From August 2011 to March 2012,5 241 type 2 diabetic patients with body mass index ≥ 24kg/m2 were enrolled from 60 hospitals in Guangdong Province.According to estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR),a total of 2 631 subjects with norml urine microalbumin level (＜30 ng/L) were divided into normal eGRF group and decreased eGRF group.Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the associations between eGFR and its related risk factors.The results showed that age,blood uric acid,blood urea nitrogen,history of hypertension and coronary heart disease,family history of diabetes,and hyperuricemia were positively related to lowering of eGFR (P＜ 0.05 or P＜0.01).HbA1C＜7％,regular glucose monitoring,and regular physical activity were negatively related to eGFR decrease (all P＜ 0.01).These results suggest that urine microalbumin and eGFR should be applied to overweight or obese patients with type 2 diabetes in order to screen diabetic nephropathy.Furthermore,intensive control of blood glucose,uric acid,and blood pressure is beneficial to lowering the risk of diabetic nephropathy.

Aim Kadsuraheteroclita ( Roxb ) Craib ( Schizandraceae) is a medicinal plant termed Xuetong in Chinese Tujia ethnomedicine. Xuetong possesses therapeutic effects of, in the terms of Chinese medical theories, reinforcing vital energy, promoting blood cir-culation, expelling wind-evil, and removing damp-e-vil, and has been long used for the prevention and treatment of rheumatic and arthritic diseases, especial-ly in the southern China. The HPLC analysis has iden-tified that the ethanol extract of Xuetong contains large-ly biologically active lignans and triterpenoids. Our previous studies have shown that KHS exhibits very fa-vorable safety profile and potent anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities. In the present study, we investiga-ted anti-arthritic effects and the possible mechanisms of Xuetongon adjuvant-induced arthritis ( AIA ) in rats. Methods AIA was established in male Sprague-Daw-ley ( SD ) rats as described previously, and animals were daily treated by gavage with Xuetong ethanol ex-tract ( 1. 0 g · kg-1 ) or vehicle ( 0. 3% CMC-Na ) throughout the 30-day experiment. The incidence and severity of arthritis were evaluated using clinical pa-rameters. On day 30, bone destruction of the arthritic joints was assessed by computed tomography( CT) and histopathological analyses. The serum levels of pro-in-flammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were measured by ELISA. Results Treatment with 1. 0 g/kg Xuetong significantly inhibited the onset and pro-gression of AIA. The vehicle-treated rats all developed severe arthritis, while the incidence of AIA in the Xue-tong-treated rats was as low as 55%( P=0. 035 ) . The Xuetong -treated rats exhibited 1. 8 to 2. 3 fold reduc-tion of paw swelling, and gained 10 to 20% more body weight than the vehicle-treated AIA rats throughout the experiment. CT and histopathological examinations re-vealed that Xuetong markedly protected AIA rats from cartilage and bone destruction of joints. Moreover, the serum levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were signifi-cantly decreased in the Xuetong-treated rats than the vehicle-treated AIA rats. Conclusions These data strongly support the clinical use of Xuetong for rheu-matic and arthritic diseases, and suggest that Xuetong is a valuable candidate for further investigation to be a new anti-arthritic drug with favorable safety profile.

Abnormal changes during fat formation are closely related to the prevalence of many diseases. In order to understand the formation mechanism of fat, we used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to characterize the morphology and mechanical properties of porcine preadipocytes during the differentiation. Preadipocytes and adipocytes were different morphologically. The surface roughness of adipocytes was less than preadipocytes by detection of the ultrastructure. The mechanical properties of preadipocytes were changed during differentiation with AFM-based force spectroscopy. Preadipocytes were 20% higher than adipocytes in the adhesion force, stiffness and Young's modulus. Therefore, AFM analysis of membrane changes related to adipocytes formation provided quantitative data in the nanometer level for further studying the formation mechanism of the adipocytes.
Adipocytes ; cytology ; ultrastructure ; Adipogenesis ; Animals ; Cell Differentiation ; physiology ; Cells, Cultured ; Microscopy, Atomic Force ; Swine

