Objective To compare the benefits and drawbacks of primary patch expansion versus pericardial tube right ventricular-pulmonary artery connection in patients diagnosed with pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect (PA/VSD). Methods A retrospective study was conducted on patients diagnosed with PA/VSD who underwent primary right ventricular-pulmonary artery connection surgery at our center between 2010 and 2020. Patients were categorized into two groups based on the type of right ventricular-pulmonary artery connection: a pericardial tube group and a patch expansion group. Clinical data and imaging findings were compared between the two groups. Results A total of 51 patients were included in the study, comprising 31 males and 20 females, with a median age of 12.57 (4.57, 49.67) months. The pericardial tube group included 19 patients with a median age of 17.17 (7.33, 49.67) months, while the patch expansion group consisted of 32 patients with a median age of 8.58 (3.57, 52.72) months. In both groups, the diameter of pulmonary artery, McGoon index, and Nakata index significantly increased after treatment (P<0.001). However, the pericardial tube group exhibited a longer extracorporeal circulation time (P<0.001). The reoperation rate was notably high, with 74.51% of patients requiring further surgical intervention, including 26 (81.25%) patients in the patch expansion group and 12 (63.16%) patients in the pericardial tube group. No statistical differences were observed in long-term cure rates or mortality between the two groups (P＞0.005). Conclusion In patients with PA/VSD, both patch expansion and pericardial tube right ventricular-pulmonary artery connection serve as effective initial palliative treatment strategies that promote pulmonary vessel development and provide a favorable foundation for subsequent radical operations. However, compared to the pericardial tube approach, the patch expansion technique is simpler to perform and preserves some intrinsic potential for pulmonary artery development, making it the preferred procedure.

BACKGROUND: The association between uric acid-albumin ratio (UAR) with different diseases has been evaluated before. However, the association between UAR with spontaneous reperfusion (SR) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has not been explored. METHODS: STEMI patients admitted to our department and underwent primary coronary angiography between 1^st November 2018 and 31^st December 2020 were retrospectively enrolled. The patients were divided into the SR group and the non-SR group according to the index coronary angiography results. The association between UAR and SR was evaluated by uni-variable and multi-variable logistic analysis. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to determine the optimum cut-off level of UAR in predicting SR. RESULTS: Three hundred and fifty-seven patients were finally enrolled in our study, 55 patients were divided into the SR group and 302 patients were divided into the non-SR group. In uni-variable analysis, patients with SR were older (P = 0.032), with higher red blood cell distribution width (P < 0.001) and red blood cell distribution width-to-platelet ratio (P < 0.001), higher level of C-reactive protein (P = 0.046), higher level of uric acid (P < 0.001) compared with patients without SR. Patients with SR had a lower level of platelets (P = 0.008), lower level of on-admission B-type natriuretic peptide (P < 0.001). As for the level of UAR, STEMI patients with SR had significantly higher levels of UAR compared with STEMI patients without SR [11.1 (8.9-13.4) vs. 8.3 (6.6-10.0), P < 0.001]. Further multi-variable logistic analysis reveals that UAR was the independent risk factor of SR in different models after adjusting different variables. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that UAR had good predictive value in SR (AUC = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.702-0.794, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Our study shows that UAR is an independent risk factor for predicting SR in STEMI patients.

Poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation (PARylation) is a specific form of post-translational modification (PTM) predominantly triggered by the activation of poly-ADP-ribose polymerase 1 (PARP1). However, the role and mechanism of PARylation in the advancement of acute kidney injury (AKI) remain undetermined. Here, we demonstrated the significant upregulation of PARP1 and its associated PARylation in murine models of AKI, consistent with renal biopsy findings in patients with AKI. This elevation in PARP1 expression might be attributed to trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4me3). Furthermore, a reduction in PARylation levels mitigated renal dysfunction in the AKI mouse models. Mechanistically, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry indicated that PARylation mainly occurred in receptor for activated C kinase 1 (RACK1), thereby facilitating its subsequent phosphorylation. Moreover, the phosphorylation of RACK1 enhanced its dimerization and accelerated the ubiquitination-mediated hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) degradation, thereby exacerbating kidney injury. Additionally, we identified a PARP1 proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC), A19, as a PARP1 degrader that demonstrated superior protective effects against renal injury compared with PJ34, a previously identified PARP1 inhibitor. Collectively, both genetic and drug-based inhibition of PARylation mitigated kidney injury, indicating that the PARylated RACK1/HIF-1α axis could be a promising therapeutic target for AKI treatment.

