Autoimmune hepatitis （AIH） is a chronic inflammatory liver disease. The pathogenesis of AIH remains unclear， but it is mainly autoimmune injury caused by the breakdown of autoimmune tolerance due to the abnormal activation of the immune system， while the specific molecular mechanism remains unknown. Recent studies have shown that abnormal amino acid metabolism plays an important role in the development and progression of AIH. This article reviews the research advances in amino acid metabolic reprogramming in AIH， in order to provide a theoretical basis for amino acid metabolism as a new target for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of AIH.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of Naoluo Xintong Decoction (NLXTD) on proliferation of rat brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) after oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) injury and role of the HIF-1α/VEGF pathway in mediating its effect. METHODS: Using a BMEC model of OGD/R, we tested the effects of 10% NLXTD-medicated rat serum, alone or in combination with 2ME2 or 10% NAKL, on cell proliferation, migration, tube-forming ability and permeability using CCK-8 assay, Transwell chamber assay, tube formation assay and permeability assay. Cellular expressions of VEGF and Notch were detected using ELISA and laser confocal immunofluorescence analysis, and the expressions of HIF-1α, VEGFR2, Notch1, ERK and P-ERK1/2 proteins were detected with Western blotting. RESULTS: OGD/R injury significantly decreased viability of BMECs. NLXTD treatment of the cells with OGD/R could significantly promoted cell proliferation, migration and tube formation ability, but these effects were strongly attenuated by application of 2ME2. NLXTD treatment also significantly increased the percentages of VEGF- and Notch-positive cells in the cell models and obviously enhanced the expression levels of HIF-1α, VEGFR2, Notch1 and P-ERK1/2. CONCLUSIONS NLXTD promotes proliferation, migration, and tube formation of rat BMECs after OGD/R injury possibly by activating the HIF-1α/VEGF signaling pathway.
Animals ; Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit/metabolism* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacology* ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A/metabolism* ; Endothelial Cells/metabolism* ; Rats ; Cell Proliferation/drug effects* ; Signal Transduction/drug effects* ; Glucose ; Brain/blood supply* ; Cells, Cultured ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-2/metabolism* ; Oxygen/metabolism* ; Cell Hypoxia

Advanced gastric cancer(AGC)includes locally unresectable gastric cancer(GC),metastatic GC,and postoperative recurrent GC.Due to delayed diagnosis and lack of effective treatment for AGC,the median survival time of AGC patients is only 6-12 months.At present,the main treatment goal of AGC is to improve symptoms and prolong the survival time of patients receiving sequential chemotherapy.Although the therapeutic effect of systemic therapy on AGC is gradually becoming apparent,the patient's prognosis is far from expected.In addition,targeted therapy and novel immunotherapy have drawbacks such as high incidence of drug resistance,high toxic side effects,and heavy economic burden on patients.Therefore,finding new therapeutic targets and developing anti-tumor drugs is a key issue that urgently needs to be addressed.According to reports,abnormal activation of the hepatocyte growth factor(HGF)/cellular-mesenchymal epithelial transition factor(c-MET)pathway plays a crucial role in the progression of GC and the occurrence of multi-line resistance and may be a potential therapeutic target for GC.In recent years,some HGF/c-MET-targeting small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors(TKIs)have been found to show good clinical effects in the treatment of GC.Meanwhile,new HGF/c-MET inhibitors(such as monoclonal antibodies,bispecific antibodies,antibody drug conjugates,etc.)have shown good anti-tumor activity in preclinical studies,but they are all at different stages of clinical research,and their efficacy and safety still need further confirmation.This review elaborates on the latest research progress of HGF/c-MET inhibitors in the treatment of AGC and discusses the main reasons and strategies for drug resistance,aiming to provide better guidance for the treatment of AGC and provide reference for future research.

