1.Macrophage autophagy in lung diseases:two-sided effects
Huijuan YOU ; Shuzhen WU ; Rong RONG ; Liyuan CHEN ; Yuqing ZHAO ; Qinglu WANG ; Xiaowei OU ; Fengying YANG
Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research 2026;30(6):1516-1526
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.
2.Macrophage autophagy in lung diseases:two-sided effects
Huijuan YOU ; Shuzhen WU ; Rong RONG ; Liyuan CHEN ; Yuqing ZHAO ; Qinglu WANG ; Xiaowei OU ; Fengying YANG
Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research 2026;30(6):1516-1526
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.
3.Macrophage efferocytosis:a new target for the treatment of obesity-related metabolic diseases
Fengying YANG ; Yuqing ZHAO ; Huijuan YOU ; Pengyi ZHANG ; Yan CHEN ; Qinglu WANG ; Yingying LIU
Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research 2025;29(2):430-440
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.
4.Relationship between macrophage subtypes in obese adipose tissue and metabolic diseases
Yuqing ZHAO ; Wei WANG ; Huijuan YOU ; Liyuan CHEN ; Yan CHEN ; Qinglu WANG ; Fengying YANG
Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research 2025;29(13):2832-2841
BACKGROUND:Macrophage subtypes exhibit tissue heterogeneity,and the adipose tissue macrophage phenotype is largely influenced by obesity.Local and systemic inflammatory responses caused by obese adipose tissue macrophages are considered a vital pathological mechanism of obesity-associated metabolic diseases.OBJECTIVE:To summarize the inflammatory characteristics of different macrophage subtypes in adipose tissue and their relationship with obesity-associated metabolic diseases,aiming to provide a reference basis for targeting specific macrophage subtypes to explore preventive and treatment strategies for obesity-associated metabolic diseases.METHODS:Literature retrieval was conducted in CNKI and PubMed using Chinese and English search terms "obesity,adipose tissue,adipose tissue macrophage,macrophage polarisation,metabolic diseases." The search results were accepted or excluded according to the inclusion criteria.Ninety-one papers that met the criteria were finally included for review.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1) Macrophages have tissue heterogeneity.Under normal conditions,adipose tissue macrophages are mainly composed of anti-inflammatory M2 resident macrophages,which maintain tissue inflammation homeostasis.Under obese conditions,a large number of foreign infiltrating macrophages surround hypertrophic adipocytes,and most of them exhibit pro-inflammatory characteristics.Therefore,it is believed that adipose tissue macrophages of pro-inflammatory M1 type may actually be a collection of multiple pro-inflammatory subtypes.Further understanding of the characteristics of various pro-inflammatory subtypes helps us to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying inflammatory disorders in obese adipose tissue.(2) In obesity,foreign infiltrating macrophages form crown-like structures around hypertrophic adipocytes.Currently,six different subtypes of the crown-like structure have been identified,most of which exhibit pro-inflammatory properties and a few of which possess anti-inflammatory characteristics.Thus,taking full advantage of the anti-inflammatory subtypes while inhibiting the differentiation of the pro-inflammatory subtypes may be a new target for alleviating inflammatory damage in obese adipose tissue.(3) M3,Mme,CD9+and LAM adipose tissue macrophage subtypes have been found to be involved in the occurrence and development of metabolic diseases such as atherosclerosis,diabetes,insulin resistance,and cancer.DARC+and Mfehi adipose tissue macrophage subtypes play a vital role in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,obesity insulin resistance,iron death,and other related metabolic diseases.The above studies further suggest that inflammatory disorders caused by externally infiltrated macrophages in obese adipose tissue are an important pathological basis for obesity-induced metabolic diseases.Further in-depth research on the characteristics of various subtypes has important theoretical and practical significance.
