Methylation of adenosine base on the nitrogen-6 position （N6-methyladenosine, m^6A） is the most common and abundant modification on mRNA transcripts. This post-transcriptional modification was first described in the...Methylation of adenosine base on the nitrogen-6 position （N6-methyladenosine, m^6A） is the most common and abundant modification on mRNA transcripts. This post-transcriptional modification was first described in the 1970s in hepatoma cells （Desrosiers et al., 1974）.展开更多
There is little to no toxicity information regarding thousands of chemicals to which people are exposed daily.In fact,of the84,000 chemicals listed in the United States Toxic Substances Control Act Inventory,there is ...There is little to no toxicity information regarding thousands of chemicals to which people are exposed daily.In fact,of the84,000 chemicals listed in the United States Toxic Substances Control Act Inventory,there is limited information available on their effects on neural development（Betts,2010;US EPA,2015）.展开更多
Persistent overcast rain was an essential limiting factor for summer maize production,of which immediate impact was the dual pressure of waterlogging and shading.However,the mechanisms underlying independent and combi...Persistent overcast rain was an essential limiting factor for summer maize production,of which immediate impact was the dual pressure of waterlogging and shading.However,the mechanisms underlying independent and combined effects of waterlogging and shading on maize yield losses remain understudied,particularly across different growth stages.Denghai 605(DH605)was selected to be subjected shading,waterlogging,and their combined stress at the 3rd leaf stage(V3),the 6th leaf stage(V6),and tasseling stage(VT).Results showed that shading,waterlogging and their combination significantly restricted leaf area expansion,reduced leaf net photosynthetic rate(P_(n))and net assimilation rate(NAR),thereby decreasing the crop growth rate(CGR)and biomass accumulation.Additionally,compared to control,the process of lignin synthesis was inhibited under stressed treatment,resulting in diminished stem mechanical strength and impaired vascular system development,which substantially reduced assimilate remobilization efficiency to the ear and ultimate grain yield.Waterlogging and combined stresses exhibited maximum impact at the V3 stage,followed by V6 and VT stages,while shading effects were most pronounced at the VT stage,followed by V6 and V3 stages.Moreover,the compound stress exacerbated the damage brought about by a single stress.As climate change is projected to increase the frequency of multiple abiotic stress occurrences,these findings provide valuable insights for future summer maize breeding research under persistent rainfall conditions.展开更多
The adverse effects of environmental pollution on our well-being have been intensively studied with many in vitro and in vivo systems. In our group, we focus on stem cell toxicology due to the multitude of embryonic s...The adverse effects of environmental pollution on our well-being have been intensively studied with many in vitro and in vivo systems. In our group, we focus on stem cell toxicology due to the multitude of embryonic stem cell（ESC） properties which can be exerted in toxicity assays. In fact, ESCs can differentiate in culture to mimic embryonic development in vivo, or specifically to virtually any kind of somatic cells. Here, we used the toxicant Bisphenol A（BPA）, a chemical known as a hazard to infants and children, and showed that our stem cell toxicology system was able to efficiently recapitulate most of the toxic effects of BPA previously detected by in vitro system or animal tests. More precisely, we demonstrated that BPA affected the proper specification of germ layers during our in vitro mimicking of the embryonic development, as well as the establishment of neural ectoderm and neural progenitor cells.展开更多
Human stem cells are scalable cell populations capable of cellular differentiation.This makes them a very attractive in vitro cellular resource and in theory provides unlimited amounts of primary cells.Such an approac...Human stem cells are scalable cell populations capable of cellular differentiation.This makes them a very attractive in vitro cellular resource and in theory provides unlimited amounts of primary cells.Such an approach has the potential to improve our understanding of human biology and treating disease.In the future it may be possible to deploy novel stem cell-based approaches to treat human liver diseases.In recent years,eff icient hepatic differentiation from human stem cells has been achieved by several research groups including our own.In this review we provide an overview of the f ield and discuss the future potential and limitations of stem cell technology.展开更多
Per-and polyfluorinated alkyl substances(PFASs) are commonly used in industrial processes and daily life products.Because they are persistent, they accumulate in the environment, wildlife and humans.Although many stud...Per-and polyfluorinated alkyl substances(PFASs) are commonly used in industrial processes and daily life products.Because they are persistent, they accumulate in the environment, wildlife and humans.Although many studies have focused on two of the most representative PFASs, PFOS and PFOA, the potential toxicity of short-chain PFASs has not yet been given sufficient attention.We used a battery of assays to evaluate the toxicity of several four-carbon and six-carbon perfluorinated sulfonates and carboxyl acids(PFBS,PFHxS, PFBA and PFHxA), with a human mesenchymal stem cell(hMSC) system.Our results demonstrate significant cyto-and potential developmental toxicity for all the compounds analyzed, with shared but also distinct mechanisms of toxicity.Moreover, the effects of PFBS and PFHxS were stronger than those of PFBA and PFHxA, but occurred at higher doses compared to PFOS or PFOA.展开更多
