BACKGROUND:Morphological characteristics of the rabbit lumbar vertebrae are of great significance for animal experiments about lumbar spine, but there is a lack of study on the lumbar morphology in rabbits. OBJECTIVE:To establish a three-dimensional model of rabbit lumbar vertebrae, and to observe its morphological characteristics, thereby providing anatomical basis for the animal experiments about lumbar spine.METHODS:Twenty New Zealand rabbits were subjected to 64-row multi-detector CT (Siemens) scan, and the three-dimensional models were constructed based on the CT data from 140 lumbar vertebrae. The morphological parameters of L1-7 were measured, and the internal and external structures of lumbar vertebrae and changes of different segments were observed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1) Changes of the morphological parameters of each lumbar vertebra:the L1-7 height first increased and then decreased, and the shortest height was in the L7, which was (1.12±0.18) cm. L1 vertebral body exhibited the shortest transverse diameter, (1.03±0.15) cm, and the longitudinal diameter did not differ significantly among vertebrae. The transverse and longitudinal diameters of L1-6 spinal canals were on a rise, but decreased abruptly at L7. The pedicle width of L1-7 increased gradually;the pedicle height of L1-5 increased gradually, and then began to decrease markedly, and the shortest at L7, (0.58±0.11) cm. The width and length of L1-6 spinous process increased steadily, but decreased at L7. The length of L1-3 transverse process increased gradually, tended to be steady at L3-6, and increased notably at L6-7;there were significant differences in the transverse process angle at L1-6, but the angle increased markedly to (58±2)° at L7, (2) These results indicate that the internal and external structures of lumbar vertebrae and changes of different segments are obtained through morphological measurement of lumbar vertebrae in New Zealand white rabbit, which provides a detailed anatomical data for relative animal experiments.

Objective To study the test-retest reliability in quantitative measurement of proprioception using Tecnobody rehabilitation system.Methods Nine healthy volunteers [4 males,5 females,averaged age (22.8 ±0.68) years] participated in three consecutive measurements on both feet by using Tecnobody rehabilitation system for computerized proprioceptive assessment.Standard error of measurement(SEM),correlation coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient(ICC) obtained from the three consecutive measurements were used to analyze the Timeused in each measuring session,and the average track error (ATE) of the measurements.ResultsSEM values of Time in left foot and right foot were 3.07 ～ 3.83 and 6.65 ～ 8.44 respectively.ATE values in left foot and right foot were 1.33 ～ 1.97 and 1.39 ～ 1.91 respectively.The Time and ATE correlation coefficients of left foot / right foot were 0.919/0.6 and 0.808/0.831,respectively.The Time ICC values were 0.893/0.639 for left foot / right foot,respectively ; and the ATE ICC values were 0.716/0.734 for left foot / right foot,respectively. Conclusion The Tecnobody rehabilitation system provided a fairly good reliability in both relative andabsolute values in quantitative evaluation of proprioception in the feet.These data in a larger amount may be useful for setting up variables and the standard values of the local population for reference in proprioceptive rehabilitation.

Objective To study the clinical value of using a four-point method (FP) in measuring joint angles.Method Methods Twenty-five subjects without knee dysfunction were studied.Every knee joint was tested in extension,below 90° of flexion and above 90° of flexion with the traditional three-point method (TP) and the new four-point method.X-rays were taken as a gold standard measurement.The reliability and validity were analyzed using Bland-Altman plots,which can yield 95% limits of agreement (LOA).Results (1) The joint axis centers moved with changes in joint angle.(2) The 95% LOA of inter-tester reliability was (-5.0,2.7) with the FP and (-6.5,4.4) with the TP.The 95% LOAs of intra-tester reliability were (-3.6,4.0) for tester A and (-4.1,4.8) for tester B with the FP,while (-5.0,6.4) for tester A and (-6.1,5.8) for tester B with the TP.(3) The 95% LOAs in the three positions were (3.5,2.6) in extension,(-3.3,3.6) in mild flexion and (-1.9,5.7) in greater flexion with the FP,and ( 6.8,1.1),(-4.0,7.1) and (0,8.5) with the TP.Conclusions The FP gives better reliability and validity than the TP in joint angle measurement.

