BIOCELL, Vol.45, Suppl.1, pp. 1-173, 2021

Abstract This article has no abstract. More >

ALFONSO BLÁZQUEZ-CASTRO^1,2,*, JUAN CARLOS STOCKERT^2,3

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 849-862, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015900

Abstract Melanins (eumelanin, pheomelanin, and allomelanin) represent a very, if not the most, important group of biological pigments. Their biological roles are multiple, from photoprotection to antioxidant activity, heavy metal disposal or the myriad uses of color in organisms across all Phyla. In the first part of this review, eumelanin biology and some chemical aspects will be presented, as well as key physico-chemical features that make this biological pigment so interesting. The principal characteristics of the melanocyte, the melanin-synthesizing cell in mammals, will also be introduced. Transformed melanocytes are the cause of one of the most devastating known cancers: the malignant… More >

CHUNJIAO LIU^1,2, QINHONG KONG^1,2, FENG PAN^1,2, SHAN JIANG^1,2, LINGJIE MENG^1,2, GAI HUANG^1,2, LIDAN LU^1,2, SANHUA LI^1,2,*, YUN LIU^1,2,3,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 943-951, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015836

Abstract Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been increasingly applied in both preventing and treating a variety of cancers in the last decades, attributing to its fewer side effects as compared with chemotherapy drugs. Hellebrigenin, a component of Chanpi from the skin of Bufo bufogargarizans Cantor or Duttaphrynus melanostictus has been reported to have an obvious anti-cancer activity on various cancers. However, the effect and mechanism of hellebrigenin on colorectal cancers were still unknown. Herein, the present study demonstrated hellebrigenin significantly reduced viability and triggered apoptosis via the intrinsic pathway in colorectal cancer cell lines HCT116 and HT29 in vitro and in… More >

LINGJIAO FAN, CHENGYONG HE, MENGMENG WU, DEHANG GAO, ZHENFEI DONG, SHENGFAN HOU, ZEKUN FENG, HONGQING WANG^*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 1137-1151, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015396

Abstract Strawberry mottle virus (SMoV) is one of the most common viruses infecting strawberries, causing losses to fruit yield and quality. In this study, 165 strawberry leaf samples were collected from six provinces of China, 46 of which tested positive for SMoV. The complete genome sequences of 11 SMoV isolates were obtained from Liaoning (DGHY3, DGHY16-2, DGHY17, DGHY20-2, DGHY21, DGHY26-2), Shandong (SDHY1, SDHY5, SDHY31-2, SDHY33-2), and Beijing (BJMX7). The RNA1 and RNA2 nucleotide identities between the 11 Chinese isolates were 95.4–99.3% and 96.3–99.6%, respectively, and they shared 78.4–96.6% and 84.8–93.5% identities with the available SMoV isolates in GenBank. Recombination analysis revealed… More >

MOHAMMAD FAIZAN¹, AHMAD FARAZ², SHAMSUL HAYAT³, JAVAID A. BHAT^4,*, FANGYUAN YU^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 1081-1093, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015363

Abstract Nanotechnology has greatly expanded the applications of nanoparticles (NPs) domain in the scientific field. In this context, the zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) and 24-epibrassinolide (EBL) has been revealed to positively regulate plant metabolism and growth. In the present study, we investigated the role of ZnO-NPs and EBL in the regulation of plant growth, photosynthetic efficiency, enzymes activities and fruit yield in tomato. Foliar treatment of ZnO-NPs at three levels (10, 50 or 100 ppm) and EBL (10⁻⁸ M) were applied separately or in combination to the foliage of plant at 35–39 days after sowing (DAS); and the control plants were… More >

SUSANA PUNTARULO^1,2, PAULA MARIELA GONZÁLEZ^1,2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 813-821, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015360

Abstract Environmental climate conditions could lead to an increasing global occurrence of microorganism blooms that synthesize toxins in the aquatic environments. These blooms could result in significantly toxic events. Responses of photosynthetic organisms to adverse environmental conditions implicate reactive oxygen species generation; but, due to the presence of a varied cellular antioxidant defense system and complex signaling networks, this oxidative stress could act as an important factor in the environmental adaptive processes. The objective of this review was to assess how some biotoxins are implicated in the generation of oxidative and nitrosative metabolic changes, not only in biotoxin-producing organisms but also… More >

HAORAN SU¹, KEXIN LI¹, XIAO LIU^1,*, JING DU¹, LI WANG⁴, XIAOYAN DENG^3,*, YUBO FAN^1,2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 797-811, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014900

Abstract Endothelial cells arranged on the vessel lumen are constantly stimulated by blood flow, blood pressure and pressureinduced cyclic stretch. These stimuli are sensed through mechanical sensory structures and converted into a series of functional responses through mechanotransduction pathways. The process will eventually affect vascular health. Therefore, there has been an urgent need to establish in vitro endothelial biomechanics and mechanobiology of models, which reproduce three-dimensional structure vascular system. In recent years, the rapid development in microfluidic technology makes it possible to replicate the key structural and functionally biomechanical characteristics of vessels. Here, we summarized the progress of microfluidic chips used… More >

LORENZO ALIBARDI¹, BERND NOECKER²

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 1013-1022, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.013913

Abstract The differentiation of cells composing mature human hairs produces layers with different corneous characteristics that would tend to flake away one from another, as in the corneous layer of the epidermis, without anchoring junctions. It is likely that cell junctions established in the forming cells of the hair bulb are not completely degraded like in the corneous layer of the epidermis but instead remain in the hair shaft to bind mature cuticle, cortex, and medulla cells into a compact hair shaft. During cell differentiation in hairs, cell junctions seem to disappear, and little is known about the fate of junctional… More >

XI YANG¹, KE MA^1,*, RUI CHEN¹, NAIYI ZHANG², YITING MENG³, JIA WEN¹, QINPING LIAO¹

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 923-932, 2021, DOI: 10.32604/biocell.2021.013625

Abstract The current study is designed to evaluate certain immunocytochemical (ICC) biomarkers to gain a better cytodiagnosis. For this purpose, 85 patients from March 2016 to March 2019 who planned to get a hysteroscopy assay were recruited. Cytological sampling was conducted by scratching the uterus cavity using SAP-1, and the samples were processed as liquid-based smears, using SurePath technology. 36 patients diagnosed with EC or atypical endometrial hyperplasia were recruited in this study. 33 cases were diagnosed with EC, and 3 cases were diagnosed with atypical endometrial hyperplasia, allocated with EC or precancerous lesions group. 26 cases were diagnosed with benign… More >

MENGYI TANG^1,2,3,4,#, BOWEN YANG^1,2,3,4,#, CHUANG ZHANG^1,2,3,4, CHAOXU ZHANG^1,2,3,4, DAN ZANG^1,2,3,4, LIBAO GONG^1,2,3,4, YUNPENG LIU^1,2,3,4, ZHI LI^1,2,3,4,*, XIUJUAN QU^1,2,3,4,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.4, pp. 911-921, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.010119

Abstract Distal gastric cancer (DGC) is a subgroup of gastric cancer (GC), which has different molecular characteristics from proximal gastric cancer (PGC). These differences result in different overall survival (OS) rates; however, data pertaining to the survival rate in PGC or DGC are contradictory. This suggests that the location of GC is not the unique cause of the different survival rates, while the molecular characteristics might be more important factors determining the prognosis of DGC. Therefore, the aim of this study was to discover key prognostic factors in DGC using bioinformatic methods and to explore the potential molecular mechanism. The Cancer… More >