5.Relationship between macrophage subtypes in obese adipose tissue and metabolic diseases
Yuqing ZHAO ; Wei WANG ; Huijuan YOU ; Liyuan CHEN ; Yan CHEN ; Qinglu WANG ; Fengying YANG
Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research 2025;29(13):2832-2841
BACKGROUND:Macrophage subtypes exhibit tissue heterogeneity,and the adipose tissue macrophage phenotype is largely influenced by obesity.Local and systemic inflammatory responses caused by obese adipose tissue macrophages are considered a vital pathological mechanism of obesity-associated metabolic diseases.OBJECTIVE:To summarize the inflammatory characteristics of different macrophage subtypes in adipose tissue and their relationship with obesity-associated metabolic diseases,aiming to provide a reference basis for targeting specific macrophage subtypes to explore preventive and treatment strategies for obesity-associated metabolic diseases.METHODS:Literature retrieval was conducted in CNKI and PubMed using Chinese and English search terms "obesity,adipose tissue,adipose tissue macrophage,macrophage polarisation,metabolic diseases." The search results were accepted or excluded according to the inclusion criteria.Ninety-one papers that met the criteria were finally included for review.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1) Macrophages have tissue heterogeneity.Under normal conditions,adipose tissue macrophages are mainly composed of anti-inflammatory M2 resident macrophages,which maintain tissue inflammation homeostasis.Under obese conditions,a large number of foreign infiltrating macrophages surround hypertrophic adipocytes,and most of them exhibit pro-inflammatory characteristics.Therefore,it is believed that adipose tissue macrophages of pro-inflammatory M1 type may actually be a collection of multiple pro-inflammatory subtypes.Further understanding of the characteristics of various pro-inflammatory subtypes helps us to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying inflammatory disorders in obese adipose tissue.(2) In obesity,foreign infiltrating macrophages form crown-like structures around hypertrophic adipocytes.Currently,six different subtypes of the crown-like structure have been identified,most of which exhibit pro-inflammatory properties and a few of which possess anti-inflammatory characteristics.Thus,taking full advantage of the anti-inflammatory subtypes while inhibiting the differentiation of the pro-inflammatory subtypes may be a new target for alleviating inflammatory damage in obese adipose tissue.(3) M3,Mme,CD9+and LAM adipose tissue macrophage subtypes have been found to be involved in the occurrence and development of metabolic diseases such as atherosclerosis,diabetes,insulin resistance,and cancer.DARC+and Mfehi adipose tissue macrophage subtypes play a vital role in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,obesity insulin resistance,iron death,and other related metabolic diseases.The above studies further suggest that inflammatory disorders caused by externally infiltrated macrophages in obese adipose tissue are an important pathological basis for obesity-induced metabolic diseases.Further in-depth research on the characteristics of various subtypes has important theoretical and practical significance.
6.Rare Manifestations of Common Diseases: Middle-Aged Male Polyuria-Headache-Inflammatory Granulomatous Lesions
Yuxing ZHAO ; Lian DUAN ; Wei LYU ; Yong YAO ; Hui YOU ; Wen ZHANG ; Jin MA ; Xinxin MAO ; Huijuan ZHU
JOURNAL OF RARE DISEASES 2023;2(3):359-364
A middle-aged man was presented with poor appetite, polyuria, polydrpsia, and headache. A sellar mass was found, along with total pituitary hypofunction and visual field defect. A biopsy of the lesion via the trans-sphenoidal approach showed inflammatory changes and granuloma formation. However, repeated cerebrospinal fluid and pathogenic examination of the pathological tissue showed no positive indications. The initial diagnosis considered autoimmune hypophysitis, and treatment of glucocorticoids combined with immunosuppressants was administered, which led to a temporary shrinkage of the lesion, but it gradually enlarged subsequently. After multidisciplinary discussion, a high possibility of pituitary tuberculosis infection was decided upon. After standardized anti-tuberculosis treatment was initiated, the lesion reduced noticeably and the patient′s condition improved. Pituitary tuberculosis infection is incredibly rare and extremely easy to misdiagnose. This case was diagnosed and treated in a timely and effective manner through a multidisciplinary approach, highlighting the importance of such an approach in dealing with rare diseases.
7.The value of texture analysis based on T 2WI and apparent diffusion coefficient map in discriminating low grade from high grade prostate cancer
Jinke XIE ; Xiangde MIN ; Basen LI ; Zhaoyan FENG ; Peipei ZHANG ; Wei CAI ; Huijuan YOU ; Chanyuan FAN ; Liang WANG
Chinese Journal of Radiology 2020;54(12):1191-1196
Objective:To investigate the value of texture analysis based on T 2WI and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps in discriminating low grade from high grade prostate cancer (PCa). Methods:Retrospective analysis was performed on patients who were confirmed to be PCa by pathology after surgery and underwent MRI examination in the department of radiology,Tongji Hospital,Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology before radical surgery, including routine T 1WI, T 2WI and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) sequences. 3D data analysis module of the MaZda software was used to manually draw region of interest (ROIs) slice by slice on T 2WI and ADC images, and generate volume of interest (VOI) of the entire tumor. MaZda software was also used to extract texture features. The independent sample t test or Mann-Whitney U test were used to identify the texture features with statistically significant differences between low and high grade PCa groups. Lasso regression model was used to select the best combination of texture features for identifying low and high grade PCa, and then the model was built. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the model in both training cohort and test cohort. Results:The best texture feature combination selected by Lasso regression model were the S (1, 0, 0) correlation of T 2WI and the S (1, 0, 0) correlation, S (1, -1, 0) sum entropy and vertical-run length nonuniformity of ADC maps. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of the model in training cohort was 0.823, and the sensitivity and specificity were 70.4% and 80.8%, respectively, which were better than the single texture feature. The AUC of the model in test cohort was 0.714, which was worse than training cohort. Conclusion:The texture analysis of T 2WI and ADC maps is valuable for the identification of low and high grade PCa.
