Objective To observe the effects of early rehabilitation training on endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs),stromal cell-derived factor alpha 1 (SDF-lα) and motor function recovery in hemiplegic patients with acute cerebral infarction.Methods Fifty hemiplegic patients after a first acute cerebral infarction were randomly divided into a control group (n =25) and an experimental group (n =25).Both groups of patients were given routine drug therapy,while the experimental group also received early rehabilitation (within 48 hours of onset).EPCs and SDF-1α levels in peripheral blood were measured before and after one week of treatment,and Fugl-Meyer assessments and modified Barthel index scoring were conducted at admission and after three months of treatment.Results There was no difference between the 2 groups before the treatment.After a week of treatment,however,the EPC and SDF-1α values of both groups had increased,with those of the experimental group increasing significantly more than in the control group.Spearman rank correlation analysis showed that the increase in EPCs was positively correlated with the SDF-1α increment in the first week.After 3 months of treatment,the average FMA and MBI results of the experimental group were significantly better than those of the control group.Conclusion Early rehabilitation training can help to further improve the recovery of motor function for hemiplegic patients after acute cerebral infarction.This may be related to its effect in upregulating the expression of SDF-1α,thus contributing to the mobilization of EPCs in the bone marrow.

A HPLC-ELSD method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of five Hetisane-type diterpenoid alkaloids in a Tibetan traditional herbal medicine, “Gebu Dilu” (Herba Delphinii), using a Kromasil C18 column (250 mm ? 4.6 mm, 5μm) with the mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and 0.1% triethylamine in gradient (detected by evaporative light scattering detector). The linear ranges of five compounds were determined and method validation was evaluated completely. The established method is rapid and accurate with high repeatability, and can be applied for the quality control of Herba Delphinii.

Objective To explore the effect of electroacupuncture on CD 34 +VEGFR2 +endothelial progenitor cell (EPC)-derived vessels and stromal cell-derived factor-1α(SDF-1α)/CXCR4, and study its mechanism of promoting an-giogenesis in hippocampus after focal cerebral ischemia /reperfusion .Methods A total of 180 healthy male adult Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into sham operation (sham) group, model (I/R) group, electroacupuncture (I/RE) group, I/RE plus AMD3100 (A specific antagonist of CXCR4) group (I/REA) and AMD3100 (I/RA) group. The rats received filament occlusion of the right middle cerebral artery for 2 hours followed by reperfusion .Electroacupunc-ture was applied to “Baihui” (GV20)/“Siguan” (Hegu LI 4/Taichong LR 3) acupoints for 30 min, once a day.The mR-NA expression of SDF-1αand CXCR4 were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction ( RT-PCR) .Double immunofluorescence was used to stain CD 34 +VEGFR2 +EPC-derived vessels.Results Compared with the sham group, the mRNA expressions of SDF-1αand CXCR4 were significantly upregulated in I/R and I/RE group ( P<0.05 ) , but that in I/RE group was more significantly increased than I/R group(P<0.05).In addition, the mRNA expression of SDF-1αand CXCR4 were highly increased on day 1 in the I/REA group than that of I/RE group, but decreased than that of I/RE group on day 7 after reperfusion (P<0.01).CD34 +VEGFR2 +EPCs-derived vessels were obviously increased on 3d and 7d in the I/RE group compared with that of the I/R group, and significantly decreased on 7d in the I/REA group compared with that of the I/RE group ( P<0.01) .Conclusions Electroacupuncture can effectively promote an-giogenesis through upregulating the expression of SDF-1αand CXCR4 in rat ischemic hippocampus after focal cerebral is-chemia/reperfusion.

