ABSTRACT
Bronchial asthma is a common chronic disease of airway inflammation, high mucus secretion and airway hyper responsiveness. The pathogenetic mechanisms of asthma remain unclear. In this study, we aimed at identifying genes playing an import role in disease-related pathways in airway epithelial cells of asthma patients. Microarray data GSE41861 of asthma airway epithelial cells was used to screen differentially expressed genes (DEGs) through GEO2R analysis. The weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was performed to identify gene co-expression network modules in bronchial asthma. The DAVID database was then used to perform functional and pathway enrichment analysis of these DEGs. In addition, we have conducted protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of DEGs by STRING, and eventually found key genes and significant modules. A total of 315 DEGs (111 up-regulated and 204 down-regulated) were identified between severe asthma and healthy individual, which were mainly involved in pathways of cilium assembly, cilium morphogenesis, axon guidance, positive regulation of fat cell differentiation, and positive regulation of cell substrate adhesion. A total of 60 genes in the black module and green module were considered to be correlated with the severity of asthma. Combining PPI network, several key genes were identified, such as BP2RY14, PTGS1, SLC18A2, SIGLEC6, RGS13, CPA3, and HPGDS. Our findings revealed several genes that may be involved in the process of development of bronchial asthma and potentially be candidate targets for diagnosis or therapy of bronchial asthma.
ABSTRACT
@#Objective To investigate the risk factors of new-onset postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) in patients who underwent isolated off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCAB). Methods Between January 2016 and January 2018, a total of 583 patients who underwent OPCAB in TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. There were 434 males and 149 females with an average age of 62.79±8.08 years. The patients were divided into 2 groups, a POAF group (n=158) and a non-POAF group (n=425) , in accordance with the occurrence of POAF. The perioperative clinical parameters of the two groups were analyzed by univariate analysis. Then, statistically significant factors in the univariate analysis were subjected to multivariate logistic regression analysis to determine if it was an independent risk factor for POAF. Results Univariate analysis showed that age≥65 years (P=0.012), history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, P=0.028), left atrial diameter (LAD)≥38 mm (P=0.016) and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR, P=0.002) were related to POAF. Logistic multivariate regression analysis showed that age≥65 years (OR=1.717, P=0.006), LAD≥38 mm (OR=1.562, P=0.023) and higher NLR level (OR=1.215, P=0.022) were the independent risk factors of POAF after OPCAB, but not previous history of COPD (OR=2.489, P=0.326). Conclusion In patients with OPCAB, advanced age (≥65 years), LAD enlargement (≥38 mm) and higher NLR level are the independent risk factors of POAF after OPCAB.
ABSTRACT
Recent research based on various animal models has shown the neuroprotective effects of erythropoietin (EPO).However,few studies have examined such effects of EPO in the clinic.In this study we enrolled patients with spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) injury to investigate the clinical application of EPO and methylprednisolone (MP) for the neuroprotection against spinal cord I-R injury.Retrospective analysis of 63 cases of spinal cord I-R injury was performed.The Frankel neurological performance scale was used to evaluate the neurological function after spinal cord injury (SCI),including 12 cases of scale B,30 cases of scale C,and 21 cases of scale D.These cases were divided into 2 groups:group A (27 cases) got treatment with both EPO and MP; group B (36 cases) got treatment with MP only.The neurological function of patients after treatment was evaluated by American Spinal Cord Injury Association (ASIA) index score,and activity of daily living (ADL) of the patients was also recorded.All patients got follow-up and the follow-up period ranged from 24 to 39 months (mean 26 months).There was no significance difference in neurological function between groups A and B before the treatment (P＞0.05).However,the neurological function and ADL scores were significantly improved 1 week,1 year or 2 years after the treatment compared to those before the treatment (P＜0.05),and the improvement was more significant in group A than in group B (P＜0.05).It is suggested that the clinical application of EPO and MP provides the neuroprotection against spinal cord I-R injury.