BACKGROUNDDiffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a noninvasive imaging technique for the assessment of the integrity of cerebral tissues. This study was undertaken to assess the changes of diffusion indices of hippocampal formation (HF) in patients with medial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE).

METHODSFourteen patients with MTLE and 14 healthy subjects were evaluated. Mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) from the symmetrical-voxel sampling regions of the anterior HF were calculated in all subjects. The MD and FA values were compared across the groups.

RESULTSNo significant differences of MD and FA values were noted between right and left HF in the controls. In the patient group, MD significantly increased in the HF ipsilateral to the lesioned side [(9.27 +/- 1.09) x 10(-4) mm(2)/s], compared with the values in the contralateral HF [(8.20 +/- 0.59) x 10(-4) mm(2)/s] (t = 4.479, P = 0.001) and healthy subjects [(7.58 +/- 0.51) x 10(-4) mm(2)/s] (P < 0.001), but no significant differences were found in FA. When compared with the controls, patients had a significantly higher MD in the contralateral HF (P < 0.05), but the difference in FA was not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONSDTI could detect hippocampal abnormality in patients with MTLE. This technique may be helpful for preoperative evaluation of such patients.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Anisotropy ; Child ; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; methods ; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe ; pathology ; Female ; Hippocampus ; pathology ; Humans ; Male

OBJECTIVETo explore the changes in the expressions of the tight junction related protein occludin and junctional adhesion molecule-1 (JAM-1) of the blood-testis barrier and their significance in rats after microwave radiation.

METHODSEighty male Wistar rats were exposed to microwave radiation with average power density of 0, 10, 30 and 100 mW/cm2 for five minutes, and dynamic changes in the expressions of testicular occludin and JAM-1 were observed by Western blot and image analysis at 6 h, 1 d, 3 d, 7 d and 14 d after the radiation.

RESULTSThere was a significant down-regulation in the expression of the occludin protein at 3 - 7 d, 6 h - 7 d and 6 h - 14 d (P < 0. 05), as well as in that of JAM-1 at 3 - 7 d, 1 - 7 d and 1-14 d (P < 0.05) after exposure to 10, 30 and 100 mW/cm2 microwave radiation.

CONCLUSIONThe decreased protein expressions of occludin and JAM-1 may play an important role in the microwave radiation induced-damage to the blood-testis barrier.

Animals ; Blood-Testis Barrier ; metabolism ; radiation effects ; Cell Adhesion Molecules ; metabolism ; Down-Regulation ; Male ; Membrane Proteins ; metabolism ; Microwaves ; Occludin ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Testis ; metabolism ; radiation effects

To further explore the regulatory effect of Jinlingzi San on in vivo inflammatory mechanism during inflammatory treatment, this study adopted 1H-NMR and LC-MS technology to analyze differences in in vivo metabolites of carrageen-induce rat foot swelling model. Besides, biomarkers related to inflammation models of Jinlingzi San in SD rats were discovered to speculate the regulatory mechanism of Jinlingzi San in resisting carrageen-induce inflammation. Through the analysis of detection spectrum, we found 18 biomarkers of metabolites(citrate, pyruvate, malic acid, succinate, glutamate, lysine, tartrate, 2-oxobutyric acid, glycine, guanosine, 9-cis-retinoic acid, triphosphate, inosine 5'-diphosphate, inosine diphosphate, tripolyphosphate, inorganic triphosphate, glycerophosphocholine, 21-deoxycortisol). Relevant pathway analysis results were TCA cycle, pyruvate metabolism, glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, and dicarboxylic acid metabolism. From the metabolic network, we can see that the anti-inflammatory effect of Jinlingzi San can regulate citric acid, succinic acid and glycine content to resist oxygen free radical and reduce body damage by ROS, so as to down-regulate inflammatory factors generated from body tissues and resist inflammation.

