and the nuclear membrane and a marked swelling of cells. The presence of many vacuoles containing unusual deposits points to the involvement of vacuoles in detoxifying MC-RR. Results of the present study indicate that exposure of tobacco BY-2 cells to MC-RR at a lower concentration (60 mu g mL(-1)) results in apoptosis and that to a higher concentration (120 mu g mL(-1)), in necrosis. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Microcystin-RR-induced apoptosis in tobacco BY-2 cells

Our previous studies showed that microcystin-RR could induce oxidative damage in plant cells as they do with animal cells. However, whether microcystin can induce plant cell apoptosis is still unknown. In this study, the morphological changes of tobacco BY-2 suspension cells exposed to microcystin-RR were observed under light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, and apoptosis was clearly distinguished by intense perinuclear chromatin margination, condensation of nuclear chromatin after 6d exposure of 50 mg/L (about 50 mu M) microcystin-RR. We also found that microcystin-RR can induce tobacco cell apoptosis in a dose- and time-dependent manner with flow cytometry analysis. Our study provides the first evidence that microcystins can induce plant cell apoptosis. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Microcystin-RR-induced accumulation of reactive oxygen species and alteration of antioxidant systems in tobacco BY-2 cells

Microcystins are cyclic heptapeptide hepatoxins produced by cyanobacteria. It has been shown that microcystins have adverse effects on animals and on plants as well. Previous researches also indicated that microcystins were capable of inducing oxidative damage in animals both in vivo and in vitro. In this study, tobacco BY-2 suspension cell line was applied to examine the effects of microcystin-RR on plant cells. Cell viability and five biochemical parameters including reactive oxygen species (ROS), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxide (GPX) and peroxide dismutase (POD) were investigated when cells were exposed to 50 mg/L microcystin-RR. Results showed that microcystin-RR evoked decline of the cell viability to approximately 80% after treating for 144 h. ROS levels, POD and GPX activities of the treated cells were gradually increased with a time dependent manner. Changes of SOD and CAT activities were also detected in BY-2 cells. After 168 h recovery, ROS contents, POD, GPX and CAT activities returned to normal levels. These results suggest that the microcystin-RR can cause the increase of ROS contents in plant cells and these changes led to oxidant stress, at the same time, the plant cells would improve their antioxidant abilities to combat mirocystin-RR induced oxidative injury. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Microcystin-RR induced apoptosis in tobacco BY-2 suspension cells is mediated by reactive oxygen species and mitochondrial permeability transition pore status

When tobacco BY-2 cells were treated with 60 mu g/mL MC-RR for 5 d, time-dependent effects of MC-RR on the cells were observed. Morphological changes such as abnormal elongation, evident chromatin condensation and margination, fragmentation of nucleus and formation of apoptotic-like bodies suggest that 60 mu g/mL MC-RR induced rapid apoptosis in tobacco BY-2 cells. Moreover, there was a significant and rapid increase of ROS level before the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (Delta Psi(m)) and the onset of cell apoptosis. Ascorbic acid (AsA), a major primary antioxidant, prevented the increase of ROS generation, blocked the decrease in Delta Psi(m) and subsequent cell apoptosis, indicating a critical role of ROS in serving as an important signaling molecule by causing a reduction of Delta Psi(m) and MC-RR-induced tobacco BY-2 cell apoptosis. In addition, a specific mitochondrial permeability transition pores (PTP) inhibitor, cyclosporin A (CsA), significantly blocked the MC-RR-induced ROS formation, loss of Delta Psi(m), as well as cell apoptosis when the cells were MC-RR stressed for 3 d, suggesting that PTP is involved in 60 mu g/mL MC-RR-induced tobacco cell apoptosis signalling process. Thus, we concluded that the mechanism of MC-RR-induced apoptosis signalling pathways in tobacco BY-2 cells involves not only the excess generation of ROS and oxidative stress, but also the opening of PTP inducing loss of mitochondrial membrane potential. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Computation of stress intensity factors by the sub-region mixed finite element method of lines

Based on the sub-region generalized variational principle, a sub-region mixed version of the newly-developed semi-analytical 'finite element method of lines' (FEMOL) is proposed in this paper for accurate and efficient computation of stress intensity factors (SIFs) of two-dimensional notches/cracks. The circular regions surrounding notch/crack tips are taken as the complementary energy region in which a number of leading terms of singular solutions for stresses are used, with the sought SIFs being among the unknown coefficients. The rest of the arbitrary domain is taken as the potential energy region in which FEMOL is applied to obtain approximate displacements. A mixed system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and algebraic equations is derived via the sub-region generalized variational principle. A singularity removal technique that eliminates the stress parameters from the mixed equation system eventually yields a standard FEMOL ODE system, the solution of which is no longer singular and is simply and efficiently obtained using a standard general-purpose ODE solver. A number of numerical examples, including bi-material notches/cracks in anti-plane and plane elasticity, are given to show the generally excellent performance of the proposed method.

三叶因子在结直肠癌组织中的表达与临床关系及三叶因子-2在大肠杆菌中的重组表达和活性研究

癌症是世界发达国家和许多发展中国家人口的疾病主要死亡原因之一，其中，每年结直肠癌的新增病例和死亡病例排在癌症的第三位。在我国，北京、上海等地的统计资料显示，结直肠癌的发病上升很快 ，已排在癌症的第二位。结直肠癌的发生发展过程涉及一系列细胞和分子事件的改变，包括基因结构的异常和基因表达谱的异常。三叶因子（trefoil factor, TFF）是在上世纪80年代末到90初初由不同研究小组先后发现的含特殊的三叶因子结构域的蛋白多肽，其结构域的特征是含38-40个氨基酸残基的肽段中，有6保守的个半胱氨酸残基以1—5、2—4、3—6的方式形成二硫键，从而形成紧密的三叶结构域。在哺乳动物体内目前发现的三叶因子有三种，由粘膜组织内不同细胞合成并分泌到粘膜表面，对粘膜起保护作用。在粘膜损伤时，可通过多种途径促进上皮细胞迁移和抑制细胞凋亡，并促进血管形成，参与粘膜损伤的修复和重建。三叶因子在肿瘤组织中表达，则可能对癌症的发展起促进作用。研究资料显示，三叶因子在肿瘤中的表达异常与多种肿瘤的发生和发展过程有关。我们通过DNA测序检测结直肠癌组织中TFF1和TFF3基因各外显子的核苷酸序列，以确定是否存在基因突变。并用QRT-PCR和免疫组织化学的方法检测结直肠癌组织中TFF1和TFF3的mRNA和蛋白质的表达水平，分析其表达与结直肠癌的临床和病理特征之间的关系。同时，用ELISA方法检测结直肠癌患者血清中TFF1和TFF3的含量，以分析其与临床的关系，并逐步研究这两种三叶因子有否可能作为结直肠癌有用的血清分子标记。 目前得到以下研究结果：①在TFF1基因5`-端非翻译区位于起始密码上游—2bp处有一高频率的（C→T）突变位点,频率为40%，在其他非编码区也发现若干个较低频率的突变位点。未发现TFF3的基因突变；②TFF1和TFF3的mRNA水平在不同患者结直肠癌组织中的表达水平差异很大。与临床病理关系由于样品例数较少，未作统计学出理。结直肠癌组织中TFF1和TFF3蛋白表达检出阳性率分别为90%和94%。TFF1的表达与结直肠癌临床及病理类型未发现统计学意义，TFF3的表达上调与肿瘤淋巴结转移有关；③结直肠癌患者血清中TFF1的含量为（78.6575±53.300ng/ml），比健康人群血清TFF1含量（19.6457±5.3880ng/ml），增高约4倍，这一结果属首次报道。结直肠癌患者血清中TFF3的含量为（27.96±21.985ng/ml），比正常人群血清TFF3含量（9.0875±2.0315ng/ml）增高约3 1 倍。TFF1和TFF3能否作为结直肠癌的血清分子标志，尚需完善相关资料和作进一步研究。 TFF1和TFF3分别含一个三叶结构域，在靠近C-末端有一个游离的半胱氨酸巯基，TFF1和TFF3通过此二硫键形成同源二聚体，是其活性的主要形式。TFF2含两个三叶结构域，在三叶结构域外其靠近N-端和C-端各有一个半胱氨酸，两者以二硫键相连，形成紧密的结构。我们用pET系统克隆和表达人TFF2(hTFF2)，以及TFF2三叶结构域外二硫键解开的突变型TFF2(MhTFF2)，并测定细胞迁移活性。结果获得高效表达的hTFF2和MhTFF2，占细胞质总蛋白量的40%以上，经亲和层析后得到样品纯度在95%以上。对HCT116细胞株的划痕试验表明，hTFF2和MhTFF2对HCT116细胞具有迁移作用，细胞迁移数约为对照BSA的1.5倍。 结论:①结直肠癌组织中三叶因子-1和三叶因子-3基因突变不是三叶因子表达异常的主要原因；②TFF1和TFF3的转录水平在不同结直肠癌组织中有很多差异，TFF3蛋白的高表达与结直肠癌淋巴转移有关；③血清中TFF1和TFF3的含量检测可能会成为结直肠癌有用的血清分子标志；④pET质粒系统可高效表达可溶性三叶因子-2，并可表达获得有细胞迁移活性的重组融合蛋白TFF2；⑤TFF2的三叶结构域外的二硫键对TFF2的细胞迁移活性不是必须的。

