LONGJU QI^1,2,#, XIAOYING XU^3,#, BIN LI^4,#, BO CHANG⁵, SHENGCUN WANG², CHUN LIU², LIUCHENG WU², XIAODI ZHOU⁴, QINGHUA WANG^2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.4, pp. 989-998, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.018014

Abstract Excessive fat ectopically deposited in the non-adipose tissues is considered as one of the leading causes of myopathy. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of Dihydroartemisinin (DHA) in palmitate (PAL)-incubated H9c2 cells (lipotoxicity-induced cell injury model). Cell viability of PAL-treated cells was determined by MTT assay, and apoptotic regulators were examined by qRT-PCR and western blot analysis, in the absence or in the presence of DHA, respectively. Expression levels of miR-133b and Sirt1 were also evaluated by qRT-PCR and western blotting examination. PAL decreased the viability of H9c2 cells and enhanced the expression of apoptotic genes.… More >

LI JIANG^1,*, KE ZHANG¹, CHONG HU¹, HONGWEI ZHANG¹, DANPU WANG¹, WEIWEI ZHAI²

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.4, pp. 969-978, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.017765

Abstract In recent decades, RNA binding motif (RBM) proteins have been widespread concerned by researchers. Among them, RBM5 is considered as a potential tumor suppressor gene in HCC. RBM10, also belonging to the RBM family, have similar structure and high homology with RBM5, indicating its potential as potential tumor suppressor genes. However, the role of RBM10 in tumors is controversial. The purpose of this study was to analyze the expression correlation and functional relationship of miR-21 and RBM10 in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and corresponding tumor cells. Bioinformatics analysis showed that miR-21 and RBM10 were both highly expressed in HCC;… More >

TIANTIAN XU^1,#, RUILIN ZHENG^1,#, DANYANG CHEN^1,#, HAIYANG CHEN², MINGQI ZHAO¹, MIN GUO¹, YI CHEN¹, CHANGBING WANG¹, LU KUANG¹, YINGHUA LI^1,*, BING ZHU^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.4, pp. 1033-1039, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.017757

Abstract Emerging evidence that Enterovirus A 71 (EV-A71) infection closely related to apoptosis. The ZVAD is a caspase inhibitor that can prevent apoptosis. The aims of this project were to evaluate the mechanism of the ZVAD inhibited EV-A71 virus and to provide experiment basis for finding new antiviral drugs. In this study, after treated with ZVAD in EV-A71 infected Vero cells, the viral replication was reduced, and the cell viability was higher than EV-A71 group. Additionally, ZVAD decreased the cell apoptosis and the level of inflammatory cytokines induced by EV-A71 in the infected Vero cells. ZVAD inhibited cell apoptosis by regulating… More >

MINGZHI LUO^*, KAI NI, YAN SUN, JIA GUO, KANG WEN, LINHONG DENG^*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.4, pp. 855-871, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.017520

Abstract Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) is still threatening the human life and society throughout the world. For those critically ill patients, mechanical ventilation (MV) is essential to provide life support during treatment. However, both the virus infection and MV disrupt the balance between secretion and elimination of airway mucus and lead to mucus accumulation in the lung. Postmortem examination verified that the lungs in patients died of COVID-19 are indeed filled with sticky mucus, suggesting a great need to improve airway mucus clearance in critically ill COVID-19 patients. Therefore, it may be helpful… More >

WENJUAN XU¹, GUANGMING DAI¹, YIFEI LYU², YINING ZHANG¹, XIAOLIN TU^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.4, pp. 1097-1104, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.017505

Abstract This study established a method for isolating large numbers of high-purity osteocytes from high-density bone. Bone fragments derived from mice tibia and femurs were alternately digested with type I collagenase and EDTA nine times, and the digested cells and bone chips (BC) were cultured, digested, and passaged when cells were fully grown. The types of cells obtained were identified by morphology, viable cell counts, alkaline phosphatase staining, and biochemical activity analyses, and specific osteocyte and osteoblast markers were evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Our results showed that among the cells obtained from the third digestion (fractions 7–9) of… More >

