Exploring the effects of Hippo signaling pathway on rumen epithelial proliferation.

BACKGROUND: The current understanding to the mechanism of rumen development is limited. We hypothesized that the Hippo signaling pathway controlled the proliferation of rumen epithelium (RE) during postnatal development. In the present study, we firstly tested the changes of the Hippo signaling pathway in the RE during an early growing period from d5 to d25, and then we expanded the time range to the whole preweaning period (d10-38) and one week post weaning (d45). An in vitro experiment was also carried out to verify the function of Hippo signaling pathway during RE cell proliferation. RESULTS: In the RE of lambs from d5 to d25, the expression of baculoviral IAP repeat containing (BIRC3/5) was increased, while the expressions of large tumor suppressor kinase 2 (LATS2), TEA domain transcription factor 3 (TEAD3), axin 1 (AXIN1), and MYC proto-oncogene (MYC) were decreased with rumen growth. From d10 to d38, the RE expressions of BIRC3/5 were increased, while the expressions of LATS2 and MYC were decreased, which were similar with the changes in RE from d5 to d25. From d38 to d45, different changes were observed, with the expressions of LATS1/2, MOB kinase activator 1B (MOB1B), and TEAD1 increased, while the expressions of MST1 and BIRC5 decreased. Correlation analysis showed that during the preweaning period, the RE expressions of BIRC3/5 were positively correlated with rumen development variables, while LAST2 was negatively correlated with rumen development variables. The in vitro experiment validated the changes of LATS2 and BIRC3/5 in the proliferating RE cells, which supported their roles in RE proliferation during preweaning period. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the LATS2-YAP1-BIRC3/5 axis participates in the RE cell proliferation and promotes rumen growth during the preweaning period.

B-cell maturation antigen chimeric antigen receptor-T therapy alleviated heart failure in patients with multiple myeloma.

Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) are likely to achieve poor therapeutic response when organs are involved. We produced anti-B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells, which are in a trial for patients with relapsed/refractory MM. One enrolled patient developed severe heart failure, highly suspected as light chain cardiac amyloidosis. He exhibited increased N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide with a peak of 32 299 ng/mL and heart failure with an ejection fraction of 30%. Anti-BCMA CAR-T cells were administered following lymphodepletion. The patient achieved cardiac response within 1 week with a decrease in N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide by 80%, an increase in ejection fraction from 30% to 56%, and a haematological response with negative minimal residual disease at 1 month and a complete response at 1 year. To date, this patient has maintained good health without heart failure or haematological relapse. Herein, we show the efficacy of anti-BCMA CAR-T cells in patients with MM and severe heart failure.

Maternal Rumen Bacteriota Shapes the Offspring Rumen Bacteriota, Affecting the Development of Young Ruminants.

The maternal rumen microbiota can affect the infantile rumen microbiota and likely offspring growth, and some rumen microbes are heritable and are associated with host traits. However, little is known about the heritable microbes of the maternal rumen microbiota and their role in and effect on the growth of young ruminants. From analyzing the ruminal bacteriota from 128 Hu sheep dams and their 179 offspring lambs, we identified the potential heritable rumen bacteria and developed random forest prediction models to predict birth weight, weaning weight, and preweaning gain of the young ruminants using rumen bacteria as predictors. We showed that the dams tended to shape the bacteriota of the offspring. About 4.0% of the prevalent amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) of rumen bacteria were heritable (h2 > 0.2 and P < 0.05), and together they accounted for 4.8% and 31.5% of the rumen bacteria in relative abundance in the dams and the lambs, respectively. Heritable bacteria classified to Prevotellaceae appeared to play a key role in the rumen niche and contribute to rumen fermentation and the growth performance of lambs. Lamb growth traits could be successfully predicted using some maternal ASVs, and the accuracy of the predictive models was improved when some ASVs from both dams and their offspring were included. IMPORTANCE Using a study design that enabled direct comparison of the rumen microbiota between sheep dams and their lambs, between littermates, and between sheep dams and lambs from other mothers, we identified the heritable subsets of rumen bacteriota in Hu sheep, some of which may play important roles in affecting the growth traits of young lambs. Some maternal rumen bacteria could help predict the growth traits of the young offspring, and they may assist in breeding of and selection for high-performance sheep.

Is Revascularization of V1 Segment of Vertebral Artery Combined with Ipsilateral Carotid Endarterectomy Safe?

