AIM:To investigate the relationship between autophagy and calcification in vascular smooth muscle cells ( VSMCs) after platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB stimulation.METHODS:Cultured VSMCs were stimulated with PDGF-BB for different time, the expression of vascular calcification-related proteins and autophagy-related proteins were detected by Western blot .The interaction be-tween Beclin1 and PI3KC3 was detected by co-immunoprecipitation.RESULTS: The expression of BMP2 and ALP showed a trend from decline to rise.ALP slumped at 12 h, and BMP2 slumped at 6 h.Moreover, the expression of Beclin-1 showed a trend from rise
to decline, and peaked at 12 h.The conversion of LC3-ⅠtoⅡincreased in a time-dependent manner , and peaked at 24 h.The ex-pression of BMP2 and ALP was increased in VSMCs incubated with PDGF-BB and autophagy inhibitor 3-MA, compared with PDGF-BB-stimulated VSMCs.Furthermore, the interaction between Beclin1 and PI3KC3 was enhanced at 6 h after PDGF-BB stimulated, peaked at 12 h, and kept in high level at 24 h.Moreover, the phosphorylation level of Beclin 1 was enhanced by PDGF-BB stimulation, and peaked at 6 h.CONCLUSION:Our findings demonstrate that PDGF-BB-induced autophagy inhibits VSMC calcification by en-hancing Beclin1 phosphorylation and interaction between Beclin 1 and PI3KC3.

Objective To evaluate the relationship between the cytokine levels in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid and the brain injury in preterm infants. Methods From August of 2012 to August of 2013,51 preterm infants were included and 46 infants were survived. All of them were born at the Maternal and Child Hospital of Hubei Pro-vince,with GA≤32 weeks and high risk factors of intrauterine infection and suffering from early onset sepsis. Ac-cording to the screening findings of cerebral ultrasound and/or MRI,the infants were divided into normal group(n=28) and abnormal groups(n=18) with intracranial hemorrhage or white matter damage. The levels of interleukin(IL)-6,IL-1β and tumor necrosis factor-α( TNF-α) in the serum within 12 hours after birth and in cerebrospinal fluid within 72 hours after birth were investigated. The differences in cytokines between two groups were compared with t-test and Chi-square test,and high risk factors of brain injury were analyzed by Logistic regression models. Results The ab-normal group had higher incidence of clinical maternal chorioamnionitis[44. 44%(8/18 cases) vs 14. 29%(4/28 ca-ses),χ2=5.168,P=0.038] and higher white blood cell count[(11.51±9.03)×109/L vs(6.95±5.64)×109/L,t=-2. 107,P=0. 041]. In the abnormal group,the levels of serum IL-6 [(44. 83±16. 31) ng/L],and IL-6,IL-1βand TNF-αin cerebrospinal fluid [(51. 85±15. 65) ng/L,(11. 95±2. 58) ng/L and(193. 11±67. 25) ng/L] were higher than those in the normal group[(36.83±8.76) ng/L,(42.56±12.89) ng/L,(10.26±2.91) ng/L and(160.56± 29. 02) ng/L,respectively] with the statistical difference(t=-2. 687,-2. 250,0. 269,-2. 243,P=0. 010,0. 029,0. 044, 0. 030). Maternal chorioamnionitis,higher serum TNF-αand cerebrospinal fluid IL-6 were high risk factors for brain in-jury(P=0. 014,0. 031,0. 047). Conclusion Increased systemic and cerebrospinal fluid cytokine levels are possibly re-lated to the preterm brain injury when intrauterine infection occurred.

Objective: To analysis gender disparities in epidemiological trend of HIV/AIDS disease burden among Chinese population aged 10-24 years from 1990 to 2019. Methods: The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD 2019) results tool was used to extract the number of deaths, mortality rate, disability adjusted life years (DALY), DALY rate, years of life lost (YLL), YLL rate, years lived with disability (YLD) and YLD rate to comprehensively analyze the change range of HIV/AIDS disease burden in the Chinese population aged 10-24 years from 1990 to 2019. Results: In 2019, the number of deaths, mortality rate, DALY, DALY rate, YLL, YLL rate, YLD and YLD rate of Chinese population aged 10-24 years due to HIV/AIDS were 847, 0.37 per 100 000 , 62 621 person years, 27.51 per 100 000, 58 036 person years, 25.49 per 100 000, 4 584 person years, 2.01 per 100 000 respectively, with the increase of 401.18%, 691.49%, 370.48%, 648.26%, 409.53%, 710.33%, 138.87% and 279.25% , compared with the data in 1990. In term of gender, the number of deaths, mortality rate, DALY, and DALY rate of Chinese male population aged 10-14, 15-19 and 20-24 years due to HIV/AIDS in 2019 were higher than those of female, and the growth rate (compared with 1990) was also higher than that of female. In term of the age group, the increase in people aged 10-14 years was higher than that of people aged 20-24 years. From 1990 to 2019, with the increase of year and age, gender disparity between mortality and DALY rate widened. Conclusion Compared with data in 1990, the risk of HIV/AIDS infection in 2019 among Chinese population aged 10-24 years continued to increase, especially among young people of 10-14 years. Gender disparity is exacerbating.

