Background Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a common chronic urinary disease in middle-aged and older men, yet the impact of long-term exposure to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) on its pathogenesis remains unclear. Objective To investigate the association between PM exposure and the risk of incident BPH in middle-aged and older men. Methods Based on four waves of follow-up data (2011–2018) from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), 4766 participants were enrolled. Robust Poisson regression models were employed to assess the association between exposure to PM (PM₁, PM_2.5, and PM₁₀) and the risk of incident BPH. Relative risks (RR) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were calculated. Dose-response relationships were fitted using restricted cubic splines (RCS). Subgroup analyses were performed to explore potential effect modifications, and multiple imputation was used to handle missing data. Results Over a mean follow-up of 6 years, 914 incident BPH cases were identified among the4766 participants (cumulative incidence: 19.18%). After adjusting for confounders, each 10 μg·m⁻³ increase in PM₁, PM_2.5, and PM₁₀ concentrations was associated with a 13.1% (RR=1.131, 95%CI: 1.063, 1.203), 8.5% (RR=1.085, 95%CI: 1.050, 1.122), and 5.1% (RR=1.051, 95%CI: 1.034, 1.069) increased risk of BPH, respectively. RCS analysis showed that no nonlinear relationship was found between PM₁ and PM_2.5 and the risk of BPH (P>0.05); however, a nonlinear association was observed for PM₁₀ (P=0.03), with the risk increment slowing beyond 100 μg·m⁻³. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of these findings. Conclusion Long-term exposure to ambient particulate matter may be associated with an increased risk of incident BPH in middle-aged and older men.

Background Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a common chronic urinary disease in middle-aged and older men, yet the impact of long-term exposure to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) on its pathogenesis remains unclear. Objective To investigate the association between PM exposure and the risk of incident BPH in middle-aged and older men. Methods Based on four waves of follow-up data (2011–2018) from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), 4766 participants were enrolled. Robust Poisson regression models were employed to assess the association between exposure to PM (PM₁, PM_2.5, and PM₁₀) and the risk of incident BPH. Relative risks (RR) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were calculated. Dose-response relationships were fitted using restricted cubic splines (RCS). Subgroup analyses were performed to explore potential effect modifications, and multiple imputation was used to handle missing data. Results Over a mean follow-up of 6 years, 914 incident BPH cases were identified among the4766 participants (cumulative incidence: 19.18%). After adjusting for confounders, each 10 μg·m⁻³ increase in PM₁, PM_2.5, and PM₁₀ concentrations was associated with a 13.1% (RR=1.131, 95%CI: 1.063, 1.203), 8.5% (RR=1.085, 95%CI: 1.050, 1.122), and 5.1% (RR=1.051, 95%CI: 1.034, 1.069) increased risk of BPH, respectively. RCS analysis showed that no nonlinear relationship was found between PM₁ and PM_2.5 and the risk of BPH (P>0.05); however, a nonlinear association was observed for PM₁₀ (P=0.03), with the risk increment slowing beyond 100 μg·m⁻³. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of these findings. Conclusion Long-term exposure to ambient particulate matter may be associated with an increased risk of incident BPH in middle-aged and older men.

