Objective To investigate the role of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ in severe Mycoplasma pneumonia among children.Methods One hundred and forty children with M.pneumoniae pneumonia (65 severe and 75 non-severe) who were hospitalized were enrolled along with forty other children as controls.X-ray was assessed.The proportions of peripheral blood CD4+CD25+FoxP3+cells were determined by flow cytometry.Results Both severe and non-severe children had decreased CD4+CD25+FoxP3+cells as compared with control subjects in acute phase (0.87 ± 0.66％ vs.3.88 ± 2.00％,P ＜ 0.01 and 1.17 ± 0.70％ vs.3.88 ±2.00％,P ＜0.01,respectively).The levels of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+cells in severe children were lower than those in non-severe children in acute phase and recovery phase (0.87 ±0.66％ vs.1.17 ±0.70％,P ＜0.05 and 1.66 ±0.85％ vs.3.61 ± 1.45％,P＜0.01,respectively).Both severe children and non-severe children expressed higher CD4+CD25+FoxP3+cells in recovery phase than in acute phase (1.66 ± 0.85 ％ vs.0.87 ± 0.66％,P ＜0.01 and 3.61 ± 1.45％ vs.1.17 ±0.70％,P ＜0.01,respectively).Conclusion The expression of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+Tregs may play a role in the onset of severity of mycoplasma pneumonia and the low express of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+Tregs in children infected with M.pneumonia may increase the susceptibility to severe mycoplasma pneumonia.

Nerve growth factor (NGF) promotes neuronal survival and differentiation and stimulates neurite outgrowth. NGF is synthesized as a precursor-proNGF in vivo. In this paper, a pET-proNGF prokaryocyte expression vector was constructed and transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS. The proNGF was expressed in the form of non-active aggregated monomer in E. coli after induction with IPTG. SDS-PAGE revealed the proNGF expression product had a Mr.30.2 kD. Western blotting analysis showed that the protein had good antigenicity. Fusion protein was successfully purified by Ni2+-NTA affinity chromatography and cleaved by Enterokinase and 13.1 mg proNGF was obtained from 100 mL cell culture in a typical experiment. The protein was dialyzed in a redox system containing reduced and oxidized glutathione. RP-HPLC was used to analysis the result of the refolding. The refolded proNGF protein can induce neurite outgrowth of PC12 cells, which indicated that pro-form of NGF we obtained had biological activity.
Escherichia coli ; genetics ; metabolism ; Genetic Vectors ; genetics ; Humans ; Nerve Growth Factor ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Protein Precursors ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Protein Renaturation ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; isolation & purification

OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationships between the polymorphisms of estrogen receptor (ER) gene, bone mineral density (BMD) and bone biochemical markers in Chinese postmenopausal women.

METHODSBMD of lumbar spine and femoral neck were measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) in 186 Chinese postmenopausal women. The PvuII and XbaI polymorphisms of the ER gene were detected using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Bone biochemical markers, serum alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin and pyridinoline were measured by ELISA.

RESULTSThe femoral neck (FN) BMD (Z score) was higher in pp compared to Pp (-0.01 +/- 0.12 vs. -0.35 +/- 0.09, P < 0.05) while lumbar spine BMD (Z score) was higher in XX type compared to Xx and xx genotypes (0.01 +/- 0.45 vs -1.53 +/- 0.17, -1.29 +/- 0.10, < 0.001 and 0.001, respectively). Women without Px haplotype (n = 79) had a higher BMD Z-score for the lumbar spine (-1.03 +/- 0.14 vs -1.45 +/- 0.11, P < 0.05) and femoral neck (-0.01 +/- 0.11 vs -0.31 +/- 0.09, P < 0.05) than those who had it (n = 107).

CONCLUSIONSThe present study suggested that the pp and XX genotypes of ER gene might play a certain role in maintaining FN and lumbar spine BMD. ER genotypes without Px haplotype might be favorable to bone mass, while those with it might exert some harmful effect on bone mineral density.

Aged ; Bone Density ; Female ; Genotype ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Postmenopause ; metabolism ; Receptors, Estrogen ; genetics ; Regression Analysis

" Two-way referral, and synergy between the tertiary hospitals and primary institutions" is the core measure for promoting hierarchical diagnosis and treatment in the region. The authors introduced the exploration and practice of constructing a two-way referral path in the medical alliance based on telemedicine in West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University. As of May 2021, the hospital had established a two-way referral path with 52 member hospitals of the medical alliance. By clarifying the functionality and positioning of these institutions, optimizing work processes and IT support, building the mechanism of referral and liaison, and that of appraisal as support, these efforts had achieved progresses in such fields as innovative medical service modes, lean management of referral processes, and promotion of hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system building.

Medical mutual aid is an important component of multi-level medical security system. West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University led the establishment of the pediatric specialty alliance " West China Women and Children Alliance". Based on customized and inclusive mutual insurance product " Family Doctor Mutual Aid Plan", the alliance implemented key links such as mutual aid product forms, patient risk protection, institutional financing and hematopoiesis, and distribution of benefits to all parties, explored innovative mutual aid funding, payment, and incentive mechanisms, forming a closed-loop pediatric tiered diagnosis and treatment service system with the Mutual Aid Plan as the core. This system operated continuously under the " Four-in-One" framework, stimulating the integration of medical insurance and service supply systems while enhancing the synergistic effect between mutual insurance and social security. It has formed a distinctive health-centered multi-level medical security system within the alliance, and could provide reference for the construction and exploration of hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system.

