To addresses the issues of low contrast and inaccurate segmentation of tiny vessels in retinal images,a U-shaped network incorporating multi-level residuals and three-space attention mechanism is proposed.In encoding stage,a multi-level residual module is added after inputting original images for preserving image features,and additionally,batch normalization and Dropout are integrated into the residual module to prevent vanishing gradient and feature data redundancy within the deep network.In decoding stage,a three-space attention mechanism is adopted to assign different weights to the features from the original images,down-sampled images,and up-sampled images,thus enhancing feature texture and position information,and achieving precise segmentation of tiny blood vessels.Experimental results on a public color fundus image dataset demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves higher accuracy(0.985),specificity(0.991),sensitivity(0.829),and AUC(0.985)than the existing algorithms.Moreover,the vessel maps obtained by the comparison with the gold standard are of significant reference value in clinic.

OBJECTIVES: Because intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) has high morbidity, disability and mortality, it is significant to find new and effective treatments for ICH. This study aims to explore the effect of butyphthalide (NBP) on neuroinflammation secondary to ICH and microglia polarization. METHODS: A total of 48 healthy male SD rats were randomly divided into 6 groups: a sham 24 h group, a sham 72 h group, an ICH 24 h group, an ICH 72 h group, an ICH+NBP 24 h group, and an ICH+NBP 72 h group (8 rats per group). After operation, the neurological deficiencies were assessed based on improved Garcia scores and corner test. The expressions of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), aquaporin-4 (AQP4), zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1), occludin, CD68, CD86, and CD206 were observed by Western blotting. Inflammatory cytokines were detected by ELISA. The immunofluorescence was to detect the polarization of microglia. RESULTS: 1) Compared with the sham groups, the expression of TLR4 (24 h: P<0.05; 72 h: P<0.01), NF-κB (both P<0.01) and Nrf2 (both P<0.01) in the perihematoma of the ICH group was increased, leading to microglia activation (P<0.01). The expressions of IL-6 (24 h: P<0.05; 72 h: P<0.01) and TNF-α (both P<0.01), the pro-inflammatory cytokines were up-regulated, and the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-4 was down-regulated (both P<0.01). Besides, the expression of AQP4 was enhanced (both P<0.01). The protein level of tightly connected proteins (including ZO-1, occludin) was decreased (all P<0.01). The neurological function of the rats in the ICH group was impaired in the 2 time points (both P<0.01). 2) Compared with the sham group at 24 h and 72 h after the intervention of NBP, the expressions of TLR4 (both P<0.05) and NF-κB (both P<0.01) were significantly declined, and the expression of Nrf2 was further enhanced (both P<0.05) in the perihematoma of the ICH+NBP group. Furthermore, the expression of M1 microglia marker was inhibited (P<0.05), and the polarization of microglia to the M2 phenotype was promoted (P<0.01). 3) In terms of inflammation after ICH, the IL-4 expression in the ICH+NBP group was increased compared with the ICH group (24 h: P<0.05; 72 h: P<0.01); the expression of IL-6 was decreased significantly in the ICH+NBP 72 h group (P<0.01); the level of AQP4 was declined significantly in the ICH+NBP 24 h group (P<0.05), there was a downward trend in the 72-hour intervention group but without significant statistical difference. 4) Compared with the ICH group, the ZO-1 protein levels were increased (24 h: P<0.05; 72 h: P<0.01), and the symptoms of nerve defect were improved eventually (both P<0.05) in the ICH+NBP groups. CONCLUSIONS After ICH, the TLR4/NF-κB pathway is activated. The M1 microglia is up-regulated along with the release of detrimental cytokines, while the anti-inflammatory cytokines are down-regulated. The expression of AQP4 is increased, the tight junction proteins from the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is damaged, and the neurological function of rats is impaired. On the contrary, NBP may regulate microglia polarization to M2 phenotype and play a role in the neuroprotective effect mediated via inhibiting TLR4/NF-κB and enhancing Nrf2 pathways, which relieves the neuroinflammation, inhibits the expression of AQP4, repairs BBB, and improves neurological functional defects.
Animals ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents/therapeutic use* ; Cerebral Hemorrhage ; Cytokines/metabolism* ; Interleukin-4/therapeutic use* ; Interleukin-6/metabolism* ; Male ; Microglia/metabolism* ; NF-E2-Related Factor 2/metabolism* ; NF-kappa B/metabolism* ; Occludin/pharmacology* ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Signal Transduction ; Toll-Like Receptor 4/genetics*

