A multi-bin rarefying method for evaluating alpha diversities in TCR sequencing data.

MOTIVATION: T cell receptors (TCRs) constitute a major component of our adaptive immune system, governing the recognition and response to internal and external antigens. Studying the TCR diversity via sequencing technology is critical for a deeper understanding of immune dynamics. However, library sizes differ substantially across samples, hindering the accurate estimation/comparisons of alpha diversities. To address this, researchers frequently use an overall rarefying approach in which all samples are sub-sampled to an even depth. Despite its pervasive application, its efficacy has never been rigorously assessed. RESULTS: In this paper, we develop an innovative "multi-bin" rarefying approach that partitions samples into multiple bins according to their library sizes, conducts rarefying within each bin for alpha diversity calculations, and performs meta-analysis across bins. Extensive simulations using real-world data highlight the inadequacy of the overall rarefying approach in controlling the confounding effect of library size. Our method proves robust in addressing library size confounding, outperforming competing normalization strategies by achieving better-controlled type-I error rates and enhanced statistical power in association tests. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The code is available at https://github.com/mli171/MultibinAlpha. The datasets are freely available at https://doi.org/10.21417/B7001Z and https://doi.org/10.21417/AR2019NC.

Association of oral microbiome with oral human papillomavirus infection: a population study of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2009-2012.

BACKGROUND: Oral human papillomavirus(HPV) infection and the oral microbiome are associated with oropharyngeal cancer. However, population-based data on the association of oral microbiome with oral HPV infection are limited. METHOD: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of 5,496 participants aged 20-59 in National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys(NHANES):2009-2012. The association between either oral microbiome alpha diversity or beta diversity and oral HPV infection was assessed using multivariable logistic regression or principal coordinate analyses(PCoA) and multivariate analysis of variance(PERMANOVA). RESULTS: For alpha diversity, we found a lower number of observed Amplicon sequence variants(ASVs) (adjusted odds ratio[aOR] = 0.996; 95%CI = 0.992-0.999) and reduced Faith's Phylogenetic Diversity(aOR = 0.95; 95%CI = 0.90-0.99) associated with high-risk oral HPV infection in the overall population. This trend was observed in males for both high-risk and any oral HPV infection. Beta diversity showed differentiation of oral microbiome community by high-risk oral HPV infection as measured by Bray-Curtis dissimilarity (R2 = 0.054%; P = .029) and unweighted UniFrac distance (R2 = 0.046%; P = .045) among the overall population, and associations were driven by males. CONCLUSIONS: Both oral microbiome alpha diversity(within-sample richness and phylogenetic diversity) and beta diversity(heterogeneous dispersion of oral microbiome community) are associated with HPV infection. Longitudinal studies are needed to characterize the role of the microbiome in the natural history of oral HPV infection.

Fine particulate matter contributes to COPD-like pathophysiology: experimental evidence from rats exposed to diesel exhaust particles.

BACKGROUND: Ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is considered a plausible contributor to the onset of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Mechanistic studies are needed to augment the causality of epidemiologic findings. In this study, we aimed to test the hypothesis that repeated exposure to diesel exhaust particles (DEP), a model PM2.5, causes COPD-like pathophysiologic alterations, consequently leading to the development of specific disease phenotypes. Sprague Dawley rats, representing healthy lungs, were randomly assigned to inhale filtered clean air or DEP at a steady-state concentration of 1.03 mg/m3 (mass concentration), 4 h per day, consecutively for 2, 4, and 8 weeks, respectively. Pulmonary inflammation, morphologies and function were examined. RESULTS: Black carbon (a component of DEP) loading in bronchoalveolar lavage macrophages demonstrated a dose-dependent increase in rats following DEP exposures of different durations, indicating that DEP deposited and accumulated in the peripheral lung. Total wall areas (WAt) of small airways, but not of large airways, were significantly increased following DEP exposures, compared to those following filtered air exposures. Consistently, the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in peripheral lung was elevated following DEP exposures. Fibrosis areas surrounding the small airways and content of hydroxyproline in lung tissue increased significantly following 4-week and 8-week DEP exposure as compared to the filtered air controls. In addition, goblet cell hyperplasia and mucus hypersecretions were evident in small airways following 4-week and 8-week DEP exposures. Lung resistance and total lung capacity were significantly increased following DEP exposures. Serum levels of two oxidative stress biomarkers (MDA and 8-OHdG) were significantly increased. A dramatical recruitment of eosinophils (14.0-fold increase over the control) and macrophages (3.2-fold increase) to the submucosa area of small airways was observed following DEP exposures. CONCLUSIONS: DEP exposures over the courses of 2 to 8 weeks induced COPD-like pathophysiology in rats, with characteristic small airway remodeling, mucus hypersecretion, and eosinophilic inflammation. The results provide insights on the pathophysiologic mechanisms by which PM2.5 exposures cause COPD especially the eosinophilic phenotype.

