Polygonati Rhizoma demonstrates significant potential for addressing both chronic and hidden hunger. The supply of high-quality seedlings is a primary factor influencing the development of the Polygonati Rhizoma industry. Warm water soaking is often used in agriculture to promote the rapid germination of seeds, while its application and molecular mechanism in Polygonati Rhizoma have not been reported. To rapidly obtain high-quality seedlings, this study treated Polygonatum kingianum var. grandifolium seeds with sand storage at low temperatures, warm water soaking, and cultivation temperature gradients. The results showed that the culture at 25 ℃ or sand storage at 4 ℃ for 2 months rapidly broke the seed dormancy of P. kingianum var. grandifolium, while the culture at 20 ℃ or sand storage at 4 ℃ for 1 month failed to break the seed dormancy. Soaking seeds in 60 ℃ warm water further increased the germination rate, germination potential, and germination index. Specifically, the seeds soaked at 60 ℃ and cultured at 25 ℃ without sand storage treatment(Aa25) achieved a germination rate of 78. 67%±1. 53% on day 42 and 83. 40%±4. 63% on day 77. The seeds pretreated with sand storage at 4 ℃ for 2 months, soaked in 60 ℃ water, and then cultured at 25 ℃ achieved a germination rate comparable to that of Aa25 on day 77. Transcriptomic analysis indicated that warm water soaking might promote germination by triggering reactive oxygen species( ROS), inducing the expression of heat shock factors( HSFs) and heat shock proteins( HSPs), which accelerated DNA replication, transcript maturation, translation, and processing, thereby facilitating the accumulation and turnover of genetic materials. According to the results of indoor controlled experiments and field practices, maintaining a germination and seedling cultivation environment at approximately 25 ℃ was crucial for the one-year seedling cultivation of P. kingianum var. grandifolium.
Germination ; Seedlings/genetics* ; Water/metabolism* ; Seeds/metabolism* ; Polygonatum/genetics* ; Temperature ; Plant Proteins/genetics* ; Plant Dormancy

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for treating functional constipation, analyze the incidence of, and factors that influence, adverse events, and provide scientific evidence for optimizing FMT treatment.Methods:This retrospective, multicenter, single-arm, pre–post real-world study included 1529 patients with functional constipation from four clinical centers. Eligibility criteria comprised meeting the diagnostic criteria for functional constipation, having undergone at least one FMT treatment, complete pre- and post-treatment data available, and age ≥18 years. Patients who had received other interventions affecting gut function within 1 month before treatment and those with severe organic diseases or immune deficiencies were excluded. Applying the above criteria yielded 1529 eligible patients with functional constipation from four medical centers (1405 from the Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University, 20 from the Central Hospital of Wuhan, 67 from the Shanxi Bethune Hospital and 37 from the Longgang District People's Hospital of Shenzhen). The study cohort comprised 746 male (48.8%) and 783 female patients (51.2%) of mean age (51.4 ± 17.4) years, mean body mass index (26.4 ± 4.9) kg/m2, and mean duration of disease (15.0 ± 8.3) years. The primary outcomes were the incidence, types, and severity of adverse reactions during treatment, and their impact on patients' quality of life. Secondary outcomes included: (1) the efficacy of FMT in treating constipation. This was assessed based on changes in Patient Assessment of Constipation Symptoms (PAC-SYM) scores, where higher score indicates worse symptom. (2) Subjective satisfaction, evaluated through questionnaires or rating scales, reflecting patients' acceptance of and satisfaction with the treatment, with scores ranging from 1 to 5, where higher scores indicated greater satisfaction. Paired t-tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to evaluate changes in symptom scores and biochemical indicators before and after treatment. Logistic regression was performed to analyze factors influencing adverse events, and subgroup analyses to explored differences in efficacy between patient groups.Results:In this cohort of 1529 patients with functional constipation, adverse reactions were primarily mild to moderate (1048/1529,68.5%). They comprised fever in 54 patients (3.5%), dizziness or fatigue in 218 (14.3%), throat discomfort in 806 (52.7%), nausea and vomiting in 166 (10.9%), and abdominal distension or pain in 415 (27.1%). According to multivariate logistic regression analysis, PAC-SYM scores were associated with the rate of adverse reactions, higher scores indicating a lower risk (OR = 0.958, 95% CI: 0.923–0.993, P=0.021). Among the 1529 patients, 274 (17.9%) underwent two or more treatment courses. After one treatment course, the patients' PAC-SYM scores decreased from (37.7 ± 3.2) pre-treatment to (23.7 ± 8.6) (mean difference 14.0 ± 9.1). PAC-SYM scores decreased by (20.7 ± 7.7) after two courses of FMT, and by (19.4 ± 6.3) after three courses. After treatment, 50.7%(775/1529) of patients reported satisfaction scores of ≥4. Adverse reactions impacted satisfaction; specifically, dizziness/fatigue, throat discomfort, and abdominal distension/pain were significantly associated with satisfaction (all P < 0.05). Conclusions:FMT achieved good relief of symptoms of functional constipation and multiple treatment courses have a cumulative effect. Adverse reactions, mainly dizziness/fatigue, throat discomfort, and abdominal distension/pain, had significant negative impacts on patient satisfaction.

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for treating functional constipation, analyze the incidence of, and factors that influence, adverse events, and provide scientific evidence for optimizing FMT treatment.Methods:This retrospective, multicenter, single-arm, pre–post real-world study included 1529 patients with functional constipation from four clinical centers. Eligibility criteria comprised meeting the diagnostic criteria for functional constipation, having undergone at least one FMT treatment, complete pre- and post-treatment data available, and age ≥18 years. Patients who had received other interventions affecting gut function within 1 month before treatment and those with severe organic diseases or immune deficiencies were excluded. Applying the above criteria yielded 1529 eligible patients with functional constipation from four medical centers (1405 from the Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University, 20 from the Central Hospital of Wuhan, 67 from the Shanxi Bethune Hospital and 37 from the Longgang District People's Hospital of Shenzhen). The study cohort comprised 746 male (48.8%) and 783 female patients (51.2%) of mean age (51.4 ± 17.4) years, mean body mass index (26.4 ± 4.9) kg/m2, and mean duration of disease (15.0 ± 8.3) years. The primary outcomes were the incidence, types, and severity of adverse reactions during treatment, and their impact on patients' quality of life. Secondary outcomes included: (1) the efficacy of FMT in treating constipation. This was assessed based on changes in Patient Assessment of Constipation Symptoms (PAC-SYM) scores, where higher score indicates worse symptom. (2) Subjective satisfaction, evaluated through questionnaires or rating scales, reflecting patients' acceptance of and satisfaction with the treatment, with scores ranging from 1 to 5, where higher scores indicated greater satisfaction. Paired t-tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to evaluate changes in symptom scores and biochemical indicators before and after treatment. Logistic regression was performed to analyze factors influencing adverse events, and subgroup analyses to explored differences in efficacy between patient groups.Results:In this cohort of 1529 patients with functional constipation, adverse reactions were primarily mild to moderate (1048/1529,68.5%). They comprised fever in 54 patients (3.5%), dizziness or fatigue in 218 (14.3%), throat discomfort in 806 (52.7%), nausea and vomiting in 166 (10.9%), and abdominal distension or pain in 415 (27.1%). According to multivariate logistic regression analysis, PAC-SYM scores were associated with the rate of adverse reactions, higher scores indicating a lower risk (OR = 0.958, 95% CI: 0.923–0.993, P=0.021). Among the 1529 patients, 274 (17.9%) underwent two or more treatment courses. After one treatment course, the patients' PAC-SYM scores decreased from (37.7 ± 3.2) pre-treatment to (23.7 ± 8.6) (mean difference 14.0 ± 9.1). PAC-SYM scores decreased by (20.7 ± 7.7) after two courses of FMT, and by (19.4 ± 6.3) after three courses. After treatment, 50.7%(775/1529) of patients reported satisfaction scores of ≥4. Adverse reactions impacted satisfaction; specifically, dizziness/fatigue, throat discomfort, and abdominal distension/pain were significantly associated with satisfaction (all P < 0.05). Conclusions:FMT achieved good relief of symptoms of functional constipation and multiple treatment courses have a cumulative effect. Adverse reactions, mainly dizziness/fatigue, throat discomfort, and abdominal distension/pain, had significant negative impacts on patient satisfaction.

