Aim To study the effects of probucol on THP-1 macrophage apoptosis and CD36、Caveolin-1 expression induced by ox-LDL.Methods Apoptosis of THP-1 macrophages was determined by flow cytometry analysis.RT-PCR and immunofluorescence were used to detect CD36,Caveolin-1 mRNA level and protein expression respectively.Results Probucol had no effect on mRNA level of CD36,Caveolin-1 in THP-1 macrophages,but it attenuated Caveolin-1 protein expression.Conclusions Probucol can inhibit apoptosis induced by ox-LDL in THP-1 macrophages by down-regulating Caveolin-1 protein expression.

AIM: To investigate pharmacdogical mechanism of Negundo Chastetree extract liquor (NCEL), the effect of (NCEL) on blood-fat, liver-fat and blood-sugar in the rat and the mouse were studied in this paper. METHODS: The experimental models were established by giving rats and mice NCEL orally at dosages 5.0, 7.5, 10.0 mL/kg.b.w respectively. Then the level of blood-fat, liver-fat, and blood-sugar were observed. RESULTS: The level of serum triglyceride and total cholesterol decreased considerably in mice, at the same time, the increase of triglyceride induced by high lipid diet in liver of mice were inhibited significantly. In addition, the level of fatty liver of hepatic homogenization triglyceride in rats with induced by DL-ethionine was lowered obviously by oral administration of NCEL. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that NCEL may have effects of reducing blood-fat and pretecting liver.

AIM: To explore the influence of herbs (9602 prescription) on brain energy metabolism in cerebral ischemia reperfusion mice.METHODS: Ischemia reperfusion in cerebral injury model was duplicated in mice. Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), the brain metabolism were measured. The influence of 9602 prescription on cerebral energy metabolism in ischemia reperfusion mice model was dynamicly observed. RESULTS: Phase Ⅰ: The spectrum of NMR showed that after 10 min of ischemia, the PCr peak dropped significantly, while the Pi peak rose significantly in both the control and the “9602” group. There was no remarkable difference between the two groups. After reperfusion the PCr peak in the control group continued dropping slowly and remained at a low level (55.50?14.94) after 10 min of reperfusion, while after reperfusion the fallen PCr peak in the “9602” group started rising till 76.72?13.37 (P0.05). Phase Ⅱ: The HPLC showed that the cerebral energy charge values of the control group (0.1104?0.0343) were significantly lower than those of the “9602” group (0.2884?0.0552) and the sham-operation group (0.1846?0.0455) (P

Objective To assess if the ratio of ApoB/ApoA1 is related to the metabolic syndrome and its components. Methods 709 adults living in Chongqing were enrolled. Weight, height, blood pressure, waist circumferences, fasting plasma glucose(FPG) , fasting serum insulin(FIns) and lipids were measured. ApoB/ApoA1 ratio, BMI and insulin resistance index were calculated. Results ApoB/ ApoA1 ratio was increased in subjects with insulin resistance(IR)and MS. Compared with the low ApoB/ ApoA1 ratio group, the high ApoB/ApoA1 ratio group was more likely to get MS(OR=3.5)and IR(OR =2.3) (P<0.001). Conclusions ApoB/ApoA1 ratio is strongly associated with IR, MS and its components, and a high ApoB/ApoA1 ratio is a valuable marker of MS.

Objective To compare the safety and efficacy of insulin degludec (IDeg) with those of insulin glargine (IGlar) in insulin-naive subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2DM).Methods This was a 26-week,randomized,open-label,parallel-group,treat-to-target trial in 560 Chinese subjects with T2DM (men/women:274/263,mean age 56 years,mean diabetes duration 7 years) inadequately controlled on oral antidiabetic drugs (OADs).Subjects were randomized 2:1 to once-daily IDeg (373 subjects) or IGlar(187 subjects),both in combination with metformin.The primary endpoint was changes from baseline in glycosylated hemoglobin(HbA1c) after 26 weeks.Results Mean HbA1c decreased from 8.2％ in both groups to 6.9％ in IDeg and 7.0％ in IGlar,respectively.Estimated treatment difference (ETD) of IDegIGlar in change from baseline was-0.10％ points (95％ CI-0.25-0.05).The proportion of subjects achieving HbA1c ＜ 7.0％ was 56.3％ and 49.7％ with IDeg and IGlar,respectively [estimated odds ratio of IDeg/IGlar:1.26 (95 ％ CI 0.88-1.82)].Numerically lower rateof overall confirmed hypoglycaemia and statistically significantly lower nocturnal confirmed hypoglycemia were associated with IDeg compared with IGlar,respectively [estimated rateratio of IDeg/IGlar 0.69 (95％ CI 0.46-1.03),and 0.43 (95％ CI 0.19-0.97)].No differences in other safety parameters were found between the two groups.Conclusions IDeg was non-inferior to IGlar in terms of glycaemic control,and was associated with a statistically significantly lower rate of nocturnal confirmed hypoglycaemia.IDeg is considered to be suitable for initiating insulin therapy in Chinese T2DM patients on OADs requiring intensified treatment.Clinical trail registration Clinicaltrials.gov,NCT01849289.

Primary aldosteronism is a common cause of endocrine hypertension. Aldosterone-producing adenoma and bilateral idiopathic hyperplasia are the two major subtypes of primary aldosteronism. Unilateral adrenal hyperplasia as one of the rare subtypes was seldom reported. Herein, we present in detail a patient with unilateral adrenal hyperplasia difficult to be subtyped. By discussing several key points of the diagnosis and treatment process, some useful experiences and information are provided for the clinicians.

