OBJECTIVE: To reveal the molecular basis of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) with Yang deficiency and blood stasis syndrome by analyzing the gene expression profiles in synovial fluid and blood of KOA patients with this syndrome. METHODS: A total of 80 KOA patients were recruited from October 2022 to June 2024, including 40 cases in the non-Yang deficiency and blood stasis group (27 males and 13 females), with an average age of (61.75±3.45) years old;and 40 cases in the Yang deficiency and blood stasis group (22 males and 18 females), with an average age of (62.00±2.76) years old. The levels of body mass index (BMI), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), fibrinogen, total cholesterol, and D-dimer were recorded and summarized. Blood and synovial fluid samples from patients were collected for gene expression profile microarray sequencing, and then PCR and immunohistochemistry were used for clinical verification on the patients' synovial fluid and cartilage samples. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis showed that compared with KOA patients with non-Yang deficiency and blood stasis syndrome, those with Yang deficiency and blood stasis syndrome had increased BMI, LDL, fibrinogen, total cholesterol, and D-dimer, and decreased HDL, with a clear correlation between the two groups. There were 562 differential genes in the blood, among which 322 were up-regulated and 240 were down-regulated;755 differential genes were found in the synovial fluid, with 350 up-regulated and 405 down-regulated. KEGG signaling pathway analysis of synovial fluid revealed changes in lipid metabolism-related pathways, including cholesterol metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, and PPARG signaling pathway. Analysis of the involved differential genes identified 6 genes in synovial fluid that were closely related to lipid metabolism, namely LRP1, LPL, ACOT6, TM6SF2, DGKK, and PPARG. Subsequently, PCR and immunohistochemical verification were performed using synovial fluid and cartilage samples, and the results were consistent with those of microarray sequencing. CONCLUSION This study explores the clinical and genomic correlation between traditional Chinese medicine syndromes and knee osteoarthritis from the perspective of lipid metabolism, and proves that abnormal lipid metabolism is closely related to KOA with Yang deficiency and blood stasis syndrome from both clinical and basic aspects.
Humans ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Synovial Fluid/metabolism* ; Osteoarthritis, Knee/metabolism* ; Yang Deficiency/complications* ; Aged

Given that ovarian stimulation is vital for assisted reproductive technology (ART) and results in elevated serum estrogen levels, exploring the impact of elevated estrogen exposure on oocytes and embryos is necessary. We investigated the effects of various ovarian stimulation treatments on oocyte and embryo morphology and gene expression using a mouse model and estrogen-treated mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). Female C57BL/6J mice were subjected to two types of conventional ovarian stimulation and ovarian hyperstimulation; mice treated with only normal saline served as controls. Hyperstimulation resulted in high serum estrogen levels, enlarged ovaries, an increased number of aberrant oocytes, and decreased embryo formation. The messenger RNA (mRNA)‍-sequencing of oocytes revealed the dysregulated expression of lysine-specific demethylase 6b (Kdm6b), which may be a key factor indicating hyperstimulation-induced aberrant oocytes and embryos. In vitro, Kdm6b expression was downregulated in mESCs treated with high-dose estrogen; treatment with an estrogen receptor antagonist could reverse this downregulated expression level. Furthermore, treatment with high-dose estrogen resulted in the upregulated expression of histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) and phosphorylated H2A histone family member X (γ-H2AX). Notably, knockdown of Kdm6b and high estrogen levels hindered the formation of embryoid bodies, with a concomitant increase in the expression of H3K27me3 and γ-H2AX. Collectively, our findings revealed that hyperstimulation-induced high-dose estrogen could impair the demethylation of H3K27me3 by reducing Kdm6b expression. Accordingly, Kdm6b could be a promising marker for clinically predicting ART outcomes in patients with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.
Female ; Mice ; Demethylation/drug effects* ; Embryonic Stem Cells ; Estrogens/administration & dosage* ; Gene Expression/drug effects* ; Histones/metabolism* ; Jumonji Domain-Containing Histone Demethylases/metabolism* ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Oocytes ; Ovary/drug effects* ; Reproductive Techniques, Assisted ; Animals

