Osteoarthritis (OA) causes chronic pain that significantly impairs quality of life, with current treatments often proving insufficient and accompanied by adverse effects. Recent research has identified the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and its resident macrophages as crucial mediators of chronic OA pain through neuroinflammation driven by macrophage polarization. We present a novel injectable thermo-sensitive hydrogel system, KAF@PLEL, designed to deliver an anti-inflammatory peptide (KAF) specifically to the DRG. This biodegradable hydrogel enables sustained KAF release, promoting the reprogramming of DRG macrophages from pro-inflammatory to anti-inflammatory phenotypes. Through comprehensive in vitro and in vivo studies, we evaluated the hydrogel's biocompatibility, effects on macrophage polarization, and therapeutic efficacy in chronic OA pain management. The system demonstrated significant capabilities in preserving macrophage mitochondrial function, suppressing neuroinflammation, alleviating chronic OA pain, reducing cartilage degradation, and improving motor function in OA rat models. The sustained-release properties of KAF@PLEL enabled prolonged therapeutic effects while minimizing systemic exposure and side effects. These findings suggest that KAF@PLEL represents a promising therapeutic approach for improving outcomes in OA patients through targeted, sustained treatment.

Lipedema is a disease in which local fat deposits in the body are the main clinical manifestations. It is often characterized by a disproportionate increase in subcutaneous fat tissue in the extremities, buttocks or hip joints. It is often misdiagnosed as obesity or lymphedema in clinical practice. The pathogenesis is not clearly understood, and there is no standardized clinical treatment method. This paper elaborated on the research status of the pathogenesis of lipedema, and summarized the clinical manifestations and classification, diagnosis and differential diagnosis, treatment methods, etc., aiming to provide up-to-date perspectives of lipedema.

Objective: To explore mental health status of vocational college students and its association with physical exercise and exercise motivation, so as to provide data support for the promotion of physical exercise, exercise motivation theory and the protection of mental health among vocational college students. Methods: From June 2 to July 2, 2023, a convenience sampling method was used to select 1 763 college students from three vocational colleges in Sichuan, Chongqing, and Guizhou for the survey. Physical Activity Rating Scale (PARS-3), Motives for Physical Activities Measure-Revised (MPAM-R), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Flourishing Scale (FS) were used to assess physical exercise, exercise motivation, depressive symptoms and flourishing levels of vocational college students. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between physical exercise, exercise motivation, depression as the negative indicator of mental health and flourishing as the positive indicator of mental health. Results: There were negative correlations between physical exercise, exercise motivation and their five factors with depression scores among vocational college students ( r=-0.162--0.133, P <0.01). Physical exercise, health motivation and pleasure motivation were positively correlated with flourishing and its eight factors among vocational college students ( r= 0.054 -0.099, P <0.05). Depression scores and flourishing scores varied significantly across students with different levels of physical exercise and exercise motivation ( F=11.18-15.69, 2.80-16.05, P <0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that physical exercise, health motivation, and total exercise motivation scores were negatively correlated with depressive symptoms ( β = -0.02 , -0.11, -0.35), and physical exercise, health motivation, pleasure motivation, and total exercise motivation scores were positively correlated with flourishing ( β =0.31, 0.32, 0.50, 0.30) ( P <0.05). Conclusions Physical exercise and exercise motivation are significantly associated with mental health of vocational college students. Enhancing physical exercise and increasing exercise motivation in aspects of health and pleasure can promote mental health of vocational college students.

Lipedema is a disease in which local fat deposits in the body are the main clinical manifestations. It is often characterized by a disproportionate increase in subcutaneous fat tissue in the extremities, buttocks or hip joints. It is often misdiagnosed as obesity or lymphedema in clinical practice. The pathogenesis is not clearly understood, and there is no standardized clinical treatment method. This paper elaborated on the research status of the pathogenesis of lipedema, and summarized the clinical manifestations and classification, diagnosis and differential diagnosis, treatment methods, etc., aiming to provide up-to-date perspectives of lipedema.

Osteoporosis is an emerging threat characterized by systemic damage to bone mass and microarchitecture leading to fragility fractures.Exosomes are nanosized vesicular particles secreted by cells into the extracellular compartment with biological activities similar to those of their cell of origin and play an important role in intercellular communication processes.Exosomes from multiple cell sources are involved in the regulation of bone-related cell proliferation and differentiation during bone metabolism,and have the advantages of high stability,non-immunogenicity and strong targeting ability,which make up for the shortcomings of traditional drug and stem cell therapies.Exosomes secreted from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs)can promote bone regeneration and improve morphology,biomechanics and histological damage,and exosomes derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(BMSCs)in the mechanical microenvironment are more effective in inducing osteogenesis,significantly enhancing the osteogenic effect of BMSCs and promoting bone regeneration.Therefore,this article provides a review on the mechano-sensitivity of MSCs,mechanical responsive functionalized exosomes of MSCs,and explores their potential role in the treatment of osteoporosis.

Femoral fracture is a common type of fracture in clinical practice, and poor fracture reduction may lead to malunion and dysfunction. At present, traditional reduction with manipulation and intramedullary nailing are the mainstream treatments, but there exist problems such as X-ray exposure or poor reduction. Fracture reduction robots are of positive significance in improving the safety of surgical treatment of femur fracture, avoiding repetitive operations and poor alignment, and shortening the patients′ postoperative recovery time. Navigation algorithm is the key to achieve the function of femoral repositioning. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages that various types of navigation algorithms demonstrated in femoral reduction applications is important for giving full play to the value of fracture reduction robots in femoral reduction. Therefore, the authors reviewed the research progress in existing robot navigation algorithms applied in femoral fracture repositioning from the following four aspects, including image alignment algorithm, algorithm for establishing the target pose of femoral repositioning, algorithm for compensating the mechanical error, and algorithm for path planning, hoping to provide a reference for the application and research of navigation algorithms of fracture reduction robots.

Bone defects, often accompanied by osteomyelitis, soft tissue contusions, etc, are facing lengthy treatment process and slow healing, seriously jeopardizing the structural integrity of the human bone tissue. Currently, the main treatment for bone defects involves autologous or allogeneic bone transplant. However, autologous bone transplant poses problems, including long surgical duration, increased pain and complications such as infections. Additionally, immune rejection reactions also limit the effectiveness of allogeneic bone transplant of the same species. Bone scaffolds have become a potential alternative for bone transplant, but problems such as sharp edges of the scaffolds and poor compatibility with human tissues exist. Triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS), with an average curvature of zero has lower levels of stress concentration and the ability to be precisely expressed with mathematical formulas, compared with other structures. Its application in bone scaffolds attracts much attention, but there is currently a lack of comprehensive understanding of the impacts of different types of TPMS on the performance of bone scaffolds. With this purpose, the authors reviewed the research progress in the impacts of different types of TPMS on the performance of bone scaffolds, providing a reference for the construction of bone scaffolds.

Objective:To explore the common signaling pathways of Helicobacter pylori(Hp) infection and rosacea and screen Hub genes by bioinformatic analysis. Methods:Gene expression data sets related to Hp (GSE70394) and rosacea (GSE65914) were downloaded from GEO database. The common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened by using the limma package of R and Venn diagram. Metascape database was used for gene ontology(GO) enrichment analysis, and clusterProfiler package of R was used for Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes(KEGG) analysis on up-regulated and down-regulated genes. Subsequently, STRING and Cytoscape software were used to establish protein-protein interaction(PPI) network and its internal plug-in MCODE and Cytohubba were applied to screen key functional modules and Hub genes, then Hub genes were imported into GeneMANIA to construct Hub genes co-expression network. Finally, GO and KEGG enrichment analysis of Hub genes were performed again.Results:GSE70394 and GSE65914 data sets included three samples of AGS cells without Hp infection and three samples of AGS cells 24 hours after Hp infection, skin tissues from nineteen rosacea patients and ten healthy volunteers, respectively. Finally, 139 common DEGs were obtained including 93 up-regulated genes and 46 down-regulated genes. GO enrichment analysis mainly focused on smooth muscle cell regulation, vascular development and lipid metabolism. KEGG enrichment analysis mainly involved lipid and atherosclerosis, inflammatory response and immune-related pathways, such as PPAR signaling pathway, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, Th17 cell differentiation, IL-17 signaling pathway and NF-κB signaling pathway. Total of 16 Hub genes were identified by Cytohubba, including SPRR1B, GCLM, KRT16, GPX2, S100A2, SOD2, MMP1, MSMO1, HMOX1, GLRX, IL-1β, CXCL1, PPARγ, HMGCS1, SRXN1 and SPRR3.Conclusion:There is a link existing between Hp infection infection and rosacea. Hp may be involved in the occurrence and development of rosacea by mediating inflammatory immune response and regulating lipid metabolism, the selected Hub genes and related signaling pathways may provide a theoretical reference for subsequent correlation analysis.

【Objective】 To evaluate the efficacy and safety of different doses and frequencies of oral Sildenafil in the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED). 【Methods】 The randomized,open clinical trial included 120 ED patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The patients were randomly divided into the following groups:on-schedule (25 mg/day),on-demand (50 mg,taken irregularly half an hour before each sexual life),new regular group (25 mg/day,50 mg more before each sexual life),regular group (100 mg/time,twice/week). All treatments lasted for 8 weeks. The follow-up indexes included the five-item International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5),Erection Hardness Scale (EHS) and Sexual Encounter Profile (SEP2/3). The adverse reactions were recorded. 【Results】 The IIEF-5 scores of the four groups were significantly higher than those after baseline treatment (P<0.001),but there was no significant difference among the four groups (P>0.05). In terms of effective rate,at the 16th week,there were significant differences between the on-demand group (10.7%) and new regular group (62.1%),and between the on-demand group (10.7%) and regular group (50.0%) (P<0.001). In terms of EHS, the percentage of grade 4 patients in regular group was significant higher than that in the on-demand group at the 8th week and 16th week (all P<0.05). In terms of positive rate of SEP-3,there was a significant difference between the on-demand group and regular group (P=0.042) at the 16th week. In the course of treatment,there were transient adverse reactions such as headache,blurred vision,stuffy nose and back pain,which did not affect the treatment. 【Conclusion】 All of the four treatment methods of oral sildenafil showed good efficacy. Both regular group and new regular group maintained good clinical efficacy during the follow-up,which is better than that of the on-demand group. The new regular scheme can be used as a new,safe and effective treatment option.

The incidence rate of anxiety and depression is significantly higher in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) than in the general population. The mechanisms underlying dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced depressive-like behaviors are still unclear. We clarified that IBD mice induced by repeated administration of DSS presented depressive-like behaviors. The paraventricular thalamic nucleus (PVT) was regarded as the activated brain region by the number of c-fos-labeled neurons. RNA-sequencing analysis showed that lipocalin 2 (Lcn2) was upregulated in the PVT of mice with DSS-induced depressive behaviors. Upregulating Lcn2 from neuronal activity induced dendritic spine loss and the secreted protein induced chemokine expression and subsequently contributed to microglial activation leading to blood-brain barrier permeability. Moreover, Lcn2 silencing in the PVT alleviated the DSS-induced depressive-like behaviors. The present study demonstrated that elevated Lcn2 in the PVT is a critical factor for DSS-induced depressive behaviors.
Mice ; Humans ; Animals ; Lipocalin-2/genetics* ; Midline Thalamic Nuclei ; Brain ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos ; Mice, Inbred C57BL