The prelimbic cortex (PL) plays a critical role in processing both the sensory and affective components of pain. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. In this study, we observed a reduction in hyperpolarization-activated cation current (I_h) in layer V pyramidal neurons of the contralateral PL in a mouse model of spared nerve injury (SNI). The expression of hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated 2 (HCN2) channels was also decreased in the contralateral PL. Conversely, microinjection of fisetin, a partial agonist of HCN2, produced both analgesic and anxiolytic effects. Additionally, we found that cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) was activated in the contralateral PL, where it formed a complex with HCN2 and phosphorylated its C-terminus. Knockdown of CDK5 restored HCN2 expression and alleviated both pain hypersensitivity and anxiety-like behaviors. Collectively, these results indicate that CDK5-mediated dysfunction of HCN2 in the PL underlies nerve injury-induced mechanical hypersensitivity and anxiety.
Animals ; Hyperpolarization-Activated Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Channels/metabolism* ; Hyperalgesia/metabolism* ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 5/metabolism* ; Neuralgia/metabolism* ; Male ; Anxiety/metabolism* ; Mice ; Potassium Channels/metabolism* ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Disease Models, Animal ; Pyramidal Cells/metabolism*

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the specific mechanisms by which electroacupuncture (EA) alleviates anxiety and fear behaviors associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), focusing on the role of lipocalin-2 (Lcn2). METHODS: The PTSD mouse model was subjected to single prolonged stress and shock (SPS&S), and the animals received 15 min sessions of EA at Shenmen acupoint (HT7). Behavioral tests were used to investigate the effects of EA at HT7 on anxiety and fear. Western blotting and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used to quantify Lcn2 and inflammatory cytokine levels in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Additionally, the activity of PFC neurons was evaluated by immunofluorescence and in vivo electrophysiology. RESULTS: Mice subjected to SPS&S presented increased anxiety- and fear-like behaviors. Lcn2 expression in the PFC was significantly upregulated following SPS&S, leading to increased expression of the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 and suppression of PFC neuronal activity. However, EA at HT7 inhibited Lcn2 release, reducing neuroinflammation and hypoexcitability in the PFC. Lcn2 overexpression mitigated the effects of EA at HT7, resulting in anxiety- and fear-like behaviors. CONCLUSION EA at HT7 can ameliorate PTSD-associated anxiety and fear, and its mechanism of action appears to involve the inhibition of Lcn2-mediated neural activity and inflammation in the PFC. Please cite this article as: Yang YD, Zhong W, Chen M, Tang QC, Li Y, Yao LL, et al. Electroacupuncture alleviates behaviors associated with posttraumatic stress disorder by modulating lipocalin-2-mediated neuroinflammation and neuronal activity in the prefrontal cortex. J Integr Med. 2025; 23(5):537-547.
Electroacupuncture ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/metabolism* ; Animals ; Lipocalin-2/metabolism* ; Prefrontal Cortex/physiopathology* ; Male ; Mice ; Neurons/physiology* ; Disease Models, Animal ; Fear ; Behavior, Animal ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Neuroinflammatory Diseases/metabolism* ; Anxiety/therapy* ; Acupuncture Points

Objective To analyze the computed tomography(CT)imaging features of urachal carcinoma and evaluate its diagnostic value.Methods The clinical data of 20 patients with urachal carcinoma confirmed by surgery and pathology,who were admitted to The First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University from Dec.2012 to Dec.2022,were collected.Seventeen of the 20 patients underwent enhanced CT urography and 3 underwent pelvic CT plain scan+enhanced scan.After scanning,multiplanar reconstruction was performed on the post-processing workstation.The general data,clinical symptoms,CT imaging findings,pathological data,and prognosis of the patients were analyzed and summarized.Results The patients included 16 males and 4 females,aged 27 to 75 years old,with a median age of 61.50(41.50,71.25)years old.The tumors were all located in the anterior wall of the bladder,along the urachus,with a maximum diameter of 1.72-5.55 cm and a median maximum diameter of 3.34(2.48,3.71)cm.Fourteen cases had cystic-solid lesions and 6 had solid lesions.In the cystic-solid lesions,9 cases showed the"upper cystic and lower solid"sign on the sagittal plane.Calcification was noted in 17 cases.After enhanced scanning,18 cases showed progressive enhancement,and 2 cases showed"fast in and fast out"enhancement.Tumor invasion extended beyond the urachus and/or bladder muscle layer in 19 cases.At the end of follow-up,3 cases had recurrence,2 had metastasis,5 had no recurrence after surgery,3 died,and 7 were lost to follow-up.Conclusion Urachal carcinoma has certain characteristic manifestations on CT imaging.Reconstructing the sagittal plane with enhanced CT scanning and multiplanner reformation can help preoperative diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of urachal carcinoma.

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.

