Objective:To explore the real-life experiences of patients six months after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG), aiming to provide a reference for developing intervention plans.Methods:This was a descriptive phenomenological study. Purposeful sampling and maximum variation sampling were used to select 24 patients who underwent LSG at the Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University from February to August 2023. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted, and the Colaizzi 7-step analysis method was applied to inductively extract and refine the themes.Results:A total of six main themes and ten sub-themes were identified through analysis. The main themes were: desires to improve postoperative physical symptoms (gastrointestinal symptoms, hair loss, neurological symptoms, and general symptoms) ; perception of subjective emotions (anxiety, regret, fear, and confidence) ; decreased social adaptability (decline in work ability, impaired social skills) ; general low compliance; desire for professional guidance; and postoperative benefit finding.Conclusions:Six months after LSG, patients primarily experienced physical symptom disturbances, poor psychological states, decreased social adaptability, low compliance, and a desire for professional guidance. However, they also recognized various benefits of the surgery. Healthcare providers should strengthen dynamic symptom assessments and management, guide patients psychologically, enhance social support, and actively improve follow-up and continuous care to help patients improve self-coping abilities and weight loss outcomes.

Objective:To examine the impact of returned migration experience on the prevalence of non-sui-cidal self-injury(NSSI)and its associations with childhood emotional maltreatment(EM),social support and sleep quality.Methods:A total of 3 901 middle school students in Guizhou Province were investigated with the Adoles-cent NSSI behavior Questionnaire,Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-short Form(CTQ-SF),Adolescent Social Sup-port Scale,and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI).Results:The prevalence of NSSI among middle school students in Guizhou province was 22.8％,with the rate of 27.3％among returned migrant middle school students.Social support and sleep quality partially mediate the relationship between childhood EM and NSSI in mid-dle school students,with effect sizes of 0.06.The EM scores of returned migrant middle school students(β=-0.62)and non-returned migrant middle school students(β=-0.50)were negatively correlated with social sup-port scores in childhood.The sleep quality scores of returned migrant students(β=0.22)and non-returned migrant students(β=0.14)were positively correlated with NSSI scores.Conclusion:The prevalence of NSSI in returned migrant students is higher.Social support and sleep quality play an important role in the relationship between child-hood EM and NSSI in middle school students.The relationship between childhood EM and social support,sleep quality and NSSI in returned migrant middle school students is stronger than that in non-returned migrant middle school students.

The study aimed to construct the second and third generation chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) targeting the c-mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (c-Met) protein, and observe their killing effect on human serous ovarian cancer cell SKOV-3. The expression of MET gene in ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma, the correlation between MET gene expression and the abundance of immune cell infiltration, and the effect of MET gene expression on the tissue function of ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma were analyzed by bioinformatics. The expression of c-Met in ovarian cancer tissues and adjacent tissues was detected by immunohistochemical staining. The second and third generation c-Met CAR-T cells, namely c-Met CAR-T(2G/3G), were prepared by lentivirus infection, and the cell subsets and infection efficiency were detected by flow cytometry. Using CD19 CAR-T and activated T cells as control groups and A2780 cells with c-Met negative expression as Non target groups, the kill efficiency on SKOV-3 cells with c-Met positive expression, cytokine release and cell proliferation of c-Met CAR-T(2G/3G) were explored by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, ELISA and CCK-8 respectively. The results showed that MET gene expression was significantly up-regulated in ovarian cancer tissues compared with normal tissues, which was consistent with the immunohistochemistry results. However, in all pathological stages, there was no obvious difference in MET expression and no correlation between MET gene expression and the race and age of ovarian cancer patients. The second generation and third generation c-Met CAR-T cells were successfully constructed. After lentivirus infection, the proportion of CD8⁺ T cells in c-Met CAR-T(2G) was upregulated, while there was no significant change in the cell subsets of c-Met CAR-T(3G). The LDH release experiment showed that the kill efficiency of c-Met CAR-T(2G/3G) on SKOV-3 increased with the increase of effect-target ratio. When the effect-target ratio was 20:1, the kill efficiency of c-Met CAR-T(2G) reached (42.02 ± 5.17)% (P < 0.05), and the kill efficiency of c-Met CAR-T(3G) reached (51.40 ± 2.71)% (P < 0.05). ELISA results showed that c-Met CAR-T released more cytokine compared to CD19 CAR-T and activated T cells (P < 0.05). Moreover, the cytokine release of c-Met CAR-T(3G) was higher than c-Met CAR-T(2G) (P < 0.01). The CCK-8 results showed that after 48 h, the cell number of c-Met CAR-T(2G) was higher than that of c-Met CAR-T(3G) (P < 0.01). In conclusion, both the second and third generation c-Met CAR-T can target and kill c-Met-positive SKOV-3 cells, with no significant difference. c-Met CAR-T(2G) has stronger proliferative ability, and c-Met CAR-T(3G) releases more cytokines.
Humans ; Female ; Ovarian Neoplasms/immunology* ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-met/metabolism* ; Receptors, Chimeric Antigen/immunology* ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cystadenocarcinoma, Serous/immunology* ; T-Lymphocytes/immunology*

