Potential Genes and Pathways of Neonatal Sepsis Based on Functional Gene Set Enrichment Analyses.

BACKGROUND: Neonatal sepsis (NS) is considered as the most common cause of neonatal deaths that newborns suffer from. Although numerous studies focus on gene biomarkers of NS, the predictive value of the gene biomarkers is low. NS pathogenesis is still needed to be investigated. METHODS: After data preprocessing, we used KEGG enrichment method to identify the differentially expressed pathways between NS and normal controls. Then, functional principal component analysis (FPCA) was adopted to calculate gene values in NS. In order to further study the key signaling pathway of the NS, elastic-net regression model, Mann-Whitney U test, and coexpression network were used to estimate the weights of signaling pathway and hub genes. RESULTS: A total of 115 different pathways between NS and controls were first identified. FPCA made full use of time-series gene expression information and estimated F values of genes in the different pathways. The top 1000 genes were considered as the different genes and were further analyzed by elastic-net regression and MWU test. There were 7 key signaling pathways between the NS and controls, according to different sources. Among those genes involved in key pathways, 7 hub genes, PIK3CA, TGFBR2, CDKN1B, KRAS, E2F3, TRAF6, and CHUK, were determined based on the coexpression network. Most of them were cancer-related genes. PIK3CA was considered as the common marker, which is highly expressed in the lymphocyte group. Little was known about the correlation of PIK3CA with NS, which gives us a new enlightenment for NS study. CONCLUSION: This research might provide the perspective information to explore the potential novel genes and pathways as NS therapy targets.

Treatment of refractory giant macular hole by vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane transplantation and autologous blood.

AIM: To investigate the effect of internal limiting membrane transplantation and autologous blood on treating refractory giant macular hole. METHODS: Thirty-seven eyes with giant macular hole of the smallest hole diameter >700 µm, the maximum diameter of the substrate >1000 µm and hole formation factor <0.6 underwent surgical treatment. The patients were randomly divided into two groups. Nineteen eyes with surgical flip of the internal limiting membrane in group A, 18 eyes with internal limiting membrane transplantation in group B who underwent the tamponade of internal limiting membrane into the hole, autologous plasma was used to seal the hole. The patients were followed up for 3mo, optical coherence tomography and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were recorded before and after operation, and the results were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: At 3mo after operation, BCVA of the two groups was significantly improved compared with that before operation (tA=4.192, tB=4.374, P<0.05). But there was no significant difference in visual acuity between the two groups (χ2=0.128, P>0.05). At 3mo after operation, the closure rate of group A was 68.4%, and 100% in group B. (χ2=5.628, P<0.05). The defect diameter of inner segment/outer segment at 3mo after the operation was significantly lower than that before operation (tA=12.287, tB=15.481, P<0.05), and the difference was statistically significant (t=2.552, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Internal limiting membrane transplantation combined with autologous whole blood can improve the postoperative closure rate of the refractory large aperture, and can effectively improve the postoperative visual acuity.