ABSTRACT Ovoinhibitor (OIH) is the main proteinase inhibitor in the egg white. In the present study, real-time quantitative PCR and Western-Blot were used to analyze different expression pattern of OIH in ovaries as a candidate gene of reproductive traits in Jingjiang ducks (JJ ducks) and Shaoxing ducks (SX ducks) during three laying stages. To study the polymorphism of the OIH gene in those two duck populations, we designed five pairs of primers to detect SNPs of exon 3-5, 5-6, 14-16 and intron 7, 9 of the OIH gene by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and DNA pool sequencing methods. The results showed that OIH expression increased during the laying stage in the ovaries of both duck breeds. The relative expression levels of OIH in the egg at hatch and 180days of age were lower in JJ ducks than in SX ducks, but higher in JJ ducks than SX ducks at 500 days of age. Only exon 5-6 locus had a novel SNP. One variation (389G>A) was detected in the two tested duck populations and it was associated with some laying traits, such as body weight of hatch, age at first egg, weight at first egg, egg number at 72weeks of age. The AG genotype was associated with inferior body weight of hatch and superior weight at first egg, age at first egg and egg number at 72weeks of age. Therefore, these results suggest that OIH may be a strong candidate gene related to some laying traits in ducks.

The present study compared the effects of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) on in vitro maturation (IVM), apoptosis, and secretion function in sheep oocytes, as well as gene expressions of the receptors (FSHR, LHR, and GnRHR) in cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs). The COCs were recovered from sheep ovaries and pooled in groups. The COCs were cultured for 24 hours in IVM medium supplemented with various concentrations of LH (5-30 μg/mL) and FSH (5-30 IU/mL). They were allocated to LH-1 (5 µg/mL), LH-2 (10 µg/mL), LH-3 (20 µg/mL), and LH-4 (30 µg/mL) groups, and FSH-1 (5 IU/mL), FSH-2 (10 IU/mL), FSH-3 (20 IU/mL), and FSH-4 (30IU/mL) groups. The apoptosis of COCs was assessed by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL). The maturation rates of oocytes improved gradually as LH and FSH concentration increased from 0 to 10 μg/mL(IU/mL), reaching a peak value of 44.1% of LH-2 and 48.5% of FSH-2 group. Oocyte apoptosis rates of LH-2 and FSH-2 groups were the lowest among LH- and FSH-treated groups, respectively. The germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) rate of the FSH-2 group was higher than that of the control group (CG) and FSH-4 groups. The GVBD rate of LH-2 group also increased in comparison with the CG group. FSH concentration of the FSH-2 group was greater than that of CG. Expression levels of FSHR, LHR, and GnRHR mRNAs of FSH-2, LH-3, and LH-3 group, respectively, were higher than CG. Levels of FSHR proteins in FSH-2 and FSH-3 groups were greater than CG. Levels of GnRHR proteins were increased with a maximum increment of FSH-4. The FSH and LH supplemented into the IVM medium could promote the maturation rate, reduce the apoptosis rate of sheep oocytes, and increase FSH concentrations in IVM medium fluid. Additionally, FSH and LH enhanced expression levels of FSHR, LHR, and GnRHR mRNAs of sheep COCs.

Neuroblastoma is a solid tumor that occurs mainly in children. Malignant neuroblastomas have a poor prognosis because conventional chemotherapeutic agents are not very effective. Survivin, a member of the inhibitor of the apoptosis protein family, plays a significant role in cell division, inhibition of apoptosis, and promotion of cell proliferation and invasion. Previous studies found that survivin is highly expressed in some malignant neuroblastomas and is correlated with poor prognosis. The aim of this study was to investigate whether survivin could serve as a potential therapeutic target of human neuroblastoma. We employed RNA interference to reduce survivin expression in the human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cell line and analyzed the effect of RNA interference on cell proliferation and invasion in vitro and in vivo. RNA interference of survivin led to a significant decrease in invasiveness and proliferation and increased apoptosis in SH-SY5Y cells in vitro. RNA interference of survivin inhibited tumor growth in vivo by 68±13% (P=0.002) and increased the number of apoptotic cells by 9.8±1.2% (P=0.001) compared with negative small interfering RNA (siRNA) treatment controls. Moreover, RNA interference of survivin inhibited the formation of lung metastases by 92% (P=0.002) and reduced microvascular density by 60% (P=0.0003). Survivin siRNA resulted in significant downregulation of survivin mRNA and protein expression both in vitro and in vivo compared with negative siRNA treatment controls. RNA interference of survivin was found to be a potent inhibitor of SH-SY5Y tumor growth and metastasis formation. These results support further clinical development of RNA interference of survivin as a treatment of neuroblastoma and other cancer types.

Least significant bit (LSB) embedding is a simple steganographic technique used in the spatial domain that involves replacing the LSB of each pixel in the cover work with the information bits being hidden to achieve information secrecy. However, considering the current prevalence of information theft and sabotage, the stego image produced using LSB embedding cannot prevent malicious illegal acts. Therefore, this study proposes a blind data hiding technique that combines block-coded modulation (BCM) codes with LSB embedding. The proposed method not only provides error correction capabilities to prevent errors during the extraction process, but also has a superior embedding payload. The peak signal noise ratio (PSNR) exceeds 40 dB by using our proposed method. Regarding the simulation results, the proposed method provides a superior PSNR compared to LSB embedding and a higher embedding payload than that offered by other steganographic techniques with error correction capabilities.