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Biomedical subjects

Jing Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Jing Liu.

At least 343 records · Page 19Linked to original sources
PubMed2002

Young children can extend motion verbs to point-light displays.

In the first study using point-light displays (lights corresponding to the joints of the human body) to examine children's understanding of verbs, 3-year-olds were tested to see if they could perceive familiar actions that corresponded to motion verbs (e.g., walking). Experiment 1 showed that children could extend familiar motion verbs (e.g., walking and dancing) to videotaped point-light actions shown in the intermodal preferential looking paradigm. Children watched the action that matched the requested verb significantly more than they watched the action that did not match the verb. In Experiment 2, the findings of Experiment 1 were validated by having children spontaneously produce verbs for these actions. The use of point-light displays may illuminate the factors that contribute to verb learning.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2002

Detection of metalloproteins in human liver cytosol by synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence combined with gel filtration chromatography and isoelectric focusing separation.

Synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence (SRXRF) spectroscopy is an advanced method of quantitative multielemental analysis with space resolution of several microm and sensitivities in the microg g(-1) range. It can be used for keeping track of trace elements after an electrophoretic separation of biological samples. In this paper, proteins in human liver cytosol were separated with gel filtration chromatography and thin layer isoelectric focusing (IEF). The contents of metal ions in protein bands were determined by SRXRF. The results showed that in the molecular weight (MW) range of 10 approximately 25 kDa, there were at least 2 Zn-containing bands with isoelectric point (pI) of 5 approximately 6 and 6.2 approximately 7, respectively and about 11 Fe-containing proteins with pI of 4.4, 4.6, 4.8, 5.0, 5.2, 5.3, 5.5, 5.6, 6.6, 6.8, and 7.2, respectively, present in human liver cytosol. The Zn-containing band with pI of 5-6 is the dominant species of zinc in this MW range. In addition, the Cu-containing bands with pI of 5.0 and below 4.8 were also detected. It is demonstrated that the procedure could be widely used in further investigations of the chemical species of trace elements in biological samples.

Chromatography, Gel↗
PubMed2002

Evidence that selected amplification of a bacterial lac frameshift allele stimulates Lac(+) reversion (adaptive mutation) with or without general hypermutability.

In the genetic system of Cairns and Foster, a nongrowing population of an E. coli lac frameshift mutant appears to specifically accumulate Lac(+) revertants when starved on medium including lactose (adaptive mutation). This behavior has been attributed to stress-induced general mutagenesis in a subpopulation of starved cells (the hypermutable state model). We have suggested that, on the contrary, stress has no direct effect on mutability but favors only growth of cells that amplify their leaky mutant lac region (the amplification mutagenesis model). Selection enhances reversion primarily by increasing the mutant lac copy number within each developing clone on the selection plate. The observed general mutagenesis is attributed to a side effect of growth with an amplification-induction of SOS by DNA fragments released from a tandem array of lac copies. Here we show that the S. enterica version of the Cairns system shows SOS-dependent general mutagenesis and behaves in every way like the original E. coli system. In both systems, lac revertants are mutagenized during selection. Eliminating the 35-fold increase in mutation rate reduces revertant number only 2- to 4-fold. This discrepancy is due to continued growth of amplification cells until some clones manage to revert without mutagenesis solely by increasing their lac copy number. Reversion in the absence of mutagenesis is still dependent on RecA function, as expected if it depends on lac amplification (a recombination-dependent process). These observations support the amplification mutagenesis model.

Bacterial Proteins↗
PubMed2002

A mutant form of the Wilms' tumor suppressor gene WT1 observed in Denys-Drash syndrome interferes with glomerular capillary development.

