Contribution of FOS in neutrophils to venous thromboembolism via miR-144 based on bioinformatic prediction and validation.

The Finkel-Biskis-Jinkins Osteosarcoma (c-Fos; encoded by FOS) plays an important role in several cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis and stroke. However, the relationship between FOS and venous thromboembolism (VTE) remains unknown. We identified differentially expressed genes in Gene Expression Omnibus dataset, GSE48000, comprising VTE patients and healthy individuals, and analysed them using CIBERSORT and weighted co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). FOS and CD46 expressions were significantly downregulated (FOS p = 2.26E-05, CD64 p = 8.83E-05) and strongly linked to neutrophil activity in VTE. We used GSE19151 and performed PCR to confirm that FOS and CD46 had diagnostic potential for VTE; however, only FOS showed differential expression by PCR and ELISA in whole blood samples. Moreover, we found that hsa-miR-144 which regulates FOS expression was significantly upregulated in VTE. Furthermore, FOS expression was significantly downregulated in neutrophils of VTE patients (p = 0.03). RNA sequencing performed on whole blood samples of VTE patients showed that FOS exerted its effects in VTE via the leptin-mediated adipokine signalling pathway. Our results suggest that FOS and related genes or proteins can outperform traditional clinical markers and may be used as diagnostic biomarkers for VTE.

Case Report: The application of novel imaging technologies in lower extremity peripheral artery disease: NIR-II imaging, OCTA, and LSFG.

Lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a growing global health problem. New methods to diagnose PAD have been explored in recent years. At present, the majority of imaging methods for PAD focus on the macrovascular blood flow, and the exploration of microcirculation and tissue perfusion of PAD remains largely insufficient. In this report, we applied three new imaging technologies, i.e., second near-infrared region (NIR-II, 900-1,880 nm wavelengths) imaging, optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), and laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG), in a PAD patient with a healthy human subject as control. Our results showed that the PAD patient had poorer tissue perfusion than the control without observed adverse effects. Moreover, compared with the first near-infrared region (NIR-I, 700-900 nm wavelengths) imaging results, NIR-II imaging had a higher signal-to-background ratio and resolution than NIR-I imaging and detected microvessels that were not detected by NIR-I imaging. These observations suggested that NIR-II imaging, OCTA, and LSFG are potentially safe and effective methods for diagnosing PAD.