Tetrodotoxin（TTX）is a potent neurotoxin known for its specific sodium channel blocking effects, widely used in biomedical research. While TTX has been identified in various marine organisms, its true origin remains unclear, and the specific biosynthetic pathways are yet to be elucidated. The reported sources of TTX and the progress in research on TTX biosynthesis were summarized, with a focus on potential microbial sources of TTX, which could provide scientific reference for the production and biosynthesis studies of TTX.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer mortality, characterized by poor prognosis due to its high proliferative and invasive potential. Tumor metabolic reprogramming, particularly involving glucose metabolism, is essential for tumor survival. This study investigates the role of the Hippo pathway effector transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ) in regulating gluconeogenesis and promoting tumorigenesis in HCC. Methods: TAZ expression in HCC was analyzed using The Cancer Genome Atlas data and validated in clinical samples and cell lines. TAZ was overexpressed or silenced in HCC cell lines to evaluate its effects on cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and invasion. The expression and prognostic relevance of the gluconeogenesis-related genes phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase 1 (PCK1) and glucose-6-phosphatase (G6PC) were examined, along with their correlation with TAZ expression. Tumor growth was assessed in nude mice. Interactions between TAZ and the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) were investigated using co-immunoprecipitation, immunofluorescence, and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Results: TAZ was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues and cell lines. TAZ overexpression enhanced proliferation, reduced apoptosis, and promoted migration and invasion. In contrast, PCK1 and G6PC were downregulated in HCC and showed a negative correlation with TAZ expression. Conclusion TAZ modulates gluconeogenesis and accelerates tumor growth, whereas its knockdown attenuates tumor progression. TAZ interacts with GR, suppressing its transcriptional activity on gluconeogenic gene promoters.

A self-supervised super-resolution reconstruction method based on scale adaptive and coordinate encoding is proposed to realize super-resolution reconstruction of anisotropic brain magnetic resonance images with different slice thicknesses even in the absence of paired isotropic brain magnetic resonance images.Firstly,an image encoding module that integrates super-resolution scale information is used to learn the specific features of images with different slice thicknesses.Subsequently,a coordinate encoding module is employed to facilitate the deep fusion of coordinate information and image features.Finally,an overall loss function comprising reconstruction loss and brain tissue edge perception loss is adopted to optimize the recovery of edge high-frequency information,while global residual learning is introduced to enhance network training.Experimental results on the HCP-1200 and OASIS-1 datasets demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms other self-supervised super-resolution reconstruction methods.

Objective To explore the effect and mechanism of Sechang Zhixie Powder(SCZXS)on mice with acute diarrhea caused by castor oil.Methods The mice were randomly divided into blank control group,model control group,montmorillonite powder group(1.4 g·kg-1),SCZXS-L group(0.9 g·kg-1),SCZXS-M group(1.8 g·kg-1)and SCZXS-H group(3.6 g·kg-1),10 mice in each group.After continuous administration of 7 days,the acute diarrhea model of mice was prepared by oral administration of castor oil(0.01 mL·g-1).The diarrhea of mice was observed within 4 hours of castor oil administration,and the rate of loose stool,degree of loose stool,and diarrhea index were calculated;the levels of DAO,D-LDH,VIP,and SS in the colon were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay;The morphological changes in the colon tissue of mice were observed after HE staining and the thicknesses of the mucosal and muscular layers of the colon were quantified;AB-PAS staining was performed to observe the effect on mucin in the colon;and the expression of AQP3,Occludin,and ZO-1 in the colon were quantified by immunohistochemistry.Results Compared with the model control group,the rate of loose stool,degree of loose stool,and diarrhea index of the mice in the SCZXS groups tended to decrease,but the difference was not statistically significant.Compared with the model control group,the flat luminal surface of the mice in the SCZXS-M and SCZXS-H group were significantly thickened(P<0.01),and the amount of VIP in the colon was significantly decreased(P<0.05,P<0.01),and that of DAO in the colon was significantly decreased(P<0.01),Occludin and ZO-1 expression were significantly increased(P<0.01),the mucin area ratio was significantly increased(P<0.05)in the SCZXS-M group,and AQP3 expression was significantly increased(P<0.05)in the SCZXS groups.Conclusions SCZXS can improve acute diarrhea induced by castor oil in mice.and its mechanism may be related to the regulation of gastrointestinal hormones and AQP3.In addition,SCZXS improves intestinal damage caused by diarrhea and protects the intestinal barrier.

