1.Therapeutic efficacy and mechanism of artesunate for mouse model of polycystic ovary syndrome
Xueling WANG ; Peiling ZHONG ; Zhipeng ZHAO ; Fei CHEN ; Xin LIU ; Sijia LIU ; Lie YUAN ; Lu FANG ; Qianyi YAO ; Xiong YANG ; Chao LIU ; Jiakun CHENG ; Yongqing CAI ; Xiaoli LI ; Weihong LI
Journal of Army Medical University 2025;47(3):193-204
Objective To investigate the therapeutic efficacy of artesunate(AS)on polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS)in mice and explore the potential mechanism primarily.Methods Twenty-five female C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into Control group,model group(PCOS group),low-and high-dose AS groups(AS15 and AS30 groups)and metformin group(Met group).In addition to the Control group,the mouse model of PCOS was established by subcutaneous injection of dehydroepiandrosterone(DHEA,60 mg/kg)following by a high-fat diet for 21 d.After modeling,AS of 15 and 30 mg/kg was intraperitoneally injected into the mice of the AS 15 and AS30 groups,respectively,and 200 mg/kg Met was given to those of the Met group by gavage,once per day,for 6 weeks.ELISA was used to detect serum testosterone(T),fasting insulin(FINS),luteinizing hormone(LH)and follicle-stimulating hormone(FSH),and the LH/FSH ratio was calculated.The levels of fasting blood glucose(FBG),triglyceride(TG)and total cholesterol(TC)were detected by automatic biochemical analyzer,and the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance(HOMA-IR)was calculated.The estrous cycle was observed,and HE staining was performed for pathological changes in the ovary and uterus.Immunofluorescence assay was employed to measure the expression of p-eIF2α,ATF4 and CHOP in the ovarian tissue.After steroidogenic human granulosa-like tumor cell line KGN were exposed to 100 μmol/L DHEA to simulate the hyperandrogen environment of PCOS,and then treated with 5 and 10 μg/mL AS for 24 h,the protein levels of endoplasmic reticulum stress signaling pathway was detected by Western blotting.Results Compared with the Control group,the PCOS mice had disturbed estrous cycle,polycystic changes in the ovaries,and significantly increased serum T level and LH/FSH ratio(P<0.05),and obviously elevated HOMA-IR,TC and TG levels in terms of metabolism(P<0.01).The expression levels of p-eIF2α,ATF4 and CHOP were notably up-regulated in the ovarian granulosa cells of PCOS mice and KGN cells after DHEA exposure(P<0.05).Additionally,AS treatment attenuated the pathological changes of ovary and uterine expression,decreased the serum T level and the LH/FSH ratio(P<0.05),and reduced HOMA-IR,TC and TG levels(P<0.05)when compared with the PCOS mice.Moreover,the expression levels of p-eIF2α,ATF4 and CHOP were significantly down-regulated after AS treatment in both ovarian granulosa cells of PCOS mice and KGN cells(P<0.05).Conclusion AS significantly improves glycolipid metabolic disorder and reproductive dysfunction in PCOS mice,which may be associated with its suppressing endoplasmic reticulum stress by inhibiting the PERK/eIF2α/ATF4/CHOP pathway.
2.ORF1p promotes proliferation and invasion of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells by regulating AJUBA expression
Fan YANG ; Jiangyang LI ; Xiaoyan DAI ; He XIAO ; Yang PENG ; Xueling TONG ; Nan DAI ; Mengxia LI
Journal of Army Medical University 2025;47(13):1429-1443
Objective To investigate the effects of open reading frame 1 protein(ORF1p),encoded by long interspersed nuclear element-1(LINE-1),on the proliferation,migration,and invasion of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC)cells,and explore the underlying molecular mechanism.Methods① Western blotting was performed to compare the expression of ORF1p between normal esophageal squamous epithelial cells and ESCC cells.② Immunohistochemistry(IHC)assay was used to examine ORF1p expression in ESCC tissues and paired normal tissues adjacent to tumor.③ The effects of ORF1p knockdown and overexpression on malignant behaviors in ESCC cells were determined through functional assays.④ Xenograft tumor model in nude mice was established to evaluate the impact of ORF1p on tumor growth in vivo.⑤ Transcriptome sequencing combined with cell functional rescue experiments were conducted to identify downstream targets regulated by ORF1p.Results ① Western blot analysis demonstrated the expression of ORF1p was significantly higher in the ESCC cell lines than the normal esophageal squamous epithelial cells(P<0.05).② IHC confirmed remarkable up-regulation of ORF1p in ESCC tissues than paired adjacent normal tissues(P<0.000 1).③ Functional assays and experiments on xenograft tumor models revealed that ORF1p substantially enhanced the proliferation,migration,and invasion of ESCC cells,as well as tumorigenic potential in vivo(P<0.05).④ Functional rescue experiments showed that ORF1p facilitated the proliferation,migration,and invasion of ESCC cells by modulating AJUBA expression(P<0.05).Conclusion ORF1p is significantly up-regulated in ESCC and promotes the proliferation,migration,and invasion of ESCC cells by regulating AJUBA expression.
