Acute liver failure (ALF) is a life-threatening condition associated with macrophage-mediated inflammatory responses. Effective therapies and drugs are still lacking to date. Here, we reveal that a derivative of xanthohumol, CAM12203, alleviates lipopolysaccharide (LPS) + d-galactosamine (D-GalN)-induced ALF through limiting macrophage-mediated inflammation, with the most significant impact on interleukin-1β (IL-1β) transcription. Through biotin labeling-mediated pull-down and LC-MS/MS analysis, diacylglycerol kinase ζ (DGKζ), a lipid-metabolizing kinase, is identified as the direct target of CAM12203. Mechanistically, DGKζ is induced in macrophages upon inflammatory stimuli and is upregulated observed on clinical liver failure samples. Its product phosphatidic acid (PA) boosts phospholipase C (PLC)-inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP₃)-Ca²⁺ signaling and subsequent janus kinase 2 (JAK2)-signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) cascade, ultimately promoting IL-1β production and liver failure. DGKζ knockdown/ablation or inhibition significantly impairs the DGKζ-STAT3-IL-1β pathway along with ALF progression. Finally, CAM12203 is confirmed to be a new DGKζ inhibitor and acts against inflammation in a DGKζ-reliant manner. Taken together, CAM12203 inhibits IL-1β transcription in macrophages by binding to DGKζ and blocking the DGKζ-STAT3 axis, thereby exerting an ameliorative effect on ALF. These results not only highlight CAM12203 as a promising lead compound for ALF treatment, but also define DGKζ as a novel therapeutic target.

This review summarizes dietary characteristics of patients with psoriasis, discusses effects of gluten-free diet, Mediterranean diet and dietary intervention-induced weight loss on psoriasis, and analyzes the efficacy of dietary supplements in the treatment of psoriasis, such as fish oil, vitamin D, vitamin B12, selenium, and probiotics.

With the development of mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics technologies, patient-derived xenograft (PDX), which is generated from the primary tumor of a patient, is widely used for the proteome-wide analysis of cancer mechanism and biomarker identification of a drug. However, the proteomics data interpretation is still challenging due to complex data deconvolution from the PDX sample that is a cross-species mixture of human cancerous tissues and immunodeficient mouse tissues. In this study, by using the lab-assembled mixture of human and mouse cells with different mixing ratios as a benchmark, we developed and evaluated a new method, SPA (shared peptide allocation), for protein quantitation by considering the unique and shared peptides of both species. The results showed that SPA could provide more convenient and accurate protein quantitation in human–mouse mixed samples. Further validation on a pair of gastric PDX samples (one bearing FGFR2 amplification while the other one not) showed that our new method not only sig-nificantly improved the overall protein identification, but also detected the differential phosphorylation of FGFR2 and its downstream mediators (such as RAS and ERK) exclusively. The tool pdxSPA is freely available at https://github.com/Li-Lab-Proteomics/pdxSPA.

