Objective To investigate the profiles of serum nerve grow factor profile (NGF),neurotrophin (NT)-3,as well as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in patients with dermatomyositis (DM) complicated with interstitial lung damage (ILD).Methods Forty-seven patients were divided into 2 groups:ILD group (30 patients) and non-ILD group (17 patients).Twenty healthy blood donors were used as controls.Serum levels of NGF,NT-3,as well as BDNF were measured serum by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).ANOVA was used to compare serum level of NTs.When a significant difference was found,the exact P-values were calculated using the student's t-test or t-test followed by Bonferroni's correction.Pearson test was used for correlation analysis.Results The serum NGF levels in healthy control group,the non-ILD group and the ILD group were (182±43),(308±72),(480±96) pg/ml respectively.There was statistically significant difference between the three groups (F=90.3,P＜0.01),and the serum NGF levels were elevated significantly in ILD and non-ILD patient groups as compared with healthy controls (t=12.9 and t=6.5 respectively,both P＜0.01).The serum level of NGF was significantly higher in ILD group than that in the non-ILD group (t=6.4,P＜0.01).There was no significant difference in the serum levels of NT-3 among the two patient groups and healthy controls.On the contrary,BDNF levels were significantly decreased in both ILD [(792± 106) pg/ml] and non-ILD patients groups [(963±93) pg/ml] when compared with healthy controls [(1 281±107) pg/ml] (t=15.9 and t=9.6 respectively,both P＜0.01).The decrease was also significant in ILD group when compared with non-ILD group (t=5.6,P＜0.01).Moreover,NGF and BDNF both showed significant correlation with serum C-reactive protein (CRP) level in ILD group by applying Pearson correlation analysis (r=0.56,P＜0.01; r=-0.48,P＜0.05 respectively).Conclusion Neurotrophins may play an import role in the pathogenesis of DM.

To evaluate the acute lung toxicity of intratracheally instilled nano-TiO2 in Kunming mice, healthy adult male Kunming mice were randomly grouped by their body weight (5 mice in each group). The lungs of mice were intratracheally instilled with 1 or 10 mg/kg x bw of nano-TiO2. The control group was intratracheally instilled with the same volume of physiological saline. After 1 d, 7 d, 14 d and 28 d of exposure, the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and lung tissue were collected. The indices of BALF were examined. Lung tissues were assess histopathologically. The results showed that all indices of 10 mg/kg x bw groups were obviously higher than those of the control group and the group of nano-1 mg/kg x bw, respectively. Activities of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) on the 1st, 7th, 14th and 28th day post-exposure (pe), the amounts of malodialdehyde (MDA) on the 1st, 7th and, 14th day pe and total protein (TP) on the 1st and 7th day pe as well as the amounts of leukocyte on the 1st and 7th day pe of 10 mg/kg x bw groups were significantly different as compared with controls (P < 0.05). There were no obvious changes observed in the activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) within groups (P > 0.05). Histopathological examination revealed that the lungs of 10 mg/kg x bw groups presented marked increase in pulmonary inflammation. Many TiO2 particles were still clearly found in the interstitium at 28 days pe. In contrast, low-dose instillation put forward a low risk potential for producing adverse effects on pulmonary health. We conclude that the inflammatory reaction gradually ceased after 28 days. Under the same experimental condition, the effect of lung injury was severer in high-dose nano-TiO2 than in low-dose nano-TiO2.
Animals ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid ; cytology ; Lung ; drug effects ; pathology ; Male ; Metal Nanoparticles ; toxicity ; Mice ; Random Allocation ; Titanium ; toxicity ; Toxicity Tests, Acute

Objective:To examine the association between working hours and urinary sodium and potassium excretion levels in a population undergoing health examinations and the potential mediating effect of timely eating behaviors.Methods:In this cross-sectional study, 64 400 people who received health checkups from August 2017 to August 2022 at the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University were recruited as study subjects. General information on socio-demographic characteristics of the enrolled subjects were collected using the health checkup self-assessment questionnaire in the Expert Consensus on Basic Items for Health Checkups. Urinary excretion levels of sodium and potassium were measured with the Kawasaki method. The association between working hours and urinary sodium and potassium excretion levels was checked by using Pearson′s correlation analysis. The relationships between timely eating behaviors, working hours, and urinary sodium and potassium excretion levels and their ratios were analyzed using logistic regression and linear regression models, while the mediating mechanisms involved was also examined.Results:Among the 64 400 subjects, there were 39 274 males (60.98%) and 25 126 females (39.02%), the mean age was (43.80±11.13) years. There were 16 980 individuals (26.37%) with an average working time exceeding 8 hours per day. Additionally, 4 332 subjects (6.73%) were unable to eat three meals on time. The mean urinary sodium and potassium excretion and their ratios were (4.12±1.86) g/d, (2.06±0.80) g/d, 2.05±0.66, respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between working hours and urinary sodium excretion, urinary potassium excretion, and their ratios ( r=0.034, 0.021, 0.032, respectivley); it showed that timely eating behavior had a significant negative correlation with urinary sodium and potassium excretion ( r=-0.022, -0.019, respectivley) (all P<0.001). There was a partial mediating effect of timely eating behavior in the association between working hours and urinary sodium excretion (effect value of -0.006), and after stratifying the labor intensity, this mediating effect was only found among individuals engaged in light physical labor (both P<0.001). Conclusions:Prolonged working hours leads to increased levels of urinary sodium and urinary potassium excretion, and timely eating behavior facilitates salt/sodium reduction in light-duty workers.

Objective:To review publications in the field of digestive endoscopic minimally-invasive resection in the past 10 years in and outside China.Methods:Literature of digestive endoscopic minimally-invasive resection in the Web of Science and CNKI databases from January 1, 2011 to July 17, 2021 was retrieved. VOSviewer 1.6.11 was used for clustering and time series analysis of countries, institutions, authors and keywords, and drawing evidence-based visualization maps, so as to analyze the cooperation among countries, academic institutions and researchers, to compare the differences in research topics between Chinese and English databases, and to predict the future research hot spots and directions.Results:A total of 22 834 English articles and 4 636 Chinese articles were included. Over the past 10 years, the number of Chinese and English publications has been growing steadily, and most of them were published in professional journals. The publications were mainly from China, Japan, South Korea and the United States, where all exceeded 2 000. The National Cancer Center of Japan had 497 publications, ranking the first among all institutions. The cooperation between academic institutions showed obvious regional characteristics, and the inter-institutional and interpersonal cooperation needed improvement. In terms of keyword clustering, there was no significant difference between Chinese and English publications, but there were two additional clusters in Chinese publications, endoscopic nursing and submucosal tumor. Overlays analysis of key words showed that endoscopic surgery, tunneling technique, and submucosal tumor could be hot spots and future directions.Conclusion:Digestive endoscopic minimally-invasive resection has experienced a vigorous development in the past 10 years with a growing number of Chinese and English publications. China is playing an increasingly important role on the international stage. The advanced nature of research focus in Chinese publications is comparable to that in English publications, yet also showing Chinese characteristics. In the future, more efforts should be taken to strengthen regional cooperation and focus on research hot spots.