Genetic Polymorphism of NQO1 Influences Susceptibility to Coronary Heart Disease in a Chinese Population: A Cross-Sectional Study and Meta-Anaylsis.

Objective: The present study is to explore the association between NQO1 gene polymorphism and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. Methods: This research were selected 80 CHD patients as the observation group and 130 healthy people who participated in normal physical examination during the same period as the control group. NQO1 gene polymorphism was detected by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. In addition, we conducted a meta-analysis to summarize the results of three relevant previously published adult population studies on the association between NQO1 gene polymorphism and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. Results: There were three genotypes (CC, CT, and TT) for NQO1 C609T polymorphism. The significant associations were found in TT genotype and T allele (all p<0.05). Specifically, People with the TT genotype have 2.06 times CHD risk as those with the CC genotype. And People with the T allele have 1.62 times CHD risk as those with the C allele. No significant association was found by any genetic models in the meta-analysis (all p >0.05). Conclusion: NQO1 gene polymorphism increased the CHD risk in a Chinese population. Combined with individual gene polymorphism, the accuracy of risk assessment for CHD can be improved and individualized health education can be provided for CHD patients by nurses.

Hammered silver appearance of the corneal endothelium in Fuchs uveitis syndrome: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Hammered silver appearance of the corneal endothelium is considered a characteristic change in iridocorneal-endothelial syndrome. Herein we report an interesting case of hammered silver appearance of the corneal endothelium in Fuchs uveitis syndrome (FUS). CASE SUMMARY: A 49-year-old man with progressive vision loss in the right eye for one year was admitted to our hospital. The clinical manifestations of the patient's right eye were mild conjunctival hyperemia, scattered stellate keratic precipitates on the corneal endothelium, normal depth anterior chamber, 2+ cellular reaction in the aqueous humor, diffuse iris depigmentation, absence of synechia, Koeppe nodules, opalescent lens, and vitreous opacity. FUS and a complicated cataract were diagnosed based on the typical clinical manifestations. The corneal endothelial changes were recorded in detail by slit-lamp examination, specular microscopy, and in vivo confocal microscopy before cataract extraction, revealing a hammered silver appearance of the corneal endothelium in the affected eye, a wide-band dark area, as well as irregular corneal endothelial protuberances and dark bodies of various sizes. Subsequently, the patient underwent phacoemulsification combined with intraocular lens implantation, and his postoperative visual acuity recovered to 1.0. CONCLUSION: Hammered silver appearance of the corneal endothelium in FUS, which is considered a more serious manifestation of endothelial damage, is rare and may be caused by many irregular protrusions in the corneal endothelium.

Computational Modeling of Catheter-based Radiofrequency Renal Denervation with Patient-specific Model.

Renal sympathetic denervation (RDN) is an effective approach for uncontrolled hypertension. Although several studies have compared the ablation characteristics at various locations, there is no direct comparative study on the effect of ablation in main and branch renal artery (RAs) and different electrode materials. The study aims to investigate the effect of different electrode materials (copper, gold, and platinum) and positions (proximal, middle, or distal site) on ablation. A 3D patient-specific renal artery model and a unipolar model (470 kHz) were constructed to mimic RDN. Two therapeutic strategies, including main (site 1 and 2) and branch (site 3) ablations were simulated with three electrode materials. The finite element method was used to calculate the coupled electric-thermal-flow field. Maximum lesion depth, width, area, and lesion angle were analyzed. The results showed that the difference in lesion width and depth was no mere than 0.5 mm, and the maximum difference value in lesion area is 0.683 mm2 among three electrode materials. The lesion angle of proximal site 1 versus middle site 2 was 58.39 ° and 52.23 °, but the difference between distal site 3 and site 1, or site 2 was 29.19 ° and 35.35 ° respectively. There is no significant difference in the use of the three electrode materials, and ablation at the distal site of the artery is more effective.Clinical Relevance-This provides a reference for the selection of RF electrode materials and ablation locations.

Flow Field Analysis in RF Ablation Based on PIV Experiment.