Objective:To evaluate the value of shear wave elastography (SWE) in skin assessment of Systemic sclerosis (SSc).Methods:A total of 58 SSc patients admitted to Peking University Third Hospital from May 2021 to October 2022 and 41 healthy volunteers were included in the study. Skin shear wave elastography (SWE) was performed at 17 sites defined in modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) measurement, and shear wave velocity values were recorded to evaluate skin hardness. SPSS 22.0 software was used to analyze the skin hardness of SSc patients and healthy controls, and the correlation between skin hardness of SSc patients and clinical data was analyzed. A logistic regression model was constructed to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of skin hardness at different sites of SSc patients, and to further select the most practical measurement site.Results:The SWE value of SSc patients was significantly higher than that of healthy control group ( P<0.05). There was a positive correlation between SWE and mRSS in the measurement of bilateral fingers, bilateral dorsal hands, bilateral forearms, fore-chest, abdomen, bilateral thighs, and bilateral dorsal feet. Skin stiffness measured by SWE was significantly correlated with SSc disease activity score (EScSG-DAI), ( r=0.71, P<0.001), disease injury score (SCTC-DI), (P=0.55, P=0.005) and functional score (HAQ-DI), ( r=0.46, P=0.003). Reducing the number of measurement sites to 12 (bilateral fingers, bilateral hands, bilateral forearms, bilateral upper arms, forehead, fore-chest, bilateral dorsum of feet) performs as well as all 17 measurement sites simultaneously in assessing disease activity. Conclusion:SWE is a good evaluation tool to reflect the skin lesions of SSc, which is of great value for the diagnosis and evaluation of the disease. We can further standardize the measurement sites and select the most appropriate evaluation strategy, so as to achieve better clinical application.

Objective : To investigate the mechanism by which Erastin affects ferroptosis in lung fibroblasts. Methods: Mouse lung fibroblasts (C57/B6⁃L) were treated with varying concentrations of the iron death inducer Erastin, Cell viability was assessed using the cell counting Kit⁃8 (CCK⁃8) assay. Oxidative stress levels were visualize using a fluorescence microscope , and the expression of proteins related to the mitogen⁃activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway was analyzed using Western blot. Additionally , the p38 and extracellular regulated protein kinase (ERK) inhibitors SB203580 and U0126 were employed to further elucidate the mechanism by which Erastin induces iron death in lung fibroblasts. : At a concentration of 100 μmol/L , Erastin effectively in⁃duced ferroptosis in lung fibroblasts , leading to an upregulation of oxidative stress. Furthermore , the phosphoryla⁃tion levels of p38 and ERK proteins in the MAPK pathway were elevated (P < 0. 05) . The addition of SB203580 and U0126 inhibitors resulted in a significant reduction in oxidative stress levels and a notable increased in cell actiivity in lung fibroblasts (P < 0. 05) . It can be concluded that Erastin induces ferroptosis in lung fibroblasts , potentially through the mediation of oxidative stress via the MAPK signaling pathway.

Objective To investigate and characterize the serum metabolite profile of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA),a common autoimmune disease,which will be of help for early diagnosis in clinic.Methods Serum specimens from 26 patients with RA and 19 age-matched healthy volunteers were collected from the First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine from January through April 2015.Samples were detected on the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS),and serum metabolites were identified by the chemometric methods.Discriminative model of RA and healthy volunteers was established using partial least squares-linear discriminant analysis (PLS-LDA),and furthermore the established model was evaluated with double cross validation (DCV) for predicting ability.Finally,differential metabolites with clinical diagnostic potential were screened out by using subwindow permutation analysis (SPA).Results The established PLS-LDA discriminative model identified 48 metabolites.The total accuracy of the model approached 97.73％,in which the accuracy of the model for predicting RA and healthy volunteers was 96.15％ and 100％,respectively.Our studies screened out 3-hydroxy butyric acid,phosphoric acid,isoleucine,mannose and hexadecanoic acid with clinical diagnostic potential based on the SPA.Conclusions Metabolomics with the application of GC-MS combined with the PLS-LDA method can distinguish patients with RA and healthy volunteers,and can aid in potential early diagnosis of RA.

Cytokines are secreted by various cell types and act as critical mediators in many physiological processes, including immune response and tumor progression. Cytokines production is precisely and timely regulated by multiple mechanisms at different levels, ranging from transcriptional to post-transcriptional and posttranslational processes. Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 induced protein 1 (MCPIP1), a potent immunosuppressive protein, was first described as a transcription factor in monocytes treated with monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and subsequently found to possess intrinsic RNase and deubiquitinase activities. MCPIP1 tightly regulates cytokines expression via various functions. Furthermore, cytokines such as interleukin 1 beta (IL-1B) and MCP-1 and inflammatory cytokines inducer lipopolysaccharide (LPS) strongly induce MCPIP1 expression. Mutually regulated MCPIP1 and cytokines form a complicated network in the tumor environment. In this review, we summarize how MCPIP1 and cytokines reciprocally interact and elucidate the effect of the network formed by these components in cancer-related immunity with aim of exploring potential clinical benefits of their mutual regulation.
Chemokine CCL2/immunology* ; Humans ; Interleukin-1beta/immunology* ; Neoplasm Proteins/immunology* ; Neoplasms/pathology* ; Ribonucleases/immunology* ; Transcription Factors/immunology*