3.Development of a postoperative recurrence prediction model for stage Ⅰ non-small cell lung cancer patients using multimodal data based on machine learning
Di ZHANG ; Yi WU ; Yu XU ; Shuai WANG ; Yue HU ; Huawei CHEN ; Nana HU ; Rong HE ; Xueling TONG ; Mengxia LI
Journal of Army Medical University 2025;47(14):1602-1611
Objective To develop a machine learning model integrating preoperative chest CT radiomic features with clinical data for predicting 5-year postoperative recurrence risk in stage Ⅰ non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)patients undergoing surgical resection.Methods A total of 217 patients with pathologically confirmed stage Ⅰ NSCLC(selected from 778 initially screened cases based on our inclusion and exclusion criteria)treated in Army Medical Center of PLA between January 2014 and December 2019 were retrospectively enrolled,including 53 recurrence cases and 164 non-recurrence cases within 5-year follow-up.They were randomly divided into a training set(n=173)and a validation set(n=44)in a ratio of 8:2.Radiomic models were established based on extracted features from tumor-dominant regions of interest(ROI)on CT images,while clinical models were developed using demographic characteristics and preoperative laboratory examinations.A combined model was further constructed by integrating both feature sets,and model performance was compared to identify the optimal predictive model.Results This study screened the features from non-contrast CT images and ultimately selected 7 radiomic features for constructing radiomic model.Among 6 machine learning algorithms,the adaptive boosting(Adaboost)model demonstrated the best overall predictive performance,with an area under the curve(AUC)of 0.866(95%CI:0.808~0.923;accuracy:0.832,specificity:0.884)in the training set and of 0.806(95%CI:0.630~0.983;accuracy:0.795,specificity:0.971)in the validation set.Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses identified 4 clinical features for clinical model construction.The clinical model achieved an AUC value of 0.874(95%CI:0.821~0.928;accuracy:0.827,specificity:0.891)in the training set and 0.813(95%CI:0.677~0.948;accuracy:0.636,specificity:0.600)in the validation set.By integrating the 7 radiomic features and 4 clinical features using a feature-level fusion strategy,the combined model exhibited further improved predictive performance,with an AUC value of 0.953(95%CI:0.924~0.983;accuracy:0.884,specificity:0.860)and 0.852(95%CI:0.729~0.976;accuracy:0.682,specificity:0.629),respectively in the training set and the validation set.Conclusion The combined model integrating preoperative CT radiomic features with clinical risk factors may provide an evidence-based framework for evaluating 5-year postoperative recurrence risk in stage Ⅰ NSCLC patients.
