Objective The incidence rate of acute pancreatitis in pregnancy (APIP) is on the rise, and yet there is no effec-tive method for its prevention and treatment .This study aimed to investigate the high risk factors of APIP and its prognostic evaluation index. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 35 cases of APIP ( group A) and another 35 cases of acute pancre-atitis in non-pregnancy as controls (group B).We compared the etiologic factors of acute pancreatitis , changes of laboratory indexes after onset of the disease , and clinical outcomes between the two groups . Results No statistically significant differences were found in the risk factors between the two groups (χ2 =0.233, P>0.05).Serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels were remarkably higher in group A ([15.69 ±7.71] and [15.54 ±7.82] mol) than in B ([5.07 ±2.95] and [3.82 ±2.58] mol) (P<0.05).There were significant differences between groups A and B in WBC count ([19.00 ±5.31] vs [14.98 ±9.77] 109/L), Hb ([82.77 ±11.77] vs [101.77 ±1.50] g/L), and serum Glu ([8.77 ±2.76] vs [6.23 ±1.99] mol/L)(P<0.05).Multivariate logistic regression a-nalysis showed the predictive value of cholesterol and triglyceride levels for APIP and a correlation of WBC and Hb with the clinical out -comes of the patients.The in-hospital mortality rate was significantly higher in group A than in B (χ2 =3.968, P=0.046), and so was the incidence rate of severe acute pancreatitis (χ2 =5.510, P=0.019). Conclusion Biliary diseases are the main high risk factors of APIP, followed by hyperlipidemia .Triglyceride and cholesterol levels have the predictive value for APIP .The WBC count and Hb level can be used to assess the patients′condition and predict the clinical outcomes .

Osteoarthritis (OA), a chronic joint degenerative disease, is the significant cause of the loss of joint function in middle-aged and older people. Bone destruction, synovial hyperplasia, osteophyte formation, and subchondral bone sclerosis are the main features of osteoarthritis, and the typical symptom is severe joint pain. Consequent to unprecedented global population aging, osteoarthritis remains a leading cause of disability, and the treatment often comes at a high cost. With an in-depth understanding of related research, osteoarthritis is proven to be a multifactorial disease whose onset is not simply a cartilage lesion, and the immune plays an essential role in the development of the disease. Some studies proposed that chondrocytes are capable of altering gene expression and mediating osteoarthritis progression by regulating immune responses. Previous studies showed that the extent of immune dysregulation significantly correlates with the severity of osteoarthritis, revealing an association between immunity response and clinical manifestations. The study of immune infiltration, genetic alterations, and pathogenesis of osteoarthritis may provide new perspectives and methods for the treatment of osteoarthritis in the future. Therefore, this review, combined with the recent decade of literature, provides an overview of the research progress of the main immune cells and related cytokines in OA, which may provide a new direction of thinking for diagnosing and preventing this disease.

