Objective To explore the feasibility and reference value of allogeneic lung transplantation and postoperative monitoring in miniature pigs for lung transplantation research. Methods Two miniature pigs (R1 and R2) underwent left lung allogeneic transplantation. Complement-dependent cytotoxicity tests and blood cross-matching were performed before surgery. The main operative times and partial pressure of arterial oxygen (PaO₂) after opening the pulmonary artery were recorded during surgery. Postoperatively, routine blood tests, biochemical blood indicators and inflammatory factors were detected, and pathological examinations of multiple organs were conducted. Results The complement-dependent cytotoxicity test showed that the survival rate of lymphocytes between donors and recipients was 42.5%-47.3%, and no agglutination reaction occurred in the cross-matching. The first warm ischemia times of D1 and D2 were 17 min and 10 min, respectively, and the cold ischemia times were 246 min and 216 min, respectively. Ultimately, R1 and R2 survived for 1.5 h and 104 h, respectively. Postoperatively, in R1, albumin (ALB) and globulin (GLB) decreased, and alanine aminotransferase increased; in R2, ALB, GLB and aspartate aminotransferase all increased. Urea nitrogen and serum creatinine increased in both recipients. Pathological results showed that in R1, the transplanted lung had partial consolidation with inflammatory cell infiltration, and multiple organs were congested and damaged. In R2, the transplanted lung had severe necrosis with fibrosis, and multiple organs had mild to moderate damage. The expression levels of interleukin-1β and interleukin-6 increased in the transplanted lungs. Conclusions The allogeneic lung transplantation model in miniature pigs may systematically evaluate immunological compatibility, intraoperative function and postoperative organ damage. The data obtained may provide technical references for subsequent lung transplantation research.

Aim To explore the key components and mechanisms of Lizhong decoction in treating rats with cold-damp diarrhea based on network pharmacology,molecular docking technology and animal experiments.Methods By literature review and database collec-tion,the components of Lizhong decoction,therapeutic targets,and the mapping with diarrhea disease targets were conducted to construct an intersection target pro-tein-protein interaction network for screening core tar-gets,and GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis was performed to build an"active component-target-pathway"network,followed by molecular docking vali-dation.Forty-eight rats were randomly divided into the normal control group(K),model group(DG),Lizhong decoction group(LZDG),and Pulsatilla decoction group(BTDG).Subsequently,a rat cold-damp diar-rhea model was established using Senna combined with low-temperature high-humidity environment,and the rats were intervened with Lizhong decoction and Pul-satilla decoction.HE staining was used to detect path-ological changes in intestinal tissue,ELISA was em-ployed to measure the levels of peripheral blood IL-6,IL-10,IL-1 β,and TNF-α,and western blot was used to determine the expression of colon tight junction pro-teins.Results Network pharmacology initially identi-fied 125 compounds in Lizhong decoction,5 186 drug target components,438 disease targets,and 60"drug-disease"shared targets.GO and KEGG enrichment a-nalysis showed that signaling pathways such as IL-17 and TNF were highly enriched.Molecular docking in-dicated that the core components of the drug had good binding activity with corresponding key targets.Liz-hong decoction could effectively improve the clinical symptoms of rats with cold-damp diarrhea,and com-pared with the DG group,the diarrhea rate,diarrhea in-dex,and other related indicators also gradually de-creased to normal levels.Compared with the DG group,the LZDG group showed reduced inflammation levels and a recovery in energy metabolism levels.Conclusion It can regulate targets such as MMP9 and IL-17 signaling pathways through multi-components like Calycosin and formononetin to exert its therapeutic effect on cold-damp diarrhea.

Objective： The aim of this study is to explore the predictive value of biparametric magnetic resonance imaging(bpMRI)for pelvic lymph node metastasis in prostate cancer patients with PSA≤20 μg/L and establish a nomogram. Methods： The imaging data and clinical data of 363 patients undergoing radical prostatectomy and pelvic lymph node dissection in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from July 2018 to December 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression were used to screen independent risk factors for pelvic lymph node metastasis in prostate cancer, and a nomogram of the clinical prediction model was established. Calibration curves were drawn to evaluate the accuracy of the model. Results： Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed extrocapusular extension (OR=8.08,95%CI=2.62－24.97, P<0.01), enlargement of pelvic lymph nodes (OR=4.45,95%CI=1.16－17.11,P=0.030), and biopsy ISUP grade(OR=1.97,95%CI=1.12－3.46, P=0.018)were independent risk factors for pelvic lymph node metastasis. The C-index of the prediction model was 0.834, which indicated that the model had a good prediction ability. The actual value of the model calibration curve and the prediction probability of the model fitted well, indicating that the model had a good accuracy. Further analysis of DCA curve showed that the model had good clinical application value when the risk threshold ranged from 0.05 to 0.70.Conclusion： For prostate cancer patients with PSA≤20 μg/L, bpMRI has a good predictive value for the pelvic lymph node metastasis of prostate cancer with extrocapusular extension, enlargement of pelvic lymph nodes and ISUP grade≥4.
Humans ; Male ; Prostatic Neoplasms/diagnostic imaging* ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Retrospective Studies ; Nomograms ; Prostate-Specific Antigen/blood* ; Lymph Nodes/pathology* ; Pelvis ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Prostatectomy ; Lymph Node Excision ; Risk Factors ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Logistic Models ; Middle Aged ; Aged

