ObjectiveTo investigate the liver-protecting and anti-liver fibrosis effects of astragaloside Ⅳ （AS-Ⅳ） in vitro and in vivo， as well as its mechanism of action in intervention against liver fibrosis. MethodsIn the animal experiment， C57BL/6J mice were divided into control group， model group， low-dose AS-Ⅳ （20 mg/kg） group， and high-dose AS-Ⅳ （80 mg/kg） group. The mice were given intraperitoneal injection of carbon tetrachloride for 6 weeks to induce liver fibrosis， and since week 3 of injection， the mice in the low-dose AS-Ⅳ group and the high-dose AS-Ⅳ group were given AS-Ⅳ by gavage at a dose of 20 mg/kg and 80 mg/kg， respectively. The serum levels of alanine aminotransferase （ALT） and aspartate aminotransferase （AST） were measured after 4 weeks of administration， as well as the serum levels of hyaluronic acid （HA）， laminin （LN）， procollagen Ⅲ N-terminal peptide （PⅢNP）， and collagen type Ⅳ （Col-Ⅳ）. HE staining， picrosirius red staining， and Masson staining were used to observe liver histopathology and collagen deposition； RT-qPCR was used to measure the mRNA expression levels of Acta2， Col1a1， and Col3a1 in liver tissue， and Western blot was used to measure the protein expression levels of α-smooth muscle actin （α-SMA）， collagen type Ⅲ （Col-Ⅲ）， phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase （PI3K）， phosphorylated PI3K （pPI3K）， protein kinase B （Akt）， and phosphorylated AKT （p-Akt） in liver tissue； transcriptome sequencing was performed for liver tissue to identify differentially expressed genes and perform a bioinformatics analysis. In the cell experiment， transforming growth factor-β （TGF-β） was used to induce the activation of LX-2 cells， and the PI3K inhibitor LY294002 and the PI3K activator 740 Y-P were used for intervention. The cells were divided into control group， model group， AS-Ⅳ group， LY294002 group， and AS-Ⅳ+740 Y-P group， and the cells were harvested after 36 hours of intervention. Changes in the protein expression levels of α-SMA， Col-Ⅲ， pPI3K/PI3K， and pAkt/Akt in LX-2 cells were measured， as well as changes in the relative mRNA expression levels of Acta2， Col1a1， and Col3a1. 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. ResultsIn the animal experiment， compared with the model group， the AS-Ⅳ treatment group had significant reductions in the serum levels of ALT， AST， HA， LN， PⅢNP， and Col-Ⅳ （all P<0.01）， the mRNA expression levels of Acta2， Col1a1， and Col3a1 in liver tissue （all P<0.05）， and the protein expression levels of α-SMA， Col-Ⅲ， pPI3K， and pAkt （Ser473） in liver tissue （all P<0.05）. In the cell experiment， compared with the control group， the model group had significant increases in the protein expression levels of α-SMA， Col-Ⅲ， pPI3K， and pAkt （Ser473） after TGF-β induction （all P<0.05）； compared with the model group， the AS-Ⅳ group had significant reductions in the protein expression levels of α-SMA， Col-Ⅲ， pPI3K， and pAkt （Ser473） （all P<0.05）， and both the AS-Ⅳ group and the LY294002 group had significant reductions in the protein expression level of pPI3K and the relative mRNA expression levels of Acta2， Col1a1， and Col3a1 （all P<0.05）. Compared with the AS-Ⅳ group， there were significant increases in the protein expression level of pPI3K and the relative mRNA expression levels of Acta2， col1a1， and Col3a1 after 740 Y-P intervention （all P<0.05）. ConclusionAS-Ⅳ can inhibit hepatic stellate cell activation and improve liver fibrosis， possibly by inhibiting the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