The Wilms' tumor suppressor gene WT1 encodes a zinc finger protein that is required for urogenital development. In the kidney, WT1 is most highly expressed in glomerular epithelial cells or podocytes, which are an essential component of the filtering system. Human subjects heterozygous for point mutations in the WT1 gene develop renal failure because of the formation of scar tissue within glomeruli. The relationship between WT1 expression in podocytes during development and glomerular scarring is not well understood. In this study, transgenic mice that expressed a mutant form of WT1 in podocytes were derived. The capillaries within transgenic glomeruli were dilated, indicating that WT1 might regulate the expression of growth factors that affect capillary development. Platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 expression was greatly reduced on glomerular endothelial cells of transgenic kidneys. These results suggest that WT1 controls the expression of growth factors that regulate glomerular capillary development and that abnormal capillary development might lead to glomerular disease.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Sinusoidal heating method to noninvasively measure tissue perfusion.

Noninvasively measuring the tissue blood perfusion has been an important however difficult problem in the biomedical engineering field. Based on the newly developed phase-shift principle, an improved sinusoidal heating method to estimate the perfusion was proposed in this paper to replace the original heating algorithm. The phase shift between the sinusoidal heat flux and the surface temperature response was both theoretically and experimentally revealed to be a time-dependent value which however will approach a constant value after a sufficiently long time. Only using this constant phase shift can the perfusion be properly estimated. Following the theory, an instrument consisting of low-frequency sinusoidal signal generator, power amplifier, heating plate, temperature and heat flux monitoring unit, as well as the data-acquisition system was carefully constructed. It allows generating a high-quality sinusoidal heat flux whose frequency and magnitude can be easily regulated. An auxiliary heat-conducting plate was introduced to simultaneously measure the surface temperature and the heat flux, which are hard to do otherwise. Experiments on human bodies were performed and the forearm perfusion was estimated and then validated through a constant surface heating experiment. Several issues related to the instrument integration and perfusion measurement were discussed. The instrument was also tested through experiments on nonperfused materials and good results were obtained. These efforts will help to build a compact device for noninvasively measuring the human perfusion, which may have significant applications in future clinics.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2002

Analytical study on bioheat transfer problems with spatial or transient heating on skin surface or inside biological bodies.

Several closed form analytical solutions to the bioheat transfer problems with space or transient heating on skin surface or inside biological bodies were obtained using Green's function method. The solutions were applied to study several selected typical bioheat transfer processes, which are often encountered in cancer hyperthermia, laser surgery, thermal comfort analysis, and tissue thermal parameter estimation. Thus a straightforward way to quantitatively interpret the temperature behavior of living tissues subject to constant, sinusoidal, step, point or stochastic heatings etc. both in volume and on boundary were established. Further solution to the three-dimensional bioheat transfer problems was also given to illustrate the versatility of the present method. Implementations of this study to the practical problems were addressed.

Body Temperature↗
PubMed2002

Phenotypes of lexA mutations in Salmonella enterica: evidence for a lethal lexA null phenotype due to the Fels-2 prophage.

The LexA protein of Escherichia coli represses the damage-inducible SOS regulon, which includes genes for repair of DNA. Surprisingly, lexA null mutations in Salmonella enterica are lethal even with a sulA mutation, which corrects lexA lethality in E. coli. Nine suppressors of lethality isolated in a sulA mutant of S. enterica had lost the Fels-2 prophage, and seven of these (which grew better) had also lost the Gifsy-1 and Gifsy-2 prophages. All three phage genomes included a homologue of the tum gene of coliphage 186, which encodes a LexA-repressed cI antirepressor. The tum homologue of Fels-2 was responsible for lexA lethality and had a LexA-repressed promoter. This basis of lexA lethality was unexpected because the four prophages of S. enterica LT2 are not strongly UV inducible and do not sensitize strains to UV killing. In S. enterica, lexA(Ind(-)) mutants have the same phenotypes as their E. coli counterparts. Although lexA null mutants express their error-prone DinB polymerase constitutively, they are not mutators in either S. enterica or E. coli.

Bacterial Proteins↗
PubMed2002

The MEKK1-JNK pathway plays a protective role in pressure overload but does not mediate cardiac hypertrophy.

Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase (MEKK1) mediates activation of c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase (JNK). Although previous studies using cultured cardiac myocytes have suggested that the MEKK1-JNK pathway plays a key role in hypertrophy and apoptosis, its effects in cardiac hypertrophy and apoptosis are not fully understood in adult animals in vivo. We examined the role of the MEKK1-JNK pathway in pressure-overloaded hearts by using mice deficient in MEKK1. We found that transverse aortic banding significantly increased JNK activity in Mekk1(+/+) but not Mekk1(-/-) mice, indicating that MEKK1 mediates JNK activation by pressure overload. Nevertheless, pressure overload caused significant levels of cardiac hypertrophy and expression of atrial natriuretic factor in Mekk1(-/-) animals, which showed higher mortality and lung/body weight ratio than were seen in controls. Fourteen days after banding, Mekk1(-/-) hearts were dilated, and their left ventricular ejection fraction was low. Pressure overload caused elevated levels of apoptosis and inflammatory lesions in these mice and produced a smaller increase in TGF-beta and TNF-alpha expression than occurred in wild-type controls. Thus, MEKK1 appears to be required for pressure overload-induced JNK activation and cytokine upregulation but to be dispensable for pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy. MEKK1 also prevents apoptosis and inflammation, thereby protecting against heart failure and sudden death following cardiac pressure overload.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Full-length core sequence dependent complex-type glycosylation of hepatitis C virus E2 glycoprotein.

AIM: To study HCV polyprotein processing is important for the understanding of the natural history of HCV and the design of vaccines against HCV. The purpose of this study is to investigate the affection of context sequences on hepatitis C virus (HCV) E2 processing. METHODS: HCV genes of different lengths were expressed and compared in vaccinia virus/T7 system with homologous patient serum S94 and mouse anti-serum M( E2116) raised against E.coli -derived E2 peptide, respectively. Deglycosylation analysis and GNA ( Galanthus nivalus ) lectin binding assay were performed to study the post-translational processing of the expressed products. RESULTS: E2 glycoproteins with different molecular weights (-75 kDa and -60 kDa) were detected using S94 and M( E2116), respectively. Deglycosylation analysis showed that this difference was mainly due to different glycosylation. Endo H resistance and its failure to bind to GNA lectin demonstrated that the higher molecular weight form (75 kDa) of E2 was complex-type glycosylated, which was readily recognized by homologous patient serum S94. Expression of complex-type glycosylated E2 could not be detected in all of the core-truncated constructs tested, but readily detected in constructs encoding full-length core sequences. CONCLUSION: The upstream conserved full-length core coding sequence was required for the production of E2 glycoproteins carrying complex-type N-glycans which reacted strongly with homologous patient serum and therefore possibly represented more mature forms of E2. As complex-type N-glycans indicated modification by Golgi enzymes, the results suggest that the presence of full-length core might be critical for E1/E2 complex to leave ER. Our data may contribute to a better understanding of the processing of HCV structural proteins as well as HCV morphogenesis.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

DNA immunization with fusion genes encoding different regions of hepatitis C virus E2 fused to the gene for hepatitis B surface antigen elicits immune responses to both HCV and HBV.

