Clinical Efficacy of Polyethylene Glycol Loxenatide in the Treatment of Obese or Overweight Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical efficacy of Polyethylene Glycol Loxenatide in the treatment of obese or overweight Type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. STUDY DESIGN: A randomised-controlled trial. Place and Duration of the Study: Department of Endocrinology, Baoding No. 1 Central Hospital, Hebei, China, from January 2020 to January 2022. METHODOLOGY: One hundred overweight and obese patients who were diagnosed with T2DM were prospectively included. They were randomly divided into two groups, with 50 cases in each group. The control group was given oral metformin + subcutaneous insulin injection. The combined treatment group was also given Polyethylene Glycol Loxenatide in addition to the control treatment. The duration of treatment was 6 months for both groups. The clinical efficacy of the two group treatments was compared. The height, body mass, weight index (body mass index (BMI)), total cholesterol (TC), 2-h postprandial blood glucose (2hPBG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting insulin (FINS), lipids (triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) levels, fasting blood glucose (FPG), and glycosylated haemoglobin (HbAlc) were evaluated before and 6 months after the treatment. In addition, any adverse reactions in the two groups were observed. RESULTS: The overall effective rate of clinical therapy was 92% (46/50) in the combined treatment group, which was higher than that of the control group (76%, 38/50, p = 0.029). The weight and BMI levels of the combined treatment group became considerably lower than those of the control group (weight p = 0.004; BMI p <0.001), and the levels of FPG, 2hPBG, FINS, HbAlc and HOMA-IR (all p = <0.001), and the TG and TC values decreased in both groups (TG p = 0.001; TC p = 0.016). CONCLUSION: PEG Loxenatide considerably affects obese and overweight T2DM patients. With no noticeable adverse reactions, this drug is highly recommended for application and clinical promotion. KEY WORDS: Polyethylene Glycol Loxenatide, Type 2 Diabetes mellitus, Obesity, Overweight, Clinical efficacy.

Embelin protects against apoptosis and inflammation by regulating PI3K/Akt signaling in IL-1ß-stimulated human nucleus pulposus cells.

Embelin is a natural benzoquinone compound that displays a beneficial effect in various inflammatory-related diseases. However, the effect of embelin on degeneration of intervertebral disc (IDD), a chronic inflammatory disorder, has not been reported. This study was attempted to explore the therapeutic action of embelin on IDD in vitro. Network pharmacology analysis was performed for evaluating the link between embelin and IDD. The human nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) were stimulated with IL-1ß to induce inflammation. Cell viability of NPCs was assessed by CCK-8 assay. Western blotting was conducted to detect the expression levels of PI3K, p-PI3K, Akt, p-Akt, cleaved caspase-3, caspase-3, Bax, Bcl-2, p65 and p-p65. Apoptotic deaths of NPCs were examined by TUNEL assay. The production of COX-2, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α was examined by ELISA. It can be seen that 16 overlapping genes were selected from 109 possible targets of embelin and 342 possible targets of IDD. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway was a close link between embelin and IDD. We found that embelin dose-dependently improved the cell viability in IL-1ß-stimulated NPCs. Embelin elevated the relative levels of p-PI3K/PI3K and p-Akt/Akt in IL-1ß-stimulated NPCs. IL-1ß induced a significant increase in apoptotic deaths of NPCs, which was attenuated by embelin treatment. IL-1ß-induced alternations in expression levels of apoptotic-related proteins including cleaved caspase-3, Bax and Bcl-2 were prevented by embelin treatment. Pretreatment with LY294002 (an inhibitor of PI3K) reversed the inhibitory effect of embelin on IL-1ß-induced apoptosis in NPCs. Embelin treatment caused inhibitory effects on the IL-1ß-stimulated production of COX-2, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α, which were abolished by LY294002 treatment. Furthermore, embelin treatment prevented IL-1ß-induced phosphorylation of p65 in NPCs, while LY294002 elevated the embelin-caused decrease in p-p65/p65 level. Overall, embelin protected human NPCs against IL-1ß-stimulated apoptosis and inflammation by regulating the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. These findings provided new ideas for the clinical usage of embelin in the prevention and treatment of IDD.

