Air ; analysis ; Air Pollutants, Occupational ; analysis ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; methods ; Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons ; analysis ; Workplace

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the differences in the autophagy activity of alveolar macrophages between patients with different stages of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP).

METHODSA total of 116 coal workers were investigated in the field. Their lung lavage fluid was collected and purified to obtain alveolar macrophages. The morphological characteristics of autophagy were observed by transmission electron microscopy. The expression of autophagy marker (LC3) and autophagy regulators (Beclin1, mTOR, and p-mTOR) was measured by Western blot. The autophagy activity of alveolar macrophages was compared between dust-exposed subjects and patients with stage I, II, and III CWP.

RESULTSThe autophagy activity of alveolar macrophages differed between patients with different stages of CWP, according to transmission electron microscopy. Patients with stage II CWP had significantly higher protein expression of LC3 II/I and Beclin1 in pulmonary macrophages than those with stage ICWP (P < 0.05); patients with stage III CWP had significantly lower protein expression of LC3 II/I and Beclin1 in pulmonary macrophages than those with stage II CWP (P < 0.05), but had significantly higher protein expression of LC3 II/I and Beclin1 than those with stage I CWP (P < 0.05); patients with stage II CWP had a significantly higher protein expression of Beclin1 than the dust-exposed subjects (P < 0.05). Patients with stage II CWP had significantly lower expression of mTOR and p-mTOR in pulmonary macrophages than the dust-exposed subjects and those with stage I CWP (P < 0.05), while patients with stage III CWP had significantly higher expression of mTOR and p-mTOR than those with stage II CWP (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe autophagy activity of alveolar macrophages varies between patients with different stages of CWP.

Anthracosis ; pathology ; Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins ; metabolism ; Autophagy ; Beclin-1 ; Biomarkers ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid ; Coal ; Coal Mining ; Dust ; Humans ; Macrophages, Alveolar ; pathology ; Membrane Proteins ; metabolism ; Microtubule-Associated Proteins ; metabolism ; Occupational Exposure ; Pneumoconiosis ; pathology

OBJECTIVETo investigate psychological stress and influence factors on the mine emergency rescue personnel.

METHOD564 mine emergency rescue personnel from a rescue group were select as subjects, and 60 designers from a steel design institute were as controls. Self-made questionnaire and general job stress questionnaire were used to investigate the basic information, rescue history, psychosomatic symptoms, depression symptoms, daily job stress and negative emotions of emergency rescue personnel. SPSS17.0 software was used to analysis the psychological stress on the mine rescue personnel and its influence factors.

RESULTSThe detection rate (41.94%) of depression symptoms in rescue team was higher than that of controls (24.90%). The score of daily job stress was higher than that of logistical support. The older age group with higher negative emotional and daily job stress than the younger. The highest negative emotion was in age group of more than 40 years old. The highest score of daily job stress was in ≤30 years old. The score of depression and psychosomatic symptoms were higher than those of the college and the above. The scores of depression in group of duration of rescue <10 years was higher than that of duration≥10 years. The score of daily job stress is the lowest in rescue for 1 to 2 times per year and the highest in group of simulation training once a week. The score of daily job stress and depressive symptoms were getting higher with the extension of combat duty time. Age, hours of combat duty, training times a week, education and life events were the main affecting fectors on mental health of mine rescuers.

CONCLUSIONSMine rescuers have more psychological stress than generic population. The psychological stress of the mine crew is related to age, education, life events, training and combat readiness duty time.

