[Clinical characteristics and prognosis of children with perianal fistulizing Crohn's disease]. / å„¿ç«¥è‚›å‘¨ç˜˜ç®¡åž‹å ‹ç½—æ©ç— çš„ä¸´åºŠç‰¹å¾åŠé¢„åŽ.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the clinical characteristics, treatment, and prognosis of children with perianal fistulizing Crohn's disease (pfCD). METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the children, aged 6-17 years, who were diagnosed with Crohn's disease (CD) from April 2015 to April 2023. According to the presence or absence of perianal fistulizing lesions, they were divided into two groups: pfCD (n=60) and non-pfCD (n=82). The two groups were compared in terms of clinical characteristics, treatment, and prognosis. RESULTS: The incidence of pfCD was 42.3% (60/142). The proportion of males in the pfCD group was higher than that in the non-pfCD group. Compared with the non-pfCD group, the pfCD group had a significantly higher proportion of children with involvement of the colon and small intestine or those with upper gastrointestinal lesions (P<0.05). Compared with the non-pfCD group, the pfCD group had a significantly higher rate of use of infliximab during both induction and maintenance treatment (P<0.05). In the pfCD group, the children with complex anal fistula accounted for 62% (37/60), among whom the children receiving non-cutting suspended line drainage accounted for 62% (23/37), which was significantly higher than the proportion among the children with simple anal fistula patients (4%, 1/23) (P<0.05). There were no significant differences between the two groups in mucosal healing rate and clinical remission rate at week 54 of treatment (P>0.05). The pfCD group achieved a fistula healing rate of 57% (34/60) at week 54, and the children with simple anal fistula had a significantly higher rate than those with complex anal fistula (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: There is a high incidence rate of pfCD in children with CD, and among the children with pfCD, there is a high proportion of children with the use of biological agents. There is a high proportion of children receiving non-cutting suspended line drainage among the children with complex anal fistula. The occurrence of pfCD should be closely monitored during the follow-up in children with CD.

Deep learning applied to two-dimensional color Doppler flow imaging ultrasound images significantly improves diagnostic performance in the classification of breast masses: a multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: The current deep learning diagnosis of breast masses is mainly reflected by the diagnosis of benign and malignant lesions. In China, breast masses are divided into four categories according to the treatment method: inflammatory masses, adenosis, benign tumors, and malignant tumors. These categorizations are important for guiding clinical treatment. In this study, we aimed to develop a convolutional neural network (CNN) for classification of these four breast mass types using ultrasound (US) images. METHODS: Taking breast biopsy or pathological examinations as the reference standard, CNNs were used to establish models for the four-way classification of 3623 breast cancer patients from 13 centers. The patients were randomly divided into training and test groups (n = 1810 vs. n = 1813). Separate models were created for two-dimensional (2D) images only, 2D and color Doppler flow imaging (2D-CDFI), and 2D-CDFI and pulsed wave Doppler (2D-CDFI-PW) images. The performance of these three models was compared using sensitivity, specificity, area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV), positive (LR+) and negative likelihood ratios (LR-), and the performance of the 2D model was further compared between masses of different sizes with above statistical indicators, between images from different hospitals with AUC, and with the performance of 37 radiologists. RESULTS: The accuracies of the 2D, 2D-CDFI, and 2D-CDFI-PW models on the test set were 87.9%, 89.2%, and 88.7%, respectively. The AUCs for classification of benign tumors, malignant tumors, inflammatory masses, and adenosis were 0.90, 0.91, 0.90, and 0.89, respectively (95% confidence intervals [CIs], 0.87-0.91, 0.89-0.92, 0.87-0.91, and 0.86-0.90). The 2D-CDFI model showed better accuracy (89.2%) on the test set than the 2D (87.9%) and 2D-CDFI-PW (88.7%) models. The 2D model showed accuracy of 81.7% on breast masses ≤1 cm and 82.3% on breast masses >1 cm; there was a significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.001). The accuracy of the CNN classifications for the test set (89.2%) was significantly higher than that of all the radiologists (30%). CONCLUSIONS: The CNN may have high accuracy for classification of US images of breast masses and perform significantly better than human radiologists. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chictr.org, ChiCTR1900021375; http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=33139.

A C-type lectin (OmCTL) in Onychostoma macrolepis: Binding ability to LPS, PGN and agglutinating activity against bacteria.