OBJECTIVE: Varied acupoint selections represent a potential cause of the uncertainty surrounding the efficacy of acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis (OA). Skin temperature, a guiding factor for acupoint selection, may help to address this issue. This study explored thermal sensitization of acupoints used for the treatment of knee OA. METHODS: This cross-sectional case-control study enrolled cases aged 45-75 years with symptomatic knee OA and age- and gender-matched non-knee OA controls in a 1:1 ratio. All participants underwent infrared thermographic imaging. The primary outcome was the relative skin temperature of acupoint (STA), and the secondary outcome was the absolute STA of 11 acupoints. The Z test was used to compare the relative and absolute STAs between the groups. Principal component analysis was used to extract the common factors (CFs, acupoint cluster) in the STAs. A general linear model was used to identify factors affecting the STA in the knee OA cases. For the group comparisons of relative STA, P < 0.0045 (adjusted for 11 acupoints through Bonferroni correction) was considered to indicate statistical significance. For other analyses, P < 0.05 was used as the threshold for statistical significance. RESULTS: The analysis included 308 participants, consisting of 151 cases (mean age: [64.58 ± 6.67] years; male: 25.83%; mean body mass index: [25.70 ± 3.16] kg/m²) and 157 controls (mean age: [63.37 ± 5.96] years; male: 26.11%; mean body mass index: [24.47 ± 2.84] kg/m²). The relative STAs of ST34 (P = 0.0001), EX-LE2 (P < 0.0001), EX-LE5 (P = 0.0006), SP10 (P < 0.0001), BL40 (P = 0.0012) and GB39 (P = 0.0037) were higher in the knee OA group. No difference was found in the STAs of ST35, ST36, SP9, GB33 and GB34. Four CFs were identified for relative STA in both groups. The acupoints within each CF were consistent between the groups. The mean values of the relative STAs across each CF were higher in the knee OA group. In the knee OA cases, no factors were observed to affect the relative STA, while age and gender were found to affect the absolute STA. CONCLUSION Among patients with knee OA, thermal sensitization occurs in the acupoints of the lower extremity, exhibiting localized and regional thermal consistencies. The thermally sensitized acupoints that we identified in this study, ST34, SP10, EX-LE2, EX-LE5, GB39 and BL40, may be good choices for the acupuncture treatment of knee OA. Please cite this article as: Tu JF, Wang XZ, Yan SY, Wang YR, Yang JW, Shi GX, Zhang WZ, Jing LN, Yang LS, Liu DH, Wang LQ, Mi BH. Thermal sensitization of acupoints in patients with knee osteoarthritis: A cross-sectional case-control study. J Integr Med. 2025; 23(3): 289-296.
Humans ; Osteoarthritis, Knee/physiopathology* ; Male ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Middle Aged ; Female ; Acupuncture Points ; Case-Control Studies ; Aged ; Skin Temperature ; Acupuncture Therapy

High mobility group box protein 1(HMGB1)is one of the most widely expressed protein member in the HMGs family,which is well known for its involvement in the body inflammatory response.Previous researches have found that it plays a significant role in cell migration,immune identification and neuroprotection.Spinal cord injury is a disease that causes severe damage to the nervous system,and neural circuits are disrupted after a spinal cord injury,which leads to many conditions including ischemia and hypoxia,inflammatory responses,demyelinating lesions,and glial scar formation that are detrimental to nerve regeneration and repair,making it one of the most difficult diseases to treat in the modern spinal surgery field.HMGB1 is upregulated after spinal cord injury,thereby regulating neuroinflam-matory responses,and participating in the neuronal apoptosis,promoting neuronal regeneration,and inducing neural stem cell differentiation and migration,which plays an important role in the process of neural function recovery.This paper summarizes the structure and function of HMGB1,as well as its role in spinal cord injury,in order to provide direction for founding therapeutic target for neurological function recovery after spinal cord injury.

