RESUMO
Exercise has beneficial effects on emotional cognitive control for the majority of the population. However, the impact of exercise on cognitive processes in perimenopausal women remains unclear. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of aerobic exercise on the cognitive processes of perimenopausal women using an emotional Stroop task (EST). METHOD: A quasi-experimental pilot study was conducted involving 14 perimenopausal women (Peri-MG) and 13 healthy young women (YG) who completed an EST before and after an aerobic cycling exercise. Mixed-effects models for repeated measures were used to analyze reaction times (RTs) and error rates (ERs) during emotional word processing (positive, negative, and neutral) for both groups. RESULTS: Compared with the YG, the Peri-MG showed significantly shortened RTs for positive and negative emotions (p < 0.05) post-exercise, but not for neutral words. In addition, the Peri-MG exhibited significantly increased ERs for negative words at baseline compared with the YG (p < 0.05), but this difference was not observed during the post-exercise test. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that aerobic exercise can enhance executive control performance in perimenopausal women. The Peri-MG exhibited marked behavioral plasticity in the form of reduced bias to salient cues that were significantly more sensitive to alterations due to exercise. This new evidence enhances the understanding of emotional vulnerability and beneficial susceptibility to exercise in perimenopausal women.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Microdissection testicular sperm extraction is an effective method to retrieve sperm from non-obstructive azoospermia patients. However, its successful rate is less than 50%. OBJECTIVES: To identify the predictive value of circular RNAs in serum for sperm retrieval rate in non-obstructive azoospermia patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 180 non-obstructive azoospermia patients were recruited in this study, including 84 individuals with successful sperm retrieval and 96 individuals with failed sperm retrieval. Our study contained two phases. First, 20 patients, selected from the 180 patients, were included in screening cohort. In this cohort, the top 20 circular RNAs from our previous testicular circRNA profiles were verified between successful and failed sperm retrieval groups using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Six circular RNAs with the most significantly different expressions were selected for further verification. Second, the 180 patients were included as discovery cohort to verify the six circular RNAs. Circular RNAs were extracted from serum in each participant. Logistic regression analysis was further performed to identify the predictive value and the area under the curve analysis was used to evaluate diagnostic efficiency, sensitivity, and specificity. RESULTS: Six circular RNAs including hsa_circ_0058058, hsa_circ_0008045, hsa_circ_0084789, hsa_circ_0000550, hsa_circ_0007422, and hsa_circ_0004099 showed aberrant expressions between the successful and failed sperm retrieval group. In addition, both single-circular RNA panels and multi-circular RNA panels were finally verified to be significant in predicting sperm retrieval rate. Notably, multi-circular RNAs panels demonstrated better predictive abilities compared with single-circRNA panels, and the combined panel of six-circular RNAs (risk score = 1.094×hsa_circ_0058058+0.697×hsa_circ_0008045+0.718×hsa_circ_0084789-0.591×hsa_circ_0000550-0.435×hsa_circ_0007422-1.017×hsa_circ_0004099-1.561) exhibited the best predictive ability in the present study with an AUC of 0.977, a sensitivity of 91.7% and a specificity of 86.5%. A higher risk score indicated a higher risk of failure in sperm retrieval. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our study was the first to report that testis-derived circular RNAs in serum have the ability to predict sperm retrieval rate in non-obstructive azoospermia patients, whether it is a single-circular RNA or a combination of multi-circular RNAs.
RESUMO
Hydroxyapatite (HA) is a biomimetic biomaterial that has been widely used in bone repair for many years. However, the increased risk of infection after surgery and long-time tracing for the material distribution and degradation during bone reconstruction remain challenges in the clinic. Zinc (Zn) is considered as an indispensable microelement for humans and is characterized with antibacterial action and osteogenic activity. Terbium (Tb), a rare-earth element, emits stable fluorescence under ultraviolet light. Here, Tb3+/Zn2+ co-doped hydroxyapatite (HA:Tb/Zn) was prepared to synchronously realize the antibacterial effect, osteogenic activity, and long-time tracing property. We found that HA:Tb/Zn had a strong antibacterial effect on both Gram-positive and Gram-negative clinical infectious bacteria, as well as improved osteogenic activity. HA:Tb/Zn also displayed stable green fluorescence in vitro and in vivo, which indicated great potential for recognizing the material changes during the bone reconstruction process. The combination of the ternary functions is of great significance to control the overuse of antibiotics and realize long-time tracing, and provide a versatile design on biomaterials in bone repair.