Emodin protects against apoptosis and inflammation by regulating reactive oxygen species-mediated NF-κB signaling in interleukin-1ß-stimulated human nucleus pulposus cells.

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is a complex degradative disorder associated with inflammation. Emodin, an anthraquinone derivative, possesses strong anti-inflammatory activity. This study focused on the in vitro therapeutic action of emodin in a cellular model of IDD. Human nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) were stimulated with interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß) to induce inflammation. Cell Counting Kit-8 and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling staining assays were performed to evaluate the viability and apoptosis of NPCs, respectively. Caspase-3 activity was measured to indirectly assess cell apoptosis. Western blot analysis was performed to detect protein expression levels. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was performed for the detection of relative mRNA levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and IL-6. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was performed to analyze TNF-α and IL-6 secretion. Our results showed that emodin treatment mitigated IL-1ß-induced reduction of cell viability in NPCs. Moreover, the increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, apoptotic rate, and caspase-3 activity in IL-1ß-stimulated NPCs was reduced by emodin treatment. Treatment with emodin also abolished IL-1ß-induced inflammation in NPCs, as indicated by reduced secretion of IL-6 and TNF-α. Besides, the increase in expression levels of phosphorylated p65 and nuclear p65 in IL-1ß-stimulated NPCs was suppressed by emodin treatment. Furthermore, inhibition of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) activation with pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate aggravated the protective effects of emodin. These results suggested that emodin protected NPCs against IL-1ß-induced apoptosis and inflammation via inhibiting ROS-mediated activation of NF-κB.

[Effect of electroacupuncture on GLP-1R/PI3K/Akt protein pathway in mice with Parkinson's disease].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of electroacupuncture(EA) on glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R)/ phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/ protein kinase B(Akt) protein pathway in the substantia nigra of mice with Parkinson's di-sease (PD)，so as to explore its underlying mechanisms in treatment of PD. METHODS: Forty-eight C57BL/6 male mice were randomly divided into normal, model, EA and inhibitor groups, with 12 mice in each group. PD mouse model was established by intragastrical administration of rotenone for 4 weeks. In the EA group, EA was applied at "Fengfu"(GV16), "Taichong"(LR3) and"Zusanli"(ST36) for 30 min, once daily, for 2 weeks. The mice of the inhibitor group received gavage of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor ligliptin (10 mg·kg-1·d-1) once a day for 2 weeks. The behavioral scores of mice in each group were observed. The levels of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in serum and substantia nigra were detected by ELISA, and the protein relative expression levels of GLP-1R, phosphorylation of PI3K (p-PI3K) and phosphorylation of Akt (p-Akt) in substantia nigra of midbrain of mice were detected by Western blot. RESULTS: Compared with the normal group, the behavioral scores were significantly increased (P<0.01), TH levels in serum and substantia nigra, protein expression levels of GLP-1R, p-PI3K and p-Akt of the substantia nigra in the model group were significantly decreased (all P<0.01). After intervention and in comparison with the model group, the behavioral scores were significantly decreased (P<0.01), TH levels and the protein expression levels of GLP-1R, p-PI3K and p-Akt in both EA and inhibitor groups were significantly increased (all P<0.01). There were no significant differences in the abovementioned indexes between EA group and inhibitor group (all P>0.05), except for TH levels which were considerably down-regulated in the EA group relative to the inhibitor group (P<0.01, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: EA at GV16, LR3 and ST36 may increase the level of TH in serum and substantia nigra by up-regulating the activity of GLP-1R/PI3K/Akt protein pathway, and improve the behavioral performance of PD induced by rotenone.

