PEX3 promotes regenerative repair after myocardial injury in mice through facilitating plasma membrane localization of ITGB3.

The peroxisome is a versatile organelle that performs diverse metabolic functions. PEX3, a critical regulator of the peroxisome, participates in various biological processes associated with the peroxisome. Whether PEX3 is involved in peroxisome-related redox homeostasis and myocardial regenerative repair remains elusive. We investigate that cardiomyocyte-specific PEX3 knockout (Pex3-KO) results in an imbalance of redox homeostasis and disrupts the endogenous proliferation/development at different times and spatial locations. Using Pex3-KO mice and myocardium-targeted intervention approaches, the effects of PEX3 on myocardial regenerative repair during both physiological and pathological stages are explored. Mechanistically, lipid metabolomics reveals that PEX3 promotes myocardial regenerative repair by affecting plasmalogen metabolism. Further, we find that PEX3-regulated plasmalogen activates the AKT/GSK3ß signaling pathway via the plasma membrane localization of ITGB3. Our study indicates that PEX3 may represent a novel therapeutic target for myocardial regenerative repair following injury.

Checkpoint Kinase 1 Stimulates Endogenous Cardiomyocyte Renewal and Cardiac Repair by Binding to Pyruvate Kinase Isoform M2 C-Domain and Activating Cardiac Metabolic Reprogramming in a Porcine Model of Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury.

BACKGROUND: The regenerative capacity of the adult mammalian hearts is limited. Numerous studies have explored mechanisms of adult cardiomyocyte cell-cycle withdrawal. This translational study evaluated the effects and underlying mechanism of rhCHK1 (recombinant human checkpoint kinase 1) on the survival and proliferation of cardiomyocyte and myocardial repair after ischemia/reperfusion injury in swine. METHODS AND RESULTS: Intramyocardial injection of rhCHK1 protein (1 mg/kg) encapsulated in hydrogel stimulated cardiomyocyte proliferation and reduced cardiac inflammation response at 3 days after ischemia/reperfusion injury, improved cardiac function and attenuated ventricular remodeling, and reduced the infarct area at 28 days after ischemia/reperfusion injury. Mechanistically, multiomics sequencing analysis demonstrated enrichment of glycolysis and mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) pathways after rhCHK1 treatment. Co-Immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) experiments and protein docking prediction showed that CHK1 (checkpoint kinase 1) directly bound to and activated the Serine 37 (S37) and Tyrosine 105 (Y105) sites of PKM2 (pyruvate kinase isoform M2) to promote metabolic reprogramming. We further constructed plasmids that knocked out different CHK1 and PKM2 amino acid domains and transfected them into Human Embryonic Kidney 293T (HEK293T) cells for CO-IP experiments. Results showed that the 1-265 domain of CHK1 directly binds to the 157-400 amino acids of PKM2. Furthermore, hiPSC-CM (human iPS cell-derived cardiomyocyte) in vitro and in vivo experiments both demonstrated that CHK1 stimulated cardiomyocytes renewal and cardiac repair by activating PKM2 C-domain-mediated cardiac metabolic reprogramming. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that the 1-265 amino acid domain of CHK1 binds to the 157-400 domain of PKM2 and activates PKM2-mediated metabolic reprogramming to promote cardiomyocyte proliferation and myocardial repair after ischemia/reperfusion injury in adult pigs.

Symptom-to-balloon time and risk of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with STEMI undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention: The VERY-STEMI study.

Background: Ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) mainly occur in the early post-myocardial infarction (MI) period. However, studies examining the association between total myocardial ischemia time interval and the risk of new-onset VAs during a long-term follow-up are scarce. Methods: This study (symptom-to-balloon time and VEntricular aRrhYthmias in patients with STEMI, VERY-STEMI study) was a multicenter, observational cohort and real-world study, which included patients with ST-segment elevation MI (STEMI) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The primary endpoint was cumulative new-onset VAs during follow-up. The secondary endpoints were the major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and changes in left ventricular ejection fraction (ΔLVEF, %). Results: A total of 517 patients with STEMI were included and 236 primary endpoint events occurred. After multivariable adjustments, compared to patients with S2BT of 24 h-7d, those with S2BT ≤ 24 h and S2BT > 7d had a lower risk of primary endpoint. RCS showed an inverted U-shaped relationship between S2BT and the primary endpoint, with an S2BT of 68.4 h at the inflection point. Patients with S2BT ≤ 24 h were associated with a lower risk of MACE and a 4.44 increase in LVEF, while there was no significant difference in MACE and LVEF change between the S2BT > 7d group and S2BT of 24 h-7d group. Conclusions: S2BT of 24 h-7d in STEMI patients was associated with a higher risk of VAs during follow-up. There was an inverted U-shaped relationship between S2BT and VAs, with the highest risk at an S2BT of 68.4 h.

