Association between functional dyspepsia and serum levels of brain-gut peptides in children / 中国当代儿科杂志

OBJECTIVES@#To study the association between functional dyspepsia (FD) and serum levels of brain-gut peptides including calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), nesfatin-1, and ghrelin in children.@*METHODS@#A total of 38 children with FD who attended Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University from November 2019 to December 2020 were enrolled as the FD group. Thirty-four healthy children were enrolled as the control group. Serum samples were collected from all of the children. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure serum levels of CGRP, ghrelin, and nesfatin-1 for comparison between the two groups. The scores of clinical symptoms were determined for the children with FD. Spearman rank correlation analysis was used to investigate the correlation of symptom scores with the serum levels of brain-gut peptides.@*RESULTS@#The FD group had significantly higher serum levels of nesfatin-1 and CGRP than the control group (P<0.05), while there was no significant difference in the serum level of ghrelin between the two groups (P>0.05). The serum level of nesfatin-1 was positively correlated with the symptom score of early satiety (rs=0.553, P<0.001), but was not significantly correlated with the total score of FD (rs=0.191, P=0.250). The serum level of CGRP was positively correlated with the scores of abdominal pain (rs=0.479, P=0.002) and belching (rs=0.619, P<0.001) and the total score of FD (rs=0.541, P<0.001).@*CONCLUSIONS@#CGRP and nesfatin-1 may play an important role in the pathophysiological process of FD.

Beneficial effects and related mechanism of hawthorn leaves flavonoids on cardiac function in rats with acute myocardial infarction / 中华心血管病杂志

Objective: To explore the effect and related regulatory mechanism of hawthorn leaf flavonoids (FHL) on cardiac function in rats with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Methods: Sixty SPF male Sprague-Dawley rats (9-week-old, weighing 300-350 g) were used in this study. Ten rats were assigned to sham operation group, and the remaining 50 rats were used to establish the AMI model with coronary artery ligation method, AMI was successfully established in 36 rats. AMI rats were randomly divided into AMI group and FHL low-, medium-, and high-dose groups (n=9 for each group). Rats received intraperitoneal injection (10 ml·kg-1·day-1) with physiological saline and FHL solution with concentrations of 0.3, 0.6, and 1.2 mg/ml, respectively for 4 consecutive weeks. Echocardiography was performed at the end of experiments. Left ventricular end diastolic diameter (LVEDD), left ventricular end diastolic anterior wall thickness (LAWD), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular end diastolic pressure (LVEDP) were measured. Then the rats were sacrificed under deep anesthesia, and the left ventricular anterior wall tissue was used for pathological examinations by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. Other myocardial tissue was used for in situ terminal transferase labeling (TUNEL) staining, and the apoptosis rate of cardiomyocytes was calculated. The myocardial cell apoptosis rate, the mRNA, and protein expressions of phosphatidylinositol 3β-kinase (PI3K), protein kinase B (Akt), glycogen synthetase kinase-3 (GSK3β), cyclin D1 and the protein expressions of p-Akt and p-GSK3β were detected by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and Western blot respectively. Results: Compared with sham operation group, the LVEDD and LVEDP of the rats in AMI group and FHL low-, medium-and high-dose groups were increased, and the LAWD and LVEF were reduced (all P<0.05). Compared with AMI group, LVEDD and LVEDP were reduced, and LAWD and LVEF were increased in FHL low-, medium-and high-dose groups (all P<0.05). LVEDD and LVEDP decreased, and LAWD and LVEF increased in proportion to the increase of FHL dose (all P<0.05). LVEDD and LAWD values were similar between FHL low-dose and medium-dose groups (both P>0.05). HE staining results evidenced necrotic myocardial tissue, together with disordered arrangement of myocardial fibers, and a large number of inflammatory cells infiltrated in the myocardial tissue in AMI group. The myocardial damage of rats in FHL low-, medium-, and high-dose groups was less than that of AMI group. The myocardial fibers were arranged neatly, but there were still partial breaks and a small amount of inflammatory cell infiltration in the myocardial tissue and there were scattered islands of normal myocardial tissue in the infarct area of these groups. Among them, myocardial damage was the least in FHL high-dose group. The results of TUNEL staining showed that compared with AMI group, the apoptosis rate of myocardial cells was significantly reduced in FHL low-, medium-, and high-dose groups (all P<0.001), but was still higher than that in sham operation group (all P<0.001). Myocardial cell apoptosis rate decreased in proportion with increasing FHL dose (P<0.05). The RT-qPCR results showed that compared with AMI group, the expression levels of PI3K and cyclin D1 mRNA were significantly upregulated in the myocardial tissue of rats in FHL low-, medium-, and high-dose groups, but still lower than those in sham operation group (all P<0.05), and PI3K and cyclin D1 mRNA expression levels increased with the increase dose of FHL (P<0.05). Western blot results showed that compared with AMI group, the expression levels of PI3K, p-Akt, p-GSK3β, and cyclin D1 were significantly upregulated in the myocardial tissue of rats in FHL low-, medium-, and high-dose groups, but still lower than those in sham operation group (all P<0.05), and the protein expression levels of PI3K, p-Akt, p-GSK3β, and cyclin D1 increased in proportion with the increase dose of FHL (all P<0.05). Conclusion: FHL can effectively improve cardiac function in rats with AMI, and the beneficial effects may be partly mediated through activating PI3K/GSK3β/cyclin D1 signaling pathway.

Study on Adsorption of Two Sulfonamide Antibiotics by Graphene Oxide / 分析化学

Graphene oxide (GO) was prepared by modified Hummers method with graphite as raw materials and used as adsorbent for sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) and sulfamerazine (SMR) in aqueous solutions.The graphene oxide was characterized by fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).The effects of pH value,adsorption time,initial concentration and temperature on the adsorption property of GO to two sulfonamide antibiotics were investigated and combined with the physical and chemical properties of two kinds of antibiotics.The result showed the maximum adsorption capacity were 138.50 mg/g and 96.06 mg/g at pH=1,adsorbent dosage of 20 mg,45℃,adsorption time of 100 min and 120 min for SMZ and SMR,respectively.The adsorption data of SMZ and SMR fitted well with the Pseudo-second-order kinetics model and the Langmuir isotherm model.The adsorption properties of GO were evaluated with lake water and tap water as real samples and good results were obtained.GO could be used as enrichment and separation materials for sample pretreatment and removing pollutant in wastewater.