OBJECTIVE To study the ameliorative effect and mechanism of Forsythia suspensa-Lonicera japonica herb pair on acute lung injury （ALI） based on serum exosomal microRNA （miRNA）. METHODS The rats were randomly divided into a blank group （normal saline）， model group （nomal saline）， and F. suspensa-L. japonica herb pair group （2.55 g/kg）， with 10 rats in each group. Except for the blank group， the other groups were used to establish an ALI model by intratracheal dripping of 5 mg/ mL lipopolysaccharides. After modeling， each group was given relevant medicine/normal saline intragastrically， once a day， for 3 consecutive days. After the last medication， the pathological status of lung tissue was observed； lung wet-to-dry weight ratio and leukocyte counts in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid （BALF） were determined. The levels of inflammatory factors [tumor necrosis factor-α（TNF-α）， interleukin-1β （IL-1β）， IL-10] in BALF were determined. Exosomes were isolated from rat serum， and high- throughput sequencing technology was employed to screen differentially expressed miRNA within the exosomes， followed by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes （KEGG） enrichment analysis. Based on the screened differentially expressed miRNA and the enriched KEGG pathways， in vitro cellular experiments were conducted for validation. RESULTS The animal experimental results demonstrated that after intervention with the F. suspensa-L. japonica herb pair， the wet-to-dry weight ratio， the number of leukocytes in BALF， as well as the levels of TNF-α and IL-1β in BALF of ALI rats were all significantly reduced （P＜0.01）， while the level of IL-10 was significantly increased （P＜0.01）. The results of high-throughput sequencing experiments revealed that the F. suspensa-L. japonica herb pair could significantly up-regulate the expressions of miR-345-3p， miR-194-5p， miR-653-5p， and others in exosomes. Among them， the KEGG pathways involved in the target genes of differentially expressed miRNA included the hypoxia-inducible factor-1（HIF-1） signaling pathway， among others. The results of cellular E-mail：huang.haiying@126.com validation experiments showed that overexpressed miR-345-3p could significantly elevate the level of IL-10 in the cell supernatant （P＜0.01）， while significantly reducing the levels of TNF-α and IL-1β in the cell supernatant， as well as the mRNA and protein expression levels of protein kinase B1， phosphatidylinositol 3- kinase， and HIF-1α （P＜0.01）. CONCLUSIONS F. suspensa-L. japonica herb pair can alleviate inflammatory responses and thereby exert a therapeutic effect in improving ALI by up-regulating the expression of miR-345-3p in serum exosomes and inhibiting the activity of the HIF-1 signaling pathway.

BACKGROUND:Macrophages play a key role in the occurrence and progression of lung diseases,and autophagy plays an important role in maintaining environmental homeostasis and functional stability in macrophages.It has been suggested that macrophage autophagic activity has two sides in lung inflammatory diseases.OBJECTIVE:To summarize the relationship between macrophage autophagy and lung diseases,thereby providing reference for exploring the prevention and treatment strategies of lung inflammatory diseases by targeting macrophage autophagy.METHODS:Literature retrieval was performed in CNKI and PubMed for relevant literature published from database inception to September 2024.The search terms were"macrophage autophagy,efferocytosis,macrophage polarization,acute lung injury,pneumonia,chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,pulmonary fibrosis,asthma"in Chinese and English,respectively.The search results were included or excluded based on the selection criteria,and 100 papers that met the criteria were finally included in the review.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)The obstruction of autophagy flow will induce the polarization imbalance of macrophages and impair their efferocytosis,resulting in the increase of M1 macrophages and aggravating inflammation.(2)The judgment of autophagic activity should be based on whether the autophagy flow is smooth or not,and it is essential to evaluate the degradation ability of autophagy.Some studies failed to comprehensively detect the degradation ability of autophagy lysosomes to assess whether the autophagy flow is unobtrusive.As a result,the so-called two-sided view of pulmonary macrophage autophagy in pulmonary inflammatory diseases in such studies is actually related to the one-sided judgment of autophagy activity.(3)The pathological manifestations vary across different pulmonary diseases and even at different stages of the same disease.Activation of macrophage autophagy plays a positive role in regulating pulmonary inflammatory homeostasis in conditions such as acute lung injury,infectious pneumonia,mild chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,early-stage pulmonary fibrosis,and secondary asthma.However,in the severe fibrotic stage of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the progressive stage of pulmonary fibrosis,the activation of pulmonary macrophage autophagy aggravates pulmonary fibrosis,reflecting the dual nature of macrophage autophagy.In allergic asthma,autophagy is activated in lung-resident macrophages but suppressed in infiltrating monocyte-derived macrophages from circulation.The former is closely related to airway stenosis,and the latter aggravates pneumonia disorders.Therefore,identifying the types and progression stages of lung diseases,along with accurately assessing autophagic activity,is crucial for future investigations into the relationship between macrophage autophagy and disease pathogenesis,thereby facilitating the development of therapeutic strategies in the future.

