Ginsenoside R-e increases fertile and asthenozoospermic infertile human sperm motility by induction of nitric oxide synthase

We investigated the effects of Ginsenoside R-e on human sperm motility in fertile and asthenozoospermic infertile individuals in vitro and the mechanism by which the Ginsenosides play their roles. The semen samples were obtained from 10 fertile volunteers and 10 asthenozoospermic infertile patients. Spermatozoa were separated by Percoll and incubated with 0, 1, 10 or 100 mu M of Ginsenoside R-e. Total sperm motility and progressive motility were measured by computer-aided sperm analyzer (CASA). Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity was determined by the H-3-arginine to H-3-citrulline conversion assay, and the NOS protein was examined by the Western blot analysis. The production of sperm nitric oxide (NO) was detected using the Griess reaction. The results showed that Ginsenoside R-e significantly enhanced both fertile and infertile sperm motility, NOS activity and NO production in a concentration-dependent manner. Sodium nitroprusside (SNP, 100 nM), a NO donor, mimicked the effects of Ginsenoside R-e. And pretreatment with a NOS inhibitor N-omega-Nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, 100 mu M) or a NO scavenger N-Acetyl-L-cysteine (LNAC, 1 mM) completely blocked the effects of Ginsenoside R-e. Data suggested that Ginsenoside R-e is beneficial to sperm motility, and that induction of NOS to increase NO production may be involved in this benefit.

Potential role of DNA-dependent protein kinase in cellular resistance to ionizing radiation

In this paper, we study the ability of DNA-PK-deficient (M059J) and -proficient (M059K) cells to undergo the rate of cellular proliferation, cell cycle distribution and apoptosis after 10 Gy X-ray irradiation, and the role of DNA-PK in radiosensitivity. The results showed that M059J cells exhibited hyper-radiosensitivity compared with M059K cells. A strong G2 phase arrest was observed in M059J cells post irradiation. Significant accumulation in the G2 phase in M059J cells was accompanied by apoptosis at 12 h. Altogether, the data suggested that DNA-PK may have two roles in mammalian cells after DNA damage, a role in DNA DSB repair and a second role in DNA-damaged cells to traverse a G2 checkpoint, by which DNA-PK may affect cellular sensitivity to ionizing radiation. 地址: [Li Ning; Zhang Hong; Wang Yanling; Hao Jifang] Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Modern Phys, Lanzhou 730000, Peoples R China; [Li Ning; Zhang Hong; Wang Yanling; Hao Jifang] Key Lab Heavy Ion Radiat Med Gansu Prov, Lanzhou 730000, Peoples R China; [Li Ning; Wang Yanling] Chinese Acad Sci, Grad Sch, Beijing 100039, Peoples R China; [Wang Xiaohu] Gansu Tumor Hosp, Dept Radiotherapy, Lanzhou 730050, Peoples R China

Effects of Ionizing Radiation on Three-Dimensional Human Vessel Models: Differential Effects According to Radiation Quality and Cellular Development

Little is known about the effects of space radiation on the human body. There are a number of potential chronic and acute effects, and one major target for noncarcinogenic effects is the human vasculature. Cellular stress, inflammatory response, and other radiation effects on endothelial cells may affect vascular function. This study was aimed at understanding the effects of space ionizing radiation on the formation and maintenance of capillary-like blood vessels. We used a 3D human vessel model created with human endothelial cells in a gel matrix to assess the effects of low-LET protons and high-LET iron ions. Iron ions were more damaging and caused significant reduction in the length of intact vessels in both developing and mature vessels at a dose of 80 cGy. Protons had no effect on mature vessels up to a dose of 3.2 Gy but did inhibit vessel formation at 80 cGy. Comparison with gamma radiation showed that photons had even less effect, although, as with protons, developing vessels were more sensitive. Apoptosis assays showed that inhibition of vessel development or deterioration of mature vessels was not due to cell death by apoptosis even in the case of iron ions. These are the first data to show the effects of radiation with varying linear energy transfer on a human vessel model. (C) 2011 In Radiation Research Society

Characteristics of electroosmotic flow and migration of neutral solutes under stepwise gradient elution of capillary electrochromatography

A theoretical study on the velocity of electroosmotic flow (EOF) and the retention times of neutral solutes under multiple-step gradient of capillary electrochromatography (CEC) was carried out, focusing on that with three kinds of mobile phases. Through the model computations, the detaining time of the second kind of mobile phase in the column was proved to play an important role in affecting EOF. The variation speed of EOF was shown to be determined by the differences among dead times in different steps. In addition, the prediction of the retention times of 13 aromatic compounds under gradient mode was performed with the deduced equations. A relative error below 3.3% between the calculated and experimental values was obtained, which demonstrated the rationality of the theoretical deduction. Our study could not only improve the comprehension of stepwise gradient elution, but also be of significance for the further optimization of separation conditions in the analysis of complex samples.

