Correlation Between IL-8 Gene Polymorphisms and Pathogenesis of Crohn's Disease.

Context: The risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is substantially heightened if patients' first-degree relatives have it. The genetic and immune factors related to the disease have attracted great attention, including patients innate genetic polymorphisms. Interleukin-8 (IL-8) plays a vital role in digestive-system diseases, especially in gastrointestinal diseases. Objective: The study intended to explore the expression of interleukin-8 (IL-8) in the colon tissues of patients with Crohn's disease and the correlation between its polymorphisms and the disease's occurrence. Design: The research team performed a prospective study. Setting: The study took place in the Department of Gastroenterology at Zhuji People's Hospital of Zhejiang Province in Zhuji, China. Participants: Participants were 100 patients with Crohn's disease at the hospital between November 2016 and June 2018 and 100 healthy individuals. The research team assigned participants with Crohn's disease to the Crohn's disease group and the healthy participants to the control group. Outcome Measures: The research team: (1) determined differences in the protein expression of the IL-8 between the groups; (2) examined the conformity of the data to that of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium; (3) analyzed the differences in the genotypes and alleles for the IL-8 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs102039, rs103284 and rs105432 between the groups; and (4) for the Crohn's disease group, examined the differences in the disease's location and behavior for the participants with different genotypes. Results: The protein expression level of IL-8 in the colon tissues in Crohn's disease group was significantly higher than that in control group (P < .05). The genetic association analysis showed significant correlations between the polymorphisms rs103284 and rs105432 and alleles of the IL-8 gene and the occurrence of Crohn's disease (P < .05), but no associations existed between the gene polymorphism rs102039 and alleles and Crohn's disease (P > .05). Significant correlations existed between the IL-8 gene polymorphisms rs103284 and rs105432 and the disease's location and behavior (P < .05). Conclusions: IL-8 had a significantly increased expression in the colon tissues of the participants with Crohn's disease, and some genotypes and alleles for the gene polymorphisms rs103284 and rs105432 were significantly higher in the Crohn's disease group than in the control group. In addition, the disease's location and behavior were significantly different for participants in the Crohn's disease group with different genotypes.

A pilot study on the impacts of lung-strengthening Qigong on wellbeing.

BACKGROUND: Qigong embraces a range of self-care exercises originating from China. Lung-Strengthening Qigong (LSQ) is a specific technique for maintaining and improving physical and mental wellbeing. METHODS: We recruited 170 practitioners and 42 non-practitioner/control samples to investigate the impacts of LSQ practice on body, mind, thoughts, and feelings. This is a pilot study pursued to plan for an adequately powered, non-clinical randomized controlled trials (RCT) on overall wellbeing and health and to evaluate the adequacy of delivering the physical activity intervention with fidelity. Self-evaluation-based data collection schemes were developed by regularly requesting completion of a questionnaire from both practitioner and control group, and an online diary and end of study survey (EOS) completion only from the practitioners. Diverse types of analyses were conducted, including statistical tests, machine learning, and qualitative thematic models. RESULTS: We evaluated all different data resources together and observed that (a)the impacts are diverse, including improvements in physical (e.g., elevated sleep quality, physical energy, reduced fatigue), mental (e.g., increased positivity, reduced stress), and relational (e.g., enhanced connections to self and nature) wellbeing, which were not observed in control group; (b)measured by the level-of-effectiveness, four distinct clusters were identified, from no-effect to a high-level of effect; (c)a majority (84 %) of the LSQ practitioners experienced an improvement in wellbeing; (d)qualitative and quantitative analyses of the diary entries, questionnaires, and EOS were all found to be consistent, (e)majority of the positively impacted practitioners had no or some little prior experience with LSQ. CONCLUSIONS: Novel features of this study include (i)an increased sample size vis-à-vis other related studies; (ii)provision of weekly live-streamed LSQ sessions; (iii)integration of quantitative and qualitative type of analyses. The pilot study indicated that the proportion of practitioners who continued to engage in completing the regular-interval questionnaires over time was higher for practitioners compared to the control group. The engagement of practitioners may have been sustained by participation in the regular live LSQ sessions. To fully understand the impacts of LSQ on clinical/physiological outcomes, especially for specific patient groups, more objective biomarkers (e.g. respiratory rate, heart rate variation) could be tracked in future studies.