Humans ; Consensus ; Blastocyst ; Embryonic Development ; Fertilization in Vitro

Gypenosides, structurally analogous to ginsenosides and derived from a sustainable source, are recognized as the principal active compounds found in Gynostemma pentaphyllum, a Chinese medicinal plant used in the treatment of the metabolic syndrome. By bioactive tracking isolation of the plants collected from different regions across China, we obtained four new gypenosides (1-4), together with nine known gypenosides (5-13), from the methanol extract of the plant. The structures of new gypenosides were elucidated by one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra, complemented by chemical degradation experiments. Through comprehensive evaluation involving COL1A1 promoter assays and PP2Cα activity assays, we established a definitive structure-activity relationship for these dammarane-type triterpenoids, affirming the indispensability of the C-3 saccharide chain and C-17 lactone ring in effectively impeding extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition within hepatic stellate cells. Further in vivo study on the CCl₄-induced liver damage mouse model corroborated that compound 5 significantly ameliorated the process of hepatic fibrosis by oral administration. These results underscore the potential of dammarane-type triterpenoids as prospective anti-fibrotic leads and highlight their prevalence as key molecular frameworks in the therapeutic intervention of chronic hepatic disorders.
Animals ; Mice ; Gynostemma ; Liver Cirrhosis/drug therapy* ; Triterpenes/pharmacology* ; Ginsenosides ; Extracellular Matrix ; Dammaranes

Objective:To explore the latent classes of emotional behavior of children with mental disorders, and their relationship with parents' sense of parenting competence and psychological distress.Methods:A survey of 327 parents of children with mental disorders was conducted from September to December 2022 using the general information questionnaire, the sense of parenting competence scale, the Kessler psychological distress scale, and the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (parent version). Mplus 8.0 and SPSS 25.0 softwares were used for statistical analysis.The latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups of children with mental disorders based on their emotional behavior.Multinomial logistic regression was used to analyze the related factors.Results:Latent class analysis showed that the emotional behaviors of children with mental disorders were divided into 3 categories: emotion-conduct problem prominent group (38.53%(126/327)), simple emotional problem group (44.65%(146/327)), and emotion-peer interaction significant group (16.82%(55/327)). The differences among the 3 latent classes were statistically significant (all P<0.05) in terms of parents' parenting competence, satisfaction, and psychological distress scores.Compared with the emotion-conduct problem prominent group, the higher the parental parenting knowledge and parenting competence, the emotional behavior of children with mental disorders tended to be in the simple emotional problem group ( B=0.699, OR=2.011, 95% CI=1.046-3.868; B=0.088, OR=1.092, 95% CI=1.017-1.173). Compared with the " emotion-conduct problem prominent group" , the emotional behavior of children with mental disorders aged 13 to 18 years old tended to be in the " emotion-peer interaction significant group" ( B=1.982, OR=7.255, 95% CI=1.637-32.141). Conclusion:The emotional behavior of children with mental disorders is heterogeneous, and there are differences in sense of parenting competence and psychological distress of parents among different latent classes of children with mental disorders.

Pregnancy ; Female ; Humans ; Live Birth ; Calcium ; Oocytes ; Pregnancy, Multiple ; Pregnancy Rate ; Retrospective Studies ; Fertilization in Vitro ; Oocyte Retrieval

