Objective To deepen the understanding of chronic disseminated candidiasis(CDC)in patients with acute leukemia(AL).Methods CDC was investigated in 119 AL patients who received induction chemotherapy from August 2004 to May 2005.Clinical manifestations,laboratory tests,imaging modalities,diagnosis and treatment were investigated retrospectively.Results Three patients(2.5%) were identified to be suffering from CDC.All the three patients had an absolute neutrophil count (ANC)＜0.5 × 109/L for more than 15 days.Two patients had normal ANC when they were diagnosed to have CDC.The common manifestations in these three patients were persistent fever,splenohepatomegalia and percussion pain in hepatic region.Meanwhile,2 of them were accompanied with cough,expectoration and dyspnoea.The abnormal laboratory test observed during the course of infection in two of them was increase of alkaline phosphatase.Computed tomography scan showed multiple hypodense lesions in the liver and spleen in all the three patients:two of them showed multiple nodular patchy shadOW$in lungs.Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging showed multiple abnormal signal in liver,spleen and kidneys in one of the patients.Two patients had positive bleed fungal cultures and histologic examination in one of the patients were positive for Candida tropicalis.Two patients received amphotericin B therapy empirically,but it was replaced by amphotericin B colloid dispersion (ABCD) later in one and combined with voficonazole in another because of unresponsiveness to the drug.One patient took a favorable turn after receiving ABCD therapy for 45 d,which was replaced by voriconazole because of the emergence of fever after disconfinuation of ABCD.All the three patients received further chemotherapy smoothly after the diagnosis of CDC.Conclusion The diagnosis of CDC remains difficult.Fungal blood cultares and histologic examination have been considered in many studies as the golden standard for the diagnosis of CDC.Amphotericin B is the cornerstone of treatment in patients with CDC and lipid formulations of amphotericin B can be used in CDC patients who are intolerant of or refractory to conventional amphotericin B.Voriconazole has a favorable response for refrectory/relapse patients and could be used for second line trectment.The development of CDC in patients with acute leukemia does not preclude further chemotherapy.

Objective:To explore the risk factors of pinhole infection in patients with external fixators, and build a risk prediction model.Methods:From January 2018 to June 2019, the data of patients ( n=300) with external fixators in the Department of Trauma and Orthopedics, South Hospital, South Medical University, were selected by retrospective survey, and were divided into infection group and non-infection group according to whether pinhole infection occurred in the postoperative case records. Single factor analysis and Logistic regression analysis were used to establish the risk factors of pinhole infection and its prediction model. The grade of risk prediction was constructed by the assignment method. Results:Among 300 patients with external fixators, 103 (34.33%) had pinhole infection and 197 (65.67%) had no infection. Logistic regression analysis showed that basic disease [ OR=4.726 (one of diabetes, pulmonary infection), 17.053 (two of diabetes, pulmonary infection, cardiovascular diseases) ], postoperative albumin [ OR=0.082 (<25 g/L) ], postoperative hemoglobin [ OR=3.715 (>90-120 g/L), 9.720 (>60-90 g/L), 7.338 (30~60 g/L) ], intraoperative bleeding volume [ OR=2.196 (200-400 ml), OR=3.256 (>400 ml) ] and the type of disinfectant [ OR=3.897 (chlorhexidine), 3.625 (iodophor + chlorhexidine) ] were risk factors for pinhole infection in patients with external fixators ( P<0.05). The constructed model was divided into high-risk group (≥ 7 points), higher-risk group (5-6 points), medium-risk group (4 points), low-risk group (3 points) and lower-risk group (0-2 points) . Conclusions:The model can well predict the risk of pinhole infection of orthopedic external fixator, provide reference for medical and nursing staff to identify the risk of external fixation infection in time, and prevent the occurrence of infection as soon as possible.

Berberine is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine,which has the antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties.Ongoing investigations have identified berberine as an effective medicine for systemic diseases,such as cardiovascular diseases,diabe-tes mellitus and neurological disorders.At the same time,there exists a close relationship between oral microbiota and these systemic diseases.This review focuses on the relationship between berberine,oral microbiota and systemic diseases,offering new insights for the treatment of systemic diseases.

Objective·To explore the effect of double homeobox(DUX)protein on the differentiation potential of mouse embryonic stem cells(mESCs)into extraembryonic endoderm(XEN)and the possible mechanism of its action.Methods·Overexpression of DUX cell lines in mESCs was achieved by using a lentiviral system.The proportion of 2-cell-like cells(2CLCs)before and after DUX overexpression was detected by flow cytometry,and the expression of 2-cell stage-specific genes,Dux,zinc finger and SCAN domain containing 4c(Zscan4c),zinc finger protein 352(Zfp352)and murine endogenous retrovirus-L polymerase(MERVL-pol),were detected by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR).RT-qPCR assay was used to detect the expression of pluripotency factors,nanog homeobox(Nanog),kruppel-like transcription factor 4(Klf4),sex determining region Y-box 2(Sox2),and octamer-binding transcription factor 4(Oct4),in pluripotent state,as well as the expression of signature genes for different germ layers in the differentiated state[endodermal:GATA binding protein 4(Gata4),GATA binding protein 6(Gata6),and sex determining region Y-box 17(Sox17);ectodermal:Nestin and tubulin beta 3 class Ⅲ(Tubb3);mesodermal:heart and neural crest derivatives expressed 1(Hand1),myogenic differentiation 1(Myod1),and kinase insert domain protein receptor(Flk1)].Public RNA sequencing(RNA-seq)data were mined to further clarify the effect of DUX on the differentiation of mESCs into extraembryonic endoderm.Functional and pathway enrichment analyses of differentially expressed genes were performed using Gene Ontology(GO),Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG),and gene set enrichment analysis(GSEA)to identify the signaling pathways regulated by DUX.Additionally,an in-depth analysis of existing chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing(ChIP-seq)data was conducted to explore the potential target genes of DUX.Results·Molecular biology experiments showed that overexpression of DUX could effectively maintain the pluripotency of mESCs,which was consistent with the analysis of public RNA-seq data.Differential gene analysis revealed that endodermal genes were specifically upregulated.After differentiation assay of mESCs,RT-qPCR assay experiments showed that mRNA expression of the XEN marker genes(Gata4,Gata6,Sox17)was significantly upregulated(P<0.001).In contrast,there was no specific change in mesodermal and ectodermal genes.GSEA enrichment analysis indicated that DUX might activate the retinoid metabolism signaling pathway,and the analysis of the ChIP-seq data further revealed the presence of a large number of known retinoic acid receptor motif in DUX-bound peaks,which could activate downstream target genes related to the development of the XEN.Conclusion·DUX has a strong correlation with the retinoic acid signaling pathway and it is predicted to activate the retinoic acid signaling pathway,which could promote the tendency of mESCs toward XEN differentiation.