Objective: To investigate the influencing factors of smoking tendency of adolescents and to analyze the influence of e-cigarette on smoking tendency of teenagers and the possible interaction, to provide evidence for tobacco control measures. Methods: Stratified multistage cluster probability sampling method was used to select 6 178 students from junior middle school, high school and vocational high school students in Shanghai for questionnaire survey from September to October 2019. Students with smoking tendency were taken as case group, adolescents with same sex and similar age(within 1 year) were mathed in 1∶3 ratio. A total of 631 adolescents with smoking tendency and 1 870 non-smoking tendency were included in the study. Conditional Logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors and possible interactions. Results: After adjusting gender, age and other covariates, conditional Logistic analysis results showed that the smoking tendency of middle school students was associated with factors such as their friends smoking, trying cigarettes and trying e-cigarettes. The OR value and 95%CI were 3.26(2.47-4.29), 5.90(3.76-9.24), and 3.28(2.11-5.10), respectively. The interaction analysis results showed that the OR value and 95%CI of the multiplying interaction between friends smoking and trying e-cigarettes, trying smoking and trying e-cigarettes were 8.62(4.90-15.17) and 12.01(6.02-23.95), respectively. There was no additive interaction. Conclusion Tobacco control interventions, such as e-cigarette harm publicity and peer education, can help to change teenagers smoking tendency and further reduce their tobacco use rate.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical manifestations and genetic characteristics of patients with congenital central hypothyroidism due to variants of IGSF1 gene. METHODS: Clinical data, results of genetic testing, and follow-up of four patients admitted to Children's Hospital of Soochow University during 2017 to 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: All of the four patients were males. Patient 1 had presented neonatal jaundice, patients 2 and 3 were admitted for growth retardation during childhood, and thyroid function test indicated slightly low free thyroxine (FT4), patient 4 was found to have reduced FT4 in the neonatal period. Genetic testing revealed that all of the four patients have harbored pathogenic variants of the IGSF1 gene, which were all inherited from their mothers. The thyroid functions in all patients were well controlled with oral levothyroxine and regular follow-up. CONCLUSION Pathogenic variants of the IGSF1 gene probably underlay the congenital central hypothyroidism with a variety of clinical manifestations, and genetic testing can facilitate the diagnosis at an early stage.
Child ; Male ; Infant, Newborn ; Female ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Hypothyroidism/genetics* ; Genetic Testing ; Mothers ; Immunoglobulins/genetics* ; Membrane Proteins/genetics*

Purpose: This study aims to comprehensively evaluate the clinical efficacy of chemotherapy or endocrine therapy maintenance in metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients. Materials and Methods: The meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and propensity score matching of multicenter cohort study evaluated MBC patients who underwent first-line chemotherapy or endocrine therapy maintenance. This study is registered with PROSPERO: CRD42017071858 and ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04258163. Results: A total of 2,867 patients from 15 RCTs and 760 patients from multicenter cohort were included. The results from meta-analysis showed that chemotherapy maintenance improved progression-free survival (PFS) (hazard ratio [HR], 0.63; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.54 to 0.73; p < 0.001; moderate-quality evidence) and overall survival (OS) (HR, 0.87; 95% CI 0.78 to 0.97; p=0.016; high-quality evidence) than observation. In the cohort study, for hormone receptor–positive MBC patients, chemotherapy maintenance improved PFS (HR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.52 to 0.85; p < 0.001) and OS (HR, 0.55; 95% CI 0.42 to 0.73; p < 0.001) compared with observation, and endocrine therapy maintenance also improved PFS (HR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.80; p < 0.001) and OS (HR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.69; p < 0.001). There were no differences between chemotherapy and endocrine therapy maintenance in PFS and OS (all p > 0.05). Regardless of the continuum or switch maintenance therapy, showed prolonged survival in MBC patients who were response to first-line treatment. Conclusion This study provided evidences for survival benefits of chemotherapy and endocrine therapy maintenance in MBC patients, and there was no difference efficacy between chemotherapy and endocrine therapy maintenance for hormone receptor–positive patients.

ObjectiveTo understand the experience， knowledge and attitudes of e-cigarette users in Shanghai， and to provide evidence for the development of intervention programs for e-cigarette use. MethodsThe Respondent-Driven Sampling （RDS） method was used to recruit 40 e-cigarette users for qualitative interviews from November 2020 to February 2021. NVivo （11.0） software was used to code interview records， and the thematic pattern and relationship analysis were conducted. ResultsIn terms of the reasons and user experience of e-cigarette use， most respondents used e-cigarettes for the first time after recommendation of friends； The reasons for the current use of e-cigarettes focus on the subjective feelings generated by the use of e-cigarettes （easy to use， replacing traditional tobacco， and having many flavors）. Compared with traditional tobacco use， respondents said e-cigarettes tasted good and had no physical impact （they could be used all the time without making them uncomfortable）. In terms of the awareness of e-cigarette use related knowledge， the respondents' opinions on whether e-cigarettes caused health risks were mostly based on their own experience of using them， and they said it was difficult to identify real information online. As for whether they were interested in relevant knowledge， most respondents said they wanted to learn about the professional knowledge related to e-cigarettes. Regarding the attitude related to the use of e-cigarettes， most respondents believed that e-cigarettes are addictive， e-cigarettes are not a safe alternative to traditional tobacco， ande-cigarettes couldn't help them quit smoking. Three out of ten respondents said they supported including e-cigarettes in the Regulation on Smoking Control in Public. ConclusionThere are certain characteristics of e-cigarette users' feelings， related knowledge and attitude towards e-cigarette use that should be targeted to carry out publicity， education and intervention.