Objective:To investigate the effects of IL-28B in a mouse model of dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis and to analyze the possible mechanism.Methods:Thirty-five male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into the following groups with seven mice in each group: control group, DSS group and three IL-28B groups (1.25 μg, 2.5 μg and 5 μg). The mice in the DSS group and IL-28B groups were fed with 2.5% DSS solution and from day 3, the IL-28B groups were given intraperitoneal injection of corresponding IL-28B every day and the DSS group was treated with PBS. During the experiment, the disease activity index (DAI) was evaluated daily. On day 8, the mice were sacrificed and peripheral blood, spleen, mesenteric lymph node and colon samples were collected. The colon samples were observed, measured in length and stained with HE, and histopathological scores were calculated based on HE staining. Changes of immune cells in different samples were detected by flow cytometry. ELISA was used to detect the expression of IL-12, IL-10, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-4 and IL-13 in serum and colon tissues.Results:Compared with the DSS group, the IL-28B group (2.5 μg) had lower DAI scores [(9.40±1.67) vs (3.50±1.73), P<0.01], less shortening of the colon [(5.16±0.61) cm vs (6.91±0.60) cm, P<0.01] and significantly lower histopathological scores [(7.33±0.58) vs (4.33±0.58), P<0.01]. Moreover, compared with the DSS group, the IL-28B group (2.5 μg) showed decreased macrophages in the peripheral blood [(21.39±3.21)% vs (15.63±2.98)%, P<0.05] and spleen [(3.03±0.28)% vs (2.05±0.48)%, P<0.05], and significantly increased mean fluorescence intensity of M2 macrophages in the colon [(1 361.00±293.40) vs (2 074.00±87.61), P<0.05]. IL-12 expression in colon tissues and IL-1β expression in serum were reduced, and IL-10, IL-4 and IL-13 expression in colon tissues was significantly increased in the IL-28B group (2.5 μg) as compared with those in the DSS group [IL-12: (31.72±6.92) pg/mg vs (5.41±3.41) pg/mg; IL-1β: (48.01±16.13) pg/ml vs (12.27±6.26) pg/ml; IL-10: (184.70±46.82) pg/mg vs (444.30±157.80) pg/mg; IL-4: (2.23±0.27) pg/mg vs (3.64±0.80) pg/mg; IL-13: (11.79±0.99) pg/mg vs (22.59±1.92) pg/mg; all P<0.05]. Conclusions:IL-28B might alleviate the severity of acute enteritis in mice by increasing the secretion of IL-4 and IL-13, regulating macrophage differentiation and modulating the expression of inflammatory factors.

Objective To investigate the expression level of serum miR-486-5p in patients with pancreatic cancer and the value of serum miR-486-5p combined with carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) in predicting the resectability of pancreatic cancer. Methods A total of 60 patients who were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Qingdao Municipal Hospital from September 2018 to December 2020 were enrolled, among whom 32 patients had resectable or borderline resectable pancreatic cancer (operable group) and 28 had unresectable pancreatic cancer (non-operable group), and a benign pancreatic disease group with 30 patients and a healthy control group with 44 individuals were also established. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to measure the serum level of miR-486-5p in each group, and the relative expression level of miR-486-5p was calculated to analyze its association with the clinical features of pancreatic cancer, including age, sex, tumor location, tumor size, TNM stage, lymphatic metastasis, and distant metastasis. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of non-normally distributed continuous variables between two groups, and the chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical variables. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted, and a binary logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the combined predictive value and then investigate the value of serum miR-486-5p combined with CA19-9 in predicting the resectability of pancreatic cancer. Results The relative expression level of serum miR-486-5p in the operable group [2.16 (1.38~3.30)] and the non-operable group [4.65 (2.80~9.90)] was significantly higher than that in the benign pancreatic disease group [1.01 (0.52~1.53)] and the healthy control group [0.99 (0.24~1.01)] (all P < 0.001). There were significant differences in the number of patients with low or high expression of miR-486-5p between the patients with different TNM stages, presence or absence of lymphatic metastasis, and presence or absence of distant metastasis ( χ 2 =13.765, 5.157, and 6.638, all P < 0.05). Compared with CA19-9 alone, miR-486-5p+CA19-9 had a significantly better value in distinguishing the operable group from the benign pancreatic disease group (area under the ROC curve [AUC]=0.87, 95% confidence interval [ CI ]: 0.760-0.942; with a sensitivity of 81.3% and a specificity of 83.3%), distinguishing the operable group from the healthy control group (AUC=0.92, 95% CI : 0.836-0.970; with a sensitivity of 90.6% and a specificity of 86.4%), and distinguishing the operable group from the non-operable group (AUC=0.94, 95% CI : 0.884-0.998; with a sensitivity of 85.7% and a specificity of 93.7%) ( Z =2.841, 2.510, and 2.387, all P < 0.05), and the optimal cut-off values were 3.12, 3.21, and 6.63, respectively. Conclusion MiR-486-5p can be used as a serum biomarker for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, and miR-486-5p combined with CA19-9 has a better clinical value than CA19-9 alone in predicting the resectability of pancreatic cancer in the patients with benign pancreatic diseases and the healthy population.

