OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of Huatan Xiezhuo Recipe (HTXZR) on fatty liver of rats. METHODS: Forty-eight SD rats were randomly divided into five groups: normal control group, untreated group, Dongbao Gantai Tablet (DBGTT)-treated group, low-dose HTXZR-treated group and high-dose HTXZR-treated group. Fatty liver was induced in the rats by hyperlipid diet and intraperitoneal injection of tetracycline. The pathological changes of liver tissues in rats were observed, and the liver function, serum leptin, insulin resistance index, triglyceride (TG) and free fatty acid (FFA) in the liver were detected. RESULTS: The levels of serum leptin, insulin resistance index, FFA and TG in rats of the three treated groups were lower than those of the untreated group (P<0.01), and such effects in the HTXZR-treated groups were more significant than those in the DBGTT-treated group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The main action mechanisms of HTXZR in treating fatty liver are probably to promote the lipid metabolism, decrease the leptin and insulin resistance.

A field demonstration of reduction of lead availability in a soil and cabbage (Brassica Chinensis L.) contaminated by mining tailings, located in Shaoxing, China was carried out to evaluate the effects of applications of phosphorus fertilizers on Pb fractionation and Pb phyto-availability in the soil. It was found that the addition of all three P fertilizers including single super phosphate (SSP), phosphate rock (PR), and calcium magnesium phosphate (CMP) significantly decreased the percentage of water-soluble and exchangeable (WE) soil Pb and then reduced the uptake of Pb, Cd, and Zn by the cabbage compared to the control (CK). The results showed that the level of 300 g P/m(2) soil was the most cost-effective application rate of P fertilizers for reducing Pb availability at the first stage of remediation, and that at this P level, the effect of WE fraction of Pb in the soil decreased by three phosphorus fertilizers followed the order: CMP (79%)>SSP (41%)>PR (23%); Effectiveness on the reduction of Pb uptake by cabbage was in the order: CMP (53%)>SSP (41%)>PR (30%). Therefore our field trial demonstrated that it was effective and feasible to reduce Pb availability in soil and cabbage contaminated by mining tailings using P fertilizers in China and PR would be a most cost-effective amendment.
Biodegradation, Environmental ; drug effects ; Brassica ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Chemical Fractionation ; methods ; Fertilizers ; Industrial Waste ; analysis ; prevention & control ; Lead ; analysis ; chemistry ; pharmacokinetics ; Mining ; Phosphates ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; Soil Pollutants ; analysis ; pharmacokinetics

Objective:Iron accumulation is related to the occurrence of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Meanwhile, autophagy abnormality of bone marrow hematopoietic cells is observed in hip osteoporotic fracture. This study is performed to investigate correlation between iron accumulation induced bone loss and hematopoietic autophagy dysfunction to explore the new risk factor of osteoporosis.Methods:Male iron accumulation mice model was established by intraperitoneally injecting ferric ammonium citrate. Serum ferritin and osteogenic indicator P1NP were tested by ELISA. Bone mineral density was measured by micro-CT. Femur and tibia bone marrows were collected for hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells proportion and cell apoptosis analysis. Autolysosome formation was measured by image flow cytometry. We used conditional mouse model Atg7 flox/flox; Vav-Cre(Atg7 -/-) in which Atg7 had been genetically deleted in the hematopoietic system. Bone marrow hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells were collected for RNA sequence. micro-CT scan was conducted for Atg7 -/- femur. Results:Ferritin level of iron accumulation mice was significantly higher than control group( P<0.05). Iron accumulation inhibited P1NP and induced decreased bone mineral density( P<0.05). Iron accumulation bone marrow displayed enhanced hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells proportion( P<0.05), with more cell apoptosis( P<0.05). Hematopoietic autophagy was deteriorated in iron accumulation bone marrow. Transcriptomic profiling showed up-regulation of iron activity in Atg7 -/- mice, with increased iron homeostasis and iron membrane transporter genes, including Lcn2, Tfr2, Slc40a1(Fpn1), Steap3, and Cpox. micro-CT revealed severe bone loss and decreased bone mineral density in Atg7 -/- mice( P<0.05). Conclusion:Iron accumulation induced bone loss is related to inhibition of hematopoietic cells. Hematopoietic autophagy dysfunction is associated with bone loss.

