OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of "olfactory three needles" on cognition, learning and memory abilities, as well as hippocampal microglia (MG) phagocytic activity in vascular dementia (VD) rats, and explore the mechanisms of acupuncture in regulating MG activation and improving remyelination, so as to ameliorate VD. METHODS: Among 38 SD rats meeting experimental requirements, 9 rats were randomly assigned to a sham-operation group, and the remaining rats underwent permanent bilateral common carotid artery ligation to establish VD model. Eighteen successfully modeled rats were randomly divided into a model group and an electroacupuncture (EA) group, with 9 rats in each one. In the EA group, EA was performed at "olfactory three needles" ("Yintang" [GV24⁺] and bilateral "Yingxiang" [LI20]), at disperse-dense wave, the frequency of 2 Hz/15 Hz and the current intensity of 1 mA, for 15 min per intervention, once daily. One course was composed of 7 days, and 2 courses were required, with the interval of 2 days. The novel object recognition test was employed to assess the cognition of rats, and the Morris water maze was adopted to observe learning and memory abilities. Luxol fast blue (LFB) staining was performed to evaluate myelin sheath loss in the hippocampus, the Western blot was used to detect the protein expression of triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-2 (TREM2) and proteolipid protein (PLP) in the hippocampus; and the immunofluorescence staining was used to detect the positive expression of PLP, sex determining region Y-box 10 (SOX10), ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1 (Iba1)⁺ TREM2⁺ and Iba1⁺ lysosome-associated membrane protein 1 (LAMP1)⁺ in the hippocampus. RESULTS: Compared with the sham-operation group, the rats in the model group exhibited the prolonged escape latency on day 3 and 4 (P<0.05, P<0.01), the increase of the total distance traveling (P<0.01) and the decrease of the recognition index (RI) and platform crossing frequency (P<0.01). Compared with the model group, the rats in the EA group showed the shortened escape latency on day 3 and 4 (P<0.05), the decrease of total distance traveling (P<0.01) and the increase of RI and platform crossing frequency (P<0.05, P<0.01). When compared with the sham-operation group, the rats of the model group presented uneven staining, sparse arrangement of myelin sheath fibers, unclear contours, and prominent vacuole-like changes in the hippocampal CA1 region. When compared with the model group, the EA group showed more dense staining, the increase of myelin sheath fibers with more orderly alignment, and fewer vacuolar changes in the hippocampal CA1 region. Compared with the sham-operation group, the model group exhibited the increase of TREM2 protein expression and the decrease of PLP protein expression in the hippocampus (P<0.01), whereas the EA group showed the up-regulation of TREM2 and PLP protein expression when compared with the model group (P<0.01, P<0.05). The positive expression of the hippocampal PLP, SOX10, and Iba1⁺LAMP1⁺ in the model group was reduced in comparison with the sham-operation group (P<0.05, P<0.01), and the positive expression of Iba1⁺ TREM2⁺ was elevated (P<0.05). In the EA group, the positive expression of PLP, SOX10, Iba1⁺TREM2⁺, and Iba1⁺ LAMP1⁺ was higher compared with that in the model group (P<0.05, P<0.01). CONCLUSION "Olfactory three needles" can improve the learning and memory, and cognitive functions of VD rats, and its mechanism may be associated with the up-regulation of TREM2 and LAMP1 to adjust MG phagocytic activity and intracellular degradation, and promote remyelination.
Animals ; Dementia, Vascular/metabolism* ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Microglia/metabolism* ; Male ; Acupuncture Therapy/instrumentation* ; Acupuncture Points ; Humans ; Remyelination ; Memory ; Hippocampus/cytology* ; Cognition ; Electroacupuncture ; Needles

