Dust ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Occupational Exposure ; adverse effects ; Pneumoconiosis ; diagnostic imaging ; etiology ; Poaceae ; Radiography, Thoracic ; Silicates ; adverse effects

BACKGROUNDRetinal light injury can lead to degeneration of the photoreceptor cell layer. It has been hypothesized that the mechanism for this process is the photochemical damage. Ginkgo balboa extract (Ginkgo biloba extract EGB761) EGB761 is a free radical scavenger. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible effect of orally administered EGB761 on retinal light damage of mouse photoreceptor cells.

METHODSKunming mice were randomly chosen for the following groups containing 20 animals in each: control group, light damage group, saline control group, and drug treatment group. The drug treatment group and saline control group were given daily gavage of EGB761 (150 mg×kg(-1)×d(-1)) one week before light exposure. At 7, 14, and 30 days after light exposure, animals were sacrificed and eyes were examined by light microscopy, electron microscopy, and retinal histopathology using in situ detection of apoptotic cells.

RESULTSIn the light damage group after 7 days there was visible edema, and the outer nuclear layer appeared withered with deeply stained dead cells, leaving only a thin nuclear layer of 7 - 8 cells. After 14 days, the photoreceptor cell layer disappeared, leaving only the outer nuclear layer of 1 - 3 cells with an average thickness of (37.988 ± 1.207) µm. The average thickness of the retina was (126.32 ± 2.31) µm. In the drug treatment group, the photoreceptor cell layer and outer nuclear layer damage were significantly lower than the saline group (t = 21.993, P < 0.001), demonstrating that EGB761, especially at 14 days after light exposure, can reduce retinal light damage in mice.

CONCLUSIONOral administration of EGB761 can partially inhibit apoptosis of photoreceptor cells, resulting in increased photoreceptor cell survival.

Animals ; Eye Injuries ; etiology ; prevention & control ; Light ; adverse effects ; Male ; Mice ; Microscopy, Electron ; Photoreceptor Cells ; drug effects ; radiation effects ; ultrastructure ; Plant Extracts ; therapeutic use ; Rats ; Retina ; drug effects ; radiation effects ; ultrastructure

ABO Blood-Group System ; Erythroblastosis, Fetal ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn

Metabolomics, a branch of systems biology, has gained extensive attention and profound achievements in the plant. Although plant metabolomics is to be explored, it has been one of the most effective methods to study the physiological and biochemical process and gene modification in pattern plants. We herein summarized the concept, development, and application of metabolomics and prospected the potentials in the metabolite profiling for plant. Metabolomics provides an omics' methodology to elucidate the whole biological process, identify and quantify the complex components in the plant. A number of metabolites present in the plant are active components of traditional Chinese medicine, and these bioactive components are influenced by the multi-factors such as environment, species, and processing methods etc. Therefore, it is of great importance to analyze a wide spectrum of compositions with diverse chemical characteristics and varied concentration, which is the foundation to quality control, allowing the elucidation of the pharmacological effectiveness, and further exploiting of traditional Chinese medicine.
Genomics ; methods ; Metabolome ; Metabolomics ; methods ; Plants, Medicinal ; genetics ; metabolism ; Proteomics ; methods

