Pituitary abscess: a descriptive analysis of a series of 19 patients-a multi-center experience.

OBJECTIVES: Pituitary abscess (PA) accounts for only 0.3-0.5% of sellar masses, and the lack of specific clinical symptoms makes diagnosing PA difficult without a surgical biopsy. In clinical practice, PA is often mistaken for cystic pituitary adenoma, craniopharyngioma, and Rathke's cyst. Thus, this study aims to investigate challenges in diagnosing PA and evaluate the importance of combining intraoperative surgery with postoperative antibiotic treatment. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 19 patients diagnosed with PA through histopathology. All patients underwent transsphenoidal surgery (TSS) for pituitary adenomas after undergoing comprehensive preoperative evaluations, including routine tests, endocrine assay, and imaging examination. Furthermore, we compared different treatments for pituitary abscess (PA) to determine the most effective approach for achieving a favorable prognosis. RESULTS: The most prevalent symptom of PA was headache, especially in the frontal-temporal and vertex regions, ranging from mild to moderate severity. Hypopituitarism-related symptoms were also frequently observed, including hypaphrodisia, cold sensitivity, fatigue, weight loss, polyuria, and amenorrhea. Twelve patients exhibited abnormalities in endocrinology examinations. Diagnosing PA correctly is challenging. In our study, none of the patients were correctly diagnosed with PA prior to surgery, and many sellar lesions were misdiagnosed. The favorable prognosis was largely attributed to surgical intervention and active postoperative antibiotic therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Given the lack of clarity in preoperative diagnosis, typical intraoperative findings and effective antibiotics treatment are more indicative of the correct diagnosis than other tests. In terms of therapy, optimal surgical intervention and active postoperative antibiotic treatment contribute to resolving the challenges posed by PA.

Polymeric Surfactant (PIBSA-X) Facilitates the Formation of a Water-in-Oil Emulsion Reactor for the Preparation of Ultrasmall Nanosilica.

Despite the widespread application of ultrasmall nanosilica, solving its aggregation problem during the preparation process remains a challenge. In this paper, ultrasmall nanosilica with a controllable size and aggregates were prepared through the water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion method by using polyisobutylene succinic anhydride-type polymeric surfactants (PIBSA-X) as an isolating agent. PIBSA-X polymeric surfactants with different hydrophilic groups were prepared using industrial-grade PIBSA, which can form stable W/O-type emulsions well. Subsequently, the W/O-type emulsion droplets were used as reactors and tetraethyl orthosilicate was hydrolyzed under ammonia alkaline conditions to synthesize ultrasmall nanosilica (10 nm). Furthermore, the morphological evolution of nanosilica aggregates can be tuned by varying the oil/water ratio, which controls the emulsion droplets. A possible mechanism is proposed to explain why the emulsion method approach affords nanosilica aggregates with various morphologies and pellet size in water-in-oil (W/O-type) emulsion droplets. This study provides a precise and simple synthetic method for the development of ultrasmall nanosilica, which has good potential to be industrialized.

Identification and validation of cuproptosis related genes and signature markers in bronchopulmonary dysplasia disease using bioinformatics analysis and machine learning.

BACKGROUND: Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) has a high incidence and affects the health of preterm infants. Cuproptosis is a novel form of cell death, but its mechanism of action in the disease is not yet clear. Machine learning, the latest tool for the analysis of biological samples, is still relatively rarely used for in-depth analysis and prediction of diseases. METHODS AND RESULTS: First, the differential expression of cuproptosis-related genes (CRGs) in the GSE108754 dataset was extracted and the heat map showed that the expression of NFE2L2 gene was significantly higher in the control group whereas the expression of GLS gene was significantly higher in the treatment group. Chromosome location analysis showed that both the genes were positively correlated and associated with chromosome 2. The results of immune infiltration and immune cell differential analysis showed differences in the four immune cells, significantly in Monocytes cells. Five new pathways were analyzed through two subgroups based on consistent clustering of CRG expression. Weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) set the screening condition to the top 25% to obtain the disease signature genes. Four machine learning algorithms: Generalized Linear Models (GLM), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) were used to screen the disease signature genes, and the final five marker genes for disease prediction. The models constructed by GLM method were proved to be more accurate in the validation of two datasets, GSE190215 and GSE188944. CONCLUSION: We eventually identified two copper death-associated genes, NFE2L2 and GLS. A machine learning model-GLM was constructed to predict the prevalence of BPD disease, and five disease signature genes NFATC3, ERMN, PLA2G4A, MTMR9LP and LOC440700 were identified. These genes that were bioinformatics analyzed could be potential targets for identifying BPD disease and treatment.