Adult ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Depression ; Disasters ; Emergency Responders ; psychology ; Humans ; Mental Health ; Mining ; Rescue Work ; Stress, Psychological ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: To observe the intervention effect of polyguanylic acid( Poly G) on silicosis fibrosis in rats and to explore its possible mechanism. METHODS: Specific pathogen free adult male SD rats were randomly divided into 6 groups:control group,silicosis model group and 4 intervention groups( intervention group 1,2,3 and 4),with 5 rats in each group. Except for the control group,the other 5 groups were treated with 1. 0 m L silica suspension( 50. 0 g / L mass concentration) by intratracheal intubation,four intervention group was given by intraperitoneal injection of 1,2,3 and 4doses of Poly G at 2. 5 mg / kg body weight after establishing the model for 1 to 21 days. All rats were sacrificed 28 days after silicosis model establishment. Lung pathological changes were observed and the pulmonary fibrosis was evaluated by Ashcroft scores. The expression of Macrophage receptor with collagenous structure( MARCO),transforming growth factor-β1( TGF-β1),E-cadherin,Vimentin and α-smooth muscle actin( α-SMA) protein were detected by western blot.RESULTS: In the model group,a large number of dust cell aggregates were found in the alveolar cavity and diffuse collagen deposition appeared in the pulmonary interstitial,indicating that silicosis model was successfully constructed. The alveolar structure of the single dose intervention group was integral and the degree of fibrosis was significantly less than that of the silicosis model group. Compared with the control group,MARCO,TGF-β1,Vimentin and α-SMA expression levels of silicosis model group were increased,the expression level of E-cadherin decreased, the difference was statistically significant( P < 0. 05). Compared with the silicosis model group,TGF-β1,Vimentin and α-SMA expression levels of single dose intervention group decreased,E-cadherin expression level increased,the difference was statistically significant( P < 0. 05). The dose-response relationship could not perceived between the Poly G intervention times and the Ashcroft scores or the protein expression levels of MARCO,TGF-β1,E-cadherin,Vimentin and α-SMA respectively. CONCLUSION: Poly G can effectively reduce lung inflammation and fibrosis in rats. The effect of single dose intervention( 2. 5 mg / kg body weight,intraperitoneal injection) at the first day after silica exposure is the best. The mechanism of action may be related to the low-does Ply G which can inhibit the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and then result in the decrease of collagen synthesis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role and mechanism of the endoplasmic reticulum stress(ERS) pathway of apoptosis mediated by inositol-requiring enzyme-1(IRE1) in the intervention of silicosis fibrosis in rats using polyguanylic acid(PolyG).METHODS: The specific pathogen free adult male SD rats were randomly divided into control group(24rats),silicosis model group(24 rats),PolyG intervention group(16 rats) and PolyG treatment group(16 rats).The silicosis fibrosis rat model was constructed using the single inhalable intratracheal instillation method.The rats in the control group were injected with 1 mL of 0.9% sodium chloride solution.The other 3 groups were given 1 mL of silica suspension at 50.0 g/L mass concentration.The rats in PolyG intervention group on the day of model construction and rats in PolyG treatment group on the 28 th day after model construction were all given PolyG with 2.5 mg/kg body weight by one time tail vein intravenous injection.Eight rats in the PolyG intervention group and PolyG treatment group were sacrificed respectively on day 28 and day 56 after injection.The pathological changes of lung tissue in each group were observed.The expression of glucose regulated protein-78(GRP78),IRE1,CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein homologous protein(CHOP),Casepase-3,Casepase-12,type Ⅰ collagen and type Ⅲ collagen in lung tissue was detected by the Western blot.RESULTS: The histopathology examination results showed that the structure of lung tissue in control group was normal.The alveolar structure of the lung tissue of the silicosis model group was severe,and the fibrous nodules and a large amount of collagen deposition appeared.The silicosis nodules and collagen deposition in PolyG intervention group and PolyG treatment group were less than those in silicosis model group.The expression of GRP78,IRE1,CHOP,Casepase-3,Casepase-12,type Ⅰ collagen and type Ⅲ collagen in silicosis model group was higher than that of control group(P <0.05).The expression of the above 7 proteins in the PolyG intervention group and PolyG treatment group was lower than that of silicosis model group(P<0.05),higher than that of control group(P<0.05),except IRE1 and CHOP in PolyG intervention group.On day 56 after model construction,the expression of GRP78,IRE1,Casepase-3,Casepase-12,typeⅠ collagen and type Ⅲ collagen in PolyG intervention group were lower than that of PolyG treatment group(P<0.05).CONCLUSION: The unfolded protein response of ERS mediated by IRE1 may participate in the process of PolyG the intervention on silicosis fibrosis in rats.PolyG can effectively prevent and treat silicosis fibrosis.Prophylactic administration is recommended.

