AIM: To understand whether reactive oxygen species promote the rupture of atherosclerotic plaques by regulating the balance of matrix metalloproteinase-1,3 (MMP-1,3) and tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) in smooth muscle cells. METHODS: Aortic smooth muscle cells from 4-6months-healthy abortive fetuses were incubated for 24 hours with xanthine (100 ?mol/L) and xanthine oxidase (5 U/L) in vitro . MMP-1,3 and TIMP-1 in the concentrated culture media were measured by Western blotting ( n =3 independent experiments). RESULTS: Incubation with xanthine/xanthine oxdiase decreased the amount of MMP-1 in the aortic smooth muscle cells (21.2%?5.5% of the control group),and pro-MMP-1 was activated completely. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) also activated pro-MMP-3,and increased the production of MMP-3 in the aortic smooth muscle cells. On the other hand,ROS inhibited the production of TIMP-1 in the aortic smooth muscle cells. CONCLUSION: It is complicated that ROS regulates the balance of MMPs and TIMPs. ROS may contribute to matrix degradation and the rupture in the atherosclerotic plaques.

Herpes zoster ( HZ, also known as shingles) , caused by reactivation of latent varicella zoster virus ( VZV) , is a viral disease characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters involving a limited area. Elderly individuals older than fifty years of age are at increased risk of contracting HZ. In China, HZ becomes a significant health burden along with population aging. The virological characteristics, clinical di-agnosis, epidemiological characteristics of HZ are summarized in this review. Moreover, the burden of HZ, risk factors as well as the prevention and control of HZ are also discussed.

BACKGROUND: The real mechanism of systemic sclerosis is still not clear, it is found clinically that there are psychological stress factors of different forms before the attack.OBJECTIVE: To deeply investigate the psychosocial factors in patients with systemic sclerosis, and primarily analyze the role of psychological stress factors by comparing with national norms and controls as well as combining with clinical immunological test.DESIGN: A controlled observation.SETTING: The experiments were carried out in the Department of Geriatrics, the First Hospital Affiliated to Medical College, Zhejiang University and the Department of Surgery, Hangzhou Tongji Hospital.PARTICIPANTS: Between December 2002 and September 2005. 26 patients with systemic sclerosis (systemic sclerosis group), who received thoracic duct lymph drainage therapy, and 30 inpatients with chronic gastritis(control group) were selected from the same disease area of the Department of Internal Medicine, the First Hospital of Medical College, Zhejiang University.METHODS: All the patients filled the general information inventory, the contents included were age, gender, main symptoms, disease course, special examination, diagnosis and drug therapy. The psychosocial scale was used to evaluate the psychosocial factors. Life event scale (LES) was used to assess the life events stress, including profession, learning, marriage and love, family and child, economics, justice, interpersonal relationship and other common life events. The simplified coping style questionnaire (SCSQ)was applied to assess the coping styles, including 8 main components: confrontation, indifference, self-control, seeking help, self-blame, escape, planning and reassessment, and then the habitual coping styles were divided into negative ones and positive ones. The Eysenck personality questionnaire (EPQ) was used to evaluate the personality characters, it consisted of4 subscales: extraversion-introversion scale, neuroticism scale, psychoticism scale, lie and cover up scale. The fasting blood samples (3 mL) were drawn from the patients to detect serum levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG), immunoglobulin A (IgA) immunoglobulin M (IgM) and complement C3 with immunoturbidimetry, and the correlations between IgG and other factors were analyzed.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The evaluative results of psychosocial scale and results of clinical immunological detection were mainly observed.RESULTS: All the 56 patients finished the scale survey and immunological detection, and all were involved in the analysis of results. The total number of life events, number of negative events and LEU value of negative events in LES were all significantly greater in the systemic sclerosis group than in the control group. For the coping style, the dimension of positive coping was less but that of negative coping was more in the systemic sclerosis group than in the control group. For EPQ, the scores of extraversion-introversion were lower but the scores of neuroticism in both males and females in the systemic sclerosis group were higher than in the control group and norms. For the immunological detection, the levels of lgG, lgA and lgM were all higher in the systemic sclerosis group than in the control group, but C3 level had insignificant difference between the two groups.IgG had negative correlations with the number of negative events, dimension of negative coping and the score of extraversion-introversion in EPQ.CONCLUSION: Patients with systemic sclerosis have obvious psychological stress, negative coping style, unstable mood and abnormal humoral immune function. Psychosocial stress has influence on immunology, it is indicated that psychological stress is closely correlated with the attack of systemic sclerosis.

Objective:To establish the normal reference range of the ratio of fetal umbilical venous flow rate to umbilical artery pulsatility index (VAI).Methods:A total of 816 normal fetuses underwent prenatal examination and delivery were randomly selected from October 2018 to December 2020 in Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Fetal weight was obtained by measuring fetal biparietal diameter, head circumference, abdominal circumference, and femoral length.Umbilical venous flow (Quv) was measured. Umbilical artery pulsatility index (UA-PI) was obtained in the free segment of amniotic fluid. Quv was standardized according to fetal size to calculate the umbilical venous flow rate (nQuv) and VAI. The association between Quv, nQuv, UA-PI, VAI and the fetal gestational week were analyzed using correlation analysis. VAI was presented as ± s, the upper limit of 95% reference value and the lower limit of 5% reference value were taken as the standards of VAI increase and decrease, respectively. Twenty-six fetuses whose VAI were lower than limit of 5% and 20 fetuse whose VAI were than limit of 95% were chosed as the case group. Results:①Fetal Quv was positively correlated with gestational week ( r=0.893, P<0.001), nQuv and UA-PI were negatively correlated with gestational week ( r=-0.552, -0.827; all P<0.001), and VAI had no significant correlation with gestational week ( r=0.000, P=0.758); ②The mean, standard deviation, lower 5% reference value, and upper 95% reference value of VAI were 195.81, 55.61, 105.95, and 293.33, respectively; ③In the cases with abnormal VAI, 26 fetuses with reduced VAI, of whom there were 16 cases of maternal hypertension, and 13 cases complicated by severe preeclampsia; 1 case with 40 turns of umbilical cord torsion, 3 cases of stillbirth, 16 cases of preterm delivery, 19 cases of low neonatal birth body weight, 4 cases of 1-min Apgar score ≤7, 6 cases of umbilical artery blood pH<7.2, and 1 case without abnormalities in fetus during pregnancy and follow-up newborn. Among the 20 fetuses with increased VAI, there were 10 cases of fetal severe thalassemia, 2 cases of thalassemia, 1 case of sacrococcygeal teratoma, 1 case of portal venous shunt, 3 cases of placental chorioangioma, and 3 cases without abnormalities in fetus during pregnancy and follow-up newborn. Conclusions:The measurement and calculation of fetal VAI is simple and easy to perform. As a comprehensive index, fetal VAI remains constant in mid and late pregnancy, facilitates the follow-up of abnormal fetuses, and has potential clinical application.

Objective: To analyze the correlation between circumcision and incidence and clearance of male genital HPV infection. Methods: From May to July 2014, 18-55 year old men who had sexual behavior history were recruited from the general population in Liuzhou, Guangxi to set up a cohort. Totally, 113 circumcised and 560 uncircumcised men were enrolled and interviewed using a questionnaire (including information on demographic characteristics and sexual behaviors), then they were followed-up with 6-month interval for 2 times. On each visit, specimens of male external genitalia were collected and genotyped for HPV DNA. The differences of incidence and clearance of genital HPV infections between circumcised and uncircumcised men were analyzed by Log-rank test. Cox regression was used to analyze the relationship between circumcision and incidence and clearance of HPV infection. Results: The median age (P₂₅, P₇₅) of circumcised and uncircumcised men were 28 (24, 35) and 32 (24, 31), respectively. The incidences of any HPV infections were 9.1 (95%CI: 2.4-15.7) and 8.4 (95% CI: 5.6-11.2) per 1 000 person-months (χ²=0.10, P=0.758), respectively. The clearance of circumcised men [136.3 (95%CI: 70.0-202.7) per 1 000 person-months] was higher than that in uncircumcised men [89.6 (95%CI: 65.9-113.3) per 1 000 person-months] (χ²=8.19, P=0.004). In multivariate COX regression analysis, compared with uncircumcised men, circumcised men had higher possibility to clear any HPV infections (HR: 2.41, 95%CI: 1.30-4.46). Compared with men having one sexual partner, people having more than 4 sexual partners had lower possibility to clear any HPV infections (HR: 0.49, 95%CI: 0.25-0.96). Compared with 18-25 years old men, men aged 26-35 years old had higher possibility to clear high-risk HPV infections (HR: 2.14, 95%CI: 1.08-4.23). Conclusion Circumcised and uncircumcised men had similar incidence of genital HPV infection, whereas, men conducted circumcision and having fewer sexual partners could increase the clearance of genital HPV infections.