Peptide ARHGEF9 Inhibits Glioma Progression via PI3K/AKT/mTOR Pathway.

Background: The most prevalent malignant tumor in a human brain nervous system is called glioma. Peptide is a compound formed by the peptide bond of α-amino acids, and the development of polypeptide drugs has been widely used in many fields. We plan to investigate the underlying peptides with clinical value in glioma. Method: Based on public databases, we targeted the common genes between glioma differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and peptide genes related to glioma prognosis. Then, these common genes were analyzed by LASSO-Cox analysis, prognostic risk model, and nomogram to identify key prognostic peptide genes and the target gene in this study. Next, the mechanism of target gene in glioma was explored by bioinformatics analysis and functional experiments. Results: We obtained a total of 26 overlapping genes for the following study. After that, 6 independent prognostic factors (REPIN1, PSD3, RDX, CDK4, FANCI, and ARHGEF9) were obtained and applied to construct the prognostic nomogram, and ARHGEF9 was the target gene in the study. Next, peptide ARHGEF9 was found to inhibit glioma cell development. Through Spearman's correlation analysis, ARHGEF9 had a close relation with PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. In functional experiments, peptide ARHGEF9 could suppress the protein expressions of p-PIK3K, p-AKT and p-mTOR, while IGF-1 could reverse this effect. Conclusion: This study identifies 6 new prognostic biomarkers for glioma patients. Among them, peptide ARHGEF9 gene is an inhibitory gene functioning by targeting PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway.

Question Answering System Based on Knowledge Graph in Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnosis and Treatment of Viral Hepatitis B.

This article uses the real medical records and web pages of Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis B to extract structured medical knowledge, and obtains a total of 8,563 entities, 96,896 relationships, 32 entity types, and 40 relationship types. The structured data was stored in the Neo4j graph structure database, and a knowledge graph of Chinese medical diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis B was constructed. The knowledge map is used as a structured data source to provide high-quality knowledge information for the medical question and answer system based on hepatitis B disease. Applying the deep learning method to the question identification and knowledge response of the question answering system makes the hepatitis B medical intelligent question answering system has important research and application significance. The question-and-answer system takes aim at hepatitis B, a public health problem in the world and leverages the advantages of traditional Chinese medicine for diagnosis and treatment. It provides a reference for doctors' disease diagnosis, treatment, and patient self-care. Its value is important for the treatment of hepatitis B disease.

Raman spectroscopic analysis of skin penetration and moisturizing effects of Bionics vernix caseosa cream compared with Vaseline.

BACKGROUND: The stratum corneum (SC) is the outermost layer of human skin and deemed as barrier against chemical exposure and water loss. Moisturizers have beneficial effects in treating dry skin, especially the SC. Confocal Raman spectroscopy (CRS) was used to evaluate the efficacy of moisturizers on skin hydration and penetration, with such agents posing inherent characteristics of being noninvasive, nondestructive, timesaving, and cost effective. Bionics vernix caseosa (BVC) cream mimics the composition of vernix caseosa (VC), which could protect the newborn skin. METHODS: This research applied CRS to evaluate the penetration depth and water content variation during the intervention with two moisturizers, BVC cream and Vaseline. Volunteers received the 2 h application of BVC cream and Vaseline on the forearms. The evaluations on 0 h, 2 h, 4 h and 6 h were performed clinical assessment. Experimental data was processed by least square method and analysis of variance (ANOVA). RESULTS: The penetration depth of Vaseline was deeper than that of Bionics vernix caseosa cream. Specifically, BVC cream penetrated 18 µm into human skin, while Vaseline penetrated at least 20 µm. Compared with Vaseline, only BVC cream increased skin hydration, with a moisturizing effect lasting for 4 h. At 6 h, the Vaseline moisturizing effect decreased significantly.

Factor analysis approach unveils the influencing factors of dandruff in the normal teenage population.