Objective:To observe the inhibitory effect of metformin on the inflammatory response of Kupffer cells (KCs) of liver in the diabetic mice, and to explore its improvement on the phagocytic function of KCs, and to elucidate the protective mechanism of metformin on the KCs in the diabetic mice.Methods:The C57BLKS/J db/db mice were divided into diabetes group and diabetes+metformin group, and the C57BLKS/J db/m mice were divided into non-diabetes group and non-diabetes+metformin group, 8mice in each group.The KCs were cultured in vitro and the changes of ultrastrustures of KCs were observed by transmission electron microscope.The levels of interleukin 6 (IL-6) , tumor necrosis factorα (TNF-α) andγ-interferon (INF-γ) in the KCs were detected by ELISA.The expression levels of intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) protein in the KCs was detected by Western blotting method.Transwell chamber assay was used to detect the neutrophil chemotaxis ability of the KCs, and the phagocytic ability of KCs was observed under inverted microscope.Results:The number of mitochondria and rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) in the KCs of the diabetic mice was reduced, the RER expanded, the mitochondria swelled, and the lipid droplets were increased.Compared with non-diabetes group, the levels of IL-6, TNF-α, INF-γand the expression level of ICAM-1in the KCs of the mice in diabetes group were significantly increased (P＜0.05) ;the neutrophil chemotaxis ability of the KCs was enhanced (P＜0.05) , and the phagocytic ability was decreased (P＜0.05) .Compared with diabetes group, the levels of IL-6, TNF-α, INF-γand the expression level of ICAM-1in the KCs in diabetes+metformin group were significantly decreased (P＜0.05) ;the neutrophil chemotaxis ability was decreased (P＜0.05) , and the phagocytic ability was enhanced (P＜0.05) .Conclusion:Metformin can inhibit the inflammatory response of KCs in the diabetic mice and improve its phagocytic function and protect the KCs.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to introduce the mechanism and clinical application of muscular atrophy that is a hotspot in the 65th Annual Meeting of American College of Sports Medicine and the 9th World Conference on Exercise Is Medicine and the World Conference of Basic Science of Muscle Hypertrophy and Atrophy. OBJECTIVE: To summarize and analyze the frontiers and hotspots of research findings on muscular atrophy, in order to provide new ideas for further research of exercise improving muscle function and the mechanism and application in this field, and provide a reference for the study on sports science, sports medicine, and sports rehabilitation in China. METHODS: Related reports and cutting-edge research findings in 65th Annual Meeting of American College of Sports Medicine were collected. Meanwhile, PubMed database between January 1993 and August 2018 was retrieved. The keywords were "skeletal muscle, muscle atrophy, movement and muscle, resistance movement". Thirty-five articles related to the molecular mechanism and clinical application of muscle atrophy were included for analysis and discussion. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The World Congress is a unique opportunity to bring together interdisciplinary investigators for the most comprehensive meeting ever held on this topic. The program will include a keynote lecture, tutorials, and symposia from leading experts. The meeting focused on the intrinsic and extrinsic variables that regulate skeletal muscle hypertrophy and atrophy. How exercise brings about skeletal muscle atrophy and its application in clinical problems such as aging, disease, injury, chronic diseases, and how these changes may relate to chronic disease were discussed as well. The research on muscle hypertrophy is mostly concentrated in the field of competitive sports.

Critical ultrasonography(CUS) is different from the traditional diagnostic ultrasound,the examiner and interpreter of the image are critical care medicine physicians.The core content of CUS is to evaluate the pathophysiological changes of organs and systems and etiology changes.With the idea of critical care medicine as the soul,it can integrate the above information and clinical information,bedside real-time diagnosis and titration treatment,and evaluate the therapeutic effect so as to improve the outcome.CUS is a traditional technique which is applied as a new application method.The consensus of experts on critical ultrasonography in China released in 2016 put forward consensus suggestions on the concept,implementation and application of CUS.It should be further emphasized that the accurate and objective assessment and implementation of CUS requires the standardization of ultrasound image acquisition and the need to establish a CUS procedure.At the same time,the standardized training for CUS accepted by critical care medicine physicians requires the application of technical specifications,and the establishment of technical specifications is the basis for the quality control and continuous improvement of CUS.Chinese Critical Ultrasound Study Group and Critical Hemodynamic Therapy Collabration Group,based on the rich experience of clinical practice in critical care and research,combined with the essence of CUS,to learn the traditional ultrasonic essence,established the clinical application technical specifications of CUS,including in five parts:basic view and relevant indicators to obtain in CUS;basic norms for viscera organ assessment and special assessment;standardized processes and systematic inspection programs;examples of CUS applications;CUS training and the application of qualification certification.The establishment of applied technology standard is helpful for standardized training and clinical correct implementation.It is helpful for clinical evaluation and correct guidance treatment,and is also helpful for quality control and continuous improvement of CUS application.

To analyze the correlation between transcutaneous oxygen pressure (PtcO2) and blood lactate in patients with septic shock. Fifty-sixpatients with septic shock were prospectively investigated. PtcO2 was monitored continuously for 6 hours, and arterial blood gas was measured at baseline (T0) and 6 hours (T6). Records of PtcO2, were analyzed for the correlation with lactate level and lactate clearance rate. PtcO2 valuesin the high lactate clearance group and the low one were compared.The lowest value of PtcO2 at T6 and duration of PtcO2<40 mmHg (1 mmHg=0.133 kPa) were both correlated with lactate level and lactate clearance rateat T6. The low predictive value of PtcO2 was 29 mmHg of lactate clearance under 20％with a sensitivity 85.2％and a specificity 65.5％. The low predictive value of PtcO2 in high lactate clearance group was significantly higher than that in low lactate clearance group, while the duration of PtcO2<40 mmHg was shorter than the latter. During 6 h continuous monitoring, patients with a significant low PtcO2 or prolonged duration of low PtcO2 have relatively high lactate or low lactate clearance after resuscitation.

