Background: Adrenocortical hormones, particularly 11-oxygenated androgens, are pivotal in female reproductive health and fertility. Standardized detection kits and population-specific reference intervals are lacking in China, hindering related clinical applications. Methods: A HPLC-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) pipeline was developed, rigorously validated, and applied to simultaneously quantify corticosterone, cortisone, cortisol, 18-OH cortisol, androstenedione (A4), 11β-hydroxyandrostenedione (11-OH A4), dehydroepiandrosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate in serum samples from 455 reproductive-aged women (18–45 yrs) in Guangxi, China. Age-dependent concentration trends were analyzed, and reference intervals stratified by age (2.5th to 97.5th percentiles) were established. Correlations with body-composition metrics, ethnicity, and the menstrual cycle were investigated. Results: The HPLC-MS/MS method demonstrated high precision (intra- and inter-assay CVs < 15%), accuracy, and sensitivity. All eight hormones exhibited significant age-related declines (P < 0.001 for seven hormones; P = 0.001 for 11-OH A4). Notably, 11-OH A4 levels were significantly lower in the 35–45-yr (3.05 nmol/L) and 25–34-yr (3.09 nmol/L) age groups than in the 18–24-yr (3.57 nmol/L) age group, whereas no significant difference was observed between the 35–45-yr and 25–34-yr age groups. Weak negative correlations were observed between the body mass index and corticosterone and cortisone levels, whereas ethnicity and the menstrual cycle showed no significant associations with hormone levels. Conclusions We developed an HPLC-MS/MS-based method for simultaneously quantifying eight adrenocortical hormones, including 11-OH A4, and defined age-specific reference intervals for reproductive-aged Chinese women. These findings advance the clinical utility of adrenocortical hormones in diagnosing and managing reproductive disorders.

Background/Aims: Dysregulated cholesterol metabolism is a hallmark of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that drives tumor initiation and progression. However, clinical targeting of cholesterol metabolism has yielded limited benefits due to stringent feedback in tumor cells. Identifying a central mediator capable of restoring cholesterol homeostasis within the cell’s intrinsically fine-tuned regulatory framework is urgently needed. Methods: We integrated a proteomic dataset from patients with cholesterol-dysregulated HCC into a global cholesterol metabolic regulatory network to identify potential therapeutic targets for disrupted cholesterol homeostasis. The prognostic significance of the candidate targets was further validated in an independent cohort through immunohistochemistry. Functional and mechanistic studies were conducted in vitro using HCC cell lines and in vivo using mouse models. The pharmacological efficacy of the candidate agent was evaluated in both subcutaneous and orthotopic HCC mouse models. Results: ER lipid raft-associated 1 (ERLIN1), a pivotal regulator of cholesterol metabolism reprogramming, was identified as an independent favorable prognostic indicator in HCC. ERLIN1 constrains HCC progression both in vitro and in vivo by stabilizing the INSIG1–SCAP–SREBP2 axis and maintaining the metabolic balance of intracellular cholesterol. Under hypoxia, impaired factor-inhibiting hypoxia-1-dependent hydroxylation of ASB11 at asparagine residues 90 and 92 enhances ASB11-mediated ERLIN1 degradation. Pharmacological targeting of this axis using zoledronic acid (ZoA) attenuated HCC progression by weakening the ASB11–ERLIN1 interaction and restoring cholesterol homeostasis. Conclusions ERLIN1 represents a druggable metabolic vulnerability in cholesterol-dysregulated HCC. Targeting the ASB11–ERLIN1 axis with the clinically approved ZoA reestablishes cholesterol homeostasis and offers a promising therapeutic strategy to overcome the current limitations of cholesterol-targeted HCC therapies.

