The interleukin-10 （IL-10） family is expressed in various types of cells and has a wide range of biological functions， and it plays an important role in the development and progression of hepatic fibrosis. Hepatic fibrosis is a chronic liver disease characterized by abnormal repair of hepatic tissues after injury， activation of hepatic stellate cells， and excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix. The IL-10 family members include IL-10， IL-19， IL-20， IL-22， IL-24， IL-26， IL-28， IL-29， and IL-35， with similarities in structure and function， and changes in their expression levels are closely associated with the progression of hepatic fibrosis. Moderate upregulation of the expression of IL-10 family members can help maintain the quiescent state of hepatic stellate cells， promote the transformation of macrophages to anti-inflammatory phenotype， and regulate the activity of natural killer cells， thereby inhibiting inflammatory response， regulating cell apoptosis and autophagy， and finally reversing the progression of hepatic fibrosis. This article discusses the mechanism of action of IL-10 family members and their application in traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine therapies， in order to provide new thoughts for the treatment of hepatic fibrosis.

Liver failure （LF） is a severe clinical syndrome characterized by severe impairment or decompensation of liver function. At present， the key role of immune molecules in the pathogenesis of LF has been well established. These molecules not only directly participate in the pathological process of LF， but also influence the course of LF by modulating the behavior of immune cells. In addition， immune molecules can be used as potential biomarkers for evaluating the prognosis of LF. This article summarizes the role of immune molecules in LF and explores the therapeutic strategies based on these immune molecules， in order to provide new directions for the diagnosis and treatment of LF.

The differences in chemical quality characteristics between Xinjiang Rehmannia glutinosa and R. glutinosa were analyzed to provide a theoretical basis for the introduction and quality control of R. glutinosa. In this study, the high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) fingerprints of 6 batches of Xinjiang R. glutinosa and 10 batches of R. glutinosa samples were established. The content of iridoid glycosides, phenylethanoid glycosides, monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides in Xinjiang R. glutinosa and R. glutinosa was determined by high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection(HPLC-DAD), high performance liquid chromatography-evaporative light scattering detection(HPLC-ELSD), and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy(UV-Vis). The determination results were analyzed with by chemical pattern recognition and entropy weight TOPSIS method. The results showed that there were 19 common peaks in the HPLC fingerprints of the 16 batches of R. glutinosa, and catalpol, aucubin, rehmannioside D, rehmannioside A, hydroxytyrosol, leonuride, salidroside, cistanoside A, and verbascoside were identified. Hierarchical cluster analysis(HCA) and principal component analysis(PCA) showed that Qinyang R. glutinosa, Mengzhou R. glutinosa, and Xinjiang R. glutinosa were grouped into three different categories, and eight common components causing the chemical quality difference between Xinjiang R. glutinosa and R. glutinosa in Mengzhou and Qinyang of Henan province were screened out by orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA). The results of content determination showed that there were glucose, sucrose, raffinose, stachyose, polysaccharides, and nine glycosides in Xinjiang R. glutinosa and R. glutinosa samples, and the content of catalpol, rehmannioside A, leonuride, cistanoside A, verbascoside, sucrose, and glucose was significantly different between Xinjiang R. glutinosa and R. glutinosa. The analysis with entropy weight TOPSIS method showed that the comprehensive quality of R. glutinosa in Mengzhou and Qinyang of Henan province was better than that of Xinjiang R. glutinosa. In conclusion, the types of main chemical components of R. glutinosa and Xinjiang R. glutinosa were the same, but their content was different. The chemical quality of R. glutinosa was better than Xinjiang R. glutinosa, and other components in R. glutinosa from two producing areas and their effects need further study.
Rehmannia/classification* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/chemistry* ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid/methods* ; Quality Control