Objective:To investigate the efficacy and safety of Rituximab (RTX) in the treatment of children with frequently relapsing/steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome (FRNS/SDNS) and to analyze the factors influencing the efficacy.Methods:Case series study.The clinical data of children with FRNS/SDNS who received B-cell-guided RTX (single dose: 375 mg/m 2, maximum dose: 500 mg, one additional dose when peripheral blood CD19 + B lymphocytes ≥0.01) in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from September 2019 to March 2022 were retrospectively collected.The frequency of relapse and cumulative dose of glucocorticoids before and after RTX treatment were compared.The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze relapse-free survival rate and FRNS/SDNS-free survival rate after RTX treatment.The influencing factors of relapse were analyzed using the Cox proportional hazards regression model. Results:Totally 47 children were enrolled, including 35 males and 12 females; the age of first application of RTX was 10.2 (6.9, 13.0) years; 33 children had used one type of immunosuppressant before, and 14 children had used two or more types of immunosuppressant before; the dose of RTX treatment was 3.0 (2.0, 3.0). The frequency of relapse[0(0, 0.55) times/year vs.1.62 (1.09, 2.40) times/year] and cumulative dose of glucocorticoids[0.12 (0.05, 0.21) mg/(kg·d) vs.0.40 (0.20, 0.56) mg/(kg·d)] after RTX treatment significantly decreased compared with previous immunosuppressive treatment ( Z=-5.56, -5.54, all P<0.001). The relapse-free survival rates at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months after treatment were 80.9%, 72.3%, 68.1% and 68.1%, respectively, and the FRNS/SDNS-free survival rates were 93.6%, 89.4%, 89.4% and 89.4%, respectively.Univariate Cox regression analysis showed that the high frequency of relapse during previous immunosuppressive therapy was a risk factor for relapse after RTX treatment ( P<0.05). Of the 14 children who relapsed, 6 occurred in children whose CD19 + B lymphocytes<0.01, and the frequency of relapse after RTX treatment was significantly higher than those whose CD19 + B lymphocytes≥0.01 ( Z=-2.84, P=0.005). No severe adverse reactions occurred during RTX treatment and follow-up. Conclusions:The B-cell-guided RTX is effective and safe in the treatment of FRNS/SDNS in children.The high frequency of relapse during previous immunosuppressive therapy is a risk factor for relapse after RTX treatment, and relapse in the state of B lymphocyte depletion predicts poor outcomes of RTX treatment.

Objective:To explore the optimum opportunity for lumbodorsal muscles exercises of patients undergoing posterior lumbar decompression and instrumentation, and investigate its effect on the rehabilitation outcomes and kinesiophobia.Methods:A randomized controlled trial was used. By convenient sampling method, a total of 120 lumbar disc herniation patients were prospectively selected from Affiliated Nantong Hospital of Shanghai(Nantong Sixth People′s Hospital) from February 2020 to December 2021. The paitients were assigned to early group, middle group and late group, with 40 cases in each group. All patients were given routine postoperative care and lumbodorsal muscles exercises. The early group started to exercise 10th day after operation, the middle group started to exercise 3 weeks after operation, and the late group started to exercise 6 weeks after operation. The intervention effect was respectively evaluated by Japanese Orthopaedics Association (JOA) and Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK).Results:There were 3, 1 and 1 missing cases in the early, middle and late group respectively, the age in the 3 groups were (56.05 ± 11.77), (57.33 ± 14.64) and (54.23 ± 15.73) years old in turn. Three months after exercising, the total score of JOA in the early, middle and late group were (25.32 ± 2.45), (24.44 ± 2.19) and (22.13 ± 1.58) in turn, the difference was significant ( F=23.64, P<0.05); the score of TSK in the early, middle and late group were (37.95 ± 6.81), (34.18 ± 6.39) and (33.33 ± 7.36) in turn, the difference was significant ( F=4.82, P<0.05). Conclusions:Lumbodorsal muscles exercises start at 3 weeks after operation can significantly improve the rehabilitation outcome of lumbar disc herniation patients undergoing posterior lumbar decompression and instrumentation, and will not increase the level of kinesiophobia, its can be consider as optimum opportunity for lumbodorsal muscles exercises.

