Based on the theory of "spleen dispersing essence" in Huangdi's Inner Canon, combined with the discussion of medical experts in previous dynasties and modern researches, this paper argues that "spleen not dispersing essence" is an important pathogenesis of diabetes, which runs through the whole process of diabetes, including the stage of its complications. In the pathological state, the spleen disperses semen, affecting the physiological functions of the viscera, and the occurrence of diabetic retinal, heart, kidney, peripheral nerve and other complications. In clinical practice, the general principle of "promoting the spleen and dispersing essence" is used to provide the idea of TCM syndrome differentiation for the treatment of diabetes and its complications.

Objective:To investigate changes in skin microecological structures and functions between acute and remission phases in adult patients with severe atopic dermatitis (AD) .Methods:From October 2019 to November 2020, skin scale specimens were collected from 5 body sites (cheeks, cubital fossa, back of the hand, abdomen, lower limbs) of 4 adult patients with severe AD in the acute and remission phases, who visited the outpatient clinic of Guangzhou Institute of Dermatology. The next-generation high-throughput sequencing was performed for metagenomic sequencing to construct the microbial gene catalogue of these specimens, followed by gene annotation and bioinformatics analysis for each sample.Results:A total of 18 phyla, 37 classes, 73 orders, 142 families, 237 genera, and 331 species were identified in the skin specimens from the 4 patients with severe AD. The patients with AD in the remission phase showed significantly increased diversity of skin microbiota and markedly different relative abundance of skin microorganisms compared with those in the acute phase (both P < 0.05). At the microbial species level, Staphylococcus aureus showed the highest impact on the acute phase of AD, while Staphylococcus epidermidis, Moraxella osloensis, Francisella sp., Staphylococcus cohnii, Staphylococcus warneri, Malassezia globosa and Malassezia restricta were enriched in the remission phase of AD with the absolute value of the common logarithm of the linear discriminant analysis score > 2 (Kruksal-Wallis test, all P < 0.05). As KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed, the differentially abundant genes were annotated into a total of 355 functional pathways, of which 38 pathways were significantly enriched (all P < 0.05), mainly involving Staphylococcus aureus infection, tryptophan metabolism, histidine metabolism, nitrogen metabolism, metabolism of arginine and proline, biosynthesis and degradation of valine, leucine and isoleucine, fatty acid degradation, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor signaling pathway, etc. Conclusion:The skin microecological structure significantly differed between the acute and remission phases among the patients with severe AD, which may be related to multiple functional pathways, such as Staphylococcus aureus infection, tryptophan metabolism, histidine metabolism and nitrogen metabolism.

Objective:To investigate the expression of microRNA-155 (miR-155) in serum and kidney of C57BLKS/db (db/db) mice and its role in the pathogenesis of diabetic kidney disease (DKD).Methods:The db/db mice ( n=24) were divided into 6, 8, and 10 weeks old groups ( n=8) with age increasing according to the random number table, and C57BL/6 mice of the same age were used as control group. The expression of miR-155 in mouse serum and kidney tissue was determined using real-time quantitative PCR. The mRNA and protein expression of Ets-1, eNOS, AGTR1 in renal tissues was verified by real-time quantitative PCR, Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Results:Compared with the control group, the expression of miR-155 in serum of db/db mice at 6, 8 and 10 weeks of age were significantly increased (all P<0.01), and the increase of miR-155 was most obvious at 10 weeks of age ( P<0.01). Meanwhile the expression of miR-155 in kidney tissues of 6, 8 and 10 weeks old db/db mice was significantly up-regulated (all P<0.01), and the highest expression of miR-155 was at 10 weeks of age ( P<0.01). Immunohistochemistry showed that Ets-1, eNOS and AGTR1 were localized in glomerular endothelial cells. The results of real-time quantitative PCR showed that the mRNA expression of Ets-1, eNOS and AGTR1 were down-regulated in the kidney tissues of db/db mice at 6, 8 and 10 weeks of age compared to the control(all P<0.05), and the level of down-regulation was the most obvious at 10 week. Western blotting results showed that there was no significant change in Ets-1, eNOS and AGTR1 in 6-week-old db/db mice compared to the control group; the eNOS protein expression was down-regulated at 8 weeks of age ( P<0.05); the expression of AGTR1 protein was down-regulated ( P<0.05), and the protein expression of Ets-1 and eNOS were significantly down-regulated at 10-week age (both P<0.01). Conclusions:The expression of miR-155 in serum and kidney tissues of db/db mice increases during the progression of DKD, while the expression of miR-155 target genes Ets-1, eNOS and AGTR1 decreases with the progression of DKD. MiR-155 may participate in the development and progression of DKD by inhibiting its target genes Ets-1, eNOS and AGTR1, affecting endothelial cell function.

