Objective:To explore the mechanism of Xijiao Dihuang Ddecoction (XJDHT) against sepsis-induced liver injury based on transcriptomics.Methods:Sixty C57BL/6 mice were randomly (random number) divided into the sepsis group, sepsis treatment with XJDHT and control group, with 20 mice in each group. The sepsis mouse model was established by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The control group was intraperitoneally injected with the same amount of normal saline. The sepsis treatment with XJDHT group was injected with XJDHT (crude drug 187.5 mg) twice a day 2 days before modeling. After modeling, gastric feeding was continued twice a day, while the control group and sepsis group were gavaged with the same amount of normal saline. At 72 h after LPS intervention, 9 mice in each group were randomly selected. After anesthesia, part of the liver were taken for small RNA and RNA sequencing and analysis, and part of the liver were taken for pathological examination.Results:XJDHT could improve the histopathological changes of liver in septic mice, and alleviate some abnormally expressed microRNAs (mmu-mir-292a-5p, mmu-mir-871-3p, mmu-mir-653-5p, mmu-mir-293-5p, mmu-mir-155-3p, mmu-mir-346-5p, mmu-mir-187-5p, mmu-mir-3090-3p) and their target genes.Conclusions:XJDHT can reduce the liver histopathological changes in septic mice, and its mechanism may be related to XJDHT regulating the expression of important key genes of liver of sepsis like mmu-mir-187-5p and its target genes such as ADAM8, irak3 and PFKFB3

Objective:To construct an artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted system based on deep learning for corneal in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) image recognition and to evaluate its value in clinical applications. Methods:A diagnostic study was conducted.A total of 18 860 corneal images were collected from 331 subjects who underwent IVCM examination at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University from May 2021 to September 2022.The collected images were used for model training and testing after being reviewed and classified by corneal experts.The model design included a low-quality image filtering model, a corneal image diagnosis model, and a 4-layer identification model for corneal epithelium, Bowman membrane, stroma, and endothelium, to initially determine normal and abnormal corneal images and corresponding corneal layers.A human-machine competition was conducted with another 360 database-independent IVCM images to compare the accuracy and time spent on image recognition by three senior ophthalmologists and the AI system.In addition, 8 trainees without IVCM training and with less than three years of clinical experience were selected to recognize the same 360 images without and with model assistance to analyze the effectiveness of model assistance.This study adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki.The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University (No.WDRY2021-K148).Results:The accuracy of this diagnostic model in screening high-quality images was 0.954.Its overall accuracy in identifying normal/abnormal corneal images was 0.916 and 0.896 in the internal and external test sets, respectively.Its accuracy reached 0.983, 0.925 in the internal test sets and 0.988, 0.929 in the external test sets in identifying corneal layers of normal and abnormal images, respectively.In the human-machine competition, the overall recognition accuracy of the model was 0.878, which was similar to the average accuracy of the three senior physicians and was approximately 300 times faster than the experts in recognition speed.Trainees assisted by the system achieved an accuracy of 0.816±0.043 in identifying corneal layers of normal and abnormal images, which was significantly higher than 0.669±0.061 without model assistance ( t=6.304, P<0.001). Conclusions:A deep learning-based assistant system for corneal IVCM image recognition is successfully constructed.This system can discriminate normal/abnormal corneal images and diagnose the corresponding corneal layer of the images, which can improve the efficiency of clinical diagnosis and assist doctors in training and learning.