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REVIEW

CHEN CAI¹, HAO SUN², LIANG HU³, ZHICHAO FAN^1,*
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 229-257, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014338 - 19 February 2021
Abstract Integrin molecules are transmembrane αβ heterodimers involved in cell adhesion, trafficking, and signaling. Upon activation, integrins undergo dynamic conformational changes that regulate their affinity to ligands. The physiological functions and activation mechanisms of integrins have been heavily discussed in previous studies and reviews, but the fluorescence imaging techniques –which are powerful tools for biological studies– have not. Here we review the fluorescence labeling methods, imaging techniques, as well as Förster resonance energy transfer assays used to study integrin expression, localization, activation, and functions. More >

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REVIEW

MARLENE BENCHIMOL^1,3,*, ABIGAIL MIRANDA-MAGALHÃES², ANTONIO PEREIRA-NEVES², WANDERLEY DE SOUZA³
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 259-266, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014599 - 19 February 2021
Abstract Helium ion scanning microscopy (HIM) is a novel high-resolution scanning microscopy technique that uses helium ions instead of electrons to form images of the highest quality and resolution, providing a sub-nanometer resolution sputter uncoated biological cell. Here, we took advantage of HIM to explore the cell surface of Tritrichomonas foetus, a protist parasite of cattle that provokes hard infection and abortion in cows. We describe thin protrusions, like nanotubes described in other cells, with different sizes (27 nm to 81 nm in thickness) and various lengths (from 73 nm to 2 µm), as well bulbous structures… More >

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REVIEW

PIYOOSH KUMAR BABELE^1,2,#,*, MAHENDRA KUMAR VERMA^2,#, RAVI KANT BHATIA^3,#
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 267-279, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.013409 - 19 February 2021
（This article belongs to the Special Issue: Biomonitoring of Toxic Effects Using OMICs Markers)
Abstract Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have tremendous applications in almost every walk of life; however, their harmful impacts on humans and the environment are not well addressed. CNTs have been used in various applications ranging from medical science to different engineering branches, to ease human life. Generally, the toxicological profile of CNTs under laboratory conditions cannot be assessed primarily in medical science due to the inconsistent availability of cytotoxic study data. CNT toxicity has been affected by many physicochemical properties (e.g., size, type of functionalization), concentration, the extent of exposure, mode of exposure, and even the solvents/medium… More >

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TIANXIANG ZHANG^1,#, MEISHAN ZHANG^1,#, MINGHUI SHI^1,#, WEIJIANG JIN^1,#, SHUMIAO ZHANG^2,#, MENGYUAN FAN³, YIMENG LI¹, YUPING MENG², XUELIN TIAN⁴, SHUQIANG LIU^1,*, DEFU HU^1,*
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 281-306, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.010277 - 19 February 2021
Abstract Male muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus L.) secrete musk from their scent glands during musk secretion season. Musk plays an important role as a communication pheromone during the breeding season. In this study, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) was used to analyze the main components of musk. The GC–MS results after methyl esterification showed that 71.55% of the musk is composed of fatty acids. The other components of muskrat musk include cholesterol (9.31%) and other organics. Transcriptome comparison between musk secretion and non-secretion seasons showed significant changes in the scent glands for 53 genes involved in fatty acid and More >

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YUE WANG^1,#, YINPING DUAN^1,#, KUNLIN CHEN³, HUIXIA LI^1,2,*, YAN QUAN^4,*
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 307-316, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014305 - 19 February 2021
Abstract Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common cause of hepatic dysfunction. In the present study, human normal hepatocyte L02 cells were treated with 50% fetal bovine serum to induce the formation of hepatic steatosis in vitro, and then the cells were treated with docosahexaenoic acid to investigate its protective effect on Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Our results showed that 50% of fetal bovine serum significantly induced intracellular lipid accumulation and hepatocyte fatty degeneration within 48 h. The expression level of adipose formation-related genes was significantly up-regulated, such as PPARγ, C/EBPα and SREBP-1; meanwhile, the content… More >

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LIETING MA¹, MIAOLING LI^2,*, XINGLONG ZHENG³
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 317-321, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2020.09313 - 19 February 2021
Abstract Ovarian cancer is a malignant cancer type and affects women’s lives in the world. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been involved with the progression of cancers. In our study, we are going to explore the functions of circATF6 in ovarian cancer. The qRT-PCR assay was used to detect expressions of genes. Actinomycin D and RNase R treatment were implemented to verify the circular RNA character of circATF6. Besides, Cell proliferation was assessed by colony formation assay and EdU assay. Silenced circATF6 could reduce the proliferation of ovarian cancer cells. In addition, inhibited circATF6 could promote the More >

