Objective To investigate the association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP)in-308 loci of tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α)gene promoter region and chronic hepatitis B (CHB).Methods Genotypes of-308 loci of the TNF-αpromoter were examined by the polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP)in 142 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB group)and 150 healthy controls (HC group).The indexes for evalua-ting the curative effect were the ALT,AST,HBeAg,HBV-DNA and the viral load weight,HBV-LP and HBV-PreS1,mean-while,the correlations between related indexes and SNP in TNF-α308 loci were explored as well.Results There was no sta-tistical significance in frequency distribution difference of the genotypes and alleles of-308 loci between CHC and HC groups (P>0.05),the protective factors of TNF-α308 allele A may be not associated with CHB (OR=1.529,OR95%CI:0.872~2.684).There was no association between TNF-αgene promoter-308G/A polymorphism and the positive rates of AST, ALT,HBV-LP and HBV-PreS1 (P>0.05),however,TNF-α-308G/A polymorphism associates with the positive rates of HBeAg and HBV-DNA,and A-allele of 308 loci may increase the risk of HBeAg and HBV-DNA positive expression (HBeAg:OR=3.256,OR95%CI=1.105~9.594;HBV-DNA:OR=2.847,OR95%CI=1.059~7.655).Furthermore,A-allele compared with Gallele,statistically significant differences were observed in the certain HBVDNA viral load range of104~107 copies/ml (P <005).Conclusion TNFαgene promoter308G/A polymorphism would not be associated withCHB,but the TNFα308 gene G mutation of Aallele,which was associated with HBVDNA viral load,may be the susceptible factors of HBV infection.

Objective: To observe the effect of vitamin A and iron supplementation on iron status during pregnancy. Methods: 167 pregnant women aged 21～33 years in the second trimester were recruited and randomly allocated to four groups: placebo; vitamin A (1.1 mg/d); iron(60 mg elemental iron); vitamin A and iron, for 10 weeks. Results:The incidences of vitamin A deficiency, anemia and iron depletion were 0.6%,7.8% and 6.2% in the second trimester respectively. Serum VA level was not changed in three supplemented groups but decreased in placebo group. Hemoglobin in all groups before and after supplementation was in normal range, with no significant differences. The improvement in serum ferritin, free erythrocyte proporphyrin and transferrin saturation was better in the group supplemented with VA+Fe than VA or Fe alone. Conclusion: The simultaneous supplementation of vitamin A and iron is better in improvement of iron status than supplementation of vitamin A or iron alone during pregnancy. Improvement of iron status by simultaneous supplementation of pregnant women with vitamin A and iron was better than supplementation with iron or vitamin A alone.

Forty-eight patients with subclinical Cushing's syndrome(SCS)were evaluated.Eleven of them underwent adrenalectomy(Group 1)and the other 37 cases did not(Group 2).Serum and urine corticosol, plasma ACTH and parameters related to metabolic syndrome(such as waist circumference,blood pressure,blood lipids and fasting plasma glucose)were measured.The data at diagnosis were compared with those during the survey.The results indicated that patients with SCS had a significantly high prevalence of metabolic syndrome.The symptoms and signs of metabolic syndrome could be improved after removing the tumor.Otherwise there is no improvement,some patients will even develop into overt Cushing's syndrome.