Background Occupational stress has emerged as a critical public health concern affecting the physical and mental well-being of workers in the manufacturing sector. However, researchers typically evaluate its core driver—cumulative fatigue—using a crude binary “present/absent” variable, thereby overlooking the high-dimensional complexity and heterogeneity inherent in fatigue characteristics. This oversimplification constrains both the precision and predictive performance of occupational stress risk assessment model. Objective Leveraging a data-driven approach, to survey data on cumulative fatigue among manufacturing employees, and then use this new classification to develop and validate an occupational stress prediction model, with an ultimate aim of enhancing the accuracy and effectiveness of occupational stress assessment. Methods A set of cross-sectional survey data on 3871 manufacturing employees in 2021 were derived from the “Long working hours exposure and its adverse health effect risk assessment” program of the National Institute for Occupational Health and Poison Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Occupational stress was assessed using the Core Occupational Stress Measurement Scale, while cumulative fatigue was evaluated via the Worker’s Self-Diagnostic Questionnaire for Fatigue Accumulation. Boruta method was applied to screen core variables from 20 occupational stress influencing factors. Dimensionality reduction of cumulative fatigue features was performed using a Bayesian sparse autoencoder (BASE), followed by comparison and application of clustering methods to achieve multi-class classification of the reduced features. Six machine learning classification models were then selected including logistic regression, support vector machine, decision tree, random forest, adaptive boosting, and lightweight gradient boosting machine (LightGBM) to construct and compare two occupational stress prediction models involving cumulative fatigue combined with ten other core variables: one utilizing the original binary cumulative fatigue label as a core variable, and another employing the novel fatigue classification proposed herein as a core variable. Results The positive rate of occupational stress among the manufacturing employees was 38.9%. The Boruta method identified 11 core variables of occupational stress: depressive symptoms, cumulative fatigue, age, length of service, tenure in current position, average weekly working hours, average daily overtime hours, average monthly income, low levels of exercise, life satisfaction, and sleep quality. The BSAE reduced the original cumulative fatigue factors to 12 dimensions, while the K-means clustering grouped the reduced fatigue features into three categories: no fatigue, moderate fatigue, and sever fatigue. Six occupational stress prediction models were constructed using the three-category labels of cumulative fatigue and ten additional factors. The results indicated that the LightGBM model performed best, achieving an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.78, an accuracy of 0.77, and an F1 score of 0.72. Compared with the model incorporating the traditional binary labels for cumulative fatigue, the best prediction AUC (0.72), accuracy (0.66), and F1 score (0.65) improved by 6%, 11%, and 7%, respectively. Conclusion Cumulative fatigue is a significant predictor of occupational stress among manufacturing employees. Applying data dimensionality reduction combined with three-class cluster analysis to characterize cumulative fatigue improves the performance of occupational stress prediction models. From a data-driven perspective, machine learning methods demonstrate strengths in processing complex datasets, capturing nonlinear relationships, and generating predictions based on key variables. This study therefore confirms that refined processing of core factors substantially enhances the predictive capability of machine learning models in assessing occupational stress risk in the manufacturing workforce.

Objective:To compare the application effect of domestic and imported intravenous radiofrequency closure system in the treatment of primary varicose veins of lower extremities.Methods:This single-center prospective, non-inferiority randomized controlled trial was performed in the Department of Vascular Surgery, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine from January 2021 to January 2022. Patients with primary varicose veins of lower extremities who met the ataxation criteria were randomly assigned to the experimental group(domestic novel venous radiofrequency closure system) or the control group(imported venous radiofrequency closure system) in a ratio of 1∶1. The two groups of subjects were compared in terms of target vein closure rate, technical success rate, system operation performance, incidence of adverse events and incidence of serious adverse events(SAE) within 6 months after surgery. Quantitative data were compared by Mann-Whitney U test, and categorical data were compared by χ2 test and non-inferiority test. Results:A total of 80 subjects were included in the trial (41 in the experimental group and 39 in the control group), including 27 males and 53 females, aged ( M(IQR)) 55(23) years (range:40 to 78 years). There were 48 cases of left lower limb and 32 cases of right lower limb. The technical success rate and system control performance between the groups were 100%.The incidence of adverse events (58.5% (24/41) vs. 61.5% (24/39), χ2=0.075, P=0.784), and the incidence of SAE (7.3% (3/41) vs. 5.1% (2/39), χ2=0.163, P=0.686) within 6 months after surgery in experimental group and control group had no statistical significance. There was one device-related adverse event in each of the two groups. In the experimental group, one patient developed endovenous heat-induced thrombosis after surgery and recovered after taking rivaroxaban tablets. One patient in the control group had pain in the upper right thigh for more than 1 day after operation, which was cured after using analgesic cream. No device-related SAE occurred. The venous closure rate of the experimental group was 100% (38/38) at 6 months after surgery, and that of the control group was 97.4% (37/38). The difference between the two groups was 2.63% (95% CI:-3.19 to 8.45, Z=4.865, P<0.01), and the 95% CI lower limit of the difference in target venous closure rate between two groups was greater than the non-inferiority threshold of -10.00%. Conclusion:The early application effect of the new domestic intravenous radiofrequency closure system in patients with primary varicose veins of lower extremities is in line with expectations, it is not inferior to the imported system.

Objective:To compare the application effect of domestic and imported intravenous radiofrequency closure system in the treatment of primary varicose veins of lower extremities.Methods:This single-center prospective, non-inferiority randomized controlled trial was performed in the Department of Vascular Surgery, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine from January 2021 to January 2022. Patients with primary varicose veins of lower extremities who met the ataxation criteria were randomly assigned to the experimental group(domestic novel venous radiofrequency closure system) or the control group(imported venous radiofrequency closure system) in a ratio of 1∶1. The two groups of subjects were compared in terms of target vein closure rate, technical success rate, system operation performance, incidence of adverse events and incidence of serious adverse events(SAE) within 6 months after surgery. Quantitative data were compared by Mann-Whitney U test, and categorical data were compared by χ2 test and non-inferiority test. Results:A total of 80 subjects were included in the trial (41 in the experimental group and 39 in the control group), including 27 males and 53 females, aged ( M(IQR)) 55(23) years (range:40 to 78 years). There were 48 cases of left lower limb and 32 cases of right lower limb. The technical success rate and system control performance between the groups were 100%.The incidence of adverse events (58.5% (24/41) vs. 61.5% (24/39), χ2=0.075, P=0.784), and the incidence of SAE (7.3% (3/41) vs. 5.1% (2/39), χ2=0.163, P=0.686) within 6 months after surgery in experimental group and control group had no statistical significance. There was one device-related adverse event in each of the two groups. In the experimental group, one patient developed endovenous heat-induced thrombosis after surgery and recovered after taking rivaroxaban tablets. One patient in the control group had pain in the upper right thigh for more than 1 day after operation, which was cured after using analgesic cream. No device-related SAE occurred. The venous closure rate of the experimental group was 100% (38/38) at 6 months after surgery, and that of the control group was 97.4% (37/38). The difference between the two groups was 2.63% (95% CI:-3.19 to 8.45, Z=4.865, P<0.01), and the 95% CI lower limit of the difference in target venous closure rate between two groups was greater than the non-inferiority threshold of -10.00%. Conclusion:The early application effect of the new domestic intravenous radiofrequency closure system in patients with primary varicose veins of lower extremities is in line with expectations, it is not inferior to the imported system.

Objective To evaluate the application value of the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutri-tion(GLIM)criteria in the patients with gastric cancer radical surgery,and to explore the relationship be-tween the malnutrition defined by GLIM criteria and the prognosis of the patients with gastric cancer radical surgery.Methods A total of 150 gastric cancer patients receiving radical surgical resection in Zhejiang Provin-cial Tongde Hospital from January 2014 to December 2017 were selected as the study subjects.All the study subjects were diagnosed as malnutrition and graded by the severity of malnutrition.The effect of malnutrition defined by GLIM criteria on the prognosis of the patients with gastric cancer radical surgery was evaluated by the Kaplan Meier survival curve and Cox regression analysis.The receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was used to evaluate the predictive value of GLIM criteria on the postoperative survival rate of the pa-tients with gastric cancer radical surgery,and the corresponding area under the curve(AUC)was calculated,and the predictive value of inflammatory indicator C-reactive protein(CRP)addition on GLIM criteria in pre-dicting the prognosis of the patients with gastric cancer radical surgery was evaluated.Results Malnutrition diagnosed by GLIM criteria was an independent risk factor affecting the postoperative survival rate of the pa-tients with gastric cancer radical surgery.The results of survival trend analysis of various indicators in GLIM criteria showed that involuntary weight reduction(moderate malnutrition HR=14.13,95％CI:1.70-117.39,severe malnutrition HR=12.50,95％CI:1.40-111.89)and CRP＞10 mg/L(HR=9.70,95％CI:2.31-40.67)were the most important factors affecting the survival rate of the patients with gastric cancer radical surgery.In addition,the addition of inflammatory marker CRP could increase the sensitivity and speci-ficity of the GLIM model in predicting the postoperative survival rate of the patients with gastric cancer radical sur-gery.Conclusion The GLIM criteria can not only reflect the nutritional status of the patients with gastric cancer radi-cal surgery,but also serve as an effective predictive tool for predicting the survival rate after radical surgery.The addition of inflammatory marker CRP increases the sensitivity and specificity of GLIM criteria in predicting postoperative survival rate.