Stem cells(SCs)with their self-renewal and pluripotent differentiation potential,show great promise for therapeutic applications to some refractory diseases such as stroke,Parkinsonism,myocardial infarction,and diabet...Stem cells(SCs)with their self-renewal and pluripotent differentiation potential,show great promise for therapeutic applications to some refractory diseases such as stroke,Parkinsonism,myocardial infarction,and diabetes.Furthermore,as seed cells in tissue engineering,SCs have been applied widely to tissue and organ regeneration.However,previous studies have shown that SCs are heterogeneous and consist of many cell subpopulations.Owing to this heterogeneity of cell states,gene expression is highly diverse between cells even within a single tissue,making precise identification and analysis of biological properties difficult,which hinders their further research and applications.Therefore,a defined understanding of the heterogeneity is a key to research of SCs.Traditional ensemble-based sequencing approaches,such as microarrays,reflect an average of expression levels across a large population,which overlook unique biological behaviors of individual cells,conceal cell-to-cell variations,and cannot understand the heterogeneity of SCs radically.The development of high throughput single cell RNA sequencing(scRNA-seq)has provided a new research tool in biology,ranging from identification of novel cell types and exploration of cell markers to the analysis of gene expression and predicating developmental trajectories.scRNA-seq has profoundly changed our understanding of a series of biological phenomena.Currently,it has been used in research of SCs in many fields,particularly for the research of heterogeneity and cell subpopulations in early embryonic development.In this review,we focus on the scRNA-seq technique and its applications to research of SCs.展开更多
Air pollution has been linked to many health issues,including skin conditions,especially in children.Among all the atmospheric pollutants,ultrafine particles have been deemed very dangerous since they can readily pene...Air pollution has been linked to many health issues,including skin conditions,especially in children.Among all the atmospheric pollutants,ultrafine particles have been deemed very dangerous since they can readily penetrate the lungs and skin,and be absorbed into the bloodstream.Here,we employed a human embryonic stem cell(h ESC)-based differentiation system towards keratinocytes,to test the effects of ultrafine carbon particles,which mimic ambient ultrafine particles,at environment related concentrations.We found that10 ng/mL to 10μg/mL ultrafine carbon particles down-regulated the expression of the pluripotency marker SOX2 in h ESCs.Moreover,1μg/mL to 10μg/mL carbon particle treatments disrupted the keratinocyte differentiation,and up-regulated inflammationand psoriasis-related genes,such as IL-1β,IL-6,CXCL1,CXCL2,CXCL3,CCL20,CXCL8,and S100 A7 and S100 A9,respectively.Overall,our results provide a new insight into the potential developmental toxicity of atmospheric ultrafine particles.展开更多
Scaffold-free techniques in the developmental tissue engineering area are designed to mimic in vivo embryonic processes with the aim of biofabricating,in vitro,tissues with more authentic properties.Cell clusters call...Scaffold-free techniques in the developmental tissue engineering area are designed to mimic in vivo embryonic processes with the aim of biofabricating,in vitro,tissues with more authentic properties.Cell clusters called spheroids are the basis for scaffold-free tissue engineering.In this review,we explore the use of spheroids from adult mesenchymal stem/stromal cells as a model in the developmental engineering area in order to mimic the developmental stages of cartilage and bone tissues.Spheroids from adult mesenchymal stromal/stem cells lineages recapitulate crucial events in bone and cartilage formation during embryogenesis,and are capable of spontaneously fusing to other spheroids,making them ideal building blocks for bone and cartilage tissue engineering.Here,we discuss data from ours and other labs on the use of adipose stromal/stem cell spheroids in chondrogenesis and osteogenesis in vitro.Overall,recent studies support the notion that spheroids are ideal"building blocks"for tissue engineering by“bottom-up”approaches,which are based on tissue assembly by advanced techniques such as three-dimensional bioprinting.Further studies on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that orchestrate spheroid fusion are now crucial to support continued development of bottom-up tissue engineering approaches such as three-dimensional bioprinting.展开更多
文摘Methylation of adenosine base on the nitrogen-6 position （N6-methyladenosine, m^6A） is the most common and abundant modification on mRNA transcripts. This post-transcriptional modification was first described in the 1970s in hepatoma cells （Desrosiers et al., 1974）.