BACKGROUND:The majority of studies focus on the lesions of spinal cord injury, while little evidence is available on the change of morphology and structure of distal nerve, muscle and motor endplates fol owing spinal cord injury.
OBJECTIVE:To investigate the time window change of the morphology of motor neurons and skeletal muscles caudal to the lesion after spinal cord injury in rats.
METHODS:Fifty healthy adult Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups:control group (n=5;without treatment), sham operation group (n=10), and spinal cord injury group (n=35). The sham operated rats only received laminectomy. In the spinal cord injury group, rats were subject to complete T 10 spinal cord injury by total laminectomy and cord transverse resection. Then the morphological change including sciatic nerve, motor endplate and median gastrocnemius was observed for each group at 1, 2, 4, 12, 24 weeks after injury.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1) The myelin sheath layers of sciatic nerve were separated partial y at 4 weeks in rats with spinal cord injury, the myelin sheaths were fragmented with the regeneration of thin-myelinated and unmyelinated axons at 12 weeks. There was a decrease in myelinated axons and an increase in thin-myelinated and unmyelinated axons at 24 weeks. (2) The synaptic gutters of motor endplate, the presynaptic and postsynaptic membrane and synaptic space were distinct at 4 weeks in rats with spinal cord injury, the degenerated motor endplates coexsisted with the intact ones at 12 weeks. The motor endplate disappeared at 24 weeks. (3) There was a slight decrease in muscle cross-sectional area at 2 weeks in rats with spinal cord injury, but no structural change was found, the membrane of myocytes was partial y weakened at 4 weeks, the border of myocytes was obscure with hyperplasia of connective tissue at 12 weeks, and myocytes gathered and in fusion at 24 weeks. As natural history of completely transected spinal cord injury in rats, there were significant changes in morphology of peripheral nerve, motor endplate and skeletal muscles caudal to the lesion at 12 weeks, and the changes were destructive at 24 weeks.

OBJECTIVETo explain the essence of pungent-hot herb property express according to in vivo and in vitro studies on its effect on calmodulin on the base of the observation of the adjustment in hypothalamic-pituitary-gonad axis functions of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata, Curculiginis Rhizoma, Cinnamomi Cortex and bitter-cold herb Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex in rats under the state of yang deficiency.

METHODThe yang-deficient model was duplicated by intramuscularly injecting hydrocortisone sodium succinate powder injection. After the intervention with Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata, Curculiginis Rhizoma, Cinnamomi Cortex and bitter-cold herb Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex for seven days, TSH, T3, T4, 17-OHCS, COR, T, E2 of hypothalamus-pituitary-target gland axis and other relevant indexes were detected. The calmodulin expression in livers and L02 cells cultured in vitro was detected by using Western blot.

RESULTPungent-hot herbs Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata, Curculiginis Rhizoma, Cinnamomi Cortex can significantly correct indicators of hypothalamic-pituitary-gonad axis and calmodulin, whereas the bitter-cold herb Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex showed no obvious effect.

CONCLUSIONThe pungent-hot herb property expression may be closely related to calmodulin.

Animals ; Calmodulin ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; Gonads ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Liver ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Yang Deficiency ; drug therapy ; metabolism

Anthropometry ; Biomarkers ; Child ; Child, Hospitalized ; Child, Preschool ; Humans ; Infant ; Malnutrition ; diagnosis ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; Mass Screening ; methods ; Nutrition Assessment ; Nutritional Status ; Risk Assessment ; methods ; Risk Factors

Human tissue kallikrein-binding protein (Kallistatin, KAL), a secretory protein that participates in the regulation of multiple signaling pathways by binding to the extracellular receptor, however, at present has not been reported about the intracellular activity, and whether it has the similar biological activity with extracellular activity. Here we constructed no signal peptide KAL (NSK) into the adeno-associated virus vector to explore the intracellular activity of KAL. Both the endothelial cell and lung cancer cells could express KAL, but not secreted after rAAV2-NSK transfection. The proliferation and migration of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were inhibited, but the apoptosis rate was not affected. The proliferation rates, mobility and tubule formation of all the three tested lung cancer cells, such as NCI-H446, NCI-H460 and A549, were inhibited to different extents. This cellular study not only confirmed the intracellular activity, but also suggested it may serve as a kind of "balance factor" in multi-targeted controlling, which may provide a new train of thoughts to explain the regulatory contradiction in PI3K-Akt signaling pathways by KAL.
Apoptosis ; Cell Proliferation ; Dependovirus ; Genetic Vectors ; Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells ; metabolism ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; metabolism ; Serpins ; metabolism ; Signal Transduction ; Transfection

Hemoglobin A1c(HbA1c)as the important marker confirmed by UK Prospective Diabetes Study and Diabetes Control and Complications Trial Research 2 epidemiological survey results is closely related to diabetes and its complications ,it has been included in the diagnostic criteria of diabetes mellitus by international organizations such as International Diabetes Federation , American Diabetes Association , World Health Organization ( WHO ) since 2010.The Chinese Guidelines for Type 2 Diabetes ( 2017 Edition ) issued by the Chinese Diabetes Society are still not formally included in the diagnostic criteria of diabetes in China.The reason is that although the standardization of HbA 1c testing in China has been improved gradually, the differences between different regions are still large.Reviewing the process of HbA1c standardization in the world and exploring the road of standardization in our country , it is believed that through the joint efforts of all parties , the goal will be achieved .