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LEI YU^1,2, ZHEN FAN³, HONGQIANG WANG², WENXIAN LI⁴, TAO JING², QIANG LI², SHENQIAN LI², PEITAO WANG², XUJUN XUAN^1,*
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 323-329, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.09034 - 19 February 2021
Abstract This worked aimed to test the hypothesis that L-alanyl-L-glutamine (Ala-Gln) improves the varicocele-induced testicular injury, which causes male infertility. For this purpose, fifty adult male Wistar rats received the varicocele (VC) surgery at the left renal vein. Biomarkers were determined 2, 4, and 8 weeks after VC (n = 10/each detection). Four weeks after VC, rats received Ala-Gln (1.125 g/kg) treatment with and or saline for 1 week (n = 10/each group). Rats in the sham group were also detected for biomarkers at 2, 4, and 8 weeks (n = 10/each detection). VC caused testicular… More >

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SERGIO GASTÓN CASPE¹, JOSÉ LUIS KONRAD², DADIN PRANDO MOORE³, JUAN MANUEL SALA¹, LILIAN LISCHINSKY³, CARLOS MANUEL CAMPERO³, CLAUDIO GUSTAVO BARBEITO^4,*
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 331-337, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.010701 - 19 February 2021
Abstract Water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) and domestic cattle (Bos taurus) are closely related species. However, embryo transfer interspecies has been attempted without any success. The failure in hybrid embryo-implantation is associated with the glycocode in the maternal-fetal interface. Glycosylation patterns have been studied in different species of ruminants; however, in B. bubalis, only the binucleated cells (BNC) have been analyzed. This glycocode is essential for a successful embryo-implantation and can be defined by Lectin-Histochemistry (LHC). The aim of this study is to compare the glycosylation pattern of placenta and uterus in water buffaloes and cattle by LHC. Tissue samples… More >

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SHUCAI WU^1,#, DENGRUI LI^1,#, SUMIN GUO¹, LI GAO², YONGHUI YANG^1,*
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 339-344, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.011379 - 19 February 2021
Abstract Since stem cell therapy is the most effective treatment in the field of tissue reparation and reconstitution, the present study aimed to explore the different sources of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on the different effects of pulmonary fibrosis-related cytokines in C57BL/6 mice. For reaching this goal, we isolated MSCs from umbilical cord blood and placenta and used for stem cell therapy in a mouse model of pulmonary fibrosis model. The pulmonary fibrosis model was done by injecting bleomycin into the trachea of C57BL/6 mice. Then we assessed the degree of pulmonary fibrosis in each mouse… More >

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MADE DIOUF¹, SARA DIALLO¹, FRANÇOIS ABAYE BADIANE^1,2, OUMAR DIACK¹, DIAGA DIOUF^1,*
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 345-362, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.013706 - 19 February 2021
（This article belongs to the Special Issue: )
Abstract Cowpea is one of the most important legume grains in the sub-Saharan region of Africa used for human consumption and animal feed, but its production is hampered by biotic and abiotic constraints raising the need to broaden its genetic basis. For this purpose, seeds of two cowpea varieties Melakh and Yacine were irradiated with 300 and 340 Gy of gamma-ray, respectively. The developed mutant populations were agromorphologically characterized from M5 to M7, while the genetic diversity of the latter was evaluated using 13 ISSR markers. Based on the agromorphological characterization, variation of flower color, pod… More >

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MUHAMMAD HAMAYUN^1,*, NASIR KHAN¹, MUHAMMAD NAUMAN KHAN², MUHAMMAD QADIR¹, ANWAR HUSSAIN¹, AMJAD IQBAL³, SUMERA AFZAL KHAN⁴, KHUSHNOOD UR REHMAN⁵, IN-JUNG LEE^6,*
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 363-369, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.013907 - 19 February 2021
Abstract Bacterial endophytes are beneficial to their hosts as they can fix nitrogen in the soil and make it available to the host. Endophytic bacteria also secrete plant growth-promoting hormones to support their host plants under normal as well as stress conditions. The current study aimed to isolate endophytic bacteria from different parts of Calotropis procera, i.e., roots, stem and leaves of Calotropis procera (Ait.) W.T. Aiton. Plants were collected from the Lundkhwar, district Mardan. A total of 12 bacterial strains, i.e., six from roots, three from the stem and three from the leaves were isolated. The strains… More >

