OBJECTIVE To establish the ultra-high performance liquid chromatography （UPLC） fingerprint of Jingtian granule， and to evaluate its quality by chemical pattern recognition. METHODS Luna® Omega Polar C18 column （150 mm×2.1 mm， 1.6 μm） was used as the chromatographic column， and acetonitrile-0.2% phosphoric acid solution was used as the mobile phase for gradient elution. The flow rate was 0.2 mL/min， the column temperature was 30 ℃， and the detection wavelength was 265 nm. With peak 16 as the reference peak， the UPLC fingerprint of Jingtian granule was established by the Similarity Evaluation System of Chromatographic Fingerprint of Traditional Chinese Medicine （2012 edition）. The common peaks were identified， the similarity evaluation was carried out， and the ownership of each common peak was confirmed. Hierarchical cluster analysis （HCA） and principal component analysis （PCA） in chemical pattern recognition methods were used to classify 13 batches of samples （S1- S13）， and orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis （OPLS-DA） was used to identify the key components of the differences between different batches of samples. RESULTS RSDs of precision， repeatability and stability of the UPLC method were not more than 4.4%. A total of 25 common peaks were identified in the fingerprints of 13 batches of Jingtian granules. By comparing with the reference substance fingerprint， 10 common peaks were identified， namely peak 3 （hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde）， peak 5 （salidroside）， peak 8（chlorogenic acid）， peak 15 （cinnamic acid）， peak 19 （aloe-emodin）， peak 20 （ammonium glycyrrhizinate）， peak 21 （rhein）， peak 23 （emodin）， peak 24 （glycyrrhetinic acid）， peak 25 （chrysophanol）. The similarities of fingerprints of 13 batches of samples were 0.955-0.996. The results of HCA showed that 13 batches of samples could be divided into three categories， among which samples S1， S5， S7， S11-S13 were clustered in one category， S4 and S6 were clustered in one category， S2， S3 and S8-S10 were clustered in one category. PCA results showed that the cumulative variance contribution rate of principal components 1-7 was 92.666%. OPLS-DA further identified 13 differential components， which were mainly derived from Polygonati Rhizoma with wine steaming， Rhodiolae Crenulatae Radix Et Rhizoma， prepared Rhei Radix Et Rhizoma and Glycyrrhizae Radix Et Rhizome Praeparata Cum Melle. CONCLUSIONS The established UPLC fingerprint of Jingtian granule is simple， stable and reproducible. Combined with the chemical pattern recognition method， it can effectively reveal the overall quality difference between different batches of Jingtian granule. The quality of Polygonati Rhizoma with wine steaming， Rhodiolae Crenulatae Radix Et Rhizoma， prepared Rhei Radix Et Rhizoma， Dioscoreae Nipponicae Rhizoma， Polyporus， Cinnamomi Ramulus， Glycyrrhizae Radix Et Rhizome Praeparata Cum Melle is the key to the overall quality of Jingtian granule.

Objective:To investigate the interaction between fibroblasts (Fb) and keratinocytes (KC) in the wound edge skin tissue of a diabetic foot patient and the mechanism.Methods:This was an experimental research. The wound edge skin tissue from a diabetic foot patient (male and 33 years old) admitted to the Department of Wound Repair of Liyuan Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in August 2021 and from an acute foot injury patient (male and 50 years old) admitted to the Department of Hand Surgery of the hospital in September 2021 was collected. The single-cell transcriptome sequencing was performed to analyze the interaction between chemokine ligands of Fb subgroup and chemokine receptors of KC subgroup. The supernatant was collected after human foreskin fibroblast (HFF) was cultured routinely and with high concentration of glucose for 7 days as normal conditioned medium (CM) and high glucose CM, respectively. HaCaT cells were collected and divided into normal CM group cultured