Background The escalating challenges of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) pollution and global warming pose significant threats to human health. Previous studies have demonstrated that prenatal exposure to PM_2.5 and heat is associated with restricted fetal and offspring growth. However, the combined effects of co-exposure to PM_2.5 and heat remain poorly understood, and the underlying biological mechanisms have yet to be elucidated. Objective To investigate the independent and combined effects of maternal exposure to PM_2.5 and heat on offspring growth and thyroid hormone levels in rats. Methods Eight-week-old SPF Wistar rats were used. Females and males were mated at a 2:1 ratio. After confirming pregnancy, 36 pregnant rats were randomly assigned to four groups: combined PM_2.5 and heat exposure, PM_2.5 exposure, heat exposure, and control. PM_2.5 exposure was administered via intratracheal instillation (0.3 mL, 2 mg·mL⁻¹) daily. Heat exposure was conducted in a programmable constant temperature and humidity chamber maintained at (38.0±1.0)℃ for 1 h daily. Exposures were administered from gestational days (GD) 7 to 13. Offspring were raised for 42 postnatal days (PND), with body weight measured twice weekly at fixed time points. On PND42, blood was collected to separate plasma for the measurement of free triiodothyronine (FT₃) and free thyroxine (FT₄) levels using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Linear mixed-effects models were used to examine the interactive effects of PM_2.5 and heat exposure on offspring body weight and weight gain. One-way analysis of variance was conducted to compare the differences in offspring body weight at each time point and thyroid hormone levels among groups. Correlations between thyroid hormone levels and weight changes were assessed using Spearman's rank correlation analysis. Results Both prenatal PM_2.5 exposure alone and its combination with heat exposure were associated with higher offspring body weight at specific postnatal time points. Offspring in the PM_2.5 exposure group had higher body weight than controls on PND7 and PND21, while those in the combined exposure group had higher body weight on PND7 and PND21-35 (P<0.05), and this effect was stronger in female offspring. The heat exposure group showed significantly lower birth weight than other groups (P<0.05), but this difference gradually disappeared during development. Plasma FT₃ levels were higher in the PM_2.5 exposure group than in the heat exposure and the control groups (P<0.05), but this difference was statistically significant only in female offspring. Plasma FT3 levels were positively correlated with body weight from PND7 to PND42, with correlation coefficients of 0.316–0.539 in all offspring (P<0.05) and 0.419–0.706 in females (P<0.05), while no significant correlation was observed in males. Conclusion Prenatal exposure to PM_2.5 alone or a combination of PM_2.5 and heat may affect postnatal body weight gain in offspring in a time-dependent manner, with more pronounced effects observed in female offspring. Heat exposure alone leads to reduced early-stage weight followed by a trend toward catch-up growth. The findings suggest a specific role of thyroid hormones in the effects of prenatal PM_2.5 and heat exposure on offspring growth, a relationship that warrants further investigation.

Objective:To investigate the feasibility of thigh muscles segmentation in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) using the TransUNet deep learning model on MRI.Methods:This was a cross-sectional study. From April 2023 to September 2024, the axial T 1WI imagings of 60 DMD patients, confirmed by genetic analysis at Northwest Women′s and Children′s Hospital, were enrolled in this retrospective study. Patients were divided into a training set ( n=48) and a test set ( n=12) at a ratio of 8∶2 using random sampling. Fat infiltration scores were assigned to 11 thigh muscles, including the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, vastus medialis, sartorius, adductor longus, adductor magnus, gracilis, semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and biceps femoris long head. A total of 1 078 images were included (884 for training, 194 for testing).The 12 DMD patients in the test set were divided into groups G1 to G4, with 2, 4, 2, and 4 cases respectively, according to the total score of muscle fat infiltration from low to high. A TransUNet model was trained on the T 1WI to perform automatic segmentation of the 11 thigh muscles in both thighs. The segmentation performance of the TransUNet automatic segmentation model was evaluated using the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), intersection over union (IoU), and average symmetric surface distance (ASSD), with the results of manual delineation by physicians as the gold standard. And one-way analysis of variance or the Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to compare the segmentation effects of the automatic segmentation model on the thigh muscles of children among G1 to G4. Results:The mean processing time for the automatic segmentation of all 11 muscles in both thighs per patient was (8.3±1.5) s. The DSC, IoU and ASSD in training set and in test set were 0.971±0.011, 0.948±0.019, 0.69 (0.55, 0.96) and 0.944±0.021, 0.900±0.038, 0.58 (0.55, 0.91), respectively. In the training set, the semitendinosus muscle achieved the best segmentation results (DSC 0.99, IoU 0.97, ASSD 0.52). In the test set, the sartorius muscle showed the best segmentation performance (DSC 0.96, IoU 0.93, ASSD 0.50). There were no statistically significant differences in the overall DSC, IoU, or ASSD of the automatic segmentation model across groups G1 to G4 ( P>0.05). Conclusions:The TransUNet automatic segmentation model can rapidly and accurately segment the bilateral thigh muscles in patients with DMD, and the segmentation performance demonstrated consistent among patients with different degrees of muscle fat infiltration.

