Traditional Chinese Medicine constitution among patients with allergic rhinitis and its correlation with anxiety and depression.

OBJECTIVE: To preliminary investigate the distribution of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) constitution among patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) and reveal the related factors with anxiety and depression. METHODS: Between July 2020 and June 2021, specialist doctor recruited AR patients in Beijing and Shanghai. A total of 630 patients admitted to participate in the survey, and 516 (81.9%) (male 54.3%, female 45.7%) participants completed the questionnaires. Three scales including Constitution in Chinese Medicine Questionnaire (CCMQ), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7) and The Patient Health Queationaire-9 (PHQ-9) were applied. The χ2 and the Fisher's exact test were used to evaluate the classification data, multivariate logistic regression was used to explore the related factors of anxiety and depression. RESULTS: According to 516 AR patients, the most commonly first-constitution was Yang-deficiency (22.1%) and frequent of all constitutions was inherited-special (21.6%). One third of AR patients (33.5%) suffered from anxiety, nearly half of AR patients (46.5%) were found to be depressive. Inherited-special (27.7%) was the most common constitution in patients with anxiety whereas Yang-deficiency (26.7%) was most common constitution in patients with depression. Sex, duration of symptoms, balanced, Qi-deficiency, phlegm-dampness, Qi-stagnation, and inherited-special constitutions were related with anxiety; Sex, income, duration of symptoms, balanced, Qi-deficiency, Yang-deficiency, phlegm-dampness, Qi-stagnation, and inherited-special constitutions were related with depression. CONCLUSIONS: According to our study, the commonly constitution types of AR were Yang-deficiency and inherited-special. We found that the prevalence value of anxiety and depression were high. People with Qi-deficiency, phlegm-dampness, Qi-stagnation, and inherited-special constitutions were more likely to have mental problems than the others. Controlling these influential factors might be beneficial for clinical health management of AR patients, and the government should apply appropriate mental health treatment services to offer psychiatric support.

HMGB1 induces secretion of matrix vesicles which participate in microcalcification of atherosclerotic plaques / 中国病理生理杂志

AIM:Early calcification of atherosclerotic plaques are colocalized with macrophage and high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), a cytokine associated with biomineralizing process under physiological and pathological conditions .Our study aims to evaluate whether HMGB1 induces ectopic mineralization via promoting the secretion of matrix vesicles ( MVs) from macrophages .METHODS:HMGB1 was added to the medium of macrophages , the secretion of MVs in the supernatant was tested by flow cytometry analysis .The mineral deposition in calcifying medium was detected by Alizarin Red staining and von Kossa staining .Transmission electron microscopy showed the formation of hydroxyapatite crystals in MVs .Then we subcutaneous injection into mice with MVs to induce regional minera-lization.RESULTS:HMGB1 significantly promoted secretion of MVs from macrophages as raveled by flow cytometry analysis .TNAP activity, considered as a marker of MVs maturation , was higher in HMGB1-induced MVs compared to the control-MVs.HMGB1-MVs also led to mineral deposition in an in vitro MVs-collagen mineralization model .Subcutaneous injection into mice with MVs derived from HMGB1-treated cells showed a greater potential to initiate regional mineralization .Mechanistic experiments revealed that HMGB 1 activated neutral sphingomyelinase 2 ( nSMase2 ) that involved the receptor for advanced glycation end products ( RAGE ) and p38 MAPK (upstream of nSMase2).Inhibition of nSMase2 with GW4869 or p38 MAPK with SB-239063 prevented MVs secretion and min-eral deposition .CONCLUSIONS: HMGB1 induces MVs secretion from macrophages at least in part , via the RAGE/p38 MAPK/nSMase2 signaling pathway .Our findings thus reveal a novel mechanism by which HMGB 1 may participated in the early calcification of atherosclerotic plaques .

Dynamic changes of viral loads and antibody responses in ICR mice naturally infected with hepatitis virus / 中国比较医学杂志

Objective To define dynamic changes of viral loads and antibody responses in ICR mice naturally infected with hepatitis virus in an MHV contaminative facility .Method A total 50 ICR were housed by different “dirty bedding” exposure.Antigen and antibody was detected after 2,4,8,14,21,28,35,42,56 and 84 days.Result Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) was detected in lung after 2 days, and positive rate is 20% (1/5).MHV was detected in lung, liver, cecal and feces during 4 and 56 days.The positive rate was 0/5 in lung, liver, cecal and feces on 84 days after experiments.Antibody positive rates were 100%during 8 and 84 days.Conclusion Serological method can be used as the main method for the diagnosis of the daily supervision , and antigen detection method can only be applied to early diagnosis .

Effect of environmental humidity and ventilation rate on the microenvironmental humidity and ammonia concentration in individually ventilated cages (IVC) / 中国比较医学杂志

Objective To assess the changes of humidity and ammonia concentration in rat and mouse individually ventilated cages (IVC) based on macroenvironmental humidity and air ventilation changes .Methods Three kinds of rat and mouse IVC in barrier facilities were set as research objective .The changes of micronvironmental humidity and ammonia concentration at 40 times/h and 60 times /h air changes were detected continuously for a 7-days-cycle relative to low (40%), moderate (50%), and high (60%) macroenvironmental humidity.Results Mouse and rat IVC with 40 times /h air changes under low macroenvironmental humidity condition , mouse IVC with 40 times/h and rat IVC with 60 times/h air changes under moderate macroenvironmental humidity condition , mouse IVC with 60 times /h air changes under high macroenvironmental humidity condition , basically meet the GB14925-2010 requirements.While under macroenvironmental high humidity condition, the microenvironments of rat and mouse IVC with 60 times/h air changes could not satisfy the requirements.Conclusions The environmental humidity and ventilation frequency are the key index of IVC microenvironment.Only on the basis of external environment conditions to set up reasonable IVC ventilation frequency in order to better maintain the IVC microenvironment so that to achieve the goal of effective management .

Host immune responses to avian influenza A H5N1 virus in a BALB/c model / 中华微生物学和免疫学杂志

Objective To study the cell immunity and eytokines responses to avian influenza A H5N1 virus infections in a BALB/c model to better understand the pathogenesis of H5N1 avian influenza disease. Methods Two hundred and twenty BALB/c mice of the infected group were inoculated with 0.1 ml (10-4.875 TCID50) of A/Goose/Guangdong/NH/2003 ( H5N1 ) virus intra-nasally. Fifty control mice received noninfectious allantoic fluid and another fifty control mice received normal sodium. Blood and spleen samples were collected from the live mice every 24 h during the 14 d post-infection. The changes of CD3 + T cells , CD4 + T cells, CD8 + T cells for cell immunity in blood circulation and spleen were detected by flow cytometry. And the cytokines and antibody responses in blood circulation were detected by ELISA. Necropsy was performed on mice that died during the experiment and those euthanized at end of study. Results Avian influenza A( H5N1) virus infections can make damages to the cell immune system transiently. The CD3 + T cells, CD4 + T cells, CDS + T cells declined at 24 days post infection in blood circulation and declined at 5-8 days in spleen, then recovered to the normal level gradually. The eytokines responses to the infections can be detected: the level of IFN-γ,TNF-α declined, IL-4, IL-18, IL-10 increased, and IL-2 changed little. The antibody increased rapidly from day 7 post infection until the end of the study (day 14 post infection). Conclusion Collectively, avian influenza A(H5N1) virus can cause cell immunity deficiency and an imbalance in the level of eytokines, which may contribute to the unusual severity of disease caused by the H5N1 avian influenza virus.