SIRT3-dependent mitochondrial redox homeostasis mitigates CHK1 inhibition combined with gemcitabine treatment induced cardiotoxicity in hiPSC-CMs and mice.

Administration of CHK1-targeted anticancer therapies is associated with an increased cumulative risk of cardiac complications, which is further amplified when combined with gemcitabine. However, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. In this study, we generated hiPSC-CMs and murine models to elucidate the mechanisms underlying CHK1 inhibition combined with gemcitabine-induced cardiotoxicity and identify potential targets for cardioprotection. Mice were intraperitoneally injected with 25 mg/kg CHK1 inhibitor AZD7762 and 20 mg/kg gemcitabine for 3 weeks. hiPSC-CMs and NMCMs were incubated with 0.5 uM AZD7762 and 0.1 uM gemcitabine for 24 h. Both pharmacological inhibition or genetic deletion of CHK1 and administration of gemcitabine induced mtROS overproduction and pyroptosis in cardiomyocytes by disrupting mitochondrial respiration, ultimately causing heart atrophy and cardiac dysfunction in mice. These toxic effects were further exacerbated with combination administration. Using mitochondria-targeting sequence-directed vectors to overexpress CHK1 in cardiomyocyte (CM) mitochondria, we identified the localization of CHK1 in CM mitochondria and its crucial role in maintaining mitochondrial redox homeostasis for the first time. Mitochondrial CHK1 function loss mediated the cardiotoxicity induced by AZD7762 and CHK1-knockout. Mechanistically, mitochondrial CHK1 directly phosphorylates SIRT3 and promotes its expression within mitochondria. On the contrary, both AZD7762 or CHK1-knockout and gemcitabine decreased mitochondrial SIRT3 abundance, thus resulting in respiration dysfunction. Further hiPSC-CMs and mice experiments demonstrated that SIRT3 overexpression maintained mitochondrial function while alleviating CM pyroptosis, and thereby improving mice cardiac function. In summary, our results suggest that targeting SIRT3 could represent a novel therapeutic approach for clinical prevention and treatment of cardiotoxicity induced by CHK1 inhibition and gemcitabine.

Automatic Kidney Segmentation Method Based on an Enhanced Generative Adversarial Network.

When deciding on a kidney tumor's diagnosis and treatment, it is critical to take its morphometry into account. It is challenging to undertake a quantitative analysis of the association between kidney tumor morphology and clinical outcomes due to a paucity of data and the need for the time-consuming manual measurement of imaging variables. To address this issue, an autonomous kidney segmentation technique, namely SegTGAN, is proposed in this paper, which is based on a conventional generative adversarial network model. Its core framework includes a discriminator network with multi-scale feature extraction and a fully convolutional generator network made up of densely linked blocks. For qualitative and quantitative comparisons with the SegTGAN technique, the widely used and related medical image segmentation networks U-Net, FCN, and SegAN are used. The experimental results show that the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), volumetric overlap error (VOE), accuracy (ACC), and average surface distance (ASD) of SegTGAN on the Kits19 dataset reach 92.28%, 16.17%, 97.28%, and 0.61 mm, respectively. SegTGAN outscores all the other neural networks, which indicates that our proposed model has the potential to improve the accuracy of CT-based kidney segmentation.

Rapid Synthesis of Diesel Precursors from Biomass-Derived Furanics Over Aluminum-Doped Mesoporous Silica Sphere Catalysts.

