Association of serum YKL-40 and DPP4 with T2-high asthma in Chinese adults.

This study aimed to assess the utility of serum YKL-40 and serum dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP4) as biomarkers for distinguishing between type 2 (T2)-high and T2-low asthma in the Chinese population. Additionally, we sought to explore the associations of serum YKL-40 and DPP4 levels with asthma characteristics and conventional markers. A real-world observational cross-sectional study was conducted, involving a total of 75 adult asthma patients. We collected general information, including demographics and medical history. Measurements included complete blood count, fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), post-bronchodilator spirometry, serum YKL-40 and serum DPP4 levels. Asthma endotypes, T2-high and T2-low, were defined through a comprehensive review of existing literature and expert group discussions. Logistic and linear regression models were employed. Our findings indicated no significant association between serum YKL-40 or serum DPP4 levels and T2-high asthma across all models. In the fully adjusted model, their odds ratios (OR) were 0.967 (95% CI: 0.920-1.017) and 0.997 (95% CI: 0.993-1.001), respectively. Notably, serum YKL-40 exhibited a positive correlation with FeNO (ß = 0.382, 95% CI: 0.230-0.533) after adjusting for confounding factors. This association, however, diminished in patients under 40 years old (P = .24), males (P = .25), and those with FEV1%pred of 80% or higher (P = .25). Serum DPP4 demonstrated a negative correlation with FEV1/FVC in the fully adjusted model (ß: -0.005, 95% CI: -0.009, -0.000). Among Chinese adult asthma patients, a positive correlation was observed between serum YKL-40 levels and FeNO in females aged over 40 with FEV1%pred less than 80%. Additionally, a weak negative correlation was found between serum DPP4 levels and FEV1/FVC. However, neither serum YKL-40 nor serum DPP4 levels exhibited the capability to differentiate between T2-high and T2-low asthma.

Castleman disease and TAFRO syndrome: To improve the diagnostic consciousness is the key.

BACKGROUND: Castleman disease (CD) and TAFRO syndrome are very rare in clinical practice. Most clinicians, especially non-hematological clinicians, do not know enough about the two diseases, so it often leads to misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis. AIM: To explore the clinical features and diagnosis of CD and TAFRO syndrome. METHODS: We retrospectively collected the clinical and laboratory data of 39 patients who were diagnosed with CD from a single medical center. RESULTS: Clinical classification identified 18 patients (46.15%) with unicentric Castleman disease (UCD) and 21 patients (53.85%) with multicentric Castleman disease (MCD), the latter is further divided into 13 patients (33.33%) with idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease-not otherwise specified (iMCD-NOS) and 8 patients (20.51%) with TAFRO syndrome. UCD and iMCD are significantly different in clinical manifestations, treatment, and prognosis. However, a few patients with MCD were diagnosed as UCD in their early stage. There was a correlation between two of Thrombocytopenia, anasarca and elevated creatinine, which were important components of TAFRO syndrome. In UCD group, the pathologies of lymph modes were mostly hyaline vascular type (13/18, 72.22%), however plasma cell type or mixed type could also appear. In iMCD-NOS group and TAFRO syndrome group, the pathologies of lymph mode shown polarity of plasma cell type and hyaline vascular type respectively. Compared with patients with TAFRO syndrome, patients with iMCD-NOS were diagnosed more difficultly. CONCLUSION: The clinical and pathological types of CD are not completely separate, there is an intermediate situation or mixed characteristics between two ends of clinical and pathological types. The clinical manifestations of patients with CD are determined by their pathological type. TAFRO syndrome is a special subtype of iMCD with unique clinical manifestations.