4.Mammalian pluripotent stem cells:effects on creating disease models,pathogenesis,drug discovery and personalized treatment
Wenqiang XU ; Haolin CHEN ; Chang YAN ; Tao XU ; Yabin XIE ; Xueling LI
Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research 2025;29(1):136-146
BACKGROUND:The self-renewal and multi-directional differentiation of pluripotent stem cells possess the potential to revolutionize people's understanding of biology,medicine,development,and disease.Stem cells play an important role in the early stage of embryonic development,and the study of them could be beneficial to understanding of the basic principles of biological development and tissue or organ formation,exploring the potential mechanisms of various diseases,studying the repair and regeneration of damaged tissues or organs,and promoting drug discovery and personalized treatment. OBJECTIVE:To review the research progress of pluripotent stem cells,summarize and categorize the fundamental types of pluripotent stem cells,and elucidate the lineage situations of various types of pluripotent stem cells in common mammals. METHODS:PubMed,Web of Science,CNKI,and WanFang databases were searched systematically,with the keywords"pluripotent stem cells;embryonic stem cells;induced pluripotent stem cells;expanded potential stem cells;livestock pluripotent stem cells"in English and Chinese.The 99 articles related to mammalian pluripotent stem cells were systematically screened according to inclusion and exclusion criteria,and then reviewed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)According to classical theory in mouse embryonic stem cell research,the pluripotent state of stem cells is divided into two forms:na?ve and primed.Na?ve state corresponds to the inner cell mass of pre-implantation embryos before attachment to the uterine wall,while primed state corresponds to the epiblast after implantation.These two states exhibit significant differences in epigenetic features,transcriptional activity,external signal dependency,and metabolic phenotype.It is later discovered that there is an intermediate state between na?ve and primed called formative pluripotency.Therefore,the pluripotency of pluripotent stem cells is a continuous developmental process rather than a unique cell state.(2)In addition to obtaining pluripotent stem cells from the inner cell mass,there are various methods and lineages for acquiring pluripotent stem cells,including embryonic germ cells established using primitive germ cells from mouse embryos,induced pluripotent stem cells created by the dedifferentiation of adult mouse and human fibroblasts with four factors—Oct3/4,Sox2,c-Myc,and Klf4;embryonic stem cell-like cell lines cultured from somatic cell nuclear transfer,parthenogenesis,neonatal or adult testicular or ovarian tissue,very small embryonic-like stem cells derived from various adult tissues and expanded pluripotent stem cells derived from pre-implantation stages.These pluripotent stem cells all share the common characteristics of continuous self-renewal,expressing core pluripotency factors and possessing the ability to differentiate into the three primary germ layers.(3)Currently,pluripotent stem cells are being used for disease modeling to study the mechanisms of various diseases and develop new drugs.Simultaneously,scientists are attempting to use pluripotent stem cells to cultivate various tissues and organs,offering new possibilities for regenerative medicine and transplantation.However,the clinical application of pluripotent stem cells faces safety challenges,including issues of cell mutations and immune rejection.Continual improvement in the methods of generating pluripotent stem cells will make them safer and more efficient for clinical applications.(4)Based on the methods of obtaining and lineage establishment of pluripotent stem cells in mice and humans,various types of pluripotent stem cells have been established in livestock,including embryonic stem cells,induced pluripotent stem cells,germ lineages of pluripotent stem cells,and expanded potential stem cells.Research on livestock pluripotent stem cells opens up new avenues for animal reproduction,breeding,genetic engineering,disease modeling,drug screening,and the conservation of endangered wildlife.
5.Current status and influencing factors of delirium among patients of advanced age hospitalized in internal medicine departments
Xueyan FAN ; Liu HAN ; Qiushuang YU ; Sijia YANG ; Dahua ZHANG ; Jingjing LI ; Xueling MA ; Li YU
Chinese Journal of Modern Nursing 2025;31(29):3984-3989
Objective:To explore the incidence of delirium in patients of advanced age hospitalized in internal medicine departments and analyze its influencing factors.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on the medical records of 586 patients of advanced age hospitalized in internal medicine departments at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Third Affiliated Hospital from May 2023 to May 2024. Patients were divided into a delirium group and a non-delirium group based on whether delirium occurred. Univariate analysis and binary Logistic regression analysis were used to explore the factors influencing delirium in patients of advanced age hospitalized in internal medicine departments.Results:Among 586 patients of advanced age hospitalized in internal medicine departments, the incidence of delirium was 21.2% (124/586). Binary Logistic regression analysis showed that age, activities of daily living (Barthel Index), folate deficiency, sleep disorders, and indwelling catheters were factors influencing delirium in patients of advanced age hospitalized in internal medicine departments ( P<0.05) . Conclusions:The incidence of delirium is high among patients of advanced age hospitalized in internal medicine departments. Healthcare professionals should pay particular attention to elderly patients with advanced age, limited activities of daily living, folate deficiency, sleep disorders, and indwelling catheters, and should implement targeted preventive strategies as early as possible.
