Composition and histopathological features of prostatic calculi in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia / 中华男科学杂志

Objective@#To analyze the composition of prostatic calculus in patients with BPH and explore its pathogenic factors and histopathological characteristics.@*METHODS@#Strictly following the inclusion and exclusion criteria, we included in this retrospective study 580 cases of bipolar transurethral plasma kinetic prostatectomy (TUPKP) performed in our hospital from May 2015 to May 2019, analyzed the histopathological and calculus-composition features of the patients with BPH complicated by prostatic calculi (the BPH+PC group) and the histopathological data of those with BPH only (the BPH group). We compared the related factors between the two groups of patients and performed uni- and multivariate logistic regression analyses of the data on those in the BPH+PC group.@*RESULTS@#The incidence rate of chronic inflammation was significantly higher in the BPH+PC than in the BPH group (83.1% vs 61.1%, P 0.05). Logistic regression analyses showed that prostatic calculus was significantly correlated with chronic inflammation of the prostate, the patient's age and IPSS (P 0.05).@*CONCLUSIONS@#Prostatic calculus has a high incidence in BPH patients and varies widely in composition, chiefly consisting of calcium oxalate and carbonate apatite. The major factors contributing to prostatic calculi include chronic inflammation of the prostate (primarily the severe type), age and BPH. Prostate calculi may aggravate lower urinary tract symptoms, especially urinary storage symptoms, in patients with BPH, but not significantly affect the PSA level.？.

Discussion on high quality development and authentication system construction of Dao-di herbs based on blockchain / 中国中药杂志

Dao-di herbs are an important part of clinical medicine in traditional Chinese medicine. They are also precious wealth left to human beings from history, which contain deep traditional Chinese cultural connotations and play an important role in supporting and serving the Chinese medicine business. The relevant policy documents introduced by various national ministries and commissions have many contents and requirements related to the promotion of Dao-di herbs protection and industrial development. Due to the Dao-di herbs industry has a series of characteristics, such as a long chain, many involved links, long cycles, multiple production entities, multiple locations, and various types, the high-quality development of the industry has put forward higher requirements on the linkage between upstream and downstream, production entities, traceability of the whole process and information sharing. This article takes Dao-di herbs certification work as an application scenario and entry point, and discusses it from the perspective of block chain and information technology. It proposes the following work ideas: establish multi-party consensus from the macro-organizational management, business, and operational technical levels, and unblock channels for data and information, to achieve institutionalization of certification; establish certification-related standards and specifications to achieve certification standardization; build a certification hardware system to achieve certification networking; build a certification software system to develop functions for specific information content such as identity, origin, production, production process, quality, product and brand of authentic medicinal material production interactively, and realize certification programmatic; data security and sharing of related production activities to achieve socialization of certification. Make full use of modern technologies such as blockchain, the internet of things, big data and information technology, and through the joint participation of management, production, use and the public, the whole process information of Daodi herbs is integrated to form an interconnected information sharing application mode, thus, to serve and promote the high-quality development of Dao-di herbs industry.

Effect of vimentin on activation of NLRP3 inflammasome in the brain of mice with EV71 infection / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore whether vimentin (VIM) mediates the activation of inflammasome in mice with EV71 infection in the central nervous system.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Forty VIM knockout mice (VIM, 3 to 5 days old) were randomly divided into control group and infection group. The infection group was intraperitoneally injected with EV71 (10 TCID), while the control group was injected with PBS (10 µL); another 40 wild-type mice (WT, 3 to 5 days old) were grouped in the same manner. The general conditions of mice were observed each day. Western blotting, ELISA, and RT-PCR were used to measure the levels of IL-1β and casepase-1 in the brain or cerebrospinal fluid. The pathological changes in the cerebella and brain were observed using immunohistochemistry.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with the control group, the VIM mice infected with EV71 showed no significant changes in NLRP3, IL-1β or caspase-1 expression. The WT mice infected with EV71 showed obviously increased NLRP3, IL-1β, and caspase-1 expressions in the central nervous system. The neurons of infected VIM mice exhibited milder cell damage than the those in WT mice.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>VIM mediates the activation of inflammasome and promotes brain inflammation and neuronal damage in mice with EV71 infection in the central nervous system.</p>

Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG conditioned medium prevents E. coli meningitis by inhibiting nuclear factor-κB pathway / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate whether Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG conditioned medium(LGG-CM)has preventive effect against E. coli K1-induced neuropathogenicity in vitro by inhibiting nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling pathway.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>An in vitro blood-brain barrier (BBB) model was constructed using human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMECs). The effect of LGG-CM on E. coli-actived NF-κB signaling pathway was assayed using Western blotting. Invasion assay and polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) transmigration assay were performed to explore whether LGG-CM could inhibit E. coli invasion and PMN transmigration across the BBB in vitro. The expressions of ZO-1 and CD44 were detected using Western blotting and immunofluorescence. The changes of trans-epithelial electric resistance (TEER) and bacterial translocation were determined to evaluate the BBB permeability.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Pre-treament with LGG-CM inhibited E. coli-activated NF-κB signaling pathway in HBMECs and decreased the invasion of E. coli K1 and transmigration of PMN. Western blotting showed that LGG-CM could alleviate E. coli-induced up-regulation of CD44 and down-regulation of ZO-1 expressions in HBMECs. In addition, pre-treatment with LGG-CM alleviated E. coli K1-induced reduction of TEER and suppressed bacterial translocation across the BBB in vitro.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>LGG-CM can block E. coli-induced activation of NF-κB signaling pathway and thereby prevents E. coli K1-induced neuropathogenicity by decreasing E. coli K1 invasion rates and PMN transmigration.</p>

Effect on Muc2 gene knockdown in Ht29 cells by CRISPR/Cas9 on probiotics-mediated inhibition of E.coli K1 adhesion and invasion / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effects of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) for inhibiting E.coli K1 (E44) adhesion and invasion of an intestinal epithelial cell model with Muc2 gene knockdown established using CRISPR-Cas9 system.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Two 20-25 bp sgRNAs targeting Muc2 were chemically synthesized to construct CRISPR expression vectors for transfection in wild-type human colonic cancer cell line Ht29. The efficiency of Muc2 knockdown was determined using Western blotting. After assessment of the viability and proliferation of the transfected cells with MTT assay, we evaluated the effects of the probiotics against E44 adhesion and invasion of the cells through a competitive exclusion assay.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Transfection of the cells with Lenticrisprv2 plasmid vectors resulted in a cell line with stable Muc2 knockdown by 81%. The inhibitory effects of probiotics against E44 adhesion and invasion of the transfected cells were markedly attenuated, and the relative adhesion and invasion rates of E44 were 72.23% (P<0.05) and 81.49% (P<0.05), respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Muc2 knockdown causes attenuation of the inhibitory effects of probiotics against E44 adhesion and invasion of the intestinal epithelial cells, suggesting that up-regulation of Muc2 may serve as an important mechanism for the probiotics to reinforce the intestinal barrier and antagonize the pathogenic bacteria, which sheds light on a new strategy for prevention and treatment of bacterial intestinal infections.</p>

Inhibitory effect of cabozantinib against Listeria monocytogenes invasion in Caco-2 cells in vitro / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of c-Met inhibitor cabozantinib (XL-184) in inhibiting Listeria monocytogenes (LM) from invading Caco-2 cells to reduce the cell injury.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The cell invasion capacity of LM was assayed in Caco-2 cells incubated with different doses of XL-184 for different durations. Caco-2 cells incubated with XL-184 were seeded on the upper room of the transwell chamber, and the cell monolayer was exposed to LM infection followed by addition of horseradish peroxidase (HRP). The trans-epithelial electric resistance (TEER), HRP concentration and LM colony-forming unit (CFU) were measured in the cell monolayer. Fluorescent staining was used to evaluate the cell viability, and LDH release from the cells was examined to assess the changes in cell membrane permeability.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>XL-184 significantly decreased LM invasion rate in Caco-2 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner (P=0.000), and this effect was enhanced by co-incubation of the cells with ampicillin (P<0.05). In the cell membrane permeability assay in the monolayer cells, XL-184 markedly inhibited LM-induced reduction of TEER (P<0.05) and significantly suppressed LM-induced enhancement of cell membrane permeability shown by reduced HRP concentration and LM count in the lower chamber (P=0.000). The cells infected with LM showed significantly lowered cell viability, which was rescued by XL-184 (P<0.01); XL-184 also dose-dependently reduced LDH release from the cells (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>XL-184 can suppress LM invasion in Caco-2 cells to reduce the cell injury, suggesting its value as a promising candidate agent for prevention and treatment of LM infections.</p>