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HONGYUAN ZHANG, MIN ZHANG, JIE TAN, SHUPING HUANG, GUOLIN ZHOU^*, XIA CHEN^*
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 371-386, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.013869 - 19 February 2021
Abstract Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standley has unique biological characteristics with high nutritional and medicinal values. It is an important pharmaceutical plant with various biologically active ingredients. Genetic improvement and deeper genomic studies require a rich resource of molecular markers. The application of next-generation sequencing technology, especially for transcriptome profiling, has greatly facilitated high throughput single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) discovery. In this study, we sequenced the transcriptome of three major cultivars of L. siceraria and obtained 64.88 GB of clean data. The assembled high-quality reads were clustered into 89,347 unigenes, which were annotated by… More >

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POOJA BHADRECHA¹, MADHU BALA^2,3, VIKAS KAUSHIK⁴, NASEEM A. GAUR⁵, SIMRANJEET SINGH⁴, JOGINDER SINGH^4,*, MANOJ KUMAR^6,*
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 387-394, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.013824 - 19 February 2021
Abstract Hippophae rhamnoides L. is a plant of immense ethnopharmacological importance and is a known source for various valuable biochemicals and nutraceuticals. The production of folate, a vitamin involved in several vital functions, in this plant is rather poorly understood. Herein, we investigate the hypothesis that rhizobial bacteria serve the plant in this essential vitamin’s biosynthesis. Bacterial strains of Bacillus, Azorhizobium, Frankia, Paenibacillus, Brevibacillus and Pseudomonas, were isolated from the rhizosphere of the plant. HPLC and LCMS were used to trace the production of intra and extra-cellular folate by representative rhizospheric bacterial strains in vitro. From the seventeen functionally characterized bacterial More >

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XIAOYU WANG^1,2,#,*, TAKESHI YAMAMOTO^2,#, MAKOTO KADOWAKI², YIFU YANG¹
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 395-415, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.012280 - 19 February 2021
（This article belongs to the Special Issue: New Insights in Biology of Depression: New Molecules and Approaches)
Abstract Mast cells are the main effector cells in IgE-associated allergic disorders, and we have reported that mucosal mast cells (MMCs) play a more important role in the development of food allergy (FA). IgE with antigen or calcium ionophore stimulation can lead to the activation of MMCs via a calcium-dependent pathway. The purpose of the present study was to identify gene signatures with IgE/antigen (dinitrophenyl-bovine serum albumin, DNP-BSA) or calcium ionophore (A23187) on the activation of MMCs. Differentially expressed genes between the two types of samples were identified with microarray analysis. Gene ontology functional and pathway… More >

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YUQING HE¹, LI GUO¹, JUAN DING¹, HAOWEN LV¹, QUANRUI MA¹, CHEN LI¹, YU SHAO¹, QIANG LIU¹, CHUN ZHANG¹, HAO YANG^1,2,*, JUAN LIU^1,*
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 417-426, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.013842 - 19 February 2021
Abstract Schizophrenia is a common and serious mental illness characterized by severe impairments in thinking, emotions, and behaviors. Usually, the cognitive deficits of schizophrenia are closely associated with abnormal neurogenesis due to the hypofunction of certain neural receptors such as N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs), which mediates neurotransmission. However, little is known about the involvement of NMDAR1 in regulating hippocampal neurogenesis in schizophrenia. In the current study, we present evidence suggesting that NMDAR1 regulates hippocampal neurogenesis as lentivirus-mediated shRNA silencing NMDAR1 gene or blocking with MK-801 results in abnormal neurogenesis consistently found in schizophrenia. The important finding was More >

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YUE WANG, YUNFEI ZHENG^*, WEIRAN LI^*
BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 427-444, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.013960 - 19 February 2021
Abstract Orthodontic tooth movement is triggered by orthodontic force loading on the periodontal ligament and is achieved by alveolar bone remodeling, which is regulated by intimate crosstalk between osteoclastogenesis and osteoblast differentiation. Whether the communication between osteoclasts and osteoblasts is influenced by orthodontic compression stress requires further clarification. In this study, osteoclasts were differentiated for 10 days. On day 4 of differentiation, the number of pre-osteoclasts peaked, as determined by the increased expression of RANK and the number of multinucleated cells. After 24 h of compression stress loading, on day 4, the number of osteoclasts increased,… More >

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