Abstract The present study aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory effects of Baicalein on human osteoarthritic chondrocytes and its molecular mechanisms, and to explore the related molecular events that may occur. The extracted human osteoarthritic chondrocytes were stimulated with interleukins. After administered with different concentrations of Baicalein, the survival rate of chondrocytes was observed. Apoptosis was detected by apoptosis assay kit. The effect on NO production was detected using the Griess reagent kit. The expressions of IL-6 and PGE2 were detected by ELISA. The apoptotic proteins and PI3/Akt, NF-kB and MAPK cascade proteins were detected by WB assay. Baicalein significantly increased the survival rate of chondrocytes and decreased the expressions of NO, IL-6 and PGE2. The expressions of COX-2 and induced iNOS were significantly reduced in a dose-dependent manner under the administration of Baicalein. In addition, Baicalein significantly reduced the NF-κB signaling pathway, inhibited the activation of the induced PI3/Akt, JNK, ERK and p38 MAPK cascades. Inflammatory mediators play a key role in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis. Baicalin significantly inhibits the expression of inflammatory mediators in chondrocytes of human osteoarthritis and regulates the JNK/ERK/p38 MAPK and PBK/Akt signaling cascades. The experiment evaluated the anti-inflammatory and anti-osteomyelitis effects of Baicalein in order to discover new treatment strategies.

Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) plays an important role in human glioma progression and resistance to antiangiogenic therapy as a compensatory neovascularization mechanism in malignant tumors. Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) has been found to contribute to VM formation. However, it remains largely unknown whether Cav-1 expression correlates with VM in glioma. In this study, we examined CAV-1 expression levels and VM in human glioma cell lines and in 94 human gliomas with different grades of malignancy, and present Cox proportional hazards regression. The molecular role of Cav-1 in glioma cells was investigated using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assays, western blotting, CCK-8 assays, and tubule formation assays. Cav-1 expression and VM formation were positively correlated with each other and both were closely associated with glioma development and progression as evidenced by the presence of cystic tumor, shortened survival time, and advanced-stage glioma in glioma patients with Cav-1 overexpression/increased VM formation. Cav-1 promoted U251 glioma cell proliferation and VM formation in a Matrigel-based 3D culture model. VM-associated factors including hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) and p-Akt was significantly elevated by Cav-1 overexpression but suppressed by siCav-1 in U251 cells. Collectively, our study identified Cav-1 as an important regulator of glioma cell proliferation and VM formation, contributing to glioma development and progression.

A new zero-waste and zero-pollution composite adhesive labeled Chinese fir-based adhesive for exterior plywood was synthesized by blending alkaline Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) liquid with a small amount of phenol-formaldehyde (PF). The free phenol and free formaldehyde content of the Chinese fir-based adhesive were sharply decreased compared to normal PF resin by more than 50%. The synthetic adhesive show with excellent water resistance and environmental friendliness, which had a 28h boil-dry-boil wet bonding strength of 1,73MPa according to standard JIS K6806-2003 and a formaldehyde emission of 0,045mg/L according to standard JIS A1460-2003. The structural properties and their thermal properties of cured adhesives were evaluated using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The FT-IR analysis confirmed the expected chemical structure as the Chinese fir liquid reacted with formaldehyde and phenol which occurred at the wavenumbers of 1733, 1698, 1652cm-1 and 1077, 1048 cm-1. Although the DSC results indicated that the Chinese fir-based adhesive's curing need higher temperature than the control PF resin, the higher curing temperature hardly cripple the availability of Chinese fir-based resin in the plywood production.