with normal CM and high glucose CM group cultured with high glucose CM, the scratch test was performed to calculate the cell migration rates at 24 and 48 h after scratch ( n=3). The content of cytokines in the two kinds of CM was detected by liquid suspension chip ( n=5). HFF was collected and divided into normal group cultured routinely and high glucose group cultured with high concentration of glucose for 7 days, and the mRNA expressions of C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 1 (CXCL1), CXCL2, CXCL8, and CXCL12 were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction ( n=6). HaCaT cells in normal CM group and high glucose CM group were collected to detect the protein expressions of C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) in cells cultured for 48 h by Western blotting ( n=3). HaCaT cells were collected and divided into normal CM group, high glucose CM group, normal CM+CXCL12 group, and high glucose CM+CXCL12 group. The first two groups of cells were treated as before, and the latter two groups of cells were cultured with normal CM and high glucose CM containing recombinant human CXCL12, respectively. Scratch test was performed, and cell migration rates were calculated at 24 and 48 h after scratch ( n=3); the protein expression of CXCR4 in cells cultured for 48 h was detected by Western blotting ( n=3). Results:Compared with those in the wound edge skin tissue of acute foot injury, the interactions between chemokine ligands (CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL3, CXCL8, and CXCL12) of Fb subgroup and chemokine receptors (CXCR2 and CXCR4) of KC subgroup were significantly weakened in the wound edge skin tissue of diabetic foot. At 24 and 48 h after scratch, the migration rates of HaCaT cells in high glucose CM group were significantly lower than those in normal CM group (with t values of 23.50 and 15.65, respectively, P<0.05). Compared with that in normal CM, the content of CXCL1 in high glucose CM was significantly increased ( P<0.05), and the content of CXCL12 was significantly decreased ( P<0.05). After 7 days of culture, compared with those in normal group, the mRNA expressions of CXCL1, CXCL2, and CXCL8 in HFF in high glucose group were significantly increased (with t values of 4.25, 4.98, and 10.04, respectively, P<0.05), while the mRNA expression of CXCL12 was significantly decreased ( t=4.10, P<0.05). After 48 h of culture, the CXCR4 protein expression in HaCaT cells in high glucose CM group was significantly lower than that in normal CM group ( t= 5.13, P<0.05). At 24 and 48 h after scratch, the migration rates of HaCaT cells in high glucose CM group were significantly lower than those in normal CM group and high glucose CM+CXCL12 group (with P values all <0.05); at 24 h after scratch, the migration rate of HaCaT cells in normal CM+CXCL12 group was significantly lower than that in normal CM group ( P<0.05); at 48 h after scratch, the migration rate of HaCaT cells in normal CM+CXCL12 group was significantly higher than that in high glucose CM+CXCL12 group ( P<0.05). At 48 h of culture, the CXCR4 protein expression of HaCaT cells in high glucose CM+CXCL12 group was 0.446±0.050, which was significantly higher than 0.247±0.010 in high glucose CM group ( P<0.05) and similar to 0.522±0.082 in normal CM+CXCL12 group ( P>0.05); the CXCR4 protein expression in HaCaT cells in normal CM group was 0.509±0.055, which was significantly higher than that in high glucose CM group ( P<0.05). Conclusions:The interactions between chemokine ligands of Fb subgroup and chemokine receptors of KC subgroup were significantly weakened in the wound edge skin tissue of diabetic foot. High glucose can inhibit CXCL12 secretion of HFF, and the stimulation of its cell culture supernatant can decrease HaCaT cell migration ability and CXCR4 expression. Exogenous CXCL12 protein can increase the CXCR4 protein expression in HaCaT cells and enhance the cell migration ability.

