An assessment of morphological and pathological changes in paravertebral muscle degeneration using imaging and histological analysis: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The high signal of paravertebral muscle (PVM) on T2-weighted image (T2WI) is usually considered to be fatty degeneration. However, it is difficult to distinguish inflammatory edema from fatty degeneration on T2WI. The purpose of this study was to identify different types of PVM high signal in patients with low back pain (LBP) through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and histology. METHODS: Seventy patients with LBP underwent MRI. The signal change of multifidus both on T2WI and fat suppression image (FSI) was quantified by Image J. Furthermore, 25 of the 70 patients underwent surgery for degenerative lumbar disease and their multifidus were obtained during the operation. Histological analysis of the samples was performed by HE staining. RESULT: Three types of PVM signal changes were identified from the MRI. Type 1 (n = 36) indicated fatty degeneration characterized by a high signal on T2WI and low signal on FSI. High signal on both T2WI and FSI, signifying type 2 meant inflammatory edema (n = 9). Type 3 (n = 25) showed high signal on T2WI and partial signal suppression on FSI, which meant a combination of fatty degeneration and inflammatory edema. Histological results were consistent with MRI. Among the 25 patients who underwent surgery, type 1 (n = 14) showed adipocytes infiltration, type 2 (n = 3) showed inflammatory cells infiltration and type 3 (n = 8) showed adipocytes and inflammatory cells infiltration. CONCLUSION: From our results, there are three types of pathological changes in patients with PVM degeneration, which may help to decide on targeted treatments for LBP.

Maltol inhibits the progression of osteoarthritis via the nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor-2/heme oxygenase-1 signal pathway in vitro and in vivo.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common degenerative joint disease characterized by articular cartilage degeneration and inflammation. Currently, there is hardly any effective treatment for OA due to its complicated pathology and the severe side effects of the treatment drugs used. It has been reported that maltol, a Maillard reaction product derived from ginseng, inhibits inflammation and oxidative stress in several animal models. However, the potential anti-inflammatory effects of maltol in OA treatment are unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects of maltol on interleukin (IL)-1ß-induced mouse chondrocytes and protective effects of maltol on these chondrocytes in medial meniscus destabilization (DMM) OA mouse models. Mice, randomly divided into maltol (n = 15), vehicle (n = 15) and control (n = 15) groups were treated with the same dose of maltol or saline, respectively. The cartilage tissues were extracted for histological analysis 8 weeks postoperative. For the in vitro studies, chondrocytes were treated with 10 ng mL-1 IL-1ß combined with maltol at different concentrations. In vitro assays showed that the maltol pre-treatment significantly inhibited the expressions of multiple inflammatory factors induced by IL-1ß, such as inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), nitric oxide (NO), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α). In addition, maltol alleviated the degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) by inhibiting the expressions of matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP13) and thrombospondin motif 5 (ADAMTS5), as well as reversing the degradation of aggrecan and collagen II. Moreover, maltol suppressed nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) signaling by activating the nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor-2 (Nrf2) in in vitro and in vivo studies. These findings indicate that maltol reduces the inflammation induced by IL-1ß in chondrocytes. Therefore, the results of this study indicated that maltol may be a potential drug for the effective treatment of OA.

Candidate genes coding for odorant binding proteins and chemosensory proteins identified from dissected antennae and mouthparts of the southern green stink bug Nezara viridula.

The southern green stink bug Nezara viridula (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is a highly polyphagous pest that can significantly impact many major crops worldwide. Insect odorant binding proteins (OBPs) and chemosensory proteins (CSPs) transport chemicals and play critical roles in chemoreception. Studies on N. viridula OBPs and CSPs should increase our overall understandings on chemosensory systems and chemical ecology of stink bugs, which may lead to improved pest control. In this study, we identified candidate genes encoding putative OBPs and CSPs in N. viridula by generating transcriptomes from dissected antennae and mouthparts. In total, the 42 unigenes were identified coding for OBPs (34 Classic OBPs and eight Plus-C OBPs) and 13 unigenes coding for CSPs. Expression profiles of OBP- and CSP -encoding genes were compared between antennae and mouthparts based on FKPM values. Candidates for antenna-predominant OBPs and CSPs were selected for real-time quantitative PCR analyses. Analyses of tissue expression profiles revealed that 17 OBP-encoding genes, and four CSP genes were primarily expressed in antennae, suggesting their putative roles in perception of volatiles. The sex-biased expression patterns of these antenna-predominant genes suggested that they may have important functions in reproduction of the insect. This is a systematic analysis on OBPs and CSPs in a stink bug, providing a comprehensive resource for future functional studies not only for N. viridula, but also for other stink bugs as well.