Association between serum vitamin D level and Graves' disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: This meta-analysis aims to analyze the relationship between serum vitamin D (VD) levels and Graves' disease (GD). METHODS: We conducted a search for publications on VD and GD in the English language. Our search encompassed databases such as PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library, covering publications available through August 2023. A meta-analysis was performed using Cochrane RevMan 5.4 software. The standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used for outcome calculation. We used R software to test for publication bias. RESULTS: Twelve studies were selected, comprising 937 (22.4%) cases with GD and 3254 (77.6%) controls. The overall meta-analysis revealed that patients with GD are significantly more likely to have low VD levels (SMD = - 0.66; 95% CI: -1.05, - 0.27; p = 0.001) than those in the control group. Egger's test results indicated no publication bias (p = 0.0791). These studies exhibited a high degree of heterogeneity (chi-square = 205.86, p < 0.00001; I2 = 95%). Subgroup analysis was conducted based on assay method, geographic location, and mean age of the case group to explore the heterogeneity sources. Assay methods and geographic locations were identified as potential heterogeneity sources. Based on the mean age, there were no statistically significant differences found in the subgroup analysis of the included studies. CONCLUSION: There is promising evidence that low serum VD levels may increase the risk of GD. Further rigorous and long-term trials are needed to explore the role of VD in the onset and treatment of GD.

Dissecting causal associations of type 2 diabetes with 111 types of ocular conditions: a Mendelian randomization study.

Background: Despite the well-established findings of a higher incidence of retina-related eye diseases in patients with diabetes, there is less investigation into the causal relationship between diabetes and non-retinal eye conditions, such as age-related cataracts and glaucoma. Methods: We performed Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to examine the causal relationship between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and 111 ocular diseases. We employed a set of 184 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that reached genome-wide significance as instrumental variables (IVs). The primary analysis utilized the inverse variance-weighted (IVW) method, with MR-Egger and weighted median (WM) methods serving as supplementary analyses. Results: The results revealed suggestive positive causal relationships between T2DM and various ocular conditions, including "Senile cataract" (OR= 1.07; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.11; P=7.77×10-4), "Glaucoma" (OR= 1.08; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.13; P=4.81×10-3), and "Disorders of optic nerve and visual pathways" (OR= 1.10; 95% CI: 0.99, 1.23; P=7.01×10-2). Conclusion: Our evidence supports a causal relationship between T2DM and specific ocular disorders. This provides a basis for further research on the importance of T2DM management and prevention strategies in maintaining ocular health.

Remote Sensing Image Ship Matching Utilising Line Features for Resource-Limited Satellites.

The existing image matching methods for remote sensing scenes are usually based on local features. The most common local features like SIFT can be used to extract point features. However, this kind of methods may extract too many keypoints on the background, resulting in low attention to the main object in a single image, increasing resource consumption and limiting their performance. To address this issue, we propose a method that could be implemented well on resource-limited satellites for remote sensing images ship matching by leveraging line features. A keypoint extraction strategy called line feature based keypoint detection (LFKD) is designed using line features to choose and filter keypoints. It can strengthen the features at corners and edges of objects and also can significantly reduce the number of keypoints that cause false matches. We also present an end-to-end matching process dependent on a new crop patching function, which helps to reduce complexity. The matching accuracy achieved by the proposed method reaches 0.972 with only 313 M memory and 138 ms testing time. Compared to the state-of-the-art methods in remote sensing scenes in extensive experiments, our keypoint extraction method can be combined with all existing CNN models that can obtain descriptors, and also improve the matching accuracy. The results show that our method can achieve ∼50% test speed boost and ∼30% memory saving in our created dataset and public datasets.

Remodeling of Neuromuscular Junctions in Target Muscle Following Nerve Regeneration in Mice After Delayed Peripheral Nerve Repair.

Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) induces severe functional loss in extremities. Progressive denervation and atrophy occur in the muscles if the nerve repair is delayed for long periods of the time. To overcome these difficulties, detailed mechanisms should be determined for neuromuscular junction (NMJ) degeneration in target muscles after PNI and regeneration after nerve repair. We established two models of end-to-end neurorrhaphy and allogeneic nerve grafting in the chronic phase after common peroneal nerve injury in female mice (n = 100 in total). We evaluated motor function, histology, and gene expression in the target muscles during their regeneration processes and compared the models. We found that the functional recovery with allogeneic nerve grafting was superior to that with end-to-end neurorrhaphy, and the number of reinnervated NMJs and Schwann cells was increased at 12 weeks after allograft. In addition, NMJ- and Schwann cell-related molecules showed high expression in the target muscle in the allograft model. These results suggest that Schwann cell migrating from the allograft might play a crucial role in nerve regeneration in the chronic phase after PNI. The relationship between the NMJ and Schwann cells should be further investigated in the target muscle.

Remnant neuromuscular junctions in denervated muscles contribute to functional recovery in delayed peripheral nerve repair.

Schwann cell proliferation in peripheral nerve injury (PNI) enhances axonal regeneration compared to central nerve injury. However, even in PNI, long-term nerve damage without repair induces degeneration of neuromuscular junctions (NMJs), and muscle atrophy results in irreversible dysfunction. The peripheral regeneration of motor axons depends on the duration of skeletal muscle denervation. To overcome this difficulty in nerve regeneration, detailed mechanisms should be determined for not only Schwann cells but also NMJ degeneration after PNI and regeneration after nerve repair. Here, we examined motor axon denervation in the tibialis anterior muscle after peroneal nerve transection in thy1-YFP mice and regeneration with nerve reconstruction using allografts. The number of NMJs in the tibialis anterior muscle was maintained up to 4 weeks and then decreased at 6 weeks after injury. In contrast, the number of Schwann cells showed a stepwise decline and then reached a plateau at 6 weeks after injury. For regeneration, we reconstructed the degenerated nerve with an allograft at 4 and 6 weeks after injury, and evaluated functional and histological outcomes for 10 to 12 weeks after grafting. A higher number of pretzel-shaped NMJs in the tibialis anterior muscle and better functional recovery were observed in mice with a 4-week delay in surgery than in those with a 6-week delay. Nerve repair within 4 weeks after PNI is necessary for successful recovery in mice. Prevention of synaptic acetylcholine receptor degeneration may play a key role in peripheral nerve regeneration. All animal experiments were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Tokyo Medical and Dental University on 5 July 2017, 30 March 2018, and 15 May 2019 (A2017-311C, A2018-297A, and A2019-248A), respectively.

Continuously Frequency-Tuneable Plasmonic Structures for Terahertz Bio-sensing and Spectroscopy.

Plasmon-based devices are powerful for use in highly sensitive evanescent-field detection and analysis, but they exhibit the problem of limited frequency tunability for fixed structures. This feature causes problems in the multi-frequency investigations required for materials characterization, bio-related research, etc. Here, we propose and fabricate a spiral-shaped plasmonic structure that enables a continuous frequency-tuneable evanescent-field concentration in the terahertz (THz) region with simple operation. The device also increases the electric field intensity at the subwavelength aperture, thus significantly amplifying the transmission. Highly tuneable transmission bands are observed by simply rotating the spiral plasmonic structure, which are in good agreement with the behaviour expected from electromagnetic simulation. Medical examinations are performed by measuring the interactions between the frequency-tuneable plasmons and bio-samples, which enables observing distinct tissue-dependent transmission spectra and images. The developed device simultaneously offers the advantages of both plasmonic devices and frequency-tuneable devices, which can increase the availability and versatility of evanescent-field THz sensing and analysis. The mechanism presented will shed light on THz plasmonics and motivate the implementation of a variety of applications based on plasmon-mediated THz technologies.