OBJECTIVE: Varied acupoint selections represent a potential cause of the uncertainty surrounding the efficacy of acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis (OA). Skin temperature, a guiding factor for acupoint selection, may help to address this issue. This study explored thermal sensitization of acupoints used for the treatment of knee OA. METHODS: This cross-sectional case-control study enrolled cases aged 45-75 years with symptomatic knee OA and age- and gender-matched non-knee OA controls in a 1:1 ratio. All participants underwent infrared thermographic imaging. The primary outcome was the relative skin temperature of acupoint (STA), and the secondary outcome was the absolute STA of 11 acupoints. The Z test was used to compare the relative and absolute STAs between the groups. Principal component analysis was used to extract the common factors (CFs, acupoint cluster) in the STAs. A general linear model was used to identify factors affecting the STA in the knee OA cases. For the group comparisons of relative STA, P < 0.0045 (adjusted for 11 acupoints through Bonferroni correction) was considered to indicate statistical significance. For other analyses, P < 0.05 was used as the threshold for statistical significance. RESULTS: The analysis included 308 participants, consisting of 151 cases (mean age: [64.58 ± 6.67] years; male: 25.83%; mean body mass index: [25.70 ± 3.16] kg/m²) and 157 controls (mean age: [63.37 ± 5.96] years; male: 26.11%; mean body mass index: [24.47 ± 2.84] kg/m²). The relative STAs of ST34 (P = 0.0001), EX-LE2 (P < 0.0001), EX-LE5 (P = 0.0006), SP10 (P < 0.0001), BL40 (P = 0.0012) and GB39 (P = 0.0037) were higher in the knee OA group. No difference was found in the STAs of ST35, ST36, SP9, GB33 and GB34. Four CFs were identified for relative STA in both groups. The acupoints within each CF were consistent between the groups. The mean values of the relative STAs across each CF were higher in the knee OA group. In the knee OA cases, no factors were observed to affect the relative STA, while age and gender were found to affect the absolute STA. CONCLUSION Among patients with knee OA, thermal sensitization occurs in the acupoints of the lower extremity, exhibiting localized and regional thermal consistencies. The thermally sensitized acupoints that we identified in this study, ST34, SP10, EX-LE2, EX-LE5, GB39 and BL40, may be good choices for the acupuncture treatment of knee OA. Please cite this article as: Tu JF, Wang XZ, Yan SY, Wang YR, Yang JW, Shi GX, Zhang WZ, Jing LN, Yang LS, Liu DH, Wang LQ, Mi BH. Thermal sensitization of acupoints in patients with knee osteoarthritis: A cross-sectional case-control study. J Integr Med. 2025; 23(3): 289-296.
Humans ; Osteoarthritis, Knee/physiopathology* ; Male ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Middle Aged ; Female ; Acupuncture Points ; Case-Control Studies ; Aged ; Skin Temperature ; Acupuncture Therapy

OBJECTIVE: Humans are exposed to complex mixtures of environmental chemicals and other factors that can affect their health. Analysis of these mixture exposures presents several key challenges for environmental epidemiology and risk assessment, including high dimensionality, correlated exposure, and subtle individual effects. METHODS: We proposed a novel statistical approach, the generalized functional linear model (GFLM), to analyze the health effects of exposure mixtures. GFLM treats the effect of mixture exposures as a smooth function by reordering exposures based on specific mechanisms and capturing internal correlations to provide a meaningful estimation and interpretation. The robustness and efficiency was evaluated under various scenarios through extensive simulation studies. RESULTS: We applied the GFLM to two datasets from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). In the first application, we examined the effects of 37 nutrients on BMI (2011-2016 cycles). The GFLM identified a significant mixture effect, with fiber and fat emerging as the nutrients with the greatest negative and positive effects on BMI, respectively. For the second application, we investigated the association between four pre- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and gout risk (2007-2018 cycles). Unlike traditional methods, the GFLM indicated no significant association, demonstrating its robustness to multicollinearity. CONCLUSION GFLM framework is a powerful tool for mixture exposure analysis, offering improved handling of correlated exposures and interpretable results. It demonstrates robust performance across various scenarios and real-world applications, advancing our understanding of complex environmental exposures and their health impacts on environmental epidemiology and toxicology.
Humans ; Environmental Exposure/analysis* ; Linear Models ; Nutrition Surveys ; Environmental Pollutants ; Body Mass Index