Objective To investigate the expression of oxytocin ( OXT ) and oxytocin receptor (OXTR) in the prefrontal cortex of postpartum depression (PPD) rats induced by restraint stress during pregnancy and to observe the antidepressant effect of oxytocin and its analogue capitoxin and its mechanism. Methods Twenty-four adult female SD rats of SPF grade were randomly divided into control group,PPD +saline group,PPD + oxytocin group and PPD + captopril group with 6 rats in each group. Rats were subjec-ted to restraint stress for 2 hours every day on the 8th to 21st day of pregnancy to establish PPD model. While the rats in control group were not given any treatment. Rats in PPD + saline,PPD + oxytocin and PPD +captopril were injected bilaterally into prefrontal cortex (PFC) at 10 days postpartum (1 μl/side),oxytocin (30 ng/side) and captopril (45 ng/side) respectively once a day for 5 days. The depressive behaviors of rats were detected by sugar-water preference experiment. Rats were sacrificed 18 days after delivery. The ex-pression of OXT was detected by ELISA method,OXTR by Western blot,Iba-1 by immunofluorescence,and IL-1β,IL-6 and TNF-α by qRT-PCR. Results (1) The sucrose consumption of the PPD + saline group ((67. 1±10. 4)%) was significantly lower than that of the control group((92. 6± 3. 9)%,t=-5. 31,P<0. 01). (2) The expression of oxytocin in prefrontal cortex in PPD group was significantly lower than that in control group ((0. 03±0. 01) ng/mg) vs (0. 08 +0. 05) ng/mg,t=-2. 67,P<0. 05). However,there was no significant difference in the expression of oxytocin receptor between PPD group and control group ((0. 90 ±0. 06) vs (0. 90±0. 05),t=0. 709,P=0. 517). (3) The sucrose consumption of PPD+saline group de-creased than that of control group((65. 6±16. 9)% vs (91. 5±3. 5)%,t=3. 35,P<0. 001). Compared with PPD+saline group,the sucrose consumption of PPD+oxytocin group ((81. 8±8. 4)%) and PPD+carbetocin group ((78. 4±9. 4)%) increased(t=1. 98,1. 68,both P<0. 05). (4) The expression of Iba-1 in the pre-frontal lobe of PPD + saline group was higher than that of control group ((1. 15±0. 05) vs (1. 04 +0. 06), t=3. 50,P<0. 01). Compared with PPD + saline group,the expression of Iba-1 in PPD + oxytocin group (1. 03±0. 06) and in PPD + captopril group (1. 00±0. 02) were lower (t=-3. 50,-6. 55,both P<0. 01). (5) The expression of inflammatory factors IL-1β mRNA (1. 0±0. 1),IL-6 mRNA (1. 1±0. 1) and TNF-α mRNA (1. 7±0. 4) in the prefrontal cortex of rats in the PPD group were higher than that in the control group (IL-1β mRNA (0. 7± 0. 3),IL-6 mRNA (0. 9± 0. 1),TNF-α mRNA ( 1. 1± 0. 3),t=1. 92,3. 19, 2. 43 respectively,all P<0. 05). The expression of inflammatory factors IL-1β,IL-6 and TNF-α mRNA of the PPD+oxytocin group(IL-1β mRNA (0. 6±0. 1),IL-6 mRNA (0. 9±0. 1),TNF-α mRNA (1. 2±0. 4) )and the PPD+carbetocin group ( IL-1β mRNA ( 0. 7± 0. 1),IL-6 mRNA ( 0. 9 ± 0. 1),TNF-α mRNA ( 1. 0 ± 0. 2))in the prefrontal cortex were lower than that in the PPD group(t=-3. 17,-2. 78,-1. 84,t=-2. 76,-2. 40,-2. 94 respectively,all P<0. 05). Conclusion Oxytocin and capitoxin injected into prefrontal cortex can effectively improve depression-like behaviors in PPD model rats. Activation of microglia and decrease of inflammatory factors in prefrontal cortex may be the potential antidepressant mechanism.

