Blood levels of omega-6 fatty acids and coronary heart disease: a systematic review and metaanalysis of observational epidemiology.

Individual omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), principally linoleic acid (LA) and arachidonic acid (AA), may have differential impacts on cardiovascular risk. We aimed to summarize the up-to-date epidemiology evidence on the relationship between blood levels of omega-6 PUFAs and the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Population-based studies determining PUFA levels in blood were identified until May 2021 in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library. Random-effects meta-analyses of cohorts comparing the highest versus lowest category were conducted to combine study-specific risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Blood levels of omega-6 PUFAs were compared between the CHD case and non-case, presented as a weight mean difference (WMD). Twenty-one cohorts and eleven case-control studies were included. The WMD was -0.71 (95% CI: -1.20, -0.21) for LA and 0.08 (95% CI: -0.28, 0.43) for AA. LA levels were inversely associated with total CHD risk (RR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.71, 1.00), but not AA. Each one-SD increase in LA levels resulted in 10% reductions in the risk of fatal CHD (RR: 0.90, 95% CI: 0.86, 0.95), but not in non-fatal CHD. Such findings highlight that the current recommendation for optimal intakes of omega-6 PUFAs (most LA) may offer a coronary benefit in primary prevention.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2022.2056867 .

Comparative efficacy of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on major cardiovascular events: A network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

The role of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in primary and secondary prevention on major cardiovascular events (MCE) is inconclusive due to the potential heterogeneity in study designs of formulas, dosages, and ratios of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) from the findings of previous randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Here we conducted a comprehensive narrative review of pre-clinical studies and updated a network meta-analysis (NMA) to determine the comparative efficacy against MCE with different EPA/DHA dosages and formulas. We found that pure EPA was ranked the best option in the secondary prevention (hazard ratio: 0.72, 95% confidence interval: 0.65 to 0.81) from the NMA of 39 RCTs with 88,359 participants. There was no evidence of omega-3 PUFAs' efficacy in primary prevention. The mechanisms of omega-3 PUFAs' cardiovascular protection might link to the effects of anti-inflammation and stabilization of endothelial function from PUFA's derivatives including eicosanoids and the special pre-resolving mediators (SPMs).

Wake-Promoting Effect of Bloodletting Puncture at Hand Twelve Jing-Well Points in Acute Stroke Patients: A Multi-center Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect and safety of bloodletting puncture at hand twelve Jing-Well points (HTWPs) in acute stroke patients with conscious disturbance. METHODS: In this multi-center and randomized controlled trial, 360 patients suffered from ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke with conscious disturbance within 48 h from the onset of symptom were divided into bloodletting (180 cases) and control (180 cases) groups using a block randomization. Patients in both groups received routine Western medicine, and patients in the bloodletting group received additional bloodletting puncture at HTWPs on admission immediately before conventional treatment. The primary outcome measure was Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score and the secondary outcomes included blood pressure, respiratory rate and pulse rate. All variables were evaluated at baseline (before bloodletting), 0 (after bloodletting immediately), 15, 30, 50 and 80 min post bloodletting. RESULTS: At 80 min post bloodletting, the proportion of patients with improved consciousness in the bloodletting group was greater than the control group (P<0.05). In the separate analysis of moderate consciousness disturbance subgroup, bloodletting therapy benefited ischemic patients, and improved the eye and language response of GCS score at 15, 30, 50, 80 min post bloodletting (P<0.05 or P<0.01). No significant differences were observed regarding the secondary outcomes between two groups (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: The bloodletting puncture at HTWPs was safe and could improve conscious levels of ischemic stroke patients, highlighting a first-aid intervention for acute stroke. (Registration No. ChiCTR-INR-16009530).

Small molecule proteomics quantifies differences between normal and fibrotic pulmonary extracellular matrices.