The wear debris generated during artificial joint prosthesis service can react with bone tissues to form osteolysis,seriously affecting the life-time of artificial joint prostheses.This paper reviews,summarizes,and analyzes domestic and international research literature on the extraction,characterization,and identification of wear debris from different artificial joint materials,aiming to provide references and feasible ideas for the future construction of a systematic and hierarchical research system for artificial joint wear debris.The main findings are as follows:strong alkali protein degradation test,strong acid protein degradation test,and protease protein degradation test are the commonly used method for extracting artificial joint wear debris,and researchers have clarified the protein degradation mechanisms of these three debris extraction methods.The characterization of wear debris in-vitro and in-vivo is mostly for hip and knee joints,with a small amount involving cervical spine and ankle joints.Studies have shown that the size,quantity,shape,and volume of wear particles are influenced by factors such as joint type,contact area,material selection,and implantation time.Both domestic and international studies have conducted characterization research on wear debris after in-vitro simulation testing,but there is still a lack of wear debris characterization analysis of clinical retrievals in China.Currently,most research is on the recognition of wear debris in the traditional mechanical field,but research on the intelligent recognition of artificial joint wear debris is relatively few,indicating that there is a certain lag in the application of computer technology in the field of artificial joint wear debris recognition.

Objective To assess the expression of CXCL8 in cervical cancer and its association with clinicopathological features and therapeutic efficacy of patients.Methods Bioinformatic analysis was performed using The Cancer Genome Atlas and Genotype-Tissue Expression databases to compare CXCL8 expression between cervical cancer and normal tissues.R software(version 4.4.0)was used for data analysis,with the timeROC package applied to construct time-dependent receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curves for evalua-ting the prognostic predictive efficacy of CXCL8.The survival package with the survfit function was used to compare survival differences between CXCL8 high-and low-expression groups.Clinical data and tissue specimens were collected from 94 patients with cervical squa-mous cell cancer treated at The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University between January 2017 and December 2021.Immu-nohistochemical staining was used to detect CXCL8 expression levels and analyze its correlation with clinicopathological characteristics,therapeutic efficacy,and prognosis.Results Bioinformatic analysis showed that CXCL8 was highly expressed in cervical cancer tissues than in normal tissues(P＜0.05).Time-dependent ROC curves and survival analyses showed that patients with high CXCL8 expression had significantly shorter overall survival than those with low CXCL8 expression(P＜0.001).Immunohistochemical results showed that CXCL8 expression in cervical cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues(P＜0.000 1).Clinical correlation analy-sis revealed that CXCL8 expression levels were associated with treatment regimen(P＜0.001)and short-term therapeutic efficacy(P=0.017).Compared to the low-expression group,the high-expression group showed a significantly lower therapeutic efficacy and shorter overall survival(P＜0.05).Conclusion CXCL8 is highly expressed in cervical cancer tissues,and patients with high CXCL8 expression have poor prognosis.Thus,CXCL8 may be an effective target for assessing the prognosis and clinical treatment of cervical cancer.

Objective:To assess the relationship between basophil levels and mortality in patients with intra-abdominal infection.Methods:Information on patients with intraperitoneal infection admitted to the intensive care unit were extracted from the MIMIC database.A time-dependent Cox regression model was used to adjust for confounders associated with 28-day mortality.Propensity score matching(PSM)was used to balance the baseline differences be-tween groups with different basophil levels,and a restricted cube chart(RCS)was used to show the relationship between basophil count and 28-day mortality in patients with intra-abdominal infection.Results:A total of 4403 patients with intra-abdominal infection were enrolled in the MIMIC database.Patients with high basophil levels have lower mortality than those with low basophil levels.There was an L-shaped curve between basophil level and 28-day mortality,with a cut-off value of 0.47×109/L.Cox regression analysis showed that basophil levels were an independent protective factor for mortal-ity in patients with intra-abdominal infection after adjusting for potential confounders(HR=0.586,95%CI:0.443-0.769).Protective factors for death at basophil levels remained after PSM adjusted for potential confounders(HR=0.628,95%CI:0.470-0.832).Conclusion:Basophil level is an independent protective factor for mortality in patients with intra-abdominal infection,and basophil levels should be dynamically monitored to better evaluate the prognosis of patients.

Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt(TIPS)is an important intervention for portal hypertension,and the degree of reduction in portal venous pressure is closely associated with the prognosis of patients.While a greater reduction in portal venous pressure may lead to more effective alleviation of portal hypertensive symptoms in cirrhotic patients,it also increases the risk of hepatic encephalopathy and liver failure.Therefore,appropriate control of the degree of reduction in portal venous pressure is essential for optimizing therapeutic outcomes.This article reviews the methods for measuring portal venous pressure,the factors affecting the reduction in portal venous pressure,the optimal range for reduction in different indications,and the impact of varying degrees of pressure reduction on complications,in order to provide guidance for improving the treatment outcome of TIPS and the prognosis of patients after surgery.