Tracheobronchial adenoid cystic carcinoma （TACC） is a low-grade malignant tumor originating from the airway mucosa. Despite its slow progression，it is characterized by high invasiveness，frequent recurrence，and a strong tendency for metastasis. Preclinical studies have shown that vascular-targeted therapy holds significant potential. However，an effective systemic treatment for TACC has not been established yet. This study explored TACC from the perspective of "Feiji" in traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） as the starting point. It deeply investigated the mechanisms of abnormal collaterals and tumor vascular recruitment and further elaborated on the theoretical connection between abnormal collaterals and tumor vascular recruitment. Firstly，collateral hyperactivity led to disordered and erratic pulmonary collaterals. Their abnormal structures were similar to the disorderly and tortuous nature of tumor （pseudo）angiogenesis. This resulted in imbalances in the functions of circulation，perfusion，and reverse injection of the pulmonary collaterals，and then led to unrestrained collateral dysfunction and the accumulation of pathogenic factors. Secondly，the remodeling of the extracellular matrix （ECM） and epithelial-mesenchymal transition （EMT） in TACC were critical processes in vascular co-option （VCO），representing the micro-level manifestation of the displacement of nutrient and defense. During this process，ECM remodeling made TACC cells more likely to hijack normal blood vessels，creating a complex vascular microenvironment conducive to tumor growth. In terms of treatment，this study proposed a TCM strategy of "regulating collaterals to expel pathogenic factors and nourishing collaterals to strengthen the healthy Qi"，and listed potential TCM. These were intended to regulate the Qi and blood in the collaterals，repair the functions of abnormal collaterals，and intervene in the vascular recruitment process of TACC. Future research should focus on improving the TCM clinical syndrome characteristics of TACC. Through modern molecular biology techniques，it is necessary to deeply analyze the micro-level pattern of vascular recruitment in TACC. This would enrich the understanding of the profound connection between abnormal collaterals and tumor vascular recruitment，providing empirical evidence for TCM-targeted therapies for vascular recruitment in TACC.

ObjectiveAs a second messenger in intracellular signal transduction, Ca²⁺ plays an important role in cell migration. Previous studies have demonstrated that extracellular Ca²⁺ influx can promote electric field-guided cell migration, known as electrotaxis. However, the effect of intracellular Ca²⁺ flow on electrotaxis is unclear. Therefore, in this study, we investigate the effect of Ca²⁺ flux on the electrotaxis of Dictyostelium discoideum. MethodsThe electrotaxis of Dictyostelium discoideum was investigated by applying a direct current (DC) electric field. Cell migration was recorded using a real-time imaging system. Calcium channel inhibitors, the extracellular Ca²⁺ chelator EGTA, Ca²⁺-free DB buffer, and caffeine were applied to investigate the impact of intra- and extracellular Ca²⁺ flow on electrotaxis. The involvement of G proteins and ERK2 in directed cell migration mediated by endoplasmic reticulum Ca²⁺ release was explored using mutants. ResultsDictyostelium discoideum migrated toward the cathode in the electric field in a voltage-dependent manner. The intracellular Ca²⁺ concentration of the cells was significantly increased in the electric field. Inhibition of both extracellular Ca²⁺ influx and intracellular Ca²⁺ release suppressed cell electrotaxis migration. Inhibition of endoplasmic reticulum Ca²⁺ release induced by caffeine significantly impaired the electrotaxis of Dictyostelium discoideum. Deletion of Gα2, Gβ, Gγ, and Erk2 notably reduced the electrotaxis of the cells. Enhancing Ca²⁺ release mediated by caffeine restored the electrotaxis of the Gα2^-, Gβ ^-, and Erk2^- mutant cells partially or completely, but did not restore electrotaxis in the Gγ^- mutant cells. ConclusionCa²⁺ release from the endoplasmic reticulum regulates electrotaxis migration in Dictyostelium discoideum and is involved in the regulation of cell electrotaxis by G proteins and ERK2.