The aim of this study was to explore the main factors affecting the occurrence of dandruff in healthy people (nondisease-induced scalp desquamation). This study analyzed the fungal microbial diversity of the scalp in Chinese teenage volunteers and measured scalp sebum secretion, the scalp pH value, and scalp transepidermal water loss. The amount and size of dandruff were measured, and the main factors that influence dandruff in the normal population were identified using principal component analysis. The results showed that an increase in Malassezia restricta led to an increased amount of dandruff in the mild and moderate groups. Conversely, this was not found for individuals in the severe group, whose dandruff symptoms were influenced by scalp barrier function. In terms of dandruff area grouping, the pH value and the amount of sebum secretion were the main factors, with the barrier function and microbial diversity being secondary factors. Dandruff cosmetics should emphasize different treatments for different types of dandruff to achieve better antidandruff effects. The results of this study provide a new theoretical basis for the development of multiple targets for antidandruff agents aimed at the normal population.

Autologous fat graft assisted by stromal vascular fraction improves facial skin quality: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Cell-assisted lipotransfer (CAL) promotes the survival of fat grafts with high vascular density and improves skin quality by increasing collagen content. However, no study has quantified the changes on the skin surface, and rigorous methodological evaluations are still lacking. DESIGN: Fifty patients were recruited and randomly divided into two groups: an experimental group (n = 25) that underwent a stromal vascular fraction (SVF)-assisted fat graft and a control group (n = 25) that underwent fat graft only. METHODS: The SVF cells were counted, tested in terms of viability, and characterized. The volumes of whole faces were determined by using a 3D scanner and Geomagic software preoperation, immediately after surgery, and 6 months postoperation. Facial skin qualities, including spots, wrinkles, texture, pores, UV spots, brown spots, red areas, and porphyrins, were detected by a VISIA skin detector preoperation and 6 months postoperation. A visual analog scale was used for clinical evaluation. RESULTS: The cell pellet contained 1-3 × 107/mL of fresh SVF cells. The cell viability exceeded 98%. The immunophenotyping characteristics and stemness were consistent with the features of adipose- derived stem cells (ADSCs). The survival rate of SVF-enriched fat grafts was significantly higher than that of control grafts: 77.6%±11.6% versus 56.2%±9.5% (p<0.001). The VISIA values of wrinkles (19.3 ±â€¯6.6 versus 10.9 ±â€¯5.5, p<0.001) and texture (15.8 ±â€¯7.0 versus 10.3 ±â€¯5.0, p<0.01) were significantly higher in SVF-enriched group than in control group at 6 months postoperation. During long-term follow-up, the majority of patients in both groups were satisfied with the final facial esthetic results. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrated the positive outcomes of autologous SVF-assisted fat graft in improving facial skin quality and its promising application potential in clinical settings. This study is registered at www. ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02923219.

AURKA Enhances Autophagy of Adipose Derived Stem Cells to Promote Diabetic Wound Repair via Targeting FOXO3a.

AURKA regulates apoptosis and autophagy in a diverse range of diseases and exhibits promising clinical efficacy; however, the role of AURKA in regulating adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) and repairing diabetic wound remains unclear. Here, we showed that ADSCs subjected to high glucose stress displayed an obvious induction of AURKA and FOXO3a, and a significant increase in autophagy and apoptosis. AURKA was confirmed to regulate autophagy through FOXO3a. AURKA-mediated autophagy inhibited high-glucose-induced apoptosis of ADSCs. Furthermore, co-immunoprecipitation and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays were employed to investigate the interaction of AURKA and FOXO3a. FOXO3a bound to its own promoter and transactivated its own expression. AURKA was found to interact with FOXO3a to regulate FOXO3a activity. In diabetic mice, ADSCs overexpressing AURKA led to a decrease of apoptosis of ADSCs and promoted wound healing in the skin. Taken together, our data suggest that transcriptional regulation of FOXO3a by high-glucose-mediated AURKA is necessary for ADSCs autophagy. Our data reveal a potential therapeutic strategy for targeting AURKA involved in high-glucose-induced anti-apoptotic autophagy in ADSCs.

Effects of Frozen Stromal Vascular Fraction on the Survival of Cryopreserved Fat Tissue.