ObjectiveNon-invasive magnetic stimulation technology has been widely used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but there is a lack of convenient and timely methods for evaluating and providing feedback on the effectiveness of the stimulation, which can be used to guide the adjustment of the stimulation protocol. This study aims to explore the possibility of heart rate variability (HRV) in diagnosing AD and guiding AD magnetic stimulation intervention techniques. MethodsIn this study, we used a 40 Hz, 10 mT pulsed magnetic field to expose AD mouse models to whole-body exposure for 18 d, and detected the behavioral and electroencephalographic signals before and after exposure, as well as the instant electrocardiographic signals after exposure every day. ResultsUsing one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient analysis, we found that some HRV indicators could identify AD mouse models as accurately as behavioral and electroencephalogram(EEG) changes (P<0.05) and significantly distinguish the severity of the disease (P<0.05), including rMSSD, pNN6, LF/HF, SD1/SD2, and entropy arrangement. These HRV indicators showed good correlation and statistical significance with behavioral and EEG changes (r>0.3, P<0.05); HRV indicators were significantly modulated by the magnetic field exposure before and after the exposure, both of which were observed in the continuous changes of electrocardiogram (ECG) (P<0.05), and the trend of the stimulation effect was more accurately observed in the continuous changes of ECG. ConclusionHRV can accurately reflect the pathophysiological changes and disease degree, quickly evaluate the effect of magnetic stimulation, and has the potential to guide the pattern of magnetic exposure, providing a new idea for the study of personalized electromagnetic neuroregulation technology for brain diseases.

Heart failure(HF)is a cardiovascular disease with a high prevalence and mortality rate worldwide,and despite the widespread use of existing drugs,device intervetions and surgical procedures,the clinical outcomes are still unsatisfactory.The exploration of new methods to treat HF is still an urgent problem.Gene therapy provides a new therapeutic strategy for HF by targeting the regulation of pathogenic genes.This article systematically reviewed the delivery system optimization,key targets and clinical translational challenges of gene therapy for HF,aiming to provide a theoretical basis for the optimization of treatment strategies.

Objective:To examine the impact of returned migration experience on the prevalence of non-sui-cidal self-injury(NSSI)and its associations with childhood emotional maltreatment(EM),social support and sleep quality.Methods:A total of 3 901 middle school students in Guizhou Province were investigated with the Adoles-cent NSSI behavior Questionnaire,Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-short Form(CTQ-SF),Adolescent Social Sup-port Scale,and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI).Results:The prevalence of NSSI among middle school students in Guizhou province was 22.8％,with the rate of 27.3％among returned migrant middle school students.Social support and sleep quality partially mediate the relationship between childhood EM and NSSI in mid-dle school students,with effect sizes of 0.06.The EM scores of returned migrant middle school students(β=-0.62)and non-returned migrant middle school students(β=-0.50)were negatively correlated with social sup-port scores in childhood.The sleep quality scores of returned migrant students(β=0.22)and non-returned migrant students(β=0.14)were positively correlated with NSSI scores.Conclusion:The prevalence of NSSI in returned migrant students is higher.Social support and sleep quality play an important role in the relationship between child-hood EM and NSSI in middle school students.The relationship between childhood EM and social support,sleep quality and NSSI in returned migrant middle school students is stronger than that in non-returned migrant middle school students.

Objective:To explore the real-life experiences of patients six months after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG), aiming to provide a reference for developing intervention plans.Methods:This was a descriptive phenomenological study. Purposeful sampling and maximum variation sampling were used to select 24 patients who underwent LSG at the Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University from February to August 2023. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted, and the Colaizzi 7-step analysis method was applied to inductively extract and refine the themes.Results:A total of six main themes and ten sub-themes were identified through analysis. The main themes were: desires to improve postoperative physical symptoms (gastrointestinal symptoms, hair loss, neurological symptoms, and general symptoms) ; perception of subjective emotions (anxiety, regret, fear, and confidence) ; decreased social adaptability (decline in work ability, impaired social skills) ; general low compliance; desire for professional guidance; and postoperative benefit finding.Conclusions:Six months after LSG, patients primarily experienced physical symptom disturbances, poor psychological states, decreased social adaptability, low compliance, and a desire for professional guidance. However, they also recognized various benefits of the surgery. Healthcare providers should strengthen dynamic symptom assessments and management, guide patients psychologically, enhance social support, and actively improve follow-up and continuous care to help patients improve self-coping abilities and weight loss outcomes.