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary fibrosis is a respiratory disease caused by the proliferation of fibroblasts and accumulation of the extracellular matrix (ECM). It is known that the lung ECM is mainly composed of a three-dimensional fiber mesh filled with various high-molecular-weight proteins. However, the small-molecular-weight proteins in the lung ECM and their differences between normal and fibrotic lung ECM are largely unknown. METHODS: Healthy adult male Sprague-Dawley rats (Rattus norvegicus) weighing about 150 to 200 g were randomly divided into three groups using random number table: A, B, and C and each group contained five rats. The rats in Group A were administered a single intragastric (i.g.) dose of 500 µL of saline as control, and those in Groups B and C were administered a single i.g. dose of paraquat (PQ) dissolved in 500 µL of saline (20 mg/kg). After 2 weeks, the lungs of rats in Group B were harvested for histological observation, preparation of de-cellularized lung scaffolds, and proteomic analysis for small-molecular-weight proteins, and similar procedures were performed on Group C and A after 4 weeks. The differentially expressed small-molecular-weight proteins (DESMPs) between different groups and the subcellular locations were analyzed. RESULTS: Of the 1626 small-molecular-weight proteins identified, 1047 were quantifiable. There were 97 up-regulated and 45 down-regulated proteins in B vs. A, 274 up-regulated and 31 down-regulated proteins in C vs. A, and 237 up-regulated and 28 down-regulated proteins identified in C vs. B. Both the up-regulated and down-regulated proteins in the three comparisons were mainly distributed in single-organism processes and cellular processes within biological process, cell and organelle within cellular component, and binding within molecular function. Further, more up-regulated than down-regulated proteins were identified in most sub-cellular locations. The interactions of DESMPs identified in extracellular location in all comparisons showed that serum albumin (Alb) harbored the highest degree of node (25), followed by prolyl 4-hydroxylase beta polypeptide (12), integrin ß1 (10), apolipoprotein A1 (9), and fibrinogen gamma chain (9). CONCLUSIONS: Numerous PQ-induced DESMPs were identified in de-cellularized lungs of rats by high throughput proteomics analysis. The DESMPs between the control and treatment groups showed diversity in molecular functions, biological processes, and pathways. In addition, the interactions of extracellular DESMPs suggested that the extracellular proteins Alb, Itgb1, Apoa1, P4hb, and Fgg in ECM could be potentially used as biomarker candidates for pulmonary fibrosis. These results provided useful information and new insights regarding pulmonary fibrosis.

[Imaging quality evaluation of computational imaging spectrometry].

As a novel imaging spectrometry, computational imaging spectrometry (CIS) has the advantages of high throughput, snapshot imaging etc. However, there is little research on imaging quality evaluation of CIS system. In the present paper, a quantitive evaluation method for imaging quality of CIS system was presented. ISO 12233 chart was used as the objective source, and then imaging and reconstruction of the spatial-spectral information was provided. Calculating modulation transfer functions (MTFs) for the reconstructed images was considered as the criterion of the imaging quality evaluation of CIS system. The result shows that MTFs for single-frame sampling decrease rapidly with the aliasing spectral number increasing. When the number of the aliasing spectra is 9, MTF for the reconstructed image decreases by 50% compared to the original scene. This work helps better understand the pros and cons of CIS system and arrange the aliasing spectral number reasonably to reconstruct the object scene precisely.

[Simulated annealing based phase correction of interferogram in Fourier transform imaging spectrometer].

Phase correction is one of the key technologies in the spectrum recovery of the Fourier transform imaging spectrometer. The present paper proposes a correction method based on simulated annealing algorithm to calculate phase error, which overcomes the disadvantage of the existing methods that can not correct the interferogram with noise. The method determines the phase optimum solution by controlling the phase decrease function, attaining objective function value by correcting interferogram data with random phase value generated in the phase range, and determining the objective function increment in accordance with the Metropolis criterion. The simulation result of the algorithm indicates that the optimized phase error is less than 0.5%, and both the error accuracy and stability of the spectrum-recovered relative spectrum is less than 1%, which is a great improvement compared with the existing algorithm.

[Observation on therapeutic effect of post-apoplectic unilateral sensory disturbance treated with wrist-ankle acupuncture].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the clinical effect of wrist-ankle acupuncture combined with conventional acupuncture on post-apoplectic unilateral sensory disturbance. METHODS: Eighty cases of acute cerebral apoplexy patients of unilateral sensory disturbance were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group, 40 cases in each one. In control group, the conventional acupuncture was applied at bilateral Fengchi (GB 20), and Jianyu (LI 15), Quchi (LI 11) and Waiguan (TE 5) etc. on the affected side. In observation group, wrist-ankle acupuncture was adopted in combination with conventional acupuncture. In wrist-ankle acupuncture, the needles were inserted from the Upper 1-6 and the Lower 1-6 on the affected side, and were remained for 5 to 6 h. The needles were punctured in the morning and removed in the afternoon. The clinical efficacy, the score in the sensory disturbance assessment as well as the changes in the limb sensory disturbance degree based on the patients' feelings were observed in two groups. RESULTS: The total effective rate in observation group was 90.0% (36/40), which was superior to 75.0% (30/40) in control group (P < 0.05). The improvements were obtained in the total scores of the limb sensory function, superficial sensibility and cortical sensibility after treatment in either group (P < 0.05, P < 0.01), but there was no remarkably improvement in proprioception (both P > 0.05). All the scores above were improved much remarkably in observation group as compared with control group (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Wrist-ankle acupuncture combined with conventional acupuncture is the effective therapy for post-apoplectic unilateral sensory disturbance.

[Effects of androgen on the bone].

Androgen is an anabolic steroid composed of 19 carbon atoms. As a sex hormone, it has far-ranging effects on many sites within the body, including bone metabolism. Androgen has important effects on bone development and homeostasis. It has been proved that the androgen receptor (AR) expresses in bone cells, which indicates that androgen has direct effects on bone cells. Furthermore there is convincing evidence that aromatization to estrogen is an important way of mediating the action of testosterone. Androgen not only plays an important role in gaining the peak bone mass and maintaining the bone mass, but also has a close correlation with aging-related bone loss.