Objective To approach the effect of cathepsin K(CK) on the onset of osteoporosis,and to study the influence of Bushen Tongluo Prescription(BTP,with the actions of invigorating the kidney and dredging the meridians) on osteoclast CK in ovariectomized rats.Methods Thirty female SD rats were divided into three groups randomly: sham-operation group,model group and BTP(12.46g.kg-1.d-1) group.The bilateral ovaries in rats of the model group and BTP group were removed.Four weeks later,BTP group were given gastric gavage of BTP.On the 6th and 12th weeks,we detected the general bone density of rats,examined CK expressionin osteoclasts with Western blot and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) methods.ResultsThe in-vitro cultured cells had the phenotype feature of mature osteoclasts.The bone mineral density of ovariectomized rats was negatively correlated with CK expression in time-effect manner.BTP down-regulated the CK protein and CK mRNA expression(P

AIM:To identify the serum proteins that might serve as biomarkers for predicting mucosal healing ( MH) in the patients with Crohn’ s disease ( CD) treated with infliximab ( IFX) .METHODS:We collected serum sam-ples before treatment (0 week, group A) and 14 weeks after treatment (group B) from 7 CD patients with IFX treatment who had achieved MH, as well as the serum samples from 7 CD patients who had not achieved MH (0 week, group C;14 weeks, group D) .Two-dimensional fluorescence difference gel electrophoresis was applied to analyze and compare the re-sults of serum profiles between groups A and B, C and D, A and C, B and D.Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry and bioinformatics tools were utilized to preliminarily identify and figure out the dif-ferentially expressed proteins.RESULTS:(1) In total, there were 44 differentially expressed spots, 36, 3, 10 and 31 differentially expressed spots were detected while comparing A with B, C with D, A with C and B with D, respectively. (2) Among those spots, 17, 2, 2 and 15 proteins were identified, respectively.In total, there were 19 differentially ex-pressed proteins, including apolipoprotein E, apolipoprotein A-I, complement factor H, and so on.(3) Protein functional association networks were carried out based on STRING database.CONCLUSION: The serum protein profiles obviously change after IFX treatment in MH CD patients, and the serum protein profiles of MH patients are different from that of non-MH patients after IFX treatment.The 19 proteins we identified may serve as potential biomarkers for predicting MH in CD patients with IFX treatment.

Objective To explore the clinical characteristics and risk factors of occult pneumonia in advanced elderly patients.Methods A total of 170 advanced elderly patients with community-acquired pulmonary infection in geriatric department of Xijing hospital from January 2014 to October 2017 were enrolled.Patients were divided into two groups:the observation group (with occult pneumonia,n=80)and the control group(without occult pneumonia,n =90).Clinical data of patients were collected,and clinical characteristics and related risk factors of occult pneumonia in elderly patients were analyzed.Results There was no statistically significant difference in the positive rate of sputum culture and the distribution of pathogenic bacteria between the two groups (P ＞ 0.05).Gram-negative bacteria predominated in pathogenic bacteria.The hospitalization time was longer in the observation group than in the control group[(17.3 ± 3.0) d vs.(10.3 ± 3.9) d,P ＜ 0.05].The mortality rate was higher in the observation group than in the control group(10.0 ％ vs.3.3 ％,P ＜ 0.05).The age was older in the observation group than in the control group[(87.0± 1.7) years vs.(82.0± 2.4) years,P ＜ 0.05].The incidences of diabetes,Alzheimer's disease,hypothyroidism and long-term bed rest were higher in the observation group than in the control group (P ＜ 0.05).Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age (OR =6.93),dementia (OR =4.32),hypothyroidism(OR =4.89) were independent risk factors for occult pneumonia (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions The pathogenic bacteria in advanced elderly patients with occult pneumonia are mainly gram-negative bacteria.The positive rate of CT scan confirmed-occult pneumonia is much higher than that by chest X-ray.The advanced elderly patients with occult pneumonia have longer hospitalization time and higher mortality rates.Old age,senile dementia and hypothyroidism are independent risk factors for occult pneumonia in advanced elderly patients.