Serum bilirubin levels in primary Sjögren's syndrome: an association with interstitial lung disease.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess the association between serum bilirubin levels and interstitial lung disease (ILD) in patients with Primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The retrospectively analysis included 89 consecutive patients with pSS, we collected the clinical materials of pSS patients from the electronic medical records, and all pSS patients were divide into pSS with ILD group and pSS without ILD group. RESULTS: Serum bilirubin levels were significantly lower in pSS patients with ILD than those without ILD (p = 0.010). Serum bilirubin levels showed a significant negative correlation with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) (r = -0.321, p = 0.002) in patients with pSS. A multivariable logistic regression analysis confirmed that serum bilirubin presented an independent association with ILD in patients with pSS (OR = 0.841, 95%CI:0.728-0.972, p = 0.019). CONCLUSION: Serum bilirubin is independently associated with ILD and therefore may be a promising marker of ILD in patients with pSS.

The role of stimulator of interferon genes-mediated AMPK/mTOR/P70S6K autophagy pathway in cyfluthrin-induced testicular injury.

Cyfluthrin is widely used in the field of sanitary pest control by its wide insecticidal spectrum, high efficiency and low toxicity, low residue, and good biodegradability. But, as a double-edged sword, a large amount of cyfluthrin remains are still in the environment. The residual cyfluthrin is absorbed into the food chain through vegetation and then poses a risk to soil organisms and human health. Several studies have suggested that cyfluthrin is one of the main factors causing testicular damage, but the mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we established in vivo and in vitro models of testicular injury in rats and GC-2 cells exposed to cyfluthrin to explore whether stimulator of interferon genes (STING) gene mediates the regulation of AMPK/mTOR/p70S6K autophagy pathway, which lays a foundation for further study of the mechanism of testicular injury induced by cyfluthrin. The results showed that the activity of super oxide dismutase in testis decreased and the activity of malonic dialdehyde increased with the increase of concentration in vivo and in vitro. At the same time, the levels of mitochondrial damage and inflammation in the testis also increased, which further activated autophagy. In this process, the increased level of inflammation is related to the increased expression of STING gene, and AMPK/mTOR/p70S6K autophagy pathway is also involved. To sum up, cyfluthrin has certain reproductive toxicity, and long-term exposure can induce testicular cell damage. STING gene can participate in cyfluthrin-induced testicular injury through AMPK/mTOR/P70S6K autophagy pathway.

[Research hotspots in post-discharge follow-up management of preterm infants]. / æ—©äº§å„¿å‡ºé™¢åŽéšè®¿ç ”ç©¶çƒ­ç‚¹.

Preterm infants, especially those born extremely or very prematurely, are at high risk for growth retardation and neurodevelopmental disorders. Regular follow-up after discharge, early intervention, and timely catch-up growth are important guarantees for improving the quality of life of preterm infants and improving the quality of the population. This article provides an overview of the research hotspots in follow-up management of preterm infants after discharge over the past two years, including follow-up modes, nutritional metabolism and body composition follow-up, growth pattern follow-up, neurodevelopmental follow-up, early intervention, etc., in order to provide clinical guidance and research ideas for domestic peers.