Kidney biopsy findings in two patients with TAFRO syndrome: case presentations and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: TAFRO syndrome is a clinical subtype of idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease (iMCD) that is characterized by thrombocytopenia, anasarca, fever, reticulin myelofibrosis (or renal dysfunction), and organomegaly. TAFRO syndrome has only recently been described, and many clinicians are unaware of this disease, leading to delays in diagnosis and treatment. We present two patients with TAFRO syndrome in whom renal biopsies were performed. CASE PRESENTATION: Both patients had subacute onset and exhibited renal insufficiency, edema, anemia, thrombocytopenia, polyserositis and lymphadenopathy over the disease course. However, there were many differences in their clinical manifestations. Case 1 was a 30-year-old woman admitted due to intermittent vaginal bleeding for 3 weeks. Laboratory tests on admission showed severe renal insufficiency (creatinine: 624 µmol/L), severe anemia (Hb: 41 g/L), and moderate thrombocytopenia (61 × 109/L). Case 2 was a 42-year-old man. Acute epigastric pain was his initial complaint, and computed tomography (CT) revealed retroperitoneal exudation around the pancreas. He was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis, and after treatment with a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) and somatostatin, his abdominal pain still recurred. During treatment, renal failure gradually increased, with oliguria, fever, anemia, thrombocytopenia, edema and massive ascites. Lymph node histologies were consistent with the hyaline-vascular (HV) type and mixed type, respectively, and renal histopathologies were consistent with thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA)-like renal lesions and membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN), respectively. Their general conditions improved after glucocorticoid therapy, but their renal functions did not recover completely. On the basis of glucocorticoids, second-line treatments with tocilizumab and rituximab, respectively, were applied. CONCLUSIONS: The diagnosis of TAFRO syndrome is based mainly on clinical manifestations and lymph node biopsies. A reliable early diagnosis and appropriate rapid treatment are essential to improve patient outcomes. Clinicians should deepen their understanding of this disease and similar conditions. Once the disease is suspected, lymph node biopsies should be performed as soon as possible. In addition, renal biopsies should be actively performed in patients with renal involvement.

Expression of Halo-hFGF18 and study of its effect on differentiation of ATDC5 cells.

Fibroblast growth factor 18 (FGF18) is a member of the fibroblast growth factor family and important in cartilage growth and development. However, the mechanism by which FGF18 mediates its biological functions is still unclear. In our study, we expressed the rhFGF18 protein fused to a HaloTag, (Halo-rhFGF18). MTT assay results indicated that both rhFGF18 and Halo-rhFGF18 have similar biological activities in NIH3T3 cells. However, basic FGF and acidic FGF were more potent than both rhFGF18 and Halo-rhFGF18. Confocal imaging data indicated that the red fluorescence labeled Halo-rhFGF18 strongly bound to ATDC5 cells and stimulated their proliferation and differentiation, which suggests that glycosaminoglycans may be involved in mediating the biological effects of rhFGF18 in ATDC5 cells. Moreover, western blot results demonstrated that, in ATDC5 cells, ERK1/2 signaling is activated upon stimulation with rhFGF18. Our results may open doors for the use of rhFGF18 as a drug to promote cartilage growth.

Depression among Migrant and Left-Behind Children in China in Relation to the Quality of Parent-Child and Teacher-Child Relationships.

The objective of this study was to examine rates of depression among migrant children (MC) and left-behind children (LBC) as compared to non-left-behind children (NLBC) and also to examine the relationship between depression among these children and the quality of their parent-child and teacher-child relationships. This study collected data from a large sample of 3,759 children aged from 8 to 17 years, including 824 who had been left behind by one parent (LBCO), 423 who had been left behind by both parents (LBCB), 568 MC and 1944 NLBC. Children's Depression Inventory-Short Form was used to measure child depression. Parent-Child Relationship Scale (PCRS) and Teacher-Child Relationship Scale (TCRS) were used to measure the quality of parent-child and teacher-child relationships, respectively. The results showed that the prevalence of depression was 10.5% among NLBC, 13.1% among LBCO, 16.1% among LBCB, and 20.1% among MC. Depression was related to parent-child relationship quality and teacher-child relationship quality. Negative parent-child relationship was more relevant to depression than negative teacher-child relationship among LBCB, while negative teacher-child relationship was the most correlated with depression among MC.

