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 compare the effects of sevoflurane and nitrous oxide anesthesia on spatial recognition in young and aged rats .Methods :Young(3 months ,n=12) and aged(18 months ,n=12) rats were divided randomly into anesthesia group (sevoflurane at 1 minimum alveolar concentration ,70% nitrous oxide ,30% oxygen ,for 4 h ,n=6) and control group(30%oxygen ,for 4 h ,n=6) .After 48 h ,training on spatial learning and memory (probe trial) were done in the Morris water maze for 6 days .Spatial exploration test was conducted at 24 h after training .Result:Sevoflurane and nitrous oxide exposure induced a significant deficit in spatial recognition in aged rats ,but not young rats .Conclusions :A significant deficit in spatial recognition in aged rats can be induced by sevoflurane and nitrous oxide exposure ,which may due to that the aged brain is more susceptible to anesthetic‐mediated changes .

Objective To evaluate the effect of self-management program in patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA).Methods Self-management of RA patients was performed using a chronic disease self-management program (CDSMP).The health status,overall function,disease activity index,joint swelling and tenderness,joint pain score were analyzed at 12 and 24 weeks.Results At 12 and 24 weeks,health status,overall function,disease activity index,joint swelling and tenderness,joint pain score showed significant differences in two groups.Conclusion Self-management program may reduce complications,restore joint functions and improve social interactions,and improve quality of life.

Objective To evaluate the effect of self-management program in patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA).Methods Self-management of RA patients was performed using a chronic disease self-management program (CDSMP).The health status,overall function,disease activity index,joint swelling and tenderness,joint pain score were analyzed at 12 and 24 weeks.Results At 12 and 24 weeks,health status,overall function,disease activity index,joint swelling and tenderness,joint pain score showed significant differences in two groups.Conclusion Self-management program may reduce complications,restore joint functions and improve social interactions,and improve quality of life.

Circular RNA (circRNA) is a novel class of single-stranded RNAs with a closed loop structure. The majority of circRNAs are formed by a back-splicing process in pre-mRNA splicing. Their expression is dynamically regulated and shows spatiotemporal patterns among cell types, tissues and developmental stages. CircRNAs have important biological functions in many physiological processes, and their aberrant expression is implicated in many human diseases. Due to their high stability, circRNAs are becoming promising biomarkers in many human diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases and human cancers. In this review, we focus on the translational potential of using human blood circRNAs as liquid biopsy biomarkers for human diseases. We highlight their abundant expression, essential biological functions and significant correlations to human diseases in various components of peripheral blood, including whole blood, blood cells and extracellular vesicles. In addition, we summarize the current knowledge of blood circRNA biomarkers for disease diagnosis or prognosis.
Autoimmune Diseases/blood* ; Biomarkers, Tumor/blood* ; Cardiovascular Diseases/blood* ; Humans ; Liquid Biopsy ; Neoplasms/blood* ; RNA, Circular/blood* ; RNA, Neoplasm/blood*

Flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H) is a key enzyme in the synthesis of phycocyanidins. In this experiment, the petals of red Rhododendron hybridum Hort. at different developmental stages were used as experimental materials. The R. hybridum flavanone 3-hydroxylase (RhF3H) gene was cloned using reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and rapid-amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) techniques, and bioinformatics analyses were performed. Petal RhF3H gene expression at different developmental stages were analyzed by using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). A pET-28a-RhF3H prokaryotic expression vector was constructed for the preparation and purification of RhF3H protein. A pCAMBIA1302-RhF3H overexpression vector was constructed for genetic transformation in Arabidopsis thaliana by Agrobacterium-mediated method. The results showed that the R. hybridum Hort. RhF3H gene is 1 245 bp long, with an open reading frame of 1 092 bp, encoding 363 amino acids. It contains a Fe²⁺ binding motif and a 2-ketoglutarate binding motif of the dioxygenase superfamily. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the R. hybridum RhF3H protein is most closely related to the Vaccinium corymbosum F3H protein. qRT-PCR analysis showed that the expression level of the red R. hybridum RhF3H gene tended to increase and then decrease in the petals at different developmental stages, with the highest expression at middle opening stage. The results of the prokaryotic expression showed that the size of the induced protein of the constructed prokaryotic expression vector pET-28a-RhF3H was about 40 kDa, which was similar to the theoretical value. Transgenic RhF3H Arabidopsis thaliana plants were successfully obtained, and PCR identification and β-glucuronidase (GUS) staining demonstrated that the RhF3H gene was integrated into the genome of A. thaliana plants. qRT-PCR, total flavonoid and anthocyanin contentanalysis showed that RhF3H was significantly higher expressed in the transgenic A. thaliana relative to that of the wild type, and its total flavonoid and anthocyanin content were significantly increased. This study provides a theoretical basis for investigating the function of RhF3H gene, as well as for studying the molecular mechanism of flower color in R. simsiib Planch.
Arabidopsis/metabolism* ; Rhododendron/metabolism* ; Amino Acid Sequence ; Anthocyanins/metabolism* ; Phylogeny ; Flavonoids/metabolism* ; Cloning, Molecular ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Plant Proteins/metabolism*