Objective:To investigate the effect of inhibitory activity of high mobility group protein B1 (HMGB1), signal transduction and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) on myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats.Methods:In vivo and in vitro models of MIRI were established. SD rats were randomly divided into a sham group, a model group, a glycyrrhizic acid group, and a NSC74859 group, with 6 rats in each group. Rats in the sham group were not ligation, and rats in the sham group and model group were not given medication. The rats in the glycyrrhizic acid group and the NSC74859 group were injected with HMGB1 antagonist glycyrrhizic acid or STAT3 inhibitor NSC74859 5 mg/kg in the tail vein at 12 h 30 min before ischemia/reperfusion and 30 min after ischemia, respectively. Left ventricular shortening fraction (FS) and left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) were evaluated by echocardiography, and apoptosis of cardiomyocytes was evaluated by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) and TUNEL staining. The expression levels of HMGB1, STAT3, and phosphorylated STAT3 (p-STAT3) were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR and Western Blot. The viability of H9C2 cells was determined by the MTS assay, intracellular ATP content was determined, and the mitochondrial membrane potential of H9C2 cells was measured by flow cytometry to evaluate the survival of cardiomyocytes. The action mode of HMGB1/STAT3 was studied by the immunoprecipitation method. The expression and migration of HMGB1/STAT3 in the nucleus and cytoplasm were detected by immunostaining. Results:After inhibiting the expression of HMGB1 or STAT3, EF and FS were increased, and immune infiltration and apoptosis of cardiomyocytes were decreased. Inhibition of HMGB1 expression could decrease the expression of STAT3, but inhibition of STAT3 expression didn’t affect the expression of HMGB1. Hypoxia could lead to increased expression of HMGB1 and p-STAT3, and decreased expression of STAT3. After 8 hours of hypoxia, the expression level of STAT3 suddenly increased. After reoxygenation, the expression of HMGB1 and STAT3 decreased, and the expression of p-STAT3 increased, but p-STAT3 (Ser 727) didn’t participate in this process. After ischemia-reperfusion injury, HMGB1 and STAT3 binded firmly in cardiomyocytes, but inhibition of STAT3 or HMGB1 weakened this binding. Inhibition of HMGB1 or STAT3 expression could reduce myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. The expression of HMGB1 in reoxygenated cardiomyocytes increased after hypoxia, and HMGB1 migrated from the nucleus to the cytoplasm.Conclusions:Inhibiting the activity of the HMGB1/STAT3 axis effectively reduces MIRI in rats.

The orbitofrontal cortex (ORB), a region crucial for stimulus-reward association, decision-making, and flexible behaviors, extensively connects with other brain areas. However, brain-wide inputs to projection-defined ORB neurons and the distribution of inhibitory neurons postsynaptic to neurons in specific ORB subregions remain poorly characterized. Here we mapped the inputs of five types of projection-specific ORB neurons and ORB outputs to two types of inhibitory neurons. We found that different projection-defined ORB neurons received inputs from similar cortical and thalamic regions, albeit with quantitative variations, particularly in somatomotor areas and medial groups of the dorsal thalamus. By counting parvalbumin (PV) or somatostatin (SST) interneurons innervated by neurons in specific ORB subregions, we found a higher fraction of PV neurons in sensory cortices and a higher fraction of SST neurons in subcortical regions targeted by medial ORB neurons. These results provide insights into understanding and investigating the function of specific ORB neurons.
Animals ; Neurons/physiology* ; Mice ; Prefrontal Cortex/cytology* ; Parvalbumins/metabolism* ; Brain Mapping/methods* ; Neural Pathways/physiology* ; Somatostatin/metabolism* ; Male ; Interneurons/physiology* ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Thalamus/physiology* ; Mice, Transgenic

OBJECTIVE: To determine features of the clinical manifestation in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), and to provide a scientific basis for diagnosis of PBC.
 METHODS: A total of 102 patients with PBC treated in the Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, from January 2013 to January 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients' general condition, clinical manifestations, serum biochemical and immunological parameters were detected.
 RESULTS: Of the 102 PBC patients, 91 (89.21%) patients were female. The main symptoms in these patients were fatigue, poor appetite, dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, pruritus, stomachache, and abdominal distension. The major signs were jaundice, splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, edema, and ascites. The main features of serum biochemical parameters in these patients included the increase of alkaline phosphatase and gamma glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT), especially the GGT. The anti-mitochondrial antibodies-M2 (AMA-M2) in 81 and 21 patients was positive and negative, respectively. The differences between the AMA-MA positive and negative groups were not statistically significant (P>0.05). According to clinical manifestation, 102 patients were classified into 2 groups: A non-cirrhosis group (n=56) and a cirrhosis group (n=46). The positive rates in these 2 groups, such as ANA, AMA-M2, anti-gp210, anti-Sp100, anti-Ro52, anti-PML, were 54.35%, 89.13%, 41.30%, 13.04%, 43.38% and 10.87% vs 57.14%, 71.43%, 42.86%, 12.5%, 51.79% and 3.71%, respectively, with no significant difference between them (P>0.05). However, there was significant difference in the positive rate of anti-3E-EPO between the above 2 groups (86.78% vs 58.93%, P<0.05). The positive rates of AMA-M2 and anti-3E-EPO in 30 patients diagnosed by hepatic histopathological examination were higher than those of other antibodies.
 CONCLUSION PBC mainly affects middle-aged women, and its clinical manifestation is various. The autoantibody tests play an important role in diagnosis of PBC. Checking for AMA-A2 and anti-3E-BPO can improve the positive rate of PBC. Liver histopathological examination may provide useful information on disease severity, which can determine the histological stage when the patient's serum autoantibodies are negative.
Alkaline Phosphatase ; metabolism ; Autoantibodies ; blood ; Female ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary ; diagnosis ; pathology ; Male ; Mitochondria ; Retrospective Studies ; gamma-Glutamyltransferase ; metabolism