Cell cycle and apoptosis alteration of human hepatocarcinoma cells by subclinical-dose C-12(6+)-beam irradiation

Objective The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of subdinical-dose C-12(6+)-beam irradiation on cell cycle and cell apoptosis in hepatocarcinoma cells. Materials and methods The HepG(2) cells were exposed to 0-2.0 Gy of either the C-12(6+) beam or a gamma-ray. Cell survival was detected by clonogenic assay. Cell cycle was determined by flow-cytometry analysis. The apoptosis was monitored by fluorescence microscope with DAPI staining. p53 and p21 expression were detected by Western blot. Results The G(0)/G(1) cells in the irradiated groups were significantly more than those in the control (P<0.05). The C-12(6+)-ion irradiation had a greater effect on the cell cycle of HepG(2) cells (including promoting G(1)-phase and G(2)-phase arrest) than gamma-ray irradiation. The apoptotic cells induced by C-12(6+) beam were significantly more numerous than those induced by gamma-ray (P<0.05). The carbon ions had a stronger effect on p53 and p21 expression than the gamma-ray irradiation. The survival fractions for cells irradiated by C-12(6+) beam were significantly smaller than those irradiated by gamma-ray (P<0.05).

Interaction of low-molecular-weight chitosan with mimic membrane studied by electrochemical methods and surface plasmon resonance

Chitosan has shown its potential as a non-viral gene carrier and an adsorption enhancer for subsequent drug delivery to cells. These results showed that chitosan acted as a membrane perturbant. However, there is currently a lack of direct experimental evidence of this membrane perturbance effect, especially for chitosans with low molecular weight (LMW). In this report, the interaction between a lipid (didodecyl dimethylammonium bromide; DDAB) bilayer and chitosan with molecular weight (MW) of 4200 Da was studied with cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and surface plasmon resonance (SPR). A lipid bilayer was formed by-fusion of oppositely charged lipid vesicles on a mercaptopropionic acid (MPA)-modified gold surface to mimic a cell membrane. The results showed that the LMW chitosan could disrupt the lipid bilayer, and the effect seemed,to be in a concentration-dependent manner.

Translocation of assimilates in Undaria and its cultivation in China

Undaria cultivation on a commercial scale began in China only in the last decade. Today, Undaria pinnatifida is the main species under cultivation concentrated in two provinces, Liaoning and Shandong. The annual production in the early nineties was 8000-13 000 tons dry weight, which is two or three times the pre-1980 figures. The raft cultivation method maintaining the alga at the desired depths generally ensures the light saturated rate of photosynthesis on clear days, and enhances production. Under the cultivated condition, the calculated annual primary productivity of this alga is 160 g C m(-2) y(-1). Translocation of C-14-labelled photoassimilates in rapidly growing sporophyte of Undaria pinnatifida was studied in the open sea. Samples from different parts of the blade with counterparts exposed to tracer ((NaHCO3)-C-14) showed that the translocation that occurred mainly from the tip of the blade to the growing region had obvious source-sink relationship. It took 20 minutes to translocate the labelled photoassimilates from the epidermis, via cortex, to the medulla of the midrib, where rates of translocation averaging 42-48 cm h(-1) were observed in the open sea. Production experiments of tip-cutting of the blades showed an increased production of 9%.

Isolation and characterization of a marine magnetotactic spirillum axenic culture QH-2 from an intertidal zone of the China Sea

Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) are ubiquitous in aquatic habitats. Because of their fastidious requirements for growth conditions, only very few axenic MTB cultures have been obtained worldwide. In this study, we report a novel marine magnetotactic spirillum axenic culture, designated as QH-2, isolated from the China Sea. It was able to grow in semi-solid or liquid chemically defined medium. The cells were amphitrichously flagellated and contained one single magnetosome chain with an average number of 16 magnetosomes per cell. Phosphate and lipid granules were also observed in the cells. Both rock magnetism and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy characterizations indicated that the magnetosomes in QH-2 were single-domain magnetites (Fe3O4). QH-2 cells swam mostly in a straight line at a velocity of 20-50 mu m/s and occasionally changed to a helical motion. Unlike other magnetotactic spirilla. QH-2 cells responded to light illumination. As a consequence of illumination, the cells changed the direction in which they swam from parallel to the magnetic field to antiparallel. This response appears to be similar to the effect of an increase in [O-2]. Analysis of the QH-2 16S rRNA sequence showed that it had greater than 11% sequence divergence from freshwater magnetotactic spirilla. Thus, the marine QH-2 strain seems to be both phylogenetically and magnetotactically distinct from the freshwater Magnetospirillum spp. studied previously. (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.