F. prausnitzii supernatant exerts protective and therapeutic effects on DSS-induced colitis in mice, probably via inhibition of Th17 differentiation and IL-17A secretion in the plasma and colon mucosa tissues. It can also improve colitis in mice by downregulating IL-6 and prevent colitis by upregulating IL-4.

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) play critical roles in apoptosis and contribute to the proliferation of cancer cells. AR-42 is a novel Class I and II HDAC inhibitor that shows cytotoxicity against various human cancer cell lines. The present study aims to identify the target of AR-42 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as well as evaluate its therapeutic efficacy. We found that HDAC5 was upregulated in HCC tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues, and this was correlated with reduced patient survival. CCK8 and colony-formation assays showed that HDAC5 overexpression promotes proliferation in HCC cell lines. Treatment with AR-42 decreased HCC cell growth and increased caspase-dependent apoptosis, and this was rescued by HDAC5 overexpression. We demonstrated that AR-42 can inhibit the deacetylation activity of HDAC5 and its downstream targets in vitro and in vivo. Taken together, these results demonstrate for the first time that AR-42 targets HDAC5 and induces apoptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells. AR-42 therefore shows potential as a new drug candidate for HCC therapy.

Hypoxia=reoxygenation causes cellular injury and death associated with many pathophysiologic conditions, including respiratory disorders, myocardial ischemia, and tumour progression diseases. Neuronal pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells are widely used as a model system for neurologic research and are subject to chemical hypoxia induced with sodium hydrosulfite (Na 2 S 2 O 4 ), a common oxygen-consuming agent. Salidroside, which is the main active component of the famous traditional Chinese herb Rhodiola rosea L. (Crassulaceae), has been proved to possess many bioactivities. In this article, we studied the protective effects of salidroside on hypoxia= reoxygenation injury in PC12 cells induced by Na 2 S 2 O 4 . Cultures of PC12 cells were exposed for 1 h to 10 mM Na 2 S 2 O 4 for hypoxia, followed by reoxygenation for 2 h. The results showed that salidroside was very stable in medium and was not harmful to PC12 cells at the experimental concentrations of 0 $ 200 mg=mL. The cytoprotection by salidroside was dose-dependent, and the cell viability was 41.8 AE 5.7%, 62.4 AE 4.1%, and 92.2 AE 3.7% at 0, 50, and 100 mg=mL of salidroside, respectively. The level of released LDH significantly decreased from 513.5 AE 5.5% (without salidroside) to 258.1 AE 6.3% (with 100 mg=mL salidroside). Flow cytometry was performed to measure apoptotic rate. The results of flow cytometry assay indicated that the apoptotic rate was 17.0 AE 1.2% after hypoxia=reoxygenation injury. When the cells were treated with salidroside 12.5, 50 and 100 mg=mL, the apoptotic rate was 9.5 AE 0.9%, 7.4 AE 0.5%, and 4.5 AE 0.4%, respectively. In addition, our results were confirmed by inspection of cell morphology of PC12 cells. Treatment with salidroside (12.5, 50, 100 mg=mL) significantly prevented the cells from morphologic changes. All the above results showed salidroside could effectively protect PC12 cell against hypoxia=reoxygenation injury.

Insertional mutagenesis based on maize Activator/Dissociator (Ac/Ds) transposons is becoming a major approach used to produce a saturated mutant collection in rice. In this research, Ds-T-DNA transformed homozygotes were crossed with Ac-T-DNA transformed homozygotes in order to establish an Ac/Ds transposon system in rice. The successive investigation of Ds transposition from F 1 to F 5 generations indicated that the frequencies of germinal transposition increased over successive generations and reached 54.2% in F 3 generation. The Ds transposition pattern revealed that a Ds transposition induced an approximately 170-bp deletion of T-DNA sequence and another Ds transposition carried a 272-bp T-DNA sequence. Using thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR (TAIL-PCR), some flanking sequences of the Ds element were amplified. Analyses of 17 Ds-flanking sequences showed that five Ds were inserted into gene regions. The Ds could transpose not only to the linked sites but also to the unlinked sites. The frequency of inter-chromosomal transposition of Ds was 33.3%.

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