Objective:To explore the speech features of female patients with anhedonic depression and their recognition of pleasure deficient symptoms.Methods:A total of 102 female depression patients who were hospitalized at Nanjing Brain Hospital from September 2020 to October 2021 were selected, including 62 anhedonic depression patients (anhedonic group) and 40 non-anhedonic depression patients (non-anhedonic group). A total of 50 female healthy controls were recruited during the same period.All participants were evaluated by the 17-item Hamilton depression scale (HAMD-17), Snaith-Hamilton pleasure scale (SHAPS), and the temporal experience of pleasure scale (TEPS), as well as voice acquisition.SPSS 23.0 software was used for data processing.Statistical analysis was conducted using one-way ANOVA, non-parametric tests, Logistic regression, and receiver operating characteristic curve.Results:Compared with the non-anhedonic group, the anhedonic group showed significant changes in 15 voice features(all P<0.05), including Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, formant frequencies, intensity, and energy features.Among these features, Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients exhibited the highest accuracy in identifying anhedonic depression, with sensitivity of 47.5%, specificity of 91.9%, area under curve (AUC) of 0.751, 95% CI=0.686-0.866.Formant frequencies could identify female anhedonic depression, with a sensitivity of 90.0%, a specificity of 40.3%, an AUC of 0.647, and 95% CI=0.605-0.824.Energy features could identify anhedonic deficient depression, with a sensitivity of 60.0%, a specificity of 74.2%, an AUC of 0.679, and 95% CI=0.587-0.804.Intensity features could identify female anhedonic depression, with a sensitivity of 70.0%, a specificity of 58.1%, an AUC of 0.640, and 95% CI=0.554-0.769. Conclusion:Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, formant frequencies, intensity features, and energy features may have specific changes in female patients with anhedonic depression.The Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients has the highest recognition accuracy for anhedonic symptoms in female depression patients, and is expected to become an objective evaluation index for female anhedonic depression.

Objectives: To explore the expression regulation of type 1 and type 2 (Th1 and Th2) cytokines from serum of coal miners and the evaluation in surveillance of coal workers' pneumoconiosis, 630 coal miners were studied. Methods: A total of 90 male patients diagnosed as coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) in a institute for occupational health and 19 male workers newly diagnosed as CWP patients was chosen as CWP group with simple random sampling method from a coal mine group from January 2013 to December in 2015. 180 male coal miners with abnormal but not diagnosed as CWP were selected as CWP suspected group with simple random sampling methods, meanwhile 180 male coal miners with normal chest X-ray photograph was as dust-exposed group by 1∶1 matched as age. And 161 healthy males accepted pre-employed examination were selected as control group, CWP suspected group, dust-exposed group and control group called as non-CWP group. According to screening test and diagnosis test, the basic information and occupational history of all subjects were collected, and cytokines including IL-1β, IL-8, IFN-γ, IL-6 and IL-10 of serum were detected. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the optimal cutoff value of each cytokine. Area under curve (AUC), the validity and reliability were calculated and judged. Results: The average age of control group, dust-exposed group, CWP suspected group and CWP group were (27.4±5.0) , (43.4±10.7) , (48.2±6.2) , (64.7±7.0) years old, respectively. The median level of IL-1β, IL-8, IFN-γ and IL-6 in cases group (1 638.30, 2 099.49, 815.18,140.32 pg/ml) were higher than that of non-cases group (1 445.57, 1 402.26, 736.38, 95.73 pg/ml) (P<0.05) . The level of IL-8 (1 503.99 pg/ml) in CWP suspected group was higher than that of control group (1 295.67 pg/ml) and dust-exposed group (1 376.94 pg/ml) , but the level of IL-10 (654.08 pg/ml) was lower than that of control group (596.64 pg/ml) . The ratio of IFN-γ/IL-6 ranged from 5 to 8, and the ratio in CWP group (5.87) was lower than that of non-CWP group (7.61) . The IL-6 and IL-8 among the subjects of dust-exposed group in terms of the age distribution of among had reached statistical significance. According to ROC, the cutoff value of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and INF-γ reached 1 582.65, 116.53, 1 791.54, 581.08 and 792.69 pg/ml, respectively. The AUC was 0.668, 0.895, 0.859, 0.716 and 0.637, respectively. It was found that IL-6 and IL-8 could be used as biomarkers in detecting CWP, the sensitivity and specificity was 82.6% and 84.6%, 78.0% and 84.8%, respectively; Youden's index was 0.674 and 0.628 and the consistency rate was 84.3% and 83.7%, while Kappa value was 0.55 and 0.52. Conclusion There was Type 1 and type 2 cytokine dysregulation in CWP patients. IL-6 and IL-8 can be used as effective biomarkers to forecast lung injury before X-ray changes.