Objective: To examine the mediating effect of resilience on AIDS-related stress and patient-reported outcome among elderly cases with HIV/AIDS, so as to provide the basis for promoting mental health and improving health outcomes of this population. Methods: From June to July 2024, elderly cases with HIV/AIDS receiving treatment in the infectious diseases department of a tertiary-level hospital in Sichuan Province and undergoing follow-up management at 12 community health service centers in Wuhou District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, were selected as study participants using convenience sampling method. Data on demographic information, duration since confirmed diagnosis and the most recent CD4+T lymphocyte count were collected through questionnaire surveys. The Chinese versions of the HIV/AIDS Stress Scale, the Chinese versions of the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Patient-Reported Outcome Scale for Elderly HIV/AIDS Patients were used to assess AIDS-related stress, resilience, and patient-reported outcome, respectively. Structural equation modeling was performed using Mplus 8.3 software to analyze the mediating effect of resilience on AIDS-related stress and patient-reported outcome. The Bootstrap method was employed to test the significance of the mediating effect. Results: A total of 424 elderly HIV/AIDS cases were included, with a mean age of (62.04±8.73) years. Among them, 315 (74.29%) were males and 109 (25.71%) were females. The median scores were 23.00 (interquartile range, 11.00) points for AIDS-related stress, 30.00 (interquartile range, 7.00) points for resilience, and 363.45 (interquartile range, 53.03) points for the total score of patient-reported outcome. Resultsof the mediation effect analysis revealed that AIDS-related stress had a direct negative effect on patient-reported outcome (β=-0.608, 95%CI: -0.742 to -0.465). It also exerted an indirect negative effect on patient-reported outcome through the mediating role of resilience (β=-0.258, 95%CI: -0.364 to -0.158), with the mediating effect accounting for 29.79% of the total effect. Conclusion AIDS-related stress among elderly cases with HIV/AIDS can directly or indirectly negatively affect patient-reported outcome through resilience.

Objective To assess the impact of freeze-drying and dry heat virus inactivation processes on the activity ofα2-macroglobulin(A2M)derived from human plasma Cohn fraction Ⅳ.Methods A2M derived from human plasma Cohn fraction Ⅳ was prepared and subjected to programmed freeze-drying with dry heat virus inactivation.The lyophilized products were evaluated for their appearance,water content,and validation of the viral inactivation process.The bioactivity of the products before and after lyophilization as well as before and after dry heat inactivation was determined via trypsin inhibition,and the comparisons were studied.Results The appearance of the lyophilized product was fluffy,and the water content was(5.83±0.45)％.The specific activities of the samples before and after lyophilization were(10.199±0.137)and(10.033±0.201)μg/mg,respectively,with no statistically significantdifference between the two groups(P＞0.05).The viral inactivation of the samples was carried out by using dry heat inactivation conditions at 100 ℃ for 30 min.After inactivation,the reduction was ≥5.125 LgTCID50/0.1 mL in Pseudorabies virus(PRV)titers,≥4.500 LgTCID50/0.1 mL in Sindbis virus(SinV)titers,≥6.375 LgTCID50/0.1 mL in encephalomyocarditis virus(EMCV)titers,and≥4.500 LgTCID50/0.1 mL in porcine parvovirus(PPV)titers.The specific activities of the samples before and after dry heat were(9.921±0.292)and(10.091±0.278)μ g/mg,respectively,with no statistically significant difference between the two groups.Conclusion A2M derived from human plasma Cohn fraction Ⅳ,when subjected to freeze-drying followed by dry heat inactivation at 100 ℃ for 30 minutes,can effectively inactivate viruses without altering the biological activity of the product.

Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive cannabinoid, shows great promise in treating methamphetamine (METH) addiction. Nonetheless, the molecular target and the mechanism through which CBD treats METH addiction remain unexplored. Herein, CBD was shown to counteract METH-induced locomotor sensitization and conditioned place preference. Additionally, CBD mitigated the adverse effects of METH, such as cristae loss, a decline in ATP content, and a reduction in membrane potential. Employing an activity-based protein profiling approach, a target fishing strategy was used to uncover CBD's direct target. ATP5A1, a subunit of ATP synthase, was identified and validated as a CBD target. Moreover, CBD demonstrated the ability to ameliorate METH-induced ubiquitination of ATP5A1 via the D376 residue, thereby reversing the METH-induced reduction of ATP5A1 and promoting the assembly of ATP synthase. Pharmacological inhibition of the ATP efflux channel pannexin 1, blockade of ATP hydrolysis by a CD39 inhibitor, and blocking the adenosine A1 receptor (A1R) all attenuated the therapeutic benefits of CBD in mitigating METH-induced behavioral sensitization and CPP. Moreover, the RNA interference of ATP5A1 in the ventral tegmental area resulted in the reversal of CBD's therapeutic efficacy against METH addiction. Collectively, these data show that ATP5A1 is a target for CBD to inhibit METH-induced addiction behaviors through the ADO-A1R signaling pathway.