Objective To identify related factors for hypoglycemic episodes in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)through continuous glucose monitoring(CGM). Methods The included 147 patients with T2DM were those who had undergone CGM for 5 days in our ward of Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism,Huashan Hospital from Dec 2018 to Oct 2019. The general information, laboratory parameters and CGM parameters of the patients were collected. According to whether there wasan episode of hypoglycemia during the monitoring period,the patients were divided into non-hypoglycemia group and hypoglycemic group. A single hypoglycemia episode was defined as a sensor monitoring blood glucose of less than 3.9 mmol/L and lasting for more than 15 minutes.CGM parameters included the mean blood glucose(MBG),standard deviation(SD),coefficient of variation(CV),the differences between maximum and minimum blood glucose (BG) levels (ΔBG),mean amplitude of glycemic excursions (MAGE)and the percentage of time in range(％TIR)of BG at <3.9 mmol/L,3.9-7.8 mmol/L,>7.8 mmol/L,3.9-10.0 mmol/L,and >10.0 mmol/L. Results Logistic regression analysis showed that lower estimated glomerular filtration rate(eGFR)levels,increased use of insulin and its analogs and lower MBG levels were associated with hypoglycemic episodes. Spearman correlation analysis showed that the MBG level and the ％TIR of BG>7.8 mmol/L and BG>10.0 mmol/L were negatively associated while glycemic variability(GV)levels(SD,CV,ΔBG,MAGE)and ％ TIR of BG at 3.9-7.8 mmol/L were positively associated with hypoglycemic episodes. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the duration of hypoglycemic episodes was positively correlated with the use of sulfonylureas and CV levels. Conclusion Lower eGFR levels,increased treatment with insulin and its analogs and lower MBG levels were related factors for hypoglycemic episodes in patients with T2DM.

OBJECTIVETo review the clinical experiences concerning simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation in polycystic kidney and hepatic disease with kidney and liver failure.

METHODSThis study involved 8 cases of simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation in polycystic kidney and hepatic disease with kidney and liver failure. There were 5 male and 3 female patients, aged from 41 to 67 years old with a mean of 52.8 years old. Six cases transplanted kidney after liver with orthotopic liver transplantation, and 2 cases transplanted liver after kidney with piggy-back liver transplantation. The acute rejections, complications, liver function, kidney functions, and survival rates of patient/liver/kidney were recorded.

RESULTSWithin the follow-up of 28 to 65 months, all 8 patients are still alive with normal liver and kidney functions: 2 living more than 5 years, 2 living more than 4 years and 4 living more than 2 years. 2 cases of pleural effusion and 1 case of pneumonia were complications after operation, which had been cured successfully. No acute rejection of allograft was observed.

CONCLUSIONSSimultaneous liver-kidney transplantation is a safe and effective treatment for polycystic kidney and hepatic disease with kidney and liver failure.

Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Kidney Transplantation ; Liver Diseases ; complications ; surgery ; Liver Failure ; etiology ; surgery ; Liver Transplantation ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Polycystic Kidney Diseases ; complications ; surgery ; Renal Insufficiency ; etiology ; surgery ; Retrospective Studies ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVETo summarize the experiences in high-risk renal transplant recipients for ketter long-term survival.

METHODSFrom April 1991 to December 2008, a total of 921 kidney recipients with high-risk factors were divided into six groups as following: (1) pediatric patients (< 18 years old) (GI, n = 34); (2) retransplant recipients (GII, n = 169); (3) high sensitized patients (PRA> 30% or peak PRA > 50%)(GIII, n = 35); (4) elderly recipients (> 60 years old) (GIV, n = 297); (5) diabetic patients (GV, n = 112); (6) patients with HBV/HCV infection or HBV/HCV carrier (GVI, n = 274). Each group was compared to a control of 807 recipients without any above risk factor for patient and graft survival at 1, 3 and 5 years. Incidences of acute rejection (AR), chronic rejection (CR) and complication were analyzed and compared respectively between the studied subjects and the control group as well.

RESULTSCompared with the control group, patient/graft survivals were lower in GII, GIII and GVI (all P < 0.05), GIV had worse patient survival (P < 0.05); AR and CR incidences were greater in GI and GIII (all P < 0.05); GIV, GV and GVI had more complications.

CONCLUSIONSThis study suggests the benefits for long-term outcome in high-immunological risk renal transplant recipients of low acute selection incidence rate, and reduction of complication incidences is the key to long term results for non-immunological high risk recipients.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; Female ; Graft Rejection ; epidemiology ; Graft Survival ; Humans ; Kidney Transplantation ; statistics & numerical data ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Survival Rate ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

miR-34a is a conserved microRNA highly expressed in the brain. It is thought to play critical roles in regulating many aspects of brain development and function, such as neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation, neuronal migration and apoptosis, fear memory consolidation, etc. However, the assessment of its function was mainly conducted through vector-mediated overexpression and miRNA sponge or antagomir-mediated functional suppression, therefore may suffer from nonspecific off-target effects or incomplete inactivation. We thus analyzed mouse model with a targeted deletion of miR-34a which completely abolishes its expression. To our surprise, loss of miR-34a led to neither an obvious change in brain size, morphology or cortical lamination, nor impaired marker gene expression in major excitatory and inhibitory neuron types in the neocortex. In addition, miR-34a ablation did not affect fear memory formation or consolidation, as well as the anxiety or depression related behavior. However, the performance of mice in rotarod assay was significantly affected, suggesting a defect in motor activity in miR-34a deficient mice. As neocortical parvalbumin (PV) neurons are known for high level miR-34a expression, we also tested the effect of PV-Cre-mediated conditional miR-34a deletion. Similar as germline deletion, PV neuron specific miR-34a deletion did not affect cortical lamination or PV expression in the neocortex. Our studies suggest that, although miR-34a may be involved in regulating certain aspects of brain development or function, such as motor activity, it does not play a significant role in regulating brain morphogenesis, cortical lamination or neocortical neuron subtype specification, and it is also dispensable for fear memory formation, expression and consolidation.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the factors associated with the occurrence of transplant renal artery stenosis (TRAS).