HONG FU¹, HAOYU ZHAO¹, YALI YANG¹, SIYU WANG¹, KE DUAN^2,*, TAILIN GUO^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.4, pp. 1067-1078, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.017435

Abstract CDK5 belongs to the cyclin-dependent kinase family. CDK5 is multifunctional and plays an important role in neural differentiation. However, the role of CDK5 in osteoblastic differentiation remains unclear. The present study investigated functions and molecular mechanism of CDK5 in osteoblastic differentiation. It was found that, CDK5 inhibition promoted the expression of Runx2, ALP, OCN and OPN of MSCs and the mineralization of MC-3T3E1 cells and MSCs. CDK5 inhibition enhanced the development of F-actin, nuclear localization of β-catenin and YAP, as well as the expression of RMRP RNA. When F-actin was suppressed by Blebbistatin, the nuclear localization of YAP and β-catenin,… More >

XIANGCAI YANG¹, JIAGUI QU², JIEJING LI^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.4, pp. 1041-1051, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.017383

Abstract Malignant glioma is one of the most common and deadly tumors in the central nervous system while developing effective treatments for this devastating disease remains a challenge. Previously, we demonstrated that the vitamin nicotinic acid (NA) inhibits glioma invasion. Here, we show that high-dose NA induces apoptosis of malignant glioma cells in vitro and in vivo. In cultured U251 glioma cells treated with NA, we detected ER stress that was likely caused by elevated intracellular calcium levels. The elevated calcium can be attributed to the activation of TRPV1, a cation channel that has been implicated in cutaneous flushing caused by… More >

YONGHUI YU^1,#, SONGHUI XU^2,#, ERYONG ZHAO^3,#, YONGSHUN DONG¹, JINBIN CHEN¹, BOQI RAO¹, JIE ZENG⁴, LEI YANG¹, JIACHUN LU¹, FUMAN QIU^1,4,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.4, pp. 999-1011, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.017004

Abstract The outcomes of ovarian cancer are complicated and usually unfavorable due to their diagnoses at a late stage. Identifying the efficient prognostic biomarkers to improve the survival of ovarian cancer is urgently warranted. The survival-related pseudogenes retrieved from the Cancer Genome Atlas database were screened by univariate Cox regression analysis and further assessed by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method. A risk score model based on the prognostic pseudogenes was also constructed. The pseudogene-mRNA regulatory networks were established using correlation analysis, and their potent roles in the ovarian cancer progression were uncovered by functional enrichment analysis. Lastly, ssGSEA… More >

WEI PAN^1,2,3,*, YE HE¹, MENGDONG HE^1,2,3, FEI WANG^1,2,3, LIHUA QIU^1,2

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.4, pp. 1079-1088, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.016934

Abstract Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has emerged as a novel therapeutic modality for cancer treatment, but its therapeutic efficacy is severely limited by the hypoxic tumor microenvironment (TME). Here we designed an innovative multifunctional nano-platform which consists of a hollow MnO₂ shell and internal photosensitizer IR780. It is not only used for multimodal imaging of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), but also for adjustment hypoxic TME to enhance cancer treatment. Hollow MnO₂ can promote decomposition of tumor endogenous H₂O₂ to relieve tumor hypoxia, thereby enhancing the effect of photodynamic therapy. Photosensitizer IR780 generates singlet oxygen under laser irradiation to kill tumor cells,… More >

JIABAO WU^1,2,#, XIAOHUA LIU^1,2,#, LU HAN^1,2, HUA NIE^1,2, YUAN TANG^1,2, YUNGE TANG^1,3, GE SONG^1,5, LIXIN ZHENG^1,4, WEIBING QIN^1,2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.4, pp. 1013-1023, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.016744

Abstract Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) is a novel class of non-coding RNAs. However, changes in piRNA expression profiles in recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) have not yet been investigated. The aim of this study was to identify differentially expressed piRNAs in deciduas of RSA patients. Decidua tissues were collected by curettage from recruited RSA patients and normal early pregnant (NEP) women with their informed consent. Small RNA sequencing was used to evaluate the differences in piRNA expression profiles between RSA and NEP. The present results demonstrated that the counts of total piRNA reads in RSA samples were increased compared with those in NEP… More >