Biliary intervention aggravates cholestatic liver injury, and induces hepatic inflammation, proliferation and fibrogenesis in BDL mice.

Obstructive cholestasis occurs in various clinical situations, whose pathological process is complex and not well known. The present study was initiated to display the complex and multifaceted pathological process caused by obstructive cholestasis in bile duct-ligated mice. Adult mice were bile-duct-ligated or sham-operated, and serum and liver tissues were collected at the indicated time points. Automatic biochemical analyzer was used to monitor serum biochemical index; TUNEL, HE staining, immunohistochemistry and Real-time PCR were employed to evaluate liver apoptosis, necrosis, inflammation, as well as proliferation and fibrosis. Our results demonstrated that obstructive cholestasis led to elevated serum biochemical indicators, with ALT peaking at day 3, indicative of acute hepatic dysfunction. Meanwhile, the number of TUNEL-positive cells increased significantly, and by 2 weeks, mild to moderate necrosis became apparent in BDL mouse livers, which consequently aggravated hepatic inflammatory responses as was demonstrated by increased expression of KC-1, MIP-2, ICAM-1 and MPO in BDL mouse livers. Moreover, proliferative hepatocytes around periportal areas, manifested by enhanced cell mitosis and elevated expression of proliferative markers such as PCNA and Ki67, increased significantly after BDL, while increased CK-19-positive cells in bile ducts indicated bile duct hyperplasia. By 2 weeks, numerous α-SMA-positive cells and Sirius-stained collagen were observed, indicative of hepatic stellate cells (HSC) activation and fibrogenesis. In conclusion, biliary intervention led to a multifaceted hepatic pathological process characterized by aggravated liver injury and inflammatory reaction with enhanced cellular proliferation and fibrogenesis.

Hepatic expression profile of forkhead transcription factor genes in normal Balb/c mice and their dynamic changes after bile duct ligation.

Dysregulation of Forkhead box (Fox) transcription factor family genes was previously shown to lead to congenital disorders, diabetes mellitus, and carcinogenesis, and recent reports suggested that several Fox genes play important roles in the pathogenesis of liver fibrosis. The present study was initiated to determine the expression profiles of the Fox genes in normal Balb/c mouse liver and their dynamic expression changes during fibrogenesis induced by experimental bile duct ligation (BDL). RT-PCR was employed to detect 18 FOX family members including FOXO1, FOXO3, FOXM1, and FOXL1 in normal mouse liver. FQ-PCR was performed to analyze the dynamic mRNA expression changes of nine inflammation- or proliferation-related FOX family genes in BDL mice. Results showed that all the 18 Fox genes were expressed in the normal mouse liver, among which the expression of FOXO1 and FOXO3 were found to be the highest. The inflammation and proliferation-related FOX family genes were found to be dynamically changed during BDL-induced liver injury with reduced FOXO1 and enhanced FOXOL1 and FOXM1, indicating their potential involvement in the pathogenesis of liver fibrosis. This is the first systematic evaluation of hepatic expression of FOX genes in both normal and BDL mice.

[Studies on influence of fungal elicitor on hairy root of Panax ginseng biosynthesis ginseng saponin and biomass].

OBJECTIVE: To study influence of fungal elicitors on the biomass and ginseng saponin biosynthesis of hairy roots of Panax ginseng (HRPG). METHOD: Fungal elicitors were extracted from Colletorichum lagnarinm, Phoma filtrate, Fusarium oxysponum, Asperillus niger and culture with HRPG. The total ginseng sponin and four kinds of monomeric sponins were analysed by UV-spectrophotometry and RP-HPLC. RESULT: Fungal elicitors coula not only can influence on HRPG biomass and total ginseng sponin, but also improve or decrease some monomeric sponin. The total ginseng sponin could be increased to 3.649% but Rg1 and Re could not be detected when A. niger elicitors wss 20 mg x L(-1) in the culture fluid. CONCLUSION: Fungal elicitor has specificity influence on secondary metabolite of HRPG. HRPG can biosynthesize specially active component by using specific fungal elicitor is used.