Laparoscopic subtotal cholecystectomy (LSC) has been a safe and viable alternative to conversion to laparotomy in cases of severe cholecystitis. The objective of this study is to determine the utility of intraoperative choledochoscopy in LSC for the exploration of the gallbladder, cyst duct, and subsequent stone clearance of the cystic duct in cases of severe cholecystitis. A total of 72 patients diagnosed with severe cholecystitis received choledochoscopy-assisted laparoscopic subtotal cholecystectomy (CALSC). A choledochoscopy was performed to explore the gallbladder cavity and/or cystic duct, and to extract stones using a range of techniques. The clinical records, including the operative records and outcomes, were subjected to analysis. No LSC was converted to open surgery, and no bile duct or vascular injuries were sustained. All stones within the cystic duct were removed by a combination of techniques, including high-frequency needle knife electrotomy, basket, and electrohydraulic lithotripsy. A follow-up examination revealed the absence of residual bile duct stones, with the exception of one common bile duct stone, which was extracted via endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. In certain special cases, CALSC may prove to be an efficacious treatment for the management of severe cholecystitis. This technique allows for optimal comprehension of the situation within the gallbladder cavity and cystic duct, facilitating the removal of stones from the cystic duct and reducing the residue of the non-functional gallbladder remnant.

Laparoscopic subtotal cholecystectomy (LSC) has been a safe and viable alternative to conversion to laparotomy in cases of severe cholecystitis. The objective of this study is to determine the utility of intraoperative choledochoscopy in LSC for the exploration of the gallbladder, cyst duct, and subsequent stone clearance of the cystic duct in cases of severe cholecystitis. A total of 72 patients diagnosed with severe cholecystitis received choledochoscopy-assisted laparoscopic subtotal cholecystectomy (CALSC). A choledochoscopy was performed to explore the gallbladder cavity and/or cystic duct, and to extract stones using a range of techniques. The clinical records, including the operative records and outcomes, were subjected to analysis. No LSC was converted to open surgery, and no bile duct or vascular injuries were sustained. All stones within the cystic duct were removed by a combination of techniques, including high-frequency needle knife electrotomy, basket, and electrohydraulic lithotripsy. A follow-up examination revealed the absence of residual bile duct stones, with the exception of one common bile duct stone, which was extracted via endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. In certain special cases, CALSC may prove to be an efficacious treatment for the management of severe cholecystitis. This technique allows for optimal comprehension of the situation within the gallbladder cavity and cystic duct, facilitating the removal of stones from the cystic duct and reducing the residue of the non-functional gallbladder remnant.

Laparoscopic subtotal cholecystectomy (LSC) has been a safe and viable alternative to conversion to laparotomy in cases of severe cholecystitis. The objective of this study is to determine the utility of intraoperative choledochoscopy in LSC for the exploration of the gallbladder, cyst duct, and subsequent stone clearance of the cystic duct in cases of severe cholecystitis. A total of 72 patients diagnosed with severe cholecystitis received choledochoscopy-assisted laparoscopic subtotal cholecystectomy (CALSC). A choledochoscopy was performed to explore the gallbladder cavity and/or cystic duct, and to extract stones using a range of techniques. The clinical records, including the operative records and outcomes, were subjected to analysis. No LSC was converted to open surgery, and no bile duct or vascular injuries were sustained. All stones within the cystic duct were removed by a combination of techniques, including high-frequency needle knife electrotomy, basket, and electrohydraulic lithotripsy. A follow-up examination revealed the absence of residual bile duct stones, with the exception of one common bile duct stone, which was extracted via endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. In certain special cases, CALSC may prove to be an efficacious treatment for the management of severe cholecystitis. This technique allows for optimal comprehension of the situation within the gallbladder cavity and cystic duct, facilitating the removal of stones from the cystic duct and reducing the residue of the non-functional gallbladder remnant.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the potential mechanism of berberine improving diabetes mellitus type 2 （T2DM） combined with metabolic-associated fatty liver disease （MAFLD） by regulating ceramide. METHODS Thirty-two db/db mice with blood glucose levels＞11.1 mmol/L （T2DM model） were divided into four groups： model group， berberine low- and high-dose groups [100， 200 mg/（kg·d）] and metformin group [300 mg/（kg·d）]， with 8 mice in each group. Additionally， 8 wt/wt mice were selected as the normal control group. Mice in each group were administered the corresponding drug solution or water by gavage once daily for a continuous period of 6 weeks. During the experiment， the body weight of the mice was monitored， and the differences in final body weight were analyzed. After the last administration， the body shape of the mice in each group was observed， and their fasting blood glucose （FBG） and the lipid indicators [total cholesterol （TC）， triglyceride （TG）， low-density lipoprotein cholesterol （LDL-C）， high-density lipoprotein cholesterol （HDL-C）] were measured. Fasting serum insulin （FINS） levels were also measured， and the insulin resistance index HOMA-IR） and insulin sensitivity index （ISI） were calculated. Liver weight， liver index and serum liver function indicators [alanine transaminase （ALT）， aspartate transaminase（AST）] were assessed， and hepatic histopathological changes were observed. Additionally， the expression of fatty acid synthesis-related proteins [sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 （SREBP1）， fatty acid synthase （FASN）， acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 （ACC1）] in liver tissue was examined. Serum samples from the normal control group， model group， and berberine high-dose group were collected for non-targeted lipidomics analysis and validation. RESULTS Compared with the model group， the pathological changes， including disordered liver tissue cell arrangement and lipid vacuoles， were significantly improved in the berberine low- and high-dose groups. The significant decreases or down-regulations were observed in body weight in the last week， as well as FBG， TC， TG， and LDL-C levels， HOMA-IR （except for the berberine low-dose group）， liver weight， liver index， AST and ALT levels， and protein expressions of SREBP1， FASN and ACC1. Additionally， HDL-C levels， FINS （except for the berberine high-dose group）， and ISI （except for the berberine low-dose group） were significantly increased （P＜0.05）. A total of 21 potential differential metabolites， including multiple types of ceramides， were identified； these metabolites were primarily enriched in sphingolipid metabolism and glycerophospholipid metabolism pathways. Verification experiments confirmed that high-dose berberine significantly reduced the serum content of ceramide in model mice （P＜0.05）. CONCLUSIONS Berberine reduces insulin resistance， improves liver damage and lipid accumulation in the T2DM combined with MAFLD mice， and these effects may be related to the reduction of ceramide content.

According to the latest GLOBOCAN data released in 2024, esophageal cancer ranks the 11th in global cancer incidence and represents the 7th leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. In 2022, there were approximately 511000 newly diagnosed cases of esophageal cancer and 445000 deaths globally. On February 28, 2025, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) published updated clinical practice guidelines for esophageal and esophagogastric junction cancers (version 1.2025). This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the major diagnostic and therapeutic updates in the guidelines compared to the version 5.2024, encompassing key domains including screening stratification protocols, perioperative treatment optimization strategies, dynamic efficacy evaluation systems, molecular subtyping-guided therapeutic approaches, and immunotherapy expansion algorithms. The findings aim to provide references for esophageal cancer treatment in China.