Objective To construct a prognostic model for liver hepatocellular carcinoma(LIHC)based on immune-related genes.Methods LIHC and normal tissue samples were downloaded from the UCSC Xena database and The Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA)database.Differential analysis was performed on the gene data of LIHC samples and adjacent/normal samples.Enrichment analysis was conducted on differentially expressed genes.Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed on liver cancer samples from the TCGA cohort to obtain survival-and immune-related differentially expressed genes.LASSO Cox and multivariate Cox regression analysis were used to identify hub genes and construct a gene risk prognostic model.Data from a high-throughput gene expression(GEO)database was obtained for external validation.The sensitivity of hub genes to common anticancer drugs was investigated using the CellMiner database.Results Enrichment analysis result indicated that differentially expressed genes were mainly associated with metabolic pathways.Through differential analysis and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis,25 survival-and immune-related differentially expressed genes were obtained.Based on the result of LASSO Cox and multivariate Cox regression analysis,five hub genes(FYN,CSF3R,HLA-G,FOS,BIRC5)were identified and a nomogram was constructed.The concordance index(C-index)value for the training cohort and validation cohort were 0.739 and 0.625,respectively.Based on the sensitivity of hub genes to anticancer drugs,12 types of anticancer drugs were selected for subsequent experiments.Conclusion This model can effectively predict the prognosis of LIHC patients and provide a new insights for immune therapy in LIHC.

Objective:To investigate the role and mechanism of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell exosomes (hUCMSC-ex) in wounds with escharectomy and skin grafting in scalded rats.Methods:The study was an experimental study. Twelve male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats aged 6-8 weeks were divided into combined treatment group, fixed+allogeneic skin group, autologous skin+allogeneic skin group, and allogeneic skin group by random number table method (the same grouping method hereinafter), with 3 rats in each group. The four groups of rats were inflicted with scalded wounds on the back and performed with escharectomy, and then the wounds of rats in combined treatment group were fixed with a metal ring (the same fixing method hereinafter) and transplanted with autologous skin grafts and allogeneic skin grafts, and the other three groups of rats were fixed and/or transplanted with skin grafts corresponding to the group name. At 14, 21, and 28 d after surgery, the wound healing area in the four groups of rats was measured. Another 15 male SD rats aged 6-8 weeks were divided into normal group with no treatment, high exosome group, low exosome group, supernatant group, and phosphate buffer solution (PBS) group, with 3 rats in each group. The last 4 groups of rats were treated as that in the above-mentioned combined treatment group, and then were injected around the wounds with 200 μL of PBS containing 100 μg of hUCMSC-ex, 200 μL of PBS containing 50 μg of hUCMSC-ex, 200 μL of supernatant with no hUCMSC-ex, and 200 μL of PBS at 0 (immediately), 7, 14, and 21 d after surgery, respectively. At 14, 21, and 28 d after surgery, the wound healing area in the four groups of rats was measured. The wound neo-epithelial tissue of rats in high exosome group and PBS group at 28 d after surgery and the normal skin tissue of rats in normal group at the same time point were taken, and the differentially expressed proteins were screened by label-free quantitative proteomics method; the two up-regulated and differentially expressed proteins, the immunoglobulin G1 heavy chain constant region (IGHG1) and cystatin A (CSTA) with the largest and second largest fold changes in comparison between high exosome group and PBS group were selected, and their protein expressions were detected by Western blotting. The number of samples in all experiments was 3.Results:At 14, 21, and 28 d after surgery, the wound healing area in combined treatment group, autologous skin+allogeneic skin group, and allogeneic skin group of rats was significantly larger than that in fixed+allogeneic skin group ( P<0.05), the wound healing area in autologous skin+allogeneic skin group of rats at 21 d after surgery and that in allogeneic skin group of rats at 14 and 21 d after surgery was significantly larger than that in combined treatment group ( P<0.05), and the wound healing area in allogeneic skin group of rats at 14 d after surgery was significantly larger than that in autologous skin+allogeneic skin group ( P<0.05). The wound healing area of rats in high exosome group and low exosome group at 14, 21, and 28 d after surgery and in supernatant group at 14 and 28 d after surgery was significantly larger than that in PBS group ( P<0.05); the wound healing area in high exosome group of rats at 14 and 21 d after surgery was significantly larger than that in supernatant group ( P<0.05), and the wound healing area at 14 d after surgery was significantly larger than that in low exosome group ( P<0.05); the wound healing area in low exosome group of rats at 14 d after surgery was significantly larger than that in supernatant group ( P<0.05). Compared with that in PBS group, 332 proteins were differentially expressed in the neo-epithelial tissue of the wounds in high exosome group of rats at 28 d after surgery ( P<0.05), among which the protein expressions of IGHG1 and CSTA were significantly up-regulated (with fold change of 12.60 and 2.27, respectively, P<0.05). Compared with those of normal skin tissue in normal group, 1 400 and 1 057 proteins were differentially expressed in the neo-epithelial tissue of the wounds in high exosome group and PBS group of rats at 28 d after surgery, respectively. The protein expressions of IGHG1 and CSTA in the wound neo-epithelial tissue in high exosome group of rats at 28 d after surgery were significantly larger than those in normal skin tissue of rats in normal group ( P<0.05) and those in PBS group ( P<0.05). Conclusions:hUCMSC-ex may accelerate the repair process of wounds with escharectomy and skin grafting and improve the quality of wound healing in scalded rats by regulating the protein expressions of IGHG1 and CSTA.