BACKGROUND:Macrophages play a key role in the occurrence and progression of lung diseases,and autophagy plays an important role in maintaining environmental homeostasis and functional stability in macrophages.It has been suggested that macrophage autophagic activity has two sides in lung inflammatory diseases.OBJECTIVE:To summarize the relationship between macrophage autophagy and lung diseases,thereby providing reference for exploring the prevention and treatment strategies of lung inflammatory diseases by targeting macrophage autophagy.METHODS:Literature retrieval was performed in CNKI and PubMed for relevant literature published from database inception to September 2024.The search terms were"macrophage autophagy,efferocytosis,macrophage polarization,acute lung injury,pneumonia,chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,pulmonary fibrosis,asthma"in Chinese and English,respectively.The search results were included or excluded based on the selection criteria,and 100 papers that met the criteria were finally included in the review.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)The obstruction of autophagy flow will induce the polarization imbalance of macrophages and impair their efferocytosis,resulting in the increase of M1 macrophages and aggravating inflammation.(2)The judgment of autophagic activity should be based on whether the autophagy flow is smooth or not,and it is essential to evaluate the degradation ability of autophagy.Some studies failed to comprehensively detect the degradation ability of autophagy lysosomes to assess whether the autophagy flow is unobtrusive.As a result,the so-called two-sided view of pulmonary macrophage autophagy in pulmonary inflammatory diseases in such studies is actually related to the one-sided judgment of autophagy activity.(3)The pathological manifestations vary across different pulmonary diseases and even at different stages of the same disease.Activation of macrophage autophagy plays a positive role in regulating pulmonary inflammatory homeostasis in conditions such as acute lung injury,infectious pneumonia,mild chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,early-stage pulmonary fibrosis,and secondary asthma.However,in the severe fibrotic stage of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the progressive stage of pulmonary fibrosis,the activation of pulmonary macrophage autophagy aggravates pulmonary fibrosis,reflecting the dual nature of macrophage autophagy.In allergic asthma,autophagy is activated in lung-resident macrophages but suppressed in infiltrating monocyte-derived macrophages from circulation.The former is closely related to airway stenosis,and the latter aggravates pneumonia disorders.Therefore,identifying the types and progression stages of lung diseases,along with accurately assessing autophagic activity,is crucial for future investigations into the relationship between macrophage autophagy and disease pathogenesis,thereby facilitating the development of therapeutic strategies in the future.

BACKGROUND: The contraction behaviors of cardiomyocytes (CMs), especially contraction synchrony, are crucial factors reflecting their maturity and response to drugs. A wider field of view helps to observe more pronounced synchrony differences, but the accompanied greater computational load, requiring more computing power or longer computational time. METHODS: We proposed a method that directly correlates variations in optical field brightness with cardiac tissue contraction status (CVB method), based on principles from physics and photometry, for rapid video analysis in wide field of view to obtain contraction parameters, such as period and contraction propagation direction and speed. RESULTS: Through video analysis of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived CMs labeled with green fluorescent protein (GFP) cultured on aligned and random nanofiber scaffolds, the CVB method was demonstrated to obtain contraction parameters and quantify the direction and speed of contraction within regions of interest (ROIs) in wide field of view. The CVB method required less computation time compared to one of the contour tracking methods, the LucasKanade (LK) optical flow method, and provided better stability and accuracy in the results. CONCLUSION This method has a smaller computational load, is less affected by motion blur and out-of-focus conditions, and provides a potential tool for accurate and rapid analysis of cardiac tissue contraction synchrony in wide field of view without the need for more powerful hardware.

BACKGROUND:Dysfunction of macrophage efferocytosis can induce local and systemic inflammatory damage and is associated with a variety of obesity-related metabolic diseases.Moreover,compounds targeting efferocytosis have shown good therapeutic effects. OBJECTIVE:By reviewing the effects of obesity on macrophage efferocytosis,to analyze the key mechanism by which obesity inhibits efferocytosis,to summarize the research progress in compounds targeting efferocytosis to treat obesity-related metabolic diseases,so as to provide new ideas for fully understanding efferocytosis and its relationship with metabolic diseases,aiming to provide new strategies for disease prevention and treatment. METHODS:The English search terms were"efferocytosis,metabolism,obesity,obese,atherosclerosis,non-alcoholic steatohepatitis,neurodegeneration,tumor,osteoarthritis,diabetes,compound,medicine,treatment,"which were used for literature retrieval in PubMed and Web of Science.The Chinese search term was"efferocytosis,"which was used for literature retrieval in CNKI,VIP and WanFang datebases.Ninety-nine papers were finally included in the review analysis after a rigorous screening process. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:In the process of efferocytosis,the"Find me"and"Eat me"processes involving a large number of apoptotic cell derived factors are mainly regulated by apoptotic cells.The efferocytosis factor involved in cytoskeletal remodeling and digestion are mainly derived from macrophages,which are crucial for efferocytosis activity.These results suggest that the"Find me"and"Eat me"factors mainly reflect the condition of apoptosis,and it is more scientific to select the expression of factors involved in cytoskeletal remodeling and digestion when evaluating the efferocytosis activity of macrophages.Obesity inhibits efferocytosis,and shows an inhibitory effect on most digestive factors,but has a stress-induced activation effect on most"Find me,""Eat me"and cytoskeletal recombination factors,which further indicates the decisive effect of digestive stage on efferocytosis and suggests that it is not reliable for some studies to evaluate the efferocytosis based on the increased expression of"Find me"and"Eat me"factors.Targeting cytokines in the digestive phase may be more effective when discussing future intervention strategies targeting macrophages efferocytosis.The efferocytosis activators of macrophages are effective in the treatment of various metabolic diseases,but the efferocytosis inhibitors in tumor tissue show good anticancer effects,suggesting that the role of efferocytosis should be rationally evaluated according to the characteristics of tissue inflammation.Efferocytosis is a relatively new concept proposed in 2003,with a short research history and complex efferocytosis factors.Current studies on obesity and efferocytosis only involve a tip of the iceberg and most of them are at a superficial level and a large number of scientific experiments are needed to further validate the mechanisms.

Objective Exploring the clinical diagnosis and treatment status of epilepsy patients at the epilepsy specialty clinic in a single-center comprehensive hospital in the Lhasa area of the Tibetan Plateau.Methods Epilepsy patients who visited the epilepsy specialty clinic of the Department of Neurology at the Tibet Autonomous Region People's Hospital from September 2021 to June 2023 were continuously enrolled.Data such as clinical characteristics and diagnosis and treatment conditions of the enrolled patients was analyzed.Results A total of 121 patients were enrolled in this study,with 33.9%(41/121 cases)being new patients at our hospital and 6.6%(8/121 cases)being referred to our hospital.Non-adherence to treatment,with patients self-reducing or stopping medication without medical advice,accounted for 8.3%(10/121 cases)of the cases.The majority of epilepsy patients were in the young and middle-aged group,with 51.2%(62/121 cases)being between 18 and 44 years old.There were significant differences in the distribution of epilepsy patients across different age groups(P<0.001),while there was no significant difference in gender distribution(49.6%male vs.50.4%female,P>0.05).Generalized seizures were the predominant type of seizure(75.2%,91/121 cases),and 73.6%(89/121 cases)of the patients had an unknown etiology for their epilepsy,with symptomatic epilepsy accounting for 26.4%(32/121 cases)and structural causes being the most common at 24.8%(30/121 cases).Monotherapy was the main treatment for epilepsy(55.4%,67/121 cases),with sodium valproate being the most frequently prescribed drug for monotherapy at 22.3%(27/121 cases).Conclusion In the epilepsy specialty clinic in the plateau region,newly diagnosed patients account for about one-third,and over one-tenth of revisiting patients have not been receiving standardized treatment.The majority of our epilepsy patients are young to middle-aged adults.Generalized seizures are the predominant type.The etiology is unknown in the majority of cases,with structural causes being a common etiology in symptomatic epilepsy.Sodium valproate is the most frequently used antiseizure medication(ASM)in monotherapy in the plateau area.

Objective:To explore the adaptability of health resources allocation and the economic development level in Sichuan Province and its influencing factors,so as to provide reference and suggestions for optimizing health resources allocation.Methods:Based on the panel data of 21 cities(states)in Sichuan Province,it analyzes the adaptability of health resources allocation and economic development in Sichuan Province from 2017 to 2021 and its influencing factors through entropy method,coupling coordination model and grey relational model.Results:From 2017 to 2021,the allocation level of health resources in most areas of Sichuan Province showed a gradual upward trend,but the rising speed was obviously lower than the growth rate of economic development;In 2021,the adaptability between the allocation of health resources and the level of economic development in most parts of Sichuan Province is still in a low coordination stage.Conclusion:Different regions should adopt differentiated development strategies based on their actual geographical conditions,optimize the allocation of health resources according to local conditions,and promote the coordinated development of health resource allocation and economic level.

