Baicalein improves the symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome by mitigating oxidative stress and ferroptosis in the ovary and gravid placenta.

BACKGROUND: Polycystic ovary syndrome is a metabolic and hormonal disorder that is closely linked to oxidative stress. Within individuals diagnosed with PCOS, changes occur in the ovaries, resulting in an excessive buildup of iron and peroxidation of lipids, both of which may be associated with the occurrence of ferroptosis. Baicalein, a flavonoid found in the roots of Scutellaria baicalensis and widely known as Chinese skullcap, is known for its anti-inflammatory and anti-ferroptotic properties, which protect against various diseases. Nevertheless, there has been no investigation into the impact of baicalein on polycystic ovary syndrome. PURPOSE: This study aimed to correlate ferroptosis with polycystic ovary syndrome and to assess the effects of baicalein on ovarian dysfunction and placental development in pregnant patients. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Polycystic ovary syndrome was induced in a rat model through the administration of dehydroepiandrosterone, and these rats were treated with baicalein. Oxidative stress and inflammation levels were assessed in serum and ovaries, and tissue samples were collected for histological and protein analyses. Furthermore, different groups of female rats were mated with male rats to observe pregnancy outcomes and tissue samples were obtained for histological, protein, and RNA sequencing. Then, RNA sequencing of the placenta was performed to determine the key genes involved in ferroptosis negative regulation (FNR) signatures. RESULTS: Baicalein was shown to reduce ovarian oxidative stress and pathology. Baicalein also ameliorated polycystic ovary syndrome by decreasing lipid peroxidation and chronic inflammation and modulating mitochondrial functions and ferroptosis in the ovaries. Specifically, glutathione peroxidase and ferritin heavy chain 1 were considerably downregulated in polycystic ovary syndrome gravid rats compared to their expression in the control group, and most of these differences were reversed after baicalein intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings, initially, indicated that baicalein could potentially enhance the prognosis of individuals suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome by reducing oxidative stress and ferroptosis, thus potentially influencing the formulation of a therapeutic approach to address this condition.

Permanent iodine-125 brachytherapy for patients with progressive or recurrent high-grade gliomas.

BACKGROUND: The prognosis of patients with progressive or recurrent high-grade gliomas (HGGs) after surgery remains poor. Iodine-125 brachytherapy is emerging as a salvage method for the treatment of gliomas. This study aimed to investigate whether permanent iodine-125 brachytherapy could be used as an effective therapeutic method even without radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy for progressive or recurrent HGG after gross total resection. METHODS: Between March 2004 and August 2016, 58 patients with progressive or recurrent HGG after gross total resection were included in this study. Twenty-nine patients underwent radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy and then permanent iodine-125 brachytherapy (SRCI group). Twenty-nine patients underwent permanent iodine-125 brachytherapy alone (SI group). Follow-up was carried out at 1, 3, and 6 months and then at 1, 2, 3, and 5 years after iodine-125 implantation. The median overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), procedure-related complications and clinical outcomes were evaluated. RESULTS: No procedure-related fatal events happened. The temporary morbidity rate was 11.9%. The median OS and PFS for patients in the SI group were 22 and 8 months compared with 21 and 7 months in the SRCI group. No significant differences were found. Age and Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) were independent prognostic factors for OS. Age, KPS and histology were independent prognostic factors for PFS. CONCLUSIONS: Permanent iodine-125 brachytherapy could be used as an effective therapeutic method even without radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy for progressive or recurrent HGG after gross total resection.

Dissociation between Cerebellar and Cerebral Neural Activities in Humans with Long-Term Bilateral Sensorineural Hearing Loss.

Abnormal neural activity in the cerebellum has been implicated in hearing impairments, but the effects of long-term hearing loss on cerebellar function are poorly understood. To further explore the role of long-term bilateral sensorineural hearing loss on cerebellar function, we investigated hearing loss-induced changes among neural networks within cerebellar subregions and the changes in cerebellar-cerebral connectivity patterns using resting-state functional MRI. Twenty-one subjects with long-term bilateral moderate-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss and 21 matched controls with clinically normal hearing underwent MRI scanning and a series of neuropsychological tests targeting cognition and emotion. Voxel-wise functional connectivity (FC) analysis demonstrated decreased couplings between the cerebellum and other cerebral areas, including the temporal pole (TP), insula, supramarginal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), medial frontal gyrus, and thalamus, in long-term bilateral sensorineural hearing loss patients. An ROI-wise FC analysis found weakened interregional connections within cerebellar subdivisions. Moreover, there was a negative correlation between anxiety and FC between the left cerebellar lobe VI and left insula. Hearing ability and anxiety scores were also correlated with FC between the left cerebellar lobe VI and left TP, as well as the right cerebellar lobule VI and left IFG. Our results suggest that sensorineural hearing loss disrupts cerebellar-cerebral circuits, some potentially linked to anxiety, and interregional cerebellar connectivity. The findings contribute to a growing body showing that auditory deprivation caused by cochlear hearing loss disrupts not only activity with the classical auditory pathway but also portions of the cerebellum that communicates with other cortical networks.

Structural change of thalamus in cirrhotic patients with or without minimal hepatic encephalopathy and the relationship between thalamus volume and clinical indexes related to cirrhosis.

Aberrant brain structural change in cirrhotic patients with or without hepatic encephalopathy is one of the most typical cases in voxel-based morphometry (VBM) studies. However, there exist inconsistent results regarding to the volume change of the thalamus. Furthermore, the relationship between thalamus structural change and cirrhotic symptoms has not yet been fully elucidated. To address these two issues, we repeated two VBM analyses in SPM and FreeSurfer and compared the two measurements with manually measured thalamic volumes. We also correlated the VBM results with clinical indexes related to cirrhosis to further investigate the relationship between thalamic structural change and liver cirrhosis. The inconsistent result of thalamic structural change was successfully reproduced in regard to the volume measurements of SPM and FreeSurfer. The manually measured results demonstrate an increase in the volume of the thalamus in cirrhotic patients compared to healthy controls, which differs from the results of FreeSurfer. The structural change of thalamus closely correlated with the blood biochemical indexes, including albumin levels, blood coagulation time, and AST/ALT ratio. All of these biochemical indexes are closely related to the severity of liver cirrhosis. Beyond all the results, this study also provides a good demonstration of the difference between multiple VBM measurements for clinicians.

Ultrafast dynamics of the acoustic vaporization of phase-change microdroplets.

Acoustically sensitive emulsions are a promising tool for medical applications such as localized drug delivery. The physical mechanisms underlying the ultrasound-triggered nucleation and subsequent vaporization of these phase-change emulsions are largely unexplored. Here, the acoustic vaporization of individual micron-sized perfluoropentane (PFP) droplets is studied at a nanoseconds timescale. Highly diluted emulsions of PFP-in-water and oil-in-PFP-in-water droplets, ranging from 3.5 to 11 µm in radius, were prepared and the nucleation and growth of the vapor bubbles was imaged at frame rates of up to 20 Mfps. The droplet vaporization dynamics was observed to have three distinct regimes: (1) prior to nucleation, a regime of droplet deformation and oscillatory translations within the surrounding fluid along the propagation direction of the applied ultrasound; (2) a regime characterized by the rapid growth of a vapor bubble enhanced by ultrasound-driven rectified heat transfer; and (3) a final phase characterized by a relatively slow expansion, after ultrasound stops, that is fully dominated by heat transfer. A method to measure the moment of inception of the nucleation event with respect to the phase of the ultrasound wave is proposed. A simple physical model captures quantitatively all of the features of the subsequent vapor bubble growth.