[Physical growth and neurodevelopment of preterm infants at the corrected age of 18-24 months]. / æ—©äº§å„¿æ ¡æ­£18~24æœˆé¾„ä½“æ ¼ç”Ÿé•¿å’Œç¥žç»å‘è‚²æ°´å¹³ç ”ç©¶.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the levels of physical growth and neurodevelopment in preterm infants at the corrected age of 18-24 months. METHODS: The physical growth data and neurodevelopment data of 484 preterm infants at corrected age of 18-24 months were prospectively collected by a post-discharge follow-up system for preterm infants. The infants were regularly followed up in Shenzhen Bao'an Maternal and Child Health Hospital Affiliated to Jinan University from April 2018 to December 2021. The neurodevelopment was evaluated by the Children Neuropsychological and Behavioral Scale-Revision 2016. A total of 219 full-term infants served as controls. The infants were divided into groups (extremely preterm, very preterm, moderate late preterm, and full-term) based on gestational age, and the groups were compared in the levels of physical growth and neurodevelopment. RESULTS: Except that the moderate preterm group had a higher length-for-age Z-score than the full-term group (P=0.038), there was no significant difference in physical growth indicators between the preterm groups and the full-term group (P>0.05). Each preterm group had a significantly lower total developmental quotient (DQ) than the full-term group (P<0.05). Except for the social behavior domain, the DQ of other domains in the extremely preterm and very preterm groups was significantly lower than that in the full-term group (P<0.05). The <32 weeks preterm group had a significantly higher incidence rate of global developmental delay than the full-term group (16.7% vs 6.4%, P=0.012), and the incidence rate of global developmental delay tended to increase with the reduction in gestational age (P=0.026). CONCLUSIONS: Preterm infants can catch up with full-term infants in terms of physical growth at the corrected age of 18-24 months, but with a lower neurodevelopmental level than full-term infants. Neurodevelopment monitoring and early intervention should be taken seriously for preterm infants with a gestational age of <32 weeks.

[Differential diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and global developmental delay based on machine learning and Children Neuropsychological and Behavioral Scale]. / åŸºäºŽæœºå™¨å­¦ä¹ å’Œå„¿ç«¥ç¥žç»å¿ƒç†è¡Œä¸ºæ£€æŸ¥é‡è¡¨é‰´åˆ«å­¤ç‹¬ç—‡è°±ç³»éšœç¢å’Œå ¨é¢å‘è‚²è¿Ÿç¼“å„¿ç«¥çš„ç ”ç©¶.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the efficacy and required indicators of Children Neuropsychological and Behavioral Scale-Revision 2016 (CNBS-R2016) in the differential diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and global developmental delay (GDD). METHODS: A total of 277 children with ASD and 415 children with GDD, aged 18-48 months, were enrolled as subjects. CNBS-R2016 was used to assess the developmental levels of six domains, i.e., gross motor, fine motor, adaptive ability, language, social behavior, and warning behavior, and a total of 13 indicators on intelligence age and developmental quotient (DQ) were obtained as the input features. Five commonly used machine learning classifiers were used for training to calculate the classification accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of each classifier. RESULTS: DQ of warning behavior was selected as the first feature in all five classifiers, and the use of this indicator alone had a classification accuracy of 78.90%. When the DQ of warning behavior was used in combination with the intelligence age of warning behavior, gross motor, and language, it had the highest classification accuracy of 86.71%. CONCLUSIONS: Machine learning combined with CNBS-R2016 can effectively distinguish children with ASD from those with GDD. The DQ of warning behavior plays an important role in machine learning, and its combination with other features can improve classification accuracy, providing a basis for the efficient and accurate differential diagnosis of ASD and GDD in clinical practice.

Comprehensive analysis of M2 macrophage-derived exosomes facilitating osteogenic differentiation of human periodontal ligament stem cells.

BACKGROUND: The role of periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) and macrophage polarization in periodontal tissue regeneration and bone remodeling during orthodontic tooth movement (OTM) has been well documented. Nevertheless, the interactions between macrophages and PDLSCs in OTM remain to be investigated. Consequently, the present study was proposed to explore the effect of different polarization states of macrophages on the osteogenic differentiation of PDLSCs. METHODS: After M0, M1 and M2 macrophage-derived exosomes (M0-exo, M1-exo and M2-exo) treatment of primary cultured human PDLSCs, respectively, mineralized nodules were observed by Alizarin red S staining, and the expression of ALP and OCN mRNA and protein were detected by RT-qPCR and Western blotting, correspondingly. Identification of differentially expressed microRNAs (DE-miRNA) in M0-exo and M2-exo by miRNA microarray, and GO and KEGG enrichment analysis of DE-miRNA targets, and construction of protein-protein interaction networks. RESULTS: M2-exo augmented mineralized nodule formation and upregulated ALP and OCN expression in PDLSCs, while M0-exo had no significant effect. Compared to M0-exo, a total of 52 DE-miRNAs were identified in M2-exo. The expression of hsa-miR-6507-3p, hsa-miR-4731-3p, hsa-miR-4728-3p, hsa-miR-3614-5p and hsa-miR-6785-3p was significantly down-regulated, and the expression of hsa-miR-6085, hsa-miR-4800-5p, hsa-miR-4778-5p, hsa-miR-6780b-5p and hsa-miR-1227-5p was significantly up-regulated in M2-exo compared to M0-exo. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that the downstream targets of DE-miRNAs were mainly involved in the differentiation and migration of multiple cells. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, we have indicated for the first time that M2-exo can promote osteogenic differentiation of human PDLSCs, and have revealed the functions and pathways involved in the DE-miRNAs of M0-exo and M2-exo and their downstream targets.

