Melatonin enhances therapeutic outcomes of adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell therapy in rat osteoarthritis by reducing TNF-α and IL-1ß-induced injuries.

Although adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell (ADSC) transplantation has been effectively used to treat osteoarthritis (OA), the low cell survival rate induced by the inflammatory and oxidative stress, severely affects the therapeutic efficiency of ADSC transplantation in OA. This study was designed to evaluate whether melatonin pretreatment could improve ADSC survival and its therapeutic efficacy in OA. The papain-induced OA rats were pretreated with melatonin via intra-articular injection and then intra-articular injected with indocyanine green (ICG)-labeled ADSCs (3 × 106/rat). Afterward, ADSC retention was evaluated by NIR-II fluorescence imaging. The tibia and synovial fluid were collected for histopathological examination and ELISA assay, respectively. To confirm the anti-inflammatory effect of melatonin, a TNF-α and IL-1ß-induced cell model was used to evaluate the protective effects of melatonin on ADSC viability, cell apoptosis, and migration. Our results showed that melatonin pretreatment enhanced ADSC survival and improved the therapeutic effects of ADSC transplantation on cartilage repair, and anti-inflammation by reducing TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1ß, and IL-12 in vivo. In particular, we also found that melatonin promoted ADSC viability and migration, and reduced cell apoptosis in vitro. In conclusion, this study supports that melatonin pretreatment can effectively improve ADSC survival and therapeutic efficiency in OA by reducing inflammatory injuries, which provides a novel strategy for enhancing ADSC therapy.

Detection of minimal hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis based on the Stroop-CN model (NCRCID-CHESS 2106): a prospective multicenter study.

Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) has a substantial impact on the clinical outcomes and quality of life (QOL) of patients with cirrhosis. However, timely diagnosis and intervention are challenging due to sophisticated diagnostic methods. In this study, 673 healthy controls and 905 patients with cirrhosis were screened, and 660 healthy controls and 757 patients with cirrhosis, divided into the test (292 patients) and validation (465 patients) cohort, were analyzed after screening. A diagnostic model of the Stroop test (Stroop-CN) was constructed by multivariate linear regression based on the results of healthy controls. The prevalence of MHE and the comparison results with psychometric hepatic encephalopathy score through the Stroop-CN model were stable in the test and validation cohorts. Moreover, the prevalence of MHE remained significantly higher in patients with worse disease conditions marked as high Child-Pugh grades and the Model for End-stage Liver Disease and Sodium (MELD-Na) scores in the test and validation cohort. The EuroQol 5-D questionnaire revealed that patients with MHE had a worse QOL than those without MHE both in the test and validation cohort. In conclusion, an easy and practical Stroop-CN model for MHE diagnosis based on the EncephalApp is established. It is found that a considerable number of Chinese patients with cirrhosis experience MHE, which significantly impacts their QOL.

How Narcissism Shapes Responses to Antisocial and Prosocial Behavior: Hypo-Responsiveness or Hyper-Responsiveness?

Narcissists have a relatively higher proclivity for displaying antisocial rather than prosocial behaviors, suggesting a comparatively higher tendency for unfavorably impacting societies. However, maintenance of social order also depends on appropriate responses to others' social behavior. Once we focus on narcissists as observers rather than actors, their impact on social functioning becomes less clear-cut. Theoretical arguments suggest that narcissists could be either hypo-responsive or hyper-responsive to others' social behavior. Across four studies, we examined narcissists' responsiveness to variations in others' antisocial and prosocial behaviors. Results showed that narcissists differentiated less between others' antisociality/prosociality, as reflected in their subsequent moral character evaluations (Studies 1-4) and reward and punishment (Studies 3 and 4). These results suggest that narcissists are hypo-responsive to others' social behaviors. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Preoperative serum lactate dehydrogenase level predicts progression and prognosis in patients with glioma.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the value of serum Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) level in predicting recurrence and the overall survival (OS) of glioma patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total number of 216 patients with glioma in our institution were retrospectively recruited to analyze the relationship between preoperative serum LDH level and prognosis. RESULTS: Overall, the median age of patients was 46.0 (31.0-57.0) years old; 53.7% (116 of 216) of the enrolled patients were male. Multivariate analysis revealed that serum LDH level (odds ratio [OR] = 0.97, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.96-0.98, P < 0.001) and World Health Organization (WHO) grade (grade II: OR = 19.64, 95%CI = 5.56-69.35, P < 0.001; grade III: OR =1 9.50, 95%CI = 7.08-53.73, P < 0.001; grade IV: OR = 15.23, 95%CI = 4.94-46.97, P < 0.001) were significant and independent of 1-year Progression-free survival (PFS) after adjusting for confounders. The predictive performance of serum LDH level was represented with area under curve (AUC) = 0.741, 95%CI = 0.677-0.798. Multivariate Cox analysis revealed that LDH level (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.56, 95%CI = 1.59-4.15, P < 0.001) and WHO grade (grade II: HR = 4.58, 95%CI = 0.56-37.23, P = 0.155; grade III: HR = 16.35, 95%CI = 2.16-123.80, P = 0.007; grade IV: HR = 42.13, 95%CI = 5.83-304.47, P < 0.001) remained associated with survival at 2-year follow-up. At 3-year follow-up, lymphocyte count (HR = 0.68, 95%CI = 0.51-0.91, P = 0.008), LDH level (HR = 2.21, 95%CI = 1.40-3.49, P = 0.001), and WHO grade (grade II: HR = 1.44, 95%CI = 0.44-4.68, P = 0.543; grade III: HR = 4.99, 95%CI = 1.68-14.87, P = 0.004; grade IV: HR = 16.96, 95%CI = 6.13-46.93, P < 0.001) remained associated with survival in multivariate Cox analysis. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that preoperative serum LDH level could serve as a reliable indicator for predicting prognosis of glioma patients. Further multicenter studies are still required to verify our findings.