Hypoglycemic effect of insulin-loaded hydrogel-nanogel composite on streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

At present, how to increase insulin rapidly, availably and stably is still a conundrum in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. In vitro studies have shown that insulin can be released from hydrogel-nanogel composite according to the changes of glucose level. This study aimed to observe the glucose-lowering effects and evaluate the safety of the insulin-loaded hydrogel-nanogel composite in diabetic rats. We found that significant glycemic regulation could be observed up to 30 hours after subcutaneous injection, and the fasting blood glucose was reduced effectively. The result of an oral glucose tolerance test showed that the level of insulin expressed a stable increase from 0.5 hours to 3.5 hours, which led to a reduction of glucose with steady steps. Also, compared with Ins group, the Gel+Ins group showed slighter skin and pancreas damage, while the oxidative stress and inflammation response were similar to the normal control group. In conclusion, these results demonstrated that the glucose-lowering action of the insulin-loaded hydrogel-nanogel composite was superior to that of the regular insulin, and might thus become an insulin carrier in the future.

Flexible Ta/TiOx/TaOx/Ru memristive synaptic devices on polyimide substrates.

It is very urgent to build memristive synapses and even wearable devices to simulate the basic functions of biological synapses. The linear conductance modulation is the basis of analog memristor for neuromorphic computing. By optimizing the interface engineering wherein Ta/TiOx/TaOx/Ru was fabricated, all the memristor devices with different TiOxthickness showed electroforming-free property. The short-term and long-term plasticity in both potentiation and depression behaviors can be mimicked when TiOxwas fixed at 25 nm. The presented memristive synapses simulated the stable paired-pulse facilitation and spike-timing dependent plasticity performance. The potentiation and depression in linearity and symmetry improved with the TiOxthickness increasing, which provides the feasibility for the application of artificial neural network. In addition, the device deposited on polyimide (PI) still exhibits the synaptic performance until the bending radii reaches 6 mm. By carefully tuning the interface engineering, this study can provide general revelation for continuous improvement of the memristive performance in neuromorphic applications.

Time-Domain Blind ICI Compensation in Coherent Optical FBMC/OQAM System.

A blind discrete-cosine-transform-based phase noise compensation (BD-PNC) is proposed to compensate the inter-carrier-interference (ICI) in the coherent optical offset-quadrature amplitude modulation (OQAM)-based filter-bank multicarrier (CO-FBMC/OQAM) transmission system. Since the phase noise sample can be approximated by an expansion of the discrete cosine transform (DCT) in the time-domain, a time-domain compensation model is built for the transmission system. According to the model, phase noise compensation (PNC) depends only on its DCT coefficients. The common phase error (CPE) compensation is firstly performed for the received signal. After that, a pre-decision is made on a part of compensated signals with low decision error probability, and the pre-decision results are used as the estimated values of transmitted signals to calculate the DCT coefficients. Such a partial pre-decision process reduces not only decision error but also the complexity of the BD-PNC method while keeping almost the same performance as in the case of the pre-decision of all compensated signals. Numerical simulations are performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme for a 30 GBaud CO-FBMC/OQAM system. The simulation results show that its bit error rate (BER) performance is improved by more than one order of magnitude through the mitigation of the ICI in comparison with the traditional blind PNC scheme only aiming for CPE compensation.

The changing features of serum adropin, copeptin, neprilysin and chitotriosidase which are associated with vascular endothelial function in type 2 diabetic retinopathy patients.