Objective To study the type and corresponding clinical characteristics of primary hemophagocytic lymphohistocytosis (HLH) associated immune gene mutations in the refractory virus infection or HLH of unknown causes. Methods From December 2009 to July 2010, the patients with refractory virus infection or HLH of unknown causes were screened for the primary HLH associated immune genes mutations by DNA sequence analysis, including PRF1, UNC13D, STX11, STXBP2, SH2D1A and XIAP. The clinical characteristics and outcomes were followed up. Results Totally 25 patients with refractory virus infection or HLH of unknown causes were investigated for the 6 genes and 13 cases were found carrying gene mutations, composing of 6 of PRF1 mutation, 3 of UNC13D, and each one of STX11,XIAP, SH2D1A and STXBP2, respectively. Among the 13 cases with gene mutations, 5 suffered from Epstein-Barr virus associated HLH( EBV-HLH), 1 human herpes virus 7 associated HLH (HHV7-HLH),1 HLH without causes, 4 chronic activated EB virus infection (CAEBV) with 1 progressing to Hodgkin's lymphoma carrying abnormal chromosome of t ( 15; 17 ) (q22; q25 ) and hyperdiploid, 2 EBV associated lymphoma. Among the other 12 patients without gene mutation, 4 suffered from EBV-HLH with 1 progressing to peripheral T lymphoma, 8 suffered from CAEBV. Conclusions Primary HLH associated immune gene mutations are critical causes of refractory virus infection of unknown causes, most patients manifest as HLH,some cases appear in CAEBV and EBV associated lymphoma. DNA sequence analysis is helpful to early diagnosis and correct decision-making for treatment.

Objective To characterize genotypic resistance within HBV RT region in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with nucleos(t) ide analogue (NA) treatment.Methods Serum samples of 229 CHB patients with NA treatment were obtained.Full-length HBV RT sequences were amplified,sequenced and analyzed,on the following NA resistant (NAr) mutations belonging to different NAr pathways.Results Among 229 HBV isolates,14.41％ (33/229) and 85.59％ (196/229) were genotype B and C,respectively;and the patients with HBV genotype C may be more susceptible to develope resistant mutations than patients with HBV genotype B (x2 =2.95,P ＜ 0.05).NAr mutations were detected in 63 CHB patients.Mutations were not found at rtI169,rtT184,rtA194 or rtS202.RtM204 mutations were detected at the highest frequency among 63 mutants (40/63,63.49％) and found to display 11 combination mutation patterns,in which rtM204I were associated with rtL80I/V and rtL180M,and rtM204V were associated with rtL180M,respectively.Conclusions There are complicated mutation patterns in the HBV RT region for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with nucleos(t) ide analogue (NA) treatment.RtM204V/I mutation was the highest.

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic value of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) for pulmonary complications in patients after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) and its safety. Methods: Patients with pulmonary complications after allo-HSCT underwent BAL. Microbiological smears, culture, PCR of CMV-DNA, EBV-DNA and TB-DNA, macro genomes new generation sequencing (mNGS) techniques were performed to detect pathogens in BAL fluid (BALF) . Results: A total of 73 allo-HSCT patients with 86 times of pulmonary complications enrolled this prospective study. They underwent 132 times of BAL procedures. The clinical diagnoses of 88.4% cases were made based on BALF analysis. Of them, 67 cases (77.9%) had infectious pulmonary complications, including 29 cases (33.7%) of fungal infection, 18 cases (20.9%) of mixed infection, 11 cases (12.8%) of viral infection and 9 cases (10.5%) of bacterial infection. The other 9 cases (10.5%) of non-infectious pulmonary complications included 8 cases (9.3%) of idiopathic pneumonia syndrome (IPS) and 1 case (1.2%) of pulmonary infiltration of lymphoma. The diagnoses of the remaining 10 cases (11.6%) were not determined. The platelet counts of 33 patients were less than 50×10(9)/L before BAL. None of them developed severe bleeding complications during or after BAL. Transient fever occurred in 10 patients after BAL. Blood cultures showed staphylococcal bacteremia in them and anti-infection therapies were effective. No life-threatening complications occurred in all of the patients during or after BAL. Conclusion: BALF analysis was informative for the diagnosis of pulmonary complication and safe for patients with pulmonary complications after allo-HSCT.
Bronchoalveolar Lavage ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation/adverse effects* ; Humans ; Pneumonia/etiology* ; Prospective Studies

The surface plasmon resonance(SPR)biosensor technology is a novel optical analysis method for studying intermolecular interactions.Owing to in-depth research on traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)in recent years,comprehensive and specific identification of components and target interactions has become key yet difficult tasks.SPR has gradually been used to analyze the active components of TCM owing to its high sensitivity,strong exclusivity,large flux,and real-time monitoring capabilities.This review sought to briefly introduce the active components of TCM and the principle of SPR,and provide historical and new insights into the application of SPR in the analysis of the active components of TCM.

