OBJECTIVES: To investigate the therapeutic mechanism of 2,6-dimethoxy-1,4-benzoquinone (DMQ) for alleviating dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced ulcerative colitis (UC) in mice. METHODS: Eighteen male C57BL/6J mice were equally randomized into control group, DSS group and DMQ treatment group. In DSS and DMQ groups, the mice were treated with DSS in drinking water to induce UC, and received intraperitoneal injections of sterile PBS or DMQ (20 mg/kg) during modeling. The changes in body weight, disease activity index (DAI), colon length, spleen weight, and colon histological scores of the mice were examined, and the percentages of Th17 and IFN-γ⁺ CD8⁺ T cells in the mesenteric lymph nodes and spleen were analyzed using flow cytometry. The expressions of tight junction proteins (Occludin and ZO-1), proteins associated with inflammasome activation (caspase-1 and p20), IL-1β and TNF-α in the colon tissues were detected using Western blotting or ELISA. In the cell experiment, mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) primed with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were treated with DMQ, followed by stmulation with nigericin to activate the classical NLRP3 inflammasome pathway. In cultured human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) treated with either LPS alone or LPS plus nigericin, the effects of DMQ on inflammasome activation, pyroptosis, and cytokine release were evaluated via Western blotting, ELISA, and flow cytometry. RESULTS: In DSS-treated mice, DMQ treatment significantly alleviated DSS-induced body weight loss, colon shortening, spleen enlargement, and colon inflammation. The DMQ-treated mice showed significantly reduced percentages of Th17 cells and IFN-γ⁺ CD8⁺ T cells in the mesenteric lymph nodes and spleen, with increased occludin and ZO-1 expressions and decreased caspase-1 expression in the colon tissue. DMQ obviously inhibited classical NLRP3 inflammasome activation in mouse BMDMs and both the classical and alternative pathways of NLRP3 activation in human PBMCs, causing also suppression of caspase-1-dependent pyroptosis. CONCLUSIONS DMQ ameliorates DSS-induced UC in mice by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation.
Animals ; NLR Family, Pyrin Domain-Containing 3 Protein/metabolism* ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Colitis, Ulcerative/metabolism* ; Dextran Sulfate/adverse effects* ; Male ; Inflammasomes/metabolism* ; Mice ; Benzoquinones/therapeutic use* ; Th17 Cells ; Caspase 1/metabolism*

Purpose To explore the clinical and pathological characteristics of gastric amphicrine carcinoma(AC).Methods Clinical data of 12 patients with gastric AC were collected,and their clinical pathological character-istics and histological morphology were observed.Immunohistochemical staining,special staining,and electron micros-copy techniques were used to analyze their immune phenotype and ultrastructure.Molecular pathology was used to de-tect microsatellite status.Relevant literature was reviewed.Results Ten cases of gastric AC were located at the junc-tion of the esophagus and stomach/cardia,1 case at the gastric angle,and 1 case in the gastric antrum.The average maximum diameter of tumors was 4.25 cm.There were different proportions of tumor cells with signet-ring like charac-teristics in all cases.Four cases had neuroendocrine carcinoma components,and another 4 had adenocarcinoma.Elev-en cases had nerve invasion and vascular cancer thrombus.Eleven cases invaded the serosal layer/submucosal layer,and 1 case invaded the submucosal layer.Ten cases had lymph node metastasis.All 12 cases showed diffuse expression of CKpan and Syn,with 3 cases showed diffuse expression of CgA and 7 cases showed diffuse expression of CD56.The average proliferation index of Ki67 was 78.9％.Special staining showed clear intracellular mucus.Electron microscopy examination revealed electron dense particles and mucus particles within the tumor cells.A total of 10 patients were fol-lowed up,of which 7 survived,and 3 patients died from multiple systemic metastases at 0,24,and 30 months postop-eratively.Conclusion Gastric AC was more common in the junction of the esophagus and stomach/cardia,and histol-ogy shows a higher invasiveness.Their clear diagnosis depends on histological morphology,immunohistochemistry,and special staining.

BACKGROUND:Percutaneous kyphoplasty was a common surgical procedure for the treatment of osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture.However,there was no research to confirm whether percutaneous kyphoplasty could effectively correct the local kyphoplasty of the spine in patients over 80 years old with osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture.OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of percutaneous kyphoplasty on local kyphosis in super-aging patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture.METHODS:Single-segment osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture patients treated with percutaneous kyphoplasty at the Department of Spinal Surgery,Peking University People's Hospital,from March 2016 to August 2022,were selected as the research cohort,and the follow-up data of patients in hospital and out-patient were collected.According to patients'age,patients were divided into the advanced age group(60-79 years old,n=126)and the super-aged group(＞80 years old,n=52).According to gender,body mass index,basic diseases(hypertension,diabetes,and cardiovascular diseases),fracture segments and the presence or absence of preoperative intravertebral cleft,the two groups of patients were matched 1:2 by propensity score matching.The lumbar CT values,injection amount of bone cement,preoperative and postoperative vertebral height,preoperative collapse rate of the vertebral body,preoperative and postoperative Cobb angle,recovery rate of Cobb angle,distance between the bone cement and anterior edge of the vertebral body,sagittal position of cement filling,contact between the bone cement and endplate,distance between the bone cement and vertebral endplates,bone cement distribution score,bone cement leakage,and vertebral refracture were compared between the two groups.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)After matching the propensity score,115 patients were included,with 71 patients in the advanced age group and 44 patients in the super-aged group.There was no statistically significant difference in baseline data,including gender,body mass index,hypertension ratio,diabetes ratio,cardiovascular disease ratio,fracture section,and preoperative intravertebral cleft,between the two groups(P＞0.05).The postoperative Cobb angle of the super-aged patients was significantly smaller than that of the elderly patients(P＜0.05).There was no significant difference in lumbar CT values,injection amount of bone cement,preoperative and postoperative vertebral height,preoperative collapse rate of the vertebral body,preoperative Cobb angle,recovery rate of Cobb angle,postoperative distance between the bone cement and anterior edge of the vertebral body,sagittal position of cement filling,contact between the bone cement and endplate,distance between the bone cement and vertebral endplates,bone cement distribution score,bone cement leakage,and vertebral refracture ratio between the two groups(P＞0.05).(2)These findings indicate that percutaneous kyphoplasty can effectively correct local kyphosis of the spine in super-aging patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures.

Sneddon syndrome is a rare neurocutaneous disorder that primarily affects small-and medium-sized arteries.Its clinical manifestations include livedo racemosa and recurrent cerebral ischemic events,and it may also involve multiple organs such as the heart,spleen,and kidneys.This disease can lead to early-onset stroke,making it a rare cause of stroke in young adults.This article reported a case of a young female patient who experienced two cerebral infarctions within one month.Genetic testing identified a homozygous mutation in the adenosine deaminase 2 gene,confirming the diagnosis of Sneddon syndrome.This case serves as a reference to improve clinical recognition of this disease.

Purpose To explore the clinical and pathological characteristics of gastric amphicrine carcinoma(AC).Methods Clinical data of 12 patients with gastric AC were collected,and their clinical pathological character-istics and histological morphology were observed.Immunohistochemical staining,special staining,and electron micros-copy techniques were used to analyze their immune phenotype and ultrastructure.Molecular pathology was used to de-tect microsatellite status.Relevant literature was reviewed.Results Ten cases of gastric AC were located at the junc-tion of the esophagus and stomach/cardia,1 case at the gastric angle,and 1 case in the gastric antrum.The average maximum diameter of tumors was 4.25 cm.There were different proportions of tumor cells with signet-ring like charac-teristics in all cases.Four cases had neuroendocrine carcinoma components,and another 4 had adenocarcinoma.Elev-en cases had nerve invasion and vascular cancer thrombus.Eleven cases invaded the serosal layer/submucosal layer,and 1 case invaded the submucosal layer.Ten cases had lymph node metastasis.All 12 cases showed diffuse expression of CKpan and Syn,with 3 cases showed diffuse expression of CgA and 7 cases showed diffuse expression of CD56.The average proliferation index of Ki67 was 78.9％.Special staining showed clear intracellular mucus.Electron microscopy examination revealed electron dense particles and mucus particles within the tumor cells.A total of 10 patients were fol-lowed up,of which 7 survived,and 3 patients died from multiple systemic metastases at 0,24,and 30 months postop-eratively.Conclusion Gastric AC was more common in the junction of the esophagus and stomach/cardia,and histol-ogy shows a higher invasiveness.Their clear diagnosis depends on histological morphology,immunohistochemistry,and special staining.