Aim Toconstructthreeplasmidsincluding Smad3 WT,Smad3 EPSM and Smad3 3S-A stable transfection in HepG2 cell lines to investigate phospho-domains of Snad3(pSmad3C or pSmad3L),their pro-tein expression and roles in HepG2 cell proliferation, apoptosisandcellcycle.Methods Threeplasmidsin-cluding Smad3 WT (Carry the wild Smad3 gene ), Smad3 EPSM(Carry the mutated phosphorylation site in linker region of Smad3 gene)and Smad3 3S-A(Car-ry the mutated phosphorylation site in C-terminal of Smad3 gene)were respectively transfected into HepG2 cells by using a liposome transfection reagent.Verifi-cation of positive cells was done by screening with G418 via co-culture.Transfection efficiency was deter-mined by Western blot.Cell proliferation was induced by exogenous TGF-β1 in the respective stably transfect-ed HepG2 cell lines.Cell proliferation was monitored by MTT.Cell cycle and apoptosis were determined by flowcytometry(FCM).Results Therewaselevated protein expression of the respective phospho-domain sites in the stably transfected HepG2 cells for Smad3 WT(C-terminus and Linker),Smad3 EPSM(C-termi-nus)and Smad3 3S-A(Linker),which indicated suc-cessful stable transfection of HepG2 cell lines.The re-sults from MTT experiment showed that TGF-β1 could induce proliferation of HepG2 cells with or without the transfection of Smad3 WT,Smad3 EPSM and Smad3 3S-A plasmids,meanwhile transfected Smad3 EPSM plasmids could significantly inhibit proliferation of HepG2 cells induced by TGF-β1 , and transfected Smad3 3S-A plasmids accelerate proliferation of HepG2 cells induced by TGF-β1 .Cell cycle analysis showed that the G0/G1 phase of HepG2 cells with stable trans-fection of Smad3 EPSM plasmid increased compared with HepG2 cells with or without stable transfection of Smad3 WT plasmid,meanwhile the G2/M phase of HepG2 cells with stable transfection of Smad3 3 S-A plasmid increased.Compared with Smad3 WT trans-fected cells, apoptosis in Smad3 EPSM transfected cells was markedly increased,while that of Smad3 3S-Atransfectedcellsdecreased.Conclusions Thethree plasmids of Smad3 WT,Smad3 EPSM and Smad3 3S-A stably transfected HepG2 cell lines have been suc-cessively constructed.The construction of three plas-mids transfected HepG2 cell lines provides the research foundation for studying medical as well as possible reg-ulatory mechanism of pSmad3 C/pSmad3 L.

OBJECTIVE: To test the association of K469E, the common intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) polymorphism with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and expression of ICAM-1 in Han people of Central and South Region in China. METHODS: A case-control study was done on 91 patients with COPD and 80 matched controls of Han people from central and south region in China, mainly from Hunan Province. Genomic DNA was extracted from white blood cells. ICAM-1 sequences were amplified by PCRand analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis. Genotypes were defined by base sequencing. In addition, soluable intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) serum levels were measured in 86 people picked out randomly from the COPD group and the control group. RESULTS: There was no difference in the frequency of the genotype and allele between the COPD group and the controls, but compared with those who were not very severe, the frequency of KE/ EE genotypes and E allele in COPD patients at very severe stage was significantly higher (10/16 vs 26/75, 12/30 vs 20/150, P<0.05). The level of sICAM-1 increased in the COPD patients, with negative correlation to forced expiratory volume in one second for the percentage of predicted value (FEV1%). But in both COPD patients and controls, the level of sICAM-1 did not differ significantly in different genotypes(P>0.05). CONCLUSION K469E polymorphism of ICAM-1 may not affect the susceptibility of COPD and the expression of ICAM-1 in Han people from central and south of China in this study, but carriers of E allele are at high risk of developing severe stage of COPD.
Aged ; Alleles ; Base Sequence ; Case-Control Studies ; China ; ethnology ; Female ; Genotype ; Humans ; Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 ; genetics ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Prognosis ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; genetics ; Risk Factors