Objectives:To investigate the screening status of warning signs for mental and behavioral development (WS) and influencing factors of infants and young children (IYC) in poverty eliminated regions of Henan Province.Methods:This study was a cross-sectional study. A total of 15 680 IYC aged 6-23 months from 51 poverty eliminated counties in Henan province from June to September of 2023 were selected through a multi-stage random sampling method. IYC′s early warning signs were screened using the WS checklist (WSC). Children′s socio-demographic characteristics, maternal information, birth status, and illness conditions such as fever and diarrhea within 2 weeks were measured through a uniformly designed questionnaire. All participants also received the measurement of height, weight, and hemoglobin concentration level. Logistic regression model was used to explore the influencing factors of positive WSC and conducted sensitivity analyses.Results:Among the sample of 15 680 IYC, there were 8 462 boys (53.97%) and 7 218 girls (49.03%), with their age of (15±5) months. A total of 291 (1.86%) IYC were positive in WSC. Parenting risk ( OR=5.07, 95% CI 3.93-6.52, P<0.001) and preterm birth ( OR=1.63, 95% CI 1.06-2.52, P=0.027) were both positively associated with the odds of WSC′s positivity. Being girls ( OR=0.66, 95% CI 0.52-0.85, P=0.001), age (12-17 months, OR=0.47, 95% CI 0.35-0.62, P<0.001; 18-23 months, OR=0.40, 95% CI 0.30-0.54, P<0.001), and maternal educational level (junior high school, OR=0.46, 95% CI 0.32-0.66, P<0.001; senior high school or vocational high school, OR=0.35, 95% CI 0.23-0.56, P<0.001; college and above, OR=0.36, 95% CI 0.23-0.57, P<0.001) were all negatively associated with the risk of WSC′s positivity. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated that, after excluding anemic children, the association between preterm birth and WSC′s positivity was not significant ( OR=1.54, 95% CI 0.95-2.49, P=0.081). Despite this situation, being girls, age and maternal educational level were still negatively associated with the odds of WSC′s positivity (all P<0.05); preterm birth, parenting risk were remained positive associated with the risk of WSC′s positivity (all P<0.05) either by excluding children with protein-energy malnutrition or 2-week morbidity, or using prevalence ratio instead of OR. Conclusions:Among the IYC in poverty eliminated regions of Henan Province, the risk of positivity of WSC was higher for those IYC with parenting risk, preterm birth, boys, younger age, and lower maternal education level. These influencing factors, such as gender, age, preterm birth, parenting risk and maternal educational level, were in certain stability across different IYC characteristics and estimation models.

Objective To investigate the correlation between the expression of long non-coding ribonucleic acid growth arrest specific 5(lncRNA GAS5),phospholysine phosphohistidine inorganic pyrophosphate phos-phatase(LHPP)and epithelial-mesenchymal transition(EMT)in cancer tissues of patients with non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)and its clinical significance.Methods Cancer tissues and adjacent tissues of 90 patients with NSCLC who underwent surgical resection in the First Hospital Affiliated to Hebei North College from June 2018 to January 2020 were collected.The expressions of lncRNA GAS5,LHPP and EMT-associated pro-teins[E-calmodulin(E-Cad),N-calmodulin(N-Cad),and vimentin(VIM)]were detected by real-time fluores-cence quantitative polymerase chain reaction.The relationship between lncRNA GAS5 and LHPP mRNA and clinicopathological features in cancer tissues of NSCLC patients was analyzed,and the correlation between ln-cRNA GAS5 and LHPP mRNA and EMT-associated proteins expression in cancer tissues of NSCLC patients was analyzed by Pearson correlation.Kaplan-Meier method was used to plot the survival curves of NSCLC pa-tients with different lncRNA GAS5 and LHPP mRNA expressions,and multivariate Cox regression was used to analyze the prognostic factors of NSCLC patients.Results The expressions of lncRNA GAS5,LHPP mR-NA and E-Cad mRNA in cancer tissues of NSCLC patients were lower than those in adjacent tissues,while the expressions of N-Cad mRNA and VIM mRNA were higher than those in adjacent tissues,with statistical sig-nificance(P＜0.05).Pearson correlation analysis showed that lncRNA GAS5 in cancer tissues of NSCLC pa-tients was positively correlated with E-Cad mRNA expression(r=0.724,P＜0.001),and negatively correla-ted with N-Cad mRNA and VIM mRNA expression(r=-0.699,-0.689).P＜0.001);lncRNA GAS5 was positively correlated with LHPP mRNA expression(r=0.651,P＜0.001).The mRNA expressions of ln-cRNA GAS5 and LHPP in cancer tissues of NSCLC patients with different degrees of differentiation,tumor TNM stage and lymph node metastasis were significantly different(P＜0.05).Kaplan-Meier survival curve a-nalysis showed that the 3-year overall survival rate in the lncRNA GAS5 high expression group[68.18％(30/44)]was higher than that in the lncRNA GAS5 low expression group[36.96％(17/46)].The 3-year overall survival rate in the high LHPP mRNA expression group[67.39％(31/46)]was higher than that in the lowLHPP mRNA expression group[36.36％(16/44)],and the difference was statistically significant(x2=10.274,10.322,P＜0.05).Low differentiation,TNM stage Ⅲ and lymph node metastasis were independent risk factors for death in NSCLC patients,and lncRNA GAS5≥1.32 and LHPP mRNA≥1.12 were independ-ent protective factors(P＜0.05).Conclusion The low expression of lncRNA GAS5 and LHPP mRNA in cancer tissues of patients with NSCLC is related to EMT-associated proteins expression,differentiation de-gree,tumor TNM stage,lymph node metastasis and prognosis,and may become a new target for the diagnosis and treatment of NSCLC.