G protein-coupled receptor (GPR) 40, as one of GPRs family, plays a potential role in regulating glucose and lipid metabolism. To study the effect of GPR40 novel agonist SZZ15-11 on hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia and its potential mechanism, spontaneous type 2 diabetic KKA^y mice, human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells and murine mature adipocyte 3T3-L1 cells were used. KKA^y mice were divided into four groups, vehicle group, TAK group, SZZ (50 mg·kg^-1) group and SZZ (100 mg·kg^-1) group, with oral gavage of 0.5% sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), 50 mg·kg^-1 TAK875, 50 and 100 mg·kg^-1 SZZ15-11 respectively for 45 days. Fasting blood glucose, blood triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC), non-fasting blood glucose were tested. Oral glucose tolerance test and insulin tolerance test were executed. Blood insulin and glucagon were measured via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). After mice′s execution, liver tissue was harvested to test TG and TC content. Then pathological morphology of liver was observed through hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining, and the lipid metabolism relative signal pathway was analyzed by Western blot and RT-PCR. The experiments were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College. At the same time, Akt phosphorylation level in HepG2 cells and adiponectin in 3T3-L1 cells treated with TNFα were measured with Western blot. The results show that SZZ15-11 not only decreased blood glucose and lipid, improved insulin sensitivity, but also increased fasting blood glucagon and promoted insulin secretion after glucose loading in KKA^y mice. Additionally, SZZ15-11 alleviated hepatic steatosis and liver dysfunction in KKA^y mice. In liver tissue, SZZ15-11 increased AMPKα phosphorylation level and cholesterol metabolism relative gene Abcg8 transcription. In HepG2 cells, SZZ15-11 increased Akt phosphorylation level. In adipocyte 3T3-L1, SZZ15-11 recovered the decreased adiponectin expression by TNFα. This study proved that GPR40 agonist SZZ15-11 could be a candidate compound for regulating glucolipid metabolic disorder.

Objective This study aimed to investigate the factors influencing the personal burden rate incerebral ische-mic patients,compare the difference in the burden rate among the patients with varying degrees of cerebral ischemia,provide a reference for establishing a personal burden rate evaluation,and propose suggestions for control its increase.Methods The medi-cal insurance data were collected from 8164 discharged patients in a tertiary hospital in Tianjin between January and December 2022.With the data,the Generalized Linear Model was utilized to analyze the factors affecting the personal burden rate across different Diagnosis Related Groups(DRGs).Results Statistically significant differences were observed in the cost structure a-mong different DRGs.Age,length of hospital stays,total hospitalization cost,hospital admission mode,number of hospitaliza-tions,and type of medical insurance significantly impacted the personal burden rate.The personal burden rate was inversely cor-related with age and length of hospital stays,but directly correlated with the total hospitalization cost.The patients admitted from emergency,first-time hospitalization,and those covered by the basic medical insurance program for urban employees had a lower personal burden rate.Conclusion Hospitals should establish diverse personal burden rate performance evaluation standards for patients with different types of medical insurance,incorporating factors such as average length of hospital stays and average hospi-talization cost.A more equitable hospital internal assessment plan should be developed by considering patients admitted to differ-ent departments and aligning with the characteristics of clinical pathways.Medical institutions should minimize self-funded pro-jects under declared medical insurance,increase the enrollment of cases in DRGs,and promote tiered diagnosis and treatment to reduce the personal burden rate for patients.

Objective To investigate the effects of a 45％high-fat diet(HFD)with isocaloric intake on energy metabolism and endurance exercise capacity in SD rats.Methods Twenty-four male SD rats were randomly divided into normal chow diet group(CON),HFD group,normal chow diet+exercise training group(CONT),and HFD+exercise training group(HFDT).The CON and CONT groups received normal chow diet,while the HFD and HFDT groups received a 45％high-fat diet with isocaloric intake.The HFDT and CONT groups underwent an endurance training of moderate-intensity running for 6 weeks.Body weight,fat mass,and lean mass were measured weekly.Energy expenditure and basal metabolic rate during rest and exercise states were measured using Pheno Master/Calo Treadmill system.Blood glucose,lipids,and creatine kinase levels were detected after the exhaustion test.Results In 6 weeks after intervention,the endurance exercise capacity was significantly enhanced in the HFDT group than the CONT group(P＜0.05).There were no obvious differences in body weight and body composition among the groups under isoenergetic feeding conditions.At rest,no statistical differences were observed in total energy expenditure and basal metabolic rate among the groups.However,prior to the 4th week,the CON group primarily metabolized carbohydrates while the HFD group primarily metabolized fats.But the carbohydrate metabolism was decreased and then increased,and the substrate metabolism rates eventually reached similar levels between the 2 groups on the 5th to 6th week.The HFDT group primarily metabolized fats while the CONT group primarily metabolized carbohydrates,with significant differences persisting after 6 weeks of training(P＜0.05).HFD led to elevated levels of serum cholesterol,triglycerides(TG),and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C),but,endurance training resulted in decreased lipid levels in the HFDT group,accompanied by an increase inβ-hydroxybutyrate(βHB)level(P＜0.05).Isoenergetic diets had no significant differences in their effects on liver and kidney function or muscle damage indicators.Conclusion An isoenergetic HFD can improve fat utilization ability and extend endurance exercise time in rats without altering body composition or affecting liver and kidney function.