AIM: Both Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) are major causative agents of transfusion-associated and community-acquired hepatitis worldwide. Development of a HCV vaccine as well as more effective HBV vaccines is an urgent task. DNA immunization provides a promising approach to elicit protective humoral and cellular immune responses against viral infection. The aim of this study is to achieve immune responses against both HCV and HBV by DNA immunization with fusion constructs comprising various HCV E2 gene fragments fused to HBsAg gene of HBV. METHODS: C57BL/6 mice were immunized with plasmid DNA expressing five fragments of HCV E2 fused to the gene for HBsAg respectively. After one primary and one boosting immunizations, antibodies against HCV E2 and HBsAg were tested and subtyped in ELISA. Splenic cytokine expression of IFN-gamma and IL-10 was analyzed using an RT-PCR assay. Post-immune mouse antisera also were tested for their ability to capture HCV viruses in the serum of a hepatitis C patient in vitro. RESULTS: After immunization, antibodies against both HBsAg and HCV E2 were detected in mouse sera, with IgG2a being the dominant immunoglobulin sub-class. High-level expression of INF-gamma was detected in cultured splenic cells. Mouse antisera against three of the five fusion constructs were able to capture HCV viruses in an in vitro assay. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that these fusion constructs could efficiently elicit humoral and Th1 dominant cellular immune responses against both HBV S and HCV E2 antigens in DNA-immunized mice. They thus could serve as candidates for a bivalent vaccine against HBV and HCV infection. In addition, the capacity of mouse antisera against three of the five fusion constructs to capture HCV viruses in vitro suggested that neutralizing epitopes may be present in other regions of E2 besides the hypervariable region 1.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

[The distribution of serum homocysteine and its associated factors in a population of 1 168 subjects in Beijing area].

OBJECTIVE: To describe serum homocysteine distribution and its associated factors in population of urban and rural areas in Beijing. METHODS: The study population was represented by a randomly selected sample with 1 168 subjects, including both males and females aged 35 - 64. The levels of serum homocycteine were compared and the correlation with other risk factors were analyzed statistically. RESULTS: (1) Geometric mean of serum homocycteine was 15.4 micromol/L in males and 12.2 micromol/L in females (P < 0.001). (2) There was a significant difference in homocysteine levels between urban population and rural population. Men from rural area had 1.5 times higher homocyteine than from urban (18.0 micromol/L vs 12.0 micromol/L, P < 0.001), while the rural women had 1.3 times higher homocysteine level than urban women did. (3) The prevalence rate of hyperhomocysteinemia was 15.3% in population aged 35 - 64 in Beijing area. (4) Gender, residential location (urban or rural), smoking and education had independent effects on level of serum homocysteine by multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Population in Beijing had higher serum level and prevalence rate of homocysteine than some western countries. Gender, geographic distribution, smoking and education had some influence on homocysteine level.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Expression and characterization of hepatitis C Virus E2 glycoprotein fused to hepatitis B virus preS1(21-47) fragment in CHO cells.

To stably express hepatitis C virus (HCV) E2 glycoprotein in CHO cells and facilitate the detection and purification of the expression products, the gene fragment encoding N-terminal 277 amino acids of this protein was fused to the fragment encoding hepatitis B virus (HBV) preS1(21-47) region and inserted into a secretion vector pSecTagB. CHO cells transfected with the recombinant plasmid carrying fusion gene were selected under growth pressure of Zeocin. Secreted fusion products and its cell-associated counterpart were detected by Western blot using E2 specific or preS1 specific antibodies. Glycans carried by the expression products were analyzed with glycan-type specific glycosidases. Most of the cell-associated E2 were found to be high-mannose-type glycosylated, while the secreted E2 proteins were found to be mostly complex-type glycosylated, suggesting further modification in Golgi apparatus upon secretion. Primary studies showed that the fusion antigen could be specifically bind to and elute from anti-preS1 antibody coupled Sepharose resin, suggesting that large-scale preparation of the fusion antigen is feasible with an immunoaffinity resin. This work will contribute to the further study of immunological properties of HCV E2 glycoprotein and also to the study of recombinant HBV/HCV vaccine.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

[Changes of rat gastric mucosal barrier under stress conditions].

