Publications by authors named "Shi-Qing Xu"

The Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signalling pathway has a key role in tissue remodelling during insect metamorphosis by regulating programmed cell death. However, multiple members of the JNK pathway in Lepidoptera remain uncharacterized. In this study, two key genes of the JNK pathway, BmJun and BmFos, were cloned from the silkworm Bombyx mori, a lepidopteran model insect, and their effects on reproductive development were investigated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Disruption of the circadian clock can affect starvation resistance, but the molecular mechanism is still unclear. Here, we found that starvation resistance was significantly reduced in the core gene BmPer deficient mutant silkworms (Per), but the mutant's starvation resistance increased with larval age. Under natural physiological conditions, the weight of mutant 5th instar larvae was significantly increased compared to wild type, and the accumulation ability of triglycerides and glycogen in the fat bodies was upregulated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Artificial diets for silkworms overcome the seasonal limitations of traditional rearing methods with fresh mulberry leaves. However, the current wet artificial diets, steamed at high temperatures, are not favored by silkworms, and they are cumbersome and challenging to preserve. These conditions adversely affected the development of artificial diet-based sericulture production.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hyperproteinemia is a metabolic disorder characterized by abnormally elevated plasma protein concentrations (PPC) in humans and animals. Here, a genetic silkworm model with high PPC was employed to investigate the effect of elevated PPC on female reproduction. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that high PPC induces downregulation of the ovarian development-related genes and disrupts ovarian sugar metabolism.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The hatching of insect eggs is a classic circadian behavior rhythm controlled by the biological clock. Its function is considered to impose a daily rhythm on the embryo, allowing it to hatch within a permissible time window. However, the molecular pathways through which the clock affects embryonic hatching behavior remain unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Subsequently to the publication of this paper, an interested reader drew to the authors' attention that, in Fig. 3 on p. 4973, the data panels shown for the "Osteogenesis" row of data for the GMSC and BMSC experiments appeared to be overlapping, such the data may have been derived from the same original source.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The circadian clock plays a critical role in the regulation of host immune defense. However, the mechanistic basis for this regulation is largely unknown. Herein, the core clock gene cryptochrome1 (cry1) knockout line in Bombyx mori, an invertebrate animal model, was constructed to obtain the silkworm with dysfunctional molecular clock, and the dynamic regulation of the circadian clock on the immune responsiveness within 24 h of Staphylococcus aureus infection was analyzed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hyperproteinemia is a metabolic disorder associated with increased plasma protein concentration (PPC) and is often clinically complicated by malignant diseases or severe infections. At present, however, research on the molecular mechanism underlying high PPC (HPPC) is scant. Here, an animal model of primary hyperproteinemia was constructed in an invertebrate ( ) to investigate the effects of HPPC on circulating blood cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Diapause is a developmental transition in insects based on seasonal adaptation to adversity; it is regulated by a circadian clock system and the endocrine system. However, the molecular node and its mechanism underlying the effects of these systems are still unclear. Here, a mutant of with the circadian clock gene () knocked out was constructed, which dramatically changed the classic diapause-destined pathway.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To synthesize recent empirical research on the association between personality and glaucoma among this sub-population.

Methods: PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE, Scopus and ScienceDirect databases were searched to identify eligible studies published between January 1950 and March 2019 in any language. The quality of included observational studies was assessed using an 11-item checklist which was recommended by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Vitamin C (VC) is an essential nutrient for many animals. However, whether insects, including Bombyx mori, can synthesize VC remains unclear. In this article, the optimized HPLC method was used to determine the content of l-ascorbic acid (AsA) in silkworm eggs, larvae and pupae, and the activity of l-gulono-1,4-lactone oxidase (GULO), a key enzyme in VC synthesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Metabolic disorders like hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia impact immune function in animals, but the effects of hyperproteinemia are unclear due to the lack of reliable models.
  • Researchers created a hyperproteinemia model using silkworms to investigate its effects on immunity, finding that increased plasma protein concentration enhanced certain immune responses.