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, the use of cryopreserved fat tissue for soft tissue augmentation is common, except for its unpredictable fat graft absorption, and the toxicity of the cryoprotective agent remains a limitation. In this study, the effects of freezing stored fat tissue without a cryoprotector, and the addition of the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) on the survival of cryopreserved transplants was studied. METHODS: Lipoaspirates from six donors were processed and cryopreserved at - 20 °C, - 80 °C and - 196 °C, respectively. The authors evaluated the lipoaspirates in vitro, on the basis of fat tissue and SVF viability after cryopreservation. In vivo fat grafting was performed in nude mice. Six trenches were injected on the backs of mice. Cryopreserved tissues (- 20 °C, - 80 °C and - 196 °C) were injected on the right side, and the other side received the SVF combination. At 4 and 8 weeks after transplantation, the authors examined the weight, volume and morphology of the tissue and analyzed histochemical staining and immunohistochemistry (i.e., DIL, CD31 and VWF) to evaluate the survival of the fat grafts. RESULTS: After cryopreservation without the cryoprotective agent, adipose tissue maintained its morphology better in - 80 °C than - 20 °C and - 196 °C. SVF cells can retain their adhesive and proliferative properties after cryopreservation. Although cryopreservation caused damage to fat tissue, all explants showed intact adipocytes and vascular ingrowth. Most of all, the - 80 °C group had less graft resorption and fibrosis than the other temperature groups. There was increased survival of fat grafts in the SVF group compared with the control group. CONCLUSION: In this study, the authors demonstrated that the storage temperature of - 80 °C was promising for 3 months of adipose tissue cryopreservation without a cryoprotective agent, and SVF could increase the survival rate of cryopreserved fat tissue. NO LEVEL ASSIGNED: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Inhibition of autophagy promoted high glucose/ROS-mediated apoptosis in ADSCs.

BACKGROUND: Increased apoptosis in adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs) limits their application in treating diabetes complications. Autophagy is a molecular process that allows cells to degrade and recover damaged macromolecules, and closely interacts with apoptosis. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential role of autophagy in ADSC apoptosis induced by high glucose. METHODS: Human ADSCs were cultured in normal or high-glucose medium for 6 h, 12 h, or 24 h. The effects of high glucose on ADSC autophagy, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and apoptosis were evaluated. The impact of autophagy on ROS production and apoptosis was explored by treatment with rapamycin or 3-methyladenine (3-MA). The c-jun kinase (JNK) signaling pathway was investigated by pharmacological disruption of SP600125. RESULTS: ADSCs subjected to high glucose stress showed an obvious induction of autophagy and apoptosis and a significant increase in intracellular ROS levels. The JNK signaling pathway was confirmed to be involved in high glucose-induced autophagy. Pre-treatment with SP600125 or N-acetylcysteine reversed the effects of high glucose on the JNK signaling pathway and autophagy-related proteins. Pretreatment of ADSCs with 3-MA under high glucose stress induced a further increase in ROS levels compared to those of high glucose-treated cells. Furthermore, ADSCs pretreated with 3-MA under high glucose stress showed a marked increase in apoptosis compared with that of the cells treated with high glucose. Conversely, pre-treatment with rapamycin inhibited the apoptosis of ADSCs. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our data suggest that autophagy may play a protective role in high glucose-induced apoptosis in ADSCs. ROS/JNK signaling is essential in upregulating high glucose-induced autophagy. This study provides new insights into the molecular mechanism of autophagy involved in high glucose-induced apoptosis in ADSCs.

miR-5591-5p regulates the effect of ADSCs in repairing diabetic wound via targeting AGEs/AGER/JNK signaling axis.

Advanced glycation end products/advanced glycation end products receptor (AGEs/AGER) interaction triggers reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and activates downstream signal pathways and induces apoptosis in endothelial progenitor cells. A number of studies have revealed the involvement of microRNAs (miRNAs) in regulating intracellular ROS production and apoptosis. However, few studies explore the role of miRNAs in regulating the effect of adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs) in repairing diabetic wound and the associated cellular mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, ADSCs were exposed to AGEs, then siRNA for AGER was transfected into ADSCs. We found that AGEs/AGER axis induced ROS generation and apoptosis in ADSCs. AGEs treatment downregulated miR-5591-5p in ADSCs, which directly targeted AGER. miR-5591-5p suppressed AGEs/AGER axis-mediated ROS generation and apoptosis in ADSCs in vitro. In addition, miR-5591-5p promoted cell survival and enhanced the ability of ADSCs for repairing cutaneous wound in vivo. Furthermore, we confirmed that c-jun kinase (JNK) signal was involved in the inhibitory effect of miR-5591-5p on AGEs/AGER axis-induced ROS generation and apoptosis in ADSCs. Thus, these results indicated that miR-5591-5p targeting AGEs/AGER/JNK signaling axis possibly regulates the effect of ADSCs in repairing diabetic wound.