Sleep initiation patterns and their influence on sleep quality in infants and young children. / å©´å¹¼å„¿å ¥ç¡æ–¹å¼åŠå ¶å¯¹ç¡çœ è´¨é‡çš„å½±å“.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the current status of sleep initiation patterns, influencing factors for sleep initiation patterns, and the influence of sleep initiation patterns on sleep quality in infants and young children. METHODS: A total of 521 infants and young children, aged 0-35 months, who underwent physical examination at the outpatient service of the Department of Growth and Development in Shenzhen Bao'an Women's and Children's Hospital Affiliated to Jinan University were enrolled as subjects. A self-designed questionnaire and Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire were used to collect the information on family background, parenting behaviors, and sleep quality in the past one week. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the influencing factors for sleep initiation patterns. A multiple linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the influence of sleep initiation patterns on the number of nighttime awakenings. RESULTS: Among the 521 infants and young children, 258 (49.5%) were breastfed/bottle fed to initiate sleep, 62 (11.9%) were rocked/held to initiate sleep, 39 (7.5%) slept independently, and 162 (31.1%) initiated sleep accompanied by parents. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the children with breastfeeding and a younger age were more likely to be breastfed/bottle fed to initiate sleep (P<0.05) and that the children with a younger age were also more likely to be rocked/held to initiate sleep (P<0.05). The multiple linear regression analysis showed that sleep initiation with breastfeeding/bottle feeding significantly increased the number of nighttime awakenings (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Most infants and young children initiate sleep by being breastfed/bottle fed, rocked/held, or accompanied. The sleep initiation pattern is associated with the age of children and whether they are still breastfeeding. Sleep initiation with breastfeeding/bottle feeding can increase the number of nighttime awakenings. io.

Cytotoxicity of mesoporous silica modified by amino and carboxyl groups on vascular endothelial cells.

Mesoporous silica is widely used because of its unique and excellent properties, especially it can be used as a drug carrier and gene carrier in the biomedical field. After the mesoporous silica is put into clinical use, it is more likely to be exposed in human body. Therefore, the effect of mesoporous silica on human body cannot be ignored. The injury of vascular endothelial cells is a prerequisite for the occurrence of many cardiovascular diseases. As a drug and gene carrier, mesoporous silica increases its contact with vascular endothelial cells, so its toxic effect on cardiovascular system cannot be ignored. In this study, amino (NH2 ) and carboxyl (COOH) were modified on mesoporous silica SBA-15 by post-grafting. The results showed that it still maintained the one-dimensional hexagonal mesoporous structure of SBA-15 and had typical mesoporous structure. Then human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were infected with SBA-15, NH2 -SBA-15, and COOH-SBA-15. The results showed that the functionalized mesoporous silica SBA-15 had cytotoxicity to HUVECs and damaged the cell membrane, but compared with the unmodified mesoporous silica SBA-15 the cytotoxicity of functionalized mesoporous silica SBA-15 was lower and the toxicity of carboxyl modified group was the lowest. By comparing the cell inhibition rate and the expression level of lactate dehydrogenate and reactive oxygen species induced by the three materials, oxidative damage and cell membrane damage may be two mechanisms of cytotoxicity. Mesoporous silica SBA-15 has an effect on cardiovascular system by inducing the high expression of nitric oxide, intercellular adhesive molecule-1 and vascular cell adhesive molecule-1 in HUVECs. In summary, our results show that mesoporous silica is toxic to vascular endothelial cells.

