Publications by authors named "Y Wang"

Inflammation is a key factor contributing to the progression of alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD). Accumulating data have shown that ethyl alcohol (EtOH) induced liver macrophages activation along with an inflammatory response that contributes to the development of ALD. The liver-specific peroxisomal enzyme hydroxyacid oxidase 1 (HAO1) has been found to be associated with chronic liver disease. But the role of HAO1 remains unknown in ALD. In our study, HAO1 was found to be decreased in ALD patients and EtOH-fed mice. Interestingly, HAO1 expression was reduced in primary hepatocytes, whereas HAO1 was elevated in peripheral blood monocytes from ALD patients and EtOH-fed mice liver macrophages as well as LPS-treated RAW264.7 cells. Moreover, HAO1 knockdown exacerbated the inflammatory response, while HAO1 overexpression inhibited inflammation in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. Additionally, overexpression or silencing of HAO1 in vitro significantly affected NF-κB signaling pathway. Collectively, the results revealed a key role of HAO1-mediated macrophage activation and may provide a potential target for treating ALD.

Background & Aims: Glia maturation factor-β (GMFB) is a bona fide member of actin depolymerizing factor homology family. Recently, emerging evidence suggests its implication in liver diseases. But data on its role in liver remain limited.

Methods: Assessment of GMFB in liver histology, impact on liver regeneration and hepatocytes proliferation, and the underlying molecular pathways were conducted using mice models with acute liver injury.

Results: GMFB is widely distributed in normal liver. Its expression increases within 24h following partial hepatectomy (PHx). Adult Gmfb knockout (GKO) mice and wild-type littermates are similar in gross appearance, body weight, liver function and histology. However, compared with wild-type control, GKO mice post-PHx develop more serious liver damage and steatosis and have the delayed liver regeneration; the dominant change in liver transcriptome at 24h post-PHx is the significantly suppressed acute inflammation pathways; the top downregulated gene-sets relate to IL6/JAK/STAT3 signaling. Another mice model intoxicated with carbon tetrachloride replicates the findings. Furthermore, GKO and wild-type groups have the similar numbers of Kupffer cells, but GKO Kupffer cells once stimulated produce less IL6, TNF, and IL1β. In hepatocytes treated with IL6, GMFB positively associates with cell proliferation and STAT3/CyclinD1 activation, but without any direct interaction with STAT3. In GKO hepatocytes, cytoskeleton-related genes expression is significantly changed, appearing abnormal morphology of actin-networks. In hepatocytes modelling actin-filaments turnover, STAT3 activation and metabolite excretion show strong reliance on the status of actin-filaments organization.

Conclusions: GMFB plays a significant role in liver regeneration by promoting acute inflammatory response in Kupffer cells and by intracellularly coordinating the responsive hepatocytes proliferation.

In this study, the occurrence, removal, spatial distribution and environmental risks of ten antibiotics in 38 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) which located in 15 communities (in 12 cities) of the Guangdong province, China. The results indicated that amoxicillin (AMO, 381.00-5230.00 ng·L) and ofloxacin (OFX, 7.01-836.00 ng·L) were predominant in the province with high detection rates (100 %) and high concentrations. The concentration of norfloxacin (NFX) was high in some influents (2070 ng·L), but its detection rate was only 47.4 %. In addition, the average daily mass load per 10 capita (ADMLpc) of AMO (383.34 mg·(10 capita)·d) was significantly higher than the other antibiotics. The comparison between the ADMLpc and social-economic factors indicated that adult (age between 18 and 60) was the age group mainly consume antibiotics in the province. Furthermore, the ADMLpc of human antibiotics (e.g., AMO and OFX) were positively affected by the economic development of the region. Comparatively, the ADMLpc veterinary antibiotic (e.g., SMM) was positively related to the livestock related factors. In general, no significant difference (p > 0.05) in antibiotic removal efficiencies among four treatment processes applied in all WWTPs. Nevertheless, the low removal rates of sulfamethazine (SMZ, 44.6 %) and OFX (26.3 %) indicated that they were more difficult to be removed than other antibiotics. Furthermore, high ADMLpc of antibiotics in the influent would cause high ADMLpc in effluents. Therefore, heavy consumption of antibiotics could pose high risk to the ecosystem, especially when multiple antibiotics appeared in the effluent of the WWTPs.

The carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS)/fish skin gelatin (Gel) based novel nanocomposite film was developed with nano ZnO for potential food packaging applications. The SEM and FT-IR results indicated that the nano ZnO was success composited with CMCS/Gel film. The X-ray diffraction result revealed that the total crystallinity of the CMCS/Gel/nano ZnO achieved 94.92 %, improving the crystallinity of the original substrate. Compared with CMCS/nano ZnO and Gel/nano ZnO, the water solubility of CMCS/Gel/nano ZnO decreased to 23 %. Moreover, its contact angle reached 91°, representing that the composite film showed better solvent resistance and can be widely used in food packaging, especially in foods with high water content. After nano-ZnO was compounded with CMCS/Gel film, the physical properties were further improved. Furthermore, CMCS/Gel/nano ZnO has higher elasticity and ductility than CMCS/nano ZnO and Gel/nano ZnO. For food packages, CMCS/Gel films incorporated with nano ZnO depicted strong against Escherichia coli (99.20 %) and Staphylococcus aureus (84.70 %) for food packages. The CMCS/Gel film with the addition of ZnO was optimal for producing nanocomposite films with higher water-insolubility, elasticity and ductility, and higher antibacterial properties.

Controllable active site construction, crystal structure regulation and efficient charge separation are core issues in heterogeneous photo-Fenton. Herein, abundant oxygen vacancies and well-dispersed interfacial iron sites are simultaneously constructed in hierarchical nanosheet-assembled BiOCl microflowers. The composites exhibit superior performance in photo-Fenton oxidation of carbamazepine (10 mg L) with a low HO concentration (1.3 mM). The high performance highly depends on the synergistic effects between oxygen vacancies and iron species. Rather than modulating the valence band, the involvements of oxygen vacancies and iron species could modify the conduction band of BiOCl. The presence of oxygen vacancies promotes the migration of photo-generated electrons and accelerates the redox cycling of ≡Fe(III)/≡Fe(II) to boost the activation of HO to generate hydroxyl radicals, and oxygen vacancies can be well preserved after cyclic use. This work provides understandings on efficient utilizations of oxygen vacancies and interfacial iron sites to assist photo-Fenton and the underlying electron transfer mechanism.