Introduction: The 2021 IDF-DAR risk calculator had been previously evaluated in multiple studies and subsequently widely accepted and applied in clinical practice as a practical standardized tool for patient risk stratification. Recently updated, the 2026 IDF-DAR Risk calculator enables a more individualized, evidence-related evaluation of patientrelated and disease-related risk factors, incorporating modern diabetes technologies, including continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), automated insulin delivery (AID) systems, and advanced insulin formulations to enhance risk stratification. This tool allows medical professionals to tailor Ramadan practices based on overall factors toward promoting safe fasting. Methodology: This prospective multicentre observational study recruited adults with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes attending public hospitals nationwide. People with diabetes (PwD) intending to perform Ramadan fasting were invited to participate and assessed using the 2026 IDF-DAR Risk Calculator in the 6-week pre-Ramadan period between 30th January and 19th March 2026. Results: A total of 458 PwD were evaluated and stratified into low (15.7%), moderate (41%), and high risk (43.3%) categories. Most participants had Type 2 diabetes (83.6%), with 60.3% having a disease duration exceeding 10 years and 43% exhibiting poor glycemic control (hemoglobin A1c >9%). Insulin therapy was used by 76.4% of participants, including two individuals with Type 1 diabetes using AID systems. Most participants reported no recent hypoglycemia (76.4%), 81.0% performed glucose monitoring, and 3.3% used CGM. Severe comorbidities were uncommon, with 1.1% having unstable macrovascular disease and 4.4% advanced chronic kidney disease (estimated glomerular filtration rate <30). Notably, 72.2% received structured Ramadan education. Conclusion Majority of PwD attending tertiary diabetes clinics were in the moderate- to high-risk category and intended to fast despite medical advice against fasting in some cases. Although most participants were on insulin therapy, hypoglycemia was low in the pre-Ramadan period. Integration of modern technologies, advanced insulin therapies, and structured education may support safer fasting practices.
Risk Assessment ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Hospitals ; Fasting

BACKGROUND:Developmental dysplasia of the hip often leads to limb deformities in children,and the research related to its diagnosis and treatment has been gradually clarified.Recently,the finite element method has been paid attention to by scholars in the research related to developmental dysplasia of the hip because of its advantages. OBJECTIVE:Through literature search and review of the relevant research progress of finite element method in children's developmental dysplasia of the hip and treatment,analyze and summarize its advantages and disadvantages,and explore the direction of further research in the future. METHODS:PubMed,SCI,CBM,and CNKI were searched for relevant articles published from January 2014 to November 2023 with the key words of"developmental dysplasia(dislocation)of the hip,dysplasia of the hip,finite element analysis(method),pavlik harness,fixation in herringbone position,biomechanics,pelvic osteotomies,pemberton,salter,dega,periacetabular osteotomy,children"in Chinese and English.A small number of long-term articles were included,and 62 articles were finally included for analysis through screening. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)The mechanical environment of hip joint in children with developmental dysplasia of the hip was abnormal.The pressure in acetabulum was uneven.The stress increased and concentrated;the joint contact area decreased,and the local stress concentrated in femoral neck.(2)In the Pavlik sling and herringbone fixation,the mechanical environment of the hip was improved;the concentrated high stress area disappeared and the joint contact area increased,but the excessive abduction angle led to the increase of stress in the acetabulum and the lateral femoral head.(3)After pelvic osteotomy,the stress environment of hip joint and sacroiliac joint was improved.There was no single hinge in the three kinds of osteotomy,and the stress load position was different according to the age of the children.(4)After peri-acetabular osteotomy,the joint contact pressure was close to normal,but it was difficult to recover in patients with non-spherical femoral head.(5)The postoperative X-ray film findings could not show that the joint contact mechanics was the best.(6)It is indicated that the information that cannot be measured in the body can be obtained by using the finite element method,which can be operated in a virtual environment without the limitation of time and ethics.It can directly see the stress change area of normal and developmental dysplasia of the hip,explain the effectiveness of treatment from the point of view of mechanics,establish a specific finite element model and tailor-made operation plan for patients who need osteotomy.There is no standard or unified standard for the finite element modeling of developmental dysplasia of the hip and the material characteristic parameters of children's hip joint.Due to the inherent limitations of finite element method,it is impossible to analyze the model that contains bone,cartilage,ligament,muscle and other elements at the same time.The operation of finite element analysis is difficult,although it has advantages,it is not universal,and the current research sample size is small,which needs to be further expanded and verified.