AIMS: Adropin (AD), copeptin (CP), neprilysin (NEP) and chitotriosidase (CHIT1) have been associated with the regulation of vascular endothelial function. In this work, we analyzed the plasma concentrations of cytokines (AD, CP, NEP and CHIT1) in type 2 diabetic patients with or without retinopathy (DR) to predict the risk of DR for diabetic patients. METHOD: A total of 392 patients diagnosed as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and 120 healthy volunteers as a control group were enrolled in this study. T2DM patients were divided into three groups: diabetes without retinopathy (NDR, n = 174) group, non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR, n = 118) group and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR, n = 100) group. The serum AD, CP, NEP and CHIT1 levels of subjects were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: We reported a significant decrease in AD and a significant increase in CP, NEP and CHIT1 in NDR as well as DR patients when compared with controls (p < 0.05), the lower level of AD and significantly higher levels of CP, NEP and CHIT1 were seen in DR patients compared to NDR group (p < 0.05), at the same time, we observed the lowest level of AD and the highest levels of CP, NEP and CHIT1 in the PDR group. Logistic regression analysis showed that AD was a protective factor for DR, conversely, CP, NEP and CHIT1 were the independent risk factors (p < 0.05). Moreover, receiver operating characteristic curve analyses indicated that CP had greater diagnosis capacity with an AUC (the areas under the ROC curve) of 0.901 than AD, NEP, CHIT1 for DR patients. CONCLUSION: The decreased AD level and the elevated CP, NEP and CHIT1 levels involved in vascular endothelial function may be evidence facilitating the presence of DR. Thereby they can be explored to use as promising non-invasive biomarkers for prediction of DR severity, distinguishing DR from diabetic patients.

Neuregulin 4 alleviates hepatic steatosis via activating AMPK/mTOR-mediated autophagy in aged mice fed a high fat diet.

Neuregulin 4 (Nrg4) is a brown fat-enriched endocrine factor that exerts beneficial metabolic effects on insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis. Autophagy is a mechanism that is essential for preventing hepatic steatosis. The aim of this study was to explore whether Nrg4 ameliorates hepatic steatosis by inducing autophagy. Aged C57BL/6 mice were maintained on a high fat diet with or without Nrg4 intervention for 3 months. Lipid accumulation in the liver was investigated. Autophagy related protein levels along with related signaling pathways that regulate autophagy were evaluated. In addition, the effects of Nrg4 on autophagy were also determined in cultured L-02 cells. Nrg4 decreased high-fat induced intrahepatic lipid content both in vivo and in vitro. Autophagy level in the liver also decreased in obese mice and Nrg4 intervention reactivated autophagy. Further, Nrg4 intervention was found to have activated autophagy via the adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway. Moreover, when the AMPK/mTOR pathway was suppressed or autophagy was inhibited, the beneficial effects of Nrg4 intervention on hepatic steatosis were diminished. These results indicated that Nrg4 intervention attenuated hepatic steatosis by promoting autophagy in the liver of aged obese mice. Additionally, Nrg4 induced autophagy via the AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway.

Pentraxin-3 and adropin as inflammatory markers of early renal damage in type 2 diabetes patients.

PURPOSE: Renal inflammatory response is involved in the development and progression of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). We sought to evaluate pentraxin-3 (PTX3) and adropin variability as inflammatory markers among type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with different urinary albumin, and to examine if these factors assist in the early diagnosis of diabetic kidney disease. METHODS: We enrolled 447 T2DM patients and 100 healthy non-diabetic control subjects in this study. The patients with T2DM were divided into three groups based on their urinary albumin/creatinine ratio (UACR): the normoalbuminuric group (DM group, UACR < 30 mg/g); the microalbuminuric group (DKD1 group, 30 ≤ UACR ≤ 300 mg/g); the macroalbuminuric group (DKD2 group, UACR > 300 mg/g). The levels of PTX3 and adropin were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Spearman correlation and multiple linear regression analysis were performed to determine the correlations among these inflammatory markers and other clinical parameters. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves analysis was used to assess the diagnostic potential of PTX3 and adropin for DKD. RESULTS: Compared to non-diabetes, serum levels of PTX3 were distinctly elevated, whereas the adropin were significantly declined in diabetic patients (p < 0.05). Significantly higher levels of PTX3 and lower levels of adropin were seen in the macroalbuminuric patients compared with the microalbuminuric patients (p < 0.05). Multiple stepwise linear regression analysis showed that the control of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and UACR were independent factors associated with PTX3 and adropin. In addition, ROC curves analysis showed PTX3 and adropin could be used to evaluate the early detect of DKD, further adropin might be a better marker than PTX3 in compliance with their veracity. CONCLUSION: As inflammatory markers, the diverse changes of pentraxin-3 and adropin showed that they may forecast the renal damage in diabetic patients in varying degrees and link with the pathogenesis of diabetic kidney disease.