C-type lectins (CTLs) are calcium-dependent carbohydrate-binding proteins that mainly bind to carbohydrate-based or other ligands to mediate cell adhesion, recognize pathogens, and play important roles in the immune system. In the present study, a novel C-type lectin (OmCTL) isolated from Onychostoma macrolepis was investigated. The open reading frame of OmCTL comprises 468 bp, encoding a 155 amino acid polypeptide with an 18 amino acid putative signaling peptide. The predicted primary OmCTL structure contains a signal peptide, a single carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD) and an EPN/WND motif required for carbohydrate-binding specificity. Using tissue expression pattern analysis, OmCTL has been shownto be highly expressed in the liver, and is also detected in other tissues. OmCTL was significantly upregulated in the liver and spleen following infection with Aeromonas hydrophila, suggesting its involvement in immune response. The recombinant OmCTL protein (rOmCTL) agglutinated two gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli and A. hydrophila, in vitro in the presence of Ca2+, showing that it is a typical Ca2+-dependent carbohydrate-binding protein.Furthermore, rOmCTL purified from E. coli BL21 (DE3) strongly bound to LPS and PGN, as well as all tested bacteria in a Ca2+-independent manner. These results indicate that OmCTL plays a central role in the innate immune response and as a pattern recognition receptor that recognizes diverse pathogens among O. macrolepis.

Different spinal subtypes with varying characteristics of lumbar disc degeneration at specific level with age: a study based on an asymptomatic population.

BACKGROUND: The relationship between spinal sagittal subtypes and lumbar disc degeneration is unclear. Thus, we aimed to investigate the relationship between lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration and age in asymptomatic healthy individuals with different sagittal alignments. METHODS: In this cross-sectional observational study, we examined 209 asymptomatic young and middle-aged volunteers (123 women and 86 men) who were divided into the following three groups according to age: groups A (20-30 years), B (31-40 years), and C (41-50 years). The volunteers underwent full-spine standing lateral radiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI, 3.0 T) of the lumbar spine. Based on panoramic radiography, two observers measured the spinopelvic parameters and classified the spine into Roussouly subtypes. The degree of disc degeneration was assessed based on T2-weighted images according to the Pfirrmann classification. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference in the degree of degeneration of type I spine between groups B and C at L4-L5 (P < 0.03) and L5-S1 (P < 0.01) and between groups A and C at L1-L2 (P < 0.04) and L4-L5 (P < 0.01). The degeneration degree of type II spine at all levels were significantly different between groups A and C. No statistically significant difference was found between groups A and B in all subtypes except for type II spine at L1-L2 (P < 0.04). A significant difference was found at four levels between groups B and C in type III spine (P < 0.05) and between groups A and C. For type IV spine, there was a significant difference in the degree of degeneration at L4-L5 (P < 0.02) between groups A and C. Moreover, almost all single parameters were not strongly correlated with the degree of disc degeneration. CONCLUSION: The different spinal subtypes have characteristics of lumbar disc degeneration at specific levels with age. We considered that spinal classification could be used as a predictor of lumbar disc degeneration. Our data may be helpful to increase awareness of the relationship between spinal subtypes and lumbar disc degeneration. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3.

Prenatal Exposure to LPS Alters The Intrarenal RAS in Offspring, Which Is Ameliorated by Adipose Tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells.

BACKGROUND: Prenatal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure causes hypertension in rat offspring through an unknown mechanism. Here, we investigated the role of the intrarenal renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in hypertension induced by prenatal LPS exposure and also explored whether adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) can ameliorate the effects of prenatal LPS exposure in rat offspring. METHODS: Sixty-four pregnant rats were randomly divided into 4 groups (n = 16 in each), namely, a control group and an LPS group, which were intraperitoneally injected with vehicle and 0.79 mg/kg LPS, respectively, on the 8th, 10th, and 12th days of gestation; an ADSCs group, which was intravenously injected with 1.8 × 107 ADSCs on the 8th, 10th, and 12th days of gestation; and an LPS + ADSCs group, which received a combination of the treatments administered to the LPS and ADSCs groups. RESULTS: Prenatal LPS exposure increased blood pressure, Ang II expression, Ang II-positive, monocyte and lymphocyte, apoptotic cells in the kidney, and induced renal histological changes in offspring; however, the LPS and control groups did not differ significantly with respect to plasma renin activity levels, Ang II levels, or renal function. ADSCs treatment attenuated the blood pressure and also ameliorated the other effects of LPS-treated adult offspring. CONCLUSIONS: Prenatal exposure to LPS activates the intrarenal RAS but not the circulating RAS and thus induces increases in blood pressure in adult offspring; however, ADSCs treatment attenuates the blood pressure increases resulting from LPS exposure and also ameliorates the other phenotypic changes induced by LPS treatment by inhibiting intrarenal RAS activation.

