ABSTRACT
Gastrointestinal microbiota has an important impact on physiological functions of human body. In recent years,the importance of gastrointestinal microbiota in tumorigenesis has emerged. Aberrant location and proportion of microbiota can cause not only carcinogenesis of local epithelia,but also tumorigenesis in submucous tissues or even distant organs. Certain microbes can produce genotoxin or generate reactive oxygen species to cause DNA damage and affect DNA damage repair,which leads to genetic instability and induces cell transformation. Moreover,gastrointestinal microbiota is able to affect the function of host immune system and form an immunosuppressive microenvironment,while some other pathogenic bacteria can cause chronic inflammation and may be involved in tumor immune escape. Based on the above,gastrointestinal microbiota is oncogenic and closely linked to tumorigenesis.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>Background</b>As a major complication after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), the occurrence of acute kidney injury (AKI) is frequently defined by serum creatinine (Cr); however, the accuracy of commonly used blood urea nitrogen (BUN), uric acid (UA), and β-microglobulin (β-MG) remains to be explored. This retrospective study compared the accuracy of these parameters for post-OLT AKI evaluation.</p><p><b>Methods</b>Patients who underwent OLT in three centers between July 2003 and December 2013 were enrolled. The postoperative AKI group was diagnosed by the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) criteria and classified by stage. Measurement data were analyzed using the t-test or Wilcoxon rank-sum test; enumerated data were analyzed using the Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. Diagnostic reliability and predictive accuracy were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.</p><p><b>Results</b>This study excluded 976 cases and analyzed 697 patients (578 men and 119 women); the post-OLT AKI incidence was 0.409. Compared with the no-AKI group, the AKI group showed very significant differences in Model for End-stage Liver Disease score (14.74 ± 9.91 vs. 11.07 ± 9.54, Z = 5.404; P < 0.001), hepatic encephalopathy (45 [15.8%] vs. 30 [7.3%], χ = 12.699; P < 0.001), hemofiltration (28 [9.8%] vs. 0 [0.0%], χ = 42.171; P < 0.001), and 28-day mortality (23 [8.1%] vs. 9 [2.2%], χ = 13.323; P <0.001). Moreover, mean values of Cr, BUN, UA, and β-MG in the AKI group differed significantly at postoperative days 1, 3, and 7 (all P < 0.001). ROC curve area was 0.847 of Cr for the detection of AKI Stage 1 (sensitivity 80.1%, specificity 75.7%, cutoff value 88.23 μmol/L), 0.916 for Stage 2 (sensitivity 87.6%, specificity 82.6%, cutoff value 99.9 μmol/L), and 0.972 for Stage 3 (sensitivity 94.1%, specificity 88.2%, cutoff value 122.90 μmol/L).</p><p><b>Conclusion</b>The sensitivity and specificity of serum Cr might be a high-value indicator for the diagnosis and grading of post-OLT AKI.</p>
Subject(s)
Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Acute Kidney Injury , Blood , Blood Urea Nitrogen , Creatinine , Blood , Liver Transplantation , Retrospective Studies , Uric Acid , Blood , beta 2-Microglobulin , BloodABSTRACT
Platycodon grandiflorum, a traditional Chinese medicine commonly used for coughing and eliminating phlegm to relieve asthma, has gained great attention to its quality evaluation in ancient and modern herbal books. This paper investigated the methods of quality evaluation in the ancient herbal books systematically, and the results showed that there were bitter and sweet P. grandiflorum, south and north P. grandiflorum. Those distributed in east China were called south P. grandiflorum, with bitter taste; and those distributed in north China, northeast China were called north P. grandiflorum, with sweet taste. There was a common sense that P. grandiflorum with a bitter taste had good quality in the ancient herbal books, namely those produced in east China. P. grandiflorum of better quality were characterized by thicker and longer root, white color, solid texture and bitter taste in properties. In addition, the quality of P. grandiflorum was also affected by its germplasm, collecting and processing. This paper summarized the formation and development of the "assessing the quality by distinguishing features of traditional Chinese medicinal materials" views of P. grandiflorum, providing the herbalism basis for its present quality evaluation.