ObjectiveAge-related macular degeneration （AMD） is one of the leading causes of low vision and blindness in people over 50 years old， and dry AMD （dAMD） is one type for which there is currently no clear treatment. On the basis of the diagnosis and clinical characteristics of dAMD in traditional Chinese and Western medicine， this paper evaluated the fitting degrees of existing animal models of dAMD with clinical characteristics according to the evaluation methods of animal models， and put forward suggestions and prospects. MethodsLiterature on animal models of dAMD was searched against database， and the characteristics of the models were assigned according to the diagnosis criteria of diseases and syndromes of traditional Chinese and Western medicine， and the fitting degrees of the models with clinical characteristics were analyzed and evaluated. ResultsAt present， the animal models of dAMD are mainly established targeting complement factors， chemokines， oxidative damage， lipid/glucose metabolism， and natural strains. Most of the models can simulate the major pathological changes of dAMD， showing the fitting degree of 25%-50% with clinical characteristics in Western medicine. However， the evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） syndromes， especially the evaluation of secondary syndromes， is missing， and the models present low fitting degrees with the clinical characteristics in TCM. ConclusionExisting animal models of dAMD are mostly established under the guidance of Western diagnostic standards， which reproduce the main disease characteristics of Western medicine and lack observation of TCM syndromes. Future studies can pay attention to the intervention factors and evaluation systems of spleen deficiency Qi deficiency and liver-kidney Yin deficiency syndrome and build the animal model of dAMD with integration of disease and syndrome based on clinical characteristics of traditional Chinese and Western medicine.

ObjectiveAge-related macular degeneration （AMD） is one of the leading causes of low vision and blindness in people over 50 years old， and dry AMD （dAMD） is one type for which there is currently no clear treatment. On the basis of the diagnosis and clinical characteristics of dAMD in traditional Chinese and Western medicine， this paper evaluated the fitting degrees of existing animal models of dAMD with clinical characteristics according to the evaluation methods of animal models， and put forward suggestions and prospects. MethodsLiterature on animal models of dAMD was searched against database， and the characteristics of the models were assigned according to the diagnosis criteria of diseases and syndromes of traditional Chinese and Western medicine， and the fitting degrees of the models with clinical characteristics were analyzed and evaluated. ResultsAt present， the animal models of dAMD are mainly established targeting complement factors， chemokines， oxidative damage， lipid/glucose metabolism， and natural strains. Most of the models can simulate the major pathological changes of dAMD， showing the fitting degree of 25%-50% with clinical characteristics in Western medicine. However， the evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） syndromes， especially the evaluation of secondary syndromes， is missing， and the models present low fitting degrees with the clinical characteristics in TCM. ConclusionExisting animal models of dAMD are mostly established under the guidance of Western diagnostic standards， which reproduce the main disease characteristics of Western medicine and lack observation of TCM syndromes. Future studies can pay attention to the intervention factors and evaluation systems of spleen deficiency Qi deficiency and liver-kidney Yin deficiency syndrome and build the animal model of dAMD with integration of disease and syndrome based on clinical characteristics of traditional Chinese and Western medicine.

