Re-appraisal of Nertera (Rubiaceae) in Taiwan.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Chen WC
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8476481 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Vitiligo is a common pigmentary disorder. Studies on its pathogenesis extensively investigated melanocytes' abnormalities and few studies searched for keratinocytes' role in disease development. Liver X receptor-? (LXR-?) is a member of nuclear hormone receptors that acts as a transcription factor. Its target genes are the main regulators of melanocyte functions.The aim of this study is to investigate keratinocytes' role in vitiligo pathogenesis through immunohistochemical expression of LXR-? in lesional, perilesional, and distant nonlesional vitiligo skin.This case-control study was carried out on 44 participants. These included 24 patients with vitiligo and 20 age- and sex-matched normal individuals as a control group. Biopsies, from cases, were taken from lesional, perilesional, and distant nonlesional areas. Evaluation was done using immunohistochemical technique.Keratinocyte LXR-? expression was upregulated in the lesional and perilesional skin (follicular and interfollicular epidermis) compared with control skin (P <0.001 for all). There was significant association between higher histoscore (H-score) in lesional epidermis (P <0.001) and in hair follicle (P =0.001) and the presence of angiogenesis. There was significant association between higher H-score in lesional epidermis and suprabasal vacuolization (P =0.02). No significant association was found between H-score or expression percentage and clinical data of selected cases.LXR-? upregulation is associated with keratinocyte damage in vitiligo lesional skin that leads to decreased keratinocyte-derived mediators and growth factors supporting the growth and/or melanization of surrounding melanocytes. Therefore, melanocyte function and survival are affected.
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Project description:The amino acid sequence of rattlesnake cytochrome c was originally reported in 1965, and was one of the earlier sequences to be studied. When compared with other mitochondrial cytochromes c, the snake sequence was soon seen to be anomalous. There were several positions in which the snake protein resembled human cytochrome c, although comparable anomalies were not reported for the protein from other reptiles such as lizard and turtle. Explanations of these results have included accelerated evolution in the snake lineage, paralogy rather than orthology, and faulty determination of the sequence, and the rattlesnake is now often omitted from cytochrome c phylogenetic trees. We have re-investigated the sequence of the snake protein, and believe that the correct sequence differs in nine places from that used for evolutionary theorizing since 1965. Four of these differences are near the haem-attachment site, in a region that was only analysed for amino acid composition in the original investigation. The other five differences are towards the C-terminus of the molecule, and can be explained as being due to the wrong ordering of amino acids within peptides that had been satisfactorily purified. Despite these corrections, the rattlesnake cytochrome c sequence still more closely resembles human cytochrome c than it does that of any other protein we know. We believe that this is an example of convergent evolution, although it does appear that there has been accelerated change in the line connecting the rattlesnake to the ancestral vertebrate line. Detailed evidence for the amino acid sequence of the protein has been deposited as Supplementary Publication SUP 50162 (16 pages) at the British Library Document Supply Centre, Boston Spa. Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS23 7BQ, U.K., from whom copies can be obtained on the terms indicated in Biochem. J. (1991) 273, 5.
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Project description:The Venturiaceae was traditionally assigned to Pleosporales although its diagnostic characters readily distinguish it from other pleosporalean families. These include a parasitic or saprobic lifestyle, occurring on leaves or stems of dicotyledons; small to medium-sized ascomata, often with setae; deliquescing pseudoparaphyses; 8-spored, broadly cylindrical to obclavate asci; 1-septate, yellowish, greenish or pale brown to brown ascospores; and hyphomycetous anamorphs. Phylogenetically, core genera of Venturiaceae form a monophyletic clade within Dothideomycetes, and represent a separate sister lineage from current orders, thus a new order-Venturiales is introduced. A new family, Sympoventuriaceae, is introduced to accommodate taxa of a well-supported subclade within Venturiales, which contains Sympoventuria, Veronaeopsis simplex and Fusicladium-like species. Based on morphology and DNA sequence analysis, eight genera are included in Venturiaceae, viz. Acantharia, Apiosporina (including Dibotryon), Caproventuria, Coleroa, Pseudoparodiella, Metacoleroa, Tyrannosorus and Venturia. Molecular phylogenetic information is lacking for seven genera previously included in Venturiales, namely Arkoola, Atopospora, Botryostroma, Lasiobotrys, Trichodothella, Trichodothis and Rhizogenee and these are discussed, but their inclusion in Venturiaceae is doubtful. Crotone, Gibbera, Lineostroma, Phaeocryptopus, Phragmogibbera, Platychora, Polyrhizon, Rosenscheldiella, Uleodothis and Xenomeris are excluded from Venturiales, and their ordinal placement needs further investigation. Zeuctomorpha is treated as a synonym of Acantharia.
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Project description:BackgroundHigher body mass index (BMI) is associated with better outcome compared with normal weight in patients with HF and other chronic diseases. It remains uncertain whether the apparent protective role of obesity relates to the absence of comorbidities. Therefore, we investigated the effect of BMI on outcome in younger patients without co-morbidities as compared to older patients with co-morbidities in a large heart failure (HF) population.MethodsIn an individual patient data analysis from pooled cohorts, 5,819 patients with chronic HF and data available on BMI, co-morbidities and outcome were analysed. Patients were divided into four groups based on BMI (i.e. ≤ 18.5 kg/m2, 18.5-25.0 kg/m2; 25.0-30.0 kg/m2; 30.0 kg/m2). Primary endpoints included all-cause mortality and HF hospitalization-free survival.ResultsMean age was 65 ± 12 years, with a majority of males (78%), ischaemic HF and HF with reduced ejection fraction. Frequency of all-cause mortality or HF hospitalization was significantly worse in the lowest two BMI groups as compared to the other two groups; however, this effect was only seen in patients older than 75 years or having at least one relevant co-morbidity, and not in younger patients with HF only. After including medications and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide and high-sensitivity cardiac troponin concentrations into the model, the prognostic impact of BMI was largely absent even in the elderly group with co-morbidity.ConclusionsThe present study suggests that obesity is a marker of less advanced disease, but does not have an independent protective effect in patients with chronic HF. Categories of BMI are only predictive of poor outcome in patients aged > 75 years or with at least one co-morbidity (bottom), but not in those aged < 75 years without co-morbidities (top). The prognostic effect largely disappears in multivariable analyses even for the former group. These findings question the protective effect of obesity in chronic heart failure (HF).
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