Objective:To investigate the levels of periphreal blood free carnitine and amino acids in healthy pregnant women in the third trimester and their association with maternal, fetal, and neonatal cardiac function and structure.Methods:This prospective descriptive study included healthy singleton pregnancies who underwent routine obstetric examination and delivered in two district maternal and child health hospitals (one in the urban and one in the suburb an area) in Beijing from June 2017 to February 2018. All recruiters had serology Down's syndrome screening test at (18±1) gestational weeks. Besides measurement of amino acids and free carnitine levels in whole blood and urine samples by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, all cases underwent maternal and fetal echocardiography at (35±1) weeks of gestation. And neonatal echocardiography was performed after delivery to assess the heart function and structure. Antenatal factors were also collected, including maternal education background, age at first marriage and conception, gravidity, and folic acid supplement in early pregnancy. Statistical analysis was performed using t-test, ANOVA, Chi-square test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and Kappa test. Results:A total of 493 mother-neonate dyads were enrolled in this study. Blood free carnitine levels in the healthy pregnant women in the third trimester ranged from 5.09 to 59.17 μmol/L (reference value: 10.00-50.00 μmol/L) with an average value of (13.03±3.87) μmol/L. None was found with structural abnormalities by cardiac ultrasound, showing an average left ventricular end diastolic diameter (LVEDD) and end systolic diameter (LVESD) of (45.70±3.08) mm and (29.17±3.12) mm, respectively, and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of all cases were over 55%. No cardiac malformation was detected by the third-trimester fetal echocardiography. The average birth weight of the 493 newborns was (3 340±313) g. Those whose birth weight <2 500 g and >4 000 g were accounted for 1.0% (5 cases) and 3.0% (15 cases) with the average maternal blood free carnitine level of (13.25±2.17) μmol/L (10.46-19.21 μmol/L) and (12.64±2.50) μmol/L (8.78-17.73 μmol/L) ( t=0.42, P>0.05). The average LVEDD and LVESD of the 493 newborns were (17.21±1.27) mm and (11.03±1.30) mm, respectively. For the 64 newborns (13.0%) whose LVEF<60%, the maternal blood free carnitine level was (12.93±2.78) μmol/L (7.34-22.13 μmol/L), showing no statistical difference ( t=-0.29, P>0.05) with those 59 neonates (12.0%) whose LVEF over 75% and maternal carnitine level of (13.09±3.24) μmol/L (8.66-27.49 μmol/L). All cases were divided into four groups based on the quartiles of maternal blood free carnitine level and no significant difference in maternal or neonatal LVEDD or LVEF was observed among these groups (all P>0.05). Conclusions:Blood free carnitine concentration in healthy pregnant women in the third trimester is at the lower limit of normal range, and no significant effect on maternal cardiac function and fetal cardiac structure is seen. However, the effect of low maternal carnitine level in the third trimester on children's myocardial function and whether carnitine should be supplemented in the third trimester are worthy of further investigation with larger sample size.

Aim To study the apoptotic inducing effects of deguelin on SH-SY5Y cells.Methods SH-SY5Y cells were treated with 0,0.625,1.25,2.5,5,10 and 20 μmol·L-1 deguelin for different time(24,48,72 h);cell viability was detected by CCK-8 assay.SH-SY5Y cells were treated with 0,8,20,50 μmol·L-1 deguelin for 24 h;light microscope and AO/EB double stained method were employed for observing the morphology and apoptotic morphology of treated cells.Apoptotic rate of treated cells was determined by flow cytometry.Cells were stained by DCFH-DA,and the whole reactive oxygen species(ROS)was determined by flow cytometry.Spectrophotometry was employed to determine the activation degree of caspase-3.Results Deguelin inhibited cell growth in a time-and dose-dependent manner,and the IC50 value of deguelin was(26.07±2.18),(18.33±0.94),(12.5±1.49)μmol·L-1 when treated with 24,48,72 h respectively.After treated with 8,20,50 μmol·L-1 deguelin for 24 h,cell apoptotic rate,ROS and activation rate of caspase-3 increased markedly(P<0.05),all of which performed a dose related effect.Conclusion Deguelin can inhibit SH-SY5Y cell proliferation and induce cell apoptosis,and the mechanism may be concerned with the elevated ROS and activated caspase-3.

OBJECTIVETo observe the effects of deguelin on the proliferation of breast cancer MCF-7 cells and lung cancer H1299 cells in vitro and the expression of minichromosome maintenance protein 3 (MCM3) and CDC45 in the cells.

METHODSMTT assay was used to evaluate the proliferation of MCF-7 and H1299 cells exposed to different concentrations of deguelin for 48, 72 or 96 h. The growth of the cells was observed microscopically and the changes of MCM3 and CDC45 expressions in MCF-7 and H1299 cells following deguelin treatment were detected with fluorescence quantitative PCR.

RESULTSThe proliferation of MCF-7 cells was significantly inhibited by exposure to 0.25, 0.5, 1, 5, 10, 30, and 50 µmol/L deguelin for 48, 72, and 96 h in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. In MCF-7 cells, the ICof deguelin at 48, 72, and 96 h was 9, 3, and 2 µmol/L, respectively. Deguelin treatments of H1299 cells at 0.5, 1, 5, 10, 30, 50, and 100 µmol/L also resulted in a concentration- and time-dependent inhibition of the cell growth with an ICat 96 h of 2 µmol/L. Optical microscopy of the cells revealed a decreased number of viable cells with obvious cell shrinkage following deguelin treatments. The expression of MCM3 and CDC45 were significantly reduced in the cells after deguelin treatments.

CONCLUSIONDeguelin can inhibit the proliferation of MCF-7 and H1299 cells in vitro and down-regulate the expression of MCM3 and CDC45 in the cells.

Liver cancer is one of the most threatening diseases to the human body， and most patients are already in the advanced stage at the time of diagnosis， resulting in an extremely high mortality rate. The diagnosis and treatment of early-stage liver cancer is the key to improving the prognosis of patients. Medical imaging is an important method that assists in the diagnosis of liver cancer， and currently， intelligent image recognition technology based on medical imaging data has been widely applied in the field of medical diagnosis and has good application prospects. This article reviews the current status of research on artificial intelligence （AI） methods for the diagnosis of focal liver lesions based on liver medical images and proposes the advantages and shortcomings of current AI diagnosis， so as to provide new research ideas for the intelligent diagnosis of liver cancer in the future.