Objective To comapre and analyze the differences and commonalities of expression profiles of serum exosomal microRNA between patients with thyroid nodules and healthy persons at different iodine levels,and then provide evidence for screening early diag-nostic markers of thyroid nodules at different iodine levels.Methods The peripheral blood samples from 10 patients with thyroid nod-ules and healthy volunteers at different iodine levels were collected.Their serum iodine levels were measured by the arsenic cerium cat-alytic spectrophotometry.Serum exosomal microRNA were extracted and the expression levels of microRNA were determined by the high-throughput sequencing technology.The differential target genes were predicted and further performed Gene ontology(GO)analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)analysis.Results Compared with healthy volunteers,there were 6 downreg-ulated miRNAs in the patients with thyroid nodules at different iodine levels,namely miR-324-5p,miR-6511b-3p,miR-9903,miR-550a-3p,miR-5001-3p,and miR-3688-3p.Differentially expressed exosomal microRNA could regulate the MAPK signaling path-way,PI3K-AKT signaling pathway,VEGF signaling pathway,and NF-κB signaling pathway.Conclusion Six differentially expressed microRNAs is identified,which may serve as biological markers for the early diagnosis of thyroid nodules at different iodine levels.

Since the new medical reform,the scale of public hospitals at all levels and types in China has grown rapidly,resulting in a series of problems such as continued increase in financial burden,excessive growth in health expenses,and serious imbalance in the distribution of social basic medical insurance funds.Due to the ambiguous understanding of the connotation of the scale of China's public hospitals and the underlying driving forces of growth,and the traditional economic explanation of the growth of public hospital scale in China is not convincing.In view of this,revealing the essential driving framework for the scale growth of public hospitals in China from a new economic perspective has become a key theoretical issue to guide the next stage of high-quality development of public hospitals in China.It used the complex system modeling method to measure the growth of China's public hos-pitals since the new medical reform,and summarized the increasingly complex institutional spectrum of contempo-rary public hospitals.Drawing on the perspectives of the system's own costs and system change costs in new insti-tutional economics,starting from the analysis of system costs,it is proposed that under the premise of price regula-tion,it is the best strategy for public hospitals to compensate for institutional costs through scale growth.Finally,based on the three situations of prisoner's dilemma game,deer hunting game,and rule-abiding game experienced by public hospitals since the new health reform,the development path of public hospitals from single scale growth to extended scale growth,and then to collaborative scale growth was summarized.

Since the new medical reform,the scale of public hospitals at all levels and types in China has grown rapidly,resulting in a series of problems such as continued increase in financial burden,excessive growth in health expenses,and serious imbalance in the distribution of social basic medical insurance funds.Due to the ambiguous understanding of the connotation of the scale of China's public hospitals and the underlying driving forces of growth,and the traditional economic explanation of the growth of public hospital scale in China is not convincing.In view of this,revealing the essential driving framework for the scale growth of public hospitals in China from a new economic perspective has become a key theoretical issue to guide the next stage of high-quality development of public hospitals in China.It used the complex system modeling method to measure the growth of China's public hos-pitals since the new medical reform,and summarized the increasingly complex institutional spectrum of contempo-rary public hospitals.Drawing on the perspectives of the system's own costs and system change costs in new insti-tutional economics,starting from the analysis of system costs,it is proposed that under the premise of price regula-tion,it is the best strategy for public hospitals to compensate for institutional costs through scale growth.Finally,based on the three situations of prisoner's dilemma game,deer hunting game,and rule-abiding game experienced by public hospitals since the new health reform,the development path of public hospitals from single scale growth to extended scale growth,and then to collaborative scale growth was summarized.