METHODSA retrospective analysis was conducted in 26 recipients who developed TRAS and 40 concurrent renal recipients without TRAS. We also conducted a nested case-control study in 14 patients with TRAS (TRAS-SD group) and another 14 non-TRAS recipients who received the allograft from the same donor (non-TRAS-SD group).

RESULTSCompared with those in the concurrent recipients without TRAS, acute rejection (AR) occurred at a significantly higher incidence (P=0.004) and the warm ischemia time (WIT) was significantly longer (P=0.015) and the level of high?density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL--C) significantly lower (P=0.009) in the recipients with TRAS. Logistic regression analysis suggested that AR (P=0.007) and prolonged WIT (P=0.046) were risk factors of TRAS while HDL-C (P=0.022) was the protective factor against TRAS. In recent years early diagnosis of TRAS had been made in increasing cases, the interval from transplantation to TRAS diagnosis became shortened steadily, and the recipients tended to have higher estimated glomerular filtration rate at the time of TRAS diagnosis.

CONCLUSIONApart from the surgical technique, AR and prolonged WIT are also risk factors of TRAS while a high HDL-C level is the protective factor against TRAS. The improvement of the diagnostic accuracy by ultrasound is the primary factor contributing to the increased rate of early TRAS diagnosis in recent years.

Objective:To systematically sort out and cluster the existing indicators of key issues in the quality of postgraduate clinical degree education based on the bibliometric study, so as to build a multidimensional quality assessment index system that integrates scientificity, rationality and representativeness, and to provide a scientific measurement tool for assessing clinical professional postgraduate education in China.Methods:By mining the related functions of UCINET6 network analysis integration software and its one-dimensional and two-dimensional data analysis NetDraw program, the social network analysis (SNA) method was used to extract and cluster the education quality problem set of clinical professional degree postgraduates.Results:A three-dimensional evaluation index system was constructed. The first dimension concluded such 8 key issues in the quality of postgraduate education in clinical medicine as ability assessment, teaching system, teaching quality assurance system, professional cognition and career prospects, assessment and evaluation system and organization, and the pulse taking and diagnosis.Conclusion:The clinical graduate education quality evaluation index system is an effective measurement tool for education quality improvement, based on a multidimensional perspective, with key issues as priority areas for intervention, providing an effective evidence-based basis for ensuring the development of professional graduate education efforts from 2020-2025.

OBJECTIVEAnesthetic isoflurane plus surgery has been reported to induce cognitive impairment. The underlying mechanism and targeted intervention remain largely to be determined. Ginsenoside Rb1 was reported to be neuroprotective. We therefore set out to determine whether ginsenoside Rb1 can attenuate isoflurane/surgery-induced cognitive dysfunction via inhibiting neuroinflammation and oxidative stress.

METHODSFive-months-old C57BL/6J female mice were treated with 1.4% isoflurane plus abdominal surgery for two hours. Sixty mg/kg ginsenoside Rb1 were given intraperitoneally from 7 days before surgery. Cognition of the mice were assessed by Barnes Maze. Levels of postsynaptic density-95 and synaptophysin in mice hippocampus were measured by Western blot. Levels of reactive oxygen species, tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 in mice hippocampus were measured by ELISA.

RESULTSHere we show for the first time that the ginsenoside Rb1 treatment attenuated the isoflurane/surgery-induced cognitive impairment. Moreover, ginsenoside Rb1 attenuated the isoflurane/surgery-induced synapse dysfunction. Finally, ginsenoside Rb1 mitigated the isoflurane/surgery-induced elevation levels of reactive oxygen species, tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 in the mice hippocampus.

CONCLUSIONThese results suggest that ginsenoside Rb1 may attenuate the isoflurane/surgery-induced cognitive impairment by inhibiting neuroinflammation and oxidative stress pending future studies.

Anesthetics, Inhalation ; adverse effects ; Animals ; Cognition ; Cognitive Dysfunction ; etiology ; prevention & control ; Female ; Ginsenosides ; pharmacology ; Hippocampus ; drug effects ; Inflammation ; etiology ; prevention & control ; Isoflurane ; adverse effects ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Oxidative Stress ; Postoperative Complications ; etiology ; prevention & control ; Random Allocation ; Surgical Procedures, Operative ; adverse effects ; Synapses ; metabolism