BACKGROUND: The recommendation of the European Society for Vascular Surgery (ESVS) is that vertebral revascularization combined with ipsilateral CEA (carotid endarterectomy) should not be performed in the same operation. ESVS believes that vertebral revascularization combined with ipsilateral CEA increases perioperative death/stroke rates. In our opinion, revascularization of the first segment of vertebral artery (V1) combined with ipsilateral CEA is safe compared to vertebral V1 revascularization in the perioperative period. The purpose of this study is to prove that revascularization of V1 segment of vertebral artery combined with ipsilateral CEA is secure in the perioperative period. METHODS: We describe our experience with homochronous revascularization of V1 segment of vertebral artery with ipsilateral CEA (group B) and simple revascularization of V1 segment of vertebral artery (group A) in 48 consecutive patients during a 5-year period. O.Y. (Ouyang) incisions were used in both groups. We compare the results of the 2 procedures with aspects of mortality, stroke, morbidity, incident rates of complications, and so on. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between patients in group A and group B in terms of red blood cell reduction, postoperative ventilator using time, postoperative drainage volume, postoperative drainage days, postoperative hospitalize duration, and incident rates of postoperative complications. The postoperative complications include death, stroke, Horner syndrome, vocal paralysis, hypoglossal nerve paralysis, wound hematomas, and lymphatic leakage. CONCLUSIONS: Revascularization of vertebral artery combined with ipsilateral CEA should be divided into revascularization of V1 segment of vertebral artery combined with ipsilateral CEA and revascularization of V3 segment of vertebral artery with ipsilateral CEA. Revascularization of V1 segment of vertebral artery combined with ipsilateral CEA is safe; it can be performed for suitable patients who are fit for indications. O.Y. incisions can fully expose the target blood vessels and simplify the procedures without transecting the sternocleidomastoid muscles in operations.

The novel hybrid polycarbonate polyurethane / polyester three-layered large-diameter artificial blood vessel.

BACKGROUND: The most common materials of artificial blood vessels are polyethylene terephthalate and polytetrafluoroethylene. But polycarbonate polyurethane (PCU) is an ideal material for vascular prostheses because of their excellent characteristics. As far as we know, our artificial blood vessel is the first type of hybrid PCU/polyester three-layered large-diameter artificial blood vessel in the world. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this preclinical animal experiment is to evaluate the hemocompatibility, histocompatibility, effectiveness, and safety of the three-layered large-diameter artificial blood vessel in sheep. METHODS: The artificial blood vessels took place of the initial segments of the sheep's thoracic aorta by end-to-end anastomosis. RESULTS: All of the 14 sheep are male, their average body weight (BW) was 30.57 ± 3.95 kg. All 14 artificial blood vessels successfully replaced the thoracic aortas. 5 sheep did not survive to the end of the experiment, while the remaining 9 sheep did. After the surgery, the blood biochemical and blood routine indicators fluctuate slightly within the normal range. The angiography showed that the implanted artificial blood vessels were unobstructed without obvious stenosis or expansion. 24 weeks after surgery, the lumen surfaces of the artificial blood vessels were covered by endothelia in different degrees, and the average endothelialization rate was 69.44% (range: 20% to 100%). CONCLUSIONS: This artificial blood vessel is the first to use PCU in large-diameter artificial vascular grafts. It has excellent blood compatibility, wonderful biocompatibility, high endothelialization rate, and 100% patency.

An Improved Encoder-Decoder Network Based on Strip Pool Method Applied to Segmentation of Farmland Vacancy Field.

In the research of green vegetation coverage in the field of remote sensing image segmentation, crop planting area is often obtained by semantic segmentation of images taken from high altitude. This method can be used to obtain the rate of cultivated land in a region (such as a country), but it does not reflect the real situation of a particular farmland. Therefore, this paper takes low-altitude images of farmland to build a dataset. After comparing several mainstream semantic segmentation algorithms, a new method that is more suitable for farmland vacancy segmentation is proposed. Additionally, the Strip Pooling module (SPM) and the Mixed Pooling module (MPM), with strip pooling as their core, are designed and fused into the semantic segmentation network structure to better extract the vacancy features. Considering the high cost of manual data annotation, this paper uses an improved ResNet network as the backbone of signal transmission, and meanwhile uses data augmentation to improve the performance and robustness of the model. As a result, the accuracy of the proposed method in the test set is 95.6%, mIoU is 77.6%, and the error rate is 7%. Compared to the existing model, the mIoU value is improved by nearly 4%, reaching the level of practical application.