The condensation of biomass-derived molecules has been increasingly utilized as a sustainable strategy for the preparation of high-carbon precursors for high-density fuels, thus stimulating the demand for more efficient catalysts. This study concerns the synthesis of an aluminum-doped mesoporous silica sphere (Al-MSS) catalyst for the conversion of biobased furfural and 2-methylfuran into a C15 diesel precursor through a hydroxyalkylation/alkylation (HAA) reaction. A series of Al-MSS catalysts with different Si/Al ratios and calcination temperatures is prepared and extensively characterized, among which Al-MSS20-450 (Si/Al=20 : 1, calcined at 450 °C) exhibits unprecedentedly high reaction efficiency in catalyzing HAA reaction, offering a 94 % product yield at 140 °C in 20 min. The catalyst also gives high product yields across a broad temperature range from 80 °C to 140 °C with varied reaction time. Reaction kinetics reveal that both competitive substrate adsorption and temperature-dependent system viscosity affect the reaction efficiencies. Correlations between the catalytic activity and surface acid sites disclose that moderate and strong acid sites are primarily responsible for catalysis. Brønsted and Lewis acid sites are found by poisoning assays to work synergistically to catalyze the reaction, with the former being the primary sites. Finally, the catalyst displays good recycling performance, which further highlights its potential for industrial application.

Pulmonary Embolism After in vitro Fertilization and Cesarean Section: Two Case Reports and Brief Review of the Literature.

This paper reports two cases of postpartum pulmonary embolism in Taicang First People's Hospital affiliated to Soochow University. They share many similarities in age, fertilization way, birthing method, incidence of pulmonary embolism, treatment and prognosis. The main purpose is to inspire the current maternal PTE risk assessment, diagnosis and treatment, as well as to explore the existing limitations and problems.

LncRNA FAF attenuates hypoxia/ischaemia-induced pyroptosis via the miR-185-5p/PAK2 axis in cardiomyocytes.

Pyroptosis is associated with various cardiovascular diseases. Increasing evidence suggests that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in gene regulation, but how lncRNAs participate in the regulation of pyroptosis in the heart remains largely unknown. In this study, we aimed to explore the antipyroptotic effects of lncRNA FGF9-associated factor (FAF) in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The expression patterns of lncRNA FAF, miR-185-5p and P21 activated kinase 2 (PAK2) were detected in hypoxia/ischaemia-induced cardiomyocytes. Hoechst 33342/PI staining, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release assay, immunofluorescence and Western blotting were conducted to assay cell pyroptosis. The interaction between lncRNA FAF, miR-185-5p and PAK2 was verified by bioinformatics analysis, small RNA sequencing luciferase reporter assay and qRT-PCR. The expression of LncRNA FAF was downregulated in hypoxic cardiomyocytes and myocardial tissues. Overexpression of lncRNA FAF could attenuate cardiomyocyte pyroptosis, improve cell viability and reduce infarct size during the procession of AMI. Moreover, lncRNA FAF was confirmed as a sponge of miR-185-5p and promoted PAK2 expression in cardiomyocytes. Collectively, our findings reveal a novel lncRNA FAF/miR-185-5p/PAK2 axis as a crucial regulator in cardiomyocyte pyroptosis, which might be a potential therapeutic target of AMI.

MNK2-eIF4E axis promotes cardiac repair in the infarcted mouse heart by activating cyclin D1.

Adult mammals have limited potential for cardiac regeneration after injury. In contrast, neonatal mouse heart, up to 7 days post birth, can completely regenerate after injury. Therefore, identifying the key factors promoting the proliferation of endogenous cardiomyocytes (CMs) is a critical step in the development of cardiac regeneration therapies. In our previous study, we predicted that mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 2 (MNK2) has the potential of promoting regeneration by using phosphoproteomics and iGPS algorithm. Here, we aimed to clarify the role of MNK2 in cardiac regeneration and explore the underlying mechanism. In vitro, MNK2 overexpression promoted, and MNK2 knockdown suppressed cardiomyocyte proliferation. In vivo, inhibition of MNK2 in CMs impaired myocardial regeneration in neonatal mice. In adult myocardial infarcted mice, MNK2 overexpression in CMs in the infarct border zone activated cardiomyocyte proliferation and improved cardiac repair. In CMs, MNK2 binded to eIF4E and regulated its phosphorylation level. Knockdown of eukaryotic translation initiation factor (eIF4E) impaired the proliferation-promoting effect of MNK2 in CMs. MNK2-eIF4E axis stimulated CMs proliferation by activating cyclin D1. Our study demonstrated that MNK2 kinase played a critical role in cardiac regeneration. Over-expression of MNK2 promoted cardiomyocyte proliferation in vitro and in vivo, at least partly, by activating the eIF4E-cyclin D1 axis. This investigation identified a novel target for heart regenerative therapy.

