To develop a blue cap anticoagulant tube blood volume measuring card of to solve the problem of insufficient or excessive blood collection in clinical coagulation specimens.The device was composed of a measuring card,a transparent housing with a base and a tube holder.The measuring card was divided into qualified and unqualified areas,the housing was used to insert the card,the tube holder was used to place blood collection tubes.The device was used by clinical nurses to judge the adequacy of blood collection volume in blue cap anticoagulant tube.After the use of the device,the failure rate of clinical blue cap anticoagulation tube specimens submission was reduced from 6.71‰ to 2.73‰,shortened the time limit for specimen submission.At the same time,the device made the rejection judgment of department specimens more standardized and avoided the acceptance of unqualified specimens caused by subjective judgment errors.The device has simple structure,convenient operation and strong practicability,and has promotion value.

OBJECTIVE To explore the improvement effect and mechanism of petroleum ether extract of Saposhnikovia divaricata on rheumatoid arthritis （RA） rats by regulating neutrophil extracellular traps （NETs）. METHODS Establishment of rat RA model using bovine type Ⅱ collagen and Freund’s complete adjuvant. The model rats were randomly divided into model group and low-dose， middle-dose and high-dose groups （55， 110， 220 mg/kg） of petroleum ether extract of S. divaricata； the normal group without modeling was also established， with 10 rats in each group. Each group was given corresponding drugs or constant volume of 2% Tween-80 solution intragastrically， once a day， for consecutive 28 days. The toe swelling degree in rats was observed， and the arthritis index （AI） was scored. The serum levels of interleukin-1β （IL-1β）， IL-10， IL-17， tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α）， 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 [25（OH）D3]， myeloperoxidase （MPO）， neutrophil elastase （NE） and NETs in rats were detected. The histopathological changes in ankle joint were observed. The expression of citrullinated histone H3 （CitH3） in ankle joint as well as the expressions of cytochrome P450 24A1 （CYP24A1）， cytochrome P450 27B1 （CYP27B1），vitamin D receptor （VDR） and peptidyl arginine deiminase 4 疾病。E-mail：zhongyao626@126.com （PAD4） in synovium were all determined. RESULTS Compared with the model group， the toe swelling degree and AI score in the middle-dose and high-dose groups of petroleum ether extract of S. divaricata decreased significantly from day 14 to day 28 after administration （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. The serum levels of IL-1β， IL-17， TNF-α， MPO， NE and NETs decreased significantly， while the levels of IL-10 and 25（OH）D3 increased significantly （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. The widened ankle joint space and the improved structure were found； the expression of CitH3 in ankle joint， and the expressions of CYP24A1 and PAD4 in synovium were down-regulated significantly， while the expressions of CYP27B1 and VDR were up-regulated significantly in synovium （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. CONCLUSIONS The petroleum ether extract of S. divaricata may inhibit the production of NETs and improve the symptoms of RA by regulating the vitamin D system.

OBJECTIVE: To establish a machine learning model based on extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) algorithm for early prediction of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP), and explore its predictive efficiency. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. The patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) who admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University and Changshu Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021 were enrolled. Demography information, etiology, past history, and clinical indicators and imaging data within 48 hours of admission were collected according to the medical record system and image system, and the modified CT severity index (MCTSI), Ranson score, bedside index for severity in acute pancreatitis (BISAP) and acute pancreatitis risk score (SABP) were calculated. The data sets of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University and Changshu Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University were randomly divided into training set and validation set according to 8 : 2. Based on XGBoost algorithm, the SAP prediction model was constructed on the basis of hyperparameter adjustment by 5-fold cross validation and loss function. The data set of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University was served as independent test set. The predictive efficacy of the XGBoost model was evaluated by drawing the receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC curve), and compared it with the traditional AP related severity score; variable importance ranking diagram and Shapley additive explanation (SHAP) diagram were drawn to visually explain the model. RESULTS: A total of 1 183 AP patients were enrolled finally, of which 129 (10.9%) developed SAP. Among the patients from the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University and Changshu Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University, there were 786 patients in the training set and 197 in the validation set; 200 patients from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University were used as the test set. Analysis of all three datasets showed that patients who advanced to SAP exhibited pathological manifestation such as abnormal respiratory function, coagulation function, liver and kidney function, and lipid metabolism. Based on the XGBoost algorithm, an SAP prediction model was constructed, and ROC curve analysis showed that the accuracy for prediction of SAP reached 0.830, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.927, which was significantly improved compared with the traditional scoring systems including MCTSI, Ranson, BISAP and SABP, the accuracy was 0.610, 0.690, 0.763, 0.625, and the AUC was 0.689, 0.631, 0.875, and 0.770, respectively. The feature importance analysis based on the XGBoost model showed that the top ten items ranked by the importance of model features were admission pleural effusion (0.119), albumin (Alb, 0.049), triglycerides (TG, 0.036), Ca²⁺ (0.034), prothrombin time (PT, 0.031), systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS, 0.031), C-reactive protein (CRP, 0.031), platelet count (PLT, 0.030), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH, 0.029), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP, 0.028). The above indicators were of great significance for the XGBoost model to predict SAP. The SHAP contribution analysis based on the XGBoost model showed that the risk of SAP increased significantly when patients had pleural effusion and decreased Alb. CONCLUSIONS A SAP prediction scoring system was established based on the machine automatic learning XGBoost algorithm, which can predict the SAP risk of patients within 48 hours of admission with good accuracy.
Humans ; Pancreatitis ; Acute Disease ; Retrospective Studies ; Hospitalization ; Algorithms