Assessment of growth pattern of preterm infants up to a corrected age of 24 months. / æ—©äº§å„¿æ ¡æ­£24æœˆé¾„å† ç”Ÿé•¿è½¨è¿¹ç ”ç©¶.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the growth of preterm infants up to a corrected age of 24 months, and to understand the growth trend and pattern of preterm infants. METHODS: A preterm infant follow-up database was established based on the Internet Plus follow-up system. A total of 3 188 preterm infants who were born from April 2018 to April 2021 were enrolled. Their length, weight, and head circumference were recorded at birth and at the corrected ages of 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. The preterm infants were grouped by perinatal factors. The growth curves of these infants were plotted and compared with the International Fetal and Newborn Growth Consortium for the 21st Century (INTERGROWTH-21st) standard and World Health Organization (WHO) standard. RESULTS: The weight, length, and head circumference curves of each group of preterm infants grouped by various perinatal factors all rose rapidly within the corrected age of 6 months, but the growth rate slowed down after the corrected age of 6 months. Based on the actual age for the groups of preterm infants with different gestational ages (<28 weeks, 28-31+6 weeks, 32-33+6 weeks, and 34-36+6 weeks), the length curve gradually coincided with the WHO curve after the actual age of 9 months (P=0.082), while for the preterm infants with a gestational age of <32 weeks, the weight and head circumference curves were significantly lower than the WHO curves (P<0.001). Based on the corrected age, the physical growth curve of preterm infants with different gestational ages (<28 weeks, 28-31+6 weeks, 32-33+6 weeks, and 34-36+6 weeks) basically coincided with each other (P>0.05). For the infants with extremely low birth weight and the small-for-gestational-age infants, the length, weight, and head circumference curves were significantly lower than those of the INTERGROWTH-21st standard and the WHO standard (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The physical growth rate of preterm infants is faster within the corrected age of 6 months, and the growth rate slows down after the corrected age of 6 months. Preterm infants with a smaller gestational age need longer time to catch up in weight and head circumference. More attention should be paid to the physical growth of extremely preterm infants, extremely low birth weight infants, and small-for-gestational-age infants.

[Application of the Children Neuropsychological and Behavioral Scale-Revision 2016 in young children with autism spectrum disorder].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the assessment results of the Children Neuropsychological and Behavioral Scale-Revision 2016 (CNBS-R2016) between young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and global developmental delay (GDD, without ASD) and to explore whether CNBS-R2016 could be helpful to early identification of ASD. METHODS: A total of 260 ASD and 371 GDD children aged 18-30 months were enrolled to finish the assessment of CNBS-R2016. The development quotients (DQs) of the five domains of CNBS-R2016 including gross motor, fine motor, adaptability, language and social behavior were compared between the two groups. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the value of the autism-predicted domain in identifying ASD and GDD. RESULTS: The DQs of all the five domains in the ASD group were lower than those in the GDD group (P<0.05). The language DQ and total DQ of the ASD group had a negative correlation with the score of the autism-predicted domain (rs=-0.566, -0.552 respectively, P<0.01). When the cut-off value of the autism-predicted domain was 10.5, the largest area under the ROC curve was 0.835, and the sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of ASD were 0.750 and 0.798 respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The development of ASD children aged 18-30 months is worse than that of GDD children. CNBS-R2016 may be helpful to distinguish ASD from children with developmental delay.

Involvement of PML-I in reformation of PML nuclear bodies in acute promyelocytic leukemia cells by leptomycin B.

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is characterized by a reciprocal translocation between chromosomes 15 and 17, t(15;17), resulting in the expression of PML-RARα fusion protein, which disrupts the normal PML nuclear bodies (PML-NBs) to micro-speckled pattern, leading to loss of their original functions. Moreover, reformation of PML-NBs in APL by arsenic is considered as one of the important step for APL treatment. Leptomycin B (LMB), a nuclear export inhibitor, is commonly used to inhibit the proteins exporting from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. In the present study, we found that LMB could induce the reformation of PML-NBs in leukemia NB4 cells as well as in APL blast cells from the patients, implying that nuclear shuttle proteins might be involved in the reformation of PML-NBs. Herein, we further found that LMB totally lost the ability to induce PML-NBs reformation when the endogenous PML gene was knocked out, indicating that endogenous PML protein is probably involved in the reformation of PML-NBs. More interestingly, among all PML isoforms (i.e., seven isoforms), reformation of PML-NBs was only observed when co-transfection of PML-RARα with PML-I after LMB treatment. Similarly, deletion of nuclear export signal (NES) of PML-I could also reform PML-NBs, suggesting that the protein level of endogenous PML-I in nucleus is important for the reformation of PML-NBs that interfered by PML-RARα fusion protein. Additionally, LMB has synergistic effect with iAsIII on enhancing PML-RARα fusion protein degradation, and it might provide new insight into APL treatment at clinical level in the near future.