Objective To verify the accuracy of Youssef's formula and evaluate whether fetal biacromial diameter(BA)and other fetal biological diameters estimated by ultrasound can be used to predict macrosomia and shoulder dystocia,so as to provide the possibility for clinical prediction of shoulder dystocia.Methods A total of 200 pregnant women with a gestational period of 37-42 weeks were examined with ultrasound within 3 days before delivery for collecting biparietal diameter(BPD),head circumference(HC),abdominal circumference(AC),humerus length(HL),femur length(FL),thoracic transverse diameter and midpoint diameter of upper arm;and the fetal BA was estimated by Youssef's formula.Neonatal BA,body mass and body length were measured within 1 day after delivery.The above data were analyzed for correlation.Newborns were grouped according to their body mass(macrosomia vs non-macrosomia)and whether they had shoulder dystocia or not(shoulder dystocia vs non-shoulder dystocia).Results(1)The fetal BA estimated by Youssef's formula was consistent with neonatal BA(P>0.05),and the estimated BA was positively correlated with BPD,HC,AC and neonatal body mass(P<0.001).(2)The BA,BA/AC and BA/HC in macrosomia group were different from those in non-macrosomia group(P<0.05).ROC curve showed that the sensitivity and specificity were 92.3%and 88.2%for macrosomia prediction when the estimated BA threshold was 16.05 cm,and those were 61.5%and 77.0%when BA/AC threshold was 0.455,and 76.9%and 72.7%when BA/HC threshold was 0.465.(3)Shoulder dystocia group had neonatal weight close to non-shoulder dystocia group(P>0.05),but higher BA/BPD,BA/HC and BA-BPD(P<0.05).ROC curve showed that the sensitivity and specificity were 100.0%and 66.8%for shoulder dystocia when BA threshold was 15.45 cm,100.0%and 80.6%when BA/BPD threshold was 1.695,100.0%and 81.6%when BA/HC threshold was 0.475,and 100.0%and 76.0%when the threshold difference between BA and BPD was 6.35 cm.Conclusion Fetal BA,BA/BPD,BA/HC,BA/AC and BA-BPD may be effective predictors of shoulder dystocia and macrosomia.

Objective:To explore the data distribution characteristics of hydrogen and methane breath test (HMBT) in Chinese population and to evaluate its applicability for diagnosing small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) in Chinese population.Methods:HMBT data of 18 634 individuals who underwent health check-up nationwide from March 2019 to september 2022 were retrospectively collected, which included the levels of hydrogen and methane at 0, 30, 60, and 90 min. After quality control and data cleaning, the final valid sample size was 12 654 cases, comprising 7 146 SIBO-negative cases and 5 508 SIBO-positive cases. In order to exclude confounding factors such as oral hygiene, the 12 654 cases were divided into D0 and D1 dataset, when the 0 min-value of hydrogen and methane were both lower than the 30 min-value, the 0 min-value was taken as the baseline, and induded into the D0 dataset (5 556 cases), and other situations were induded into the D1 dataset (7 098 cases). There were 2 879 SIBO-negative cases and 2 659 SIBO-positive cases in D0 dataset, and 4 249 SIBO-negative cases and 2 849 SIBO-positive cases in D1 dataset. The hydrogen and methane level at each testing time point in the SIBO-negative and SIBO-positive individuals, the difference between the peak gas level at 90 min and the baseline, and the distribution of time points at which peak level occurred were analyzed. Independent-sample t test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for statistical analysis. Results:The overall SIBO positive rate was 43.53% (5 508/12 654). In SIBO-positive cases the hydrogen level at 0, 30, 60, and 90 min were 9.41×10 -6 (5.01×10 -6, 21.90×10 -6), 11.34×10 -6 (6.13×10 -6, 22.94×10 -6), 18.16×10 -6 (11.03×10 -6, 29.37×10 -6) and 29.59×10 -6 (20.12×10 -6, 43.36×10 -6), respectively, and methane level were 9.13×10 -6 (7.12×10 -6, 12.03×10 -6), 9.23×10 -6 (8.07×10 -6, 12.03×10 -6), 10.21×10 -6 (9.02×10 -6, 13.01×10 -6), and 12.03×10 -6 (10.01×10 -6, 14.11×10 -6), respectively, which were higher than those of SIBO-negative cases (6.04×10 -6 (3.10×10 -6, 11.08×10 -6), 6.04×10 -6 (3.21×10 -6, 10.06×10 -6), 6.95×10 -6 (4.03×10 -6, 11.01×10 -6), 8.96×10 -6 (5.01×10 -6, 13.91×10 -6); 8.04×10 -6 (7.02×10 -6, 10.00×10 -6), 8.03×10 -6 (7.03×10 -6, 9.95×10 -6), 8.04×10 -6 (7.03×10 -6, 10.00×10 -6) 8.98×10 -6 (7.12×10 -6, 10.03×10 -6)], and the differences were statistically significant ( U=1.41×10 7, 1.09×10 7, 6.66×10 6, 4.14×10 6, 1.51×10 7, 1.23×10 7, 1.02×10 7, 8.86×10 6; all P<0.001). In both D0 and D1 datasets, the increase in hydrogen and methane of SIBO positive subgroup were higher than those of SIBO negative subgroup (22.39×10 -6(14.82×10 -6, 33.37×10 -6) vs. 4.82×10 -6(1.96×10 -6, 7.85×10 -6), 20.61×10 -6(7.87×10 -6, 31.44×10 -6) vs. 3.25×10 -6(0.79×10 -6, 7.88×10 -6); 3.98×10 -6(2.87×10 -6, 6.87×10 -6) vs. 1.95×10 -6(0.98×10 -6, 2.99×10 -6), 2.95×10 -6(0.98×10 -6, 4.93×10 -6) vs. 0.98×10 -6(0.00×10 -6, 1.99×10 -6)), and the differences were statistically significant( U=7.24×10 6, 9.72×10 6, 5.74×10 6, 8.27×10 6; all P<0.001). In both D0 and D1 datasets, hydrogen and methane concentrations peaked at 90 min. Conclusion:HMBT can be used for non-invasive diagnosis of SIBO in Chinese population, and the differences in hydrogen and methane concentrations at 90 min of the test have critical value for SIBO diagnosis.

