Pre-operative treatment with recombinant human erythropoietin may improve aortic stenosis patients' condition, including anemia and/or cardiac dysfunction, for subjecting to aortic valve replacement. In this study, we tested this hypothesis in a mouse model of aortic stenosis. Adult male mice were subjected to either aortic stenosis created by aortic ligature or sham operation. Aortic stenosis for 4 weeks caused cardiac hypertrophy, pulmonary congestion and left ventricular dysfunction. It was associated with increased levels of tumor necrosis factor-a in serum and myocardium, and reduced levels of interleukin-10 in myocardium but not in serum. Mytocyte apoptosis rate, level of cleaved caspase 3, activity of nuclear factor-B and expression of p38-MAPK pathway were also elevated. Erythropoietin treatment increased hematocrit but did not prevent the development of cardiac hypertrophy. It, however, reduced the apoptosis, prevented the increases in tumor necrosis factor-, nuclear factor-B activation and phosphorylation of p38, and attenuated the increases in lung weight, the decreases in LVEF and LVFS, and the increases in LVDd and LVDs. In conclusion recombinant human erythropoietin has cardioprotective effects in maladaptive cardiac hypertrophy by inhibiting nuclear factor-B activation, phosphorylation of p38-MAPK pathway, and production of tumor necrosis factor-, together leading to a reduced apoptosis.
Soil salinity is a serious problem worldwide. It is necessary to improve the salt tolerance of plants to avoid the progressive deterioration of saline soil. We showed that the over-expression of AtNHX1 improves salt tolerance in a transgenic poplar (Populus deltoides CL × P. euramericana CL ‘‘NL895’’) under mannose selection. Four transgenic poplar plants were obtained. Southern blot analysis showed that the pmi gene had integrated into the genome of the poplar. RT-PCR confirmed that AtNHX1 could be expressed normally in the transgenic plants. When tested for salt tolerance by NaCl stress, we measured a 100% increase in Na⁺ content in the three transgenic lines (T18, T50, T98) significantly higher than the 33% increase seen in wild-type plants. The chlorophyll content of the transgenic plants was not altered significantly, while the chlorophyll content in the control plants showed a small decrease. MDA content was decreased in the transgenic plants. These results show that the AtNHX1 gene may enhance salt tolerance due to increased vacuolar compartmentalization of sodium ions.
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