Jasmonic Acids Facilitate the Degradation and Detoxification of Herbicide Isoproturon Residues in Wheat Crops ( Triticum aestivum).

Jasmonic acid (JA) [or methyl-jasmonic acid (MeJA)] is one of the important regulators of plant growth, development, and defense with respect to environmental stresses, but how JA is involved in mediation of pesticide accumulation and degradation in plants is largely unknown. This study investigated the contribution of MeJA to detoxification and degradation of isoproturon (IPU) residues in wheat ( Triticum aestivum). Wheat plants were exposed to 4 mg of isoproturon kg-1 (environmentally realistic concentration). The level of growth and chlorophyll concentration were reduced, while the electrolyte permeability in plants was enhanced. When plants were sprayed with 0.1 µM MeJA, the phytotoxicity induced by isoproturon was significantly assuaged, which was manifested by an increased chlorophyll concentration and a reduced level of cellular damage in wheat. Activities of several stress marker enzymes with isoproturon were repressed in the presence of MeJA. We measured accumulation of isoproturon in wheat and its residues in soil by high-performance liquid chromatography. The concentration of isoproturon in wheat and soils with MeJA was drastically reduced. Using ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, 12 isoproturon derivatives (eight metabolites and four conjugates) in wheat were characterized. We further provided evidence that the concentration of endogenous MeJA was significantly increased in IPU-exposed plants. These results suggest that MeJA was able to detoxify or degrade isoproturon in wheat when grown in a realistic environmental isoproturon-polluted soil.

Degrading and Phytoextracting Atrazine Residues in Rice (Oryza sativa) and Growth Media Intensified by a Phase II Mechanism Modulator.

Atrazine (ATZ) residue in farmland is one of the environmental contaminants seriously affecting crop production and food safety. Understanding the regulatory mechanism for ATZ metabolism and degradation in plants is important to help reduce ATZ potential toxicity to both plants and human health. Here, we report our newly developed engineered rice overexpressing a novel Phase II metabolic enzyme glycosyltransfearse1 (ARGT1) responsible for transformation of ATZ residues in rice. Our results showed that transformed lines, when exposed to environmentally realistic ATZ concentration (0.2-0.8 mg/L), displayed significantly high tolerance, with 8-27% biomass and 36-56% chlorophyll content higher, but 37-69% plasma membrane injury lower than untransformed lines. Such results were well confirmed by ARGT1 expression in Arabidopsis. ARGT1-transformed rice took up 1.6-2.7 fold ATZ from its growth medium compared to its wild type (WT) and accumulated ATZ 10%-43% less than that of WT. A long-term study also showed that ATZ in the grains of ARGT1-transformed rice was reduced by 30-40% compared to WT. The ATZ-degraded products were characterized by UPLC/Q-TOF-MS/MS. More ATZ metabolites and conjugates accumulated in ARGT1-transformed rice than in WT. Eight ATZ metabolites for Phase I reaction and 10 conjugates for Phase II reaction in rice were identified, with three ATZ-glycosylated conjugates that have never been reported before. These results indicate that ARGT1 expression can facilitate uptake of ATZ from environment and metabolism in rice plants.

Comprehensive analysis of degradation and accumulation of ametryn in soils and in wheat, maize, ryegrass and alfalfa plants.

