1.Disordered lipid metabolism and lipotoxicity mechanisms in acute kidney injury
Han WU ; Ying LI ; Mengru GU ; Chunsun DAI
Chinese Journal of Nephrology 2025;41(4):290-296
Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common clinical acute and critical condition. There is a lack of clinical interventions or therapeutic drugs that can significantly improve AKI outcomes. Lipids, including fatty acids, triglycerides, sphingolipids, phospholipids and cholesterol play crucial roles in energy metabolism, cell membrane composition, cell signaling, and cell homeostasis and survival. Recent lipidomics studies have revealed significant alterations in the content and composition of renal lipids during AKI, highlighting their important roles in the onset, progression, and outcomes of the disease. A common feature of AKI across multiple etiologies is altered lipid metabolism, characterized by insufficient energy generation due to mitochondrial damage and deposition of excess lipids in the kidney. The article summarizes the characteristics of renal lipid metabolism in physiological state, alterations of renal lipid metabolism in AKI and molecular mechanisms related to lipid metabolism disorders that aggravate AKI through mitochondrial damage, oxidative stress, autophagy dysfunction, activation of inflammatory and immune responses and regulated cell death, to provide new ideas and therapeutic targets for the clinical treatment of AKI.
2.Disordered lipid metabolism and lipotoxicity mechanisms in acute kidney injury
Han WU ; Ying LI ; Mengru GU ; Chunsun DAI
Chinese Journal of Nephrology 2025;41(4):290-296
Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common clinical acute and critical condition. There is a lack of clinical interventions or therapeutic drugs that can significantly improve AKI outcomes. Lipids, including fatty acids, triglycerides, sphingolipids, phospholipids and cholesterol play crucial roles in energy metabolism, cell membrane composition, cell signaling, and cell homeostasis and survival. Recent lipidomics studies have revealed significant alterations in the content and composition of renal lipids during AKI, highlighting their important roles in the onset, progression, and outcomes of the disease. A common feature of AKI across multiple etiologies is altered lipid metabolism, characterized by insufficient energy generation due to mitochondrial damage and deposition of excess lipids in the kidney. The article summarizes the characteristics of renal lipid metabolism in physiological state, alterations of renal lipid metabolism in AKI and molecular mechanisms related to lipid metabolism disorders that aggravate AKI through mitochondrial damage, oxidative stress, autophagy dysfunction, activation of inflammatory and immune responses and regulated cell death, to provide new ideas and therapeutic targets for the clinical treatment of AKI.
3.Periconceptional maternal homocysteine and birth weight outcomes in offspring: a prospective cohort study
Yi ZHANG ; Xiaotian CHEN ; Qinyu YAO ; Hongyan CHEN ; Mengru LI ; Dingmei WANG ; Yalan DOU ; Yuanzhou PENG ; Xiaoyan GU ; Weili YAN ; Guoying HUANG
Chinese Journal of Pediatrics 2024;62(2):120-128
Objective:To quantify the associations between periconceptional maternal homocysteine (HCY) and offspring′s birth weight and risk of small for gestational age (SGA) infant.Methods:The 19 984 mother-child pairs in this prospective cohort study were recruited from the Shanghai preconception cohort; the infants were delivered from 1 st September 2016 to 11 th November 2022. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect the mothers′ demographic information, medical history, dietary supplement use, and maternal complications during pregnancy, and their serum samples were collected. Serum HCY, folate, and vitamin B 12 were measured using chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay based on serum sample drawn at enrollment. Birth weight data were obtained from medical records. Multiple imputation methods were applied to handle missing data in key variables. Multivariable linear regression and Poisson regression models were used to analyze the relationship between maternal HCY concentration during the periconceptional period and the birth weight and SGA risk of the offspring. Results:A total of 9 452 pairs were enrolled preconceptionally and the remaining 10 532 pairs were enrolled in early pregnancy. The proportion of mothers whose pregnancy age was greater than 35 years was 9.2% (1 832/19 984), the proportion of primiparous women was 76.5% (15 283/19 984), the proportion of pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity was 14.0% (2 804/19 984), the proportion of using folic acid supplements before pregnancy was 21.4% (4 272/19 984), and the proportion of those who supplemented with folic acid during early pregnancy was 85.2% (8 976/10 532); gestational diabetes mellitus was in 6.2% (1 245/19 984), gestational hypertensive syndrome in 3.6% (711/19 984). The birth weight of the offspring was (3 297±468) g, and there were 1 962 SGA children (9.8%). The HCY concentration in the overall population in appropriate for gestational age during the periconceptional period was (7.9±3.2) μmol/L, with (8.3±3.7) μmol/L in the preconception subgroup and (7.3±2.4) μmol/L in the early pregnancy subgroup. After adjustment for the covariates of perinatal demographic information, adverse pregnancy outcomes, serum folate and vitamin B 12, increased maternal periconceptional HCY was significantly associated with lower offspring birth weight ( β=-2.30, 95% CI -4.43--0.16, P=0.035). Only the early pregnancy subgroup was significantly associated with lower offspring birth weight ( β=-7.39, 95% CI-11.50--3.21, P<0.001). No association was found between peripregnancy HCY and offspring SGA risk. However, elevated HCY in early pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of SGA in the offspring ( RR=1.05, 95% CI 1.01-1.08, P=0.002). Periconceptional vitamin B 12 was a mediator of the association between HCY and offspring birth weight, accounting for 16.5%, 41.2% and 5.4% of its total effect in the overall periconceptional population, the pre-pregnancy subgroup and the early pregnancy subgroup, respectively. Conclusions:Maternal periconceptional HCY level is associated with lower birth weight in offspring, but not with the risk of SGA. Elevated maternal HCY in early pregnancy subgroup may be associated with increased risk of SGA in offspring.