Objective:To compare surgery-related indicators, patient recovery status, perioperative complications and risk factors affecting the occurrence of postoperative grade Ⅲ or higher complications in patients undergoing laparoscopic gastric mesenchymal tumor surgery with different visceral fat areas.Methods:Clinical data of 116 patients with gastric interstitial tumor in Shaanxi Provincial People′s Hospital from April 2014 to June 2020 were retrospectively analyzed, including 44 male patients and 72 female patients, with patient aged from 25 to 88 years old and the mean age was (61.8±10.7) years, including 54 patients in the high VFA group and 62 patients in the low VFA group. SPSS 23.0 was used for statistical analysis, and t-test and χ2 test were applied to compare and analyze the patients′ surgery-related indexes, postoperative recovery status, complications within 30 d after surgery and differences in Clavien-Dindo classification of complications, while univariate and multifactorial analyses were used to study the factors affecting the occurrence of postoperative grade Ⅲ or higher complications. Results:Patients in the high VFA group had a higher body mass index than in the low VFA group, and the difference was statistically significant ( t=4.48, P<0.001); patients in the high VFA group had longer operative time ( t=2.88, P=0.005), more intraoperative bleeding ( t=2.17, P=0.032), longer period of fasting ( t=2.73, P=0.008), longer time for defecation ( t=4.46, P<0.001) and bowel movement ( t=4.62, P<0.001), and longer postoperative hospital stay ( t=3.43) compared with those in the low VFA group ( t=2.73, P=0.001), prolonged defecation ( t=4.46), prolonged bowel movement ( t=4.62), and prolonged postoperative hospitalization ( t=3.43), with statistically significant differences ( P<0.05); the incidence of postoperative complications was significantly higher in the high VFA group (31.4%) compared with the low VFA group (14.5%) ( χ2=4.78, P=0.029); among them, the incidence of postoperative pulmonary infection was significantly higher in patients in the high VFA group (12.9%) compared with those in the low VFA group (1.6%), and the difference between them was statistically significant ( χ2=4.16, P<0.05); while the differences in postoperative incision-related complications, anastomotic fistula, lower limb venous thrombosis, and intestinal obstruction were not statistically significant ( P>0.05). The incidence of postoperative complications above grade Ⅲ of the Clavien-Dindo complication classification was significantly higher in patients in the high VFA group (16.7%) compared with those in the low VFA group (4.8%), and the difference between the two was statistically significant ( χ2=4.35, P<0.05); univariate analysis revealed that operative time ≥300 min and increased VFA were the risk factors for postoperative grade Ⅲ or higher complications, while VFA was not an independent risk factor. Conclusion:Larger visceral fat area increases the difficulty of laparoscopic gastric mesenchymal tumor surgery operation, and also affects patients′ postoperative recovery, leading to increased postoperative complications, but VFA is not an independent risk factor affecting the occurrence of postoperative grade Ⅲ or higher complications in patients with gastric mesenchymal tumor.

Zwitterionic sulfobetaine-based monolithic stationary phases have attracted increasing attention for their use in hydrophilic interaction chromatography.In this study,a novel hydrophilic polymeric monolith was fabricated through photo-initiated copolymerization of 3-(3-vinyl-1-imidazolio)-l-propanesulfonate(SBVI)with pentaerythritol triacrylate using methanol and tetrahydrofuran as the porogenic system.Notably,the duration for the preparation of this novel monolith was as little as 5 min,which was significantly shorter than that required for previously reported sulfobetaine-based monoliths prepared via conventional thermally initiated copolymerization.Moreover,these monoliths showed good morphology,permeability,porosity(62.4％),mechanical strength(over 15 MPa),column efficiency(51,230 plates/m),and reproducibility(relative standard deviations for all analytes were lower than 4.6％).Mechanistic studies indicated that strong hydrophilic and negative electrostatic interactions might be responsible for the retention of polar analytes on the zwitterionic SBVI-based monolith.In particular,the resulting monolith exhibited good anti-protein adhesion ability and low nonspecific protein adsorption.These excellent features seem to favor its application in bioanalysis.Therefore,the novel zwitterionic sulfobetaine-based monolith was successfully employed for the highly selective separation of small bioactive compounds and the efficient enrichment of N-glycopeptides from complex samples.In this study,we prepared a novel zwitterionic sulfobetaine-based monolith with good performance and developed a simpler and faster method for preparation of zwitterionic monoliths.

