BACKGROUND:For pediatric patients with aplastic anemia in China, it is difficult to find human leucocyte antigen-matched sibling donors that are mostly replaced by parental donors.
OBJECTIVE:To retrospectively analyze the clinical efficacy and safety of parental haploidentical peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cel transplantation in children with relapsed and refractory severe aplastic anemia.
METHODS:Seventeen children with relapsed and refractory severe aplastic anemia who had no matched sibling or unrelated donor and failed to respond to immunosuppressive therapy were subjected to parental haploidentical peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cel transplantation. A conditioning regimen of fludarabine+cyclophosphamide+rabbit anti-human thymocyte immunoglobulin antibody and the triple therapy of methotrexate, cyclosporine A and mycophenolate mofetil were applied to prevent graft-versus-host disease.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) Of the 17 children, 16 cases (94%) reached hematopoietic reconstitution, and the median time of neutrophils≥ 0.5×109/L and platelets≥ 20×109/L was 13 (11-15) days and 17 (12-28) days, respectively. (2) Incidence of acute graft-versus-host disease was 47% (8 of 17 cases), including 29% (5/17) of grades I-II and 18% (3/17) of grades III-IV. Incidence of chronic graft-versus-host disease was 41% (7/17). (3) With a median folow-up duration of 268 (43-753) days, the overal survival rate was 70.6% (12/17). Five dead cases (29%) belonged to transplantation-related death, including one case of fungal skin infections, one case of graft-versus-host disease, three cases of severe lung infection. No relapse case was reported. These findings indicate that if there are no matched sibling or unrelated donors and the immunosuppression effect is poor, parental haploidentical peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cel transplantation is a safe and effective salvage treatment for children with relapsed and refractory severe aplastic anemia.

To investigate the relationship between sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) and metabolic syndrome in elderly males in Shanghai,all the subjects (≥ 60 years old,male) underwent measurements of weight,height,waist and hip circumferences,and blood pressures,serum levels of fasting plasma glucose,total cholesterol,triglyceride,high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C),and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol were determined (Hitachi,7600),while the levels of serum insulin,total testosterone,and SHBG were determined by using chemiluminescence methods.Free testosterone was calculated by using the Vermeulen equation.Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the criteria of the Chinese Diabetes Society (CDS 2004).The SHBG level in the metabolic syndrome group was significantly lower than that in non-metabolic syndrome group [(40.50 ± 26.16) nmol/L vs (47.80± 20.34) nmol/L,P＜0.01].With increasing number of metabolic syndrome components,the level of SHBG became lowered progressively.The subjects were divided into four subgroups according to SHBG Quartiles.From Quartile 1 to Quartile 4,body mass index,waist-hip ratio,diastolic blood pressure,fasting plasma glucose,triglyceride,fasting insulin,homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance(HOMA-IR),free testosterone,free androgen index,and free testosterone percentage became progressively lowered,while age and HDL-C became raised (P＜0.05).SHBG was correlated significantly with age,body mass index,waist-hip ratio,diastolic blood pressure,fasting plasma glucose,HDL-C,and triglyceride.Age,HDL-C,and body mass index remained independently associated with SHBG in the multivariate regression analysis.In a logistic regression taking metabolic syndrome as the dependent variable,SHBG and HOMA-IR were included in the final model with statistical significance.Lowered SHBG is a risk factor of metabolic syndrome in elderly males.SHBG may be an independent predictor of metabolic syndrome,but the mechanism of how SHBG is involved in the metabolic syndrome needs to be further studied.

ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical efficacy and possible mechanism of Erzhi Tiangui prescription on repeated implantation failure （RIF） of kidney deficiency syndrome. MethodSeventy patients with RIF of kidney deficiency syndrome who underwent natural cycle frozen-thawed embryo transfer （FET） in the Reproductive and Genetic Center of the Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine were enrolled and randomly divided into a treatment group （35 cases） and a control group （35 cases）. Patients in the treatment group took oral Erzhi Tiangui prescription from the third day of each menstrual cycle two months before the FET cycle and continued to take it until the day of transplantation from the third day of the menstrual cycle in the month of transplantation. Those in the control group did not accept traditional Chinese medicine （TCM）. In addition，10 patients who successfully achieved clinical pregnancy after the first natural cycle FET were screened from the reproductive medical record bank of this hospital and assigned to the normal group. Peripheral blood samples of patients in the three groups on the day of embryo transfer were collected from the specimen bank of the Reproductive and Genetic Center. Serum soluble programmed death molecule-1 （sPD-1），soluble programmed death molecule-ligand 1 （sPD-L1），transforming growth factor-β （TGF-β），interleukin-17 （IL-17）， and interleukin-10 （IL-10） levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA）. The changes in kidney deficiency syndrome scores， the final biochemical pregnancy rates， clinical pregnancy rates， and embryo implantation rates of the treatment group and the control group before and after treatment were observed. ResultCompared with the normal group，the model group showed increased serum levels of sPD-1 and IL-17（r=0.347，P<0.05），decreased levels of IL-10 and TGF-β （P<0.01），and non-significant change in sPD-L1 level. Serum sPD-1 was positively correlated with IL-17 （P<0.05） and negatively correlated with IL-10（r=-0.521，P<0.01） and TGF-β（r=-0.457，P<0.01） in RIF patients with kidney deficiency syndrome. After TCM treatment，compared with the control group， the treatment group showed improved TCM syndrome score （P<0.05） and increased clinical pregnancy rate and embryo transfer rate（P<0.05），but there was no statistically significant difference in the biochemical pregnancy rate between the two groups. ConclusionAbnormal expression of sPD-1 in patients with RIF of kidney deficiency syndrome breaks the balance of T helper 17 （Th17）/regulatory T cell （Treg），which is not conducive to embryo implantation and pregnancy maintenance. Erzhi Tiangui prescription，a TCM for tonifying the kidney，can significantly improve the symptoms of kidney deficiency in patients with RIF of kidney deficiency syndrome，reduce the concentrations of sPD-1 and IL-17 in the peripheral serum，increase the levels of TGF-β and IL-10，regulate the peripheral Th17/Treg immune balance，and increase the implantation rate and clinical pregnancy rate，which has a high clinical value.

Silicosis is a leading cause of occupational disease-related morbidity and mortality worldwide, but the molecular basis underlying its development remains unclear. An accumulating body of evidence supports gasdermin D (GSDMD)-mediated pyroptosis as a key component in the development of various pulmonary diseases. However, there is little experimental evidence connecting silicosis and GSDMD-driven pyroptosis. In this work, we investigated the role of GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis in silicosis. Single-cell RNA sequencing of healthy and silicosis human and murine lung tissues indicated that GSDMD-induced pyroptosis in macrophages was relevant to silicosis progression. Through microscopy we then observed morphological alterations of pyroptosis in macrophages treated with silica. Measurement of interleukin-1β release, lactic dehydrogenase activity, and real-time propidium iodide staining further revealed that silica induced pyroptosis of macrophages. Additionally, we verified that both canonical (caspase-1-mediated) and non-canonical (caspase-4/5/11-mediated) signaling pathways mediated silica-induced pyroptosis activation, in vivo and in vitro. Notably, Gsdmd knockout mice exhibited dramatically alleviated silicosis phenotypes, which highlighted the pivotal role of pyroptosis in this disease. Taken together, our results demonstrated that macrophages underwent GSDMD-dependent pyroptosis in silicosis and inhibition of this process could serve as a viable clinical strategy for mitigating silicosis.

Objective: To understand the consistency of ALK Ventana-D5F3 immunohistochemistry (IHC) interpretation in Chinese lung adenocarcinoma among histopathologists from different hospitals, and to recommend solution for the problems found during the interpretation of ALK IHC in real world, with the aim of the precise selection of patients who can benefit from ALK targeted therapy. Methods: This was a multicenter and retrospective study. A total of 109 lung adenocarcinoma cases with ALK Ventana-D5F3 IHC staining were collected from 31 lung cancer centers in RATICAL research group from January to June in 2018. All cases were scanned into digital imaging with Ventana iSCANcoreo Digital Slide Scanning System and scored by 31 histopathologists from different centers according to ALK binary (positive or negative) interpretation based on its manufacturer′s protocol. The cases with high inconsistency rate were further analyzed using FISH/RT-PCR/NGS. Results: There were 49 ALK positive cases and 60 ALK negative cases, confirmed by re-evaluation by the specialist panel. Two cases (No. 2302 and No.2701) scored as positive by local hospitals were rescored as negative, and were confirmed to be negative by RT-PCR/FISH/NGS. The false interpretation rate of these two cases was 58.1% (18/31) and 48.4% (15/31), respectively. Six out of 31 (19.4%) pathologists got 100% accuracy. The minimum consistency between every two pathologists was 75.8%.At least one pathologist gave negative judgement (false negative) or positive judgement (false positive) in the 49 positive or 60 negative cases, accounted for 26.5% (13/49), 41.7% (25/60), respectively, with at least one uncertainty interpretation accounted for 31.2% (34/109). Conclusion There are certain heterogeneities and misclassifications in the real world interpretation of ALK-D5F3 IHC test, which need to be guided by the oncoming expert consensus based on the real world data.