1.Correlations of meteorological factors and air pollutants with incidence of hand-foot-and-mouth disease in Lianyungang City
Mengdie XU ; Li YIN ; Furong LYU ; Lei XU ; Qiong TANG ; Haipeng LI
Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine 2026;43(1):51-57
Background The moderation role of environmental factors in the spread of hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) has attracted much attention, but the existing conclusions are inconsistent. For example, some scholars believe that high temperature, high humidity, and high concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) increase the risk of HFMD, but other scholars have reached the opposite conclusion, or believe that there is no significant relationship. Objective Based on distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM), to investigate the relationship between the incidence of HFMD and meteorological and air pollutant variables in Lianyungang City, and to provide scientific basis for early warning. Methods Daily data of meteorological factors and air pollutants in Lianyungang City from 2021 to 2024 were retrieved. Meteorological factors included average daily temperature, average wind speed, average air pressure, and relative humidity. Air pollutant indicators included PM2.5, inhalable particulate matter (PM10), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), NO2, and ozone (O3). Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze their correlations with HFMD, and the R package (version 4.3.1) dlnm was used to construct a DLNM model. Results During the study period, a total of 10503 cases were reported, with a male to female ratio of 1.47∶1 and the highest proportion of scattered children (49.97%). The Spearman correlation analysis results showed that daily average temperature (r=0.40), relative humidity (r=0.17) and O3 (r=0.14) were positively correlated with the incidence of HFMD (all Ps<0.01), while average air pressure (r=−0.34), PM2.5 (r=−0.24), PM10 (r=−0.24), CO (r=−0.22), and NO2 (r=−0.06) were negatively correlated with it (all Ps<0.05). There was no statistical relationship of SO2 and average wind speed with the incidence of HFMD (both Ps>0.05). The cumulative risk effect was greatest when the daily average temperature was 28.50 ℃ (CRR=4.63, 95%CI: 2.68, 8.01). The average wind speed below 0.50 m·s−1 and in the range of 2.50-3.50 m·s−1 showed an acute risk effect, and low pressure (below 1016.00 hPa) could immediately increase the risk of the disease. The cumulative risk effect was greatest when the relative humidity was 100% (CRR=3.16, 95%CI: 1.77, 5.65). The greatest cumulative protective effects of PM2.5 and PM10 were present at concentrations of 158.00 μg·m−3 (CRR=0.12, 95%CI: 0.01, 0.99) and 561.50 μg·m−3 (CRR=0.01, 95%CI: 0.01, 0.99) respectively. The protective effect of CO was the strongest at the highest concentration (67.00 μg·m−3) (RR=0.67, 95%CI: 0.34, 0.64). The cumulative protective effects of SO2 and NO2 were both most significant at the concentration of 0.50 μg·m−3. Low concentrations of O3 (below 48.00 μg·m−3) showed a risk effect, and the single-day protective effect was significant when the concentration was 141.00 μg·m−3. Conclusion There is a nonlinear and hysteretic relationship between environmental factors and the incidence of HFMD. A rational and efficient early warning and prevention and control system can be constructed accordingly.
