ObjectiveTo explore the effect of timosaponin BⅡ （TBⅡ） combined with icariin （ICA） on osteoclast （OC）-osteoblast （OB） coupling and decipher the mechanism from the cellular level. MethodsThe cell counting kit-8 （CCK-8） was used to assess the effects of different concentrations of TBⅡ and different concentrations of TBⅡ+ICA on the growth of RAW264.7 cells. Soluble receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand （sRANKL） was used to induce the differentiation of RAW264.7 pre-osteoclasts into osteoclasts. The cells were allocated into sRANKL， TBⅡ （1， 5， 10 μmol·L^-1）， and TBⅡ+ICA groups. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase staining was performed to assess the effects of TBⅡ and TBⅡ+ICA on osteoclast differentiation. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction （Real-time PCR） was conducted to examine the effects of TBⅡ+ICA on the expression of key genes involved in osteoclast differentiation and osteoclast-derived coupling factors. The osteogenic differentiation conditioned medium mixed with osteoclast supernatant was used to induce osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells. Alkaline phosphatase staining and alizarin red S staining were employed to determine the effect of TBⅡ+ICA on osteogenic differentiation. Real-time PCR was employed to evaluate the effects of conditioned medium on key genes involved in osteogenic differentiation. ResultsTBⅡ at 1， 5， 10 μmol·L^-1 had no significant effect on the cell survival rate. Compared with the sRANKL group， TBⅡ inhibited osteoclast differentiation in a dose-dependent manner and achieved the best effect at 10 μmol·L^-1 （P<0.01）. Compared with the sRANKL group， different concentrations of TBⅡ down-regulated the mRNA levels of osteoclast differentiation-related genes c-Fos， RANK， and RANKL （P<0.05）. None of 10 μmol·L^-1 TBⅡ， 10 μmol·L^-1 TBⅡ+10^-4 μmol·L^-1 ICA， or 10 μmol·L^-1 TBⅡ+10^-3 μmol·L^-1 ICA affected the viability of RAW264.7 cells. TBⅡ and/or ICA inhibited osteoclast differentiation （P<0.01）， and TBⅡ + ICA had the best effect （P<0.01）. Compared with the sRANKL group， TBⅡ and/or ICA down-regulated the mRNA levels of c-Fos， RANK， and RANKL （P<0.05）. The single application of TBⅡ and ICA had no significant effect on the mRNA levels of Wnt10b， Cthrc1， and C3a， while TBⅡ+ICA exerted up-regulating effects （P<0.05）. Compared with those in the blank group， the bone differentiation and mineralization abilities of the normal osteogenic induction group and each osteogenic induction + osteoclast supernatant group were improved （P<0.01）. Compared with the blank group， the normal osteogenic induction group and the osteogenic induction + osteoclast supernatant group showed up-regulated mRNA levels of Runx2 and OCN （P<0.01）. ConclusionTBⅡ+ICA can inhibit osteoclast differentiation， maintain the normal osteoclast-osteoblast coupling， and promote osteogenic differentiation.

Objective:To evaluate the cognitive status for oral genetics among graduate students of stomatology, and to provide advice for teaching reform and design of oral genetics course.Methods:A questionnaire survey was conducted among first-year graduate students of stomatology in Medical School of Nanjing University enrolled in the academic year of 2022-2023. The questionnaire was designed for "Assessing cognition and attitudes towards oral genetics" and included four parts: assessment of students' level of awareness and knowledge about oral genetic disorders; understanding the role of genetic factors in stomatology; the causes of oral diseases; and awareness of oral genetic disorders and rare oral diseases. Students completed the questionnaire anonymously and voluntarily at the beginning and end of the course. Excel 2013 was used for data processing. SPSS 21.0 was used for rank sum test, chi-square test, and t-test for paired samples. Results:A total of 58 questionnaires were recovered (recovery rate 89.66%) and 52 questionnaires were valid (26 each at the beginning and end of the course). A total of 26 students aged (24.73±1.28) years were enrolled and 69.23% of the students treated patients with oral genetic disorders. Their knowledge of oral genetics increased significantly after the course ( Z=-3.74, P<0.001). Their familiarity with the number of rare oral diseases and oral genetic disorders increased significantly after the course [(18.34±8.61) vs. (29.69±10.39), t=5.95, P<0.001]. Conclusions:Students generally realize the importance of genetics in stomatology. The implementation of the course helps to improve students' cognition and clinical diagnosis and treatment of oral genetic diseases.

Biliary tract cancers comprise a spectrum of invasive tumors with poor progno-sis, which are composed of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer. Due to the difficulty of early diagnosis of biliary tract cancers, most patients are diagnosed in the late stage with low surgical resection rates. Moreover, the efficacy of traditional chemotherapy regimens, such as gemcitabine plus cisplatin, is limited. In recent years, the rise of immune checkpoint inhibitors and molecular targeted therapy have provided new treatment options for patients with advanced biliary tract cancers. Based on literature reports and team experiences, the authors discuss the latest research progress in the immunotherapy and molecular targeted therapy of biliary tract cancers, and explore future treatment strategies.

Biliary tract cancers comprise a spectrum of invasive tumors with poor progno-sis, which are composed of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer. Due to the difficulty of early diagnosis of biliary tract cancers, most patients are diagnosed in the late stage with low surgical resection rates. Moreover, the efficacy of traditional chemotherapy regimens, such as gemcitabine plus cisplatin, is limited. In recent years, the rise of immune checkpoint inhibitors and molecular targeted therapy have provided new treatment options for patients with advanced biliary tract cancers. Based on literature reports and team experiences, the authors discuss the latest research progress in the immunotherapy and molecular targeted therapy of biliary tract cancers, and explore future treatment strategies.

Objective:To evaluate the cognitive status for oral genetics among graduate students of stomatology, and to provide advice for teaching reform and design of oral genetics course.Methods:A questionnaire survey was conducted among first-year graduate students of stomatology in Medical School of Nanjing University enrolled in the academic year of 2022-2023. The questionnaire was designed for "Assessing cognition and attitudes towards oral genetics" and included four parts: assessment of students' level of awareness and knowledge about oral genetic disorders; understanding the role of genetic factors in stomatology; the causes of oral diseases; and awareness of oral genetic disorders and rare oral diseases. Students completed the questionnaire anonymously and voluntarily at the beginning and end of the course. Excel 2013 was used for data processing. SPSS 21.0 was used for rank sum test, chi-square test, and t-test for paired samples. Results:A total of 58 questionnaires were recovered (recovery rate 89.66%) and 52 questionnaires were valid (26 each at the beginning and end of the course). A total of 26 students aged (24.73±1.28) years were enrolled and 69.23% of the students treated patients with oral genetic disorders. Their knowledge of oral genetics increased significantly after the course ( Z=-3.74, P<0.001). Their familiarity with the number of rare oral diseases and oral genetic disorders increased significantly after the course [(18.34±8.61) vs. (29.69±10.39), t=5.95, P<0.001]. Conclusions:Students generally realize the importance of genetics in stomatology. The implementation of the course helps to improve students' cognition and clinical diagnosis and treatment of oral genetic diseases.

Objective:To evaluate the risk factors for pulmonary embolism in patients with spinal injury.Methods:Literature on risk factors for pulmonary embolism after spinal injury was searched on CNKI, Wanfang database, VIP Chinese Science, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Up to Date databases from inception through November 2023. A Meta-analysis was performed with the software of RevMan 5.4 after two researchers screened the literature independently according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted the data and evaluated their quality. Correlations of gender, age, surgical duration, intervertebral disc fusion, body mass index, comorbidity, medicine prophylaxis, deep venous thrombosis (DVT) history, and length of hospital stay with the incidence of pulmonary embolism in patients with spinal injury were evaluated.Results:A total of 10 studies were enrolled, including 2 prospective cohort studies and 8 cross-sectional studies. The total sample size was 401 698 patients, with 525 in the pulmonary embolism group and 401 173 in the non-pulmonary embolism group. The Meta analysis showed that gender ( OR=1.59, 95% CI 1.20, 1.97), age ( OR=1.58, 95% CI 1.19, 2.10), surgical duration ( OR=2.56, 95% CI 1.84, 3.56), DVT history ( OR=15.84, 95% CI 1.88, 133.25) and length of hospital stay ( OR=1.08, 95% CI 1.07, 1.09) were statistically significantly correlated with the incidence of pulmonary embolism in patients with spinal injury ( P<0.01), while intervertebral fusion, body mass index, comorbidity, and medicine prophylaxis were not correlated with the incidence of pulmonary embolism ( P>0.05). Conclusion:Gender, age, surgical duration, DVT history and length of hospital stay are risk factors for pulmonary embolism in patients with spinal injury.

OBJECTIVES: Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) has recently been investigated as a new inflammatory marker in many inflammatory diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus and immunoglobulin A vasculitis. However, there were very few reports regarding the clinical role of PLR in patients with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis. This study was thus undertaken to investigate the relationship between inflammatory response and disease activity in Chinese patients with myeloperoxidase-anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (MPO-ANCA) associated vasculitis. Furthermore, we evaluated whether PLR predicts the progression of end stage of renal disease (ESRD) and all-cause mortality. METHODS: The clinical, laboratory and pathological data, and the outcomes of MPO-ANCA associated vasculitis patients were collected. The Spearman correlation coefficient was computed to examine the association between 2 continuous variables. Cox regression analysis was used to estimate the association between PLR and ESRD or all-cause mortality. RESULTS: A total of 190 consecutive patients with MPO-ANCA associated vasculitis were included in this study. Baseline PLR was positively correlated with CRP (r=0.333, P<0.001) and ESR (r=0.218, P=0.003). PLR had no obvious correlation with Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (BVAS). Patients having PLR≥330 exhibited better cumulative renal survival rates than those having PLR<330 (P=0.017). However, there was no significant difference in the cumulative patient survival rates between patients with PLR≥330 and those with PLR<330 at diagnosis (P>0.05). In multivariate analysis, PLR is associated with the decreased risk of ESRD (P=0.038, HR=0.518, 95% CI 0.278 to 0.963). We did not find an association between PLR with all-cause mortality using multivariate analysis (HR=1.081, 95% CI 0.591 to 1.976, P=0.801). CONCLUSIONS PLR is positively correlated with CRP and ESR. Furthermore, PLR may independently predict the risk of ESRD.
Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody-Associated Vasculitis/diagnosis* ; Antibodies, Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic/analysis* ; China/epidemiology* ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/complications* ; Lymphocytes ; Peroxidase ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVES: Safe and effective anticoagulation is essential for hemodialysis patients who are at high risk of bleeding. The purpose of this trial is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of two-stage regional citrate anticoagulation (RCA) combined with sequential anticoagulation and standard calcium-containing dialysate in intermittent hemodialysis (IHD) treatment. METHODS: Patients at high risk of bleeding who underwent IHD from September 2019 to May 2021 were prospectively enrolled in 13 blood purification centers of nephrology departments, and were randomly divided into RCA group and saline flushing group. In the RCA group, 0.04 g/mL sodium citrate was infused from the start of the dialysis line during blood draining and at the venous expansion chamber. The sodium citrate was stopped after 3 h of dialysis, which was changed to sequential dialysis without anticoagulant. The hazard ratios for coagulation were according to baseline. RESULTS: A total of 159 patients and 208 sessions were enrolled, including RCA group (80 patients, 110 sessions) and saline flushing group (79 patients, 98 sessions). The incidence of severe coagulation events of extracorporeal circulation in the RCA group was significantly lower than that in the saline flushing group (3.64% vs. 20.41%, P<0.001). The survival time of the filter pipeline in the RCA group was significantly longer than that in the saline flushing group ((238.34±9.33) min vs. (221.73±34.10) min, P<0.001). The urea clearance index (Kt/V) in the RCA group was similar to that in the saline flushing group with no statistically significant difference (1.12±0.34 vs. 1.08±0.34, P=0.41). CONCLUSIONS Compared with saline flushing, the two-stage RCA combined with a sequential anticoagulation strategy significantly reduced extracorporeal circulation clotting events and prolonged the dialysis time without serious adverse events.
Humans ; Citric Acid/adverse effects* ; Prospective Studies ; Sodium Citrate ; Hemorrhage/chemically induced* ; Citrates/adverse effects* ; Anticoagulants/adverse effects* ; Renal Dialysis/adverse effects*

【Objective】 To explore the clinical effect of unilateral double-channel endoscope-assisted bone graft fusion and internal fixation (ULIF) in the treatment of recurrent lumbar disc herniation. 【Methods】 The clinical data of 22 patients with recurrent lumbar disc herniation treated by ULIF in our hospital from August 2020 to October 2020 were analyzed retrospectively. The study indicators included intraoperative blood loss, operation time, bed rest time, and hospital stay. The follow-up data included visual analogue score (VAS) of low back pain, Japanese Orthopaedic Association score (JOA), OSwestry disability index (ODI) score, as well as 36 concise health status survey (SF-36) scores before operation, and 1 week and 6 months after operation. 【Results】 The average operation time was (179.15±42.06) minutes, the average intraoperative blood loss was (132.67±41.92) mL, the average bed rest time was (1.51±0.42) days, and the average hospital stay was (4.82±1.13) days. The VAS score of low back pain at 1 week after operation was lower than that before operation (all P<0.000 1), and further decreased during the follow-up. The ODI score, JOA score and SF-36 score of postoperative follow-up were significantly different from those before operation (P<0.05). The satisfaction rate was 86.4% at 1 week after operation and 95.4% at 6 months after operation. The proportion of significant clinical efficacy at 1 week after operation and postoperative 6 months was 18.2% and 63.6%, respectively. 【Conclusion】 ULIF has the advantages of short-term recovery, less intraoperative blood loss, short bed rest and hospital stay, and good medium-term clinical effect. It is a safe and reliable minimally invasive technique for spinal surgeons in the treatment of recurrent lumbar disc herniation.

This study analyzed the current status of the cultivation process of professional postgraduates of clinical medicine, combining with the case of the auxiliary teaching model of Academic Salons on the WeChat platform in Xiangya Hospital of Central South University. We collected students' satisfaction evaluation of this auxiliary teaching model by questionnaire survey. Through analyzing the results and feedback, we found that the overall satisfaction of this auxiliary teaching model is 71.43%, and the model has a remarkable effect in broadening knowledge, inspiring thinking of clinical diagnosis and treatment, improving ability of scientific research, increasing learning interest, enhancing the ability to link theory with practice, and using the knowledge flexibly. However, there are still some shortcomings in early publicity, understanding students' interests and needs, and improving students' autonomous learning ability. Therefore, using the WeChat platform to carry out academic salons is a good auxiliary teaching model for cultivating the scientific research ability of professional postgraduates of clinical medicine.