Objective:To explore the necessity and feasibility of clinical nutrition pharmacist-involved consultation, and evaluate the impact on clinical outcome.Methods:Patients who received the nutritional consultation involving pharmacists at Shanxi Bethune Hospital between 2019 and 2021 were retrospectively enrolled. Patient clinical characteristics, distribution, consultation purpose and nutrition management regimen, and clinical outcomes were collected and analyzed.Results:There was increasing utilization of nutrition pharmacist-involved consultations and referrals to pharmacy clinic over the three years. An average of 95.3% of consultation advices were accepted. Over 90% of patients who were scored 3-6 points with Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 benefited from such consultations. Patients with tumors, elderly patients, and patients with digestive system disorders showed the most benefit from nutritional consultations. The purpose of consultation was focused on the development of individualized nutritional management plans, which brought about improvement in patient's nutritional indicators.Conclusion:There is a strong demand for nutritional pharmacy consultation in large-scale comprehensive hospitals, and the standardized consultation workflow paves the way for comprehensive and individualized nutrition therapy.

The gastrointestinal flora is composed of a large number of microorganisms with complex structure,which participates in the process of decomposition,digestion and absorption of nutrients,promotes the development of the body's immune system,inhibits the colonization of pathogenic bacteria,and affects the health and disease of the body.In recent years,with the advancement of sequencing technology,the relationship between gastrointestinal flora and gastrointestinal neoplasms has became a research hotspot.This article reviews the carcinogenic pathways of the gastrointestinal flora and the possible carcinogenic mechanisms of the gastrointestinal flora.

Objective To study the effect of gambogic acid on apoptosis and autophagy in human hepatoma cells HepG2, and to detect its possible mechanism. Methods After exposure of HepG2 cells to gambogic acid at different concentration for 24 h, cell proliferation rates was determined by MTT assay, apoptosis rate was detected by the flow cytometry (FCM), formation of autophagic vacuoles was observed by the monodansyl cadaverine (MDC) fluorescence staining, expression level of apoptosis-related proteins Bax, bcl-2 and autophagy related protein Beclin 1 was detected by Western blot. Results HepG2 cell growth was inhibited by the gambogic acid dose dependence. After exposure to gambogic acid at 0, 2.0, 4.0 and 8.0 μmol/L for 24 h, cell apoptosis rate was significantly increased to 5.31 %, 29.18 %, 31.50 % and 46.09 %(P <0.05), MDC average fluorescence intensity was also significantly increased to 6.3 ±1.1, 82.6 ±4.5, 132.9±15.7 and 157.7±9.0 (P<0.01). Western blot showed that gambogic acid could promote the expression of apoptosis protein Bax (0.17 ±0.02, 0.75 ±0.06, 0.78 ±0.05, 0.89 ±0.10, P <0.05), and decrease the expression of anti-apoptosis protein bcl-2 (1.18 ±0.04, 0.90 ±0.06, 0.64 ±0.08, 0.57 ±0.05, P <0.05), meanwhile, it could also increase the expression of autophagy related protein Beclin (0.67±0.03, 0.92±0.04, 0.95±0.07, 1.04±0.06, P<0.05). Conclusion Gambogic acid can inhibit the growth of human hepatoma HepG2 cells by inducing apoptosis and autophagic cell death.

