Association of endometriosis with asthma: a study of the NHANES database in 1999-2006.

OBJECTIVE: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways with a gender differences in the prevalence after puberty. Recent studies have reported a relationship between asthma and endometriosis, possibly related to the immune response mechanisms, but the evidences are limited and inconsistent. Herein, this research aimed to investigate the association of endometriosis with asthma based on the representative population in the United States (U.S.) to provide some reference for further exploration on mechanism of gender difference in asthma. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, data of women aged ≥ 20 years old were extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database in 1999-2006. Weighted univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were utilized to explore the association of endometriosis with asthma. The multivariate models adjusted for covariates including age, race, education level, marital status, poverty income ratio (PIR), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, smoking, estrogen and progesterone hormones use, uterine fibroids, at least one ovary removed, and birth control pills intake. The evaluation indexes were odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Subgroup analyses of age, race, BMI, and pregnancy history were also performed. RESULTS: Among 5,556 eligible women, 782 had asthma, and 380 had endometriosis. The average age of participants was 37.19 years old, and more than half of them were non-Hispanic White (68.44%). After adjusting for covariates, endometriosis was associated with higher odds of asthma compared with non-endometriosis [OR = 1.48, 95%CI: (1.10-1.99)]. This relationship was also found in 40-49 years old [OR = 2.26, 95%CI: (1.21-4.23)], BMI of 25-29.9 kg/m2 [OR = 2.87, 95%CI: (1.52-5.44)], and pregnancy history [OR = 1.44, 95%CI: (1.01-2.06)] subgroups. CONCLUSION: Endometriosis had a positive association with asthma in adult women. Females aged 40-49 years old, with BMI of 25-29.9 kg/m2 and had a history of pregnancy should take care about monitoring endometriosis to reduce the potential risk of asthma. Further studies are still needed to clarify the causal association between endometriosis and asthma.

Prediction value of plasma D-dimer level changes on venous thromboembolism during pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the changes in plasma D-dimer (D-D) levels of pregnant women during pregnancy and their predictive value for venous thromboembolism (VTE). METHODS: A selection of 240 pregnant women who came to our hospital for routine perinatal care and delivery from January 2018 to January 2019 were selected as the observation group, and 240 cases that came to our hospital for routine physical examination were served as the control group. The D-D levels of the two groups of women were compared, and the D-D levels of pregnant women in the observation group with different delivery methods were explored; the observation group was into VTE and non-VTE groups according to the occurrence of VTE, and the D-D levels of the two groups of pregnant women in different periods were compared, and its predictive value on VTE was analyzed. RESULTS: The observation group exhibited a notably higher D-D level than the control group (p < .001), and the D-D level of the observation group during the first trimester was lower than the second and third trimesters, with statistical difference observed (p < .001), and the second trimester was much lower than the third trimester (p < .001); the D-D level in pregnant women with vaginal delivery showed lower level when comparing with women with cesarean section (p < .001); the D-D level of the VTE group was remarkably higher than that of the non-VTE group (p < .05); the D-D level during the second trimester had the highest predictive value for VTE, with the optimal cutoff value of 1.40 mg/L, the sensitivity of 69.3%, and the specificity of 76.7%, and AUC = 0.73. CONCLUSION: The D-D of pregnant women during pregnancy showed an increase trend with the gestational weeks, and they were all beyond the normal range. The D-D level in the second trimester has the highest predictive value for VTE.

High-Sensitivity Ultrasonic Guided Wave Monitoring of Pipe Defects Using Adaptive Principal Component Analysis.

Ultrasonic guided wave monitoring is regularly used for monitoring the structural health of industrial pipes, but small defects are difficult to identify owing to the influence of the environment and pipe structure on the guided wave signal. In this paper, a high-sensitivity monitoring algorithm based on adaptive principal component analysis (APCA) for defects of pipes is proposed, which calculates the sensitivity index of the signals and optimizes the process of selecting principal components in principal component analysis (PCA). Furthermore, we established a comprehensive damage index (K) by extracting the subspace features of signals to display the existence of defects intuitively. The damage monitoring algorithm was tested by the dataset collected from several pipe types, and the experimental results show that the APCA method can monitor the hole defect of 0.075% cross section loss ratio (SLR) on the straight pipe, 0.15% SLR on the spiral pipe, and 0.18% SLR on the bent pipe, which is superior to conventional methods such as optimal baseline subtraction (OBS) and average Euclidean distance (AED). The results of the damage index curve obtained by the algorithm clearly showed the change trend of defects; moreover, the contribution rate of the K index roughly showed the location of the defects.