基金the Canada Research Chairs Program,the Canadian Institutes of Health Research,and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for their support
文摘There is little to no toxicity information regarding thousands of chemicals to which people are exposed daily.In fact,of the84,000 chemicals listed in the United States Toxic Substances Control Act Inventory,there is limited information available on their effects on neural development（Betts,2010;US EPA,2015）.
基金supported by the University Youth Innovation Science and Technology Support Program of Shandong Province,China(2021KJ073)the Postdoctoral Innovation Program of Shandong Province,China(202003039)+2 种基金the China Agriculture Research System(CARS-02-21)the State Key Laboratory of North China Crop Improvement and Regulation(NCCIR2023KF-8)the Key R&D Program of Shandong Province,China(2023TZXD08603)。
文摘Persistent overcast rain was an essential limiting factor for summer maize production,of which immediate impact was the dual pressure of waterlogging and shading.However,the mechanisms underlying independent and combined effects of waterlogging and shading on maize yield losses remain understudied,particularly across different growth stages.Denghai 605(DH605)was selected to be subjected shading,waterlogging,and their combined stress at the 3rd leaf stage(V3),the 6th leaf stage(V6),and tasseling stage(VT).Results showed that shading,waterlogging and their combination significantly restricted leaf area expansion,reduced leaf net photosynthetic rate(P_(n))and net assimilation rate(NAR),thereby decreasing the crop growth rate(CGR)and biomass accumulation.Additionally,compared to control,the process of lignin synthesis was inhibited under stressed treatment,resulting in diminished stem mechanical strength and impaired vascular system development,which substantially reduced assimilate remobilization efficiency to the ear and ultimate grain yield.Waterlogging and combined stresses exhibited maximum impact at the V3 stage,followed by V6 and VT stages,while shading effects were most pronounced at the VT stage,followed by V6 and V3 stages.Moreover,the compound stress exacerbated the damage brought about by a single stress.As climate change is projected to increase the frequency of multiple abiotic stress occurrences,these findings provide valuable insights for future summer maize breeding research under persistent rainfall conditions.
基金supported by a Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)Strategic Leading Science&Technology Program grant(XDB14040301)by the Hundred Talent Program of CAS(121311ZXPP2014004)at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences(RCEES),CAS
文摘The adverse effects of environmental pollution on our well-being have been intensively studied with many in vitro and in vivo systems. In our group, we focus on stem cell toxicology due to the multitude of embryonic stem cell（ESC） properties which can be exerted in toxicity assays. In fact, ESCs can differentiate in culture to mimic embryonic development in vivo, or specifically to virtually any kind of somatic cells. Here, we used the toxicant Bisphenol A（BPA）, a chemical known as a hazard to infants and children, and showed that our stem cell toxicology system was able to efficiently recapitulate most of the toxic effects of BPA previously detected by in vitro system or animal tests. More precisely, we demonstrated that BPA affected the proper specification of germ layers during our in vitro mimicking of the embryonic development, as well as the establishment of neural ectoderm and neural progenitor cells.
基金Supported by A RCUK fellowship,EP/E500145/1,to Hay DCA grant from the Edinburgh Bioquarter,to Medine CNChina Scholarship Council,No.2010658022,to Zhou WL
文摘Human stem cells are scalable cell populations capable of cellular differentiation.This makes them a very attractive in vitro cellular resource and in theory provides unlimited amounts of primary cells.Such an approach has the potential to improve our understanding of human biology and treating disease.In the future it may be possible to deploy novel stem cell-based approaches to treat human liver diseases.In recent years,eff icient hepatic differentiation from human stem cells has been achieved by several research groups including our own.In this review we provide an overview of the f ield and discuss the future potential and limitations of stem cell technology.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.21876197, 21577166, 21707160)the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Nos.XDB14040301, 29[2015]30, QYZDJ-SSW-DQC017)the K.C.Wong Education Foundation.