Objective To investigate the effect of N-myc downstream regulated gene 1(NDRG1)on ferroptosis in mouse brain microvascular endothelial cells(BMVEC)induced by oxygen-glu-cose deprivation(OGD).Methods After primary BMVEC were isolated and cultured from mice,electron microscopy was used to observe the mitochondrial morphology of the cells after OGD.bEnd.3 cells were cultured and divided into six groups:control group,model group(OGD),si-NC(negative control)group,si-NDRG1(NDRG1 interference RNA)group,OGD+si-NC(negative control modeling)group,and OGD+si-NDRG1(NDRG1 interference)group(n=3).The model group,OGD+si-NC group,and OGD+si-NDRG1 group were subjected to the OGD model.Si-NC transfection was performed in the si-NC and OGD+si-NC groups,while si-NDRG1 transfection was carried out in the si-NDRG1 and OGD+si-NDRG1 groups.Cell viability,MDA,glutathione,Fe2+,lipid peroxidation levels,and protein levels of NDRG1,glutathione peroxidase 4(GPX4),and acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 4(ACSL4)were detected in each group.Results Compared with the control group,the model group showed a significant reduction in the number of cells adhering to the surface after OGD treatment,swollen cytoplasm and decrease in cell viability[(37.68±2.43)％vs(96.34±12.08)％,P＜0.05],down-regulation of GPX4 and up-regulation of ACSL4 and NDRG1 expression(0.78±0.02 vs 1.15±0.01,P＜0.01;1.45±0.04 vs 0.78±0.12,P＜0.01;1.22±0.01 vs 0.13±0.01,P＜0.01).In the si-NDRG1 group,the protein levels of GPX4 and NDRG1 were significantly lower,while the protein levels of ACSL4 and gluta-thione were significantly higher than the si-NC group(P＜0.05).The OGD+si-NC group showed significantly lower GPX4 expression and glutathione level,while obviously higher NDRG1,ACSL4 expression,MDA,and relative fluorescence intensities of Fe2+and oxidized lipid levels when compared to the si-NC and si-NDRG1 groups(P＜0.05).The OGD+si-NDRG1 group showed significantly lower GPX4 expression and glutathione level,and higher ACSL4 and relative fluorescence intensity of Fe2+than the si-NC group and the si-NDRG1 group,while lower NDRG1 expression than the si-NC group but higher than the si-NDRG1 group,and lower NDRG1,ACSL4,MDA,and relative fluorescence intensities of Fe2+and oxidized lipids when compared with the OGD+si-NC group(P＜0.05).Conclusion Knockdown of NDRG1 can alleviate OGD-induced ferroptosis in microvascular endothelial cells by improving iron metabolism and lipid per-oxidation.

Objective:To investigate the feasibility of thigh muscles segmentation in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) using the TransUNet deep learning model on MRI.Methods:This was a cross-sectional study. From April 2023 to September 2024, the axial T 1WI imagings of 60 DMD patients, confirmed by genetic analysis at Northwest Women′s and Children′s Hospital, were enrolled in this retrospective study. Patients were divided into a training set ( n=48) and a test set ( n=12) at a ratio of 8∶2 using random sampling. Fat infiltration scores were assigned to 11 thigh muscles, including the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, vastus medialis, sartorius, adductor longus, adductor magnus, gracilis, semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and biceps femoris long head. A total of 1 078 images were included (884 for training, 194 for testing).The 12 DMD patients in the test set were divided into groups G1 to G4, with 2, 4, 2, and 4 cases respectively, according to the total score of muscle fat infiltration from low to high. A TransUNet model was trained on the T 1WI to perform automatic segmentation of the 11 thigh muscles in both thighs. The segmentation performance of the TransUNet automatic segmentation model was evaluated using the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), intersection over union (IoU), and average symmetric surface distance (ASSD), with the results of manual delineation by physicians as the gold standard. And one-way analysis of variance or the Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to compare the segmentation effects of the automatic segmentation model on the thigh muscles of children among G1 to G4. Results:The mean processing time for the automatic segmentation of all 11 muscles in both thighs per patient was (8.3±1.5) s. The DSC, IoU and ASSD in training set and in test set were 0.971±0.011, 0.948±0.019, 0.69 (0.55, 0.96) and 0.944±0.021, 0.900±0.038, 0.58 (0.55, 0.91), respectively. In the training set, the semitendinosus muscle achieved the best segmentation results (DSC 0.99, IoU 0.97, ASSD 0.52). In the test set, the sartorius muscle showed the best segmentation performance (DSC 0.96, IoU 0.93, ASSD 0.50). There were no statistically significant differences in the overall DSC, IoU, or ASSD of the automatic segmentation model across groups G1 to G4 ( P>0.05). Conclusions:The TransUNet automatic segmentation model can rapidly and accurately segment the bilateral thigh muscles in patients with DMD, and the segmentation performance demonstrated consistent among patients with different degrees of muscle fat infiltration.

