Diabetic foot(DF),a primary chronic complication of diabetes mellitus,contributes to a major disability and mortality in diabetic patients.DF is diagnosed mainly depending not only on clinical manifestations,signs,and related inspection,but also on recently emerging diagnostic means:biological markers.Inflammatory biomarkers are preferably used for its superiority in DF early diagnosis.In recently years,thanks to advancements of biological technologies,biomarkers such as procalcitonin(PCT),C-reactive protein(CRP),interleukins(ILs),and tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF-α)have been comprehensively used in DF diagnosis.Moreover,biomarkers of genomics,proteomics,metabolomics,and metagenomics have been employed as well.In this review,we aim to com-prehensively review the role of serum biomarkers in DF diagnosis and risk stratification,elaborating on the current research status in applying serum biomarkers for DF prevention,diagnosis,and prognosis assessment.

Ulcerative colitis(UC)is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease caused by many factors including colonic inflammation and microbiota dysbiosis.Previous studies have indicated that celastrol(CSR)has strong anti-inflammatory and immune-inhibitory effects.Here,we investigated the effects of CSR on colonic inflammation and mucosal immunity in an experimental colitis model,and addressed the mechanism by which CSR exerts the protective effects.We characterized the ther-apeutic effects and the potential mechanism of CSR on treating UC using histological staining,intestinal permeability assay,cytokine assay,flow cytometry,fecal microbiota transplantation(FMT),16S rRNA sequencing,untargeted metabolomics,and cell differentiation.CSR administra-tion significantly ameliorated the dextran sodium sulfate(DSS)-induced colitis in mice,which was evidenced by the recovered body weight and colon length as well as the decreased disease activity index(DAI)score and intestinal permeability.Meanwhile,CSR down-regulated the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and up-regulated the amount of anti-inflammatory mediators at both mRNA and protein levels,and improved the balances of Treg/Thl and Treg/Th1 7 to maintain the colonic immune homeostasis.Notably,all the therapeutic effects were exerted in a gut microbiota-dependent manner.Furthermore,CSR treatment increased the gut microbiota diversity and changed the compositions of the gut microbiota and metabolites,which is probably associated with the gut microbiota-mediated protective effects.In conclusion,this study provides the strong evidence that CSR may be a promising therapeutic drug for UC.