Background: Skin regeneration from an injury without a scar is still a challenge. Methods: A murine model of a skin wound was treated with a combination of extract of astragalus and exosomes of mes... Graphical abstract Plain language summary Recovery from and regeneration of skin wounds are essential to maintaining epidermal function. Improving restoration and reducing scar tissue effectively need to be explored....

We have previously cloned the human Na+/H+ exchanger NHE2 gene and its promoter region. In the present study, the regulatory elements responsible for the constitutive expression of NHE2 were studied. Transient transfection assays revealed that the −40/+150 promoter region contains the core promoter responsible for the optimal promoter activity. A smaller fragment, −10/+40, containing the TIS (transcription initiation site) showed minimal activity. We identified a palindrome that overlaps the TIS and binds to the transcription factors Sp1 and Sp3. Mutations in the 5′ flank of the palindrome abolished the Sp1/Sp3 interaction and reduced promoter activity by approx. 45%. In addition, a conserved GC-box centered at −25 was found to play a critical role in basal promoter activity and also interacted with Sp1 and Sp3. An internal deletion in the GC-box severely reduced the promoter activity. Sp1/Sp3 binding to these elements was established using gel-mobility shift assays, confirmed by chromatin immunoprecipitation and co-transfections in Drosophila SL2 cells. Furthermore, we identified two positive regulatory elements in the DNA region corresponding to the 5′-UTR (5′-untranslated region). The results in the present study indicate that Sp1 and Sp3 are required for constitutive NHE2 expression and that the positive regulatory elements of the 5′-UTR may co-operate with the 5′-flanking region to achieve the optimal promoter activity.

Aim: Coronavirus disease 2019 is a life-threatening disease and how to improve survival of the patients is of great importance. Objective: To determine whether tocilizumab (TCZ) shows favorable res... Lay abstract Patients treated with tocilizumab was not indicated a favoring outcome with not much improvement in two moderate patients and two severe patients died. Early identification of cytokine...