Neo-intimal hyperplasia is one of the major causes of restenosis in which stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1α) and its receptor CXCR4 play an important role. In a rat common carotid artery balloon injury model, the number of CD34+CXCR4+ cells was significantly increased immediately after injury (p < 0.01), followed by a gradual decrease to baseline seven days after the injury. Furthermore, the plasma (SDF-1α) level was markedly elevated, and peaked 24 hours after injury (p < 0.01), followed by a rapid decrease to baseline level seven days after the injury. In the injured common carotid artery, the mRNA expression of (SDF-1α) was elevated immediately after injury, followed by a gradual decline, but that of CXCR4 was increased four days after injury.Immuno-histochemistry displayed CXCR4-positive staining one day after injury, which then gradually increased and continued for at least one month. In addition, administration of AMD3100 (200 ng/kg, i.p.), a CXCR4 antagonist, did not affect the number of CD34+CXCR4+ cells, the elevated level of plasma (SDF-1α) and expression of (SDF-1α) mRNA. The expression of CXCR4 mRNA and protein however was markedly decreased, and detectable CXCR4-positive cells occurred four days after injury, followed by a decreased intensity of staining. We also found that, three months after balloon injury, stenosis of the carotid artery intima in the group that received AMD3100 was significantly less than in the untreated group (p < 0.05). Therefore, (SDF-1α)/CXCR4 played a crucial role in the intimal hyperplasia, and restenosis may have be attenuated after inhibition of CD34+CXCR4+ cells in the intima.

ABSTRACT. Rice blast caused by Magnaporthe oryzae is one of the most devastating rice diseases worldwide. To understand the genetic diversity of indica landrace accessions and identify simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers that are associated with blast resistance, a population of 276 indica landraces from across the world was constructed. This population was then used to evaluate the blastresistance phenotype through artificial inoculation under controlled conditions in 2012 and 2013. The genetic diversity and association of the population with resistance were analyzed by examining the phenotype for 160 SSR markers distributed on 12 rice chromosomes. The 276 accessions were classified into seven groups using model-and distance-based cluster analyses. Associations between SSR markers and blast resistance showed that 26 SSR markers were significantly associated with blast resistance in 2012 and 2013 (P < 0.01) and that the phenotypic variation ranged from 2.68 to 13.11%. Nineteen of the markers associated with blast resistance were located in regions where genes or quantitative trait loci (QTLs) have been previously reported, and seven were newly identified in this study. These results indicate that marker-trait association has potential advantages over classical linkage analysis and QTL mapping, and that these markers could be used for marker-assisted selection in rice blast-resistance-breeding programs.