Mediating effects of social support between antenatal depression and fear of childbirth among nulliparous woman.

BACKGROUND: Although gestation and childbirth are progressive physical processes for most pregnant women, there are both physical and great psychosocial challenges throughout the process, which increase the sensitivity and vulnerability of women. Even for women with low-risk pregnancies, it is common to experience degrees of fear, especially for primipara women when faced with childbirth. During their first pregnancy, women may have no relevant health knowledge or experience with delivery and have difficulty identifying prenatal depression and other existing mental health factors; a fear of childbirth (FOC) may engender adverse outcomes for mothers and babies. Social support is a very important influential factor for prenatal depression. METHODS: This study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design. The participant cohort involved 609 primipara women (≥18 years old) who had received routine prenatal care and visited a tertiary care hospital in Xi'an. The participants completed structured questionnaires, including the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), 12-item Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), and 33-item Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire (W-DEQ), alongside contribution of information regarding their demographic characteristics. Descriptive and correlation analyses were adopted to verify the correlations among these variables. Multiple regression models were examined by the SPSS PROCESS procedure with bootstrapping to confirm the significance of the mediation effect. RESULTS: The widespread prevalence of FOC in healthy pregnant women was 22.3% (WDEQ score ≥85). The mean scores of depression, social support, as well as FOC scores of participants were 9.50 (5.19), 70.91 (9.25), and 70.43 (20.88), respectively. Remarkable correlations were identified between pregnancy depressive symptoms, social support, and FOC. Results presented an indirect effect, indicating that the impacts of antenatal depression on FOC were mediated by social support. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived social support played a mediating role between antenatal depression and FOC among healthy primipara women. Techniques and suggestions for boosting social support may be expected to have a positive impact on the depressive symptoms of pregnant women with FOC.

Genomic Profiling of Chinese Cervical Cancer Patients Reveals Prevalence of DNA Damage Repair Gene Alterations and Related Hypoxia Feature.

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is responsible for 10-15% of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide. In China, it is the most common cancer in the female genital tract. However, the genomic profiles of Chinese cervical cancer patients remain unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 129 cervical cancer patients were enrolled in this study (113 squamous, 12 adenocarcinoma, 2 adenosquamous, and 2 neuroendocrine carcinoma). To classify the clinical features and molecular characteristics of cervical cancer, the genomic alterations of 618 selected genes were analyzed in the samples of these patients, utilizing target next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. Furthermore, the findings from the Chinese cohort were then compared with the data of Western patients downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, in terms of gene expression files, mutation data, and clinical information. RESULTS: All studied patients had valid somatic gene alterations, and the most frequently altered genes were PIK3C, TP53, FBXW7, ARID1A, ERBB2, and PTEN. Comparison of genomic profiling showed significantly different prevalence of genes, including TP53, KMT2C, and RET, between the Chinese and the TCGA cohorts. Moreover, 57 patients (44.19%) with 83 actionable alterations were identified in our cohort, especially in PI3K and DNA damage repair (DDR) pathways. After an in-depth analysis of cervical cancer data from the TCGA cohort, DDR alteration was found to be associated with extremely higher tumor mutation burden (TMB) (median mutation count: 149.5 vs 66, p <0.0001), and advanced stages (p <0.05). Additionally, DDR alteration, regardless of its function, was positively correlated with hypoxia feature and score. Moreover, patients with a high hypoxia score were positively correlated with a high abundance of mast cell resting, but lower abundance of CD8+ T cells and activated mast cell. Finally, CDHR5 was identified as the hub gene to be involved in the DDR-hypoxia network, which was negatively correlated with both the DDR alteration and hypoxia score. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, a unique genomic profiling of Chinese patients with cervical cancer was uncovered. Besides, the prevalent actionable variants, especially in PI3K and DDR pathways, would help promote the clinical management. Moreover, DDR alteration exerted the significant influence on the tumor microenvironment in cervical cancer, which could guide the clinical decisions for the treatment. CDHR5 was the first identified hub gene to be negatively correlated with DDR or hypoxia in cervical cancer, which had potential effects on the treatment of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs).

Decreased expression of CD200 and CD200R1 by human decidual tissues in spontaneous early abortion.

Objective: To examine the cellular distribution and the expression of CD200 and its receptor 1 (CD200R1) in human deciduas in first-trimester pregnant women with spontaneous early abortion (SEA) and normal pregnancy, and to explore their role in the etiology of SEA.Subjects and methods: Thirty-five women at 6-10-week gestation with SA and 30 women of similar gestational age with a healthy pregnancy were recruited. Expression of CD200 and CD200R1 in the deciduas was determined using immunohistochemistry, confocal laser scanning microscope, Western blot, and real-time PCR (RT-PCR).Results: The decidual stromal cells, glandular epithelial cells, and vessel endothelial cells during the first trimester of pregnancy express both CD200 and CD200R1 proteins. During this period, the expression of CD200 in glandular epithelial cells and vessel endothelial cells is significantly higher in normal pregnancy than that in women with SEA (0.3079 ± 0.0674 versus 0.2735 ± 0.0515; 0.4077 ± 0.1366 versus 0.3249 ± 0.0993); the expression of CD200R1 in stromal cells, decidual stromal cells, glandular epithelial cells is significantly higher during normal pregnancy than SEA (0.2574 ± 0.0588 versus 0.2292 ± 0.0415; 0.3617 ± 0.1046 versus 0.2804 ± 0.0640). Western blot analysis showed an approximately 44% decrease in CD200R1expression in decidua in the SEA versus the controls. Finally, in decidua, the expression of both CD200 protein and CD200R1 transcript are significantly higher in healthy first-trimester pregnancy than in SEA (CD200: 2.2089 ± 1.2754 versus 0.7241 ± 0.2143; CD200R1: 15.7843 ± 10.7085 versus 7.3381 ± 5.8529).Conclusions: Women with SEA have a lower level of CD200 and CD200R1 expression in deciduas compared with normal pregnant women suggesting that under physiological conditions, CD200 and CD200R1 expression by deciduas is important to prevent fetal loss ensure a successful pregnancy.

