Elevated cardiac-specific miR-208a in plasma may be a novel biomarker for early detection of myocardial injury in humans.

Serum miR-196a could be a potential noninvasive marker for PDAC prognosis and selection of laparotomy.

One of the goals of bone tissue engineering is to mimic native ECM in architecture and function, creating scaffolds with excellent biocompatibility, osteoinductive ability and mechanical properties. The aim of this study was to fabricate nanofibrous matrices by electrospinning a blend of poly (L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), hydroxyapatite (HA), and grapheme oxide (GO) as a favourable platform for bone tissue engineering. The morphology, biocompatibility, mechanical properties, and biological activity of all nanofibrous matrices were compared. The data indicate that the hydrophilicity and protein adsorption rate of the fabricated matrices were significantly increased by blending with a small amount of HA and GO. Furthermore, GO significantly boosted the tensile strength of the nanofibrous matrices, and the PLGA/GO/HA nanofibrous matrices can serve as mechanically stable scaffolds for cell growth. For further test in vitro, MC3T3-E1 cells were cultured on the PLGA/HA/GO nanofbrous matrices to observe various cellular activities and cell mineralization. The results indicated that the PLGA/GO/HA nanofibrous matrices significantly enhanced adhesion, and proliferation in MCET3-E1 cells and functionally promoted alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, the osteogenesis-related gene expression and mineral deposition. Therefore, the PLGA/HA/GO composite nanofibres are excellent and versatile scaffolds for applications in bone tissue regeneration.

A high-affinity IgM monoclonal antibody specific for aflatoxins was covalently bound to Sepharose 4B and used as a preparative column to isolate aflatoxin derivatives from the urine of people and experimental animals who had been exposed to the carcinogen environmentally or under laboratory conditions. Aflatoxin levels were quantified by radioimmunoassay and high-performance liquid chromatography after elution from the afinity column. In studies on rats injected with ["'C]aflatoxin Bl, we identified the major aflatoxin-DNA adduct, 2,3-dihydro-2-(N7-guanyl)-3-hydroxyaflatoxin B1 (AFBl-N7-Gua), and the oxidative metabolites Ml and P1 as the major aflatoxin species present in the urine. When this methodology was applied to human urine samples obtained from people from the Guangxi Province of China exposed to aflatoxin B1 through dietary contamination, the aflatoxin metabolites detected were also AFB1-N7-Gua and aflatoxins Ml and Pl. Therefore, affinity chromatography using a monoclonal antibody represents a useful and rapid technique with which to isolate this carcinogen and its metabolites in biochemical epidemiology and for subsequent quantitative measurements, providing exposure information that can be used for risk assessment.The aflatoxins are highly carcinogenic agents consistently found as contaminants in human food supplies in many areas of the world and epidemiologically linked to increased incidence of human liver cancer in Asia and Africa [see Busby and Wogan (ref. complex procedures used to purify the aflatoxins prior to analysis have seriously limited the application of these approaches in large-scale epidemiologic studies.A major objective of our work has been the development of rapid, noninvasive screening procedures for assessing the exposure of humans to environmentally occurring carcinogens. Useful protocols require the ability to quantify chemical carcinogens and their metabolites, especially DNA and protein adducts, in readily accessible compartments, such as urine and serum. We have been developing these monitoring techniques through immunoassays using monoclonal antibodies (8-10). These antibodies have proven to be useful analytical tools for quantifying the aflatoxins in biological fluids and also for use with affinity chromatography matrices as preparative tools to isolate aflatoxins from biological fluids (10). We report here results of initial applications of these techniques to the analysis of human urine obtained from people environmentally exposed to AFB1 in their diet and also of urine of rats injected with AFB1. These preparative and analytical procedures permit rapid measurement of aflatoxins in complex biological fluids under conditions that can be applied to large numbers of samples collected in epidemiologic surveys seeking to evaluate aflatoxin exposure as a risk factor for liver cancer in man.