Influence of Epoxy Resin Interlayer Interfaces on Electrical Tree Growth and Breakdown Characteristics.

The solid-solid insulation interface structure is a typical interface in extra-high-voltage power equipment, in which the multilayer epoxy resin material is a key component in the insulation structure of the power equipment, and the study of its interface characteristics is the most important. In this paper, epoxy-epoxy cross-linking interface specimens were prepared through experiments, and the degree of cross-linking between the interfaces was analyzed by changing the ratio of the curing agent and adding hydroxyl-terminated liquid nitrile rubber (HTBN) particles; it can be concluded that there exists a weak cross-linking reaction between the interfaces. The electrical tree measurement and alternating current (AC) breakdown test platform were set up, and three different cases of no interface, the electric field direction parallel to the interface, and the electric field direction perpendicular to the interface were tested, through which it was concluded that the existence of the interface inhibited the development of the electrical tree. For the three different cases of AC breakdown tested, it was concluded that the presence of an interface enhances the AC breakdown strength when the electric field direction is parallel to the interface and decreases the AC breakdown strength when the electric field direction is perpendicular to the interface through the interface, affecting the charge transport.

Study on the antidepressive effects and mechanism of raw and fried Ziziphi Spinosae Semen via metabolomics and gut microbiota analysis.

Ziziphi Spinosae Semen (ZSS) and fried ZSS (FZSS) have been used for treating insomnia and depression in China. However, the potential influence of chemical variations on their efficacy remains unclear. This study demonstrated that compared with ZSS, FZSS exhibited an increase in the content of seven compounds, while the fatty oil content decreased. Both ZSS and FZSS exhibited antidepressive effects in a chronic unpredictable mild stress rat model, indicating a synergistic regulation of deficiencies in 5-hydroxytryptamine in the brain and the hyperactivation of severe peripheral inflammation. ZSS demonstrated a superior modulatory effect compared with FZSS, as indicated by integrated pharmacodynamic index, metabolic profile, and relative distance value. The potential mechanism underlying their antidepressive effects involved the modulation of gut microbiota structure to alleviate excessive inflammatory responses and imbalanced tryptophan metabolism. Correlation analysis indicated that the higher fatty oil contents should be comprehensively considered as the main reason for ZSS's superior antidepressive effects, achieved through the regulation of pyroglutamic acid levels.

A Mixed Effect Similarity Matrix Regression Model (SMRmix) for Integrating Multiple Microbiome Datasets at Community Level and its Application in HIV.

Recent studies have highlighted the importance of human microbiota in our health and diseases. However, in many areas of research, individual microbiome studies often offer inconsistent results due to the limited sample sizes and the heterogeneity in study populations and experimental procedures. Integrative analysis of multiple microbiome datasets is necessary. However, statistical methods that incorporate multiple microbiome datasets and account for the study heterogeneity are not available in the literature. In this paper, we develop a mixed effect similarity matrix regression (SMRmix) approach for identifying community level microbiome shifts between outcomes. SMRmix has a close connection with the microbiome kernel association test, one of the most popular approaches for such a task but is only applicable when we have a single study. Via extensive simulations, we show that SMRmix has well-controlled type I error and higher power than some potential competitors. We also applied SMRmix to data from the HIV-reanalysis consortium, a collective effort that obtained all publicly available data on gut microbiome and HIV at December 2017, and obtained consistent associations of gut microbiome with HIV infection, and with MSM status (i.e. men who have sex with men).