Group singing improves depression and life quality in patients with stable COPD: a randomized community-based trial in China.

PURPOSE: To explore the effects of group singing therapy on depression symptoms and quality of life of patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS: Patients with COPD were randomly allocated to intervention (n = 30) and control groups (n = 30). The intervention group received group singing therapy once a week for 24 sessions along with routine health education, whereas the control group only received the routine health education. All patients were administered the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale depression subscale (HADS-D) and the Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ). Data were collected at baseline and at 1, 3, and 6 months. RESULTS: Fifty-six participants completed this trial. Significant between-group differences were observed with respect to the main effect of group and time as well as the effect of group × time interaction on HADS-D score. The HADS-D score was significantly improved 1, 3, 6 months after group singing therapy. The CCQ total scores were significantly different between the two groups with respect to the main effect of group and time and the group × time interaction effect. Significantly better CCQ was detected in the intervention group at 3 months and 6 months after intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Group singing therapy reduces depressive symptoms and improves the quality of life of patients with stable COPD.

[Effect of GSTP1 and MTHFR Gene Polymorphism on Side Effects of HD-MTX in ALL Children].

OBJECTIVE: To Study the effect of C677T and MTHFR gene polymorphism on side effects of HD-MTX in ALL children. METHODS: The gene polymorphism of C677T A303G and MTHFR C677T were detected by PCR in 98 ALL children from January 2014 to January 2016. The side effects during HD-MTX therapy were observed, and the relationship among GSTP1, MTHFR gene polymorphism and incidence of side effect of HD-MTX were analyzed. RESULTS: Among 98 ALL children, the gene variation was observed in 61 ALL children (62.24%). Polymorphism study on C677T A303G showed that the gene frequency of A was 84.69%, while that of G was 15.31%; for polymorphism of MTHFR C677T, gene frequency of C was 66.33%, and that of T was 33.67%. Seven patients(7.14%) experienced with bone marrow supression, 23 patients(23.47%) with liver function damage, 15 patients(15.31%) with renal function damage, 48 patients(48.98%) with gastrointestinal reactions and 46 patients(46.94%) with mucosal lesions. After adjustment of sex, age, risk stratification and dosage of MTX, the gene polymorphism had no significant relationship with bone marrow suppression, gastrointestinal reactions and mucosal lesions(P>0.05). However, the number of the mutant genes had statistically significant relationship with liver and renal function damage(P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The risk of side effects during HD-MTX therapy increases in ALL children with combined mutation of MTHFR and C677T.

[Expression and significance of IL-10 in human chorionic villi of recurrent spontaneous abortion].

AIM: To investigate the correlation between interleukin-10(IL-10) and recurrent spontaneous abortion as well as the significance of them through researching the comparison of histological localization of IL-10, expression comparison of IL-10 mRNA in human chorionic villi of pregnant women with recurrent spontaneous abortion and normal abortion. METHODS: To detect expression comparison of IL-10 mRNA and histological localization of IL-10 in human chorionic villi of 35 pregnant women with recurrent spontaneous abortion(experimental group) and 35 normal abortion women(control group) by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry. To analysis expression of IL-10 in serum of the two groups by ELISA. RESULTS: The detection of immunohistochemistry showed that there are expressions of IL-10 both in the two groups, the expressions of IL-10 in the experimental group were lower than the control group(P<0.05).The results of the RT-PCR showed that the expressions of IL-10 of experimental group were lower than the control group(P<0.05). ELISA analysis showed that the expressions of IL-10 of the experimental group were lower than the control group(P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of detection of immunohistochemistry and the expression of mRNA of IL-10 in human chorionic villi as well as its expressions in serum of experimental group were lower than the control group. IL-10 would play an important role in maintaining normal pregnancy.

[Genetic variation of gag gene in HIV-1 subtype B infections from Henan and Shanxi provinces of China].

The 109 whole blood samples were collected from HIV-1 infected former blood donors in Henan and Shanxi. The RNA templates were extracted from plasma and used for the full gag gene amplification and sequencing. The sequences were divided into 3 groups according to sampling year. The Entropy software was used to identify the amino acids with composition difference among different groups of amino acid sequences. The results showed that there existed 8 and 13 amino acid sites with the statistical significance difference, respectively, in sequences in year 2004 and 2005, compared to those in 2002. Among them, there existed 5 amino acid sites in two groups. Of 16 amino acid sites, the increasing polymorphism and the decreasing polymorphism along the sampling year were observed in 10 and 6 amino acid sites respectively. Of 10 sites with increased polymorphism, 8 sites were located in the CTL epitopes recognized and presented by the main HLA alleles existed in Chinese population. The 6 sites with decreasing polymorphism all existed in main domains of Gag proteins.