Objective:The aim of the present study was to re-evaluate the diagnostic value and optimal cutoff point of captopril challenge test (CCT) in diagnosis of primary aldosteronism (PA).Methods:This is a retrospective study. All patients with a high risk for PA underwent screening test, and then proceeded to CCT and fludrocortisone suppression test (FST) on different days. The FST was used as a reference standard for PA. The plasma renin concentration (PRC) and plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) were measured with an automated chemiluminescence immunoassay. Random number method was performed in the patients with unilateral primary aldosteronism (UPA), in order to make the proportion of the analyzed UPA in PA was 35%. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were performed to compare diagnostic accuracy.Results:A total of 543 patients with 400 PA patients and 143 essential hypertension (EH) patients were enrolled. The diagnostic value of post-CCT PAC was significantly higher than that of the post-CCT plasma aldosterone-renin ratio (ARR), and that of the PAC suppression percentage, respectively. The area under the ROC curve (AUC ROC) was 0.86 (0.83, 0.89) for PAC, 0.78 (0.74, 0.82) for ARR, and 0.62 (0.56, 0.67) for the PAC suppression percentage (all P<0.01), respectively. The optimal cutoff point of post-CCT PAC for PA was 110 ng/L, in which the sensitivity and specificity were 73.25% and 79.02%, respectively. The diagnostic efficiency of post-CCT PAC was not improved either in combination with PAC suppression percentage or in combination with post-CCT ARR. Conclusions:CCT is a useful test for the confirmation of PA. PAC level of 110 ng/L at 2 h after 50 mg of captopril is recommended as an optimal cutoff point for the diagnosis of PA.

Objective:To analyze the distribution characteristics of plasma renin concentration (PRC) in patients with aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) and its impact on diagnosis.Methods:In this retrospective case series, clinical data from 200 patients with APA (80 men and 120 women; mean age 45.6 years) in the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from November 2013 to January 2022 were evaluated. PRC was determined by automated chemiluminescence immunoassay. The distribution characteristics of PRC were analyzed, and 8.2 mU/L was used as the low renin cutoff to evaluate whether renin was suppressed.Results:The median PRC was 1.6 mU/L (range, 0.4-41.5 mU/L). There were 116 patients with APA with PRC of ≤2 mU/L, 41 patients with 28.2 mU/L) in 8.0% (16/200) of the patients with APA. And PRC was not suppressed in 2.5% (5/200) of the patients with APA, resulting in a primary aldosteronism negative screening outcome.Conclusions:Although most patients with APA have low PRC, there are a small number (8%) of patients whose PRC has not been fully suppressed, which can lead to missed diagnoses during primary aldosteronism screening. While primary aldosteronism is highly suspected, further investigations are required to determine the diagnosis, even if PRC is not fully suppressed at screening.

BACKGROUND: Links between alterations in gut microbiota composition and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have previously been reported. This study aimed to examine the microbiota in the nasal cavity of ALS. METHODS: Sixty-six ALS patients and 40 healthy caregivers who live in close proximity with patients were enrolled. High throughput metagenomic sequencing of the 16S ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid (rDNA) gene V3-V4 region of nasal microbiota was used to characterize the alpha and beta diversity and relative abundance of bacterial taxa, predict function, and conduct correlation analysis between specific taxa and clinical features. RESULTS: The nasal microbiome of ALS patients showed lower alpha diversity than that of corresponding healthy family members. Genera Gaiella , Sphingomonas , Polaribacter _1, Lachnospiraceae _NK4A136_group, Klebsiella , and Alistipes were differentially enriched in ALS patients compared to controls. Nasal microbiota composition in ALS patients significantly differed from that in healthy subjects (unweighted UniFrac P = 0.001), while Linear discriminant analysis Effect Size (LEfSe) analysis indicated that Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes dominated healthy nasal communities at the phylum level, whereas Actinobacteria was the predominant phylum and Thermoleophilia was the predominant class in ALS patients. Genus Faecalibacterium and Alistipes were positively correlated with ALS functional rating scale revised (ALSFRS-R; rs = 0.349, P = 0.020 and rs = 0.393, P = 0.008), while Prevotella -9 and Bacteroides operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were positively associated with lung function (FVC) in ALS patients ( rs = 0.304, P = 0.045, and rs = 0.300, P = 0.048, respectively). Prevotella -1 was positively correlated with white blood cell counts (WBC, rs = 0.347, P = 0.021), neutrophil percentage (Neu%, rs = 0.428, P = 0.004), and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR, rs = 0.411, P = 0.006), but negatively correlated with lymphocyte percentage (Lym%, rs = -0.408, P = 0.006). In contrast, Streptococcus was negatively associated with Neu% ( rs = -0.445, P = 0.003) and NLR ( rs = -0.436, P = 0.003), while positively associated with Lym% ( rs = 0.437, P = 0.003). No significant differences in nasal microbiota richness and evenness were detected among the severe and mild ALS patients. CONCLUSIONS ALS is accompanied by altered nasal microbial community composition and diversity. The findings presented here highlight the need to understand how dysbiosis of nasal microbiota may contribute to the development of ALS.
Humans ; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/microbiology* ; Feces/microbiology* ; Microbiota/genetics* ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics* ; Bacteria/genetics* ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics*