AIM: To investigate the relationship between the levels of serum dehydroepiandrosterone(DHEA), erythropoietin(Epo), vasohibin-1(VASH-1)and diabetic retinopathy(DR)in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM). METHODS: Totally 185 T2DM patients(185 eyes)treated in our hospital from April 2021 to March 2024 were selected and divided into T2DM group(102 eyes)and DR group(83 eyes)based on whether retinal lesions occurred. DR patients were divided into nonproliferative DR group(NPDR, 47 cases, 47 eyes)and proliferative DR group(PDR, 36 cases, 36 eyes)based on the severity of their lesions. Fully automatic biochemical analyzer was used to detect serum biochemical indicators. ELISA was applied to detect serum levels of DHEA, Epo, and VASH-1. Pearson correlation was applied to analyze the correlation between serum DHEA, Epo, and VASH-1 levels and the severity of diabetic retinopathy. Logistic regression was applied to analyze the factors affecting the occurrence of DR. ROC curve was applied to analyze the diagnostic value of serum DHEA, Epo, and VASH-1 levels for T2DM combined with DR or PDR.RESULTS: Compared with the T2DM group, the DR group showed significantly increased DM duration, fasting blood glucose, uric acid, creatinine, and Epo, while DHEA and VASH-1 levels were significantly reduced(all P<0.05); Compared with the NPDR group, the PDR group showed a significant decrease in serum DHEA and VASH-1 levels, and a significant increase in Epo levels(all P<0.05); the levels of serum DHEA and VASH-1 were negatively correlated with the severity of DR, while the level of Epo was positively correlated with the severity of DR(all P<0.05); DHEA and VASH-1 were protective factors against DR, while Epo was a risk factor for DR(all P<0.05); the AUC of serum DHEA, Epo, and VASH-1 levels alone and in combination for the diagnosis of T2DM with DR were 0.804, 0.797, 0.805, and 0.903, respectively. The combined diagnostic value was higher than that of single diagnosis(all P<0.05); the AUC of serum DHEA, Epo, and VASH-1 levels alone and in combination for diagnosing PDR were 0.852, 0.850, 0.841, and 0.946, respectively. The value of combined diagnosis was significantly higher than that of individual diagnosis(all P<0.05).CONCLUSION:The levels of serum DHEA and VASH-1 in DR patients are clearly reduced, the level of Epo is clearly increased, and their levels are closely related to the severity of DR patients; therefore, combined detection has higher value for T2DM complicated with DR or PDR.

Objective: To investigate the prevalence and influencing factors of depression among middle school students in Jiading District, Shanghai Municipality, so as to provide the evidence for developing mental health intervention strategies among middle school students. Methods: Students from 3 junior high schools and 3 senior high schools in Jiading District were selected from June 2022 to June 2023 using a stratified random cluster sampling method. Basic information including gender and educational stage was collected through questionnaire surveys. Depression, mental health literacy, cognitive emotion regulation, family cohesion, school climate, stress, and life satisfaction were assessed using the Children's Depression Inventory, the Mental Health Literacy Assessment Scale, the Chinese version of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale, the Perceived School Climate Scale, Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale, and the Life Satisfaction Scale, respectively. Factors affecting depression among middle school students were analyzed using a multivariable logistic regression model. Results: There were 1 117 boys (53.94%) and 954 girls (46.06%), with a mean age of (15.20±1.77) years. There were 1 193 (57.61%) junior high school students and 878 (42.39%) senior high school students. Depression was detected in 577 students, with a prevalence of 27.86%. Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified gender (boy, OR=0.652, 95%CI: 0.512-0.832), educational stage (senior high school, OR=2.519, 95%CI: 1.584-4.008), mental health literacy (OR=0.958, 95%CI: 0.951-0.966), cognitive emotion regulation (adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, OR=0.970, 95%CI: 0.958-0.982; maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, OR=1.103, 95%CI: 1.084-1.123), family cohesion (OR=0.910, 95%CI: 0.899-0.921), school climate (OR=0.720, 95%CI: 0.694-0.747), stress (OR=1.127, 95%CI: 1.104-1.150), life satisfaction (OR=0.817, 95%CI: 0.799-0.836) as factors affecting depression among middle school students. Conclusions Depression among middle school students in Jiading District is associated with gender, educational stage, mental health literacy, cognitive emotion regulation, family cohesion, school climate, stress, and life satisfaction. It is recommended that targeted measures be taken from the perspectives of individuals, families, schools, and society to promote the mental health of middle school students.

Objective:To analyze the association between the pre-pregnancy oral microbiota of women and fetal overgrowth, and the possible mechanisms involved.Methods:A nested case-control study design based on a pre-pregnancy cohort was used to select 51 mothers who delivered macrosomia and/or large-for-gestational-age (LGA) infants from the population recruited at the Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital of Jiading District in Shanghai from October 2016 to December 2021 as the case group. A control group was formed by selecting 204 mothers who delivered infants with normal birth weight and appropriate for gestational age during the same period, in a 1:4 ratio. The LGA subgroup consisted of 48 mothers who delivered LGA infants from the total population, and a corresponding control group of 192 was randomly selected from the remaining mothers who delivered non-LGA infants in a 1∶4 ratio for the LGA subgroup analysis. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing technique was utilized to detect pre-pregnancy saliva samples to compare the characteristics of the oral microbiota, differential microorganisms, and differential functional pathways between groups. Nonparametric Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, two independent samples t-tests, or Chi-square (or Fisher's exact) tests were used for statistical analysis. Factor analysis was conducted on the pre-pregnancy diet data of women, and the primary dietary pattern of each study subject was identified based on the highest score of the dietary pattern factors. For microbiota count data, α and β diversity indices were calculated using R and QIIME2 software, and the corresponding microbiota functional count data were acquired through PICRUSt2. Results:(1) General data: There was no significant difference in the time interval from pre-pregnancy sampling to pregnancy and from sampling to delivery between the two groups. In the case group, there were three cases of macrosomia and 48 cases (94.1%) of LGA. The corresponding control group for the LGA subgroup consisted of 192 cases. There were no significant differences in dietary patterns between the case group and the control group. (2) α diversity analysis: The species richness index of the case group was lower than that of the control group [(367.27±84.57) vs. (408.71±93.08), multivariate analysis, P=0.009], while no significant differences were found between the two groups in the Shannon and Simpson indices; the species richness index of the LGA subgroup was also lower than that of the corresponding control group [(371.04±83.92) vs. (408.04±94.21), multivariate analysis, P=0.033], with no significant differences in the Shannon and Simpson indices. (3) β diversity analysis: There was a statistically significant difference in the unweighted UniFrac distance of the oral microbiota between the case group and the control group ( R2=0.006, F=1.479, P=0.048). No significant differences were found in the β diversity indices of the oral microbiota between the LGA subgroup and the corresponding control group. (4) Differential microbiota analysis: There were 14 differential microbiotas from phylum to genus between the case group and the control group. At the genus level, members of the G1 genus of the Streptococcaceae were enriched in the case group, while the Lautropia, Dialister, Leptotrichia, and Rothia were enriched in the control group. In the LGA subgroup and its corresponding control group, there were 14 differential microbiota from phylum to genus; at the genus level, Leptotrichia, Rothia, G6 genus of the Saccharibacteria, and Selenomonas were enriched in the control group (all LDA value>2, and all P<0.05). (5) Differential functional analysis: In the case group, metabolic pathways such as nicotinate degradation [log 2 fold change ( FC)=3.510, q=0.005], de novo synthesis of pyrimidine nucleotides (log 2FC=0.078, q=0.005), and L-tyrosine degradation pathway (log 2FC=0.710, q=0.034) were enriched in the oral microbiota of women. In the LGA subgroup, compared to the corresponding control group, metabolic pathways related to nicotinate degradation were enriched in the oral microbiota (log 2FC=3.660, q=0.012). Conclusions:There are differences in the structure of the pre-pregnancy oral microbiota of mothers with overgrown fetuses compared to those with normally grown fetuses, and mothers of normally grown fetuses show higher diversity in their pre-pregnancy oral microbiota. The enrichment of certain pathogenic bacteria and the reduction of symbiotic bacteria in the pre-pregnancy oral microbiota are associated with fetal overgrowth, and this association may be mediated by functional pathways such as nicotinate degradation.