Objective:To reveal the differences in the transcriptome maps of brain tissues in mice subjected to Flash irradiation and conventional dose rate irradiation with electron beams and to explain the biological effect and mechanisms of Flash irradiation from multiple perspectives.Methods:Following the principle of grouping based on approximate body weights, 36 female C57BL/6J mice were divided into three groups, i. e., the control, conventional dose rate irradiation (CONV), and Flash irradiation (Flash) groups, with 12 mice in each group. Both the CONV and Flash groups received a single 15 Gy whole-brain irradiation with 9 MeV electron beams. At 3 d post-irradiation, the whole-brain tissue specimens were collected for hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining to observe pathological changes. At 1, 3, and 10 weeks post-irradiation, the motion function, cognitive ability, depression level, and spatial memory capacity of the mice were assessed using ethology. At 1 and 10 weeks after behavioral experiments, brain tissue samples were collected and snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen for reference-based transcriptome sequencing. Accordingly, the differences in the transcriptome maps of radiation-induced brain injury between CONV and Flash groups were analyzed.Results:The HE staining-based pathological result revealed that compared to the CONV group, the Flash group exhibited reduced glial cell hyperplasia and inflammatory cell infiltration in brain tissues. Ethological research result at 1 week post-irradiation showed that the CONV group manifested a significantly decreased total traveled distance compared to the control and Flash groups ( t = 5.51, 2.38, P < 0.05) and a significantly increased immobility time compared to the control group ( t = 3.60, P < 0.05). Ethological research result at 3 weeks post-irradiation indicated that compared to the CONV group, the Flash group displayed significantly alleviated cognitive impairment ( t = 3.35, P < 0.05) and reduced depression levels ( t = 2.39, P < 0.05). Ethological research result at 10 weeks post-irradiation demonstrated that the CONV group showed the worst cognitive performance, significantly differing from the control group ( t = 4.53, P < 0.05). Transcriptome sequencing result revealed that besides immune-related pathways, the Flash group also exhibited multiple upregulated metabolic pathways and fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-related pathways compared to the CONV group. Conclusions:Compared to conventional dose rate irradiation, Flash irradiation can effectively alleviate radiation-induced brain injury in mice. This effect is associated with various metabolic pathways (including amino acid metabolism) and FGF-related pathways besides immune pathways.

Objective:To evaluate the value of ultrasound radiomics combined with machine learning for early diagnosis of seronegative Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (SN-HT) .Methods:This retrospective study included 164 patients from Liaoning Provincial People’s Hospital , Lixin County People’s Hospital, Linghai Dalinghe Hospital, Fengcheng Phoenix Hospital, who underwent thyroidectomy for solitary nodules with normal thyroid function between Nov. 2016 and Jan. 2024. Postoperative pathology confirmed Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) in some cases, who were further categorized into antibody-positive and antibody-negative groups based on serum antibody status. Patients without Hashimoto’s thyroiditis served as the control group. A total of 298 ultrasound images were analyzed. Radiomics features were extracted from hypoechoic non-nodular areas within 0.5 cm surrounding the tumor. Two senior pathologists and two senior ultrasound physicians independently assessed lymphocytic infiltration, eosinophilic changes of follicular epithelium, and the proportion of hypoechoic areas in pathology and ultrasound images, respectively. A machine learning model, CCH-NET, was developed using linear regression and t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) techniques. The dataset was divided into a training set (80%) and a validation set (20%) to compare the diagnostic accuracy of CCH-NET with that of senior ultrasound physicians. Results:In internal validation, CCH-NET achieved a diagnostic accuracy of 88.89% for both antibody-positive and antibody-negative groups, significantly higher than the 66.67% accuracy of senior ultrasound physicians ( P<0.01). In external validation, CCH-NET achieved 75.00% and 66.67% accuracy for the two groups, compared to 50.00% by senior ultrasound physicians. For the control group, both methods achieved 93.33% accuracy. The AUC of CCH-NET was 0.848, outperforming senior ultrasound physicians (0.681) ,demonstrating superior diagnostic performance. Conclusion:The radiomics-based CCH-NET model, using non-nodular hypoechoic areas as a specific indicator, can accurately identify early SN-HT in euthyroid patients. It significantly outperforms senior ultrasound physicians, improving diagnostic accuracy and reducing missed diagnoses.