Objective:To analyze the risk factors of early myocardial injury and the impact of early myocardial injury on prognosis of patients with extensive burns.Methods:A retrospective case series study was conducted. From January 2018 to August 2022, 361 patients with extensive burns who met the inclusion criteria were admitted to Tongren Hospital of Wuhan University & Wuhan Third Hospital, including 231 males and 130 females, aged 50 (36, 58) years, with total burn area of 45% (35%, 60%) total body surface area. According to the highest level of creatine kinase isoenzyme-MB (CK-MB) within 72 h post injury, the patients were divided into early myocardial injury group (CK-MB≥75 U/L, 182 patients) and non-early myocardial injury group (CK-MB<75 U/L, 179 patients). The following data of patients in the 2 groups were collected and analyzed, including gender, age, total burn area, admission time post injury, combination with shock on admission, combination with inhalation injury on admission; the main blood test indexes such as myocardial enzyme spectrum, blood routine, liver and kidney function, and electrolytes within 72 h post injury; and treatment outcomes and fatality rate. Data were statistically analyzed with chi-square test, independent sample t test, or Mann-Whitney U test. The multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to screen the independent risk factors for early myocardial injury and for death in patients with extensive burns. Results:There were statistically significant differences in gender, combination with shock on admission, total burn area, and admission time post injury of patients between the two groups (with χ2 values of 6.40 and 6.10, Z values of 5.41 and 3.03, respectively, P<0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in age, combination with inhalation injury on admission of patients between the two groups ( P>0.05). The CK-MB, creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, α-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase, white blood cell count, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase, potassium, and hemoglobin within 72 h post injury were significantly higher than those in non-early myocardial injury group (with Z values of 15.40, 6.26, 7.59, 7.02, 2.64, 4.53, 4.07, 6.32, and 4.12, t=2.34, respectively, P<0.05), while the level of calcium was significantly lower than that in non-early myocardial injury group ( Z=2.72, P<0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in other blood test indexes of patients between the two groups ( P>0.05). The total burn area, admission time post injury, NLR and ALT within 72 h post injury were the independent risk factors for early myocardial injury in patients with extensive burns (with odds ratios of 1.03, 1.07, 1.04, and 1.02, 95% confidence intervals of 1.02-1.05, 1.00-1.11, 1.02-1.07, and 1.00-1.03, respectively, P<0.05). The fatality rate of patients in early myocardial injury group was 8.8% (16/182), which was significantly higher than 2.8% (5/179) in non-early myocardial injury group ( χ2 =5.93, P<0.05). Early myocardial injury, age, combination with shock on admission, and combination with inhalation injury on admission were the independent risk factors for death in patients with extensive burns (with odds ratios of 3.60, 1.04, 6.53, and 3.14, 95% confidence intervals of 1.17-11.05, 1.01-1.07, 1.39-30.68, and 1.15-8.56, respectively, P<0.05). Conclusions:The total burn area, admission time post injury, NLR and ALT within 72 h post injury were the independent risk factors for early myocardial injury in patients with extensive burns. Patients with extensive burns with early myocardial injury have a higher fatality rate, and early myocardial injury is an independent risk factor for the patients' death.

Objective:To explore the biological role and clinical significance of ubiquitin-specific protease 7 (USP7) in the carcinogenesis of scar ulcer.Methods:A retrospective observational study combined with bioinformatics analysis was used. The RNA expression profile data of USP7 in tumor and/or its corresponding paracancular normal tissue were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and the Gene Expression Omnibus database, and the RNA sequencing data were transformed by log 2. The variations of USP7 gene were analyzed by cBioPortal database. The USP7 mRNA expression in tumor and adjacent normal tissue in TCGA database were obtained by using the "Gene_DE" module in TIMER 2.0 database. The survival rates of patients with high and low USP7 expression in cutaneous melanoma (SKCM), cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CESC), lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC), and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC) were analyzed using the Gene Expression Profile Interactive Analysis 2 (GEPIA2) database, and the Kaplan-Meier survival curves were drawn. Sangerbox database was used to analyze the correlation of USP7 expression in pan-cancer with microsatellite instability (MSI) or tumor mutation burden (TMB) pan-cancer. Through the "correlation analysis" module in the GEPIA2 database, the correlation of USP7 expression in pan-cancer with the expression levels of five DNA mismatch repair genes ( MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, PMS2, and EPCAM) and three essential DNA methyltransferases (DNMT)--DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B were evaluated. The USP7 expression in CESC, HNSC, LUSC, and SKCM and its correlation with infiltration of immune cells (B cells, CD4 + T cells, CD8 + T cells, neutrophils, macrophages, and dendritic cells) were analyzed by the "Immune-Gene" module in TIMER 2.0 database. The "Similar Genes Detection" module of GEPIA2 database was used to obtain the top 100 protein sets with similar expression patterns to USP7. Intersection analysis was performed between the aforementioned protein sets and the top 50 protein sets that were directly physically bound to USP7 obtained by using the STRING database. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis were performed for the two protein sets mentioned above using the DAVID database. The samples of normal skin, hypertrophic scar, scar ulcer, and scar carcinoma with corresponding clinicopathologic features were collected from the Department of Pathology of Tongren Hospital of Wuhan University & Wuhan Third Hospital from October 2018 to October 2022, and the USP7 expression in tissue was detected by immunohistochemical method, with the number of samples of 6. Data were statistically analyzed with Log-rank test, one-way analysis of variance, and Bonferroni test. Results:In pan-cancer, the main gene variations of USP7 were mutation and amplification, and the top 3 tumors with the highest variation frequency (>6%) were bladder urothelial carcinoma, SKCM, and endometrial carcinoma. The main mutation of USP7 gene in pan-cancer was missense mutation. In SKCM with the highest mutation frequency, the main type of mutation was missense mutation in USP7_ICP0_bdg domain. USP7 mRNA expression in breast invasive carcinoma, bile duct carcinoma, colon carcinoma, esophageal carcinoma, HNSC, renal chromophobe cell carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma, LUSC, prostate carcinoma, and gastric carcinoma was significantly higher than that in corresponding paracancer normal tissue ( P<0.05). USP7 mRNA expression in glioblastoma multiforme, renal clear cell carcinoma, renal papillary cell carcinoma, and thyroid carcinoma was significantly lower than that in corresponding paracancular normal tissue ( P<0.05). In addition, USP7 mRNA expression in SKCM metastases was much higher than that in primary tumor tissue ( P<0.05). Survival curves showed no significant difference in survival rate between patients with high USP7 expression and patients with low USP7 expression in CESC, HNSC, LUSC, and SKCM (Log-rank P>0.05, with hazard ratios of 1.00, 0.99, 1.00, and 1.30, respectively). USP7 expression in colon cancer, colorectal cancer, thymic cancer, and thyroid cancer was negatively correlated with TMB (with Pearson correlation coefficients of -0.26, -0.19, -0.19, and 0.11, respectively, P<0.05). USP7 expression in glioma, CESC, lung adenocarcinoma, mixed renal carcinoma, and LUSC was positively correlated with MSI expression (with Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.22, 0.14, 0.15, 0.08, and 0.14, respectively, P<0.05), and USP7 expression in colon cancer, colorectal cancer, invasive breast cancer, prostate cancer, HNSC, thyroid cancer, and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma were significantly negatively correlated with MSI expression (with Pearson correlation coefficients of -0.31, -0.27, -0.13, -0.19, -0.16, -0.18, and -0.53, respectively, P<0.05). The expression of USP7 in CESC was positively correlated with that of both MSH2 and MSH6 (with Spearman correlation coefficients of 0.51 and 0.44, respectively, P<0.05), and the expression of USP7 in HNSC was positively correlated with the expression of EPCAM, MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, and PMS2 (with Spearman correlation coefficients of 0.39, 0.14, 0.49, 0.54, and 0.41, respectively, P<0.05), and the expression of USP7 in LUSC was positively correlated with the expression of EPCAM, MSH2, MSH6, and PMS2 (with Spearman correlation coefficients of 0.20, 0.36, 0.40, and 0.34, respectively, P<0.05), and the expression of USP7 in SKCM was positively correlated with the expression of EPCAM, MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, and PMS2 (with Spearman correlation coefficients of 0.11, 0.33, 0.42, 0.55, and 0.34, respectively, P<0.05). The expression of USP7 in CESC, HNSC, LUSC, and SKCM was significantly positively correlated with the expression of DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B (with Spearman correlation coefficients of 0.42, 0.34, 0.22, 0.45, 0.52, 0.22, 0.36, 0.36, 0.22, 0.38, 0.46, and 0.21, respectively, P<0.05). The expression of USP7 in CESC, HNSC, LUSC, and SKCM was positively correlated with CD4 + T cell infiltration (with Partial correlation coefficients of 0.14, 0.22, 0.13, and 0.16, respectively, P<0.05). Being similar to the pattern of USP7 expression and ranked among top 100 protein sets, the top 5 proteins were C16orf72, BCLAF1, UBN, GSPT1, ERI2 (with Spearman correlation coefficients of 0.83, 0.74, 0.73, and 0.72, respectively, all P values<0.05). The top 50 protein sets that directly physically bind to USP7 overlapped with the aforementioned protein set by only one protein, thyroid hormone receptor interaction factor 12. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that USP7 related genes were involved in cell cycle, spliceosome, cell senescence, and p53 signal pathway. GO enrichment analysis showed that USP7 related genes were involved in transcriptional regulation, protein ubiquitination, DNA repair, and cytoplasmic pattern recognition receptor signal pathways. Analysis of clinical samples showed that USP7 expression was significantly higher in hypertrophic scars (0.35±0.05), scar ulcers (0.43±0.04), and scar cancers (0.61±0.03) than in normal skin (0.18±0.04), P<0.05. Conclusions:USP7 may be a clinical biomarker for the progression of cicatricial ulcer cancer.

