Introduction: Vitamin D deficiency and inflammation are involved with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in preterm neonates; however, the clinical evidence still remains scarce. We hypothesized that vitamin D and inflammatory cytokines may be risk factors for BPD in infants.Methods: Preterm infants born between 28 and 31 weeks' gestation were recruited between January 2016 and 2017. Blood samples were all collected at corresponding time points. Vitamin D was measured using an automatic biochemical analyzer, and inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-10) were measured using ELISA.Results: The baseline characteristics for preterm infants without BPD (non-BPD control, n = 20) or with BPD (n = 19) were similar. In the blood samples collected 24-h post birth, vitamin D was significantly reduced in the BPD neonates (non-BPD vs. BPD, 28.96 ± 3.404 vs. 17.99 ± 2.233 nmol/l, p = 0.0134). Inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were comparable in both groups. The anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10, however, was significantly decreased in 24-h blood samples from BPD preterm infants (non-BPD vs. BPD, 44.61 ± 10.48 vs. 11.64 ± 2.351 pg/ml, p = 0.0054). In the BPD infants with mild or moderate disease, vitamin D deficiency was quite similar. IL-10 deficiency, however, was more aggravated in the BPD infants with moderate disease. No changes in Vitamin D or cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-10) were observed for blood samples collected 2 or 4 weeks after birth.Conclusion: In our pilot study, Vitamin D and IL-10 levels at 24-h of life were risk factors for the development of BPD in very preterm infants.

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is the leading cause of chronic lung disease in preterm neonates. Extracellular matrix (ECM) abnormalities reshape lung development, contributing to BPD progression. In the present study, we first discovered that the ECM component fibronectin was reduced in the pulmonary tissues of model mice with BPD induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and hyper-oxygen. Meanwhile, interleukin-33 (IL-33) and other inflammatory cytokines were elevated in BPD lung tissues. LPS stimulated the production of IL-33 in alveolar epithelial cells via myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88), protein 38 (p38), and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) protein 65 (p65). Following the knockout of either IL-33 or its receptor suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (ST2) in mice, BPD disease severity was improved, accompanied by elevated fibronectin. ST2 neutralization antibody also relieved BPD progression and restored the expression of fibronectin. IL-33 induced the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), which degraded fibronectin in alveolar epithelial cells. Moreover, DNase-mediated degradation of NETs was protective against BPD. Finally, a fibronectin inhibitor directly decreased fibronectin and caused BPD-like disease in the mouse model. Our findings may shed light on the roles of IL-33-induced NETs and reduced fibronectin in the pathogenesis of BPD.

The significant decrease of vitamin D concentration between RDS and non-RDS patients only reflected in "≤30 weeks" stage. And significant decrease of vitamin D concentration in BPD patients was both showed in "≤30 weeks" stage and "30-34 weeks" stage, which is consistent with "duration of oxygen support". However, the overall effect did not show any difference in all preterm infants. It seems that the appropriate concentration of vitamin D is beneficial to lung maturation of human. Certainly, large sample, multi-center randomized controlled trials are necessary.

Background Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are emerging noncoding RNAs that are involved in many biological processes and diseases. The expression profile of circRNAs in preterm neonates with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) remains unresolved. Methods In BPD infants, peripheral venous blood was drawn and circRNAs were extracted and sequenced by next‐generation sequencing. The levels of the selected circRNAs were measured by real‐time quantitative reverse transcription PCR. Results Among thousands of circRNAs, 491 circRNAs were significantly changed. Among the top 10 changed circRNAs, hsa_circ_0003122, hsa_circ_0003357, hsa_circ_0009983, hsa_circ_0003037, and hsa_circ_0009256 were significantly increased, while hsa_circ_0014932, hsa_circ_0015109, hsa_circ_0017811, hsa_circ_0020588, and hsa_circ_0015066 were significantly decreased. These altered circRNAs are involved in complicated biological functions and signaling pathways. Additionally, hsa_circ_0005577 (hsa_circ_FANCL), which was significantly increased in the moderate‐to‐severe BPD subjects, was correlated with oxygenation therapy. Conclusion These results suggest that an aberrant circRNA profile in the peripheral blood of BPD infants might be important in BPD pathogenesis.

In this study, two chlorophyll A/B binding protein (CAB) genes (CsCP1 and CsCP2) in tea plant were cloned. the proteins encoded by these genes belong to the external or internal antenna proteins of pS II, respectively. They may be the targets of physiological regulation for tea leaf cell PS II because they all contain multiple functional domains and modifiable sites. The CAB gene family in the tea genome consists of 25 homologous genes. We measured the expression patterns of ten genes in the CsCP1 and CsCP2 subfamily under six different stresses. CsCP1 expression was inhibited in response to 6 kinds of stress; CsCP2 expression was slightly upregulated only after cold stress and ABA treatment. However, the expression levels of CSA016997 and CSA030476 were upregulated significantly in the six stresses. The results suggested that the 10 CAB genes may have different functions in tea leaves. Moreover, changes in the expression of the 10 genes under stress appear to be related to ABA-and MeJAdependent signalling pathways, and their responses to MeJA treatment is faster than those to ABA. In addition, we introduced our experiences for cloning the genes in the context of complex genomes.Chloroplasts are organelle involved in photosynthesis in plants and an important infrastructure to sustain the earth's ecosystem. The light-harvesting complex (LHCs) consists of proteins and photosynthetic pigments and is an important functional components in chloroplasts. The main components of LHCs are CABs in higher plants. CABs are involved in light uptake, transmit the energy to the reaction centre of two photosystems (PS I and PS II), and adjust the distribution of the excitation energy between them and maintain the structure of thylakoid membrane 1-3 . CAB genes are exclusively encoded in the nucleus genome in higher plants, and are classified into 10 gene families based upon their nucleotide sequence homology. Four CAB gene families including LHCa1, LHCa2, LHCa3 and LHCa4, are associated with PS I, and the 6 CAB families related to PS II contain 3 major LHC II families (LHCb1, LHCb2 and LHCb3) and 3 minor LHC II families (LHCb4, LHCb5 and LHCb6, which encoded CP29, CP26 and CP24, respectively) 4-8 . Although the two photosystems in the thylakoid sub-domains of higher plants are comprised of different antenna proteins, the CAB proteins in PS II have attracted considerable attention gevin their complex physiological functions 4,9 . High homology exists between the major LHCs of PS II, which form homo-or heterotrimers to perform their functions. Compared with the major LHCII family proteins, the minor LHCII family proteins are integrated as monomer into the interior of PS II to absorb and deliver energy to the reaction centre 3,10,11 . CAB genes in some plants (including herbaceous and woody plant, such as Glycine max and Pyrus x bretschneideri) have been cloned. CAB gene expression is affected by light intensity, low temperature, high salinity, drought and disease [11][12][13][14] .Evergreen woody plants in subtropical to temperate ...