Objective To investigate the effect of temperature on cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation inhibition of preosteoblast induced by hydrogen peroxide(H2 O2).Methods The MC3T3-E1 cells in the logarithmic phase were randomly divided into 0,450,500,550,600,650 μmol·L-1 H2O2 intervention groups and incubated with 0,450,500,550,600,650 μmol·L-1 H2O2 for 2 h,respectively.Other MC3T3-E1 cells in the logarithmic phase were selected and randomly divided into the control group,model group,low-temperature group,and high-temperature group.Cells in the control group were cul-tured in an incubator with 5％CO2 for 24 h at 37 ℃;cells in the model group were incubated with H2O2 for 2 h and cultured in an incubator with 5％CO2 for 24 h at 37 ℃;cells in the low-temperature group were incubated with H2O2 for 2 h and cultured in an incubator with 5％CO2 for 24 h at 32 ℃;cells in the high-temperature group were incubated with H2O2 for 2 h and cultured in an incubator with 5％CO2 for 24 h at 40 ℃.The cell proliferation in all groups was detected by cell counting kit-8.The expression levels of Runt-related transcription factor 2(RUNX2),osteopontin(OPN)and osteocalcin(OC)mRNA were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitave polymerase chain reaction;and the expression levels of RUNX2,OPN and OC protein were detected by Western blot.Results There was no statistically significant difference in cell proliferation among the 0,450 and 500 μmol·L-1 H2O2 intervention groups(P＞0.05);the cell proliferation rate in the 550,600 and 650 μmol·L-1 H2O2 intervention groups was significantly lower than that in the 0,450 and 500 μmol·L-1 H2O2 intervention groups,showing a significant decrease in cell proliferation with the increase of H2O2 concentrations(P＜0.05).In order to ensure that there were enough cells to perform the following experiments,550 μmol·L-1 H2 O2 was chosen.The cell proliferation rate in the model group and the low-temperature group was significantly lower than that in the control group and high-temperature group(P＜0.05);there was no significant difference in the cell proliferation rate between the control group and high-temperature group(P＞0.05).The relative expression of RUNX2 mRNA in the model group and high-temperature group were significantly higher than that in the control group and low-temperature group(P＜0.05);the relative expression of RUNX2 mRNA in the low-temperature group was significantly lower than that in the control group(P＜0.05);there was no significant difference in the relative expression of RUNX2 mRNA between the model group and high-temperature group(P＞0.05).The relative expression of OPN mRNA in the model group,low-temperature group and high-temperature group was significantly higher than that in the control group(P＜0.05);the relative expression of OPN mRNA in the low-temperature group and high-temperature group was significantly higher than that in the model group(P＜0.05);the relative expression of OPN mRNA in the low-tem-perature group was significantly higher than that in the high-temperature group(P＜0.05).The relative expression of OC mRNA in the model group,low-temperature group and high-temperature group was significantly than that in the control group(P＜0.05);the relative expression of OC mRNA in the low-temperature group and high-temperature group was significantly higher than that in the model group(P＜0.05);there was no significant difference in the relative expression of OC mRNA between the low-temperature group and high-temperature group(P＞0.05).The relative expressions of RUNX2,OPN and OC protein the model group,low-temperature group and high-temperature group were significantly lower than those in the control group(P＜0.05);the relative expressions of RUNX2 and OPN protein in the low-temperature group were significantly lower than those in the model group and high-temperature group(P＜0.05);the relative expression of OC protein was significantly lower than that in the high-temperature group(P＜0.05);and there was no siqnificantly difference in the relatiwe experesson of OC protein between the low-temperature group and model group(P＞0.05);the relative expressions of RUNX2,OPN and OC protein in the high-temperature group were significantly higher than those in the model group(P＜0.05).Conclusion The inhibitory effects of H2O2 on cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation are observed in MC3T3-E1 cells;low-tempera-ture incubation can enhance the inhibition of H2O2 on cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation in MC3T3-E1 cells,while high-temperature incubation can relieve its inhibitory effect on cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation.RUNX2,OPN and OC protein might play an important role in cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation mediated by temperature.

Objective To explore the independent risk factors that affect the overall survival(OS)of elderly patients with hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC,≥60 years old)and build a nomogram prediction model.Methods Clinical data of all elderly patients with HCC from the SEER database from 2005 to 2020 were downloaded from SEER database.In accordance with the inclusion and exclusion criteria,the screened patients were randomly assigned to a training group(70%)and a validation group(30%).The independent risk factors of elderly patients with HCC were determined by univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses and further validated by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis.On the basis of the determined variables,nomograms were developed and verified to predict the OS of elderly patients with HCC at 6,12,and 24 months.The consistency index(C index),calibration curve,receiver's operating characteristic(ROC)curve,and area under curve(AUC)were used to evaluate the prediction efficiency and discrimination ability of the prediction model,and decision curve analysis(DCA)was used to evaluate the potential clinical application value of the nomogram.Results A total of 1134 elderly patients with HCC were included,with 793 in the training group and 341 in the validation group.Seven variables,including age,clinical grade,clinical stage,M stage,tumor size classification,and radiotherapy,were identified as independent prognostic factors of this population.The constructed nomogram shows excellent prediction performance,with C indices of 0.745 in the training group and 0.704 in the validation group.The AUC values of the training group at 6,12,and 24 months were 0.785,0.788,and 0.798,respectively,and those of the validation group were 0.780,0.725,and 0.607,respectively.The calibration curve shows good consistency from the predicted survival probability to the actual probability.The ROC curve and DCA show that the nomogram proposed in this study has good prediction ability.Conclusion Age,clinical grade,clinical stage,M stage,tumor size classification,and radiotherapy are important influencing factors for the survival of elderly patients with HCC.The prediction model of prognosis nomogram constructed in this study has good predictive value,and it can be used to predict the OS of elderly patients with HCC,which could be helpful for individualized survival assessment and clinical management of these patients.