Resistant hypertension (RH) is a major healthcare issue, causing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. In recent years, radiofrequency (RF) ablation to renal sympathetic denervation (RSD) is a new effective method for the treatment of RH. However, the effect of RSD on renal artery blood flow still need further research. In this study, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) experiment and RF ablation experiment were used to observe the blood flow states in three conditions: no ablation with flow, ablation with no flow, and ablation with flow. The results showed that when the blood flow was 1L/min in renal artery without ablation, it was uniform laminar flow. When the blood was static in renal artery with ablation, there was eddy around the ablation catheter. When the blood flow was 1L/min in renal artery with ablation, the eddy disappeared and the blood flow was uniform laminar flow. Therefore, when the renal artery blood flow is 1L/min, there will be no thrombus and hemolysis in the renal artery due to eddy current and large velocity gradient, which preliminarily verified the safety of the RSD. Keyword: Resistant hypertension; Radiofrequency ablation; Flow field; PIVClinical relevance-When the blood flow of renal artery is 1L/min, there will be no thrombus and hemolysis in renal artery due to eddy current and large velocity gradient during the operation of RF ablation to renal sympathetic denervation.

Flow field study of radiofrequency ablation of renal sympathetic nerve: Numerical simulation and PIV experiments.

Renal sympathetic denervation (RSD) is a new method for the treatment of resistant hypertension (RH). However, few studies have focused on the effects of RSD on blood flow and the interaction between temperature field and flow field. In this paper, firstly, we designed a numerical simulation of electromagnetic field, flow field and temperature field coupling by finite element method. Secondly, numerical simulation results were verified by particle image velocimetry (PIV) and vitro experiment. From the simulation results, when the flow velocity increases to 0.05 m/s, the turbulence near the electrode disappeared and flow state became uniform laminar flow. With the increases of flow velocity (0 m/s to 0.1 m/s), temperature rise of the renal artery, the electrode tip and blood decreased from 13°C, 24°C and 5.4°C to 9.3°C, 9.7°C and 0.2°C, respectively. From PIV experiment and vitro experiment results, when the flow rate increases to 0.5 L/min, it appeared similar phenomenon with the velocity of 0.05 m/s in simulation. With the increases of flow rate (0 L/min to 0.8 L/min), temperature rise of three points decreased from 11.2°C, 20.5°C and 3.6°C to 7.8°C, 8.5°C, and 0.4°C, respectively. When the blood flow rate exceeds 0.5 L/min, there is no large velocity gradient and reflux area in the flow field, so there will be no hemolysis and thrombosis. Therefore, the temperature field has less influence on the flow field. With the increase of flow rate, the temperature at all three points decreases. Therefore, the flow field has an effect on the temperature field. But the central temperature of renal artery can still reach the treatment target in which temperature rises to be more than 6°C. Therefore, this study preliminarily verified the safety and effectiveness of RSD.

The Effect of Swinging Ball Heads with Different Arrangements in Multi-Point Stretch-Forming Process.

To improve the effect of multi-point stretch forming of sheet metal, it is proposed in this paper to replace a fixed ball head with a swinging ball head. According to the multi-point dies with different arrangements, this research establishes finite element models of the following stretch forming, i.e., fixed ball heads with conventional arrangement, swinging ball heads with conventional arrangement, swinging ball heads with declining staggered arrangement, and swinging ball heads with parallel staggered arrangement, and then numerical simulation is performed. The simulation results show that by replacing a fixed ball head with a swinging ball head, the surface indentation of the part formed was effectively suppressed, the stress and tension strain distribution of the part formed was improved, and the forming quality was improved; the thickness of the elastic pad was reduced, the springback was reduced and the forming accuracy was improved; and when the ball head was applied to a multi-point die with staggered arrangement, a better forming result was achieved, where the best forming result was achieved in combining the swinging ball heads with the multi-point die with a parallel staggered arrangement. Forming experiments were carried out, and the experimental results were consistent with the trend of numerical simulation results, which verified the correctness of the numerical simulation.

