AIM: To investigate the influence of relevant inflammatory markers in peripheral blood on the progression of neovascular glaucoma(NVG)secondary to diabetic retinopathy(DR)patients.METHODS: Retrospective case-control study. Patients were categorized into two groups based on the presence or absence of NVG: those with proliferative diabetic retinopathy(PDR)alone(PDR group, n=148)and those with NVG secondary to PDR(NVG secondary to PDR group, n=142). Peripheral blood inflammatory markers were evaluated, including white blood cell-related indices, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio(NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio(PLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio(MLR), and systemic immune-inflammation index(SII). The distinctions in peripheral blood inflammatory markers between the two groups of patients and their relationships with NVG secondary to PDR were analyzed.RESULTS:No statistically significant differences were observed in basic characteristics between the two groups, confirming their comparability. However, significant differences were found in eosinophil percentage and MLR between the PDR group and the NVG secondary to PDR group(all P<0.05), with both values being significantly higher in the NVG secondary to PDR group. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis revealed that the eosinophil percentage and the MLR were factors influencing the development of patients with NVG secondary to PDR.CONCLUSION: Eosinophil percentage and MLR may be associated with the progression of PDR to NVG, and could serve as potential predictive markers for NVG development in PDR patients.

Sexual dimorphism in the brain underlies behavioral differences between sexes. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is a complex nucleus that differs between males and females, but the sexual dimorphism in cytoarchitecture and the connectome of its oval subdivision (ovBNST) remains largely unexplored. By combining snRNA-seq and transgenic labeling, we found a higher density of ovBNST proenkephalin (ovBNST^PENK) neurons in male than female mice. Anatomically, we virally mapped the efferents and afferents of ovBNST^PENK neurons, finding reciprocally dimorphic connections with the hypothalamus and striatum. Gene enrichment analysis suggests that ovBNST^PENK neurons are modulated by the upstream dopamine pathway. Functionally, by applying caspase-3-mediated depletion of ovBNST^PENK neurons, we found that loss of these neurons enhanced locomotor activity in male but not female mice, without altering the anxiety-like phenotypes in either sex. Our study may pave the way for a better understanding of the anatomical and functional profiles of ovBNST^PENK neurons from a sexually dimorphic perspective.
Animals ; Male ; Female ; Septal Nuclei/physiology* ; Sex Characteristics ; Neurons/physiology* ; Enkephalins/metabolism* ; Mice ; Mice, Transgenic ; Protein Precursors/metabolism* ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Neural Pathways/physiology*

Objective To explore the value of Turbo-Flash mode CT scanning for displaying calcification of ligamentum arteriousum(CLA)in infants and young children.Methods Chest CT data obtained with Turbo-Flash mode scanning of 1 762 infants and young children(aged 1 to 36 months)with suspected lung,trachea or bronchi lesions were retrospectively analyzed.Children were divided into group A to L according to age at 3-month intervals.CLA was evaluated and its CT manifestations were analyzed.The incidence of CLA in each group was counted,the density of CLA was measured,and their correlations with age were observed.Results Among 1 762 children,912 was found with CLA(912/1 762,51.76%).The incidence of CLA in group A—L was 34.29%(12/35)—59.35%(92/155),respectively.All CLA located in the arterial ligaments between the left side of pulmonary trunk and the origin level of left subclavian artery of the aorta and shaped differently.The density of CLA in group A—L was(183.36±50.16)—(295.80±105.91)HU,respectively.The incidence of CLA in group A—F was positively(r=0.945,P=0.002),while in group F—L was negatively correlated with age(r=-0.765,P=0.045).Meanwhile,the density of CLA in group A—F was positively correlated with age(r=0.775,P=0.020),but no significant correlation between CLA density and age was found in G—L group(P=0.593).Conclusion Turbo-Flash mode CT scanning had high clinical application value for displaying CLA in infants and young children.

Shewanella putrefaciens(S.putrefaciens)is an opportunistic pathogen,which rarely causes pulmo-nary infection in clinic.This article reports a case with fever and expectoration as the primary clinical manifestations on the basis of diabetes.It was confirmed as S.putrefaciens infection by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry(MALDI-TOF MS).Relevant literature from China and abroad was reviewed sys-tematically.High-risk factors,clinical manifestations,diagnosis,and drug treatment of infection caused by this pathogen were summarized,so as to improve the understanding on this pathogen and provide reference for the for-mulation of anti-infection programs.