Objective: To identify differentially expressed genes in the transcriptome of the lesional versus nonlesional skin tissues of patients with moderate and severe atopic dermatitis (AD) , and to elucidate their roles in the pathogenesis of AD. Methods: From July to October in 2016, lesional and nonlesional skin tissues were obtained from 5 outpatients of Han nationality with AD in Guangzhou Institute of Dermatology, Institute of Dermatology, Guangzhou Medical University. The next-generation high-throughput transcriptome-wide RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed to identify differentially expressed genes, which were subjected to GO function annotation and KEGG pathway analysis. Real-time fluorescence-based quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) was conducted to verify differences in candidate gene expression between lesional and nonlesional skin tissues. Results: An average of 10.96 GBs sequence reads were acquired among 10 samples. A total of 21 729 genes were detected, including 19 268 known genes and 2 545 predicted novel genes. A total of 23 153 new transcripts were detected, of which 18 889 were new alternative splicing subtypes of known protein-coding genes, 2 545 were transcripts belonging to new protein-coding genes, and the remaining 1 719 belonged to long-stranded non-coding RNA. Totally, 78 differentially expressed genes were identified between the lesional and nonlesional skin tissues, including 69 upregulated and 11 downregulated genes in the lesional skin tissues. Among them, there were several genes known to be associated with AD inflammation (CXCL1/2/8, IL6/IL1β, MMP1, SERPINB4, S100A2, GZMB, OASL, OSM) and barrier (KRT16, FABP5, CYP1A1) and keratinocyte differentiation (IL-20) . GO analysis revealed that functions of 72 differentially expressed genes could be annotated. KEGG pathway analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes were grouped into 132 signaling pathways, of which 13 were significantly enriched, including the interleukin (IL) -17 pathway, NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, etc. qRT-PCR showed that the mRNA expression levels of candidate genes CXCL1, KRT6A, IL36A, SERPINB4 and PSAPL1 was consistent with the transcriptome sequencing results. Conclusions Differentially expressed genes and related important regulatory signaling pathways were identified between the lesional and nonlesional skin tissues of patients with AD at the transcriptional level, and the IL-17 pathway was found to be mostly enriched in AD lesions in patients of Han nationality. These findings provide an important basis for further study on the pathogenesis of AD..

Objective To investigate the change of the nutritional status of elderly patients in Chinese major hospitals dynamically with nutritional risk screening 2002 (NRS 2002) and subjective global assessment (SGA) during hospitalization.Methods A prospective,multi-center survey was conducted on over 65 years old patients who were admitted in departments of gastroenterology,respiratory medicine,general surgery,geriatrics,thoracic surgery,neurology,orthopedics and medical oncology of 9 large hospitals in China for 7-30 days between June 2014 and September 2014.On admission and within 24 hours after discharge,the clinical data were recorded,physical indices were measured,and laboratory examination were conducted.NRS 2002 and SGA were used to make an evaluation.The nutritional supports and clinical outcomes were also recorded and then the correlation between nutritional status and clinical outcomes were analyzed.Results A total of 2558 patients above 65 years old were included into the study.Compared with their status on admission,their grip strength,upper arm circumference and crural circumference were reduced significantly at discharge (P＜0.05).The total protein,albumin and hemoglobin levels were significantly lower than those on admission (P＜0.05).The incidence of nutritional risk (NRS 2002 score ≥ 3) and malnutrition (SGA B + C) on admission were lower than those at discharge (51.1％ vs 53.0％,32.6％ vs 35.6％).The hospitalization time and medical expenses were higher in patients with malnutrition on admission than in those with normal nutrition intakes.The nutritional status at discharge was negatively correlated with hospitalization time and medical expenses.61.3％ patients having nutritional risk did not take nutritional support during the hospital stay,while utilization rate of parenteral nutrition was higher than that of enteral nutrition in patients receiving nutritional support (19.6％ vs 11.9％).Conclusion Elderly patients have higher possibilities of facing nutritional risk or malnutrition on admission,these are associated with poor clinical outcomes and their nutritional status will not improve significantly at discharge.Therefore,the screening and evaluation of nutritional status in elderly patients during hospitalization should be conducted and their nutritional intervention should be standardized so as to improve the clinical outcomes.