BACKGROUND:Percutaneous kyphoplasty was a common surgical procedure for the treatment of osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture.However,there was no research to confirm whether percutaneous kyphoplasty could effectively correct the local kyphoplasty of the spine in patients over 80 years old with osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture.OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of percutaneous kyphoplasty on local kyphosis in super-aging patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture.METHODS:Single-segment osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture patients treated with percutaneous kyphoplasty at the Department of Spinal Surgery,Peking University People's Hospital,from March 2016 to August 2022,were selected as the research cohort,and the follow-up data of patients in hospital and out-patient were collected.According to patients'age,patients were divided into the advanced age group(60-79 years old,n=126)and the super-aged group(＞80 years old,n=52).According to gender,body mass index,basic diseases(hypertension,diabetes,and cardiovascular diseases),fracture segments and the presence or absence of preoperative intravertebral cleft,the two groups of patients were matched 1:2 by propensity score matching.The lumbar CT values,injection amount of bone cement,preoperative and postoperative vertebral height,preoperative collapse rate of the vertebral body,preoperative and postoperative Cobb angle,recovery rate of Cobb angle,distance between the bone cement and anterior edge of the vertebral body,sagittal position of cement filling,contact between the bone cement and endplate,distance between the bone cement and vertebral endplates,bone cement distribution score,bone cement leakage,and vertebral refracture were compared between the two groups.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)After matching the propensity score,115 patients were included,with 71 patients in the advanced age group and 44 patients in the super-aged group.There was no statistically significant difference in baseline data,including gender,body mass index,hypertension ratio,diabetes ratio,cardiovascular disease ratio,fracture section,and preoperative intravertebral cleft,between the two groups(P＞0.05).The postoperative Cobb angle of the super-aged patients was significantly smaller than that of the elderly patients(P＜0.05).There was no significant difference in lumbar CT values,injection amount of bone cement,preoperative and postoperative vertebral height,preoperative collapse rate of the vertebral body,preoperative Cobb angle,recovery rate of Cobb angle,postoperative distance between the bone cement and anterior edge of the vertebral body,sagittal position of cement filling,contact between the bone cement and endplate,distance between the bone cement and vertebral endplates,bone cement distribution score,bone cement leakage,and vertebral refracture ratio between the two groups(P＞0.05).(2)These findings indicate that percutaneous kyphoplasty can effectively correct local kyphosis of the spine in super-aging patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures.

Sneddon syndrome is a rare neurocutaneous disorder that primarily affects small-and medium-sized arteries.Its clinical manifestations include livedo racemosa and recurrent cerebral ischemic events,and it may also involve multiple organs such as the heart,spleen,and kidneys.This disease can lead to early-onset stroke,making it a rare cause of stroke in young adults.This article reported a case of a young female patient who experienced two cerebral infarctions within one month.Genetic testing identified a homozygous mutation in the adenosine deaminase 2 gene,confirming the diagnosis of Sneddon syndrome.This case serves as a reference to improve clinical recognition of this disease.

Objective:To investigate the optimal delay time in the quantitative assessment of myocardial fibrosis based on dual-energy CT extracellular volume fraction (DECT-ECV), using MRI as a reference.Methods:Thirty patients with confirmed or suspected of cardiomyopathy were prospectively enrolled in this study. All the patients underwent both cardiac DECT and MRI examination within one week. According to the imaging features of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on MRI, myocardial segments were classified into 3 types: ischemic LGE segments, non-ischemic LGE segments and negative LGE segments. According to the DECT delay time, the whole and segmental myocardium were divided into 3 groups: delay of 3 min (Group A), delay of 5 min (Group B) and delay of 7 min (Group C). Correlation and agreement between CT-ECV and MRI-ECV were performed on a basis of overall myocardium and segmental myocardium. Pearson or Spearman test was used for correlation analysis and Bland-Altman test was used for consistency analysis.Results:Thirty patients with 480 segments were finally included in our study. In the analysis based on overall myocardium, MRI-ECV was 33.12%±4.29%, and CT-ECV were 35.81%±4.48%, 36.02%±4.56%, and 36.58%±4.69% in Group A, B, and C, respectively. The agreement between DECT-ECV and MRI-ECV results was good, with the correlation coefficients of 0.878 (group A), 0.955 (Group B) and 0.947 (Group C) (all P<0.001). In the analysis based on segmental myocardium, as for the ischemic LGE myocardial segments, MRI-ECV was 34.60%(31.70%,39.40%), and CT-ECV were 37.50 (34.20, 41.90), 38.20%(36.20%, 40.60%)and 39.40%(35.50%,42.40%)in Group A, B, and C, respectively. The agreement between DECT-ECV and MRI-ECV results was good, with the correlation coefficients of 0.559, 0.695 and 0.682 (all P<0.001) for groups A, B and C, and as for non-ischemic LGE myocardial segments, MRI-ECV was 35.10% (32.68%, 38.70%), and CT-ECV were 38.15% (35.13%, 41.75%), 39.25% (35.78%, 42.20%) and 39.60% (35.88%,42.90%) in Group A, B, and C. The correlation coefficients of CMR-ECV and DECT-ECV of groups A, B and C were 0.531, 0.772 and 0.744 (all P<0.001), showing good agreement; as for negative LGE myocardial segments, MRI-ECV and CT-ECV of Group A, Group B, Group C were 28.50%(27.00%, 30.10%), 31.10%(28.70%, 34.60%), 31.30%(28.40%, 33.80%), 31.30%(29.20%, 34.80%). The correlation coefficients between MRI-ECV and DECT-ECV of group A, B and C were 0.273, 0.508 and 0.425 (all P<0.001), which also showed good agreement. Conclusions:DECT-ECV can be used for quantitative evaluation of myocardial histological features. DECT-ECV with a 5 min and 7 min delay shows good correlation and agreement with MRI-ECV. In order to make this technology more well-known and improve its application capability, our recommendation for clinical practice is a 5 min delay after contrast administration in clinical practice.

