Objective: To investigate the effect of ischemic postconditioning on myocardial infarction and myocardial apoptosis in ischemia-reperfusion injury of rats, and the protective mechanisms thereof. Methods:Thirty-six healthy male Wistar rats(230-280 g) were randomly divided into three groups, ischemia-reperfusion group(Group I-R), ischemia 30 min and reperfusion 120 min without additional intervention; myocardial ischemic postconditioning group(Group Post), after 30 min ischemia, the rats were comprised 3 cycles of 10 seconds reperfusion followed by 10 seconds ischemia, and then the rats were reperfused 120 min; myocardial ischemic postconditioning+AG490(JAK2-STAT3 pathway inhibitor) group(Group Post+AG490), rats were treated with AG490 5 minutes before reperfusion, followed by myocardial ischemic postconditioning and 120 min reperfusion. The myocardial infarct size was measured by TTC staining. Apoptotic index of cardiomyocyte was detected by TUNEL. Results: Myocardial infarct size and myocardium apoptotic index were significantly reduced in Group Post compared to those in Group I-R(P ＜ 0.05). AG490 inhibited cardioprotective effect of ischemic postconditioning. Conclusion: Ischemic postconditioning provides potent cardioprotective effect. JAK2-STAT3 pathway mediates the cardioprotective effects of ischemic postconditioning.

Objective:To investigate the correlation between paraspinal muscle atrophy, morphological changes of facet joints and adjacent segment disease (ASDis) after lumbar fusion operation.Methods:A retrospective study was conducted among 195 patients who underwent posterior lumbar fusion again for ASDis at this institution from January 2014 to December 2020, including 29 patients with ASDis whose initial surgical fusion segment was L 4,5. According to Roussouly's staging, there were 5 cases of type I, 9 cases of type II, 10 cases of type III, and 5 cases of type IV. Another 29 cases were selected from patients without ASDis after lumbar fusion as a control group. The control group was paired 1∶1 with the ASDis group according to gender, fusion segment, and Roussouly typing of the lumbar spine. The cross-sectional area (CSA) and fat infiltration (FI) of paravertebral muscle, facet joint angle (F-J) and pedicle facet (P-F) angle before the first (second) operation were measured and compared between the two groups. Then logistic regression analysis was used to determine the predictors of ASDis after posterior lumbar fusion. Finally, the receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curve was described, and the area under the curve (AUC) and cut-off point were calculated. At the same time, the paraspinal muscle atrophy before the second operation in ASDis group was measured. Results:The average follow-up time of 98 patients was 59.25±6.38 months (range, 49-73 months). The average body mass index (BMI) of ASDis group was 24.76±3.64 kg/m 2, which was higher than that in control group (22.24±2.92 kg/m 2) ( t=2.481, P=0.041). The average CSA and relative cross-sectional area (rCSA) of paraspinal muscle in ASDis group were 3 214.32± 421.15 mm 2 and 1.69±0.36 respectively, which were less than 3 978.91±459.87 mm 2 and 2.26±0.29 in control group ( t=10.22, P=0.012; t=9.47, P=0.038). The FI degree of paraspinal muscle in ASDis group (21.95%±5.89%) was significantly higher than that in control group (14.64%±7.11%) ( t=7.32, P=0.002). The F-J angle in ASDis group was 35.06°±3.45°, which was less than 38.39°±4.67° in control group ( t=4.76, P=0.027). The P-F angle in ASDis group was 117.39°±8.13°, which was greater than 111.32°±4.78° in control group ( t=5.25, P=0.031). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that higher BMI ( OR=1.34, P=0.038), smaller rCSA of paraspinal muscle ( OR=0.02, P=0.017) and higher FI of paraspinal muscle ( OR=1.58, P=0.032) were the risk factors of postoperative ASDis. The ROC curve showed that the AUC of BMI was 0.680 and the cut-off point was 22.58 kg/m 2; The AUC of the FI of paraspinal muscle was 0.716 and the cut-off point was 15.69%; The AUC of rCSA of paraspinal muscle was 0.227 and the cut-off point was 1.92. For ASDis patients, the paraspinal muscle before the second operation had a higher degree of FI (25.47%±6.59% vs. 21.95%±5.89%, t=3.99, P=0.042) and a smaller rCSA (1.52±0.28 vs. 1.69±0.36, t=3.85, P=0.038) than that before the first operation. The difference between the FI degree of paraspinal muscle before the second operation and the first operation was negatively correlated with the occurrence time of ASDis ( r=-0.53, P=0.039) , and the difference of rCSA was positively correlated with the occurrence time of ASDis ( r=0.64, P=0.043) . Conclusion:When BMI >22.58 kg/m 2, FI of paraspinal muscle >15.69%, and rCSA of paraspinal muscle <1.92, it suggests that ASDis is more likely to occur after operation. And the more obvious paraspinal muscle atrophy after the first operation, the earlier ASDis may occur. Morphological changes of facet joints cannot be used as an index to predict the occurrence of ASDis.

OBJECTIVE To explore the mechanism of limonin treating in hepatic fibrosis through network pharmacology, and validate its mechanism by molecular docking and animal experiments. METHODS Firstly, the targets of limonin and hepatic fibrosis were screened from the SwissTargetPrediction, GeneCards and DisGeNet database, etc. Meanwhile, the common targets of limonin and hepatic fibrosis were obtained from the bioinformatics website. The protein protein interaction network of common target was constructed by using STRING database and Cytoscape software, and the CytoNCA plug-in was used to screen core targets. And then the enrichment analysis of GO and KEGG on the common target was performed by Metascape database. Thereby, the possible mechanism of limonin against hepatic fibrosis were predicted. Finally, the AutoDock Vina was used for molecular docking verification, and the prediction results of network pharmacology were verified by animal experiments. RESULTS The prediction results indicated that limonin might acted on 86 targets including AKT1, VEGFA and HIF1A, and participated in biological processes including hormone response, protein phosphorylation, angiogenesis, and PI3K-Akt pathway, HIF-1 pathway, VEGF pathway and other signaling pathways related to hepatic fibrosis. The results of protein protein interaction network topology analysis showed that the 11 core targets including AKT1, VEGFA, HIF1A and PIK3CA, etc. Molecular docking results showed that limonin had strong affinity and relatively stable binding conformation with the core targets. In the animal experiments, compared with the model group, hyaluronidase(HA) and laminin(LN) in rat serume in high-dose group of limonin(LH) and low-dose group of limonin(LL)(except for LN in LL group) were declined(P<0.01 or P<0.05), and the degree of inflammation and hepatic fibrosis were relieved to different degrees in liver tissue of the LH group and LL group; Western blotting and qPCR detection showed that protein and mRNA expression levels of AKT, HIF-1α and VEGF(except for VEGF in LL group) was down-regulated in the LH group and LL group(P<0.01 or P<0.05). CONCLUSION Limonin may acts on AKT1, VEGFA, HIF1A and other core targets to treat hepatic fibrosis angiogenesis, which may be related to the inhibition of AKT/HIF-1α/VEGF signaling pathway.