2.Effect and mechanisms of highly active umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells on aging spleen in elderly tree shrews
Li YE ; Chuan TIAN ; Xiaojuan ZHAO ; Mengdie CHEN ; Qianqian YE ; Qiang LI ; Zhuyin LIAO ; Ye LI ; Xiangqing ZHU ; Guangping RUAN ; Zhixu HE ; Liping SHU ; Xinghua PAN
Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research 2025;29(19):4000-4010
BACKGROUND:Spleen has the functions of blood storage,hematopoiesis,and immunity.With the increase of age,the structural degeneration and functional decline of spleen lead to the impairment of immune system function,thus accelerating the aging process of the body.The treatment of spleen aging in tree shrews with highly active umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells has not been reported. OBJECTIVE:To explore the intervention effect and mechanism of highly active umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells on spleen aging in tree shrews. METHODS:Highly active umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells were isolated,cultured,and obtained from the umbilical cord tissue of newborn tree shrews by caesarean section.The differentiation abilities of adipogenesis,osteogenesis,and chondrogenesis were detected by three-line differentiation kit.Cell cycle and surface markers were detected by flow cytometry.The second generation of highly active umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells were transfected with Genechem Green Fluorescent Protein with infection complex values of 100,120,140,160,180,and 200,respectively,to screen the best transfection conditions.After transfection,the fourth generation of highly active umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells was injected into the tail vein of tree shrews in the elderly treatment group.The young control group and the aged model group were not given special treatment.After 4 months of treatment,the spleen tissue was taken and the structure of the spleen was observed by hematoxylin-eosin staining.β-Galactosidase staining was used to detect the activity of aging-related galactosidase.Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression levels of p21 and p53 proteins.Ki67 and PCNA immunofluorescence staining was used to detect cell proliferation activity.Immunofluorescence staining was used to detect the expression levels of spleen autophagy protein molecules Beclin 1 and APG5L/ATG5.Reactive oxygen species fluorescence staining was used to detect the content of reactive oxygen species in spleen tissue.CD3 immunofluorescence staining was used to detect the change of the proportion of total T lymphocytes.The secretion levels of interleukin 1β and transforming growth factor β1 in spleen were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.The distribution of highly active umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells labeled with green fluorescent protein in spleen tissue was observed by DAPI double staining of nucleus. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Highly active umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells grew in a short spindle shape with fish-like growth,with a large proportion of G0/G1 phase,and had the potential to differentiate into adipogenesis,osteogenesis,and chondrogenesis.(2)Multiplicity of infection=140 and transfection for 72 hours were the best conditions for labeling tree shrews highly active umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells with Genechem Green Fluorescent Protein.(3)Compared with the aged model group,in the aged treatment group,the spleen tissue cells of tree shrews were arranged closely,and the area of white pulp was increased(P<0.01);the boundary between red pulp and white pulp was clear;the proportion of germinal centers did not show statistically significant difference(P>0.05).The activity level of galactosidase related to spleen tissue aging was decreased(P<0.001),and the expression levels of aging protein molecules p21 and p53 were down-regulated(P<0.001).The expression levels of proliferation-related molecules Ki67 and PCNA were up-regulated(P<0.001,P<0.05);expression levels of autophagy-related molecules Beclin 1 and APG5L/ATG5 were up-regulated(P<0.001),and the content of reactive oxygen species decreased(P<0.001),and the proportion of CD3+T cells increased(P<0.05).The secretion level of interleukin 1β in the aging-related secretion phenotype decreased(P<0.001);no significant difference was found in transforming growth factor β1 level(P>0.05).Compared with the young control group,the above indexes were significantly different in the elderly treatment group(P<0.05).(4)Green fluorescent cells labeled with green fluorescent protein were observed in spleen tissue of tree shrews the elderly treatment group by frozen tissue section observation.The results show that intravenous infusion of highly active umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells can migrate to spleen tissue,inhibit the production of reactive oxygen species,down-regulate the expression of aging-related proteins,induce autophagy,promote cell proliferation,reduce chronic inflammation,and then improve the structure and function of spleen tissue.
3.SITA: Predicting site-specific immunogenicity for therapeutic antibodies.
Yewei CUN ; Hao DING ; Tiantian MAO ; Yuan WANG ; Caicui WANG ; Jiajun LI ; Zihao LI ; Mengdie HU ; Zhiwei CAO ; Tianyi QIU
Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis 2025;15(6):101316-101316
Antibody (Ab) humanization is critical to reduce immunogenicity and enhance efficacy in the preclinical phase of the development of therapeutic Abs originated from animal models. Computational suggestions have long been desired, but available tools focused on immunogenicity calculation of whole Ab sequences and sequence segments, missing the individual residue sites. This study introduces Site-specific Immunogenicity for Therapeutic Antibody (SITA), a novel computational framework that predicts B-cell immunogenicity score for not only the overall antibody, but also individual residues, based on a comprehensive set of amino acid descriptors characterizing physicochemical and spatial features for antibody structures. A transfer-learning-inspired framework was purposely adopted to overcome the scarcity of Ab-Ab structural complexes. On an independent testing dataset derived from 13 Ab-Ab structural complexes, SITA successfully predicted the epitope sites for Ab-Ab structures with a receiver operating characteristic (ROC)-area unver the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.85 and a precision-recall (PR)-AUC of 0.305 at the residue level. Furthermore, the SITA score can significantly distinguish immunogenicity levels of whole human Abs, therapeutic Abs and non-human-derived Abs. More importantly, analysis of an additional 25 therapeutic Abs revealed that over 70% of them were detected with decreased immunogenicity after modification compared to their parent variants. Among these, nearly 66% Abs successfully identified actual modification sites from the top five sites with the highest SITA scores, suggesting the ability of SITA scores for guide the humanization of antibody. Overall, these findings highlight the potential of SITA in optimizing immunogenicity assessments during the process of therapeutic antibody design.
