Objectives To investigate the association of fluid overload (FO) with the development and mortality of acute kidney injury (AKI) and to evaluate the predictive value of FO in mortality of critically ill children. Method A prospective study was conducted among critically ill children who were admitted to the children's intensive care unit (PICU). FO levels were assessed during the course of the disease and PRISM Ⅲ scores were evaluated within 24 hours of admission. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the association of FO with the development and mortality of AKI after adjusting for confounding factors. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was calculated to assess the predictive value of FO for mortality. Results In 362 children included, there were 26 children (7.18%) having average FO≥5%, and AKI in 24 children (6.63%) and 18 children (5.0%) died. The mean FO (OR=1.26, 95%CI: 1.10～1.43, P=0.001) and the maximum FO (OR=1.12, 95%CI: 1.02～1.23, P=0.018) were significantly correlated with the development of AKI in critically ill children within 7 days of admission to PICU. However, after adjusting for age and PRISM Ⅲ, both factors had no association with AKI (all P>0.05). After adjusting for the potential confounders such as AKI and the severity of disease, the average FO was significantly associated with mortality (AOR=1.34, 95%CI: 1.12～1.60, P=0.002). The AUC of mean FO that predicted mortality risk was 0.801 (P<0.001). Conclusion Fluid overload is associated with the development and the prognosis of AKI in critically ill children, and has important predictive value for mortality.

Objective To investigate the correlation between inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene polymorphism and ischemic stroke in Chinese Han population.Methods Patients with first-ever stroke and the age-and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled in the study.Taqman probe fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction technique was used to detect the genotype distribution of rs2779248 C/T and rs1137933 C/T polymorphisms.Results A total of 246 patients with ischemic stroke and 246 controls were enrolled.The distribution frequencies of rs2779248 CC,CT and TT genotypes in the patient group were 57.7％,36.6％,and 5.7％,respectively,and in the control group were 68.7％,28.0％,and 3.3％,respectively.The T allele frequency of the patient group was significantly higher than that of the control group (24.0％ vs.17.3％;P =0.015).Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that after adjusting for the risk factors including age,sex,hypertension,and diabetes,the risk of ischemic stroke in the CT + TT genotype carriers was 1.64 times of the CC genotype carriers (odds ratio 1.64,95％ confidence interval 1.07-2.51;P=0.022).The distribution frequencies of rs1137933 CC,CT and TT in the patient group were 58.1％,37.8％,and 4.1％,respectively and in the control group were 68.3％,29.3％,and 2.4％,respectively.The T allele frequency of the patient group was significantly higher than that of the control group (23.0％ vs.17.1％;P =0.013).Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that after adjusting for traditional risk factors,the risk of ischemic stroke of patients with the TT + CT genotype carriers was 1.60 times of the CC genotype carriers (odds ratio 1.60,95％ confidence interval 1.05-2.46;P=0.030).Conclusions The rs2779248 C/T and rs1137933 C/T polymorphisms in iNOS gene may be associated with the risk of onset of ischemic stroke in Chinese Han population.

Objective:To explore the early predictive value of urinary nephrin in acute kidney injury (AKI) for critically ill neonates.Methods:A prospective study was conducted to neonates who were admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Children′s Hospital of Soochow University, from July to October 2016.According to whether AKI occurred during the NICU′s hospitalization, neonates were divided into AKI group and non-AKI group.Urinary nephrin levels were detected at the first 24 h of NICU, and the score for neonatal acute physiology (SNAP) was assessed within 24 hours of NICU.Multivariate linear analyses were applied to analyze potential variables that were asso-ciated with urinary nephrin level.Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was adopted to evaluate the relationship between urinary nephrin and AKI after adjusting for confounding factors.A receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) were calculated to assess the early predictive value of urinary nephrin for neonatal AKI. Results:Among the 156 neonates enrolled in the study, 16 cases(10.2%) developed AKI.The median of urinary nephrin, urinary albumin and SNAP scores were 0.27 μg/mg uCr, 0.48 g/g uCr and 9 scores with AKI group, while the median of urinary nephrin, urinary albumin and SNAP scores were 0.16 μg/mg uCr, 0.16 g/g uCr and 7 scores with non-AKI group.When compared with non-AKI neonates, urinary nephrin ( Z=-3.201, P=0.001), urinary albumin ( Z=-2.652, P=0.008) and SNAP score ( Z=-2.611, P=0.009) were significantly higher in AKI neonates.Multiple linear regression analysis proved that urinary nephrin levels were significantly correlated with urinary albumin ( B=0.488, SE=0.117, P<0.001). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis revealed that urinary nephrin remained significantly associated with AKI ( P=0.018) after adjusting for confounding factors, including gestational age, birth weight, gender, SNAP score, mechanical ventilation and apnea.Urinary nephrin achieved AUC of 0.746 (95% CI: 0.606-0.886, P=0.001). Conclusions:As a biomarker of glomerular injury, urinary nephrin is significantly related to the occurrence of AKI and has early predictive value for AKI in critically ill neonates.

Excavating the quantitative trait locus (QTL) associated with rice cooking quality, analyzing candidate genes, and improving cooking quality-associated traits of rice varieties by genetic breeding can effectively improve the taste of rice. In this study, we used the indica rice HZ, the japonica rice Nekken2 and 120 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) populations constructed from them as experimental materials to measure the gelatinization temperature (GT), gel consistency (GC) and amylose content (AC) of rice at the maturity stage. We combined the high-density genetic map for QTL mapping. A total of 26 QTLs associated with rice cooking quality (1 QTL associated with GT, 13 QTLs associated with GC, and 12 QTLs associated with AC) were detected, among which the highest likelihood of odd (LOD) value reached 30.24. The expression levels of candidate genes in the localization interval were analyzed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and it was found that the expression levels of six genes were significantly different from that in parents. It was speculated that the high expression of LOC_Os04g20270 and LOC_Os11g40100 may greatly increase the GC of rice, while the high expression of LOC_Os01g04920 and LOC_Os02g17500 and the low expression of LOC_Os03g02650 and LOC_Os05g25840 may reduce the AC. The results lay a molecular foundation for the cultivation of new high-quality rice varieties, and provide important genetic resources for revealing the molecular regulation mechanism of rice cooking quality.
Quantitative Trait Loci ; Oryza/genetics* ; Plant Breeding ; Cooking ; Genetic Association Studies