Objective To evaluate the significance of color Doppler ultrasound examination of renal blood flow combined with the detection of bone morphogenetic protein-7(BMP-7)in early diagnosis of type 2 diabetic nephropathy.Methods Blood BMP-7 level was tested in 90 patients with type 2 diabetic nephropathy and 30 controls,and parameters of renal blood flow were measured by color Doppler ultrasound examination.Blood BMP-7 level as well as resistant index(RI)of segmental renal artery(SRA)and interlobar renal artery(IRA),were compared between these two groups.Results Compared with controls,blood BMP-7 level gradually decreased with the aggravation of diabetic kidney damage(P＜0.01).The peak systolic velocity(Vmax)and the end diastolic velocity(Vmin)of SRA and TRA were slowed gradually,while RI increased(P＜0.01).Blood BMP-7 level was negatively correlated with IRA's and SRA's RI of IRA and SRA(r =-0.603,P＜0.01;r =-0.652,P＜0.01).Conclusions Color Doppler ultrasound examination of renal blood flow combined with detection of BMP-7 might play an important role in early diagnosis of type 2 diabetic nephropathy.

Objective:To investigate the application value of ultrasound-guided multimodal examinations in the diagnosis of lymph node mycobacterial infection.Methods:The clinical data of 42 patients with suspected lymph node mycobacterial infection who were initially diagnosed at the Affiliated Hospital of Shaoxing University from January 2019 to December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients underwent an ultrasound-guided lymph node-negative pressure puncture. Acid-fast staining, bacterial culture, pathological examination or their combination were used to screen lymph nodes for mycobacterial infection. The results were compared with those of acid-fast staining and bacterial culture of sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid smears.Results:The combined application of acid fast staining, bacterial culture, and pathological examination for the puncture fluid smear showed a positive rate of 71.4% (30/42), which was significantly higher than the positive rate [26.2% (11/42)] for acid fast staining of the puncture fluid smear, the positive rate [42.9% (18/42)] for bacterial culture of the puncture fluid, and the positive rate [50.0% (21/42)] of pathological examination ( χ2 = 17.20, 7.00, 4.04, P < 0.001, P < 0.01, P = 0.040). The positive rate for sputum smear and bacterial culture was 21.4% (9/33). The positive rate for acid fast staining and bacterial culture of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was 28.6% (12/30). The differences were statistically significant ( χ2 = 21.11, 15.43, both P < 0.001). Conclusion:Ultrasound-guided negative pressure aspiration and puncture biopsy of lymph nodes combined with acid fast staining, bacterial culture, and pathological examinations can markedly increase the detection rate and diagnostic rate of mycobacterial infection.

TRAF4 is a unique member of TRAF family, which is essential for innate immune response, nervous system and other systems. In addition to be an adaptor protein, TRAF4 was identified as a regulator protein in recent studies. We have determined the crystal structure of TRAF domain of TRAF4 (residues 292-466) at 2.60 Å resolution by X-ray crystallography method. The trimericly assembled TRAF4 resembles a mushroom shape, containing a super helical "stalk" which is made of three right-handed intertwined α helixes and a C-terminal "cap", which is divided at residue L302 as a boundary. Similar to other TRAFs, both intermolecular hydrophobic interaction in super helical "stalk" and hydrogen bonds in "cap" regions contribute directly to the formation of TRAF4 trimer. However, differing from other TRAFs, there is an additional flexible loop (residues 421-426), which contains a previously identified phosphorylated site S426 exposing on the surface. This S426 was reported to be phosphorylated by IKKα which is the pre-requisite for TRAF4-NOD2 complex formation and thus to inhibit NOD2-induced NF-κB activation. Therefore, the crystal structure of TRAF4-TRAF is valuable for understanding its molecular basis for its special function and provides structural information for further studies.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Binding Sites ; Crystallography, X-Ray ; Humans ; Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions ; Models, Molecular ; Phosphorylation ; Protein Conformation, alpha-Helical ; Protein Domains ; Protein Structure, Quaternary ; Recombinant Proteins ; chemistry ; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid ; TNF Receptor-Associated Factor 4 ; chemistry

Humans ; Myocardial Infarction/surgery* ; Bone Marrow Transplantation ; Bone Marrow Cells ; Ventricular Function, Left