4.PCSK9 promotes mitochondrial dysfunction to accelerate the process of abdominal aortic aneurysm
Man LI ; Yanyu CHEN ; Mengdie XIA ; Qian XU ; Yating ZHOU ; Huayu ZHANG ; Lushan LIU ; Zhihan TANG ; Juan PENG
Chinese Journal of Arteriosclerosis 2025;33(3):209-218
Aim To explore the impact and mechanism of proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin 9(PCSK9)on the progression of abdominal aortic aneurysm(AAA).Methods 6~8 week old ApoE-/-mice were selected to estab-lish the AAA model.Angiotensin Ⅱ(Ang Ⅱ)was continuously infused through subcutaneous implantation of a micro-os-motic pump.The mice were fed with high-fat diet and killed after 28 days.The expression of PCSK9 in abdominal aor-tic smooth muscle cells was detected by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence in normal abdominal aortic blood vessels and AAA samples in human and mice.Primary cultured murine vascular smooth muscle cells(mVSMC)of C57BL/6 mice were treated with different concentrations of AngⅡ for 24 h,and the expression of PCSK9 mRNA and pro-tein was detected.PCSK9 overexpression and knockdown cell models were established,and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species(mtROS),mitochondrial membrane potential(MMP),mitochondrial permeability transition pore(MPTP)open-ing,and Z-DNA binding protein 1(ZBP1)protein expression were detected.Bioinformatics was used to analyze the dif-ferential expression of multiple single-cell sequencing datasets to obtain the key differentially expressed genes,and to study their expression and role in AAA.Results Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence results showed that PCSK9 expression in human and mouse AAA increased(P<0.01),and co-localized with smooth muscle.Ang Ⅱ promoted PCSK9 expression in mVSMC in a concentration-dependent manner,the 2.0 μmol/L Ang Ⅱ group showed a 2.9-fold and 1.1-fold increase in the expression of PCSK9 mRNA and protein,respectively(P<0.01),with the most significant effect observed.After successfully constructing PCSK9 overexpression and PCSK9 interference mVSMC models,PCSK9 overex-pression led to an increase in intracellular mtROS,a decrease in MMP,an increase in MPTP opening,and a decrease in cellular activity(P<0.01);PCSK9 knockdown could reduce Ang Ⅱ induced increase in mtROS,decrease in MMP and MPTP opening;compared with the siNC+Ang Ⅱ group,the siPCSK9+Ang Ⅱ group showed a decrease in mtROS and an in-crease in the fluorescence brightness of MMP and MPTP(P<0.05).Bioinformatics analysis revealed that ZBP1 was a core differentially expressed gene in AAA.Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence results showed that ZBP1 ex-pression in human and mouse AAA tissues increased,and co-localized with smooth muscle.Western blot results showed that PCSK9 overexpression or treatment with 2.0 μmol/L Ang Ⅱ could increase ZBP1 protein expression(P<0.01),while PCSK9 knockdown could alleviate the increased ZBP1 expression caused by AngⅡ(P<0.05).Conclusion PCSK9 may induce mitochondrial damage in smooth muscle cells,activate downstream molecule ZBP1 to cause cell damage,and promote the development of AAA.
5.Construction and validation of a risk prediction model for hypoglycemia in adult intensive care unit patients
Mengdie CHEN ; Yan YUE ; Shuhan TU ; Qian LI ; Qian XING ; Gang YI
Chinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine in Intensive and Critical Care 2025;32(4):460-466
Objective To screen the risk factors for hypoglycemia in adult intensive care unit(ICU)patients,construct a risk prediction model,and validate its predictive effect.Methods A retrospective study was conducted on adult critically ill patients admitted to the general ICU of Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine from December 2023 to September 2024.Patients admitted from December 2023 to June 2024 served as the modeling group,and those from July to September 2024 as the validation group.A total of 928 patients were included,with 650 in the modeling group and 278 in the validation group.After literature review and expert consultation,27 potential risk factors for hypoglycemia in ICU patients were initially screened,and data were collected including general information[gender,age,acute physiology and chronic health evaluation Ⅱ(APACHEⅡ)score,sequential organ failure assessment(SOFA)score,nutrition risk in critically ill(NUTRIC)score,mechanical ventilation status,hemodialysis status,enteral nutrition status],disease data(sepsis,liver disease history,kidney disease history,diabetes history,hypoglycemia history),blood glucose-related indicators[mean blood glucose,blood glucose coefficient of variation,insulin dosage,intravenous insulin titration use,inotropic drug use,insulin secretagogues(Sulfonylureas and Glinides),and combined use of hypoglycemic drugs(two or more)],and laboratory indicators[serum creatinine(SCr),blood urea nitrogen(BUN),serum albumin(Alb),alanine aminotransferase(ALT),aspartate aminotransferase(AST),total bilirubin(TBil),glomerular filtration rate(GFR)].The patients were divided into a hypoglycemia group and a non-hypoglycemia group based on the occurrence of hypoglycemia.Univariate analysis and binary Logistic regression analysis were used to identify influencing factors of hypoglycemia in adult ICU patients,and a nomogram prediction model was constructed.The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve(AUC)and calibration curves were employed to evaluate the discrimination and calibration of the model.Results The modeling cohort included 552 non-hypoglycemic patients and 98 hypoglycemic patients,with an ICU hypoglycemia incidence rate of 15.1%.Compared with the hypoglycemia group,the non-hypoglycemia group showed significantly lower proportions of patients with renal disease history,diabetes history,hypoglycemia history,undergoing hemodialysis,using intravenous insulin titration,and combined use of hypoglycemic drugs,as well as lower blood glucose coefficient of variation,lower APACHEⅡ scores,and significantly elevated GFR(all P<0.05).Binary Logistic regression analysis was performed using the 9 variables with statistically significant differences in univariate analysis as independent variables and hypoglycemia occurrence as the dependent variable.The results indicated that a history of diabetes,a history of hypoglycemia,APACHEⅡ score,GFR,blood glucose coefficient of variation,and combined use of hypoglycemic drugs were independent risk factors for hypoglycemia in ICU patients[odds ratios(OR)were 1.761,2.095,1.048,0.990,1.029,and 1.975,respectively,and 95%confidence intervals(95%CI)were 1.052-2.949,1.220-3.600,1.022-1.074,0.982-0.997,1.013-1.046,and 1.145-3.408,respectively.The corresponding Pvalues were 0.031,0.007,0.000,0.009,<0.001,0.014].A nomogram prediction model for hypoglycemia in ICU patients was constructed using six independent predictors selected through binary logistic regression analysis.The ROC curve AUC for the modeling group was 0.884(95%CI 0.826-0.941,P=0.250),with a maximum Youden index of 0.713,sensitivity of 92.1%,and specificity of 79.2%.The validation cohort included 38 patients with hypoglycemia and 240 patients without hypoglycemia.Compared with the hypoglycemia group,the non-hypoglycemia group showed significantly lower proportions of patients with a history of diabetes,a history of hypoglycemia,and combined use of hypoglycemic drugs,as well as lower APACHEⅡ scores and lower blood glucose coefficient of variation,with significantly increased GFR(all P<0.05).The ROC curve AUC for the validation cohort was 0.803(95%CI was 0.757-0.849,P=0.138),indicating high discriminatory ability.The predicted probability at the diagnostic cutoff point was P=0.138.The model's diagnostic threshold for predicted probability was P=0.138,while the optimal cut-off value based on the Youden index was 0.513,yielding a sensitivity of 76.5%and specificity of 74.8%,indicating predictive value for hypoglycemia in adult ICU patients.The mean absolute error(MAE)results for the modeling group and validation group were<0.05.The calibration curves of both the modeling and validation groups showed close alignment with the ideal curve,indicating excellent calibration performance of the model.Conclusion The constructed hypoglycemia risk prediction model for adult ICU patients has good predictive performance,which can quickly identify high-risk populations of hypoglycemia in ICU and provide reference for clinical preventive nursing.