Valproic acid attenuates global cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in gerbils via anti-pyroptosis pathways.

Ischemic stroke is the third most common cause of death and the leading cause of disability worldwide in adults. The antiepileptic drug valproic acid (VPA) was reported to protect cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. However, the action mechanism of VPA in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury has not been fully understood. We explored the action mechanism of VPA in vivo and in vitro. Gerbils were subjected to transient global cerebral ischemic-reperfusion injury, and hippocampal neuron injury was treated with oxygen-glucose deprivation in vitro. Morris water maze test was performed to evaluate the cognitive dysfunction. Histopathological examinations and western blot were performed to evaluate the pyroptosis of neurons. The results showed that VPA attenuated the cognitive dysfunction, pyroptosis of the gerbils suffer from ischemic-reperfusion injury and decreased hippocampal neurons pyroptosis induced by oxygen-glucose deprivation in vitro. In addition, western blot and real-time PCR analysis revealed that VPA modulated the protein expression of apoptosis repressor with caspase recruitment domain (ARC), caspase-1 and IL-1ß/IL-18. Our results suggested that VPA alleviated ischemic/reperfusion injury-mediated neuronal impairment by anti-pyroptotic effects.

Occurrence of tetracycline-resistant fecal coliforms and their resistance genes in an urban river impacted by municipal wastewater treatment plant discharges.

Antibiotic resistance of fecal coliforms in an urban river poses great threats to both human health and the environment. To investigate the occurrence and distribution of antibiotic resistant bacteria in an urban river, water samples were collected from the Chanhe River in Xi'an, China. After membrane filtration of water samples, the tetracycline resistance rate of fecal coliforms and their resistance genes were detected by plating and polymerase chain reaction (PCR), respectively. We found that fecal coliforms were generally resistant to tetracycline and saw average resistance rates of 44.7%. The genes tetA and tetB were widely detected, and their positive rate was 60%-100% and 40%-90%, respectively. We found few strains containing tetC, tetK, tetQ and tetX, and we did not identify any strains containing tetG, tetM or tetO. The prevalence of tetA and tetB over other genes indicated that the main mechanism for resistance to tetracycline is by changes to the efflux pump. Our analysis of the types and proportion of tetracycline resistance genes in the Chanhe River at locations upstream and downstream of the urban center suggests that the increased number of tetracycline-resistant fecal coliforms and spatial variation of tetracycline resistance genes diversity were related to municipal wastewater treatment plant discharge.

[Allelopathic potential of Phyllostachys edulis on two dominant tree species of evergreen broad-leaved forest in its invasive process].

In order to explore the influence of Phyllostachys edulis invasion on the surrounding forest environment,the effects of aqueous extracts from P. edulis on two dominant species (Castanopsis sclerophylla and Cyclobalanopsis glaunca)in southern China were assessed by germination bioassays. The results showed that seed germination effects depended on the concentration of aqueous extracts and the extract sources. The highest extract concentration showed significant inhibitory effects on seed germination percentage, which was 82. 3% -102. 2% of control for C. sclerophylla and 80% -90. 9% of control for C. glauca, while in the treatment with lowest extract concentration the values were 101.7% - 107.6% of control for C. sclerophylla and 94.9% - 109. 1% of control for C. glauca, respectively. The extracts had inhibitory effects on the germination speed of both species (P < 0.05) , except that no effects on C. sclerophylla were observed in the low concentration treatment. Extracts at the highest concentration reduced the root activity of C. sclerophylla by 41. 1% -62. 4% (P <0.05). There were obvious different effects among the treatments with different extract sources. Seed germination percentage was the lowest in root extract treatments. There was no obvious difference for shoot height of C. sclerophylla in different treatments(P >0.05) , while there was significant difference for C. glauca, its shoot height was higher in the leaf, root, and litter extracts treatments than in the soil extracts treatments. P. edulis possesses allelopathic potential that could possibly facilitate its invasion and monoculture formation, and does harm to the surrounding forest environment.