As a non-invasive physiological indicator,electroencephalography signal provides an objective assessment of psychological stress levels among nursing staff in major public health emergencies,offering a scientific basis for targeted psychological interventions while overcoming the limitations of subjective bias inherent in traditional questionnaire-based methods.A psychological stress classification model based on bidirectional long short-term memory and attention mechanism is proposed to classify the psychological stress of clinical nurses more effectively by analyzing their electroencephalography signals.Experimental results show that the proposed model exhibits better classification performance than the traditional long short-term memory model on the DREAMER dataset,the Feeling Emotions dataset and the self-built dataset.This study provides a novel approach for assessing psychological stress,which is helpful to improve the pertinence and effectiveness of clinical nursing work.

Objective To provide relevant suggestions for ethical considerations in clinical research by searching literature related to ethics in clinical research using the visualization analysis software CiteSpace,and to analyze and compare the current research status of clinical research ethics at home and abroad.Methods The papers on the application of medical ethics in clinical trials from the core collection of CNKI and Web of Science databases were collected and the bibliometric software CiteSpace was used to draw a knowledge map of domestic and foreign literature.The research hotspots and development trends of medical ethics in clinical trials were analyzed.Results In terms of the process of informed consent,risk minimization,fair selection,and protection on the rights and interests of vulnerable groups,the focus of medical ethics research in China were basically consistent with foreign literature.The difference was that foreign research focused more on ethical education,the quality of life of research participants,and ethical counseling.Otherwise,domestic research focused more on the quality management of clinical trials and the specificity of traditional Chinese medicine research,with research on vulnerable groups mostly focused on children.Conclusion Chinese researchers should strengthen multi-dimensional research on medical ethics in China,and gradually expand their view from ethical review points and management research to applied research solved clinical problems and the specificity of research participants,and increasing the number and dimensions of research.

Objective:To explore the clinical features, histopathological morphology, and differential diagnosis of lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma with abnormal expression of follicular dendritic cell markers.Methods:From 2020 to 2021, 4 cases of lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma with abnormal expression of follicular dendritic cell markers diagnosed in Fujian Cancer Hospital (2 cases) and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University (2 cases) were collected. Different ancillary procedures such as HE, special stains, immunohistochemistry, and in situ hybridization techniques were used to assess the histopathological features and immunophenotypes. The clinical data were collected and literature was reviewed.Results:All 4 cases of lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma with abnormal expression of follicular dendritic cell markers were male. They were 32, 45, 67 and 39 years old, respectively. The main clinical manifestations were bloody phlegm, abdominal pain, fatigue and anorexia. The clinical stages at diagnosis were stage Ⅳ (3 cases) and stage Ⅱ (1 case). Cases 2 and 3 had two pathological examinations at different sites, with a total of six pathological examinations. The histomorphology showed singly scattered or nests of tumor cells in a background of abundant small lymphocytes. The tumor cells were enlarged and pleomorphic, some appeared polygonal with inconspicuous cell borders, and they were arranged in a syncytial pattern. There were megakaryocytes, multinucleated tumor cells, and a few spindle-shaped cells seen. Atypical mitosis was commonly noted. By immunohistochemistry, the tumor cells were positive for CKpan(5/6), CK8/18(4/4), CAM5.2(2/5), CK-H(0/4), CK-L(3/4), EMA(4/5), CK5/6(3/6), p63(1/6), p40(1/6), E-cadherin (4/6), SSTR2(6/6), PD-L1(5/5), LCA(0/6), vimentin(5/6), CD2 (6/6), CD23(6/6), CD35(5/6), CXCL-13(4/5) and D2-40(1/5). The Ki-67 proliferative index was 60%-95%. In situ hybridization for EBER were all positive (6/6). Special stain for reticulin showed positive staining surrounding nests of tumor cells.Conclusions:The expression of follicular dendritic cell markers in lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma is very rare, which may be related to EBV infection. Occasionally, it can overlap with follicular dendritic cell sarcoma by morphology and immunophenotype, which can lead to misdiagnosis. Only by combining clinical information, morphological characteristics and immunophenotype can an appropriate diagnosis be made.