A study on the prevalence of the urinary incontinence among female adults in Hangzhou and its effect on life quality / 预防医学

Objective Toinvestigatetheprevalenceofurinaryincontinenceanditseffectonlifequalityamongfemale adultsinHangzhou,andtoprovideevidencetothecontroloffemaleurinaryincontinence.Methods Aquestionnaire survey was performed in Gongshu and Xiacheng districts in Hangzhou from October 2013 to June 2014,and 4 563 women aged over 20 years were interviewed through a questionnaire including International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Lower Urinary Tract,IQ-FLUTS and demographic information.Single and multi factor logistic regression analysiswereusedtoanalyzetheriskfactorsofurinaryincontinence.Results Atotalof4785questionnairesweresent, and 4 563 effective questionnaires were recovered,with a recovery rate of 95.4%.The prevalence of urinary incontinence was 33.5%(1 530/4 563),and female with older age tended to have a higher prevalence of UI(P<0.01).Among which stress urinary incontinence (SUI ),urge incontinence (UUI )and mixed urinary incontinence (MUI ) were accounted for 20.2%(922/4 563),3.0%(135/4 563)and 10.3%(473/4 563)respectively.UUI and MUI had a greater effect on quality of life.According to the multi factor logistic regression analysis,gravidity,age,constipation,pelvic surgery and fat (BMI>24)wereriskfactorsforurinaryincontinence(P<0.05).Conclusion Becauseofthehighprevalenceofurinary incontinence among female adults,more attention should be paid to urinary incontinence suffers in order to improve the quality of life of female adults.

Multi-center clinical trial of FLAMIGEL (hydrogel dressing) for the treatment of residual burn wound / 中华烧伤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the effect of FLAMIGEL (hydrogel dressing) on the repair of residual burn wound.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Sixty burn patients with residual wounds hospitalized in 6 burn units from November 2011 to May 2012 were enrolled in the multi-center, randomized, and self-control clinical trial. Two residual wounds of each patient were divided into groups T (treated with FLAMIGEL) and C (treated with iodophor gauze) according to the random number table. On post treatment day (PTD) 7 and 14, wound healing rate was calculated, with the number of completely healed wound counted. The degree of pain patient felt during dressing change was evaluated using the visual analogue scale (VAS). The mean numbers of wounds with score equal to zero, more than zero and less than or equal to 3, more than 3 and less than or equal to 6, more than 6 and less than or equal to 10 were recorded respectively. Wound secretion or exudate samples were collected for bacterial culture, and the side effect was observed. Data were processed with repeated measure analysis of variance, t test, chi-square test, and nonparametric rank sum test.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Wound healing rate of groups T, C on PTD 7 was respectively (67 ± 24)%, (45 ± 25)%, and it was respectively (92 ± 16)%, (72 ± 23)% on PTD 14. There was statistically significant difference in wound healing rate on PTD 7, 14 between group T and group C (F = 32.388, P < 0.01). Ten wounds in group T and four wounds in group C were healed completely on PTD 7, with no significant difference between them (χ(2) = 0, P > 0.05). Forty-two wounds in group T and seven wounds in group C healed completely on PTD 14, with statistically significant difference between them (χ(2) = 42.254, P < 0.01). Patients in group T felt mild pain during dressing change for 37 wounds, with VAS score higher than zero and lower than or equal to 3. Evident pain was observed in patients of group C during dressing change for 43 wounds, and it scored higher than 3 and less than or equal to 6 by VAS evaluation. There was statistically significant difference in mean number of wounds with different grade of VAS score between group T and group C (Z = -4.638, P < 0.01). Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, E. coli, Baumanii, and Staphylococcus epidermidis were all detected in both groups, but there was no statistical difference between group T and group C (χ(2) = 0.051, P > 0.05). No side effect was observed in either of the two groups during the whole trial.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>FLAMIGEL can accelerate the healing of residual burn wounds and obviously relieve painful sensation during dressing change.</p>