1.Facial color-preserving generative adversarial network-based privacy protection of facial diagnostic images in traditional Chinese medicine
Jilong SHEN ; Aihua GUAN ; Xinyu WANG ; Jiadong XIE ; Youwei DING ; Kongfa HU
Digital Chinese Medicine 2025;8(4):455-466
Objective:
To develop a facial image generation method based on a facial color-preserving generative adversarial network (FCP-GAN) that effectively decouples identity features from diagnostic facial complexion characteristics in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) inspection, thereby addressing the critical challenge of privacy preservation in medical image analysis.
Methods:
A facial image dataset was constructed from participants at Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine between April 23 and June 10, 2023, using a TCM full-body inspection data acquisition equipment under controlled illumination. The proposed FCP-GAN model was designed to achieve the dual objectives of removing identity features and preserving colors through three key components: (i) a multi-space combination module that comprehensively extracts color attributes from red, green, blue (RGB), hue, saturation, value (HSV), and Lab spaces; (ii) a generator incorporating efficient channel attention (ECA) mechanism to enhance the representation of diagnostically critical color channels; and (iii) a dual-loss function that combines adversarial loss for de-identification with a dedicated color preservation loss. The model was trained and evaluated using a stratified 5-fold cross-validation strategy and evaluated against four baseline generative models: conditional GAN (CGAN), deep convolutional GAN (DCGAN), dual discriminator CGAN (DDCGAN), and medical GAN (MedGAN). Performance was assessed in terms of image quality [peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM)], distribution similarity [Fréchet inception distance (FID)], privacy protection (face recognition accuracy), and diagnostic consistency [mean squared error (MSE) and Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC)].
Results:
The final analysis included facial images from 216 participants. Compared with baseline models, FCP-GAN achieved superior performance, with PSNR = 31.02 dB and SSIM = 0.908, representing an improvement of 1.21 dB and 0.034 in SSIM over the strongest baseline (MedGAN). The FID value (23.45) was also the lowest among all models, indicating superior distributional similarity to real images. The multi-space feature fusion and the ECA mechanism contributed significantly to these performance gains, as evidenced by ablation studies. The stratified 5-fold cross-validation confirmed the model’s robustness, with results reported as mean ± standard deviation (SD) across all folds. The model effectively protected privacy by reducing face recognition accuracy from 95.2% (original images) to 60.1% (generated images). Critically, it maintained high diagnostic fidelity, as evidenced by a low MSE (< 0.051) and a high PCC (> 0.98) for key TCM facial features between original and generated images.
Conclusion
The FCP-GAN model provides an effective technical solution for ensuring privacy in TCM diagnostic imaging, successfully having removed identity features while preserving clinically vital facial color features. This study offers significant value for developing intelligent and secure TCM telemedicine systems.
2.A Method Based on the Complex Network for Mining the System Biological Information of Scutellaria Barbata D. Don
Chenjun HU ; Ju HE ; Jiadong XIE ; Peipei FANG ; Youwei DING ; Kongfa HU ; Yuqing MAO
World Science and Technology-Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2018;20(9):1506-1514
Scutellaria barbata D. Don is widely used in TCM clinical practice, so it is important to delve the information of its system biology. In this paper, we integrate its natural compounds and genomics information. The Herb-Prince complex networks algorithm is used to delve potential associated genes, gene families and KEGG signal pathways for Scutellaria barbata D. Don, and the information is verified by literature. The top 100 genes, 4 gene families and 10 KEGG signaling pathways were found. The related results are highly consistent with the clinical and pharmacological studies of Scutellaria barbata D. Don, which provide decision support for researchers to study pharmacological activities of Scutellaria barbata D. Don at the molecular level.
3.The effect of HIFU combined with nanoscale ultrasound molecular probes with simple virus thymidine kinase gene on angiogenesis in the nude mouse tumor
Hui XIE ; Shan LIU ; Hui ZENG ; Youwei LI ; Jin XU ; Xiong DING ; Changan LIU ; Feng LI
Chongqing Medicine 2017;46(6):725-728
Objective To observe the change of the protein and gene expression of hypoxia inducing factor-1α(HIF-1a) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the nude mouse tumor,which has been treated by HIFU combined with nanoscale ultrasound molecular probes with HSV1-TK gene microvascular density.Methods Sixty nude mice were implanted with HepG2 Cells to establish subcutaneous transplanted tumor.Divided this mice into six groups at random after treated by HIFU:MB+ HSV-TK+ GPC3 (group A),MB + HSV-TK (group B),HSV-TK +GPC3 (group C),HSV-TK (group D),MB + GPC3 (group E),PBS (group F).They were injected into the tail vein every after 3 days.Mice in group A,B,D and E were exposed to ultrasound by 2 W/cm2,1 MHz,5 mintues and 0.2 mL ganciclovi(GCV) was intraperitoneally injected at the first 48 hours after injection.After the treatment,immunohistoche were used to detect the microvascular density(MVD),Western blot and immunohistoche was employed to test the protein change of the VEGF and HIF-1α,Q-PCR was used to test the mRNA gene transcription of VEGF and HIF-1α in the tumor tissues.Results After 14 days,the protein expression of HIF-1α and VEGF in group A was significantly lower than that in group B,C,D,E and F (P<0.05),the MVD level in the tumor is also like this,and the difference is statistically significant.Conclusion Anoscale ultrasound molecular probes with HSV1-TK can reduce the the level of VEGF,MVD and HIF-1α in the tumor which has been treated by HIFU,so it can inhibit tumor growth and improve the therapeutic efficacy after HIFU treatment.
4.Biological characteristics of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells following cryopreservation
Youwei WANG ; Zhibo HAN ; Shulin YAN ; Aibin MAO ; Bin WANG ; Ding WANG ; Ke CHEN ; Zhongchao HAN
Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research 2010;14(10):1729-1733
BACKGROUND:An effective freezing-thawing technique is crucial for the clinical application of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells(UC-MSCs).OBJECTIVE:To investigate biological characteristics of UC-MSCs after cryopreservation.METHODS:UC-MSCs were isolated from human umbilical cord and frozen in liquid nitrogen.The survival rate and the suppressive effect of γ-interferon(IFN-γ)of cryopreserved-thawed and fresh human UC-MSCs were compared.Furthermore,the multiple potentials and phenotype of UC-MSCs were estimated after cryopreservation.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:There was no significant difference between cryopreserved-thawed and fresh human UC-MSCs on the survival rate and the suppressive effect of IFN-γ of peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs).After cryopreservation,human UC-MSCs had the potential differentiation and the phenotype of mesenchymal stem cells.

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