Background and Aims:Sleeve gastrectomy(SG)has become the most widely performed bariatric procedure worldwide,but postoperative gastroesophageal reflux disease(GERD)remains a major concern.This multicenter study aimed to identify independent risk factors associated with GERD after SG to guide preoperative assessment and intraoperative management.Methods:Clinical data of 672 patients who underwent SG between January 2020 and December 2022 in six bariatric centers and completed a 12-month follow-up were retrospectively analyzed.Demographic characteristics,esophagogastric junction(EGJ)integrity graded by the AFS system,operative parameters,and postoperative outcomes were compared between patients with and without GERD.Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify predictors of postoperative GERD.Results:The overall incidence of GERD after SG was 24.7%(166/672).Multivariate analysis revealed that a preoperative BMI>35 kg/m2(OR=1.68,P=0.033),EGJ integrity AFS grade>2(OR=2.90,P=0.006),and preoperative reflux symptoms(OR=2.44,P=0.030)were independent risk factors for GERD.A staple line more than 1 cm from the angle of His(OR=0.45,P<0.001)and a bougie size>36 Fr(OR=0.08,P=0.001)were protective factors.Conclusion:High BMI,impaired EGJ integrity,and preoperative reflux symptoms significantly increase the risk of GERD after SG,whereas adequate preservation of the His angle and appropriate bougie calibration may reduce it.Comprehensive preoperative EGJ assessment and standardized surgical techniques are essential for minimizing postoperative reflux.

Objective To analyze the application trends and research hotspots of brain-computer interface(BCI)technology in stroke rehabilitation over the past five years.Methods Relevant literatures on the use of BCI in stroke rehabilitation published between January,2021 and August,2025 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database.CiteSpace 6.4.R1 was used for visualiza-tion analysis.Results A total of 458 papers were included.The annual number of publications remained at a high level.China was the leading country in publication output,with Fudan University and Aalborg University as the top institutions.The most prolific author was Mads R.Jochumsen,while G.Pfurtscheller had the highest citation frequency.The key-words and burst terms with the highest frequency in this field were brain-computer interface,motor imagery,up-per limb and deep learning.Conclusion Over the past five years,research on BCI in stroke rehabilitation has maintained a high publication volume.The research hotspots focus on innovations in BCI algorithm technology and multidimensional validation of neu-ral mechanisms and rehabilitation efficacy.

Objective:To reveal the differences in the transcriptome maps of brain tissues in mice subjected to Flash irradiation and conventional dose rate irradiation with electron beams and to explain the biological effect and mechanisms of Flash irradiation from multiple perspectives.Methods:Following the principle of grouping based on approximate body weights, 36 female C57BL/6J mice were divided into three groups, i. e., the control, conventional dose rate irradiation (CONV), and Flash irradiation (Flash) groups, with 12 mice in each group. Both the CONV and Flash groups received a single 15 Gy whole-brain irradiation with 9 MeV electron beams. At 3 d post-irradiation, the whole-brain tissue specimens were collected for hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining to observe pathological changes. At 1, 3, and 10 weeks post-irradiation, the motion function, cognitive ability, depression level, and spatial memory capacity of the mice were assessed using ethology. At 1 and 10 weeks after behavioral experiments, brain tissue samples were collected and snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen for reference-based transcriptome sequencing. Accordingly, the differences in the transcriptome maps of radiation-induced brain injury between CONV and Flash groups were analyzed.Results:The HE staining-based pathological result revealed that compared to the CONV group, the Flash group exhibited reduced glial cell hyperplasia and inflammatory cell infiltration in brain tissues. Ethological research result at 1 week post-irradiation showed that the CONV group manifested a significantly decreased total traveled distance compared to the control and Flash groups ( t = 5.51, 2.38, P < 0.05) and a significantly increased immobility time compared to the control group ( t = 3.60, P < 0.05). Ethological research result at 3 weeks post-irradiation indicated that compared to the CONV group, the Flash group displayed significantly alleviated cognitive impairment ( t = 3.35, P < 0.05) and reduced depression levels ( t = 2.39, P < 0.05). Ethological research result at 10 weeks post-irradiation demonstrated that the CONV group showed the worst cognitive performance, significantly differing from the control group ( t = 4.53, P < 0.05). Transcriptome sequencing result revealed that besides immune-related pathways, the Flash group also exhibited multiple upregulated metabolic pathways and fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-related pathways compared to the CONV group. Conclusions:Compared to conventional dose rate irradiation, Flash irradiation can effectively alleviate radiation-induced brain injury in mice. This effect is associated with various metabolic pathways (including amino acid metabolism) and FGF-related pathways besides immune pathways.

