Objective To investigate the prevalence of high urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) among health check up population and evaluate the potential predictors for ACR. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among health check up population in the Zhongshan Hospital during 2015. Potential participants completed urine ACR test,body mass index (BMI) and blood test. ACR level was divided into two groups according to the K/DOQI recommendation:ACR Group(male:ACR≥17 mg/g;female:≥25 mg/g), Normal Group (male:ACR<17 mg/g;female:ACR<25 mg/g). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were performed to evaluate the associations of ACR with potential predictors (including age,sex,over-weight or obesity,hypertension,glucose metabolism disorders, hypertriglyceridemia,hypercholesterolemia,high low HDL-C and hyperuricemia). Result Totally 670 people from the health check up population were screened for ACR test, 54 cases were positive, the prevalence was 8.1％. Age, BMI, waist-to-height ratio, SBP, DBP, blood sugar and uric acid had statistical significance between Normal group and ACR group[Age 47.62 ± 11.29 vs. 53.83 ± 11.93, t=-3.858, P<0.01;BMI (24.05±3.12) kg/m2 vs. (24.94±3.49) kg/m2, t=-1.982, P<0.05;waist-to-height ratio 0.51±0.52 vs. 0.53 ± 0.06, Z=-2.146, P<0.05; SBP (mmHg, 1 mmHg=0.133 kPa) 115.31 ± 15.59 vs. 130.91 ± 23.66, t=-4.755, P<0.01;DBP(mmHg) 72.31 ± 9.16 vs. 80.02 ± 9.81, t=-5.897,P<0.01;blood sugar (mmol/L) 4.64 ± 1.20 vs. 5.57 ± 2.77, t=-2.466, P<0.01;uric acid (μmol/L) 362.99 ± 92.80 vs. 397.76 ± 95.62, t=-2.633, P<0.01]. Age, hypertension, glucose metabolism, HDL reduction were risk factors for urinary albumin/creatinine ratio. In the multivariate logistic regression model, hypertension status was found to be associated with ACR positive [odd ratio (OR): 2.843, 95％ confidence interval [CI, 1.472-5.493, P<0.01], glucose metabolism disorders (OR, 2.132, 95％CI, 1.042-4.365, P<0.05). As the number of risk factors increases, the rate of positive of ACR showed marked increase, comparing persons with no risk factors to those with four or more risk factors , the OR value rose up to 18.281. Conclusion Hypertension and glucose metabolism disorder are risk factors of chronic renal dysfunction. With the increase of risk factors, the rate of positive of ACR was higher. ACR test is recommended routine screening for people over the age of 50.

The self-renewal and multipotent potentials in neural stem cells (NSCs) maintain the normal physiological functions of central nervous system (CNS). The abnormal differentiation of NSCs would lead to CNS disorders. However, the mechanisms of how NSCs differentiate into astrocytes, oligodendrocytes (OLs) and neurons are still unclear, which is mainly due to the complexity of differentiation processes and the limitation of the cell separation method. In this study, we modeled the dynamics of neural cell interactions in a systemic approach by mining the high-throughput genomic and proteomic data, and identified 8615 genes that are involved in various biological processes and functions with significant changes during the differentiation processes. A total of 1559 genes are specifically expressed in neural cells, in which 242 genes are NSC specific, 215 are astrocyte specific, 551 are OL specific, and 563 are neuron specific. In addition, we proposed 57 transcriptional regulators specifically expressed in NSCs may play essential roles in the development courses. These findings provide more comprehensive analysis for better understanding the endogenous mechanisms of NSC fate determination.
Animals ; Astrocytes ; cytology ; metabolism ; Cell Differentiation ; genetics ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Gene Regulatory Networks ; Mice ; Neural Stem Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; Oligodendroglia ; cytology ; metabolism ; Protein Interaction Mapping

Objective:To explore the three long non-coding RNA (long non-coding ribonucleic acid, the expression of lncRNA NR_002578, NR_038264 and NR_046252) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with primary gout arthritis (GA) and their clinical value.Methods:Peripheral venous blood, clinical data and laboratory data were collected from 60 gout patients (including 30 AG patients in acute stage and 30 IG patients in intermittent stage) and 50 healthy subjects (HC group). Quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) was used to detect the expression levels of PBMCs of 3 lncRNAs in GA and HC groups, and the differences of 3 lncRNAs expression levels in different groups were compared and the correlation analysis was conducted with clinical indicators. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was constructed to evaluate the possible efficacy of lncRNAs in gout diagnosis. The measurement data conforming to normal distribution were tested by t test or variance analysis, and non-normal distribution were tested by Mann-Whitney U test or Kruskal-Wallis H test. The comparison among the three groups was conducted by SNK. Results:① The expression of NR_002578 in GA was significantly lower than that in HC [60.2(16.8, 100.1)×10 -3vs 149.5 (92.6, 221.8)×10 -3, Z=-5.75, P<0.001], subgroup analysis showed that the expression of NR_002578 in AG was significantly lower than that in IG and HC [34.3(8.6, 72.8)×10 -3vs 88.3(47.7, 109.6)×10 -3vs 149.5(92.6, 221.8)×10 -3, H=40.12, P<0.001], and lower in IG than that in HC ( P<0.001). The expression of NR_046252 in GA was significantly higher than that in HC [6.5(2.1, 21.5)×10 -3vs 2.1(1.2, 3.5)×10 -3, Z=-4.21, P<0.001]. The expression of NR_046252 in AG and IG were higher than that of the HC group [6.3(2.0, 12.0)×10 -3vs 7.2(2.4, 30.6)×10 -3vs 2.1(1.2, 3.5)×10 -3, H=21.33, P<0.001], but there was no significant difference between the AG and IG group ( P>0.05). ② Spearman correlation analysis showed that NR_002578 expression was negatively correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) ( r=-0.29, P=0.024)and hypersensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) ( r=-0.35, P=0.006) in gout patients. ③ The areas under ROC curve of NR_002578 and NR_046252 for diagnosing gout were 0.819 and 0.750, respectively. Conclusion:The abnormal expression of NR_002578 and NR_046252 in gout patients suggests that NR_002578 may be involved in the pathogenesis of gout.