Ametryn is a selective herbicide belonging to the triazine family and widely used for killing annual grasses or weeds in China and other parts of the world. However, reports on its environmental risk assessment with regard to soil and crop contamination are limited. In this study, accumulation of ametryn in wheat, maize, ryegrass and alfalfa crops along with ametryn residues in the soil planted with the plants were comparatively investigated. Soil enzyme activities and low molecular weight organic acids (LMWOAs), as well as antioxidant and degradation enzyme activities in plant tissues were measured. The maximum accumulation of ametryn was found in shoots and roots of wheat and alfalfa. Ryegrass had the maximum ametryn translocation factor (TF) from roots to shoots, with more than three times over the other crops. The ametryn residue in ryegrass-planted soil was much lower than that in soil planted with others. The residual content of ametryn in crop-planted soils was ordered as rhizosphere soil

Activity, biomass and composition of microbial communities and their degradation pathways in exposed propazine soil.

Propazine is a s-triazine herbicide widely used for controlling weeds for crop production. Its persistence and contamination in environment nagatively affect crop growth and food safety. Elimination of propazine residues in the environment is critical for safe crop production. This study identified a microbial community able to degrade propazine in a farmland soil. About 94% of the applied propazine was degraded within 11 days of incubation when soil was treated with 10mgkg-1 propazine as the initial concentration. The process was accompanied by increased microbial biomass and activities of soil enzymes. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) revealed multiple bacterial strains in the community as well as dynamic change of the composition of microbial community with a reduced microbial diversity (H' from 3.325 to 2.78). Tracking the transcript level of degradative genes AtzB, AtzC and TrzN showed that these genes were induced by propazine and played important roles in the degradation process. The activities of catalase, dehydrogenase and phenol oxidase were stimulated by propazine exposure. Five degradation products (hydroxyl-, methylated-, dimeric-propazine, ammeline and ammelide) were characterized by UPLC-MS2, revealing a biodegradation of propazine in soil. Several novel methylated and dimeric products of propazine were characterized in thepropazine-exposed soil. These data help understand the pathway, detailed mechanism and efficiency of propazine biodegradation in soil under realistic field condition.

[Tidal breathing pulmonary function after treatment in neonates with respiratory distress syndrome].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the pulmonary function after treatment in neonates with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) at varying disease severity levels and different gestational ages. METHODS: A total of 107 neonates with RDS were divided into <34 weeks group (65 neonates), late preterm group (21 neonates), full-term group (21 neonates). Another 121 non-RDS children were enrolled as the control group. According to the severity of RDS, the RDS neonates were divided into mild RDS group (grades 1 and 2; 76 neonates), and severe RDS (grades 3 and 4; 21 neonates). The tidal breathing pulmonary function was measured at a corrected gestational age of 44weeks. RESULTS: The pulmonary function parameters showed no significant differences across the groups of RDS neonates of different gestational ages; the tidal volume per kilogram of body weight (VT/kg) showed no significant difference between the RDS and non-RDS groups, while the RDS group had significantly higher ratio of time to peak tidal expiratory flow to total expiratory time (tPTEF/tE) and ratio of volume to peak tidal expiratory flow to total expiratory volume (vPTEF/vE) than the non-RDS group of the same gestational age (P<0.05). At a corrected gestational age of 44 weeks, the two groups of neonates with varying severity levels of RDS had significantly lower tPTEF/tE and vPTEF/vE than the control group (P<0.05), and tPTEF/tE and vPTEF/vE tended to decrease with the increasing severity level of RDS. CONCLUSIONS: Neonates with RDS have significantly decreased pulmonary function than those without RDS. At a corrected gestational age of 44 weeks, the tidal breathing pulmonary function in neonates with RDS is not associated with gestational age, but is associated with the severity of RDS.

[Effect of perinatal factors on postnatal development of lymphocyte subsets in early preterm infants].