Objective:To explore the effects of adenosine on learning and memory in rats thromboembolic stroke(TS)and its mechanism based on PI3K/Akt/CREB signaling pathway.Methods:36 male SD rats were randomly di-vided into sham group(Sham),TS group,TS+adenosine(TS+Ade)group and TS+adenosine+Akt inhibitor(TS+Ade+MK-2206)group.Preparation of rat TS model used autologous thrombus intravascular formation method.Mor-ris water maze(MWM)test was used to observe the learning and memory ability of rats.The morphological changes of hippocampal neurons were observed by Nissl staining.The expression of glutamate transporter 1(GLT-1)and glial fi-brillary acidic protein(GFAP)in CA1 region was determined by immunofluorescence.The protein expressions of PI3K,p-PI3K,Akt,p-Akt,CREB and p-CREB were determined by Western blot.Results:Through the rat TS mod-el,adenosine was able to improve the learning and memory ability,improve the hippocampal neuron cell morphological abpormality and vacuolation,nucleolar condensation and other phenomena in rats.Immunofluorescence results showed that GLT-1 and GFAP were co-localized,and adenosine could significantly enhance the fluorescence intensity of GFAP and GLT-1.Western blot results showed that adenosine can enhance the expression of p-PI3K,p-Akt,and p-CREB proteins,but the use of Akt inhibitors can to some extent inhibit the phosphorylation of PI3K,Akt,and CREB.Conclusion:Adenosine may enhance the expression of GLT-1 in astrocytes and increase the clearance of glutamate through activation of PI3K/Akt/CREB signaling pathway,thereby reducing the excitotoxicity and improving recognition and memory function.However,this effect is partially blocked by Akt inhibitors.

Objective:To evaluate the value of ultrasound radiomics combined with machine learning for early diagnosis of seronegative Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (SN-HT) .Methods:This retrospective study included 164 patients from Liaoning Provincial People’s Hospital , Lixin County People’s Hospital, Linghai Dalinghe Hospital, Fengcheng Phoenix Hospital, who underwent thyroidectomy for solitary nodules with normal thyroid function between Nov. 2016 and Jan. 2024. Postoperative pathology confirmed Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) in some cases, who were further categorized into antibody-positive and antibody-negative groups based on serum antibody status. Patients without Hashimoto’s thyroiditis served as the control group. A total of 298 ultrasound images were analyzed. Radiomics features were extracted from hypoechoic non-nodular areas within 0.5 cm surrounding the tumor. Two senior pathologists and two senior ultrasound physicians independently assessed lymphocytic infiltration, eosinophilic changes of follicular epithelium, and the proportion of hypoechoic areas in pathology and ultrasound images, respectively. A machine learning model, CCH-NET, was developed using linear regression and t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) techniques. The dataset was divided into a training set (80%) and a validation set (20%) to compare the diagnostic accuracy of CCH-NET with that of senior ultrasound physicians. Results:In internal validation, CCH-NET achieved a diagnostic accuracy of 88.89% for both antibody-positive and antibody-negative groups, significantly higher than the 66.67% accuracy of senior ultrasound physicians ( P<0.01). In external validation, CCH-NET achieved 75.00% and 66.67% accuracy for the two groups, compared to 50.00% by senior ultrasound physicians. For the control group, both methods achieved 93.33% accuracy. The AUC of CCH-NET was 0.848, outperforming senior ultrasound physicians (0.681) ,demonstrating superior diagnostic performance. Conclusion:The radiomics-based CCH-NET model, using non-nodular hypoechoic areas as a specific indicator, can accurately identify early SN-HT in euthyroid patients. It significantly outperforms senior ultrasound physicians, improving diagnostic accuracy and reducing missed diagnoses.