Objective To analyse the hot topics(CKD)frontiers,and of blood pressure monitoring in research of chronic kidney disease(CKD)at home and abroad,and provide references for future research in this field.Methods Articles on blood pressure monitoring in published in Web of Science,China Knowledge Network Infrastructure(CNKI),Wanfang(Wanfang Data)and China Science and Technology Journal Database(VIP)from 2011 to 2022 were searched,and CiteSpace 5.8.R3 visual analysis software was employed to analyse the number of articles involved,country,institution,keyword co-occurrence.The analysis was performed on the number of published papers,countries,institutions,keyword co-occurrence atlas,high frequency subject terms,keyword emergence and emergence of literatures.Results ① A total of 504 articles in English and 72 articles in Chinese were extracted from the literature search.Annual distribution of the number of articles generally showed a continuous upward trend,in which 2 peaks of articles were formed in 2016 and 2018;the main country of issuance was the United States,and the main institution of issuance was the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,Greece;② In the analysis of keyword co-occurrence,8 high-frequency keywords with a word frequency greater than or equal to 30 were identified.It indicated that the research hotspots mainly focused on the classification of hypertension,the characteristics of blood pressure circadian rhythm,the management of cardiovascular disease and the prediction of death and prognosis in the blood pressure monitoring of CKD;③ Further testing of the emergent terms and emergent literatures yielded 23 strongest emergent terms and 11 emergent literatures,which went through three stages of development,namely,early,intermediate and latest.It was found that the research gradually shifted from the application of blood pressure monitoring in the assessment and diagnosis of kidney disease to the treatment,management and prognostic assessment of hypertension in CKD Conclusion The importance of blood pressure monitoring in the management of hypertension in CKD has received increasing attention from researchers,and future researches should focus on using different blood pressure monitoring schemes to enhance the assessment of cardiovascular risks and the individualised management of hypertension.

OBJECTIVETo investigate long-term efficacy and safety of ambrisentan monotherapy in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

METHODSPatients with PAH who received 2.5 mg or 5 mg of ambrisentan once daily between July 10, 2011 and August 30, 2012 for at least 6 months were enrolled. The efficacy endpoints were change in exercise capacity, World Health Organization (WHO) functional class and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) level, echocardiographic parameters. The safety endpoint was the safety of long-term ambrisentan administration, as defined by the incidence and severity of adverse events.

RESULTSA total of 18 patients with PAH were enrolled. Mean age was (39 ± 17) years, 8 (55.6%) were female, and 11 (61.1%) patients were in WHO functional class III. The median duration of treatment was 17 months (range: 6-26 months). After treatment, the 6MWD was significantly increased[ (495 ± 97) m vs. (400 ± 91) m, P < 0.001], NT-proBNP was significantly reduced [308 (53-1 645) ng/L vs. 80(22-454) ng/L, P = 0.005], the systolic pulmonary artery was significantly decreased [(62 ± 30) mmHg vs. (82 ± 41) mmHg, P = 0.001] and left ventricular end diastolic diameter was significantly increased [(44 ± 6) mm vs. (40 ± 6) mm, P < 0.004] compared to pre-treatment. WHO functional class was improved compared with baseline in 11(61.1%) patients, stable in 7(38.9%) patients. No patient died during the treatment period. No patient was withdrawn from this study for safety reasons.

CONCLUSIONSLong-term treatment of ambrisentan can effectively improve the exercise capacity, reduce systolic pulmonary artery pressure and NT-proBNP in PAH patients. Ambrisentan is safe and well tolerated in Chinese PAH patients.

Adult ; Blood Pressure ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; drug therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Natriuretic Peptide, Brain ; metabolism ; Peptide Fragments ; metabolism ; Phenylpropionates ; therapeutic use ; Pyridazines ; therapeutic use ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

To construct soluble TNF related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) expression system and investigate the effect of the expression product on tumor cell. It may provide valuable information for research into the immune system of the finless porpoise. The full-length cDNA of TRAIL (designated fTRAIL) was cloned from the total RNA of the finless porpoises blood using RT-PCR techniques and then the extracellular soluble fragments of fTRAIL (designated fsTRAIL) was ligated into pET43.1a. Recombinant soluble fTRAIL (pET43.1a-fsTRAIL) fused with Nus-his tag was efficiently expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) and the Nus-His-fsTRAIL protein was purified. The expression of Nus-His-fsTRAIL was verified by Western blotting. In vitro, the effects of the purified Nus-His-fsTRAIL protein on Jurkat and HeLa cells were etected by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrasodium bromide (MTT) assay, TrypanBlue and Flow Cytometry analysis. The expression system pET43.1a-fsTRAIL was constructed and Nus-His-fsTRAIL protein was expressed successfully. In vitro, the Nus-His-fsTRAIL protein was able to inhibit the proliferation and induce apoptosis of Jurkat and HeLa cells in a dose-dependent manner. The Nus-His-fsTRAIL protein has anti-tumor activity against Jurkat and HeLa cells in vitro.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; Blotting, Western ; Cloning, Molecular ; DNA, Complementary ; Escherichia coli ; HeLa Cells ; Humans ; Jurkat Cells ; Porpoises ; TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand ; biosynthesis