Left maxillary sinus tumour-induced hypophosphataemic osteomalacia and combined with thyroid papillary carcinoma: a case report and literature review.

Tumour-induced osteomalacia (TIO) is a rare disease characterised by hypophosphataemia and clinical symptoms of osteomalacia. Herein we report the case of a 29-year-old man who was admitted to hospital with progressive bone pain and was diagnosed with TIO caused by maxillary sinus tumours. In the preoperative evaluation, it was found that the patient had thyroid malignant tumours at the same time. Two operations were performed separately on the left maxillary sinus tumour and thyroid tumour after complete examination. After tumour resections, the symptoms of bone pain were relieved and the level of blood phosphorus was restored, long-term replacement therapy was needed for thyroid. When a patient is diagnosed with TIO, it is necessary to screen for the presence of other malignant tumours and explore the treatment options in order to benefit patients preferably.

Altered features of neurotransmitters: NPY, α-MSH, and AgRP in type 2 diabetic patients with hypertension.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the features of neuropeptide Y (NPY), α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH), and agouti-related protein (AgRP) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with hypertension. METHODS: Patients with T2DM (n = 384) and healthy volunteers (n = 80) were enrolled into this study. Serum NPY, α-MSH, and AgRP levels were detected using ELISA. RESULTS: Significantly higher NPY and lower α-MSH and AgRP levels were observed in patients with diabetes compared with those without diabetes, and the mean NPY levels increased, while α-MSH and AgRP levels decreased, with the development of hypertension compared with diabetic patients without hypertension. α-MSH and AgRP levels decreased with an increase in blood pressure in hypertension compared with the non-hypertension patients. Multiple stepwise linear regression analysis showed that NPY, α-MSH, and AgRP levels were closely associated with blood pressure and glucose control. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses indicated that α-MSH may be a better marker compared with NPY and AgRP for regulating glucose and blood pressure and to distinguish between T2DM patients with and without hypertension. CONCLUSION: NPY, α-MSH, and AgRP might play different roles and be closely related to the occurrence and development of diabetes and hypertension.

High-Potential surface on zirconia ceramics for bacteriostasis and biocompatibility.

Bacteria easily adhere, colonize, and form biofilm on oral implants subsequently causing periimplantation periarthritis and mechanical loosening. Previous studies show that a high potential surface on polymeric implants can achieve surface bacteriostasis without side effects. In this study, a high surface potential is introduced to zirconia ceramics to mitigate bacterial infection. Carbon and nitrogen plasma immersion ion implantation (C-PIII and N-PIII) are conducted on zirconia ceramic samples sequentially to elevate the surface potential. The surface with a high potential but without ion leaching exhibits excellent antibacterial effects against oral bacteria and little bacterial resistance is triggered. The surface also has high strength and excellent biocompatibility. The nitrogen-containing inorganic structure with high potential can actualize bacteriostasis and biocompatibility on zirconia ceramics simultaneously and this new strategy can enhance the antibacterial ability of oral implants.

Analysis of clinical characteristics of 2243 with positive anti-gastric parietal cell antibody.

BACKGROUND: To facilitate the early detection of chronic diseases, we analyzed the clinical characteristics of anti-gastric parietal cell antibody (PCA)-positive population, revealed the early characteristics of the population. METHODS: According to the retrospective analysis, current situation investigation and comparative analysis of the clinical characteristics and medical history of the subjects, the comparison between the groups was performed. RESULT: (a) The positive rate of PCA detection in department of gastroenterology in our hospital was 35.80%. Among the individuals who underwent PCA, esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and pathological examination at the same time, 33.59% of the patients with PCA positive were diagnosed as atrophic gastritis by gastroscopy, which was much higher than 9.09% of the patients with PCA negative. (b) The incidence of gastroesophageal reflux, hypertension, ischemic heart disease (IHD) and cerebral ischemia in PCA-positive population were 65.45%, 81.63%, 15.43%, and 31.61%, respectively, which were significantly higher than those in the control group. (c) The incidence rates of decreased red blood cells (RBC) and increased homocysteine (HCY) in laboratory-related tests were 38.30% and 69.15%, respectively, which were much higher than those in control group. CONCLUSION: PCA has predictive value for a variety of chronic diseases and timely detection is of great significance.

