In an effort to explore new, noninvasive treatment options for spinal cord injuries (SCI), this study investigated the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) for SCI rat models. SCI was induced by a modified Allen's weight-drop method. We investigated the response of EA at Dazhui (GV 14) and Mingmen (GV 4) acupoints to understand the effects and mechanisms of EA in neuroprotection and neuronal function recovery after SCI. BBB testing was used to detect motor function of rats' hind limbs among groups, and EA was shown to promote the recovery of SCI rats' motor function. Nissl staining showed a restored neural morphology and an increase in the quantity of neurons after EA. Also, the antiapoptosis role was exposed by TUNEL staining. Western blotting analysis was used to determine the protein expression of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) in spinal cord tissue. Compared to the sham group, the expression levels of NT-3 were significantly decreased and EA was shown to upregulate the expression of NT-3. The present study suggests that the role of EA in neuroprotection and dorsal neuronal function recovery after SCI in rats, especially EA stimulation at GV 14 and GV 4, can greatly promote neuronal function recovery, which may result from upregulating the expression of NT-3.

Background: Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) pathway has been suggested as a new molecular target for the treatment of cancer including Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We postulated that IGF-2 receptor (IGF2R) may be associated with treatment response and prognosis of NSCLC patients receiving chemotherapy. Methods: A total of 464 patients with inoperable advanced stage of NSCLC were enrolled. All patients received platinum-based chemotherapy. Meanwhile, the IGF2R expression in tumor samples was detected by Immunohistochemical analysis. The IGF2R expression was inhibited in several human NSCLC cell lines (H292, A549, NCI-H460, Calu-3 and NCI-H23) after small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfection and the cellular biology behavior were evaluated. Results: Of all NSCLC patients, 204 had high IGF2R expression and 260 had low IGF2R expression. The low IGF2R expression was significantly associated with the smoking status, higher tumor stage, and poorer differentiation status of these patients. Notably, we found that the low IGF2R expression was closely associated with the chemotherapy response in NSCLC patients. Patients with low IGF2R expressions had a poorer prognosis than those with high IGF2R expressions. IGF2R inhibition by si-RNA technique in NSCLC cell lines increased the proliferation, migration and invasion abilities, but reduced the apoptosis rate. IGF2R silencing significantly enhanced the chemo-resistance of NSCLC cell lines to cisplatin treatment. Conclusion: The IGF2R expression in tumor is associated with the chemotherapy response and prognosis of Patients with advanced NSCLC.

Introduction: Drug-induced acute kidney injury (D-AKI) is one of the important types of AKI. The incidence of D-AKI in China has rarely been studied. Objective: This study aims to explore the disease burden, related drugs, and risk factors of D-AKI. Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional survey was conducted in adult patients from 23 academic hospitals in 17 provinces in China. Suspected AKI was screened based on serum creatinine changes in accordance with the 2012 Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes Clinical Practice Guideline for AKI, patients who met the diagnosis of hospital-acquired AKI in January and July of 2014 were defined. Suspected AKI was firstly evaluated for the possibility of D-AKI by pharmacists using the Naranjo Scale and finally defined as D-AKI by nephrologists through reviewing AKI clinical features. Results: Altogether 280,255 hospitalized patients were screened and 1,960 cases were diagnosed as hospital-acquired AKI, among which 735 cases were defined as having D-AKI (37.50%, 735/1,960) with an in-hospital mortality rate of 13.88% and 54.34% of the survivors did not achieve full renal recovery. 1,642 drugs were related to AKI in these patients. Anti-infectives, diuretics, and proton pump inhibitors were the top 3 types of drugs relevant to D-AKI, accounting for 66.63% cumulatively. Besides age, AKI staging, severe disease, hypoalbuminemia, plasma substitute, and carbapenem related D-AKI were independent risk factors for in-hospital mortality of D-AKI patients. Conclusion: In China, D-AKI has caused a substantial medical burden. Efforts should be made to pursue nephrotoxic drug stewardship to minimize attributable risk and improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of D-AKI.

The current study aimed to investigate the effects and mechanisms of electroacupuncture (EA) treatment applied to Bai hui (GV20) and Yin tang (GV29) acupoints (1 mA, 2 Hz, continuous wave, 20 minutes) for 28 days in a rat model of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) on reuptake of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)) and miRNA-16 levels in the hippocampus and serum. Rats were housed in individual cages, and CUMS was used to establish a rat model of depression. After EA treatment for 4 weeks, behavioral changes and indices including 5-HT transporter (SERT), 5-HT, and miRNA-16 levels in the hippocampus and serum were examined. The EA treatment significantly improved base levels of sucrose preference and exploratory behavior and significantly decreased SERT protein and mRNA expression in the hippocampus of depressed rats. Significantly increased 5-HT levels were observed, and miRNA-16 levels were significantly decreased in the hippocampus and serum of depressed rats. In conclusion, the antidepressant effects of EA treatment may be affected via inhibition of 5-HT reuptake, upregulation of 5-HT levels, and inhibition of miRNA-16 expression in the hippocampus and serum.

BackgroundAlternative splicing (AS) is an important post-transcriptional process. It has been suggested that most AS events are subject to tissue-specific regulation. However, the global dynamics of AS in different tissues are poorly explored.ResultsTo analyse global changes in AS in multiple tissues, we identified the AS events and constructed a comprehensive catalogue of AS events within each tissue based on the genome-wide RNA-seq reads from ten tissues in cucumber. First, we found that 58% of the multi-exon genes underwent AS. We further obtained 565 genes with significantly more AS events compared with random genes. These genes were found significant enrichment in biological processes related to the regulation of actin filament length. Second, significantly different AS event profiles among ten tissues were found. The tissues with the same origin of development are more likely to have a relatively similar AS profile. Moreover, 7370 genes showed tissue-specific AS events and were highly enriched in biological processes related to the positive regulation of cellular component organization. Root-specificity AS genes were related to the cellular response to DNA damage stimulus. Third, the genes with different intron retention (IR) patterns among the ten tissues showed significant difference in GC percentages of the retained intron, and the number of exons and FPKM of the major transcripts.ConclusionsOur study provided a comprehensive view of AS in multiple tissues. We revealed novel insights into the patterns of AS in multiple tissues and the tissue-specific AS in cucumber.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-017-1217-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.