Objective To investigate the expression of scaffold protein palladin in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tissues and to discuss its clinicopathological significance.Methods 56 samples of PDAC and corresponding adjacent normal pancreas (NP) tissues were collected.Another 10 samples of chronic pancreatitis (CP) tissues were collected.Western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry assay were performed to detect the expression of protein palladin.The correlation of palladin expression with clinicopathological factors of PDAC was analyzed.Results Western blot analysis revealed that the expression of palladin in PDAC,CP and NP tissues were respectively 0.93±0.07,0.41±0.07 and 0.20±0.06,and the expression of palladin was significantly increased in PDAC tissues compared with NP and CP tissues (P ＜ 0.05),and its expression was significantly increased in CP tissues compared with NP tissues (P ＜ 0.05).Immunohistochemical staining showed that palladin was mainly expressed in activated myofibroblasts in PDAC tissues.The rate of palladin expression was 79 ％ (44/56),which was higher than that in NP tissues (2/10) and CP tissues (4/10),and its expression was found to be correlated with the degree of tumor differentiation,lymph node metastasis and clinical TNM classification (P ＜ 0.05),and it had no correlation with patient' s sex,age,tumor location and distant metastasis (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions Scaffold protein palladin is highly expressed in PDAC tissues,and it is expressed in the activated myofibroblasts within tumor microenvironment.Scaffold protein palladin may be involved in the invasion and metastasis of PDAC.

Objective To investigate the effect of ursodesoxycholic acid (UDCA) on JAK/STAT3/ COX-2 signal pathway in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells and the underlying mechanism of its antitumor effect.Methods In order to obtain the optimal concentration and time of UDCA,MTT assay was used to detect anti-proliferative activities of UDCA on SMMC-7721 cells induced by IL-6 in vitro.Cells were divided into control group,IL-6 group,AG490 (JAK2 inhibitor) group and UDCA group.The protein expressions of STAT3,p-STAT3 and COX-2 were measured by Western blot.Results MTT assay showed UDCA had obvious anti-proliferative activities on SMMC-7721 cells.The optimized concentrations were 50,100,200 μg/ml,the optimized culture time was 48 h.Western blot results showed that the expression of p-STAT3 and COX-2 were remarkably increased in IL-6 group than that in control group.There was no difference of STAT3 expression between the two groups.Compared with IL-6 group,the protein level of COX-2 was decreased in AG490 and UDCA groups,so was the expression of p-STAT3.But there was no change on STAT3 expression in AG490 and UDCA groups.Conclusion UDCA may decrease the proliferation of SMMC-7721 cells via inhibiting phosphorylation of STAT3 and down-regulating COX-2 exprcssion.

Objective To explore the influence of HepG2 cells' proliferation and autophagy by the Nrf2-ARE pathway,and provide the experimental basis for clinical exploring effective liver cancer treatment.Methods Hepatic carcinoma HepG2 cells were cultured,and its proliferation inhibition rates and the change of cell cycle' s in each phase were explored by the MTT assay and flow cytometry.The hepatoma cells' autophagy was qualitative observed by inverted phase contrast microscope and fluorescence microscope.Results Inhibitory rate of HepG2 cells was obviously higher in the Nrf2 inhibitor BML-111 group than control group (P ＜ 0.05),and the control group was aslo obviously higher than the Nrf2 inducer EGb group (P ＜ 0.05).Flow cytometric analysis showed that G1 phase cells in the cell cycle increased,S phase cells reduced and G2/M period cells relatively increased in the Nrf2 inhibitor BML-111 group.But G1 phase cells reduced,S phase cells increased and G2/M period cells relative reduced in the Nrf2 inducer EGb group.Inverted phase contrast microscope and fluorescence microscope checked that ranging from the size of the bubble and autophagosome formed in Hepatoma HepG2 cytoplasmic of the Nrf2 inhibitor BML-111 group.Conclusions The Nrf2-ARE pathway played an reverse inhibition on HepG2 cells' proliferation and autophagy.After the inhibition of Nrf2-ARE pathway,HepG2 cells mostly stayed in the G1 phase of the cell cycle.

Hepatic carcinoma is one of the most common malignant tumors in China.Autophagy activity and the change of Nrf2-ARE pathway play an important role in the process of liver tumors.Nrf2 which is an important regulator to liver cancer belongs to the CNC family.Research discovered that after the inhibition of autophagy,Nrf2-ARE pathway activation contributes to the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma.This article summarizes the relationship between autophagy and the Nrf2-ARE pathway and its impact on the hepatic carcinoma.