Phenolic antioxidants from the heartwood of Acacia confusa

In the present study, the ethanolic extracts from the heartwood of Acacia confusa, a species indigenous to Taiwan, exhibit strong antioxidant effects. Among all the fractions from ethanolic extracts of heartwood, the EtOAc soluble fraction exhibits the best antioxidant activity. The 80% 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical inhibitory activity by the EtOAc extract was observed at a concentration of 5 mug/mL, and at the same dosage there was a similar free radical scavenging activity for (-)-ascorbic acid and (+)-catechin, both of which are well-known antioxidants. In addition, the EtOAc extract also protects PhiX174 supercoiled DNA against strand scission induced by hydroxyl radical. Furthermore, following by column chromatography and reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatorgrapy, 10 pure phenolic compounds, including three major antioxidants (3,7,8,3',4'-pentahydroxyflavone, 7,8,3',4'-tetrahydroxy-3-methoxyflavone, and 3,4,2',3',4'-pentahydroxy-trans-chalcone) and a new flavonoid (3,7,8,3'-tetrahydroxy-4'-methoxyflavone), were isolated from the ethanolic extracts of A. confusa heartwood.     

Bath immersion pharmacokinetics of florfenicol in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Drug administration by immersion can be a preferable method in certain conditions especially for treating small-sized, anorexic, or valuable fish. Pharmacokinetic information regarding bath treatment is considerably lacking in comparison to other common administration routes. The current study aimed to investigate if immersion can be an effective route to administer florfenicol (FF) for treatment in Nile tilapia. Nile tilapia reared at 28°C were immersed with FF solution at concentrations of 50, 100, 200, 500, and 500/200 (3 hr/117 hr) ppm for 120 hr and moved to drug-free freshwater for another 24 hr. The serum FF concentration in 100, 200, and 500/200 ppm groups reached steady-state at 12 hr with concentrations of 2.44, 3.04, and 5.26 µg/ml, respectively, which were about 2% of the bathing concentrations. The target therapeutic levels of 1–4 µg/ml were attained and maintained within 1–12 hr, depending on the immersion concentration and the target MIC. Serum FF reached the target with shorter time at higher bathing concentration. Following the 120-hr bath, the serum FF declined with the first-order half-life of approximately 10 hr. A minimum of 100 ppm FF is required for treatment purpose, and an initial high loading concentration followed by maintenance concentration is a plausible way to reach in vivo therapeutic level in short time. Greater than 99% of the residual FF in the bathing water could be removed within 15 min by 0.05% NaOCl. Our results indicated that bath immersion is a promising potential route for FF administration in Nile tilapia.     

北京玉渊潭樱花景观评价模型构建

采用SBE法对北京玉渊潭公园的7类20个樱花植物景观群落进行评价,结合SD语义分析法分析影响樱花景观效果的主要因素,最终建立樱花景观预测模型。评价结果表明,层次感、色彩丰富度、光感、林下层统一度及乔木层枝叶整齐度5个指标是影响春季樱花景观质量的主要因素。玉渊潭中滨水樱花景观SBE均值最高,广场樱花景观均值最低;公园可营造更多滨水樱花景观,丰富岸线结构,调整植物群落的层次感及林下层的统一度和枝叶整齐度,并充分应用早春返青早的宿根花卉。     

Organization and promoter analysis of a tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon single WAP domain-containing protein gene

The main function of the single whey acidic protein domain (SWD)-containing protein in shrimp is unknown. To elucidate the function of the SWD-containing protein in vivo, the SWD-containing protein gene was isolated and characterized. A 9.3-kb shrimp SWD-containing protein gene, and a 3.9-kb 3′-flanking region. The shrimp SWD-containing protein gene contained three exons and two introns. Different fragments of the shrimp SWD-containing protein 5′-flanking region were transfected into HeLa cells. The promoter activities were assayed by basal human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LRH), and gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) treatments. The in vitro actions of the SWD-containing protein promoter expression pattern were studied by transfection of an SWD-containing protein promoter (1 kb)-driven green fluorescent protein (GFP) encoding the GFP cDNA transgene into the HeLa cell line, which was then microinjected into zebrafish Danio rerio embryos. These results indicate that the shrimp SWD-containing protein promoter might play an important role in gene regulation of sex hormones in mammalian cell lines and in gene regulation of developmental stages in zebrafish.     