Objective:To analyze the expression of circular RNA (circRNA) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with gout and to explore the possible mechanism of circRNA in the pathogenesis of gout.Methods:Peripheral blood samples of 24 patients with acute gout (AG), 24 patients with intermittent gout (IG) and 24 healthy control subjects (HC) were collected. Three cases of AG, IG, and HC were randomly selected, and the differentially expressed circRNA in PBMCs was screened by human circNA microarrays. The 6 circRNAs with large differences between the two comparison groups were selected, and the relative expression levels of 6 circRNAs in all the collected 72 PBMCs of the study subjects were detected by real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). The significantly differentially ex-pressed circRNA (fold change>1.5, P<0.05) was analyzed by GO analysis, Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis, and its interaction with microRNA (miRNA) was predicted. The median (interquartile range) was used to describe the data, and the Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison between groups. Results:(1) The microarray analysis results showed that compared with the HC group, the AG group and the IG group had 116 and 41 significantly differently expressed circRNAs, respectively; com-pared with the IG group, the AG group had 105 significantly differently expressed circRNAs. (2) Among the 6 circRNAs verified by PT-qPCR, the expression trends of 5 were consistent with the microarray results. The expression of hsa_circRNA_105034 in the AG group [5.17(4.60)] was statistically significantly different com-pared to the IG [1.68(2.39)] and HC [0.90(0.73)] groups (AG vs IG: Z=-4.413, P<0.01; AG vs HC Z=-5.052, P<0.01). (3) Bioinformatics analysis: ① GO analysis found that differential circRNA swere mainly involved in DNA transcriptional regulation, positive cell regulation and protein modification, etc. ② KEGG pathway analysis revealed that differential circRNA might be involved in the immune response mediated by the mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway. ③ CircRNA might affect its inflammatory response by targeting molecules such as miRNA-146a, miRNA-302b and miRNA-23a. Conclusion:There are differentially expressed circRNAs in PBMCs of patients with gout, which may be closely related to the occurrence and development of gout.

Objective:To screen for circle RNA (circRNA) differentially expressed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and to analyze its expression profile to explore the role of circRNAs in the pathogenesis of AS.Methods:CircRNA microarray chip technology was used to detect the expression of circRNAs in PBMCs of 3 patients with active AS, 3 patients with stable AS and 3 healthy controls (HC), and then screening for differentially expressed circRNAs by fold change (FC) and P value. Then differentially expressed circRNAs among the circRNAs with the highest differential expression were selected randomly to verify the chip results by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR); Differentially expressed circRNAs were subjected to Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis, and microRNA (miRNA) target prediction software was used to predict the circRNA/miRNA interaction relationship. Finally, the data were statistically analyzed by t test and Mann-Whitney U test. Results:① Chip text results showed that there were 800 circRNAs with significantly different expression (FC>1.5, P<0.05) in active AS than HC, of which 466 were up-regulated and 334 were down-regulated; the stable AS had a total of 1 149 significantly differentially expressed when compared with the HC (FC>1.5, P<0.05) circRNAs, of which 589 were up-regulated and 560 were down-regulated. 233 circRNAs were significantly differentially expressed (FC>1.5, P<0.05) between active AS and stable AS, of which 145 were up-regulated and 88 were down-regulated. ②The RT-qPCR verification results suggested that the expression trends of the four differentially expressed circRNAs were consistent with the results of the chip. ③ GO analysis results suggested that these differentially expressed circRNAs were mainly involved in nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, Rho GTPase binding and other processes. The analysis showed that the KEGG pathway were enriched in Th17 cell differentiation and chemokine signaling pathways. The results of miRNA target prediction software analysis suggested that differentially expressed circRNAs might play a role by targeting miR-650, let-7b-5p and other miRNAs. Conclusion:Compared with HC group, there were differentially expressed circRNAs in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) of AS patients, The results of this study suggest that these circRNAs may be involved in the pathogenesis of AS.