A novel approach named hierarchical vascular morphology awareness and noisy label refine for hepatic vessel segmentation(HN-Seg)is proposed to achieve precise vessel segmentation while reducing dependency on high-quality labels.HN-Seg comprises of(1)hierarchical vascular morphology aware network which employs a multi-scale local morphology attention mechanism and a global morphology preservation loss function to ensure the integrity of overall vascular morphology,and(2)self-distillation noisy label refine module which leverages the uncertainty in model outputs to optimize noisy labels through uncertainty optimization and consistency regularization,thereby maximizing the knowledge extracted from images during training and refining noisy labels.Experimental results on the hepatic vessel dataset demonstrate that HN-Seg achieves superior segmentation performance,outperforming 6 methods(UNet,UNet++,UNETR,SwinUNetR,FRUNet,and MTCL).HN-Seg attains DSC and clDice scores of 0.727 and 0.773,showing improvements of 9.6%and 21.5%over the baseline method UNETR.

Objective:The aim of this study was to explore the risk factors that affect implementation of the innovative technique of single-incision laparoscopic appendectomy (solo-SLA) without assistance in patients with complicated appendicitis, the goal being improving surgical success rates and reducing the incidence of complications.Methods:This was an observational study. Indications for solo-SLA surgery were as follows: (1) computed tomography or ultrasound findings suggestive of acute appendicitis, accompanied by a high white blood cell count and C-reactive protein concentration; (2) disease course exceeding 72 hours, standard anti-infection treatment ineffective, inflammatory reaction not localized, surgery mainly aimed at abscess drainage, and the appendix removed if indicated intraoperatively; (3) acute onset stabilized for more than 3 months after conservative treatment; and (4) recurrent chronic appendicitis. Relative contraindications comprised: (1) cardiopulmonary insufficiency, extremely high risk for general anesthesia for laparoscopic surgery; (2) severe coagulation dysfunction; and (3) imaging findings suggestive of formation of a peri-appendiceal abscess, stable after anti-infection treatment, and a tendency for the inflammatory reaction to localize. We retrospectively collected clinical data of 106 patients with complicated appendicitis who had undergone solo-SLA in the Department of Emergency Surgery, Peking University People's Hospital from February to October 2023. Preoperative computed tomography showed appendiceal fecaliths, blurring of the tissue surrounding fat, intra- and extra-luminal gas and exudate, peri-appendiceal abscess, ascites, and intestinal obstruction by appendicitis. The study cohort comprised 53 male and 53 female patients aged (41.4±17.4) years. The median body mass index was (24.2±3.6) kg/m 2 and median preoperative body temperature (37.3±0.9)℃ Appendicitis had been present for >3 days in 21 of the patients (19.8%) and the maximum diameter of the appendix was (12.4±3.8) mm. The efficacy of the surgery was assessed and logistic regression analysis used to explore the factors affecting the duration of the procedure. The relationship between the maximum diameter of the appendix and duration of surgery was non-linear and was explored using a logistic regression model with restricted cubic spline (RCS). Results:Only one patient required conversion to open surgery; all the other patients successfully completed solo-SLA with a median intraoperative blood loss of 10 (1-100) ml and a surgical time of (65.4±31.7) minutes. Pain scores on postoperative Day 1 and 7 were (3.4±3.2) points and (1.5±1.7) points, respectively. There were no significant postoperative complications .The postoperative hospital stay was (3.5±1.5) days and the interval to resuming normal activities 14 (2-40) days. According to univariate and multivariate analyses, disease course >3 days (OR=5.19, 95%CI: 1.59-16.98, P=0.006) and C-reactive protein >10 mg/L (OR=1.01,95%CI: 1.00-1.02, P=0.003) were independent risk factors for surgical duration >60 minutes, whereas the maximum diameter of the appendix was not independently associated with duration of surgery (OR=1.10, 95%CI: 0.97-1.25, P=0.119). RCS analysis results showed a "U-shaped" association between the maximum diameter of the appendix and duration of surgery, the inflection point of the RCS curve being at a diameter of 10 mm. When the maximum diameter of the appendix was <10 mm, increases in diameter were not associated with longer duration of surgery (OR=1.15,95%CI: 0.55-2.58, P=0.710); whereas when the diameter was ≥10 mm, the maximum diameter of the appendix was associated with increased duration of surgery (OR=1.20, 95% CI: 1.04-1.42, P=0.022). Conclusion:The solo-SLA procedure can be performed to treat complicated appendicitis. A disease course >3 days, C-reactive protein concentration >10 mg/L, and maximum diameter of the appendix ≥10 mm are all associated with greater difficulty of solo-SLA surgery.