OBJECTIVE: To study the postnatal changes in lymphocyte subsets in early preterm infants and the effect of perinatal factors on lymphocyte subsets. METHODS: A total of 61 early preterm infants were enrolled. Flow cytometry was used to measure the absolute counts of lymphocytes and lymphocyte subsets at 1, 7, 14, and 28 days after birth, as well as at 6 months after birth for 17 of these early preterm infants. The effects of perinatal factors, such as antepartum use of hormone, intrauterine infection, gestational age at birth, and Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU) colonization, on lymphocyte subsets were analyzed. RESULTS: The absolute counts of lymphocyte subsets except natural killer (NK) cells were lowest at birth, increased rapidly at 1 week after birth, and reached the levels in healthy infants at 6 months; the count of NK cells remained at a low level and increased significantly at 6 months after birth. Compared with those with a gestational age of <28 weeks, the early preterm infants with a gestational age of ≥28 weeks had significantly higher absolute counts of T cells, T helper (Th) cells, and NK cells at 7 days after birth, a significantly higher absolute count of T cells at 14 days after birth, and significantly higher absolute counts of lymphocytes and Th cells at 28 days after birth (P<0.05). Compared with the group not using hormone, the group using hormone showed a significantly higher absolute count of T cells at 7 days after birth and significantly higher absolute counts of lymphocytes and all subsets at 14 days after birth (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in lymphocyte subsets at 1 day after birth between the intrauterine infection and non-infection groups (P>0.05); the intrauterine infection group had significantly higher absolute counts of B cells at 7 and 14 days after birth than the non-infection group. Compared those without UU colonization, the infants with UU colonization had significantly higher absolute counts of lymphocytes, T cells, Th cells, and Ts cells at 1 day after birth and a significantly higher absolute count of B cells at 14 days after birth. CONCLUSIONS: Early preterm infants have deficiencies in innate immune cells at birth and normal levels at about 6 months after birth. Various perinatal factors including antepartum use of hormone, gestational age at birth, intrauterine infection, and UU colonization have long-term effects on lymphocyte subsets in early preterm infants.

Antenatal Taurine Improves Intrauterine Growth-Restricted Fetal Rat Brain Development Which Is Associated with Increasing the Activity of PKA-CaMKII/c-fos Signal Pathway.

This study aimed to explore whether antenatal supplement of taurine can improve the brain development of fetal rats with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) via protein kinase A (PKA)-Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII)/c-fos pathway. A total of 30 pregnant rats were randomly divided into the following three groups: control, IUGR, and IUGR with antenatal taurine supplementation groups. The expression of PKA, CaMKII, and c-fos mRNA and proteins in fetal rat brain tissues were detected by quantitative real time (qRT)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Western blot, respectively; and the number of PKA-, CaMKII- and c-fos-positive cells was measured by immunohistochemistry. Western blot and qRT-PCR revealed that antenatal taurine supplementation significantly increased PKA, CaMKII, and c-fos protein and mRNA levels in fetal rats brain with IUGR (p < 0.05). Immunohistochemistry results showed that the numbers of PKA-, CaMKII-, and c-fos-positive cells were significantly decreased in the IUGR groups compared with the controls; while antenatal taurine could significantly increase the positive cell numbers (p < 0.05). So, we conclude that antenatal taurine improves IUGR fetal brain development which is associated with increasing the activity of PKA-CaMKII/c-fos signal pathway.

[Measurement of tidal breathing pulmonary function in premature infants with different gestational ages].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the characteristics of the tidal breathing pulmonary function in premature infants with different gestational ages. METHODS: A total of 75 premature infants were classified into three groups according to their gestational ages: <32 weeks, 32-33(+6) weeks and 34-36(+6) weeks. Fifty-five full-term infants (39-40 weeks group) were selected as the control group. All infants were given the tidal breathing pulmonary function test at 3-5 days after birth. Moreover, all infants were given the tidal breathing pulmonary function test again at 40 weeks of the corrected gestational age. RESULTS: At 3-5 days after birth, the three groups of premature infants had significantly lower inspiratory time, time to peak tidal expiratory flow (tPTEF), and ratio of tPTEF to total expiratory time (tPTEF/tE) than the control group (P<0.05). The parameter values of the tidal breathing pulmonary function were lower when the gestational age was lower. Even at 40 weeks of the corrected gestational age, the three groups of premature infants still had significantly lower tPTEF and tPTEF/tE than the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The tidal breathing pulmonary function of neonates is influenced by the gestational age. The tidal breathing pulmonary function of premature infants is obviously impaired, and the lower the gestational age, the more obvious the impairment.