Fracture Classification and Injury Segment Analysis of Tibiofibula and Ankle in Half-Squat Parachuting Landing / 医用生物力学

Objective To make classification and segment measurement for the cases with tibiofibular and ankle fractures in parachuting landing, and investigate main classification types of parachuting fractures and fracture segments of high risk.Methods A total of 56 fracture cases in parachuting landing were collected, and the tibiofibula and ankle fractures were classified according to AO-OTA or Lauge-Hansen classification standards respectively based on their digital X-ray images. The medium plane between talus and tibia joint planes in ankle joint was defined as the reference plane. The highest and lowest injury points of tibia and fibula were marked respectively, and the fracture segment was defined between the highest and lowest point for statistical analysis.Results For tibiofibular and ankle fracture cases in parachuting landing, fracture at both tibia and fibula accounted for 80.4%. The major classification of tibiofibula fracture was 42-D/5.2 (45.8%) and 42-D/5.1 (16.7%). The major classification for ankle fracture was pronation-external rotation (PER, 59.4%) and supination-external rotation (SER, 37.5%). When tibiofibular and ankle fracture cases in parachuting landing occurred, the fracture segment of the tibia was mainly from 57 to 143 mm above the reference plane and from 6 mm below the reference plane to 24 mm above the reference plane, while the fracture segment of the fibula was 4-45 mm and 74-83 mm above the reference plane. Injury risks of all above segments were higher than 50%.Conclusions For protection of lower limbs in parachuting landing, the fracture at both tibia and fibula should be highly noticed. The ankle motion of PER and SER should be especially restricted in parachuting ankle protection.

Serine/Threonine-Protein Kinase 3 Facilitates Myocardial Repair After Cardiac Injury Possibly Through the Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3ß/ß-Catenin Pathway.

Background The neonatal heart maintains its entire regeneration capacity within days after birth. Using quantitative phosphoproteomics technology, we identified that SGK3 (serine/threonine-protein kinase 3) in the neonatal heart is highly expressed and activated after myocardial infarction. This study aimed to uncover the function and related mechanisms of SGK3 on cardiomyocyte proliferation and cardiac repair after apical resection or ischemia/reperfusion injury. Methods and Results The effect of SGK3 on proliferation and oxygen glucose deprivation/reoxygenation- induced apoptosis in isolated cardiomyocytes was evaluated using cardiomyocyte-specific SGK3 overexpression or knockdown adenovirus5 vector. In vivo, gain- and loss-of-function experiments using cardiomyocyte-specific adeno-associated virus 9 were performed to determine the effect of SGK3 in cardiomyocyte proliferation and cardiac repair after apical resection or ischemia/reperfusion injury. In vitro, overexpression of SGK3 enhanced, whereas knockdown of SGK3 decreased, the cardiomyocyte proliferation ratio. In vivo, inhibiting the expression of SGK3 shortened the time window of cardiac regeneration after apical resection in neonatal mice, and overexpression of SGK3 significantly promoted myocardial repair and cardiac function recovery after ischemia/reperfusion injury in adult mice. Mechanistically, SGK3 promoted cardiomyocyte regeneration and myocardial repair after cardiac injury by inhibiting GSK-3ß (glycogen synthase kinase-3ß) activity and upregulating ß-catenin expression. SGK3 also upregulated the expression of cell cycle promoting genes G1/S-specific cyclin-D1, c-myc (cellular-myelocytomatosis viral oncogene), and cdc20 (cell division cycle 20), but downregulated the expression of cell cycle negative regulators cyclin kinase inhibitor P 21 and cyclin kinase inhibitor P 27. Conclusions Our study reveals a key role of SGK3 on cardiac repair after apical resection or ischemia/reperfusion injury, which may reopen a novel therapeutic option for myocardial infarction.