Purpose: NUF2 has been implicated in multiple cancers recently, suggesting NUF2 may play a role in the common tumorigenesis process. In this study, we aim to perform comprehensive meta-analysis of NUF2 expression in the cancer types included in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Materials and Methods: RNA-sequencing data in 31 cancer types in the TCGA data and 11 independent datasets were used to examine NUF2 expression. Silencing NUF2 using targeting shRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines was used to evaluate NUF2’s role in HCC in vitro and in vivo. Results: NUF2 up-regulation is significantly observed in 23 out of the 31 cancer types in the TCGA datasets and validated in 13 major cancer types using 11 independent datasets. NUF2 overexpression was clinically important as high NUF2 was significantly associated with tumor stages in eight different cancers. High NUF2 was also associated with significantly poorer patient overall survival and disease-free survival in eight and six cancers, respectively. We proceeded to validate NUF2 overexpression and its negative association with overall survival at the protein level in an independent cohort of 40 HCC patients. Compared to the non-targeting controls, NUF2 knockdown cells showed significantly reduced ability to grow, migrate into a scratch wound and invade the 8 μm porous membrane in vitro. Moreover, NUF2 knockdown cells also formed significantly smaller tumors than control cells in mouse xenograft assays in vivo. Conclusion NUF2 up-regulation is a common feature of many cancers. The prognostic potential and functional impact of NUF2 up-regulation warrant further studies.

Deciphering the metabolites of multiple components in herbal medicine has far-reaching significance for revealing pharmacodynamic ingredients.However,most chemical components of herbal medicine are secondary metabolites with low content whose in vivo metabolites are close to trace amounts,making it difficult to achieve comprehensive detection and identification.In this paper,an efficient strategy was proposed:herb-derived metabolites were predicted according to the structural characteristics and metabolic reactions of chemical constituents in Corydalis Rhizoma and chemical structure screening tables for metabolites were conducted.The fragmentation patterns were summarized from represen-tative standards combining with specific cleavage behaviors to deduce structures of metabolites.Ion abundance plays an important role in compound identification,and high ion abundance can improve identification accuracy.The types of metabolites in different biological samples were very similar,but their ion abundance might be different.Therefore,for trace metabolites in biological samples,we used the following two methods to process:metabolites of high dose herbal extract were analyzed to char-acterize those of clinical dose herbal extracts in the same biological samples;cross-mapping of different biological samples was applied to identify trace metabolites based on the fact that a metabolite has different ion abundance in different biological samples.Compared with not using this strategy,44 more metabolites of clinical dose herbal extract were detected.This study improved the depth,breadth,and accuracy of current methods for herb-derived metabolites characterization.

Objective To assess effectiveness of ketogenic diet on improving polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients accompanying with overweight and obesity. Methods A total of 72 PCOS patients planned to recruit in our study from December 29, 2018 to June 2019 were selected, and were randomly divided into experimental group and control group. The control group was given routine treatment and suggestions of life style, while the experimental group carried out ketogenic diet intervention alone for three months. All patients were followed up every day and rechecked monthly. The safety and effectiveness indexes of the two groups were observed. Results A total of fifty patients had been recruited until March 30, 2019, but one patient was lost in the follow-up. As a result, there were totally twenty-five patients in the experimental group with one patient lost in follow-up. In the remaining twenty-four patients, 75％ of these patients had recovered spontaneous menstruation in good condition. Ten patients who have been intervened over one month accepted the first re-examination. The results showed that the patient's weight, the body fat rate and the level of androgen detected in venous blood were all reduced after ketogenic diet after the intervention (P ＜ 0. 01), which revealed that the effect of ketogenic diet's intervention for PCOS was significant in the short term. Conclusion Ketogenic diet intervene in PCOS effectively restore spontaneous menstruation in patients for one month, the state of hyperandrogenism is significantly improved. Other hormones show improvement trends, but no significant difference compared with baseline. The mid-term and final reports of KIDs-001 are worthy of the wait.