Objective To investigate serum exosomal miRNA spectrum in patients with gestational diabetes mellitus(GDM)and eval-uate its clinical value in the diagnosis of GDM complicated with premature delivery.Methods Serum samples of pregnant women with GDM registered and delivered in our hospital were collected and divided into the premature delivery group and term labor group based on pregnancy outcomes,with 22 cases in each group.Serum exosomal miRNAs were sequenced,and the differentially expressed miRNAs were further verified by fluorescence quantitative PCR.The receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was drew according to the verified expression level of miRNAs,and the value of exosomal miRNAs in the diagnosis of GDM complicated with premature de-livery was analyzed.The potential functions of candidate miRNAs were predicted using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG).Results A total of 94 differentially expressed miRNAs,including 50 up-regulated and 44 down-regulated,were identified in the premature delivery group and term labor group.The verification results of fluorescence quantitative PCR showed that 7 miRNAs had significant difference between the two groups(P<0.05).Moreover,the expression trend was consistent with the sequencing results.The analysis results of the ROC curve showed that the seven miRNAs had good diagnostic efficacy for GDM combined with premature delivery.The areas under the ROC curve(AUCROC)of hsa-miR-16-5p,hsa-miR-25-3p,hsa-miR-30b-5p,and hsa-miR-92a-3p were all more than 0.7.Their sensitivity and specificity were 0.375 and 1.000,0.563 and 0.941,0.563 and 0.824,and 0.765 and 0.647,respectively.The binary logistic regression analysis showed that the AUCROC of the combination of hsa-miR-16-5p,hsa-miR-25-3p,hsa-miR-30b-5p,and hsa-miR-92a-3p for the diagnosis of GDM complicated with premature delivery increased to 0.982,and that its sensi-tivity and specificity were both more than 0.850.These candidate miRNAs were related to the ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis pathway,actin cytoskeleton regulatory pathway,mTOR signaling pathway,and P53 signaling pathway.Conclusion Serum exosomal miRNAs in GDM patients complicated with premature delivery have significant difference,which may be served as potential diagnostic markers.

OBJECTIVE Aimd to investigate the prevalence of olfactory dysfunction among healthy elderly individuals in China using a large sample size and to explore its correlations with demographic and other factors.METHODS A total of 5 258 participants who aged 60 and above underwent the T&T olfactometer test and completed questionnaires.The prevalence of olfactory dysfunction was reported,and logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the associations between olfactory dysfunction and other factors.RESULTS The overall prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in the study was 26.5%.Independent risk factors for olfactory dysfunction included advanced age,rural residence(OR=1.88,95%CI:1.60-2.22,P<0.01),current smoking(OR=1.45,95%CI:1.15-1.83,P<0.01),and self-reported olfactory dysfunction(OR=10.12,95%CI:8.44-12.14,P<0.01).In contrast,female gender(OR=0.70,95%CI:0.58-0.85,P<0.01)and high educational attainment were independently associated with a lower prevalence of olfactory dysfunction.CONCLUSION The prevalence of olfactory dysfunction among individuals aged 60 and above increased with age.Male gender,rural residence,low educational attainment,current smoking,and self-reported decline in olfactory function were independently associated with olfactory dysfunction.

L-citrulline is a nonprotein amino acid that plays an important role in human health and has great market demand. Although microbial cell factories have been widely used for biosynthesis, there are still challenges such as genetic instability and low efficiency in the biosynthesis of L-citrulline. In this study, an efficient, plasmid-free, non-inducible L-citrulline-producing strain of Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) was engineered by combined strategies. Firstly, a chassis strain capable of synthesizing L-citrulline was constructed by block of L-citrulline degradation and removal of feedback inhibition, with the L-citrulline titer of 0.43 g/L. Secondly, a push-pull-restrain strategy was employed to enhance the L-citrulline biosynthesis, which realized the L-citrulline titer of 6.0 g/L. Thirdly, the NADPH synthesis and L-citrulline transport were strengthened to promote the synthesis efficiency, which achieved the L-citrulline titer of 11.6 g/L. Finally, fed-batch fermentation was performed with the engineered strain in a 3 L fermenter, in which the L-citrulline titer reached 44.9 g/L. This study lays the foundation for the industrial production of L-citrulline and provides insights for the modification of other amino acid metabolic networks.
Citrulline/biosynthesis* ; Escherichia coli/genetics* ; Metabolic Engineering/methods* ; Fermentation ; NADP/biosynthesis*