4.Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the Molecular Expression Pattern and Intercellular Interactions in the Glial Scar Response to Spinal Cord Injury.
Leilei GONG ; Yun GU ; Xiaoxiao HAN ; Chengcheng LUAN ; Chang LIU ; Xinghui WANG ; Yufeng SUN ; Mengru ZHENG ; Mengya FANG ; Shuhai YANG ; Lai XU ; Hualin SUN ; Bin YU ; Xiaosong GU ; Songlin ZHOU
Neuroscience Bulletin 2023;39(2):213-244
Nerve regeneration in adult mammalian spinal cord is poor because of the lack of intrinsic regeneration of neurons and extrinsic factors - the glial scar is triggered by injury and inhibits or promotes regeneration. Recent technological advances in spatial transcriptomics (ST) provide a unique opportunity to decipher most genes systematically throughout scar formation, which remains poorly understood. Here, we first constructed the tissue-wide gene expression patterns of mouse spinal cords over the course of scar formation using ST after spinal cord injury from 32 samples. Locally, we profiled gene expression gradients from the leading edge to the core of the scar areas to further understand the scar microenvironment, such as neurotransmitter disorders, activation of the pro-inflammatory response, neurotoxic saturated lipids, angiogenesis, obstructed axon extension, and extracellular structure re-organization. In addition, we described 21 cell transcriptional states during scar formation and delineated the origins, functional diversity, and possible trajectories of subpopulations of fibroblasts, glia, and immune cells. Specifically, we found some regulators in special cell types, such as Thbs1 and Col1a2 in macrophages, CD36 and Postn in fibroblasts, Plxnb2 and Nxpe3 in microglia, Clu in astrocytes, and CD74 in oligodendrocytes. Furthermore, salvianolic acid B, a blood-brain barrier permeation and CD36 inhibitor, was administered after surgery and found to remedy fibrosis. Subsequently, we described the extent of the scar boundary and profiled the bidirectional ligand-receptor interactions at the neighboring cluster boundary, contributing to maintain scar architecture during gliosis and fibrosis, and found that GPR37L1_PSAP, and GPR37_PSAP were the most significant gene-pairs among microglia, fibroblasts, and astrocytes. Last, we quantified the fraction of scar-resident cells and proposed four possible phases of scar formation: macrophage infiltration, proliferation and differentiation of scar-resident cells, scar emergence, and scar stationary. Together, these profiles delineated the spatial heterogeneity of the scar, confirmed the previous concepts about scar architecture, provided some new clues for scar formation, and served as a valuable resource for the treatment of central nervous system injury.
Mice
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Animals
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Gliosis/pathology*
;
Cicatrix/pathology*
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Spinal Cord Injuries
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Astrocytes/metabolism*
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Spinal Cord/pathology*
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Fibrosis
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Mammals
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Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled
5.Comparing the clinical characteristics and prognosis of seropositive and seronegative rheumatoid arthritis patients in China: a real-world study
Yehua JIN ; Ting JIANG ; Xiaolei FAN ; Rongsheng WANG ; Yuanyuan ZHANG ; Peng CHENG ; Yingying QIN ; Mengjie HONG ; Mengru GUO ; Qingqing CHENG ; Zhaoyi LIU ; Runrun ZHANG ; Cen CHANG ; Lingxia XU ; Linshuai XU ; Ying GU ; Chunrong HU ; Xiao SU ; Luan XUE ; Yongfei FANG ; Li SU ; Mingli GAO ; Jiangyun PENG ; Qianghua WEI ; Jie SHEN ; Qi ZHU ; Hongxia LIU ; Dongyi HE
Chinese Journal of Rheumatology 2021;25(5):307-315