BACKGROUND:Resveratrol is a natural antioxidant extracted from plants.Its mechanism of improving exercise-induced fatigue mainly focuses on the protective effect against oxidative stress and inflammation.In this study,the protective mechanism of resveratrol on exercise-induced fatigue was mainly discussed from the perspective of gluconeogenesis. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of resveratrol on gluconeogenesis in exercise-induced fatigue rats. METHODS:After 1 week of adaptive training,male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 4 groups with 12 rats in each group:blank control group,resveratrol group,exercise group,resveratrol + exercise group.Weight-bearing swimming training was used to simulate long-term medium-high intensity exercise.After swimming with a weight of 5%for 1 hour every day,50 mg/kg resveratrol solution or the same volume of dimethyl sulfoxide solvent were given orally,6 days a week,for a total of 6 weeks.Samples were collected 24 hours after the last exercise,and the levels of urea nitrogen,creatine kinase,blood glucose,liver glycogen and lactic acid and pyruvate in liver tissue were detected by the kit.The activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase was detected by microassay,and the activity of glucose-6-phosphatase was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR was used to detect the gene expression of silent information regulator 1,cAMP-response element binding protein and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:In the exercise group,plasma urea nitrogen and creatine kinase levels of rats were significantly increased(both P<0.05),liver lactate and pyruvate levels and lactate/pyruvate ratio were significantly increased(all P<0.01),and blood glucose and liver glycogen contents were significantly decreased(both P<0.01).Resveratrol supplementation could effectively improve the above conditions.Exercise significantly decreased the activities of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and glucose-6-phosphatase(P<0.01,P<0.05),and resveratrol supplementation significantly increased the activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase in liver tissue(P<0.01).The mRNA expression levels of silent information regulator 1,cAMP-response element binding protein and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α in liver tissue of the exercise group were significantly decreased(all P<0.01),while resveratrol supplementation could significantly increase the gene expression levels of this pathway.To conclude,resveratrol can relieve exercise-induced fatigue caused by long-term medium-high intensity exercise,and its mechanism may be related to up-regulating the gluconeogenesis regulatory pathway,improving rate-limiting enzyme activity,promoting liver gluconeogenesis,and increasing blood glucose and liver glycogen levels.

The aim of this study was to investigate the virulence determinants and genetic diversity of foodborne Yersinia enterocolitica from Wenzhou.A total of 71 strains of Yersinia enterocolitica were isolated from food and foodborne diarrhea ca-ses in Wenzhou,and their biotypes,serotypes,and drug resistance were analyzed.On the basis of whole genome sequencing,we assessed virulence gene profiles,and performed multilocus sequence typing(MLST)and core gene multilocus sequence typ-ing(cgMLST).A total of 94.4％(67/71)of isolates belonged to biotype 1A,and the highest proportion had serotype lA/O∶5(29.6％,21/71).The sensitivity rates of the isolates to 14 antibiotics exceeded 95.8％.A total of 16 categories and 126 viru-lence genes were identified,with two strains carrying the pYV plasmid and chromosome-related virulence genes.ST3(31.6％,12/38)was the most widespread MLST type,and cgMLST analysis revealed no dense clusters of genotypes except for strains sharing the same ST.In conclusion,pathogenic strains were identified from foodborne Yersinia enterocolitica in Wenzhou and were found to exhibit high genetic polymorphism.Enhanced regulatory supervision is essential to prevent the outbreak of food-borne diseases caused by Yersinia enterocolitica.