To further understand the metabolic characteristics of Jinlingzi powder toxicity effect in rats and explore the effect of Jinlingzi powder on unknown biological pathways in the treatment process. In this experiment, the effect of three doses of Jinlingzi powder decoction on rat liver and kidney was investigated to explore the characteristics and rules of Jinlingzi powder on in vivo metabonomic changes in rats. First, urine and serum samples of the rats were used for LC-MS analysis. Under the XCMS online analysis, 44 differential substances were found in the identification of metabolites. Finally, Metpa was used for metabolic pathways enrichment and analysis, and five related metabolic pathways were obtained: steroid hormone biosynthesis, tryptophan metabolism, pentose and glucuronate interconversions, ascorbate and aldarate metabolism, as well as glutathione metabolism. Metabolic network diagram showed that the toxicity-related pathways were mainly associated with lysine metabolism in living organisms, glucuronic acid conversion, and hormone metabolism, especially the metabolism imbalance of lysine and glutathione would result in the disorder of energy metabolism or oxidative stress regulation, and thus inducing the damage in rats. Subacute toxicity test results for three doses groups (low, middle and high doses) showed that, Jinlingzi powder with doses of 19.7 g•kg⁻¹ and 39.4 g•kg⁻¹ caused obvious toxic effect, indicating Jinlingzi powder could produce toxic effect in vivo in a dose-dependent manner, and cause irreversible damage to the body.

【Objective】To explore the effects of liver dysfunction in the third trimester of pregnancy on maternal outcomes and identify the factors affecting the maternal prognosis.【Methods】We collected the clinical data of 1 113 women with liver dysfunction in the third trimester of pregnancy （case group） and 1 113 normal pregnancies （control group） from the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University between January 2015 and December 2018. We compared the rates of cesarean section，premature delivery，placental abruption，postpartum hemorrhage and maternal mortality in the two groups，conducted the univariate and multivariate analysis for the case group and determined the prognostic risk factors by using Logistic regression. Receiver operating characteristic（ROC）curve analysis was applied to estimate the value of each independent risk factor for predicting liver dysfunction-related maternal mortality. 【Results】The rates of cesarean section，premature delivery，placental abruption，postpartum hemorrhage in the case group were higher than those in the control group（P < 0.05），and the odds ratios（ORs）were 3.59 ，7.81 ，10.68 and 2.93 ，respectively. The maternal mortality in the case group（1.2%）was higher than that in the control group（0.0%）（P < 0.05）. Logistic analysis revealed that high total bilirubin（TBIL），low prothrombin activity（PTA）and low fasting plasma glucose（FPG）were independent risk factors for liver dysfunction- related maternal mortality. The ROC curve analysis indicated that when TBIL was 235.4 μmol/L，the Youden′ s index in maximum was 0.331 with sensitivity of 0.818 and specificity of 0.513. When PTA was 20.5% ，the Youden′ s index in maximum was 0.366 with sensitivity of 0.821 and specificity of 0.545. When FPG was 3.11 mmol/L，the Youden′s index in maximum was 0.405 with sensitivity of 0.769 and specificity of 0.636.【Conclusion】Liver dysfunction in the third trimester of pregnancy has adverse effects on maternal outcomes. TBIL ，PTA and FPG are the factors affecting the maternal prognosis and may have certain predictive value for maternal death.