文摘Per-and polyfluorinated alkyl substances(PFASs) are commonly used in industrial processes and daily life products.Because they are persistent, they accumulate in the environment, wildlife and humans.Although many studies have focused on two of the most representative PFASs, PFOS and PFOA, the potential toxicity of short-chain PFASs has not yet been given sufficient attention.We used a battery of assays to evaluate the toxicity of several four-carbon and six-carbon perfluorinated sulfonates and carboxyl acids(PFBS,PFHxS, PFBA and PFHxA), with a human mesenchymal stem cell(hMSC) system.Our results demonstrate significant cyto-and potential developmental toxicity for all the compounds analyzed, with shared but also distinct mechanisms of toxicity.Moreover, the effects of PFBS and PFHxS were stronger than those of PFBA and PFHxA, but occurred at higher doses compared to PFOS or PFOA.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China,No.81670951
文摘Stem cells(SCs)with their self-renewal and pluripotent differentiation potential,show great promise for therapeutic applications to some refractory diseases such as stroke,Parkinsonism,myocardial infarction,and diabetes.Furthermore,as seed cells in tissue engineering,SCs have been applied widely to tissue and organ regeneration.However,previous studies have shown that SCs are heterogeneous and consist of many cell subpopulations.Owing to this heterogeneity of cell states,gene expression is highly diverse between cells even within a single tissue,making precise identification and analysis of biological properties difficult,which hinders their further research and applications.Therefore,a defined understanding of the heterogeneity is a key to research of SCs.Traditional ensemble-based sequencing approaches,such as microarrays,reflect an average of expression levels across a large population,which overlook unique biological behaviors of individual cells,conceal cell-to-cell variations,and cannot understand the heterogeneity of SCs radically.The development of high throughput single cell RNA sequencing(scRNA-seq)has provided a new research tool in biology,ranging from identification of novel cell types and exploration of cell markers to the analysis of gene expression and predicating developmental trajectories.scRNA-seq has profoundly changed our understanding of a series of biological phenomena.Currently,it has been used in research of SCs in many fields,particularly for the research of heterogeneity and cell subpopulations in early embryonic development.In this review,we focus on the scRNA-seq technique and its applications to research of SCs.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.21876197,21577166,21707160)the Chinese Academy of Sciences(Nos.XDB14040301,QYZDJSSW-DQC017)the K.C.Wong Education Foundation
文摘Air pollution has been linked to many health issues,including skin conditions,especially in children.Among all the atmospheric pollutants,ultrafine particles have been deemed very dangerous since they can readily penetrate the lungs and skin,and be absorbed into the bloodstream.Here,we employed a human embryonic stem cell(h ESC)-based differentiation system towards keratinocytes,to test the effects of ultrafine carbon particles,which mimic ambient ultrafine particles,at environment related concentrations.We found that10 ng/mL to 10μg/mL ultrafine carbon particles down-regulated the expression of the pluripotency marker SOX2 in h ESCs.Moreover,1μg/mL to 10μg/mL carbon particle treatments disrupted the keratinocyte differentiation,and up-regulated inflammationand psoriasis-related genes,such as IL-1β,IL-6,CXCL1,CXCL2,CXCL3,CCL20,CXCL8,and S100 A7 and S100 A9,respectively.Overall,our results provide a new insight into the potential developmental toxicity of atmospheric ultrafine particles.
基金the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel(CAPES),No.88882.366181/2019-01the Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro(FAPERJ),No.E-26/202.682/2018National Council for Scientific and Technological Development(CNPq),No.467513/2014-7
文摘Scaffold-free techniques in the developmental tissue engineering area are designed to mimic in vivo embryonic processes with the aim of biofabricating,in vitro,tissues with more authentic properties.Cell clusters called spheroids are the basis for scaffold-free tissue engineering.In this review,we explore the use of spheroids from adult mesenchymal stem/stromal cells as a model in the developmental engineering area in order to mimic the developmental stages of cartilage and bone tissues.Spheroids from adult mesenchymal stromal/stem cells lineages recapitulate crucial events in bone and cartilage formation during embryogenesis,and are capable of spontaneously fusing to other spheroids,making them ideal building blocks for bone and cartilage tissue engineering.Here,we discuss data from ours and other labs on the use of adipose stromal/stem cell spheroids in chondrogenesis and osteogenesis in vitro.Overall,recent studies support the notion that spheroids are ideal"building blocks"for tissue engineering by“bottom-up”approaches,which are based on tissue assembly by advanced techniques such as three-dimensional bioprinting.Further studies on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that orchestrate spheroid fusion are now crucial to support continued development of bottom-up tissue engineering approaches such as three-dimensional bioprinting.
