ObjectiveTo explore the key genes influencing diacylglycerol metabolism in neuroblastoma （NB）， clarify the expression and clinical significance of diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 （DGAT2） in NB， and provide a theoretical basis for the diagnosis and targeted therapy of NB. MethodsNB transcriptome data were obtained from GEO （GSE49710） and TCGA （TARGET-NBL） databases. Differentially expressed genes （DEGs） commonly upregulated in MYCN-amplified groups were screened， and the key gene DGAT2 was identified by intersecting the screened DEGs with the diacylglycerol metabolism-related gene set followed by prognostic analysis and comparison. The expression of DGAT2 was analyzed via the R2 database. The potential impact of DGAT2 on the immune microenvironment was explored by combining the single-cell dataset GSE137804. Immunohistochemistry （IHC） was used to detect the expression level of DGAT2 and its correlation with MYCN expression in 55 clinical NB tissues and mouse xenograft tumor tissues. ResultsA total of 907 DEGs commonly upregulated in the MYCN-amplified groups were screened， among which three DEGs were highly expressed in the diacylglycerol metabolism-related gene set （P＜0.05）. After comparison， DGAT2 was found to have the most significant impact on prognosis （HR=1.4， 95% CI：1.2，1.7； P=5.41×10^-7）. Survival analysis showed that patients with high DGAT2 expression had a significantly shorter overall survival. Single-cell analysis revealed that high expression of DGAT2 led to an immunosuppressive microenvironment in NB. IHC results showed that the expression of DGAT2 in NB tissues was significantly positively correlated with MYCN expression in the tumor tissue microarrays of clinical NB patients and the tissues of mouse ectopic xenograft tumors （r_s=0.369 4，P＜0.01）. ConclusionsDGAT2 is highly expressed in MYCN-amplified NB， and may independently predict poor prognosis in NB patients. It is expected to become a diagnostic marker for NB and a potential therapeutic target for MYCN-amplified NB.

Objective To systematically analyze the trend of incidence, mortality and disease burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in China from 1994 to 2023, reveal the influence of age-period-cohort factors on COPD in China and the attribution characteristics of risk factors, and provide empirical basis for formulating precise prevention and control strategies. Methods The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 database was used to extract the data of the whole population, gender and age groups of COPD in China from 1994 to 2023. The Joinpoint regression model was used to calculate the annual percentage change (APC) and average annual percentage change (AAPC) of the standardized rate. The age-period-cohort model was adopted to quantify its impacts on the incidence and mortality of COPD. It also analyzed the attributable effects as well as temporal trend characteristics of seven GBD level-3 risk factors (including smoking, ambient particulate matter pollution, occupational exposure, etc.) in Chinese population in 1994 and 2023 on the standardized mortality rate and standardized disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) rate of COPD. Results From 1994 to 2023, the incidence and mortality of COPD in China showed an upward trend, but the standardized incidence [AAPC=−1.16%, 95%CI (−1.18, −1.14), P<0.001] and standardized mortality [AAPC=−2.87%, 95%CI (−3.02, −2.73), P<0.001] decreased significantly, and the decline rate of standardized incidence in females (AAPC=−1.29%) was slightly higher than that in males (AAPC=−1.04%). The decline rate of standardized mortality in males (AAPC=−3.65%) was higher than that in females (AAPC=−1.94%). The age-period-cohort model revealed a nonlinear increase in the age effect, a graded decline in the cohort effect, and a significant period effect on mortality and male morbidity (P<0.001). In terms of attribution of risk factors, the top three attribution risks of the whole population in 2023 were still smoking, particulate matter pollution and second-hand smoke. Compared with 1994, the attribution of environmental ozone pollution, second-hand smoke, high temperature, smoking and occupational particulate matter/gas/smoke exposure increased, and the attribution of particulate matter pollution decreased. Conclusion From 1994 to 2023, the overall disease burden of COPD in China shows a downward trend. Age and cohort are the core driving factors of the disease, and period factors have a more significant impact on death. The changes in the attribution structure suggest that while consolidating the effectiveness of particulate matter pollution control, it is necessary to strengthen the comprehensive prevention and control strategies of tobacco control, coordinated emission reduction of ozone and multiple pollutants, extreme temperature protection and protection of key occupational groups, so as to continuously reduce the disease burden of COPD.