MIDASim: a fast and simple simulator for realistic microbiome data.

BACKGROUND: Advances in sequencing technology has led to the discovery of associations between the human microbiota and many diseases, conditions, and traits. With the increasing availability of microbiome data, many statistical methods have been developed for studying these associations. The growing number of newly developed methods highlights the need for simple, rapid, and reliable methods to simulate realistic microbiome data, which is essential for validating and evaluating the performance of these methods. However, generating realistic microbiome data is challenging due to the complex nature of microbiome data, which feature correlation between taxa, sparsity, overdispersion, and compositionality. Current methods for simulating microbiome data are deficient in their ability to capture these important features of microbiome data, or can require exorbitant computational time. METHODS: We develop MIDASim (MIcrobiome DAta Simulator), a fast and simple approach for simulating realistic microbiome data that reproduces the distributional and correlation structure of a template microbiome dataset. MIDASim is a two-step approach. The first step generates correlated binary indicators that represent the presence-absence status of all taxa, and the second step generates relative abundances and counts for the taxa that are considered to be present in step 1, utilizing a Gaussian copula to account for the taxon-taxon correlations. In the second step, MIDASim can operate in both a nonparametric and parametric mode. In the nonparametric mode, the Gaussian copula uses the empirical distribution of relative abundances for the marginal distributions. In the parametric mode, a generalized gamma distribution is used in place of the empirical distribution. RESULTS: We demonstrate improved performance of MIDASim relative to other existing methods using gut and vaginal data. MIDASim showed superior performance by PERMANOVA and in terms of alpha diversity and beta dispersion in either parametric or nonparametric mode. We also show how MIDASim in parametric mode can be used to assess the performance of methods for finding differentially abundant taxa in a compositional model. CONCLUSIONS: MIDASim is easy to implement, flexible and suitable for most microbiome data simulation situations. MIDASim has three major advantages. First, MIDASim performs better in reproducing the distributional features of real data compared to other methods, at both the presence-absence level and the relative-abundance level. MIDASim-simulated data are more similar to the template data than competing methods, as quantified using a variety of measures. Second, MIDASim makes few distributional assumptions for the relative abundances, and thus can easily accommodate complex distributional features in real data. Third, MIDASim is computationally efficient and can be used to simulate large microbiome datasets. Video Abstract.

Endothelium-targeted Ddx24 conditional knockout exacerbates ConA-induced hepatitis in mice due to vascular hyper-permeability.

BACKGROUND: Acute hepatitis is a progressive inflammatory disorder that can lead to liver failure. Endothelial permeability is the vital pathophysiological change involved in infiltrating inflammatory factors. DDX24 has been implicated in immune signaling. However, the precise role of DDX24 in immune-mediated hepatitis remains unclear. Here, we investigate the phenotype of endothelium-targeted Ddx24 conditional knockout mice with Concanavalin A (ConA)-induced hepatitis. METHODS: Mice with homozygous endothelium-targeted Ddx24 conditional knockout (Ddx24flox/flox; Cdh5-Cre+) were established using the CRISPR/Cas9 mediated Cre-loxP system. We investigated the biological functions of endothelial cells derived from transgenic mice and explored the effects of Ddx24 in mice with ConA-induced hepatitis in vivo. The mass spectrometry was performed to identify the differentially expressed proteins in liver tissues of transgenic mice. RESULT: We successfully established mice with endothelium-targeted Ddx24 conditional knockout. The results showed migration and tube formation potentials of murine aortic endothelial cells with DDX24 silencing were significantly promoted. No differences were observed between Ddx24flox/flox; Cdh5-Cre+ and control regarding body weight and length, pathological tissue change and embryogenesis. We demonstrated Ddx24flox/flox; Cdh5-Cre+ exhibited exacerbation of ConA-induced hepatitis by up-regulating TNF-α and IFN-γ. Furthermore, endothelium-targeted Ddx24 conditional knockout caused vascular hyper-permeability in ConA-injected mice by down-regulating vascular integrity-associated proteins. Mechanistically, we identified Ddx24 might regulate immune-mediated hepatitis by inflammation-related permeable barrier pathways. CONCLUSION: These findings prove that endothelium-targeted Ddx24 conditional knockout exacerbates ConA-induced hepatitis in mice because of vascular hyper-permeability. The findings indicate a crucial role of DDX24 in regulating immune-mediated hepatitis, suggesting DDX24 as a potential therapeutic target in the disorder.