Objective:To investigate the effect of head model in improving the photographic ability of interns during the photographic training of oral facial image in pediatric dentistry.Methods:A total of 60 interns of stomatology school affiliated to Xinjiang Medical University were randomly divided into head model training group, mutual training group and clinical probation group for photographic training. After the training, the interns in the three groups were evaluated for the photographic time, the level of photos, etc., by the training test and satisfaction level of volunteers. Besides, the head model training group was conducted by questionnaire survey. One-way analysis of variance and least significant difference analysis were used to analyze the data between groups by SPSS 17.0 software.Results:There was no statistical difference between the head model training group and the mutual training group in photographic time and level of photos, while both of them were much better in the head model training group and mutual training group than in the clinical probation group ( P<0.05). There was no statistical difference between the head model training group and the mutual training group in the satisfaction level, while that was lower in the head model training group than in the clinical probation group ( P<0.05). According to the questionnaire survey, most interns in the head model training group acknowledged its effects. Conclusion:The use of head model can help improve the oral photographic ability, and promote the teaching effect and efficiency in photographic training.

Objective:To explore the expression of serum miR-224-5p in PDAC and its significance for early clinical diagnosis.Methods:From August 2018 to April 2020, 40 patients with PDAC (11 patients with early PDAC, 29 patients with advanced PDAC), 21 patients with chronic pancreatitis and 40 healthy volunteer controls admitted in Qingdao Municipal Hospital were enrolled. The level of serum miR-224-5p in each group was detected by qRT-PCR method, and the correlation with clinicopathological parameters was analyzed. The receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve of miR-224-5p, CA19-9 and miR-224-5p combined with CA19-9 were drawn, and the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnosis were calculated.Results:The serum miR-224-5p levels in early PDAC group, middle and late PDAC group, chronic pancreatitis group and healthy control group were 3.21(2.01, 4.60), 4.70(3.50, 8.26), 1.72(1.02, 2.78) and 1.38(0.89, 2.11), respectively; and the level of serum miR-224-5p in the middle and late PDAC group was significantly higher than that in the early PDAC group, and that in the early PDAC group was significantly higher than that in the chronic pancreatitis group and the healthy control group, and all the differences were statistically significant ( P<0.05). The sensitivity of serum miR-224-5p combined with CA19-9, miR-224-5p, and CA19-9 in the diagnosis of overall PDAC was 95.0%, 85.0% and 67.5%, respectively; and the specificity was 70.0%, 82.5% and 87.5%, respectively. The sensitivity for early PDAC was 90.9%, 72.7% and 63.6%, and the specificity was 85.0%, 72.5% and 87.5%, respectively. MiR-224-5p combined with CA19-9 has the highest specificity in the diagnosis of PDAC. The level of serum miR-224-5p in patients with PDAC was correlated with TNM stage, lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis (all P values <0.05). Conclusions:The expression of serum miR-224-5p was significantly up-regulated in patients with early PDAC, and The level of serum miR-224-5p in patients with PDAC was correlated with TNM stage, lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis. The sensitity of serum miR-224-5p and miR-224-5p combined with CA19-9 for early PDAC diagnosis were superior to CA19-9 alone, which can be used as a potential sensitive biological marker for early screening of PDAC.

Objective To obtain alpaca single domain antibody targeting Her2.Methods An alpaca was immunized with human recombination Her2 protein mixed with Freund's adjuvant.Total RNA was extracted from the alpaca's blood and was used to synthesize first strand cDNA.Single domain antibody variable region (VHH) gene of the alpaca was amplified by PCR and cloned into pMES4 vector for library construction.After screening, E.coli BL21 (DE3) was transformed with selected clones and was induced with IPTG for the expression of recombinant proteins.The nanobody was purified by nickel ion affinity chromatography column.The affinity of the nanobodies to Her2 was tested.Results After the second round of screening, two antibody clones were selected, H3 and H5.The affinity of H5 was 8.106×10-10mol/L.Histochemistry results showed that H5 could recognize Her2 antigen in breast tumor tissue.Conclusion An Her2 specific nanobody derived from alpaca is obtained through phage display library screening, which can recognize human Her2 antibody in human breast tumor tissue.

Bone Transplantation ; Dental Research ; Humans ; Tooth