Inadequate pregnancy-specific knowledge among patients with inflammatory bowel disease: A multicenter survey in China.

OBJECTIVES: The perceptions and attitudes of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients towards pregnancy may affect their fertility plan and disease progression. We performed a nationwide multicenter survey of pregnancy-related knowledge among gastroenterologists and IBD patients in China to investigate whether specific educational interventions could improve their understanding and broadly influence fertility plan. METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire regarding pregnancy-specific knowledge was carried out among 63 IBD centers in China. Questionnaires were collected from 185 physicians and 609 patients. The patients then received education regarding pregnancy during IBD and filled in the same questionnaire again. Their knowledge regarding pregnancy during IBD was compared before and after education. RESULTS: Compared to physicians, patients' knowledge regarding fertility (39.1% vs 70.8%), imaging examinations (22.8% vs 72.4%), endoscopy performed during pregnancy (19.9% vs 71.4%), and vaccination for infants (16.6% vs 46.5%) was significantly more limited (all P < 0.001). There was a lack of knowledge among gastroenterologists regarding the delivery mode (36.8%), medications (36.8%), and emergency surgery (26.5%) during pregnancy in patients with IBD. After education, the patients showed significant improvement in knowledge regarding medications (26.7% vs 51.7%), fertility (45.0% vs 63.3%), heritability (40.0% vs 58.3%), indications for emergency surgery (15.0% vs 53.3%), imaging examinations during pregnancy (20.0% vs 40.0%), and vaccinations for infants (26.7% vs 45.0%) (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Pregnancy-specific IBD knowledge needs to be improved among certain gastroenterologists and patients in China. Educational interventions can partially improve the knowledge levels of the patients.

Designing Heteroatom-Codoped Iron Metal-Organic Framework for Promotional Photoreduction of Carbon Dioxide to Ethylene.

Rational engineering active sites and vantage defects of catalysts are promising but grand challenging task to enhance photoreduction CO2 to high value-added C2 products. In this study, we designed an N,S-codoped Fe-based MIL-88B catalyst with well-defined bipyramidal hexagonal prism morphology via a facile and effective process, which was synthesized by addition of appropriate 1,2-benzisothiazolin-3-one (BIT) and acetic acid to the reaction solution. Under simulated solar irradiation, the designed catalyst exhibits high C2 H4 evolution yield of 17.7 µmol g-1 ⋅h, which has been rarely achieved in photocatalytic CO2 reduction process. The synergistic effect of Fe-N coordinated sites and reasonable defects in the N,S-codoped photocatalyst can accelerate the migration of photogenerated carriers, resulting in high electron density, and this in turn helps to facilitate the formation and dimerization of C-C coupling intermediates for C2 H4 effectively.

E-cadherin, as a negative regulator of invasive behavior of human trophoblast cells, is down-regulated by cyclosporin A via epidermal growth factor/extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase signaling pathway.

Our previous study has demonstrated cyclosporin A (CsA) promotes the invasiveness of human first-trimester trophoblast cells. In the present study, we further investigated the intracellular signaling pathway responsible for the improvements in CsA-induced invasiveness of human trophoblast cells. We showed that CsA down-regulated E-cadherin transcription and translation in human primary cultured trophoblast cells and choriocarcinoma cell line JEG-3. U0126, an inhibitor of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK), attenuated the CsA-induced transcriptional repressor SNAI2 (also called Slug) expression and restored E-cadherin expression inhibited by CsA in JEG-3 cells. We further demonstrated that CsA amplified epidermal growth factor (EGF)-stimulated EGF receptor (EGFR) tyrosine phosphorylation in JEG-3 cells, and inhibition of EGFR tyrosine phosphorylation by AG1478, an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, abolished the down-regulation of E-cadherin by CsA through ERK signaling pathway. Moreover, our data showed that E-cadherin expression was negatively correlated to the invasiveness of JEG-3 cells, and CsA could reverse the decreased invasiveness of JEG-3 cells that resulted from E-cadherin overexpression. In conclusion, these observations indicate that CsA may decrease E-cadherin expression via EGFR/ERK signaling pathway and, ultimately, contribute to the invasiveness improvement of human trophoblast cells.

[Transient UV absorption spectra of artemisinin reacting with sodium hydroxide].

UV absorption spectrum of artemisinin and transient absorption spectra of various concentrations of artemisinin reacting with sodium hydroxide were measured by using an intensified spectroscopic detector ICCD. The exposure time of each spectrum was 0.1 ms. Results indicate that artemisinin has an obvious UV absorption band centered at 212.52 nm and can react with sodium hydroxide easily. All absorption spectra of different concentrations of artemisinin reacting with sodium hydroxide have the similar changes, but the moment at which the changes happened is different. After adding sodium hydroxide into artemisinin in ethanol solution, there was a new absorption band centered at 288 nm appearing firstly. As reaction went on, the intensity of another absorption band centered at 260 nm increased gradually. At the end of the reaction, a continuous absorption band from 200 to 350 nm with the peak at 245 nm formed finally. No other transient absorption spectral data are available on the reaction of artemisinin with sodium hydroxide currently. The new spectral information obtained in this experiment provides very important experimental basis for understanding the properties of artemisinin reacting with alkaline medium and is useful for correctly using of artemisinin as a potential anticancer drug.