Prognostic value of HMGB3 expression in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

HMGB3 overexpression has been reported in a variety of human cancers. However, the role of HMGB3 in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains unclear. In this study, the HMGB3 expression was examined at mRNA and protein levels by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), Western blotting, and immunohistochemistry in NSCLC tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Statistical analyses were applied to test the associations between HMGB3 expression, clinicopathologic factors, and prognosis. Western blotting and qRT-PCR showed that the expression levels of HMGB3 mRNA and protein were both significantly higher in NSCLC tissues than those in non-cancerous tissues. Immunohistochemistry analysis showed that HMGB3 expression was significantly correlated with tumor grade, tumor size, clinical stage, and lymph node metastases. The results of Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that a high expression level of HMGB3 resulted in a significantly poor prognosis of NSCLC patients. Importantly, multivariate analysis showed that high HMGB3 expression was an independent prognostic factor for NSCLC patients. In sum, our data suggest that HMGB3 plays an important role in NSCLC progression, and that overexpression of HMGB3 in tumor tissues could be used as a potential prognostic marker for patients with NSCLC.

[Effect of selective phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitors on nuclear factor kappa B, tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-8 expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in rheumatoid arthritis with interstitial lung disease].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of selective phosphodiesterase (PDE) 4 inhibitors on nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) secreted by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in patients diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis with interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD). METHODS: PBMCs isolated from 15 healthy volunteers (group A) and 20 patients with untreated active RA-ILD (group B) were cultured in vitro. PBMCs from healthy subjects were considered as normal control. PBMCs from RA-ILD patients were divided into four groups with different treatment: blank group (B1), theophylline group (B2), selective PDE4 inhibitor rolipram group (B3), and glucocorticoid group (B4) with dexamethasone. The expression of NF-κB was determined by immunocytochemical staining, and the levels of TNFα and IL-8 in the culture supernatant were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: (1) The activity of NF-κB and the levels of TNFα and IL-8 in group B1 were significant higher than that in group A (P < 0.01). Compared with group B1, three parameters above were similar to those in group B2 (P > 0.05), while group B3 and group B4 had significant decreased levels of three parameters (P < 0.01); IL-8 level in group B4 was significantly lower than that in group B3 (P < 0.05). (2) TNFα and IL-8 levels were positively correlated with NF-κB activity in group B (r = 0.902 and 0.735, P < 0.01 respectively). (3) The reduction of TNFα and IL-8 levels were positively correlated with reduction of NF-κB activity after intervention of rolipram in group B3 (r = 0.874, P < 0.01; r = 0.561, P < 0.05 respectively). CONCLUSION: NF-κB activation and proinflammatory cytokines were involved in the pathogenesis of RA-ILD. selective PDE4 inhibitors may inhibit the production of inflammatory cytokines by inhibiting the activity of the transcription factor NF-κB in PBMC, thus inhibiting the inflammatory reaction of RA-ILD.

[Alisol B inhibited complement 3a-induced human renal tubular epithelial to mesenchymal transition].

OBJECTIVE: To study whether alisol B could inhibit complement 3a (C3a) induced renal tubular epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). METHODS: The in vitro cultured human renal tubular epithelial HK-2 cells were intervened with 5 ng/mL transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), 0.1 micromol C3a, and 0.1 micromol C3a + 10 micromol alisol B, respectively. The mRNA and protein expressions of alpha-SMA, E-cadherin, and C3 were detected using RT-PCR, Western blot, and immunofluorescence, respectively. RESULTS: The mRNA and protein expressions of C3 in HK-2 cells were up-regulated after intervention of C3a (P < 0.01), the mRNA and protein expressions of alpha-SMA in HK-2 cells were obviously enhanced (P < 0.01), the mRNA and protein expressions of E-cadherin obviously decreased (P < 0.01). When compared with the group intervened by exogenous C3a, after intervention of alisol B, the mRNA and protein expressions of alpha-SMA in HK-2 cells were obviously reduced (P < 0.01), the mRNA and protein expressions of E-cadherin obviously increased (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Exogenous C3a could induce renal tubular EMT. Alisol B was capable of suppressing C3a induced EMT.