A Multilayer Photothermal Superhydrophobic Anti-Icing Coating Applied to Asphalt Pavement with Remarkable Wear Resistance.

Superhydrophobic surfaces exhibit considerable potential in road anti-icing applications due to their unique water-repellent properties. However, the nanorough structure of superhydrophobic coatings is highly susceptible to degradation under wheel rolling in practical applications. To maintain effective hydrophobicity under prolonged exposure to wheel rolling, a multilayer superhydrophobic anti-icing coating was developed. This coating utilizes antifreeze protein (AFP)-modified emulsified asphalt as the substrate with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and silicon carbide (SiC) as surface coatings. Experimental results indicate that the inclusion of AFP enhances the viscosity of the emulsified asphalt, thereby stabilizing the nanorough structure of the coating. Even after 100 cycles of sandpaper grinding and 500 wheel rolls, the coating maintains robust hydrophobic properties. Moreover, when the coating is worn away by long-term high-strength loads, the exposed AFP-modified emulsified asphalt layer continues to exhibit effective anti-icing capabilities, significantly prolonging the complete freezing time of water droplets on its surface. Additionally, the incorporation of CNTs and SiC enhances the photothermal conversion performance, further improving the anti-icing efficiency of the coating under light irradiation. Overall, this coating shows promise for application in road anti-icing strategies.

Lightweight and drift-free magnetically actuated millirobots via asymmetric laser-induced graphene.

Millirobots must have low cost, efficient locomotion, and the ability to track target trajectories precisely if they are to be widely deployed. With current materials and fabrication methods, achieving all of these features in one millirobot remains difficult. We develop a series of graphene-based helical millirobots by introducing asymmetric light pattern distortion to a laser-induced polymer-to-graphene conversion process; this distortion resulted in the spontaneous twisting and peeling off of graphene sheets from the polymer substrate. The lightweight nature of graphene in combine with the laser-induced porous microstructure provides a millirobot scaffold with a low density and high surface hydrophobicity. Magnetically driven nickel-coated graphene-based helical millirobots with rapid locomotion, excellent trajectory tracking, and precise drug delivery ability were fabricated from the scaffold. Importantly, such high-performance millirobots are fabricated at a speed of 77 scaffolds per second, demonstrating their potential in high-throughput and large-scale production. By using drug delivery for gastric cancer treatment as an example, we demonstrate the advantages of the graphene-based helical millirobots in terms of their long-distance locomotion and drug transport in a physiological environment. This study demonstrates the potential of the graphene-based helical millirobots to meet performance, versatility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness requirements simultaneously.

iso-BAI Guided Surface Recrystallization for Over 14% Tin Halide Perovskite Solar Cells.

