Brain microvascular endothelial cell (BMEC) survival and angiogenesis after ischemic stroke has great significance for improving the prognosis of stroke. Abnormal variants of lncRNAs are closely associated with stroke. In this study, we examined the effects and molecular mechanisms of differentiation antagonizing non-protein coding RNA (DANCR) on apoptosis, migration, and angiogenesis of oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD)-treated BMECs. We found that DANCR expression significantly increased at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 h after OGD. DANCR overexpression promoted cell viability, migration, and angiogenesis in OGD-treated BMECs. Additionally, we found that X-box binding protein l splicing (XBP1s) expression was positively correlated with DANCR expression. DANCR overexpression promoted XBP1s expression in OGD-treated BMECs. Silenced XBP1s reversed the effect of DANCR in OGD-treated BMECs. Furthermore, we found that microRNA (miR)-33a-5p bound to DANCR and the 3'-UTR of XBP1. miR-33a-5p overexpression inhibited proliferation, migration, angiogenesis, and XBP1s expression in OGD-treated DANCRoverexpressing BMECs, reversing the protective effect of DANCR. Finally, we found that XBP1s expression promoted proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis, reversing the damaging effect of miR-33a-5p. In conclusion, DANCR enhanced survival and angiogenesis in OGD-treated BMECs through the miR-33a-5p/XBP1s axis.

Angiogenesis is positively correlated with the survival rate of stroke patients. Therefore, studying factors that initiate and promote angiogenesis after ischemic stroke is crucial for finding novel and effective treatment targets that improve the prognosis of stroke. X‐box binding protein l splicing (XBP1s) plays a positive regulatory role in cell proliferation and angiogenesis. However, the role and mechanism of XBP1s on the proliferation of brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) and angiogenesis after cerebral ischemia remains unclear. In the current study, we investigated the role XBP1s plays in BMEC proliferation and angiogenesis following cerebral ischemia. In this study, the roles of XBP1s on cell survival, apoptosis, cycle migration, and angiogenesis were determined in oxygen‐glucose deprivation (OGD) treated BMECs. The expression of XBP1s in BMECs, which were exposed to OGD at 0, 2, 4, and 6 hr, increased in a time‐dependent manner. The overexpression of XBP1s promoted cell survival, cell cycle, migration, and angiogenesis of BMECs, and inhibited the apoptosis in OGD‐treated BMECs. In addition, the overexpression of XBP1s promoted the expression of cyclin D1, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP‐2), and MMP‐9, but inhibited cleaved Caspase‐3 and cleaved Caspase‐9 expression in OGD‐treated BMECs. The overexpression of XBP1s also promoted the expression of hypoxia‐inducible factor 1‐alpha, vascular endothelial growth factor, phosphatidylinositol‐4,5‐bisphosphate 3‐kinase, p‐AKT, p‐mTOR, p‐GSK3β, and p‐extracellular signal‐regulated kinase1/2 in OGD‐treated BMECs. The effect of XBP1s silencing was opposite to that of XBP1s overexpression. In conclusion, using an in vitro OGD model, we demonstrated that XBP1s may be a promising target for ischemic stroke therapy to maintain BMECs survival and induce angiogenesis.

Thorough investigation of the three‐dimensional (3D) configuration of the vasculature of mouse brain remains technologically difficult because of its complex anatomical structure. In this study, a systematic analysis is developed to visualize the 3D angioarchitecture of mouse brain at ultrahigh resolution using synchrotron‐radiation‐based propagation phase‐contrast imaging. This method provides detailed restoration of the intricate brain microvascular network in a precise 3D manner. In addition to depicting the delicate 3D arrangements of the vascular network, 3D virtual micro‐endoscopy is also innovatively performed to visualize randomly a selected vessel within the brain for both external 3D micro‐imaging and endoscopic visualization of any targeted microvessels, which improves the understanding of the intrinsic properties of the mouse brain angioarchitecture. Based on these data, hierarchical visualization has been established and a systematic assessment on the 3D configuration of the mouse brain microvascular network has been achieved at high resolution which will aid in advancing the understanding of the role of vasculature in the perspective of structure and function in depth. This holds great promise for wider application in various models of neurovascular diseases.

For gender classification, we present a new approach based on Multiscale facial fusion feature (MS3F) to classify gender from face images. Fusion feature is extracted by the combination of Local Binary Pattern (LBP) and Local Phase Quantization (LPQ) descriptors, and a multiscale feature is generated through Multiblock (MB) and Multilevel (ML) methods. Support Vector Machine (SVM) is employed as the classifier to conduct gender classification. All the experiments are performed based on the Images of Groups (IoG) dataset. The results demonstrate that the application of Multiscale fusion feature greatly improves the performance of gender classification, and our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art techniques.