Background: Obesity and chronic pain are related in both directions, according to earlier observational research.This research aimed to analyze the causal association between obesity and chronic pain at the genetic level, as well as to assess whether common factors mediate this relationship. Methods: This study used bidirectional two sample Mendelian randomization (MR) technique to analyze the association between obesity and chronic pain. Obesity's summary genome-wide association data were obtained from European ancestry groups, as measured by body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio, waist circumference (WC), and hip circumference (HC), genome-wide association study data for chronic pain also came from the UK population, including chronic pain at three different sites (back, hip, and headache), chronic widespread pain (CWP), and multisite chronic pain (MCP). Secondly, a two-step MR and multivariate MR investigation was performed to evaluate the mediating effects of several proposed confounders. Results: The authors discovered a link between chronic pain and obesity. More specifically, a sensitivity analysis was done to confirm the associations between greater BMI, WC, and HC with an increased risk of CWP and MCP.Importantly, the intermediate MR results suggest that education levels and smoking initiation may mediate the causal relationship between BMI on CWP, with a mediation effect of 23.08% and 15.38%, respectively. Conclusions The authors’ findings demonstrate that the importance of education and smoking in understanding chronic pain’s pathogenesis, which is important for the primary prevention and prognosis of chronic pain.

Background: Obesity and chronic pain are related in both directions, according to earlier observational research.This research aimed to analyze the causal association between obesity and chronic pain at the genetic level, as well as to assess whether common factors mediate this relationship. Methods: This study used bidirectional two sample Mendelian randomization (MR) technique to analyze the association between obesity and chronic pain. Obesity's summary genome-wide association data were obtained from European ancestry groups, as measured by body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio, waist circumference (WC), and hip circumference (HC), genome-wide association study data for chronic pain also came from the UK population, including chronic pain at three different sites (back, hip, and headache), chronic widespread pain (CWP), and multisite chronic pain (MCP). Secondly, a two-step MR and multivariate MR investigation was performed to evaluate the mediating effects of several proposed confounders. Results: The authors discovered a link between chronic pain and obesity. More specifically, a sensitivity analysis was done to confirm the associations between greater BMI, WC, and HC with an increased risk of CWP and MCP.Importantly, the intermediate MR results suggest that education levels and smoking initiation may mediate the causal relationship between BMI on CWP, with a mediation effect of 23.08% and 15.38%, respectively. Conclusions The authors’ findings demonstrate that the importance of education and smoking in understanding chronic pain’s pathogenesis, which is important for the primary prevention and prognosis of chronic pain.

Background: Obesity and chronic pain are related in both directions, according to earlier observational research.This research aimed to analyze the causal association between obesity and chronic pain at the genetic level, as well as to assess whether common factors mediate this relationship. Methods: This study used bidirectional two sample Mendelian randomization (MR) technique to analyze the association between obesity and chronic pain. Obesity's summary genome-wide association data were obtained from European ancestry groups, as measured by body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio, waist circumference (WC), and hip circumference (HC), genome-wide association study data for chronic pain also came from the UK population, including chronic pain at three different sites (back, hip, and headache), chronic widespread pain (CWP), and multisite chronic pain (MCP). Secondly, a two-step MR and multivariate MR investigation was performed to evaluate the mediating effects of several proposed confounders. Results: The authors discovered a link between chronic pain and obesity. More specifically, a sensitivity analysis was done to confirm the associations between greater BMI, WC, and HC with an increased risk of CWP and MCP.Importantly, the intermediate MR results suggest that education levels and smoking initiation may mediate the causal relationship between BMI on CWP, with a mediation effect of 23.08% and 15.38%, respectively. Conclusions The authors’ findings demonstrate that the importance of education and smoking in understanding chronic pain’s pathogenesis, which is important for the primary prevention and prognosis of chronic pain.