Objective:To investigate the role of nicotinamide (NIC) in the differentiation of neural crest cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), and lay the foundation for the induction of hESC-derived corneal endothelial cells.Methods:hESCs line H1 cultured for 5-7 days was used for induction.According to the different components of the neural crest induction medium, cells were assigned into different groups for 7-days induction, including group treated without NIC cultured in induction medium only, group treated with NIC cultured in induction medium containing 10 mmol/L NIC, NIC+ resveratrol (Res) group cultured in induction medium containing 10 mmol/L NIC and 10 μmol/L Res and Sirtinol group cultured in induction medium containing 10 μmol/L Sirtinol.Res and Sirtinol were used as SIRT1 activity agonist and inhibitor, respectively.The relative mRNA expression levels of hESCs and neural crest cell markers were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR at 1, 3, 5 and 7 days during the induction.The expression of neural crest cells markers after 7 days of induction was assayed by immunofluorescence staining.The induction efficiency of NIC and the effect of SIRT1 regulation on human natural killer 1 (HNK-1) positive cells expression were evaluated through flow cytometry analysis of percentages of nerve growth factor receptor (P75) and HNK-1 + cells. Results:Compared with the group treated without NIC, the mRNA expressions of totipotent genes octamer transcription factor 4 (OCT4) and homeodomain proteins (NANOG) were significantly decreased, and the mRNA expression levels of neural crest cell markers P75, HNK-1, SRY-related HMG box (SOX) 9 and SOX10 were significantly increased in the group treated with NIC after 5 days of induction (all at P<0.05). In the group treated without NIC, P75 was weakly expressed, and HNK-1 was sporadically expressed, and transcription factor AP-2β (AP-2β) and paired-like homeodomain transcription factor 2 (PITX2) were not detected.In the group treated with NIC, P75, HNK-1, AP-2β and PITX2 were strongly expressed.The proportion of P75 + HNK-1 + cells and P75 + cells were both significantly higher in the group treated with NIC than without NIC ( t=8.481, P=0.001; t=2.987, P=0.041). The percentage of HNK-1 + cells in groups treated without and with NIC, NIC+ Res group and Sirtinol group were (34.267±12.522)%, (89.633±1.358)%, (64.667±6.429)% and (86.300±3.460)%, respectively, with a statistically significant overall difference ( F=36.799, P<0.001). The proportion of HNK-1 + cells in NIC+ Res group was significantly lower than that in the groups treated with NIC and Sirtinol (all at P<0.05). Conclusions:NIC promotes the differentiation of hESCs-derived neural crest cells by inhibiting the activity of SIRT1 to enhance the expression of HNK-1.NIC treatment may provide a new strategy for source of seed cells in the treatment of neural crest cell-related diseases, such as corneal endothelial transplantation.

Identifying and comparing the chemical constituents of wild silkworm cocoon and silkworm cocoon is of great significance for understanding the domestication of silkworm. In this study, we used high temperature and high pressure and methanol-water system to extract cocoon chemical constituents. We used UHPLC-MS to identify and compare cocoon chemical constituents of wild silkworm and domestic silkworm Dazao and Haoyue strains. The cocoon metabolic fingerprints of wild silkworm and domestic silkworm Dazao and Haoyue strains were obtained by using the UHPLC-MS in the positive ion mode and negative ion mode. By annotation, we found that cocoon chemical compounds with high abundances contained amino acids, flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenes, organic acids, and lignans. PLS-DA showed that the cocoon components were significantly different among the wild silkworm and two domestic silkworm strains Dazao and Haoyue. Proline, leucine/isoleucine and phenylalanine showed significantly higher abundances in the cocoon of domestic silkworm Dazao strain than in those of wild silkworm and domestic silkworm Haoyue strain. The flavonoid secondary metabolites are abundant in the Dazao cocoon, including quercetin, isoquercetin, quercetin 3-O-sophoroside, quercetin-3-O-α-L-rhamnoside, quercetin-3-O- rutinoside, and kaempferol. The other secondary metabolites, alkaloids, terpenes and lignans, showed higher abundances in the wild silkworm cocoon than in the domestic silkworm cocoon, including neurine, candicine, pilocarpidine, artemisiifolin, eupassopin, and eudesobovatol. By exposing cocoons to UV light and observing the green fluorescence of flavonoids, we found that Dazao cocoon had the most flavonoids, and Haoyue cocoon had least flavonoids and wild silkworm cocoon had mediate flavonoids. Alkaloids and organic acids are good anti-insect and antimicrobial agents, which have high abundance in the wild silkworm cocoon and could enhance the defense ability of wild silkworm cocoon. Flavonoids are abundant in the cocoon of domestic silkworm Dazao strain, which the main factors are leading to the yellow-green cocoon of Dazao.
Animals ; Bombyx ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Flavonoids ; Mass Spectrometry