Correlations between NLR, NHR, and clinicopathological characteristics, and prognosis of acute ischemic stroke.

Neuroinflammation plays an essential role in the process of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) injury repair. The current study seeks to investigate the relationship between the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and neutrophil/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (NHR) and AIS disease severity and short-term prognosis. As such, the primary aim of this study is to improve AIS diagnosis and treatment. A total of 136 patients with AIS at the Nantong Third People's Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. The inclusion criteria comprised patients with ischemic stroke admitted to the hospital <24 hours after symptom onset. Baseline, clinical, and laboratory data were collected from all patients within 24 hours of admission. Univariate, multivariate and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis were performed to determine the relationship between NLR, NHR, AIS severity, and short-term prognosis. NLR (odds ratio [OR] = 1.448, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.116-1.878, P = .005) and NHR (OR = 1.480, 95% CI 1.158-1.892, P = .002) were identified as independent risk factors for stroke severity. Additionally, the correlation between combined NLR and NHR and AIS severity achieved a sensitivity of 81.4% and specificity of 60.4% with a best cutoff value of 6.989. This outcome was superior to that of the single composite inflammatory index. Moreover, NLR (OR = 1.252, 95% CI 1.008-1.554, P = .042) was an independent risk factor for poor short-term prognosis in patients with AIS. When the optimal cutoff value was 2.605, the sensitivity of NLR correlation with the short-term prognosis of AIS was 82.2%, and the specificity was 59.3%. NLR combined with NHR exhibits a strong correlation with disease severity in AIS. Meanwhile, an elevated NLR in patients with AIS can predict a poor short-term prognosis.

Relationships between accelerometer-measured and multiple sclerosis: a 2-sample Mendelian randomization study.

BACKGROUND: Observational studies suggest that physical activity (PA) can independently modify the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS). OBJECTIVE: To investigate the causal effect of PA on MS by Mendelian randomization (MR) approaches. METHODS: Through a genome-wide association study including 91,105 participants from UK Biobank, we obtained 5 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with accelerometer-measured PA (P < 5 × 10-8). Summary-level data for MS were obtained from a meta-analysis, incorporating 14,802 subjects with MS and 26,703 healthy controls of European ancestry. MR analyses were performed using the inverse-variance-weighted method, weighted median estimator, and MR-PRESSO method. Additional analyses were further performed using MR-Egger intercept and Cochran's Q statistic to verify the robustness of our findings. RESULTS: We failed to detect a causal effect of PA on MS (OR, 0.60; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.30-1.20; P = 0.15) per in the random-effects IVW analysis. Additional MR methods yielded consistent results. MR-Egger regression suggested no evidence of horizontal pleiotropy (Intercept = 0.14, P = 0.21) and there seemed no substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 29.8%, P = 0.22) among individual SNPs. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that enhancing PA might not modify the risk of developing MS independent of established risk factors.

Sleep Duration and Stroke: A Mendelian Randomization Study.

Study Objectives: To clarify the effects of sleep duration on stroke and stroke subtypes, we adopted a Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to evaluate their causal relationship. Methods: A genome-wide association study including 446,118 participants from UK biobank was used to identify instruments for short sleep, long sleep and sleep duration. Summary-level data for all stroke, ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, and their subtypes were obtained from meta-analyses conducted by the MEGASTROKE consortium. MR analyses were performed using the inverse-variance-weighted method, weighted median estimator, MR pleiotropy residual sum and outlier (MR-PRESSO) test, and MR-Egger regression. Sensitivity analyses were further performed using leave-one-out analysis, MR-PRESSO global test and Cochran's Q test to verify the robustness of our findings. Results: By two-sample MR, we didn't find causal associations between sleep duration and risk of stroke. However, in the subgroup analysis, we found weak evidence for short sleep in increasing risk of cardio-embolic stroke (odds ratio [OR], 1.33; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11-1.60; P = 0.02) and long sleep in increasing risk of large artery stroke [OR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.02-1.95; P = 0.04]. But the associations were not significant after Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Conclusions: Our study suggests that sleep duration is not causally associated with risk of stroke and its subtypes.