OBJECTIVESTo evaluate the psychological quality and its influencing factors of mine rescue staff.

METHODSA total of 310 on front line rescue staff from the mines in Tangshan were sampled by random cluster sampling method.Our own designed measurement tools for psychological quality, including Eysenck personality questionnaire (EPQ), attention test scale, willpower test scale and reactive agility test were used to investigate the psychological quality of mine rescue staff. All tests were conducted in quiet state.Other information including age, length of service for rescue, sex, education, smoking and drinking, and so on were collected at the same time. The mood and influencing factors on psychological quality of the rescue staff were also analyzed.

RESULTSThe personality traits of mine rescue staff are close to the national norm.0.6% (2/310) staff showed weak willpower.20.7% (64/310) staff had unstable mood. The E and N factor scores in 20-29 years old group (12.7 ± 4.3 and 12.1 ± 5.1) were higher than 30-39, 40-49, 50-59 years old groups (E factor scores:11.4 ± 3.9, 10.6 ± 3.7 and 10.7 ± 3.9; N factor scores:11.0 ± 5.1, 9.4 ± 4.9 and 6.3 ± 3.4, respectively) (FE = 4.28, FN = 11.35, all P < 0.01) . The L factor score in 40-49 and 50-58 years old groups (13.0 ± 4.2 and 14.8 ± 3.6) were higher than 20-29 and 30-39 years old groups (11.5 ± 3.8 and 12.2 ± 3.8) (F = 6.08, P < 0.01) . Multivariate analysis found that the psychological quality of mine rescue staff was mainly influenced by the length of service (β'E factor = -0.12, β'willpower = -0.12), the amount of participating rescue (β'P factor = 0.12, β'N factor = -0.14), alerting duty (β'L factor = 0.16, β 'error number of target tracking = -0.161) , daily training (β'attention = 0.22,β'total number of aimed at the test = -0.18) and life events (β'N factor = -0.14,β'L factor = 0.13,β'correct number of target tracking = -0.18).

CONCLUSIONThe mine rescue staff had high level psychological quality, length of service. the amount of participating rescue, and life events in the year effect the psychological quality of mine rescue staff.