Objective:In general, patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are considered to show an aggressive disease course. However, the relationship between the two subgroups in disease severity is controversial. Our study is aimed to compare the clinical characteristics and prognosis of double-seropositive and seronegative RA in China through a real-world large scale study.Methods:RA patients who met the 1987 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) classification criteria or the 2010 ACR/European Anti-Rheumatism Alliance RA classification criteria, and who attended the 10 hospitals across the country from September 2015 to January 2020, were enrolled. According to the serological status, patients were divided into 4 subgroups [rheumatoid factor (RF)(-) anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) antibody (-), RF(+), RF(+) anti-CCP antibody(+), anti-CCP antibody(+)] and compared the disease characteristics and treatment response. One-way analysis of variance was used for measurement data that conformed to normal distribution, Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for measurement data that did not conform to normal distribution; paired t test was used for comparison before and after treatment within the group if the data was normally distributed else paired rank sum test was used; χ2 test was used for count data. Results:① A total of 2 461 patients were included, including 1 813 RF(+) anti-CCP antibody(+) patients (73.67%), 129 RF(+) patients (5.24%), 245 RF(-) anti-CCP antibody(-) patients (9.96%), 74 anti-CCP antibody(+) patients (11.13%). ② Regardless of the CCP status, RF(+) patients had an early age of onset [RF(-) anti-CCP antibody(-) (51±14) years old, anti-CCP antibody(+) (50±15) years old, RF(+) anti-CCP antibody(+) (48±14) years old, RF(+)(48±13) years old, F=3.003, P=0.029], longer disease duration [RF(-) anti-CCP antibody(-) 50 (20, 126) months, anti-CCP antibody(+) 60(24, 150) months, RF(+) anti-CCP antibody(+) 89(35, 179) months, RF(+) 83(25, 160) months, H=22.001, P<0.01], more joint swelling counts (SJC) [RF(-) anti-CCP antibody(-) 2(0, 6), Anti-CCP antibody(+) 2(0, 5), RF(+) anti-CCP antibody(+) 2(0, 7), RF(+) 2(0, 6), H=8.939, P=0.03] and tender joint counts (TJC) [RF(-) anti-CCP antibody(-) 3(0, 8), anti-CCP antibody(+) 2(0, 6), RF(+) anti-CCP antibody(+) 3(1, 9), RF(+) 2(0, 8), H=11.341, P=0.01] and the morning stiff time was longer [RF(-) anti-CCP antibody(-) 30(0, 60) min, anti-CCP antibody(+) 20(0, 60) min, RF(+) anti-CCP antibody(+) 30(10, 60) min, RF(+) 30(10, 60) min, H=13.32, P<0.01]; ESR [RF(-) anti-CCP antibody(-) 17(9, 38) mm/1 h, anti-CCP antibody(+) 20(10, 35) mm/1 h, RF(+) anti-CCP antibody(+) 26(14, 45) mm/1 h, RF(+) 28(14, 50) mm/1 h, H=37.084, P<0.01] and CRP [RF(-) anti-CCP antibody(-) 2.3 (0.8, 15.9) mm/L, Anti-CCP antibody(+) 2.7(0.7, 12.1) mm/L, RF(+) anti-CCP antibody(+) 5.2(1.3, 17.2) mm/L, RF (+) 5.2(0.9, 16.2) mm/L, H=22.141, P<0.01] of the RF(+)patients were significantly higher than RF(-) patients, and RF(+) patients had higher disease severity(DAS28-ESR) [RF(-) anti-CCP antibody(-) (4.0±1.8), anti-CCP antibody(+) (3.8±1.6), RF(+) anti-CCP antibody(+) (4.3±1.8), RF(+) (4.1±1.7), F=7.269, P<0.01]. ③ The RF(+) anti-CCP antibody(+) patients were divided into 4 subgroups, and it was found that RF-H anti-CCP antibody-L patients had higher disease severity [RF-H anti-CCP antibody-H 4.3(2.9, 5.6), RF-L anti-CCP antibody-L 4.5(3.0, 5.7), RF-H anti-CCP antibody-L 4.9(3.1, 6.2), RF-L anti-CCP antibody-H 2.8(1.8, 3.9), H=20.374, P<0.01]. ④ After 3-month follow up, the clinical characteristics of the four groups were improved, but there was no significant difference in the improvement of the four groups, indicating that the RF and anti-CCP antibody status did not affect the remission within 3 months. Conclusion:Among RA patients, the disease activity of RA patients is closely related to RF and the RF(+) patients have more severe disease than RF(-) patients. Patients with higher RF titer also have more severe disease than that of patients with low RF titer. After 3 months of medication treatment, the antibody status does not affect the disease remission rate.
6.Research of microRNAs and tumor platinum-resistance
Xiaoli WEI ; Kangsheng GU ; Mengru GAO
Chinese Pharmacological Bulletin 2017;33(5):593-597
Chemotherapy is one of the primary treatment for malignant tumors.Platinum drugs as the most commonly used cycle non-specific clinical antitumor drugs show good curative effect in the clinical treatment of solid tumors,however,resistance or cross-resistance of theplatinum analogous has become one of the main obstacles for platinum and its analogous,which limits their clinical applications.miRNAs play an important role in biology,including cell proliferation,differentiation,apoptosis,stress tolerance,and physiological metabolism.There is a close relationship between miRNAs target gene regulation and tumor drug-resistance.This article is mainly about the role of miRNAs in tumor of platinum resistance.

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