Identification of claudin-2 as a promising biomarker for early diagnosis of pre-diabetes.

Introduction: Pre-diabetes, a high-risk metabolic state, is situated between normal glucose homeostasis and diabetes. Early identification of pre-diabetes offers opportunities for intervention and diabetes reversal, highlighting the crucial need to investigate reliable biomarkers for this condition. Methods: We conducted an in-depth bioinformatics analysis of clinical samples from non-diabetic (ND), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) categories within the GSE164416 dataset. Thereafter the HFD and STZ treated mice were used for validation. Results: This analysis identified several codifferentially expressed genes (Co-DEGs) for IGT and T2DM, including CFB, TSHR, VNN2, APOC1, CLDN2, SLPI, LCN2, CXCL17, FAIM2, and REG3A. Validation of these genes and the determination of ROC curves were performed using the GSE76895 dataset. Thereafter, CLDN2 was selected for further verification. Gene expression analysis and immunofluorescence analysis revealed a significant upregulation of CLDN2 expression in the pancreas islets of mice in the high-fat diet and T2DM groups compared to the control group. Similarly, serum level of CLDN2 in patients with IGT and T2DM were significantly higher than those in the healthy group. Discussion: These results suggest that CLDN2 can serve as a novel biomarker for pre-diabetes, providing a new direction for future research in the prevention of type 2 diabetes.

Study on the fastening characteristics of preformed helical fittings considering the surface effect of transmission lines.

Because of their superior mechanical properties, preformed helical fittings are widely used in UHV transmission lines. However, they easily slip and become loose under extreme environments, so it is very important to study the fastening characteristics of preformed helical fittings. According to the stress characteristics of preformed helical fittings, a parametric finite element model including a core and preformed armor rods was established. Finally, the finite element model calculation was verified by comparing it with the test results. In this paper, the influences of the preformed armor rod diameter, pitch, length and forming aperture on the fastening characteristics were investigated. The numerical simulation results showed that the smaller the forming aperture of preformed armor rods, the larger the grip force. However, a small forming aperture is inconvenient to install, and too large of a grip force on the core easily leads to core damage. With the increase in the preformed armor rod length, the grip force increased gradually and linearly, and the increase slowed after the pitch number reached 9. The larger the pitch, the smaller the grip force of the preformed helical fittings. The fastening characteristics of preformed armor rods with slightly larger diameters were better and the fourth power of the diameter of the preformed armor rods has a linear relationship with the grip force.