Objective To investigate the characteristics of pulmonary function and pathological changes in rats with acute lung injury (ALI) and provide experimental basis for further study on the mechanism of ALI.Methods Twenty five male SD rats were randomly divided into the control group (n =5) and acute lung injury (ALI) group (n =20).Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (4.5 mg/kg) were injected into the ALI group rats to establish the ALI rat model.The rats in control group were given 150 μl isotonic saline.At 12,24,48,and 72 hours after injury,lung function of the rats were tested by Buxco small animal lung function test system,including the dynamic lung compliance (Cdyn),forced vital capacity (FVC),functional residual gas (FRC),quasi static compliance (Cchord),100th millisecond expiratory volume (FEV100),and airway resistance (RI).In addition,the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was collected for detection of protein level and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha)concentration.At the same time,the changes of lung tissues were recorded,and the pathological changes were observed by HE staining.Results Compared with the control group,Cdyn,FVC,FRC,and FEV100 in ALI group were significantly decreased at each time point after injury (P ＜0.05 or ＜0.01),while the airway resistance (R1) in ALI group was significantly increased at 24 and 48 hours after injury (P ＜ 0.01).There was no significant difference in quasi static compliance (Cchord) between two groups (P ＞ 0.05).The protein level and TNF-alpha concentration of BALF in ALI group were increased significantly (P ＜0.05 or ＜0.01) 12-72 hours after injury (P ＜ 0.01).Compared with the control group,the whole lung was dark red in ALI group 12 hours after injury,and the most serious bleeding occurred in the pulmonary hilum area with single or multiple hemorrhagic foci of different sizes.Multiple punctate and focal bleeding of different sizes were seen on the lung surface,which were radially distributed around the pulmonary hilum.The color of lung tissue was gradually restored to normal at 72 hours after injury.Under the light microscope,pulmonary interstitial edema,inflammatory cell infiltration,pulmonary vascular congestion and focal pulmonary hemorrhage were observed 12 h after injury,showing typical ALl pathological changes.The pathological changes were the most significant at 24 hours and reduced obviously at 72 hours.Conclusions A single intratracheal injection of LPS can induce typical ALI pathological changes.There is a similar trend between the pulmonary function indexes,lung pathology characteristics,and the protein level of BALF and proinflammatory cytokine level,suggesting that the pulmonary function test parameters can provide reference for evaluation of ALI.

Objective:To study the influence of metformin and paclitaxel in the proliferation and apoptosis of human ovarian cancer SKOV3 cells in vitro, and to clarify the synergistic effect of metformin and paclitaxel. Methods:The ovarian cancer SKOV3 cells were divided into blank control group, different concentrations (0.01, 0.50, 1.00, 5.00, 10.00mmol·L-1) of metformin groups and combined treatment groups(metformin combined with paclitaxel with different concentrations).The inhibitory rates of proliferation of SKOV3 cells after treated with different concentrations of metformin were detected by MTT method.The apoptotic rates of SKOV3 cells after treated with different concentrations of metformin were measured by flow cytometry.The inhibitory rates of proliferation of SKOV3 cells after treated with metformin and paclitaxel were determined by MTT method.Results:The MTT results showed that the inhibitory rates of proliferation of SKOV3 cells in different concentrations of metformin groups were increased in concentration-and timedependent manner;there were significant differences compared with blank control group (P<0.05).The flow cytometry results showed that the apoptotic rates of SKOV3 cells in different concentrations of metformin groups were increased;compared with control group, with the increasing of concentrations of metformin, the apoptotic rates of SKOV3 cells in experimental groups 48 h after treatment were increased significantly (P<0.05);the percentages of SKOV3 cells in G0/G1 phase were decreased with the increasing of metformin concentrations(P<0.05) and the percentages of SKOV3 cells in G2/M phase were increased(P<0.05).The MTT results showed that the inhibitory rate of proliferation of SKOV3 cells in 1.00 mmol·L-1 metformin+paclitaxel group was higher than that in 0.50 mmol·L-1 metformin+paclitaxel group was higher than that in 0.50 mmol·L-1 metformin+paclitaxel group(P<0.05),and the inhibitory rates of proliferation of SKOV3 cells in combined treatment groups were higher than those in paclitaxel alone groups(P<0.05).Conclusion:Metformin inhibits the proliferation of ovarian cancer SKOV3 cells through the induction of apoptosis.Metformin can enhance the cell proliferation inhibition of paclitaxel on ovarian cancer SKOV3 cells.The combination of metformin and paclitaxel has a synergistic reaction on SKOV3 cells.