Association between serum cystatin C levels and the severity or potential risk factors of acute ischemic stroke.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to investigate whether serum cystatin C levels are correlated with either stroke severity or with potential risk factors of acute ischemic stroke. METHODS: 171 patients with acute ischemic stroke and 99 control subjects with minor, unrelated diseases with stroke were included in this retrospective study. Serum cystatin C levels were determined in all subjects. Serum concentrations of several vascular risk factors in stoke patients were determined by biochemical assays. The severity of strokes was scored via the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). RESULTS: Serum cystatin C levels were significantly increased in patients with acute ischemic stroke compared with control subjects (1.26 ± 0.34 mg/L vs. 0.78 ± 0.24 mg/L, p < 0.001).When analyzed in quartiles of serum cystatin C levels, concentrations were low (<0.75 mM) for 5 stroke patients (2.92%), intermediate (0.75-1 mM) for 42 patients (24.56%), high (1-1.25 mM) for 45 patients (26.32%), and very high (>1.25 mM) for 79 patients (46.20%). However, serum cystatin C levels were not correlated with NIHSS scores, serum total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, apolipoprotein a, or apolipoprotein b levels. Further, serum cystatin C concentrations in stroke patients were not correlated with the presence of intracranial arterial stenosis, hypertension, or diabetes. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that there is a close relationship between cystatin C and acute ischemic stroke, independently of conventional risk factors. But the levels of cystatin C are not correlated with the stroke severity.

[A preparative method of chronic experiment autoimmune encephalomyelitis].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the model of chronic experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)for the further study of multiple sclerosis. METHODS: A total of 72 female SPF C57BL/6J mice (inbred strain, aged 8 approximately 10 weeks), were randomly divided into an EAE group, a blank group and an adjuvant group, and each group was divided into 3 subgroups: an onset group, a peak group and a chronic phase group. The EAE group was immunized with mMOG35-55. RESULTS: At the end of the study, and 83.3% of the mice in EAE group suffered the onset, and 8.3% of the mice died. The highest clinical score reached grade 5, namely paralysis of the whole body and then death. In the EAE group, after being immunized first, the mice were all anosis during the first 13 days. They got ill on the third week, and in about 20 approximately 24 days the clinical symptom reached the peak, and in 28 approximately 32 days the chronic phase arrived,when parts of the clinical symptoms got relieved. On the contrary, both the adjuvant group and the blank group were healthy all the time. Characteristic appearance was detected in the EAE group. CONCLUSION: Antigen emulsion, mixture of artificially synthesized mMOG35-55 and complete Freundos adjuvant can successfully induce chronic EAE in the mice. The model of EAE duplicated in our study has the characteristics of high incidence, low death rate and stability, which can be used to carry out further research on multiple sclerosis.

Study of Cbl-b dynamics in peripheral blood lymphocytes isolated from patients with multiple sclerosis.

E3 ubiquitin ligase Casitas B cell lymphoma-b (Cbl-b) has been recently highlighted as a negative regulator of T-cell activation and which dysfunction usually results in autoimmunity. To present, however, the possible involvement of Cbl-b in multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune demyelinating disease mediated by T-helper 1 (Th1) cells is still unclear. To clarify this, using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot analyses, we thus investigated the levels of Cbl-b mRNA and protein in peripheral blood T-lymphocytes isolated from 11 MS patients in acute relapse phase and 20 cases in remission phase. 16 healthy subjects were used as normal control. Cbl-b mRNA and protein levels were found both significantly down-regulated in peripheral blood lymphocytes isolated from MS patients (P<0.0001). Interestingly, this decrease of Cbl-b protein but not mRNA levels was significantly more marked in samples of relapsed patients than that of remitted cases (P<0.0001). In addition, it was shown that Cbl-b mRNA levels being inversely correlated with the frequency of MS clinical relapses (P<0.0001). Altogether, the data show for the first time that Cbl-b dynamics in peripheral blood T-lymphocyte subset and which possible relationship with the clinical onsets during MS.

[Comparison of sperm parameters between male adults at different altitudes].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of long-term anoxic exposure on the sperm function of male adults at different altitudes. METHODS: A total of 28 male adults that had stayed at the altitude of 5 340 m for 1-3 years were included as a high-altitude group (HAG), 34 at the mean altitude of 3 800 m for 2-5 years as a middle-altitude group (MAG) and 31 permanently at the altitude of 1 300 m as controls. Semen specimens were collected and the real-time semen analysis was performed by using computer-assisted semen analysis (CASA) system. RESULTS: The sperm density, VCL, VSL, VAP and LIN in the HAG were (51.12 +/- 14.61) x 10(6)/ ml, (48.17 +/- 13. 52) microm/s, (32.64 +/- 6.70) microm/s, (41.21 +/- 9.32) microm/s and 52.24 +/- 8.14, respectively, significantly lower than those of the control (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05). Compared with the control group, there was a progressive decrease in sperm concentration, sperm motility rate, VSL, VCL, LIN, VAP and ALH in the MAG. CONCLUSION: The higher the altitude, the more obvious was the negative effect of anoxic exposure on the sperm function of male adults.