Publications by authors named "Caihua Li"

Endometriosis, characterized by the presence of ectopic endometrial-like tissue, is a common chronic inflammatory disorder in gynecology. However, current treatments, including surgery and hormone therapy, often yield suboptimal outcomes and significant adverse effects. The lack of a drug delivery system specifically targeting ectopic lesions remains a major barrier to the development of more effective treatments.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tiger nuts (Cyperus esculentus) have emerged as a novel oil crop, being utilized as raw materials for obtaining industrial ink. Drought is a serious stress that significantly affects the entire plant and reduces its yield. The seedling stage is crucial as it determines the future growth and yield.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Being polyploid has a fitness advantage but is physically complex. During polyploid plant evolution, some duplicate genes retain their ancestral function, which affected the plant phenotype in allelic dosage or functional redundancy. However, how duplicated genes whose products needed to form functional complexes coped with deleterious mutations remained unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA), an endogenous amino acid widely found in living organisms, has important functions in plants such as regulating growth and development, maintaining carbon and nitrogen nutrient balance, and coping with adversity. In this study, we investigated the effects of exogenous 0.5 mmol/L GABA on the growth, antioxidant metabolism, and GABA shunt metabolism of tall fescue under 20 μmol/L Cd stress, using tall fescue () 'Ruby II' under hydroponics conditions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

holds significant ecological and economic importance and is a crucial gene donor for the world's staple poplar varieties. To select and breed with improved agronomic traits, nine growth and leaf traits were examined in 375 different genotypes, assessing their genetic diversity and performing correlation and comprehensive ranking analyses. Phenotyping results were then utilized to screen a total of 2,009,263 SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) loci significantly associated with the nine phenotypic traits.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are a newly discovered subset of immune cells that are responsible for regulation of the immune microenvironment. In particular, the ILC categories ILC2s and regulatory ILCs (ILCregs) are associated with immunosuppression and chronic inflammation. Chronic low-grade inflammation leads to insulin resistance, a major etiological factor in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The occurrence of postoperative depression and anxiety in patients with endometriosis (EMS) not only causes psychological distress, but may also harm their physical health.

Aim: To explore the postoperative depression status, and its influencing factors, of EMS patients with reproductive intention.

Methods: A total of 321 EMS patients with reproductive intent were included.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A randomized trial involving 992 women undergoing IVF compared the outcomes of single embryo transfers of blastocyst-stage and cleavage-stage embryos.
  • The results showed that the blastocyst-stage transfer had a higher cumulative live-birth rate (74.8%) compared to the cleavage-stage transfer (66.3%).
  • However, blastocyst transfers also led to an increased risk of spontaneous preterm births and longer neonatal hospital stays, emphasizing the need for informed patient counseling on transfer options.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Histone acetyltransferases CBP and p300 are important for activating oncogenes, making them potential targets for cancer treatment.
  • A new compound, A8, was developed to selectively degrade CBP and p300 in cancer cells, showing effective concentration-dependent degradation.
  • A8 not only inhibited cancer cell growth and reduced c-Myc expression but also induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, highlighting its therapeutic potential in treating cancers dependent on these proteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Anti-NMDAR encephalitis is a rare autoimmune brain disorder, and this study investigates its genetic causes in the Chinese Han population.
  • Researchers conducted a genome-wide association study with 413 affected patients and 7,127 healthy controls, uncovering significant genetic associations at the IFIH1 locus and specific HLA alleles.
  • The findings suggest that variations in genes related to immunity, especially IFIH1 and certain HLA genes, play a crucial role in susceptibility to anti-NMDAR encephalitis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

As an inflammatory disease with a disrupted immune system, cytokine disorders in atopic dermatitis (AD) are closely related to the abnormal activation of JAK-STAT signal pathway. The critical relevance of the JAK-STAT signaling pathway to the pathogenesis of AD provides a strong rationale for JAK inhibitor research. Baricitinib, a small-molecule oral JAK inhibitor, has been proven to inhibit JAK-STAT signaling in a variety of diseases, including AD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Oral insulin therapies targeting the liver and further simulating close-looped secretion face significant challenges due to multiple trans-epithelial barriers. Herein, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA)-decorated zwitterionic nanoparticles (NPs) (UC-CMs@ins) are designed to overcome these barriers, target the liver, and respond to glycemia, thereby achieving oral one-time-per-day therapy. UC-CMs@ins show excellent mucus permeability through the introduction of zwitterion (carboxy betaine, CB).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