Qualitative and quantitative strategies of thermal adaptation of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) cytoplasmic malate dehydrogenases

Malate dehydrogenase isozymes of grass carp,Ctenopharyngodon idella, were identified by mitochondrial preparation and thermal denaturation. The structural and kinetic characteristics of chromatographically separated thermostable and thermolabile cMDHs were different in (1) half-life at 42°C, 10 min and 24 h, respectively, (2) optimal substrate, oxaloacetate and malate, concentrations, and (3) the apparent Michaelis-Menten constants of NADH and oxaloacetate.Total MDH activity in white muscle of 11°C-acclimated fish was about twice that of the 30°C-acclimated group. In addition, the ratio of the thermostable to thermolabile cMDH activity in white muscle of 30°C-acclimated fish was significantly higher than that of 11°C-acclimated fish. These results suggest that temperature acclimation can induce temperature compensation in MDH activity and differential expression of thermostable and thermolabile cMDH isozymes in freshwater fish.     

Swim bladder inflation and survival of Mugil cephalus to 50 days

Excessive inflation of the swim bladder causes immobility and mortality of 12-day old larvae of Mugil cephalus and other marine fish. Increased aeration or mechanical agitation of the water in rearing tanks maintained the larvae below the water surface, and the swim bladder formed and functioned normally. Survival was dramatically increased. Two experimental production tanks, stocked initially with 15 000 and 20 000 larvae, at a density of 5.25 and 7.0/l, respectively, yielded 33.5% and 16.9% juveniles on day 50. Only an outbreak of ciliated parasites prevented both tanks from having survival figures of over 30%.     

缺水城市雨洪资源利用及补偿机制未来研究方向探讨

对城市雨洪的合理利用,有助于城市防止内涝、减少灾害、改善水环境,同时能够解决缺水城市水资源短缺,有助于实现水资源可持续利用.文中从雨水径流模型、降雨量分析、雨洪资源利用政策方法等几个方面总结了国内外雨洪资源利用的主要研究成果,分析了目前城市雨洪资源利用研究中存在的问题,提出了未来可能的缺水城市雨洪资源利用技术经济浮价以...     

Toward an ideal animal model to trace donor cell fates after stem cell therapy: production of stably labeled multipotent mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow of transgenic pigs harboring enhanced green fluorescence protein gene

The discovery of postnatal mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) with their general multipotentiality has fueled much interest in the development of cell-based therapies. Proper identification of transplanted MSC is crucial for evaluating donor cell distribution, differentiation, and migration. Lack of an efficient marker of transplanted MSC has precluded our understanding of MSC-related regenerative studies, especially in large animal models such as pigs. In the present study, we produced transgenic pigs harboring an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene. The pigs provide a reliable and reproducible source for obtaining stable EGFP-labeled MSC, which is very useful for donor cell tracking after transplantation. The undifferentiated EGFP-tagged MSC expressed a greater quantity of EGFP while maintaining MSC multipotentiality. These cells exhibited homogeneous surface epitopes and possessed classic trilineage differentiation potential into osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic lineages, with robust EGFP expression maintained in all differentiated progeny. Injection of donor MSC can dramatically increase the thickness of infarcted myocardium and improve cardiac function in mice. Moreover, the MSC, with their strong EGFP expression, can be easily distinguished from the background autofluorescence in myocardial infarcts. We demonstrated an efficient, effective, and easy way to identify MSC after long-term culture and transplantation. With the transgenic model, we were able to obtain stem or progenitor cells in earlier passages compared with the transfection of traceable markers into established MSC. Because the integration site of the transgene was the same for all cells, we lessened the potential for positional effects and the heterogeneity of the stem cells. The EGFP-transgenic pigs may serve as useful biomedical and agricultural models of somatic stem cell biology.     

Antimutagenic constituents of adlay (Coix lachryma-jobi L. var. ma-yuen Stapf) with potential cancer chemopreventive activity

Adlay has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine and as a nourishing food. The acetone extract of adlay hull had previously been demonstrated to possess potent antimutagenic activity. The aims of this study were to identify the antimutagenic constituents from adlay hull by using Ames antimutagenic activity-guide isolation procedures and to investigate their chemopreventive efficacies in cultured cells. The results demonstrated that six compounds showing great antimutagenic activity were identified by spectroscopic methods and by comparison with authentic samples to be p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, vanillin, syringaldehyde, trans-coniferylaldehyde, sinapaldehyde, and coixol. Two of them, trans-coniferylaldehyde and sinapaldehyde, exhibit relatively potent scavenging of DPPH radicals, inhibit TPA stimulated superoxide anion generation in neutrophil-like leukocytes, and induce Nrf2/ARE-driven luciferase activity in HSC-3 cells. Moreover, trans-coniferylaldehyde possesses cytoprotective efficacy against tert-butyl hydroperoxide-induced DNA double-strand breaks in cultured cells, and the chemopreventive potency induced by trans-coniferylaldehyde may be through the activation of kinase signals, including p38, ERK1/2, JNK, MEK1/2, and MSK1/2. In summary, we first identified six antimutagenic constituents from adlay hull. Among them, trans-coniferylaldehyde would be a highly promising agent for cancer chemoprevention and merits further investigation.