8.Bioinformatics analysis of HLA-A2 restricted neoantigen epitopes in breast cancer
YOU Zicong ; ZHON Weijun ; LUO Yunfeng ; DENG Jianwen ; ZHANG Pusheng ; FENG Haizhan ; WENG Junyan ; YU Jinlong ; ZHU Huijuan ; LI Yuhuab ; SHI Fujuna
Chinese Journal of Cancer Biotherapy 2020;27(4):427-432
[Abstract] Objective: To screen candidate epitopes of breast cancer HLA-A2 restrictive neoantigen and to identify high frequency mutation sites in breast cancer neoantigen by using bioinformatics method. Methods: NCBI and GDC databases were used to search missense mutation sites formed by single nucleotide mutation in breast cancer among reported literatures and sequencing data. The new antigen epitopes were predicted by HLA-A2 antigen epitope prediction website BIMAS, SYFPEITHI and artificial neural networkbased NetMHC4.0, and the epitopes with TAP binding power less than Intermediate were eliminated. The candidate epitopes were prioritized by mutation frequency and prediction results. Results: A total of 17 high-frequency mutation genes, including BTLA, ERBB2 and NBPF12 etc, were screened by the above-mentioned methods, and a total of 26 neoantigen epitopes were identified. The binding power of epitopes predicted using BIMAS and SYFPEITHI showed great difference (P<0.05), epitopes in high priority as GSTP1 (A114V , mutation frequency of 5.94%) and BRCA2 (N991H, mutation frequency of 5.40%) etc, were expected to be candidate neo-antigen epitopes; however, their mutation frequency was relatively too low to achieve“universal use” . The possibility of these epitopes used as general breast cancer neo-antigen epitopes is less likely. Conclusion: The common mutation frequency of breast cancer is lower than that of other tumors; it ’s difficult to find“universal”new antigen epitopes of breast cancer; the individualized neoantigen vaccine may be of more promise, which needs further research.
9.Discriminating low grade from high grade prostate cancer based on MR apparent diffusion coefficient map texture analysis
Chanyuan FAN ; Xiangde MIN ; Qiubai LI ; Junhua FANG ; Zhihua FANG ; Peipei ZHANG ; Chaoyan FENG ; Huijuan YOU ; Liang WANG
Chinese Journal of Radiology 2019;53(10):859-863
Objective To investigate the value of texture analysis based on MR ADC map of prostate in differentiating between low?grade and high?grade prostate cancer (PCa). Methods PCa confirmed by pathology after radical prostatectomy were analyzed retrospectively, all patients underwent multiparametric MRI before radical prostatectomy, including T1WI,T2WI and DWI. On the ADC map, ROI was drawn manually to encompass the whole tumor by ITK?SNAP software. The python?based pyradiomics package was used to extract 105 texture features. The intraclass correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the repeatability of the texture features. The independent sample t test or Mann?Whitney U test was used to exclude features that had no significant difference between low grade and high grade PCa. Lasso regression model and 5 fold cross validation method were used to obtain texture feature combination of the highest performance and develop a classification modelfor discriminating low from high grade PCa. ROC curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of the model. Result Ninety patients with PCa confirmed by pathology after radical prostatectomywere analyzed retrospectively,including 36 patients with low?level PCa (GS≤3+4) and 54 patients with high?level PCa (GS≥4+3). The area under curve of the model was 0.841, with sensitivity 69.6% and specificity 91.2%, which was significantly higher than single texture feature or traditional mean ADC value. Conclusion Texture analysis based on MRI?ADC map of prostate could be used to discriminate low grade PCa from high grade PCa.
10. Discriminating low grade from high grade prostate cancer based on MR apparent diffusion coefficient map texture analysis
Chanyuan FAN ; Xiangde MIN ; Qiubai LI ; Junhua FANG ; Zhihua FANG ; Peipei ZHANG ; Chaoyan FENG ; Huijuan YOU ; Liang WANG
Chinese Journal of Radiology 2019;53(10):859-863
Objective:
To investigate the value of texture analysis based on MR ADC map of prostate in differentiating between low-grade and high-grade prostate cancer (PCa).
Methods:
PCa confirmed by pathology after radical prostatectomy were analyzed retrospectively, all patients underwent multiparametric MRI before radical prostatectomy, including T1WI,T2WI and DWI. On the ADC map, ROI was drawn manually to encompass the whole tumor by ITK-SNAP software. The python-based pyradiomics package was used to extract 105 texture features. The intraclass correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the repeatability of the texture features. The independent sample

Result Analysis
Print
Save
E-mail