(1) Neurogenesis driven by neural stem cells (NSCs) is regulated by physiological and pathological factors. Melatonin (MT) has profound neurotrophic and neuroprotective effects. Hence, we studied the role of MT in regulating the viability and differentiation of NSCs derived from rat ventral midbrain. (2) NSCs were isolated from the rat ventral midbrain. The viability of NSCs was determined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-ulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium assay. The differentiation of NSCs was examined by analyzing the expression of the neural markers, MT receptors, brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) with semi-quantitative RT-PCR, immunofluorescence cytochemistry, and Western blot. (3) Our results showed that MT could promote the viability of NSCs. In addition, MT could significantly elevate the mRNA and protein levels of tyroxine hydroxylase (TH), a marker of dopaminergic neurons, and decrease the expression of the astrocytes maker glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). MT also increased the production of BDNF and GDNF in the cultured NSCs. Meanwhile, we first found that two subtypes of MT receptors, MT1 and MT2, were expressed in the ventral midbrain NSCs. (4) These results demonstrated that MT could induce NSCs to differentiate into dopaminergic neurons and decrease astrocyte production. These findings also suggest that MT could offer a beneficial tool in guiding directional differentiation of NSCs.

a b s t r a c tWe previously showed that high expression levels of SOX9 correlate with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression. However, the exact role that SOX9 plays in HCC remains unclear. In this study, we firstly confirmed that miRNA-101 directly targets SOX9 in HCC. Ectopic expression of miR-101 significantly inhibited HCC cell proliferation and tumorigenicity by targeting SOX9. Moreover, the down-regulation of miR-101 in clinical HCC tissues correlates with tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis. Therefore, miR-101 may suppress HCC tumor progression by down-regulating SOX9. MiR-101 may be a potential prognostic marker and therapeutic target for HCC.

The thermal effect on nanofluidic behaviors in a hydrophobic zeolite is investigated experimentally. At a constant temperature, water can be forced to infiltrate into the nanopores as an external pressure is applied and defiltrate as the pressure is lowered, leading to a springlike pressure-volume relationship. As temperature varies, due to the variation in solid-liquid interfacial tension, the infiltration pressure changes significantly. Consequently, the system exhibits a thermally controllable volume memory characteristic, with the energy density higher than that of ordinary shape-memory solids by more than one order of magnitude, providing a promising way for developing high-performance intelligent devices.

Background and Objective. Now with more and more published systematic reviews of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) on adult cancer pain, it is necessary to use the methods of overview of systematic review to summarize available evidence, appraise the evidence level, and give suggestions to future research and practice. Methods. A comprehensive search (the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, and ISI Web of Knowledge) was conducted to identify all systematic reviews or meta-analyses of CAM on adult cancer pain. And the evidence levels were evaluated using GRADE approach. Results. 27 systematic reviews were included. Based on available evidence, we could find that psychoeducational interventions, music interventions, acupuncture plus drug therapy, Chinese herbal medicine plus cancer therapy, compound kushen injection, reflexology, lycopene, TENS, qigong, cupping, cannabis, Reiki, homeopathy (Traumeel), and creative arts therapies might have beneficial effects on adult cancer pain. No benefits were found for acupuncture (versus drug therapy or shame acupuncture), and the results were inconsistent for massage therapy, transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS), and Viscum album L plus cancer treatment. However, the evidence levels for these interventions were low or moderate due to high risk of bias and/or small sample size of primary studies. Conclusion. CAM may be beneficial for alleviating cancer pain, but the evidence levels were found to be low or moderate. Future large and rigor randomized controlled studies are needed to confirm the benefits of CAM on adult cancer pain.