Objective:To assess the feasibility of first polar body transfer (PB1T) combined with preimplantation mitochondrial genetic testing for blocking the transmission of a pathogenic mitochondrial DNA 8993T>G mutation.Methods:A Chinese family affected with Leigh syndrome which had attended the Reproductive Medicine Centre of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University in September 2021 was selected as the study subject. Controlled ovarian hyperstimulation was carried out for the proband after completing the detection of the mitochondrial DNA 8993T>G mutation load among the pedigree members. Mature MII oocytes were inseminated by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), cultured in vitro for 5 to 6 days to the blastocyst stage, and trophoblastocytes were obtained by microbiopsy. Mitochondrial DNA testing (PGT-MT) and chromosomal aneuploidy (PGT-A) analyses were carried out after whole-genome amplification, and the embryos with zero mutation load were selected for transfer. Amniotic fluid and umbilical cord blood samples were collected during middle pregnancy and after birth respectively for mitochondrial DNA testing to verify the reliability of embryo screening. As an attempt, PB1 with good morphology of MⅡ oocytes was selected for transfer into the enucleated oocytoplasm from healthy donors, followed by ICSI fertilization, blastocyst culture and PGT of embryos using the same procedure. This study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University (No. 2021zhyx-B12). Results:An antagonist protocol was used for ovarian stimulation, and a total of 19 oocytes were obtained, of which 14 MⅡ were fertilized by ICSI, and 2 had developed into blastocysts. PGT-MT was carried out on biopsied trophoblastocytes, in which the mitochondrial DNA 8993T>G mutation load was not detected in one embryo, the other was 100% mutated, and the mutation loads of the remaining unfertilized eggs and developmentally arrested embryos ranged from 0% ~ 100%, presenting a clear biased distribution. With fully informed consent, one PGT-MT zero mutation load blastocyst was transferred and clinical pregnancy was achieved. Mitochondrial DNA and chromosomal testing of amniotic fluid cells during middle pregnancy had revealed no abnormalities. The proband had delivered a healthy boy through Caesarean section at 39+ 5 weeks of gestation, and no mutation was detected in the cord blood sample. Five well-formed PBs from 14 eggs were selected for PB1 transfer, followed by ICSI and culture, and two of the reconstituted embryos had formed blastocysts, with none of the above mutations detected in the biopsied samples.Conclusion:The PGT-MT technology can help families affected with mitochondrial diseases to have healthy offspring. PB1 transfer in combination with ICSI and PGT-MT holds the promise of turning waste into treasure and providing an alternative means of fertility for such families.

The menopausal age is one of the important menopausal factors, and women of different menopausal ages have different risks of diabetes. This study reviewed the evidence from prospective studies on the association between the age at natural menopause and diabetes risk, both domestically and internationally, and presented its research design and main findings. Advanced menopause, especially premature and early menopause, will increase the risk of diabetes in postmenopausal women. The research on the influence of delayed menopause on the incidence of diabetes is still insufficient. Many factors may modify the association between menopausal age and the risk of diabetes.

This article reports a case of an elderly female patient with osteoporotic vertebral fractures who experienced recurrent fractures within a short period after percutaneous vertebroplasty. The case highlights the necessity and importance of implementing anti-osteoporosis interventions to prevent subsequent fractures, in addition to performing appropriate orthopedic management for the initial fracture.

TCM believes that the main pathogenesis of gastrointestinal dysfunction (GD) after laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is spleen and stomach weakness, liver and stomach disharmony, liver depression and spleen deficiency, and intestinal depression. Moxibustion in the treatment of GD after LC can avoid the aggravation of gastrointestinal burden caused by oral drugs. The intervention methods mainly include suspension moxibustion, umbilical moxibustion, heat sensitive moxibustion, thunder fire moxibustion, warm acupuncture, partition moxibustion, etc. Moxibustion is often performed on the acupoints in liver meridian, spleen meridian, stomach meridian, small intestine meridian, large intestine meridian and Conception Vessel, such as Taichong (LR3), Ganshu (BL18), Yinlingquan (SP9), Zusanli (ST36), Tianshu (ST25), Wangu (SI4), Hegu (LI4), Zhongwan (CV12), Shenque (CV8) and Qihai (CV6). At present, most studies combined with moxibustion on the basis of conventional Western medicine treatment can significantly improve the efficacy, and have certain advantages in improving gastrointestinal motility decline, intestinal flora imbalance, first exhaust time, gastrointestinal hormone level disorder and intestinal mucosal barrier dysfunction. However, there are still some problems in the existing research: small sample size of clinical research, not perfect scoring scale, not unified treatment plan and operation standard, relatively scarce basic research, relatively simple acupoint research, lack of biochemical evaluation indicators, and the research of national moxibustion needs to be explored and improved in the future.