OBJECTIVE To explore the changes of rat gastric mucosal barrier under conditions of water immersion restraint stress. METHODS Eighty rats were randomly divided into Group A (20 rats), B (40 rats) and C (20 rats) after being fasted for 24 hours. And then Group A was divided into two subgroups with ten rats in each. The two subgroups in Group A were given normal saline or omeprazole respectively while under the stress condition. The changes of gastric acid or bicarbonate secretion were determined. Group B (40 rats) were randomly divided into four subgroups,which were subgroup control, 1h, 2h and 4h after beginning of the stress. The quantity of glandular mucosal adherent mucus, the thickness of mucus gel layer and ulcer index were measured after stress in Group B. The glandular mucosal samples were labeled by Lanthanum and observed by transmission electromicroscopy. Group C was randomly divided into two subgroups in the same way with Group A. And each subgroup received normal saline or omeprazole respectively H(+) loss in gastric lumen was calculated by determining the difference of acidity between lavage and drainage fluid H(+) concentration. RESULTS It was found that gastric alkaline secretion decreased progressively (P < 0.05), while gastric acid secretion increased progressively under stress conditions (P < 0.05). The mucus quantity(A/g) in the four subgroups in Group B were 0.137 +/- 0.030, 0.143 +/- 0.012, 0.066 +/- 0.016 and 0.016 +/- 0.016 respectively. The mucus gel thickness(microm) were 71.08 +/- 5.85, 74.50 +/- 12.85, 57.63 +/- 6.45 and 51.35 +/- 2.84 respectively. The ulcer index were 0.2 +/- 0.1,0.4 +/- 0.1,5.2 +/- 1.3 and 10.0 +/- 0.5 respectively. Statistics showed that the mucus quantity was correlated with the mucus gel thickness positively(r = 0.89), while either of them was correlated with the ulcer index negatively(r = 0.85 and "r = 0.83). And it was also found that Lanthanum rarely stained the glandular mucosa in control subgroup, while heavily in stress subgroups. In the subgroup receiving normal saline in Group C, within 5 hours after the beginning of stress, the amount of H(+) loss per hour(micromol) was 2.03 +/- 0.12, 2.00 +/- 0.20, 1.93 +/- 0.49, 2.70 +/- 0.44 and 3.37 +/- 0.35 respectively. It was demonstrated that the amount of H(+) loss was stable within 2h after stress, then increased obviously in normal saline subgroup significantly (P < 0.01). In omeprazole subgroup, the amount of H(+) loss (micromol) was 7.46 +/- 1.22, 4.56 +/- 0.35, 3.11 +/- 0.81, 2.32 +/- 1.42 and 2.13 +/- 1.60, which decreased progressively, however still higher than those in normal saline subgroup (P "< 0.01). CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that gastric bicarbonate secretion is inhibited; gastric barrier is damaged; and hydrogen permeability through gastric mucosal barrier increases under stress conditions.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Cancer-specific killing by the CD suicide gene using the human telomerase reverse transcriptase promoter.

Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), the catalytic subunit of the telomerase, is transcriptionally upregulated in more than 90% of tumor cells. It may be used as a tool for driving a gene to kill tumors specifically. To test this idea, luciferase reporter gene was used and the results showed that hTERT promoter could restrict the gene expression in the telomerase-positive tumor cells. A tumor-specific expression plasmid phTERT-CD was constructed, in which the E. coli cytosine deaminase (CD) gene was controlled by the hTERT promoter. A colorectal cancer cell line (LoVo) and a normal amnion cell line (WISH) were transfected by this plasmid. It was shown that the expression of the CD gene increased the sensitivity of LoVo cells to the prodrug, 5-fluorocytosine (5FC), over 800-fold, while the sensitivity of WISH cells to 5FC was increased only 6-fold. Mixed cell experiments showed a strong "bystander effect" on CD-negative cells. Furthermore, a significant anti-tumor effect of the phTERT-CD/5FC system was observed in nude mice bearing mammalian carcinoma induced by s.c. inoculation of LoVo cells when the mice were given 250 mg/kg 5FC twice a day for 10 consecutive days. These results indicated that hTERT promoter could target the suicidal effect of CD gene to tumor cells, and therefore, may be a novel and promising targeting approach to the treatment of cancer.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

A method for constructing reshaping single-domain antibody.

