Effect of diabetic foot ulcers and other risk factors on the prevalence of lower extremity amputation: A meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis study was conducted to measure the consequence of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) and other risk factors (RFs) on the prevalence of lower extremity amputation (LEA). A comprehensive literature inspection till February 2023 was applied and 2765 interrelated studies were reviewed. Of the 32 chosen studies enclosed, 9934 subjects were in the chosen studies' starting point, and 2906 of them were with LEA. Odds ratio (OR) in addition to 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to compute the value of the effect of DFUs and other RFs on the prevalence of LEA by the continuous and dichotomous approaches and a fixed or random effect model. Male gender (OR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.17-1.44, P < .001), smoking (OR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.01-1.53, P = .04), previous foot ulcer (OR, 2.69; 95% CI, 1.93-3.74, P < .001), osteomyelitis (OR, 3.87; 95% CI, 2.28-6.57, P < .001), gangrene (OR, 14.45; 95% CI, 7.03-29.72, P < .001), hypertension (OR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.03-1.33, P = .01), and white blood cells count (WBCC) (MD, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.37-2.74, P < .001) were significantly shown to be an RF in LEA in subjects with DFUs. Age (MD, 0.81; 95% CI, -0.75 to 2.37, P = .31), body mass index (MD, -0.55; 95% CI, -1.15 to 0.05, P = .07), diabetes mellitus type (OR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.63-1.56, P = .96), and glycated haemoglobin (MD, 0.33; 95% CI, -0.15 to 0.81, P = .17) were not shown to be an RF in LEA in subjects with DFUs. Male gender, smoking, previous foot ulcer, osteomyelitis, gangrene, hypertension, and WBCC were significantly shown to be an RF in LEA in subjects with DFUs. However, age and diabetes mellitus type were not shown to be RF in LEA in subjects with DFUs. However, caused of the small sample sizes of several chosen studies for this meta-analysis, care must be exercised when dealing with its values.

Knockdown of LINC01385 inhibits osteoarthritis progression by modulating the microRNA-140-3p/TLR4 axis.

Long non-coding (lnc) RNAs have been associated with osteoarthritis (OA) progression. The aim of the present study was to investigate the regulatory mechanism of lncRNA LINC01385 in OA in vitro. The mRNA expression level of LINC01385, microRNA(miR)-140-3p, and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) was detected using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR, while ELISA was used to determine the concentration of different inflammatory factors [tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), IL-6, and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2)]. The viability of human articular chondrocytes (HC-a) was measured using a MTT assay and western blot analysis was performed to quantify the protein expression level of TLR4. The associations between miR-140-3p and LINC01385/TLR4 were confirmed using a dual-luciferase reporter assay. LINC01385 mRNA expression level was increased in OA tissues and IL-1ß-induced HC-a. LINC01385 knockdown and miR-140-3p mimics reduced the concentration of inflammatory factors in IL-1ß-induced HC-a and promoted cell survival. In addition, it was confirmed that LINC01385 targeted miR-140-3p, while TLR4 was a target gene of miR-140-3p. Negative correlations between LINC01385 and miR-140-3p, and between miR-140-3p and TLR4 were observed in OA tissues. Low mRNA expression level of miR-140-3p and high protein expression level of TLR4 reversed the inhibitory effect of LINC01385 knockdown on the inflammatory responses of IL-1ß-induced HC-a and exhibited a stimulating effect on cell viability. LINC01385 knockdown reduced the progression of OA by modulating the miR-140-3p/TLR4 axis in vitro; thus, LINC01385 may be a therapeutic target for OA.