To address the challenge of unclear features and difficulties in pulmonary nodule CT image detection,an efficient attention feature pyramid network is proposed.The network firstly employs a feature pyramid of multi-scale feature fusion as the backbone network for effectively preserving both low-and high-level features,and uses the depthwise separable convolutional neural network to extract feature information.Then,the attention mechanism is integrated into the backbone network for assigning weights to salient feature information.Finally,the proposed algorithm is applied to Lung-PET-CT-Dx dataset and Luna16 dataset,and the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has higher precision,recall rate and mAP value than the existing comparative algorithms,substantiating its superiority in pulmonary nodule detection.

OBJECTIVE To explore the improvement mechanism of Modified sanhuang ointment on anal ulcers and swelling model rats. METHODS The anal ulcer model of the rat was induced by using glacial acetic acid； the effects of Modified sanhuang ointment low-dose， medium-dose and high-dose groups （185， 370， 740 mg/kg）， western medicine positive control group （Compound carraghenates cream， 1 g/kg） and TCM positive control group （Mayinglong shexiang zhichuang ointments， 1 g/kg） on body weight， area of anal ulcer， grade of anal ulcer were investigated. The other groups of rats were used to induce rectal swelling models with croton oil； the effects of Modified sanhuang ointment low-dose， medium-dose and high-dose groups （185， 370， 740 mg/kg）， western medicine positive control group （Compound carraghenates cream， 1 g/kg） and TCM positive control group （Mayinglong shexiang zhichuang ointments， 1 g/kg） on the rate of rectal and anal swelling， serum contents of inflammatory factors [interleukin 2 （IL-2）， IL-4， tumor necrosis factor （TNF-α）]， pathological morphology of rectal tissue， the expression of transient receptor potential channel V1 （TRPV1） and substance P in rectal tissue and rectal vascular permeability were investigated. RESULTS In Modified sanhuang ointment， the increase in body weight was enhanced， and the area of anal ulcers， as well as the grade of anal ulcers in rats with anal ulcer models， were reduced to varying degrees； rectal tissue damage in rectal swelling model rats was improved； the rate of rectal and anal swelling， the serum contents of inflammatory factors， the expressions of TRPV1 and substance P in rectal tissue， and rectal vascular permeability were all decreased （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. The effect of Modified sanhuang ointment was better than that of western medicine positive control and TCM positive control.Modified sanhuang ointment can improve anal ulcers and swelling in rats by reducing the release of inflammatory factors， inhibiting the expression of TRPV1 and substance P.

OBJECTIVE To predict the core ingredients, targets and signaling pathways of Sanhuang ointment in the treatment of haemorrhoids based on network pharmacology, and preliminarily discuss the mechanism of action preliminarily by means of molecular docking and experimental verification. METHODS Active ingredients, targets and haemorrhoid related targets of Sanhuang ointment were obtained through literature research and database screening. Association networks were constructed and core targets were screened by Cytoscape, and gene function analysis and pathway enrichment analysis were conducted. Autodock Vina was used for molecular docking verification, and the regulatory effects of Sanhuang ointment on core targets were verified by ELISA and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS The 77 active ingredients and 61 potential targets of Sanhuang ointment for treating haemorrhoids were collected. KEGG showed that Sanhuang ointment could regulate calcium signaling pathways, neuroactive ligand receptor interactions, cGMP-PKG pathway, etc. Affect 6 core targets of CGRP, NK-1R, TRPV1, VEGF, IL-6 and TNF-α. Molecular docking showed that Sanhuang ointment had a good affinity with target protein, and animal experiments verified that Sanhuang ointment could inhibit the expression of IL-6, CGRP, substance P, and promote the expression of VEGF. CONCLUSION Sanhuang ointment may act on CGRP, NK-1R and other targets, regulate Calcium signaling pathway and PI3K-Akt pathways, and exert analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects, promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis to treat haemorrhoids.