Tin-based perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are promising environmentally friendly alternatives to their lead-based counterparts, yet they currently suffer from much lower device performance. Due to variations in the chemical properties of lead (II) and tin (II) ions, similar treatments may yield distinct effects resulting from differences in underlying mechanisms. In this work, a surface treatment on tin-based perovskite is conducted with a commonly employed ligand, iso-butylammonium iodide (iso-BAI). Unlike the passivation effects previously observed in lead-based perovskites, such treatment leads to the recrystallization of the surface, driven by the higher solubility of tin-based perovskite in common solvents. By carefully designing the solvent composition, the perovskite surface is effectively modified while preserving the integrity of the bulk. The treatment led to enhanced surface crystallinity, reduced surface strain and defects, and improved charge transport. Consequently, the best-performing power conversion efficiency of FASnI3 PSCs increases from 11.8% to 14.2%. This work not only distinguishes the mechanism of surface treatments in tin-based perovskites from that of lead-based counterparts, but also underscores the critical role in designing tailor-made strategies for fabricating efficient tin-based PSCs.

Application of flexible ureteroscope in the treatment of middle and upper ureteral calculi complicated with lower ureteral stricture / 现代泌尿外科杂志

【Objective】 To explore the safety and efficacy of flexible ureteroscope in the treatment of upper and middle ureteral calculi complicated with lower ureteral stricture after the failure of rigid ureteroscopy. 【Methods】 Clinical data of 36 patients with middle and upper ureteral calculi and lower ureteral stricture treated with rigid ureteroscopy but failed during Oct.2019 and Oct.2021 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients’ average age was (46.2±13.2) years, and the maximum diameter of calculi was (1.3±0.3) cm. The intraoperative, postoperative and follow-up data were recorded. 【Results】 All 36 patients successfully completed first-stage operation. Intraoperatively, the stenosis degree was F6-8 and could be dilated to F9-11. The mean length of stenosis was (1.1±0.34) cm. No serious postoperative complications such as infection or bleeding occurred. Two patients were lost and 34 patients were followed up. There was no obvious hydronephrosis on ultrasound examination. The stone removal rates were 76.5%, 88.2% and 97.1%, respectively, in months 1, 2 and 3 after operation. One patient with residual stones underwent secondary ureteroscopy in month 3 and large stones were removed with stone removal basket. 【Conclusion】 In patients with middle and upper ureteral calculi and lower ureteral stricture, after the failure of rigid ureteroscopy, flexible ureteroscope is safe and effective, and can significantly increase the success rate of first-stage surgery.

ST3GAL5 inhibited malignant biological behavior of bladder cancer by activation of the PPAR pathway and inhibition of the PI3K/AKT pathway / 安徽医科大学学报

Objective @# To the effects and potential mechanisms of ST3GAL5 on biological behaviors of Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma(BLCA) . @*Methods @# Differentially expressed genes related to bladder cancer were identified using microarray analysis . Suitable bladder cancer cell lines were then screened . In vitro experimental measurements , including CCK8 , EdU , colony formation assays , transwell migration , flow cytometry apoptosis experiments , scratch assay , were used to evaluate the effects of ST3GAL5 on biological behaviors of BLCA . ST3GAL5 gene Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes ( KEGG) , gene set enrichment analysis ( GSEA) were analyzed using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database . Finally , Western blot technology was used to verify the classical proliferation and metastasis related pathway factors . @*Results @# The combination of bioinformatics analyses and experimental measurements demonstrate that ST3GAL5 expression is aberrantly down⁃regulated in human cell lines of BLCA . Through Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) database , HT⁃1376 cell lines were successfully screened for vitro test . Upregulation of ST3GAL5 was found to suppress the malignant biological behaviour of bladder cancer. GSEA enrichment analyses exhibited that ST3GAL5 and its co⁃expressed genes inhibited cell proliferation , invasion and metastasis of bladder urothelial carcinoma by activation of the PPAR pathway and inhibition of the PI3K/AKT pathway . The results of Western blot experiments verified that the key proteins of the PPAR signaling pathway showed a significant increase and the key proteins of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway showed a significant decrease ( P <0. 05) after ST3GAL5 overexpression in bladder cancer. @*Conclusion @#ST3GAL5 gene might act as an oncogenic suppressor gene in bladder cancer , possibly inhibit the proliferation , invasion and metastasis of bladder cancer cells by activating the PPAR signaling pathway and inhibiting related molecules in the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway .

Effect of 17β-estradiol on renal tubular cells apoptosis and inflammation induced by renal ischemia /reperfusion injury in rats / 临床与实验病理学杂志

Purpose To investigate the effects and mechanism of 17β-estradiol on the apoptosis and inflammation of renal tubular cells in rats with renal ischemia/reperfusion injury. Methods All the female Sprague-Dawley rats were ovariectomized and randomly divided into four groups: Control group, Sham group, I/R group and estrogen plus I/R (E2 + I/R) group (n = 8). Right kidney of the rat was excised and artery of the left kidney was blockaded for 45 min.24 h after the reperfusion, we collected the blood and nephridial tissue of each group. An automatic biochemical analyzer was used to measure the expression level of BUN and Cr in blood. Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining was used to observe the pathological changes and the degree of inflammatory reaction of the ischemia/reperfusion injury kidney. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) method was used to detect the apoptosis of renal tubular cells. The expression levels of Cleaved-Caspase-3 protein were measured by Western blot, while the numbers of CD4+ T lymphocyte infiltration in each group were tested by immunofluorescence (IF). Results Compared with the Sham group, expression level of BUN, Cr and Cleaved-Caspase-3 in I/R group significantly increased (P＜0.05) as well as the number of apoptotic cells (P＜0.05). In the meantime, inflammatory reaction significantly aggravated (P＜0.05) and the number of CD4 + T lymphocytes increased remarkably (P＜0.05). However, expression level of BUN, Cr and Gleaved-Caspase-3 in E2 + I/R group decreased significantly (P＜0.05) and the pathological damage in the kidney was alleviated (P＜0.05) compared with I/R group, furthermore, the number of apoptotic cells decreased (P＜0.05) compared with I/R group. The inflammatory reaction significantly blunted (P＜0.05) and the infiltration of CD4 + T lymphocytes decreased remarkably (P＜0.05) compared with I/R group. Conclusion Estrogen can inhibit the expression of Cleaved-Caspase-3 in renal tissue during ischemia/reperfusion injury and reduce the apoptosis of renal tubular cells. It can also reduce the infiltration of CD4 + T lymphocytes, thus playing a protective role on renal ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Low triiodothyronine syndrome can predict poor prognosis in peritoneal dialysis patients / 上海交通大学学报（医学版）

Objective· To investigate the prevalence of low triiodothyronine syndrome (LT3S) in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients and to evaluate the predictive value of long-term prognosis. Methods · From Jan. 2009 to Dec. 2015, all patients who started PD for 3 months were enrolled. According to thyroid hormone levels, there were classified into LT3S group (218 cases) and normal T3group (259 cases). The association between FT3and mortality in PD patients was estimated using Cox risk regression model. Results · Compared to the patients in normal T3group, patients with LT3S had lower hemoglobin[(97.90±23.71)g/L vs(105.54±22.94)g/L],adjusted serum calcium[(2.06±0.35)mmol/L vs(2.17±0.27)mmol/L](all P<0.01).Patients with LT3S had higher BNP{[311.00(134.59,776.00)pg/mL]vs[159.00(58.28,378.75)pg/mL]},hrCRP{[2.85(0.95,6.81)mg/L]vs[1.34(0.54,3.32)mg/L]}and serum total cholesterol[(3.18±1.29)mmol/L vs(2.76±0.93)mmol/L]than that in patients with normal T3group(all P<0.01).LVMI of LT3S group [(154.16±58.15)g/m2] vs (125.24±42.67)g/m2] was much higher than that of normal T3group (P<0.01). Cox risk regression model indicated that FT3 was significantly associated with all-cause mortality(HR 0.51,95% CI 0.41-0.63;P<0.01)and cardiovascular mortality(HR 0.60,95% CI 0.45-0.81;P<0.01). Conclusion·LT3S is common in PD patients.Lower FT3was an independent risk factor of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in PD patients.