Automatic brain tumour diagnostic method based on a back propagation neural network and an extended set-membership filter.

BACKGROUND: Diagnosing brain tumours remains a challenging task in clinical practice. Despite their questionable accuracy, magnetic resonance image (MRI) scans are presently considered the optimal facility for assessing the growth of tumours. However, the efficiency of manual diagnosis is low, and high computational cost and poor convergence restrict the application of machine learning methods. This study aims to design a method that can reliably diagnose brain tumours from MRI scans. METHODS: First, image pre-processing (which includes background removal, size standardization, noise removal, and contrast enhancement) is utilized to normalize the images. Then, grey level co-occurrence matrix features are selected as texture features of the brain MRI scans. Finally, a method combining a back propagation neural network (BPNN) and an extended set-membership filter (ESMF) is proposed to classify features and perform image classification. RESULTS: A total of 304 patient MRI series (247 images of brains with tumours and 57 images of normal brains) were included and assessed in this study. The results revealed that our proposed method can achieve an accuracy of 95.40% and has classification accuracies of 97.14% and 88.24% for brain tumour and normal brain, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study proposes an automatic brain tumour detection model constructed using a combination of BPNN and ESMF. The model is found to be able to accurately classify brain MRI scans as normal or tumour images.

Evaluation of Optimal Gravity Center Position of Backpack in Half-Squat Parachuting Landing / 医用生物力学

Objective To study effects of backpack gravity center position on kinetics and kinematics of lower-extremity joints in parachuting landing and evaluate the injuries. Methods Seven participants performed parachuting landing with backpack gravity center on three positions: low-back (position 1), upper-back (position 2) and abdomen (position 3). Results The peak vertical ground reaction force (GRF) with backpack on position 2 was significantly lower than that on position 1. The joint moment on sagittal plane of the hip with backpack on position 2 was significantly higher than that on position 1 and position 3. The joint energy absorption of the hip with backpack on position 2 was significantly higher than that on position 1. The angular displacement of the hip on sagittal plane with backpack on position 2 was significantly higher than that on position 1 and was significantly lower than that on position 3. The angular velocity of the hip on sagittal plane with backpack on position 2 was significantly lower than that on position 3. Conclusions Different positions of backpack gravity center could significantly influence kinetic and kinematic parameters of the hip. Backpack gravity center on upper-back position could decrease the lower-extremity injuries. The results can provide evidences for evaluating backpack gravity center and decreasing injuries in parachuting landing.

Factors Related to Penile Erectile Function for Men with Spinal Cord Injury / 中国康复理论与实践

Objective:To analyze the clinical features related to erectile dysfunction for male patients with spinal cord injury. Methods:From December, 2019 to January, 2021, 28 male patients with spinal cord injury were detected the stiffness and periactivity index of penises during night sleep using RigiScan. The patients were grouped as presence or absence of bulbocavernous reflex, anal autonomic contraction, anal tactile sensation and anal pressure sensation, to compare the stiffness and periactivity index between the groups. Results:The stiffness and periactivity indexes were more in patients presenting bulbocavernosus reflex, anal autonomic contraction, anal tactile sensation and anal deep pressure sensation (|t| > 2.19, P < 0.05). Conclusion:Bulbocavernous reflex, anal autonomic contraction, anal tactile and anal deep pressure response may predict penile erectile function after spinal cord injury.

Taenia saginata Infection Misdiagnosed as Acute Cholecystitis in a Tibetan Patient, in China

The present study reports a rare case of Taenia saginata infection, which was initially diagnosed as acute cholecystitis in a Tibetan patient at the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau pastoral area, China. A 45-year-old female was initially diagnosed with acute cholecystitis at a hospital in China. She had a slight fever, weight loss and constipation and complained of pain in the upper abdomen and left back areas. Increase of monocyte, eosinophil and basophil levels were shown. Taenia sp. eggs were detected in a fecal examination. An adult tapeworm approximately 146 cm in length, whitish-yellow color, was collected from the patient after treatment with traditional Chinese medicine. The adult tapeworm had a scolex and proglottids with genital pores. The scolex was rectangular shape with 4 suckers and rostellum without hooklet. The cox1 gene sequence shared 99.5-99.8% homology with that of T. saginata from other regions in China. The patient was diagnosed finally infected with T. saginata by morphological and molecular charateristics.