BACKGROUND: Parental myopia is an important risk factor for myopia in Chinese children and adolescents. This study aimed to assess the influence of parental myopia and the severity of myopia on offspring and to evaluate whether adopting healthy lifestyles can mitigate the effects of parental myopia on offspring. METHODS: This cross-sectional study analyzed data from children and adolescents aged 6-17 years with complete vision assessments and parental history of myopia from six provinces in China during 2013-2014. Parental demographic information, children's outdoor activity time, sleep time, and sedentary time were collected via questionnaire. Parental myopia was classified as no myopia, paternal myopia, maternal myopia, and both. The offspring were categorized into 10 groups based on parental myopia prescription. Associations of the above factors with myopia in children and adolescents were evaluated by logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Among 40,864 children and adolescents (50.3% boys and 49.7% girls), 22,537 (55.2%) were diagnosed with myopia. In comparison to offspring devoid of parental myopia, children with one parent affected by myopia exhibited odds ratio (OR) of 1.75 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.62-1.88) for myopia, while those with both parents affected showed OR of 2.27 (95% CI: 2.02-2.55) after adjusted for lifestyle factors. The likelihood of myopia in offspring increased with increasing severity of parental myopia, with a 3.08-fold increase in risk observed when both parents presented high myopia. Nonetheless, children adhering to two or more healthy lifestyle factors demonstrated a diminished risk of myopia compared with those with fewer than two lifestyle factors, especially among offspring of non-myopic or mildly myopic parents. CONCLUSIONS Parental myopia has a dose-dependent association with their offspring. Healthy lifestyles may reduce the impact of parental factors on myopia in offspring. The observed associations suggest that although the genetic burden of parental myopia cannot be ignored, healthy lifestyles and nurturing are also very important.
Humans ; Myopia/epidemiology* ; Child ; Male ; Female ; Adolescent ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; China/epidemiology* ; Parents ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Risk Factors

BACKGROUND: Over 20 million colonoscopies are performed in China annually. An automatic clinical decision support system (CDSS) with accurate semantic recognition of colonoscopy reports and guideline-based is helpful to relieve the increasing medical burden and standardize the healthcare. In this study, the CDSS was built under a hierarchical-label interpretable classification framework, trained by a state-of-the-art transformer-based model, and validated in a multi-center style. METHODS: We conducted stratified sampling on a previously established dataset containing 302,965 electronic colonoscopy reports with pathology, identified 2041 patients' records representative of overall features, and randomly divided into the training and testing sets (7:3). A total of five main labels and 22 sublabels were applied to annotate each record on a network platform, and the data were trained respectively by three pre-training models on Chinese corpus website, including bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT)-base-Chinese (BC), the BERT-wwm-ext-Chinese (BWEC), and ernie-3.0-base-zh (E3BZ). The performance of trained models was subsequently compared with a randomly initialized model, and the preferred model was selected. Model fine-tuning was applied to further enhance the capacity. The system was validated in five other hospitals with 3177 consecutive colonoscopy cases. RESULTS: The E3BZ pre-trained model exhibited the best performance, with a 90.18% accuracy and a 69.14% Macro-F1 score overall. The model achieved 100% accuracy in identifying cancer cases and 99.16% for normal cases. In external validation, the model exhibited favorable consistency and good performance among five hospitals. CONCLUSIONS The novel CDSS possesses high-level semantic recognition of colonoscopy reports, provides appropriate recommendations, and holds the potential to be a powerful tool for physicians and patients. The hierarchical multi-label strategy and pre-training method should be amendable to manage more medical text in the future.
Humans ; Colonoscopy/methods* ; Deep Learning ; Decision Support Systems, Clinical ; Female ; Male

In 2040, neurodegenerative diseases (NDD) will overtake cancer as the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Therefore, the search for effective intervention measures has become the top priority to deal with this difficult burden. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has been used for the past 50 years to treat conditions such as decompression sickness, carbon monoxide poisoning and radiation damage. In recent years, studies have confirmed that HBOT has good effects in improving cognitive impairment after brain injury and stroke, and alleviating neurodegeneration and dysfunction related to NDD. Here we reviewed the pathogenesis and treatment state of NDD, introduced the application of HBOT in animal models and clinical studies of NDD, and expounded the application potential of HBOT in the treatment of NDD from the perspective of mitochondrial function, neuroinflammation, neurogenesis and angiogenesis, oxidative stress, apoptosis, microcirculation and epigenetics.
Hyperbaric Oxygenation ; Humans ; Neurodegenerative Diseases/physiopathology* ; Animals ; Oxidative Stress ; Apoptosis ; Mitochondria/physiology* ; Neurogenesis ; Epigenesis, Genetic