Objective To observe hepatocellular apoptosis and inflammatory cytokines expression and their mechanisms for lipopolysaeeharide (LPS)-induced acute liver failure in D-ga|actosamine (D-GalN)-sensitized rats. Methods Fifty-six rats were randomly divided into following groups: 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 24 and 48 hours. 0 hour group served as control group and the rest did as treatment groups. The rats in the treatment groups received intraperitoneal injections of LPS (50 ng/g) and D-GaIN (300 μg/g) dissolved in 1 mL sterile 0.9% sodium chloride solution, while the rats in control group were treated with 1 mL sterile 0.9% sodium chloride solution only. The rats were sacrificed in the corresponding time points and their sera and liver tissues were collected. Liver tissues were fixed and stained with hematoxylin and eosin for optical microscopy examination. The serum cytokine expressions were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The expressions of tumor necrosing factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and p53 gene were detected by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, and the 24 hours treated rats liver Caspase-3,8,9,12 activity were detected by chromogenie substrate method. Data for the experiments were expressed as x±s, and differences among means were compared using the analysis of variance. Results After drug treatment, liver tissues showed piecemeal necrosis and inflammatory cell infiltration, which significantly increased from 6 hours, 24 hours to 48 hours. The 1 hour treatment group with the highest concentration of TNF-α (727. 8 ± 261. 3) ng/L were significantly higher than the control group and other treatment groups(F= 49.82, P<0.01), 2 hours treatment group (156.4 ± 52.2) ng/L was significantly lower than the 1 hour group, but significantly higher than the control group (F = 30. 23, P< 0.01 ). But serum concentrations of IL-1β gradually increased, reaching the highest level in 24 hours group (360.5±121.6)ng/L (F= 18. 61, P<0. 01). Liver Caspase-3,8,9, 12 activity in 24 hours treatment group was significantly higher than in the control group (F= 84.96, P<0.01). The mRNA expression of iNOS gene, which were not detected in normal controls, reached the peak at 6 hours group after drug treatment and notably dropped in 24 hours and 48 hours groups(F=34.07,P<0.01), p53 gene expression significantly upregulated at 24 hours and 48 hours groups(F=37.43,P<0.01). TNF-α and IL-1β gene expression in the treatment group were higher than in the control group(F=2.94,P<0.05), and both reached the peak at 1 hour treatment group. Conclusions Acute liver failure can be induced by low dose LPS in D-GaiN-sensitized rats. One of the features changes is that Caspase-3,8,9,12 activities are markedly enhanced, and the occurrence of liver injury may be associated with the early high expression of TNF-α, iNOS and p53 gene.

Objective: To compare the abdominal fat distribution in patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) and essential hypertension (EH), and to analyze the correlation between abdominal fat area and indexes such as glycolipid metabolism and insulin resistance. Methods: Forty-five PA and 55 EH patients were collected from inpatients in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University for suspicious secondary hypertension, from September 2016 to February 2019. All patients received quantitative computed tomography to measure the total abdominal fat area (TFA), visceral fat area (VFA), and subcutaneous fat area (SFA) when receiving adrenal CT detection. Visceral obesity was defined as VFA≥130 cm². The percentage of visceral fat area in total abdominal fat area (V%=VFA/TFA), the ratio of visceral fat area to subcutaneous fat area (V/S=VFA/SFA) and the percentage of visceral obesity were calculated. Results: TFA and VFA in EH group were higher than those in PA group matched by age, gender, and body mass index (BMI, all P<0.01), and there were no statistically significant differences in SFA, V%, V/S, and the percentage of visceral obesity between the two groups. In PA group, TFA and VFA were positively correlated with homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance index (P<0.01), TFA was positively correlated with triglycerides (TG) and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol, while SFA was positively correlated with TG (all P<0.05). Conclusion Compared with EH patients matched by age, gender, and BMI, TFA and VFA in PA patients are lower. Abdominal fat area is associated with insulin resistance and blood lipids in PA patients, while VFA exerts a greater effect on insulin resistance than that of TFA and SFA.

Pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma(PPGL) was a kind of neuroendocrine tumor that derived from chromaffin tissue, which seems to be an important etiology of secondary hypertension. With the development of molecular detection technology, at least 17 kinds of pathogenic genes of PPGL has been discovered, which is related to 35%-40% PPGL, and about 40% malignant PPGL is associated with SDHB gene mutation. In this study, we reported a case with a novel splicing mutation of SDHB gene induced paraganglioma.