6.Transcriptomic analysis of differentially expressed genes in newly excysted juvenile Clonorchis sinensis cultured in vitro
Fengxi XIAN ; Borong LI ; Xueling DENG ; Yuhong WU ; Shitao LI ; Yiqi JIANG ; Siying ZHOU ; Linrui LI ; Zhanshuai WU ; Zeli TANG
Chinese Journal of Zoonoses 2025;41(7):718-725
This study was aimed at investigating differentially expressed genes(DEGs)in Clonorchis sinensis(C.sinensis)meta-cercariae and newly excysted juveniles(NEJs)cultured in vitro for 1 hour or 3 hours,through transcriptomic analysis.Our objective was to explore the mechanisms underlying host invasion.Metacercariae were digested and isolated from Pseudorasbora parva infected with C.sinensis.The metacercariae excysted and developed into NEJs in vitro.Subsequently,the mRNA of metacercariae and NEJs cultured in vitro for 1 hour or 3 hours was extracted for transcriptomic sequencing analysis to screen for DEGs,and to conduct GO and KEGG analyses.A protein-protein interaction network(PPI)was constructed to identify hub genes.A total of 1 218 DEGs were de-tected.The main enriched GO terms of DEGs included transcription regulator activity and gated channel activity(primarily K+).The KEGG pathways significantly enriched in DEGs included cholesterol metabolism,lysosome,synthesis,secretion,and action of para-thyroid hormone.ZFAND4-2,BIRC6,and other genes were screened and identified as hub genes through PPI network analysis.Addi-tionally,abundant differential expression of cathepsin-related genes,including Cathepsin L and Cathepsin F,were observed before and after excystment in C.sinensis.Therefore,significant transcriptional level changes occurred in the metacercariae of C.sinensis be-fore and after excystation,and enrichment was observed primarily in signaling pathways,such as activation of growth and material me-tabolism,that regulate parasite growth and development.Meanwhile,biological events conducive to parasite invasion,migration,and adhesion were triggered.
7.Development of an animal model of depression and evaluation methods
Zixuan LIU ; Qing HUO ; Yaxuan SUN ; Xueling DAI ; Xin LI
Acta Laboratorium Animalis Scientia Sinica 2025;33(2):249-258
Depression is a common chronic mental illness.Animal models of depression are widely used to study the pathogenesis of depression as well as in the development of new antidepressant drugs.The consistency and reliability of animal models of depression to simulate human depressive symptoms directly affect the study result.However,at present,no animal models have been found that are completely consistent with the onset of human depression,which hinders the in-depth study of depression.By using scientific and reasonable modeling and evaluation method,the pathological state of depression can still be simulated to a large extent,providing a basis for further in-depth research of the pathogenesis of depression and the development of effective antidepressant drugs.This paper aims to provide a reference for researchers by reviewing several commonly used animal models and behavioral tests of depression.
8.Cognitive analysis of multidisciplinary clinicians in fertility preservation in China
Xueling SONG ; Xinyu ZHANG ; Xiumei ZHEN ; Caihong MA ; Jie YAN ; Rong LI ; Jie QIAO
Chinese Journal of Reproduction and Contraception 2025;45(5):448-452
Objective:To investigate the awareness levels of doctors from various departments regarding fertility preservation to provide reference and suggestions for further improving awareness and promoting multidisciplinary development in fertility preservation.Methods:From November to December 2023, the China Alliance of Fertility Preservation initiated this survey covering 88 hospitals in 23 cities across 20 provinces in China. The survey focused on the degree of understanding of basic concepts, technological perceptions, treatment concepts, and related challenges regarding fertility preservation. Descriptive statistics and Fisher's exact test were used to analyze the difference in awareness levels across various departments.Results:There was a significant difference in the awareness of fertility preservation guidelines among physicians from different departments ( P<0.001). Reproductive center physicians had the highest level of understanding [68.3% (41/60)]. Doctors in the reproductive centers had a higher awareness rate of the five fertility preservation techniques (ovarian tissue cryopreservation, oocyte cryopreservation, sperm cryopreservation, testicular tissue cryopreservation, and embryo cryopreservation) than that in other departments (all P<0.05). Regarding treatment concepts, more reproductive center physicians believed that psychological counselling about fertility preservation before oncological treatment was necessary ( P=0.016). Hematologists had more worries and concerns about fertility preservation treatment. Additionally, 96.7% (58/60) of reproductive center physicians expressed the need to establish effective referral mechanisms within the same city, province, or across provinces. However, 55.6% (35/63) of oncologists, 64.6% (31/48) of hematologists, and 77.8% (7/9) of pediatricians considered treating primary tumors far more important than fertility preservation. Conclusion:Doctors from different departments have varying levels of understanding regarding fertility preservation. It is necessary to strengthen the dissemination and training of fertility preservation knowledge among physicians from various departments, as well as to promote a multidisciplinary treatment model to improve efficiency, to establish a comprehensive referral mechanism to improve patients' opportunities for fertility preservation.
