响应面法优化超声辅助酶解制备藏系羊胎盘肽工艺及抗氧化能力分析

以藏系羊胎盘为原料,选取水解度、肽得率和抗氧化能力为指标,在蛋白酶种类筛选、双酶组合方案确定的基础上,通过单因素试验和响应面试验优化超声波辅助复合酶解制备羊胎盘肽的工艺条件,并分析其氨基酸组成和分子质量分布。结果表明,木瓜蛋白酶和中性蛋白酶同步复合酶解效果优于其他蛋白酶组合,水解度和肽得率分别为37.24%和13.54%。响应面优化结果显示各因素对水解度影响的主次顺序为：超声时间＞超声温度＞酶解时间＞超声功率;优化后的最优工艺参数为超声时间16.5 min、超声温度25.5 ℃、超声功率438 W、酶解时间4.9 h,该最优条件下的水解度为55.22%,肽得率为18.52%,抗氧化能力（Trolox当量）为1.08 mmol/L。藏系羊胎盘肽中富含谷氨酸、甘氨酸和天冬氨酸等,分子质量低于2 000 Da的肽比例为95.02%,绝大多数为小分子低聚寡肽。可见,超声波辅助酶解制备羊胎盘肽的工艺不仅能有效改善酶解效果,还能制得具有良好抗氧化能力的小分子肽。     

A theoretical model of cyberchondria development: Antecedents and intermediate processes

Cyberchondria describes excessive online health searches associated with increased emotional distress. While previous research has examined various antecedents of cyberchondria, how regular online health information seeking (OHIS) turns into cyberchondria has received minimal theoretical attention. This study proposes a theoretical model that illuminates the processes of cyberchondria development among individuals who are anxious about their health. Results from an online survey of 426 Chinese Internet users lend support to the proposed theoretical model, which posits perceived health threat of common symptoms as a trigger of health anxiety that motivates OHIS through the perception of information insufficiency. In this process, positive source beliefs strengthen the effect of information insufficiency on OHIS. This study further identifies negative metacognitive beliefs as a boundary condition for how regular OHIS results in cyberchondria. By conceptualizing the processes of cyberchondria development, this integrative model provides guidance for future theory development and testing in this new research area.     

A foetal energy balance equation based on maternal exercise and diet

Empirical data indicate that the maternal diet composition has a direct impact on foetal fat mass and resulting birth weights. Weight-bearing maternal exercise influences the placental volume, which has also been correlated to birth weight. A foetal energy balance equation, based on the first law of thermodynamics, that incorporates maternal diet and exercise is developed. Model parameters and validity are evaluated using published data.     

Pregnancy and Infants’ Outcome: Nutritional and Metabolic Implications

Pregnancy is a complex period of human growth, development, and imprinting. Nutrition and metabolism play a crucial role for the health and well-being of both mother and fetus, as well as for the long-term health of the offspring. Nevertheless, several biological and physiological mechanisms related to nutritive requirements together with their transfer and utilization across the placenta are still poorly understood. In February 2009, the Child Health Foundation invited leading experts of this field to a workshop to critically review and discuss current knowledge, with the aim to highlight priorities for future research. This paper summarizes our main conclusions with regards to maternal preconceptional body mass index, gestational weight gain, placental and fetal requirements in relation to adverse pregnancy and long-term outcomes of the fetus (nutritional programming). We conclude that there is an urgent need to develop further human investigations aimed at better understanding of the basis of biochemical mechanisms and pathophysiological events related to maternal-fetal nutrition and offspring health. An improved knowledge would help to optimize nutritional recommendations for pregnancy.     

Symptomatic hypercalcemia in a rabies survivor underwent hemodialysis

Adrenal insufficiency is an uncommon and easily ignored cause among most etiologies of hypercalcemia because not all cases of adrenal insufficiency presented with hypercalcemia. In most cases of adrenal insufficiency, viral encephalitis‐related panhypopituitarism is a rare complication that is sporadically encountered in previous studies. However, this complication has never been reported in rabies encephalitis because of the extremely high rate of mortality. Rapid recovery from hypercalcemia state after glucocorticoid supplement is a direct hint of adrenal insufficiency related hypercalcemia.     

Inhibition of Stromal PlGF Suppresses the Growth of Prostate Cancer Xenografts

The growth and vascularization of prostate cancer is dependent on interactions between cancer cells and supporting stromal cells. The primary stromal cell type found in prostate tumors is the carcinoma-associated fibroblast, which produces placental growth factor (PlGF). PlGF is a member of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family of angiogenic molecules and PlGF mRNA levels increase after androgen deprivation therapy in prostate cancer. In this study, we show that PlGF has a direct dose-dependent proliferative effect on human PC-3 prostate cancer cells in vitro and fibroblast-derived PlGF increases PC-3 proliferation in co-culture. In xenograft tumor models, intratumoral administration of murine PlGF siRNA reduced stromal-derived PlGF expression, reduced tumor burden and decreased the number of Ki-67 positive proliferating cells associated with reduced vascular density. These data show that targeting stromal PlGF expression may represent a therapeutic target for the treatment of prostate cancer.     

Diagnosing batch processes with insufficient fault data: generation of pseudo batches

To ensure the safety of a batch process and the quality of its final product, one needs to quickly identify an assignable cause of a fault. Cho and Kim (2003 Cho, HW and Kim, KJ. 2003. A method for predicting future observations in the monitoring of a batch process. J. Qual. Tech, 35: 59–69.  ) recently proposed a diagnosis method for batch processes using Fisher's Discriminant Analysis (FDA), which showed a satisfactory performance on industrial batch processes. However, their method (or any other method based on empirical models) has a major limitation when the fault batches available for building an empirical diagnosis model are insufficient. This is a highly critical issue in practice because sufficient fault batches are likely to be unavailable. In this work, we propose a method to handle the insufficiency of the fault data in diagnosing batch processes. The basic idea is to generate so-called pseudo batches from known fault batches and utilise them as part of the diagnosis model data. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated using a real data set from a PVC batch process. The proposed method is shown to be capable of handling the data insufficiency problem successfully, and yields a reliable diagnosis performance.     

Effect of Neprilysin Inhibition for Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation after Myocardial Injury

Angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) treatment reduces functional mitral regurgitation (MR) to a greater extent than angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) treatment alone, but the mechanism is unclear. We evaluated the mechanisms of how ARNI has an effect on functional MR. After inducing functional MR by left circumflex coronary artery occlusion, male Sprague Dawley rats (n = 31) were randomly assigned to receive the ARNI LCZ696, the ARB valsartan, or corn oil only (MR control). Excised mitral leaflets and left ventricle (LV) were analyzed, and valvular endothelial cells were evaluated focusing on molecular changes. LCZ696 significantly attenuated LV dilatation after 6 weeks when compared with the control group (LV end-diastolic volume, 461.3 ± 13.8 µL versus 525.1 ± 23.6 µL; p < 0.05), while valsartan did not (471.2 ± 8.9 µL; p > 0.05 to control). Histopathological analysis of mitral leaflets showed that LCZ696 strongly reduced fibrotic thickness compared to the control group (28.2 ± 2.7 µm vs. 48.8 ± 7.5 µm; p < 0.05). Transforming growth factor-β and downstream phosphorylated extracellular-signal regulated kinase were also significantly lower in the LCZ696 group. Consequently, excessive endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT) was mitigated in the LCZ696 group compared to the control group and leaflet area was higher (11%) in the LCZ696 group than in the valsartan group. Finally, the MR extent was significantly lower in the LCZ696 group and functional improvement was observed. In conclusion, neprilysin inhibitor has positive effects on LV reverse remodeling and also attenuates fibrosis in MV leaflets and restores adaptive growth by directly modulating EndoMT.