The biophysical properties of the extracellular matrix (ECM) dictate tissue-specific cell behaviour. In the skeleton system, bone shows the potential to adapt its architecture and contexture to environmental rigidity via the bone remodelling process, which involves chondrocytes, osteoblasts, osteoclasts, osteocytes and even peripheral bone marrow-derived stem/stromal cells (BMSCs). In the current study, we generated stiff (~1 014 ± 56) kPa, Young's modulus) and soft (~46 ± 11) kPa silicon-based elastomer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates by mixing curing agent into oligomeric base at 1:5 and 1:45 ratios, respectively, and investigated the influence of substrate stiffness on the cell behaviours by characterizing cell spreading area, cell cytoskeleton and cell adhesion capacity. The results showed that the cell spreading areas of chondrocytes, osteoblasts, osteoclasts, osteocytes and BMSCs were all reduced in the soft substrate relative to those in the stiff substrate. F-actin staining confirmed that the cytoskeleton was also changed in the soft group compared to that in the stiff group. Vinculin in focal adhesion plaques was significantly decreased in response to soft substrate compared to stiff substrate. This study establishes the potential correlation between microenvironmental mechanics and the skeletal system, and the results regarding changes in cell spreading area, cytoskeleton and cell adhesion further indicate the important role of biomechanics in the cell-matrix interaction.
Actins ; Cell Adhesion ; Elastic Modulus ; Focal Adhesions ; physiology ; Humans ; Vinculin ; analysis ; metabolism

Apoptosis ; Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ; Humans ; Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest ; Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor/biosynthesis* ; Return of Spontaneous Circulation ; Th1 Cells ; Th2 Cells

To explore the potential mechanism of frankincense volatile oil in the prevention and treatment of cardiac hypertrophy based on in vitro cell experiment and network pharmacology. METHODS: The anti-hypertrophic effect of frankincense volatile oil was investigated by isoproterenol induced H9c2 cardiomyocytes hypertrophy model. The active chemical components and targets of frankincense volatile oil and targets associated with cardiac hypertrophy were obtained by CNKI, Pubmed, Pubchem databases, etc. String database and Cytoscape 3.8.0 software were used to construct protein-protein interaction network (PPI) and a network of "drug-active component-key target-disease" of frankincense volatile oil in order to screen the key targets of frankincense volatile oil against cardiac hypertrophy. The fluorescent quantitative PCR experiments were performed to verify those key targets. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway annotation analysis of key target genes were performed using David online analysis tool. RESULTS: In vitro cell experiments showed that frankincense volatile oil significantly inhibited the isoproterenol induced increases in cardiomyocytes surface area and protein synthesis, and upregulations of ANP and β-MHC mRNA. A total of 87 active components and 36 ingredient-disease targets of frankincense volatile oil were screened. Network analysis showed that ESR1, NOS3, PTGS2, TNF, MAPK14, and PPARG were key targets. Fluorescence quantitative PCR experiments results indicated that frankincense volatile oil inhibited isoproterenol induced upregulations of ESR1, PTGS2, TNF, and MAPK14 mRNA levels, and downregulations of NOS3, PPARG mRNA levels, respectively. In addition, the GO functional enrichment analysis showed that its biological pathways mainly included lipopolysaccharide-mediated signaling pathway, positive regulation of nitric oxide biosynthetic process, caveola, enzyme binding, etc. The KEGG pathway enrichment analysis included 22 KEGG pathways, which were closely related to VEGF signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, sphingolipid signaling pathway and others. CONCLUSION: The active components of frankincense volatile oil may regulate VEGF signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, Sphingolipid signaling pathway by acting on ESR1, NOS3, PTGS2, TNF, MAPK14 and PPARG targets, thereby affecting the regulation of lipopolysaccharide-mediated signaling pathway, positive regulation of nitric oxide biosynthetic process, caveola, and enzyme binding, and improving cardiac hypertrophy.