Digital smart internal fixation surgery for coronal process basal fracture with normal joint spaces or radius-shortening: Occult factor of radius-ulna load sharing.

BACKGROUND: Reasonable postoperative humeroradial and humeroulnar joint spaces maybe an important indicator in biomechanical stability of smart internal fixation surgery for coronoid process basal fractures (CPBF). The aim of this study is to compare elbow articular stresses and elbow-forearm stability under smart internal fixations for the CPBF between normal elbow joint spaces and radius-shortening, and to determine the occult factor of radius-ulna load sharing. METHODS: CT images of 70 volunteers with intact elbow joints were retrospectively collected for accurate three-dimensional reconstruction to measure the longitudinal and transverse joint spaces. Two groups of ten finite element (FE) models were established prospectively between normal joint space and radius-shortening with 2.0 mm, including intact elbow joint and forearm, elbow-forearm with CPBF trauma, anterior or posterior double screws-cancellous bone fixation, mini-plate-cancellous bone fixation. Three sets of physiological loads (compression, valgus, varus) were used for FE intelligent calculation, FE model verification, and biomechanical and motion analysis. RESULTS: The stress distribution between coronoid process and radial head, compression displacements and valgus angles of elbow-forearm in the three smart fixation models of the normal joint spaces were close to those of corresponding intact elbow model, but were significantly different from those of preoperative CPBF models and fixed radius-shortening models. The maximum stresses of three smart fixation instrument models of normal joint spaces were significantly smaller than those of the corresponding fixed radius-shortening models. CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of the existing trauma of the elbow-forearm system in clinical practice, which is a dominant factor affecting radius-ulna load sharing, the elbow joint longitudinal space has been found to be the occult factor affecting radius-ulna load sharing. The stability and load sharing of radius and ulna after three kinds of smart fixations of the CPBF is not only related to the anatomical and biomechanical stability principles of smart internal fixations, but also closely related to postoperative elbow joint longitudinal space.

Contrasting ecological niches lead to great postzygotic ecological isolation: a case of hybridization between carnivorous and herbivorous cyprinid fishes.

BACKGROUND: Postzygote isolation is an important part of species isolation, especially for fish, and it can be divided into two aspects: genetic isolation and ecological isolation. With the increase in parental genetic distance, the intensity of genetic isolation between them also increases. Will the increase in parental ecological niche differences also lead to the increase in ecological isolation intensity between them? This question is difficult to answer based on the current literature due to the lack of hybridization cases of contrasting ecological niche parents. RESULTS: Cyprinid fish parents (Schizothorax wangchiachii and Percocypris pingi) with contrasting ecological niches (herbivorous and carnivorous) and their F1 hybrids were used as research objects. Fish and periphytic algae were selected as food corresponding to different parental resources. The foraging-related traits of these hybrids are generally the same between parents; however, the intermediate foraging traits of hybrids did not result in intermediate foraging performance for parental resources, and these hybrids could hardly forage for parental resources. The poor foraging performance of these hybrids for parental resources was caused not only by the decline in the foraging ability of these hybrids but, more importantly, by the decrease in foraging activity. Interestingly, these hybrids initially showed a high interest in foraging small fishes; however, after the first successful capture, these hybrids had difficulty ingesting fish and spit them out, which led to the subsequent decrease in foraging activity. We designed a series of experiments to explore the mechanism of the fish spitting of these hybrids, excluding the taste and the size of prey, and found that the decrease in their pharyngeal tooth puncture ability may be the reason. CONCLUSIONS: This study was the first to demonstrate that these parents with contrasting ecological niches will produce great postzygotic ecological isolation for parental resources. The poor foraging performance of these hybrids for parental resources is mainly due to the decrease in foraging activity. Interestingly, these hybrids have obvious fish-spitting behaviour, which is a typical example of the incompatibility between intermediate traits and genetic behaviors.

Pelagibacterium limicola sp. nov., isolated from a soda alkali-saline soil.

A Gram-staining negative, motile, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium, designated NAJP-14T, was isolated from the alkali-saline soil in Heilongjiang, Northeast China. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing illustrated that strain NAJP-14T was a member of the genus Pelagibacterium, and shared 94.6-96.6% sequence identities to species from the genus Pelagibacterium. Strain NAJP-14T grew at 20-45 °C (optimum, 30 °C), pH 7.0-10.0 (optimum, pH 8.0) and in the presence of up to 5% w/v NaCl. The menaquinone was determined to be Q (10). The major fatty acids were identified as C18:1w6c (38.7%), C16:0 (16.2%) and C19:0 cyclo w8c (13.9%). The G + C content of the genomic DNA was 61.2%. Out of the 3442 predicted genes, 3391 were protein-coding genes and 51 were ncRNA. Digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) estimation and average nucleotide identity (ANI) of the strain NAJP-14T and the type strains of related species in the same family ranged between 17.9 and 21.8% and between 61.4 and 78.7%, respectively. Based on these data, it is concluded that strain NAJP-14T possesses sufficient characteristics to differentiate it from all recognized Pelagibacterium species, and should be considered as a novel species for which the name Pelagibacterium limicola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NAJP-14T (= CGMCC 1.16631T, = JCM 33746T).

Anti-TNF-α monoclonal antibody reverses psoriasis through dual inhibition of inflammation and angiogenesis.

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) antagonists have shown remarkable efficacy in psoriasis; however, the precise mechanisms of action of TNF-α blocking agents mainly focus on their neutralizing TNF-α and its anti-inflammatory effects. In this study, we generated a humanized anti-TNF-α monoclonal antibody (IBI303) and suggested a potential mechanism of anti-TNF-α therapy for psoriasis. The results of SPR and ELISA indicated that IBI303 has a good affinity to TNF-α. In vitro, it could suppress TNF-α-induced cytotoxicity in WEHI164 cells. In vivo, administration of IBI303 to K14-VEGF transgenic mice led to a significant treatment efficiency in psoriasis in a dose-dependent manner. IHC staining and cytokines-ELISA indicated that TNF-α inhibition strongly reduced inflammatory cells infiltration and pro-inflammatory cytokines release, accompanied by suppression of inflamed dermal blood vessels. Mechanistically, in order to explain the anti-angiogenesis effect of anti-TNF-α antibody, the production of cytokine in macrophage conditional medium was measured by ELISA. The result indicated that the massive secretion of TNF-α stimulated by LPS in RAW264.7 cell supernatant was markedly neutralized in a dose-response manner by IBI303, moreover, the expression of NF-κB p65 was down-regulated. Mouse endothelial cell tube formation assay showed that anti-TNF-α could inhibit blood vessels formation directly and indirectly. Collectively, our study suggested a kind of antipsoriatic mechanism of TNF-α inhibitors that is the dual inhibition of inflammation and angiogenesis.