Atrial fibrillation is a prevalent rapid arrhythmia.Patients often develop kinesiophobia and avoidance behaviors due to reduced exercise tolerance and recurrent episodes of atrial fibrillation symptoms,which adversely affect cardiac rehabilitation outcomes.This study reviewed the definition,occurrence mechanisms,assessment tools,influencing factors,and intervention measures of kinesio-phobia in patients with atrial fibrillation,aiming to provide references for implementing nursing prac-tices and promoting exercise rehabilitation in these patients.

AIM:To investigate the mechanism of action of Tamarix chinensis Lour.on streptozotocin-induced type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)through network pharmacology,molecular docking and ex-perimental validation.METHODS:Using the TCSMP database and Swiss Target Prediction tools screen the active components and predict potential tar-gets in Tamarix chinensis Lour..Retrieving potential disease targets associated with T2DM from data-bases such as GeneCards,OMIM,and DisGeNET.The intersection targets of Tamarix chinensis Lour.and T2DM disease was obtained through Venny platform.The STRING database was used to con-structed PPI network,and Cytoscape 3.8.0 soft-ware was use to visualized.GO function enrich-ment and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were performed through the Metascape database.Dock-ing of important target proteins and compounds was carried out by AutoDock software.SPF grade male rats were randomly divided into normal group,model group,MET group(88.5 mg/kg),TE high-dose(800 mg/kg)group,TE medium-dose(400 mg/kg)group and TE low-dose(200 mg/kg)group(n=10).High-fat and high sugar feed com-bined with low dose STZ(45 mg/kg)was used to in-duce T2DM rat model,and the rats were adminis-tered orally for 5 weeks.Fasting blood glucose(FBG),insulin(FINS)level and HOMA-IR index,bio-chemical indicators[superoxide dismutase(SOD),malondialdehyde(MDA),glycosylated hemoglobin A1c(HbA1c)and inflammatory factor[interleukin-1β(IL-1β),tumor necrosis factor α(TNF-α),vascu-lar cell adhesion molecular(VCAM-1)levels of the rats were also observed;morphological changes of renal tissue was observe by HE staining.RESULTS:Based on the screening conditions of oral bioavail-ability(OB)≥ 30％and drug like properties(DL)≥0.18,a total of 19 main active ingredients with po-tential therapeutic effects on T2DM were screened from Tamarix chinensis Lour.,including ergosta-5,24(28)-dien-3,7,16-triol,quercetin-3,3'-dimethyl ether,kaempferol,quercetin,and others.By analyz-ing the potential targets of Tamarix chinensis Lour.for treating T2DM,a total of 185 potential target genes were screened,including SRC,EGFR,HSP90AA1,AKT1,ESR1,H1F1A,TNF,PIK3R1,etc,in-volving cancer signaling pathways,insulin resis-tance,MAPK signaling pathways,PI3K Akt signaling pathways,etc.Molecular docking results showed that the binding energies were all less than-5.0 kcal/mol,indicating that a strong binding abili-ty between the active ingredients screened by Tam-arix chinensis Lour.and the potential targets for the treatment of T2DM.The animal experiment re-sults showed that compared with the model group,the weight loss of rats in the MET and TE groups was slowed down,and the levels of FBG,FINS,MDA,HbA1c,IL-1β,TNF-α,VCAM-1,HOMA-IR in-dex were reduced,the SOD level was increased,and the differences were statistically significant(P＜0.05,P＜0.01),Renal tissue cellular morphology also showed notable improvement.Most importantly,all these results demonstrating dose-dependent ef-fects.CONCLUSION:Tamarix chinensis Lour.dis-plays a significant therapeutic effect on T2DM through multi-component,multi-target,and multi-pathway synergistic actions to improve blood glu-cose levels.The findings of this study provide a the-oretical basis for the clinical application of Tamarix chinensis Lour.in the treatment of T2DM.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility of first polar body transfer (PB1T) combined with preimplantation mitochondrial genetic testing for blocking the transmission of a pathogenic mitochondrial DNA 8993T>G mutation. METHODS: A Chinese family affected with Leigh syndrome which had attended the Reproductive Medicine Centre of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University in September 2021 was selected as the study subject. Controlled ovarian hyperstimulation was carried out for the proband after completing the detection of the mitochondrial DNA 8993T>G mutation load among the pedigree members. Mature MII oocytes were inseminated by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), cultured in vitro for 5 to 6 days to the blastocyst stage, and trophoblastocytes were obtained by microbiopsy. Mitochondrial DNA testing (PGT-MT) and chromosomal aneuploidy (PGT-A) analyses were carried out after whole-genome amplification, and the embryos with zero mutation load were selected for transfer. Amniotic fluid and umbilical cord blood samples were collected during middle pregnancy and after birth respectively for mitochondrial DNA testing to verify the reliability of embryo screening. As an attempt, PB1 with good morphology of MII oocytes was selected for transfer into the enucleated oocytoplasm from healthy donors, followed by ICSI fertilization, blastocyst culture and PGT of embryos using the same procedure. This study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University (No. 2021zhyx-B12). RESULTS: An antagonist protocol was used for ovarian stimulation, and a total of 19 oocytes were obtained, of which 14 MII were fertilized by ICSI, and 2 had developed into blastocysts. PGT-MT was carried out on biopsied trophoblastocytes, in which the mitochondrial DNA 8993T>G mutation load was not detected in one embryo, the other was 100% mutated, and the mutation loads of the remaining unfertilized eggs and developmentally arrested embryos ranged from 0% ~ 100%, presenting a clear biased distribution. With fully informed consent, one PGT-MT zero mutation load blastocyst was transferred and clinical pregnancy was achieved. Mitochondrial DNA and chromosomal testing of amniotic fluid cells during middle pregnancy had revealed no abnormalities. The proband had delivered a healthy boy through Caesarean section at 39⁺⁵ weeks of gestation, and no mutation was detected in the cord blood sample. Five well-formed PBs from 14 eggs were selected for PB1 transfer, followed by ICSI and culture, and two of the reconstituted embryos had formed blastocysts, with none of the above mutations detected in the biopsied samples. CONCLUSION The PGT-MT technology can help families affected with mitochondrial diseases to have healthy offspring. PB1 transfer in combination with ICSI and PGT-MT holds the promise of turning waste into treasure and providing an alternative means of fertility for such families.
Humans ; Preimplantation Diagnosis/methods* ; Female ; DNA, Mitochondrial/genetics* ; Genetic Testing/methods* ; Pregnancy ; Mitochondrial Diseases/genetics* ; Polar Bodies ; Adult ; Feasibility Studies ; Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic/methods* ; Embryo Transfer/methods* ; Mutation ; Male ; Blastocyst/metabolism* ; Pedigree