Objective To investigate the ADC value and intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) parameters to predict the early response to chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods Twenty-six patients with pathologically confirmed NSCLC in our hospital from June 2015 to January 2017 were prospectively studied. MR routine scan, DWI and IVIM scans were performed before and at the end of the first cycle of chemotherapy. The ADC value, pure diffusion parameter (D), perfusion parameter (D*) and perfusion fraction (f) before and after chemotherapy were recorded respectively, and the maximum diameter of tumor (MDMRI) was measured on T2WI. The effective group and the ineffective group were divided according to RECIST 1.1. Intra- and interobserver reproducibility were assessed with intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The differences of the parameters and their change rate were compared pre-and posttreatment, in the effective and the ineffective groups by using t test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to explore the optimal parameters and thresholds for early prediction of the efficacy of chemotherapy. Z test was used to compare the differences in the areas under the ROC curves. Results The repeatability of D*was relatively poor (ICC 0.507-0.716). The ADC and D values of the effective group before chemotherapy were (1.28±0.21)×10-3 and (1.05±0.14)×10-3mm2/s, respectively, and those of the ineffective group were (1.55 ± 0.25) × 10-3 and (1.29 ± 0.18) × 10-3mm2/s, respectively. The differences between two groups were statistically significant (t=-2.989, -3.755, respectively, P all<0.05). While there was no significant difference in f between the effective and ineffective groups before chemotherapy (t=-1.034, P=0.312). The ADC, D and f values of the effective group before chemotherapy were lower than those after chemotherapy, and the differences were statistically significant (t=-3.969,-5.617 and-2.876, respectively, P all<0.05). While there was no significant difference in ADC and D values in ineffective group (t=-0.737, -0.866, P>0.05, respectively). The difference of f was statistically significant (t=-2.731, P<0.05).ΔADC％,ΔD％andΔMDMRI％in effective group were (23.90 ± 22.28)％, (32.58 ± 20.63)％ and (18.77 ± 10.36)％, respectively, and those in ineffective group were (1.19 ± 11.35)％, (6.22 ± 21.63)％ and (9.35 ± 8.26)％, respectively. The differences between two groups were statistically significant (t=3.393, 3.154 and 2.487, respectively, P all<0.05). There was no significant difference inΔf％between two groups (t=1.346, P=0.191). ROC curve analysis showed that the area under curve (AUC) of preADC, preD, ΔADC％, ΔD％ and ΔMDMRI％ was 0.788, 0.848, 0.800, 0.830 and 0.727, respectively. When setting the preD=1.20×10-3 mm2/s as the boundary under the largest AUC, however, there was no significant differences in AUC compared with preADC, ΔADC％, ΔD％ and ΔMDMRI％ (Z=1.336, 0.363, 0.136, 1.395, P>0.05). Conclusion The ADC value, D value before chemotherapy and the early change rate after chemotherapy can better predict the early response of chemotherapy in NSCLC patients.