Adult ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Emergency Responders ; psychology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mining ; Quality of Life ; Rescue Work ; Stress, Psychological ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To study the mechanism of tumor necrosis factor( TNF)-α and its receptor( TNFR) signal transduction pathways in regulating cell apoptosis of alveolar macrophage( AM) in coal workers' pneumoconiosis( CWP).METHODS: Twenty-four coal workers with pneumoconiosis at stage Ⅰ were selected as CWP group and four observation subjects exposed to coal were chosen as observation group by using simple random sampling method. The bronchoalveolar lavage fluids of whole-lung lavage of two groups were collected. AMs were separated and purified. Then they were divided into 6 groups: a control group,a superoxide dismutase( SOD) group,a TNF/TNFR group,an anti-TNF-α antibody group,a Caspase-8 suppression group and a nuclear factor-κB( NF-κB) suppression group. The AMs of 6 groups with corresponding treatment were cultivated. After 24 hours,the cells were harvested and proteins extracted. The relative expression of TNF-α,TNFR1,TNFR2,Caspase-8,Caspase-3,NF-κB P50 and NF-κB P65 protein was detected by Western blotting. RESULTS: The protein relative expression of TNF-α,TNFR2,Caspase-8,Caspase-3,NF-κB P50 and NF-κB P65 in CWP group was significantly higher than those in the observation group( P < 0. 05). The protein relative expression of TNF-α,TNFR1,Caspase-8,Caspase-3 and NF-κB P50 in the TNF/TNFR group and the anti-TNF-αantibody group was lower than that of the control group( P < 0. 05). The above indexes in the anti-TNF-α antibody group were lower than that of the NF-κB suppression group( P < 0. 05). The protein relative expression of TNFR1,Caspase-8and Caspase-3 in the TNF/TNFR group was higher than that of the SOD group and the Caspase-8 suppression group( P <0. 05). The protein relative expression of TNFR1,Caspase-8 and NF-κB P50 in the TNF/TNFR group was lower than that of the NF-κB suppression group( P < 0. 05). Among the CWP patients,the relative expression of TNFR2 and NF-κB P65 in the TNF/TNFR group was lower than that of the control group( P < 0. 05),and higher than that of the SOD group( P <0. 05). CONCLUSION: AM apoptosis mediated by TNF-α/TNFR/NF-κB signal transduction pathway plays an important role in the occurrence and development of CWP. The TNF-α/TNFR/NF-κB signal transduction pathways inhibited or blocked at different stages can affect the expression of proteins related to AM apoptosis.

OBJECTIVE: To identify MARCO gene knockout mouse model by genotyping,sequencing and Western blotting.METHODS: A total of 16 base-knockout MARCO~(-/-)C57 BL/6 mice( 8 female and 8 male) were obtained by clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats( CRISPR)/CRISPR associated protein 9( Cas9) technique with MARCO~(+/+)C57 BL/6 mice(8 female),and their offspring MARCO~(+/-)mice were obtained. Then MARCO~(+/-)mice were inter-crossed to get a sufficient number of MARCO~(-/-)homozygous mice. The genotypes of mice were identified by gene sequencing and the relative expression of MARCO protein was detected by Western blotting. RESULTS: After one year of breeding,a total of 5 generations were bred. There were 5 types of MARCO~(-/-)genotypes(-11,-25,-36,-46,-61 bp) stably inherited; MARCO~(-/-)∶ MARCO~(+/-)∶ MARCO~(+/+)= 1 ∶ 2 ∶ 1,which was consistent with Mendelian's law of heredity. Using MARCO(-11 bp) as an example,42 MARCO~(-/-)mice,92 MARCO~(+/-)mice and 48 MARCO~(+/+)mice were obtained from the 5 th generation( F5 generation); and there was no significant difference in body mass of the above 3 genotypes of F5 generation mice at the 4 th,the 6 th and the 8 th weeks after birth( P > 0. 05). The relative expression of MARCO protein in MARCO~(-/-)(-11 bp) and MARCO~(-/-)(-46 bp) mice was significantly down-regulated,compared with that of MARCO~(+/+),MARCO~(-/-)(-36 bp) and MARCO~(-/-)(-61 bp) mice(P < 0. 05). MARCO~(-/-)(-11 bp)and MARCO~(-/-)(-46 bp) mice were chosen as the MARCO gene knockout mice. CONCLUSION: MARCO gene knockout mice were successfully identified,which laid a foundation for further study on the role and regulatory mechanism of MARCO gene in silicotic fibrosis in mice.