BACKGROUNDThe conventional approaches to diabetes screening are potentially limited by poor compliance and laboratory demand. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and postprandial urine glucose (PUG) in screening for diabetes in Chinese high-risk population.

METHODSNine hundred and nine subjects with high-risk factors of diabetes underwent oral glucose tolerance test after an overnight fast. FPG, hemoglobin A1c, 2-h plasma glucose (2 h-PG), and 2 h-PUG were evaluated. Diabetes and prediabetes were defined by the American Diabetes Association criteria. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of 2 h-PUG, and the optimal cut-off determined to provide the largest Youden index. Spearman correlation was used for relationship analysis.

RESULTSAmong 909 subjects, 33.4% (304/909) of subjects had prediabetes, and 17.2% (156/909) had diabetes. The 2 h-PUG was positively related to FPG and 2 h-PG (r = 0.428 and 0.551, respectively, both P < 0.001). For estimation of 2 h-PG ≥ 7.8 mmol/L and 2 h-PG ≥ 11.1 mmol/L using 2 h-PUG, the area under the ROC curve were 0.772 (95% confidence interval [CI ]: 0.738-0.806) and 0.885 (95% CI: 0.850-0.921), respectively. The corresponding optimal cut-offs for 2 h-PUG were 5.6 mmol/L and 7.5 mmol/L, respectively. Compared with FPG alone, FPG combined with 2 h-PUG had a higher sensitivity for detecting glucose abnormalities (84.1% vs. 73.7%, P < 0.001) and diabetes (82.7% vs. 48.1%, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONFPG combined with 2 h-PUG substantially improves the sensitivity in detecting prediabetes and diabetes relative to FPG alone, and may represent an efficient layperson-oriented diabetes screening method.

Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Blood Glucose ; metabolism ; Diabetes Mellitus ; blood ; diagnosis ; urine ; Fasting ; blood ; Female ; Glucose Tolerance Test ; Humans ; Male ; Mass Screening ; methods ; Middle Aged ; Postprandial Period ; physiology

Objective:To explore the relationship between the polymorphisms of AHNAK2 gene rs12882641,rs28583515 and rs2582497 loci and coronary heart disease(CHD)in the population of Xinjiang.Materials:This study used a case-control method,a total of 602 patients who were hospitalized and underwent coronary angiogra-phy(CAG)at ourheart center from Jan 2019 to Dec 2021 were selected.According toCAG results,the patients were divided into CHD group(n=301)and non-CHD group(n=301).The AHNAK2 gene rs12882641,rs28583515 and rs2582497 loci were genotyped using the improved multiple ligase detection reaction(iMLDR)technique,and the relationship between AHNAK2 gene polymorphisms and CHD was analyzed.Results:Compared with non-CHD group,there was significant rise in the distribution frequencies of AC+CC genotypes(52.8%vs.61.1%,P= 0.040)at rs2582497 locus of the AHNAK2 gene under the dominant model;there was significant reduction in distri-bution frequency of the CC genotype(65.8%vs.53.8%)at the rs28583515 locus of the AHNAK2 gene,and signif-icant rise in distribution frequencies of CT+TT(34.2%vs.46.2%)under the dominant model,TT under the re-cessive model(0.7%vs.3.0%)and CT under the additive model(33.6%vs.43.2%)in CHD group,P＜0.05 or＜0.01.After adjusting for confounding factors,logistic regression analysis indicated that the dominant model of the rs28583515 locus remained an independent risk factor for CHD(OR=1.509,P=0.036).Conclusion:The AH-NAK2 gene rs28583515 locus is closely related to the occurrence and development of CHD in the Xinjiang popula-tion.The dominant model of the AHNAK2 gene rs28583515 locus is an independent risk factor for CHD.