Purpose To investigate the sex differences of white matter damage in Alzheimer's disease(AD)and their association with cognitive impairment.Materials and Methods This retrospective study included 88 AD patients(48 females),71 amnestic mild cognitive impairment(aMCI)patients(39 females),and 95 healthy controls(63 females)recruited from the Memory Disorder Clinic at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from September 2017 to July 2024.High-resolution three-dimensional T1 structure images and diffusion tensor imaging images were all obtained from each participant.The mean diffusivity(MD)and fractional anisotropy(FA)values of each white matter region were obtained,and the two-way ANOVA analysis was conducted to investigate brain regions with interaction effects between groups and sexes,those brain regions were then chosen as regions of interest for further correlation analysis with a series of cognitive scale scores.Results In terms of FA values,the right posterior corona radiata,right anterior limb of the internal capsule and left corticospinal tract showed interaction between sexes and cognitive groups(F=4.764,3.812,5.937,all P<0.05).The FA value of AD group was significantly lower than that of healthy control and aMCI group(all P<0.05),but there was no significant difference between healthy control and aMCI group(except the right anterior limb of the internal capsule,P=0.018).In AD group,FA values were significantly higher in women than in men in the previously described brain regions(all P<0.05),while there was no significant difference in FA values between male and female in healthy control and aMCI groups(except the left corticospinal tract,P<0.001).In terms of MD values,the right anterior limb of the internal capsule,right superior corona radiata and left external capsule showed interaction effect between sexes and cognitive groups(F=8.581,3.680,7.218,all P<0.05).The MD value of AD group was significantly higher than that of aMCI group(P<0.001),and aMCI group was higher than that of healthy control group(all P<0.05).In AD group,the MD values in the above brain regions were significantly higher in males than those in females(all P<0.01),while no significant difference was found between males and females in healthy control and aMCI groups(except for the left external capsule,P<0.05).For correlation analysis,the AD group was dimidiated into two groups by sex,the scores of the Montreal cognitive assessment,the Mini Mental state examination and the verbal fluency test of the female patient group were positively correlated with the FA values of the right posterior corona radiate(r=0.372,P=0.009;r=0.345,P=0.016;r=0.383,P=0.007),while the Mini Mental state examination and the verbal fluency test scores of female AD patient group were negatively correlated with the MD values of the right superior corona radiata(r=-0.360,P=0.012;r=-0.360,P=0.003).Conclusion Compared to the healthy control and MCI groups,white matter damage in AD patients shows sex differences and is associated with general cognitive and language functions impairment in female AD patients.