Taenia saginata Infection Misdiagnosed as Acute Cholecystitis in a Tibetan Patient, in China

The present study reports a rare case of Taenia saginata infection, which was initially diagnosed as acute cholecystitis in a Tibetan patient at the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau pastoral area, China. A 45-year-old female was initially diagnosed with acute cholecystitis at a hospital in China. She had a slight fever, weight loss and constipation and complained of pain in the upper abdomen and left back areas. Increase of monocyte, eosinophil and basophil levels were shown. Taenia sp. eggs were detected in a fecal examination. An adult tapeworm approximately 146 cm in length, whitish-yellow color, was collected from the patient after treatment with traditional Chinese medicine. The adult tapeworm had a scolex and proglottids with genital pores. The scolex was rectangular shape with 4 suckers and rostellum without hooklet. The cox1 gene sequence shared 99.5-99.8% homology with that of T. saginata from other regions in China. The patient was diagnosed finally infected with T. saginata by morphological and molecular charateristics.

The effect of Snyder's hope theory nursing on the scores of psychological stress, quality of life and neurological function in patients with acute hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage / 中国实用护理杂志

Objective:To study the effect of Snyder's hope theory nursing on the scores of psychological stress, quality of life and neurological function in patients with acute hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage.Methods:From June 2017 to December 2018, 100 patients with acute hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi′an Jiaotong University were selected as the study object. According to the random number table, the patients were divided into observation group (50 cases) and control group (50 cases).The patients in the control group were given routine rehabilitation nursing mode, and the patients in the observation group received Snyder′s hope theory nursing on the basis of the control group. The rescue time, the recovery time and the incidence of complications of the two groups were compared. The degree of anxiety and depression, neurological function, quality of life of the patients were evaluated by Self-rating Anxiety Scale(SAS), Self-rating Depression Scale(SDS), National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale(NHISS), Glasgow Coma Scale(GCS) and SF-36.Results:The rescue time and recovery time were (58.13±10.36) min, (12.7±5.3) d in the observation group, and (85.71±8.30) min, (21.1±3.3) d in the control group, and there were significant differences between the two groups ( t values were 14.691, 10.646, P < 0.05).There was no significant difference in SAS, SDS, NIHSS, GCS, SF-36 score before intervention between the two groups ( P> 0.05).The scores of SAS, NIHSS, GCS after intervention were (40.56±1.72), (11.23±2.85), (13.12±4.11) points in the observation group, and (46.56±1.62), (14.97±4.55), (11.13±3.15) points in the control group, and there were significant differences between the two groups ( t values were 17.956, 4.926, 3.212, P<0.01). There were significant differences in SF-36 after intervention between the two groups( t values were 7.124-13.014, all P<0.01). The incidence of complications was 8.0%(4/50) in the observation group, and 24.0%(12/50) in the control group, and there was significant difference between the two groups( χ2 value was 4.762, P<0.05). Conclusions:Snyder's hope theory nursing has a significant effect on the improvement of anxiety and depression in patients with acute hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage, which is worth popularizing.

Study on effect of gypenosides on insulin sensitivity of rats with diabetes mellitus via regulating NF-κB signaling pathway / 中国中药杂志

This study focused on the ameliorative effects of gypenosides(GPS) on insulin sensitivity and inflammatory factors in rats with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2 DM) and explored their possible molecular mechanisms. After the successful establishment of T2 DM model, diabetic rats were randomly divided into four groups, including model group, GPS groups(200, 100 mg·kg~(-1)) and metformin group(100 mg·kg~(-1)), with healthy rats serving as the control. After 6-week intragastric administration, fasting blood glucose(FBG) and oral glucose tolerance were examined. The levels of insulin, C-peptide, tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α), interleukin-1β(IL-1β), interleukin-6(IL-6) and C-reactive protein(CRP) in serum were examined. Then the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance(HOMA-IR) and insulin sensitivity index(ISI) were calculated. The protein expression levels of phosphorylated insulin receptor substrate-1(p-IRS-1) and phosphorylated protein kinase B(p-Akt) in skeletal muscle were measured by Western blot, as well as those of phosphorylated inhibitor of nuclear factor-κB(NF-κB) kinase β(p-IKKβ), phosphorylated alpha inhibitor of NF-κB(p-IκBα) and phosphorylated p65 subunit of NF-κB(p-p65) in adipose tissue. The relative expression levels of glucose transporter 4(GLUT4) mRNA in skeletal muscle and NF-κB mRNA in adipose tissue were measured by qRT-PCR, and the morphological changes of pancreatic tissue were observed. Compared with the model group, the GPS groups witnessed significant decrease in FBG, marked amelioration of impaired oral glucose tolerance and significant increase in ISI. Further, the high-dose GPS group saw significantly reduced HOMA-IR, TNF-α, IL-1β and CRP, significantly increased expression levels of p-IRS-1(Tyr), p-Akt and GLUT4, and markedly inhibited p-IRS-1(Ser), p-IKKβ, p-IκBα, p-p65 and NF-κB. The concentration of CRP and the expression levels of p-IRS-1(Ser), p-IKKβ, p-IκBα and NF-κB were remarkably reduced in the low-dose GPS group. However, GPS was found less effective in the regulation of serum insulin, C-peptide and IL-6 levels and the alleviation of pancreatic islet injury. The results indicated that GPS can reduce FBG and improve insulin sensitivity in diabetic rats possibly by regulating the NF-κB signaling pathway, inhibiting inflammation, and thereby regulating the expression of key proteins in the insulin signaling pathway.

The changes in effective connectivity in the precentral gyrus after transcranial magnetic stimulation / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

Objective:To investigate any change in the effective connectivity between the bilateral anterior central gyruses after transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).Methods:Twenty-one healthy subjects were examined using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) before and after receiving continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS). The brain atlas of the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was used for fine partitioning of the bilateral anterior central gyruses. Granger causality analysis was used to compare any changes in the effective connectivity between them.Results:After the cTBS inhibited the right M1 area, significant changes in effective connectivity among the sub-regions of the bilateral M1 area were observed. The effective connectivity of the right upper limb to the left upper limb and the left head to face were weakened, while that of the left upper limb to the right head, as well as of the face to the right upper limb was enhanced.Conclusion:For people whose right M1 area has been inhibited by cTBS, the effective connectivity changes in both upper limb functional areas of the M1 region reflect inter-hemispheric inhibition. Opposite changes were found in the trunk and upper limbs.

[Changes of inflammatory factors after hepatic cystic echinococcosis surgery and intervention of ulinastatin in Qinghai area].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the changes of inflammatory factors after the hepatic cystic echinococcosis surgery and explore the intervention effect of ulinastatin on postoperative inflammatory factors. METHODS: Sixty patients with hepatic cystic echinococcosis were selected and randomly divided into a control group and ulinastatin intervention group according to whether or not use ulinastatin. The peripheral venous blood was extracted in all the patients and the levels of IL-6, IL-8, IL-9, and IL-10 were detected by the ELISA method on the day before operation, 1 day, 3 days, 5 days and 7 days after operation, respectively. The data was statistical analyzed to detect the relationships between/among the inflammatory factors mentioned above and ulina-statin and time. RESULTS: The variation of the levels of IL-6, IL-8, IL-9, and IL-10 were changed by the intervention of ulina-statin at different time. The differences of the levels of IL-6, IL-8, IL-9, and IL-10 between the ulinastatin intervention group and the control group were not significant on the day before operation, 1 day and 3 days after operation (t = -1.15 to 1.82, all P > 0.05), but the levels of IL-6, IL-8, IL-9, and IL-10 of the ulinastatin intervention group were significantly lower than those of the control group and there were statistically significant differences 5 days and 7 days after the operation (t = 3.22 and 23.51, both P<0.05) . CONCLUSIONS: Ulinastatin has a good effect in inhibiting the inflammatory factors and can protect and repair the postoperative hepatic injury as well in patients with hepatic cystic echinococcosis.