Migration of neutral solutes by double stepwise gradient elution in capillary electrochromatography

Characteristics of electroosmotic flow (EOF) and the migration of neutral solutes under double stepwise gradient elution in capillary electrochromatography were studied systematically. EOF velocity proved to be the function of operation time changing with the introduction of the second mobile phase. Accordingly, the retention of components also changed. The migration of neutral solutes was studied under the following three situations; A, components eluted when the column was filled only with the first kind of mobile phase; B, solutes eluted still in the first kind of mobile phase while at that time two kinds of mobile phase coexisted in the column and C, samples eluted in the second kind of mobile phase. Equations to describe the retention times of components under these three kinds of conditions were deduced and applied to predict the retention times of 12 aromatic compounds. Relative errors between experimental and calculated values were below 5.0%, which proved the reliability of the equations. In addition, parameters that might affect the retention time of solutes, such as the transferring time of mobile phase vials, the capacity factors of components and EOF velocities two steps were studied systematically (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Migration of large-scale subaqueous bedforms measured with seagrasses(Cymudocea nodesa) as tracers

The vertical growth of seagrasses in response to burial by migration of bedforms is combined with dating techniques to provide precise and rapid estimates of the migration speed of subaqueous dunes over seagrass patches. Two methods to estimate the time interval between the passage of successive dunes and the motion of single dunes through seagrass patches are described. The second method is more precise. The application of these methods to vegetated (Cymodocea nodosa) subaqueous dunes in the Alfacs Bay (NW Mediterranean) showed that the dunes traveled at an average speed of $13.0 \pm 0.6 m yr^-1$ and demonstrated that the methods can resolve migration speeds from 0.15 to $980 m yr^-1$ with this particular seagrass species. In areas vegetated with different seagrass species, bedform migration can be estimated over different time scales. The strong coupling between seagrass and sediment dynamics resembles the coupling of vegetation and land dunes.

Modeling of Hillslope Runoff and Soil Erosion at Rainfall Events Using Cellular Automata Approach

National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China [40225004]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [40471048]

Functional gold nanoparticles for studying the interaction of lectin with glycosyl complex on living cellular surfaces

In this study. lectin-conjugated gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were prepared by standard biotin-streptavidin chemistry. The lectin-conjugated GNPs call be used as ail indicator for studying the interaction of lectin with glycosyl complex on living cellular Surfaces due to the high affinity of the lectin with saccharides. The interactions of two well-known lectins (Ricinus communis agglutinin and concanavalin A) and three different cell lines (HeLa, 293, and 293T) were selected here to establish this assay. Highly binding affinity of R. communis agglutinin with cells was demonstrated by conventional microscopic and UV-visible spectroscopic Studies. In addition, the binding process can be inhibited by galactose, giving further proof of the binding mechanism. (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

SBS as template to synthesize 3D siliceous mesostructured cellular foams

A mesostructured cellular foam (MCF) with three-dimensional (313) disordered strutlike structure is prepared by using triblock copolymer (poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene), SBS, M-W = 140K) as template under strong acid conditions. It is the first report to use triblock copolymer with both hydrophobic head and tail groups instead of hydrophilic head and hydrophobic tail copolymers to synthesize siliceous mesostructured cellular foams. The resulted materials have high pore volume (0.92 cm(3)/g) and relatively narrow pore size distributions with a large pore size of 7.9 nm, which will allow for the fixation of large active complexes, reduce diffusional restriction of reactants and enable reactions involving bulky molecules to take place, especially.

Funneled landscape leads to robustness of cellular networks: MAPK signal transduction

We uncover the underlying potential energy landscape for a cellular network. We find that the potential energy landscape of the mitogen-activated protein-kinase signal transduction network is funneled toward the global minimum. The funneled landscape is quite robust against random perturbations. This naturally explains robustness from a physical point of view. The ratio of slope versus roughness of the landscape becomes a quantitative measure of robustness of the network. Funneled landscape is a realization of the Darwinian principle of natural selection at the cellular network level. It provides an optimal criterion for network connections and design. Our approach is general and can be applied to other cellular networks.

Effects of SBS addition and temperature on 3D siliceous mesostructured cellular foam

Siliceous mesostructured cellular foam with three-dimensional (3D) wormhole structure (MSU-type) is prepared by using triblock copolymer (poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b- styrene), SBS) with both hydrophobic head and tail group as template in strong acid condition via microemulsion method. The effects of SBS addition and temperature on the morphology and physicochemical properties, such as pore diameters, surface areas and pore volumes of the materials have been investigated by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis. The results show that the pore volumes, pore sizes and specific surface areas depend strongly on the SBS amount and forming micelles temperature. Moreover, the materials obtained with high wall thickness exhibit a relatively good thermal stability.

INTRAANNULAR AND INTERANNULAR SUBSTITUENT MIGRATION AND INTRAMOLECULAR IPSO SUBSTITUTION OF BIPHENYL DERIVATIVES IN MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Biphenyl derivatives undergo extensive intraannular substituent migrations and subsequent intramolecular ipso substitutions giving rise to a fluorenyl cation and a biphenylene radical cation as common products in mass spectrometry. For biphenyls bearing an alkyl group, interannular substituent migration resulting in a substituted tropylium ion is also observed. Electron-withdrawing groups are found to be much more favourable to these reactions than the electron-donating ones.

LUMINESCENCE AND ENERGY MIGRATION IN THE OXYAPATITE CA2GD8(SIO4)6O2 DOPED WITH SEVERAL RARE-EARTH AND MERCURY-LIKE IONS

Energy transfer phenomena have been observed by activating the oxyapatite host-lattice Ca2Gd8(SiO4)6O2 with Eu3+, Tb3+, Dy3+, Sm3+. This is based on the energy migration in the Gd3+ sublattice and trapping by the activators. The trapping efficiency for G