9.Construction and preliminary application of a cost-benefit evaluation index system for internet hospitals
Chao LI ; Xueling YANG ; Zhonghao XUE ; Guoyun GAO ; Juan LIU ; Huihui YANG ; Xiyan WANG ; Xia SUN ; Yang LI ; Xinglei MA
Chinese Journal of Hospital Administration 2025;41(8):630-635
Objective:To build an internet hospital cost-benefit evaluation index system based on a large public tertiary hospital, for references for improving the operation and management of internet hospitals.Methods:From May to October 2024, this study identified the elements of cost-benefit through on-site investigation, literature analysis and expert discussion, and built an initial evaluation index system of cost-benefit of internet hospitals; Delphi method and Pareto chart method were used to determine indicators and their weights; This evaluation index system was used to quantitatively evaluate an internet hospital since its operation for two years (from May 2022 to April 2024).Results:Five profit entities and 26 cost-benefit components had been identified; The expert authority coefficient of the two rounds of Delphi method was 0.73, and the Kendall coefficient was 0.80 ( P<0.001). The costs and benefits of an internet hospital since its operation for two years were 14.06 million yuan and 134.95 million yuan, respectively, with a benefit cost ratio of 9.60. Conclusions:The cost-benefit evaluation index system of internet hospitals built in this study was suitable for these relying on physical hospitals. This system was scientific and practical, and could provide references for cost-benefit evaluation of other Internet hospitals.
10.Study of an Assisted Diagnostic Model for Alzheimer's Disease based on Integrated Fusion of Multiple Views
Kai YU ; Xueling LI ; Yanbo ZHANG
Chinese Journal of Health Statistics 2025;42(3):344-349
Objective In this study,clinical data of Alzheimer's disease(AD)patients,structural magnetic resonance imaging(sMRI)data,and positron emission tomography(PET)data were used to construct an auxiliary diagnostic model with good classification effects,so as to formulate a personalized treatment plan at the early stage of the patients,which is of great significance for the prevention and treatment of AD.Methods In this study,a total of 401 study subjects containing complete sMRI images and PET images were selected from the ADNI-1(Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative-1,ADNI-1)database.We used statistical parameters mapping(SPM)and voxel-based morphometric(VBM)analysis of MATLAB to perform pre-processing operations such as spatial normalization and skull stripping on sMRI images and PET images of the study subjects.With the help of the brain atlas was used to segment the brain tissue structure.After that,the segmented gray matter was extracted from the corresponding brain regions based on anatomical automatic labeling,and the feature values of all brain regions were obtained.Then the extracted brain region feature values are then subjected to fisher score,support vector machine-recursive feature elimination(SVM-RFE)and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator(LASSO),a hybrid filtered-wrapped-embedded feature selection method with three different principles,to realize the dimensionality reduction of high-dimensional image data.Finally,the PAC-Bayesian strategy boosting based multi-view learning(PB-MVBoost)model is constructed based on multi-view decision fusion for clinical,sMRI and PET data.And it is compared with the traditional machine learning models support vector machine(SVM),decision tree(DT),K-nearest neighbor(KNN),random forests(RF),adaptive boosting(AdaBoost),and extreme gradient boosting(XGBoost)which are constructed after concatenating views.It is compared with multi-view multi-kernel learning models(AverageMKL,EasyMKL)and multi-view confusion matrix boosting,which is also the same multi-view decision fusion.Results Among all the multi-view fusion models of AD-MCI,the PB-MVBoost model based on decision fusion has the best performance(accuracy=0.98,F1-score=0.97,precision=0.98,recall=0.96,MSE=0.07).Among all the multi-view fusion models of MCI-NC,the model performance of PB-MVBoost based on decision fusion was the best(accuracy=0.99,F1-score=0.98,precision=0.99,recall=0.98,MSE=0.05).Conclusion In the classification of AD-MCI and MCI-NC,the distinction and calibration degree of PB-MVBoost model were optimized,indicating that the auxiliary diagnosis model of Alzheimer's disease constructed by PB-MVBoost classifier based on decision fusion performed the best,which could improve the recognition of patients with mild cognitive impairment and then assist clinical diagnosis.

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