OBJECTIVE: To construct the inflammation score (IS) and nutrition-immunity score (NIS) for patients with multiple myeloma (MM), and to verify their prognostic stratification effects and significance. METHODS: The clinical data of 129 newly diagnosed MM patients admitted to our hospital from August 2011 to September 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis of overall survival (OS) were comducted on clinical parameters, including inflammatory indicators such as red blood cell volume distribution width (RDW) and platelet count (PLT), nutritional-immune indicators such as albumin (ALB), absolute lymphocyte count (ALC), and suppressed immunoglobulin count (S-Ig count). To construct IS and NIS for prognosis, X-tile software and multivariate Cox regression analysis were used to verify the prognostic stratification role and significance of IS and NIS. The time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, C-index curve, calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA) were used to evaluate the discrimination, accuracy, and clinical net benefit of IS and NIS in predicting overall survival(OS), and compared to the international staging system (ISS). RESULTS: IS was constructed based on the scores of RDW and PLT, and NIS was constructed based on the scores of ALB, ALC, and S-Ig count. According to X-tile analysis and multivariate Cox regression analysis, IS and NIS can divide the patients into three risk strata respectively: low, medium and high IS and NIS groups. The differences in OS and hazard ratio (HR) between the low, medium, and high strata were statistically significant (P < 0.05). IS and NIS are both independent prognostic predictors for MM. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) and C index of IS and NIS for predicting 1- to 7-year OS were greater than those of ISS, and both were greater than 0.7. The prediction results of IS and NIS for 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS rates were well consistent with the actual observed results. The DCA curves of IS and NIS for predicting 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS were higher than that of ISS in a wide range of threshold probability intervals. CONCLUSION IS and NIS have independent predictive significance for OS in MM patients. Their predictive discrimination, accuracy, and clinical net benefit are higher and better than ISS, and they may have potential application value in MM prognosis.
Humans ; Multiple Myeloma/immunology* ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Inflammation ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; ROC Curve ; Aged ; Nutritional Status ; Proportional Hazards Models

OBJECTIVE: To explore and verify the effect and potential mechanism of Brucea javanica Seed Oil Emulsion Injection (YDZI) and Shengmai Injection (SMI) on peripheral microcirculation dysfunction in treatment of gastric cancer (GC). METHODS: The potential mechanisms of YDZI and SMI were explored through network pharmacology and verified by cellular and clinical experiments. Human microvascular endothelial cells (HMECs) were cultured for quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, Western blot analysis, and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured for tube formation assay. Twenty healthy volunteers and 97 patients with GC were enrolled. Patients were divided into surgical resection, surgical resection with chemotherapy, and surgical resection with chemotherapy combining YDZI and SMI groups. Forearm skin blood perfusion was measured and recorded by laser speckle contrast imaging coupled with post-occlusive reactive hyperemia. Cutaneous vascular conductance and microvascular reactivity parameters were calculated and compared across the groups. RESULTS: After network pharmacology analysis, 4 ingredients, 82 active compounds, and 92 related genes in YDZI and SMI were screened out. β-Sitosterol, an active ingredient and intersection compound of YDZI and SMI, upregulated the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) and prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2, P<0.01), downregulated the expression of caspase 9 (CASP9) and estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1, P<0.01) in HMECs under oxaliplatin stimulation, and promoted tube formation through VEGFA. Chemotherapy significantly impaired the microvascular reactivity in GC patients, whereas YDZI and SMI ameliorated this injury (P<0.05 or P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS YDZI and SMI ameliorated peripheral microvascular reactivity in GC patients. β-Sitosterol may improve peripheral microcirculation by regulating VEGFA, PTGS2, ESR1, and CASP9.
Humans ; Microcirculation/drug effects* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/administration & dosage* ; Stomach Neoplasms/physiopathology* ; Emulsions ; Male ; Plant Oils/administration & dosage* ; Brucea/chemistry* ; Middle Aged ; Female ; Drug Combinations ; Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells/metabolism* ; Seeds/chemistry* ; Injections ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A/metabolism* ; Aged ; Network Pharmacology