Objective:To explore the effectiveness, safety and cost between urinary follicle stimulating hormone (uFSH) and recombinant follicle stimulating hormone (rFSH) in controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) in China.Methods:Data were collected from 16 reproductive centers in China covering oocytes collection time from May 1, 2015 to June 30, 2018. Eligible patients were over 18 years old, adopting COS with uFSH (uFSH group) or rFSH (rFSH group) as start gonadotropins (Gn), and using in vitro fertilization (IVF) and (or) intracytoplasmic sperm injection for fertilisation, excluding frozen embryo recovery cycle. Generalised estimating equation was used to address the violation of independency assumption between cycles due to multiple IVF cycles for one person and clustering nature of cycles carried out within one center. Controlling variables included age, body mass index, anti-Müllerian hormone level, cause of infertility, ovulation protocol, type of fertilisation, number of embryos transferred, number of days of Gn use.Results:Totally 102 061 cycles met eligibility criteria and were included in the analyses. In terms of effectiveness, after controlling relevant unbalanced baseline characteristics, compared with rFSH group, the high oocyte retrieval (>15 oocytes was considered high retrieval) rate of uFSH group significantly decreased in gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist protocol ( OR=0.642, P<0.01) and in gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist protocol ( OR=0.556, P=0.001), but the clinical pregnancy rate per transfer cycle and the live birth rate per transfer cycle significantly increased ( OR=1.179, OR=1.169, both P<0.01) in both agonist and antagonist protocols. For safety, multiple analysis result demonstrated that in the agonist protocol, compared with rFSH group, the incidence of moderate to severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome of uFSH group significantly decreased ( OR=0.644, P=0.002). The differences in ectopic pregnancy rate and multiple pregnancy rate between the uFSH and rFSH groups were not significant ( P=0.890, P=0.470) in all patients. In terms of cost, compared with rFSH group, the uFSH group had lower total Gn costs for each patient ( P<0.01). Conclusion:For patients who underwent COS, uFSH has better safety, and economic profiles over rFSH in China.

Objective:To investigate the causes of death and etiological characteristics of skin tissue donors, and to provide reference for allogeneic skin transplantation.Methods:From October 2008 to October 2018, 49 skin tissue donors accepted by the Burn Department of Wuhan Third Hospital met the inclusion criteria of this study, and a cross-sectional study was conducted. According to the cause of death, the donors were divided into accidental death group (19 cases) and non-accidental death group (30 cases). The sex and death age of 49 donors were recorded, and the death age between different sex donors and that of donors between accidental death group and non-accidental death group were compared. Diseases or circumstances that caused the death of donors, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, syphilis virus carrying status, and peripheral blood microbial culture results of 49 donors were recorded, and the detection of blood-borne infectious risk factors of donors between accidental death group and non-accidental death group was compared. Abnormal skin tissue was also selected during allogenic skin graft preparing for pathological examination. Data were statistically analyzed with Mann-Whitney U test and continuity correction chi-square test. Results:(1) Out of the 49 donors in this group, 38 were male (77.55%) and 11 were female (22.45%). The death age was 42.00 (24.00, 55.00) years, and the death age of male donors was similar to that of female donors ( Z=0.120, P>0.05). The death age of donors in accidental death group was lower than that in non-accidental death group, but the difference was not statistically significant ( Z=-1.581, P>0.05). (2) Among the causes and circumstances of the 49 donors in this group, there were 19 cases (38.78%) of injury, poisoning, and some other consequences of external causes, 11 cases (22.45%) of circulatory system diseases, 9 cases (18.37%) of tumors, 3 cases (6.12%) of nervous system diseases, 2 cases (4.08%) of respiratory system diseases, and 2 cases (4.08%) of congenital malformation, deformation, and chromosome abnormality, 1 case (2.04%) of blood and hematopoietic organ diseases and some diseases related to immune mechanism, 1 case (2.04%) of digestive system disease, and 1 case (2.04%) of genitourinary system disease. (3) There were 9 donors (18.37%) with blood-borne infectious risk factors among the 49 donors in this group, including 8 cases (16.33%) of blood-borne infectious diseases, which were 5 cases (10.20%) of hepatitis B, 2 cases (4.08%) of syphilis, and 1 case (2.04%) of hepatitis C, respectively. Blood