Granuloma, Plasma Cell/surgery* ; Humans ; Neoplasms

Anthocyanidin reductase (ANR) is one of the key enzyme in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway, and its catalytic activity is important for the synthesis of plant anthocyanin. In this study, specific primers were designed according to the transcriptome data of Lonicera japonica Thunb., and the CDS, gDNA and promoter sequences of ANR genes from Lonicera japonica Thunb. and Lonicera japonica Thunb. var. chinensis (Wats.) Bak. were cloned. The results showed that the CDS sequences of LjANR and rLjANR were 1 002 bp, the gDNA sequences were 2 017 and 2 026 bp respectively, and the promoter sequences were 1 170 and 1 164 bp respectively. LjANR and rLjANR both contain 6 exons and 5 introns, which have the same length of exons and large differences in introns. The promoter sequences both contain a large number of light response, hormone response and abiotic stress response elements. Bioinformatics analysis showed that both LjANR and rLjANR encoded 333 amino acids and were predicted to be stable hydrophobic proteins without transmembrane segments and signal peptides. The secondary structures of LjANR and rLjANR were predicted to be mainly consisted of α-helix and random coil. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis showed that LjANR and rLjANR had high homology with Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis, Camellia sinensis and Camellia oleifera, and were closely related to them. The expression levels of LjANR and rLjANR were the highest in flower buds and the lowest in roots. The expression patterns at different flowering stages were similar, with higher expression levels in S1 and S2 stages and then gradually decreased until reaching the lowest level in S4 stage, after a slow increase in S5 stage, the expression levels decreased again. The expression levels of ANR genes in the two varieties showed significant differences in roots, S2 and S5 stages, while the differences in stems, flower buds, S1, S3 and S6 stages were extremely significant. The prokaryotic expression vector pET-32a-LjANR was constructed for protein expression. The target protein was successfully expressed of about 59 kD. This study lays a foundation for further study on the function of ANR gene and provides theoretical guidance for breeding new varieties of Lonicera japonica Thunb.

Objective: To analyze and compare therapy responses, outcomes, and incidence of severe hematologic adverse events of flumatinib and imatinib in patients newly diagnosed with chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) . Methods: Data of patients with chronic phase CML diagnosed between January 2006 and November 2022 from 76 centers, aged ≥18 years, and received initial flumatinib or imatinib therapy within 6 months after diagnosis in China were retrospectively interrogated. Propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was performed to reduce the bias of the initial TKI selection, and the therapy responses and outcomes of patients receiving initial flumatinib or imatinib therapy were compared. Results: A total of 4 833 adult patients with CML receiving initial imatinib (n=4 380) or flumatinib (n=453) therapy were included in the study. In the imatinib cohort, the median follow-up time was 54 [interquartile range (IQR), 31-85] months, and the 7-year cumulative incidences of CCyR, MMR, MR(4), and MR(4.5) were 95.2%, 88.4%, 78.3%, and 63.0%, respectively. The 7-year FFS, PFS, and OS rates were 71.8%, 93.0%, and 96.9%, respectively. With the median follow-up of 18 (IQR, 13-25) months in the flumatinib cohort, the 2-year cumulative incidences of CCyR, MMR, MR(4), and MR(4.5) were 95.4%, 86.5%, 58.4%, and 46.6%, respectively. The 2-year FFS, PFS, and OS rates were 80.1%, 95.0%, and 99.5%, respectively. The PSM analysis indicated that patients receiving initial flumatinib therapy had significantly higher cumulative incidences of CCyR, MMR, MR(4), and MR(4.5) and higher probabilities of FFS than those receiving the initial imatinib therapy (all P<0.001), whereas the PFS (P=0.230) and OS (P=0.268) were comparable between the two cohorts. The incidence of severe hematologic adverse events (grade≥Ⅲ) was comparable in the two cohorts. Conclusion: Patients receiving initial flumatinib therapy had higher cumulative incidences of therapy responses and higher probability of FFS than those receiving initial imatinib therapy, whereas the incidence of severe hematologic adverse events was comparable between the two cohorts.
Adult ; Humans ; Adolescent ; Imatinib Mesylate/adverse effects* ; Incidence ; Antineoplastic Agents/adverse effects* ; Retrospective Studies ; Pyrimidines/adverse effects* ; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive/drug therapy* ; Treatment Outcome ; Benzamides/adverse effects* ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Chronic-Phase/drug therapy* ; Aminopyridines/therapeutic use* ; Protein Kinase Inhibitors/therapeutic use*