Objective To explore the value of procalcitonin (PCT)and interleukin -6 (IL -6)in the early diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of the patients with lumbar intervertebral disc herniation,and their correlation with the course and lumbar function.Methods 100 patients with lumbar disc herniation (study group)and 35 patients with lumbar non -borne diseases (control group)were collected,their preoperative clinical symptoms were scored on the basis of the lumbar scoring system of Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA),the enzyme -linked immunosor-bent assay was applied to determining the content changes of PCT and IL -6 of the two groups,and the linear correla-tion analysis was used to explore the relevance of PCT and IL -6 to the course.Results The contents of the PCT and IL -6 in the study group's serum were respectively (25.13 ±0.86)ng/L and (10.26 ±0.36)ng/L,while those in the control group's serum were respectively (223.85 ±0.61)ng/L and (50.11 ±1.23)ng/L,both with statistical sig-nificance (t =2.542,2.206,P <0.01).The IL -6 was positively correlated with the disease duration of the patients with lumbar disc herniation (r =0.32,P =0.000),and negatively correlated with their JOA score (r =-0.45,P =0.003),and the PCT was positively correlated with the patients'disease duration (r =0.35,P =0.001),and nega-tively correlated with their JOA score (r =-0.53,P =0.005).Conclusion The PCT and IL -6 have a certain role in the early diagnosis of lumbar disc herniation,and have some relevance to the course of disease and the lumbar func-tion changes.

Cinnamaldehyde was shown to have significant anti-inflammatory and anti-pyretic actions in studies from both others' and our lab. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) plays a key role in generation of these pathological states, while PGE, synthase-1 (mPGES-1) is one of crucial biological elements in the process of PGE2 production. And as a downstream inducible terminal prostaglandin synthase of COX-2, mPGES-1 is now regarded as a more promising novel drug target than COX-2 and is attracting more and more attention from both academia and pharmaceutical industry. The purpose of present study was to further investigate the anti-inflammatory and antipyretic molecular mechanisms of cinnamaldehyde based on the mouse macrophage cell line RAW264. 7 in vitro. The PGE2 was identified by using the method of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the expression of COX-2 and mPGES-1 at mRNA and protein levels was detected by the Real-time PCR and Western blotting methods respectively. The experimental results suggested that cinnamaldehyde could evidently reverse the increased production of PGE2induced by IL-1beta. Moreover, the up-regulated expression levels of mPGES-1 and COX-2 were significatly decreased. Together, these results provide compelling evidence that the down-regulated actions to both the production of PGE2 as well as the expression of mPGES-I might account for, at least in part, the anti-inflammatory and anti-pyretic effects of cinnamaldehyde.
Acrolein ; analogs & derivatives ; pharmacology ; Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Cell Line ; Dinoprostone ; metabolism ; Interleukin-1beta ; pharmacology ; Intramolecular Oxidoreductases ; metabolism ; Macrophages ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Mice ; Prostaglandin-E Synthases ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction

  Objective  To study the demographic and clinical characteristics, correlation of genotype and phenotype and treatment of Blau syndrome to facilitate early diagnosis and timely treatment of Blau syndrome.  Methods  Seventy-two patients with Blau syndrome from 11 centers from May 2006 to April 2022 were retrospectively analyzed, and their general information, clinical data, laboratory examination and treatment medication were collected.  Results  The distribution of patients with Blau syndrome was uniform in geographical north and south of China, and there was no obvious gender bias. The mean age of onset was (14.30±12.81) months, and the age of diagnosis was (55.18±36.22) months. 35% of patients with Blau syndrome happened before 1 year old, and all patients developed before 5 years old. 87.50% (63/72) had granulomatous arthritis, 65.28% (47/72) had rash, 36.11% (26/72) had ocular involvement, 27.78% (20/72) had fever, and 15.28% (11/72) had pulmonary involvement. Arthritic manifestations of Blau syndrome were most at risk, followed by rash, ocular involvement, and fever.The first 25 months of the disease, the risk of developing a rash was the greatest. The risk of developing arthritis was the greatest between 25 months and 84 months. The main mutations were p.R334Q and p.R334W, and patients with p.R334Q mutation had relatively high incidence of fever (35.71%[5/14] vs. 14.29%[1/7], P=0.43) and ocular involvement (42.86%[6/14]vs. 28.57%[2/7], P=0.51). There was a relatively high incidence of rash (85.71%[6/7] vs. 64.29%[9/14], P=0.59) in patients with the p.R334W mutation. Forty-five patients(62.50%)were treated with a combina-tion of glucocorticoid and methotrexate. Twenty-two patients were treated with tumor necrosis factor antagonist in addition to glucocorticoid and methotrexate.  Conclusions  The risk of different clinical manifestations of Blau syndrome from high to low was arthritis, followed by rash, ocular involvement and fever. The main treatment was glucocorticoid combined with methotrexate, to which biological agents could be added.