[Effects of PD98059 and LY294002 on subcutaneous xenograft of human endometrial carcinoma in nude mice].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of signal pathway inhibitors PD98059 and LY294002 on cell proliferation, apoptosis, expressions of phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulared kinase (p-ERK) and phosphorylated protein kinase B (p-Akt) in endometrial carcinoma xenografts. METHODS: Human endometrial carcinoma Ishikawa cells were cultured in vitro. The effects of PD98059 and LY294002 on proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle distribution of endometrial cancer cells were detected by monotetrazolium (MTT) assay and fluorescence-activated cell sorting technique. The models of xenografted tumor were established by the subcutaneous inoculation in 24 nude mice, and then they were randomly divided into 4 groups (n = 6), normal saline group, PD98059 group (PD group), LY294002 group (LY group) or PD98059 + LY294002 group (PD + LY group) by intraperitoneal injections, respectively. The anti-tumor efficacy was evaluated by measuring tumor volume and tumor growth status. The histopathological change of tumor specimens was observed using HE staining and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-digoxigen in nick and labeling method (TUNEL) testing and the expression levels of p-ERK and p-Akt were detected by immunohistochemistry method. RESULTS: (1) The proliferation of Ishikawa cells were suppressed after treated by PD98059 and(or) Y294002, in which A(570) values of cells decreased showing both time-dependent and concentration-dependent manner (LY294002: F(group) = 9.801, P = 0.002; F(time) = 10.398, P = 0.001. PD98059: F(group) = 8.213, P = 0.015; F(time) = 6.839, P = 0.036). Cell cycle distribution analysis revealed that percentage of Ishikawa cells at G(0)/G(1) phase (F(time) = 35.049, P = 0.004; F(group) = 32.024, P < 0.01) increased and percentage of S phase cells (F(time) = 7.789, P = 0.049; F(group) = 30.132, P < 0.01) decreased significantly. The percentage of apoptotic cells increased significantly among PD group, LY group and PD + LY group, in which there were significant difference [(63.3 ± 0.5)% vs (30.7 ± 20.1)% vs (40.8 ± 1.3)%; F = 621.059, P < 0.01]. (2) Compared with the control group, the increasing of transplanting tumor volume in the treated groups were obviously (F = 23.545, P < 0.01), and the inhibited rate of the tumor was higher in PD + LY group than that in PD group or LY group [(68 ± 9)% vs (32 ± 16)% or (38 ± 17)%; F = 10.283, P < 0.05]. (3) HE staining shown that there were different degrees of necrosis for endometrial carcinoma cell in different groups. The apoptosis of tumor cells were significantly increased in treated groups by TUNEL testing [(13.7 ± 1.5)%, (14.1 ± 1.2)%, (29.0 ± 1.8)%; F = 320.344, P < 0.01]. Immunohistochemistry results demonstrated that the expressions of p-ERK and p-Akt in treated groups were lower than that in control group, of which LY + PD group was the lowest one. CONCLUSION: The signal pathway inhibitors PD98059 and LY294002 could inhibit the growth of human endometrial carcinoma in vivo and in vitro, in which may induce cell apoptosis.

Protective effect of pyrroloquinoline quinone against Abeta-induced neurotoxicity in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells.

The neurotoxicity of aggregated beta-amyloid (Abeta) has been implicated as a critical cause in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). It can cause neurotoxicity in AD by evoking a cascade of oxidative damage-dependent apoptosis to neurons. In the present study, we for the first time investigated the protective effect of pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ), an anionic, water soluble compound that acts as a redox cofactor of bacterial dehydrogenases, on Abeta-induced SH-SY5Y cytotoxicity. Abeta(25-35) significantly reduced cell viability, increased the number of apoptotic-like cells, and increased ROS production. All of these phenotypes induced by Abeta(25-35) were markedly reversed by PQQ. PQQ pretreatment recovered cells from Abeta(25-35)-induced cell death, prevented Abeta(25-35)-induced apoptosis, and decreased ROS production. PQQ strikingly decreased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, and suppressed the cleavage of caspase-3. These results indicated that PQQ could protect SH-SY5Y cells against beta-amyloid induced neurotoxicity.

[A mutation 1633-26(C-->A) in EXT1 gene causes multiple exostoses].

OBJECTIVE: To study the gene mutation in a patient with multiple exostoses, identify the disease-causing gene mutation. METHODS: Polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing were used to screen the EXT1 or EXT2 gene mutation, while mismatch primer amplification and restriction endonuclease digestion were performed to confirm the mutation. RESULTS: By DNA sequencing, a mutation in the seventh intron was detected and located at 26 bp of 3' splice site upstream in EXT1 gene, which was unreported before. Mismatch primer amplification and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis suggested that this mutation was not detected in the normal control. CONCLUSION: The mutation 1633-26(C-->A) may be the disease-causing mutation in this patient with multiple exostoses.

[In silicon cloning of the human TECTB gene].

The coding sequence of the mouse Tectb and chick Tectb gene were subjected to Blastn searching against the human dbEST and Htgs in NCBI. One BAC clone sequence(GenBank: AL157786) was obtained, which shows high homology to the two genes. We predicted the exons and introns in the homologous region of AL157786 using GENSCAN, MZEF and Blast 2 sequence program, and then assembled the predicted exons into the coding sequence of the human TECTB. The open reading frame of human TECTB gene is 990 bp composed of ten exons, which encodes a protein of 329 amino acids. Human TECTB gene shows 88.1% identity in 990 bp overlap with that of the mouse Tectb gene and the predicted polypeptide shows 94.2% identity in 329 as with the mouse beta-tectorin. The TECTB gene was mapped to human chromosome 10q25 by electronic-PCR.