【Objective】 To improve the understanding and diagnosis and treatment level of ALK negative anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALK-ALCL) by sharing the diagnosis and treatment process of a patient with ALK-ALCL treated in Hangzhou Bay Hospital of Ningbo. 【Methods】 The clinical data and diagnosis and treatment process of the patient were retrospectively analyzed, and relevant literature was reviewed. 【Results】 The patient was a young male, with recurrent gross hematuria and right low back pain as the initial symptoms.Imaging examination indicated bladder tumor.After resection, the tumor was reduced and confirmed to be ALK-ALCL.After chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, the patient’s condition continued to improve.During the follow-up, no recurrence was observed. 【Conclusion】 Primary ALK-ALCL in the bladder is very rare and prone to misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis in clinical practice.The successful diagnosis and treatment experience of this patient can provide clinical reference.

Objective:To study the effects of chronic fluoride exposure on spatial learning and memory and the expression of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), protein kinase B (Akt), and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in hippocampus of second offspring (F2 generation) rats.Methods:Sixteen clean-grade healthy SD pregnant rats were randomly divided into four groups according to their body mass [(200 ± 50) g] using a random number table method: the control group [0 mg/L sodium fluoride (NaF)], and the low, medium, and high fluoride groups (60, 120, 240 mg/L NaF), with four rats in each group. Fluoride exposure was carried out from the 0th day of pregnancy to the 21st day of birth (PND21) of first offspring (F1 generation) rats through free drinking water. The F1 generation rats continued to be exposed to fluoride at the same dose and method as the female rats in the same group until the 90th day of birth (PND90). Six rats (male to female ratio 2∶1) were selected from each group and housed together. Female F1 were continuously exposed with the same method until PND21 of the F2 generation rats. Eight F2 generation rats (4 males and 4 females, with a male to female ratio of 1∶1 in the same litter) were randomly selected from each group and exposed to NaF with corresponding concentrations from PND22 to PND90. Before the execution of F2 generation rats, Morris water maze experiment was used to examine spatial learning and memory ability. After execution, real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting were used to detect the mRNA and protein expression levels of PI3K, Akt, and mTOR in the hippocampus, respectively.Results:Compared with the control group days 2 - 4 [(46.72 ± 4.24), (24.87 ± 3.15), (14.10 ± 2.52) s], the escape latency of F2 generation rats was prolonged in the medium and high fluoride groups on the second day [(53.96 ± 3.45), (54.48 ± 6.20) s] and on the fourth day [(19.47 ± 2.51), (25.02 ± 3.86) s], and in the low, medium and high fluoride groups on the third day [(32.37 ± 4.56), (37.32 ± 4.65), (41.79 ± 7.08) s, P < 0.05]. Compared with the control group, the first arrival time of F2 generation rats in the high fluoride group was prolonged, while the number of crossing platforms in both the medium and high fluoride groups decreased ( P < 0.05). Except for mTOR mRNA in the low fluoride group, the mRNA and protein expression levels of PI3K, Akt, mTOR in the hippocampus of rats in all other exposure groups were lower than those in the control group ( P < 0.05). The results of correlation analysis showed that NaF concentration was positively correlated with the escape latency and the first arrival time of F2 generation rats on days 1 - 4 ( r = 0.44, 0.57, 0.79, 0.80, 0.58, P < 0.05), and negatively correlated with the mRNA and protein expression levels of PI3K, Akt, mTOR in the hippocampus of F2 generation rats, as well as the number of crossing platforms ( r = - 0.71, - 0.67, - 0.73, - 0.61, - 0.58, - 0.71, - 0.82, P < 0.05). Conclusion:Chronic fluoride exposure can lead to spatial learning and memory impairment in F2 generation rats, and its mechanism of action may be related to the inhibition of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway in the hippocampus.