Expression of pyrolysis-related factors in peripheral blood cells of patients with gestational diabetes and its relationship with insulin resistance / 中华内分泌外科杂志

Objective:To investigate the levels of serum pyrolysis-related factors cysteine protease-1 (caspase-1) and interleukin-18 (IL-18) in patients with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and their relationship with insulin resistance (IR) .Methods:A total of 102 GDM patients admitted to Kaifeng Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital from Apr. 2019 to Mar. 2021 were selected as the GDM group, and 102 healthy pregnant women undergoing obstetric examination in the same period were included as the normal group. The age, gestational week, fasting insulin (FINS) , pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) , triglycerides (TG) , fasting blood glucose (FBG) , total cholesterol (TC) , and homeostatic model insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) and other materials were compared between the GDM group and the normal group. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the levels of serum caspase-1 and IL-18; Pearson method was used to analyze the correlation between serum caspase-1 and IL-18 levels and HOMA-IR in GDM patients; Logistic regression method was used to analyze the influencing factors of GDM.Results:The levels of TG [ (2.94±0.99) mmol/L vs (2.09±0.70) mmol/L], FBG [ (5.87±1.94) mmol/L vs (4.90±1.67) mmol/L], TC [ (5.72±1.92) mmol/L vs (5.03±1.68) mmol/L], FINS [ (11.45±3.87) mIU/L vs (6.92±2.34) mIU/L], HOMA-IR [ (3.05±0.78) vs (1.51±0.40) ] and levels serum caspase-1 [ (86.27±28.78) pg/mL vs (40.98±13.54) pg/mL] and IL-18 [ (44.26±14.56) pg/L vs (30.45±10.12) pg/L] in the GDM group were higher than those in the normal group (t=7.080, 3.827, 2.731, 10.116, 17.743, 14.381, 7.866, P<0.05) ; the levels of serum caspase-1 and IL-18 in GDM patients were positively correlated with HOMA-IR ( r=0.518, 0.555, P<0.05) ; FBG, TG, FINS, HOMA-IR, caspase-1, IL-18 were risk factors affecting the occurrence of GDM (95% CI=1.578-3.826, 1.454-3.311, 1.477-3.405, 1.678-4.265, 1.406-3.141, 1.511-3.551, P<0.05) . Conclusions:The levels of serum caspase-1 and IL-18 in patients with GDM are relatively high, which are significantly related to IR. Caspase-1 and IL-18 may be potential targets for the treatment of GDM.

Detection and significance of epidermal growth factor receptor mutation in esophageal, esophagogastric junction and gastric cancers / 中华肿瘤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) have been reported to be effective in the treatment of esophageal and esophagogastric junction cancers. The aim of this study was to detect the frequency of EGFR mutation and expression in Chinese patients with esophageal, esophagogastric junction and gastric cancers, and to clarify the value of EGFR mutation and expression in predicting the efficacy of TKI in the treatment of these tumors.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>In this study, 180 tumor samples with histologically confirmed esophageal cancer (39 cases), cancer of the esophagogastric junction (92 cases) and gastric cancer (49 cases) were collected. Twenty-nine different EGFR mutations in exons 18-21 were assessed by real-time PCR-optimized oligonucleotide probe method. EGFR protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 89 tumor samples.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The mutation analysis for EGFR (exons 18-21) showed no mutations in any of the hotspots of the gene in the 180 tumor samples analyzed. EGFR expression was negative in 12 tumor samples, 1+ in 31 tumor samples, 2+ in 24 tumor samples, and 3+ in 22 tumor samples. EGFR expression was 2+ or 3+ in 12 (92.3%) of the 13 esophageal squamous cell carcinomas, 29 (47.5%) of the 61 esophagogastric junction cancers, and 5 (33.3%) of the 15 gastric adenocarcinomas.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Our results indicate that EGFR mutation in exons 18-21 is absent in the examined samples of esophageal, esophagogastric junction and gastric cancers. More studies are warranted to explore the predictive biological markers for the therapeutic response to EGFR TKI.</p>

Preparation and evaluation of biodegradable molecularly imprinted polymers / 中国组织工程研究

BACKGROUND:The cross-linking reagent is the main unit to support the skeleton of molecularly imprinted polymers, which is closely related to the bio-friendly adaption of polymers. The biocompatible and biodegradable capacities of common crosslinking agents are unclear. OBJECTIVE:To prepare a novel biodegradable molecularly imprinted polymer and to evaluate the adsorption and biodegradability properties of the polymer. METHODS:The biodegradable molecularly imprinted polymer was synthesized with the acrylated polyε-caprolactone as the cross-linking reagent under the UV polymerization. The adsorption of the polymer was evaluated by adsorption isotherm, Scatchard analysis and kinetic curves. The biodegradation of the polymer was observed in the simulated physiological environment system in vitro. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Both the molecularly imprinted polymer and non-molecularly imprinted polymer showed an adsorption effect on theophyl ine, the template. But the adsorption amount of the molecularly imprinted polymer was significantly more than that of the non-molecularly imprinted polymer. The drug loading and encapsulation efficiency of the molecularly imprinted polymer were 1.54%and 12.48%, respectively. The degradation rates of molecularly imprinted polymer and poly(ε-caprolactone) diol were 6.60%and 1.33%, respectively, within the observation time in vitro. The obtained molecularly imprinted polymer not only exhibited specific adsorption to certain molecules but also showed good biodegradable properties in the simulated physiological environment system, which is necessary to be a potent drug carrier.