OBJECTIVE: To explore and quantify the association of hot night exposure during the sperm development period (0-90 lag days) with semen quality. METHODS: A total of 6,640 male sperm donors from 6 human sperm banks in China during 2014-2020 were recruited in this multicenter study. Two indices (i.e., hot night excess [HNE] and hot night duration [HND]) were used to estimate the heat intensity and duration during nighttime. Linear mixed models were used to examine the association between hot nights and semen quality parameters. RESULTS: The exposure-response relationship revealed that HNE and HND during 0-90 days before semen collection had a significantly inverse association with sperm motility. Specifically, a 1 °C increase in HNE was associated with decreased sperm progressive motility of 0.0090 (95% confidence interval [ CI]: -0.0147, -0.0033) and decreased total motility of 0.0094 (95% CI: -0.0160, -0.0029). HND was significantly associated with reduced sperm progressive motility and total motility of 0.0021 (95% CI: -0.0040, -0.0003) and 0.0023 (95% CI: -0.0043, -0.0002), respectively. Consistent results were observed at different temperature thresholds on hot nights. CONCLUSION Our findings highlight the need to mitigate nocturnal heat exposure during spermatogenesis to maintain optimal semen quality.
Humans ; Male ; Semen Analysis ; Adult ; Sperm Motility ; Hot Temperature/adverse effects* ; China ; Middle Aged ; Spermatozoa/physiology* ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To identify the key features of facial and tongue images associated with anemia in female populations, establish anemia risk-screening models, and evaluate their performance. METHODS: A total of 533 female participants (anemic and healthy) were recruited from Shuguang Hospital. Facial and tongue images were collected using the TFDA-1 tongue and face diagnosis instrument. Color and texture features from various parts of facial and tongue images were extracted using Face Diagnosis Analysis System (FDAS) and Tongue Diagnosis Analysis System version 2.0 (TDAS v2.0). Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression was used for feature selection. Ten machine learning models and one deep learning model (ResNet50V2 + Conv1D) were developed and evaluated. RESULTS: Anemic women showed lower a-values, higher L- and b-values across all age groups. Texture features analysis showed that women aged 30-39 with anemia had higher angular second moment (ASM)and lower entropy (ENT) values in facial images, while those aged 40-49 had lower contrast (CON), ENT, and MEAN values in tongue images but higher ASM. Anemic women exhibited age-related trends similar to healthy women, with decreasing L-values and increasing a-, b-, and ASM-values. LASSO identified 19 key features from 62. Among classifiers, the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model achieved the best performance [area under the curve (AUC): 0.849, accuracy: 0.781]. The ResNet50V2 model achieved comparable results [AUC: 0.846, accuracy: 0.818]. CONCLUSION Differences in facial and tongue images suggest that color and texture features can serve as potential TCM phenotype and auxiliary diagnostic indicators for female anemia.
Humans ; Female ; Tongue/diagnostic imaging* ; Adult ; Anemia/diagnosis* ; Middle Aged ; Face/diagnostic imaging* ; Young Adult ; Machine Learning

Objective: To investigate the potential efficacy and safety of Lutai Danshen Baishao granules (LDBG) for treating female melasma associated with kidney deficiency and blood stasis patterns. Methods: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted at the Third Central Hospital of Tianjin, China from March to December 2023. A total of 110 female patients with melasma linked to kidney deficiency and blood stasis were enrolled and treated with either LDBG or a placebo twice daily for 60 days. Efficacy was assessed through measures such as the total melasma area, reduced melasma area, reduction rate of melasma area, melasma color score, Melasma Area and Severity Index (MASI) score, and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) symptom score scale. Safety assessments included routine blood and biochemical tests. Results: Participants in both groups were aged 52–63 years, with no significant differences. After the 2-month intervention, the total melasma area decreased in both groups; however, a greater reduction was observed in the test group [462.50 mm2 (12.81%) vs. 100.00 mm2 (3.11%), P < .001]. Moreover, LDBG treatment significantly reduced the MASI and melasma color scores in the test group (P < .05). The total TCM symptom evaluation score significantly decreased (test group: 6.00 vs. placebo group: 7.00, P = .001), with significant relief in symptoms such as improvement in dark lips, nails, and waist soreness in the test group, compared with that in the placebo group (P < .05). Within-group comparisons revealed that TCM syndrome was significantly alleviated in the test group (P < .05). Conclusion LDBG intervention shows promising effectiveness in reducing female melasma and alleviating TCM syndromes.