The aim of this research was to demonstrate a novel and practical method for constructing reshaping Single-domain antibodies. Different from other methods, our method does not need to model the configuration of antibodies with specific sequences to determine the sequences of human acceptor FRs and then determine which amino acid residues in human acceptor FRs should be substituted. Most importantly, reshaping and enhancing the antigen binding affinity shared one procedure at the same time. Using this method, the reshaping anti-CD28 single-domain antibodies were constructed. According to the amino acid sequence of a mouse anti-human CD28 monoclonal antibody VH, two most homologous sequences of human antibodies were selected from GenBank and one of them was used as a main framework region for constructing the reshaping antibody. Before the original mouse antibody CDRs were inserted into the human acceptor FRs, some amino acid residues which were different from those of the original mouse antibody in the corresponding positions of the human acceptor FRs were determined or alternatively mutated by their conservative properties in Kabat classification. When the synthesized nucleotide fragments in different length were spliced by overlap PCR into the entire reshaping genes, Taq DNA polymerase and high Mg2+ concentration were used to introduce more mutation in FRs and CDRs randomly. A phage library was constructed using these PCR products and several reshaping Single-domain antibodies with high antigen binding affinity were selected after three rounds of panning. Two of them were expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3). The antigen-binding affinity of refolded proteins was still in a high level measured by ELISA. These results suggested that this method was feasible and efficient for constructing reshaping Single-domain antibodies.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2002

[Expression, refolding and biological activity of recombinant type-I metalloproteinase acutolysin a from Agkistrodon acutus].

Type-I snake venom metalloproteinase acutolysin A gene was cloned into the prokaryotic expression vector pBAD/gIIIA and the resulting recombinant plasmid pDS was obtained. By the induction with 0.02% L-(+)-arabinose, the recombinant metalloproteinase was expressed in insoluble inclusion body in E. coli TOP10 and reached up to 5%--10% of total bacterial proteins. The recombinant metalloproteinase has an additional sequence of N-terminal 22 amino acids and C-terminal 8 amino acids (housing 6 histidines), both of which derived from the vector. The purified inclusion body was solubilized by 8 mol/L urea or 6 mol/L guanidine-HCl and the denatured soluble recombinant metalloproteinase was allowed to refold in vitro. Western blotting and ELISA obviously showed that the renatured recombinant metalloproteinase possessed strong immune reactivity very closely related to natural acutolysin A. Animal experiments showed that the refolded recombinant metalloproteinase had an obvious hemorrhagic activity. Except PMSF, 1 mmol/L EDTA, 1 mmol/L EGTA, and 3 mmol/L imidazole could inhibit the hemorrhagic activity of the recombinant and the natural metalloproteinases to different extent. Based on the investigations of others and our experimental results, the hemorrhagic mechanism of snake metalloproteinases was discussed.

Agkistrodon↗
PubMed2002

[Study on temporal patterns of stroke onset from community-based cohort in Beijing].

OBJECTIVE: To Study the temporal patterns of stroke onset, and to provide insights into the triggers which might cause the acute onset of stroke and to develop preventive strategies. METHODS: Using a 10-year period of the SINO-MONICA-Beijing study cohort a total number of 700 000 people, aged 25 to 74 years was recruited. The diagnostic criteria exactly followed the WHO MONICA project. Date of the week, season and month occurrence of stroke were ascertained. Percentage of stroke onset on date in the week, season and month were calculated. chi(2) test was used to identify the deviation from expected frequencies. Multiple stepwise regression was carried out for multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Most stroke occurred and recurred (chi(2) = 7.02, P = 0.008 in male and chi(2) = 12.32, P = 0.000 4 in female) in winter. The most frequent occurrence on the dates of stroke events were Monday in the urbans and Saturday in the rurals. The finding were confirmed (the stroke occurrence and recurrence positively correlated with season, correlation coefficient 0.032, P = 0.01) by correlation and multiple stepwise regression. CONCLUSION: It was important to find out the circadian variation and the external triggering factors together with unhealthy behaviour of life that would contribute to the prevention and reduction of stroke onset.

Adult↗