  • The study revealed that high plasma protein levels boosted hemolymph phagocytosis and antimicrobial peptide gene expression while inhibiting melanization and altering immune cell populations, leading to varied antibacterial activity against different bacteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (Oct4) has been recently implicated as a proangiogenic regulator in several induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), however, its role in cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) remain unclear. We report here that Oct4 participates in tumor vasculogenesis in liver CSCs (LCSCs). We identify that LCSCs possess the potential of endothelial -differentiation under endothelial induction, present endothelial specific markers and their functions , and participate in neovasculogenesis .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Yu Gan Long (YGL) is a Chinese traditional herbal formula which has been reported to attenuate liver fibrosis for many years and we have explored its anti-fibrotic mechanism through blocking transforming growth factor (TGF-β) in the previous study. But the mechanisms associated with platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB remain obscure. In this study, we further investigated the mechanism of YGL reducing carbon tetrachloride (CCl)-induced liver fibrosis in rats.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Biological modifications of the silk fibroin (silk) material have broad applications in textiles, biomedical materials and other industrial materials. It is economical to incorporate nanoparticles to the biosynthesis of silk fibroin by adding them to silkworm larval diets. This strategy may result in the rapid stable production of modified silk.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Hyperproteinemia is a serious metabolic disease marked by unusually high plasma protein levels, but there's no good animal model to study its effects, leaving its underlying mechanisms unclear.
  • - Researchers used a silkworm model to investigate how high plasma protein concentrations affect reproductive development, finding that elevated levels hindered essential protein synthesis and transport needed for female ovarian growth.
  • - The study revealed that high plasma protein levels led to cell death in reproductive organs and stunted germ cell development, with varying reproductive toxicity effects between male and female silkworms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Circadian clock system disorders can lead to uncontrolled cell proliferation, but the molecular mechanism remains unknown. We used a animal model of single gene () expression to investigate this mechanism. A slow growing developmental cell model (Per-KD) was isolated from a ovarian cell line (BmN) by continuous knock down of expression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Different sources of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) may differ in their biological characteristics, which are important for their clinical application. In the present study, MSCs were isolated from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED), bone marrow, gingival tissue and umbilical cord tissue, and their biological characteristics including surface markers, proliferation capacity, tumorigenicity and immunogenicity were analyzed by flow cytometric analysis, ELISA and co‑culture with human lymphocytes, respectively. The results indicated that all four types of stem cells obtained from different sources expressed MSC surface markers, and they did not show tumorigenicity either in vivo or in vitro.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Artificial diets for silkworms are important in silk production but face challenges like weak larvae and low silk protein production.
  • A study analyzed the gut microbiota of silkworms fed on mulberry leaves versus an artificial diet, finding that different bacterial communities exist based on the diet.
  • The research revealed that the artificial diet resulted in lower diversity of gut microbiota, which affected the silkworms' nutrient metabolism and immune resistance compared to those fed on mulberry leaves.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hyperproteinemia, which is characterized by an abnormally elevated plasma protein concentration (PPC), is a high-mortality, metabolic complication associated with severe liver and kidney disease. It is difficult to clinically distinguish the difference between the impacts of primary diseases and hyperproteinemia on tissues and organs, and there are no available animal models of hyperproteinemia. Here, we constructed an animal model of hyperproteinemia with a controllable PPC and no primary disease effects in the silkworm that has attracted interest owing to its potential use in the pathological analysis of model animals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated the use of gingival mesenchymal stem cells (GMSCs) from human fetal tissue to repair gingival defects in rats.
  • Researchers identified and validated the GMSCs and assessed their safety by checking for tumor formation and immunogenic response.
  • Results showed that GMSCs effectively regenerated gingival tissue within three weeks, making them a promising and safe option for treating gingival defects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Silkworms (Bombyx mori) reared on artificial diets have great potential applications in sericulture. However, the mechanisms underlying the enhancement of metabolic utilization by altering silkworm nutrition are unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanisms responsible for the poor development and low silk protein synthesis efficiency of silkworms fed artificial diets.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hatching behavior is a key target in silkworm (Bombyx mori) rearing, especially for the control of Lepidoptera pests. According to previous research, hatching rhythms appear to be controlled by a clock mechanism that restricts or "gates" hatching to a particular time. However, the underlying mechanism remains elusive.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Abnormalities in the circadian clock system are known to affect the body's metabolic functions, though the molecular mechanisms responsible remain uncertain. In this study, we achieved continuous knockdown of B. mori Period (BmPer) gene expression in the B.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of semiquantitative analysis (SQA) of 99mTc-MIBI imaging in predicting early-stage cervical lymph node metastasis (CLNM) in thyroid carcinoma (TC). MATERIAL AND METHODS TC patients (n =106) undergoing surgical resection and histopathological examination were enrolled. All patients received 99mTc-MIBI imaging prior to surgery.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF