Biology subjects

Mou, L.

Publications and source records attributed to Mou, L..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Pro-IL-1β activates NF-κB independently of maturation

Interleukin-1{beta} (IL-1{beta}) is an essential pro-inflammatory cytokine which functions as a key factor in innate immunity. The precursor protein, pro-IL-1{beta}, has long been regarded as an inactive form in innate immune responses. Here, we unveil the biological function and regulation of pro-IL-1{beta} in activating the NF-{kappa}B signaling pathway, which is distinct from IL-1{beta} signaling. The expression and release of pro-IL-1{beta} are induced by inflammatory stimuli and then pro-IL-1{beta} acutely activates the gene transcription driven by NF-{kappa}B in a dose dependent manner. This activity is resistant to IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra). The signal transduction triggered by pro-IL-1{beta} relies on MyD88 and endocytosis. We further demonstrate that the N-terminal pro-peptide primarily contributes to this activity. Furthermore, we identify TLR7 and TLR8 as the binding partners of pro-IL-1{beta} in vitro and as the potential receptors mediating pro-IL-1{beta}-induced NF-{kappa}B activation. Collectively, this study sheds light on the unique cytokine function of pro-IL-1{beta} and provides new insights into the functional characterization of pro-cytokines in innate immunity.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2020

Electronic blood vessel

Advances in bioelectronics have great potential to address unsolvable biomedical problems in the cardiovascular system. By using poly(L-lactide-co-{varepsilon}-caprolactone) (PLC) that encapsulates the liquid metal to make flexible and bio-degradable electrical circuitry, we develop an electronic blood vessel that can integrate flexible electronics with three layers of blood vessel cells, to mimic and go beyond the natural blood vessel. It can improve the endothelization process through electrical stimulation and can enable controlled gene delivery into specific part of the blood vessel via electroporation. The electronic blood vessel has excellent biocompatibility in the vascular system and shows great patency three months post-implantation in a rabbit model. The electronic blood vessel would be an ideal platform to enable diagnostics and treatments in the cardiovascular system and can greatly empower personalized medicine by creating a direct link of vascular tissue-machine interface.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2017

Optimization of Alginante- poly-L-lysine Microencapsules Strength by Box-Behnken Model for CHO Culture in Stirred Tank Bioreactor

Summary statementBox-Behnken model is an efficient method to optimized process conditions of microencapsules strength for long-term cell culture, promotes CHO cells viability and protein production in a stirred tank bioreactor.\n\nABSTRACTCell microencapsulation technology has been proved to be a valuable technology in the fields of large-scale cell culture. It is important to accurately construct the microcapsule membranes with desired properties including a certain thickness suitable for cell growth, and maximum strength for the stability of microencapsules. As single factor experiments are time-consuming to obtain the desired membrane preparation conditions, Box-Behnken model was used to investigate the interactions among reaction conditions, predict the optimized reaction conditions for given purpose, that was membrane with maximum strength and desired thickness for microencapsulated cell culture. Significant values of R2 in this study indicated the model theoretical values are very close to the measured values. Based on the desired membrane thickness, the process of maximum strength was optimized, and the prediction agreement of measured value and model theoretical value was 91.11%. The optimized microencapsules with maximum strength and 15 m membrane thickness promote CHO cells viability and protein production in stirred tank bioreactor. The result shows that Box-Behnken model is an efficient method to optimized process conditions of microencapsules strength for long-term cell culture.

bioengineering↗