Objective To prepare an advanced irrigation device equipped with a specialized nozzle designed to access the pericoronal blind sac of impacted wisdom teeth,and evaluate its efficacy in plaque removal.Methods 3D-printer was utilized to develop pericoronal models simulating mandibular wisdom teeth with high vertical impaction and varying soft tissue coverage(0%,25%,50%,and 75%,respectively)and personalized pericoronal irrigator.The obtained pericoronal models were randomly divided into 3 groups,treated with personalized precision pericoronal flushing,routine flushing and brushing,respectively,and,under a pressures of 45 psi or 75 psi(1 psi=6 894.76 Pa),were performed to clean the test surfaces of plaque-biofilm-obstructed wisdom teeth,respectively.Images of the tooth surfaces were analyzed before and after cleaning,and the cleaning rate was calculated using Python software.Results For wisdom teeth with 50%and 75%pericoronal soft tissue coverage,at a pressure of 45 psi,the precision pericoronal flushing group demonstrated significantly higher cleaning rate when compared to the brushing and routine flushing groups(P<0.05).At 0%and 25%pericoronal soft tissue coverage,the precision pericoronal flushing and brushing groups exhibited significantly higher cleaning rates than the routine flushing group(P<0.05).Furthermore,at 75 psi,the precision pericoronal flushing group achieved a significantly higher cleaning rate across all 4 levels of pericoronal soft tissue coverage than both the routine flushing and brushing groups(P<0.05).Notably,the precision pericoronal flushing group at 75 psi obtained significantly higher cleaning rate than at 45 psi across 0%,25%,and 50%pericoronal soft tissue coverage(P<0.05).Conclusion The precision pericoronal irrigation device demonstrates significantly superior cleaning efficacy for vertically impacted mandibular third molars compared to conventional irrigation devices and manual tooth brushing.It is an effective device for preventing and treating pericoronitis.