Objective To explore the therapeutic effect and prognostic influencing factors of endovascular therapy for periprocedural acute ischemic stroke with large vessel occlusion(AIS-LVO)after cardiac surgery,and to analyze the pathological characteristics of thrombi leading to LVO.Methods This study retrospectively and consecutively enrolled patients who experienced AIS-LVO during the perioperative period of cardiac surgery at the Cardiovascular Surgery Department of Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital from June 1,2017,to March 31,2024.The patients were divided into a surgical group and a non-surgical group based on whether they received endovascular treatment.The clinical and imaging data of the patients were collected,including gender,age,hypertension,diabetes,history of smoking,low-density lipoprotein cholesterol,cardiac surgical methods(coronary artery bypass grafting,total arch replacement[TRA],cardiac valve replacement,other types of surgery[valve repair,atrial septal repair,ventricular septal repair,heart transplantation]),time from cardiac surgery to AIS onset,location of vascular occlusion(vertebral-basilar artery,right internal carotid artery,left internal carotid artery),National Institutes of Health stroke scale(NIHSS)score at the onset of stroke,time from stroke onset to puncture,stroke etiology(embolism,arterial dissection,atherosclerotic stenosis),and imaging data including Alberta stroke program early CT score(ASPECTS)of the anterior circulation,ASPECTS of the posterior circulation(pc-ASPECTS)and CT angiography,CT perfusion,etc.The thrombus samples were stained with hematoxylin-eosin and martius scarlet blue staining.According to the proportion of red blood cells(RBC)in the thrombus,the thrombi were classified as erythrocyte-rich thrombi(RBC proportion≥70%),mixed thrombi(RBC proportion 31%-69%),and fibrin-rich thrombi(RBC proportion≤30%).At 90d after stroke onset,the modified Rankin scale(mRS)was used for both outpatient and telephone follow-up.The mRS score 0-2 indicated a good prognosis,3-6 indicated a poor prognosis,and 6 points indicated death.Factors with P＜0.1 in univariate Logistic regression and those factors may influence the prognosis according to clinical experience were included and further analyzed with multivariate Logistic regression to analyze the 90 d prognostic influencing factors after stroke onset for AIS-LVO patients during the perioperative period of cardiac surgery.Results A total of 102 patients who experienced AIS-LVO during the perioperative period of cardiac surgery(68 males,34females,with mean age of[58±14]years)were enrolled in this study,50 were in the non-surgery group and 52 in the surgery group.(1)Significant differences were observed between the surgical and non-surgical group in hypertension(32.7%[17/52]vs.54.0%[27/50],P=0.030),NIHSS score at stroke onset(12.3[12.3,21.8]vs.35.0[18.0,35.0],P＜0.01),vascular occlusion site(P=0.048),cardiac surgery type(P＜0.01),ASPECTS/pc-ASPECTS(9[8,9]vs.4[3,6],P＜0.01),favorable90-day prognosis rate(75.0%[39/52]vs.10.0%[5/50],P＜0.01)and 90-day mortality rate(7.7%[4/52]vs.68.0%[34/50],P＜0.01).Other clinical and imaging data showed no significant differences(all P＞0.05).In the surgery group,86.5%(45/52),7.7%(4/52),and 5.8%(3/52)patients were attributed to embolism,arterial dissection,and atherosclerotic stenosis,respectively.(2)Univariate Logistic regression analysis identified NIHSS score at stroke onset,TRA,endovascular therapy,and ASPECTS/pc-ASPECTS score as prognostic factors affecting the 90-day prognosis after stroke.Set the patient's 90-day prognosis(assign favorable prognosis as 1 and poor prognosis as 0)as dependent variable,incorporate factors with P＜0.1 in the univariate Logistic analysis and location of vascular occlusion in a multivariate Logistic regression analysis.The results showed that high NIHSS score on stroke onset(OR,0.86,95%CI 0.78-0.95,P=0.002)and non endovascular therapy(OR,6.93,95%CI 1.05-45.55,P=0.044)were independent risk factors of poor prognosis 90-day after stroke onset for AIS-LVO patients during the perioperative period of cardiac surgery.(3)Among 45 cardioembolic patients,thrombus samples from 33 patients were analyzed.The analysis revealed no erythrocyte-rich thrombi,3 mixed thrombi,and 30 fibrin-rich thrombi,with 12having a fibrin proportion exceeding 90%.Conclusion Endovascular therapy improved the prognosis and reduces mortality rate in patients with periprocedural AIS-LVO after cardiac surgery,and thrombi in these patients are predominantly fibrin-rich.