Objective:To investigate the current status of literature reading report and clinical research ability among professional postgraduate students in pediatrics, and to provide a reference for cultivating high-quality pediatric talents.Methods:A total of 91 professional postgraduate students majoring in pediatrics were selected as research subjects from five affiliated hospitals of Zhengzhou University, and according to whether they participated in literature reading report, they were divided into participating group with 38 students and non-participating group with 53 students. The method of questionnaire combined with interview was used to investigate the implementation of literature reading report, the willingness to participate in literature reading report, and the current status of clinical research ability. SPSS 25.0 was used to perform the chi-square test and the Wilcoxon rank-sum test.Results:In the participating group, 60.53% (23/38) of the students thought that there was a significant improvement in clinical research ability after literature reading report, and in the non-participating group, 94.12% (48/51) of the students wanted to carry out literature reading report. Compared with the non-participating group, the participating group had significantly higher publication rate, project participation rate, academic exchange rate, and literature reading quantity ( P<0.05) and significantly better abilities of literature search and reading, professional English, and PPT presentation ( P<0.05), while there were no significant differences between the two groups in the scores of statistical analysis ability, project design ability, clinical thinking ability, and evidence-based medicine ability ( P>0.05). Conclusions:Literature reading report can promote the improvement in clinical research ability among professional postgraduate students in pediatrics, and it should be carried out regularly for a long time with adherence to the principle of clinical orientation and emphasis on the reading of methodology and statistics in literature.

Objective To investigate the effects of insulin therapy on the mechanical behavior of solids,characteristics of fluid flow,and bone marrow stromal cells(BMSCs)differentiation in the distal femoral cancellous bone of type 2 diabetic rats under normal activity and vigorous exercise conditions.Methods The finite element models of cancellous bones and fluids in the distal femurs of rats in the control,diabetes,treatment,and placebo groups in 4-week and 8-week insulin treatment experiments under normal activity and vigorous exercise conditions were established based on micro-CT scanning images.The mechanical and cell differentiation parameters of the models in each group were analyzed using the fluid-solid interaction numerical simulation method.Correlations between mechanical,cell differentiation,and microstructural morphology parameters were also analyzed.Results Insulin therapy under normal activity and vigorous exercise conditions improved the solid and fluid mechanical parameters and BMSC differentiation parameters in type 2 diabetic rats.In the 4-week experiment,insulin treatment under normal activity and vigorous exercise conditions increased the differentiation areas of bone in type 2 diabetic rats from 64.024%to 69.372%and from 73.225%to 75.336%,respectively;in the 8-week experiment,insulin treatment under normal activity and vigorous exercise conditions increased the differentiation areas of bone in type 2 diabetic rats from 67.239%to 72.910%and from 76.147%to 78.291%,respectively.Morphological parameters BV/TV,Tb.N,Tb.Th,Tb.Sp,and structure model index were significantly correlated with the differentiation areas of the bone and cartilage(P<0.05).Conclusions Under vigorous exercise conditions,BMSCs on the surface of cancellous bone in the 8-week insulin treatment group were more likely to differentiate into bone tissue.This study is of great significance for further understanding the effects of insulin on the bone under normal activity and vigorous exercise conditions,and provides theoretical guidance for the selection of the insulin therapy cycle and exercise mode in the clinical treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Objective:To explore the relevant anatomical factors in the pathogenesis of chronic dacryocystitis based on CT radiomics. Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on the general data and sinus CT materials of 85 patients with chronic dacryocystitis（case group） admitted to our department from December 2020 to December 2023, and 85 individuals undergoing physical examination（control group） during the same period. The differences in anatomical parameters between the two groups were compared to study the morphological characteristics of the nasolacrimal duct in patients with chronic dacryocystitis. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to explore the relevant anatomical factors in the pathogenesis of chronic dacryocystitis. Results:There were statistically significant differences（P<0.05） in the proportion of combined nasal septal deviation, the distance between the anterior and posterior ridges of the lacrimal fossa, the angle between the long axis of the nasolacrimal duct and the projection on the midsagittal plane, the maximum transverse diameter of the bony nasolacrimal duct, the maximum cross-sectional area of the bony nasolacrimal duct, and the thickness of the frontal process of the maxilla between the two groups. There were no statistically significant differences（P>0.05） in whether there was a combined high-position nasal septal deviation, whether there was a combined non-high-position nasal septal deviation, and whether there was a combined pneumatized middle turbinate. Multivariate analysis showed that nasal septal deviation, the distance between the anterior and posterior ridges of the lacrimal fossa, the angle between the long axis of the nasolacrimal duct and the projection on the midsagittal plane, and the maximum cross-sectional area of the bony nasolacrimal duct are independent anatomical factors affecting the pathogenesis of chronic dacryocystitis. Conclusion:Nasal septal deviation, a large distance between the anterior and posterior ridges of the lacrimal fossa, a large angle between the long axis of the nasolacrimal duct and the projection on the midsagittal plane, and a small maximum transverse diameter of the bony nasolacrimal duct are important anatomical bases for the pathogenesis of chronic dacryocystitis, providing a basis for an in-depth understanding of the disease occurrence.
Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Male ; Female ; Dacryocystitis/diagnostic imaging* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods* ; Nasolacrimal Duct/diagnostic imaging* ; Chronic Disease ; Nasal Septum/diagnostic imaging* ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Radiomics