Objective:To explore the clinical treatment principles for tibial plateau fracture related infection (TPFRI).Methods:A retrospective study was used to analyze the clinical data of 47 patients with TPFRI who had been admitted to The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University from May 2015 to May 2022. There were 33 males and 14 females, with an age of (49.3±9.5) years. By admission, 32 tibial plateau fractures got healed while 15 ones remained unhealed. According to the site of infection, TPFRI was classified into 3 categories: arthritic type (9 cases), adjacent articular type (28 cases), and distal articular type (10 cases). Individualized reconstruction plans were made according to fracture union, bone and soft tissue defects, and infection involvement of the knee joint. The knee function was assessed by the modified Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) criteria at the final follow-up. The fracture union and complications were recorded.Results:All patients were followed up for (37.4±11.7) months. The infection was controlled and the fractures got united after (4.6±1.4) months in the 15 patients whose tibial plateau fractures remained unhealed by admission. In the 32 cases whose tibial plateau fractures got healed by admission (except for the 7 cases without bone defects, 1 case undergoing femoral condyle amputation and 1 case undergoing tibial flip amputation), respectively, Masquelet technique was used in 5 cases, Ilizarov bone transport in 3 cases, filling with an astrocnemius muscle flap or a myocutaneous flap in 5 cases, semi-open bone grafting in 1 case, open bone cement rod technique in 1 case, platelet-rich plasma combined with negative pressure drainage in 1 case, and knee arthrodesis in 7 cases to reconstruct their bone and soft tissue defects. At the final follow-up, the knee function was evaluated based on the modified HSS scoring as excellent in 28 cases, as good in 15 cases, as moderate in 3 cases and as poor in 1 case. The number of the patients with excellent or good knee function was significantly larger in the adjacent articular type and distal articular type than in the arthritic type ( P<0.05). The number of the patients with excellent or good knee function was significantly larger in those whose tibial plateau fractures remained unhealed by admission than in those whose tibial plateau fractures got healed by admission ( P<0.05). All patients did not experience such complications as open fat liquefaction, bone nonunion, lower limb deep vein thrombosis, or pulmonary embolism. Conclusions:In the treatment of TPFRI, individualized treatment plans should be made to improve infection control, accelerate functional recovery of the knee joint, and reduce incidence of complications, taking into consideration such factors as fracture union, bone and soft tissue defects, and infection involvement of the knee joint.

