Impact of vitamin D supplementation on markers of bone turnover: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

AIM: The effects of vitamin D administration on bone turnover markers (BTMs) in adults are controversial. Thus, we carried out a meta-analysis of available randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to examine the impact of vitamin D supplementation on BTMs. METHODS: To identify relevant RCTs, we searched the PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Library and Embase databases for manuscripts published up to July 2022. The present study was conducted in agreement with the PRISMA guidelines. Weighed mean difference (WMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to calculate the magnitude of the effect of the intervention. RESULTS: A total of 42 RCTs were included in the meta-analysis. The age of the participants enrolled in the RCTs ranged from 19.4 to 84 years. The pooled results depicted a decrease in deoxypyridinoline (DPD) concentrations (WMD: -1.58 nmol/mmol, 95% CI: -2.55, -.61, p = .001) following vitamin D supplementation. In addition, subgroup analyses demonstrated that vitamin D administration notably reduced procollagen type I N-terminal propeptide (PINP) levels in individuals aged >50 years and led to a pronounced decrease in alkaline phosphatase (ALP) values when the intervention lasted >12 weeks. No significant effect was observed on other BTMs, for example, collagen type 1 cross-linked C-telopeptide (CTX) and osteocalcin (OC) levels. CONCLUSION: Vitamin D administration decreases DPD, PINP and ALP levels, indicating a reduced bone turnover following the intervention. Other BTMs, for example, CTX or OC values, were not affected by vitamin D prescription. Vitamin D supplementation may exert a positive effect on some important BTMs.

The involvement of an interferon-induced protein 44-like (CgIFI44L) in the antiviral immune response of Crassostrea gigas.

Interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) encoding proteins are the essential executors of interferon (IFN) mediated antiviral defense. In the present study, an ISG member, interferon-induced protein 44-like (IFI44L) gene (designed as CgIFI44L-1) was identified from the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. The ORF of CgIFI44L-1 cDNA was of 1437 bp encoding a polypeptide of 479 amino acids with a TLDc domain and an MMR_HSR1 domain. The mRNA transcripts of CgIFI44L-1 were detected in all the tested tissues with highest level in haemocytes, which was 15.78-fold of that in gonad (p < 0.001). Among the haemocytes, the CgIFI44L-1 protein was detected to be highly expressed in granulocytes with dominant distribution in cytoplasm. The mRNA expression level of CgIFI44L-1 in haemocytes was significantly induced by poly (I:C) stimulation, and the expression level peaked at 24 h, which was 24.24-fold (p < 0.0001) of that in control group. After the treatment with the recombinant protein of an oyster IFN-like protein (rCgIFNLP), the mRNA expression level of CgIFI44L-1 was significantly enhanced at 6 h, 12 h and 24 h, which was 2.67-fold (p < 0.001), 5.44-fold (p < 0.001) and 5.16-fold (p < 0.001) of that in control group, respectively. When the expressions of CgSTAT and CgIFNLP were knocked down by RNA interference (RNAi), the mRNA transcripts of CgIFI44L-1 were significantly down-regulated after poly (I:C) stimulation, which was 0.09-fold (p < 0.001) and 0.06-fold (p < 0.001) of those in EGFP group, respectively. These results suggested that CgIFI44L-1 was a conserved ISG in oyster, which was regulated by CgIFNLP and CgSTAT, and involved in the oyster antiviral immune response.

An automated quantification method for the Agatston coronary artery calcium score on coronary computed tomography angiography.

Background: A coronary artery calcium (CAC) score can provide supplementary information for predicting the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although CAC is clinically measured with non-contrast cardiac computed tomography (CT), coronary CT angiography (CCTA) may also be used, allowing for the simultaneous evaluation of coronary artery vessels and calcified plaques. This study proposes a method for the automated quantification of the Agatston CAC score from CCTA and compares our method's performance with that of non-contrast cardiac CT. Methods: Sixty-two patients were selected from a clinical registry and divided into four CAC categories. They underwent both non-contrast cardiac CT and CCTA. The Agatston CAC score derived from non-contrast cardiac CT (standard Agatston CAC score) was used as the reference standard. Calcifications were automatically identified and quantified using different thresholds after a deep learning-based coronary artery segmentation model pretrained on CCTA images. Comparisons were made between the standard Agatston CAC score and the CCTA-based Agatston CAC score (CCTA-CAC score) on a per-patient and per-vessel basis. Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficient (R) and intra-class correlation (ICC) values were used to calculate the correlation between the two methods. Results: After comparison, the optimal lower threshold in CCTA-CAC score calculations was found to be 650 Hounsfield units (HU). Using this threshold on a per-patient basis, the automatically computed CCTA-CAC score showed a high correlation (R =0.959; P<0.01) and ICC (R =0.8219; P<0.01) with the standard Agatston CAC score. On a per-vessel basis, the standard Agatston CAC score was also highly correlated with the CCTA-CAC score (R =0.889; P<0.01 and ICC =0.717; P<0.01). Of the 62 patients enrolled, 47 (76%) were classified into the same cardiovascular risk category using the CCTA-CAC score quantification method as when the standard Agatston CAC score was used. Agreement within the CAC categories was also good (kappa =0.7560). Conclusions: Fully automated quantification of the Agatston CAC score on CCTA images is feasible and shows a high correlation with the reference standard. This method could simplify the quantification procedure and has the potential to reduce the radiation dose and save time by eliminating the non-contrast cardiac CT stage.