In order to establish the minipig model of chronic myocardial ischemia and apply non-invasive telemetry technique, the minipig model of chronic myocardial ischemia was made induced by Vitamin D3, isoproterenol and combined with high fat diet, and the non-invasive telemetry technique was used to detect and evaluate the symptoms of minipig model of chronic myocardial ischemia.Moreover, the effects of transport stress and the risk factors of atherosclerosis (AS) induced by high fat diet among Wuzhishan minipigs, Bama minipigs and Tibetan minipigs were also evaluated.Our study has successful established the Bama minipig model of chronic myocardial ischemia and the technical specification for evaluation,.The non-invasive telemetry technique can be used to detect and evaluate the symptoms of chronic myocardial ischemia model, and defines minipigs at least need to keep for more than 4 weeks after transport stress to adaptive recovery period.In addition, the different characteristics of AS risk factors such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension and hyperinsulinemia were observed in Wuzhishan minipigs, Bama minipigs and Tibetan minipigs in high fat environment, and this provides a reference for the selection and application of minipigs in the research of cardiovascular diseases.

Objective To observe the sensitivity of Wuzhishan, Tibetan and Bama minipigs to exogenous fats.Methods A total of 15 male minipigs including 5 WZS minipigs, 5 Tibetan minipigs and 5 Bama minipigs, were used in this study.The minipigs were intravenously injected with fat emulsion and fed with high-fat diet, and the changes of serum total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein (HDL-C) and triglyceride (TG) levels were detected at 0.5 h, 1 h, 1.5 h, 2 h, 2.5 h and 3 h after intravenous injection of fat emulsion and at 3 h and 12 h, 24 h, 36 h, 48 h, 60 h, 72 h and 84 h after fed with high-fat diet, respectively, and calculated the changes of area under the curve (ΔAUC) values.Results The triglyceride (TG) in the three kinds minipigs were significantly increased (P<0.01), and reached a peak at 0.5 h after injection.The degree of elevation of ΔAUC values were different showing on increasing order: Tibetan minipig > Wuzhishan minipig > Bama minipig, while TC, LDL-C and HDL-C showed no significant changes (P>0.05).Moreover, TC, LDL-C, HDL-C and TG were significantly increased in the three stocks of minipigs induced by feeding with high-fat diet (P<0.05, P<0.01).Among them, the TC and LDL-C of Wuzhishan minipigs peaked at 36 h, HDL-C peaked at 48 h and TG peaked at 24 h after feeding, respectively.TC, LDL-C and HDL-C in the Bama minipigs and Tibetan minipigs peaked at 48-60 h and TG peaked at 36 h after feeding, and the ΔAUC values of TC, LDL-C and HDL-C were in an increasing order of Wuzhishan minipigs > Bama minipigs > Tibetan minipigs.Conclusions The three stocks of minipigs are sensitive to TG after intravenous injection of fat emulsion, and the lipid tolerance values are in an order of Tibetan minipig > Wuzhishan minipigs > Bama minipigs.Meanwhile, the three stocks of minipigs are also sensitive to TC, LDL-C and HDL-C after feeding with high-fat diet, and the lipid tolerance values are in an increasing order of Wuzhishan minipig > Bama minipigs > Tibetan minipigs.

Objective To investigate the relationship between carotid artery intima-media thickness and renal function in patients with diabetes mellitus.Methods 424 patients of type 2 diabetes without dialysis were enrolled in a cross-sectional study.According to their artery intima-media thickness (IMT),the patients were divided into normal group and higher IMT group.All patients according to UAER or 24h urinary protein were divided into normal proteinuria group,micro-proteinuria group and clinical proteinuria group.The biochemical examination,eGFR,and atherosclerotic plaque of different groups were compared.Pearson or spearman correlation was used to analyze the relationship between eGFR,IMT and other parameters.Risk factors for eGFR decline were analyzed by binary logistic regression.Results Compared with normal group,patients in the higher IMT group were older [(63.3±10.2) year vs (52.5 ± 10.6) year,P ＜ 0.05],and underwent longer duration of diabetes [(8.9±6.7) year vs (6.2±5.7) year,P ＜ 0.05].Their level of eGFR was decreased [(75.92±28.00) ml/min vs (91.64±24.05) ml/ min,P ＜ 0.05],while plaque incidence (71.3％ vs 18.3％,x2=112.42,P ＜ 0.01) and prevalence of hypertension (56.4％ vs 29.6％,x2=27.22,P ＜ 0.01) increased.Correlation analysis showed that IMT was positively correlated with age (r=0.503,P ＜ 0.01),duration of diabetes (r=0.204,P ＜ 0.01),24 h urine protein (rs=0.175,P ＜ 0.05),plaque (rs=0.562,P ＜ 0.01),and hypertension (rs=0.193,P ＜ 0.01),but negatively correlated with eGFR (r=-0.307,P ＜ 0.01).Logistic regression analysis showed that age,serum uric acid,24 h urine protein and carotid artery intima-media thickness were independent risk factors for eGFR decline [OR=1.115,95％CI(1.053,1.165),P ＜ 0.001;OR=1.008,95％CI (1.002,1.014),P=0.006;OR=1.492,95％ CI(1.170,1.903),P=0.001;OR=1.619,95％ CI(1.121,2.339),P=0.010].Conclusion Carotid artery intima-media thickness is an independent risk factor for kidney function decline in patients of diabetes.

