Objective To study the effect of transient intensive insulin treatment on the serum free fatty acid (FFA) in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients.Methods Sixty-four newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients were treated with transient intensive insulin.The fasting plasma glucose (FPG),2 hours post-prandial glucose (2hPG),lipid,fastin insulin (FINS),and serum FFA was examined hefore and after treatment.Results The levels of FPG,2hPG,total cholesterol (TC),triglycerides (TG),low density lipoproteins cholesterol (LDL-C),FFA and HOMA-IR after treatment were (9.68 ± 2.02) mmol/L,(12.77 ± 1.35) mmol/L,(4.26 ± 1.07) mmol/L,(1.52 ± 0.58) mmol/L,(2.50 ±0.75) mmol/L,(435.84 ± 190.94) μmol/L,0.51 ± 0.62,and they decreased obviously compared with those before treatment [(14.66 ± 3.50) mmol/L,(17.43 ±4.89) mmol/L,(5.03 ±0.94) mmol/L,(2.05 ± 1.42) mmol/L,(2.91 ±0.78) mmol/L,(586.68 ±229.45)μmol/L,0.65 ± 0.89](P＜0.05).The level of HOMA-β increased obviously (2.70 ± 0.83 vs.1.74 ± 1.04)(P＜0.05).The increase of HOMA-β and the decrease of HOMA-IR was positively correlated with the decrease of FFA.Conclusion The transient intensive insulin treatment can evidently decrease the level of FFA that can improve beta-cell function and relieve insulin resistance in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients.

Clinical characteristics were analyzed retrospectively in a patient with empty sella and adrenal adenoma with regard to the elaborated diagnosis and treatment.Although empty sella syndrome alone was common,clinical combination with adrenal adenoma was rarely reported.It was difficult to diagnose due to complex symptoms and hormone levels.This case could help increase awareness of the disease and accumulate the experience in diagnosis and treatment.

[Objective]To investigate the effect of salidroside on calcification of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and explore its underlying mechanism.[Methods]VSMCs were cultured in high-phosphate media to induce vascular calcification and treated with different concentrations of salidroside. Cell calcification was tested by alizarin red staining and calcium content assay. qRT-PCR and western blotting were used to determine the expression levels of osteogenic proteins including runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) and bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2),toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4),nuclear factor kappa-B p65 (NF-κB p65),phosphorylated nuclear factor kappa-B p65 (p-NF-κB p65),inflammatory factors including Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6). We transfected VSMCs with TLR4 small interfering RNA (si-TLR4) and examined whether TLR4 mediated the inhibitory effect of salidroside on calcification of VSMCs.[Results]Alizarin red staining and calcium content assay revealed that different concentrations of salidroside ameliorated high phosphate-induced calcification of human VSMCs (P<0.05). Salidroside at concentrations of 250 and 500 μmol/L decreased the expression levels of RUNX2,BMP2,TLR4,p-NF-κB p65,IL-1β and IL-6 (all P<0.05),but did not affect NF-κB p65 expression (P>0.05). The examination of VSMCs transfected with si-TLR4 showed that salidroside enhanced the inhibitory effect of TLR4 knockdown on calcification of VSMCs (P<0.05).[Conclusions]Salidroside attenuates high phosphate-induced calcification of VSMCs via inhibiting TLR4/NF-κB pathway.

Thimerosal has been widely used as a preservative in drug and vaccine products for decades.Due to the strong propensity to modify thiols in proteins,conformational changes could occur due to covalent bond formation between ethylmercury(a degradant of thimerosal)and thiols.Such a conformational change could lead to partial or even complete loss of desirable protein function.This study aims to investigate the effects of thimerosal on the capsid stability and antigenicity of recombinant human papillomavirus(HPV)18 virus-like particles(VLPs).Dramatic destabilization of the recombinant viral capsid upon thimerosal treatment was observed.Such a negative effect on the thermal stability of VLPs preserved with thimerosal was shown to be dependent on the thimerosal concentration.Two highly neutralizing antibodies,13H12 and 3C3,were found to be the most sensitive to thimerosal treatment.The kinetics of antigenicity loss,when monitored with 13H12 or 3C3 as probes,yielded two distinctly different sets of kinetic parameters,while the data from both monoclonal antibodies(mAbs)followed a biphasic expo-nential decay model.The potential effect of thimerosal on protein function,particularly for thiol-containing proteinaceous active components,needs to be comprehensively characterized during formulation development when a preservative is necessary.