microorganism culture was positive in 1 case (2.04%), in which multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa was detected. Risk factors of blood-borne infection were detected in 2 donors in accidental death group, with detection ratio lower than that in non-accidental death group (7 cases), but the difference was not statistically significant ( χ2=0.562, P>0.05). (4) A total of 8 donors′ abnormal skin tissue were selected, including 4 cases of intradermal pigmented nevus, 1 case of scar, 1 case of pseudoepithelioma hyperplasia, 1 case of epidermal verrucous hyperplasia, and 1 case of large amount of pigment granules in dermis. Conclusions:Non-accidental death caused by diseases is the main cause of death of skin tissue donors, and the risk of donor-derived infection of non-accidentally dead donors is slightly higher than that of accidentally dead donors. Before the allogeneic skin is obtained and transplanted, the cause of death of the donor should be carefully investigated, and the health status should be evaluated, so as to avoid the occurrence of donor-derived infection.

Objective:To investigate the early changes in serum osteoprotegerin/receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL) and related indexes of calcium and phosphorus in severe burn patients.Methods:Thirty severe burn patients who met the inclusion criteria and were admitted to Tongren Hospital of Wuhan University & Wuhan Third Hospital within 8 hours post injury from June 2017 to December 2018 were recruited into severe burn group (24 males and 6 females, aged (38±13) years). Ten healthy volunteers with normal physical examination results in the Physical Examination Center of the same hospital in the same period of time were recruited into healthy control group (7 males and 3 females, aged (37±8) years). A prospective controlled study was conducted. The fasting venous blood of 5 mL was taken from each patient in severe burn group on post injury day (PID) 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28, respectively, and the fasting venous blood of 5 mL was taken from each volunteer in healthy control group. The serum osteoprotegerin, RANKL, 25 hydroxyvitamin D, and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the RANKL/osteoprotegerin ratio was calculated. Serum albumin, serum calcium, and serum phosphorus levels were determined by bromocresol green method, methylthymol blue method, and phosphomolybdic acid method, respectively. Data were statistically analyzed with Fisher′s exact probability test, analysis of variance for repeated measurement, Mann-Whitney U test, independent sample t test, and Bonferroni correction. Results:(1) The serum osteoprotegerin levels of patients in severe burn group on PID 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28 were 155.11 (102.91, 187.02), 170.07 (84.60, 196.86), 174.95 (59.09, 208.35), 190.01 (47.08, 214.52), and 188.85 (58.73, 223.13) pg/mL, respectively, which were significantly higher than 33.34 (28.59, 45.68) pg/mL of volunteers in healthy control group, Z=-3.436, -4.311, -3.248, -2.811, -4.217, P<0.01. The serum levels of RANKL of patients in severe burn group on PID 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28 were (1 869±791), (1 746±857), (1 781±713), (2 015±825), and (2 272±583) pg/mL, respectively, significantly higher than (49±16) pg/mL of volunteers in healthy control group, t=12.600, 10.844, 13.294, 13.041, 20.880, P<0.01. The ratios of RANKL/osteoprotegerin of patients in severe burn group on PID 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28 were 12.23 (8.10, 24.73), 11.40 (8.25, 16.96), 11.15 (6.91, 38.32), 12.98 (9.22, 49.68), and 13.91 (10.29, 40.68), respectively, which were significantly higher than 1.17 (0.91, 1.74) of volunteers in healthy control group, Z=-4.560, -4.529, -4.529, -4.560, -4.623, P<0.01. (2) The serum level of 25 hydroxyvitamin D of patients in severe burn group on PID 1 was significantly lower than that of volunteers in healthy control group ( Z=-2.749, P<0.01). Compared with those of volunteers in healthy control group, the serum levels of albumin of patients in severe burn group on PID 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28 were significantly lower ( t=-4.374, -7.689, -8.257, -7.651, -6.259, P<0.01), the serum levels of PTH were significantly elevated ( Z=-4.685, -4.685, -4.685, -4.654, -4.685, P<0.01), and the serum levels of phosphorus were not changed significantly. The serum levels of calcium of patients in severe burn group on PID 1, 7, 14, and 21 were significantly lower than the level of volunteers in healthy control group ( Z=-2.375, -3.455, -2.442, -2.016, P<0.05 or P<0.01). Conclusions:The serum osteoprotegerin, RANKL, RANKL/osteoprotegerin ratio, and PTH are increased, and the serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D, albumin, and calcium are decreased in the early stage of severe burn patients, which may be the mechanism leading to bone loss in patients.