ObjectiveToestablishadiseasesyndromecombinedanimalmodel,theminiaturepigmodelof chronic myocardial ischemia of phlegm-blood stasis syndrome type , by high fat/cholesterol diet feeding and intravenous injection with VD3 and isoproterenol.Methods Miniature pigs were randomly divided into the control (Ctr) group, high fat/cholesterol diet ( HFC) group and chronic myocardial ischemia model of phlegm-blood stasis syndrome ( CMI) group, 5 pigs in each group .The Ctr group was fed with normal regular chow diet , HFC group was fed with high fat/cholesterol diet , while the CMI group was fed with high fat/cholesterol diet and intravenous injection with VD 3 and isoproterenol .The experiment lasted for 24 weeks.The model establishment and its pathological process of phlegm-blood stasis syndrome were evaluated by examinations of body weight , electrocardiogram, activity, blood lipid, myocardial enzymes, hemorheology, inflammation, cardiac index(CI) and myocardial ischemia size (MIS).Results Compared with the Ctr group, the body weight, heart rate(HR), Total cholesterol(TC), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol ( HDL-C ) , atherosclerosis index ( AI ) , low/middle/high shear rate of whole blood viscosity and reduced viscosity, erythrocyte electrophoresis time(EPT), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and IL-6 levels in the HFC group were significantly increased (P <0.05, P <0.01), while the body weight, heart rate, total ST, ST_average, activity, TC, TG, LDL-C, HDL-C, AI, CK, LDH, cTn-1, low/middle/high shear rate of whole blood viscosity and reduced viscosity, EPT, Casson viscosity(CV), hs-CRP, IL-6, CI and MIS in the CMI group were significantly increased (P<0.05, P<0.01), and APN level in the CMI group was significantly decreased (P<0.05).Moreover, AI, CK, LDH, cTn-1, low/middle/high shear rate of whole blood viscosity , EPT, CI and MIS in the CMI group were significantly higher than those of HFC group (P<0.05, P<0.01), while APN in the CMI group was significantly lower than that of HFC group (P<0.05).Correlation analysis showed that MIS was closely correlated to TC , LDL-C, AI, CK, LDH, cTn-1, APN, high/middle/low shear rate of whole blood viscosity , EPT, CV, hs-CRP and IL-6 (P<0.05, P<0.01).The linear regression analysis also showed that phlegm-blood stasis was closely correlated to TC , LDL-C, AI, CK, LDH, cTn-1, APN, CV, EPT, hs-CRP, and IL-6 ( P <0.01), and further linear stepwise regression analysis showed that the evolution of phlegm-blood stasis was closely related to TC , CK and IL-6.Conclusions Minipig model of chronic myocardial ischemia of phlegm-blood stasis syndrome type can be established by high fat /cholesterol diet feeding and intravenous injection with VD 3 and isoproterenol .Their blood lipid metabolism , hemorheology , myocardial enzymes and inflammatory indexes can be used as external biochemical basis of phlegm-blood stasis syndrome type , which may reflect related biological basis of the traditional Chinese medicine theory of “phlegm and stasis cementation , blood-stasis & toxin causing catastrophe”.