Objective:The aim of this study was to explore the risk factors that affect implementation of the innovative technique of single-incision laparoscopic appendectomy (solo-SLA) without assistance in patients with complicated appendicitis, the goal being improving surgical success rates and reducing the incidence of complications.Methods:This was an observational study. Indications for solo-SLA surgery were as follows: (1) computed tomography or ultrasound findings suggestive of acute appendicitis, accompanied by a high white blood cell count and C-reactive protein concentration; (2) disease course exceeding 72 hours, standard anti-infection treatment ineffective, inflammatory reaction not localized, surgery mainly aimed at abscess drainage, and the appendix removed if indicated intraoperatively; (3) acute onset stabilized for more than 3 months after conservative treatment; and (4) recurrent chronic appendicitis. Relative contraindications comprised: (1) cardiopulmonary insufficiency, extremely high risk for general anesthesia for laparoscopic surgery; (2) severe coagulation dysfunction; and (3) imaging findings suggestive of formation of a peri-appendiceal abscess, stable after anti-infection treatment, and a tendency for the inflammatory reaction to localize. We retrospectively collected clinical data of 106 patients with complicated appendicitis who had undergone solo-SLA in the Department of Emergency Surgery, Peking University People's Hospital from February to October 2023. Preoperative computed tomography showed appendiceal fecaliths, blurring of the tissue surrounding fat, intra- and extra-luminal gas and exudate, peri-appendiceal abscess, ascites, and intestinal obstruction by appendicitis. The study cohort comprised 53 male and 53 female patients aged (41.4±17.4) years. The median body mass index was (24.2±3.6) kg/m 2 and median preoperative body temperature (37.3±0.9)℃ Appendicitis had been present for >3 days in 21 of the patients (19.8%) and the maximum diameter of the appendix was (12.4±3.8) mm. The efficacy of the surgery was assessed and logistic regression analysis used to explore the factors affecting the duration of the procedure. The relationship between the maximum diameter of the appendix and duration of surgery was non-linear and was explored using a logistic regression model with restricted cubic spline (RCS). Results:Only one patient required conversion to open surgery; all the other patients successfully completed solo-SLA with a median intraoperative blood loss of 10 (1-100) ml and a surgical time of (65.4±31.7) minutes. Pain scores on postoperative Day 1 and 7 were (3.4±3.2) points and (1.5±1.7) points, respectively. There were no significant postoperative complications .The postoperative hospital stay was (3.5±1.5) days and the interval to resuming normal activities 14 (2-40) days. According to univariate and multivariate analyses, disease course >3 days (OR=5.19, 95%CI: 1.59-16.98, P=0.006) and C-reactive protein >10 mg/L (OR=1.01,95%CI: 1.00-1.02, P=0.003) were independent risk factors for surgical duration >60 minutes, whereas the maximum diameter of the appendix was not independently associated with duration of surgery (OR=1.10, 95%CI: 0.97-1.25, P=0.119). RCS analysis results showed a "U-shaped" association between the maximum diameter of the appendix and duration of surgery, the inflection point of the RCS curve being at a diameter of 10 mm. When the maximum diameter of the appendix was <10 mm, increases in diameter were not associated with longer duration of surgery (OR=1.15,95%CI: 0.55-2.58, P=0.710); whereas when the diameter was ≥10 mm, the maximum diameter of the appendix was associated with increased duration of surgery (OR=1.20, 95% CI: 1.04-1.42, P=0.022). Conclusion:The solo-SLA procedure can be performed to treat complicated appendicitis. A disease course >3 days, C-reactive protein concentration >10 mg/L, and maximum diameter of the appendix ≥10 mm are all associated with greater difficulty of solo-SLA surgery.

A novel approach named hierarchical vascular morphology awareness and noisy label refine for hepatic vessel segmentation(HN-Seg)is proposed to achieve precise vessel segmentation while reducing dependency on high-quality labels.HN-Seg comprises of(1)hierarchical vascular morphology aware network which employs a multi-scale local morphology attention mechanism and a global morphology preservation loss function to ensure the integrity of overall vascular morphology,and(2)self-distillation noisy label refine module which leverages the uncertainty in model outputs to optimize noisy labels through uncertainty optimization and consistency regularization,thereby maximizing the knowledge extracted from images during training and refining noisy labels.Experimental results on the hepatic vessel dataset demonstrate that HN-Seg achieves superior segmentation performance,outperforming 6 methods(UNet,UNet++,UNETR,SwinUNetR,FRUNet,and MTCL).HN-Seg attains DSC and clDice scores of 0.727 and 0.773,showing improvements of 9.6%and 21.5%over the baseline method UNETR.

To formulate an expert consensus on the principles of preoperative hair removal and provide scientific guidance for standardized removal of hair before surgical procedures so as to reduce the incidence of surgical site infections.METHODS Led by the Hospital Management Institute of National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China,this consensus was reached with the joint efforts from the expects of relevant fields such as surgeries,interventional therapies,nursing,and infection prevention and control.The consensus facilitates the classification and evaluation of literatures by following the evidence grade formulated by Oxford Evidence-based Medicine Center and focuses on the association of preoperative hair removal with surgical site infection,it reaches the evidence grade of expert consensus and recommendation intensity by integrating with discussions on meetings and clinical experience of the expects from relevant fields.RESULTS A total of 6 items of consensus were reached by summarizing the latest evidence on the aspects including the indications for preoperative hair removal,tools,range,timing and places.CONCLUSION The consensus,to some extent,make supplements to and complete the exiting regulations and standards.It provides guidance for the medical institutions to carry out the preoperative hair removal.