Effects of alendronate sodium combined with InterTan on osteoporotic femoral intertrochanteric fractures and fracture recurrence.

BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is a global disease affecting 6.6% of the total population. Osteoporosis complications include fractures, increased bone fragility, and reduced bone strength. The most commonly affected parts are the vertebral body, hip, and wrist. AIM: To examine the effect of alendronate sodium combined with InterTan for osteoporotic femoral intertrochanteric fractures on bone and fracture recurrence. METHODS: In total, 126 cases of osteoporotic femoral intertrochanteric fractures were selected and divided into two groups according to the 1:1 principle by the simple random method. They were admitted to the Department of Orthopedics, First Affiliated Hospital of Xingtai Medical College, from January 2018 to September 2020. The control group was treated with InterTan fixation combined with placebo, and the observation group with alendronate sodium based on InterTan fixation. Operation-related indicators, complications, and recurrent fractures were compared between the groups. Changes in bone metabolism markers, t value for hip bone mineral density, and Harris Hip Score were observed. RESULTS: Operation time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative ambulation time, and complications were compared between the groups, and no significant difference was found. The fracture healing time was significantly shorter in the observation group than in the control group. ß-Collagen-specific sequence (ß-CTX) and total aminoterminal propeptide of type I procollagen (T-PINP) in the control group at 3 mo after operation were compared with those before operation, and the difference was not significant. Six months after the operation, the ß-CTX level decreased and T-PINP level increased. ß-CTX level at 3 and 6 mo in the observation group after operation was lower, and T-PINP level was higher, than that before operation. Compared with the control group, T-PINP level of the observation group was significantly higher and ß-CTX level was significantly lower at 3 and 6 mo after operation. The t value of hip bone mineral density was compared in the control group before and 1 mo after operation, and significant difference was not found. Compared with the control group, the t value of hip bone mineral density in the observation group was significantly higher at 1, 3, 6, and 12 mo after operation. Compared with the control group, the Harris score of the observation group was significantly higher at 1, 3, 6, and 12 mo after operation. The recurrence rate of fractures in the observation group within 12 mo was 0.00%, which was significantly lower than 6.35% in the control group. CONCLUSION: Alendronate sodium combined with InterTan in the treatment of osteoporotic femoral intertrochanteric fractures can increase bone mineral density, improve hip joint function, promote fracture healing, and reduce fracture recurrence.

Epistatic association mapping for alkaline and salinity tolerance traits in the soybean germination stage.

Soil salinity and alkalinity are important abiotic components that frequently have critical effects on crop growth, productivity and quality. Developing soybean cultivars with high salt tolerance is recognized as an efficient way to maintain sustainable soybean production in a salt stress environment. However, the genetic mechanism of the tolerance must first be elucidated. In this study, 257 soybean cultivars with 135 SSR markers were used to perform epistatic association mapping for salt tolerance. Tolerance was evaluated by assessing the main root length (RL), the fresh and dry weights of roots (FWR and DWR), the biomass of seedlings (BS) and the length of hypocotyls (LH) of healthy seedlings after treatments with control, 100 mM NaCl or 10 mM Na2CO3 solutions for approximately one week under greenhouse conditions. A total of 83 QTL-by-environment (QE) interactions for salt tolerance index were detected: 24 for LR, 12 for FWR, 11 for DWR, 15 for LH and 21 for BS, as well as one epistatic QTL for FWR. Furthermore, 86 QE interactions for alkaline tolerance index were found: 17 for LR, 16 for FWR, 17 for DWR, 18 for LH and 18 for BS. A total of 77 QE interactions for the original trait indicator were detected: 17 for LR, 14 for FWR, 4 for DWR, 21 for LH and 21 for BS, as well as 3 epistatic QTL for BS. Small-effect QTL were frequently observed. Several soybean genes with homology to Arabidopsis thaliana and soybean salt tolerance genes were found in close proximity to the above QTL. Using the novel alleles of the QTL detected above, some elite parental combinations were designed, although these QTL need to be further confirmed. The above results provide a valuable foundation for fine mapping, cloning and molecular breeding by design for soybean alkaline and salt tolerance.

Epistatic association mapping in homozygous crop cultivars.

The genetic dissection of complex traits plays a crucial role in crop breeding. However, genetic analysis and crop breeding have heretofore been performed separately. In this study, we designed a new approach that integrates epistatic association analysis in crop cultivars with breeding by design. First, we proposed an epistatic association mapping (EAM) approach in homozygous crop cultivars. The phenotypic values of complex traits, along with molecular marker information, were used to perform EAM. In our EAM, all the main-effect quantitative trait loci (QTLs), environmental effects, QTL-by-environment interactions and QTL-by-QTL interactions were included in a full model and estimated by empirical Bayes approach. A series of Monte Carlo simulations was performed to confirm the reliability of the new method. Next, the information from all detected QTLs was used to mine novel alleles for each locus and to design elite cross combination. Finally, the new approach was adopted to dissect the genetic basis of seed length in 215 soybean cultivars obtained, by stratified random sampling, from 6 geographic ecotypes in China. As a result, 19 main-effect QTLs and 3 epistatic QTLs were identified, more than 10 novel alleles were mined and 3 elite parental combinations, such as Daqingdou and Zhengzhou790034, were predicted.