Maintaining the stemness of the transplanted stem cell spheroids in an inflammatory microenvironment is challenging but important in regenerative medicine. Direct delivery of stem cells to repair periodontal defects may yield suboptimal effects due to the complexity of the periodontal inflammatory environment. Herein, stem cell spheroid is encapsulated by interfacial assembly of metal-phenolic network (MPN) nanofilm to form a stem cell microsphere capsule. Specifically, periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) spheroid was coated with Fe^III/tannic acid coordination network to obtain spheroid@[Fe^III-TA] microcapsules. The formed biodegradable MPN biointerface acted as a cytoprotective barrier and exhibited antioxidative, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activities, effectively remodeling the inflammatory microenvironment and maintaining the stemness of PDLSCs. The stem cell microencapsulation proposed in this study can be applied to multiple stem cells with various functional metal ion/polyphenol coordination, providing a simple yet efficient delivery strategy for stem cell stemness maintenance in an inflammatory environment toward a better therapeutic outcome.
Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology* ; Capsules/pharmacology* ; Cell Differentiation ; Cell Encapsulation ; Cells, Cultured ; Ferric Compounds/pharmacology* ; Osteogenesis/physiology* ; Periodontal Ligament ; Polyphenols/pharmacology* ; Stem Cells ; Tannins/pharmacology*

GuiLingJi(GLJ),a classic traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)formula,is composed of over 20 herbs,according to the Pharmacopeia of the People's Republic of China.Owing to its various activities,GLJ has been used in clinical settings for more than 400 years in China.However,the ambiguous chemical material basis limits the development of studies on the quality control and pharmacological mechanisms of GLJ.Therefore,comprehensive characterization of the multiple chemical components of GLJ is of great significance for the modernization of this formula.Given the great variety of herbs in GLJ,both UHPLC-MS and 1H NMR techniques were employed in this study.In addition,solvent extraction with different polarities was used to eliminate signal interference and the concentration of trace components.A variety of MS analytic methods were also used,including implementation of a self-built compound database,diagnostic ion filtering,mass defect filtering,and Compound Discoverer 3.0 analysis software.Based on the above strategies,a total of 150 compounds were identified,including 5 amino acids,13 phenolic acids and glycosides,11 coumarins,72 flavones,20 triterpenoid and triterpenoid saponins,23 fatty acids,and 6 other compounds.Moreover,13 compounds were identified by 1H NMR spectroscopy.The UHPLC-MS and 1H NMR results supported and complemented each other.This strategy provides a rapid approach to analyzing and identifying the chemical composition of Chinese herbal prescriptions.The current study provides basis for further research on the quality control and pharmacological mechanism of GLJ.

Objective:To establish and evaluate a new diagnostic model for significant liver tissue damage in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the immune tolerance phase.Methods:The clinical data of 275 chronic HBV infection patients in the immune tolerance phase who underwent liver biopsy from January 2015 to November 2020 in the Hwa Mei Hospital, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences were included. According to the liver pathological changes, patients were divided into

Objective:To investigate the pathological characteristics in chronic HBV infection patients with different upper limits of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) normal values and the influencing factors of liver tissue injury.Methods:The clinical data of 667 chronic HBV infection patients with ALT<40 U/L and HBV DNA loads >30 IU/mL who received liver biopsy in Zhenhai District Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Hwa Mei Hospital from January 2014 to December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The enrolled patients were divided into ALTⅠ group (<30 U/L for males, <19 U/L for females), ALTⅡ group (≥30 U/L and <35 U/L for males, ≥19 U/L and <25 U/L for females) and ALT Ⅲ group (≥35 U/L and <40 U/L for males, ≥25 U/L and <40 U/L for females). According to the degree of liver inflammation (G) and fibrosis stage (S), the enrolled patients were divided into non-significant damage group (G<2 and S<2) and significant damage group (≥G2 or/and ≥S2). Ridit analysis was used to compare the G/S composition ratio among three ALT groups, Logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors of liver injury, the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and the area under the curve (AUC) were used to analyze the optimal diagnostic threshold of ALT.Results:There were significant differences in the composition ratio of G and S among the three ALT groups( χ2=13.926 and 14.702, both P<0.001). The constituent ratios of significant liver pathological damage in the three groups of ALT levels were 26.05% (99/380), 32.03% (41/128) and 46.54% (74/159), respectively( χ2=21.596, P<0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that high white/globulin ratio and PLT counts( OR=0.246 and 0.986, both P<0.001)were the protective factors for liver tissue injury; while negative HBcAg staining and elevated ALT and GGT levels ( OR=3.797, 1.053 and 1.013, P<0.001 or <0.05) were the risk factors of liver injury. ROC curve demonstrated the ALT threshold of liver tissue damage in male and female patients were 25.6 U/L and 25.5 U/L. Conclusions:In chronic HBV infection patients with normal ALT, with the increase of ALT level, the degree of liver tissue pathological damage may become more severe. The study demonstrates that it is necessary to lower the ALT threshold for protecting patients from liver tissue pathological damage.

Objective:To compare and analyze the clinicopathological features and significance for indications of different types of antiviral therapy in chronic hepatitis B (CHB).Methods:Clinical data of 861 CHB cases who received liver biopsy, had hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA-positive (> 30 IU/ml) and met the indications for antiviral therapy from January 2014 to December 2019 were included. Liver pathological changes and their correlation with clinical characteristics were compared and analyzed. According to different data, t-test, analysis of variance, nonparametric test, χ2 test, Ridit and logistic regression analysis were used for statistical analysis. Results:Most of the cases (72.24%) had remarkable pathological damage. The degree of liver fibrosis was higher in the normal than the abnormal group ( P<0.001). 17.54% cases had hepatic steatosis. The vast majority of cases (97.33%) had positive hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), while only 50.87% had positive hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg). The positive correlation factors affecting the severity of liver histopathology were alkaline phosphatase level, while the negative correlation factors were positive HBcAg staining, albumin and platelet level. The degree of liver inflammation and fibrosis had statistically significant differences with different HBcAg staining levels ( χ2=44.142 and 102.386, respectively; P<0.001), and the severity was more apparent in the negative group. Conclusion:There exist differences in clinicopathological features for indications of different types of antiviral therapy in patients with CHB. Liver function test range is inconsistent with degrees of hepatic histological severity. The positive and intensity of liver tissue HBcAg staining, and albumin and alanine aminotransferase levels have negative correlation with disease severity.

5-Aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) has been approved for clinical photodynamic therapy (PDT) due to its negligible photosensitive toxicity. However, the curative effect of 5-ALA is restricted by intracellular biotransformation inactivation of 5-ALA and potential DNA repair of tumor cells. Inspired by the crucial function of iron ions in 5-ALA transformation and DNA repair, a liposomal nanomedicine (MFLs@5-ALA/DFO) with intracellular iron ion regulation property was developed for boosting the PDT of 5-ALA, which was prepared by co-encapsulating 5-ALA and DFO (deferoxamine, a special iron chelator) into the membrane fusion liposomes (MFLs). MFLs@5-ALA/DFO showed an improved pharmaceutical behavior and rapidly fused with tumor cell membrane for 5-ALA and DFO co-delivery. MFLs@5-ALA/DFO could efficiently reduce iron ion, thus blocking the biotransformation of photosensitive protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) to heme, realizing significant accumulation of photosensitivity. Meanwhile, the activity of DNA repair enzyme was also inhibited with the reduction of iron ion, resulting in the aggravated DNA damage in tumor cells. Our findings showed MFLs@5-ALA/DFO had potential to be applied for enhanced PDT of 5-ALA.

Objective:To analyze the liver pathology, clinical characteristics and influence factors in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in immune tolerant phase (IT).Methods:The clinical data of 273 patients in IT phase who underwent liver biopsy from January 2015 to December 2019 were included in this study. The correlation between liver pathological changes and clinical features was analyzed.Results:There were 43 cases (15.75%) with liver histologic activity ≥ G2, 30 cases (10.99%) with liver fibrosis ≥ S2, and 55 cases (20.15%) with liver pathology ≥ G2 and/or ≥ S2. A total of 17.95% patients had liver steatosis. The majority (98.17%) of tissue samples were positive for HBsAg staining, while only 79.49% were positive for HBcAg. The characteristics of liver pathology were comparable in men from women patients. The differences of G and S were not statistically significant according to different HBsAg positivity, while those were statistically significant according to different HBcAg positivity. By univariate and multivariate analysis, the independent risk factors of pathological severity were HBcAg intensity, HBeAg level, and age. However, the differences of liver histologic activity and fibrosis were not statistically significant between those younger than 30 years old group from those older than 30 years old, neither between those younger or older than 40. Although the diagnostic value of liver inflammation and fibrosis 5 (LIF-5) was better than that of aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI) and fibrosis 4 score (FIB-4), three diagnostic models for predicting the pathological severity were not strong enough (all area under the curves<0.8). Only the specificity of LIF-5 for predicting≥ G2, ≥ G2 and/or ≥ S2 was over 80%.Conclusions:Approximately 20% patients with chronic HBV infection in IT phase have progressive liver inflammation or fibrosis. The intensity of liver HBcAg and HBeAg level are negatively correlated with the severity of disease. The diagnostic models or most clinical indicators have low predictive effect for chronic HBV infections in IT phase.