Since the new medical reform,the scale of public hospitals at all levels and types in China has grown rapidly,resulting in a series of problems such as continued increase in financial burden,excessive growth in health expenses,and serious imbalance in the distribution of social basic medical insurance funds.Due to the ambiguous understanding of the connotation of the scale of China's public hospitals and the underlying driving forces of growth,and the traditional economic explanation of the growth of public hospital scale in China is not convincing.In view of this,revealing the essential driving framework for the scale growth of public hospitals in China from a new economic perspective has become a key theoretical issue to guide the next stage of high-quality development of public hospitals in China.It used the complex system modeling method to measure the growth of China's public hos-pitals since the new medical reform,and summarized the increasingly complex institutional spectrum of contempo-rary public hospitals.Drawing on the perspectives of the system's own costs and system change costs in new insti-tutional economics,starting from the analysis of system costs,it is proposed that under the premise of price regula-tion,it is the best strategy for public hospitals to compensate for institutional costs through scale growth.Finally,based on the three situations of prisoner's dilemma game,deer hunting game,and rule-abiding game experienced by public hospitals since the new health reform,the development path of public hospitals from single scale growth to extended scale growth,and then to collaborative scale growth was summarized.

Since the new medical reform,the scale of public hospitals at all levels and types in China has grown rapidly,resulting in a series of problems such as continued increase in financial burden,excessive growth in health expenses,and serious imbalance in the distribution of social basic medical insurance funds.Due to the ambiguous understanding of the connotation of the scale of China's public hospitals and the underlying driving forces of growth,and the traditional economic explanation of the growth of public hospital scale in China is not convincing.In view of this,revealing the essential driving framework for the scale growth of public hospitals in China from a new economic perspective has become a key theoretical issue to guide the next stage of high-quality development of public hospitals in China.It used the complex system modeling method to measure the growth of China's public hos-pitals since the new medical reform,and summarized the increasingly complex institutional spectrum of contempo-rary public hospitals.Drawing on the perspectives of the system's own costs and system change costs in new insti-tutional economics,starting from the analysis of system costs,it is proposed that under the premise of price regula-tion,it is the best strategy for public hospitals to compensate for institutional costs through scale growth.Finally,based on the three situations of prisoner's dilemma game,deer hunting game,and rule-abiding game experienced by public hospitals since the new health reform,the development path of public hospitals from single scale growth to extended scale growth,and then to collaborative scale growth was summarized.

Since the new medical reform,the scale of public hospitals at all levels and types in China has grown rapidly,resulting in a series of problems such as continued increase in financial burden,excessive growth in health expenses,and serious imbalance in the distribution of social basic medical insurance funds.Due to the ambiguous understanding of the connotation of the scale of China's public hospitals and the underlying driving forces of growth,and the traditional economic explanation of the growth of public hospital scale in China is not convincing.In view of this,revealing the essential driving framework for the scale growth of public hospitals in China from a new economic perspective has become a key theoretical issue to guide the next stage of high-quality development of public hospitals in China.It used the complex system modeling method to measure the growth of China's public hos-pitals since the new medical reform,and summarized the increasingly complex institutional spectrum of contempo-rary public hospitals.Drawing on the perspectives of the system's own costs and system change costs in new insti-tutional economics,starting from the analysis of system costs,it is proposed that under the premise of price regula-tion,it is the best strategy for public hospitals to compensate for institutional costs through scale growth.Finally,based on the three situations of prisoner's dilemma game,deer hunting game,and rule-abiding game experienced by public hospitals since the new health reform,the development path of public hospitals from single scale growth to extended scale growth,and then to collaborative scale growth was summarized.

Since the new medical reform,the scale of public hospitals at all levels and types in China has grown rapidly,resulting in a series of problems such as continued increase in financial burden,excessive growth in health expenses,and serious imbalance in the distribution of social basic medical insurance funds.Due to the ambiguous understanding of the connotation of the scale of China's public hospitals and the underlying driving forces of growth,and the traditional economic explanation of the growth of public hospital scale in China is not convincing.In view of this,revealing the essential driving framework for the scale growth of public hospitals in China from a new economic perspective has become a key theoretical issue to guide the next stage of high-quality development of public hospitals in China.It used the complex system modeling method to measure the growth of China's public hos-pitals since the new medical reform,and summarized the increasingly complex institutional spectrum of contempo-rary public hospitals.Drawing on the perspectives of the system's own costs and system change costs in new insti-tutional economics,starting from the analysis of system costs,it is proposed that under the premise of price regula-tion,it is the best strategy for public hospitals to compensate for institutional costs through scale growth.Finally,based on the three situations of prisoner's dilemma game,deer hunting game,and rule-abiding game experienced by public hospitals since the new health reform,the development path of public hospitals from single scale growth to extended scale growth,and then to collaborative scale growth was summarized.