Marein protects human nucleus pulposus cells against high glucose-induced injury and extracellular matrix degradation at least partly by inhibition of ROS/NF-κB pathway.

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD), a major cause of discogenic low back pain, is a musculoskeletal disorder involving the apoptosis of nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) and extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation. Marein is a major active flavonoid ingredient extracted from the hypoglycemic plant Coreopsis tinctoria with several beneficial biological activities including anti-diabetic effects. Nevertheless, there are no reports concerning the effects of marein on IDD. Our study aimed to evaluate the effects of marein on high glucose (HG)-induced injury and ECM degradation in human NPCs (HNPCs). CCK-8 assay was applied to evaluate cell viability. Flow cytometry analysis, a cell death detection ELISA, and caspase-3 activity assay were used to assess apoptosis. The mRNA expression of ECM-related proteins matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-3, MMP-13, Collagen II, and aggrecan were determined by qRT-PCR. The changes of the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathway were examined by western blot. Stimulation with HG significantly reduced cell viability and induced apoptosis in HNPCs. Moreover, HG exposure increased MMP-3 and MMP-13 expression and decreased Collagen II and aggrecan expression in HNPCs. Notably, marein effectively alleviated HG-induced viability reduction, apoptosis and ECM degradation in HNPCs. We also found that marein inhibited HG-induced ROS generation and NF-κB activation in HNPCs. Inhibition of NF-κB pathway reinforced HG-induced injury and ECM degradation in HNPCs. In summary, marein protected HNPCs against HG-induced injury and ECM degradation at least partly by inhibiting the ROS/NF-κB pathway.

Effects of carbon and nitrogen plasma immersion ion implantation on bioactivity of zirconia.

Zirconia is considered the most promising alternative material to titanium implants. However, zirconia is a biologically inert material and its surface modification is essential to obtain efficient osseointegration. Plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) is a controllable and flexible approach that constructs functional groups on the surface of biomaterials and enhances osteogenic ability of host osteoclast cells. Zirconia disks were randomly divided into 4 groups (n = 50/group): (1) Blank, (2) C60N0, (3) C60N6, and (4) C60N18. Carbon and nitrogen plasma immersion ion implantation on zirconia (C and N2-PIII) surface modification was completed with the corresponding parameters. When zirconia was modified by carbon and nitrogen plasma implantation, a new chemical structure was formed on the material surface while the surface roughness of the material remained unaltered. The nitrogen-containing functional groups with high potential were introduced but the bulk crystal structure of zirconia was not changed, indicating that the stability of zirconia was not affected. In vitro data showed that zirconia with high surface potential promoted adhesion, proliferation, and osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs. C60N6 was found to be superior to the other groups. Our results demonstrate that a zirconia surface modified by C and N2-PIII can introduce desirable nitrogen functional groups and create a suitable extracellular environment to promote BMSCs biological activity. Taken together, these results suggest that C and N2-PIII modified zirconia is a promising material for use in the field of medical implantation.

Multidimensional vector quantization-based fast statistical estimation in compressed digitalized radio-over-fiber systems.