Expression of microRNA-380-5p in cervical cancer tissues and cell lines and its inhibition on proliferation and migration of C33Acells by down-regulating RHOA / 中国肿瘤生物治疗杂志

@# Objective: To investigate the expression of microRNA-380-5p (miR-380-5p) in cervical cancer tissues and cell lines, and to explore the mechanism of miR-380-5p inhibiting the proliferation and migration of cervical cancer cells. Methods: 16 pairs of cervical cancerous tissues and corresponding para-cancerous tissues were collected from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Affiliated Wuhan Central Hospital of Tongji Medical College from December 2016 to July 2017; in addition, cervical cancer cell lines (HCC94, C33A, Hela, SiHa) and human cervical epithelial immortalized H8 cells were also collected for this study. The expression of miR-380-5p in above mentioned tissues and cell lines was detected by Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). miR380-5p mimic (experimental group) and miR-NC (negative control group) were transiently transfected into C33A cells by lipofection, and qPCR was used to detect the expression of miR-380-5p in the transfected cells. Cell proliferation and migration were evaluated by cell counting kit (CCK-8) and Transwell assay. Bioinformatics software TargetScan predicted the downstream genes of miR-380-5p, and dual luciferase reporter assay was used to verify the binding of miR-380-5p to the downstream gene RHOA (Ras homolog gene family member A). qPCR and Western blotting were used to detect the expression of miR-380-5p downstream gene-RHOA. Results: The expression level of miR-380-5p in cervical cancer tissues and cell lines was significantly lower than that in para-cancerous tissues and normal cervical epithelial H8 cells (P<0.01); and the expression in C33A cells was the lowest (P<0.01). Compared with the negative control group, the miR-380-5p mimic transfection singnificantly inhibited the proliferation (P<0.05) and migration ability of C33A cells (P<0.01), and down-regulated protein expressions of RHOA, ROCK1, ROCK2, CDK2 and N-cadherin (all P<0.01). Bioinformatics software predicted that RHOA may be a downstream gene of miR-380-5p, and dual luciferase reporter assay proved the specific binding of miR-380-5p to the 3'UTR of RHOA (P<0.01). miR-380-5p could significantly down-regulate RHOA gene expression (P< 0.01). Conclusion: miR-380-5p is low-expressed in cervical cancer cell lines. Over-expression of miR-380-5p may inhibit the proliferation and migration of cervical cancer C33Acells by down-regulating the expression of RHOAgene and its downstream proteins.

Effect of TTTY10 regulating miR-490-3p on migration and invasion of cervical cancer cell via HMGB1 signaling pathway / 中国肿瘤生物治疗杂志

@# Objective：To investigate the effect of long-chain non-coding RNATTTY10 (lncRNATTTY10) on the migration and invasion of cervical cancer cells, and to explore its regulatory effect on miR-490-3p and HMGB1 (high mobility group box 1) signaling pathways. Methods: Fourteen paris of cervical cancer tissues and corresponding paracancerous tissues resected at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology,Affiliated Wuhan Central Hospital of Tongji Medical College fromAugust 2013 to December 2014 were collected for this study. The expression of TTTY10 in cervical cancer tissue and different cervical cancer cell lines were detected by qPCR. Plasmids encoding TTTY10-siRNA or empty plasmids were transfected into cervical cancer CasKicells, and the transfection efficiency was detected by qPCR. Transwell migration assay and Transwell invasion assay were used to detect the migration and invasion abilities of cervical cancer cells after TTTY10 silencing. qPCR was used to detect the expression of miR-490-3p and HMGB1 mRNA after TTTY10 silencing. Dual luciferase reporter assay validated the interaction between miR-490-3p and HMGB1. Western blotting was used to detect the expression of HMGB1 signaling pathway related proteins after TTTY10 silencing. Results: The expression of TTTY10 in cervical cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in paracancerous tissues (P<0.01), the expression of TTTY10 in cervical cancer cell lines was significantly higher than that in cervical epithelial cells (P<0.01). TTTY10-siRNAplasmids could efficiently transfectCasKicells to knockdown TTTY10 expression (P<0.01). Silencing of TTTY10 inhibited the migration and invasion of cervical cancer CasKi cells (P<0.05), promoted the expression of miR-490-3p (P<0.01) and inhibited the expression of HMGB1 mRNAin cervical cancer (P<0.05 or P<0.01). miR-490-3p could specifically bind to the 3'-UTR of HMGB1 mRNA(P<0.01). HMGB1 signaling pathway related proteins were down-regulated after TTTY10 silencing. Conclusion: TTTY10 can target regulate the expression of miR-490-3p and affect the migration and invasion ability of cervical cancer CasKi cells through the HMGB1 signaling pathway; TTTY10 can be used as a diagnostic marker and potential treatment target of cervical cancer.