Effects and Mechanism of Alcea Rosea Roots in Ethylene Glycol Induced Nephrolithiasis in Rats / 天津医药

Objective To study the beneficial effect and mechanism of Alcea rosea roots in nephrolithiasis model in-duced by 1%ethylene glycol in rats. Methods We randomly divided 60 male Wistar rats into six groups,including control group, model group, Alcea rosea roots lower-dose preventive group, Alcea rosea roots high-dose preventive group, Alcea ro-sea roots lower-dose curative group, Alcea rosea roots high-dose curative group. Control group was free to access food and water;model group was given 1%ethylene glycol drinking water and was fed with normal diet, preventive group was given 1%ethylene glycol drink and Alcea rosea roots in low (250 mg/kg) or high dose (500 mg/kg) each day, curative group re-ceived 1%ethylene glycol drink each day and Alcea rosea roots in low or high dose from day 15 to day 28. At the end of the experiment, various renal functional and injury markers such as urine volume, calcium, phosphate, magnesium, urea, creati-nine, and oxalate were evaluated using urine, serum, and kidney homogenates. The kidneys were removed and prepared for histological evaluation of calcium oxalate deposits. Results In model groups, urine output, urea, creatinine, 24 h urine Ca2+, and oxalate and MDA were increased compared to those in control group(P＜0.05). GSH and SOD were increased in preventative and curative groups compared to those in the model group(P ＜ 0.05). The urea, creatinine, 24 h urine Ca2+, urine oxalate, MDA were reduced in preventive and curative groups compared to those in the model group(P＜0.05). The number and size of calcium oxalate crystal deposits were also less and smaller, and the kidney damage was less severe in pre-ventive and curative groups compared to in the model group. Conclusion The extract of Alcea rosea roots can prevent and treat calcium oxalate urinary stone formation in rats and protect renal function.

Primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the testis and penis: clinical analysis of 5 cases / 中华男科学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To improve the clinical diagnosis and treatment of primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of male genitalia.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We retrospectively reviewed the clinical data of 5 cases of primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of male genitalia, 4 in the testis and 1 in the penis, we also analyzed the relevant literature and clinical significance of the disease.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>All the 5 cases were treated by surgery and pathologically confirmed to be non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Three of them received chemotherapy, and the other 2 (1 in the testis and 1 in the penis) underwent both chemotherapy and radiotherapy after the operation. Follow-up averaged 25 months, during which 1 of the patients died and the other 4 survived.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of male genitalia is an uncommon disease with atypical clinical presentations and poor prognosis, which occurs mostly in elderly males. Definite diagnosis of the disease mainly depends on histopathology and immunohistochemistry. Surgery with multiagent chemotherapy and radiotherapy is advisable for its treatment.</p>

Distribution of vascular endothelial growth factor gene polymorphism in Uyghur Ethnic patients with urolithiasis in south Xinjiang / 中华泌尿外科杂志

Objective To determine vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)-460 gene polymorphism in Uyghurs and its relationship to urolithiasis in south Xinjiang. Methods Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP),gene sequencing and genetic analysis methods were used in 200 urolithiasis patients of Uyghurs, and 200 healthy Uyghurs. Results The distribution of genotype and allele had no significant difference between urolithiasis patients and normal controls (P＞0. 05). The frequencies for the CC,TT and CT genotypes in patients with urolithiasis and normal controls were 1.5 %, 29.0 %, 69.5 % and 0. 5 %, 27.5 %, 72.0 %, respectively. The frequencies for C and T allele were 36.2%,63.7% and 36.9% ,63.1%, respectively. Conclusions The results of VEGF-460 gene polymorphisms indicate no significant relationship between patients with turolithiasis and normal controls in Uyghurs in south Xinjiang,which may not be urolithiasis susceptibility genetic locus.