Hypoxemia is a common complication of pneumonia, asthma, and bronchopulmonary dysplasia in children.Rapid identification of hypoxemia is of great significance for the disposal and management of critical children.Pulse oximetry is recognized by the World Health Organization as the best way to monitor hypoxemia in children, and it can monitor pulse oxygen saturation noninvasively and continuously.Based on the related literature at home and abroad, combined with the clinical needs of pediatrics, the " Expert consensus on clinical application of pulse oximetry in children" is formulated to improve the understanding of pediatricians and nurses on the application in pediatric clinical practice, principle, operation techniques, and limitations of pulse oximetry.

As one of the main forms of the medical alliance, the specialty alliance functions as a service carrier for hierarchical medical service and resources integration in the region. The authors introduced the exploration and practice of the West China Women′s and Children′s Alliance, the first pediatric specialty alliance in Sichuan, established by the West China Second Hospital of Sichuan University. Based on family doctor contracted services, the West China Women′s and Children′s Alliance took such measures as differentiated functional positioning, assessment of certified physicians, continuous online quality control, construction of referral platforms, and innovative payment mechanisms. Such efforts effectively integrated the three stages of pre-hospital " preventive care" , in-hospital " disease diagnosis and treatment" , and post-hospital " follow-up management" , exploring the homogenization of medical services within the alliance, and forming a pediatric closed-loop health management system, hence improving the primary medical services.

Objective:To observe the role of Huaiqihuang Granules (HQ) in the long-term management of bronchial asthma in young children, and the effective effect on concomitant rhinitis.Methods:A prospective real-world multicenter study was conducted in children aged 2-5 years with asthma diagnosed in the outpatient department (from April 2016 to March 2019)who received either inhaled corticosteroid (ICS)/leukotriene receptor antagonist (LTRA)(control group); inhaled ICS/LTRA plus HQ(combination group), or HQ alone(HQ group). All patients were followed up at week 4, 8, 12 after treatment. The number of days with asthma symptoms, the frequency of severe asthma attacks, the level of asthma control, and the days with rhinitis symptoms in the last 4 weeks were recorded. Differences before and after treatment, and those among groups after treatment were compared using Kruskal- Wallis H test or Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Results:A total of 2 234 eligible patients were recruited, and 2 147 cases completed followed-up visits, including 477, 1 374 and 296 cases in the control group, combination group, and HQ group, respectively. After the treatment, all 3 groups showed significant declines in the days with asthma symptoms, frequency of severe asthma attack and the days with rhinitis symptoms (all P<0.01), and the rate of well-controlled asthma increased significantly ( P<0.01). It lasted until the end of follow-up. Among groups, patients in the combination group showed significantly less days of asthma symptoms than those of the other 2 group at week 8 and 12[0(0, 0.9) d vs.0(0, 0.3) d, P<0.05; 0(0, 0.1) d vs. 0(0, 1.0) d, P<0.01]. Patients in the combination group and HQ group showed a significantly lower rate of severe asthma attacks than that of the control group at week 12 [0(0, 1), 0(0, 1), 0(0, 2), all P<0.05]. The well-controlled rate of asthma in the combination group was significantly higher than that of the control group and HQ group at week 8 and 12 (89.6% vs. 85.9% vs.82.1%, H=15.28; 90.9% vs. 84.1% vs. 81.8%, χ2=29.32, all P<0.01). Conclusions:HQ can significantly alleviate symptoms of asthma and rhinitis, severe attack of asthma, and increase the control rate of asthma when used as an additional treatment or used alone.

Objective:To explore the consistency of peripheral whole blood and venous serum procalcitonin (PCT) levels, and the value of peripheral whole blood PCT in evaluating pediatric bacterial infection.Methods:This multicenter cross-sectional parallel control study was conducted in 11 children′s hospital. All the 1 898 patients older than 28 days admitted to these hospitals from March 2018 to February 2019 had their peripheral whole blood and venous serum PCT detected simultaneously with unified equipment, reagent and method. According to the venous serum PCT level, the patients were stratified to subgroups. Analysis of variance and chi-square test were used to compare the demographic characteristics among groups. And the correlation between the peripheral blood and venous serum PCT level was investigated by quantitative Pearson correlation analysis.The PCT resultes were also converted into ranked data to further test the consistency between the two sampling methods by Spearman′s rank correlation test. Furthermore, the ranked data were converted into binary data to evaluate the consistency and investigate the best cut-off of peripheral blood PCT level in predicting bacterial infection.Results:A total of 1 898 valid samples were included (1 098 males, 800 females),age 27.4(12.2,56.7) months. There was a good correlation between PCT values of peripheral whole blood and venous serum ( r=0.97 , P<0.01). The linear regression equation was PCT?venous serum=0.135+0.929×PCT peripheral whole blood. However, when stratified to 5 levels, PCT results showed diverse and unsatisfied consistency between the two sampling methods ( r=0.51-0.92, all P<0.01). But after PCT was converted to ordinal categorical variables, the stratified analysis showed that the coincidence rate of the measured values by the two sampling methods in each boundary area was 84.9%-97.1%. The dichotomous variables also showed a good consistency (coincidence rate 96.8%-99.3%, Youden index 0.82-0.89). According to the severity of disease, the serum PCT value was classified into 4 intervals（<0.5、0.5-<2.0、2.0-<10.0、≥10.0 μg/L）, and the peripheral blood PCT value also showed a good predictive value (AUC value was 0.991 2-0.997 9). The optimal cut points of peripheral whole blood PCT value 0.5、1.0、2.0、10.0 μg/L corresponding to venous serum PCT values were 0.395, 0.595, 1.175 and 3.545 μg/L, respectively. Conclusions:There is a good correlation between peripheral whole blood PCT value and the venous serum PCT value, which means that the peripheral whole blood PCT could facilitate the identification of infection and clinical severity. Besides, the sampling of peripheral whole blood is simple and easy to repeat.