Objective: To evaluate the changes in natural killer cell subsets marked with CD27 and CD11b for HBV carrier mice. Methods: The pAAV-HBVl.2 plasmid was injected into the tail vein of C57BL/6 mice by hydrodynamic injection method to construct HBV-carrier model group and empty vector as the control group. Liver function and virological examination at different time points were used to judge the construction of HBV- plasmid carrier animal model. Flow cytometry was used to detect the frequency of NK cells and CD11b combined with CD27 NK cell subsets in spleen and liver. GraphPad Prism software was used for statistical analysis. Results: HBV-carrier mouse model was successfully constructed. There were no statistically significant difference in NK cell frequencies between spleen and liver of HBV carrier mice (P> 0.05), compared to control group. NK cells were divided into four subsets with in combination to CD27 and CD11b: CD11b⁺CD27^-(CD11b⁺SP), CD11b⁺CD27⁺(DP), CD11b^-CD27⁺(CD27⁺SP) and CD11b-CD27-(DN). Furthermore, the spleen of HBV-carrier mice had no statistically significant difference (P> 0.05) with the frequency of the four NK-cell subsets. The frequency of DN NK cell subsets was significantly increased in the liver of HBV carrier mice than control group (P< 0.001); however, the frequency of CD11b⁺SP cell subsets was significantly decreased (P < 0.05).There were no statistical significance in the frequency comparison between NK subgroups of DP and CD27⁺SP NK cell subsets (P> 0.05). Conclusion HBV-carrier mice with abnormal distribution of hepatic NK cell subsets significantly increased and decreased the frequency of DN NK cell subsets and CD11b⁺SP cell subsets.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) proposed a set of minimal markers for identifying human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) in 2007. Since then, with the growing interest of better characterising hMSCs, various additional surface markers have been proposed. However, the impact of how culture conditions, in particular, the culture surface, vary the expression of hMSC markers was overlooked. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study, we utilized the RNA sequencing data on hMSCs cultured on different surfaces to investigate the variation of the proposed hMSC biomarkers. One of the three ISCT proposed positive biomarker, CD90 was found to be significantly down regulated on hMSCs culture on fibrous surfaces when compared to flat surfaces. The detected gene expression values for 177 hMSCs biomarkers compiled from the literature are reported here. Correlation and cluster analysis revealed the existence of different biomarker communities that displayed a similar expression profile. We found a list of hMSCs biomarkers which are the least sensitive to a change in surface properties and another list of biomarkers which are found to have high sensitivity to a change in surface properties. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that substrate properties have paramount effect on altering the expressions of hMSCs biomarkers and the proposed list of substrate-stable and substrate-sensitive biomarkers would better assist in the population characterisation. However, proteomic level analysis would be essential to confirm the observations noted.
Biomarkers ; Chemistry ; Gene Expression ; Humans ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; Quality Control ; Regenerative Medicine ; Sequence Analysis, RNA ; Surface Properties ; Transcriptome

Acute liver failure (ALF) is a rare life-threatening disease with rapid progression and a low survival rate and affects the function of multiple organ systems.Early identification of cause and protection of vital organs are critical for patients'survival.With the development in artificial liver,stem cell transplantation,and liver transplantation in recent years,the outcome of ALF has been greatly improved.This article elaborates on the treatment of ALF from the aspects of the etiology of ALF and major organ systems involved and introduces the latest advances in artificial liver and stem cell transplantation.