6.SITA:Predicting site-specific immunogenicity for therapeutic antibodies
Yewei CUN ; Hao DING ; Tiantian MAO ; Yuan WANG ; Caicui WANG ; Jiajun LI ; Zihao LI ; Mengdie HU ; Zhiwei CAO ; Tianyi QIU
Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis 2025;15(6):1378-1389
Antibody humanization is critical to reduce immunogenicity and enhance efficacy in the preclinical phase of the development of therapeutic antibodies originated from animal models.Computational suggestions have long been desired,but available tools focused on immunogenicity calculation of whole antibody sequences and sequence segments,missing the individual residue sites.This study introduces Site-specific Immunogenicity for Therapeutic Antibody(SITA),a novel computational framework that predicts B-cell immunogenicity score for not only the overall antibody,but also individual residues,based on a comprehensive set of amino acid descriptors characterizing physicochemical and spatial features for antibody structures.A transfer-learning-inspired framework was purposely adopted to overcome the scarcity of Antibody-Antibody structural complexes.On an independent testing dataset derived from 13 Antibody-Antibody structural complexes,SITA successfully predicted the epitope sites for Antibody-Antibody structures with a receiver operating characteristic(ROC)-area unver the ROC curve(AUC)of 0.85 and a precision-recall(PR)-AUC of 0.305 at the residue level.Furthermore,the SITA score can significantly distinguish immunogenicity levels of whole human antibodies,therapeutic antibodies and non-human-derived antibodies.More importantly,analysis of an additional 25 thera-peutic antibodies revealed that over 70%of them were detected with decreased immunogenicity after modification compared to their parent variants.Among these,nearly 66%antibodies successfully iden-tified actual modification sites from the top five sites with the highest SITA scores,suggesting the ability of SITA scores for guide the humanization of antibody.Overall,these findings highlight the potential of SITA in optimizing immunogenicity assessments during the process of therapeutic antibody design.
7.Research status and frontier trends of acupuncture and moxibustion for gastroesophageal reflux disease: a CiteSpace visual analysis.
Jing HE ; Rensong YE ; Mengdie WU ; Zhihai HU ; Guizhi MA ; Huangan WU ; Yeqing DONG ; Aijia ZHANG ; Jing LI
Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion 2025;45(7):1027-1036
OBJECTIVE:
To explore the research history, hotspots and development trends of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease(GERD)based on knowledge graph technology, and to provide references for clinical and basic research in this field.
METHODS:
The literature of acupuncture and moxibustion for gastroesophageal reflux disease was searched from the CNKI, Wanfang, VIP and SinoMed, from the establishment of the databases to December 31th, 2023. CiteSpace 6.2.R6 Advance was used to draw the knowledge graph of authors, institutions, keywords and other elements, and then perform the visual analysis.
RESULTS:
A total of 341 articles were included, with the number of publications showing an upward trend and the research types continually diversifying. A total of 832 authors and 308 institutions were analyzed, with XIE Sheng from the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi University of CM and BAI Xinghua from the Beijing University of CM as representative figures, forming core research teams. However, there was a lack of close collaboration between institutions, and no significant cross-regional research networks had been formed. A total of 192 keywords were included, forming 8 cluster labels, which mainly included 4 categories:treatment methods, disease types, TCM syndrome types, and literature types. The burst analysis showed that the methods of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease had gradually become more integrated, the treatment methods had transitioned from simple acupuncture therapy to combined therapies with proton pump inhibitors or TCM decoctions, the disease types had become more refined, the focus of mechanism research had shifted from lower esophageal sphincter pressure and esophageal motility to changes in gastrointestinal hormone levels, and the research hotspots had gradually shifted from improving clinical symptoms to considering both mental and psychological states. Twenty-three high-frequency acupoints were obtained, forming 8 clusters of "acupuncture techniques-acupoints" for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease with acupuncture and moxibustion, indicating a gradual enrichment of acupuncture and acupoint treatment protocols.
CONCLUSION
The research on acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease has gradually deepened, in the future, the cooperation among research teams should be strengthened, the quality of clinical research should be improved, more multi-dimensional mechanism research and horizontal comparative research of different acupuncture and moxibustion methods should be made, to provide a basis for clinical promotion and deeper exploration.
Humans
;
Moxibustion/trends*
;
Gastroesophageal Reflux/therapy*
;
Acupuncture Therapy/trends*
8.Research progress on stigma associated with depressive disorder
Mengdie PEI ; Chunli LI ; Yan ZENG
Chinese Journal of Modern Nursing 2025;31(1):111-115
Depressive disorder is widely stigmatized worldwide. Stigma associated with depressive disorder has become an essential obstacle in the rehabilitation of patients. This paper summarizes the generation, measurement tools, influencing factors, and intervention measures of depressive disorder-related stigma, aiming to provide a reference for conducting research on depressive disorder-related stigma and formulating intervention measures for depressive disorder-related stigma.
9.Research progress on stigma associated with depressive disorder
Mengdie PEI ; Chunli LI ; Yan ZENG
Chinese Journal of Modern Nursing 2025;31(1):111-115
Depressive disorder is widely stigmatized worldwide. Stigma associated with depressive disorder has become an essential obstacle in the rehabilitation of patients. This paper summarizes the generation, measurement tools, influencing factors, and intervention measures of depressive disorder-related stigma, aiming to provide a reference for conducting research on depressive disorder-related stigma and formulating intervention measures for depressive disorder-related stigma.
10.PCSK9 promotes mitochondrial dysfunction to accelerate the process of abdominal aortic aneurysm
Man LI ; Yanyu CHEN ; Mengdie XIA ; Qian XU ; Yating ZHOU ; Huayu ZHANG ; Lushan LIU ; Zhihan TANG ; Juan PENG
Chinese Journal of Arteriosclerosis 2025;33(3):209-218
Aim To explore the impact and mechanism of proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin 9(PCSK9)on the progression of abdominal aortic aneurysm(AAA).Methods 6~8 week old ApoE-/-mice were selected to estab-lish the AAA model.Angiotensin Ⅱ(Ang Ⅱ)was continuously infused through subcutaneous implantation of a micro-os-motic pump.The mice were fed with high-fat diet and killed after 28 days.The expression of PCSK9 in abdominal aor-tic smooth muscle cells was detected by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence in normal abdominal aortic blood vessels and AAA samples in human and mice.Primary cultured murine vascular smooth muscle cells(mVSMC)of C57BL/6 mice were treated with different concentrations of AngⅡ for 24 h,and the expression of PCSK9 mRNA and pro-tein was detected.PCSK9 overexpression and knockdown cell models were established,and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species(mtROS),mitochondrial membrane potential(MMP),mitochondrial permeability transition pore(MPTP)open-ing,and Z-DNA binding protein 1(ZBP1)protein expression were detected.Bioinformatics was used to analyze the dif-ferential expression of multiple single-cell sequencing datasets to obtain the key differentially expressed genes,and to study their expression and role in AAA.Results Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence results showed that PCSK9 expression in human and mouse AAA increased(P<0.01),and co-localized with smooth muscle.Ang Ⅱ promoted PCSK9 expression in mVSMC in a concentration-dependent manner,the 2.0 μmol/L Ang Ⅱ group showed a 2.9-fold and 1.1-fold increase in the expression of PCSK9 mRNA and protein,respectively(P<0.01),with the most significant effect observed.After successfully constructing PCSK9 overexpression and PCSK9 interference mVSMC models,PCSK9 overex-pression led to an increase in intracellular mtROS,a decrease in MMP,an increase in MPTP opening,and a decrease in cellular activity(P<0.01);PCSK9 knockdown could reduce Ang Ⅱ induced increase in mtROS,decrease in MMP and MPTP opening;compared with the siNC+Ang Ⅱ group,the siPCSK9+Ang Ⅱ group showed a decrease in mtROS and an in-crease in the fluorescence brightness of MMP and MPTP(P<0.05).Bioinformatics analysis revealed that ZBP1 was a core differentially expressed gene in AAA.Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence results showed that ZBP1 ex-pression in human and mouse AAA tissues increased,and co-localized with smooth muscle.Western blot results showed that PCSK9 overexpression or treatment with 2.0 μmol/L Ang Ⅱ could increase ZBP1 protein expression(P<0.01),while PCSK9 knockdown could alleviate the increased ZBP1 expression caused by AngⅡ(P<0.05).Conclusion PCSK9 may induce mitochondrial damage in smooth muscle cells,activate downstream molecule ZBP1 to cause cell damage,and promote the development of AAA.

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