Objective To assess effectiveness of ketogenic diet on improving polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients accompanying with overweight and obesity. Methods A total of 72 PCOS patients planned to recruit in our study from December 29, 2018 to June 2019 were selected, and were randomly divided into experimental group and control group. The control group was given routine treatment and suggestions of life style, while the experimental group carried out ketogenic diet intervention alone for three months. All patients were followed up every day and rechecked monthly. The safety and effectiveness indexes of the two groups were observed. Results A total of fifty patients had been recruited until March 30, 2019, but one patient was lost in the follow-up. As a result, there were totally twenty-five patients in the experimental group with one patient lost in follow-up. In the remaining twenty-four patients, 75％ of these patients had recovered spontaneous menstruation in good condition. Ten patients who have been intervened over one month accepted the first re-examination. The results showed that the patient's weight, the body fat rate and the level of androgen detected in venous blood were all reduced after ketogenic diet after the intervention (P ＜ 0. 01), which revealed that the effect of ketogenic diet's intervention for PCOS was significant in the short term. Conclusion Ketogenic diet intervene in PCOS effectively restore spontaneous menstruation in patients for one month, the state of hyperandrogenism is significantly improved. Other hormones show improvement trends, but no significant difference compared with baseline. The mid-term and final reports of KIDs-001 are worthy of the wait.

OBJECTIVE:To study the absorption features of Silymarin enteric coated-polyllactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) nanoparticles in rat in situ intestine perfusion model and colonic adenoma Caco-2 cell model. METHODS:HPLC method was used to determine the content of silymarin. The absorption rate constant(Ka)and apparent absorption coefficient(Kapp)of Silymarin sus-pension,Silymarin PLGA nanoparticles and Silymarin enteric coated-PLGA nanoparticles were investigated in duodenum,jejunum, ileum and colon of rat in situ intestine perfusion model;the apparent permeability coefficient (Papp) of those drugs containing low-concentration,medium-concentration and high-concentration(20,40,60 μg/mL)of silymarin in Caco-2 cell model were also investigated. RESULTS:Compared with Silymarin suspension,Ka and Kapp of Silymarin PLGA nanoparticles and Silymarin enteric coated-PLGA nanoparticles were all increased in duodenum,jejunum,ileum and colon(P<0.05);compared with the correspond-ing concentration Silymarin suspension,two-way Papp of Silymarin PLGA nanoparticles and Silymarin enteric coated-PLGA nanopar-ticles containing low-concentration,medium-concentration and high-concentration of silymarin were all increased in Caco-2 cell model (P<0.05);there was no statistical significance between Silymarin PLGA nanoparticles and Silymarin enteric coated-PLGA nanoparticles (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS:Silymarin enteric coated-PLGA nanoparticles can effectively increase the intestinal ab-sorption,cellular uptake and transmembrane transport rate of silymarin.

Objective To investigate the clinical value of transthyretin (TTR) from patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (ERA). Methods 58 patients with ERA , 34 patients with later RA (LRA) and 34 healthy control (HC) were included in the research. TTR was analyzed by ELISA, whose variance was analyzed. TTR density, disease activity score28 (DAS28) score and rheumatoid factor (RF) were tested, and their correlation with TTR was analyzed. Results Serum level of TTR with ERA significantly increased compared with that with LRA and HC (P < 0.05), no statistical significance with LRA group and HC. TTR level was no correlation with the number of swelling and tender joints, disease activity score 28, RF, ESR, CRP, anti-cyclic citrylinated peptide antibody and anti-keratin antibodies, hemoglobin, thrombocyte and albumin. Conclusion Serum level of TTR significantly increased with ERA patients, contributing to early diagnosis for RA.

Cardiac Catheterization ; Ductus Arteriosus, Patent ; therapy ; Heart Septal Defects, Atrial ; therapy ; Humans ; Printing, Three-Dimensional ; Vena Cava, Inferior