From the perspective of the physiological basis of liver and kidney sharing the common source in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM),and by integrating the theory of kidney dominating bone,liver dominating tendon,and meridian sinew of TCM as well as the bone resorption and collapse theory,and non-uniform settlement theory and lower-limb musculoskeletal bowstring structure theory of modern orthopedics,the pathogenesis of osteonecrosis of the femoral head(ONFH)under the system of non-uniform settlement during bone resorption and multidimensional composite bowstring working in coordination with the theory of liver-kidney and muscle-bone was explored.The key to the TCM pathogenesis of ONFH lies in the deficiency of the liver and kidney,and then the imbalance of kidney yin-yang leads to the disruption of the dynamic balance of bone formation and bone resorption mediated by osteoblasts-osteoclasts,which manifests as the elevated level of bone metabolism and the enhancement of focal bone resorption in the femoral head,and then leads to the necrosis and collapse of the femoral head.It is considered that the kidney dominates bone,liver dominates tendon,and the tendon and bone together constitute the muscle-bone-joint dynamic and static system of the hip joint.The appearance of collapse destroys the originally balanced muscle-bone-joint system.Moreover,the failure of liver blood in the nourishment of muscles and tendons further exacerbates the imbalance of the soft tissues around the hip joint,accelerates the collapse of the muscle-bone-joint dynamic and static system,speeds up the process of femoral head collapse,and ultimately results in irreversible outcomes.Based on the above pathogenesis,the systematic integrative treatment of ONFH should be based on the TCM holistic concept,focuses on the focal improvement of internal and external blood circulation of the femoral head by various approaches,so as to rebuild the coordination of joint function.Moreover,attention should be paid to the physical constitution of the patients,and therapy of tonifying the kidney and regulating the liver can be used to restore the balance between osteogenesis and osteoblastogenesis,and to reconstruct the muscle-bone-joint system,so as to effectively delay or even prevent the occurrence of ONFH.

ObjectiveTo investigate the role and possible mechanism of action of rhubarb decoction （RD） retention enema in improving inflammatory damage of brain tissue in a rat model of mild hepatic encephalopathy （MHE）. MethodsA total of 60 male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into blank group （CON group with 6 rats） and chronic liver cirrhosis modeling group with 54 rats using the complete randomization method. After 12 weeks， 40 rats with successful modeling which were confirmed to meet the requirements for MHE model by the Morris water maze test were randomly divided into model group （MOD group）， lactulose group （LT group）， low-dose RD group （RD1 group）， middle-dose RD group （RD2 group）， and high-dose RD group （RD3 group）， with 8 rats in each group. The rats in the CON group and the MOD group were given retention enema with 2 mL of normal saline once a day； the rats in the LT group were given retention enema with 2 mL of lactulose at a dose of 22.5% once a day； the rats in the RD1， RD2， and RD3 groups were given retention enema with 2 mL RD at a dose of 2.5， 5.0， and 7.5 g/kg， respectively， once a day. After 10 days of treatment， the Morris water maze test was performed to analyze the spatial learning and memory abilities of rats. The rats were analyzed from the following aspects： behavioral status； the serum levels of alanine aminotransferase （ALT）， aspartate aminotransferase （AST）， interleukin-1β （IL-1β）， interleukin-6 （IL-6）， and tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α） and the level of blood ammonia； pathological changes of liver tissue and brain tissue； the mRNA and protein expression levels of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase （PI3K）， protein kinase B （AKT）， and mammalian target of rapamycin （mTOR） in brain tissue. A one-way analysis of variance was used for comparison of continuous data between multiple groups， and the least significant difference t-test was used for further comparison between two groups. ResultsCompared with the MOD group， the RD1， RD2， and RD3 groups had a significantly shorter escape latency （all P<0.01）， significant reductions in the levels of ALT， AST， IL-1β， IL-6， TNF-α， and blood ammonia （all P<0.05）， significant alleviation of the degeneration， necrosis， and inflammation of hepatocytes and brain cells， and significant reductions in the mRNA and protein expression levels of PI3K， AKT， and mTOR in brain tissue （all P<0.05）， and the RD3 group had a better treatment outcome than the RD1 and RD2 groups. ConclusionRetention enema with RD can improve cognitive function and inflammatory damage of brain tissue in MHE rats， possibly by regulating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.