"Closed-loop" insulin-loaded microneedle patche shows great promise for improving therapeutic outcomes and life quality for diabetes patients. However, it is typically hampered by limited insulin loading capacity, random degradation, and intricate preparation procedures for the independence of the "closed-loop" bulk microneedles. In this study, we combined the solubility of microneedles and "closed-loop" systems and designed poly(vinyl alcohol)-based bulk microneedles (MNs@GI) through photopolymerization for multi-responsive and sustained hypoglycemic therapy, which significantly simplified the preparation process and improved insulin loading.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Heat shock transcription factors (Hsf) are pivotal as essential transcription factors. They function as direct transcriptional activators of genes regulated by thermal stress and are closely associated with various abiotic stresses. Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) is a vegetable of considerable economic and nutritional significance, abundant in essential vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Heavy metal (HM) stress is a non-negligible abiotic stress that seriously restricts crop yield and quality, while the sprout stage is the most sensitive to stress and directly impacts the growth and development of the later stage. Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine), as an exogenous additive, enhances stress resistance due to its ability to oxidize and reduce. However, few reports on exogenous melatonin to tiger nuts under HM stress have explored whether exogenous melatonin enhances plants' resistance to heavy metals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

High-precision and high-sensitivity vibration acceleration sensors have been a research hotspot in engineering technology, which play an important role in engineering structural health monitoring, earthquakes, tsunamis, and geological exploration. A novel, to the best of our knowledge, fiber Bragg grating (FBG) acceleration sensor incorporating a mass block and flexible hinge was proposed against the low sensitivity and poor transverse interference resistance of existing FBG acceleration sensors. The FBG accelerometer with the multi-stage flexible hinge was modeled and theoretically analyzed, the structural parameters of the sensor were optimized and actual sensors were developed, and a sensor performance test experiment was carried out in the end.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are a kind of lymphocytes that reside in the tissue and have an essential function in the immune microenvironment. However, the relationship between endometriosis (EMS) and ILCs is complex and not fully understood. This study examines several groups of ILCs in the peripheral blood (PB), peritoneal fluid (PF) and endometrium of patients with EMS via flow cytometry.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Islet transplantation is regarded as the most promising therapy for type 1 diabetes. However, both hypoxia and immune attack impair the grafted islets after transplantation, eventually failing the islet graft. Although many studies showed that biomaterials with nanoscale pores, like hydrogels, could protect islets from immune cells, the pores on biomaterials inhibited vascular endothelial cells (VECs) to creep in, which resulted in poor revascularization.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Oral insulin delivery has been extensively considered to achieve great patient compliance and convenience as well as favourable glucose homeostasis. However, its application is highly limited by the low insulin bioavailability owing to gastrointestinal barriers. Herein, we developed crosslinked zwitterionic microcapsules (CB-MCs@INS) based on a carboxyl betaine (CB)-modified poly(acryloyl carbonate--caprolactone) copolymer the combination of microfluidics and UV-crosslinking to improve oral insulin delivery.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on the SQUAMOSA promoter binding protein-like (SPL) family in Fraxinus mandshurica, a valuable timber species, analyzing its role in plant growth, development, and response to stress.
  • Researchers performed comprehensive analysis including phylogeny, gene structure, expression patterns, and response to abiotic stress and hormonal induction, identifying 36 SPL genes divided into seven subfamilies.
  • The gene FmSPL2, highly expressed in flowers, was selected for further analysis, leading to the creation of transgenic Nicotiana tabacum L. with notable phenotypic changes, indicating the SPL gene family's evolutionary importance and biological function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study investigated the biocontrol ability of Trichoderma harzianum CGMCC20739 (Tha739) against apple bitter rot caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. In vitro tests, Tha739 inhibited the mycelial growth of C. gloeosporioides.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors (TFs) are involved in plant morphogenesis and various abiotic and biotic stress responses. However, further exploration is required of drought-responsive bHLH family members and their detailed regulatory mechanisms in Populus. Two bHLH TF genes, PxbHLH01/02, were identified in Populus simonii × P.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Gorlin-Goltz syndrome (GS) is an inherited disease characterized by predisposition to basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) and various developmental defects, whose numerous disease-causing PTCH1 mutations have been identified in the hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway.

Methods: In this study, whole exome sequencing was used to screen for both somatic and germline deleterious mutations in three sisters with a lethal GS. The mutations we found were confirmed by subcloning and Sanger sequencing of the genomic DNA.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most prevalent endocrine disorders in women of reproductive age. The PCOS leads to obesity, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, hyperandrogenism, and infertility. We established an induced pluripotent stem cell line (iPSC) from a PCOS patient.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF