ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Medication misuse or overuse is significantly associated with poor health outcomes. Information regarding the knowledge, cultural beliefs, and behavior about medication safety in the general population is important. AIM: To conduct a survey on medication habits and explored the potential factors impacting medication safety. METHODS: The current survey included adults from 18 districts and counties in Harbin, China. A questionnaire on medication safety was designed based on knowledge, cultural beliefs, and behavior. Both univariate and multivariate analyses were used to explore the factors that impacted medication safety. RESULTS: A total of 394 respondents completed the questionnaires on medication safety. The mean scores for knowledge, cultural beliefs, and behavior about medication safety were 59.41 ± 19.33, 40.66 ± 9.24, and 60.97 ± 13.69, respectively. The medication knowledge score was affected by age (P = 0.044), education (P < 0.001), and working status (P = 0.015). Moreover, the cultural beliefs score was significantly affected by education (P < 0.001). Finally, education (P = 0.003) and working status (P = 0.011) significantly affected the behavior score. CONCLUSION: The knowledge, cultural beliefs, and behavior about medication safety among the general population was moderate. Health education should be provisioned for the elderly, individuals with a low education level, and the unemployed to improve medication safety in Harbin, China.
ABSTRACT
It has been reported that the impaired cytotoxicity of natural killer (NK) cells and abnormal cytokines that are changed by the interaction between ectopic endometrial cells and immune cells is indispensable for the initiation and development of endometriosis (EMS). However, the mechanism of NK cells dysfunction in EMS remains largely unclear. Here, we found that NK cells in peritoneal fluid from women with EMS highly expressed indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO). Furthermore, IDO+NK cells possessed lower NKp46 and NKG2D but higher IL-10 than that of IDO-NK. Co-culture with endometrial stromal cells (nESCs) from healthy control or ectopic ESCs (eESCs) from women with EMS led to a significant increase in the IDO level in NK cells from peripheral blood, particularly eESCs, and an anti-TGF-ß neutralizing antibody suppressed these effects in vitro. NK cells co-cultured with ESC more preferentially inhibited the viability of nESCs than eESCs did, and pretreating with 1-methyl-tryptophan (1-MT), an IDO inhibitor, reversed the inhibitory effect of NK cells on eESC viability. These data suggest that ESCs induce IDO+NK cells differentiation partly by TGF-ß, and that IDO further restricts the cytotoxicity of NK cells in response to eESCs, which provides a potential therapeutic strategy for EMS patients, particularly those with a high number of impaired cytotoxic IDO+NK cells.