Do we feel the same level of guilt about the wrongdoings of close ones and distant ones? The mediating role of behavioural control.

Understanding whether and why individuals' emotional responses are different to the same behaviour performed by different others is important for understanding phenomena in social interaction. Given that there is no relevant research in Eastern culture testing such issues, the present research including two studies was conducted with Chinese samples and investigated whether Easterners experience more vicarious guilt about close ones' immoral behaviours than distant ones' immoral behaviours and the underlying mechanism of the effect. Study 1 showed that people felt more guilty when recalling close ones' misdeeds than distant ones' misdeeds. Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 using the scenario method and demonstrated that behavioural control partially mediated the effect of relationship closeness on vicarious guilt, that is, people reported more behavioural control over close ones' immoral behaviours, which in turn resulted in more vicarious guilt. Implications for social interaction and directions for future research are discussed.

[Effect of hypoxia on the expression of matrix metalloproteinase and tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinase mRNA in human periodontal ligament fibroblasts in vitro].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of hypoxia on the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinase (TIMP) in human periodontal ligament fibroblasts (HPDLF). METHODS: HPDLF were cultured in α-minima essential medium (α-MEM) and subcultured at confluence. In the hypoxic groups, cells were incubated in a humidified atmosphere of 1%O(2), 5%CO(2), 94%N(2) at 37°C for 12, 24 and 48 h, respectively. In the normoxic control group, cells were incubated under normoxic conditions of 20%O(2), 5%CO(2), 75%N(2). The mRNA expression of MMP and TIMP was measured using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The data was analyzed by Student's t test, one-way ANOVA and LSD test with SPSS 13.0 software package. RESULTS: The expression of MMP-2, TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 mRNA in the hypoxia groups was higher than that in control. The expression of MMP-2 mRNA in hypoxic groups showed a significantly increasing trend. There was significant difference between the hypoxic group and the normoxic control group in the expression of MMP-2 mRNA in HPDLF (P < 0.01). The expression of TIMP-1, TIMP-2 mRNA in hypoxic groups of 12 h was momentarily increased. There was significant difference between the hypoxic 12 h group and the normoxic control group in the expression of TIMP-1, TIMP-2 mRNA in HPDLF (P < 0.05). However, with prolonged hypoxia time, the expression of TIMP-1, TIMP-2 mRNA in hypoxic groups showed a significantly declining trend, there were significant differences between the hypoxic 12, 24 and 48 h group and the normoxic control group in the expression of TIMP-2 mRNA in HPDLF (P < 0.05). The expression of MMP-1 mRNA in hypoxic groups of 12 h was momentarily decreased and then increased after 24 h of hypoxia. There were significant differences between the hypoxic 48 h group and the normoxic control group in the expression of MMP-1 mRNA in HPDLF (P < 0.05). There were significant differences between the hypoxic 12 h group and the normoxic control group in the ratio of MMP-1/TIMP-1 mRNA (P < 0.05). The ratio of MMP-2/TIMP-2 mRNA in the hypoxia group significantly increased compared with normoxic group. There were significant differences between the hypoxic group and the normoxic control group in the ratio of MMP-2/TIMP-2 mRNA (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Hypoxia could change the expression of MMP and TIMP mRNA and other relevant growth factors and also lead to the imbalance of MMP-2/TIMP-2 mRNA expression. It is suggested that the imbalance of MMP-2/TIMP-2 expression may be closely correlated with the occurrence and development of periodontal disease and play an important role in the process of periodontal tissue destruction in periodontitis.