ObjectiveTo compare the differences in color， odor， coumarin content and microbial community composition of Angelicae Dahuricae Radix（ADR） during different drying processes， and to explore the correlation between changes in microbial community composition and changes in quality indexes of ADR. MethodsThe fresh ADR was processed at three drying temperatures（50， 70， 100 ℃） by drying and steaming cutting， semi-fresh cutting and drying， fresh cutting and drying， and sulfur fumigation methods. The color values of samples were extracted by Adobe Photoshop 2022 software and subjected to principal component analysis（PCA）， electronic nose was used to identify the odor information of medicinal powders and subjected to loadings analysis， PCA， and linear discriminant analysis（LDA）， and high performance liquid chromatography（HPLC） was used to determine the contents of five coumarins（bergapten， oxypeucedanin， imperatorin， phellopterin， isoimperatorin）. The samples for microbial detection were taken from fresh dried samples， 50 ℃（dried and steamed cut， sulfur fumigated） samples， and 100 ℃（dried and steamed cut） samples when the water content was 50% and 14%， respectively. And the changes of microbial community composition during processing were determined by high-throughput sequencing method. The relationship between the changes of microbial community composition and the changes of odor， color and active component content of ADR during drying process was analyzed by Pearson correlation analysis. ResultsThe color quantification results showed that an increase in drying temperature led to the decrease of brightness value（L）， and the increases of red-green value（a） and yellow-blue value（b）， and the change of processing method had no obvious effect on the color of medicinal materials. The results of odor quantification showed that W1S， W2S， W5S， W2W and W1W sensor were sensitive to the odor changes of ADR and could be used to distinguish ADR decoction pieces from different processing methods. The results of HPLC showed that the coumarin content of ADR decreased with the increase of drying temperature and the delay of processing time， the optimal processing method was drying and steaming cutting method， and the optimal temperature was 50 ℃. High-throughput sequencing results showed that the dominant bacteria in ADR during processing were Achromobacter， Agrobacterium， Nocardioides， Mycobacterium and Enterobacter， the dominant fungi were Coprinopsis， Meyerozyma and Apiotrichum. The results of correlation analysis showed that the quality indexes of ADR were positively correlated with Agrobacterium， Mycobacterium in bacteria， Candida in fungi， and negatively correlated with Bacillus in bacteria. ConclusionThere are significant differences in the color， odor， coumarin content and microbial community composition of ADR in different drying processes， and the best drying method is drying and steaming cutting at 50 ℃. The relative abundance changes of 9 bacterial genera and 4 fungal genera are closely related to the quality formation of ADR during the drying process.

Objective:To explore the effect of Lactobacillus reuteri on testicular injury in mice exposed to neonicotinoid insec-ticides(NNI).Methods:Fifteen C57BL/6 male mice were randomly divided into control group(CTRI.group),exposure group(NNI group)and Lactobacillus intervention group(NNI-L group).The mice in CTRL group were given 0.02ml/g of 0.5％carboxym-ethyl cellulose sodium solution by gavage for 14 days.The mice in NNI group were given 0.02 ml/g of NNI mixture by gavage for 14 days.The mice in NNI-L group were given 0.02 ml/g of NNI mixture by gavage and 5 × 108cfu/ml of Lactobacillus reuteri powder so-lution for 14 days.Then,the histomorphology and function of testicle were evaluated by hematoxylin-eosin staining,immunofluores-cence staining and RNA sequencing.Results:Compared with CTRL group,the thickness of testicular seminiferous epithelium in the NNI group was significantly thinner.And the decline in the number of spermatogenic cells and sperm was observed.And the expression of spermatogonial stem cell marker UCHL1 was down-regulated which was significantly improved in NNI-L group compared with the NNI group.The abnormal expressions of hormone and sperm methylation related genes in testis of NNI group were detected by RNA sequen-cing,with significant down-regulation being found in NPFF and IGF2.While the expression of HSD3B8 was significantly up-regulated.The abnormal expression of these genes could be significantly improved after oral administration of Lactobacillus reuteri.Conclusion:Testicular spermatogenesis and endocrine function can be damaged by NNI exposure.And oral administration of Lactoba-cillus reuteri protects testis from the adverse effects of NNI toxicity.

A mounting body of research suggests that circRNAs significantly contribute to the develop-ment of myocardial fibrosis.The microarray results of human circular RNA expression profile indicated that circHERC4_041 expression increased in the myocardium of patients with heart failure,RT-qPCR a-nalysis confirmed that the myocardial expression level of circHERC4_041 in individuals with heart failure were considerably elevated compared to that in healthy organ donors.Fluorescence in situ hybridization(FISH)confirmed that circHERC4_041 was abundant in the cytoplasm of human cardiomyocyte AC16.Overexpression of circHERC4_041 in mouse myocardial fibroblasts(mCFs)mediated by adenovirus in-hibited the expression of fibrosis-related proteins in mCFs.Experiments involving cell proliferation,wound healing,and Transwell assays demonstrated that overexpression of circHERC4_041 suppressed the growth and mobility of mCFs(P＜0.001).Sequence analysis results suggested that circHERC4_041 con-tains potential ribosome entry sequence(IRES)and open reading frame(ORF).Western blot confirmed that circHERC4_041 could translate the 516 amino acid HERC4-516aa protein,which was mainly located in the cytoplasm of the cell.Cell functional experiments confirmed that circHERC4_041 inhibited the fi-brotic phenotype of mCFs by specifically translating HERC4-516aa(P＜0.05).The specific interaction between HERC4-516aa and transglutaminase 2(TGM2)was confirmed by IP-MS screening and Co-IP i-dentification.Further results found that the degradation of TGM2 was promoted through proteasome path-way.The overexpression of TGM2 in mCFs facilitated by adenoviral vectors could counteract the suppres-sive effects of HERC4-516aa on the fibrotic phenotype of mCFs.Therefore,this study confirmed that the HERC4-516aa protein translated by circHERC4_041 can specifically bind to TGM2 to inhibit the fibrotic phenotype of myocardial fibroblasts.

A mounting body of research suggests that circRNAs significantly contribute to the develop-ment of myocardial fibrosis.The microarray results of human circular RNA expression profile indicated that circHERC4_041 expression increased in the myocardium of patients with heart failure,RT-qPCR a-nalysis confirmed that the myocardial expression level of circHERC4_041 in individuals with heart failure were considerably elevated compared to that in healthy organ donors.Fluorescence in situ hybridization(FISH)confirmed that circHERC4_041 was abundant in the cytoplasm of human cardiomyocyte AC16.Overexpression of circHERC4_041 in mouse myocardial fibroblasts(mCFs)mediated by adenovirus in-hibited the expression of fibrosis-related proteins in mCFs.Experiments involving cell proliferation,wound healing,and Transwell assays demonstrated that overexpression of circHERC4_041 suppressed the growth and mobility of mCFs(P＜0.001).Sequence analysis results suggested that circHERC4_041 con-tains potential ribosome entry sequence(IRES)and open reading frame(ORF).Western blot confirmed that circHERC4_041 could translate the 516 amino acid HERC4-516aa protein,which was mainly located in the cytoplasm of the cell.Cell functional experiments confirmed that circHERC4_041 inhibited the fi-brotic phenotype of mCFs by specifically translating HERC4-516aa(P＜0.05).The specific interaction between HERC4-516aa and transglutaminase 2(TGM2)was confirmed by IP-MS screening and Co-IP i-dentification.Further results found that the degradation of TGM2 was promoted through proteasome path-way.The overexpression of TGM2 in mCFs facilitated by adenoviral vectors could counteract the suppres-sive effects of HERC4-516aa on the fibrotic phenotype of mCFs.Therefore,this study confirmed that the HERC4-516aa protein translated by circHERC4_041 can specifically bind to TGM2 to inhibit the fibrotic phenotype of myocardial fibroblasts.

AIM To study the chemical constituents from Asteris Radix et Rhizoma and their anti-inflammatory activities.METHODS The extract from Asteris Radix et Rhizoma was isolated and purified by column chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography,then the structures of obtained compounds were identified by physicochemical properties and spectral data.Their anti-inflammatory activities were evaluated by RAW264.7 model.RESULTS Thirteen compounds were isolated and identified as(Z)-9,10,11-trihydroxy-12-octadecenoic acid(1),tianshic acid(2),6,6-dimethyl-2-methlenebicyclo[3.1.1]hept-3-O-(6-O-apiofuranosyl)-β-D-glucopyranoside(3),ent-16β,17-dihydroxy-kauran-19-oic acid(4),ent-17-hydroxy-19-kauranoic acid(5),7β,17-dihydroxy-16α-ent-kauran-19-oic acid 19-O-β-D-glucopyranoside ester(6),paniculoside Ⅳ(7),thomimarine A(8),cyclo-(S-Pro-R-Leu)(9),4,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid 1-methyl ether(10),methyl 3,5-di-O-caffeoyl quinate(11),5-acetyl-3β-hydroxy-2β-(1-hydroxyisopropyl)-2,3-dihydrobenzofurane(12),4-ally-2,6-dimethoxyphenyl glucoside(13).Compounds 1 and 3-12 had inhibition on the release of NO in RAW264.7 cells,and 4-6,8,10-12 were better than the positive control.CONCLUSION Compounds 1,6,8-9 are isolated from Compositae family for the first time,and 2-5,7,10 and 11-13 are first isolated from this plant.Compounds 1,3-12 have anti-inflammatory activities.

Objective To design an intelligent monitoring platform for adverse drug reactions(ADRs)to solve the problems of the traditional ADR monitoring mode.Methods The ADR intelligent monitoring platform was designed based on artificial intelligence and big data technologies,which was developed with Browser/Server(B/S)architecture,C#programming language and.NET development tool.There were five functional modules involved in the platform for ADR knowledge base,monitoring rule setting,intelligent monitoring,report management and statistical analysis.Results The platform realized the full-process management of ADR intelligent monitoring,reporting,review and statistical analysis,which enhanced the ADR report in quantity,quality and timeliness.Conclusion The platform contributes to improving the monitoring of ADR and patient medication safety.[Chinese Medical Equipment Journal,2025,46(9):33-38]