A multidimensional vector quantization-based fast statistical-estimation (VQ-FSE) algorithm is proposed to enhance data compression performance in digitalized radio over fiber (D-RoF) systems. The original samples with Gaussian distribution are first transformed into these with uniform distribution via companding transformation. After the companding transformation operation, the signal vector is constructed by grouping multiple samples in a certain way so that there is little correlation among them. The constructed signal vector may follow approximately multidimensional uniform distribution, and then multidimensional uniform quantization can be easily carried out, where the complex optimized process in nonuniform quantization is not required. For the proposed two-dimensional (2D) VQ-FSE algorithm, the proposed scheme is numerically verified in a 20 km D-RoF system with 2 Gbit/s RF wireless signal. Compared with the scalar-quantization-based FSE algorithm, its compression ratio is significantly enhanced. In comparison to the 2D k-means-clustering-based VQ algorithm, the proposed scheme shares a similar compression ratio and offers lower computational complexity. Therefore, the proposed algorithm has the ability to provide better compression and lower complexity for the digitized D-RoF system when the original sample follows Gaussian distribution.

Type 2 diabetes with hypertensive patients results in changes to features of adipocytokines: Leptin, Irisin, LGR4, and Sfrp5.

The incidence of hypertension and diabetes is increasing, it is reported that adipocytokines might be involved in the pathogenesis of diabetes and hypertension. We aimed to investigate the features of adipocytokines, included of Leptin, Irisin, LGR4, and Sfrp5 in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with hypertension, simultaneously analyzed the connection of the alteration of adipocytokines with blood pressure and glucose. 424 patients with T2DM and 90 healthy subjects were included in the study. The patients with T2DM were divided into 4 groups based on the blood pressure. The levels of adipocytokines (Leptin, Irisin, LGR4, and Sfrp5) were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Significantly higher levels of Leptin and lower levels of Irisin, LGR4 and Sfrp5 were seen in patients with diabetes compared with non-diabetes (P < 0.05), the mean values of Leptin level was ascending and Irisin, LGR4, and Sfrp5 levels were declining with promoting of blood pressure in hypertension as compared to the non-hypertension with diabetic patients. Multiple stepwise linear regression analysis showed that the concentrations of Leptin, Irisin, Sfrp5, and LGR4 were found to be closely associated with the control of blood pressure and glucose. Conclusion: Four adipocytokines might play different roles and closely relate to the occurrence and development of diabetes and hypertension.

Expression and Clinical Significance of Serum 25-OH-D in pregnant women with SCH (Subclinical Hypothyroidism) and GDM (Gestational Diabetes Mellitus).

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the level and clinical significance of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH-D) levels in pregnant women with subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). METHOD: One hundred pregnant women of 24-28 weeks' pregnancy with SCH combined GDM were selected into the observation group, and 100 healthy pregnant women were selected into the control group during the corresponding period. Examined the thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4), 25-OH-D, serum calcium (Ca2+), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbAIc) levels and thyroid peroxide antibody (TPOAb), Thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb) status. Examine and compare TSH, FT4, Ca2+, FPG, HbAIc, TPOAb, and TgAb at different levels of serum 25-OH-D in the observation group. Compared the 25-OH-D levels and the ratio of different contents of 25-OH-D of TPOAb-positive and TgAb-positive SCH pregnant women. RESULT: The levels of TSH, FPG and HbAIc in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.01). Through comparison of FT4 levels between the two groups, the difference had no statistical significance (P>0.05). The levels of 25-OH-D and Ca2+ in the observation group was significantly lower than those in the control group, and the difference had statistical significance (P<0.01). Through comparison of TSH, Ca2+, FPG and HbAIc in groups with different serum 25-OH-D levels, the difference had statistical significance (P<0.01). The positive rates of TPOAb and TgAb of pregnant women in the observation group were higher than in the control group (P<0.05). The vitamin D deficiency rate of TPOAb or TgAb positive pregnant women in the observation group was higher than those in the TPOAb or TgAb negative pregnant women, the difference had statistical significance (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: blood glucose level in pregnant women with GDM and SCH increased significantly, blood calcium level decreased significantly. This group of people are more likely to have VitD deficiency. Thyroid stimulating hormone and blood glucose levels in pregnant women are negatively correlated with VitD levels. Therefore, serum 25-OH-D level can be used as an important reference index for gestational diabetes mellitus with subclinical hypothyroidism, and it has great clinical significance to maintain it at a normal level.