Association between hypertensive disorders and Bell's palsy in pregnancy: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Bell's palsy is an idiopathic peripheral nerve palsy involving the facial nerve. Pregnancy, diabetes mellitus and hypertension are the risk factors for Bell's palsy. However, the association between hypertensive disorders and Bell's palsy during pregnancy or the puerperium remains unclear. This systematic review will comprehensively summarise the literature and evaluate the association between Bell's palsy and hypertensive disorders during pregnancy or the puerperium. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Systematic searches of PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials will be undertaken using prespecified search strategies. Observational studies (cross-sectional studies, cohort studies, case reports and series case reports) written in English that investigate the association between hypertensive disorders of late pregnancy and Bell's palsy during pregnancy or the puerperium will be included. Different authors will independently conduct the eligible study selection, perform data extraction and appraise the quality of included studies. Subgroup analysis will be carried out based on the age of pregnant women (≤35 years old, >35 years old), parity (primipara, multipara) and fetus number (singleton or multiple-gestation pregnancy). ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This review will be based on published literature, and thus there is no requirement for ethics approval. The results of this study will aid in the knowledge of the relationship between Bell's palsy during pregnancy or the puerperium and hypertensive disorders of late pregnancy. The results of this systematic review will be shared through publication in a peer-reviewed journal with good visibility for the field of obstetrics and presentations at academic conferences. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42023422902.

AZD1390, an ataxia telangiectasia mutated inhibitor, attenuates microglia-mediated neuroinflammation and ischemic brain injury.

AIMS: Excessive neuroinflammation mediated mainly by microglia plays a crucial role in ischemic stroke. AZD1390, an ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) specific inhibitor, has been shown to promote radio-sensitization and survival in central nervous system malignancies, while the role of AZD1390 in ischemic stroke remains unknown. METHODS: Real-time PCR, western blot, immunofluorescence staining, flow cytometry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were used to assess the activation of microglia and the release of inflammatory cytokines. Behavioral tests were performed to measure neurological deficits. 2,3,5-Triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining was conducted to assess the infarct volume. The activation of NF-κB signaling pathway was explored through immunofluorescence staining, western blot, co-immunoprecipitation and proximity ligation assay. RESULTS: The level of pro-inflammation cytokines and activation of NF-κB signaling pathway was suppressed by AZD1390 in vitro and in vivo. The behavior deficits and infarct size were partially restored with AZD1390 treatment in experimental stroke. AZD1390 restrict ubiquitylation and sumoylation of the essential regulatory subunit of NF-κB (NEMO) in an ATM-dependent and ATM-independent way respectively, which reduced the activation of the NF-κB pathway. CONCLUSION: AZD1390 suppressed NF-κB signaling pathway to alleviate ischemic brain injury in experimental stroke, and attenuated microglia activation and neuroinflammation, which indicated that AZD1390 might be an attractive agent for the treatment of ischemic stroke.

[The correlation between sperm DNA damage and IVF-ET clinical pregnancy outcomes in different BMI population with normal routine semen examination].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the correlation between sperm DFI, HDS and IVF-ET pregnancy outcomes in different BMI populations with normal routine semen examination. METHODS: The clinical data of 199 cycles of IVF-ET were retrospectively analyzed. Sperm chromatin structure analysis based on flow cytometry was used to detect sperm DFI and HDS. The correlation between sperm DFI, HDS and pregnancy outcome of IVF-ET were analyzed. RESULTS: The sperm DFI was negatively correlated with IVF-ET pregnancy in overweight (24.0 kg/m2≤BMI<28.0 kg/m2) population (OR=0.935, P=0.043). In the normal BMI group (18.5 kg/m2≤BMI < 24.0 kg/m2), the clinical pregnancy outcome of IVF-ET was not significantly correlated with sperm DFI, and was negatively correlated with male age (OR=0.744, P=0.020). In the obese population (BMI ≥ 28.0 kg/m2) , there was no significant correlation between the clinical pregnancy outcome of IVF-ET and sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) , but a negative correlation with male BMI (OR = 0.779, P = 0.043). CONCLUSION: The male BMI affected the correlation between sperm DFI and IVF-ET pregnancy outcomes: ①Sperm DFI was only associated with IVF-ET clinical pregnancy outcome in the overweight population; ② In normal BMI and obese populations, male age and male BMI were important factors affecting IVF-ET clinical pregnancy outcome respectively; ③No correlation was found between sperm HDS and IVF-ET pregnancy outcomes.

Imperatorin inhibits mitogen-activated protein kinase and nuclear factor kappa-B signaling pathways and alleviates neuroinflammation in ischemic stroke.

AIMS: Microglia-mediated neuroinflammation plays an important role in the pathological process of ischemic stroke, and the effect of imperatorin on post-stroke neuroinflammation is not fully understood. METHODS: Primary microglia were treated with imperatorin for 2 h followed by LPS (100 ng/ml) for 24 h. The expression of inflammatory cytokines was detected by RT-PCR, ELISA, and Western blot. The activation of MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways were analyzed by Western blot. The ischemic insult was determined using a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) model in C57BL/6J mice. Behavior tests were used to assess the neurological deficits of MCAO mice. TTC staining was applied to measure infract volume. RESULTS: Imperatorin suppressed LPS-induced activation of microglia and pro-inflammatory cytokines release and attenuated ischemic injury in MCAO mice. The results of transcriptome sequencing and Western blot revealed that downregulation of MAPK and NF-κB pathways might contribute to the protective effects of imperatorin. CONCLUSIONS: Imperatorin downregulated MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways and exerted anti-inflammatory effects in ischemic stroke, which indicated that imperatorin might be a potential compound for the treatment of stroke.

[Effects of tillage and straw returning on microorganism quantity, enzyme activities in soils and grain yield].

A two-year field study with split plot design was conducted to investigate the effects of different soil tillage (conventional tillage, CT; deep tillage, DT; subsoil tillage, ST) and straw returning (all straw retention, AS; no straw returning, NS) on microorganism quantity, enzyme activities in soil and grain yield. The results showed that, deep or subsoil tillage and straw returning not only reduced the soil bulk density and promoted the content of organic carbon in soil, but increased the soil microbial quantity, soil enzyme activities and grain yield. Furthermore, such influences in maize season were greater than that in wheat season. Compared with CT+NS, DT+AS and ST+AS decreased the soil bulk density at 20-30 cm depth by 8.5% and 6.6%, increased the content of soil organic carbon by 14.8% and 12.4%, increased the microorganism quantity by 45.9% and 33.9%, increased the soil enzyme activities by 34.1% and 25.5%, increased the grain yield by 18.0% and 19.3%, respectively. No significant difference was observed between DT+AS and ST+AS. We concluded that retaining crop residue and deep or subsoil tillage improved soil microorganism quantity, enzyme activities and crop yield.